Two Sheep Greetings

A great combination

2009-11-12T16:36:00.003-05:00

I have been smitten with red, black, white, and kraft as a color scheme for a good while now. I decided to get wild and crazy and swap out some dark grey for the black :-)

Despite the fact that I was using good clear stamps, I'm not thrilled with how that red teacup turned out. But, overall I think this is a great card - if I swapped out some of the colors (and left out the heart tea bag tag) this could be a great masculine card.

This layout was also inspired by Clean&Simple Stamping's FTL41 and another that I can't seem to find!

Tip: I printed nearly every one of the CAS Fall-To-Layouts onto photo cards on my home printer. Now when I'm stumped, I flip through the 'deck' like flashcards. Often when I do this, two or three ideas will jump into my head at once, so I'll pick one to work on, and tuck the others into the CD cases of the stamp sets I want to use later - that helps trigger whatever the original idea was!

Hey, look at that. . .

2009-11-09T20:49:00.002-05:00

So, first I have quick little card to share. Yes, finally a card. Yeah. Made this a while back and then 'lost' the photo. Its not quite my style, but I was looking for some 'friendship' stamps and wanted to practice my coloring, so this fit the bill. This one went to my best friend who is ill, so its not for sale.

Yes, I said FOR SALE!!! A table opened up at the I Made It! Holiday Market at the Union Project and I AM IN - WOO! Carrie, the founder of IMI is really sweet and emailed me today to ask if I was still interested. WHAT? OF COURSE! Yey! So, come on out and see me December 5th if you're in Pittsburgh (or surrounding vicinity).

Heartbreaker

2009-11-06T12:23:00.008-05:00

No, no, I mean the GOOD kind of heartbreaker! This is my very favorite little guy, Tyler, my cousin's little boy. She is like the sister I never had, so I guess that makes Tyler the nephew I never had (since my brother refuses to have kids!). I love him that much and more, so fake-aunt is fine by me :-D

PS: He really IS this smiley all the time. Wait'll you see the CHRISTMAS photos.

PSS: Cards soon, I SWEAR!

We intrurrupt your regularly scheduled programming...

2009-11-03T15:40:00.002-05:00

For a little more whining. I promise, I'll stop soon.

I had been planning ALL year to participate in Handmade Arcade. Have a pretty large stockpile of 'product' because I wanted to be sure I had enough. I skipped the local show I've done before because I wanted to make sure I had enough. Well guess what, of 250 applications (yey for them) I wasn't picked. No biggie, I had a backup plan! I applied for the December 5th I Made It Market at the Union Project. Guess what? REJECTED AGAIN!

This might be the straw that broke the camel's back. What the H am I supposed to do with all this stuff I made?????

Blah.

Its November First???

2009-11-02T19:56:00.005-05:00

Wasn't it just New Years like, a minute ago? I'm especially not sure where September and October went. Sorry for the lack of blogging lately. Life has been a little hectic/craptastic for the last couple of weeks:

*My grandma, who wasn't all that ill, had a series of strokes and passed away.
*The night of her funeral, my uncle (her son, dad's brother) had a ruptured aneurysm and died. (yes, you read that right, two funerals in four days)
*Its been 1.5 months since Luka's cancer surgery and prognosis of "2 to 4 months to live".
*I didn't get accepted into Handmade Arcade (I know, not quite on par with the other three, but still)

Still, life wasn't all downers:
*I got to see my aunt Terri for the second time this year. She lives near Tahoe and I normally only see her once every few years.
*I got to spend time with my uncle (at my gram's funeral, but still...) which is also rare, despite the fact that he only lives 30 mintues away.
*I got to spend LOTS of time with my favorite little person, Tyler, who is now six months old!
*Got the proofs back from the boy's photo session and they are AWESOME! When I get the prints, I'll post some here.
*I had a birthday. G bought me a new laptop. I celebrated it in peace and quiet, which is really all I want these days. (I think I'm turning into a recluse. If I didn't have to go to work, I might not ever leave the house!)
*I've been making cards and other things. Really! But between the two jobs, and the above mentioned mess, I haven't had much time to take & edit photos. Here's one though, in celebration of November 1st (including a closeup of the TEENY TINY lines and leaves I colored!):

Trees and leaves are Purple Onion Designs stamps, patterned paper is Basic Grey and the sentiment is PTI, of course! I wanted to tie a button on there, but thought this was a nice flat, easily mailed card without it.

