Sunday, September 28, 2008

Featured Stamper card and a disaster with vellum

Today's featured stamper over on SCS is Terry, TERRORE3. She is very nice, I see her about SCS all the time and she has a lovely gallery! I chose this cute card to case. I was drawn to the lovely bouquet of flowers on the vellum.
I should have passed it on by and chose another, cause just about all day later... here is my card.
I liked the idea of DP with words on it for the background and dug in my Christmas scraps and found this. I stamped the santa with Stazon and colored it with Copic markers and used liquid applique for his beard and hat. Well, the vellum got a bit warped with the heat and I had a devil of a time making it look good and laying semi-flat.
I tried assembling several ways and ended up gluing the the DP and cardstock together first. Then stamped, colored and heated the vellum piece. Then I ran vellum tape all over the DP and stuck it as best I could and then did the staples. The end result is way too not perfect for my tastes, and the kicker was I stamped the sentiment a bit crooked! Ugh! Well, it's not all lost, I am sure my sister will use the card for one of her friends come Christmas time! LOL!
Card deets:
Stamps - both stamps are from Michael's
Paper - old olive, misc DP, blush red medium from Prism papers
Accessories - Copic markers, vellum tape, liquid applique, grosgrain ribbons

Two for my Double Dog Dare

This week's DDC challenge was from Anne, Itsapassion. She sent us all 2 paper doilies and some DP. I wanted to use every last piece! Thanks Anne, this was a hard challenge, I have never used a doilie before. I think they turned out pretty cute!
The colors in the DP were Sage Shadow and Groovy Guava. I cut the piece of DP in half and framed it with sage shadow and put some silver brads in the corner. I used my Framed Flowers set from Gina K (designed by Carolyn King) and colored the image with markers. I put a little glitter on one of the flowers and will add it adds that extra special something, I am going to add it to the other for sure!

The card bases were an amazing find at Big Lots -embossed blank note cards in Groovy Guava! They came with envies and were 12 for $1!! I bought these last year, but keep forgetting to use them.

Card deets:
Stamps - Framed Flowers
Paper - Sage Shadow, very vanilla, groovy guava
Ink - celery and guava markers, black
Accessories - silver brads, circle punches, paper doilie, paper piercer, white gel pen

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Jacksonbelle Sketch #1

OK, where have I been all month? I didn't know Jacksonbelle Embellishments was having a contest involving Inkadinkado stamps and sketches every Tuesday until last night blog hopping! They are super cute sketches -5 in total (I think) and we have until the 30th at midnight to get them done. All the details are found here in this post. I don't know if I can get them all done, but I will try!

Here is the first. I used the reindeer image from the super FABULOUS Inkadinkado set called Christmas Silhouettes. This is set is a stunner! I used my Cosmo Cricket Be Good Christmas paper. I bought it in the middle of the year on sale -yippee! I colored the deer and his trail with copic markers and used a tiny bit of bling to make things pop.

Off to make the next card -well, not really. I need to make dinner for the family, but I want to do the next card right now -LOL!

Card Deets:
Stamps - Christmas Silhouettes
Paper - Mellow Moss, Very Vanilla, Suede Brown Dark Prism paper, Cosmo Cricket Be Good DP
Accessories - tiny bling, copic markers


Friday, September 26, 2008

Taylor's sketch to the rescue!

-heehee! I needed to make a birthday card for Bill's brother today and was a bit stumped. Taylor's cupcake sketch to the rescue. I know I do a lot of truck cards for masculine birthdays, but hey -they are so perfect. I have a small stash in my PIF and RAK box and they are my 'go to' images for masculine birthday cards.
I was digging into my DP for the card and found the Designer Prints in Blue Bayou and realized I have NEVER used it! So, I chose the argyle pattern for the 4 background squares. I colored the image with my Copic markers -getting better... To make the ribbon a bit more masculine, I put a small piece of Hodgepodge Hardware on it and used some of the brass brads from that are a perfect match. Believe it or not, the brads from my kit are too dark and don't look good with the pieces at all. Those are all discontinued, other embellishments can be found here.
 

