Looking to Spring

February's Sisterhood of the Traveling Cards theme was a stumper. Seems pretty easy at first read, a flower theme and use buttons. But, I am not usually a 'pretty' stamper - I tend to lean more towards cute or funny. Sadly the only way I can think to use buttons with flowers is right at the center. Not terribly original and not terribly creative, so I put it off. And put it off. Then suddenly I remembered that February only has 28 days; I could not put it off any longer.

Finally, inspiration. I had received some flower buttons as part of a Secret Sister gift (thanks Lorie, you saved me!). Next to find something to hold the flower. My new Build-a-Roo started hopping and round chanting, "Pick me! Pick me!"

I tell you, it is hard to resist a begging kangaroo.



Card Details:
Image: SU Build-a-Roo and Kindness (wheel)
Cardstock: SU, GP
Tools: Nestabilities, Stampin Around (large), generic dimensional
Coloring: Prismacolor Markers
Embellies: (unknown) flower button, Stickles

Just Because

Have you heard about Bugaboo Stamps and their new Challenge Blog? The fourth Saturday of every month they will be offering a new challenge and a new chance to win free digis! As if that is not enough, every Friday they have Freebie Friday. A wonderful way to introduce their stamps and give you chance to try them out, perhaps in their challenge. After all, if you use one of their digis you are entered into the contest TWICE! Now before you go rushing over there, check out my card for Bugaboo's very FIRST challenge, "Valentines With a Twist". Create a card, tag, layout or item that could be used for Valentine's Day. The twist? You may not use traditional Valentines colors. In other words no red or pink.

You may assume, based on her name, that Princess A's favorite color is pink, but you would be wrong. In fact, when we bought the house and gave her the option to paint her room any color she wished, she chose orange with red trim! Needless to say, it was not difficult at all to make a card with her in mind and not use pink.

This is Lulu and her doll. She was a freebie some weeks ago. (Thank you Bugaboo!) I think she is just right for Princess A because of their many similarities. Princess A would more likely gravitate towards a turquoise item in her wardrobe and her doll would be coordinated if possible. Of course she does not always carry a doll. Usually it is some sort of critter in her arms, Mel the bunny, Wexler the frog, Jewel the monkey, and of course most recently, Osiris her kitten.

SCS Sketch Challenge #265 gave me the layout and the rest grew from there. The background is stamped with a jumbo Stampin' Around, "Kindness", from SU and all card stock is SU as well. The ribbon was something I found in my stash and the sentiment was made from snap-together alphabet stamps. Lulu and her doll are colored with Prismas.

I appreciate your hanging out with me til the end. Now feel free to click on over to the Catch the Bug Challenge Blog for your chance to enter!

Fruitcakes and Snowflakes

The theme for this month's Sisterhood swap reads as follows:
"January brings a new year, a new beginning and the idea that anything is possible. It is also a cause to celebrate self and the wonderful person YOU are. So… this month’s swap is to create a card celebrating the month that the world was graced with your sweet selves. Each month has a flower, a jewel, a color, a zodiac symbol that is unique to it. Use any icon from your birth month to create a card that is pure you. Two layers of cardstock and one embellishment is all that is required but feel free to add more if you wish. This card/month is all about YOU ~ the sky is the limit!"

I Googled December and found out my birthstone is turquoise, my zodiac sign is a goat and my flower is narcissus (Daffodil for December? Seems to me it would make more sense for March.). OK, here is what we got to make a card, a turquoise goat eating a daffodil. Uh... no.

Moving right along; how about obscure holidays? Lets see what falls on December 27. Hmm, "National Fruitcake Day" and "Make Cut-Out Snowflakes Day"... And a card was born. Do you recognize the sketch? It is sketch challenge #264 on SCS. (Incidentally, when I told Main Squeeze that my birthday was National Fruitcake Day he laughed and said, "how appropriate!")

