A Krista Smith card using WOW Embossing Powders

Well, I finally got the photos taken and edited of all the cards I made over the past couple of weeks so after this holiday weekend, I'll be posting them (hopefully every day or two) until they are all here.

This first one is an adorable image drawn by my favorite, Krista Smith, and colored with Copics. I just love her big glasses! They make her look so studious, don't they?

I kept the design simple as I wanted this little cutie to be the center of attention. I used WOW Embossing Powders for the greeting (Primary Ebony) and the edge of the image die cut (Metallic Gold Rich Pale Regular). I used Diamond Glaze on the lenses of the glasses to give them the semblance of glass.

I love this net ribbon in pale turquoise. I can't remember where I got it but I have used in on several projects that I'll be posting over the next week or so. I warn you though, I have been on a Krista Smith kick lately! I just love coloring her little Ragamuffins.  

If you aren't familiar with her work, you must check out her shop called Saturated Canary. She also has a challenge blog as well as a personal blog and she's very sweet to deal with.

And here's the inside of the card. In case you're having trouble reading it, the sentiment says "Life is nothing without friendship". Isn't that the truth? That's all I'm showing you today but check back on Tuesday for another new card. I'm also planning a giveaway for next month about which I'll be posting details next week as well.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Oozak - #2 Spring Colors
The Outlawz Copic/Promarkers Challenge - Anything Goes


Thanks for visiting my blog today. As always, your comments are encouraged and welcomed. I hope you all have a wonderful time with friends and family this holiday weekend. Don't forget to pause for a moment of silence in honor of the men and women who have selflessly given their lives to help maintain our freedom. Happy Memorial Day, everybody! Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Altered Photo Storage Box for Wow

Hello, all! It doesn't appear that as many people are visiting the Wow Blog as we had hoped so I'm posting my team project here so my friends and followers can see it. As stated in my last post, my team lead, Jen, tasked us with using fabrics and/or flowers on our projects for this month. I used fabric on my card and I have used paper that looks like fabric and lots of flowers on this one. Jen asked me to alter a photo storage box... something I haven't seen very often. As a matter of fact, I went in search of inspiration and found very little on You Tube or anywhere else on the web. So without further ado, here is my project. I made a treasure box in which to store photos and other memorabilia.

Since I took these photos, I have replaced the butterfly with a blue one and lined the box with velvet paper (it's so much easier to work with than fabric!). I used lots of WOW Metallic Gold Rich-Pale Regular Embossing Powder on this project. The vase of roses is a digi stamp by Delicious Doodles that I colored with Copic markers. I plan to make a mini album to go inside this box and give it to my beautiful granddaughter.

I'm still working on some new cards that I'll start posting later in the week. Several of them are finished but I still have to take and edit the photos and the past several days have been overcast and rainy so I plan on doing that part tomorrow.

Thanks so much for hanging with me through all the ups and downs I have experienced lately. I still have hope that something good in the way of a job will come along but in the meantime, I am going to keep creating as long as my muse allows it. So until later....

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Fairy Friends for Wow Embossing Powders DT

Hi, everybody! I know you think I ran off somewhere or worse. Not so... but much has happened since my last blog post. If you're a follower, you'll know that I finally found a new job after having been laid off for 18 months. Well, I was just getting comfortable with my position and learning a whole new business that I had known nothing about beforehand when our office manager and two of the inside sales guys up and quit! That put the operation in such a bind that the almighty "powers that be" made the hasty decision to close down the office portion of the branch and move that part of the operations to Louisville, KY. Soooo.... they laid me and my co-worker off with no notice whatsoever and no severance!! I was completely floored and disheartened at this unexpected turn of events. So, as you have probably surmised, I am searching for a new job yet again.

Needless to say, I haven't exactly been in a creative frame of mind since that day but I am slowly pulling myself up by my bootstraps and have decided to adapt that lovely French saying, "Que sera, sera" as my personal slogan. In case you don't know what it means, it translates to "what will be, will be". There is nothing I could have done to prevent it so I just have to have faith that there is something bigger and better waiting out there for me... somewhere. If my employment wasn't my only source of income, it would still be a huge inconvenience but as it is, it's devastating!

