An old favorite

Happy Saturday. I hope you're enjoying your weekend. Last night on splitcoast there was a mini VSN (virtual stamp night) with four challenges. I had a chance to play and finished one challenge, which was using red letters. I decided to pull out one of my all time favorite SU stamp sets, natural beauty.

I stamped the flower in black stazon on vanilla and colored it with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. Then I sponged the edges with ruby red, added faux stitching, and layered it on black. The panel behind the main image is groovy guava run through my cuttlebug in the textile embossing folder. I lightly sponged over the embossing with groovy guava and then sponged the edges in ruby red and again layered it on black. I added some black brads and black grosgrain ribbon and glued it to a ruby red card base. The flower panel is popped up on dimensional foam tape.

For the sentiment, I used a Lizzie Anne set, stamped in ruby red on vanilla and punched out with my key tag punch. I added sponging and faux stitching around the edges. Then I punched another key tag punch in black and cut it in half and spread it apart, so that it created an upper and lower border. This piece is also popped up. To finish off the card, I added faux stitching around the outer edge.

Supplies:
stamps: natural beauty (SU), sentiment (Lizzie Anne)
ink: jet black stazon, ruby red, groovy guava, basic black marker
paper: ruby red, basic black, groovy guava, very vanilla
other: prismacolor pencils, gamsol, sponge, key tag punch, cuttlebug, textile embossing foloder, black brads, black grosgrain ribbon, dimensional foam tape

I'm so glad you stopped by. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Featured Stamper

The Sunday challenge on splitcoast is the featured stamper. Basically you get to case a card from the featured gallery, but change at least two things. I don't usually get a chance to play with my stamps on Sunday, so it was fun to do a card for this challenge. I chose this card to case.

I started by stamping the shady daisy backgrounder from Cornish Heritage Farms on apricot appeal card stock with purely pomegranate ink. Then I cut a portion of it into 1-1/4" squares and glued them to a piece of black. I covered the whole thing with versamark and embossed it with clear ep.

The flower stamp from Innovative Stamp Creations was stamped with pitch black adirondack ink and colored with copic markers and cut out. Then this was also covered with versamark and clear embossed.

The sentiment from SU's noteworthy was stamped in black on apricot and then punched with my small oval punch, so that it would fit in the hardware. I used a strip of black grosgrain ribbon across the bottom underneath the sentiment and attached the hardware with brads.

Supplies:
stamps: noteworthy (SU), shady daisy (Cornish Heritage Farms), flower (Innovative Stamp Creations)
ink: purely pomegranate, pitch black adirondack, versamark, copic markers
paper: certainly celery, apricot appeal, basic black, white
other: hardware, clear embossing powder, small oval punch, black grosgrain ribbon

I'm so glad you stopped by today.

Happy Saturday! Are you enjoying your weekend. It's mostly sunny here, but still a little on the chilly side. We haven't had many days over 60 yet. This morning I decided to make a card for a challenge over at the Innovative Stamp Creations blog and it also worked to combine it with this week's sketch challenge on Splitcoast.

One of the requirements for the blog challenge was that all the stamps are from ISC and another requirement was that there was a tag included.

I started by stamping a silhouette stemmed flower in artichoke ink on vanilla card stock. I then punched the corners with my ticket corner punch and sponged the edges with chocolate chip ink and layered it on a piece of chocolate chip, which I also punched the corners on. Then I stamped several single flowers with pitch black adirondack ink on another piece of vanilla and colored them with copic markers. I decided to use just two of them, so I cut them out. I glued one flower directly on the card stock and the second one I adhered with dimensional foam tape. I added some crystal effects and dazzling diamonds glitter to the flower centers. I wanted to do something a little different with the ribbon, so I used my crop-a-dile to punch two holes on the left and one on the right, but centered between the two on the left side. I added blush blossom eyelets to run the ribbon through The ribbon criss-crosses behind the panel.

I used the same flower as before and stamped it repeatedly in really rust on the card base, to completely fill the space. The I sponged chocolate ink around the edges.

The two side panels are stamped in guava with a swirl stamp and the edges are again sponged with chocolate.

I decided to use an oval tag and tie it to the ribbon. I don't know where my linen thread is and really didn't want to spend time looking, so I used a piece of thin string and colored it with a copic marker, so it wasn't bright white. I thought there was still too much open space, so I added some brown brads. The main panel and the tag are both popped up on dimensional foam tape.

Supplies:
stamps: flair of summer, friendship, nature silhouettes (Innovative Stamp Creations)
ink: groovy guava, chocolate chip, really rust, always artichoke, pitch black adirondack
paper: really rust, chocolate chip, groovy guava, very vanilla
other: brown brads, chocolate grosgrain ribbon, ticket corner punch, small oval punch, crystal effects, dazzling diamonds glitter, blush blossom eyelets, crop-a-dile, piercing tool, foam dimensional tape, sponge

I'm so glad you stopped by today. Have a great weekend.

2 sketch challenges

I got some more stamping done today. On Tuesday, Gina K Designs had a new stamp release party in the member forums on splitcoast. There were three sketch challenges offered and random winners will get free stamps. This evening was the deadline for uploading and I managed to get 2 of the challenges done.

