The Diva Stamper

Apothecary Elements

2012-01-28T05:00:00.033-05:00

Welcome to my second week of hosting the challenges at Our Creative Corner! This week I have a sketch for you. I came up with this sketch a long time ago based on the label of a box of bakery muffins from Walmart. See, you never know where you might find inspiration!

I combined my card with two other challenges: SU Only (use your favorite product from the Occasions mini) and the Color Throwdown (Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Rose Red).

I actually have several Occasions mini favorite products on this card: the stamp sets Apothecary Art and Creative Elements; the Framelits dies; and the large pearls. I stamped all over the Crumb Cake DP with the swirly stamp from Creative Elements and also used the label image from that stamp set. For the Pool Party DP die-cut label, I inked just the outline of the journaling stamp with a marker, then using the Stamp-a-ma-jig, I added the flowers on the top and bottom of the label. The circles on the sketch became my medallions, which I made with the triple doily punch, the bitty flower punch, and the aforementioned pearls. FYI, the size of the background scalloped square is 5 3/16".

I've had fun hosting these two challenges, and I hope you have fun playing along with this sketch! Have a wonderful weekend!

Birthday Beauty

2012-01-21T05:00:00.045-05:00

Wow, another Saturday - that means another challenge at Our Creative Corner! I get the privilege of being the hostess for the next two weeks, and this week I have my favorite: an inspiration challenge. I found this gorgeous baby shower table at the Hostess with the Mostess blog. The challenge is to find at least two elements in the photo to inspire your project, and as a bonus you can give it a baby theme if you wish.

This card is doing double duty as a stamp club project, so I elected not to make it a baby card. The background technique is called faux tile, which I was inspired to teach my club after seeing this card. I didn't end up CASEing Lynn's gorgeous card but instead went a different direction so I could showcase some new products from the Occasions mini.

This is a 5 1/4" square card. The main image comes from the fabulous stamp set Apothecary Art and the new Framelits labels. I took my colors from the inspiration photo: Pool Party, Calypso Coral, Pear Pizazz, and Early Espresso. I thought the flowers in the image echoed the floral elements on the shower table. For accents I chose coral ribbon (which is also on the table in the photo) and a larger label of pear DP. To give the green just a little definition against the blue background, I edged the DP with espresso marker. The tile background is a 5" square of Pool Party card stock, scored into 1 1/4" squares, stamped with the SAB set Fresh Vintage, and sponged across the score lines for definition. Finally I incorporated the rhinestones that appear in the background of the photo as center accents for the flowers.

OK, that's it from me - I hope you enjoy this challenge and come play along with us! Be sure you check out what the rest of the team has created as well, and have a wonderful weekend!

Birdhouse Birthday

2012-01-20T11:10:00.000-05:00

My new stamp club is starting up this weekend, which means I get to stamp more than once this week! LOL! I always like to have my stampers play with new stuff, and this card fits the bill. It's a CASE of this card by Mary Fish, which I just loved and thought could easily work for any occasion. I'm also entering this card in the paper piercing challenge at the Friday Mashup.

The colors I chose are Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip. The main image is from the hostess set Up in the Air, which is in the Occasions mini. Also in the Occasions mini is the pleated ribbon - this stuff is gorgeous - as well as the Edgelit die which created the scallop border. I used the Christmas stamp from Perfect Punches but covered the sentiment with one from Up, Up & Away. The embossed polka dots and paper piercing finish off this fun card.

I'll be back tomorrow with my OCC card for this week! Thanks for stopping by!

Baby Birthday Cake

2012-01-14T05:00:00.010-05:00

It's the weekend again - time for another challenge at Our Creative Corner! Our hostess again this week is Vicki Burdick, and this time around she wants us to use paper piecing. So here is my card - the papers are supposedly baby themed but I thought they would be really cute for a birthday. The challenge requirements also state: NO ribbon and ONE embellishment. I interpreted that to be one TYPE of embellishment, so I hope I didn't break the rules...

This card uses some non-SU product (stamp by Savvy Stamps, DP by Simple Stories - Baby Cakes, border die by PTI). The 2 1/2" circle punch and pennant die provide my cut-out shapes, and I added some sparkle with my glitter pen. The embellishment(s): retired pink buttons tied with linen thread. The sentiment is from Bring on the Cake, and to pretty up the end of my banner I stuck it into the decorative label punch to get a funky edge.

Be sure you check out all the creations by our team members for this week's challenge, and while you're at the OCC blog, submit your favorite recent creation for our design team call! We are looking for some new talent to join us and it could be you!

Happy new year!

2012-01-07T05:00:00.012-05:00

Oh my gosh - such a long time since I've blogged and stamped. I'm happy to say that I'm back from my break with the fabulous team at Our Creative Corner. When it came time to make my card for this week's challenge, I felt quite out of prractice. Vicki Burdick has challenged us to make a shape card, and after a little hunting online I decided to make this matryoshka (Russian doll) card. The template is printable - plus there are lots more to choose from so you can play along with us! Since this is a birthday card I'm also entering it in the Friday Mashup birthday challenge.

I decided to feature the gorgeous stamp set that's part of the Sale-a-Bration offerings called Fresh Vintage and the matching DP, Everyday Enchantment. I love these two products so, so much. The colors I used all come from the DP: Pool Party, Poppy Parade, Very Vanilla and Soft Suede. Mostly I got my shapes from the template, but I did use some Big Shot/punched circles (cupcake punch, owl punch, circles #2 die). The border at the bottom uses one of the edge dies that's available in the Occasions mini. I stamped the flower then used leaves cut from the DP and placed the whole thing onto the embossed oval frame with a sentiment from Easy Events. (The flower in her hair is also cut from the DP - this card required a lot of cutting and glueing!)

I had fun with this - it's a great challenge to try something you've never done before. I know someone with a large collection of these dolls so I should save this one for her birthday! Please join in the fun with us and try out the challenge - I don't think you'll regret it. And be sure you see the rest of the wonderful shape creations from the design team!

If you haven't noticed...

2011-12-14T16:20:00.000-05:00

I'm taking a little break from blogging. The busy-ness of life was getting away from me, so with preparing for the holidays I decided I needed a little time off. I plan to be back posting in January. I hope everyone has a blessed holiday season and a happy new year! See you in 2012!

O Christmas tree...

2011-11-26T05:00:00.002-05:00

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving - and we're moving on to Christmas with this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner! Our hostess this week is Wendy Janson and she has challenged us to make a card with a Christmas tree. My card for today is another one for my Christmas card buffet - it's a CASE of this card, which I thought was really cute. The card buffet stampers loved it too, so thanks to Debra Currier for the inspiration!

I wanted to introduce my stampers to the pennant punch and stamp set, and what better way than through an adorable Christmas card. It's a quite simple card - the cute snowflake embossing folder, Cherry Cobbler, Lucky Limeade and Soft Suede card stock (plus naturals white for stamping), DP from the Simply Scrappin' kit in the holiday mini, and the tree image with a sentiment from Perfect Pairs. If you are wondering what I used to make my scalloped "circle" it's actually two of the big flower on the Island Floral die, overlaid to make a circle. I like to get creative with my tools for card buffets so I don't have to use anything on more than one card, so this was my way of using a die I wouldn't have otherwise used at Christmas.

That's it for me this week - I still have more card buffet cards to show you and I hope I get time to do just that in the coming week! I hope you'll join in and make a Christmas tree card with us this week and be sure you take a peek at what the rest of the designers on our team came up with. I'm sure it will put you in the holiday spirit!

Gold and Blue Christmas

2011-11-19T05:00:00.007-05:00

I'm back as promised with another card for my Christmas card buffet. This one is for the challenge this weekend at Our Creative Corner, which is an inspiration challenge:

The elements I chose to incorporate from this picture are the patterned tablecloth, the cream background, the golden bird on the table, and the pops of blue and black. This is what I came up with:

I started by cutting out the lattice (twice) with the Big Shot - it's tone-on-tone Very Vanilla. It takes two lattice cutouts to cover the card base, but you only need the end of one of them. I wrapped gold cord (retired, shh) around the panel and then put my bird in the center. You may not be able to tell but I used the Bright Hopes stamp set for the gold embossing. The tree image is large enough that you can stamp and emboss and then punch out the elements from the black and Pacific Point card stock. I used three of the branches and then added the gold berries. I made these by taking the Versamark pad straight to the vanilla card stock, embossing the whole thing gold, and punching them out with the dots on the cupcake punch - you can also use gold card stock. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and is punched with the word window and modern label punches. That's it! I like the clean design, and I didn't want to add anything else because it does take some time to assemble all the punched pieces.

I'm going to get back to work churning out those card designs - thanks for stopping by today, and don't forget to visit the OCC blog to see the inspired creations from the rest of our wonderful team!

It's that time of year...

2011-11-16T15:33:00.000-05:00

Christmas card buffet time! I am actually doing the buffet twice this year, but with the same 10 cards, and *blush* I'm going to be CASEing a lot. Here's the first one, which is a CASE but one that I played around with some. The original card was shown at the Louisville regional and posted by Linda Heller (among others I'm sure). Here is my version, using the Paper Players color challenge of Always Artichoke, River Rock and Riding Hood Red:

I love that we now have a tool for making easy scored backgrounds! I used 1/2" score lines and sponged the River Rock panel with artichoke ink. Actually I sponged everything, LOL. Once you start it's hard to stop! The image from Bells & Boughs was colored with blender pen and reinkers so I could shade a little bit. I used one of the circles from the Pennant die for the layer behind my image. The rest of the card is pretty simple: a sentiment from Four the Holidays, vanilla and artichoke layers, RHR card base, three gold brads, and some artichoke seam binding.

I promise to show you another card buffet offering with my OCC challenge on Saturday. I can't guarantee I will make it back this week to post any of the others, but I will try! Thanks for visiting!

Real Basic Pumpkin Pie

2011-11-15T09:07:00.000-05:00

No, this isn't a cooking blog - you are in the right place! For the challenge this week at Our Creative Corner our hostess Wendy Janson asked us to feature pumpkins or the color Pumpkin Pie. I pulled out my Color Coach and found this cool combo of Pumpkin Pie, Real Red and Basic Gray. I tried to make the PP the main color, I really did, but I don't think it quite comes across that way. Oops! I should have known that the red would want to jump out, but I didn't have time to switch any elements around. The fun layout comes from the Mojo Monday sketch for this week.

I decided to put my sentiment in the rectangle spot and chose a large one that could pull that off. It's from the hostess set Happiest Birthday Wishes. I colored it with markers then added a rhinestone (colored with a Sharpie) for the dot on the I. The designer paper is Real Red and retired Pumpkin Pie. My flower is 8 layers if you count the rhinestone - I used the Blossom Party die and another flower die that was in a mini and I'm blanking on the name of it... sorry! The plain white background features the Elegant Bouquet embossing folder, and to anchor the bottom of the card I added three (retired) PP buttons with more colored rhinestones glued to the centers.

Mmm, now I'm thinking about pumpkin pie. Thanksgiving is not far off! I hope you'll get in on our early celebration and pull out your pumpkins this week! Be sure you also visit the OCC blog to see what the rest of the team came up with!

Is Razzleberry manly?

2011-11-05T05:00:00.001-04:00

Not a question I ever thought I might ask, but there you go! This week for the challenge at Our Creative Corner, our hostess Tui Nathan asked us to make a masculine card - and if we were up to the challenge, to make a masculine card using nonmasculine colors. I wanted to give it an honest try, even though I admit - it was difficult and I'm not sure I succeeded! Tell me what you think...

Yeah, I don't think this would pass the masculine test in my house. I feel like I've seen other cards tagged as masculine that were more feminine than this, though! Well, this is my card and I'm going with it. I used generation stamping to create the leaf panel with this image from Just Believe. The sentiment is PTI. I made my little tabs for the jumbo brads with the modern label punch, and the designer paper in the background is Early Espresso (stripe) and the razzleberry print from Pocketful of Posies. Add some sponging on the edges and that was that! I do like the card, even if it's not too manly, LOL!

We hope you will take on our challenge - try those nonmasculine colors out and see what you come up with! Be sure you also visit the OCC blog to see the rest of the creations from our team!

Where to start...

2011-10-29T05:00:00.001-04:00

The last two weeks have been so crazy - I don't think I can even go into everything that's been going on. A little travel that included a hotel fire (a very small one, but at 4 a.m. any fire in your hotel is unwelcome)... some sickness for me and my kids... well, let's just say I wasn't doing any stamping. But I'm back this week for the challenge at Our Creative Corner. Our hostess this time around is Tui Nathan, and she is asking us to make a fancy fold card. This is not really my thing, usually - I like them when I'm done, but I don't seek them out to make very often. I hope this one qualifies as fancy enough - with the week I've had I wasn't up for taxing my brain cells too much! LOL!

This card is a trifold pocket card, which is super easy thanks to Beate's great tutorial on SCS. The main part of the card uses a panel of Spice Cake designer paper - can you believe I hadn't cut into this paper yet? That's how busy I have been! I used the double scallop border punch to make all the little scallop borders - just trim the punched piece in half. Also appearing here for the first time - the Triple Treat Flower. I love images that go with punches, especially since you can stamp the same flower and use three different punches with it. So cool! The colors come from the DP: Soft Suede, Pool Party and More Mustard. The largest flower comes from the Island Floral die, and for a little more texture I embossed it with the Finial Press folder. Then I took the sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes and stamped it onto the banner that comes with the Petal Cone die.

I'm not usually an inside-the-card kind of stamper, but this one kind of requires it since it includes the panel you pull out of the pocket. I decided not to stamp on it, just leave most of it blank for the message, but I did add the DP to the bottom and the Pool Party/More Mustard ribbon and button to the top.

What's your favorite fancy fold? You can do what I did and check out other tutorials on Splitcoast - there are a bunch. I hope you'll give one and try and share the results with us! And be sure you take a peek at all the cards from our wonderful team this week!

Wisteria for You

2011-10-15T05:00:00.004-04:00

Wow, Saturday again already? These weeks are flying by! Our hostess at Our Creative Corner this week is Marjie Kemper, and she is challenging us to use transparencies. I was a little stumped - it's not a product I usually reach for, but I did happen to have a retired SU transparency with black polka dots that I think I put to good use on this card.

I started by cutting out the transparency flower with the Big Shot. I layered it over Whisper White to make the dots pop. The leaves were cut with the Build a Blossom punch from Lucky Limeade cardstock I'd embossed with the lattice folder. The Wisteria Wonder flower center is punched from the lace border punch - the 3/4" circle fits the center of the punch's design perfectly. (I saw this on someone's blog recently but I don't remember who it was!) I brought in more doilies with this wisteria DP from the Flirtatious pack, and I repeated the lattice embossing on the white background panel. Finally the sentiment is from the retired set Great Friend, and under the words I stamped (third generation) the branch from the same set, then added a bitty wisteria flower and a couple rhinestones for a touch of bling. I think it turned out really cute!

I hope you'll play along with our challenge this week - we always have a great time bringing the challenges to you and love to see what you come up with! Have a great weekend!

Simple Soft Birthday

2011-10-08T05:00:00.000-04:00

Greetings! I hope your weekend is starting off well - and glad you're starting your Saturday here! This week I'm the hostess for the Our Creative Corner challenge again, and I have a color challenge for you: Pool Party, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Cajun Craze, plus a light neutral. I wanted a combination that would make pretty fall cards, but use it for anything that strikes your fancy!