Most wonderful time of the year!

2009-10-15T16:08:00.004-04:00

Despite the fact that it is dreary and raining here in the Burgh today, I have had holiday cards on the brain for a couple of weeks now! This is, by far, the earliest I've EVER made holiday cards - I'm so proud of myself.

Today I have THREE things to show you to kick off my holiday season. Two gifts and a card set.

First, I made up a bunch of A2 sized notebooks that are pseudo-Japanese bookbinded and fit perfectly into an A2 envelope along with a relatively flat (matching) card. I thought these would make great stocking stuffers or small tokens of thanks to co-workers, neighbors, mailmen, etc. this holiday season.

Next I made something new! A set of 10 calling cards (blank) in a matching boxy envelope. I know sometimes I want to give people my contact info or jot them a little note, and don't always have a piece of paper in my bag. So - this not only solves that problem, its done in STYLE! I even used a light ink on the cards so that you could write over the image if you needed more space. This is the prototype; I think I'll be making more of these!

Last for today is a set of square red and white Christmas cards. I totally stole this idea from something in a recent PaperCrafts (don't remember who, of course). Their colors were different, but I saw some quilts recently that were white with red patchwork and red stitching and wanted to replicate that feeling.

So, are you getting ready for the holidays yet???

Celebrate Life

2009-10-09T10:06:00.000-04:00

When I first made this card, I figured it would be an encouragement card. But, when the need for a group birthday card came up at the office, I went with this one. Because really, one should celebrate their life on their birthday, right?

A little different style here for me - Big G laughed and asked how hard it was for me to glue down that layer that is not straight. Let me tell you, it was HARD! I am a very linear kind of person and I can eyeball perfectly symmetrical margins without a ruler. But to do something offset like this is really a stretch for me. (Gee, who knew I'd get so talky about my um, precise nature. OCD anyone?)

Have a Great Day!

2009-10-08T12:01:00.000-04:00

I love this little panda, and I'm not normally one to go for cutesy!

I wanted to make some encouragement cards for those embarking on a new exercise, diet, or fitness routine. Its hard to stay motivated, so I thought a little 'you go Girl' card would help people along (at least, it would for me!) I suppose you really could use this card for anything, perhaps even someone doing physical therapy or recovering from an injury.

A really simple layout - even more simple than my usual style, but I wanted the image and bold coloring to really stand out.

More Herbs

2009-10-07T12:57:00.000-04:00

Every time I read or type the word "herb" I can't help think about the guy on WKRP. Does that show my age? Ha ha!

Anyway, while I was showing you the Lavender yesterday, I thought I'd also share a set using some other herbs - peppermint and chamomile. This is a cute little set - I love the scalloped layer - that is CORK my friends! How cool is that? I'll definitely be playing with this material again!

Went back to the markers for this set, and I love how the pots have that glazed look about them. Also, am I the only one who never knew that peppermint had purple flowers?? When I started coloring I had no idea what to make them. My friend Google showed me lots and lots of purple peppermint. Huh. Learn something new every day!

Boxed Lavender

2009-10-06T21:51:00.002-04:00

I love lavender. Its my favorite plant, and I have three big mounds of it growing right outside my front door to greet everyone who enters our house from sprint to fall. So it seemed only fitting that I include a little lavender in to my paper work, as well!

