Lisa Crafts Too

Lawnscaping Challenge #66 - Monochromatic - Weathering the Storm

Today I'm here to share a card that I made for the current Lawnscaping Challenge to make a monochromatic card.

 

 

I already knew that I wanted to make a card for a very special friend who needs to build up the courage to make an important change in her life. I flipped through all of my Lawn Fawn stamps and as soon as I saw the Partly Cloudy set I knew the "we will weather the storm together" sentiment was PERFECT for this card. I dug through all my Lawn Fawn papers and pulled out a bunch of light blueish papers from Into the Woods, Daphne's Closet, and Dewey Decimal. I also used some Bazzill cardstock for the base, but I'm not sure what the exact color is since I was using a large scrap from a 12x12 sheet. Sorry about that! Of course, I also needed a critter for this card, and the little owl from Critters in the Forest was the obvious choice as we both love owls!

Here is my card, which came out even better than I envisioned - I think it's my new favorite!!

 

 

 

I wanted to briefly mention a few things I did with this card where I used my stamps in a different way. The most obvious is the mirror stamping (I reversed stamped the owl so I'd have two owls that could face each other.) I used the large cloud stamp in the Partly Cloudy set, since it is solid and larger than the owl, and I first stamped the owl onto the cloud stamp, and then I pressed the cloud stamp to the paper to get a reverse image of the owl. The other thing I did, because the cloud stamp in this set is a solid image and I wanted patterned paper clouds, is that I held the stamp in place against my patterned paper and fussy cut around the stamp itself. I guess I could have used a pencil and just traced around the stamp first, but I didn't think of that until just now, lol. Anyhow, I used the cloud stamp as a guide to cut clouds from the paper. I did this bc I didn't want to break out yet another stamp set, and this is a good way to make further use of your stamps if you have limted sets. I think next time I'll trace around the stamp - would be easier than what I did, but, whatever, lol! I also decided that I didn't want to use any black ink on this card, so I stamped the owls in the blue and loved how they looked just stamped, without any further coloring or paper piecing. Oh, and one more thing I did was with the umberlla, another solid stamp. I really wanted to paper piece it, so I used versamark ink to stamp the image first onto the solid blue cardstock, and then again onto two different patterned papers. I then was able to cut the small bits (without any ink that would show) and paper piece the umbrella. I covered the umbrella with glossy accents as a final touch to give the umbrella that vinyl wet shine. The raindrops were stamped with versamark ink alone and, though I could've added glossy accents, I opted for the less is more since I liked how they were.

This was a super fun card to make and I hope you love it as much as I do!!!

Have an amazing day, as Kelly Marie would say!!

 

SUPPLIES:

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday, everyone! My week is off to a slow start because I slept in today until noon! Yikes! I've been trying to be better about getting up early (as in 7am early) but I keep staying up late and then I need a day like today to just catch up (sigh.) I really am a night owl at heart!

I have amazing news to share with you all today! I'm very excited to announce that my card was selected as WINNER of the Paper Smooches SPARKS color challenge! I've entered this challenge several times and have never been featured, so when I saw that I WON I totally got excited!!!! You can see my winning card here.

Today I can finally share with you all a card that I made for my friend Hilde, who is expecting a baby boy this November! Now that she's received her card I can post it here for you all to see. It's so hard keeping these things a secret for weeks!!! I used stamps and papers from one of our favorite companies, Lawn Fawn, to create her card.

This is Hilde's first baby and she's very excited!! I wish her an amazing new life full of happiness and cuteness and lots of love!

 

 

SUPPLIES:

 

Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge! Cool Shades! You're My Universe

Hello, everyone! I'm back again with my THIRD (and final) entry to the Paper Smooches SPARKS Cool Shades Challenge! Usually, I barely get ONE card in before the deadline, and somehow this week I've managed THREE cards - amazing! I think it's because I really connected with the color scheme and had a ton of ideas swimming around in my head this time. Here is the color scheme we were given:

 

Purple, Teal, Lime, Grey

 

Again, this card is a completely different take on these colors. Immediately, several Paper Smooches stamp sets came to mind when I saw these colors. I used Spookalicious for my first card, which you can view here, Cuteasaurus for my second card, which you can view here, and for this card I had fun using the Space Cadet set. I actually made this card to give to my husband, because he really IS my universe. I love him so much!

 

 

 

I had a blast (pun intended) playing with all the sparkly things on this card! I used sparkly embossing powder for the silver stars, a clear wink of stella glitter pen to spruse up the clear versamark stars on the grey base card, and - of course - the stickles! A girl can't possibly have enough glitter!

