Moo Cards - Girls

After returning from 4 days on the road, I'm finally getting around to some artwork. I find it difficult to unpack and get settled back into my routine, even after a short trip like this one. There's always laundry, picking the dogs up from "doggy camp", reassuring the cats that it's not necessary to be angry with us for leaving, and catching up on things like email and other business.

I love making moo cards, so I didn't want to miss this week's Make a Moo or Two challenge, which is Girls. Above, I've used a combination of rubber stamping and things I've cut from inkjet-printed images.

Go Shopping!

While I'm away, check out these beautiful shops at Etsy:

Paper Moon Designs - fabulous jewelry, and she's from Southern Illinois too!

Sushipot Art Objects - cool art by an artist from my hometown of Mobile, AL

Snitterdog - paintings and mixed media from Savannah, GA.

See you in a few days!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Since I figured out how to schedule and auto-publish posts in Blogger Draft, I thought I'd auto-publish a couple of things while I'm away to see how it works.)

Everyone knows how much I love to bake. Yesterday I made a chocolate cake, but I've also made chocolate chip cookies twice in the last 10 days. I've been using the recipe for Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies from AllRecipes.com. I didn't think I would like a chocolate chip cookie with oatmeal and peanut butter, but you don't even notice the oatmeal, and I think the peanut butter flavor is subtle. Dan loves them, so this might now be my "go-to" cookie recipe.

Photo is courtesy of Mike Froese on stock.xchng.

On the Road Again!

I'll be away for the next 4 or 5 days, so I won't be participating in any of the usual challenges, or posting any cards or photography. I'd love to make some art tonight, but unfortunately I have to prepare for my trip.

While I'm gone, go feast your eyes on some beautiful art at FishStikks photostream on Flickr, some great button jewelry on tigerlilly's photostream, and some beautiful "garbage art" by dumpsterdiversanonymous.

Enjoy!

Blog Giveaway at Stempelchaotin

I love all kinds of paper. I also love blog giveaways, so I have two great reasons to enter Sandy's "blog candy" giveaway. Up for grabs are two prizes - a huge stack of assorted patterned paper pieces, and another big chunk of cardstock scraps. To enter, all you have to do is post a link to the giveaway on your blog, then go over to Sandy's blog and leave a comment so she knows you've entered. If you've never visited Sandy's blog before, you should go there immediately and take a look, even if you're not entering her contest. She is a gifted and prolific artist, and I think you'll enjoy her site. She is on my list of daily reads.

Reduce Reuse Recycle

I've been saving this orange polka dot magazine ad for months, not really knowing what to do with it, but knowing that inspiration would come to me eventually. When I discovered a used cd in my pile of magazine tearouts, I thought it might make a good base for my polka dots. So I chopped up my ad, added some black strips cut from another magazine page, and here you have... well, a cd with orange spots. This might become a cover for a round book.

Visit my other blog to see how I've started repurposing old clothing.

Stripes - Theme Thursday

Over at Theme Thursday, the current prompt is stripes. For the 5-1/2" x 5-1/2" piece above, I used a portion of Seurat's painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte; a free floral image from Dover; and a striped background paper of unknown origin. Thanks for looking!

Hot and Spicy - Daring Cardmakers

Friday's challenge at Daring Cardmakers is hot & spicy. I chose to interpret the prompt with spicy colors. Above, stamps are from a very old Stampin' Up! set. Background paper is from K & Company.

Vintage Moo Cards

The prompt this week at Make a Moo or Two is vintage. For the moo cards pictured above, I simply chopped up a bunch of Dover images and layered them onto cardstock. It's nearly impossible for me to make anything without ribbon, so of course I had to use it on two of my cards.

Dover Publications is a great way to collect free images, and many of them are suitable for cards and collage work. You can sign up for their free weekly downloads here.

Butterflies - Daring Cardmakers

The current challenge at Daring Cardmakers is butterflies. Here, I've used a 2-step stamp for the butterfly. A stamp positioner, like the stamp-a-ma-jig, makes using a 2-step stamp so easy and accurate. I recently rediscovered my stamp-a-ma-jig after finding the transparent sheet that comes with it, which had become lost in my last move. I had forgotten how a 2-step stamp adds just the right amount of complexity and additional color to an otherwise simple design.

Wednesday Stamper - Trees

The current theme at Wednesday Stamper is trees. I cheated a bit -- not exactly trees here, but I did use branches. The girl is a stamp from a retired Stampin' Up! set, and I've been using her a lot lately after several years of not knowing what to do with her. This is a tiny greeting card, measuring only 2-3/4 inches wide by 4-1/4 inches high.

Daring Cardmakers - Shrink to Fit

It's been a while since I participated in a creative challenge, but I managed to get a few cards made last night. Here's my card for Daring Cardmakers, where this week's challenge, set by Kathy, is as follows:

"You are allowed to cover no more than a 5x5cms area of your card with paper or embellishment - the rest of the card must be left plain. How you use those valuable cms is up to you. So you may choose to split up those cms to use around your card, or use them in a block or a line. It might help to cut a few 5x5cm squares then cut those up to work out good ways of using your allotment. Making your whole card a miniscule 5x5cms is NOT an option!! Lets have no cheating (I know what you lot are like.....),but because I'm feeling generous, I'm going to let you add a SIMPLE greeting as extra to your 5x5 allowance! :-)"

This was a tough challenge for me, as I'm still itching to do something to that yellow background, but sometimes simplicity is a good thing.