Bookmarks LXII: Purrquoise

I apologize for the punny title. It's just... there's turquoise. And purring. "Purrquoise" just seemed to fit.

Sometimes I reach a beautiful understanding with the craft knife/ruler team, and produce long, skinny, straight strips of paper. Sometimes just as scraps. Well, I couldn't bear to just throw them away, so I hoarded them for a bit and then stuck them on a bigger black strip of paper.

And while that was elegant, I wanted a little bit more. I shuffled through my newer stamps and picked out this adorable little cat -- made cuter by the purring text inside.

Because I was stamping on black, I knew I'd need to emboss for anything to show up. I was worried about the text, though -- would it still be readable after embossing? So I did several trial runs. I liked this one so well I decided it was unlikely I'd do better -- so I just cut it out and used it.

The bookmark still seemed a bit unfinished. So I went fishing in DCWV's "All Dressed Up" matstack, which has some really lovely teal and turquoise papers at the back -- hidden behind all the black and red and pink. They're pretty much what convinced me to buy the stack, actually. And lo and behold, one of them matched my turquoise scrap almost perfectly! I cut it in half and used it to back the bookmark -- thus allowing me to keep the hanging-off bits of scrap strips, stiffen the bookmark, and add a little to its design all at once.

I'm entering this bookmark in the following challenges:

• Paper Playtime #1: Pets
• Fairy Tale #58: Animals & Pets
• Creative Corners 2: Cute as a Button (c'mon, how can a purring kitty not be cute?)
• Hotshot Craft #14: Clean and Simple
• Incy Wincy Designs: Something New (the stamp and the tape are new)

Supplies: (tape is from Recollections/Michaels)

Bookmarks LXI: Dots on the Diagonal

The skeleton of this bookmark -- the purple strip with navy tape across the top -- has been hanging around for about a month and a half now. "Look at all the pretty green/blue/purple scraps you have," it kept saying. "Wouldn't they look great on me?" I hushed it, because I had to make thank you cards, dang it!

But I finished the thank-you cards, and then it was time to play with scraps. I taped the blue strip of paper on with some new tape and glued down a punched-out circle. Then I was stuck. The blue strip needed something on it, and none of my stamps really seemed to fit the bill. (I guess I was wrong when I kept stopping myself from buying border stamp sets.)

So I tried a strip of another new tape. It worked nicely to fill the empty space. A couple of circles with a silver pen, silver embossing powder around the edges, and I was done.

I'm entering this dotty bookmark in the following challenges:

• Incy Wincy Designs: Something New (new tapes)
• Papertake Weekly: Happy New... (Happy New Tape!)
• Victorine Originals #50: Sparkle & Shine (shimmery purple paper and lots of shiny silver)
• Crafty Sentiments: Sparkle & Shine/Glitter (no glitter, but the purple is shimmer paper and of course there's plenty of shiny silver)
• Cute Card Thursday 251: Beat the Blues (Well, I made a start on beating down the blue scrap pile!)
• Inky Chicks: Anything Goes

Supplies: (both tapes are from Recollections/Michaels)

Incy Wincy likes Wintergreen!

There was an awesome birthday present in my blog feed this morning: my Wintergreen bookmark is in the top three at Incy Wincy for their Monochromatic Green challenge!

I have no idea what the papercraft blog etiquette is regarding posting about things like this, but for now I don't care. It might not be the most beautiful badge in the world. There might have been only 16 contestants. But gosh darn it it's the first badge I've ever gotten.

Also, it's my birthday, and I can make self-congratulatory posts if I want to.

Bookmarks XXVIII: Wintergreen

I'm pretty pleased with how the sparkly embossing powder worked on that Christmas tree.

On the other hand, I wish I'd had some teeny little presents at the same scale as the tree; that would have made a neat little scene. I should have just used some little squares of paper, but I keep forgetting that there are ways to make images that don't involve a stamp. Hopefully I'll remember that for the next time I use this tree.

I do like the background of the bookmark, though. I had fun weaving the washi tape and paper strips together, although you can really only see the effect once. It looks like a really fancy kind of thing you could do to put ribbons around a present.

I probably should have fussy cut the present, or paper pieced it or something. I'm a little sad about how much it disappears into its background and matting. Oh well, can't win 'em all, and the tree turned out really well.

I am entering this bookmark into the following challenges:

• Creative Card Crew Challenge 19: Tree
• There She Goes 137: Everyone loves Presents
• Incy Wincy Designs: Monochromatic Green
• Simon Says Stamp and Show: Tape it Up!
• Simon Says Stamp: Emboss It! (both stamped images are heat-embossed)
• Penny Black and more... @ Allsorts: Early Christmas Makes (but alas not with a Penny Black image)
• Fashionista: Anything Goes Christmas
• Paper Play Week 38: Choose a Holiday (Christmas)

Supplies: (white 110lb. cardstock is from Staples, washi tape from Recollections/Michaels, and the middle-size green oval was cut from the packaging of the Christmas tree stamp.)

