Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Dreams


Today I have a project that represents something I'm doing for the first time - entering the monthly contest at Shelli Gardner's blog. (For those who don't know, Shelli is the CEO of Stampin' Up!) When I saw what this month's contest was, to use stencils, I immediately envisioned what I wanted to do. It took me nearly until the end of the month to find the time, but I'm pleased with the final result. I can see it framed in a shadow box and hanging on my studio wall, but for now this is what I have to show you.

The stencil I used is from the Folk Flower set that's in the mini catalog. This is a fairly large stencil so I imagined putting it onto a 12x12 background of some kind. I used sponge daubers and certainly celery, pretty in pink and rose red inks to create the design on very vanilla cardstock. I used regal rose textured cardstock with the scallop trim punches for the largest layer. I've used Gretchen Barron's tutorial for getting the right size layer to use with these punches, but Gretchen didn't go big enough for me on this project, LOL. So after some tinkering I figured out that a 9" square will work. If I get time I'll see if I can figure out some other large sizes - don't hold your breath on that one! *wink*

Here's a close-up of the flower - it's such a gorgeous image. I accented parts of the flowers with rhinestones from the Eggcellent Eggs kit, and I also used the rhinestone strips for the butterfly centers. My butterflies come from the Beautiful Butterflies die and the Beautiful Wings embosslit.

I wanted to add some kind of quote at the bottom. This stamp from Live Your Dream was perfect, even though it's (sniff) retired. I love the saying - I even have the Decor Elements version - and it fit nicely inside the oval frame die. I finished off with a nice big bow made from rose red stitched grosgrain ribbon. Since this is a large project it can take a serious statement from some wide ribbon, and I was happy to have a chance to make this fabulous bow!

I hope you enjoyed this stencil project. It was truly a joy for me to have time to create it. I really felt like I was making an art piece and I loved every minute that I spent on it.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

KISS card class


To me that stands for Keep It Sweet & Simple, and that's the name of a card class I'm doing this weekend for the first time. I think it's going to be a lot of fun! I have three cards planned. The first is a Mother's Day card that I CASEd from Jan Carlson courtesy of Dawn Olchefske's blog. I like the original better, but I think it still turned out cute. I tried to simplify a little bit, and I changed some of the colors around, but I still used Messages for Mom with melon mambo, crushed curry, rich razzleberry, and soft suede for the stamping. This simple card lets the stampers play with markers, embossing with the Big Shot, ribbon, and a punch.

For this card, I can't remember where I originally saw the idea of using the extra large bird punch as a stencil. Sorry to whoever had that idea first - tell me and I would love to give you credit! I used vellum cardstock for my stencil and sponged the branch with certainly celery and the bird with bashful blue onto naturals ivory cardstock. I just went over the wing a bunch more times to get a more intense color. Now, I'm not sure why this is, but bordering blue cardstock looked better for my scalloped circle, which I cut with the Big Shot. The bird is cut out with the Circle Scissor Plus. I added a sentiment from Sincere Salutations and a panel of certainly celery DP with silver brads in the corner, then I sponged the edges of the pieces with bashful blue. Again, a simple card, but they can try a few different tools, techniques, and accessories.

Finally, here's a cheery little birthday card. I jotted down the idea for this card while I was browsing blogs, and - shame on me, again - I don't really know what was CASEd here or where the idea came from. Tell me if you've seen or done something similar so I can add a link! I stamped the row of hats from Party Hearty on bermuda bay cardstock in Versamark three times, leaving a space for another row that I colored with bermuda bay, real red and so saffron markers. The sentiment on the tag seemed perfect for a card covered with so many birthday hats, and after I punched it out I added a tiny little bow made with the saffron ribbon from the Elementary Ribbon Originals. This is probably the simplest card of the three, but I think it's too cute! It also uses some great basic techniques for a beginning stamper.

I hope this class is a hit - who knows, maybe it'll become a regular thing! Thanks so much for visiting today and have a great weekend!

Catching up

Sorry I disappeared again. I have really been missing my stamping time! I had a sad event in my life... my grandfather - my last surviving grandparent - passed away on March 17. I traveled to Pennsylvania be with my extended family for the funeral, in the midst of a very busy schedule. But I think I am nearly caught up. We'll see what the week ahead brings.