I went through my stamps looking for a set I hadn't used yet, and I picked the hostess set Simply Soft. This is a really pretty two-step set, and I added extra color to the leaves and stamens (is that the right word?) with markers. I added a little border punch to the left, plus some piercing and a sentiment from Perfect Pairs. The ribbon is from my stash but looks just like Cajun Craze, and the DP comes from the Domestic Goddess paper pack. It's a beautiful subtle pattern, which is just what I wanted here. Finally I ran the bottom of the card base through the Big Shot with the polka dot embossing folder and this CAS card was finished!

I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with for these colors, so please join in the challenge and be sure you leave some love for the other DT members with their gorgeous creations!

From Korea with Love

2011-10-01T05:00:00.006-04:00

Greetings on another Saturday - time for this week's Our Creative Corner challenge. This week the hostess is... me! Since today is World Card Making Day, the challenge I planned is to make a card inspired by a country other than your own. I hope you'll play along!

The country I chose is Korea. Way back in 1993 (wow, almost 20 years ago!) I spent three months living in Taegu (or I believe the spelling "Daegu" is more common now) on an exchange with Yeungnam University. It was a wonderful experience. One of my favorite memories is of the cherry blossoms we got to see all over the city, since we were lucky enough to be there for spring. The university has a special place that everyone calls "Love Road" - it's lined with cherry trees, and if you walk there with your significant other while the trees are blooming, it's supposed to mean you'll get married. I didn't test out that theory, LOL, but I did find it really beautiful. I wanted to share a photo but I can't find my Korea photo album - argh! It's around here somewhere!

Anyway, I decided to make a "love" card with one of my all-time favorite stamps. I can't remember the name of this long-retired hostess set, but I will never part with this stamp. I did a couple other challenges with this card - Freshly Made Sketches (OK, I did fiddle with the sketch significantly...) and the Color Throwdown. The colors this week were Calypso Coral, Poppy Parade, Lucky Limeade and Chocolate Chip. The flower centers are colored with the poppy marker - that's all the poppy that made it onto the card! I just couldn't see a good way to add more. I used the Elegant Lines embossing folder for the background and the heart punch and Embosslit for my shape accent, along with a Chocolate Chip button. The sentiment is from another old set - Many Happy Returns. Oh, and if you're wondering how I did the corners on my tag, I slid them into the decorative label punch to make that little scallop-like detail.

Come over to the OCC blog to see what the rest of the team made - and then put your thinking cap on, get out your atlas, or just raid your stamps and play along with us!

Birthday Princess

2011-09-24T05:00:00.000-04:00

It's Saturday again - Our Creative Corner time! This week Sharon has a number challenge for us - use a number prominently on your project. I dithered around and finally decided to do a birthday scrapbook page with My Digital Studio.

One of my favorite features of MDS is that you can choose colors from your photo to make everything coordinate. I picked up the pink from the crown for lots of accents and the purple from Sarah's dress for the background. I also use the opacity setting a lot - I lightened the purple quite a bit, then used it again for the toile overlay stamp. The result looks like subtle patterned paper.

I hope you'll play along with our numbers challenge this week - get creative with it and share the result with us! And don't forget to visit the OCC blog to see what the rest of the team came up with!

Together Forever

2011-09-21T10:56:00.000-04:00

Every year my anniversary rolls around and although I never forget the day, I often realize at the last minute that I haven't made a card. Giving thoughtful cards is something that's very important to my husband and me, so I'm proud of myself for being two days early this year! My card is for four challenges: SCS sketch challenge, SUO Challenges (fall colors), Hand Stamped Sentiments (dry embossing) and Friday Mashup (autumn). It has been an awfully long time since I played any challenges and it was so much fun - I hope I can find time to do this again soon.

As the background for the three rectangles I decided to use a page of the Mocha Morning specialty paper. This design is really pretty and shimmery, but I think manly enough for my hubby. For the image I used the leaf from Autumn Days, stamped with Early Espresso on kraft - oops, sorry, Crumb Cake! I wanted the leaves to have a little shimmer of their own, so I rubbed over the images with Log Cabin Smooch Spritz and gold shimmer paint. Tip of the day: Spray the shimmer paint on a paper towel, rub onto scrap paper until most of the color rubs off, then gently rub over the images. It took several tries before I learned how to get a light enough coat of the Smooch. For the shimmer paint I dipped just a corner of my paper towel into the lid of the paint container, dabbed a couple tiny dots of paint onto the image, then spread it out over the image with a clean section of the paper towel.

Once I added the leaves to the rectangles with dimensionals, I was ready for finishing touches. Behind the image I layered Crumb Cake taffeta and Early Espresso grosgrain ribbons over an embossed houndstooth background. The sentiment is a retired single stamp, placed inside one of the images from Four Frames and punched with the decorative label. That lower left corner seemed bare so I added three gold brads and called it done!

Now that this card is finished I have a lot to get to on my to-do list - back to the real (nonstamping) world! Thanks so much for stopping by - have a great day!

Hi! Remember me?

2011-09-17T05:00:00.001-04:00

Hello folks - oh my goodness, the life I've had for the past few weeks. I got a horrible stomach bug that lasted more than a week... including the weekend we were visited by Hurricane Irene (which thankfully wasn't a big deal where we are). Then I had a few days of hanging out with the kids in between the end of summer activities and the start of school. THEN Ben came down with the stomach bug - he was out of it for four days and missed his first three days of second grade. Poor little guy. Finally this week I have the kids in school and I'm trying to dig myself out of the ginormous hole I've been stuck in!

Needless to say, my stamps have been very neglected and I feel like my mojo is on vacation... but I'm trying to get back in the swing of things with the latest challenge at Our Creative Corner. Our hostess this weekend is Sharon Wheet and she has a "not big on pink" challenge: make a pretty card that features blue with only a touch of pink, plus some texture and metal. I combined this with a challenge from a new blog called Freshly Made Sketches. Here's their sketch:

And here's my card:

The main image comes from a gorgeous new Valentine's set in the holiday mini called You Are Loved. I stamped the heart with Versamark on Marina Mist card stock and clear embossed it. The sentiment is from Curly Cute and it's layered on a strip punched with the lace border punch. I used a bunch more layers behind the heart, including a square of Pretty in Pink DP and Night of Navy card stock. The pink velvet ribbon is from my stash and the Pretty in Pink flower was made with the triple blossom punch. I misted six flowers with water, crumpled them up and spread them out to dry, and layered them with an antique brad in the center.

That's it for me today - it feels good to be back, even if I'm not in love with my card. ;) I hope you'll stop by the OCC blog to see what the rest of the team has created - I know it will be fabulous! Then share your own wonderful creation with us this week!

Christmas Poinsettias

2011-08-27T06:14:00.000-04:00

Welcome to another Saturday and another challenge from Our Creative Corner! This week our hostess, Vicki Burdick, has a color challenge for us: Real Red, Basic Gray and Basic Black. A very classy combination that just said "Christmas" to me, so...

Here's what I came up with. This card features a stamp set that will be available in the upcoming Holiday Mini called Pines & Poinsettias. The idea for this card just popped into my head as I was assembling my stamps so I went with it. All of the stamps are from the same set, except the sentiment, which is from Delightful Dozen. I colored the small image with gray and red markers, and stamped the background swirl all over with black. The focal image I stamped twice so I could pop up the flowers. You probably can't see this but I added just little hints of our new liquid glitter called Dazzling Details. The final touch was three punched flowers with gray glimmer brads in the centers.

Ah, I feel the holiday spirit - it'll be here before we know it! I hope you'll play along with these colors and be sure to visit the OCC blog to see the rest of the team's creations. I'm sure you'll be inspired!

Sympathy Flowers

2011-08-20T05:00:00.001-04:00

It's time for another challenge with Our Creative Corner! These weeks just keep flying by. Our hostess for the next two weeks is the fabulous Vicki Burdick, and this week she has a sketch challenge for us.

I looked through my pile of new stamps that hadn't seen ink yet and thought the Field Flowers set would work well with the sketch. If you like elegant, realistic-looking flowers, this stamp set is for you. The flower stem is actually a little bigger than I really wanted the panel to be, so I trimmed it down and positioned the cut-out flowers in such a way that it almost looks like the out of the box technique. The colors are Always Artichoke for the stems, Peach Parfait and Tangerine Tango for the flowers, and Soft Suede and Early Espresso for the flower centers. I inked and distressed the edges on this card and also used the color spritzer for more vintage style. The sentiment comes from Petite Pairs - I love sentiments that fit inside the 1 1/4" punched circle and this one is perfect. I kept the embellishments simple with three (retired) vintage brads.

Okay, you have your challenge - now go make something! :) We always love to see what you come up with. And don't forget to take a look at the rest of the work from our wonderful DT - I'm always in awe of the talented ladies I'm lucky enough to work with at the OCC!

A Cherry on Top

2011-08-13T05:00:00.006-04:00

This week at Our Creative Corner our challenge from Kristin Tierney is to use fruit as a theme. Perfect for summer!

I took my inspiration from the Berry Blossoms designer paper - the colors are Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder, Lucky Limeade and Early Espresso. I've seen lots of people do this kind of layout with the rounded corners - I don't think I had any one card in mind but I thought it would be a cute layout with this paper. Instead of using the matching stamp set I paired it with the cherries from Button Buddies. My embellishments consist of limeade ribbon that I wrapped around and adhered with glue dots and a purple button from my stash, tied with linen thread. The sentiment label is from Lots of Tags - I cut the espresso layer behind it by hand. The sentiment from A Word for You seemed absolutely perfect for this card!

I hope you'll visit the OCC blog to see the creations by the rest of our fabulous team. Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend!

Tax-free weekend!

2011-08-11T10:16:00.000-04:00

We have a special weekend coming up here in Massachusetts - the sales tax holiday. When you make purchases this weekend you don't have to pay sales tax, and that includes Stampin' Up! orders! placed Sat/Sun, Aug. 13-14.

I'm going to offer a little incentive or two for orders placed via my online site on Saturday or Sunday.

(1) Order at least $25 and I will give you one of the new catalogs - which I normally give out for free with a $50 order. You'll get the catalog from me at the end of the month when I'm back from vacation.

(2) Order at least $50 and you can choose an item from a selection of my retired stamps and paper packs (local delivery only, or you can pay the shipping, which is still a great deal!).

(3) I will do a drawing from everyone who orders at least $50 - one lucky winner will get a $10 coupon toward a future order!

Don't forget about the special on designer paper - buy 3 get 1 free! Lots of great papers in our new catalog so stock up now!

Thinking of You Trees

2011-08-06T05:00:00.007-04:00

Another week has flown by and it's Saturday again. Whew! This summer is going by much too quickly. For today's challenge at Our Creative Corner our hostess is Kristin Tierney. We're going back to Copenhagen again (so jealous!) with some photos of gorgeous flowers - the challenge is an inspiration challenge using the photos, except we can't use any flowers.

I did struggle with this one a bit - I tried to work with the pinks and purples but I just couldn't make it work without flowers. So I went back to the photos again. The green hydrangeas reminded me of trees, and I also liked the photo of the white flowers with the pop of yellow. So taking those two elements, I came up with...

this card! I have to say, I love it. The layout is a sketch challenge from Diva Coffee Break Designs. I used the Trendy Trees set in Lucky Limeade and Early Espresso. The sentiment and border punch are non-SU (PTI and MS, respectively). The background is a tone-on-tone panel embossed with the houndstooth folder. I added the scalloped circle with some piercing, the little modern label punch tab with polka dot brad (so cute!) and a bit of Daffodil Delight ribbon for finishing touches.

Thanks so much for visiting - if you haven't already, make sure you visit the OCC blog and welcome our new DT members - this is their first challenge playing with us and I know you're going to love their creations, not to mention those of all the fabulous stampers who were on our team already. I'm so lucky to get to work with such an awesome group of ladies, and welcome to new members Tui, Holly, Anne Marie and Marjie!

It's your day... up, up and away!

2011-07-30T09:44:00.000-04:00

Wow, Saturday again already? This week the team at Our Creative Corner is saying good-bye to the lovely Sarah Gough - I know she is going to be missed. She is finishing her term on the DT with a final week of hosting, and she has a color challenge for us: red and aqua, with adding pink as an option. I chose not to use the pink, which made it an unusual card for me - I couldn't tell you the last time I used only two colors (not counting the neutral).

Here's my card - once again featuring several new products. I used the Big Top designer paper since it included the two required colors (Real Red and Tempting Turquoise). I thought the Up, Up & Away stamp set would be fun with these colors. I used our largest circle punch and layered it onto one of the doily shapes on the new pennant die - the circle covers up the holes, which I actually like here. I embossed some turquoise card stock with polka dots and added a scalloped border piece. I used linen thread with knots of grosgrain ribbon for the balloon's "tail" - to attach to the card I just put mini glue dots behind the ribbons. Finally I added the sentiment, which is from the hostess set Happiest Birthday Wishes. I stamped it onto the banner that's on the petal cone die (with one end trimmed down so it would fit).

I hope you'll try out our color challenge - these are fun colors that I promise will put a smile on your face! Be sure you stop by the OCC blog to see the rest of the creations from our team, and don't forget to wish Sarah well - thanks, Sarah, for all your wonderful contributions to our team!

Framed Flowers

2011-07-23T05:00:00.001-04:00

So much for posting more than once a week - at least for this week! I've picked up some extra work so I might not be able to fulfill my goal... but considering the economy, as long as I'm working freelance I have to take it when it comes. Anyway, I'm back with my card for this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner. Our hostess for the next two weeks is Sarah Gough, and this week it's a "B" challenge: black, bling, buttons and a bow.

I had a lot of fun with this card (if not a lot of time to make it). I pulled out a bunch of new stuff for this one, and I am in love with all of it. I featured one of the new In Colors, Island Indigo - this color is just gorgeous. The black background is embossed with the new stripes embossing folder. I used another new Big Shot product, one of the little embossing frames, to set off my image. These cute flowers are from the Easy Events stamp set. I colored them in a sketchy style with indigo and olive markers, then popped up the image and added black rhinestones (from last year's holiday mini) in the centers. The background paper is from the Playdate pack (retired), and for my bow I used the Island Indigo ruffled ribbon on top of black satin ribbon. Finally I threaded three white buttons with a tiny bit of indigo card stock and called it done!

I hope you'll play along with this week's challenge - I know you'll enjoy it as much as I did. Don't forget to stop by the OCC blog to see the gorgeous creations from the rest of the team, and have a fantastic weekend!

Summer Window Box

2011-07-16T09:26:00.000-04:00

This week at Our Creative Corner our hostess, Kristin Tierney, is offering up an inspiration challenge with photos from her recent trip to Denmark. (Can I just say... jealous!!) I loved the pink and red flowers in the lower right picture and also took the idea of a window and made a flower box. I'm entering this card in the Pals Paper Arts summer challenge as well, because all the beautiful blooms are one of my favorite things about summer!

The flower images come from a new stamp set called Raining Flowers. Do you think it's possible to have too many flower stamps? I don't! ;) These are two-step images and I used combos of Pretty in Pink/Regal Rose, Poppy Parade/Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive/Always Artichoke. The flower centers are poppy glimmer brads and pink buttons threaded with embroidery floss. To create the window I just punched openings with a 1 1/4" square punch, and for the box I used a panel of Early Espresso card stock scored on the edges so it would stand up from the card. Both the window and box were stamped with the wood grain background and sponged on the edges, which I hope you can see if you click on the photo! I decided to leave a lot of white space to really let the flowers shine on this card. The final touch was this fun sentiment from one of my favorite new sentiment sets, Friendly Phrases.

