March club cards

We had fun at club last Friday night - sorry that it's taken me until now to post the cards! Why is it that just when I think I'm getting caught up, I suddenly realize I'm even further behind?

Anyway... here are the cards. This one uses the bunny from Eight Great Greetings in the mini catalog, stamped in basic gray then colored with pretty in pink, so saffron and bashful blue markers. For the scalloped oval I layered two pink scalloped circles, then used the saffron ribbon to hide the overlap. The background is retired bashful blue paper (Maine Blueberry) and a pink panel embossed with the little dot texture plate.

For this card I used a lot of supplies from the mini catalog. The Upsy Daisy image was done with the embossing resist technique. I used the brayer to apply basic gray ink over the clear embossing on whisper white cardstock. I added cameo coral and gray cardstock and the following from the mini catalog: paper from A Walk in the Park, one of the stamps from Ovals All layered with the new scalloped oval punch (love it!), a strip of the white satin ribbon, and two basic gray corduroy buttons. I just think the accessories in this catalog are fabulous, if you couldn't tell!

Don't forget that the mini catalog goes live tomorrow - no foolin'!

For a very special friend

A dear friend of mine will soon be going to Taiwan to pick up her new adopted daughter. This little baby has been long awaited and prayed and hoped for by so many. We can't believe that so soon she will be here with her new family! My friend asked if I would make a box and card for her birthmother gift. This sweet baby's name in Chinese means Iris, so that will be her American name as well. The box and card I made are a tribute to this beautiful little girl.

I made the box first. It's a slightly modified 2-5-7-10 box; I made the front and back 3.5" inches wide instead of 3" (and thus the sides are 1.5" instead of 2"). I made the box out of SU's gold cardstock, then I stamped the Baroque Motifs swirl in Versamark and embossed with Ranger gold EP. The ribbon is (I think?) A Muse. The iris stamp is by Hanko Designs. I colored the stamp with old olive marker and a purple Tombow marker, then stamped on very vanilla and colored in the flower with a lighter Tombow purple. I cut out and embossed with Nestabilities, using a larger scalloped oval so I could paper pierce the scallops. The purple is Bazzill cardstock. Finally I added some Martha Stewart half pearls to the scalloped edge of the box flap.

The card was made with all the same materials, using the layout (flipped) for the Weekend Sketch Challenge. I put the panels onto a textured vanilla card that measures 5x7. Here is a close-up of the iris.

I really hope that my friend loves this - it was made with a heart full of love for this baby that none of us has even met yet!

Doing a little housecleaning...

I decided to take some time today and spiff up my blog a bit. I've started adding labels - how did I not realize that this was so incredibly easy? At least it's easy if you add them as you post... going back over 300+ posts and adding the labels is not *quite* as easy.

I've also added a blog roll - check out these ladies' gorgeous creations!

And stay tuned for news on the inspiration challenge. I'm hoping it'll start back up soon. Things may be changing a bit but I won't tell you now - you'll just have to check back for details!

Another crazy week

I'm sorry that once again I've gone through most of the week without posting. I would love it if my schedule would just calm down a little... I am wrapping up an editing project over the weekend and I hope all that is on the horizon is more time to stamp!

Today I managed to squeeze in a challenge card. The limited supply challenge was to make a card with Soft Subtles colors and a spring flower. I decided to use blush blossom and sage shadow, and the Live Your Dream flower that I still love so much. But I did cheat a little - isn't everything better with chocolate? Chocolate chip, that is. It just needed something dark to ground the soft colors.

I started out by inking the flowers with the blush blossom pad and then wiping the ink off the stems with a baby wipe. I tried using the blush marker but it was just too pale. The chocolate chip covers the centers so you don't have to worry about that, and by the time you are ready to ink the stems they are dry. I used the side of the chocolate chip marker's brush tip to edge the flower petals. Then I stamped on very vanilla and cut and embossed with long rectangle Nestabilities. I decided to use textured cardstock on this card and layered the flowers on chocolate chip. (All the edges are sponged with chocolate chip on this card.)

The background is made up of a panel from the Cosmo Cricket Everafter collection - (have you seen these? Truly to die for. And they match SU colors quite well - this paper looks nice with sage shadow.) and a blush blossom cardstock panel embossed with the pretty pattern Cuttlebug folder. I covered the join with chocolate chip taffeta ribbon and then layered it onto chocolate chip cardstock and a top-folded vanilla card base. For another embellishment I had to use the vanilla half pearls from the Pretties Kit. I've been hoarding them a little but they seemed perfect here. The sentiment is from the new mini catalog set Ovals All, which works so well with the new scallop oval punch. To be able to layer the large oval punch makes me blissfully happy!

I hope I'll be back soon with another card to show you. Hope you have a great weekend!