This is a boxed set of flat panel notecards and matching ivory envelopes. I used colored pencil on these, because I wanted a more organic feel than I get with markers. I was also trying to achieve a more rustic look with the script stamping on a kraft cardstock base.

Short but sweet today - I FINALLY applied for Handmade Arcade! I am so excited - I've wanted to do this show for YEARS but this is the first year that life hasn't gotten in the way of my ability to participate. Now I just wait for the jury to decide if I'm in (or not). Please keep your fingers crossed for me!!! I should know by the end of the month.

Gift Card Holders - Fall

2009-09-25T20:29:00.002-04:00

I have been building up the stock for Fall/Winter craft shows, and always try to think of ways to make my cards more appealing. I decided to make some simple cards that are also gift-card holders. I'm really excited about how they turned out!

These guys are 3x5 so they fit into a standard RSVP sized envelope. I folded a little flap to the bottom of the inside (see card on far right) stamped with a coordinating vine image and then sealed the two side edges shut with a fine line of glue. These cards are the PERFECT size for adding a little gift card to. The giftcard would stand vertically in the card, but you could easily rotate this card and put the flap on the long side instead.

Stamps, of course, are PTI. The Rustic Branches set is one of my favorites but I don't use it much because I seem to be challenged when it comes to lining up the berries stamp over the wreath base. No matter how I flip it, I can't seem to find the 'top' of the berries stamp.

Another thing I did for this card - the berries have a solid dot image, and an outline image. I stamped the outline, then just colored the berries in using my Copics! I figure, that way I didn't have to figure out how to line up yet another stamped layer - pretty smart, huh?

Anyway, I'm off to run a weekend retreat for work this weekend. Big G and the boys are going to hold down the fort. In exchange for working the weekend, I get two comp days, so I'm spending Monday (and possibly Tuesday) wallowing in all of the new goodies that arrived this week!

On the first day of fall... celebrating winter!

2009-09-23T08:32:00.004-04:00

I spent this past weekend doing some major prep work in the card room - stamping my 'logo' onto card backs, photographing finished work, putting things into protective clear sleeves - and the stack of stuff was HUGE! So, I'm hoping to do some more regular posting here for a while!

I did manage to sneak in a few new cards, and it seems like everyone is starting to gear up for the holidays already. This is by far the earliest I've EVER made holiday cards, but its been fun. I keep hoping that things like snowflakes will encourage our Pittsburgh weather to go from 80 degrees into REAL Fall!

This card uses some really old stuff and some brand new. The metal snowflake has been around for at least 5 years! The snowmen stamps are from Purple Onion Designs, back when Self-Addressed was my hang out. The orange mat is also from those days, Bazzill cardstock that I've been holding on to for tooooooo long.

I colored the snowmen with my Copics - I think I'm getting better with them, after watching many tutorials on YouTube. You really can find ANYTHING on the internet! I'm showing a close-up of this card because the coloring was so detailed - the snowmen are only about an inch tall, so you can imagine how tiny their little carrot noses are!

As for NEW stuff, the background paper is from Basic Grey's Offbeat line. BG makes most of their papers in a 6x6 version, shrinking the patterns tomake them perfect for cardmaking. The sentiment is from PTI's Vintage Picnic sentiments - my latest FAVORITE sentiments.

Have you started thinking about the holidays yet?

The Best 'Burghers in Town

2009-09-22T23:00:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow kicks off the G20 festivities (or nightmare, depending on who you ask) here in Pittsburgh. I am a little ambivalent about it, to be honest, but what I don't care for is the idea of protesters descending on my fair city and wrecking the joint. I get that they have their passions and issues. Really, I get it. I have mine too - but just because I'm pro-choice doesn't mean the conservative church down the road from me feels like they have to board up their windows every time I drive past. In general, Pittsburgh is a friendly place. We may not be as cosmopolitan or hip as its sisters NYC or Chicago or SanFran, but it ain't half bad.

