Good Deal!!

So I needed to get some sympathy stamps because we just got word of the 6th funeral for our family/friends since May and I ran out of pre-made cards.

Well, I picked up my stamps and then wandered down the clearance isle at Michael's.

I came across these two Martha Stewart paper packs:

So I couldn't pass up the paper pack with the lady bugs in it ... just too cute, and the other pack has a lot of neutral papers that can be for guys or girls. I wouldn't have bothered to get it, except for the price!!

Look closely at that price sticker ... here it is up close:

... yes, you ARE reading it right - Originally $19.99, reduced to $9.99 and further reduced to $2.49!! If they would have had more, I would have gotten them!!

That's my Unbelievable Purchase for the week!

Anna Banana

Addition to my studio

Hello everybody!

I added a new way of displaying my cards in my studio!!

I put up hooks and I strung some clothes line across...and then I used clothespins to attach the cards ... like they are hung out to dry!

The second area is on the slopped ceiling and I am planning to add some more line on the slope to be able to display even more of my cards.

Let me know what you think!!

Anna Banana

Twilight Tuesday Challenge

I'm So Excited!! Thanks to my dear, dear friend Karyn, who understands my addiction, I now know about the Twilight Tuesday Inspiration Challenge on TwilightTuesday.com.

If you like Twilight, I would head over there now and check out everyone else's creations too - there are some fantastic cards out there!

The requirements for this challenge are to use the color challenge of the Twilight colors (Silver/Red/Black) along with a stamp from The Greeting Farm.

It just so happens that last week I placed my order for a few stamps from The Greeting Farm and Edward arrived in the mail yesterday.

I set out right away to do this challenge.

I chose a black card stock for the base and built up from there.

I took a piece of white card stock and rand it thru my cuttlebug with the Textile embossing folder. I ran my Moulin Rouge Palette ink over the raised surface to make it really pop.

I grabbed a scrap of mirror-foil paper and cut and embossed that with my Oval Nestabilities die. You can see something reflecting in the highly mirrored surface on the left of Edward...oops!

I took some black lace by Model Crafts (from Wal Mart) and fixed it to the top and bottom of the embossed paper.

I stamped Edward (The Greeting Farm) in Black Memento Ink and colored him in with my Prismacolor pencils and blended it with OMS and stumps.

I stamped "Make Me Immortal..." by A Stamp in the Hand with the black, on white card stock, inked the edges in Moulan Rouge and added three silver brads.

Behind the corner of the oval and the sentiment, I placed two black feathers.

I glittered Edward with Prisma Glitter, because I love Vampires that Sparkle ... Doesn't he just Dazzle you??

As a finishing touch, I got out my Pearl Ex watercolor palette and my tiniest bristle paint brush and applied his mesmerizing Vampire eyes with Super Copper. I took a little but of Supper Russet and dabbed just a hint on his lips and he was perfect!

I pop dotted him on the silver oval and fixed it all to the card base!

I know my friend Dawn is going to try to steal him from me! She is more obsessed than I am. :)

Anna Banana

Papercraft Planet sk071109

I was inspired by Karyn's post of her no layer craft challenge that she found on Paper Craft Planet, so I went and did my own!

I masked Big Bird and stamped a pattern "behind" him.

I rather like the effect and I think he turned out cute:)

Anna Banana

Willy the Worm

I got this image from Victoria at Victoria Case Designs - I can't tell you how much I love her art - it's so darned cute to me!!

Anyhow - I got Willy a while back and then my printer went tots up, so I couldn't use ANY digital images I had.

Well, I finally have a new printer, AND my creativity dial has been re-set to the ON position, so I was ready to go!!

I coloured (that's for my European friends) up Willy and his pretty flowers with my Prismacolor Pencils and I cut him out.

Then I mounted him on a scrap of yellow paper (no - I am pretty sure I will never use all those scraps up). The yellow piece is on a thin pop dot on top of the splat background.

I made the splat background paper using pink, blue and green bingo markers.

~You spray the tops of the inky daubers with water and slam them down on your paper and Voila! a splat of color! Wear an apron - I get overzealous and my daubers are extra juicy with all the water I spray on them so the splat shoots out extra far!~

My background wasn't drying fast enough (all that water I use) so I grabbed my heat gun - still not fast enough, so I grabbed a tissue and blotted the color!! I am sure it would have been more vibrant if I would have been more patient ... but I wasn't.

Then the blue card background looked too plain, so I grabbed my ruler and my paint pen and made some faux stitches. Too bad I was not feeling like measuring them all out evenly, but I like how it turned out anyway.

I tied it all together with some prima flowers and rhinestones and a piece of green ribbon with Actual stitching on it. Not bad for an hour.

Then for the final bit, I glittered the centers of all of the flowers.

I photographed it in my basement on a piece of white paper and thought that was under-whelming, but you could see the glitter sparkle really well, and so I took it outside and tried to get artsy with it and I put it on my lilies that are growing in my front yard, but with the busy splats it's almost too much, but I thought I would share both!!

Anna Banana

The second Card I made SBS 24 - Pets

Well - this is the second card I made last week.

The theme for SBS24 to post this past Sunday was pets. I'm only 2 days late ... pretty good for me! I kept being drawn to this little pup...

I used pinks and browns - the pink is misc. card stock. I think the brown bone paper was from Doodle Bug or Doodle Factory or something... I can't remember - there was a Doodle in it!

The round brads were from a pack which had more elements than I show ... If you need to know cause you gotta have them, drop me a line and I will drag my butt upstairs and look at the packaging for you.

You can't see it here, but the dew drops are actually a pale pink color - they look clear against the matching card stock.

My favorite part of this card is the flower with the bone shaped brad on it!

The brad I got from a friend in a care package, and the flowers are prima.

I colored the up with prismacolor pencils and OMS with Stumps, and again this was a difficult one to fill because I stamped it on the textured heavy duty card stock. I finished it off with ribbon from the dollar bin in brown and pink and added a touch of glitter to the bloom and leaves of the rose.

Anna Banana

This time I wanna win them!!

I didn't win these the last time I entered, but I sure could use these now that my craft budget has been frozen :(

You can click HERE to enter to win them yourself:

I'm WAAAAAAYYY Behind on my SBS Challenge cards...

... But I DID do these two cards this past week and then ran out of time to post them until now.

The first is the 4th of July - I have had this cute stamp of Snoopy in a plane for ages and haven't inked him til now - I thought this would make a perfect 4th of July card!

All the stars and stripes background papers were from my scrap basket - these aren't even papers I bought - they were from a friend's house when she was cleaning to move over 5 years ago!! Wow - talk about me being a pack rat! At least it's only a large zip-top bag of papers in my basket.

I colored him up with my prisma colors and OMS with stumps, which was quite a challenge, because the heavy card stock that I used apparently has a texture in it and I was having trouble getting the color to fill in the nooks and crannies! It really looks quite nice in person, tho. The front propeller was colored with a metallic silver pencil that actually shimmers like metal when you move the card.

The ribbon is from Stampin' Up - I believe it is just White Gross-grain ribbon - it came in a HUGE spool.

The flowers are prima.

In 1999, when I was hand-beading my Renaissance wedding dress, I discovered Czech-cut flatback rhinestones. I ordered a bunch in different colors and now I am using them in my card making because they have more sparkle than the plastic ones or the plain glass ones... and I may as well use them since I paid a small fortune for them!

So that is my card for today!

I hope you all had a Happy 4th of July!

Anna Banana

Anna Banana