Anyway, I forced myself to work on something creative these past few days. Besides, I had 2 projects due this week for my WOW Embossing Powders DT so I had to get my act together whether I was in the mood or not! LOL!  Below is a card I made using bits and scraps of fabric supplied by my lovely team leader, Jen. She challenged us to use fabric in our projects this month which was indeed a challenge for me.  I have used fabric in other types of projects but not in my card making. When I opened the envelope she sent me, there was this really cute floral stripe, a couple of strips of the gold batik and the bright orange lace that all coordinated perfectly with this adorable little fairy digi I found at Sweet Coloring Pages and had colored up some time back but had never used on a card.  It was the perfect thing for this project so I set to work.

 I wanted to machine stitch the fabric to my card but my machine wasn't very cooperative and but for my Taurus tenacity, I would have abandoned that thought completely.  I finally got 'er done though and then just had fun embellishing.

The WOW Embossing Powders I used were Metalline Green and Primary Ebony. If you click on the photos to enlarge them, you'll discover that the fairy is talking to her little wormy friend popping out from his hole.  I apologize that I didn't realize when I was snapping the pictures that the leafy vine all but blocked him from view. He's not hiding so well when you see the card in person.

As most of you know, I nearly always (unless I'm doing a clean & simple design which is rarely) decorate the insides of my cards as well as the front because I think it just makes them appear more finished.  

I had these cute fairy dimensional stickers that were perfect to go inside the card.  I inked the edges of a white circle to create a place for the giver to write their own heart-felt sentiments.

So there you have it... my first creative endeavor in almost a month! It's not the last though. I have already completed another card that I will post in the next day or two and an altered project for our WOW team post scheduled for this coming Saturday. I'm also working on a few more cards that I will post as I get them finished in between my job search sessions. I would appreciate your prayers and positive thoughts for finding a new position. Thanks so much for dropping by today and please don't forget to visit the WOW Blog today and Saturday to see my projects as well as those created by my talented teammates posted there.  Until next time, thank you for your patience and understanding.

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

A Card Set for Wow Embossing Powders

Hello and happy Saturday, all!  It's already the middle of April and tax day is nearing... ugh!  I have to get my forms finished and ready to file and that's the easy part.  The hard part is going to be shelling out the money I owe the IRS.  Seems unfair to me to tax unemployment, which is designed to help people survive during periods in our lives when we don't have the ability to earn a regular paycheck.  Any of you ever tried to pay all your bills, including a mortgage on $400 a week?  Let me tell ya, it's tough!  Well, I am gainfully employed once again, making half of my previous salary and now I have to pay the taxes on that benefit I received because I didn't have taxes withheld when I was receiving it. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful to have had it but I'm not sure it should be taxed at the normal rate that other income is.  However, since it kept me from having to survive on the streets for a year and a half, I guess I should just pay it without complaining.

On a happier and more positive note, my design team  for Wow Embossing Powders, 6 Girls and a Smoking Gun, have posted projects for Spring on the Wow Blog.  My assignment was to make a card set so I made this  pretty set of 6 Thank You cards in one of my favorite color combinations.

I used WOW's background stamp called very simply "Flowers" and Metallic Copper WOW Embossing Powder to create the background on light turquoise cardstock. I mounted the 3.5" x 5.5" background onto white cardstock.  Next, I added the sheer organza ribbon and then adhered that piece to the 4" x 6" darker turquoise card base.  

I used the WOW stamp set called "Gratitude" and Pepper embossing powder from Suzy West's Pantry Collection (for WOW) to make the sentiment and cut and dry embossed the die cut using the oval Spellbinders' "Fancy Tags" die. I cut it once in white and once in very dark turquoise cardstock for each of the cards in the set. I cut out the oval on the white ones and then stamped the sentiment on it and embossed it before I attached it to the bottom turquoise layer. I adhered the tag to the card with Terrifically Tacky Tape.  As much as I was tempted to add more to the design, I decided to keep this one clean and simple.  

Well, that's about it for today, folks!  I hope that you'll take a few minutes to visit the WOW blog to see the beautiful spring creations we are sharing this week.  I also hope that your tax day is a little painful than mine will be! LOL  Take care and until next time...

Happy Crafting!

Anniebee

Some Bunny Loves You... Happy Easter!

[Just a quick post today as it's Easter Sunday and most people will be hunting eggs with the kids, cooking Easter dinner and going to Sunday services. I just wanted to show you a little card I made with a free digi stamp I got from CDAC last week. I bought into their progressive challenge at the last minute thinking I could get at least one card made so I could play the next round but I didn't get it finished in time. If I want to play the current round, I'll have to buy in again and I'm not sure I like the current images enough to do that.  This was the one that I thought would be easiest to color but as is my habit, I couldn't just color it! I had to shade it and add some sparkle too and that's why it didn't get finished on time. Still, I thought it was cute enough to share on my blog since I didn't do a real Easter card.

