Look what I finally have on my wall!

I've had these Decor Elements since I think March - considering how little time it took to actually put them up, I can't believe I waited this long! It took less than 45 minutes to put up the whole thing. I loved this tree paired with the sentiment as it's shown in the catalog - so I guess I don't win any points for originality but it's really perfect for me and my space. Sorry that the photos aren't the best - it was difficult to get good shots where there wasn't the greatest light and I was dealing with a corner in my way.

I put these up on the wall that's in the stairwell leading up to my office/studio, which you can sort of see in this photo. (I am lucky enough to work and stamp in a wonderful space over the garage that we finished out a few years ago, once we had Ben and my current office became the nursery.) I feel like the quote from Thoreau really expresses what stamping means to me - that after so many years and so many different paths, I think I've finally found what I love to do most and it feels wonderful to be pursuing this passion in my life.

Here are a couple other shots of the tree. It comes in six separate pieces that you put together on the wall to make the whole tree. (The sentiment is sold separately.)

Since this was my first time putting these on my wall, I have just a few tips.

1. Read the directions! and follow them! Let's just say that I started out making a big goof that fortunately I was able to fix.

2. Go sloooooooowly. I often found that the small leaves and letters didn't want to go onto the transfer sheet very easily. It took a lot of rubbing and sometimes even a bit of fingernail to get some of them to transfer initially. Once I figured out how to do it, I got better at it, but if you are a first-timer I would recommend a larger and less detailed image, LOL.

3. You can think of these a lot like rub-ons, on a much larger scale. I recommend trimming around the image somewhat so you have less extra backing material, and always make sure that everything is transferring as you peel off both stages of paper.

4. If you have them, it would be really helpful to have a large flat surface, like a table, available where you're putting these up. I managed to get by just holding the pieces on my lap and using the landing for my flat surface, but a table would have made it a lot easier, had I been able to use one where I was working.

I am sure I will be getting more of these now that I know how easy they are to do. If you want to see the catalog, you can click here - there is such a great variety of these available, as well as stencils. Try it - I think you'll love the result!

Double feature!

I had a great time with the featured stamper challenge today - so great that I made two cards! The first one was CASEd from this card. I kept the flowers going down the side and the framed sentiment, but I added ribbon and piercing, changed the colors and images, and placed the frame in a different spot. My flowers are from For All You Do (love this new set), the frame from Gallery, and the sentiment from Sincere Salutations. The colors are soft sky (which I still love) and not quite navy, which allowed me to use this gorgeous ribbon from the Elementary Ribbon Originals. All three ribbons in the pack are great, but this ribbon alone makes it totally worth the price!

Here's my second card. This one is a CASE of this card. I kept the top and bottom strips with the offset image panel, but I made it an oval and much larger - not really my intention but that's how it goes sometimes! I left off the ribbon since there wasn't really room, but I added a punched border (EK Success) to the top and bottom panels, and I also included a sentiment and some pearls (Martha Stewart). I stamped these beautiful flowers from Penny Black with Memento tuxedo black on PTI white and colored with Copics. (I'm also submitting this card for the Copic Creations botanicals challenge.) My papers are Basic Grey: Wassail (I figured toile doesn't have to be for Christmas!) and Sultry. The green cardstock is Bazzill Capers, and the sentiment is by Savvy Stamps. I used my new modern label punch for the first time - I love how the pearls fit perfectly into the round bits on the ends!

I've had a great weekend - the IC yesterday was lots of fun, and I've really enjoyed all the challenges I played. I can't promise I will have as much time to create in the coming week, but I hope you'll see me back soon!

It's not going to happen...

I just have to admit to myself that there is no way I'm going to complete all the DTGD challenges - even by August 1. I'm going to try not to feel too down about it and just enjoy the ones I do get to play!

This card counts for four (!) challenges, to use the following: something clear; something with wings; dies and punches; and ribbon. My clear item is a screen-printed transparency from Hambly. I saw this in a store yesterday, having already seen the challenge from Krystie, and picked it up thinking I could probably figure out something to do with it!

I started by cutting a 4 x 5 1/4" panel of cardstock (Bazzill walnut) then using Nestabilities to cut out an oval from the center. Next I took the card base (Bazzill cameo) and cut out a slightly larger oval from the front. Then I adhered the transparency panel (also 4 x 5 1/4") to the walnut frame and attached it to the card base. That way the inside of the card covers up the adhesive used to adhere the transparency to the frame.

Inside the card I put a panel of Dream Street Secret Garden DP. This photo shows the card more from the side so you can see the window better.

I finished off the front with the bird from Friends 24-7, stamped in close to cocoa on vanilla cardstock, cut out, and adhered with dimensionals. The sentiment from Elegant Cheer was also stamped in cocoa ink and punched with the wide oval. I added a small Prima flower with a half vanilla pearl from the pretties kit to the branch, and then felt like the top needed something. I couldn't wrap ribbon around since the card was all put together, so I cut a length of ivory organdy ribbon and attached it to the card front with mini glue dots, then covered the ends with two more Primas and put the bow in the middle. Nice optical illusion, eh?

This was my first time using any kind of transparency on a card - I enjoyed it, once I figured out what I wanted to do. Maybe you'll be seeing some of the acetate sheets from SU showing up on my cards in the near future... you never know!