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

A super sketch today

Did you all see the sketch on SCS today? Woohoo, it was a fun one with lots of layers. It was just what I needed today. I have been in a bit of 'behind the scenes' stamping slump. This is my last month as a Dirty Girl and I just can't seem get any projects started! Acck. So, making this wedding card was alot of fun.
I used the silver cardstock I got off the 'Bay from Creative Memories. The BG panel is PTIs Sweet Blush embossed with Swiss Dots CB folder, the nest panel is stamped with Simple Stripes (retired SU BG) in Sweet Blush, the next panel is embossed with Swirls CB folder and the image panel is stamped with Fabulous Flower layered with the wedding couple stamp from Inkadinkado's Wedding set. The sentiment is embossed with silver EP and sponged. I put tiny drops of liquid pearls (in pink) in the hair bow and bouquet. The ribbon and Liquid pearls are from Heidi's store. The inside is sponged with Blush and there is a row of punched hearts on the left side.
Card Deets:
Stamps - Fabulous Flowers, Wedding
Paper - PTI Sweet Blush, CM silver cardstock, white
Ink - Versamark, black, sweet blush
Accessories - hodgepodge hardware, satin edged metallic ribbon, swiss dots and swirls CB folder, liquid pearls, silver EP, heart punch, sponge

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Jen's sketch for You to Try

My boys are outside (in the rain) doing a project with Bill, so I had some extra time today to make another card. Woohoo! I really like Jen's sketch this week. She had a bit of trouble with it, but it went rather quickly for me.
I used some of my new Old Olive Designer Prints DP and paired it with Eggplant and More mustard. The stamp sets I used are Verve's Abundant Blessings and Notes of Prayer. I used my markers on the cat tails image to get both colors. I also used my NEW Martha Stewart Branch punch that Janette gave me. I really like it. I punched out both River rock and Olive cardstock. The primas have a dew drop in the center and have stickles on the petals.

Card Deets:
Stamps - Abundant Blessings, Notes of Prayer
Paper - old olive, more mustard, white, elegant eggplant, olive DP
Accessories - Branch punch, primas, dew drop, stickles, paper piercer, moss taffeta ribbon

SCS Featured Stamper day

Yahooo, today's FS is Shannon, E3stamper! I chat with Shannon from time to time on the PIF thread. She has a fun gallery, be sure to check it out. I cased this cute card. I changed up the image, sentiment and papers used -but kept the same layout and Halloween theme. Thanks for the inspiration Shannon.
The image I used is from Inkadinkado and was stamped out and sent to me by my friend and Dirty Dozen roomie, Joan! Joan stamped me tons of images from that amazing stamp set AND she sent me some DP too. Oh, Joan thanks for the goodies.
I colored the image with Copics. I am improving with those little buggars, but still don't have the blending quite down yet! The sentiment was generated from the computer. I went to www.dafont.com and found their font called A Charming Font. The ribbon and brads are from Heidi's store. Inside, the white panel is sponged with Pumpkin Pie and has a spider hanging down the side. That spider image is from a Michael's dollar stamp from last year.

Card Deets:
Stamps - Inkadinkado
Paper - pumpkin pie, black, Candle Glow Medium by Prismatics
Accessories - circle nesties, white gel pen, copic markers in YR02, YR09 and YG13, word window punch, brads, sponge

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Treat bags for my Moms Group

I am a small group leader for my local MOPS moms group. Our first meeting is this week, and I have been meaning to make treat bags for my moms. Today's Inspiration Challenge on SCS was just the kick in the hinnie for me to get it done.
The IC picture had very cute colors, so I ran with it. I used a combination of Cool Carribean, Wild Wasabi, and Barely Banana. The image and sentiment are from Verve's Petals and Stems set. I thought the sentiment is perfect for a mom of preschoolers -sometimes we forget to "take joy in the little things". I wanted something for the moms to welcome them to my group and have it non-halloween related!

Here are the steps I took to make the bags:

1. I precut all the pieces, the white pieces are 4" x 1 1/2" and the colored pieces are cut slightly larger for the frame.

2. I stamped the flowers and centers and punched them out with a 1 1/2" circle and used the SU! scalloped circle punch to layer them on.

3. I filled the bags with candy and folded down the top of the bag 2 times. This time I used some treat bags from Michael's, but I don't like them as much as the SU! bags. They are not as stiff and are a bit slippery to handle.

