inspired trees

Hi everyone. This morning I checked today's inspiration challenge on SCS and decided to use one of the samples given rather than look through the webside. This card was rather fun to make. So not my usual style.

I selected several colors of cardstock and ink for the trees. With a wood grain stamp (Hero Arts), I inked the following: really rust ink on really rust cardstock, always artichoke on mellow moss, creamy caramel on creamy caramel, and chocolate chip on cranberry crist & chocolate chip. Then I punched different sized circles from the pieces and cut narrow strips for the tree trunks. Then I arranged them on the cool caribbean cardstock. I stamped the little bird (A Muse) on top of the tallest tree and again on really rust and cut out the rust one, leaving off the legs, and gluing the body over the first one.

I rounded the corners with a punch, added a strip along the bottom with some brads and a computer generated sentiment, which I punched out with a word window punch. Then I glued everything to a chocolate chip card base.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. Be blessed.

Sweet!

Hi again. I certainly didn't expect to get any stamping time in this morning, but I checked the ways to use it challenge on SCS and just had to... KWIM? The challenge was to use something sweet. I'm not sure I have any food stamps, so I went in a totally different direction. Sweet smelling roses. Using a favorite set and mostly scraps, this card took less than 30 minutes.

I used Roses in Winter (SU)... colors: regal rose, melon mambo, rose red, certainly celery & old olive. I masked over the flower when I stamped all the green. The sentiment is stamped in black stazon. And then over the top I stamped Linen (SU) in creamy caramel. A bit of distressing and sponging around the edges. Layers: melon mambo, basic black & certainly celery under the white. I already had the melon mambo card base cut and folded as a hinge card, so I just went with that. The ribbon runs between the layers, but that part is glued together, so it doesn't show on the inside.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Be blessed.

thankful

O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Psalm 107:1

When I went to bed around midnight last night, I looked out the window and the grass was all W-H-I-T-E!!! Yikes! I know it's late November, but I am just NOT ready for that yet. Thankfully, it has all melted by this morning. Now it's just raining.

We always get together for Thanksgiving dinner at my oldest sister's house with as many siblings and their families that can make it. She lives just a half hour away for me, but others come from greater distances. It's really a great time and everyone contributes to the meal, sharing in the preparation and making the work lighter. My contribution is normally cheesecake and green bean casserole. I made the cheesecake last night and will do the other this morning, wrap it up to keep it warm and join everyone for the noon meal.

After the big meal is all cleared away and cleaned up, we settle in for some crafting. We're making apple cider this year and after that, I haven't figured out what to take along to work on. I went digging last night, hoping to find some quilting that was small enough to work on. I haven't worked on any quilting in such a long time, and with tapering off my stamping class schedule to just a couple a month, I've been hoping to be able to spend more time getting my hands on my fabric. So as I was digging and searching, I came across a quilt top that I'd forgotten about (one I made when I was teaching quilting - 4 years ago). But that wasn't all --- I found another which is all layered and spray-basted that I had completely forgotten I'd even made! If I didn't need a lot of room to spread out for that one, I'd take it along. Or maybe I should take it and get help tying it. Ha!

Well, enough rambling. I just wanted to come post a Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I am thankful for each one of you. Have a blessed, safe and wonder-filled day.

What's in your stocking?

Hi, everyone, I'm back. Blogger let me upload my picture this time.

This morning I checked out the technique challenge on SCS and knew I had to play along. There was a template with instructions to make a fun gift card holder in the shape of a stocking. I knew this was something I could use in one of my classes.

I printed out the template and cut it out and then traced it on template plastic, so that I had a sturdy pattern to work with. I traced again on white cardstock and cut out the stocking front and back, and then chose some printed paper to use for the toe, heel and cuff. After I glued on the heel and toe pieces, I realized that the white on the stocking was just too bare, so I covered the printed paper and stamped the tiny snowflake from Snow Swirled (SU) in glorious green ink and lightly sponged on the white part. Next time I'll know to do the stamping first. I used a black marker to add some faux blanket stitches along the heel and toe pieces, and then sponged glorious green ink around all the outside edges.

I added some ribbon at the top as well as two snowflakes punched with a large SU punch and a Martha Stewart punch. The cuff flips up to reveal a pocket for a gift card or cash, or you could easily slip a sentiment tag into the pocket instead.

Although this was really an easy project, it took me quite a bit longer to put together because I was cutting the supplies for my class as I went along. It's not fancy, but a nice change from a normal A-2 card for a gift card holder.

I am so glad you could stop by today. Have a wonder-filled week.

followers

Happy Monday, everyone. I finally added a 'followers' gadget on my sidebar (all by myself, too!), so feel free to add yourself to my followers.

Well, I was going to post today's project, but I'm having some problems uploading a picture, so I guess I'll have to try again later.

