Grateful for You

I'm grateful for you, my faithful blog readers, who are very patient with my intermittent posting! My new session of club is kicking off this week, so it was time to get my supplies out. I wanted to do a fall(ish) card and I really liked this one (the second card, specifically) by Sylvia Nelson. With that as my inspiration, here is what I came up with. I'm entering the Paper Players clean and simple challenge and Stampin' Royalty's anything goes challenge.

I used several different stamp sets on this card. (For a vintage look, everything is stamped off and sponged with Early Espresso ink, on naturals white card stock.) I stamped the large leaf from For All Things in Rich Razzleberry, and the spray of branches (same set) in Hello Honey and Early Espresso. Using an espresso marker, I colored in just a block of script on the large stamp from the set Postage Due. The last step was some splotches from Gorgeous Grunge, stamped in So Saffron. The bird and wing are punched out of areas I stamped with images from Gorgeous Grunge and Work of Art, using Blackberry Bliss and Hello Honey ink. The card base needed something else so I added some more espresso leaves around the edge, the For All Things sentiment, and sequins (In Colors and gold).

Time is running out so I may not be able to post any more club projects before tomorrow. I definitely wanted to post at least one so you know I'm still alive! ;) Hope to be back soon with more!

Tweet, tweet!

Yes, I've decided to join the world of Twitter. When I post to my blog, add listings to my Etsy shop, or just want to share Stampin' Up! news, I'll send out a tweet and you'll know right away. Just follow @divastamper for all the latest!

Last-minute stamping

Today is my 14th wedding anniversary. How time flies! Especially since last night I realized I hadn't even thought about the card I would need to make. So I looked through my stamps and found a couple challenges and ended up with this card. I hope it's not too girly - he's getting it, even if it is!

The challenges I chose to play are Pink Elephant's sketch and autumn colors from SUO Challenges. Looking through my stamp sets, I decided to use Choose Happiness. The leaves in Mossy Meadow and the elegant frame in Early Espresso both come from that set. I liked the idea of a wood grain inside the frame, but the stamp in Choose Happiness is already in a banner shape, so I used the wood chevron background from Truly Grateful (stamped off once with Crumb Cake). To bring in a bit more fall color, I punched and glued teeny tiny dots from the ribbon border punch in Tangelo Twist. I love how it looks but it's not something I would have my club members do! The sentiment is from A Dozen Thoughts.

The background is Mossy Meadow card stock with a faux suede look. To achieve this I ran the card stock back and forth over the edge of a table, in all directions, to loosen the grain of the paper. Then I was able to peel one layer off to leave this thinner textured piece. A burlap banner anchors the bottom of the card, and then to balance the orange berries I added thin strips of Tangelo Twist card stock. I think that's it for this card - I'm happy to have this finished with some time to spare!

Testing the waters...

Wow, it's been a long break from posting for me. I haven't done much stamping in a couple months - travel and a busy summer took my attention elsewhere. But my club will be starting again soon and I have lots of new products that haven't even been opened yet. Time to dust off my stamps and get back to creating!

What better way to jump start my creative juices than a few challenges. I found inspiration for my card at Freshly Made Sketches, SUO Challenges (embellishments - I used pearls), and colourQ (Blackberry Bliss, Hello Honey, So Saffron, Going Gray, and white). (I used Smoky Slate instead so that all my colors would be current.) Here is what I came up with:

 

All of the stamps on this card come from the new set called Kinda Eclectic. This was one of the first sets from the new catalog to go on my must-have list. These images are fun to combine and

the butterfly punches are always fabulous. I'm feeling really rusty, so a fairly simple card fit the bill for tonight. Let's hope this is the start of a lot more stamping for me - I've missed it more than I realized!

New month, new toys!

Wow, July? How did that happen? I've been busy with my kids since they got out of school and we've been having a lot of fun. But since the first Blendabilities markers are available to purchase today, I felt like making a card to focus on them. I haven't had a lot of time to play with them yet, so I'm looking forward to more coloring in my future. So far I think they are fabulous!

I found a bunch of great challenges to play along with. I used the tic-tac-toe challenge at the Paper Players (I picked twine, patterned paper, and embossing); the color challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments (although I cheated a little since I wanted to use the Blendas); and Friday Mashup (hello plus sequins - hey, I used one!). The main image is the single stamp Vivid Vases - I used a post-it note over the sentiment when I inked it up so I could just use the flowers.

So, more on the Blendabilities and the colors I used. HSS's colors were Lost Lagoon, Hello Honey and Tangelo Twist - all new In Colors for 2014-15. The Blendas I used are officially Coastal Cabana, Daffodil Delight, and Pumpkin Pie, but I found that by focusing on the darker shades in the marker sets, I could match the orange and yellow. The vases are a bit more green than Lost Lagoon, so it's not a perfect match. But by blending the darkest Coastal Cabana marker with the lightest (the middle one has a lot more green, so I avoided that one) I was able to come close. I finished off with the polaroid die from On Film, the "hello" trimmed from the sentiment in the new set Hello Darling, a couple punches, one of the new sequins (I think it's officially Baked Brown Sugar, but it seemed to work), and a little twine looped behind. I've seen a lot of stampers doing this with twine, but this is my first go at it... I'm not sure if I did it the "right" way but I like the result!

Typeset Traveler

Happy Father's Day to all the dads! I had one more card to make, for my dear hubby and wonderful dad to our two kids. I'm throwing this out there for two challenges, Friday Mashup (Father's Day) and Create with Connie and Mary (sketch).

When I saw the Traveler stamp set I knew it was perfect for Todd with his love of antiques and artifacts. I paired it with the new Typeset specialty paper and a sentiment from Delightful Dozen. The background and two small punched banners all come from this great paper pack. I kept it pretty simple with only a few dimensionals and a strip of black satin ribbon as extras. I think Todd will like it - I hope he knows how much we appreciate him as a dad and husband!

"Honey, do you have..."

"... a card I could send to my dad tomorrow morning?" That's the question I heard from my hubby when he got home from work, and with Father's Day coming up I shouldn't have been surprised by it, right? I took care of my awesome dad's card yesterday (can't post that one yet here!) but my sweet father-in-law deserves a card, too. So if I need something quick, I look for challenges to inspire me, keep it simple, and use what's already out on my stamping table. Here's what I came up with.

There are three challenges represented here: SUO Challenges (stamping in the background), Stampin' Royalty (ombre effect), and Freshly Made Sketches. I admit, my ombre effect isn't fantastic - I brayered the Woodgrain background with Early Espresso and didn't get quite as much variation as I wanted. The background is stamped with Gorgeous Grunge, the tree image comes from Summer Silhouettes, and the sentiment is from Delightful Dozen.

I hope my father-in-law loves it - it was a quickie, but he loves working outdoors and building stuff, so I think it's great for him. Thanks for visiting and a warm welcome to my new subscribers this week! I'm so happy to have you all here!