The greeting is from Joy's Life Wild Life Puns stamp set and was heat embossed using WOW's Berrylicious embossing powder.  The frame was made with a Nestibilities die.

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That's all for today. I wish you all a wonderful Easter and hope that you get to share it with family and friends.  I'll be back later in the week with a new project for my WOW! Design Team so you'll definitely want to check back for that one.Until then...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Go, Team!!!

Good evening, crafty friends!  Today I have a layout I created using Wow! Embossing Powders. I have been promising my sweet grandson that I would do a layout using some of his football photos and I did exactly that for this project.  I usually prefer making more feminine pieces but I have so many men in my life that I find myself doing almost as many masculine or androgynous pieces as I do feminine ones. 

My grandson has been playing league football for a couple of years now and I have decided it would be a cute idea to make a layout for each year that he plays.  Now watch... he'll decide he doesn't want to play anymore! LOL!  These photos are actually from this past season but I have some really cute ones from his first year as well so look for another football layout in the future! You can see the detail a little better in the next two photos, especially if you click on them to enlarge them.

Most scrappers don't think of using embossing powders in the creation of their layouts but let me tell ya, you really should give them a try.  I used only the basic Opaque Bright White and Primary Ebony on this one (their team colors were black, red and white) but I could have used Cable Car Red and Metallic Silver just as easily. The parts I embossed are the black sideline stripes, the jersey number and year and the chipboard letters for the title. I embossed the numbers on both sides of the playing field in Opaque Bright White onto red cardstock, then outlined the shapes in with a black fine point Copic Multiliner.  

For all of you sports moms and grandmoms, scrapping those sports pictures is lots of fun and very rewarding as the kiddos seem to really enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoy making the layouts.  I'm waiting for my son to send me some photos from this boy's martial arts classes so I can do a layout with them too.  I really need to make two of each one of these pages; one to frame for his room and the other for me to keep!  If you haven't done so yet, you should visit the Wow! Embossing Powders Blog for tons of inspiration from my talented design teammates.  


I'll be posting another card this coming weekend and a couple more projects, at least, next week.  I wish you all a very happy Easter or Passover and hope you'll visit me again soon.  Until then....


Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Happy Birthday to The Outlawz' Colleen!

Good morning, everybody! This past week was really hectic at work and I was so tired when I got home each evening, I had just enough energy to feed myself and my menagerie before I collapsed on the sofa. But things are starting to look up a bit so I'm hoping that I'll not have to work quite so many hours going forward. I love the overtime pay but I really like crafting a little bit every day which is something I haven't been able to do in a while. 

Colleen's Card (mine is below)

My friends at The Outlawz asked me to be a guest designer on their Greeting Cards challenge this past week and in honor of their founder, Colleen Holmes' brithday they hosted a case study of two of her own greeting cards that she made recently. I chose this one to case for my project. 

The idea of a case study is to use the case card as inspiration and you have to change at least 3 things, however large or small, but still be able to see some of the elements of the original design in the new one. The things I changed were rather small because I really, really LOVE Colleen's card. The most obvious thing is the image, which, like Colleen, I colored with Copics. I stayed with the overall color scheme but used different papers. Colleen used a dark panel over a lighter background and I reversed that order. I also changed the small flowers to a different type and even though I used a circle shape, I didn't use the lacy circle Spellbinders die. Instead, I used a lacy paper doily behind my circle to create the scalloped edge. Like Colleen, I didn't put a greeting on the front of my card though that's a requirement for entering the challenge. Being a guest designer, I'm not eligible to win so I guess it doesn't really matter so much. The truth is that I completely forgot about that rule when I was making my card! LOL

So here's how mine turned out.  I hope Colleen liked it. I really enjoyed casing one of her beautiful creations for this project and also being back among my friends at The Outlawz. I'm so sorry that it took me this long to get this posted but better late than never, I suppose! Happy belated birthday, Colleen! You're a great mentor and a wonderful friend! Love ya, sistah!

 

And because the weather has been so gorgeous and the flowers are blooming, I couldn't resist playing around with some different camera shots in natural lighting while I was at it!

  

Thanks for stopping by today. As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.  I'll have a layout and a card coming up this week so don't forget to check back.  I hope you all have a wonderful week!  

Until next time...

Happy Crafting!!

Anniebee 

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Oozak Challenge #1 - Anything Goes