EBTKS Challenge 16 - Nail Polish

When Kelly first gave us this challenge I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to come up with anything, but now I'm SO SO glad she did. I started by just thinking of different embellishments that could be covered with polish. I finally realized that my crystal hat pins were there perfect thing.

Here are the hat pins I did (the original then covered with a white/cream and pink).

I made a simple card that I let the ribbon do the talking for (this may be a hint at some new ribbon coming for the new release, more info on Tuesday).

Simple but pretty. Since it was so simple I did add a sentiment to the inside panel.

Now I know you all have nail polish so come play along. Plus you'll want to go check our all the other girls cards at EBTKS Challenge.

Plus the winner will get a $30 gift card to...

I hope you all have an amazing Memorial Day tomorrow. Check back Tuesday as we start the next Practicing Creativity release!

Room Update

Hey there. Well there hasn't been much crafting going on here lately. I've been so busy with the new room! Plus I'm one of those weird creative types that has to have a clean working surface before crafting. However I do have this card I made a few weeks ago I wanted to share:

I broke out the Look Up! banners. I know some people think it takes awhile to cut these out, but because they are just straight cuts, it really takes less time then you would think.

Several of you asked for updates on the room as we went along. We've pretty much finished, but I still need to add some more bins and curtains. I'm thinking of some really fun fabric for those.

Here's chase adding my bookshelves. I love open shelving. I really wish I had some in my kitchen. Oh and do you like that light fixture. I just love it and it was only $30 at Lowes! Score!

Here's the latest. Again I still have a long way to go, but we're getting there! It seems like the last leg of getting everything in place takes the longest.

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We are gearing up for the next Practicing Creativity release! I have to tell you I'm SOOOO excited about this one.

Glitz Designs

There are so many Glitz products that I love, that I honestly didn't know where to turn for my first time to post of the Glitz blog. I decided that rather than spending hours weeding through all the things I love, I'd go with the first two inspiration pieces. It's funny because my two inspirations resulted in two completely different styles of cards. I just love when products can push your creativity!

The first card all started with Maya Floral from the Maya collection. The paper is just gorgeous. I used one of the flowers from the patterned paper to create my focal point:

Patterned Paper: Maya Floral, Maya Navy (Glitz Design)
Rhinestones: Pink Frosting (Glitz Design)
Stamp: I'm Feeling (Glitz Design)
Ribbon: Navy (Offray)
Ink: Viridian Leaf (Palette)
Thread: White (Coats & Clarks)

I love that little "I'm Feeling" stamp. I stamped off once to give it a little "worn" effect.

On my second card, I went with one of my favorite color schemes...  neutral! These vintage Whatnots, are SOOO cute and perfect for card marking.

And don't you love when this don't go the way you planned, but you end up loving it? Do you see the stitching on the top right? Well that was not suppose to end. My thread in my bobbin however did end. Once I realized I was no longer sewing... I realized I liked the effect on this vintage card.

Patterned Paper: Vintage Love Polka (Glitz Design)
Accesories: Vintage Whatnots (Glitz Design)
Ribbon: Netting (May Arts); Black Crepe Paper
Thread: Coats & Clark

Do you have a project that didn't turn out the way you planned, but you ended up liking it better?

A Busy Day - Room Update

For our anniversary, my sweet husband is moving and redoing my office aka my craft room. There is a long list of reason why we are moving it, but one of my greatest needs is funcional furniture. Here's the history of my crafting space:

High School: Thankfully I had a huge room, and I had a desk that was always covered with my scrapbooking.

College: My roommate Kate and I would drag our stuff out onto the coffee table in the middle of our living room. It was probably the worst crafting space I've had.

Our First Apartment: Chase and I had an extra room that we both shared for an office. He was still getting his masters, and I felt like I needed to try to keep my things arranged in the closet. I so badly wish I had a picture of this set up. I made it work!

Current: I now am so fortunate to have a whole room, but currently I'm using an oval kitchen table that I spray painted. You can see pictures of my current setup here. It has been a great setup, but Chase sure knows how to make me smile by offering to build new storage.

So here's where we are at so far:

Paint Change...

Did I mention that there is going to be way more lighting in this room? I'm SO SO SO excited about that!

I'm off to work so more! I hope you're having a great weekend!

Clear & Simple Stamps + Practicing Creativity

Don't you just love encouraging people? Nicki from Clear & Simple Stamps has been super encouraging to me through my whole process of starting Practicing Creativity. It's not every day you meet people that are so willing to go out of their way to encourage you. So when the opportunity came for me to work with her, I was just thrilled.

