You rock!

This isn't what you'd normally expect to see on my blog, would you? Well, I needed a card suitable for boys (tweens/teens) for an upcoming workshop, and this is what I came up with. The intention is for it to be a Valentine's Day card, so I hope this works! The timing was perfect since the challenge for Our Creative Corner this week is to make a card inspired by music in any way you want. I was mulling over a *lot* of ideas for how to use music on a card, considering that music has been so important to me my entire life. To end up with this card feels like a bit of a cop-out, but time just ran out and it turned into a twofer. It hasn't been the best week around here so you get what you get!

OK, enough with the apologizing and on to my card. I took a little inspiration from this card (the spiral punch, angling the main panel, embossing in black over the splatter image) and also (sort of) used the sketch challenge that was posted on Stampin' Connection, which is the new SU forum for demonstrators only.

I first stamped the splatter (from Extreme Elements) with going gray on whisper white, then embossed the Extreme guitar player with Versamark and black EP over top. Tip of the day: Even though my going gray was classic ink, I learned the hard way that you can't immediately emboss on top of it without the EP sticking to the classic ink. Kind of a "duh" moment, I guess. So let your background stamping dry before you emboss! You can also see that I forgot to use my embossing buddy. But actually I think on this card it looks kind of cool to have the black speckles on top of the gray.

I finished my card with going gray textured cardstock that was stamped with another of the Extreme Elements images in basic gray. I used the spiral punch on the edge and then roughed it up with my finger a little. The real red background is from the Jackpot DP, and the sentiment is from Just Jawing - I stamped it on real red cardstock and cut it by hand. The final touch was three black vintage brads in the upper right corner.

OK, that's it for today! Don't forget to go see what all the other OCC gals made this week - I'm sure you won't be disappointed! And I hope to be back this week with some more stamping projects... I'll do my best!

Launching a new venture

I had a great meeting with my new club last Friday night. We had lots of fun stamping - if I get a chance this week I'll try to share our projects with you. But something totally new for me came out of it.

One of my club members asked if I did a monthly card kit. I had never even thought of it, but she was very enthusiastic about it so I told her I'd look into it. Well, if you know me, you know that once I decide something is a good idea, I usually won't rest until it's accomplished. So I spent most of yesterday working on a new blog (which I designed in My Digital Studio - Debbi has three great tutorials for how to do this and I promise, it's really easy!) and my first card kit.

The new blog, which I'm calling Diva Designs, is a site for Stampin' Up! demos to purchase the instructions for the kits. On February 1 I will offer the kits themselves here for anyone to purchase. So if you like what you see but aren't a demo, I hope you'll come back for that!

I'd love to hear your feedback - I'm really excited about this new aspect of my stamping business and I hope both demos and customers will find it helpful in inspiring even more creativity!

By request - ribbon and paper shares!

A member of my club requested that I start offering product shares. So, here are my first two! Please note these are available in the U.S. only.

Product share #1: 5/8" satin ribbon

This is the ribbon offered in the Occasions Mini catalog. For the sake of round numbers, I will also include the Whisper White ribbon that is in the main catalog.

What you get: one share = 3 yards of each ribbon (Whisper White, Basic Black, Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue, Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Basic Gray)

Cost: $20 (including tax and shipping from SU)
I am happy to ship anywhere in the U.S. for an additional $2 shipping (for one share).

This is a great way to sample this really wonderful ribbon at a fraction of the retail price (which would be $104 for all 10 rolls). We need 5 people to participate in the share, and once the share is full I'll place the order.

Product share #2: Designer series paper

For this share I will be offering 6x6 sheets (2 of each design) of the following designer series papers (which can be viewed online or on pp. 160-62 of the catalog):

Nouveau Chic
Merry Moments
Cottage Wall
Tall Tales
Pink Flamingo
Kaleidoscope
Razzleberry Lemonade
Tea Party
Flock Together
Bella Bleu
Thoroughly Modern
Shades of Spring (mini catalog)

Cost: $36 for 144 sheets. If you are outside my local area please add $4 for shipping (for one share). (Note that for my first time out, to keep things simpler I am not including the specialty papers.) This share requires 4 people to participate.

**Order both the ribbon and paper shares and your shipping will be $5**

Please let me know if there are any questions! I am also working on offering monthly card kits, so stay tuned for more info on that, hopefully soon!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #20

Our challenge this week is something for the little girl in us - well, at least in me! I was a total girly girl when I was little and I would have loved this Garden Tea Party set from Rosanna. (If you want to see more close-up photos, click here.)