Gettin' down and dirty

This is my third year playing along with the Dirty Dozen and their Dare to Get Dirty challenges! This year it's all packed into three days, so I've lost count of how many challenges there have been so far, with more to come tomorrow. I would love to do them all, but the only way I'm going to accomplish that is to combine the heck out of them. So... here is my first "dirty" card, which is for three challenges: to use tags, to make a masculine card, and to use texture.

My tag and matching DP are from the Cosmo Cricket Souvenir collection. I stamped the tree from Forest Friends right onto the tag with chocolate chip ink, then added the cardstock sentiment (by A Muse) with dimensionals. I tied a bit of ribbon - found it at a stamp store, have no idea who made it, but it's wonderful - through the tag.

For texture I used one of the SU texture plates and Bazzill cardstock. I sanded the argyle a bit after embossing it - and I feel the need to point out, this color came out a lot more coral in the photo when really it's a nice brick red. I hate when that happens! I sanded my DP panels on the edges, added three copper brads, and put it all onto a light green card base that was sponged with chocolate chip ink to make it look as dirty as the tag (which I only sanded - no sponging required!).

This card filled an urgent need I had for a masculine birthday card - thanks to the Dirty Dozen for the great challenges! If you are a member of the Fan Club, then go check out the challenges and play along - it's so much fun!

Come and play!

I'm excited to be the guest host for the SCS inspiration challenge this weekend. I know there is a lot going on with the Dare to Get Dirty challenges happening, but I hope you'll find some time to play this one too. We're doing a room challenge (my favorite!) and I picked this pretty living room from Better Homes and Gardens. Here are some shots of various parts of the room, and if you click the link you can see more details. I hope this gives you lots of inspiration! I really loved the cheery colors and all the pretty patterns and flowers in the room.

When I sat down to make my sample card, the shot that grabbed me most was the one of the fireplace. There was something about the lines and composition, the ceramics on the mantel, and the gorgeous pink flowers that just drew me in. I chose my colors first, and I decided to mix some old and new In Colors: melon mambo, bermuda bay, kiwi kiss, tangerine tango, and barely banana. For stamps I picked the new set Greenhouse Garden. (These flower images are gorgeous - I could never have enough flower stamps, and you will definitely want these if you are like me!) I stamped the larger flowers in melon mambo and bermuda bay, and the smaller ones in tangerine. To get the monochromatic look with the two-step images, I inked the full image stamp, stamped off once, then stamped on whisper white. Then I added the accent image with the ink at full strength so it would stand out. I stamped the stems with kiwi kiss on banana cardstock, then cut out the flowers and popped them up on dimensionals. To give the panel some interest I added scoring on the outer edges.

For finishing the card I first made the background of bermuda bay DP, tangerine cardstock, and a kiwi kiss card base. I chose this print of DP based on the tiles around the fireplace. I added melon mambo ribbon around the background layer before adhering it. Placing the image panel on the diagonal was something I discovered completely by accident - I was moving the panel around and I dropped it onto the card base, and it landed diagonally, and I went, "Oh. Wow!" Suddenly the whole thing just popped into place. The frame and sentiment from Great Friend fit perfectly into the lower left corner, and the bow with the kiwi button (threaded with white CS) naturally went on the other side of the flowers. Isn't it amazing how one tiny little thing can make so much of a difference?

OK, are you inspired yet? I hope so! I can't wait to see your creations. You can upload to SCS with the keyword IC190. Have fun with this challenge and thanks for visiting!

It's been a quiet week in Diva Stamper-ville

Well, not really - but my stamp table has been sorely neglected! I've had some other stuff I've had to catch up on. It's killing me, now that the Dare to Get Dirty challenges have started. (If you're in the SCS Fan Club, you surely know what I'm talking about, and if you're not, why aren't you??) I am hoping to get to as many of those challenges as possible, maybe starting tomorrow. But be sure to stop by Saturday morning (or, okay, late Friday night) for an inspirational post you won't want to miss. Wink, wink!

Circle Circus

I purchased the Circle Circus set during the preview but haven't played with it much yet. For today's featured stamper challenge I found the perfect card in Diane's gallery (which is lovely) for showcasing this set.

I made my own background with more mustard CS and various images from the set stamped in mustard, soft suede, and ruby red. Then I stamped the larger, bolder images in the same colors and punched them out. For the popped-up circle I stamped the image in ruby red, then added 1/8" punched circles of soft suede and a filigree brad.

I decided to change the ribbon treatment a little by putting it over the sentiment panel. I used the "wonderful" stamp from Wonderful Favorites and accented with two of the smallest circles from the set. And that's it!

Triple Challenge Triple Play!

I'm checking in with another triple challenge card! I really love doing them when it works out. My three challenges: SCS inspiration challenge, Jen's sketch challenge, and the Our Creative Corner challenge.

For the IC, which used Tracy Porter's gorgeous site, I chose this Mandarin Clove Oil Diffuser - isn't it beautiful? I just loved those colors and patterns. I first stamped the Bella Toile BG with whisper white on dusty durango CS. It doesn't really turn out crisp white, which was OK with me. The other stamp set I used was the hostess set Kind & Caring Thoughts - I thought the flower and leaf images bore a resemblance to the inspiration piece. I stamped the leaf with always artichoke on mellow moss CS, and colored the flower with dusty durango and artichoke markers and stamped twice on blush blossom. There really needed to be a butterfly, so I stamped the Great Friend butterfly with durango ink/CS and cut it out, then placed it on the circle of Jen's sketch.

