Skipping Stones Design Sketch Tuesday: SSD018 – Chicks

It’s been a really wonky weekend.  I attended the funeral of a friend on Saturday and my job at church ended (I was released as the 2nd counselor in our Relief Society – ladies group) after over 3.5 years working with the ladies. I was so sad to end my “calling”.  I have just felt emotionally drained and my mojo has flown the coop. *poof*

Anyway, enough whining already.

Today’s sketch is our last one from Sgt Stamper.  Thank you to Sgt Stamper for her wonderful sketches this month!

Here’s the sketch:

And here’s my card for this sketch:

I used Skipping Stones Design’s Chick Chat set.  The inside sentiment reads “From All Of Us”.  I just love the versatility of this stamp set!

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  Skipping STones Design Chick Chat
Inks: CTMH Ocean & Stazon Timber Brown
Papers:  CTMH, Basic Grey, Pebbles
Miscellaneous:  Ribbon, Ribbon Slide, SU & CTMH watercolor pencils, blender stub, OMS, Sakura clear glitter pen, white pen.

************  NEWSFLASH!!! **********

Here’s some super FUN NEWS from Heather at Skipping Stones Design…..

Did you just LOOOOOVE Bras Volume #1 as much as I did?  Welll…..   Make sure to sign up for the newsletter asap!  You are going to want to receive the one that is coming out this week with information on how to receive Bras Volume #2 FREE before it is even available for purchase!!

So hurry your little buns over to Skipping Stones Design and sign up for the newsletter!

~Inky Smiles!

 

PS… don’t forget to go check out today’s lovelies from the rest of the design team!  There’s a set of links on the right side bar of my blog :)

Chain Mail – But Not the Annoying Kind

I’ve been meaning to get these pics posted and when Jeanne showed her chain maille project I figured I’d better get it up.

When I was visiting Jeanne in Colorado earlier this month we took a little trip to her local Hobby Lobby which is seriously just around the corner from her house.  I bought a whole buncha cool schtuff.. mainly jewelry making schtuff and this really cool “dress form”. to put in the empty corner behine my computer monitor.  I’ve been looking all over for one for my studio.  I thought it would be a fun “girlie” addition to my space.  I also found a cool “bee” iron piece with a hook.  I had also been looking forevvvver for one of those.  I’m telling you, Jeanne is good luck to take shopping with you! *grin*

Here’s the super cool dress form.. AND.. it was 50% off! WOOT!

Currently it’s “displaying” my charm bracelet from Creative University.  (I still need to post some pics of that, too!)

I couldn’t resist.  It’s fabulous!  And I don’t have to spray paint it! (*win* @ Jeanne).

While perusing the bead section, Jeanne took a little detour and came back with this FABULOUS book.  She told me she’d been eyeing it for a while and that I would probably love the schtuff in it.  Well, she was right, and well, it came home with me.

Here’s the book:

Was she ever right!  There are SIX gorgeous projects in this little pamphlet book.  I couldn’t find it on Amazon, but you can pick it up HERE.   The projects are from a fabulous metal artist named Anne Mitchell.  The instructions are super duper easy to follow along, especially if you read through them first BEFORE you start putting jump rings together and before you try just doing it by following the photos. LOL!

The bracelet I decided to try to make is called the Tryzantine bracelet.  I didn’t have the right guage jump rings that it called for so I substituted a much smaller size to practice. (I’ve since found the right size wire and am going to make my own jump rings this week and try again.)  Subsequently, my bracelet turned out smaller and looser than what it should have been, but I still love it and it’s fun to wear. :) :)

Here’s what I came up with…

Ok.. I’m off to crash.  I am waiting on one more Scrap My Scraps Submission but do have one more to share. I just need to write the post and get the pics uploaded.

~Inky Smiles & Happy Monday (or Sun evening if you’re reading this already)!

I’m Such A Copy Cat

I loved Jeanne Tomshack’s post of her Egg Wreath and had to copy it. I love putting different wreaths on my front door for the seasons and holidays and didn’t have an Easter one. I didn’t want to purchase a ready made one because they’re in the $30-$40 range for what I was liking…. so I decided to case Jeanne’s Easter wreath and wait to buy one after the holiday on a good sale :)

I went to our Dollar store and picked up some eggs (36) and a wreath form. I had some leftover “grass” from another project. They didn’t have any foam forms so the wicker one had to do. It was a little bit of a pain to work with, but the glue gun and I won the battle.

