Dogs Days of Summer VSN

Hello Friends & Followers!  This evening I am hostessing a virtual stamp night (VSN) challenge over at Splitcoaststampers.com.  The theme of this VSN was "The Dog Days of Summer" - so you KNOW being the HUGE dog lover than I am I had to hostess right?  My challenge was to create a card with a canine on it that also incorporates heat embossing in the 45 minute time limit.  I had SO much trouble deciding which of my dog sets to use, but finally decided on the cute doxie from SOme Odd Girl's 'Preppy Pups':

I heat embossed the pup in black, colored him with my Copic markers and then fussy cut him out (note - when cutting along the edge of embossing it can flake off - be prepared to perform 'damage control' with a black marker if necessary).  I used Papertake Weekly's Sketch #26 as a jumping off point:

and created the 'sun' background using a Spellbinders Nestabilities pinking circles die and 'grounded' my doxie using a piece of Garden Green cardstock edged with Martha Stewart's grass border punch.  The bone was stamped with Memento Tuxedo black and fussy cut as well, and the WOOF! patterned paper is part of the 'Spoiled Rotten' stack from The Paper Studio (LOVE that stack!!).  I wanted to add some puffy clouds or something to the upper left portion of the card for some balance, but I have NO cloud punches or dies... have to remedy that soon!!
     In addition to my VSN challenge, this card fulfills the requirements of the following additional challenges:

• Papertake Weekly Challenge - Sketchie Free-for-All - use ANY Papertake Weekly Sketch (I used # 26),
• Stamp and Create Challenge - use at least one die,
• Stampin' for the Weekend - use at least one die or punch,
• Creative Craft Challenges 2 - all about animals, and 
• http://scrap-creations1.blogspot.com/2013/04/going-grey-with-scrap-creations.html.

Thanks so much for stopping by crafty friends!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend - tomorrow is National Scrapbooking Day (psst - keep an eye open for sales!)
~ Crafty Math Chick

10 Minute Craft Dash 15... In Four Tries...

Hel-LO friends and followers!  Sorry for the long hiatus there, I have been battling with some health issues, and while they unfortunately are not all resolved (won't burden you with the details, the NEED to craft was finally strong enough to win out over my symptoms - YAAY!  
     I have wanted to play along with the 10 minute craft dash ever since I saw my friend Suzanne play along with her friends Jen, Jen and Jessica.  And when I saw this week's color combination, I KNEW I HAD to play along too:

This color combination made me instantly think 'winter' - so I knew I wanted to use some combination of the mittens from WPlus9 Design's Winter Wishes and the snowflakes from their Folk Art Flurries set.  I thought, how hard could it really be to create a card in 10 minutes?...
     ...Well, more challenging than I thought, at least at first.  My first attempt, I didn't even get the mitten fussy cut when the timer went off.  I thought maybe I spent too much time closing all my inks and putting all the stamps back in their packages during the time allotted (I'm a little OCD that way), so I tried again, not even close.  Then I thought maybe the fussy cutting was taking too long, but I REALLY wanted to cut out the mittens and pop them up on dimensionals, I really didn't want to forgo that element of the card.  So, I decided I had to forgo the sentiment flag and stamp the sentiment right on the card front in a contrasting ink instead, yeah, that should do it... almost, but not quite - in the third attempt, without the brad to 'hang' the mittens on, I was rushing in the final seconds to get the card attached and Buh-BAM - just when I thought "I did it!!' I noticed that I had put the card front on the base upside down...  grrr...  Okay, one last attempt and... TA DA!!!!

(please click on the photo for clearer resolution).  I think it came out pretty good, no?  Practice makes perfect right?  LOL!  Then I went back and finished up the three cards that weren't completed under the buzzer (hey, I work on holiday cards all year so I have one less thing to do once November hits anyway).  Here they are:

The one out in front with the matted banner and twine-tied button in the center of the punched & Stardust Stickled snowflake (I think this is my favorite color of Stickles, SO pretty!) was what I had originally envisioned my completed card would look like; perhaps it was a little too ambitious for only 10 minutes, live and learn.  In case you are curious of the other supplies I used to create these set of cards, I used Stampin' Up!'s Pool Party, Island Indigo and Primrose Petals cardstocks & inks, some pretty pink sorbet twine from the Twinery, a 'just because' gift from my close friend Barbie (I love you Girl!), a silver brad, a scissor for fussy cutting and some dimensionals to pop up the mittens a bit.  If anyone is curious, the Island Indigo and Pool Party inks I used for the snowflakes are the 'old' style of stamp pad, and the primrose petals I used for the sentiments are the new 'firm foam' pads - in case you wanted a side-by-side comparison; you can click on the photos for larger pictures of the cards in higher resolution too.  I am also entering these cards in Winter Wonderland's 'No red or green should be seen' Christmas card challenge.  
     Thanks so much for stopping by to see my creations and read my ramblings!  There is still time to play along with the 10 minute craft dash - why not give it a try?!!  It's fun and come on, surely you have ten minutes...  ;)  Have a great weekend!
~ Crafty Math Chick

And the Winner Is...

Hello Friends!  Sorry it has taken me so long to draw a winner for my 200th post blog candy - I kept hoping to be able to post a card along with the winner announcement but things have been crazy here.  I decided not to wait any longer.  Random.org picked diane (cookiestamper) as the winner of my 200th blog post candy - Congratulations Diane!  Will be happy to get your prize out to you as soon as you send me your mailing info.  Thanks to EVERYONE for your lovely comments and I hope to be posting some cards for you REAL SOON!
~ Crafty Math Chick

My 200th Blog Post!

