distressing hugs

Happy Saturday! And, no - hugs shouldn't be distressing! We like happy hugs. Today's inspiration challenge on splitcoast again had lots of fun images to choose from, but I decided to go with one that was given in the post - I picked the image on the right and decided to use the colors, rust and turquoise, on my card.

When I stamp, I might (and I use that word loosely) have a plan, but more often than not, my card evolves as I go. This was definitely one of those evolving cards.

I started with the floral image, added an extra flowers, plus layered the flowers. The image is colored with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. (If you're wondering where the rust is, it's in the flower centers.) I punched one side with my spiral punch and then added a lot of distressing, sponging and doodling.

When I picked up a black folded card, the right hand front had already been trimmed off, so I was thinking of adding a scalloped turquoise layer behind the edge, but after doing all the distressing on the card, I decided that would look too formal and wanted something more shabby. I thought the bits of ribbon worked quite well.

The music is really old and brittle. I had to be gentle with it because it's so fragile.

I crocheted the flower, added some Martha Stewart punches and a button.

The sentiment is from a word set that I purchased years ago locally and I have no idea who makes it.

What's in it?
stamps: flower fancy, itty bitty backgrounds (SU), sentiment (?)
ink: jet black stazon, chocolate chip
paper: basic black, tempting turquoise, very vanilla, certainly celery, old music
other: sponge, prismacolor pencils, gamsol, crochet flower, black crochet cotton, button, various ribbon, spiral punch, leaf & fern punches (Martha Stewart), foam tape

a sketch

Hello, everyone. Today I spent the day at my sister's. We stamped a little. I put together a card for Wednesday's sketch challenge on splitcoast. I had to finish it after I came home, since I needed a couple of things that I didn't take with me.

I promised my Tues. class that we'd do another valentine, so I wanted to make this card for that. That means keeping it pretty simplified. I haven't used my always set much, so I decided to use it for this challenge.

I stamped the sprig randomly in cameo coral for the background. The bird is stamped in pacific point on vanilla. Most of the layers have sponging around the edges. The heart is punched with the heart to heart punch and then stamped with the large heart in the always set and sponged around the edges.

To hang the heart from the bird's beak, I punched 1/16" holes on either side of the beak and threaded the linen thread through the holes. A piece of foam tape holds the thread in place on the back. The heart is also raised on foam tape, again holding the linen thread in place.

What's in it?
stamps: always (SU)
ink: pacific point, cameo coral, jet black stazon
paper: pacific point, cameo coral, very vanilla, dp (Nicole)
other: sponge, linen thread, heart to heart punch, 1/16" punch, foam tape

Thanks so much for stopping by. Be blessed.

pleated butterfly

Hello. Pleated butterfly? Well, not exactly. Yesterday's technique challenge on SCS was all about using pleated paper on your card. A fun technique that I don't remember ever using before. I finished the card pretty late last night, or maybe it was early this morning, but I was too tired to upload and needed to get some sleep, so I don't nod off in my class this morning -- not so good when you're the teacher!

I actually started this card with the designer paper - see - I'm really trying to use it. You know how hard it is to resist buying those big 12" stacks of 180 sheets when they are on sale for $10? Yup! That's like 5 or 6 cents per sheet! I have a few of those. So, anyway, that's what I started with.

I picked a pretty floral in a turquoise and just cut a 1" strip the width of the paper. I put it on my scor-pal and scored at 1", 1-1/2", 2-1/2", 3", etc. In other words, alternating a 1" space and a 1/2" space between the score lines across the strip. Then you accordian fold using the score lines. Easy, peasy!

Then I decided to use a set that I got free during a promotion a couple of months ago - flight of the butterfly. It's been sitting waiting to get used. Well, I had used one tiny stamp already in a class, but the rest of the set has been untouched. I stamped the solid part of the wings in cool caribbean, and then I chose the flowers to go with the dp. And since I love blue, I chose to accent with brilliant blue. I should have used my stamp-a-ma-jig so the butterfly parts lined up better, but it's not real bad, so I left it. Since there was a lot of blank area around the image, I did some sponging and faux stitching and added some cute flower brads in the corners. The image panel is raised on dimensional tape.

I added a strip of brilliant blue behind the pleated paper and a tiny bit of glue underneath each pleat so they were not popping off the card.

I pulled a button from my stash, added a bit of white crochet cotton and I'm done. I think I may use this card in a class. I'll have to update to current colors, though.



what's in it?
stamps: flight of the butterfly
ink: cool caribbean, brilliant blue
paper: cool caribbean, brilliant blue, very vanilla, dp (stack - not sure who makes it)
other: sponge, scor-pal, button, flower brads, crochet cotton, foam tape

Thanks so much for visiting today. Be blessed.

challenges

Hello. Today I worked on a couple more challenges from the Gina K release party. You will notice that I've been trying really hard to use more designer paper on my cards. I still struggle with it, and I'm not sure it's getting any easier, but I keep hoping.