All the layers are chocolate chip, as is the rub-on sentiment - which counts as one of my three embellishments for the OCC challenge. My other two are Making Memories copper brads and, even though it really doesn't show in the photo, my Sakura Gelly Roll glitter pen. I partially colored the leaves and flowers with the glitter pen, as well as filling in all the open areas on the butterfly. IRL it's a nice subtle sparkle but I guess you'll have to trust me!

Hoppy Thoughts

I'm on a roll... I've made a card each day for three days. How long do you think I can keep it up? :)

Here is today's, for the limited supply challenge. The challenge was to use either your high school colors or your wedding colors. Well, no offense to my high school, but I never liked the colors of gold and black. So I went with my wedding colors, which were navy and yellow. I added white, which we definitely had a lot of, and green, which was certainly there in the leaves of the flowers, at least!

I decided to use the latest Cupcake Challenge from Taylor (welcome back, Taylor!) for my layout. I was still kind of in a Copic mood, so I chose one of the images from A Flower from All Seasons that I thought would work with these colors. I used Y21 lightened with Y000 to approximate barely banana; B37 and B39, with a bit of shading with B21, for night of navy; YG97 and YG99 for the stems, leaf, and frog, to go with old olive; and E74 and E77 for the flower centers. Then I added a bit of a shadow at the bottom and blended it with the colorless blender, maybe too much because I'm not sure you can even see it! The frame was made with Nestabilities and mounted over the image with dimensionals. The LSC also required us to use some "vintage" hardware - I chose this spiral clip and a bit of olive ribbon.

For the rest of the card, I stamped a banana card base with the canvas BG in banana ink. I added a strip of retired olive DP and a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes. To tie in the copper hardware I put three brads along the embossed line of the white circle, then I adhered the sentiment circle to the frame and adhered the whole thing with dimensionals.

That's it - sticking with a cleaner and simpler look today. Thanks for visiting!

Copic Color Throwdown

I made this card yesterday and decided to get out something I hadn't used in a while: my Copics. A few days ago I found this sweet Lockhart stamp at my LSS and thought it would be great with Copics. I was thinking about it yesterday and realized it would work well with this week's Color Throwdown: lavendar lace, garden green, and so saffron. Two of these are colors I rarely use - guess which ones, LOL - so I thought it might be a tough challenge for me but hoped that using Copics would make it more fun!

What I didn't think about when I bought this stamp was that I probably wouldn't want my rocking chair just out in the middle of nowhere. There is a bit of grass drawn on the image, but clearly it was going to need more. And that is much more advanced coloring with the Copics than I had ever attempted. I did a bit of poking around on blogs to get some advice, and then just decided to go for it. I used a whole bunch of colors - sorry that I didn't get a picture, but I think I can give you the numbers.

I started with the smaller parts. I love how the apples turned out. I used YG03 and YG05 with just a bit of YG00 to show where the sun would be hitting them. For the chair frame I used E35 and E37. The basket is Y21, Y23, and Y26, and I colored the tiny butterfly with the lighter two yellows. The quilt and chair cushion (which were harder than I imaged they would be) are BV000, BV00, BV02, and BV04.

Then I had to tackle the grass and sky. I started with YG63 and colored the areas under and around the chair, then shaded with YG67 and blended again with YG63. I kept blending until I was happy with how it looked, and then I went over the grass that's sketched on the image with YG67 one more time. The sky was done with BG000, blended with the colorless blender to smooth out the edges and make it look a little mottled. Tip of the day: You don't want the line around the area you're coloring to be too exact. At first I ended up with a grass- and sky-colored oval, which just looked silly, so I had to go back and rough up the edges.

OK, now tell me, how did I do for my first attempt? I really want to know the honest truth! I do not have any art training so most of the time I feel like I'm winging it. If you are like me and are looking for tips on using your Copics, Marianne Walker's I Like Markers is invaluable. This tutorial from Michelle Wooderson was also really helpful - I think I'll spend more time browsing her blog and see what other tips she has to offer!

Okay, I guess I should just tell you about the rest of the card and get on with my day, LOL. The background is the Cornish Heritage Farms pretty pattern BG (now retired, I believe) stamped with lavendar lace CS/ink. I added a strip of saffron dot paper, and I also wanted to use this card for the Ways to Use It challenge to use two of something, so I added two strips of white crochet trim from JoAnn's. The sentiment is from Sincere Salutations, stamped in garden green and oval punched. The finishing touch for this card seemed to be... buttons! I am loving buttons these days and I'm seeing them everywhere on cards so I must not be the only one. The flower button is saffron from Button Latte and the green ones are from JoAnn's, and I tied them with hemp twine. I layered everything on Bazzill Tokyo CS - it looked good with the color of the chair, and I just felt like I needed a darker color to ground everything.

Thanks for reading all this blabbing and visiting my blog today - I hope you have a great weekend!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #8

How about some fun retro style this week? I loved these bright and cheery flowers I found at art.com. I thought they were perfect for the middle of summer, and I'm excited to see your inspirations!

