Happy Birthday, Joanne!

This card is for a friend who likes cows and teddy bears, so I’m hoping she might like sheep, too! But then, who could NOT like this little cutie:) (Ah, looking at this picture reminds me of the beautiful weekend we had a couple weeks ago – it was wonderful and I could even take the picture outside! And it WILL be back, I’m sure!)

I made this card for a color swap, too - red, black and white. I started by printing “Happy Birthday to Ewe” in an oval on shimmery red paper. I cut it out with a scalloped oval Nestability. I stamped the sheep – from a set by Sandylion - on white and again on a scrap of white. I cut the image out with an oval Nestability. I cut the head only out of the scrap and mounted it on Pop Dots. Then I used a glue pen and colored the sheep and the head and sprinkled it with Barbara Trombley’s Ultra-fine Crystal glitter. I added “googly” eyes and a bow. The paper is from a Matstack that was the very first one I ever bought! I hand-doodled around the top part of the card. (Actually, the card base was a “card part” I’ve had in my box for quite a while. I started a card a while back and could never get it quite right, so I eventually used up the pieces!)

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

CAS Challenge - A Sketch

Today’s post is two cards I made for Monday’s SplitCoastStampers’ Clean and Simple Challenge #8. The challenge is a sketch and can be found here.

Not much explanation necessary for them. For the first one, I used an EK Success punch for the border - both the 'punched' piece and also the 'scrap' piece. The flower is from an Autumn Leaves set and the sentiment is from Heidi Grace. The flower circle and the sentiment are on Pop Dots. The color is Pumpkin Pie by Stampin’ Up! For the second one, I used a Martha Stewart punch and again used the punched part and the scrap part. I stamped a 'thankyouthankyouthankyou' from a Studio G set in the white border. The butterfly is stamped on vellum and cut out and mounted with a Pop Dot. The color is Stampin’ Up!’s Orchid Opulence.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

April Calendar Page

Oops – I forgot to change my calendar this morning and therefore forgot to put my April calendar page on my blog! Thanks for the reminder, Harriet! :) So, two posts for today.

The bunny rabbit is from Stampin’ Up!’s set Tags So Much. I colored it with Stampin’ Up! markers in the Soft Subtles family. The mat is pink shimmery paper, and I stamped on it with PaperTrey Ink’s Borders and Corners – Circles. The circles are cut with Marvy punches. The background is embossed with a Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder. The Happy Easter stamp on the bottom is from Studio G.

If you haven't already done so, please check out the next post, which is also from today:)

Thanks so much for looking (AGAIN!), and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Caring Critters Meets Paper Piecing

How about another card using the set I won from 2RedBananas – Caring Critters. (http://2redbananas.com/main.sc)

I stamped the bird on white and also onto the checkered blue paper, which is from Sizzix. I cut out the bird from the blue. Before I adhered it to the white, though, I colored the beak on the white piece and cut it out and glued it on to the paper-pieced bird. I colored the branch and leaves with SU! markers from the Earth Elements family. The blue scalloped mat is just a frame and is cut with two rectangle Nestabilities. The sentiment is from Stampin’ Up!’s Love Ya Bunches set.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

SCS Limited Supplies Challenge - Wedding

How about a swirly, black and white card for today? The Limited Supplies Challenge on SplitCoastStampers last Friday was to use only black and white. I was a little late in getting to play, but I was finally able to make my card.

All the stamps except the sentiment are from a set by Autumn Leaves that I purchased at Michael’s. I scored the lines with my Scor-Pal, stamped the swirls on the top and bottom, then used the Swiss Dots folder to emboss them. Then I stamped the flower and stamped the leafy swirls twice. I first stamped the sentiment (from an Inkadinkado wedding set) directly on the card, but I felt it needed more so I stamped it again and cut it out and mounted it on black and used Pop Dots to mount it on the card. I added the brads, mounted the whole thing on black and then on to the card front. .

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

All Ears!

Today’s card is another one using stamps from 2RedBanana’s Caring Critters set.