Glue your first row of eggs to the back edge and side of the wreath form and then add another “row” above that row.

Squeeeeeeze some nice hot glue out onto the form between the eggs. Look at all that molten glue… The predecessor to some nice blisters.

Then begin the process of gluing in the Easter grass/shred.

This is where an old chopstick comes in handy. Trust me.

Poke, poke, poke…

Continue around your wreath form until you’ve filled in the first set of gaps.

Then layer more eggs.

And repeat the chopstick poking....

.....for about an hour and a half if you have several interruptions like doorbells and dogs or wee small children or teenagers acting like children or husbands chasing wee small dogs acting like children or something…

Until you get something that loosely resembles this:

And then go and dig in your fabric remnants basket to find a big “faux” ribbon cuz WalMart just doesn’t have anything that will work in a quantity smaller than 30 yards.

And tie it to your craziness wreath.

And hang it on your door.

And realize that your door needs a bath and last night’s wind frayed your “ribbon”.

But you don’t care ‘cuz you have cupcakes to go mess with :)

~Inky Smiles

It’s Always A Good Time For Cake

It’s always a good time for cake, and my birthday was a couple of weeks ago, but I didn’t have CAKE this year so I figured I’d whip up something yummy for myself. LOL! Yeah yeah yeah… cake is seriously the best part of birthday celebrations… well, besides spending the day with loved ones. Cake, well, it’s da bomb.

So anyway.. I’ve been on this crochet kick the last couple of weeks and I have been having a blast. I was seriously HATING crochet years ago when I desperately tried to make a blanket with my friend, Janeen, who was also making a blanket…. However, comma, but….

Here’s what I have decided regarding crochet:

1) I do not like crocheting large items like blankets and afghans that I have to pay attention to.. lol.. like counting a gatrillion stitches and crocheting the same number of stitches for an eternity of rows.

2) I must break my projects down into bite size pieces.

3) I like crocheting small things like hats and cupcakes and flowers.

SO off I went into the world and did some shopping for some better yarn than what I had on hand..

… and back again I went into the blog world for more inspiration and ran into Wendy Tunison again on her blog and found her also crocheting again. (That was when I found THE HAT POST and made my red hat and the cream hat.) Well it turns out that our "The Art of Crochet" YouTube video friend, Teresa, has a PLETHORA of marvelous and easy to follow videos for crocheting a variety of projects and yarny delights. You can visit her BLOG for more inspiration as well.

But first… I had to make these way cute hats for my sister’s two darling girls:

The hats are PINK like in this bottom photo, not purpley… The lighting was weird in my kitchen when I snapped the first pic. I made up the flower which is a stacked pile of two individual flowers and one yarn “center”… the first “row” of the flowers without the petals. These hats went a lot faster than the first couple I made. Once you “get” the stitch and the patterns they seem to go quickly. :)

Ok so back to CAKE. Yum…

I think I might make one later for tonight’s dessert. Hrmmm.

So while I was perusing Miss Teresa’s YouTube channel, “The Art of Crochet” I came across this way adorable Mini Cupcake tutorial. Oh delight of delights!!! I started it Monday night (like waaaay late) and then had to wait to finish it until Tuesday night after work and then this am I made a second one.

Here are my first ever cuppycakes. The one on the left is my own crazy creation and the one on the right is the original from the tutorial. I didn’t follow the instructions for the right side cupcake because the yarn I was using did not work well with the rib stitch. As you can tell by the photo the rib stitch makes the difference in shaping the cupcake “paper”.

On the left side cupcake I took some liberties and had some fun. I felt like the frosted top needed more height and some added “blingy treats” so I added a row of single crochet stitches before adding the last layer of “frosting ruffles”. I topped it off with a small cream colored flower for “whipped cream” and a red ball for a “cherry”. YUM!

I just want to eat the one with the cherry and whipped cream! Nom! Nom! But then' I’d have to deal with a hairball, so I will pass.

Yummmmmmm!!!

MMMM… I think I need a treat! LOL!

These cupcakes are so easy and fun to make and I can’t wait to make more, but first I have to move on to/finish some other projects that I have had rolling around in my noggin… think jewelry…. *grin*

Well, I’m off to write another blog post for later this week and get this one posted.

Happy Crafting & Inky Smiles!

