Clean & Simple Layout Challenge

Today’s card is for Natasha Trupp’s “Fall-to Layout” challenge #38. Her blog is called Clean & Simple Stamping.

Both of the stamps I used are from a clear set by Stampendous. I stamped the image with Versafine Onyx Black ink on PaperTrey Ink’s Stamper's Select white cardstock. I colored it with Prismacolor pencils and blended with Gamsol. I stamped the image on scratch paper, cut out the image rectangle, and used it to mask off the area outside the image. I then dabbed a Versamark pad over the colored image and embossed it with Iridescent Sparkle embossing powder. Then I used Versamark on it again and embossed it with Deep Impressions embossing powder. I wish you could see the sparkle better, but I’m including a close-up so you can see it closer. I didn’t have a button the right color, and I’m not sure a button would have been the right embellishment, anyway. So I used a little “bling.”

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

CAS Challenge - Monochromatic Card

Today’s card was for the Clean and Simple Challenge on SplitCoastStampers - make a monochromatic card. Fun!!

I actually made a few of them. For this one I used a Romance wheel from Stampin’ Up! and Vintage Violet ink. The sentiment is from Stampin’ Up!’s Oval All, from the new Occasions Mini catalog, also stamped with Vintage Violet and cut with a Petite Oval Nestability. The mats are Vintage Violet.

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

SCS Ways to Use it Challenge - with Edgeabilities

Another SplitCoastStampers challenge card – the Ways to Use It challenge, this week to use a frame of some sort. It was inspired by Deb (who was asking me questions about Edgeabilities and just uploaded a beautiful project) and Harriet (whose immediate reaction to the “frame” challenge was to use Edgeabilities.) So, here’s mine.

I used Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select white cardstock to emboss my daisies. (I’ve had a few questions on embossing Edgeabilities. They are the only thing I emboss with my BIGkick that I have to add extra pieces of cardstock to, to make the embossing deep enough.) I colored them with chalk. I know Spellbinders suggests leaving the die in place while coloring, but I prefer to remove the die before carefully coloring. The sympathy stamp is from Paper Inspirations, and I stamped it with Baja Breeze on Soft Sky. The trim piece on the bottom is also Soft Sky, and I embossed it with a Cuttlebug border folder. The daisies towards the bottom of the card are on Pop Dots.

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

Sewing Tool Becomes a Stamping Tool :)

I read somewhere (can’t remember where!) about using a tracing wheel to make a cool pattern on paper. Then a friend reminded me of this (thanks Anne!), so I thought I would give it a try. Here is my second result. Heck, I guess I’ll add the first one, too!

For this card, I did the lines in a diagonal grid and put the “bumpiest” side up – the “wrong” side. I mounted it on Tangerine Tango – one of Stampin’ Up!’s “In Colors.” The butterflies are from a pack by Studio 18 that I got at Michael’s in the dollar section. The sentiment is from Stampin’ Up!’s set called All Occasions. The strip towards the bottom is just a scrap from trimming the main image matting.

For this card, I made squares instead of diamonds, and I mounted it right-side (smoother side) up. The flower stickers are from the same Studio 18 pack and the matting is Soft Sky. I also added some scoring with my Scor-Pal. A little story about the sentiment. I had the card all done and didn’t want to mess it up by stamping the sentiment crooked, so I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig. I stamped on the plastic with Soft Sky, but it wasn’t very easy to see. So, I grabbed a darker color. I stamped it off really well (or so I thought!) before I inked it up with Soft Sky, but when I stamped on the card, it turned out kind of purple. Drat!!! So, I just tried stamping the Soft Sky a little off from the “purple” for kind of a shadow effect. Not what I wanted, but I didn’t want to scrap the whole card because of it! If it really bothers me later, I will stamp it on a separate piece of cardstock and use Pop Dots to mount it over the current stamping.

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

SCS Color Challenge - Warm Wishes

This card was made for Color Challenge #214 on SplitCoastStampers (Bordering Blue, Pink Pirouette and So Saffron) and Natasha's Fall-To Layout #37.

Not much explanation necessary. The flowers are from the wedding section at Michael's and are colored with Stampin' Up! markers - using Pretty in Pink in place of Pink Pirouette. I highly recommend them – they color beautifully with markers and therefore perfectly match anything you make! The border punch is by Martha Stewart and the sentiment is from Stampin’ Up!’s Beautiful Borders set. I used a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and my Scor-Pal. I also sponged a little Bordering Blue on the edge of the sentiment panel and added pearls to the flower centers.

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

Three More Bleach-Stamped Cards

Three cards – one picture. (Please click on the picture to see the cards larger.)