I love this stamp (Love You to Bits, no longer in business). I admired it at my sister's and she went out and bought me one of my own! All these years I thought it was a boy cook with really big ears, but when I was coloring this time I thought the ears looked rather lumpy and realized it was more likely hair sticking out from the chefs hat.
Today she is a girl chef with brown hair just like me! She also has a white cat similar to my Iisis and a canary, though I have an African Grey. As for the baking, who eats fruitcake anyway? Certainly not I, so instead she has made loaves of bread (perhaps with chocolate chips hidden inside - that is more my style. The loaves are popped out from the card with generic pop-dots

In the background are embossed snowflakes (Cuttlebug embossing folder) for 'Make Cut-Out Snowflakes Day'. The bird cage is painted with Twinkling H2Os (Thank you Linda!). And of course, I mustn't forget the birthstone, especially as it is one of my favorite colors of cardstock lately, so all of this is mounted on a Turquoise card.

Kitten Kisses

I have a stamp that reads, "I kiss my dog on the lips", but I do not have the feline equivalent (I think my sister might; I am not sure). Last night I was doing something on the computer I did not want Princess A to see, so when she peeked over my shoulder I quickly closed the window. Open underneath was a Word doc for the making of my own "I kiss my cat on the lips" sentiment. It was printed about six times on the page. Princess A looked at me quizzically and asked why was I writing about kissing the cat over and over...

This card was born after perusing KJs blog where she had participated in a Mojo Monday sketch. Needing a serious dose of mojo, I headed over to the Challenge (Mojo Monday week 121) and was immediately inspired.

I am not sure this big cat appreciates all the affection. Or perhaps he is just overwhelmed. He is from Stamps by Judith. The sentiment, as already mentioned, is computer-generated, but inspired by a stamp from Paula Best. It is also raised up with foam dimensionals. At least three different SCS friends sent me the same package of bling. I cannot say for sure whose was used today. All other supplies were from SU.

For your viewing pleasure, here is Princess A and our two kittens, Iisis (looking straight at the camera with all dignity intact) and Osiris (the one who really does get kissed, rather frequently, on the lips)

A Year And A Day...

What was I thinking, signing up for not one, not two, but THREE 12+1 spots in Christy's Year of Rileys swap?! I guess I just love that little moose. But OMG, it felt like these took forever. In fact they consumed me so much that now that they are done and gone I have to force myself to remember I have other responsibilities (read: other swaps to finish)

For Group #1 (July), I chose Campfire Riley. He is colored with Prismacolor markers and made good use of my Nestibilities. Behind the Skeeter Spray (SU) is a pop-dot and the Skeeters (also SU) in the background have Crystal Stickles on their wings. The marshmallows and the spray of the Skeeter Spray are colored over with a glitter gel pen.

Group #3 (September) is School Riley. This first photo is what I sent. The second is my original prototype, but as I live with a Physics Professor, the ABC/123 line did not seem quite appropriate. Also, I figured people would probably want to customize thier own sentiment, so I left the blackboard black. The ABC/123 is included inside the card if anyone wants to add it, but the crayons are not. You can blame Crayola, as they do not sell a box of white only crayons, or I would have included one for everyone. Hopefully you ahve a box of crayons kicking around and can root it out. I imagine any other light color would work just as well, but I only tried the white. Looks just like chalk to me!

All cardstock is SU; all coloring is done with Prismacolor markers, except the sponging around the blackboard is done just by rubbing the ink pad (SU) across the cardstock. Her eyeglasses are Cotton Candy Stickles and there is a pop-dot behind both Riley and the stack of books.

When I signed up for Group #5, all I told Christy was that I wanted to use Tea Riley (OK, he is actually called Coffee Riley, but I don't drink coffee, so round here it is all about the tea) and I would take whatever month she needed to fill. I ended up with March. There are two versions of this one only because I ran out of the original dp and had to buy more, but the store no longer had a match...

...but as I ended up with tulips, I think that worked out just fine. Prismacolor Markers again were used as were the Nestabilities, though the scallop behind the dp is from SUs scallop border punch. Behind the (Vippies) sentiment there is a pop-dot. Cotton Candy Stickles top off the cupcake.

Why do all the groups have odd numbers, you ask? Linda took the even numbered groups (lucky duck, there were only two of those!). When all is said and done, between us we will receive ALL of the cards made for this swap. We are going to be flooded with Rileys!!