No Buying Freeze, Suit Shopping and Some Cards

I cannot believe that it has been almost a week since I last posted. As of July 1st I am on a self imposed no buying freeze for craft items. I have so many supplies that I have never used-two boxes full of just stamps and dies alone-that I cannot justify buying anything else. Instead, I am going to concentrate on using what I have. If you are not one of the lucky people to be on a design team, how much do you spend a month on supplies? I am just curious.

In other shopping news, I had the ah, pleasure (okay, it really was NOT a pleasure) to go suit shopping with my husband this weekend. I usually like shopping with Chris. However, watching him try on black jacket after black jacket to decide what suit he was finally going to try on in full was rather boring. They all looked the same to me. I was going to look for a dress that I needed for a formal wedding but I had nothing left after shopping for the suit. Where do you shop for your favorite dress?

Today I am going to share two cards I created using Avery Elle's "Furry Friends" set. Last week I shared a card I created with one of the cats. Today my cards feature dogs. I had created these cards a while ago but had never shared them on my blog.

This was one of those cards that I did with "the mess on my desk." I had stamped, colored and die cut the dog a while ago. I then chose to use red patterned paper by Echo Park as the background. I cut it into a 4" by 5 1/2" piece and mounted onto a top folding A2 card base.

Next I went through my stash of extra die cuts/punches that I have in a plastic container on my desk and chose elements that I thought would go with this adorable puppy. I layered them and adhered them onto the card. So simple!!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

For my second card, I started by stamping the dog bone, bowl and ball onto a white card stock base. I used masking to get the bone in front of the bowl. Next I colored the elements in with Copic Markers.

I masked the stamped elements off and created the sky using Distress Inks in Stormy Sky and Tumbled Glass. The grass was created with Copic Markers.

I then layered the "scene" onto a white A2 top folding card. I took the negative of the black paper die cut that was in my stash and used it to frame the scene. I adhered the puppy using foam adhesive.

Next I stamped the sentiment on red card stock and cut the edge at an angle. I then cut the sentiment apart. My last step was to adhere some sequins.

I had so much fun creating these cards. Diving into my "extra" die cuts is like buying something new to me. I love discovering something from items I already have.

I appreciate you stopping by tonight. Have a wonderful night!!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

#Time Out Challenges and the Mess on my Desk

Happy Hump Day!! I cannot believe it is JULY already. My vacation is flying by and I don't want it to. I like the summer. I actually have the time to get things done!!

This week has been very busy. Yesterday I was a cleaning machine. I took everything off my counters and cleaned them, as well as washed most of the outside of the cupboards. Then I straightened out one of the closets. My goal for the summer is to go through all of the closets in this house. I also washed, folded and put away a ton of laundry.

Another goal is to kick it up at the gym. I went Sunday and Monday but pooped out yesterday. Part of it is because I have bruises all over my legs from a mishap I had at the gym on Sunday. I dropped my I pod shuffle when I was on the elliptical. As I was bending down to look for it under the machine, I fell forward over my elliptical onto another. My left ankle is now swollen as well as the bruise that covers the entire knee cap of my left knee, bruises on my shins and on my right thigh. If I was a person on the treadmill in back of me, I would have laughed my butt off. To make matters worse, I went to the front desk to have them help me because I thought the shuffle was inside the feet part but it was stuck UNDER it in a place I could not see at first. Yes, I am a dork. So today I took it easy.

My Zig Clean Color markers came today. Yeah!! I had to go to the post office to pick them up and of course I had to rip the package open to look at them.

Did I use them? No. My desk was covered in an unfinished scrap book page that had a ton of pieces. I did not want to mess the page up so I will use my markers tomorrow.

When I got home, this is what I found on my kitchen table.

My dog likes to get on the kitchen table while we are gone so he can look out the mudroom window. We have tried everything to get him to stop it minus taking the chairs out from the table completely. If there is any type of paper on it when he finds his way up, he will shred it with his paws and his teeth. This is the work that Charlotte did at Chinese Camp yesterday. So yes, sometimes dogs do eat kids homework!!! Little stinker.

Finally my card!! I used the inspiration photo from Time Out Challenges to get my creative juices going. Here is my card:

This is the inspiration photo that I had to use.

I primarily used the colors for my card. I originally tried to use pieced chevrons but wound up throwing everything out and starting over. I knew what ever shape I used, I was going to attempt to utilize some of the mess on my desk as card elements.

I started this card by die cutting the Horizontal Stripes Cover Plate die by Paper Trey Ink from five different pieces of card stock, as well as my sentiment.

I then sat down and placed different colored strips into one of the die cuts. Next I die cut two circle frames, one from a scrap piece of patterned paper and one from some white glitter paper.

I was not sure which frame I was going to use so I played around with the design a little bit to see which one I was going to use.

I decided for this card that the pattern paper looked the best. Besides, it was also the same color and had some of the shapes from the inspiration photo. The bear still looked kind of blah so I decided to go back to the Pandamonium set by Mama Elephant to see what decorative element I could use to spruce it up.

I decided to use the stick and the large lantern image. I stamped both of them and colored the large lantern in with Copic Markers.

I then used the matching dies to cut the images out with my Big Shot.

Now it was time to assemble the card. First I adhered the cover plate pieces to a white A-2 card base. Next I glued down the circle frame and then the sentiment.

I then covered the back of the Panda the stick and the lantern with foam adhesive. Since these images were the focal point, I thought it was important to give them some dimension.

My last step was to cover the lantern in clear Wink of Stella, glue on the tiny google eyes and adhere the pink enamel heart.

This card is a bit bright but I LOVE how it came out. I have enough to make a few more of these cards, which I will do at a later date. None of my "extras" can go to waste!!

That is all for today. I hope you all enjoy this first day of July. Thank you for stopping by!!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com