I stamped the image and the sentiment with Versafine Onyx Black ink, and I embossed the bunny with clear embossing powder. I colored her with Stampin’ Up! chalks and used Liquid Appliqué on her tail. The background paper is from Die Cuts With a View Summer Matstack. The mats on the bunny and sentiment are from a scrap pack. I added a couple brads. I used an SU! punch for the ribbon slot.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Easter Card

Here is the card I made for the 2RedBananas Spring Challenge from two weeks ago. The challenge was to make a Spring card. (Just to clarify - my card did NOT win on its own merit - it was a random drawing! :) ) Here is this week's challenge - to use gems. There is a prize this week, too - a bottle of metallic Dew Drops!

The duck stamp is from a set by Sandylion. I stamped it on yellow background paper and cut it out. I stamped it again on the yellow and also on white. I cut the wing out of the yellow and mounted it on a Pop Dot. I punched the white image and the pink scalloped circle with a Marvy punch. The yellow circle is cut with a Nestability. I sponged a little black around the white circle and added black dots to the scallops. Then I adhered the yellow paper-pieced image to the white image. The background paper is from Sizzix, mounted on black. The yellow felt rick rack is from JoAnn’s. The Happy Easter sentiment is from Inkadinkado.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

I Won Blog Candy!

I made a card for the 2RedBananas blog challenge last week (which I just realized I didn’t post on my blog yet. I’ll do that for tomorrow!) and lucky me – I was the random winner! I won my choice of stamp sets from their February and March releases. This is the set that I choose. Their sets are unmounted rubber. You get the best of both – nothing stamps like rubber, but yet you don’t need the storage space of wood blocks. Awesome!! Thank you so much, Jeanette! This week’s challenge goes through today. Here is a link to the new challenge, if you’re interested. It’s an Inspiration Challenge. 2RedBananas also has MANY other items available. Check them out!

So, here is a card I made with my new set. I received it on Wednesday, but didn’t get a chance to finish it until this morning. The bird is stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink on Papertrey Ink’s Stamper’s Select. I colored it with Prismacolor pencils and blended with Gamsol. I cut it out with a Labels One Nestability die. Then I embossed it, and left the die in place and sponged with SU! So Saffron ink. I used a bigger Labels One die to cut a mat out of Certainly Celery, then trimmed it down. (Looking at the card now, I wish I had embossed the mat, too. Next time!) I stamped the butterflies on PTI cardstock and colored them the same way and cut them out. The background paper is from Debbie Mumm’s Baby Girl stack from JoAnn’s. The butterflies are mounted on Pop Dots. The sentiment is from the 2RedBanana’s set also, and is stamped with Stampin’ Up!’s Certainly Celery.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Friends

I made this card almost two months ago, but I don’t think I ever uploaded it to my blog. So, it’s a good one for today! It was done for CPS sketch and for a Papertrey Ink challenge to make a card for a friend.

I used Penny Black stamps with Versafine Vintage Sepia. I colored the hedgehog with Prismacolor pencils and a little bit of Gamsol. The scalloped edge is cut with a Fiskars rotary cutter and the holes are punched with a small hole punch. The flower is from Michael’s, but I don’t remember what company it is made by.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

SCS Clean and Simple Punch Challenge

A very simple card today. I’ve made a few cards lately that I can’t post yet, and I’m running out of those that I CAN post! (Edited to add: Bonnie - I can't post them because I am going to be sending them to people who read my blog, and they would probably know that they are for them!)

This was another card I made for the Clean and Simple challenge on SCS to use punches. The punch I used is a Fiskars border punch. I used Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select white cardstock for both the border and the card base. After I punched the border, I trimmed it down and scored two lines in it with my Scor-Pal. This was going to be a strictly white-on-white card, but then I added the very thin strip of color above the border. Then I thought it needed a sentiment in color. So then the Cuttlebug-embossed flower needed color, too. I used a couple Fantastix and Stampin’ Up! ink pads to color it in So Saffron and Certainly Celery.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

SCS Color Challenge Birthday and an Award

Another SplitCoastStampers challenge card today – this one for the Color Challenge which is to use Pretty in Pink, Kiwi Kiss and Baja Breeze. I’m just going to pretty much copy and paste what I wrote when I uploaded the card to SCS, because it was kind of long and I don’t want to have to write it all again!