Hello Friends & Followers!  Can you believe it - 200 posts!  From the girl who thought she'd never have a blog no less!  I think a little candy might be warranted... do you?  ;)
     While I am mulling that over, let me show you the two quickie cards I created today (I KNOW!  NOTHING for the entire month of January and now - BOOM! - two in one day!).  Both were for Papertrey Ink's 6th anniversary celebration sketch challenges.  The first was for Sketch 1:

(Shoot!  I just realized the sketch was in portrait and my card is in landscape - sniff sniff... does it still count?)  

I used PTI's 'Sign Language' for the little boxes which were punched with a 1" square and matted with a 1 1/8" square and popped up with dimensionals, and 'Simple Valentine' for the sentiment.  Added a large heart shaped rhinestone and VOILA - clap clap, done!  The second card is based on Sketch 5:

(Oh thank goodness, got the orientation right on this one!  Goodie!) 

The geometric elements are from PTI's 'Dot Spot' and the sentiment is from 'Think Big Favorites #7' (I really need to get some more of these big bold sentiments for my collection, I have a precious few).  Colorful and postage friendly - two good things right?
   Alrightie, back to the issue of celebrating my 200th post.  Since I used PTI this week and they are celebrating their anniversary, why don't I celebrate with a PTI prize?  One person who leaves a comment on this blog post will be randomly chosen to win PTI's Life stamp set (unfortunately, with the increase in postage rates I cannot afford to ship  overseas anymore, so I have to limit the celebration to USA residents & APO/FPO addresses only, I feel very badly about this, but just can't afford the shipping with my tutoring sessions being so few and far between at the moment, I hope you understand and can forgive me).  
     Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope your weekend was wonderful and that you have a terrific week ahead!
~ Crafty Math Chick

At Long Last... I Create Again

(FINALLY right?)  ;)  Hello again Friends & Followers - I thank you all so much for not abandoning me when I was sick, then better for a few moments, then sick again, then almost better, then sick again (seriously, this is getting ridiculous!).  Short version - THANK YOU for haning in there with me!
     Today's creation was for one of Papertrey Ink's 6th Birthday Challenges - It's a Wrap - to create a wrap, tag or gift packaging product inspired by something we saw on the internet.  I have seen tons of people make these adorable multicolored crayons using silicone baking pans (I found mine in Target's 'Dollar Spot' for $2.50), so I got out a pack of Crayola crayons I got at Walmart back during 'back to school time' when they are only 25 cents each (good time to stock up, oh, and you DO want Crayolas specifically for this - I have tried this in the past with Rose art crayons - all the colors ran together making almost a dark blah monochrome crayon - don't need to go through all the work for that), cut off the paper bands, broke the crayons into pieces, filled the impressions and baked them at 250 degrees for 20 minutes.  When they were completely cool I popped them out and packaged one in a clear bag with a tag made using PTI's 'Tiny Treats - Valentine':

(please click on photo for clearer resolution).  I tried to make the heart in the image multicolored like the crayons, using the fine tips of 6 different primary colored markers.  Here is a close of the tag detail:

Can you see all six colors?  Well, I tried!  I also used 5 strands of embroidery floss for the bow as well (I discovered I don't own a bright purple, will have to remedy that sometime).
     Thanks so much for looking!  I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend and that my friends in New England are safe, warm, dry and have power!!
~ Crafty Math Chick

WINNERS!

Hello Friends & Followers!  Still trying to completely kick this bug I caught, I think it really likes me...

Without further ado, random.org helped me pick some winners:

Happy Adoption Day Ty Winner - Scrapacat

Top 12 of 2012 Winner - Pia S.

Congratulations ladies!  Please leave a comment with your email so I can contact you for your mailing address and get your surprise crafty goodies out to you.  If I don't hear from you by Sunday January 27th I will draw new winners.

Hope everyone is doing well.  Thanks for stopping by my blog, I hope to have some crafty creations posted for you VERY soon!!

~ Crafty Math Chick

HAPPY ADOPTION DAY TY!

It was four years ago today that the sweetest puppy in the world joined our family and made our hearts whole.  Little Ty, you have been such a blessing to us, you give us such love, such joy and countless happy moments, and I will forever be grateful to you and the wonderful people at the shelter for caring for you and enabling you to join our family and fill our lives and our hearts with love.  
     Ty baby will be celebrating later with the mini cupcakes his Daddy purchased for the occasion, wearing his little Happy Birthday hat his Mommy forces him to wear to create a Kodak moment for scrapbooking purposes and most likely a meal or two featuring at least one of his favorite human foods (steak or a burger).  In honor of his special day we hope you will hug your own furbabies a little longer or a little tighter (not too tight, LOL) and I thought it would be fun to have a little giveaway as well.  Leave a comment with a link to the favorite card or scrapbook layout you have made featuring a canine or other pet you hold dear and I will pick a random entry to win some surprise crafting goodies - how does that sound?  Don't have a pet?  Click on the 'Dogs' link under 'Labels' alongside the right side of my blog and tell me which of my own canine cards is your favorite and why for an alternate chance to win.  Or do both for two chances to win!  Also, if you visit www.theanimalrescuesite.com and/or www.freekibble.com and click there in honor of Ty's birthday to help the sites' sponsors feed shelter pets that would really be a wonderful birthday present for Ty, it is free and you don't have to enter any personal information at all, clicks just donate free kibble to shelters all over the country, and clicks add up, believe me.
     Thank you so much for stopping by to commemorate Ty baby's special day with me.
~ Crafty Math Chick