Saturday, June 30, 2012

It's a cupcake card - really!



Are you looking for the cupcake? Can you find it? While you're looking, let me apologize for disappearing again the past couple weeks. It got really busy with the kids' last days of school and the beginning of the summer routine. I hope I will be able to get back to posting again - I'm taking it day by day right now!

Found the cupcake yet? This card is for the challenge this week at Our Creative Corner. Our hostess is Kristin Tierney - who is leaving us, sniff, sniff! - and she has asked us to use something that would ordinarily be used in baking. I was a little lost on ideas, but one day when I was at the M store I came across these cute cupcake liners by Paula Deen in the dollar bin. I figured there had to be a cute way to use them on a card. The layout comes from the Pals Paper Arts sketch challenge.

The new In Colors Raspberry Ripple and Primrose Petals, along with Always Artichoke, were really good matches for the colors in the cupcake liners. The flower was die cut from the bottom, and the largest circle is actually made of multiple liners. I cut off the outside border, flattened it, then added a couple more pieces to complete the circle. It ended up being so big that I made a 5x7 card. I wanted a big sentiment for the main circle and chose this one from Word Play. I added some of the large pearls and artichoke seam binding ribbon. Then I thought the corners needed a little something so I pulled out a MS punch. I'm still kind of... meh. I didn't have a lot of time to pull this together and it wasn't quite what I envisioned. I will have to play in some more challenges in the coming days to make sure I haven't lost my mojo! LOL!

Anyway, thanks for visiting today, and be sure you check out the amazing and delicious-looking creations from the rest of the fabulous OCC team!

Monday, June 18, 2012

Retired stamps, papers, ribbon for sale

Good Monday morning! I'm making my retired stamps (and a few other items) available here before I put them up on Etsy. Just email me at loririder (at) verizon (dot) net and tell me what you're interested in. I will ship as cheaply as possible - please provide your zip code for shipping calculations. I can only ship within the United States. First to pay gets the goods! Paypal only please.

Note: condition is gently used (may include some staining but no other defects) unless otherwise indicated. NUM = new, unmounted

Wood mounted

Serene Snowflakes $15
Northern Hearts $8
Winter Post $18
Christmas Punch $16
Christmas Postcard (mounted, never used) $10
Christmas Collage $14
Christmas Classics $12
Perfect Presentation $15
Gifts of Christmas NUM $15
Sweet Snowglobe (mounted, never used) $6
Patterned Pines $10
Tree Trimmings $8
Little Boo (NUM) $3
Sweet Centers $15
Starring You $8
Elizabeth $6 (mounted, never used)
House of Haunts $10
Thankful Thinking NUM $5
Birthday Bliss $6
Four Square NUM $6
Matchbox Messages $10
Priceless (tiny flower stamp is missing) $10
Crazy for Cupcakes $20
Wedding Sweet $12
Favorite Things NUM $12
Silhouette Sentiments $12
Of the Earth NUM $8
Of the Earth $5
A Flower for All Seasons $8
Eastern Blooms $10
Leaf Lines $12
Apple Blossoms NUM $12
Organic Outlines $7
Wonderful You $7
Autumn Days $16
Punch Potpourri $12
Happiness Shared (mounted, never used) $10
Echoes of Kindness (only one stamp mounted/used) $14
A Little Birthday Cheer (only one stamp mounted/used) $10
Elegant Cheer $17
Absolutely Fabulous (only one stamp mounted/used) $12
Heard from the Heart $15
Afterthoughts $8
Whimsical Words $10
On Your Birthday $20
Punches Three $5
Oval All $12
Holidays & Wishes $12
Curvy Verses $12
Warm Words $16
Lots of Thoughts $10
Think Happy Thoughts $10

Clear mounted

Jolly Old Saint Nick new $15
I Heart Hearts $16
Messages for Mom $15
Hodgepodge Happiness $4
Butterfly Prints $12
Growing Green $15
Plant Hope $16
Funky Four $10
On the Grow $15
Strength & Hope $12
Always Elegant $10
Clearly for You $12
Style Beautiful $15
Notably Ornate $12
Bliss (SAB) $10
Fresh Vintage new $14
Fresh Vintage $12
Elementary Elegance new $10
Elementary Elegance labels mounted but never used $8
Outlined Occasions new $10
Outlined Occasions $8
Sprinkled Expressions new $10
Happy Moments $8
Sweet Summer $7
Happiest Birthday Wishes new $20
Up in the Air $15
Ain't Love Grand labels mounted but never used $10
Simply Soft $14