We certainly don't take ourselves too seriously. Unless we're talkin' football.
(Caution: audio clip starts playing as soon as you click the link.)

And when our local folks step out to demonstrate, they really do it up.

Kudos my fellow 'Burghers, Kudos.

Three Crocheted Flowers

2009-09-19T13:22:00.002-04:00

I've been trying to hold on to these little crocheted flowers, but they're so cute, I had to use them up on this card. The envelope matches the orange mat on the card, even though it doesn't appear that way in the photo. Both are from Paper-Source. Just about everything else is from PTI, of course.

I decided to leave the sentiment off of this one and just leave it as an all-occasion card.... I don't do that very often.

Off to the card room now to spend the afternoon wallowing in paper and ink. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

SPICE

2009-09-17T12:16:00.000-04:00

Remember SPICE? So Perfect I Copied Everything? Well, I copied NEARLY everything on this card. Except, I can't remember WHO I copied this from!!!

The one thing I know is different is the patterned paper. I used this Crate paper that I have been hoarding for a LOOONNNGG time! I love the texture of Crate, and their color palettes. My favorite idea sketch book is covered in Crate black & cream papers.

Anyway, not much to tell about this card. The sentiment is from PTI's Vintage Picnic Add-On set. I haven't convinced myself I NEED the Picnic set, but I loved the combo of a script with the typewriter font.

Speaking of PTI (because when DON'T I?)... I am in LOVE with their release this month. Unfortunately, the two sets I wanted most sold out in less than 12 hours. I did order a few other sets (holiday from last year, autumn from this year, holiday from this year) and I cannot WAIT for them to get here!!!!

Parts 1, 2, and 3

2009-09-16T20:03:00.004-04:00

Some more cards made using some Stampin Up images I colored when I first got those Copics.

Of course, no card in my arsenal would be complete without some PTI, so I used a different Retro Background stamp on each card, and the purple and organe ribbons are PTI too. Buttons and white ribbon are from my every growing stash.

I have a few more variations of this card, without background stamps, that I'll show you another day. I'm trying to decide if these will be packaged as a set or individually... Three cards seems like a weird number for a 'set', doesn't it?

Cancer Sucks.

2009-09-14T23:19:00.000-04:00

So. My best friend has cancer. We've known about it since Thanksgiving-ish. Let me just say, cancer sucks - on SO many levels. We live about an hour and a half away from each other, which makes it hard to see one another, and THAT is hard. (See? Sucks.)

Anyway, I have been trying to send her love in the best way I know how - cards. One day I went shopping for some new stamps to use on her cards and nearly had a meltdown in the stamp store when I saw this sentiment. It sums up our friendship on so many levels... we've been through so much together in 16+ years. This is just one more thing for us to get through.

As if all that weren't enough, Friday afternoon we had to rush Luka (one of the 'sheep') to the vet for emergency spleen surgery. He had a cancerous tumor the size of a tennis ball that had caused his spleen to rupture. It was all very frightening, especially since with this kind of cancer, as the doc put it, "they're fine, until they're not". That was totally accurate. He ate his breakfast, went outside and just laid down. Would not get back up.

Now I've mentioned lots of times before that our 'boys' are our kids. We don't have the two legged kind, so the furry ones mean the world to us. We are happy that Luka came through the surgery quite well, but we also know our time left with him will be brief. We are making the most of every moment we have left.

Yes, cancer sucks.

On my to-do list

2009-09-12T08:50:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Jess over at How About Orange, I now have YET ANOTHER project on my list of projects to-do someday. How cute is this pillow? And, since I can only sew a straight line with my machine? Perfect!

All Occasions Set

2009-09-10T11:15:00.000-04:00

Remember this tin I made for my best friend's birthday back in June? Well I'm finally getting around to showing you the pics of the CARDS! Oops! (This was the second of two posts that I had 'drafted' a while ago and never finished!)