All of the stamps except the sentiment are from a set by Hampton Art. It was kind of tricky to color the stamps in multiple colors without Kiwi Kiss and Baja Breeze markers, but I did my best! I used three main stamps. The bottom two pink flowers and the leaves below them are one stamp. I inked up the leaves only as best as I could using the Kiwi Kiss ink pad. Then I used a Pretty in Pink marker for the flowers. I used a blender pen to remove the marker from the flower center and then colored it with a So Saffron marker. Then I masked the two flowers and added the stamping behind it. For this stamp, I inked up the whole thing with Kiwi Kiss, then used the blender pen to remove the ink from the flowers, and then stamped the image. I did this twice. Then I inked up just the flowers with the Baja Breeze pad and removed the ink from the stems. The smallest pink flowers are a separate stamp. The pink border stamp is also included in this set. The sentiment is from Sincere Salutations and is stamped with Kiwi Kiss. The bottom corners are cut and embossed with a Fiskars embossing corner punch. The main panel is mounted on Baja Breeze and then onto the card. It needed something else, so I added glitter to all of the flowers. Hope you can see most of it - it's really quite pretty “In Real Life!”

I received another Blog Award, too! Thanks so much, Barb, for honoring me with a “Top Ten Faves” award. I really appreciate the recognition. Barb’s blog is called “Made for Keeps.”

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

CAS Challenge #7 - Punches

Today’s card was made for another Clean and Simple challenge on SplitCoastStampers – this challenge was to use punches. Now that I’m looking at it – maybe it’s not even considered “Clean and Simple!” Oh well – close enough!

The punch is a Tonic punch used in their Border System. I used Stampin’ Up!’s Apricot Appeal cardstock, punched, trimmed it down and added scored lines with my Scor-Pal. I mounted some black behind the punches, but left the top and bottom with no black. The background paper is from Sizzix. I used an EK Success border punch for the wavy and dotted line at the bottom. The sentiment is from SU!’s set called All Year Cheer I. The flowers are Primas that I received from someone. I added black brads to the flower center and in the lower left. (I love when the paper has a pattern which makes spacing the brads evenly so simple!) The punched-out butterflies were the perfect embellishment for the bottom border.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

White on White

I found this card on SplitCoastStampers yesterday, and I knew I had to case it – it was lovely! So here is my "Karen-inspired" card.

What can I say? It’s Papertrey Ink Stamper’s Select white cardstock. I used a Fiskars border punch on another piece of cardstock and then trimmed it down and added a couple scored lines. I glued it down on the left side. The sentiment is embossed with a small Cuttlebug folder. The flowers are from the wedding section at Michael’s, with pearls added to the centers. Voila! Sounds really simple, but it actually did take me a fair amount of time to finish it. To recreate it would be VERY quick, though!

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Butterflies Hello

Just a quick card for today. A friend asked if I had any Papertrey Ink Kraft cardstock that I could send her so she could see a sample of it. I figured I could just as well make it into a card to send. So, this is it.

The butterflies are stamped using the Stampin’ Up! set Flight of the Butterfly. I used Riding Hood Red and Close to Cocoa for the larger butterflies, and Creamy Caramel for the smaller ones. The border is punched with an EK Success border punch. The Riding Hood Red on the bottom is actually on the inside of the card. The “HELLO” is from Inkadinkado.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Another SCS Challenge Card

This card is for yesterday’s SplitCoastStampers’ Ways To Use It challenge – to use colors from the Soft Subtles family and a spring flower.

This card actually gave me some problems – probably because I should have been getting ready for company instead of doing the challenge! I did a card in my head while I was walking on the treadmill, but this isn’t it! The flowers I chose didn’t work, so I had to figure out something different. Then the layout didn’t work at all, because this flower was bigger. And so it went! But after lots of moving these elements around, I finally settled on their placement. I tied the ribbon where I wanted it and mounted the white on the green. Then I adhered it to the base of the card – upside down! So now, instead of the ribbon being towards the top with the knot on the right side, it was bottom left. I would have preferred it the way I planned it, but this is an acceptable second choice!

The tulip stamp is from Stampin’ Up!’s Garden Whimsy set – colored with a Lavender Lace and a Mellow Moss marker. The sentiment is by Inkadinkado, stamped with Mellow Moss. I sponged Mellow Moss around the edge of the tulip layer. The ovals are all cut with Nestabilities. I added dots with two different white gel pens – different tip sizes. The mats are Mellow Moss and Lavender Lace. I don’t remember where I got the ribbon – probably Michael's.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Three "Stickered" Cards

Three cards to share with you today. The “Ways To Use It” challenge on SplitCoastStampers yesterday was to use stickers. (WT210) I actually have quite a few stickers and I don’t use them very often. Kind of seems like “cheating.” :) So this was like “permission” to use them!