 

SUPPLIES:

Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge! Cool Shades! Good Tri!

Good afternoon! Today I have a second card that I made for the current Paper Smooches SPARKS Cool Shades Challenge! This card is a completely different take on the color scheme from my first entry, which you can view here. Not everyone seems to like the given color scheme, but I love it! I had so many ideas of ways to use these colors. Here is the color scheme:

 

Purple, Teal, Lime, Grey

 

Here is the card I came up with this time, featuring one of my favorite Paper Smooches stamp sets, Cuteasaurus:

 

 

SUPPLIES:

Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge! Cool Shades! Happy Owloween!

Good afternoon, friends! Or, should I now say Guten Tag, since I am studying German this year! I have to say, as I check out different blogs and encounter some German posts, it's exciting to finally be able to understand some of it!

Today I am here to share my latest card which I am entering into the current Paper Smooches SPARKS Color Shades Challenge. This week, we were given this fun color scheme to play with:

 

Purple, Teal, Lime Green, Grey

 

I decided to play with the Halloween owl from the Paper Smooches Spookalicious stamp set - I LOVE this owl!

The only truly difficult thing about this color scheme was getting a photo of my finished card! I KNOW that I used these colors, and they definitely look like this in my basement, which is where I do my crafting. Granted, there's not very good light up here. I try to take my photos outside in the natural light, and the purple insists on showing up like a blue! It really truly is purple, I swear! Even the name of the Copic marker I used is Flourescent PURPLE, lol. I guess it's just one of those colors. So, I've decided to post several photos of the card, in different lights, so you can see for yourself the difficulty I encountered.

This photo was taken in the basement, where I made the card. Here, it looks purple.

 

 

This next photo was taken outside in the natural light. See how it looks really blue now?

 

 

This last picture I'm posting because you can see how I made the eyes glossy and I think it shows the dimension I used in the layering a bit better.

 

 

So, hopefully you all believe that I really did use purple, and not blue, for my card. I could never lie about something as important as my favorite color (meine Liebesfarbe!)

Have a great afternoon! I'll be back later this evening to add in the supply list.

 

Supplies Used:

 

 

Paper Smooches SPARKS Picture Perfect Challenge - Have a Purrfect Day

HappySeptember everyone!! It's Sunday and that means it's time for me to squeeze in my entry to this week's Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge! This week is a Picture Perfect Challenge and we were given this photo to use as inspiration for our projects:

 

 

I was inspired by the frames - especially when I went to Michaels yesterday and happened upon these fabulous new ModMelts products from Mod Podge which included this awesome mold:

 

 

As soon as I got home I started making frames with the melts (which are similar to glue sticks for the hot glue gun) and created several to use on my card. The process was so easy! I painted them and let them dry overnight (because it was late, not because they took that long to dry) and then I completed my card this afternoon. Here is my finished project:

 

 

and I even did a little something to the inside of the card:

 

 

I'm totally in love with my card this week! I saw the Nine Lives Paper Smooches Stamp Set and immediately knew that I wanted to create a scene where the kitty's favorite things were framed and hanging on the kitty's wall. I just love it and I hope you do, too!

And check it out - I've figured out the thumbnail supply list :D

 

Supplies:

Happy Birthday Card for my New BFF Morgann!

While I was in the Poconos teaching flute camp last month I made the most amazing new friend in one of the other flute instructors. We just completely hit it off right from the start which surprised me because it's a rare occasion that I meet someone like Morgann, someone who will certainly be a friend for life. I call her my BFF (Best Flute Friend) and since she already has a best flute friend, she calls me her FFF (Fast Flute Friend). Whatever you want to call it, we've become great friends very quickly! She's awesome and we have practically everything in common, from our love for teaching the flute to our love of owls and shopping. Here's a photo of the two of us in action at camp:

 

 

See how our clothes even coordinate? -and that was the first day of camp, totally unplanned! Well, Morgann just celebrated her birthday earlier this week, so I just had to make her a card - what kind of BFF/FFF would I be if I didn't?? I had originally planned on using one of my owl stamps, but the cute little turtle set from Lawn Fawn that they released for their belated Year 2 birthday was calling to me, and I hadn't yet used it. The paper is a scrap that Lawn Fawn sent with a stamp order - I think it's from their Pink Lemonade collection, as is the green twine I used. I just love how her card turned out!!

 

It's been a while since I made a card, so this was fun! And for once I made a card just to make a card and not to enter into a challenge. I've got a few other cards that need to be made this week, so be sure to check back and see what else I come up with!

 

Supplies used: (I promise to figure out the inlinks widget thing soon so that these will show up as pics!)