Now I'm wishing I were getting on a plane to Copenhagen, or just about anywhere else, this weekend, but instead I'll be staying home - and if you're home like me, I hope you'll get out your stamps and play along with us! Don't forget to visit the OCC blog to see what the rest of the team created and share your work with us!

Loving my new goodies

2011-07-13T13:01:00.000-04:00

Do you know what one of the hardest things in the world is? Getting that first order from the new catalog and not having any time to play with all the fabulous new stuff! I finally had time to play a challenge (actually two) and I'm giving myself a challenge (again) to post more often. I'm still really busy so I'm not going to promise something crazy like posting every day, LOL. But I'm going to make an effort toward posting more than once a week!

My card today is for the SCS sketch challenge, which I actually did find difficult, and the Color Throwdown. I swapped in the new Island Indigo for Taken with Teal, since I try to use current colors on my blog, and Pear Pizazz for Certainly Celery, just 'cause I like it better. :D The other colors are Rose Red and Pretty in Pink, plus I used white for a neutral. It's such a fresh and cheery color combo. The image is from the new stamp set called Button Buddies - cute stamps and an excuse to use buttons, what's not to love? I put PIP brads in the center of the buttons - just cut or twist off the prongs and glue in place. OK, I shouldn't say "just" because it was trickier than I expected, and really quite messy, but I like the result. I used another awesome new product, the Houndstooth embossing folder. LOVE! And the sentiment is also new, from the super-cute set called Perfect Pairs. I can see I'll be using this set all the time.

It was fun stamping - just for fun - today and I hope I'll be doing it again soon. I'm so glad you stopped by - have a great day!

Pretty in White

2011-07-09T05:00:00.002-04:00

We have a great challenge at Our Creative Corner today - to focus on white! Now I'm not promising this is going to be easy - it's called a challenge, after all - but I encourage you to try it! I didn't really know what I was going to do for my card, but I was watching TV with my husband and the image of this card just popped into my head - I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

I first cut out a bunch of flowers with the Flower Fusion die and white textured card stock. I added a pearl to the center of each one and adhered them to my background, which was embossed with one of the texture plates (if you click on the photo to enlarge it you'll see it better - it's subtle, which is what I wanted). I left the bottom of the panel plain to stamp my sentiment, which is from PTI and stamped in Memento London Fog. Finally I added some Melissa Frances white crochet trim - and voila! Done! I think it would be lovely for a bridal shower.

OK, you've heard your challenge - will you take it on and join us? We hope so! Don't forget to stop by the OCC blog and see what the rest of the team has created. Thanks so much for visiting and have a wonderful weekend!

Celebrate the Season

2011-07-02T05:00:00.000-04:00

It's time for another challenge with Our Creative Corner - I'm glad you stopped by on what is a holiday weekend for those of us in the U.S. With that in mind our hostess, Sarah Gough (who happens to live in New Zealand), asked us to create something seasonal - either for the Fourth of July or Christmas. I don't tend to make patriotic stuff too much, but I saw this star box that Lisa Young made and wanted to try it myself. (You can get a link to Diana Crick's original directions through Lisa's blog.)

I decided to make mine more of a centerpiece, so after putting a bud vase into the box I filled it with skinny dowel rods I'd topped with decorated chipboard shapes. To hide the dowels I put duplicate shapes on the front and back and taped the dowel in between. For decorations I used a bunch of glass glitter, designer paper, cardstock, and iridescent ice embossing to mix up the colors of Whisper White, Real Red and Pacific Point. On the box itself I used the retired set July Fourth - you can barely see, but on the bottom there are sparkly embossed fireworks. The white embossed stars on the blue DP are from the Itty Bitty Bits stamp set.

That's about it for this project - I hope you'll visit the OCC blog to see what everyone else has come up with, and then play along with us! Have a happy Fourth of July and/or a great weekend!

Best Wishes, Diva Style!

2011-06-25T05:00:00.000-04:00

This week at Our Creative Corner we have a special challenge for you - we're looking to add some new members to our design team, so for our challenge we want you to make a card that showcases your style and tell us what makes it yours. Of course the team will be providing inspiration with creations that show our individual styles. I hope my card captures some of my favorite aspects of card making - it doesn't use *everything* I would consider to be "my style" but there are definitely elements that really speak to me.

My card was inspired by Heather Summer's card here - you will see the elements I kept but I think I also put a lot of my own ideas into it. The colors came from a challenge that's new to me - CR84FN. They asked for aqua, green and yellow, so I combined So Saffron with two of the new In Colors, Pool Party and Lucky Limeade. We'll be making this card at my club this weekend.

I started with the vertical panel. First I used a clear block and inked it directly with So Saffron, then stamped it onto Very Vanilla card stock. Next I used Early Espresso to stamp my flower image, which is from Friends 24-7, one of my favorite retiring sets (sniff). I masked the flowers off and also created a negative frame to mask around the edge of the image before stamping the words (from the set Charming) over the background. Finally I colored the image with markers - I love the look of the different layers and the vintage feel.

One thing that usually characterizes my cards is a tendency toward clean and simple - and in this case I used even fewer layers than I usually do! So much for my typical style, LOL. But I didn't want to take away from the softer colors. I used a saffron base, a limeade panel embossed with the Vintage Wallpaper folder, and a strip of Pool Party cut with the Tasteful Trim die. I added pearls on the scallops, Old Olive satin ribbon, and a punched sentiment from Short & Sweet. I like putting the sentiments vertically when the layout doesn't lend itself to another placement.

Well, whether this is my typical style, I'm not completely sure, but I enjoyed making the card. I hope you'll consider playing the challenge - you won't regret it! And don't forget to check out what the rest of the team has made this week. With all the creativity on the team you're bound to see some beauties. Thanks for visiting my blog today - have a great weekend!

Punchy Flowers

2011-06-18T05:00:00.009-04:00

Hi there! Another week has flown by - my past few days have been dominated by a visit from some family (yay!) and some unexpected car issues (boo!) but I finally got time to stamp for this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner, which I'm hosting again this week. This time it's a color challenge with a twist. These are the colors:

The twist is to use at least three punches, and at least one has to be a border punch. Don't be scared, it's not hard! :) I easily used four on my card and it wouldn't have been hard to use more than that. I do love my punches! My layout is from Pals Paper Arts, who have a sketch challenge this week.

Here's my card. I decided to feature the triple blossom punch; each flower has two layers plus a center that came from one of the bitty punches. I added a silver brad in the center of each flower. For the stems I used the branch from Cheep Talk (which is retiring! I'm so sad about that one!). The sentiment is from Occasional Quotes and I stamped it inside one of the Four Frames images. (Not much longer and the new catalog will be live - I can't wait! This time of year is always bittersweet, LOL!) My designer papers come from the Brights and the Evening Soiree packs, and I added some retired Regal Rose 5/8" grosgrain ribbon. The border punch is non-SU.

I hope you will come check out all the team members' work this week, and then join in the challenge! We love seeing your creations every week!

Amy Butler Inspiration

2011-06-11T05:00:00.005-04:00

Guess who is hosting the next two challenges at Our Creative Corner - me! It's always so much fun to see what everyone comes up with. For my first week I returned to something near and dear to my heart - an inspiration challenge. I hadn't done one in a very long time, and it really felt good. The inspiration photo is this book cover, and the author is none other than the fabulous fabric maven Amy Butler.

I put one extra little requirement with this challenge - I am asking participants to choose two elements from the inspiration photo to incorporate into their projects and describe what those two elements are. I find it so interesting to see what aspects of the photo grab people - they are never the same!

OK, here is my card. I thought this flower image looked a lot like the fabric shown on the left side of the book cover - it's not SU, it's by Savvy Stamps, but I just had to use it. Everything else is SU, though, and I included some new stuff. Yay for new stuff! Since there was orange in the inspiration photo I pulled out Calypso Coral. I will freely admit that I was not a fan of Cameo Coral - this color is much, much better. I don't know if it'll be my favorite new color, but at least it doesn't hurt my eyes. LOL. The green is another new color, Lucky Limeade. How does this green compare to other greens we've known and loved? Well, imagine if Old Olive and Kiwi Kiss got mixed together - it's very similar to the kiwi but is less yellow, and it's just a touch lighter than the olive. You can't go wrong with this green, I'm thinking! My other colors are So Saffron and Chocolate Chip.

What else is new... oh, the lace ribbon punch! Love, love, love it! I somewhat took my layout from the book cover by putting the embossed panel on the left, but it was better balance to put it in from the edge a little. What do you think of the punched strip on top of the embossing? I've never done it before and I kind of like it! The other new thing is the designer paper, which comes from the Flirtatious specialty paper pack. This is going to be a big seller because it has die-cut doily paper in it. Awesome stuff. The sentiment is from Hodgepodge Happiness - a retiring set, sniff! As a final touch I added just a bit of white 1/8" taffeta ribbon that I colored with the coral marker. We can't get the new In Color ribbon yet (you are going to love it) so I took advantage of supplies I did have and made my own!

OK, so you have your challenge - go stamp something! And make sure you visit the OCC blog to see the rest of the wonderful creations from our fabulous team!

Cherries for Friendship

2011-06-10T16:43:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I had time - or made the time - to create something just for fun. I sent a finished freelance project off yesterday, so I felt like I could take a little break from my crazy life and do a couple challenges. This card is for the colourQ challenge (Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla), the Viva la Verve sketch challenge, and the Pals Paper Arts challenge, which is called What's Your Signature Style? I tend toward clean(er) and simpl(er), sometimes vintage, sometimes cute and sweet... I was tickled that my fellow OCC DT member Wendy Janson commented on my recent baby card being a "Lori card." I guess I do have a typical style and I hope today's card shows it!

This card features a sneak peek stamp set from the new catalog - Cherish Friendship. The images are really sweet and great for coloring - I chose to do some watercoloring for this card. It's always a treat for me to sit down and color - in fact I'm spending all day tomorrow coloring at the Copic certification class in Boston! But I digress... I did my watercoloring with reinkers and a tiny paintbrush. The sentiment is from the same stamp set. At the bottom of the center panel I added two strips of cherry seam binding with crochet trim on top. The eyelet border punch gave me the right look for the bottom trim, and as long as we're doing signature style, I had to put a couple buttons on there. The background DP is retired Soft Suede, and I sponged all the edges with espresso ink to up the vintage factor.

This was fun - I hope it's not several weeks until I get to craft something for fun again! Thanks for visiting and I'll be back tomorrow for the weekly OCC challenge!

Wedding Doilies

2011-06-04T05:00:00.002-04:00

Whew, another week has gone by - we're getting a new roof put on our house so it's been a little crazy around here. I did find a little time for stamping, though - just in time for my preorder from the new catalog to arrive! YAY! I used a few of the new products on my card for this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner. Sharon Wheet is back with a recipe wedding challenge - the ingredients are sheer fabric, pearls, a flower, some kind of trim, and stitching (real or faux).

As I was looking at all the fun new stuff, I picked out three items I thought would work well together for a wedding card: the Delicate Doilies stamp set, the Perfect Pennants die (which has a couple cool doily-type circles) and one of the new In Colors, Pool Party. I *love* this color - it reminds me of Soft Sky, which was one of my absolute favorites. I paired it with black and white for a classic look.

First I embossed black card stock with two of the doily images - they cover the whole panel. The sentiment from Word Play (which I also embossed) fits perfectly in the 1 3/4" circle punch, which also goes nicely inside my white doily die-cut. I added faux stitching around the edge of the circle. My flower was made with the triple flower punch, with pearls for the center. I had to cheat a little on one of the requirements - I only had sheer organza ribbon, no sheer fabric. The color of this ribbon is just a hair lighter than the Pool Party card stock. I wrapped it around the black layer three times for a layered effect, then added white 1/8" taffeta ribbon on top. Three more pearls in the corner finished off my card - and I think I like it!

I know the team will create beautiful wedding projects this week so be sure you visit the OCC blog to check them out. And as always we hope you will play along with us!

Button Bear

2011-05-28T05:00:00.001-04:00

It's time for another challenge at Our Creative Corner! Our hostess for the next two weeks is Sharon Wheet. This week she has a fun one: a baby card using kraft card stock, some kind of trim (ribbon, lace, crochet, etc.) and at least one button. I love making baby cards, so I had a great time with this one!

I used the Nursery Suite designer paper as the inspiration for my colors: Regal Rose, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip (oops, or is it supposed to be Early Espresso?) and white. The basic layout was CASEd from a card I saw in Paper Crafts by Stasia Sloma. I had to use my favorite (retired) bear from Cute & Cuddly, paper pieced of course. The scallop circle stamp comes from the Homemade stamp - I just colored only the outside edge with a marker. The rose scallop border was made with the Tasteful Trim die, and for my trim I added some narrow white lace out of my stash. The buttons dress up the top corner (the flower is SU retired, the others are random ones I found). Last came the sentiment from Something to Celebrate (level 2 hostess set).

OK, now for your daily cuteness quota, go check out the rest of the team's baby cards - they are adorable! And be sure to play with us and share your creation so everyone can see!

Something new?

2011-05-26T10:08:00.000-04:00

Today I'm showing you the technique card we did at my club. I wanted to do an embossing resist technique and I came up with a variation I hadn't seen before - but I don't want to claim that I created something new unless you guys tell me I did! So let me know what you think - is this a new idea, and if by some chance it is, what should I call it? I will say that as I predicted, this card was hard to capture in a photo. IRL it looks really cool, if I do say so myself!

I first took glossy card stock and embossed the foliage image from Fabulous Florets with black craft ink and EP. (Don't forget your embossing buddy!) Next I mixed Poppy Parade reinker with champagne shimmer paint. Using a foam brush, I brushed it over the whole image, then used a paper towel to buff the whole thing. Finally, for more depth of color I brushed another coat of the ink/paint mixture on top and let it dry. I wanted to see the brush strokes - kind of like lacquer, maybe? - so I made sure all the strokes went the same direction and the color was even. With this second coat make sure you don't use too much ink or the brush strokes will disappear as it dries. This will also take a while to dry - in retrospect, probably too long for club unless we had taken the heat gun to it. My gals ended up taking the embossed panel home separately to put the whole thing together later. Once the panel is completely dry, the very final step is to buff it with a clean paper towel, just to make sure no ink is left on the black embossing.

OK, now for the finishing touches - I embossed three flowers with gold EP on black card stock and cut them out. The sentiment from Happy Greetings is also gold embossed. To stick with the gold I used gold card stock as a layer, and two gold brads in each corner give the card just a bit more elegance and shine. Since I featured some brads as my only embellishments, I'm entering this in the Pals Paper Arts brad challenge.

Thanks for stopping by my blog - I hope you'll play around with this technique and tell me what you think. I'd love to see the variations you come up with!

Father's Day Frame

2011-05-21T05:00:00.018-04:00

It's time for another challenge with Our Creative Corner! Where does the time go? This week our hostess, Linda Coughlin, is challenging us to incorporate a 3D frame on our projects. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, then I saw the Father's Day frame in the summer mini and decided to CASE that idea, but with my own paper frame. We'll be making this at my club this weekend.