For my card I used the blue stripes (bashful blue DP) and the pattern that has a mostly white background with tiny bunches of flowers. I thought the little bouquet from Happy Moments (a Sale-a-Bration stamp set) would be perfect - I stamped in basic black and then very carefully watercolored the flowers with an Aqua Painter and pretty in pink, certainly celery and bashful blue reinkers. They were punched out with the 1 3/4" circle punch, and the scallops are actually cut from the full heart punch, a technique I found here. I kept the image on a white background, embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots folder for texture. My embellishment is simply a pretty bow with the new satin ribbon in pretty in pink. The sentiment from Well Scripted, stamped directly onto the DP, was the perfect finishing touch. If you haven't seen this sentiment set in the mini catalog, then you're missing out. It's simply gorgeous.

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

Anne

Chris

Donna

Julie

Kerri

Keri Brown is taking a leave of absence from the team - we wish her well and hope she can rejoin us soon.

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 DDIC20. Have fun and look for the next challenge on February 4!

Thoughts of Dots!

I guess it's been a quiet week on my blog. I had a couple other projects to finish up after the holidays, and my stamp club starts in a week so I have other things on my plate. But I'm here with my card for the Our Creative Corner challenge. Joycelyn's challenge this week is easy peasy: use blue and green. Two of my favorite stamping colors!

This is another card showcasing lots of new products. I got the new heart treat cups and the matching stamps, a set called Sweetheart - but the flower stem image makes adorable flowers for any occasion. I paired it with the large image from With All My Heart, which (as you have probably seen) fits perfectly inside our new extra large flower punch. I used old olive for the stem and leaves, and not quite navy for the flower. Then I put a bashful blue button (tied with hemp twine) in the center and a bashful blue bird (another image from Sweetheart) at the bottom.

The frame around my image uses the new scallop trim border punch - one of the offerings through Sale-a-Bration. Instead of figuring out the right size to make a whole layer with scalloped corners, I took inspiration from a card that's shown on the flyer for the heart treat cups. I just punched out four border strips and cut them to size. (My white panel measures 2.75" x 4", so the short sides use six scallops and the long sides use nine.) Then I adhered them to the back of the white panel with dimensionals. Tip of the day: Start with either the two long or two short sides and put dimensionals down the length of the strip. Then when you adhere the other two strips, you will only put dimensionals in the middle and regular adhesive on the ends. That way the whole frame lays flat.

I finished my card by making a false card front of bashful blue cardstock embossed with the new Perfect Polka Dots folder. (The card base is actually whisper white.) Around that I tied old olive striped ribbon before adhering to the base. Then I added a sentiment from Whimsical Words (a SAB set) that was punched with the wide oval and attached to a tag from the Lots of Tags die set.

I hope you'll come play along with the challenge this week - there is even a prize up for grabs from Totally Stampalicious. Come check it out and be sure to take a look at all the DT cards - they are always amazing! Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Love in 3-D

For this week's Our Creative Corner challenge, Joycelyn has asked us to make something 3-D. I have to say that cards are (and probably always will be) my first love, but I do enjoy making ABC projects so this was a good opportunity to have some fun with something different!

My idea for these blocks came from a project I saw in Stampin' Success (the SU demo magazine) a couple of years ago. They did blocks for Halloween and they were super cute. I decided to do a Valentine's Day version, using lots of the new products from the Occasions Mini. (Apart from the paint on the blocks themselves, these are made completely with current SU products.)

First I took my 2" wood blocks, sanded the edges, and painted them with Folk Art vintage white paint (this is a really good match for very vanilla). Then I decorated the letter side of each block and adhered patterned paper squares to the other sides. The letters are the negative image squares of some of the letters from the Lots of Letters chipboard. The paper I used is the gorgeous, glittery Sending Love paper from the mini.

Let me briefly tell what I did to decorate the front of each block:

The L was embossed using chocolate chip craft ink (I know it looks black in the photo) and clear EP. I tied real red grosgrain ribbon through the hole for the L and put one of the DP prints behind the hole to show through. The heart is from I {Heart} Hearts (the three-heart punch) and was also embossed using real red craft ink and clear EP. Then I added a pink button (Sherbet) tied with hemp twine.