Lawn Fawn: Banneriffic, Year Two, Pink Lemonade paper, Lime Lawn Trimmings

 

FO (Finished Object) - Honeymoon Socks

 

While this is the first knitting project I've shared on my blog, this is far from being my first knitting project. Actually, I've been knitting (on and off) for an entire decade now! These socks are actually only the second pair of socks I've ever completed. I knit a pair for my mom about 8 years ago and have also knit two random socks (one for me and one for an evil ex-boyfriend) that I set aside and need to finish (luckily my hubby has the same size feet as the evil ex and happens to like said sock!)

Knitting was actually my first hobby. It became clear a decade ago that I needed to find some creative way to spend my time outside of practicing my flute. My mom suggested knitting since she knew how and could teach me and once I got the hang of it I was hooked. I like that it's portable and relaxing - the act of knitting each stitch is very theraputic - and I just think it is so cool that I can take a ball of yarn and make something wearable. I know that I will always knit. I might not do it every day, but it's something I will continue to do throughout my life.

I have a habit of visiting yarn shops whenever I can when I am traveling and while I was on my honeymoon my husband indulged me and let me drag him to a few yarn shops (3 or 4 maybe?) It was during our stop at a wonderful yarn shop in East Greenwich, RI formerly called Unwind (I think it's now called Love to Knit, but I might be misremembering that) that I picked up some beautiful sock yarn called Tough Love Sock in the colorway Stormchaser by Sweet Georgia Yarns. Wow, they have so many wonderful colorways that it was difficult to choose! I will definitely be ordering more of their yarns for future socks!

 

After the honeymoon I was eager to get this yarn on the needles and I decided to knit up the Traveler's Socks, a pattern by Stephanie Bold that was featured in the Fall 2012 Interweave Knits. The pattern was very easy to knit up, although I will admit that my first few attempts needed to be unraveled because I initially misinterpreted the instructions just past the cuff. Once I figured out where I was going wrong, however, it was smooth sailing from there on. It took me about 2 weeks to knit up this pair of socks and I used just about the entire skein of yarn (400-something yards.) I knit these cuff-down and was getting pretty nervous toward the end of the second sock that I would run out. I've got small feet so I knit the small version. If you have larger feet and use this same yarn and pattern and only have 1 skein to use, make the legs shorter. These are actually pretty long in the leg. I'd also use a solid colorway rather than a variegrated as I did here - the cabling would show up much better. I plan to knit these again in a solid. Nevertheless, I'm thrilled with how they turned out. There are a few small mistakes, but that's the beauty of the variegrated yarn with the cabling - it's hard to impossible to tell. Overall they fit really well, so I'm very pleased and happy to have knit my first pair of socks for me!

 

 

 

I'm alive, no worries!!!

Hi everyone! I hope you've all had an amazing summer thus far. It's nearly over (well, technically there's still another month util fall, but I head back to school next week so once summer vacation comes to an end summer may as well be over! I'm so sorry I haven't posted for 3+ months. So much was going on that this blog ended up getting pushed aside until life returned to normal, which it now is once again! Not that my life was abnormal - just abnormally busy! This was definitely the best summer of my life because on the fourth of July I married my best friend who I can now at last call my husband! Then there was the honeymoon (we went to Newport, Rhode Island for a week) and then just a couple of weeks later I went to the Poconos, Pennsylvania to teach flute camp for a week (I'm a mean wife as I left my hubby alone with his in-laws while I was away!) Now that it's mid-August I've finally had a chance to catch my breath and am slowly adapting back into a normal routine. I've got so much to share with you all and will definitely be back to share wedding pictures and I plan to do a post on all the wedding crafts that Bryce and I worked together on for our big day, as well as share how we spent our honeymoon. For now, though, I just wanted to say a quick hello and let you all know I am back and plan to get posting again on a more regular basis. Bye!!

~Lisa

A quick post with a quick card

I know, I know - it's been FOREVER since I've written a blog post! (Shame on me!) Not that I should be making excuses but..... I have been going to school AND planning a wedding, so things have just been so much busier than the normal busy. I haven't gotten to do much crafting that isn't somehow related to the wedding planning, but I did finally get to make a quick card for my cousin's daughter who made her First Holy Communion on Saturday. I had to keep it extremely simple since I had only a half hour to work on it (as I waited until the very last minute as usual!) The sentiment is from Paper Smooches, the butterfly is from Lawn Fawn and the papers are some American Craft papers that I picked up at Target about a month ago. Nothing fancy with this card, but I haven't made one in ages and I just can't bear to purchase a store-bought card anymore.