To make the frame I cut two 3/4" x 4" strips and two 3/4" x 5" strips from Early Espresso textured card stock. I mitered the corners by trimming off each of the ends and fitting them together - and seeing that it was tricky with paper, I don't think I'll ever be doing it with wood! LOL! It's probably hard to see but I sponged all around the frame and mitered corners to give it more dimension, and the fram is popped up from its background. I made the shirt with Pear Pizazz designer paper and card stock, then added one of the ties from the Best Dad Ever set. This is a big card - 5 x 7 - which it had to be with the size of the frame. The background is simple - white card base, a strip of pear card stock wrapped with baker's twine, and a sentiment from the same stamp set with a row of piercing underneath.

Don't forget to stop by the OCC blog and see what everyone has made for this challenge - and then make your own frame and join us! Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend!

Natural Elements

2011-05-14T08:05:00.000-04:00

For this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner our hostess, Linda Coughlin, has a recipe challenge: use light neutrals as your main color(s), dark neutrals as accent color(s), and both lace AND buttons. I played around with different ideas for a really long time - which is probably not evident by my CAS card. You'll just have to take my word for it! ;)

When I saw the challenge I immediately gravitated toward my favorite neutral color combo: Very Vanilla, River Rock and Basic Black. If lace and buttons were going to be involved that made me think of something pretty and vintage-style, so that led me to Elements of Style. I didn't do anything to the image except sponge the edges with River Rock. The lace was the hardest thing to incorporate - it's not something I'm usually drawn to. I was digging around through boxes of old stuff and nothing was grabbing me, and then I remembered that SU had black lace in the holiday mini last year. Jackpot! After experimenting for a while I ended up just using a couple strips as accents over the streamlined striped background. I also looked and looked for the perfect buttons - these little guys from my stash finally made the cut, and I threaded them with matching embroidery floss. The sentiment didn't come easily, either - I tried lots of punches and nothing looked right, then I realized - duh! - I could just stamp a little sentiment right onto the image. This sweet little saying is from On the Grow (in the summer mini).

I know you will want to visit the OCC blog to see what the rest of the team has come up with - their creations are always fabulous! Then get out your neutrals and play along with the challenge - it's a fun one!

Woven Hydrangea

2011-05-07T07:43:00.000-04:00

This week our hostess at Our Creative Corner, Jen Rzasa, asked us to incorporate weaving into our projects. I admit this daunted me - I didn't really know what I was going to do. Thanks to Google I found a book that described weaving ribbon through punched borders (click here) and although I'm sure my take on the idea is much simpler, I like what I ended up with.

I took a 4" square of Concord Crush card stock and wove 1/8" Marina Mist taffeta ribbon through the holes of an open-weave border punch (non-SU). The center panel is very simple: the hydrangea from Because I Care, colored with Marina Mist, Concord Crush and Pear Pizazz, stamped on Whisper White and layered on Basic Black. I brought in the pear with a designer paper background then added the sentiment from Hodgepodge Happiness. Behind the punched label is a 1 3/8" black circle, and under that I put a trimmed rectangle of Concord Crush and added pearls in the corners.

Be sure you visit the OCC blog to see what the rest of the ladies have created for this challenge - and we hope you will wow us with your own weaving ideas!

A new card kit!

2011-05-05T23:26:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I did a card kit, so I decided it was time to offer a new one. With this card kit you’ll receive complete instructions and all the consumable supplies needed to make 5 of each of these card designs – a total of 10 cards. The price of this kit is just $15, including envelopes.

If you purchase the monthly kit, you will also have the opportunity to purchase the coordinating stamp set, Party Hearty, at 15% off (tax and shipping not included). This set is already on sale for 30% off this month, so you're getting an even better deal!

Party Hearty wood mount, on sale for $18.87, with purchase of kit $16.04

The rest of the products used in making these cards are given in the list below. Supplies from Stampin' Up! cannot be sold on my blog; please contact me if you'd like to purchase the stamp set or any other supplies. You can also use the kit to make your cards with the supplies you already own. Please note designer paper patterns may vary depending on availability.

This kit will be available through May 31. You will receive your kit within two weeks of your purchase (probably less if no order from Stampin’ Up! is required).

Customers who live local to me and do not need shipping, click here to purchase your kit:

If you are elsewhere in the U.S. click here to purchase the kit plus shipping:

Sorry but kits can only be sold to customers in the U.S.

Lori Rider
loririder (at) verizon (dot) net

Additional product list:

• Early Espresso Classic Ink pad
• Poppy Parade Classic Ink pad/Stampin' Write marker
• Tempting Turquoise Classic Ink pad/Stampin' Write marker
• So Saffron Stampin' Write marker
• 1¾” scallop circle punch
• ¾” circle punch
• 1¾” circle punch
• 2 3/8” scallop circle punch
• Paper snips
• Bone folder
• SNAIL adhesive
• Stampin’ Dimensionals
• Tombow Mono Multipurpose Adhesive
• Mini glue dots
• Crystal Effects

Happy Cupcake

2011-05-04T13:37:00.000-04:00

I just loved the colors for this week's colourQ challenge: Daffodil Delight, Peach Parfait, Tangerine Tango, Tempting Turquoise and Very Vanilla. They made me think of summer! I just had to play along. I also really liked the SCS sketch challenge posted today so this card is for both challenges.

For my center panel I used the cake stand from Happy Everything and the Create a Cupcake stamp set and matching punch. The flower accent was made with one of the bitty punches and the retired 1/4" circle punch. I thought a rhinestone would look cute in the flower center and then I decided to bling it up more by putting rhinestones on the scallops of the cake stand. The curly label sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes, and for the background I used turquoise, peach and daffodil DPs with tangerine card stock layers and a bit of daffodil taffeta ribbon.

Mmm, now I want it to be a nice summer day - with a cupcake! Thanks for visiting today!

Birthday Pennants

2011-04-30T05:00:00.013-04:00

Happy Saturday! It's time for another challenge with Our Creative Corner - I hated to miss last week but we were traveling. This week our hostess is Jen Rzasa, who is challenging us to use embroidery floss. I used to cross-stitch so I have lots of this lying around - I often thread my buttons with it but I wanted to come up with something else. Todd suggested I should make a dentist card - my response was something along the lines of, "That's the wrong kind of floss, honey" - but for some reason after he said that, the image of a banner of pennants came into my head, so that's what I went with! I'm also submitting this for the CAS button challenge at Pals Paper Arts.

My colors came straight out of the Color Coach: Peach Parfait, Baja Breeze and Riding Hood Red. For a darker accent I added Chocolate Chip. After I stamped and cut out the pennants (from Party This Way) I added the stars (from Itty Bitty Bits) to the centers. The length of embroidery floss was glued to the back of the pennants, then I added the bows afterward. (Who knew it was so darn hard to tie bows out of embroidery floss?) The sentiment comes from the hostess set Something to Celebrate (in the occasions mini), and I added two bitty buttons backed with Baja Breeze card stock.

Be sure you check out what the rest of the OCC team has come up with for the challenge, and then get out your floss and play along with us! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

For All You Do, Mom...

2011-04-28T09:23:00.000-04:00

First off, for my own mom, this isn't the card you'll be getting for Mother's Day! LOL! But we will be making this one at my club this weekend. I took inspiration from a couple different projects that appeared in the most recent issue of Stampin' Success, the magazine that all demonstrators receive once a month (one of my favorite demo perks!). The layout uses this week's Mojo Monday sketch (with a couple little tweaks). I'm also submitting this for the Mother's Day challenges at Hand Stamped Sentiments and SUO Challenges.

I embossed the flower from Petal Pizazz with a combination of the new Melon Mambo embossing powder (from the summer mini! so cool!) and iridescent ice EP. It makes the color of the embossing just a bit lighter with a very subtle sparkle - it's gorgeous IRL. We also have Wild Wasabi (and Tangerine Tango) EP so I used that for the leaves (with no sparkle on those). I added a rhinestone in the center and put a few others under the sentiment, which comes from the set called For All You Do and I thought was lovely for a Mother's Day card. (I just stamped Happy Mother's Day on the inside.) Layers of Melon Mambo, Wild Wasabi and So Saffron DP (with Early Espresso card stock) finished the layout and I just used a tiny bit of (Daffodil Delight) 1/8" taffeta ribbon as my final embellishment.

Thanks for stopping by today - I really appreciate all of you who read and/or leave me comments - it makes my day!

Thank heaven for stamping

2011-04-27T20:37:00.000-04:00

At times like this, when I'm under a lot of stress, sometimes I find that having a reason to plunge myself into creating is the best possible thing. I have club this weekend, after having returned from a lovely vacation visiting my in-laws in Mississippi, so even though it's a bit of a panic, I have had a great time creating our projects.

When I was at the Hartford regional, one of the Workshop Wow demos was on making fabric yoyos. Once I saw that they're very easy to do, I decided I'd do them at club sometime, and this is the month! The original demonstration used this same flower stem from the Sweetheart set, and it turned out so cute I had to use it on my card. I took my layout from the SCS sketch challenge. I cut my yoyo using our largest circle die, but you can use any circle die you like. The Candy Cane fabric I used for my yoyo was in the holiday mini but it's still available! Yay, because it's adorable and not overly Christmasy. My punched circles come from the birthday set Party Hearty (using the fabric colors of Wild Wasabi, Real Red and Baja Breeze). I kept it simple with a Blushing Bride card base, a dot-embossed bottom panel in Baja Breeze, a strip of 5/8" red grosgrain ribbon, and a sentiment from a set that appears to be retired - oops... oh well, my button is retired also but I just had to use it! Shh, don't tell!

Easter Wishes

2011-04-16T05:00:00.016-04:00

This week our hostess at Our Creative Corner, Vicki Burdick, is challenging us to make a 3-D project for Easter. I'm sharing a cute little nest basket that we made at my club. I found the idea here and CASEd a lot of Brenda's elements, but I changed the stamped pieces just a bit.

The basket comes from the largest scallop circle die, made with Soft Suede card stock and run through the Big Shot with the square lattice folder. I stamped my bird with the flourish from Elements of Style, using Regal Rose card stock and white EP. The sign uses Crumb Cake and Baja Breeze with the modern label punch and a tag from the Matchbox die. I added a flower (made with the Boho Blossoms punch) with leaves from the bird punch and a glimmer brad.

We hope you'll come play along with our challenge as you get ready for Easter - we always love to see your creations!

A bouquet for you...

2011-04-13T16:24:00.000-04:00

It's been a long time since I did a challenge just for fun - and I can tell! I had the card finished this morning, then I had to pick my son up from school and run some errands so I didn't have time to do my blog post. When I got back home I took the card all apart and redid the layers - I'm much happier with the result now. The colors are from the Color Throwdown and the layout from the SCS sketch challenge.

The image I used is from a new set in the summer mini called On the Grow. I colored it with Copics, which took quite a while this morning - and I'm disappointed that the flowers look much brighter in the photo than IRL. My colors are Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise and Pear Pizazz, and I spent a long time experimenting with my markers to get colors that match and I'm a bit peeved that it doesn't look like it in the photo! LOL! I added a strip of scallop ribbon border punch to the left of the image, over layers of turquoise card stock (embossed with the square lattice folder), daffodil DP (Greenhouse Gala) and pear card stock. The sentiment comes from Herb Expressions and to finish off I used a retired turquoise button tied with the new baker's twine - also in the summer mini. This fabulous stuff is such a hot trend and SU will have it in three colors!

OK, well, now that I've spent way too many hours on this card, I'm off to do some other things... thanks for stopping by!

Strawberry Sunday

2011-04-10T07:06:00.004-04:00

Here's another card we are doing at my card buffet this weekend. I saw this strawberry idea by Linda Fisher and thought it was too adorable!

The Real Red strawberry is the Heart of Hearts embosslit; the Garden Green leaves are from the five petal punch. I trimmed off part of one of my leftover green flower punches to make the stem. The white flowers are from the Boho Blossoms punch with a Daffodil Delight brad in the center, and the vines are made with the bird punch. I kept the rest of the card simple: just a white panel embossed with polka dots, a little red bow, and a sentiment from Because I Care stamped inside one of the Four Frames images.

I think this turned out really sweet - and now I can't wait for some really good fresh strawberries!

A Cup of Thanks

2011-04-09T05:00:00.003-04:00

Welcome back to another Saturday challenge from Our Creative Corner. This week Sharon Wheet has challenged us to create something based on an "afternoon tea party" theme. I tend to stay away from food and drink stamps - well, unless they relate to cake or ice cream. LOL. So this adorable stamp by Lockhart was the only "teacup" image I had - hope that counts!

I wanted to use some of the Springtime Vintage paper for this challenge, so based on that I stamped my image with Not Quite Navy and colored it with Baja Breeze and River Rock markers. It was punched with the 2 1/2" circle, mounted on a square of River Rock, then on a NQN scalloped square. Just for fun I added pearls in the corners, and all the edges are sponged. For the DP I used a larger square - both the scalloped squares were made with SU Big Shot dies. I added a bow of crochet trim and retired River Rock ribbon, topped with a NQN button (also retired) tied with linen thread. The base is a 5 1/2" square card with an A2-size panel of River Rock, which I ran through the square lattice folder, layered on top. I used the Tasteful Trim die to cut another scalloped border but then covered most of it up, LOL. The sentiment is by Impression Obsession.

Please join us for tea - I hope you'll visit the OCC blog to check out all the team members' creations and then play along with us!

Welcome to the World!

2011-04-07T22:46:00.000-04:00

I am finally starting to put together the ten (gulp) cards I need for my card buffet on (another gulp) Sunday. When I'm pressed for time I turn to my long list of ideas I've seen on other blogs and get busy CASEing. Here's my first card, which was inspired by Lisa Young's adorable card seen here.

I wanted something quick for the cart - and I wanted to save my decorative label punch for another card. (At my card buffets I try not to use supplies on more than one card.) So I used one of the cupcake Sizzlit dies. Now that I'm looking at it, the scale is probably a tad off compared to the Fox & Friends lion. LOL. But I'm going with it! I attached a thin strip of Pear Pizazz card stock for decoration and made the wheels with 1/2" and bitty circle punches and silver brads. The linen thread behind the cart attaches to the sentiment banner with a ring - I just used the 1/2" circle punch around one of the bitty circles I'd already punched from Bashful Blue - and a tab made from half a word window punch. The sentiment is from A Word for You. I figured that was enough for my stampers to do so I just finished off with a strip of pear DP, a little paper piercing, and a Chocolate Chip card base.

OK, it's time for bed so I can get up in the morning and keep going on the rest! I probably won't get around to posting all of the cards, but I'll try to show you my favorites. Thanks for visiting!

Remember when...

2011-04-02T05:00:00.006-04:00

I had time to stamp more than once a week, and I didn't feel like I had to rush when I pulled out my supplies? Oh, how I miss those days. I have a card buffet coming up on the 10th so I'm pretty sure I'll be stamping a lot in the coming week - but I hope I get to go back to doing challenges for fun after that! So stay tuned... In the meantime this is my card for this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner. Our hostess for the next two weeks is Sharon Wheet and for this week we're to make something girly, with the following recipe: a handmade paper flower, ribbon and bling.

I started out with the flower, which I made with the 2 3/8" scallop punch and Blushing Bride designer paper. ETA: The instructions I followed for the flower can be found here - I just used DP instead of vellum and didn't do any sponging. I needed a large brad for the center, which led me to the retired corduroy brads - and somebody stop me, I went with the brown and pink combo with Chocolate Chip. The only stamp is the sentiment from Word Play- it seemed like a pretty and girly choice. The scallop trim punches dressed up my vanilla sentiment panel, and for bling I added rhinestones I colored with a Sharpie. For the background I kept it simple - Chocolate Chip designer paper, Blushing Bride embossed card stock (using the vintage wallpaper folder), and Chocolate Chip satin ribbon.