Anyway, I'm showing you three of the six cards; I made two in each color set, but the sentiments are all different (from PTI's 2009 Anniversary Set). The fun thing you can't see in the cards is that the polka dot paper folds over the top and goes halfway down the back of the card - leaving enough space for my "TwoSheep" signature stamp!

Other than the sentiments, everything else is patterned paper. I sketched this layout from something Dawn posted a while back (and now cannot find).

Copic Cherries

2009-09-09T20:38:00.001-04:00

This is one of two posts I had sitting in my 'drafts' folder unfinished. A Birthday card for my MIL - a month ago! Can't believe I forgot to post.

This was right after I got my Copic Markers and was on a huge coloring spree. The cherries are from Viva LasVegastamps. I spent an afternoon wallowing in stamps when we were in Vegas last fall and this is one of my favorite purchases. They have some of the BEST sentiments - check them out! (But beware - lots of flashy blinky things and SOUND on their website. Hey, its Vegas, what do you expect?!)

The sentiments are from PTI, naturally, as is all of the cardstock, ribbon and polka-dotted paper. Go figure :-)

RSCC16 Challenge

2009-09-07T17:40:00.004-04:00

Just a quickie today. We had a great Labor Day weekend that included a family picnic and a 'date night in' where Big G and I made a rather elaborate dinner using the NEW STOVE :-) I made homemade bread and carrot cake (both from scratch, both fantastic!) while G made Chicken in Riesling Sauce, which is kind of like Coq Au Vin but in a white sauce instead of red. That too was awesome - but we haven't eaten this un-healthfully in AGES so it was a big splurge. Tonight, any cake or bread left is going in the trash so we're not tempted to eat anymore of it!

Anyway, I did get about an hour in the card room, and I decided to participate in Dawn's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge. I love her challenges but never have time to play - so this was a lot of fun! It was even more enjoyable because these are my kind of colors - reminds me of bonfires, crisp leaves, warm sweaters, football and cool weather. I LOVE the fall!

This card uses almost exclusively PTI products, except for the picture hook and ribbon. Those have been in my stash for ages and I have no idea where either came from!

The double bonus of this card is that I also used a CAS Sketch (FTL28), even though it ended up being slightly more 'involved' than my usual CAS cards. I really love how this one came out; just bummed that my skills are a little rusty - it took me nearly an hour to make this one!

Happy Fall Everyone!

Dreams...

2009-09-03T14:12:00.003-04:00

Did you ever have a dream that you just couldn't get out of your head after waking? I don't usually remember my dreams, but when I do I tend to dream movie-like dreams, where friends and acquaintances are the 'characters. Anyway, last night I had a dream that I haven't been able to shake all day. It was a WEIRD dream. But, one of the characters was my former boss's husband. Now let me say, I haven't talked to this boss in probably 5 or 6 years but when I did work for her, we were friends and I went on several work related trips with her and her husband, so I got to become friends with him, too. What on EARTH made him pop into my head/dream, who knows? I always try to analyze these weird-o movie dreams, but I am no Freud.

On the other hand, I've been feeling really nostalgic lately. Maybe its facebook, or the fact that Big G just had a mini-college reunion at our house. But I found myself actually missing those friends and the circle of friends that we shared. And lots of other long-lost friends have started to come to mind, and I find myself feeling nostalgic about them too.

But how do you go about reconnecting with someone you've lost touch with for so long? G says "you just call/email them and say hey, whats up, I was thinking about you." He does that sort of thing. I guess I'm a little socially awkward that way - I just feel uncomfortable. Like I'm barging in on a life that hasn't included me for a long time... What if they don't WANT to hear from me?

Funny all the things one minor character in a weird dream can stir up.

PS: I've decided that, when I post something non-crafty, I'll include a link to something else crafty. The photo in this post is available for purchase on The Dreamy Giraffe's Etsy Shop.