The first one uses a Mary Engelbreit sticker. I mounted it on Rose Red cardstock, then a scalloped white mat. The white mat qualifies this card for Sharon Johnson’s (No Time To Stamp?) challenge, found here. Then I embossed a frame in the Pink Pirouette card base. All mats and frames are done using Rectangle Nestabilities. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink’s Mixed Messages set and is stamped with Rose Red ink. It seemed to fit perfectly with the sticker sentiment.
The second card uses Cuttlebug folders and stickers from K&Co, and a computer-generated sentiment. I had to hand embossed the dots on the bottom, because I didn’t think of adding them until I had already added the stickers! I used a stylus with the CB folder.
The third card also uses stickers from K&Co. I drew the stems and leaves and added the sentiment from Stampin’ Up!’s All Occasions set.

OK. Now just a couple quick miscellaneous things. Yesterday was an awesome “blog day.” I think I had about 500 views and I went over 20,000 hits. I am blown away by this, and I thank you all VERY much!

And one more thing – something personal to one visitor. I see I have a fairly frequent visitor from Fergus Falls. That is my home town! I was born there and lived there until after I finished ninth grade. So, a special hello to you, whoever you are! (I even had a visitor from Dalton one day. Both of my parents are from there, originally.)

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Happy Birthday, Kris!

A birthday card for a friend in my Yahoo! group. Happy Birthday again, Kris!

I used a stamp from a retired Stampin’ Up! set called Garden Collage. I stamped it with Tim Holtz Distress ink – Tea Dye. I colored the image with chalks. I stamped the butterfly again and colored it, then rubbed it with Versamark and embossed it with Deep Impressions embossing powder, then Versamark again, then Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder, then another layer of Deep Impressions. Then I cut it out and mounted on a piece of Pop Dot and bent up the wings. I distressed the edges with an SU! paper distressing tool and rubbed some Tea Dye ink on them. The matting, also with distressed edges, is SU! Baja Breeze. The border is die cut with a Cuttlebug die, and I used a Scor-Pal for the lines on either side of it.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Christmas - In March!!

How about a Christmas card for today? Yep, amazingly I have some Christmas cards done. I decided this year to make several of one design, and then make some different ones later. I made 50 of this one, and will be making another 30 starting maybe in about September.

I used PaperTrey Stamper’s Select White as the card base. I figured if it’s only going to be one layer, it should be a good one! I did them assembly-line fashion. I began by scoring 25 sheets, cutting them, and then, using a Rectangle Nestability, I embossed the frame on them all. I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig for the placement of the tree, since that really needed to be in the center of the frame. I just “eye-balled” the placement of the sentiment and snowflake. The stamps are all from a Stampin’ Up! set called Snow Swirled. I stamped with Versamark and embossed with gold detail embossing powder, doing about 13 – 14 at a time before I used the heat gun to finish the embossing. When the fronts were all done, I stamped on the insides, and then on the back. When they were all finished with the stamping, I folded them. They now await the end of November!

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Thinking of You - Times Two

My two cards for today’s post are for friends recovering – one from surgery and one from a virus. The cards can’t help heal, but hopefully they brought a minute of two of cheer!

The first one is done with So Saffron, black and white. The ovals are all done with Oval Nestabilities. The patterned paper is from Stampin’ Up! The stamp is by Inkadinkado. I colored the little butterflies with a So Saffron maker. The flowers are from Michael’s – from the wedding section. They come white, but color VERY nicely with markers. I used the So Saffron to color one of the flowers, and added tiny pearls for the centers.
The second one is done in Certainly Celery and white. The triangle piece is left over from a card I did a few days ago, using SU!’s Stippled Stencils stamp set. Again, the patterned paper is SU!, the sentiment is Inkadinkado, the ribbon is Certainly Celery, and the flowers are from Michael’s with one of them colored with a Certainly Celery marker.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Three Roses

Three rose cards for you today using a stamp from Paper Inspirations. For all three, I used Stampin’ Up! markers (Rose Red and Always Artichoke) to color the image, then I misted it before stamping.