First up, today I  have a card featured on their iPhone app. I will say that I love this card, but this is all I can show you! So if you want to see more check out their app:

I also made a card using Kind Deeds from Clear & Simple Stamps and For the Love of Dotsfrom Practicing Creativity! I loved how well these stamps worked together!

It's been awhile since I've made one of my fabric flowers, but they are still so fun. For these I made them extra small. If you'd like to learn how to make these you can watch my tutorial here. I've also made a video showing you how I made the card above!




You can also watch it over on YouTube, here.

I had so much fun working on these!

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Have you checked out the latest EBTKS challenge?

2 Sketches 4 You #52

Well, today I broke out my new set from Lawn Fawn, and in my usual route I participated in this week's 2 Sketches 4 You challenge. Here's the sketch:

And in honor of my friend Kelly I decided to bend the rules of the sketch...

I really like how well the rays from You're Dandy work with that sun... which is so cute.

Stamps: Partly Cloudy (Lawn Fawn); You're Dandy (Practicing Creativity Designs); Thanks (American Crafts)
Ink: Yellow Cadmium (ColorBox); Onyx Black (VersaFine); Watermark Ink (VersaMark)
Cardstock: White (GinaK)
Patterned Paper: Farmhouse (October Afternoon)
Ribbon: Parrot Green Twill (May Arts)

Birthday Tag

Happy Monday! It's was a super busy weekend for me. One of my best friends got married this weekend, and it was just beautiful. Sunday was all about catching up and cleaning! I haven't spent much time in my craft room, but I do have this tag that I just love.

I so love crepe paper. I just think it's so pretty. And don't you love that Glitz music stamp? I just think it's gorgeous.

And for those of you that watched my ink videos, the white on this is the Hero Arts Snow Chalk ink!

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Come check out the latest EBTKS challenge!

EBTKS Challenge 15

Hey there, it's Courtney! It's time for another sketch challenge, and this is based on one of my favorite "creative" decor items in my house. Basically I didn't have a great night stand for our guest bedroom, so I just used a ton of books. I just love how homey it is...

And here's the sketch based off that inspiration:

For this challenge we have one amazing sponsor!

SEI is a family owned business, located in the beautiful Cache Valley of Logan, Utah. SEI’s brand has captivated an international clientele that recognizes the company as a unique source for innovation, quality and reliability in paper and craft products. We have developed a reputation for trend forward products that appeal to both the beginner artisan and expert designer who believe in preserving memories for generations to come. 


The winner of this challenge will get their new collection Happy Day:

How fun is that! 

Here's what I came up with! I love those dress forms... so pretty. I actually framed some Hambly paper the other day for my office, it's just gorgeous stuff!

So come play along and try your hand at my sketch! Oh and of course you're going to want to check out all the other girl's cards!

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

Christmas in ... May

I've been making several Christmas cards for magazine calls. I thought it would be super hard to make Christmas cards this time of year, but it really was not bad! Plus, any that don't get accepted get collected into my collection of Christmas cards to send out. I love that calls get you ahead of the game.

This card is a card that did not get accepted, but there is just something I really like about it.

Stamps: Holiday Sayings (Hero Arts) Ink: Moulin Rouge (Palette) Cardstock: Ivory (Gina K) Patterned Paper: Letters to Santa (Graphic 45) Die Cut: Labels 4 Nestabilities (Spellbinders) Ribbon: Brown Twine (Jillibean Soup); Brown String (May Arts) Fabric: Natural Linen Thread: White (Coats and Clark)

I honestly have this fabric all over my house. I just love it! Such great texture.

So have you starting making Christmas cards?

2 Sketches 4 You #52

I don't know what it is about the sketches, but I always end up using my Webster Pages on these. I just love this paper (I know I say that all the time). Here's the sketch:

And here's what I came up with.

And I used a new EK Success punch, unfortunately it doesn't emboss quite like I'd like. It's pretty faint.

Stamps: Spiro Garden (Technique Tuesday); Kind Deeds (Clear and Simple Stamps)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Patterned Paper: Established & True (Webster's Pages)
Cardstock: Ivory, Black (Gina K)
Punch: Double Embossed Dotted Lace (EK Success)
Ribbon: Jonquil Cabbage Roses Ribbon (MemrieMare)
Other: Trinket Pin (Maya Road)

And I had cut out several flowers to use on this card front and then decided against it. So I used them inside. I love how it turned out. I used this fun sentiment from Clear and Simple Stamps.