I wanted to take a minute to share the two cards that we made at club last night, along with the Easter basket that I posted last week. All of the projects were a hit and we had a great time, as always. First up is a faux cloisonne card inspired by this card on Ann Schach's blog. I decided to let my club members pick their own colors for their flowers, so in prepping the materials I kept everything else white and just used a black sentiment from Thank You Kindly. In case you don't already know, the faux cloisonne technique uses embossing on magazine pages. I think I've usually seen it done with gold embossing, but I loved how Ann used white with the Fifth Avenue Floral images. We embossed the background with one of the texture plates, added the sentiment with the modern label punch and Movers & Shapers, and popped everything up on dimensionals, with two jumbo silver brads as the only embellishment. I just love how the flowers pop against the white.

The second card was an Easter card inspired by this card from Jen del Muro. I loved what she did with the frame, and since I just got the Circle Scissors Plus, I was able to try something similar. The floral paper is from the Pawsitively Prints paper pack - I wanted a springy print and this fit the bill. I also wanted to use the Eggcellent Eggs kit components - unfortunately this kit has sold out, but if you were lucky enough to get one, you know how cute the little embellishments are! We used some of the flowers and rhinestones with the scribble swirl die and 1/4" punches of ballet blue cardstock.

I have one more class this weekend and an editing deadline on Monday, but if I'm lucky I'll be back here before the Divine Divas are up for the next challenge on April 1. Can I do it? We'll see!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

A tisket, a tasket...


a little Easter basket! That's what I made for this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner, which was to make something related to (surprise!) Easter. I'm doing a bit of double duty here, because we will also be making this basket at my club next week. I've been seeing these baskets all over the place, and I thought they were so cute that we just had to try it. They are made with the scallop envelope die, and I took some elements from a few different tutorials (here, here, and here).

I based my design around the patterned paper from the Sweet Pea pack. I didn't even realize until I sat down at the computer that I used the same color combination as last week's OCC challenge. I guess I liked it! The base of the basket is so saffron. The designer paper doesn't quite cover the whole basket when wrapped around, so I added a panel of chocolate chip cardstock embossed with the polka dot folder.

Here's a close-up of the basket. The image from Eggcoutrements was stamped in pretty in pink and layered on an old olive wide oval, then I added a chocolate chip taffeta ribbon bow after I glued down the flap. In the center is a pink sherbet button that I threaded with the saffron ribbon from the Elementary Ribbon Originals. The handle is a strip of old olive cardstock punched with the scallop trim border punch, and a strip of chocolate chip ribbon on top. I adhered the handle with filigree brads. Tip of the day: The brad will just barely go through all these layers - make sure you really press on it so you have enough length of the prongs to fold over and keep the handle secure. To make the filler I ran some old olive DP (retired) through the crimper and sliced it into tiny strips with my tabletop cutter.

As always be sure you stop by the OCC blog to see what the rest of the team made for this challenge, and then I hope you'll be inspired to play along with us. I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #24


For this week's challenge I have for you a headboard and pillow collection found on Pier 1's web site. I just loved the spring colors.

For my card, since it was the colors that led me to choose this picture, that's where I started. I knew I wanted pumpkin pie, certainly celery and soft suede. I tried a few different colors for a blue/green shade and ended up picking baja breeze - that gave me the softness I was looking for. Oh how I would love this color to be brought back... I would be so, so happy!

To start I made the background with a soft suede panel and the Perfect Details texture plate. I thought the pattern mirrored the design of the headboard. To slightly emphasize the texture, I rubbed just a bit of soft suede ink over the whole panel. On top of this background I wanted some fun flowers and chose Best Wishes & More. The flowers were stamped in both pumpkin pie and baja breeze, and then I punched out the baja breeze centers with a 1/2" circle punch and mounted them on the orange flowers with dimensionals. The certainly celery leaves are from the same set - I adhered them to the backs of the flowers, then after I added the baja breeze ribbon, I put all of the images up on dimensionals. To finish off I adhered three tiny buttons in the corners and added a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

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 DDIC24. Have fun and look for the next challenge on April 1 - no foolin'!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

I Love Flowers


Hey, I'm back for this weekend's challenge from Our Creative Corner. I apologize for not posting this week - things have been a little crazy! I'll hope for more stamping time next week.

