Rose Bordering Pirouette

Just like yesterday I based today's card on two challenges. I used the sketch challenge from Sweet Sketch Wednesday and the color challenge from Color Throwdown. The colors of cs used on this card were Rose Red (also ink color), Bordering Blue, Pink Pirouette, and Whisper White.

Embellishments on this card include a layered flower (not only do I like layers of paper on my cards, I can also get carried away layering embellishments!), brads, and some older SU ribbon that I have finally cut into! GASP! Yes, this luscious ribbon has been hoarded, petted, and ogled upon for several years!

Off to stamp some more!

Friendship Garden

Today's card is a sketch challenge from SCS and a color challenge from Colordare. I used two SU sets: Circle of Friendship and Garden collage and four colors of cs: Barely Banana, Close to Cocoa, Bravo Burgundy, and Very Vanilla. Craft and Classic Inks used were Close to Cocoa. The two burgundy cs strips were embossed with a script cuttlebug folder. Adorning the corner of the image layer is a lone, but really fun embellishment I picked up at a Big Lots in my recent travels. It's a metal photo corner by American Crafts in dark brown (chocolate chip).

I needed a wider image, so I used both of the collage images in the Garden set. I punched just the smallest part of the two circle images from the Friendship set with a 1/2 inch circle punch.

Off to stamp some more!

Pair of Floral Prints: $99, Inspiration: Priceless

During the past few days my mailbox has been filled with catalogs of all sorts. Usually they end up in the recycling bin without a second look, but one particular catalog was set aside and forgotten. I had time yesterday to glance through it and these framed flower prints immediately caught my eye. The patterned papers reminded me of some I had in my "oriental collection" and I also remembered that I owned a stamp very similar in style to the one in the frame.

So I began stamping, coloring, and cutting. Eleven layers later (those of you who have been with me for awhile know I love to layer, layer, layer!) I had a 5 1/4" square card that I just love! IRL it is so elegant and rich looking. And also for those of you who know me well will be surprised to see that there is no extra bling or embellishments used on the card. I believe this card can stand alone in it's gold, black, and white indulgence.

Off to stamp some more!

Sweet Dreamers Challenge #1: About Me

Here is my project for our first challenge on Sweet Dreamers, one of the SCS blogging groups I belong to. As you can see I made a bookmark in which I used the packaging of some Mary Engelbreit post-its as the base. I love everything ME! When I am not stamping I enjoy reading cozy mysteries and watching shows like NCIS on TV.

I love animals and have two cats, one all black named
Claire and another of mixed colors named Snickers. They are as different as night and day and keep us enslaved to their wants and needs. So although our three adult children are no longer living at home, our two cats keep us from claiming to be authentic empty nesters.

My daily caffeine fix is provided by tea, diet Pepsi, and chocolate. Not necessarily in that order or in equal quantities!

I collect many things: Longaberger baskets and pottery, gingerbread men, heart-shaped rocks and of course rubber stamps and as of last night...Nestabilities!

When my summer break is over in a few short weeks, I will be back in the classroom teaching third grade. I've been teaching for 30+ years! DH was also a teacher and retired last December.

Minnesota has always been my home along with the obnoxious mosquito, sometimes referred to as the state bird! One of my favorite places in Minnesota is along the North Shore of Lake Superior. Another favorite place is the Red Wing area. My DH and I collect Red Wing Pottery, although not very actively anymore.

Off to stamp some more!

Thank You!

I want to thank all of you who left advice and encouragement (wink!) on my post yesterday regarding the purchase of Nestabilities. Scrappypug (bless your heart!) turned my attention to Lizzie Anne Designs who has some of their sets for 40% off! So I quickly placed an order last night for a couple of circle sets, but I'm thinking of returning in a few short minutes and ordering some ovals as well! Yikes!

Off to stamp some more!

A Trio of Blooms

It all started out with being dissatisfied with my original plan and ended with not one, but three cards that I'm pleased enough with to post. In the process of stamping today, I have discovered that I do not have the sizes of scallop and plain circles that I needed for my cards. Maybe it's time for me to break down and purchase some nestibilities.

I should have been buying these all along and now that there are so many sizes and shapes I am totally overwhelmed and confused on what to buy first. So if you have any words of wisdom and good advice on which set to start with, please leave a comment. Oh, and if you know of a good price on nestibilities and a favorite place to purchase online, let me know that too!

Off to stamp some more!

Open and Shut

This is a mostly SU card, the metal embellishments are nonSU. The papers are from the Razzleberry Lemonade pack, the image is from "Out of the Box" a level 1 hostess set and the ribbon is really Rich Razzleberry in color. The embossed background was created using the SU Finial Press Embossing Folder.

The small card opens up to reveal the pop-up image of the "jack-in a-box" or as in this case "flower-in-a-box". I so love cards you can play with manipulate!

Off to stamp some more!

Life is...

...finding yourself a joy

The sentiment on this card is one of my favorites. I use it often because it works with any theme, in this case music. If I could be blessed with one talent, I would choose music; either singing, playing an instrument, or both...if only.