For my layout I used the SCS sketch challenge for this week. Kind of an unusual color combo I ended up with... I'm not sure what I think of it. I don't know how much the colors resemble the inspiration piece... but I guess that happens sometimes and I should just move on! ;) I did try to incorporate several of the patterns - dots, swirls, stripes, and damask. It was a challenge to get all of those on the same card but I think the variations in scale make it work OK.

For the flower panel I made the background with bermuda bay CS/ink and the So Swirly (retired) wheel. I stamped the vase (Great Impressions) with soft suede CS/ink. The flowers (Savvy Stamps) I stamped first onto the background and embossed the stems (combination of Versamarker and old olive marker) and then adhered white embossed cutouts of the flowers.

To start on the background I took a soft sky panel and stamped it with my B Line Designs damask BG in soft sky. I wheeled the edges of a soft suede panel with Lots of Dots (also retired) and layered both with bermuda bay. Over that I put a panel of olive paper (from Summer Picnic) and three ribbons (soft sky, white satin, and soft suede). I repeated the soft suede ribbon with the bow, then added a white button threaded with a tiny strip of olive CS. The sentiment is by A Muse.

I can't decide if I like this card or not, but I worked on it long enough that I couldn't start over, LOL. Actually I think I like it more the longer I look at it... or maybe it just looks better in the photo than IRL! ;)

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

Angela

Chat

Chris

Julie

Keri (Keri is still recovering from surgery and may not be able to join us this week - please wish her well!)

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 DDIC8. Have fun and look for the next challenge on August 6!

Well, this is cool

I was one of the top 20 finalists in the Mojo Monday contest from last week! The card I made was back a few posts (click here to see it). The winners' cards were amazing so congrats to them!! You can see a slide show of the finalists here. I feel like I hardly deserve to be in such amazing company!

No time to post today, but please come back tomorrow for the latest Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge - it's going to be a fun one!

Button Butterfly Birthday

Here's a quick challenge card for today. When was the last time I played the featured stamper challenge? If I can't remember, then it's clearly been a while! Today's lucky stamper is Kelly (aka schirmcat) who has a huge and lovely gallery. I chose this card because I liked her butterflies so much and had an idea for what my card would be almost instantly.

The starting point for my card was actually this ribbon, which I found on clearance for 25 cents! It's a good match for melon mambo. My next choice was the Great Friend butterfly, which is probably my favorite butterfly stamp. I was trying to decide on a color scheme and decided to check the Walk in the Park DP that matches the stamp set, which is where I found this beautiful saffron paper. Then I knew that I wanted to put a bunch of buttons onto the ribbon, and I pulled out the Button Latte set and found saffron and vanilla there, so I was good to go. (The other buttons are from my vintage button stash.)

I first layered the DP to melon cardstock, punched the corners (with an EK Success punch), and added the strip of ribbon where Kelly had her fence. Next I stamped the butterfly in melon on vanilla cardstock, cut it out, and mounted with dimensionals. I tied my buttons with hemp twine and adhered with glue dots. I chose the sentiment (My Sentiments Exactly) and stamped with melon right onto the saffron paper, then isntead of brads I added a row of piercing under the sentiment. I didn't want to add any more embellishments with all those buttons! To finish up I echoed the piercing in the upper corners and called it done! Not a lot of time today so I kept it simple. Some days are just like that... and that's OK!

Cheep, cheep!

I got a few minutes to make a card for today's SCS inspiration challenge. This week's challenge is the Chasing Fireflies card, which I've always thought had great stuff. I chose this cute fabric birdhouse - I just loved the colors and the flowers.

I used the set Cheep Talk for my stamping. The branch is old olive, the bird real red and basic black, and the little flowers regal rose. I paired it with this pretty red floral paper from October Afternoon's Cherry Hill line and some regal rose dotted DP, and to mirror the roof of the birdhouse I repeatedly stamped the "because" stamp from Define Your Life. I thought that went well with the "hello there!" sentiment. I used black layers, an olive card base (5.5" square) and a scrap of ribbon and some vanilla brads for embellishments. I love how this turned out!

Is it that time of year already?

I wouldn't have believed it - but hey, anytime of year is a good time to make Christmas cards! Today's SCS Ways to Use It challenge was to make a Christmas card. I decided that one challenge wasn't enough for me today, so my card also works for two other challenges: the Mojo Monday contest week sketch and the Color Throwdown: real red, tempting turquoise, and kiwi kiss. This is not necessarily a color combo I would have thought of for Christmas, but I had so much fun making my card!

Since this was a Mojo Monday sketch, I decided to use some Verve stamps. This is the Ornamental Christmas set, which I hadn't broken out until today - it's awesome! I cut a whisper white rectangle with a Nesties die, stamped the pine branch on the right side of my whisper white rectangle with the kiwi ink, and added the sentiment (embossed with Ranger rich red EP) in the lower left corner. I realized as I was working that the circle placement in the sketch would be the perfect place for my ornament. It's embossed with the same red EP and the hanger with Ranger gold EP. I added a little Offray gold trim to "tie" it to the branches. I used a larger turquoise scalloped rectangle for the bottom layer, pierced the scallops, and adhered the ornament with dimensionals.

