A Note from Brit

Thank you for stopping by my blog! I have now moved over to my own domain for more room to grow, so make sure to check my new site and blog out at brittaswiderski.com. :)

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Day Three.

A. Last night, I participated in my first Seder dinner. (It's a Jewish tradition that marks the start of passover.) My roommate, Jen, was awesome in sharing her traditions with me and 12 of our other friends and cooked an amazing dinner for us. I'll share pictures tomorrow once I get them edited. :)

B. Check out this card by Kiara Lee that she posted today- I'm totally doing something inspired by this soon! It's lovely.
Two more lovely things:
Gorgeous flowery everyday notecards from ilee papergoods on Etsy.

 Lawn Fawn everything. I haven't purchased stamps from Kelly Marie yet, but trust me, as soon as the next paycheck comes in, the Sew Lovely and Petite Florals are coming home to me. :) Seriously, check out her blog and store- so inspiring!

C. Today's card:
How about another poppy card? Okay, sounds good to me. This one is using a colored flower (almost the same as yesterday, but silver on the tips instead of red-orange) popped up off the background of the same stamp. A couple things:
-The background was busy enough, so all I added was the sentiment and the flower. I actually added the pearls to take the card back down another notch- there are dots under every one of those pearls, and I thought it was just too much going on for this card.
- I went over each flower with my black Signo Uniball pen to add contrast and make the flowers really pop. Trust me, it make a huge difference, even though the stamped image was already pretty dark.
Supplies: Cardstock- Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream and New Leaf), Ink- Tsukineko, Pen- Signo, Colored Pencils- Prisma, Stamps- Hero Arts (CG147 Floating Blossoms) and American Crafts ("Thanks" large stamp set), Pearls- The Paper Studio.

Hope you enjoyed day three! I'm proud of myself for making it this far, ha. I'll be back tomorrow with another fun card.

Love.

Brit

Monday, March 29, 2010

Day Two.

A. Look at this... I love this idea for a wedding. Instead of throwing rice, letting balloons go. These pictures are awesome! My only worry would be about the environment and birds... balloons and nature don't exactly get along. So I was thinking maybe you could release them in an atrium or something. Still beautiful and sunny, but no environmental impact. Any other ideas? Ha, and no, I'm still not planning on getting married anytime soon... I just like to imagine it in my head :)
(Found here at Once Wed)

B. Guess where I'm going in May? To visit my best friend, Sara, who's studying abroad in Australia.... I'm buying my ticket this week, and I couldn't be more excited!
(Photo from Sara, taken by her brother. I can't wait to go see this beautiful girl! I miss her so much.)

C. How about today's card?
I figured I'd play off the pretty red balloons from earlier in the post :). This card uses some of the new goodies I recieved last week, and I love its simplicity. Tricks to this card:
1. I stamped the Hero Arts poppy background stamp, colored all of the flowers in, and cut them out.
2. I used three buttons with twin- it's always good to follow the triangle and threes rules. You can never fail with them!
3. Kraft + Red + Cream... could that be a more delicious color combo? Yum!
4. You know I can never resist adding some dimension with my foam adhesive:
Supplies: Cardstock- Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream and Kraft), Ink- Tsukineko, Colored Pencils- Prisma, Buttons- Papertrey Ink, Button Twine- Papertrey Ink, Stamps- Papertrey Ink (Fillable Frames #1- Many Thanks) and Hero Arts (CG147 Floating Blossoms), Corner Rounder- WRMK.

Thanks for stopping by again today! Come back tomorrow for another yummy card. :)

Love.

Brit

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Day One.

I have a growing pile of cards sitting on my desk, waiting to share with you. So here's what I'm going to do... I'm going to share one card a day for the next two weeks, maybe with some random thoughts and inspiration. Just because I feel like it, and I want to set a little goal for myself and this bloggy-blog. So here we go!

A. First off, let me start by saying that I got new Hero Arts and Papertrey Ink goodies last week. Oh goodness! I love everything so much. I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of things using these goodies in the next couple weeks:
B. Meet my new baby. Well, it's going to be my new baby. After doing a ton of research, I finially decided what I want my first DSLR to be. I need to use one for photography class this summer, so I thought that was a sign to take the plunge. Behold, the Nikon D90:
I'm planning on ordering it soon, as soon as I run it past the parents. I'm so excited! I'm getting the kit with the 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens, with the 50mm f/1.8D AF lens on my wishlist. Any suggestions? I need to get a camera case as well... what kind do you use?