Gift Set

2009-08-27T21:45:00.003-04:00

My best friend's birthday was... oh, back in June. We don't usually do birthday gifts - as adults with busy lives who live about 90 minutes away from each other, we decided long ago that birthdays were more about spending time together than spending money on gifts. (Pretty much our theory on holidays, too, come to think of it.)

Anyway, this year we didn't get to do our usual day out by ourselves, instead we did a girls night out for dinner. It was fun and anytime I get to spend with my J these days is a good time for me. But I wanted to give her a little something - hand made and from the heart, to show her that I was thinking about her, how much I love her, and I wanted her to know how much her birthday (and SHE) means to me. I don't think a box of cards really says all that... but I think she knew what I was getting at :-)

Anyway, here is the box - a tin I bought ages ago and had been hoarding for 'just the right thing' - and a mini 3 x 5" card to match. I kept the box fairly simple, so that she could use it for something else after the cards were gone if she wanted to.

The patterned paper, button, ribbon and stamps are all from PTI. The flower has been living in my studio a looooonnngg time! Happy to put that to good use too.

Next post I'll show you the cards that go IN the box.

*Tip: RSVP envelopes made for wedding invitations are the perfect size for 3 x 5" cards - and they are one of the smallest sized envelopes that can be mailed within USPS regulations for a standard stamp. I buy stationery-quality white envelopes by the case, and recently added this size to my supply. They're so fun to make!

Public Service Announcement

2009-08-25T23:27:00.001-04:00

I did some blog housekeeping & updated my blog lists now that blogger has the ability to automatically create them from my Google Reader (yey!) instead of making me manually create them myself (boo). If you don't see yourself listed over there, but you'd like to, just drop me a note. I'm happy to cross promote! Also, when I manually did the lists, I put everyone's name (so MaryC) while Blogger lists the actual blog names (Something About MaryC). I think you'll figure it out.

On a related 'housekeeping' note. I had some help redesigning the blog in the spring and had her set up the menu items across the top. One that I really wanted was "Categories" - so that, in theory, when you clicked on it you could get a list of all of my post labels and then each label would be hyperlinked to the posts with that tag. Make sense? But, I can't seem to get that menu item to link to the 'list of post labels' - anyone know how to do that?

I'm thinking about abandoning the Tips and Ideas menu items - don't seem to be putting anything in there, do I?

Variations on a theme...

2009-08-25T22:04:00.004-04:00

Sticking with my plan to make more than one of any given card, today I present to you:

Variations on a Theme

These are based on FTL23 from CleanandSimpleStamping.

The first one was quite simple, but I really love the base cardstock that I got at my local stamp store two Christmases ago. It has a linen weave but feels very soft and cotton-y to the touch. The flowers - I do not crochet, what can I say. I got them from a lovely woman on Etsy who made and shipped them LIGHTNING fast. Go. Buy something handmade over there.

The second card was inspired by two bloggers that I follow. One is Betsy Veldman, who I've 'known' online for quite a while. We used to belong to a kit club together, chatted on their message boards and one year I was her secret santa. Betsy is now famous in the card world! (And that, my friends, is MY six-degrees claim to fame.) What I've always loved about Betsy is is her uncanny ability to take a pile of things that, individually, look like they would NEVER work together (colors, patterns, you name it). But, when she puts them on a card, it just works. So I tried to do some color, a'la Betsy. But you know, in the end, it just looks like me - trying to use some colors that don't match!

The other inspiration for this card is new to me, though probably not new to you. Teri Anderson does some marvelous things with eyelets and minimalist stitching. She is my new hero :-) Now Teri was a little easier to incorporate. That little X stitch/knot was inspired by her. (And if Teri ever reads this she'll probably laugh and think 'REALLY, meh. Not so much.')

Anyway, it was fun to dip my toe into a sketch and taking inspiration directly from two other artists I admire so much. I'll have to do this more often, for sure!