I liked the bleaching/scorching so well, I made three more cards using it! From left to right:
I used Stampin’ Up!’s Chocolate Chip cardstock to stamp on. I used the oak leaves from Lovely as a Tree and stamped with bleach. Then I heated it up with a heat gun. No scorching necessary for this one. I also dragged the edges in the bleach. For the second one, I used Glorious Green. For this one, I stamped with bleach and then heated it until it scorched. The leaves are punched with a Tonic punch. The border is punched with a Martha Stewart punch. The third one is stamped on Close to Cocoa and again scorched and matted on Creamy Caramel. The sentiment on all three is by Stampendous.

For the “wood-grained” paper, this is my method. I started with More Mustard cardstock. I dragged an ivory pigment ink pad over it. I used a “Wood” Fiskars texture plate and brayered Close to Cocoa ink on it. Then I embossed it with my BIGkick. Voila! One piece was enough for all three cards. I like that the texture plates are larger than the Cuttlebug folders.

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

Clear and Simple Stamps Challenge

I thought I should make another card with the stamp set I won from Clear and Simple Stamps for their paper-piecing challenge. And this time I actually did the challenge – using spring paper.

The dress is from paper by Sizzix. The belt and the mats are from Die Cuts With a View Citrus Matstack. The image and mat are cut with Long Oval Nestabilities. I colored her with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. I sponged Barely Banana ink over the image while the Nestability was still in place – leaving a white border around the edge. I added some black dots with a gel pen. The sentiment is from Stampendous.

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

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter to All!

I don’t send out Easter cards, but I wanted to make one for YOU - my blog readers. :) Of course it’s a Clean and Simple one. The bunny is stamped on white and then on the patterned paper (from a Sizzix pad.) I cut him out of the patterned paper and adhered him to the white. I used my Labels One Nestabilities to cut him out, then trimmed down the left side. I sponged some Bliss Blue on the edges, and then sponged Barely Banana over most of the rest. I used a black gel pen to draw dashed lines around the edge of the patterned matting – to match the bunny. I added a few scored lines done with my Scor-Pal and stamped the sentiment. The bunny is from Sandylion and the sentiment is by Inkadinkado.

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

Bleached and "Scorched!"

I have two cards to share with you today – both using the same stamp and the same technique.

I like using bleach, but I don’t do it very often. I was trying to come up with a card for my dad – not really all that easy! I thought using bleach on the oak tree from Stampin’ Up!’s set Lovely as a Tree might be a good idea. Using bleach on colored paper gives so many different results – you never know what color you will end up with! However, the two colors I chose – Close to Cocoa and Gable Green – both turned white. How boring! So, I remembered what happened a long time ago when I overheated the bleach – it sort of scorched. I used my heat gun on the bleached images until they started turning brown. I really like the results.

The first card is the one for my dad. The background paper is from a Die Cuts With a View Summer Matstack. I mounted my image on Close to Cocoa. The sentiment is from Stampendous. I stamped it with Versamark and Chocolate Chip ink an embossed it with clear embossing powder and mounted it on Close to Cocoa. The leaves are punched with a Tonic punch from Green Gable and sponged with Close to Cocoa. The edges of the image are also sponged with Close to Cocoa. The three leaves on the right are mounted with Pop Dot pieces.
For the second card, I matted the image with Creamy Caramel. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink’s Mixed Messages, stamped with Close to Cocoa ink. The lines are scored with my Scor-Pal.

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

Bright Flowers To Cheer You

I tried resisting this stamp set by Stampendous at Michael's, but I couldn’t do it. :)

As usual, I used Versafine Onyx Black to stamp the image, and I colored it with Stampin’ Up! markers from the Bold Brights family. I tried something I hadn’t done, and I think it helped. After I colored the flowers, I thought I would use the SU! blender pen to try to smooth out the lines. It seemed to remove the marker somewhat, which is not what I wanted. But, when I then colored over it again, the color went on really nicely with no marker lines showing. Pretty cool, I thought. The image and mat are cut using rectangle Nestabilities. The right side is embossed with a Fiskars texture plate. The ribbon doesn’t match exactly, but in real life it’s a lot closer than it looks in the picture! The smallest flowers in the main image and the flowers in the lower left have pearl centers.

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

Super Clean and Simple

I just got a couple new Stampin’ Up! sets last week while we were gone, so I was eager to use them. The tree is from a new set called Forest Friends. It is in the new Occasions Mini catalog.

I first inked up the tree with a Certainly Celery ink pad, then took a Chocolate Chip marker and colored the trunk and branches. I sponged the edges of the square with Chocolate Chip ink and adhered it to the cardstock. The sentiment is from SU!’s Beautiful Borders and is also stamped with Chocolate Chip. I just love the clean, simple look of lots of white!

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

Baby Congrats Challenge Card

Another double challenge card for today.