Here are my cards. Both use the set Text Messages, which is the only Gina K stamp set that I own. Thanks for stopping by.

Yay! I stamped today!

It's hard to believe that over a week had gone by without any stamping! I think I have spring fever, although I'm not really much of an outdoors type of person. I really didn't feel like stamping. But I've gotten a bunch of new stamps and today I really needed to put some ink and paper together. All the stamps I used today are from Innovative Stamp Creations. They come as sheets of unmounted stamps. Since I really prefer my stamps on wood mounts, that meant I had to add mounting foam and wood blocks. I still have a few that are waiting for blocks from my brother-in-law. (Thanks, Bob.)

I created this card for the ways to use it challenge on splitcoast. For the main image panel, I started by wetting a piece of watercolor paper and then dragging ink refills across it and letting the color bleed. I love sunsets, so I used yellow, orange and red. After it was dry, I stamped my image twice in black stazon. Parts of the image didn't cover well on the texture of the watercolor paper, so I used a black Copic marker to fill in where needed. The sentiment was also stamped in black stazon. I mounted this on a layer of black and then, using a piece of plastic canvas for even spacing, I added a column of black brads.

The smaller panels on either side are orange, sponged with red ink, and layered on black. For the card base, I used summer sun and randomly stamped a butterfly all over in orange, which toned down the yellow a bit.

Supplies:
stamps: all stamps (Innovative Stamp Creations)
ink: real red, only orange, yoyo yellow, jet black stazon
paper: summer sun, only orange, basic black, watercolor
other: piercing tool, sponge, black brads, foam mounting tape

I'm so glad you stopped by.

Hello. I'm still busy, but then who isn't? My daughter graduated from art school on Saturday, so I really didn't get anything done that day. Then Sunday was mother's day and we spent time with my sister and her family.

Yesterday started way too early for me. My hubby left for a business trip and took our daughter. I had to drop them off at the airport, so we had to leave the house at 7:00 am. Usually I'm barely out of bed by them.

I wanted to post last night, but I was just too tired from lack of sleep and didn't have enough energy to do it and do it right.

I did stamp yesterday. I made two cards for my class today, which, incidentally, is our last class for this group until September. I love sharing creativity, but it is also nice to have the summer break.

I only managed to get a picture of one of the cards. (By the time I finished the 2nd one, I was just too tired.) This was my challenge card for the technique challenge on splitcoast. I kept it simple enough to use in a large class.

The background is print pattern from SU, stamped in mellow moss on certainly celery.

The flowers are from embrace life. I stamped them on the smooth side of watercolor paper with elegant eggplant and embossed with clear ep. Then I used my watercolor crayons and aqua painter to color them. I cut them out and added crystal effects and glitter for a bit of sparkle and then glued them on an eggplant strip. The sentiment is stamped in black. A really basic layout - easy techniques - an easy card. The only thing that takes a bit of time is cutting out the flowers.

Supplies:
stamps: embrace life, print pattern, elegant cheer (SU)
ink: mellow moss, basic black, elegant eggplant craft
paper: certainly celery, elegant eggplant, watercolor paper
other: brayer, crystal effects, dazzling diamonds glitter, watercolor crayons, aqua painter

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful day.

AWOL

Yes, I've been missing. Nothing wrong, just busy with other things, and it's been over a week since I've been able to actually sit down and complete a card. And I've really missed that. So today, a little bit here and there, in between other things, I managed to get one done. And even better, it's a double challenge card. I combined the sketch challenge and the ways to use it challenge for this week on splitcoast.

I made the background yesterday when I was at my sister's house. I was just playing around with my chalk inks and stamped it using a Lizzie Anne set called In the Meadow. Since I wanted to incorporate the sketch challenge into this card, I decided to use the background and keep with the rust and vanilla color scheme. So I made the half circles from rust and black and used a plastic canvas circle as a guide to add the copper brads.

The central image is also part of the same set, stamped twice in rust and once in black. The I used markers to just lightly fill in the flowers to make them stand out a bit more.

The butterfly is made from two layers of cereal box chipboard. I used a butterfly die and my cuttlebug to cut it out, then glued the layers together and painted it with white acrylic paint. The edges are sponged with chocolate chip and really rust ink and the flower from Inkadinkado is stamped in only orange, rock & rolled in pink passion. The acrylic paint must absorb a lot of the color, because it looks very muted.

The center panel and the butterfly are both raised on foam mounting tape. After I had the card all put together, I decided I wanted to add a little bling to the butterfly, so I dotted the flower center with crystal effects and added dazzling diamonds glitter. A really strange thing happened when I put on the crystal effects -- it turned yellow! I have no idea why, because there is no yellow ink on this card. It doesn't really hurt the card. I just thought it was weird.

Supplies:
stamps: in the meadow (Lizzie Anne Designs), flower (Inkadinkado)
ink: really rust, basic black, only orange, pink passion, chocolate chip, colorbox chalk ink (don't remember which color I used)
paper: basic black, very vanilla, really rust, cereal box chipboard
other: cuttlebug, butterfly die, circles nestabilities, copper brads, piercing tool, plastic canvas circle, crystal effects, dazzling diamonds glitter, foam mounting tape

I'm so glad you stopped by.