The rest of the card was fairly simple. I embossed the pine branch with gold EP on metallic gold cardstock and used that for the thin strip in the sketch. The red dot paper is from a retired hostess pack, and the kiwi DP is from the patterns pack. The red ribbon is just a scrap I had lying around - no idea what it is or where it came from! That upper left corner of the white rectangle looked too plain, so I tied a bow with the red ribbon and added a gold vintage button with more of the gold trim tied through it.

I spent longer on this card than on any in recent memory... I think it's going to be saved for someone very special on my Christmas card list!

Making good on my promise

Big sigh - just when I was getting ready to sit down and do some challenge cards, my Internet access went out. I still wanted to stamp, so what did I do? I challenged myself! My challenge was to use the new In Colors and the new stamps I preordered but hadn't used yet. I think I did it - although one card isn't done yet. It was really fun, and a good challenge for me to work without anyone else's ideas spurring me on.

Here is the card I made first. I go back and forth on what I think of this one, so tell me what you think. I decided to use the new colors crushed curry, dusty durango and soft suede with the stamp set Autumn Days. I don't yet have any DP in the new colors (shocking, right?) so I searched through my stash and found these papers from SEI's Mimosa collection that look pretty good. I layered onto soft suede cardstock and used a plain white card base to keep it clean. The only embellishing touches I added were a mini library clip tied with hemp twine and a bit of piercing. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes - this is going to be a go-to set for me, I can tell.

Next card uses an old retired image - help, I'm blanking on the name of this hostess set and don't have it handy! I love this stamp, though, and I doubt I will ever part with it. I colored the flower with melon mambo and soft suede markers - oh how I love having IC markers - and stamped on vanilla cardstock that I dirtied up with soft suede. I used the eyelet border punch on the melon layer for a little interest. The background has the damask stamp from Friends 24-7 stamped down the side, using the Stamp-a-ma-Jig for placement. I added more sponging, another little sentiment (which set it's from, I'm not sure... it's not Teeny Tiny Wishes), and a bit of soft suede ribbon. The dots on the IC ribbons are so fun!

Last one for today - here's a color combo that mixes rich razzleberry (my favorite of the new ICs so far) with pale plum and so saffron. I have to say I think this combination is gorgeous. I stamped the flower from Cheep Talk three times on white and on razzleberry cardstock (with old olive stems) and punched out the razzleberry centers. I used a panel of saffron dot paper, razzleberry ribbon, a Teeny Tiny Wishes sentiment with oval punches, and a white button tied with hemp twine. Sweet and simple!

OK, now I can finally say that I've inked the new ICs and all of my new stamps. I feel much better! Thanks for stopping by!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #7

And now for something completely different! I don't know what it was about this artwork from shopSCAD that spoke to me for this week's challenge - I am a cat lover, but I think I also went for the soft colors and the use of the (presumably) vintage items. Plus, it's different than anything I've ever chosen for a challenge, so I hope you have fun with it!

As it turned out, I had a hard time with my own challenge this week. Don't you hate when that happens? Well, here is my card, which I really like, even if it doesn't look much like the inspiration piece. I elected not to use a cat image - I chose the flowers instead. I used old olive, not quite navy, and bashful blue for my colors. The flower stamp is by Magenta - it's an unmounted rubber stamp I picked up a while ago, and it's gorgeous. I stamped with Memento tuxedo black on PTI white cardstock and colored it with Copics. To reflect the circles in the inspiration piece, I used Nestabilities and my SU punches for the image and sentiment (from True Friend). The background uses a bashful blue panel stamped with the little flower from Razzle Dazzle and a panel of paper from the Little Yellow Bicycle Zinnia collection. For embellishment I used a vintage-looking white crochet trim from JoAnn's and an actual vintage button (thanks, Mom!) tied with organdy polka-dot ribbon.

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

Angela

Chat

Chris

Julie

Keri

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 DDIC7. Have fun and look for the next challenge in two weeks!

A fond farewell

I know we are all going to miss the 2008-2009 In Colors - I thought I'd post one last card featuring some of them, and then I really will try to move on to the new ones!

I made this card for this week's Mojo Monday challenge. Julee has a great sketch this week - wow, #93! I based my color scheme around the gorgeous floral paper from October Afternoon, which works really well with baja breeze, pacific point, and kiwi kiss. My stamps are from the new Level 3 hostess set Kind & Caring Thoughts. I inked the flower with baja breeze, wiped off the stem, then colored the stem with an old olive marker (I know, I cheated). I used some textured cardstock in baja breeze and pacific point for the layers and card base, and very vanilla for the stamping. The background paper is from the kiwi kiss patterns, and my embellishments are from JoAnn's: crocheted trim in ivory and three buttons that match pacific point really well. How's that for a little vintage sweetness?

Flower Power

I'm back - sorry to disappear on you. We were having some technical difficulties with the new camera but I think we have it straightened out now.

My card today is for a challenge that is new to me - the Color Throwdown. These awesome stampers choose really great color combinations for their challenges, and I finally got to play along. This week's challenge is to use baja breeze, pink pirouette, and kraft - as a farewell to the retiring colors. (Sniff...) I resisted the urge to add chocolate chip in there - I wanted to keep it soft. I did find that a challenge, but I like what I ended up with.