4. I then take the colored cardstock and staple it to the baggie, making it closed

5. I glued the top piece to cover up the staples from the front. Note you can see the staples from the back.

6 Add the finishing touches of the scalloped circle, stickles and punched flower and done!
Project Deets:
Stamps - Petals and Stems
Paper - Wasabi, banana, white, cool carribean
Accessories - CANDY!, treat bags, circle punch, scalloped punch, stapler, stickles


Thursday, September 18, 2008

Double Dog Dare with a cat

Heehee! This week's Double Dog Dare challenge is hosted by ME. I challenged the girls with the same challenge as my Meet the Verve Diva challenge... to use up some of the unloved stamping goodies. I just love that challenge, cause we ALL have tons of stamping stuff that we never use. For me, I am most guilty about DP and buttons. LOVE them and sometimes I think I love collecting them rather than use them!!
I was trying to make room for my new SU! DP and ran across some Apple Cider DP, remember that paper? I swear I used it only once in over a year. So, out it came and I was determined to use one of my Elzybells images, cat window . I ended up coloring the cat brown to match the DP, are there brown cats? I am allergic to cats, so I don't pay much attention. I hope this doesn't look too far fetched!! I used my Copic markers again. Man, oh man, it isn't an easy coloring medium for me. But, I spent alot of money on these little guys, so I am determined to make my cards look like Jeanne colored them -LOL! The sentiment is from Verve's Black Tie Birdies set and there is a tiny gem in the center of the flower.

The sketch for the card is from Taylor's Cupcake sketch challenge this week. I like this one, very simple and easy to put together. I don't sew on my cards, so on the vertical panel, I pierced instead. Thanks Taylor for the inspiration!



Card Deets:
Stamps - Cat Window, Black Tie Birdies
Paper - Choc chip, baja breeze, river rock, Apple Cider DP
Accessories - Copic sketch markers, chocolate taffeta ribbon, paper piercer, Kaiser Scrapbook pink gem

RAK from Janette


Oh, lookie what my mail lady brought me today!! My friend Janette (BlessingsX3) sent me a Martha Stewart punch, the Branch punch that I was admiring!!! Oh, and what an amazing card too :-) I just love how she colored that cute little girl. I am not familiar with the image, but it looks like something from the Magnolia line. It's hard to see in the picture, but the yellow BG paper is all shimmery and the brads are too! Yahoooooo, thanks so much Janette!

It's Verve Project Parade time!

Yep, it's that time again. This month's Verve Project Parade is on Day Four and it's my turn to show you my card. The challenge this month is to "Get Krafty". Meaning, use kraft paper on your card, or any natural fiber like hemp, twine, string, etc.

For my card, I used kraft as my base and some framing and paired it with my new favorite color, Tangerine Tango! I used Black Tie Birdies and stamped everything with Adirondack Espresso. I also stamped the bird on Tangerine and pieced the wing and bow. For the horizonal piece behind the image, I stamped the finial strip from the Grateful Elegance. The DP is the new SU! Designer Prints DP in Tangerine (P.S. I love the new designs SU! came out with). The flower is from my amazing find at Michaels, a Got Flowers bottle Coppermine, an entire bottle of various brown flowers. Whoa, be still my little heart. The ribbon is Seam Binding ribbon from Martha Stewart in Persimmon and is a PERFECT match to Tangerine Tango -score!! I also put tiny accents of orange on her tail from my Copic marker YR09.

So.... have you been gettin' krafty? No? How about using natural fibers like hemp, twine, string, etc? Still no? Well there is still time to play along. Just post your creation to this post by noon on September 30th. If you upload to SCS use keyword VVPP06 , so we can see all the Kraftiness in one place. A random participant will be drawn on October 1st to receive $15 in Verve Bucks to spend at the Verve Stamps store! Good luck and go get Krafty!



Card Deets:
Stamps - Black Tie Birdies and Grateful Elegance (Verve Stamps)
Paper - PTI Kraft and white, Choc chip, Tangerine Tango and Tangerine Tango DP (SU!)
Ink - Adirondack Espresso
Accessories - prima, jumbo orange brad, paper piercer, MS Persimmon seam tape, paper piercer, Copic YR09, dimensionals


Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Meet another Verve Diva

This week's Meet the Verve Diva is hosted by Laura (Scrapnextras). You can check out the thread here and read all about Laura. Her challenge is to use TAGS on your card. Any kind in any way -just use a tag.

I like tags when I remember to use them, but don't all that often, so thanks Laura for the challenge. My card uses Verve's set Floral Whimsy . To make the sentiment tag, I inked up the word Beauty from the sentiment with a marker and punched it out with the SU large oval punch. I dipped the edges in Versamark and embossed them with irridescent EP. The eyelet is from my stash. The DP is from HOTP Vintage from their Sarapapers line. The pearls and gems are from Kaiser Scrapbook and are adhesive backed! LOVE them, you can get them at Flourishes.