Skipping Stones Design Sketch Tuesday: SSD017

I’ve been procrastinating making this card all day long. I also had to postpone the next reveal of Scrap My Scraps. It’s been a rather unproductive day, although I did sit at my computer and stare at YouTube while crocheting a cute little mini cupcake (which I will share later when I get it stuffed and stitch the top on) and then went and took photos of a friend for her daughter’s “portfolio” for a job with a local bridal shop that sells modest prom gowns, wedding gowns, and other formals which was loads of cheerful fun!

Here’s today’s sketch from Sgt Stamper:

Pretty straightforward and leaves LOTS of room for imagination (which fled my brain tonight, lol!) I followed the rules and whipped up this card pretty “quickly”. Well… a couple of hours because the triangles threw me for a loop. I was not sure what to do with them. LOL! Had I oriented the card differently I might have used some flourishes or something… but they didn’t work with my card, so I left the triangles.

I chose to use two stamp sets for this card. I used my all time favorite SSD stamp sets - Dandelion Dreams and Healing Wings. My friend, David Hogge, passed away on Sunday morning while on a visit to inlaws for a baby shower (not sure on reasons… just yet something with pneumonia & something else) and I wanted to make a card for his wife, Jineena. Dave left behind his wife and 3 small children under age 7.

Here’s the card I came up with for this sketch:

I love this card but I am not happy with how this card photographed. That’s what I get for taking photos (literally) at midnight and not setting up my photo studio box thingy. The blues match in real life and the background paper is tan, not greenish. (No amount of Photoshopping helped it.)

The card needed some “appropriate bling” so I colored the floral images with a Sakura clear stardust pen.

I did have a lot of fun using my Nesties as stencils and pouncing some color onto the cut out shapes inside the frame edges. I also stamped the floral images while the Nesties were still in place as stencils. This is my all time favorite sympathy sentiment. I truly believe that it is true. Heaven can heal any earthly sorrow that we experience.

Most of the layers are popped out with foam tape and tabs. I have this “thing” about dimension lately and love popping things out. I love the shadows that are cast on the backgrounds and the added depth.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the cards from our fabulous DT! (See right sidebar)

~Inky Smiles

Supply List:

Stamps: Skipping Stones Design’s Healing Wings and Dandelion Dreams
Ink: CTMH Twilight, Chocolate & Creme Brulee (yum)
Papers: CTMH Best Friends Forever Kit
Miscellaneous: CTMH Ribbon, American Crafts Foam Tabs, Scotch Foam Tape, Fiskars scalloped border punch, Fiskars small hole punch.

Scrap My Scraps II: Reveal #2 – Stacey Tippetts

We’re up to Reveal #2 today in the Scrap My Scraps II challenge.  This is so fun for me getting to see what other people come up with using my “odds and ends”.  I’m waiting on the rest of the group to send their photos in. I believe that one set went MIA in the  mail but hopefully the others make it here soon :)

Today we have a treat froM Stacey Tippetts 

What a treat when I opened my email and received the photos from Stacey and all her delightful projects!  I love all her little giftie ideas!  AND…. she’s also a crocheting fool. LOL!  But I think she’s been a crocheting fool a LOT longer than I have been. I love her idea to attach the gifties to the card.

Thank you Stacey!! 

Check out all these little treasures. 
{You can click on any photo to view larger in a separate window.}

Magnets in Origami Gift Box:

Hair Clippy Gift #1:

Hair Clippy Gift #2:

 

Hair Clippy Gift #3:

(before flower is attached, with flower attached, inside)

Welcome Baby Gift:

Cards:

Scrap My Scraps II: Reveal #1- Emily McLemore

I’m starting to get the photos in from the players in the Scrap My Scraps Challenge part II. I was so excited to see this email from Emily McLemore come through with a lot of photos. She created this darling banner project to use up that Pepto Pink Paper. And seriously, I’m not hating the paper as much. Sometimes it really just does take a different view on something to change your mind.

I love how Emily added all the ink and distressing to change up the papers.

<------ Look at all the details on this banner. Emily cut out the gift images and further embellished them by adding glitter and bling to each individual piece before tucking them neatly into place. Love it!

There are bits of paper used neatly all over this project. I think she had to have used a lot more than 50% of what I sent her!

I love that she added the flowers and coordinating papers. Everything just ties together so nicely!

Thank you Emily!!

Be sure to check out Emily’s blog. She might just have some candy for you!

~Inky Smiles!