The first one was done using a sketch from 2 red bananas blog challenge and also for the SplitCoastStampers color challenge – Rose Red, Always Artichoke and Basic Black. I stamped the image on Whisper White and cut it with an Oval Nestability. I sponged black around the edge and also sponged a little on the image to take away some of its stark whiteness since there was no other white on the card. The scalloped mat is Always Artichoke and the background paper is also from Stampin’ Up! The sentiment and mat are punched with a Word Window punch from SU! The image for the second one was stamped on watercolor paper and the sentiment is from Studio G. Patterned paper for the second and third is from Stampin’ Up! The ribbon on the third card is SU!’s Mellow Moss, and I used a SU! ticket corner punch on the image panel and added white brads.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Thankful for You

Just a simple Thank You card today.

The stamp is from Stampin’ Up! set Thoroughly Thankful. I stamped it with Versafine Black Onyx and colored it with SU! markers in Sage Shadow and Barely Banana. I also highlighted the sentiment to draw more attention to it. I used a glue pen and Art Institute glitter on the daisy petals. I punched the stamped image and its mat with Marvy punches. The scalloped mat is Sage Shadow. I embossed the frame with a square Nestability and used a black glaze pen for the dots.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Two Simple Birthday Cards

Two cards today. I made one, liked it, had another flower the same but a different color, and I made another one.

While digging through my “card parts” box on Wednesday, I found a piece of embossed Swiss Dots. I figured I may as well use it. I also had been looking through my stickers and found a layered flower. So, I matted the Swiss Dots on Stampin’ Up!’s Pink Pirouette, stuck the flower on, threaded the ribbon though a slider from SU! and added it, and stamped the sentiment with Certainly Celery with my temporarily favorite birthday stamp from All Occasions. I also added some Crystal Stickles to the ribbon slider. The second card uses Bliss Blue cardstock and Mellow Moss ink.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

A "Green" Challenge

I made this card for another SplitCoastStampers challenge – the Ways to Use It one, this time. The challenge was to use “green” – either just the color green, or to use recycled or re-used items. I did both.

The patterned GREEN paper is from packaging from a Papertrey Ink set. The gold is a chocolate wrapper which I embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. The black are scraps I bought at a paper store, and the butterfly has been in my “card parts” box for a long time (gold embossing on a pearlescent vellum). I put it all together and added the sentiment – freshly stamped!

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

CAS Challenge #5 - Embrace Happiness

Today’s card was done for the Clean and Simple Challenge for the week which was posted on Monday – to used greens and blues.

The stamp I used is from the same Anna Griffin set as the tulip I used a few days ago. I colored the basket of the topiary with a Stampin’ Up! Brocade Blue marker. The grasses, trunk and leaves are colored with Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke and Certainly Celery markers. Not sure I did it exactly right, but I think I did some 'thumping' on the leaves. I had colored them with Certainly Celery, then 'bounced' my Mellow Moss and Always Artichoke markers on them. I used my Scor-Pal for the background. The image panel is matted with Brocade Blue and mounted on Pop Dots. The sentiment is from a Papertrey Ink set called “Mixed Message.” I stamped it with, and mounted it on, Always Artichoke.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Wonderful Woodcuts and Paper Piecing

Another two-card day, since I have two cards done with the same set. I like paper piecing. I was looking through all of my Stampin’ Up! sets to try to find something I could paper-piece. I’m finding I don’t have very many stamps that lend themselves to this technique, but I found this one that worked all right – it’s called Wonderful Woodcuts.

For the sailboat card, I stamped on Whisper White, Creamy Caramel and white shimmery paper with Versafine Onyx Black and embossed them all with clear embossing powder. I cut out the words and the boat from the caramel and the sail from the shimmery white. The boat and the sail are mounted on Pop Dots. The water is colored with my only Copic marker. The rest is colored with SU! markers. The background is embossed with a Fiskars texture plate. I made this card for a Limited Supplies Challenge on SplitCoastStampers – to make a card in 30 minutes or less. I was a little rushed at the end. I used a Fiskars texture plate for the embossed background, but if I would have taken a few more minutes, I would have misted the card base before embossing to get deeper and clearer embossing.
The second card is even simpler. I stamped on a patterned blue paper and a slightly-patterned yellow paper. I cut the word and the sun from the yellow. The sun is mounted on Pop Dots. All of the patterned paper is from a Sizzix paper pad. I mounted the layers on black – I like to do that sometimes when I’ve used black ink.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Stippled Stencils

I’ve been trying to use some of my older Stampin’ Up! sets lately, and have pulled a few off the shelf to make sure I do.