Stay tuned, later today I will post details about a fun Elzy contest with some fun prizes!!
Card Deets:
Stamps - Floral Whimsy
Paper - sky blue, pale plum, certain celery, Sarapapers DP
Ink - sky blue, pale plum, certain celery, versamark
Accessories - Kaiser scrapbook pearls and gems, soft sky double stitched ribbon, eyelet, paper piercer, oval punch

Some Elzy fun!! A winter card contest!!

Do you want a chance to win some Elzybells goodies?? Well, Elizabeth is holding a fun contest right now! To enter, make a Winter/Christmas card using Elzybell UK images and send it to Elizabeth across the pond. You can enter as many times as you want, use any embellishments, any layout -just have fun!! You have until October 21st, so there is plenty of time! And guess what? The Elzybelles (that's the name of the DT, cute huh?) get to help select the winners!


To check out all the details on Elizabeths blog here. Have fun and I can't wait to see what everybody comes up with!

I love playing with new things!

OK, let me explain. Today, my boys and I went over to Heidi's (Pinkhedgehog) house. You see, not only did she have some Stampin Up stuff for me, but she has a TON of blackberries and grapes too! So after we all filled our buckets with lots of sweet fruit, Heidi and I sat down and tackled today's SCS sketch . Isn't it fun to stamp with friends? I rarely have a chance to do it and I think Heidi and I should try this more often!!
She got some new goodies too and I got to try them out!! Yipeee! I really love this Papertrey Ink set called Fruit Firsts. And the new SU! paper Autumn Vine goes with it sooooo well! I may have to order a pack for myself after making this card. We also thumbed through her neglected stack of Fiskars templates, and found this fun diamond pattern which I used for the small rust piece.
You can check out Heidi's card here. Don't you just love how she hand stitched her burlap string around the wheat bundle? She's so crafty!!

Card Deets:
Stamps – Fruit Firsts
Paper - Choc chip, really rust, more mustard, baja breeze, white, Autumn Vine DP
Accessories - fiskars template, stickles, dimensionals, metal accents from Michael's

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Amy's fun scrap challenge

Hi ya'll! Have you all had a chance to check out the Fan Club gallery this month and give some love to the rainbow of loveliness and welcome the 2 new Dirty Girls! Be sure to, you won't be sorry!

Today I had a chance to make a card for Amy (HeartfeltGreetings) Meet the Verve Diva challenge -which was to make a card using 3 RANDOM scraps of paper. NO cheating and no peeking, just put your hand in the scrap pile and pick 3. Well, it's no shocker that my scrap pile is organized by color, so I was pretty sure I was gonna get something I could work with. Here is what I picked.

The last sheet was a toughie for me. It is super cute the animals are embossed and everything, but it didn't really flow with the other orange. So, I thougth of punching out the faux buttons and using them as brad accents. The image is Verve's newly released Some Bunny and So Happy. I stamped the bunny with More Mustard and used crystal effects on his tummy! I had a bit of a (ok, major) boo-boo with the sentiment, so I covered it up with a word window punch sentiment. Didn't turn out all that bad!

If you want to play along with Amy's challenge, you still have time and there is a PRIZE! You have until tomorrow evening to upload to SCS with the keyword MTVD10 and link to the post above. If you have time, give it a try, it's FUN!!


Card Deets:
Stamps – Some Bunny, So Happy
Paper - More Mustard, Soft Sky, White, misc DP
Accessories - word window punch, paper piercer, soft sky double stitched ribbon, oval nestie, dimensionals

Monday, September 15, 2008

Mojo Monday and 2 new Dirty Girls!! It's the 15th ya'll!

It's the 15th and you all know what that means... the September Fan Club Gallery is open!! The two new Dirty Girls are...

-Jennifer Buck (JenniB04)
-Mary Jo Albright

Yahoo! Congrats ladies, you are both so talented and very "dirt worthy". Be sure to check out the gallery here. This month's theme is Colors of the Rainbow and each of us girls got a color to play with. Mine was BLUE and it was so much fun. If you don't already have a fan club membership, you can look into it here.


Today is also Monday and that means another Mojo Monday sketch from Julee! I used the newly released Birthday Surprise set. I busted out my East Coast Prep DP from SU! and went to work with this cute little bird and balloons. I stamped everything in black Stazon and colored them all with markers. I added some bling to the bird hat and tail as well as the balloon bow. The balloons have glitter pen all over them for shine. I was going to use Crystal Effects, but when that dries, it changes the color a bit and I wanted the balloons to remain vibrant.