For today's challenge our lovely hostess Silke has challenged us to a color combo: green, pink, brown, yellow plus neutrals. I immediately thought of this image from Messages for Mom, since I could stamp it in chocolate chip and color it with markers. I picked pretty in pink, barely banana, and old olive. Then I cut and embossed with Nestabilities and added piercing in the oval's scallops. The background is barely banana cardstock embossed with the Elegant Bouquet folder. Then I used the Little Leaves die and the boho blossoms and 1/4" circle punch to make more flowers. Yep, I do love flowers! A strip of chocolate chip satin ribbon (something else I love) and a sentiment from Well Scripted and that was it.

Be sure you check out the rest of the team's creations and come and play along! We always love to see your work. Have a great weekend!

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Happy birthday...

to me! Yep, it's my birthday today. So to celebrate I made a birthday card for myself! In case you are wondering, this is not a *big* birthday, but next year it will be. I'm thinking maybe this will be my last birthday since I'm not so comfortable with the number my age will start with next year. I'll just stay put right here, or can I even roll back to the previous decade? ;)

OK, enough about that and on to the card. This week the Our Creative Corner gals have a new monthly hostess, the fabulous Silke Ledlow. Silke has given us a fun sketch challenge so I hope you'll play along. I couldn't help fiddling with it just a bit... hopefully not too much!

Since this is a card for me, I decided to bring out some retired stuff that I love but haven't used in a while. I picked baja breeze and kiwi kiss for my colors, with basic gray as an accent - the colors in some of my favorite SU paper ever, Urban Garden. My DDIC DT member Kerri used this flower from Bella Blossoms in her card on Thursday and she inspired me to get it out today. I also loved how she put beads in the center of the flower, so I wanted to find some way to decorate my flower, too.

I first stamped the flower in baja breeze and kiwi kiss. The leaves were stamped on the whisper white base layer and then I stamped the flower three times on white scraps and cut out the various layers of the flower. I put the three layers together with dimensionals.

For the background I used one of the Urban Garden papers in baja breeze and one of the Bella Rose papers in kiwi kiss. To divide the two I punched a strip of kiwi kiss textured cardstock with the eyelet border punch and layered basic gray satin ribbon on top. The sentiment from A Little Birthday Cheer was punched with the modern label and layered with Movers & Shapers.

Now, for the decorations... this kind of evolved as I went. I started out using glitter on the flower, which I thought looked good. When everything was put together I needed something else to add a little pop - it was pretty but somehow it didn't look done. I turned to the rhinestone stickers from the Eggcellent Eggs kit - these are so awesome! I hope we get them by themselves in the next catalog. I started adding two of the largest ones to the sentiment. Then I felt like the card needed to have rhinestones somewhere else, so I had the idea to add them to the holes in the punched border. I think it looks so cool. But when I went to take a picture of the card, it looked bottom-heavy with all the rhinestones on the lower half. So I went back and added rhinestones over all of the glitter. I really think it was worth it!

So, what am I doing for my birthday? Well, Todd has to work at least part of the day so I'll probably take the kids to the mall. That's something all three of us usually enjoy, although you know I won't really get to shop for myself like I might if I were alone. Tonight we'll go out to dinner and Todd is supposed to be supplying me with some kind of birthday dessert, which will of course include chocolate. And after the kids go to bed I'm hoping to share dessert and drinks with a couple of the moms from my neighborhood. It'll be a low-key day but I hope a fun one!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #23


Welcome to our first challenge for the month of March! For this month I have a photo of the cover for a White House Black Market catalog that I got in the mail. I just fell in love with this image as soon as I saw it but since it wasn't in digital form this is the best I can offer you. I think it has lots of fun details to provide you with inspiration.

Now, when I chose this challenge, I wouldn't have predicted that this was the sort of card I'd end up with. To tell the truth, I generally have no idea what my creation will turn out to be when I choose the challenges - I prefer to take it on with a fresh eye and no preconceptions. I knew I wanted to use melon mambo with black and white, and incorporate polka dots and some kind of large, ruffly flower with bling. And this card is the result - it's kind of different for me, but I think I like it!

I know you've seen all the cool distressed flowers that are showing up everywhere in papercrafting right now. I don't think mine is as cool as most I've seen, but I did have that concept in mind. I used white tissue paper - maybe 6 layers of it - and cut out this "flower" with the scallop circle #2 die. To distress it I basically wadded it into a ball and then opened it back up. The smaller flowers are a scallop punch of black linen-textured cardstock from the retired Taste of Textiles and a Boho Blossoms punch of whisper white textured cardstock. In the center I put a Crate Paper pink rhinestone brad.