The O was covered with DP and trimmed/sanded. I put a red Playground button (again tied with hemp twine) in the center.

The V was painted with the same paint I used on the blocks, then I stamped the Dot, Dot, Dot stamp from the mini catalog with real red craft ink. The ribbon is pretty in pink taffeta with a 5/16" chocolate chip brad.

I covered the E with red galaxy glitter. Tip of the day: Be prepared for a mess if you use this much glitter - it got everywhere! The "love" heart is from the same stamp as the L block's heart (this time embossed with chocolate chip), and the flower is from the Birds & Blooms Sizzlit set with a real red epoxy brad (available in the mini) in the center.

How did I do with my 3-D project? I think they came out pretty cute, and although they might look labor-intensive, it really wasn't much harder than making one of my more elaborate cards. I just did the painting in little increments over the course of a couple days and then decorated them in one afternoon, once I received my first Sale-a-Bration order. (Woohoo!)

OK, that's it from me - be sure to go check out what the rest of the OCC gals have come up with. And then come join in the fun!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #19

Happy 2010! Wow, I can't believe it! I think we have a fun challenge for you this week. Just about everyone I know loves chocolate, but this week's inspiration piece is some chocolate that won't ruin your waistline: Chocolate Box Soaps from Terrain. (Sorry the photo isn't bigger - it's the best I could get. You might be able to see the patterns larger if you go to Terrain's site.)

I'm still having fun with my new products from the Occasions Mini. For this card I wanted to use the Very Vintage wheel with the Vintage Vogue set. I chose chocolate chip, so saffron, and really rust for my colors. Using naturals white cardstock for my base, I first stamped the damask from Friends 24-7 in chocolate chip down the left side. Next I used the wheel with saffron ink to make a background panel and stamped on of the Vintage Vogue flower images in the corner with chocolate chip. The large F was inked with rust and chocolate chip with the rock 'n roll technique, then layered onto chocolate chip and rust cardstock. I used the eyelet border punch on one edge of the rust panel. Then I stamped the large flower with saffron craft ink and embossed it - hoping to make it pop just a bit more, and I think it worked. I put a chocolate chip corduroy button in the center. When I put it all together I added the strip of chocolate chip satin ribbon, but it looked really bare. So for a finishing touch I chose three little saffron buttons (from Fresh Favorites) tied with hemp twine and adhered with mini glue dots. I'm loving the end result!

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

Anne

Chris

Donna

Julie

Keri

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 SCS will be DDIC19. Have fun and look for the next challenge in two weeks!

Clean and Simple - that's an order!

Welcome to the first 2010 challenge from Our Creative Corner! We have a new challenge hostess for the month, Joycelyn Turner. Today Joycelyn is challenging us to make a clean and simple card. Aw, shucks, if I must!

I had such a great time making this card. I got to play with some new goodies out of the Occasions Mini, which goes into effect next week! You are going to love this catalog if you haven't seen it yet. Oh, so fabulous. This card uses the flower image from Messages for Mom, which I purchased in the clear-mount option. In case I haven't said this yet, these stamps are really wonderful. They feel just like the wood-mount stamps when you use them, but you can see where you're stamping and the flat storage is really great. The SU clear blocks themselves are also great - I love how they feel in your hand. You will definitely want to attend one of my stamping events to try these stamps out for yourself!

OK, on to the card. I started this card out with the Fine Flourish image, which is one of the new A La Carte background stamps. These stamps are smaller than traditional background stamps but big enough to make a statement all on their own, as I've done here. I stamped it a couple times (with help from the Stamp-a-ma-Jig for alignment) in rich razzleberry on whisper white. Everything on the card is in these two colors - I love the monochromatic look for clean and simple cards. I scored the card base on my Scor-Pal before I adhered the flourish panel. For a little more pizzazz I added razzleberry ribbon over that panel. I used Nestabilities to cut out the flowers, and then it looked like it just needed something in that open space under the bouquet, so I used one of the flowers from the Blossom Party die. The white button, which I threaded with razzleberry cardstock, is a random button from my stash. Finally I added the sentiment, from Kind & Caring Thoughts, which I punched out with the modern label and then layered with help of the Movers & Shapers die.

Be sure you go visit the OCC blog to see the rest of the team's creations. They are always fabulous! Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Happy New Year to everyone!