Card Deets:
Stamps - Birthday Surprise
Paper - real red, tempting turqouise, east coast prep DP
Ink - Black stazon
Accessories - mini bling, paper piercer, circle maker, dimensionals, red taffeta ribbon, sakura gelly roll glitter pen

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Jen's sketch for a little boy

WooHoo! I had time to play along with Jen's Sketch For You To Try. If you have time, check it out -if you own any Bellas, there is even a chance at a prize!

I had to turn the sketch to accomodate my Elzy image called Boy In Car. The DP is from Luxe Designs, part of their Flip Flop line which is perfect for little boys! I used my Copics again today, I used the colors YR09, C1, B21, E00 and Y15 along with my Going Gray SU marker. I embossed the blue cardstock piece with my Numbers CB folder. The buttons are from my My Mind's Eye, Tres Jolie collection -my LSS had them on sale and I bought 2 of every jar they sold. I just love them :-) The sentiment is from PaperTrey Ink's Birthday Basics, which I still maintain is the BEST birthday sentiment set evah!!







Here is the sketch, hope you have a chance to play along! Happy Stamping!



Card Deets:
Stamps - Boy in Car, Birthday Basics
Paper - Pumpkin Pie, Luxe Designs Flip Flop, Prismapaper
Accessories - Copics, buttons, dimensionals, Cuttlebug folder Numbers

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Ribbon Rings

In all their glory!! OK, so I have a teeny tiny lose ribbon problem (I won't even talk about all my ribbon on SPOOLS) and when I was STUFFING my 7th HUGE bag of ribbon, I thought there had to be a better way! Lucky me, Heidi (Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts) now sells Ribbon Rings! And even better, the manufacturer is located in Oregon :-) I love to support locally whenever possible. I have a couple pictures to share.

This first shot shows how I hung my organdy and specialty SU ribbons. I hung them on the adhesive backed hooks (from OfficeMax) to the wall behind and to the right of my chair.

The hooks I used are from 3M, and they are supposed to come right off and not damage the wall. They were a couple bucks for each pack of 3. The 2 organdy rings have about 25 cards each and the SU ring has 9 -these have PLENTY of room to spare.

This picture shows my 1/4" grosgrain ribbons and my satin edged organdy ribbon. Do you see a pattern? I have to color coordinate my ribbons on the cards and I try to keep the same kind of ribbon on each ring. I am a compulsive organizer and these little cards are AMAZING! I hang them on the end of the curtain rod that holds all my punches. Man, I wish I had more room, but I can get one more ring squished on the end...


Here is a close up of my 1/4" grosgrain. You can see that with this size ribbon, you can fit 4 ribbons across the card. As far as other sized ribbons, you can fit one 3/8" ribbon with one 5/8" ribbon on a card, or three 3/8" ribbons together. I should mention that the ribbons shown are in 1 yard pieces and also came from Heidi's store. You can order her ribbons in "sets" which can be in 1 yard of each of the colors -ex. the 1/4" grosgrain shown here comes in 87 colors and is $20.

I still have just over 3 bags of ribbon left, but so far I couldn't be happier with these little cards. All my lose ribbons are now at my fingertips! Happy stamping!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Today's sketch Verve style

Did you all check out the Verve Release party last night? The 5 newly released sets are truly amazing!! You can see them all here. I was so inspired by the Divas samples of Abundant Blessings, I couldn't wait to ink my set up again and make this For You card. I used today's Sketch challenge (SC193) over on SCS for the layout.

I stamped the flowers in Adirondack Espresso ink and colored them with my Copic markers. I stamped them a couple times extra for practise. I am still REALLY new to this whole Copic markers thing and couldn't really get the shading right, so I colored them solidly (is that a word?). The white image panel is stamped with the smaller ferns and the cat tails stamp. Can I just say that I LOVE how Julee designed the ferns to face both ways? Perfect for making background branching!! The sentiment is from the newly released So Happy. The DP is My Minds Eye, Magnolia.


Thanks to everyone who stopped by the party last night and talked to me. I had a great time and it was all cause of YOU guys!!

P.S. I have been asked several times what happened to my teddy bear in the pictures. Well, for my Verve cards, they have to be photographed with a white background. AND, I have been having trouble with the light in my window. My neighbors tree is growing and creating shade! I told my DH to go and cut off some branches real stelth-like, but he declined. So, when the lighting is really bad, I take pictures in my back yard from time to time. The bear is still there and loves to be included!!

Card Deets:
Stamps – Abundant Blessings, So Happy
Paper - choc chip, sage shadow, MME, Magnolia
Accessories - mini green bling, dimensionals, 1/4" chocolate grosgrain