You can't see the subtle shimmer of this card in the photo, so I'll describe for you. The background image was stamped with Versamark Dazzle (love this ink pad!) on soft suede cs. The sentiment was stamped with Brilliance ink (Lightning Black, another favorite brand!) onto shimmer white cs. The layers behind the sentiment are a soft brushed gold and a second layer of shimmer white. All of this was layered onto a shimmer white cs base. Lots of soft, subtle shimmer.

Soft suede polka-dot grosgrain ribbon, brass brads, a tiny safety pin and a brass music charm finish off the card.

Off to stamp some more!

Autumn Circles

Let me start off by admitting that this card is CASED from SCS. I put my own spin on it by changing the colors and using a textured background and some other minor changes, but the original idea came from someone else. This card will soon be sent off for a "circle swap" that I'm participating in.

Even though our temps are in the mid 80's today, I have fall colors on my mind. Maybe it's because all of the store ads arriving in my mailbox are showing "back to school" specials. Now I imagine a lot of parents are probably anxious for school to start in again, but being a teacher, I am still hanging onto my summer break. I am still selfishly enjoying the extra hours to blurf and play with my stamps!
Off to stamp some more!

Am I the Only One?

Am I the only one who has a stash of cards so old that in order to mail them out today they would need a makeover first? This is one of the cards that I recently pulled out of a box and gave it an update to reflect a more current style. So what did I do? I exchanged the old narrow satin ribbon to this grosgrain ribbon, which is also a better match in color. Then I attached a small metal rim tag, on which I added a rub on of a tiny butterfly, to a craft size safety pin onto the ribbon. I'm pleased with the changes as I was able to maintain my simplistic style, yet add some additional interest to the card.

If you want to enjoy a "what was I thinking" moment and a healthy guffaw, take a look at some of your earlier cards. In my case some of those memories would best be forgotten!

Off to stamp some more!

Very Vellum

I love using vellum on cards and I was waiting for just the right card swap to use this mellow yellow piece. It already came printed with the main collage elements in earthy colors, so I just added some extras here and there before layering it onto a pale yellow card base. I had some vellum dragonfly stickers that I put on and also added a pressed flower sticker. Using a scrap of medium brown vellum, I punched three little flowers and added a touch of brown fun flock to the centers. Then in my embellishment stash I had some beautiful copper skeleton leaves and found one mostly the right size and shape to fit over the pre-printed one. Keeping with the copper color of the leaf I adorned each corner with a copper brad. Lastly to get some stamping on the card, I stamped "happiness always" in a rust colored ink near the top of the skeleton leaf.

Off to stamp some more!

Paisley Joy

This card has paisley overload! Besides the three images at the top, the DP is a paisley print that was also embossed with the paisley cuttlebug folder. Whew - that is a lot of paisley! Good thing this card was made for and sent to a person who loves... paisley!

Off to stamp some more!

Mad About Plaid!

This is another long and skinny card that was based on a sketch for a swap. It fits in the smaller open end envelopes from SU.

The inspiration for this card was the beautiful plaid ribbon that I had in my stash for quite awhile. (It was most painful for me to cut into it!) The colors from the ribbon determined the cs, felt flowers and brads that were used on this card.

There wasn't any room for stamping on the outside of the card, so the sentiment is inside. I used a generic greeting of some sort, probably something really exciting like "thinking of you". Now I don't know about you, but as a dedicated stamper, I feel "funny", okay "guilty" if I don't stamp somewhere on my cards. What a can I say, I'm a purest!

Off to stamp some more!

A Long Hello

Every once in awhile I like to break away from a stamper's standard A2 size card and make a long and skinny card. I don't have this card in front of me right now, but it was made to fit into a standard business size envelope. (I think you can click on the photo for a larger view)

The image is from an SU set called "Both Way Blossoms" and is ideal for this size card. Now here's where I got creative (for me!) and colored the image using a waterbrush filled Future Floor Wax. I squeezed a drop of reinker into a small paint cup and dipped the very tip of the wet brush into the ink and colored the image. Easy, peasy, my kind of coloring! The dried image has a subtle sheen to it, and it is now also protected from scuff marks and scratches!

Now you know it took only a minute amount of FFW to fill the waterbrush, so here I am sitting with a mostly full bottle. I hear this stuff can actually be used on floors - imagine that! However, my floors will have to wait until I"m feeling creative on a much larger scale!

Off to stamp some more!

True Blue Friend

There really isn't much to say about this simple 3-color card; what you see is what you get! I can tell you that this is a layout I use quite often when making cards. I like to be able to show off several coordinating patterns of DP when using a single, small image for the focal point. Even the embellishments are minimal!

That's it! Short and sweet, my true blue friend!

Off to stamp some more!

Ladies, Ink 3D Challenge

On SCS I'm in a blogging group of very talented and unique women, called Ladies, Ink. Our first group challenge was to make a 3D item and this is my offering. It is one of those little scrapbooks that Wal Mart sold a few years ago at Christmastime. I found them on clearance after the holiday, bought several and stashed them away until a good idea came along!