I chose the Petal Pizzazz set and stamped all of the flowers in the set in the pink and baja breeze. I added buttons to three of the flowers and put them onto a kraft panel, with some of them on dimensionals. The sentiment (by Impression Obsession) was stamped with baja breeze on kraft, then circle punched and layered onto a baja breeze circle. The scallop circle was taken from the largest image in the Gallery set, and then scallop punched. To the bottom I added a pink strip that was punched with an EK Success border punch. One of my club members turned me on to them and I decided to try this one out - I think it's really sweet. I added some pink pirouette ribbon in the lower corner, mounted with dimensionals on a baja breeze card base, and called it done.

Thanks for visiting today - I know I still need to get on with making stuff from my new catalog goodies - so stop by again soon and hopefully I will have those for you!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #6

Wow, here we are at week 6! I hope you'll come and play - I think we have a fabulous challenge for you today. I found this photograph at Dandelion Ranch and just loved the colors and dramatic style of it. I combined my card with SCS sketch challenge #232 - a very cool layout.

I kept the background white to imitate the inspiration piece. My other colors are riding hood red, basic black, and kiwi kiss. I got my preview order from the new catalog and decided that Razzle Dazzle was the perfect set for this challenge.

For the center panel I first stamped the image in kiwi then in red, cutting out parts of the image to lay on top of the kiwi. I had to have green leaves, of course! I'm really excited that the new In Colors come in markers - if only they would go back and make them for the past ICs too... Anyway, I also colored over some of the kiwi with black marker. I should have just colored over the ink on the stamp, but by the time I thought of that it was already too late! (I don't know why my kiwi looks so washed out in the photo - it's a new camera and that's what I got!)

The small squares also use a stamp from Razzle Dazzle, and I layered all the squares with Nestabilities. I added a strip of DP from the Bella Rose pack, some kiwi ribbon, and a sentiment that comes from the new level 3 hostess set Kind & Caring Thoughts. I really love how it turned out - I think this is going to be a favorite set of mine from the new catalog.

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

Angela

Chat

Chris

Julie

Keri

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 DDIC6. Have fun and look for the next challenge on July 2!

June stamp club

I had my most recent club meeting this past weekend - the final one of this session. We'll start back up in September with a four-month club to coincide with the holiday mini catalog. We had some really fun projects for this meeting and I wanted to share them.

For our 3-D project we made this fun Top Note purse. This was the SCS demo challenge project from last Friday and it's so cute! It would fit some 3x3 cards or some kind of small favor. We used the Top Note and scallop circle dies, Parisian Breeze specialty paper, chocolate chip ribbon, pewter jumbo eyelets, and a flower made from the scallop punch and a corduroy button. The design was greatly inspired by another purse that was made by zipperc98.

I really love this card. We did the background with the rolling marble technique and used one of the new hostess sets from the upcoming catalog called Wings of Friendship. The bird and flower stamp was partially inked with baja breeze and kiwi kiss, then the scrolls were colored with basic gray marker. This card also qualifies for last Friday's limited supply challenge - it was tough to work in brads so I had the idea of putting one of the larger brads through the bow. What do you think?

The last project was the flower pot pocket card that everyone has been making. We had a bit of a challenge with cutting the flower pots, so if anyone has a tutorial that shows cutting this with the tabletop cutter, please share! I used riding hood red, tangerine tango, so saffron, kiwi kiss, and chocolate chip cardstock and papers for the flowers, punched with the five petal punch. I wheeled the base of the flower pot with Lots of Dots, but one of my gals did her pot with the polka-dot paper and that was even cuter!

I'll be back posting club projects in the fall, but I hope to start showing you new catalog preview projects very soon - it's always exciting when the new catalog is coming and I can't wait to show you some of my favorites!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #5

Thanks for stopping by to check out this week's challenge! For this time around we have these cute tanks from Title Nine. I'm showing you both colors because between green and blue, I couldn't possibly choose a favorite. Feel free to take your inspiration from any or all of these colors!

I decided to pick and choose colors I saw in these tops: soft sky, blue bayou, mellow moss, and chocolate chip. It was fun to dust off these retired In Colors - I still love them.

For the background I used my B Line Designs damask, inked in blue bayou and stamped off once, then stamped on soft sky cardstock. I sponged the edges with blue bayou and just a bit of chocolate chip. The flower from Friends 24-7 was stamped in chocolate chip, then colored with mellow moss marker and blue bayou reinker and cut/embossed with Nestabilities.

I added a sentiment from Bella Blossoms, a layer of 5/8" chocolate chip grosgrain and blue bayou double-stitched ribbon, and three white pearls from the Pretties Kit. The blue bayou bow was a last-minute addition, and I think it made a huge difference - this is still a simple card but the bow makes me say, "Aww..." I worked most of the day on this challenge card - well, not THIS card but on the challenge - watch closely and you may see my rejects show up in another form! ;) It's only been two weeks so how did I get so badly out of stamping shape?

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

Angela

Chat

Chris

Julie

Keri (Keri is recovering from surgery so she may not be able to participate - please keep her in your thoughts!)

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 DDIC5. Have fun and look for the next challenge on June 18!

DDIC4 - blog candy winner!

I'm excited to report that we had our biggest (at least as far as I know) challenge participation so far for our last challenge. Let's keep it up - tell your friends! :)

Anyway, I am so sorry to be late in posting this - the winner of the SAB stamp set blog candy is Lorraine! You should have received an email from me, so if you didn't, let me know!