Soft Morning Glory

Hey, two days in a row I've played a challenge. Let's see how long this lasts... Today's featured stamper is Stacy (aka Twinshappy), and let me tell you - I didn't even begin to look at all 15 pages of her gallery! Clearly she deserves to be featured, and her work is amazing. I chose this card for my CASE. I kept the layout basically the same, but I made a different scored panel (although I really like what Stacy did and will have to try it sometime), changed the image and colors, used brads in the corners, and added an extra layer as the card base.

I've had this Morning Soft image for a while but this was the first I'd used it. (Can I just say that I don't really miss trimming and mounting stamps - at all!) I stamped the flowers in always artichoke and colored with mellow moss, almost amethyst and lovely lilac markers (with just a touch of only orange in the centers). On the flowers I colored over all the shading with the lilac and then colored over with the amethyst and used a blender pen to soften the lines. I am much less experienced with coloring with markers - how did I do?

I cut the whole thing out and mounted with dimensionals over my scored background (made with a Scor-Pal). I used the ticket corner punch and vintage brads to accent the corners of the scored panel and the artichoke layer underneath, then mounted that with pop-up glue dots onto a panel of moss DP from the retired Winter Retreat scrap kit. On that layer I wrapped a piece of retired artichoke ribbon from Theater Originals around, and then used more dimensionals to mount that on a white top-folded card. The sentiment is the single stamp Glad Friends, stamped in artichoke on amethyst cardstock and punched with the designer label punch, then layered over a 1 3/8" artichoke circle. I added a flower from the Pretties Kit with another brad because it just seemed to need something else, but I'm not sure about it. Any suggestions?

Thanks for stopping by today. I've enjoyed my stamping time this weekend and I'm crossing my fingers that the week ahead will hold more of the same. But after last week, I'm not making any promises!

Where did this week go?

Remember Monday, when I said I was planning (or hoping) to post some stuff this week? I can't even believe it's the weekend and I didn't play a single challenge. I was working on a lot of Etsy stuff that's been partially finished for a long time, so that's where I've been.

You know how much I love the SCS inspiration challenge, so I definitely had to play. This was the photo that inspired me - the Global Market collection at Fitz and Floyd. I loved the colors and the style of the flowers. Although the colors really reminded me of some of last year's In Colors, I used the current set instead - baja breeze, riding hood red, and kiwi kiss, along with so saffron.

I first created my own patterned paper with one of the stamps from True Friend, using whisper white cardstock, riding hood red ink and my Stamp-a-ma-Jig. For the focal panel I used the large flower image from the same set. I stamped it in red, kiwi and saffron, then cut out the saffron flower and punched the red center with the 1/4" punch. I used baja breeze for layers on both. For embellishment I added a kiwi eyelet punch border, baja breeze ribbon, and riding hood red buttons tied with linen thread. The sentiment, stamped directly on the saffron card base, comes from Three Little Words. There, a sweet little card that really isn't as hard as it looks!

February (well, March part 1) club cards

I'm playing catch-up a bit today. I thought you might like to see the cards we made at my club meeting yesterday. We missed our one gal who was out sick but we still had a good time! We'll be meeting again in just a couple weeks because yesterday's session was actually the February meeting, which we had to reschedule from when I was sick myself. (Is it spring yet?)

This card uses the technique with watercolor crayons colored directly on the stamp and spritzed with water. We used the SAB set Botanical Blooms with elegant eggplant, always artichoke and mellow moss. I put a layer embossed with one of the texturz plates behind it, with taffeta moss ribbon, flowers from the Pretties Kit daubed with eggplant ink and accented with half pearls, and the Elegant Thank You stamp punched with the scallop square.

Here is the card we made to play with more SAB goodies. I got the idea for this card from a layout I saw in the most recent issue of Stampin' Success. The heart from Polka Dot Punches was stamped in certainly celery and bashful blue, then punched and accented with filigree brads. A strip from the Delicate Dots paper and a generation-stamped celery panel are the background, and then I wrapped a bit of knotted celery poly-twill ribbon around the blue paper. I used the congratulations sentiment from Congrats in chocolate chip and then added a corresponding layer over the white card base. I imagined that this could be a wedding or anniversary card.

I hope you enjoy these SUO cards, and thanks for stopping by!

And the ribbon goes to...

Patty C! Please email me your snail mail address and I'll send you some yummy ribbon from my stash. (Click on "view my complete profile" and you'll get an email link.) I haven't picked out your goodies yet so tell me your favorite colors or your wish list and I'll see what I can do. :)

I appreciate those who came and left comments for me. It was gratifying to know that there are readers out there who enjoyed the challenges. I'm starting to miss doing them so I'm contemplating bringing them back on a biweekly basis. I'm not sure when it would start back up, but definitely not this week. I hope you'll stay tuned and check back in!

Give some feedback and get a chance to win!