The first card is for a sketch challenge. I don't have a lot of Gina K stamps, so sometimes I really have to get creative with the ones I have. I used the leaves and a sentiment from botanical dreams. The flower blossom is made from old music paper. There is a tutorial here. It's not the best quality, but I think you can figure out what is being done. The leaves are sponged to color. Otherwise, I think the card is pretty self-explanatory.

stamps: botanical dreams (Gina K)
ink: jet black stazon, certainly celery, old olive, always artichoke, taken with teal
paper: taken with teal, very vanilla, dp (unknown)
other: buttons, sponge, foam tape












The second card challenge was to stamp something sweet. Again, my stamps were seriously limited, but I found something that worked. The tee was stamped on dp and cut out. The front panel is popped up. The 'candy' was a Christmas gift from my offspring. I added some ribbon and faux stitching.

stamps: little tees (Gina K)
ink: jet black stazon, chocolate chip
paper: chocolate chip, very vanilla, dp (Basic Grey Phoebe), pink dp (unknown)
other: ribbon (Michaels), candy pompom stickers (Martha Stewart), foam tape

Thanks for stopping by. Be blessed.

butterfly delight

Hello. Saturday's inspiration challenge on splitcoast had so many great pictures to choose from, it took me all day just to decide. When I finally sat down to stamp, just making the background took what seemed like forever, but I really think it turned out great and really imitates the inspiration piece that I chose.

I used a lot of different stamps on the background. Most were inked, then spritzed with water before stamping, because I wanted a somewhat blurred image. I added a lot of sponging and then used a sponge dauber with chocolate chip ink around the edges to get a bit of outlined definition without adding a layer of card stock.

The butterfly is from wonderful wings and I colored it with color pencils and gamsol. The wings are popped up.

stamps: wondeful wings, paint prints, french script, linen, itty bitty backgrounds (SU); other stamps from judith, inkadinkadoo, penny black, and paper inspirations
ink: jet black stazon, creamy caramel, chocolate chip, mellow moss, always artichoke, perfect plum
paper, mellow moss, very vanilla
other: brayer, piercing tool, mat pack, brads, sponge, sponge dauber, koh-i-noor color pencils, gamsol, foam tape

Thanks for stopping by. Be blessed.

not a scrapbook page

Good evening. I feel like I accomplished a lot today. I worked on a card this morning for the limited supplies challenge, did lots of laundry, dishes, worked a bit on a quilt I'm finishing for someone, and then tonight I made another card for a Gina K release challenge. OK, just realized it's going on 1:00 a.m. - guess I did all that yesterday.

The card I made for the limited supplies challenge was sitting on my desk for a couple of months, actually completed - all put together - but I wasn't happy with it. There just wasn't enough contrast between the image and the background. Today the challenge was to use a black card base. Since this card already had that, I thought I would try to make it better.

The image was stamped in versamark and clear embossed. Then the background was made with watercolor crayons and a water brush. I wanted the color more vivid, so I decided to try colored pencils - my koh-i-noors. Now, I would normally use gamsol with these, but I thought I'd see if just water would do anything, and to my surprise, yes it worked great to blend the color and make it more vivid. So basically a five minute fix and my card was done.

stamps: inspired by nature
ink: versamark
paper: basic black, ballet blue, watercolor
other: watercolor crayons, water brush, koh-i-noor color pencils, scalloped border punch, fancy photo corner punch, piercing tool, gold brads, foam tape, black pigma marker

My next card was for Gina K's January release party challenge #1. The challenge was to make a scrapbook page with the sketch provided, or a card. Since I'm not a scrapper, I decided to use a photo on a card instead.

The flowers are made by stamping the largest flower from botanical dreams 8 times and then punching out the centers and sponging the edges and layering. I really like how they turned out.

stamps: priceless (SU), botanical dreams (Gina K)
ink: jet black stazon, brocade blue, lovely lilac
paper: bashful blue, lovely lilac, white, dp (unknown)
other: spiral punch, 5 petal flower punch, daisy punches (2 sizes), foam tape

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

embellish your dp

Hello, everyone. Today on splitcoast, the ways to use it challenge was to use designer paper, but you had to do something to it to make it more than it was.

So I pulled out a piece that had a very light design on it and used my versamarker to add some gold embossing to parts of the design. I needed to go over it twice to get the coverage that I wanted. I used that for the background with a layer of pacific point card stock and a card base of naturals ivory.

For the main image, I used a flower from a new hostess set, echoes of kindness, but only inked up part of it. I colored it with colored pencils and gamsol. The corners were punched with the ticket corner punch

The flower embellishment is made from punched flowers that are sponged and layered. There are two large punches, two medium and one small and a brad in the center.