Recently while blog hopping I saw a project where the person made a book of her favorite quotes, poems and images. My project is a take off on that only on a much smaller scale. The pages shown here are a sampling of what is in my friendship book.

On these sample pages I used glassine envelopes to hold small stamped tags, ribbons, ink and other misc embellishments. The color palette is mainly white, cream, gold and burgundy. The stamps used are mostly retired SU images.


Off to stamp some more!

Put a Sock On It!

A sock monkey of course! This is an image that does not appeal to all, but it holds sentimental value for me, and is fun to "play" with!

I had a sock monkey as a very young child and she (I named her Suzy Q) stayed with me for a very long time, before eventually being loved to smithereens. Fast forward to last Christmas when another sock monkey entered my life! My DS (luv ya Matt!) picked up a monkey for a Christmas stocking surprise!

This is a 3x3 gift card, but I have a second image that I am considering adding onto a full size card base.

Speaking of card sizes, I happened upon an interesting thread over on SCS about card sizes and how buyers often prefer a card larger than our typical 4.25 x 5.50. Hmmm, I'll have to give a 5 x 7 a try. For those of you who sell your cards, what size cards sell best?
Off to stamp some more!

Snail Mail

No I am not dissing the PO in this post. We have a wonderful post office in our small community and I would hate to see it closed due to the economy. But I'm worried, so I do what I can by joining in as many swaps as I can and visiting the postmaster several times a week to help with her job security!

Speaking of swaps, I really prefer the one for one swaps, but in an ambitious moment, I joined a swap that is 11 for 10! The hostess gets to keep the extra for all the hard work of running a swap. I've hosted them before, so I know it is not always easy.

The rules for this swap were to use at least two layers and two embellishments - not a problem for me! I will have to check again and see if the rules mean two different kinds of embellishments, if so, I need to add a bit of ribbon...where?

Today's card uses the snail image from SU's "Garden Whimsy", one of my "go to" sets, but I always seem to use the butterflies or ladybugs from this set, so I...



There is a deer in our driveway right now checking out the cars! Now she is eating some grass (aka weeds!). Oh carp, it's a cloudy dreary day and the camera person (aka me!) can't take a good picture, especially through a dirty window! But the good news is she seems to be enjoying the flashes coming from the camera! Oh, she's off and running!

...decided to give the snail some old olive ink! The sentiment is from another SU set called "Oval All", but I purposely deleted the border of stars when I punched it out with the large oval punch from SU, so that it would fit into the oval scallop punchie.

Now the question is: Should I wash my dirty window? Or go...

Off to stamp some more!

Cheers To You!

My last few posts were cards with very neutral colors, so I thought I better perk things up around here before you all deserted me from boredom. Besides it's the beginning of the weekend and the sun is shining here this morning!

This card uses images from two SU sets called "Cheers To You" and "Tart and Tangy". A dollar stamp from Michaels was used as well. And look Ladies, only glitter for "bling" and ribbon for the lone embellishment!

I made this card for an upcoming swap called "Going Green"! Do you get my subtle sarcastic humor here? Think about it. LOL!

After struggling with lighting, glitter glare, and a card that wouldn't stand up for a "fun" picture, I am ready for a pitcher of fun myself!

Off to stamp some more!

Eleven Ten

Sorry about the crazy angle of this photo. It's been one of those card making sessions from start to finish! I won't bore you with the details of my stamping saga, let's just suffice it to say I'm exhausted after making two of these cards today! And I still have quite the mess to deal with in my stamp room. Imagine a table full of stamps, discarded card parts, ribbon scraps, brads, eyelets, grommets, tools, etc. You get the idea.

So what does the title of this post have to do with this particular card? ***Drum roll please!*** This card has no less than 10 layers and 11 embellishments! I think this is a record for me! While I'm bragging, let me also tell you I actually colored the dragonfly image! Yes, I really did! The little critter's body was colored with a black glitter pen and the wings were colored with a clear glitter pen. Phew! Like I said, I'm exhausted! I am so NOT...

Off to stamp some more!

Dear brad(s)

When "dressing up" a card my most often go to embellishments are...brads. Bet you didn't see that one coming! Whenever I get to stop at a store with craft supplies of any sort, I check out the selection of brads first. And then hopefully find some that I am running low on, or find some that I don't already have and hopefully both! These postage stamp brads were recently purchased at a Michaels store when I was lucky enough to get out of town. Not necessarily having an idea in mind, still I couldn't wait to use them. So out came a very old SU set that would do the trick to jump start a card idea. But this isn't my oldest SU set by far.

Question for those of you that use SU. What is the oldest SU set you own? Mine is called "A Candy Cane Christmas"; the first SU set I purchased from a 1996 catalog. In fact, I still own the majority of SU sets that I ever purchased. Well looking back at that statement, how sad is that?

Off to stamp some more!