Saturday, August 28, 2010

Natalie's House Mouse Challenge card

Time for another House Mouse Challenge Card from Natalie! This one was an inspiration photo Challenge you can see HERE.

This is stamped with brown stazon & watercolored with watercolor crayons. She cut the yellow circle with a nestabilities oval circle & Big Kick. She added the vinyl ribbon & flowers. The balloons are popped up.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Cleary Delightful & Card Patterns Challenge


This card is for Clearly Delightful Blog Challenge number 8 and also for Card Patterns Sketch 77 . The main image is from Doodle Pantry Digital Images. The chocolates are from Sweet & Sassy stamps. The saying is one I saw on facebook & knew I had to use it! Thanks for looking!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Introducing the Loribelle Reversible Tote






This is my "how I made this" post about this bag. I'll be putting details about how you can order one in this style on my Loribelle Bags blog next week.

I LOVE this bag. This one is going to be mine to carry, to use as a sample, to "advertise" when I can, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse. Oh, sorry, my anniversary is this week also. I got confused. I saw the fabric at Hobby Lobby & had to have it (with a 40% off coupon, of course). It was in the Fall section, so it's not one they keep all year. I'm hoping it will be a big seller & they will add it to their regular stock. I didn't have this bag in mind when I got the fabric. I didn't plan to keep a bag made of this. This was one I thought would sell well. I wasn't sure what style I would make, but it wasn't this. Then I saw it some more at home. I decided I really liked this.

The other main fabric was some I'd used on the Emily Anne bags as a contrast. I bought extra because I REALLY liked it, too. When I went to JoAnn's on Saturday to buy contrast for this purple, I found the turquoise with lime green and purple! What are the "odds" of that! I didn't know I'd be using the turquoise/green print, but when I put the contrast up to that I knew I had to make a reversible bag with the contrast pulling both fabrics together.

The main shape of this one was from a store bought pattern. From there, I altered just about everything. The turquoise/green is a pretty basic tote style with straight slip pockets. Since the slip pockets are so large, I decided to add the little pockets on top of the big pockets for things like my cell phone or business cards.

The purple side has a style all its own. I had seen wrap around and side pockets on several purses and patterns. I just hadn't tried them yet. I decided a curved wrap around would be really cute (I'd seen that on other bags) with the curve of the top. As you can see in the picture with the cup, it's a really big pocket. My main idea was for it to be a water bottle space. You might remember my very first bag. Or maybe it was so bad I didn't post it. I attempted to put a cell phone pocket and a water bottle pocket on a hobo bag. Let's just say UGLY doesn't begin to describe that bag (I need to dig that out & cut it apart to make a clutch or something!). I LOVE the pockets on this bag.

Now that I've made this I really feel like I can design any bag. I still want to make the Ultimate Diaper bag and I know I will be using an idea like the wrap around pocket for bottle pockets. A mom of twins said she would love a bag that has spaces for more than one bottle. I'm keeping that in mind.

I have a top I'm hoping to get done by tomorrow, so will post that when it's done.

I STILL have a big blog candy idea for my Loribelle Bags. I have about 7 bags or so cut out waiting to be assembled. I want to finish those, get them on my Etsy shop, then post the Blog Candy. Just by sending people to my site you'll get to be part of the blog candy! I'll offer goodies for crafters and purse lovers. Maybe even fabric lovers!

Thanks for stopping by.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Another Natalie Card


Natalie is on a roll! She used the sketch from Crazy 4 Challenges and the House Mouse Challenge to make a vintage card. I think she did a great job! I'm helping her learn a few new things (like stenciling with the Spellbinder dies). She comes up with the ideas, the papers, the stamps, etc. and makes it herself. Hope you enjoy this card by my 11 year old!

Stamp: House Mouse
Paper: Romance by ???? (Can't recall brand); watercolor paper, yellows from my stash
Ink: gold embossing, eggplant envy
Coloring tools: watercolor crayons, watercolor brush
other stuff: lace, buttons, embossing powder, pearls, spellbinders dies.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Midnight Madness & Wedding Wishes



In the midst of our busy lives, last week I made a card that was overdue to be made. A friend is getting married and I wanted to make a pretty card. I'd wanted to CASE a certain wedding card for months but just didn't get it done. I didn't know of weddings coming up at first but was going to change it to a different card. So, did I CASE that card? Not really. LOL! I borrowed 2 elements (the Textile CB folder and paper punched flowers). What I did use for my layout was the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge. It's not the card I'd imagined, but I think I like it even more and hope the couple will, too.

Stamps: SU Happiness Always (inside); Clear alpha stamps (I think Paper Studio)
Ink: Pacific Point, Distress China Blue
Tools: CB folder Textile, Nestabilities Labels 4, Paper punches, Paper Flowers from Paper Studio, stick on pearls
Paper: Heavy white cardstock, pacific point blue, baby blue, DP from Basic Grey (2 Scoops)

Thanks for stopping by!