I added some faux stitching, twill and brads. The flower and the image panel are raised on dimensional tape.

stamps: echoes of kindness
ink: jet black stazon, pacific point
paper: naturals ivory, pacific point, dp (unknown)
other: gold ep, heat gun, versamarker, koh-i-noor color pencils, gamsol, brads, 5 petal flower punch, daisy punch, boho blossoms punch, ticket corner punch, foam tape, twill

Thanks for stopping by. Be blessed.

a little basket

A few days ago, Keri Sereika showed this cute little basket on her blog. It was made with one of the new not yet released Spellbinders dies called Peony. Click here for a picture of hers and the tutorial on how to make it. I thought I could make a similar one using a scallop circle die.

So I pulled out my new Sizzix Bigz Scallop Circle die from SU. I used some thin card stock that I got at a local stamp expo. Because it was rather plain, I stamped SU's bella toile background stamp on both sides in chocolate chip ink.

I have yet to figure out the sandwich to use the nestabilities in my cuttlebug for embossing, so I just centered a punched out circle of light weight chipboard on the die cut and ran a stylus around it. I counted the scallops and came up with 30, so I cut to the scored circle leaving 5 scallops between each cut. I just followed the rest of Keri's directions and it came out great. I think the handle could be a little longer. It seemed fine, but after it was crimped, it shortened up a bit.

I had to hunt around for some candy to put in it. It's hard to keep that stuff around in this house.

stamps: bella toile
ink: chocolate chip
paper: pebble card stock (unknown)
other: cuttlebug, Bigz scalloped circle die (Sizzix), crimper, brayer, stylus, ribbon (Michaels)

Thanks for visiting today. Have a wonderful day.

a double challenge

Happy day to you. It's been really, really cold today. I think the temp crawled from -8 to +2 here. And I'm not even gonna talk about the wind chill. Most of the area schools were closed because it was too dangerous for the kids to be out. Since I didn't have to go out into the frigid cold for any reason, I decided to do today's ways to use it challenge, which was to use an on-line color combo site. I used the site Julia gave and found a color combo called royal oak that used a couple of colors that I rarely use, so I went with that - so saffron, handsome hunter, bravo burgundy, really rust and vanilla. Since there were a lot of colors to work with, I decided to also use this week's sketch challenge. And I had a new stamp set called Flores Suaves to play with. This set is from the SU Spanish Catalog supplement. I don't know what that says or even how to pronounce it. My Spanish is limited to about 20 words. But when I first saw this set used on Beate's blog, I knew I wanted it... uhmmm... note the butterfly.

I stamped the flower two times on vanilla with black stazon ink and colored it with colored pencils and gamsol. The edges were sponged with rust and burgundy ink and then layered on hunter. I stamped the rust panels with the small Spanish script stamp in hunter ink and sponged the edges with burgundy. I layered these on burgundy and then pulled out my neglected crop-a-dile and some eyelets. The card base is so saffron, sponged on the edges with burgundy. I stamped the butterflies on saffron and then sponged the centers with burgundy and the edges of the wings with really rust. The wings are popped up for some dimension.

stamps: flores suaves
ink: jet black stazon, bravo burgundy, really rust, handsome hunter
paper: so saffron, handsome hunter, bravo burgundy, really rust, very vanilla
other: koh-i-noor colored pencils, gamsol, sponge, crop-a-dile, eyelets, foam tape

Thanks so much for stopping to visit. Be blessed.

The box that almost wasn't

Hello everyone. More snow this evening. It just keeps coming. Not that I mind too much, unless I have to drive in it.

Today's technique challenge on splitcoast was an origami box with a cover. The instructions for the box part were pretty simple. You use a 12" piece of designer paper and do a lot of folding and end up with a box. I don't think the cover should have been difficult either, but I wanted to change the size a bit from the instructions. I measured carefully and had my chipboard cut and scored - put the box inside and it fit just fine. THEN... I glued the dp on the chipboard, glued the box in, and... NOW it doesn't fit right anymore. The top flap keeps popping up. Who knew that dp takes that much room? So now I'm faced with a dilemma. Do I start over? Make a new box? Make a new cover. None of those options are appealing. So I had to come up with another solution. I decided to make a latch of some sort, but I didn't want it to detract from the beauty of the box. I finally decided on a strip of dp with a punched flower on it and magnetic snaps. Of course, I couldn't find them and had to do some searching before I could use them.

The top of the box is decorated with some Spellbinders dies, a butterfly and a sunflower (but not yellow). I used a stylus to give the flower some dimension.