I know the rest of the team has fabulously pretty creations to share this week so be sure you go check them out, and then play along with us - it'll be fun!

So little time

2011-03-26T05:00:00.005-04:00

Ugh, that is just the story of my life lately. I freely admit I have way too much going on - but I don't see an end in sight so that's just how it's going to be! Anyway... I missed last week's OCC challenge but I'm back for today's. Our hostess, Rebecca Ednie, asked us to make an ATC (2.5" x 3.5" is the standard size) using kraft, white/cream, black/brown and one other color.

Despite the simple appearance of my card, and the title of my post, I actually spent a fair amount of time on this, LOL. I knew I wanted to use this image from the hostess set A Slice of Life (in the Occasions mini). I tried watercoloring it a couple different ways... wasn't happy with the result... got out my Copics, matched up Marina Mist and Crumb Cake as best I could, royally messed up my first try at the coloring and attempted to fussy-cut it (I know, insane) then ended up snipping the whole thing in half just as I was almost done... sigh. So back to square one and I finally I got an image I was happy with. I forgot to add any shading or shadows like I usually do with Copics, but oh well! To dress it up a little I added the tiniest adhesive pearls to all the open flowers. The rest of the card is black and kraft card stock and Marina Mist ribbon. The cream card stock and sentiment are from PTI, the black ink is Memento Tuxedo Black, and the corner punch is an old EK Success (I think). The punch for the sentiment is SU - a tiny oval that was in the holiday mini.

OK, well, not my best project ever, LOL, but it is what it is! Be sure you take a peek at the OCC blog for the rest of the DT's projects - I know they will inspire you to come and play along with us!

Sparkly Spring

2011-03-25T09:43:00.001-04:00

Is it spring? It's supposed to be - but it doesn't feel like it here in Massachusetts! Well, someday... In the midst of my busy-ness I am planning for my March club this weekend. I wanted to share one of the cards we'll be making, which incorporates a technique I saw demonstrated as a workshop wow at last weekend's regional in Hartford. (Which was awesome - SU demos are so fortunate to get to learn from amazing people!) I'm also entering this card in the Pals Paper Arts embossing challenge.

The technique is handmade glitter card stock. You stamp your image first - I let mine dry for a while before going on to the next step, which is to mix a generous amount of Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds glitter and brush it over the whole panel with a foam brush. Now, when I first saw the technique I thought, how can that be a workshop wow? Won't it take a long time to dry? But really, it's dry in just a few minutes. As usual, the photo doesn't really capture the sparkle - it's similar to the effect you get if you emboss the whole panel with Iridescent Ice EP, but it's more subtle. My image is from Easter Blossoms, stamped with Rich Razzleberry on vanilla card stock and colored with my Blushing Bride marker. Tip of the day: You will want to adhere the finished panel with a strong adhesive, like sticky strip, because it's going to warp a little after it's dry. Get the sticky strip right onto the edges and corners, all the way around, and it'll lay flat.

To finish the card I used the tulip frame embossing folder, three pearls, and a punched sentiment from the same stamp set. I also sponged just a little Rich Razzleberry onto everything but the glitter panel - I didn't think of the sponging until after that panel was already done, but I'm not sure I would have wanted to sponge it anyway... I'll have to try that another time!

Am I blue?

2011-03-12T05:00:00.005-05:00

No, not really, but this card sure is! I had fun with this one, especially since I've been sick all week. Again... Anyway, the challenge at Our Creative Corner this week is to use fabric on our cards or projects. I confess, I'm not big into using fabric - before I had kids, I dabbled in quilting a little, and I really do LOVE fabric - but it's not something I've really incorporated into my cards. So I was glad to have a good reason to try it out.

My idea was to create a ruffle trim with some of the SU Springtime Vintage fabric. I have to say - the fabric is wonderful and I wish I knew enough about sewing to make something with the rest of it! To make my ruffle I applied a length of Sticky Strip to a panel of Very Vanilla card stock and just laid the fabric across the panel, gathering it into a ruffle as I went. No sewing required! I put a panel of Not Quite Navy card stock on top, trimmed out with the scallop ribbon border punch. My flower is from Friends 24-7 - I know I used this a couple weeks ago, and it was still out on my stamping table and just called to me for this card... It's stamped in NQN and colored with Baja Breeze marker. I cut and embossed with my Nestabilities and then added piercing in the scallops to match the punched trim. Some distressing and sponging, along with crochet trim and a Tiny Tag punched sentiment (tied on with embroidery floss) finished off this sweet little vintage card.

We'd love to have you play along with us this week - go dig out some fabric and get your creative juices flowing! And be sure you visit the OCC blog to see what the rest of the team created this week. I promise you'll be glad you did!

Thinking of You

2011-03-05T05:00:00.004-05:00

I feel like I start every post with an apology - my life is just too crazy right now. So I'm going to stop apologizing - I know I'm not going to have time to stamp as much as I want to for the next few weeks, which I hate, but that's the way it is right now... Anyway, here's my card for this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner. Our host this week is Kristin Tierney and she has a 1-2-3-4 challenge for us: one piece of patterned paper, two layers (not counting the base), three stamps and four embellishments. This was a tough one - but I enjoy a good challenge!

I wanted to pick a stamp that could mostly stand on its own, so this flower from Thoughts and Prayers came to mind. I colored the leaves with Wild Wasabi marker (so the color would be softer) then stamped the whole image with Rich Razzleberry and cut out the flowers. Yep, kind of insane even for me! The sentiment comes from the same set. The border strips are a MS punch that I trimmed and adhered to the back of the stamped panel - that way it's still one layer, LOL. My DP is wasabi, which I stamped with the swirl from Baroque Motifs. Once I had all that, I didn't have much room left for embellishments so I stuck with four little razzleberry buttons threaded with embroidery floss.

I hope you'll take on the challenge - I promise you it'll teach you a thing or two! ;) Be sure you go look at the rest of the team's creations, which are always gorgeous. Thanks for stopping by!

I'm celebrating - and you can win!

2011-03-03T09:14:00.000-05:00

I have a special giveaway for the month of March. I'm turning 40 this Sunday, so I'm going to do something a little fun to celebrate. For every $50 in product ordered with me (outside of club) this month, either through me directly or online via my SU site, you will get one entry in a giveaway to win a 40% off coupon for one item ordered in April, May or June. If you order $100 this month, you get two entries and twice as many chances to win! I will choose one winner at the end of the month from all qualifying orders.

Don't forget that Sale-a-Bration is still going on, so a $50 order will also get you a free product! Click here to shop online or email me at loririder (at) verizon (dot) net to place your order through me.

Stress and distress

2011-02-26T05:00:00.002-05:00

Wow - the hits just keep on coming. It's been another stressful week around here. But being able to stamp and create always makes me feel better! I got to take my stress out on my card for this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner, hosted by Sarah Gough. Sarah has a fun sketch challenge combined with distressing - so get ready to get down and dirty!

For my card I pulled out the Springtime Vintage DP from the mini catalog. I didn't end up using much of the paper - just the background for my circle - but I picked the colors from the paper: Always Artichoke, River Rock, Rose Red and Very Vanilla. The image is from the (sadly retired) A Rose Is a Rose set, as is the sentiment. I used Rose Red DP and River Rock card stock embossed with the square lattice folder for the background, with a layer of vanilla grosgrain and crochet trim for a simple embellishment. Before I put it all together I distressed and sponged all the layers like crazy - great for a shabby chic style.

Be sure you take a look at what else the team has created, and then share your creations with us - we always love to see what you come up with!

I am so honored...

2011-02-24T19:09:00.003-05:00

I love the stamping world - everyone is so supportive of each other's artistry. It's one of the most wonderful communities I know and I'm blessed to be a part of it! I have a few little honors I received this week to share with you, and a card to go along with one of them. First, Danita bestowed upon me the Liebster Blog Award. Thank you immensely, Danita! I will try to pass the award along when I get the time.

Next, my recent cupcake card was chosen as one of the weekly picks for Pals Paper Arts - well, I'm just blown away. If you haven't checked out their Thursday challenges - why haven't you? Their team of SU demos is so talented and inspiring, and I'm just speechless about being chosen.

Finally, my belated valentine card was chosen as a Mashup Maven at Friday Mashup! As part of this honor, I got to serve as a guest designer for tomorrow's challenge, and I was allowed to post it tonight to give y'all a little sneak peek. This was lots of fun, so be sure you go check out their challenge tomorrow.

The new challenge is a color challenge: So Saffron, Early Espresso and Cherry Cobbler. What beautiful, classic colors. I decided to make something pretty for this one and pulled out the Friends 24-7 set. This flower image has to be one of my all-time favorites. Behind it I made my own damask background with the Stamp-a-Ma-Jig. For the sentiment I used the frame from Baby Blossoms and a sentiment from the retired Watercolor Trio. To keep the embellishments simple I just used two bands of Cherry Cobbler seam binding and a button tab. The background papers are from the Christmas paper pack (Deck the Halls? oh, how quickly the names fade from my memory, LOL) and espresso from the Neutrals pack.

Thanks to everyone for the honors and awards - it means so much to me. Things have been stressful at home with Todd's work and our upcoming renovation project, so it was a welcome break to turn to my stamps and create something today. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Ice cream and presents and cake...

2011-02-19T05:00:00.032-05:00

Oh my! That's the theme of my birthday card for the Our Creative Corner challenge this week. Our hostess for the next two weeks is Sarah Gough and her challenge today is to make a background or layer with a repeatedly stamped sentiment. I combined the OCC challenge with the colors from colourQ (Baja Breeze, Cherry Cobbler, Not Quite Navy, Tangerine Tango, kraft and white) and the layout from Pals Paper Arts.

I started out by stamping the sentiment from Birthday Bliss in the four ink colors, using the Stamp-a-Ma-Jig for exact placement. The cupcake and happy birthday sentiment are from Create a Cupcake, and I accented the cupcake with a bitty flower punch, leaves from the bird punch's branch, and a rhinestone. The scalloped border piece is from the Pennant die, and for the background I used retired tangerine DP and Baja Breeze card stock embossed with the Finial Press folder. I kept the embellishments simple with three more rhinestones.

You'll want to be sure to check out the creations from all the members of the OCC team - everyone on the team has been turning out such inspiring work and you won't want to miss it!

A belated valentine

2011-02-16T09:48:00.000-05:00

Well, it's another crazy week, and I haven't had much time to stamp, but I did want to share the valentine I made for Todd before it got too far past the official day! We made this card at my club last weekend - I have a tradition of doing a masculine valentine and my club members always seem to like it. Todd said, "I guess it's masculine enough" - he's a tough cookie! LOL! Anyway, since this is a valentine I'm also submitting it for the Friday Mashup valentine challenge.

This card uses the inlaid embossing technique that was featured on Splitcoast a couple weeks ago. I punched all my hearts from Riding Hood Red card stock, glued them onto a strip of Basic Black card stock, then ran it through the Big Shot with the square lattice folder. On the bottom I put a panel of houndstooth DP from the Love Letter pack with a strip of black satin ribbon to divide the two halves. The heart is from I Heart Hearts, and I used just the banner from the Be My Valentine single stamp. The card seemed to just need something else, so I took three of the smallest punched hearts, put silver brads through them, and added them to the card with glue dots.

That's it for today - got to run and get more stuff done - but I'll see you on Saturday for the next OCC challenge, if not before!

You know I love it...

2011-02-12T05:00:00.017-05:00

I'm hosting the challenge at Our Creative Corner again this week, and for this time around I picked something that my stamp club members know I love - cutting stuff out. It's a running joke with them, actually. So now I'm challenging all of you to join me in my crazy love for my paper snips. Any cutting technique qualifies as long as you Cut It Out! I'm also submitting this for the SCS inspiration challenge, based on this photo.

For my card I picked the paper tole technique - I haven't done this technique in a long time. You know I'm insane, so of course I had to use the hydrangea from Because I Care. This was really fussy cutting, LOL - but I love the result! I kept the rest of the card really simple so the image would just pop. The colors are Concord Crush and Old Olive, with Very Vanilla card stock. Behind the flower I used a strip of some really old DP, and for embellishments I just used three silver brads, some scored lines (which aren't showing up in the photo so well - sorry!), and the punched sentiment from the same set. I think I was totally channeling my former OCC teammate Silke Ledlow with this one - except she would have put a gorgeous bow on it somewhere! I just love your work, girl! :)

Now it's your turn - pull out those snips and get busy! But be sure you also check out what the rest of the team has done for the challenge - you won't be disappointed!

Love you forever

2011-02-06T12:15:00.000-05:00

Here's a card I made just for fun! I haven't had the chance to do that in a couple weeks. This card is for the featured stamper challenge on SCS - featuring the amazing Lori Boyd - and the Paper Players challenge to make a romantic card. From Lori's gallery I chose this card - I kept the layout but flipped it, changed the colors and images, left off the ribbon, and added a sentiment.

I started off by stamping a large paper daisy in Poppy Parade with the Dot, Dot, Dot stamp. Next I stamped the Elements of Style flowers in Early Espresso and cut out a portion with Nestabilities, then colored it with Poppy Parade and Pear Pizazz markers. The card base is textured Baja Breeze card stock with a punched border on the bottom (MS punch). For the background I used the Finial Press embossing folder on pear card stock and a strip of poppy DP. Finally I added a retired Baja Breeze corduroy button with a white 1/8" taffeta bow, a sentiment banner (stamped with Fabulous Phrases) and three adhesive pearls.

That's it from me today - thanks for stopping by!

Live, Laugh & Love for my dad

2011-02-05T05:00:00.032-05:00

OK, well, it's been another crazy week around here. My cold either came back after I thought I was over it, or I caught another one, and we had two days of snow... needless to say, not much stamping was going on. But I'm happy to be hosting the challenge at Our Creative Corner this weekend! My challenge for you is to use a tree image on a clean and simple (CAS) card. I hope you'll come play along!

I didn't plan it this way, but this challenge worked out really well for making a birthday card for my dad, whose birthday is today. (Happy birthday, Dad!) The colors are from the Color Throwdown: Early Espresso, Bashful Blue, Crumb Cake, and So Saffron. I took the tree image from Plant Hope and stamped it several times (first and second generation) with espresso ink, then sponged the edges. Behind it I used a panel of Bashful Blue DP (also sponged) and a saffron card base 5 1/4" square. To get the texture I actually stamped on the card base with the same paper towel I'd done my sponging with. I added a tab made with the modern label punch and a blue button (retired) tied with dark brown embroidery thread.

Last came the sentiment from On Your Birthday. I really wanted a label-style shape for this sentiment, but nothing I had was the right size. So I went into My Digital Studio, created a designer label punch in the size I wanted, printed it out, and cut it out by hand. Now the sentiment fits perfectly - and you can get any size shape you want using this method. To outline the edges I added some faux stitching before putting it all together on the card.

Be sure you go check out the creations from our fabulous team - we have such an inspiring group of artists and I know you'll enjoy seeing their work. Then please share your own card with us - we love to see what you create!

It's been one of those weeks

2011-01-29T05:00:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted this week - the kids and I have been sick, we had another snowstorm (and another snow day) and life is just generally busy! But I have my project done for this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner. To close out the month Wendy Janson has a Valentine's Day 3-D project challenge.

