Stressing the Distressing

Hello friends & followers!  Hope you have been well.  Today I have a card for the New Wags 'n Whiskers Challenge - Distressing.  Well, to me distressing has always involved newsprint and either a masculine image or a coffee themed image (for some reason coffee and newspapers go together for me, like on a Sunday morning) and I had neither by WnW so I decided to try something new and crinkled up a piece of vellum (more difficult than newspaper) and inked it with white ink instead of my traditional brown hues.  I also distressed the edges of Wags 'n Whiskers' pretty 'Say a Prayer' Angel and tore some pieces of pre-glittered white DCWV cardstock to give her clouds to float on and added some Diamond Stickles to her wings for some additional sparkle.  Maybe I should have cut her out and put her on the cloud?  I embossed and sponged the sentiment from MFT 'Essential Sentiments' set inside of a ribbon tag Nestabilities die (can you even see that it is embossed and sponged?).  So, what do you think?  (Please click on the photo itself for clearer resolution)

     This card also fulfills the requirements of the following additional challenges:

• Whimsy Stamps Challenge 36 - Distressing,
• Crafts and Me Challenge 81 - Embossing  (the die cut ribbon tag is embossed),
• Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge 166 - Bingo (I went with pink-ribbon-die cut in the middle row),
• Chocolate, Coffee & Cards Challenge 11 - Bingo (I went with the first column of distress-pearls-no patterned paper),
• Fab 'n Funky Challenge 118 - No Patterned Paper,
• Inky Impressions Challenge - Anything Goes, 
• Pretty Little Ribbon Shop Challenge - To Die For (use die cuts), and
• Robyn's Fetish Challenge Blog - Use Pastel Colors only.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog to see my creations - hope you will play along with our Wags 'n Whiskers Challenge too - you could win a WnW stamp of your choice!  Happy Friday!
~Crafty Math Chick

Flashback Friday 22.0

Hello Friends & Followers!  I hope you are doing well.  I don't have something new for you, but I do have a blast from the past with my entry for this month's Flashback Friday Challenge 22.0 - your first card using a die cut.  Here's mine:

Good ole Nestabilities Labels 8 and a fun sentiment from There She Goes Clear Stamps' Craftier Taglines.  All the buttons all over in all different colors just made me smile.  Hope you will play along - you have until April 20th to repost your first creation using die cuts!  Have a great night!
~Crafty Math Chick

TGF Customer Chat & Challenge

Hello Friends & Followers!  Last night I had the honor of hostessing The Greeting Farm's April Customer Chat & Challenge over on Splitcoaststampers - it was a BLAST!  The chat might be over, but you have until Monday at 1 pm EST to upload your card - so I hope you will play along (also, the prize is AH-MAZE-ZING if you need that kind of extra incentive).  The theme was 'musicals' and the challenge was to create a card using a musical play or movie as inspiration using your TGF stamps.  Here is the first one:

(Please click on the photo for clearer resolution - I have no idea why Blogger is making my photos look fuzzy lately, they look fine once you click on them).  I don't have a lot of TGF stamps, so I had to kind of work backwards, looking at the stamps and saying 'What musical could these represent?"  When I saw this kitty image in TGF's Fur-ever set (LOL, which had puppies in it of course) I thought of the poster for the Broadway play 'CATS' which is predominantly black with a yellow cat's eye in the middle with folks dancing over the pupil, so that is what inspired this layout.  This card also fulfills the following additional challenges:

• Annabelle Stamps Challenge - Say it in Black, 
• Paper and Such Online Challenge - CAS Challenge,
• Crafter's Companion Monthly Challenge 23 - Four-legged Friends,
• Critter Sketch Challenge 110 - Critters (fitting no?  LOL!),
• Crafty Catz Challenge 128 - Animals, and
• Fab 'n Funky Challenge 116 - On All Fours.

I made a second sample for the challenge as well.  This time based on the musical movie 'White Christmas' with Bing Crosby:

I thought little Holiday Anya's outfit reminded me of that scene at the end of the movie when the main characters are dressed up like Santa & Mrs. Claus standing around the Christmas tree and they open the back door to see it is finally snowing at the lodge (sorry if that was a spoiler for some folks who haven't seen the movie yet).  I created a snowy scene tearing some pre-glittered white paper by DCWV (doesn't show up super sparkly in this photo, but it is IRL) and used a piece of patterned paper from their winter stack to make it look like it is snowing in the background as well.  I punched the tree out of Garden Green cardstock with an EK Success tree punch and added some rhinestones as ornaments and the star on top (I meant to string some silver or gold cord back and forth to look like a garland, but forgot and attached it to the card first, DOH!).  This was my first attempt coloring 'TGF hair' - what do you think of how it came out?  This card also fulfills the requirements of Do You Stack Up's Challenge 67 - Glitter & Bling (sponsored in part by TSG - WOO HOO!!)
     Thank you all for stopping by to see my creations and read my ramblings!  I hope you have a GREAT weekend and hope to be posting more for you to see later today or tomorrow.  Cheers!
~Crafty Math Chick

Determined Little Starlings...