The set I used for today’s card is called Stippled Stencils. I'm not sure if I've ever used it before or not, but I still do like it! I colored the stamps with Certainly Celery, Perfect Plum, Pale Plum and Almost Amethyst. I punched the images and the mats out with Marvy punches. I found the lace in my crafting supplies when I was looking for my crochet hooks last week (to crochet some flowers) and threaded it with Certainly Celery ribbon. The image with the grapes is mounted on Pop Dots. The sentiment is from All Occasions, stamped in Certainly Celery. I colored the pearls with my Certainly Celery marker. That’s it!

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Anna Griffin Tulip

My card for today features a stamp by Anna Griffin. I’ve had it for ages, and I’m not sure if I had ever used it or not until this card - which I promised a few days ago that I would upload.

I colored the stamp with Stampin’ Up!’s Old Olive, Cameo Coral and Creamy Caramel markers. I used a blender pen on the images after they were stamped to fill in the images a little bit. I cut and embossed them using an Oval Nestability, then left the die in place and lightly went over them with blue chalk, leaving a white border on them. The scalloped frame is Cameo Coral, the green strips are Old Olive, and the sentiment is by Stampendous. I used my Scor-Pal and I added some pearls. True confessions time: the thin Old Olive strip at the bottom was added to cover up an 'oopsie.' I got a line from the edge of the sentiment stamp - but I think the strip looks like it was part of the design all along!

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Inkadinkado Birds - Again!

My card for today is one using the Inkadinkado stamp that I’ve used a few times recently. I still had this one last image I had stamped earlier that was on my table.

I colored this one with Stampin’ Up! markers in the Bold Brights family. Then I used a background stamp from SU!’s set Itty Bitty Backgrounds to make the speckles. I mounted it on Real Red, added the black gingham ribbon, then mounted it on black. I wanted to do a little different scoring, so this was what I came up with. I used a border stamp to add the lines. The sentiment is from Stampendous.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

"Tag Time" Birthday

How about a super-simple card for today?

For this card, I used a stamp from a Stampin’ Up! set called Tag Time. I stamped the stamp on white cardstock, and then stamped the balloons on three different colors of cardstock – last year’s In Colors – Buckaroo Blue, Blue Bayou and Wild Wasabi. I colored the balloons with a white gel pen, a silver gel pen, and a blue sparkly pen, then cut them out carefully. I mounted them on Pop Dots and attached them to the base image. I matted the image on a piece of Buckaroo Blue cardstock. I used a Square Nestability to emboss the frame on the card front. The cardstock I used for the card is from PaperTrey Ink. It’s so nice and thick and embosses so crisply. It’s great, especially for Clean and Simple cards.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Birthday Wishes Times Two

I’m kind of on a paper-piercing kick, so here are a couple more cards with piercing. I’ll just upload them in one blog post, since they use the same stamps.

For both cards, I used the flower stamp from Stampin’ Up!’s Tag Time. I used SU! markers to color them, then stamped. The Birthday Wishes sentiment is from another SU! set called Sincere Salutations – one of my very favorite SU! sets. I liked the way it fit into the flowers, and that’s why I decided to do a second card using them. The butterfly is stamped on SU!’s vellum cardstock with Versamark, embossed with white detail embossing powder, and carefully cut out. The wings are bent up, and the butterfly is adhered with a strip cut from Pop Dots “scraps.” (I always use the parts around the Pop Dots, too. Do you? Just curious!) I saw someone pierce the corners this way and I liked it. The bottom layer is embossed with a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder.
On the second card - which I did first :) - I also added some color to the flowers with chalk. Not much more to it – just Scor-Pal, piercing and matting.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Happy Birthday, Nancy!

Today’s card is a birthday card for a friend in my Yahoo! group. It was her birthday on Tuesday. She reads my blog every day, but I know she has already received it so I’m safe to show it here! Happy Birthday again, Nancy!