C. Today's card.


I'm getting a jump on Mother's day cards and using some new awesome things. Here's what I did:
1. I stamped the friends definition on PTI Vintage Cream cardstock in Chestnut Roan ink.
2. I used Shabby Shutters, Broken China, and Peeled Paint distress inks and blended them all together using a foam blending tool to add some depth and color.
3. I stamped the largest Dahlia from PTI's Delightful Dahlia stamp set from their newest release.
4. Stamp the image again on scratch paper; cut it out. use temporary adhesive to adhere it over the top of the original flower image.
5. Spritz the background with a mixture of perfect pearls and water in a mini mister, set aside to let dry under a heavy object.
6. When dry, remove the mask and embellish as desired.


Wanna see the beautiful shine? Here it is:
And I think it's ten times prettier in real life. I'm going to be spraying everything now. Hehe. You can buy the single jar of perfect pearls through Hero Arts here- I highly recommend them!


Supplies: Cardstock- Papertrey Ink (Vintage Cream), Card Base- Hero Arts (Hero Hues in Floral), Ink- Colorbox (Chestnut Roan), Ranger (Shabby Shutters, Broken China, and Peeled Paint), Perfect Pearls- Ranger, Stamps- Hero Arts (Friends Definition), Papertrey Ink (Delightful Dahlia), Ribbon- Offray.


See you tomorrow for day two! Hope you had a wonderful weekend :)


Love.


Brit

Friday, March 5, 2010

So Inspired.

Really, I haven't been this antsy to create for a while. Of course, this comes at a time where I've been studying for six hours a day and still have papers due next week. Ugh. Only 4 days left for me until spring break though! I'm so excited- my parents are coming up to visit for a long weekend, and then I think I'll travel back with them to Wisconsin for some quality time with my cats and the luxury of having a car. Oh goodness, I'm so excited.

Let's talk about what's inspiring me today... and trust me, there's a lot.

Design Inspiration

 
(Source)
I'm in typography this semester, and my new favorite things are ligatures- letters that connect together. They are so beautiful!


This color theory chart sums up the basics of color, and it's pretty to boot. I'm thinking about printing this off poster-sized. :)


These notebooks are yummy; I wish they were sold in the US.

Crafty Inspiration


This is freaking adorable, and I want one. Anyone want to donate to a worthy cause? Haha. (WaysideViolet's etsy store.)


This block is huge- perfect for the big background cling stamps from Hero Arts. I have a feeling the friend's definition background as well as the cling dots might end up finding their way to my apartment in the very near future. And this huge block.



Besides being just simply amazing at everything, Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond also has her own sets of photo actions. Awesome photo actions. For free. I love.



This looks like where I want to live. I'm so excited to go to this antique store, Hunt & Gather in the cities when my parents come up next weekend. My mom and I are going to have the best time ever.

New Products (To Me and to the World) Inspiration

 
Copics are on the top of my list. Why? Jennifer McGuire. That wonderful lady forces me to buy all these products because of how good she makes them look. And, darn it, I love every single thing I buy on her recommendation. 


 (source)
Like these. Holy wow. And I have this stamp set, so Copics are the next logical choice, right? Right.


  
These charts that Jennifer made are fab, and I'll definitely be using them to point me in the right direction. This blog post that she did about copics is awesome- so much information!

 
My blogging buddy, Courtney Baker, is opening up her own store tomorrow with her own stamp set to kick it off. I love it! I'll definitely supporting her business. Check out her blog: now only is she super nice, but her work is fantastic, and her video about the ribbons her store will carry made my mouth water. I'm all over that satin ribbon!


Papertrey Ink is getting ready for another whirlwind release on the 15th, and I absolutely can't wait. This stamp preview already has me excited!

Scrapbooking and Cardmaking Inspiration


Breathtaking. Wow!


Sunshiny and perfect. So many cute techniques on this one!



Oh goodness. I love, love, love.


Lucy's style is unmistakable and so very elegant.


Another clean & simple card that I love. Does that surprise anyone? :)

Completely Random Inspiration


The latest thing I'm working on karate. I don't think I've every done something this stress-relieving in my entire life. It's amazing. Maybe I'll be a yellow belt soon, but for now I'm still a white belt. :)




So thanks for hanging in there- whew, that was a long post! Well worth it, though. I hope these things strike a cord with you and inspire you to create today. I'm going to go make things. 

Love x100,
Brit

p.s.- I think I'm going to try to work on a new blog scheme this weekend. We'll see just how inspired I am to do that. haha.