Paper products (all are new and unopened)

I Wish Simply Scrappin' kit $12
Sunny Day Simply Scrappin' kit $12
Merry Moments DP $6
Chocolate Chip patterns DP $6
Kiwi Kiss patterns DP $6
Delicate Dots DP $4

Ribbon (priced by the yard unless otherwise noted; multiple yards available for most)

Recently retired In Colors (all available except Poppy Parade) $1/yd
Very Vanilla 3/8" velvet $1/yd
Grosgrain 1" stitched in Bashful Blue, Real Red $1/yd
Sleigh Bells (5/8" Real Red/Old Olive/Vanilla twill stripe) $1/yd
Brocade Blue 5/8" grosgrain $.50/yd
In Color 5/8" grosgrain with white stripe: Pacific Point, Riding Hood Red, Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, Pink Pirouette $.75/yd
In Color 1/2" polka dot grosgrain: Melon Mambo, Soft Suede, Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango, Bermuda Bay $.75/yd
In Color double stitched grosgrain: River Rock, Purely Pomegranate $.50/yd
Black corduroy 3/8" 5 yds available $.75/yd
Chocolate Chip 1/2" satin with white polka dots 3 yds available $1/yd
Certainly Celery 5/8" polytwill $.50/yd
Black lace 1/2" $.50/yd
Mellow Moss 3/8" taffeta $.50/yd
1/4" grosgrain in Night of Navy, Whisper White, Very Vanilla, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Marina Mist, Bravo Burgundy, Apricot Appeal, Tempting Turquoise, Early Espresso, More Mustard, Real Red, Pretty in Pink, Sage Shadow $.50/yd
Beachfront Ribbon Originals $8
New ribbon bundle: So Saffron 5/8" grosgrain, Certainly Celery 5/8" polytwill $6

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Burlap Butterfly

It's been a very long time since I was able to participate in the weekly challenges for Our Creative Corner. The ladies over there have been so understanding with my needing to take a little break. I'm planning to be back as an active part of the team for the rest of this year - yay! This week's challenge is to use buttons and burlap. I can't say I ever thought about using burlap on a card, or even where to get burlap, LOL. But the local fabric store had several colors and I decided to use it on one of the cards my club will make this weekend. The layout comes from the Deconstructed Sketch blog.


Note: there are a whole lotta new products making their debut here! I wanted to feature a technique with this card and chose reverse masking. First I took one of the Apothecary Accents dies, cut out a shape with it, and sponged Crumb Cake ink inside the frame left over onto naturals ivory card stock. Next I punched out the Elegant Butterfly from a post-it note and sponged Primrose Petals (another new In Color) the same way. Before removing the mask I stamped the swirl from Everything Eleanor inside the butterfly with Early Espresso. The sentiment comes from the stamp set Lacy & Lovely. Once I was done stamping, I cut the image out with a labels framelit and sponged espresso ink on the edges. (Probably should have similarly sponged everything else but I forgot - oh well!) Three pearls form the butterfly's body. To finish the card, I cut a piece of burlap slightly larger than my die-cut shape and glued the two onto a panel of Primrose Petals DP and espresso CS embossed with one of the Delicate Designs embossing folders. I put a panel of Crumb Cake DP onto the naturals ivory card base, then added three buttons out of my stash, threaded with linen thread.

I hope you will take on our challenge and play with some burlap this week. Don't forget to stop by the OCC blog and see what the rest of the team has created this week! I'm really happy to be back and looking forward to many more fun challenges with all those lovely OCC ladies. Have a great weekend!

Friday, June 15, 2012

Father's Day Chevron

Here's a card we'll be making at my club this weekend. We always do a Father's Day card in June, and I know my hubby will be getting this one!


The whole card started with the sentiment treatment (stamp from Delightful Dozen), which was inspired by this card I found on Pinterest. Then I chose a paper from International Bazaar and pulled out Midnight Muse and Cajun Craze from it. (Technically I think the color in this paper is actually Rich Razzleberry, but honestly, it doesn't look like it at all to me!)

Of course I had to use some new stuff, which includes the chevron embossing folder and the scallop piercing guide in our amazing new Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack. These scallops are on the Tasteful Trim die and they match up perfectly for piercing. I embellished with silver brads and Midnight Muse ribbon - hope I didn't girl it up too much. These colors are right up Todd's alley so I think he will like it. Hope you and my club members do too!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Thinking of You - a Bunch!