I made this cute little box - it may or may not be a February club project - we'll see. The pattern comes from one available on the SU demo site - it's made with the Fancy Favor box, then the decorative edge is trimmed off and a lid added. I made a band of DP to wrap around the box and added a magnetic snap to keep it closed. The stamps I used are from Valentine Defined, and the colors are Baja Breeze, Melon Mambo and Chocolate Chip.

Be sure you visit the OCC blog to meet our new DT members - you will love their work, I promise! We're so excited to have them joining us on the team and we have lots of great challenges planned for the next few months. We hope you'll come and play along with us!

Colors of Nature

2011-01-22T05:00:00.036-05:00

This week at Our Creative Corner we have a color challenge - but not your typical color challenge. Our host, Wendy Janson, asked us to use an analogous color scheme. What is that, you ask? Well, you can click the OCC link to read a bit more, but briefly, it's colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. I'm really not sure I did it entirely correctly, LOL, and I probably used more brown than I should have, but here's my card anyway. I couldn't decide what colors to use - I went back and forth between several combinations - and after struggling for a while I looked at my ink pads and my card idea just jumped out at me. I think the result turned out a lot like I imagined and I'm pretty happy with it.

I used a stamp set I haven't pulled out in ages - Inspired by Nature - with a yellow and green (OK, and brown) color scheme (and naturals ivory card stock). First I colored the flower stamp with So Saffron, Pear Pizzazz and Chocolate Chip markers, then I went back in with Daffodil Delight, Old Olive and Early Espresso markers to try to shade a little bit. How well it worked, I'm not really sure... you can maybe see it best on the flower stems and leaves. I ended up cutting out the tiniest flower and adhering it on top of the other two since the whole image was just too big, but it really did need all three flowers for balance.

Behind the flower panel I used the grass image, and to go along with that, I made my first attempt at a brayered background with my four shades of yellow and green. I'm not sure it looks like it should, but I kind of liked it so I went with it. I sponged some Early Espresso around the edges and heavier on the bottom to simulate the ground. I also used a panel of striped So Saffron DP and put everything on an espresso card base. The sentiment is from Perfect Punches. I wanted some simple accents so I added a little paper piercing, and here's how I did my ribbon: I punched a partial circle with a 3/4" circle punch, attached it to the flower panel, punched a small hole through both, threaded a small piece of olive grosgrain ribbon through the hole, and tied a bow around it with linen thread.

Be sure you go check out the OCC blog to see all the creations from our design team - they are always fabulous. Then pick some colors and play along with us - Wendy gave us a fun challenge so please join in!

Stamping therapy

2011-01-18T10:48:00.001-05:00

Today is the sixth day in a row that I've been home with one or both kids - partially due to winter weather, which we are getting more of today - and we are going a little stir crazy! So I really needed some stamping therapy. I loved the new color combo challenge at colourQ: Cherry Cobbler, Poppy Parade, So Saffron, Always Artichoke, and white. I combined the colors with the Sweet Sunday Sketch and came up with this card. It almost makes me forget the snow that's falling outside my window... again...

I should be sure to say - this is a big card, 6" square. I flipped the sketch so I could use the long sentiment from Heard from the Heart. (And oops... I forgot the border strip on the sketch. Sorry!) The sentiment panel was layered over a Nesties circle (embossed with the Elegant Lines folder) and a panel of poppy DP. Then I put my flower on top with dimensionals. This beautiful bloom was made with the Build a Blossom stamp set from the mini catalog and the coordinating punch. Clearly I *need* some therapy since I made my flower with 10 petals - but it looks so full and gorgeous that way. Not something I would do with my club, but this is just for me, so why not? My one little disclaimer: I started this card before I saw that Sylvia from the colourQ DT used the same flower - hers is stunning so I wasn't sure I should even post mine... but I was already mostly done, so... oh well!

OK, it's time for me to see what else needs to get done on this wintry day. Thanks for visiting!

Pink Dogwood Pearls

2011-01-15T05:00:00.003-05:00

It's time for another challenge at Our Creative Corner. This week our hostess, Wendy Janson, gave us a simple sketch challenge and told us to dress it up according to our personal style. Well, I don't know that I dressed mine up that much - I was in the mood for something a little more clean and simple. But since I often like CAS, and I do think it's a pretty card (which I also often like), I think it represents my style pretty well.

When I started out I was kind of stumped for what stamp set I wanted to use. Then I saw that Easter Blossoms was still out on my table from making my card kit the other day, and I decided the dogwood image was perfect to fill the large oval. I also kept the pink and brown color scheme but changed the colors to Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White. I colored the dogwood flowers with pink marker and then added the tiniest adhesive pearls to the centers of some of the flowers. (You can see that better if you click on the photo to enlarge it.)

For the background I did something I don't think I've done before - I used designer paper and an embossed panel (done with a texture plate) in the same color. I really like the monochromatic look this achieved while still giving some contrasting texture. I also created my own sentiment by combining words from two separate stamps from the set On Your Birthday. All I needed was a Chocolate Chip marker and my Stamp-a-ma-Jig to perfectly align two words that were approximately the same size. For final touches I added Chocolate Chip satin ribbon and larger pearls - this time colored pink with a Sharpie. See, I knew that big multicolor pack of Sharpies I got at Costco would come in handy!

Thanks for stopping by today and be sure you go check out what the rest of the OCC has created. I promise you won't be disappointed!

Easter Blossoms card kit

2011-01-12T17:47:00.000-05:00

For 2011 I have decided that I will continue to do card kits but not necessarily on the first of every month. It'll more likely be whenever I have the inspiration and the time, LOL. I will also make them available for longer than one month so you can purchase any active kit at any time.

Here is the first kit for the year, using the Easter Blossoms stamp set from the Occasions Mini. With this card kit you’ll receive complete instructions and all the consumable supplies needed to make 5 of each of these card designs – a total of 10 cards. The price of this kit is just $15, including envelopes.

If you purchase the kit, you will also have the opportunity to purchase the coordinating stamp set, Easter Blossoms, at 15% off retail price (tax and shipping not included):

Easter Blossoms wood mount, regularly $25.95, with purchase of kit $22.06
Easter Blossoms clear mount, regularly $18.95, with purchase of kit $16.11

The rest of the products used in making these cards are given in the list below. If you have all of these then you’re ready to go, but just let me know if you’d like to order any of these items. You can also use the kit to make your cards with the supplies you already own. Please note designer paper pattern and brads may vary depending on availability.

This kit will be available through April 30. You will receive your kit within two weeks of your purchase (probably less if no order from Stampin’ Up! is required).

Customers who are local to me and do not need shipping, click here to purchase the kit:

Other customers in the U.S., click here to purchase the kit with $3 for shipping:

If you need to order the stamp set or any other product, please contact me via email at loririder (at) verizon (dot) net. Sorry, I cannot sell these kits outside the U.S.

Additional Product List

• Early Espresso Classic Ink ($5.95) and Stampin’ Write marker ($3.50)
• Blush Blossom Classic Ink ($5.95)
• Crumb Cake Classic Ink ($5.95)
• Uni-Ball Signo white gel pen ($3.95)
• A Word for You stamp set ($21.95 wood mount/$16.95 clear mount)
• Corner rounder punch ($6.95)
• Eyelet border punch ($15.95)
• Paper snips ($9.95)
• Bone folder ($6.95)
• Stamp-a-Ma-Jig ($11.95 – optional)
• Stampin’ Dimensionals ($3.95)
• SNAIL adhesive ($6.95)
• Sticky Strip ($6.95)

I hope you enjoy the kit! If you are a demonstrator and would like to purchase the kit instructions, please click here. Thanks!

Hearts and Cupcakes

2011-01-11T11:05:00.000-05:00

Are you up for a fun color challenge today? I was, and the SCS challenge was the perfect thing: Melon Mambo, Cherry Cobbler and Pretty in Pink. I made a Valentine's Day card for the Paper Players' most recent challenge. I kept it pretty simple and let my cute Create a Cupcake punches star on this card - and hey, since it's punches it also fits the Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge for this week. For the background I stamped cherry hearts using the Confetti stamp set, and the sentiment comes from Grateful Greetings. I wanted just a few little accents to polish it off, so I added some rhinestones, double scallop ribbon border punches (Tip of the Day: punch one strip, cut it in half, and glue one strip to each side of your panel) and a tag cut with the Big Shot and Lots of Tags.

I think that's it - I have lots more to do today, especially since we're supposed to get at least a foot of snow tomorrow and I bet the kids will be home from school. Hope you are enjoying better weather wherever you are - thanks for stopping by!

Vintage Bird

2011-01-08T05:00:00.000-05:00

Well, I didn't really manage to follow my stamping resolution this week... better luck next week! For today I have my card for the Our Creative Corner challenge. We're being hosted this month by the fabulous Wendy Janson, and this week she has a fun chickadee inspiration challenge for us. We hope you'll play along with us!

For my card I picked the colors Riding Hood Red, So Saffron, Very Vanilla and Basic Black. I took my layout from the Friday Mashup sketch challenge and went with a vintage style with the Love Letter designer paper and Bliss stamp set, which will be available during Sale-a-Bration. I sponged the edges with black ink and created my bird with the extra-large bird punch, and since the sketch challenge called for using bling, I pulled out black rhinestones (retired from the holiday mini) and gave my bird a sparkly eye and added a flourish under my flowers.

Be sure you go check out all the samples from the OCC team - and then show us your own creation! Have a wonderful weekend!

My New Year's (Stamping) Resolution

2011-01-03T18:43:00.000-05:00

Happy new year! I'm back from vacation with family and friends, which was wonderful - except that I didn't bring any stamps with me and now I feel like maybe my mojo didn't come back from vacation, LOL. But what better way to get back into the swing of stamping than to dive in and do a challenge. In fact, I've decided as one of my new year's resolutions, I'm going to try to do more challenges. I'd like to say it would be one a day, but I think that would be pushing my luck. Maybe three a week is a good goal. I'm going to give it a try and see how it goes!

I loved the Mojo Monday sketch for this week. I am finally ready to play with the new goodies from the Occasions Mini and Sale-a-Bration, which is good since the new mini goes into effect tomorrow! On this card I featured an image from the SAB set Punch Bunch. What better color for these little poppies (that is what they are, right? I'm no gardener! LOL!) than Poppy Parade, and the first two colors to pair it with that popped into my head were Old Olive and Early Espresso, so I went with it. This card has lots of dimension - and as a result it's very heavy! I used a mix of designer papers - the poppy is from the hostess pack, the espresso from the neutrals pack, and the olive from the Play Date collection. I also used the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder for a bit more texture. The scalloped circle is a Big Shot die and I used the Circle Scissors Plus for the other circles. I embellished with just a touch of poppy ribbon and three olive brads.

That's it for today - I'm really happy to be back with my stamps and I'm looking forward to (hopefully) bringing you new creations more often!

The closing of the year

2010-12-17T09:00:00.000-05:00

This will be my last post for 2010... hard to believe the year is almost over, isn't it? Todd and I have both been sick this week, and I'm not over what I have yet, but I did want to share this easel card that I made earlier this week for my club. One of my club members specifically requested doing an easel card and I was happy to comply!

I wanted to do something pretty and vintagey - is that a word? I got the color combination from the Color Coach: Blushing Bride, Early Espresso and Pear Pizazz. To make the image panel I used two stamp sets, Style Beautiful and Elements of Style. I layered lots of scrolls using generation stamping, then stamped the medallion on top and added a punched flower and some pearls. I sponged all the edges with Blushing Bride ink. For the bottom I made a row of the little accent with the Stamp-a-ma-Jig, then added a sentiment from Heard from the Heart and a scallop trim border. A few more pearls serve as the "stop" for the easel and that was it! I thought it turned out pretty, and my club members were impressed that it fits inside a regular envelope.

I want to wish everyone happy (and healthy) holidays - I'll see you in the new year!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #42

2010-12-16T08:00:00.002-05:00

For this week's challenge, we have a gorgeous set of Christmas coasters. Aren't they elegant? Of course, you don't have to use a holiday theme for your project - whatever this photo inspires you to create is perfect!

I pulled out a whole bunch of stamps for this card to create a collage-inspired look. The main image comes from the set Gifts of Christmas, and I embossed it in gold on naturals ivory card stock. Around the edge I added a few more poinsettias in Cherry Cobbler, plus I sponged the edges, then I layered the panel onto a piece of Always Artichoke that I sprayed with gold shimmer spray. To diffuse the sparkle I rubbed the gold spray into the cardstock with a paper towel. Once all that was done I didn't think the sentiment stood out enough, so I stamped it again and punched it out. For the background I used the swirl from Baroque Motifs, again gold embossed, along with a lot of seasonal words and phrases from several different sets. The final touch was a poinsettia made with the five petal punch - I scored the petals and leaves for dimension, sponged the edges, and used three gold brads in the center.

Be sure to check out the cards made by the rest of the Divine Divas for this challenge!

Anne

Chris

Julie

Hope you are inspired to come and play along. Just leave a comment here with a link to your card. We can't wait to see what you create! The keyword for uploading on online forums will be DDIC42.

Now, for some sad news - I have decided for several reasons that it's time to end my inspiration challenges. There is going to be a lot happening in my life next year, and although I am really going to miss bringing you inspiration pieces on a regular basis, it feels like the right time to call it a day. I want to thank everyone who has played along with us for these 42 challenges. We have appreciated your support and we'll miss sharing these challenges with you every two weeks. I also have to express my utmost appreciation for all the fabuous stampers who have served on the design team since we started the challenge. Your work has been wonderful and inspirational to me, week in and week out. And who knows... maybe we'll be back someday... Anyway, thanks for everything from me and the rest of the Divas. Many blessings to everyone!

Big Fun Flower Thanks

2010-12-11T05:00:00.000-05:00

For this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner, our hostess, Sarah Gough, has a fun sketch challenge. I combined this challenge with the color combo posted at Create with Connie and Mary for this week: Rich Razzleberry, Not Quite Navy, Old Olive and River Rock. I love this combo - it's amazing! I confess I did alter the sketch just a bit since I couldn't bear to cover up the flower with my sentiment. I hope you'll forgive me. ;)

I chose to feature a new Big Shot die that will be available in the Occasions Mini that goes into effect in January. This die is called Fun Flowers, and it really lives up to its name - they are fabulous. After I cut out the three flowers, I added leaves that I made with the Blossom Petals punch that will also be available in the Occasions Mini. To add dimension I curled the flower petals with a bone folder and scored the leaves down the center. To the middle of the flower I added an antique brad. My background papers pull in the same colors with a mix of current and retired DP, and for the sentiment I used A Word for You on a rectangle cut with the clear rectangle Sizzlit. For final touches I added just a bit of paper piercing and three vintage brads - too bad they're retired because they match the antique brad perfectly!

Be sure you go see what the rest of the OCC team has made for this challenge - the creations are always fabulous! Then play along with us and show us your own work - we love to see what you come up with!

Altoid tin calendar kit!

2010-12-09T14:50:00.000-05:00

I wanted to make a calendar with my club this month, and I really wanted to come up with something new. So here is my altoid tin calendar - I used supplies that I already had lying around, and I even have enough extra to offer this project as a kit so you can make your own!

Once you make up the kit, all the contents fit inside the tin and you can give it as a gift - or keep it for yourself!