Have a wonderful evening.

last rose of summer

Good morning & happy Monday. I actually made a fairly quick card this morning. In other words, I didn't spend hours trying to decide what colors, stamps and embellishments to use. I wanted to do the technique challenge on SCS, so I grabbed an idea and flew with it, and everything just seemed to fall in place. I love when that happens.

I started by stamping the rose from Fifth Avenue Floral (SU) on vanilla cardstock in jet black stazon ink. Then following along with the directions for the technique, I cut around part of the rose and slipped it into the largest die of the labels four nestabilities (Spellbinders) and ran it through my big shot (Sizzix) and then embossed it as well. I left the die on and sponged dusty durango ink around the edge. I watercolored the rose with pink passion and pumpkin pie watercolor crayons and my water brush. Then I made a mask of the rose and sponged around the edge for a shadow. I wanted it a bit darker, so I used my waterbrush to add a little more color. Of course, then I added too much, so that's where the ribbon came into play - gotta hide those mess-ups - ha.

I stamped the sentiment right over the image and added some black pearls (Kaiserkraft) that I picked up at a recent stamp expo.

I chose dusty durango for my card base, with a strip of basic black under vanilla and then a piece of Basic Grey's Indian Summer dp, which I punched with Martha Stewart doily lace punch. The narrow strips at the top and bottom are what come off when you use the punch.

Finally, I added some dimensional tape to the back of the image and attached it. I really like how it turned out.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a wonder-filled day.

Two weeks!

Wow. I can't believe it's been two weeks since I've posted. I don't know how that happens. Hi everyone.

Yesterday was the inspiration challenge on SCS. I searched through the selected web site and found several pieces that I thought I could use, finally settling on The Key to the Butterfly Garden Assemblage Skeleton Key Brooch as my inspiration. How could I not pick something with butterflies? I really enjoyed making this card, although it did take me a long time to do it. I had it partially done, but had to stop and get lunch ready for the family and then I had my bobbin lace guild meeting, so I didn't get to finish the card until I later in the evening.

I knew the lattice pendant die from Spellbinders would be perfect for this card. I used it to die cut and emboss some brushed copper cardstock. I also used Spellbinders paper cut snowflakes die for the piece in the front. The butterflies are from Innovative Stamp Creations set called friendship. I stamped them with black stazon on white and sponged tempting turquoise on them and then cut them out.

The layers on the card are white, cool caribbean and tempting turquoise. The corners of the caribbean layer are punched with square steps corner pocket punch. I hadn't used that punch in a long time, but realized that it matched the lattice die quite well. The little circles in the corners are just punched from the copper cardstock.

The wings on the butterflies are all popped up.

The sentiment is from a retired SU set called noteworthy.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Be blessed.

Butterflies

Hi everyone. Today I managed to get in a little stamping time and made two cards for Gina K's October release challenges, one required something popped up on the card and the other was a color challenge.

Although I used the same butterfly stamp on both cards, they are very different.

For the first card, I stamped the butterfly from Take Flight (Gina K) in black stazon two times on whisper white cardstock and sponged on apricot appeal and dusty durango ink. Then I cut them both out and sponged a little more dusty durango along the outer edges of the wings.

I stamped the different plants from Autumn Days (SU) in apricot appeal, dusty durango and chocolate chip on a piece of apricot appeal cardstock. I also stamped the butterfly again on this piece and a sentiment from the butterfly set. I backed the apricot piece with basic black and tied a ribbon (Michaels) around it and then glued it to a dusty durango card base.

I glued one butterfly directly over the stamped image and the second one was only glue along the body. I added some dimensional tape under the wings to pop them up.



For the 2nd card, the required colors were cranberry, black, gold and vanilla. I used the same butterfly, stamped on vanilla with black stazon ink. I used three prismacolor pencils with gamsol to get the color to match the cranberry cardstock. I die cut the butterfly piece using my cuttlebug and labels four nestabilties (Spellbinders). After sponging a bit of black around the edge, I added some dots and doodle lines with a black marker. I wanted to mat this on black, but the next size die in the set was much larger than I wanted, so I just used a black rectangle instead. Gold brads eliminated the blank space in each corner.

Since I had a piece of black with gold embossing (antique background - SU) left from Saturday's inspiration card, I thought it would work for this challenge. After playing around with some different layers, I decided that I liked the cranberry, vanilla, cranberry option, with the butterfly and the gold/black pieces on the front.

With all the gold embossing, the butterfly looked rather bland, so I colored over it with versamarker and clear embossed it, although that doesn't show up very well in the photo.

I wanted to use a black card base, but it looked too plain, since the design on the front piece was a bit busy, so I pulled out another retired background - Filigree (SU) and embossed it with gold as well.

The sentiment is from Everyday Flexible Phrases (SU), die cut with a smaller die from the same labels set, sponged with black and doodled with black marker. I used a strip of cranberry crisp as a faux ribbon and popped up the sentiment.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Be blessed.