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You've still got one more night to play along with this EBTKS challenge! And if you can't join the fun you should go check out these amazing cards!

Testing Inks

I've talked/asked about ink before on my blog, but last night I decided to break out several different inks and compare them all. I had five different black ink pads on hand that I had tried. Obviously more than I need, but some how I had collected them all on the search for the perfect black ink. I also tried several different brown inks as well as two different brands of chalk ink.

Black Ink Review


You can also view this video on YouTube here. Here is the scanned version of the sheet I promised in the video (click on the image to see it larger and to zoom in):

In the next video I compared several different brown inks as well as the Hero Arts and ColorBox chalk inks. I honestly had never done this with either!

Brown/Chalk Ink Review


You can also view the video on YouTube here.

Here are the two scans from that video (click on the image to see it larger and to zoom in):

So what is your favorite black and brown inks? Do you like chalk ink? I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I'd love to hear if there's an ink that you think is better than all of these!

The Sky's the Limit

Today is a very special day for my family. My dad decided 8 years ago to go back to school to get his engineering degree. While working his full-time career he managed to not only graduate but to graduate with a 3.8 (he beat all three of his kids in that area). We are very proud of him and this goal he achieved. It's going to be weird not to hear about thermodynamics and capstone projects anymore when I talk to my dad.

So I needed to make ANOTHER masculine card. And I wanted it to be graduation card, but I didn't want black and gray. Here's what I came up with.

I broke out Look Up! and got to work. I actually stamped the balloon on Not So Navy cardstock and used my copics to give it a nice monochromatic depth. And how about that plaid sky? I think it's fun!

Hopefully he'll like it. Tonight we are having a massive graduation party! It should be fun.


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Have you played the EBTKS challenge? Break out your envelopes and come have some fun.

More You're the Man

The design team has even more cards on their blogs today using You're the Man and other Practicing Creativity Stamps!

 

Alice used You're the Man with Key to My Heart.
Dana broke out For the Love of Dots.
Paulina is the master at using tons of our stamps together. In this beautiful card she used Key to My Heart, You're Dandy (aren't those rays amazing), Look Up!, and of course You're the Man.

Check out their blogs for more details!

Introducing You're the Man

You're the Man is a 4x6 set with three background building stamps and tons of sentiments. It's designed to make those masculine cards a breeze!


You're the Man is available for $12.99 at the store - www.practicingcreativitydesigns.com. 

Shipping for U.S. Customers is a flat rate of $4

Shipping for international customers is a flat rate of $6 

International mail will be sent via USPS First Class International.

 

As always I'd love to see what you make, and I'd love for you to upload it to our gallery! And you can always find tons of inspiration there. Thank you all for your continued support of this little dream.

You're the Man Winner

The winner of the You're the Man set goes to...

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

29

Timestamp: 2010-05-06 02:55:24 UTC

clouds shadler said...
oh man, at first I thought, it looks like a Tetris screen, hehe, ya know! But then I got to thinking, hmm..looks like a background set of some sort, maybe houndstooth or checkered blocks.

Hugs
Clouds :D

Clouds email me at Courtney@practicingcreativitydesigns.com and I'll send it your way!

I'll be back in an hour when the set goes live!

You're the Man Day 5

Tonight's the night! You're the Man goes on sale tonight at midnight! But before it does I've got my girl card to show you and Ryann and Wendy have some cards that are just amazing.

I wanted to play with making a one-layer card again. I punched out a circle, used some removable adhesive to place it on my card base. Then I stamp the chevron pattern, all towards the circle. Once I was done I removed the circle and stamped my sentiment.

I also used another sheet of cardstock to give the inside of the card a pop of color. And if you are planning to purchase this set, let me give you some inspiration for when you get it. This is one of my favorite walls from Design Star:

And check out these super fun cards Ryann! Her use of the DAD sentiment background is just clean and perfect for a masculine card.

And is this card not just so creative? She used the rain drops from You're Dandy and the large bolt to create the rainbow.

Check out her blog for more details.

And Wendy has whipped up these two cute cards! Wendy used shrink plastic to create the bolt she hung the sign from!

And how sweet is this card:

Check back tonight at 10 central to see who one the set and the set will be on sale tonight at midnight!