Thanks so much to everyone who played, and please come back next Thursday for #5 - your work is beautiful and I can't wait to see what you come up with next time!

To Teach

I wanted to share a card I made (actually I made two of them) for a custom order on Etsy. The customer wanted to use the quote "To teach is to touch lives forever" on a couple teacher thank-you cards. I decided to use yesterday's sketch challenge for these cards and I think it worked out really well.

My concept for the card began with two things. The customer requested there be some embossing on the card, so I knew I'd incorporate that with the stamped image since the quotation would be done on the computer. When thinking about what sort of image to use, I liked the idea of a tree, since they could represent longevity. So that brought me to the Thoughts and Prayers tree, which I thought would look beautiful embossed.

Not knowing the recipients I thought I'd go for something fairly clean and classic. I stamped the tree with Versamark on kraft cardstock and embossed with Ranger copper EP. The sentiment is printed to approximate chocolate chip, which is the cardstock I used for the layers, along with chocolate chip DP and an argyle print in kraft from the Manchester paper pack. To finish I added three copper brads and a bit of coppery brown organdy ribbon, then I cut and embossed the sentiment with a Nestabilities label die and mounted with dimensionals.

I hope the customer is happy with her cards, and the recipients as well! I felt a great responsibility to honor these teachers I've never met, since I have such respect for the wonderful teachers who have been part of my kids' lives so far, with many more to come!

I may be very quiet in the coming days - I have a few deadlines approaching and I'm insanely busy. But hopefully by the time the next DDIC rolls around on June 4, my life will be much calmer and I'll be back posting more often, because I really have missed doing challenges and making cards!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #4

Can you believe it's challenge week again already? I can't! I have been totally swamped since the last challenge and I'm really missing making cards, so I was happy to have a good excuse! For this week's challenge I chose these adorable Nesting Mugs and Plates from Acacia. I loved the spring colors - although here in Massachusetts it's supposed to feel more like summer today than spring!

I went for a clean and simple look with this card. I combined our challenge with a sketch challenge that is new to me - the Clean and Simple blog's Fall-to Layout challenge #41. This is a cool blog to browse if you like CAS, or you aspire to like it! ;)

For my colors I picked ruby red, certainly celery, baja breeze, and chocolate chip. I decided to use the Branching Out stamp set - there is a bird in there, but I'm not a big bird stamper so I went for the tree instead! The sentiment is from Bird on a Branch - I think it goes really well with this image. I used the scallop edge punch and pierced the scallops, then added some piercing on the celery layer and mounted it all to a chocolate chip card base with dimensionals on both layers. And that's it - there ya go!

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

Angela

Chat

Chris

Julie

Keri

I am also going to offer everyone who links to a card on my blog a chance to win a little blog candy. Up for grabs is your choice of one set from the now-unavailable stamp sets that were offered during Sale-a-Bration. I will choose the winner on Friday, May 29, so please leave your comment here by 9 a.m. Eastern on that day to be entered to win!

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 DDIC4. Have fun and look for the next challenge the first Thursday of June!

I'm published!

I came home this morning to find the newest issue of Take Ten in my mailbox - so I knew that could only mean that they published at least one of my cards! This is my first time getting published, which was one of my goals for the year. I was so excited that I could hardly wait to get into the house to rip it open and find my card. They actually published two of the ones I submitted - yay! If you want to check it out when you get yours, I'm on pp. 91 and 99. I am so beyond honored to be in the same magazine as Laurie Schmidlin, Jen del Muro, Kim Hughes, and goodness knows how many other elite stampers - what a fun surprise! Now I just need to find more time to submit more stuff, to more magazines, more often... never enough hours in the day! Thanks for sharing in my excitement. :)

Cottage Rose

Here I am doing cottage style again - for some reason today I felt like doing a sweet and feminine card. In honor of all the moms out there, perhaps?
I'm doubling up on challenges today - I am so busy that I shouldn't be playing challenges at all, but my Mother's Day gift to myself was taking time out to make a card. Yesterday's inspiration challenge on SCS was so cool that I just didn't want to miss it. My favorite pillow from Steph's chosen site was this one. This card is also for the featured stamper challenge, honoring Beth's friend Debbie (DbDoodle). Her style is so fun! I picked this card for my CASE. I kept the oval layout but I flipped it (and moved the ribbon accordingly). I used Nestabilities for cutting/embossing and cut out my flower as Debbie did. Then I added scallops and a dry embossed background, and I shrunk the size of the patterned paper for my card and left off the buttons.

I thought A Rose Is a Rose was the perfect stamp set for this inspiration piece. I stamped the rose in pretty in pink and regal rose, and the leaves in certainly celery and garden green. I used baja breeze embossed with the little dot texture plate for the background, and in the center added a strip of regal rose paper from the hostess Patterns Pack II. The white scallops at the edges of the striped paper were made with a long rectangle Nesties die that I just trimmed to fit. The flower is up on dimensionals. For my bow I used the celery poly-twill ribbon from SAB.

I tried and tried to make a sentiment fit on the card front, but nothing I tried looked right. So I did something that I think is a blog first for me - I decorated the inside. It's pretty minimal but I like it. The sentiment (in baja breeze) comes from Three Little Words, and the rosebud is from the same set and was stamped in the same colors.