I'm back with another card for this weekend's birthday party. This one also qualifies for the challenge at Stampin' Royalty this week - Clean and Simple. You know I love it! Here's my card:


I pulled out another of the new In Colors: Raspberry Ripple. Let me just say, this color is gorgeous. Like the child of Rose Red and Purely Pomegranate. I can see myself using this one a lot! I put it with Lucky Limeade and Daffodil Delight. The flower is from Mixed Bunch, with the branch from Betsy's Blossoms and a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes. I put some piercing in the corners and added the brad just to pull a little bit of yellow to the right side for balance. The DPs are from Summer Smooches, the new polka dot pack, and the In Color pack.

That's it for today but I definitely WILL be back in the OCC challenges this weekend and also hope to have more to show you besides that before the week is out. Thanks for visiting!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Fabulous Island Florets

This weekend I have two stamping events: my monthly club wraps up this session on Friday night, and Saturday morning I'm doing an adult birthday party, which I'm sure will be really fun. This is one of the cards we'll be making. It's a CASE of this card by Sandy Mathis.


I chose to use only two colors (unusual for me) - Old Olive and Island Indigo. I started out by doing some generation stamping with the leaf image, then I stamped the indigo flowers and cut them out. The background uses two indigo papers (the top one from Twitterpated, the bottom from Summer Smooches). The finishing touches were indigo ribbon and a punched sentiment from Petite Pairs. The goal was a pretty easy card that still looks fabulous, so I hope this fits the bill!

Friday, June 8, 2012

Twice in one day!

Guess I'm on a roll today. It's fun getting back to stamping! This is the second card for my neighbor. She wanted a birthday card for her sister incorporating two things: elephants and light blue. I hope this one will do the trick! I used a sketch challenge for this card as well - Stampin' Royalty has a fun one this week. Here's my card!


I'm all about my new stampin' stuff right now and this card includes several brand-new things. Along with Bashful Blue I chose two of the new In Colors: Midnight Muse and Gumball Green. These colors are really fun and I think I'm going to enjoy them a lot! The elephants (it was the only stamp I had to choose from) are the retired stamp Baby Steps, but the balloons are still available in the Patterned Party set. I've had this set since last year and this was its first time out of the box! I used some retired Bashful Blue DP and also a new green paper that's in the Christmas DP called Be of Good Cheer. I just love the little banner, made with the Itty Bitty Banners stamp set and matching die. It's too cute. I did use a border punch from MS and my nesties for the circle.

All right, this is going to be it for today - and I might not make it back to my stamps over the weekend - but I'm having too much fun to take another three months off. I promise to be back again soon!

I don't even know where to begin!

Wow, I never would have thought I would go for almost 3 months without posting on my blog. I hope that it doesn't happen again! Lots has been going on that had little to do with stamping... I'm still doing TMJ treatments and I'm feeling better but still not singing. So - hanging in there and hoping for the best. The kids are almost done with school and then they'll only have a couple days off before heading into summer camp - I'm sure the months will continue to fly by. I've been editing up a storm - got in a little over my head and now I'm ready for a break. I've also started making jewelry, which has been really fun. I knew it was a slippery slope and I think that's why I avoided learning how to do it for so long... but it's too late now! LOL!

Anyway - back to stamping. I haven't forgotten about my stamps but they've definitely taken a back seat for the past while. I'm realizing that I really want to get back into doing challenges (including the OCC, but probably not this weekend) and posting here. I've also signed up for a craft fair in September so I'll need to be making some cards to sell, right?

I got a little boost this week when a very nice neighbor requested four cards for specific people and occasions. I thought I would share the first one - especially since it uses some goodies from the brand-new catalog that just started last week! The request was a for a sympathy card using rust, with an earthy look. This is what I came up with - hope she likes it. The layout comes from a sketch blog I don't think I've played along with before: Freshly Made Sketches.


The new image I've featured here is from the stamp set Serene Silhouettes. I used Cajun Craze for the main color with accents of Early Espresso, on the naturals ivory card stock. The sentiment comes from the set Love & Sympathy (not new, but the first time I've used it). In the background I added a panel embossed with the new fancy fan folder, and although I tried a million border punches for the espresso piece, nothing looked right and in the end I thought tearing would give me that earthy feel I was going for. I sponged all the edges and then added espresso taffeta ribbon and three little pearls for embellishments.

So, now that I've broken the ice, I'm really going to try to post more often. I'm looking forward to getting back into the groove. Thanks for visiting, have a great weekend, and hope to see you again soon!