The background on this card was done using the “Negative Effect” technique. This was a challenge on SplitCoastStampers a while back. Here is a link to that challenge. I brayered Versamark on to my Diamonds in the Rough Cuttlebug folder – on the top side of it, the side with the writing on. Then I embossed my cardstock with the folder as normal. After it was embossed, I sprinkled it with Star Dust embossing powder and heat embossed it. Voila – white diamonds with a shimmery silver background. (I did a card about a month ago – this one – using the same technique, but putting the Versamark on the opposite side of the folder. I like that, too, but that’s much harder to keep the Versamark only on the raised areas. I had LOTS of embossing powder to try to brush off from where I didn’t want it.) Anyway, that’s about all there is to this card. The embossed panel is mounted on shimmery pink and silver papers, a ribbon added and then a tag added. The two tag layers are cut with a Sizzlits die, stamped with Versamark and embossed with silver embossing powder, a silver eyelet added and some silver cord to attach it to the ribbon.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

SCS Color Challenge - Birthday

Another SplitCoastStampers Color Challenge card for today. This one is #208 and you can find the link here. The colors are Kiwi Kiss, Pink Passion and Chocolate Chip.

I'd been playing with this stamp a little bit, and it was out on my table, so I thought I’d give it a try. It's by Anna Griffin. (I had been using Old Olive, Cameo Coral and Creamy Caramel, previously. I did finish a card with those colors that I will be posting soon.) I colored the stamp with markers - Old Olive, Pink Passion and Chocolate Chip. After stamping it, I used a blender pen to spread the color a little bit to the white areas. I used Rectangle Nestabilities to cut the image and the mattings. I embossed the bottom layer with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and I sponged Kiwi Kiss on the edges. The 'frame' on the card front was embossed with a Nestability, also. I thought I was going to actually make a card without using my Scor-Pal, but I couldn't do it! It just looked a little too 'top-heavy' without the little trim piece of Kiwi Kiss and scoring on the bottom. The sentiment is from a retired Stampin’ Up! set called All Occasions and I used Chocolate Chip to stamp it.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

Clean and Simple Challenge #4

Today’s card was made for this week’s Clean and Simple Challenge #4 – to use pierced dots or dots done with a marker.

I’m running a little short of time (almost forgot to upload here today!) so this will be really quick! The piercing is done using a brass template. The lattice is done with a Cuttlebug die, the stamp is by Hero Arts and I stamped it in Stampin’ Up!’s Pacific Point. The card base is Papertrey Ink’s Stamper’s Select and the soft blue is Baja Breeze. The scoring is done with my Scor-Pal. That’s about it!

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

"Beary Best" Birthday

I was looking through my stamps to try to find something I could “paper piece.” I really don’t have that many I can use! I did find this retired Stampin’ Up! set that had a small area I could piece.

The set is called Beary Best. I stamped it on white, then again on a lightly patterned blue paper from a Sizzix pad. I colored the white image with SU! markers in the Earth Elements family. Some things you can’t see in the picture (even though I tried REALLY hard to get a picture of them) are the glitter pen on the water and the bees (I should have only done their wings, but "in real life" you can still see the yellow under the glitter pen), the clear glaze pen on the flowers, and the black glaze pen for her nose and eye. Then I cut her dress out of the blue and adhered it. OK – here’s an example of “improvising!” Or putting the principle “There are no mistakes. Only opportunities for improvement” (or whatever that saying is supposed to be!!) I planned on centering my image on the Labels One Nestability. But somehow – I didn’t! Luckily it was still straight, and I was able to add the Old Olive ribbon. Perfect! Just like that’s how I wanted it all along. :) The dotted paper is from DCWV Nana’s Nursery – Girl and the plain layer cut with the Labels One is Cameo Coral. The Happy Birthday is from another retired SU! set called All Occasions. I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement. I love using little strips of patterned paper and my Scor-pal for added interest and color.

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!

March Calendar Page

Well, it’s the First of the month already! That means it’s time for another calendar page.

Not much to this one, but what else is new! The hat is a Studio G wooden stamp from a friend. (Thanks, Anne!) I paper pieced it, colored the band black, the shamrock green and the buckle silver. The shamrock/good luck stamp is from a Stampin’ Up! set called Tag Time. Happy March to you all!

Thanks so much for looking, and I hope you’ll come back and visit again soon!