I also added some extra chipboard panels covered with dp on the sides of the box to give it more stability.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out, even if it did take me most of the day to figure it all out.

stamps: none
ink: elegant eggplant, always artichoke
other: butterflies 2 dies, sunflower set two dies (Spellbinders), cuttlebug, magnetic snaps, boho blossoms punch (SU), cornflower punch (Martha Stewart), sponge, foam tape

I'm so glad you stopped by today. Be blessed.

Tenugui inspiration

Happy Saturday. Today is the day for the inspiration challenge on splitcoast. The web site had many things to choose from for inspiration. I found this piece called dish melody. AND it's blue and white! How can I not do something with all that working for me?

I pulled out a very old set called Peaceful Garden. The card is very simple - just navy and white, a few layers, some rhinestones... The white stripes are 1/8" strips of card stock glued down. I trimmed them after I glued them, so I didn't have to do any measuring. Both image panels are popped up.

stamps: peaceful garden
ink: night of navy
paper: white, night of navy
other: cuttlebug, circle nestabilities, corner rounder, rhinestones, foam tape

Thanks for stopping by today.

a case of royalty

Hello. Sunday on splitcoast means a featured stamper challenge. I don't usually participate in this challenge, simply because I am usually busy preparing for my Tuesday class, trying to get it all done, so I'm not rushing around on Monday and stressing. But we always take a break from mid-Dec. - mid-Jan., so I thought I'd check it out and to my surprise, the featured stamper was none other than Julie Ebersole, known as JulieHRR (or Her Royal Rubberness) on splitcoast. Her cards are usually clean and simple, without a lot of layers or embellishment -- in short, cards that are fun and easy to make. So, I decided to participate.

The rules of the challenge require that you change at least 2 things, so it's not a direct copy, but a starting point. I chose this card to case.

The first thing I did was start with a top fold A2 card in white instead of a side opening card. I wanted to use the birds from the Love You Much set and keep them blue. So I found a couple coordinating pieces of blue dp. I stamped the birds on white card stock and colored them with koh-i-noor colored pencils and gamsol. Then, since my square punches were too small, I used circle punches. Because the heart between the birds was stamped in black, I decided to glue a heart button over it. The remainder of the card layout is pretty similar to Julie's, but I added some faux stitching, as well as stickles and popped up the image.

stamps: love you much
ink: jet black stazon
paper: white, brilliant blue, dp (unknown)
other: tiny heart button, royal blue grosgrain ribbon, dark blue stickles, 1-3/4" circle punch, 2" scallop circle punch (EK success), foam tape

Thanks so much for stopping by. Be blessed today.

a quilt block?

One last challenge for Gina's challenge a day. This one was to make a card that was not a typical A2 shape and size. I thought about it for awhile and ran all sorts of ideas through my head. I really wanted to do something more original than a circle or square card. I've made patterns for special shaped cards before - not too difficult - it usually just requires a bit of fiddling with the shape and size to fit an envelope.

Then I remembered that I had made a hexagon card in the past, and since I usually keep my templates, it was pretty easy from that point. And again my love for quilting came into play. A hexagon is the basis for Grandmother's Flower Garden quilts. So with that in mind, I made sure to add some faux stitching . I kept the whole pretty simple, some layered circles, one stamped image and no sentiment. While some people feel a card is naked without a sentiment, I don't feel that way, and quite often I don't put any sentiment on the front of the card.

The image is stamped is pacific point, which I also sponged on the outer edge of the card. Cool caribbean was sponged around the image piece.

stamps: comfort & peace (Gina K)
ink: pacific point, cool caribbean
paper: white, basic black, cool caribbean, dp (unknown)
other: cuttlebug, circles nestabilities, rhinestones, foam tape, sponge

Thanks for visiting.

a cake inspired card

Happy Saturday. Last night the inspiration challenge on splitcoast was posted early. The web link showed some way cool cakes.

Because I love quilting, I chose the guilded quilt cake as my inspiration. I kept the colors the same - chocolate and vanilla - and used my scor-pal to symbolize the quilting lines. My card is a tent topper card style, so the fold is at the top of the square part of the card. The circles were cut with my nestabilities dies. I used a couple of new stamps; the bird is a Studio G dollar stamp from Michael's and the sentiment is Inkadinkadoo. I stamped off the bird, so that it is lighter than the words.

stamps: bird (studio g), sentiment (inkadinkadoo)
ink: chocolate chip
paper: chocolate chip, very vanilla
other: chocolate grosgrain ribbon, sponge, cuttlebug, circle nestabilities.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day.

and some more

Here are a few more cards from the challenges. I hope I haven't used up all my mojo.

I've been on a roll

Hello. Well, I have been stamping like crazy for the last couple of days, doing a bunch of special challenges on splitcoast. I was on a roll, so I didn't take time to post any. So I'm just going to give you some eye candy and no explanations. Enjoy and thanks for stopping by.