Thanks for visiting today - I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend!

My wonderful mother

I've been sitting on this card ever since my last club meeting, since I'd decided to send it to my own mom and didn't want her to see it too soon! I had a lot of fun with this card - I didn't necessarily intend to add all of this stuff to it but once I started, I just kept going, and I was really pleased with the result. The layout and ribbon treatment were inspired by this card by Laurie Schmidlin - isn't it gorgeous?

The whole card started because I wanted to do a different coloring technique with my club. I chose the marker technique demonstrated by Julie Buhler in this video tutorial. The basics are to stamp with Stazon on watercolor paper, color with your lighter marker color, then color over where you want to shade the image with a darker marker and blend with an Aqua Painter. I used this technique on the dogwood stamp from Soft Summer in the mini catalog, using pink pirouette reinker and regal rose, close to cocoa, old olive and always artichoke markers. I didn't blend the cocoa marker with another color, just colored on the image and then softened it with the Aqua Painter.

Now for all the extras. I used my fingernail to distress all the edges and added cocoa ink with a paper towel. The cocoa and pink pirouette DP come from Candy Lane - it's not just for Valentine's Day! I created my own sentiment and printed it on pink pirouette cardstock, then I punched it out and pierced the cocoa scalloped circle. I added a little more piercing on two of the corners. I added a strip of regal rose grosgrain ribbon. Then I got out my Pretties Kit and dyed one of the flowers with the pink pirouette reinker. Tip of the day: It took a long time, and a lot of ink from the reinker, until I thought the flowers looked pink at all. I think I let them sit in the water for at least 24 hours! This was my first time trying this technique - maybe it was just because this is such a pale color.

For final touches I used a hatpin and a couple more of the Pretties, and then I added one of the Latte buttons with a bit of hemp twine in the center. As I was making this card I remembered how much I love making shabby chic cards - it's really a style that speaks to me. I hope my mom loves this card as much as I loved making it, and as much as I love her. Thanks for everything, Mom!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #3

Welcome to the third installment of our inspiration challenge! I think we have a fun challenge for you this week. Take a look at these great outdoor pillows from Pottery Barn and I dare you not to think of summer!

This challenge inspired me to get out a color I rarely use - summer sun. I wanted to use lots of green so I combined it with both kiwi kiss and old olive. I cut three strips of kiwi dot paper (trying to evoke the stripes on the pillows since I'm apparently out of striped kiwi paper! horrors!) and layered them onto a summer sun panel, then onto an olive card base. (I used a lot of textured cardstock on this card.) For the main panel I cut kiwi and olive leaves with the Little Leaves die - this die is so cute. I'm going to use it all the time! Then I added summer sun flowers from Petal Pizzazz. Every time I get this set out I swear I'm going to use a different flower, but I never do. This one is just too fabulous. After I cut out the yellow flowers, I stamped them again in olive and punched out the centers to mount with dimensionals.

To finish I added a sentiment from Best Yet, punched out with the large oval and scallop oval punches. The button treatment was inspired by something I've been seeing on blogs and in magazines lately - such as on this card by Jen del Muro. I did a different version of this idea: I took the white satin ribbon from the mini catalog and looped the ends under, then tied linen thread through the button holes and around the ribbon to keep the ends secure. The hardest part was keeping the ribbon from slipping out while I tied my knot - it took a couple tries but I managed to get it right!

I think I need to get out my summer sun more often - I feel happier just looking at this card. Be sure to also check out the cards made by the Divine Divas for this challenge!

Angela

Chat

Chris

Julie

Keri

This just in: Chris is offering a great prize with this challenge. Visit her blog to read how you can get up to four chances to win your choice of two packs of SU designer paper, valued at $9.95 each! Thanks, Chris - that's an awesome prize!

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 DDIC3. Have fun and look for the next challenge in two weeks!

Sarah at 3

Yesterday was my "baby" girl's birthday. Now that she is 3 I guess I have to actually admit that she isn't a baby anymore. When did that happen??

Sarah actually got three birthday parties. We celebrated with two different sets of grandparents while we were in Indianapolis. We don't usually get to celebrate with my nephew and nieces so that was fun, even though we kept it pretty low-key.

Here she is blowing out her candles - she did a good job that day!

We had a small party here at home today. Uncle Greg and Aunt Karen came from Stoneham to help us celebrate. I made Sarah a butterfly cake, and I think she liked how it looked. I know she liked how it tasted because she kept saying, "YUM!"
She had the funniest look on her face while we were singing "Happy Birthday" to her. I wish I knew what she was thinking!

We gave Sarah some Fancy Nancy books and a game, and she wanted to read one of the books right away. Ben crawled up with us to listen as well - and that is just one of my favorite times with the kids, when they both curl up with me to read a book. I really love those moments.

Finally here is a funny story for you. Yesterday evening Sarah came into my office and found a pair of sandals that are just about too small for her. I need to sell them on eBay or something. The girl does love shoes, and she put them on and came over to show me, saying "Ta-da!" And then she said to me, "They fit me!" I looked and could see that she just barely has room in the toes, so I said that they almost fit - "but you don't need any more shoes." Her answer: "So? They fit me!" I didn't really have an answer for that! She must be 3 going on 13. Should be a fun time!