You take out the months one at a time and use the magnets to hold the page to the front of the tin. Then the tin will stand up on its own on your desk - isn't it cute? And you can use the magnets long after 2011 is over - you could even cover over the numbers and give the tin to someone else with tags or cards inside.

I even decorated the back so that if it's on a desk and visible from that side, it still looks pretty.

These kits are $8 and available while supplies last, or through December 16. If you live in the Boston Metrowest area and want to arrange pick-up, click here:

If you are elsewhere in the U.S., I can ship the kit to you for a small additional charge. Click here:

Sorry, I can only sell these in the U.S. If you would like more than two kits, please contact me so I can send you a custom invoice.

The kit contains all consumable supplies needed for one calendar, including glass marbles, magnets, altoid tin, calendar, and all Stampin' Up! materials. You will receive complete instructions in an emailed PDF file. Additional supplies you will need:

Sticky Strip
SNAIL adhesive
Crystal Effects
Two-way glue pen
Corner rounder punch
3/4" circle punch

Please note: some prints from the Playdate designer papers used in the kits may vary, depending on availability. If you are picky about what prints you will get, please ask first - or you may be able to substitute a different designer paper pack. Just ask! I can answer any and all questions at loririder (at) verizon (dot) net. Thanks and happy holidays!

Christmas card buffet, round 3

2010-12-07T09:17:00.001-05:00

I'm back with two more CAS Christmas cards from the card buffet - I'm also posting for the SUO challenge. This first card was a CASE from a card by Ilina Crouse (which I see she CASEd from Nichole Heady). I used the wreath from Northern Hearts, stamped in Garden Green, with white embossed snowflakes all over the Crumb Cake base. The top of the white panel was punched with the scallop trim border punch. I added an embossed sentiment from Many Merry Messages, a 1/8" Real Red taffeta bow, and three rhinestones I colored with a red Sharpie.

As long as we're feeling "krafty" (LOL) here's another card with a Crumb Cake base. For this one I used the bells from Bells & Boughs, colored with markers and cut out, then accented with Smooch. Behind the bells I used an Early Espresso scallop punch and a panel of Deck the Halls paper. I cut a strip of Always Artichoke textured card stock with the Tasteful Trim die to put behind the DP, then a simple sentiment banner made with Curly Cute finished off this card. I know I got this layout from Jen del Muro but I'm not finding the exact post right now.

I still have three more cards to show you, but no more time today, so I'll be back again soon to finish these off!

Christmas card buffet, round 2

2010-12-06T09:14:00.000-05:00

I'm back with another card from the card buffet - and this one also works for the Clean and Simple bow challenge at SCS. This is the simplest card we made but I thought it was very pretty and elegant. First I cut the oval and frame from naturals ivory and Cherry Cobbler card stock, then I stamped the holly image from Peaceful Season (second and third generation) all around the outside of the oval. The gorgeous sentiment went right on top with Cherry Cobbler ink. Then we added a simple ribbon - Always Artichoke seam binding wrapped around the inside and taped to the front of the card under the oval. The bow was added separately with a glue dot. I finished off with a Very Vanilla button threaded with embroidery thread.

I'm off to finish a big proofreading project right now, but I'll post more of our cards soon! Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Card Buffet, round 1

2010-12-05T23:57:00.000-05:00

Today I held my annual Christmas card buffet and it was a huge success! I had eight stampers come to make Christmas cards. I do 10 designs for the card buffet, and you've already seen two of them, so I thought I'd come and post the rest. I'll just do a couple at a time, though, so you'll have new cards to look at for several days!

Most of the cards seemed to be a hit. This one is actually a redo of a card I did last year for one of the DDIC challenges. This version is SUO, of course - the stamp is from Autumn Days, colored in Garden Green and Chocolate Chip, with circles cut from the Big Shot and Circle Scissor Plus. (Partway through we also discovered that the 2 1/2" circle punch is the perfect size, so we switched to using that instead.) I added striped DP, a sentiment from Sincere Salutations, a satin bow, and some adhesive pearls.

Here's one with a slightly less traditional color combination: Bashful Blue, Bravo Burgundy and Pear Pizazz. This was a loose CASE of this card by Lynn Put. I stamped the ornament (from Tags Till Christmas) in those three colors and put them over pear DP. The background was partially embossed with the polka dot folder, leaving room for the sentiment at the bottom. I finished off with 1/8" taffeta ribbon (it's Old Olive, which is close enough) and pearls - again - don't you love these? The sentiment on this one is from Many Merry Messages, which has so many great holiday options.

I'll stop there for today - come back to see more Christmas cards all week!

Regal Rose Red Christmas

2010-12-04T05:00:00.006-05:00

It's time for another challenge from Our Creative Corner and since it's December we have a new hostess - Sarah Gough. We have a color challenge for you to kick off the month: Regal Rose, Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise, kraft (Crumb Cake) and Very Vanilla. And it's not just a color challenge, but also a challenge to use these colors for a holiday card. Sounds fun, right?

I decided to combine the challenge with one of the 10 cards I needed to design for my Christmas card buffet that's happening this weekend. I'd seen this card from Chat and borrowed a few ideas from it. I thought it would be a great design for these colors. I also played along with the SCS inspiration challenge - my inspiration was this cute ornament.

My ornaments are from the stamp set Tree Trimmings, and I topped them off with a strip of Regal Rose DP and a punched border with the scallop ribbon border punch. The rest of the card is simply a few layers, a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes, and three Rose Red brads.

I know I can't wait to see what the rest of the team has done with these fun colors for the holidays - so be sure you go check it out, and then play along with us!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #41

2010-12-02T08:00:00.004-05:00

It's December and time for another inspiration challenge from the Divine Divas! This month's challenges will be holiday images, but don't feel obligated to make holiday cards - anything goes! For this week we have a cute cupcake kit full of fun colors and cute Christmas icons.

I have a Christmas card buffet this weekend and still needed one more card design, so I went the Christmas route for this one. I have to say, I think it turned out really cute. I stamped four images from Jolly Bingo Bits - looky, that set has everything you need for Christmas, including the four items shown in the cupcake kit! My colors are Riding Hood Red, Wild Wasabi, Baja Breeze, and Chocolate Chip. I was determined to find some bitty scalloped circles to go with my 1" circle punches, and wouldn't you know - the Birds & Blooms die set has the perfect one! I layered them onto several squares, then for the background I added some Candy Lane designer paper (which is unfortunately sold out!), retired ribbon (shh... it just had to be red and this is all I had), and a sentiment from Word Play. Can you see in the photo that the little ornament in the sentiment fits the 1/2" circle punch? So cute!

Be sure to check out the cards made by the rest of the Divine Divas for this challenge!

Anne

Chris

Julie

Hope you are inspired to come and play along. Just leave a comment here with a link to your card. We can't wait to see what you create! The keyword for uploading on online forums will be DDIC41. Have fun and look for the next challenge on December 16!

Kits still available

2010-12-01T14:28:00.001-05:00

For this month's card kit I'm going to continue to offer the November kit, which you can use to make two great cards (one for Christmas) with the Circle Circus stamp set. Click here for more details on this kit.

I also still have the Day of Gratitude kit available - click here for this card set kit that makes a lovely gift.

Both of these kits will be available through December 16, or in the case of Day of Gratitude, while supplies last.

Glitter, glitter everywhere...

2010-11-27T05:00:00.007-05:00

This week's challenge at Our Creative Corner is to make a tag or incorporate a tag into our project. I decided to make a tag and put it onto a Christmas card. I, um, went a little nuts with the glitter... and you should see what didn't make it onto the card, LOL. I'm not sure what I think of this card, but it's definitely sparkly!

I started out with the Serene Snowflakes stamp set, and using Not Quite Navy ink and generational stamping I created my background panel with Baja Breeze card stock, then I added the smallest snowflakes over the background with iridescent ice embossing powder. I used the Tasteful Trim die to make the scalloped border. For the tag, which I cut out with the Two Tags die and Not Quite Navy card stock, I added an inset layer of Baja Breeze and stamped the smallest snowflakes all over with Not Quite Navy, then I covered the whole tag with Versamark and embossed with iridescent ice again. On top I added a Concord Crush punched ornament (from Tags Till Christmas), a sentiment from Christmas Greetings, a punched Concord Crush snowflake and a Concord Crush bow. Just in case it wasn't blingy enough yet, I accented the punches with just a few adhesive rhinestones.

Be sure you go see what the rest of the team created for the challenge, then tag - you're it! It's your turn to come and make your own tag creation and share it with us. Have a great weekend!

Online Spectacular Sale!

2010-11-22T10:15:00.000-05:00

Stampin' Up! has some great deals for you this week - 20 to 50 percent off a selection of fabulous products! This includes My Digital Studio and the new collections of Christmas fabric at half off, plus tons of bundles of stamps, accessories, tools, Big Shot dies, and lots more. Click here to see what's on sale - now through November 30.

While you're there, take a look at all the other great stuff that's available for the holidays - because if your online order is $150 or more, your shipping is free! That's a savings of at least $15, plus you get hostess benefits, too!

And if your wish list is like mine - bigger than you can afford, LOL - then maybe it's time to think about becoming a demonstrator. Also through November 30, you get the starter kit - more than $300 in fabulous product - for just $87.50! Signing up now gets you demonstrator privileges through March 31, 2011, with no further sales required. If you decide to continue as a demonstrator the quarterly sales requirement is just $300. I'm here to answer your questions at any time, and if you're ready to sign up, just click here and enter "divastamper" as the recruiting password.

Don't wait to take advantage of these great offers - these kinds of sales and opportunities don't come around very often!

J-O-Y

2010-11-20T05:00:00.040-05:00

This week at Our Creative Corner our November hostess, Linda Coughlin, is challenging us to make a 3-D holiday gift. I decided to combine the challenge with my club's 3-D project for the month and came up with this JOY banner. I got the idea from this banner but thought it would be cute with letters inside instead of photos. It was a little hard to get photos since I hung it in the stairwell going down from my studio, but I did my best!

The original project used the matchbox die for the boxes, and I intended to do that as well... until I realized they were too small for the Serif Essentials Alphabet. So I quickly made my own little boxes. They are 5 3/4" x 6" panels of Old Olive textured card stock, scored at 3/4" and 1 1/2" on each side; cut off the corners to create tabs and you have a sweet little box. The Cherry Cobber letters fit nicely inside these. I backed them with panels of Jolly Holiday DP (2 5/8" x 2 7/8") and for accents I added images from the Jolly Bingo Bits stamp set (from the mini catalog). I used a 1" book ring for the holder and looped Old Olive striped ribbon through it, then, to keep it in place, I sewed on a Cherry Cobbler button with linen thread. Yes, you read that right, I sewed it on. And my club members will do it, too, whether they like it or not! ;) The final touch was tying a Very Vanilla satin ribbon bow on top of the ring, just to make it a little more elegant.

Here are close-ups of the letters themselves. As for the red and green rhinestones, did you know you can color our adhesive rhinestones and pearls with Sharpies? Try it! Be sure you visit the OCC blog to see the rest of the team's creations - you'll find lots more great gift ideas for the holidays!

Club Christmas CASE

2010-11-19T09:29:00.000-05:00

Hey, what do you know... I've posted every day this week! Aren't you impressed? LOL! I thought I'd share one of the cards we're making at club this weekend. I loved this card from Chat Wszelaki and decided to CASE it for a Christmas card. It has all the elements you need in a Christmas card - simple, flat for mailing, and elegant.

I started with Very Vanilla and ran it through the Big Shot with the Northern Flurry embossing folder. Conveniently this matches the Northern Hearts hostess set - both products are in the holiday mini catalog. To layer my Night of Navy snowflake, I used the 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches and the Homemade stamp, which fits in the 2 3/8" scalloped circle punch. I added a strip of navy DP, a sentiment from Contempo Christmas, and adhesive rhinestones for just a little bit of holiday bling. Want an all-purpose holiday card? Just swap out the sentiment for another of your choice!

I just love how this turned out and I wouldn't be surprised if I send a few of these out myself. I hope you enjoyed it - thanks for visiting today!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #40

2010-11-18T08:00:00.002-05:00

Welcome to this week's challenge! We've got a fun one for you this time around - a pampering gift set with some lovely fresh colors. Please come and join in!

Seeing the topiary in the photo I pulled out the retired stamp set Bouquet Bunch. I paper-pieced the pot with naturals ivory card stock to emulate the texture of the pots in the photo, and on top of the Old Olive leaves I added a Daffodil Delight bitty punched flower with an Early Espresso brad in the center. I used the scallop squares die from the holiday mini to cut the largest layer then trimmed smaller squares for the inside. The base is naturals ivory with layers of Daffodil Delight and (retired) River Rock DP with a strip of espresso satin ribbon. The sentiment is from A Little Birthday Cheer and I added the Floral Fusion flower as a nod to the medallion on the cosmetic bag.

Be sure to check out the cards made by all the Divine Divas for this challenge!

Anne

Chris

Donna

Julie

Hope you are inspired to come and play along. Just leave a comment here with a link to your card. We can't wait to see what you create! The keyword for uploading on online forums will be DDIC40. Have fun and look for the next challenge on December 2!

A 30-minute (or less) card

2010-11-16T14:36:00.000-05:00

My challenge to myself today: could I create a card for Todd's birthday and blog about it in the little time I had? My solution: blog challenges, of course. My layout is the Clean & Simple FTL116; I flipped it upside-down - but oops, I didn't quite put the sentiment where I was supposed to. Oh well! The colors are from the Color Dare challenge: Night of Navy, Pear Pizazz and Soft Suede.

The sketch used the Top Note for the sample, and why mess with perfection? I cut mine from pear card stock and added a strip of navy dot paper from an old hostess pack, then topped it with retired soft suede ribbon. The stamp is what else - Lovely as a Tree - and the sentiment is a retired single stamp. For the base I used naturals white with a strip of retired Christmas paper - the subtle Soft Suede stripe on the back side was perfect. All that was left to add was a thin strip of navy card stock and two brads - which are celery but look just as good with the pear here.

That's it - done! Sometimes a clean and simple card is just perfect. Thanks for visiting!

Christmas Bells

2010-11-15T10:35:00.003-05:00

I made this card for the clean and simple challenge on SCS. This week it's a sketch challenge. I've been in a Christmas mood - and it's going to be time to send out Christmas cards soon enough, so I went with another holiday card. And what do you know, it also fits the Paper Players color challenge for the week!

I based the design around the Deck the Halls paper, choosing one of the printed holly designs for the bottom panel and stamping the sentiment, which is from the coordinating stamp set Bells & Boughs, in Early Espresso right onto the DP. The background is another one of the prints from that pack. I colored the bell image with Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke and Crumb Cake markers and a blender pen. To add dimension I cut the image out and mounted it onto a Nestabilities circle. I kept the embellishments simple with a strip of artichoke seam binding and three (retired) vintage brads.

That's it for this CAS Christmas card - have a wonderful day!

Vintage Potpourri

2010-11-13T05:00:00.010-05:00

Another Saturday, another challenge from the gals at Our Creative Corner. I missed last week because I was under the weather, but I'm joining this month's hostess, Linda Coughlin, in this week's color challenge: rust, gold, blue and brown. I used Cajun Craze, More Mustard, Baja Breeze and Early Espresso, and I broke out the level 1 hostess set called Punch Potpourri for the first time.