***NOTE extended deadline!***

I'm posting a follow-up to my decision to suspend my challenges. One person unsubscribed after I last posted, which made me sad since I would have liked to hear her thoughts before she did so. One reader suggested doing a monthly or biweekly challenge. I certainly can do that and would love to hear your thoughts about that idea. But I would also really like to know - what would get you readers out there to play along with the challenge? ;) Am I just a victim of challenge overload? I know there are so many challenges going - it's hard to play them all. What would make you want to do my ICs? Any and all feedback welcome - I'd love to hear your thoughts. And just to make it a little more fun, I'll send a goodie bag of some assorted ribbon to one person who leaves feedback for me. I'll pick the winner on Sunday, March 8, at 10 p.m. Eastern.

Pixie Blooms

It was a busy day here, with my stamp club meeting and church, but I had to squeeze in a challenge card for the featured stamper challenge. Today's stamper was Judy (aka StampingQueenJAR) who is such a great artist and person. Congrats, Judy! I picked this card because I liked the layout and I thought watercoloring would be fun today. I kept the layout (with fewer layers) and used some similar embellishments, but I changed the image and colors and used patterned paper instead of a stamped background. I also added some piercing.

I never got to play last week's color challenge (chocolate chip, pixie pink and kiwi kiss), and once I decided to use this flower image from Bloomin' Beautiful, that seemed like a great color combination for this card. For my watercoloring I used watercolor crayons and a kiwi reinker with my Aqua Painter. This pretty kiwi paper is from the Sweet Nothings Simply Scrappin' kit (can I just say, this kit is gorgeous). I pulled out my kiwi kiss satin ribbon and my retired copper Hodgepodge Hardware - I am almost out of these oval frames, which are my favorite. (Sniff.) The sentiment is from Sincere Salutations. It all went onto a very vanilla card base.

I think that's about it for this one - pretty simple! I am really hoping that I will be able to post more regularly in the coming weeks. I'm itching to make all kinds of stuff. And don't forget that I will choose someone to receive a ribbon goody bag tonight at 10 pm Eastern - please leave me a comment on my ICs to enter. The post is at the top of my blog home page. Thanks!

What a week!

I am so happy to have something to post today! I worked like a maniac and got my freelance project out the door on time, and I finished a custom order that needed to go out yesterday. So I decided I would give myself this morning off to stamp. (And it's also my birthday... so that's my present to myself, LOL.)

My mom asked me to make a card for her aunt and uncle's 65th wedding anniversary. Wow, 65 years - isn't that inspiring? I also played the SCS limited supply challenge to make a card in 30 minutes or less and Sharon's Stamp Simply challenge to use heat embossing.

I was inspired to use night of navy based on the only information I could find about the traditional gift for the 65th anniversary - the star sapphire is apparently the gemstone for this anniversary. My mom wanted the numbers on the card so I took some chipboard numbers from Timeless Type, covered them with navy craft ink, and embossed with clear EP. This is so quick and easy, and the chipboard looks so great embossed.

I also embossed the flower image from Thoughts and Prayers, but this time I used Ranger cobalt Antiquities EP. The stamped and embossed image was just not intense enough in color for me otherwise. The cobalt is not quite the same color, but it doesn't seem to matter - it just fills out the color of the ink. For cutting out I used a large Nestabilities oval.

For the background I used a panel of navy cardstock dry embossed with the swirl SU texture plate. I chose to use soft sky as an accent color for the large panel and the scallop border on the Nestabilities oval. Then I added a sentiment from Hugs & Wishes, attached the oval with dimensionals and added the soft sky ribbon and bow, and glued the numbers onto the oval.

OK, my morning is flying by - I'm off to see if I can finish anything else before school pickup this morning. Have a wonderful day and weekend - I'm so glad you visited today!

Hooray for Kelly H!

Kelly is today's chosen featured stamper and does she ever deserve it! She has a huge and amazing gallery. It took a while just to choose which card to CASE! In the end I picked this one - it just spoke to me. I kept the layout but made it a square card, used chocolate chip but with baja breeze, and made my own background instead of using a background stamp. I also left off the brads because, in all honesty, I forgot! But I don't think there was room for them anyway.

For my main panel I used the gorgeous flower image from Friends 24-7. It was stamped in chocolate chip on whisper white, then I accented the flowers and leaves with just a little bit of baja breeze ink and a blender pen. For layers I used baja breeze cardstock and the chocolate chip damask print paper from Parisian Breeze. I sponged the edges of everything with chocolate chip. The background is made with the damask stamp from the same set, with chocolate chip ink stamped off once. I added sponging over the whole panel, with extra on the edges, and some polka dot ribbon from the Valet pack.

The sentiment is from Thoughts and Prayers - I just colored the "Thinking of You" part with a marker. What do you think of my punch layering? This is a bit funky for me! I used the curvy label punch to make the layers. First I punched one label and placed it vertically behind the oval, then I punched another label and with it oriented the "correct" way I cut it in half, then adhered each half to the two ends of the oval.

This shabby chic style is one of my most favorites - I hope you like it, too! Have a wonderful day!