Once I had my big flower, I had to figure out what in the world to do with it! I cut the background panel from Kaiser Craft DP, then added a panel of melon mambo textured cardstock that was embossed with the finial press folder and embellished with a strip of 5/8" basic black grosgrain ribbon. At that point I decided to bring in the pop of green, which here is kiwi kiss. The swirly leaves are from a (I'm embarrassed to say this) Hello Kitty Bigz die. (I have no idea what this die has to do with Hello Kitty but it does have some nice flowers and swirls!) Once the flower was all assembled I adhered it over the background with dimensionals, then added the sentiment from Sincere Salutations.

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 DDIC23. Have fun and look for the next challenge in two weeks!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Pair of clubs

Actually, a pair of club cards! These are the cards we did at my February club meeting last weekend. We had a great time!

This first card uses the faux Chinese lantern technique - plus we got a little extra technique practice with masking and watercoloring. The flower from the hostess set Asian Artistry was stamped with black Stazon, masked on the left side, and stamped again to fill out the image into two flowers. I think it made the image have a much greater presence for this technique. We used the Aqua Painter with just a tiny bit of ink to watercolor the flowers. I used the rich razzleberry and old olive markers and scribbled on the inside of the lids, then picked up the color with a barely wet brush. Using just a bit of water made it OK to use whisper white cardstock instead of watercolor paper, and the colors came out so soft and pretty. Once the image was dry we ran it through the crimper and smudged the edges with the basic black ink pad. To finish off the card, we added textured black cardstock, Cottage Wall DP, and razzleberry ribbon. The sentiment is from Vintage Labels and the frame from Great Friend.

The second card came out of my wanting to take my idea from this card in a different direction. I also highlighted the Sweet Pea DP pack by using it for all the punched pieces. As before I made the stems and leaves from the extra-large bird punch, glueing the wings onto the branches to make the arrangement of leaves. Then we added boho punched flowers with gold brads in the center. The vase is the ornament punch with the tip cut off - I know I've seen this idea elsewhere so it's not original to me, but it's wonderful. I always love when you can use a Christmas product for something else! After we glued the arrangement together with the 2-way glue pen, we mounted the whole thing with dimensionals. The sentiment from Kind & Caring Thoughts was stamped right onto that layer with taken with teal. I don't know if you can see but we scored a couple lines on two edges of the white panel behind the vase. That side of the card just needed something, and it could also have been paper piercing but I wanted to show my club members something different. A layer of chocolate chip and a white card base finished everything off.

Thanks for stopping by today - I always appreciate everyone who visits my blog. Come back tomorrow for the first DDIC of March!

Monday, March 1, 2010

March Card Kit of the Month now available

Another new month is here - that means it's time for the March card kit!

With this card kit you’ll receive complete instructions and all the consumable supplies needed to make 6 of each of these card designs – a total of 12 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 Cheep Talk.

Cheep Talk stamp set regularly $26.95, with purchase of kit $22.91

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 own cards with the supplies you already own.

Please get your orders to me by March 12. You will receive your kit by the end of the month.

Lori Rider
loririder@verizon.net
978-486-8102
divastamper.blogspot.com

To purchase, please choose your option:
(1) One kit delivered in person - click here
(2) One kit delivered via U.S. mail - click here
(3) Two kits delivered in person - click here
(4) Two kits delivered via U.S. mail (to the same address) - click here

If you need more than two kits, OR if you are ordering any Stampin’ Up! products along with your kit(s), please contact me to work out the cost and shipping.

Additional Product List

• Taken with Teal Classic Ink ($5.95)
• Rose Red Classic Ink ($5.95)
• Pretty in Pink Classic Ink ($5.95)
• Old Olive Classic Ink ($5.95)
• Chocolate Chip and Old Olive Stampin’ Write markers ($3.25 each)
• Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set ($36.95)
• Dazzling Diamonds glitter ($4.50)
• ½” circle punch ($5.95)
• 1 ¾” circle punch ($15.95)
• Flower trio 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)
• 2-Way Glue Pen ($3.50)
• Pop-up Glue Dots ($3.95)

If you have any questions, please let me know!