I used three of the images in the stamp set and the coordinating punches - the card stock is white but I really dirtied it up with espresso ink because I wanted to use the crochet trim and not have the white pop out too much. I added an espresso brad to the flower, a branch from the bird punch, and a wing punched from a scrap of Autumn Spice paper. Then I repeated that designer paper and also used a panel of Cajun Craze and some retired Baja Breeze for the background. The sentiment is from Well Scripted (retired) and I used the Lots of Tags oval die for the frame. Finally I added three adhesive pearls as an accent. I toyed with adding more to the card but then decided it was perfect as is.

Please come and play along with the rest of the OCC girls - and don't forget to stop by and see what everyone else made with these colors!

A not-to-be-missed opportunity!

2010-11-12T10:46:00.000-05:00

What do you call it when you get over $310 in crafting and business supplies for only $87.50? You can call it an amazing deal, but I call it an amazing opportunity! From November 15-30, you can purchase either the Standard or Digital+ Starter Kits at 50 percent off the regular retail price of $175 (plus free shipping!), and enjoy these great benefits as a Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator:

• Get a discount on all the products you love.
• Earn additional income while sharing creativity.
• Make new and lasting friendships.
• Enjoy access to nearly unlimited creative ideas.
• Receive a free subscription to an exclusive monthly magazine.
• Receive two free months subscription to your own business website.
• Work to earn free products and incentive trips.

Joining Stampin' Up! has been one of the best decisions I've made in my life. It's changed me for the better and I know it can make a difference for you as well. Join now and you'll have your business up and running for the holiday craft season - and for Sale-a-Bration, the most-anticipated event of the Stampin' Up! calendar, which begins in January. Even if you think stamping is "just a hobby" for you, think of all the supplies you can get with this great deal - and you never know where it might take you. I started as a hobby demonstrator myself but it was clear to me very soon that stamping was not just a hobby for me - it was my passion.

If this sounds like the opportunity you're looking for, contact me today to find out how you can join in the fun!

Simple Vintage Christmas

2010-11-10T11:13:00.001-05:00

I couldn't resist coming back for a couple more challenges today. This time I kept it pretty clean and simple with my card for the SCS sketch challenge and the Color Throwdown. I was in a Christmasy sort of mood even before I saw the colors, but that sealed the deal - here's what I came up with.

The holly image comes from the level 2 hostess set in the mini - Peaceful Season. I just love this set for vintage holiday cards. I stamped the holly several times on the Crumb Cake circle with Soft Suede, then colored the berries with a Cherry Cobbler marker. I added a couple more circles and sponged all the edges with Soft Suede. The designer paper comes from the Deck the Halls pack - also in the mini - as is the Cherry Cobbler seam binding. I finished off with a Crumb Cake base, three Cherry Cobbler brads and a sentiment from Seasonal Sentiments - I colored just the Merry Christmas with a Soft Suede marker.

Gotta dash... but I hope you feel the holiday spirit after reading about this card - I sure do after making it!

Fun with challenges

2010-11-09T18:30:00.000-05:00

I decided that today I needed to do some stamping just for me. Not for a deadline or an assignment - just for the fun of it! I combined the Mojo Monday sketch (tinkered with somewhat) with the colourQ color challenge.

These colors made me think of Trendy Trees, which I haven't used in ages. For the trees I used Cajun Craze, Always Artichoke and Early Espresso, and I stamped them on Crumb Cake card stock before cutting out with Nestabilities. The So Saffron panel was embossed with the square lattice folder, then to match the scalloped oval I created a frame with the double scallop ribbon punch. Each strip was cut in half and adhered to the back of the embossed piece. I created the background with artichoke paper and the Solid Stripes a la carte stamp. A strip of retired kraft taffeta ribbon (doubled over so the stripes don't show through) divides the two background panels and it all went on a Crumb Cake card base. Once I added the sentiment, I felt like it still needed something else, so I got out the Bitty Buttons and matching punch. This was the first I'd played with these, believe it or not. Tip of the day: First adhere the punched card stock to the button with a drop of Crystal Effects. Once it's dry, use the paper piercer to poke through the holes. For "thread" I used very tiny white card stock strips.

OK, now it's back to my editing work. No more fun for me - at least for today! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Day of Gratitude Card Set Kit

2010-11-07T23:59:00.002-05:00

Here is my latest card set kit offering, featuring the stamp set Day of Gratitude and the matching Autumn Spice papers. With this kit you’ll receive complete instructions (with photos) and all the consumable supplies needed to make eight cards (two each of four designs) and the coordinating box. The price of this kit is just $20, including envelopes. Please note that in some cases it may be necessary to substitute different prints for some of the Autumn Spice papers shown in the sample kit. I will offer these kits for the duration of the Holiday Mini catalog (through January 3, 2011) or while supplies last.

I'll fill the orders as I get them, so depending when you place your order, it may take me a couple weeks to get it to you if I need to order additional supplies. Let me know if you're in a rush and I'll see what I can do.

Demonstrators, click here for info on getting the kit instructions to use with your customers!

If you purchase the kit, you will also have the opportunity to purchase the Day of Gratitude stamp set at 15% off retail price (tax and shipping not included).

Wood mount regularly $26.95, with purchase of kit $22.91

Clear mount regularly $18.95, with purchase of kit $16.11

The rest of the products used in making this set are given in the list below. If you have all of these then you’re ready to go, but just let me know if you’d like to order any of these items. You can also use the kit to make your cards with the supplies you already own.

Local customers please click here to purchase the kit:

I can also ship these kits anywhere in the U.S. Click here to add to cart:

Please contact me if you would like to order the stamp set and/or any additional items, or if you are not purchasing the discounted stamps, you can click here to shop online anytime!

Lori Rider
loririder (at) verizon (dot) net

Additional Product List

• Early Espresso Classic Ink ($5.95) and Stampin’ Write marker ($3.50)
• Cajun Craze Classic Ink ($5.95) and Stampin’ Write marker ($3.50)
• More Mustard Classic Ink ($5.95)
• Old Olive Classic Ink ($5.95)
• Curly Cute stamp set ($14.95 clear/$19.95 wood)
• 1 3/8” circle punch ($15.95)
• 1 3/4” scallop circle punch ($16.95)
• Decorative label punch ($16.95)
• Scallop edge border punch ($15.95)
• Extra-large tag punch ($16.95)
• Large tag punch ($15.95)
• Bone folder ($6.95)
• Hobby blade ($4.50)
• Paper snips ($9.95)
• Stamp-a-Ma-Jig (optional; $11.95)
• Stampin’ Dimensionals ($3.95)
• SNAIL adhesive ($6.95)
• Sticky Strip ($6.95)
• Tombow Multipurpose Liquid Glue ($3.95)
• Mini glue dots ($4.95)

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #39

2010-11-04T08:00:00.004-04:00

It's another month and time for a new inspiration challenge! This time around we're featuring this cute owl mug. I hope these fun patterns and colors inspire your creativity this week!

My card didn't end up quite like I envisioned - I was trying to be funky but it turned out a lot more elegant than I expected. I wanted to duplicate the purple and pink floral band, so I brayered Rich Razzleberry ink onto the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder and ran it through the Big Shot with Blushing Bride card stock. The other side of the background is Marina Mist stamped with the Teahouse background.

Of course, I had to use the owl punch - the owl base is Early Espresso and then I added razzleberry wings from the bird punch. I wanted to bring in some circles so I used the stamp from the Apple Blossom hostess set on those. The branch is textured Old Olive card stock and the flowers were made with one of the Birds and Blooms Sizzlits, the bitty flower punch, and the owl punch (the tiny dots in the center). Last I added olive satin ribbon and a sentiment from Seasonal Sentiments (in the holiday mini). To layer the wide oval punch I used two of the scalloped ovals, placed on the top and bottom, and then filled in the gap with the modern label punch, cut in half and glued to each end.

Be sure to check out the cards made by all the Divine Divas for this challenge!

Anne

Chris

Donna (taking this week off)

Julie

Kerri

Hope you are inspired to come and play along. Just leave a comment here with a link to your card. We can't wait to see what you create! The keyword for uploading on online forums will be DDIC39. Have fun and look for the next challenge on November 18!

November Card Kit of the Month

2010-11-01T08:00:00.017-04:00

With this card kit you’ll receive complete instructions and all the consumable supplies needed to make 5 of each of these card designs – a total of 10 cards. The price of this kit is just $15, including envelopes.

If you purchase the monthly kit, you will also have the opportunity to purchase the coordinating stamp set at 15% off retail price (tax and shipping not included). This month the featured stamp set is Circle Circus.

Circle Circus stamp set regularly $28.95, with purchase of kit $24.61

The rest of the products used in making these cards are given in the list below. If you have all of these then you’re ready to go, but just let me know if you’d like to order any of these items. You can also use the kit to make your cards with the supplies you already own. Although a large number of punches were used on the original cards, you can easily modify the designs to use fewer punches.

Please get your orders to me by November 15. You will receive your kit before the end of the month.

Lori Rider

loririder (at) verizon (dot) net
978-486-8102
divastamper.blogspot.com

Local customers click here to add the kit to your cart:

If you need to receive your kit by mail, click on the "Add to Cart" button below. U.S. customers only, please. Let me know if you encounter any problems with the ordering process.

Additional Product List

• Rich Razzleberry Classic Ink ($5.95) and Stampin’ Write marker ($3.50)
• Pear Pizzazz Classic Ink ($5.95) and Stampin’ Write marker ($3.50)
• Tempting Turquoise Classic Ink ($5.95) and Stampin’ Write marker ($3.50)
• All Holidays stamp set ($34.95)
• Tiny Tags stamp set ($22.95 wood mount/$16.95 clear mount – optional)
• 3/4” circle punch ($10.95)
• Corner rounder punch ($6.95)
• 1 1/4” circle punch ($15.95)
• 1 3/4” scallop circle punch ($16.95)
• Large oval punch ($15.95)
• Scalloped oval punch ($16.95)
• Jewelry tag punch ($10.95)
• Gold Stampin’ Emboss powder ($4.75)
• Bone folder ($6.95)
• Stamp-a-Ma-Jig ($11.95)
• Heat tool ($29.95)
• Stampin’ Dimensionals ($3.95)
• SNAIL adhesive ($6.95)
• Tombow Multipurpose Liquid Glue ($3.95)

If you have any questions or problems please let me know. Thanks!

Vanilla Toile

2010-10-30T05:00:00.002-04:00

Welcome to another Saturday at Our Creative Corner! This is the final week for Diane Gilbert's October challenges, and this week she brought us a fabuous inspiration challenge - which you know I loved, of course! This gorgeous room comes from Pottery Barn.

I looked at the photo and immediately thought of toile, so I knew I wanted to use the Bella Toile BG stamp. I inked it with Crumb Cake and stamped it on Very Vanilla card stock. Behind that I used a layer of So Saffron designer paper. I also wanted to pull in the stripes from the photo, so I chose some striped Crumb Cake paper for the center panel. To get a really striking look I used black for my layers - I couldn't really tell what the dark accents in the photo were, so I just went for it and I love the result. In the center I added an image from Flower Fancy, which rather than putting it onto a panel, I just cut it out and adhered it right to the card. I added pearls to my scalloped panel for a little more elegance, leaving room for the sentiment from Occasional Quotes.

Don't forget to stop by the OCC blog to see what all the other team members have come up with for the challenge, and then play along with us! Hope you are having a great weekend!

Halloween Challenge(d)

2010-10-23T05:00:00.004-04:00

For this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner our fab hostess, Diane Gilbert, gave us a fun color combo that's perfect for Halloween: Certainly Celery, Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie and Early Espresso (and Diane put white in there as well - but I just couldn't make that work!). Well, I'll say that I like the card I ended up with, but it was quite an odyssey getting here! I had another card almost done and I tossed it aside and started over completely. But anyway...

The stamp set I used is called House of Haunts. I stamped the haunted house twice, on the razzleberry and pumpkin card stock, then I cut around the top of the house to put the orange moon behind it. For background panels I used espresso and pumpkin designer papers, and the sentiment (from the same stamp set) was punched and mounted on a label from the die set Lots of Tags. I sponged all the edges with espresso ink and added three celery brads to finish it off.

That's it from me - now be sure you see what else the team has created for this challenge, and we hope you'll play along as well!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #38

2010-10-21T08:00:00.004-04:00

It's time for another inspiration challenge and in honor of fall, we have a great blog post from Hostess with the Mostess. There are lots of great fall-themed photos so choose your favorite as your inspiration and come create with us! I just loved the cake shown here so that's what I picked.

I started out by making the embossed panel with the Vintage Wallpaper folder and Chocolate Chip card stock. The other colors I chose were So Saffron, Wild Wasabi and Tangerine Tango, which I used to watercolor the image from the retired hostess set Infinite Goodness. First I laid down a background of a saffron wash, then watercolored on top of that with the other colors. The wasabi panel features the retired Watercolor Vine wheel, and for the ribbon I really wanted tangerine, so I colored taffeta ribbon with a tangerine marker then layered it onto 5/8" Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon and topped it off with a button. The sentiment comes from the hostess set Afterthoughts.

Be sure to check out the cards made by all the Divine Divas for this challenge!

Anne

Chris

Donna

Julie

Kerri

Hope you are inspired to come and play along. Just leave a comment here with a link to your card. We can't wait to see what you create! The keyword for uploading on online forums will be DDIC38. Have fun and look for the next challenge on November 4!

Thanks a bunch

2010-10-19T14:05:00.000-04:00

Sorry I disappeared for a while! I've gotten behind on an editing project and I'm spending time trying to catch up. I do have a club meeting this week, though, so I thought I'd take a minute to share one of the cards we'll be making. I CASEd the flower pot from Dawn Olchefske and used the sketch from the Paper Players (flipped) for my layout.

These flowers and the pot are completely made from the Big Bold Cupcake dies. Isn't it just an adorable idea? I used three of the In Colors together: Poppy Parade, Peach Parfait and Pear Pizzazz. I stamped the pot with the Dot, Dot, Dot single stamp, and if that wasn't enough dots, I also used the big dot paper from the hostess pack. The sentiment is from A Word for You, and I added some paper piercing and peach ribbon as accents.

I hope you enjoyed this card - I think it made me feel a little more cheery on a day when it's pretty chilly out. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Extended card kit offer

2010-10-17T19:07:00.000-04:00

I've decided to offer the October Card Kit of the Month for one more week. Go to this post and place your order by Friday, October 22. You can also order the Just Believe stamp set at a 15% discount if you contact me after you purchase your kit. Don't delay - act today! :)

Lighthouse Birthday

2010-10-09T05:00:00.001-04:00

It's time for another challenge over at Our Creative Corner, and this week our hostess, Diane Gilbert, has a fun sketch challenge for us. I decided to do a masculine card with the stamp set Uncharted Territory. I used colors from another challenge blog, Hand Stamped Sentiments. The combination is a cool one: Real Red, Pear Pizazz, Pacific Point and Early Espresso.

I stamped the lighthouse on white card stock in espresso, then highlighted just a few areas of the image with markers. Since I was doing a masculine card, I used torn edges instead of a border punch, and I picked twill tape instead of ribbon, adding a red button (retired) tied with hemp twine for an accent. The background is from the In Color hostess paper pack and the sentiment from the hostess set Afterthoughts. I couldn't decide which color(s) to use on the sentiment, so I used three! I simply colored the top half of the "birthday" with the red marker and then filled in the bottom with the blue. The curly label punch and Movers & Shapers gave me my fun sentiment shape.

You'll want to be sure to visit the OCC blog and see everyone's creations for the challenge - and then play with the sketch yourself and share your creativity with us!