I started making it using today’s Sketch Challenge on SplitCoastStampers, then realized the colors from yesterday’s Color Challenge were perfect for it. The colors are Close to Cocoa, So Saffron and Bashful Blue – but I used Bliss Blue. The giraffe image is by Imaginisce and the Baby Congrats are from Studio G. I colored them with Stampin’ Up! markers and matted with coordinating SU! cardstock. I embossed the long panel with a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and sponged it lightly with Bliss Blue. The image panel is mounted on Pop Dots.

On a personal note, we went to Chicago to visit our daughter, son-in-law and grandson over the weekend. That was awesome. We took Amtrak again – it’s so nice to not have to drive. And then Monday night I went to spend the night with my parents and go with my dad to a doctor appointment yesterday. He has some more cancer, but had great news yesterday. They had seen something suspicious on his lung in a chest X-ray, but a PET scan showed nothing. And, assuming they get all the cancer removed at his next surgery which is scheduled for the 23rd, he will need no follow-up treatment. Yahoo!

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

Blog Candy Winner and Guest Designer!

About four weeks ago, I was a lucky winner of some blog candy from Clear and Simple Stamps. I won a set of stamps through Beth’s Blog – Never Too Old to Color. The set I won is called Glamour Darling. I also get to be a Guest Designer for Clear and Simple Stamps this month!

So, here is the card I made with this set. I stamped the image on a piece of Papertrey Ink Stamper’s Select white cardstock, and again on a patterned piece from a Sizzix matstack. I cut the dresses out of the patterned paper. The belt is pieced with gold. I colored her face and hair with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. The “brads” on her belt and the upper right of the card are from the beading department of Michael’s and are called “studs.” I traced the mirror on to a piece of acetate and cut it out and glued it on to the image. I mounted the image on gold shimmery paper and then covered the card front with Sizzix paper to match her dress. The sentiment is from the same set. I cut and embossed it with a Petite Oval Nestability. The matting is cut with a Scalloped Petite Oval Nestability and mounted on Pop Dots.

The first Tuesday of each month, Clear and Simple Stamps has a challenge. Here is the info for this month’s challenge:

Spring Fever

"Are you ready for Spring? It's time for another Take The Challenge Tuesday with Clear & Simple Stamps. This month's challenge is called "Spring Fever". Get out your spring patterned paper and let's get paper piecing. The challenge this month is to make a Spring creation using the paper piecing technique."

(In my own defense – I already had this card done and sent to them before the challenge was announced, so that’s why my paper-piecing is not a “Spring” pattern.:) )

I also get to show you a “Sneak Peak” of some of their new sets – how cool is that??

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

SCS Ways To Use It Challenge - Stickers

This card may not have arrived yet, either, so no personal wishes this time.

I made this card for a Ways to Use It Challenge (#210) on SplitCoastStampers a couple weeks ago. The challenge was to use stickers. The butterfly sticker is by Studio 18 and I purchased it at Michael’s recently. I used Oval and Long Oval Nestabilities to cut all the oval mats. The colors are Stampin’ Up!’s Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss and Rose Red – I chose them to match the sticker. I used my Swiss Dots CB folder for the Kiwi Kiss layer, and Kiwi Kiss ink for the sentiment, which is by Studio G.

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

Citrus-y Birthday Wishes

Another birthday card for a friend. I can’t say who, because it may not have arrived yet:)

I got a new stack of paper at Michael’s and was eager to use it. It’s by Die Cuts With a View and it’s called “Citrus.” The flower layer is from this pad, and so is the yellow strip. I embossed the yellow strip with a Cuttlebug border folder. The white is embossed with a Fiskars texture plate called “Leaves.” The sentiment is from a Stampin’ Up! set called All Occasions. I embossed around it with a Nestability, and matted it with the same yellow. The butterfly I received from a friend. I just realized this is very much a “card parts” card – the leaves were already embossed, the sentiment was already stamped and embossed, and the butterfly came to me already stamped on vellum and cut out. How could it possibly have taken as long as it did??? LOL!

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

Grandson Congrats!

Annie, I’m hoping you’ve gotten this by now! Congrats on your new grandson!

This card is a case of one of my own cards, which is a case of this card by Michele Boyer. Is that enough casing for you? LOL! I should have written things down before I mailed it off, but to the best of my recollection – which is questionable some times! – this is how I made it. The bottom layer is Blue Bayou from Stampin’ Up! The other papers are from Die Cuts With a View Nana’s Nursery – Boy. The Congratulations is from an SU! set called All Year Cheer I. I stamped it with Blue Bayou and embossed with Kaleidoscope embossing powder. The 'brads' are actually from the jewelry department at Michael's and are called 'studs.' The 'charm' is a Studio G stamp stamped on Shrinky Dink and shrunk. I punched the hole for the ribbon before heating, then added ribbon. Shrinky Dink works really well with a heat gun and makes awesome embellishments. (Thanks for reminding me to use it, Harriet!)

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

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!