Bookmarks XVII: Butterfly Snowstorm

Someday I will stamp with the Bubble-Butt Butterfly, but that day is not today.

Click here to skip the rambling and jump straight to the project and the challenge listing.

I did use a different butterfly from Inkadinkado's Gem Stone Insects set today, though. There are four or so butterflies on that thing. It seems that the motto in the stamp-making community is "The world always needs another butterfly stamp." (The world apparently also always needs more flower stamps, too. Why can't the world need more dragon stamps or something like that?)

No. What the world needs is butterflies, and since the Sweet Stampin' challenge this week is White on White, I, if not the rest of the world, need them in white.

I've got white cardstock, white ink, white embossing powder, a couple of butterflies, and a nice bookmark-adaptable sketch from Fetch A Sketch. Let's do this thing.



The white ink is actually something of a problem. I think a machine in the Clearsnap factory messed up, because this little Color Box cat's eye easily has enough ink in it for a mini- or even full-sized Color Box inkpad. I dab it very gingerly on the stamp... then dab some more, not to add more ink but in the hope the inkpad will soak some back up!

The Gem Stone Butterfly is quite fancy enough as the focal point, so instead of using a smaller butterfly from the same set for the "star" element of the sketch, I chose a very simple little butterfly from October Afternoon. The stamp is little rather than very little, however, so instead of three butterflies I have only the one. I think it still looks pretty good and doesn't bend the sketch too much.

I do like the block of white behind the fancy butterfly quite a lot. I just outlined the rectangle with washi tape and went to town with the ink, then embossed. It grounds the butterfly nicely and helps it stand out. (As much as anything can stand out on this project.)

Why would something have trouble standing out on this project? Well, when the challenge says "White on White", I'm not going to pussyfoot around with grey or black or colors. I'm going to put some white down on some white! I guess it's a good thing my base cardstock turned out to be a little off-white, or no-one would be able to see a darn thing in my photograph:



And that's why this bookmark is called "Butterfly Snowstorm", after that joke about seeing a polar bear in a snowstorm...

I'm entering this bookmark into the following challenges:

• Sweet Stampin' Challenge: White on White
• Crafty Boots Challenge: ONE (one color)
• Fetch A Sketch Challenge 32 (I only have one small "star" element instead of three -- I didn't have any butterflies small enough for three to fit.)
• Crafty Card Makers Challenge 74: Winged Things
• Craft Your Passion Challenge 127: Blast From the Past (this fits #125 Emboss It, #123 Gone Buggy, #116 Things With Wings, and #103 Monochromatic)
• Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Put a Stamp On It (I used washi tape while making it, but you can't see that now! Good thing washi tape was optional.)

Supplies:

Bookmarks XVI: Turns to Gold

The leaves where I live are still green, but we've been getting lovely cool days lately. And it seems that half the challenge blogs in the northern hemisphere are fall-focused around now, which is a-okay by me -- I love these colors!

Click here to skip the rambling and jump directly to the project & challenge listing.

I mentioned in my post about putting together a kit for the gryphon bookmark trio that until someone came along with a "Bookmarks by Newbie Crafters" challenge, last week's Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge, Read All About It!, was the best fit for my bookmarky papercrafts that I was likely to get.

To ensure that I wouldn't be right for very long, the Incy Wincy Designs challenge this week is "Make a Bookmark". Hey, twist my arm.

In addition to fall colors and a couple of technique/material challenges, I've used this sketch (turned sideways) from this week's Sketch Saturday challenge:

While I have included the two little dots, they're not terribly obvious -- there's a little pair of stamped-and-embossed acorns in the upper right corner of the patterned paper if you look. I like them. They come from the same stamp set as the sentiment, where they are part of a big branch of leaves and acorns, all of which I masked out. There's something very clever-feeling in using only a tiny part of a big stamp, although maybe that's just the stamp cleaner fumes talking.

I'm really pleased with how this bookmark turned out. The colors work, the washi tape works, the design is great (thanks, Sketch Saturday!), and it feels neither too decorated nor too empty. Plus I have a couple of novels about squirrels it can fit right into.

I'm entering this lovely bookmark in the following challenges:

• Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Put a Stamp on It + optional washi tape
• Cute Card Thursday Challenge 233: Autumn Gold
• Raise the Bar Challenge #110: Celebrate Fall
• Sketch Saturday #224 (I've turned the sketch on its side)
• Pile It On #37: Patterned Paper
• Incy Wincy Designs Challenge: Make a Bookmark
• Craft Your Passion Challenge 127: Blast From the Past (using past challenge #125, Emboss It)
• Scrapalicious USA: Welcoming Fall

I'm also linking it up to DL.ART's 1000-post Linky Party.

Supplies: (The patterned paper is from DCWV's Autumn Melody mat stack, and the washi tape is by Recollections. I'll add them to the widget if I can ever find them online.) (Edited 9-25-12 to add the thumbnail pic at the top.)