...yep, they came back... twice... here is the third rebuild (didn't photograph the fourth one):

...we now have the grill in the open position as we can't seem to keep the holes plugged up and them out.  Hopefully they will take the hint that they need to find a new location for the Starling Dream Home.  I actually felt bad for them, hopping around with beakfuls of twigs and straw looking at me like "...um... what's going on...?   What have you done with our home that we have worked so hard to build?"  Poor little things, this is just not a good location, but I digress...
     This week's Wags 'n Whiskers Challenge is an easy one - so I hope EVERYONE will play along - Anything Goes!  I decided to use the adorable 'With Love digi' to create this Miss you card:

The ribbon on the mailbox reminded of a the yellow ribbons military families leave on their houses and trees until their loved ones come home from deployment, well at least they did before it became a security concern anyway.  This card also fulfills the requirements of the following additional challenges:

• The Play Date Cafe Challenge: (there is a little green in the grass I colored in)

• Pixie Dust Studio Challenge 122: Ribbons, and 
• Digi Doodle Shop's Best Challenge 103 - Paper Lace.

     Thanks for stopping by to visit my blog, see my creations, and read my ramblings!  Have a great Friday!
~Crafty Math Chick

Know the expression 'Don't Be Getting All Up in my Grill"?

... apparently the neighborhood Starlings haven't...  I heard lots of pinging and knocking outside but every time I peeked outside I saw two starlings with beakfulls of twigs flying off.  I figured they were just gathering haphazardly and flying past the grill brushing against it or something.  When hubby returned home with Ty baby from their morning walk I mentioned inspecting the grill in case the Starlings had damaged it.  I was shocked when he opened the grill to find this:

LOL!  and we have a large grill too!  OMG!  Those starlings are industrious little birds I tell you!  They must have flown in the holes in the sides of the grill and thought they had stumbled upon the Barbie Dream Home of Starling bird houses (hornets did this back in GA, MUCH prefer the starlings!).  I could not stop laughing as my hubby contemptuously began glaring at every feathered friend that happened to fly by our yard as if he was asking them "Did YOU do this?  How about YOU?!!"  "I told you, starlings did this - not the finches, not the robins, they are too busy scouting for worms Honey".  (My knowledge of birds is limited, but I know what Starlings look like).  Thankfully, the 'nest' was not completed enough to have any eggs in it yet.  (Back in GA we had a family of cute red house finches that finished their nest in less than 24 hours - and since I saw one of the birds sitting there a lot I assumed eggs where already 'in the house' and didn't want to be responsible for any aviacide so I left it alone, and it was a tiny nest at the top of the porch, not really causing any trouble or inconvenience, and it was fun to see the baby finches once they hatched, I like little birdies, but I digress...).  At my insistence, he left the clippings in a pile so they could use them to build elsewhere and cleaned the grill.  I warned him to plug up the holes in the sides of the grill before they attempted to rebuild, which he insisted they would not do as he had just let the grill burn for about 10 minutes to kill off any bacteria or anything. 
     This is was we found less then an hour later:

There is tin foil blocking the holes now.  ;)  Hope everyone has a happier Easter and Passover than these poor now-homeless little Starlings.
~Crafty Math Chick

Very Sweet Birthdays

Hello again Friends & Followers, that's right two uploads from me today!  I wanted to share a set of birthday cards I made for my two nieces' birthdays using this sweet strawberry Cocoa Mouse digi from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and Sweet Stop Sketch 152:

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps had a release party last night and one of the release party challenges is to make a birthday card in honor of owner Korin Sutherland's birthday yesterday, so I will be entering these into that challenge as well as Di's Digi Designs Challenge to include Embossing (in embossed the red cardstock panels using the CB Swiss Dots EF to resemble the dimples of a strawberry).
     Thanks for stopping by!  I hope to be doing a LOT of stamping in the days to come, so I hope you will visit again in the near future!  Happy Passover and Happy Easter to those who celebrate!
~Crafty Math Chick

Healing Thoughts for Karen

Good afternoon Friends & Followers.  My friend Karen is in the hospital recovering from surgery and Linda Payne dedicated a challenge over at Stamp TV in her honor: to make a get well card.  Here is the card I sent to Karen using Gina K. Design's 'Under the Weather' set and some GKD 'Petals & Wings' patterned paper along with Jen's Deconstructed Sketch 46:

 I have to tell you, paper piecing the little paw pads, ears, sling and bandages was NOT easy (can you even tell I did it?) but Karen is worth it!  I found some petite pink buttons to adhere in the centers of the 1/2" punches circles of Daffodil Delight cardstock but the twine would not fit through the tiny holes, so I separated the 4 skein twine into only 2 threads and they fit through like a charm.  That hot pink horizontal section is actually some satin ribbon I picked up during one of my trips to the Offray Berwick ribbon outlet in Hagerstown, MD, going to miss that place.  This card also fulfills the requirements of Stampin' for the Weekend's Challenge 7 - Ready...Teddy...GO!  
     Thanks for taking the time to stop by and see my cards and read my ramblings.  I hope you have a great Friday night!
~Crafty Math Chick