fight or flight

Yes, I really had to fight to get this card finished. I made it for the inspiration challenge today on SCS. I used these pillows as my inspiration. Since I love blue and white, this should have been easy, but I spent the whole afternoon trying different things and none seemed to work.

I stamped several different images, used several dies and punches and discarded most of them. I wanted to use my new picotage backgrounder from CHF, stamped blue on white, but it was just too busy, so I ended up pulling out the wood grain backgrounder instead and stamped it in white ink on brilliant blue card stock. I liked it, but decided to add the freesia flowers right over it in brilliant blue ink. Much, much better.

I stamped the freesias in blue on white and then ran them through my cuttlebug with my beautiful butterflies bigz die. I popped up the wings for some dimension.

I added some ribbon and brads and am really happy how this turned out.

What's in it?
stamps: wood grain backgrounder, freesia (Cornish Heritage Farms)
ink: brilliant blue, whisper white craft
paper: whisper white, brilliant blue
other: cuttlebug, piercing tool, white brads, ribbon, beautiful butterflies bigz die (Sizzix), foam tape

Thanks so much for stopping by. Be blessed.

easy cards

Good morning. I haven't been doing a lot of stamping lately, but since I do have some upcoming workshops and classes, I have to stay one step ahead.

So today I have a couple of easy cards that I plan to use in March classes.

The butterfly card is a tent topper card. The bottom of the card is 4-1/4" square and the circle part extends above the square part just enough to make the full size an A2 card.

The butterflies are die cuts from a new SU exclusive Sizzix Bigz die called beautiful butterflies. The die has 4 sizes of butterflies and is so easy to use. The scallop circle is also a bigz die and the plain circle is a nestabilities circle die. There is glitter along the edges of the wings, but it really doesn't show up in the photo.









The 2nd card is also simple, although there is some cutting involved. The leaves are given texture by putting them through a crimper and sponging over the ridges.

I appreciate you stopping by. Have a blessed weekend.

VSN

Hello. I can't believe it's been almost a week since I posted. Today I stamped 3 cards. It's Virtual Stamp Night (VSN) weekend on SCS with a lot of challenges. Besides the challenge itself, the basic requirement is that each challenge can take no more than 45 minutes to complete. The deadline is Sunday night, so there's still time to participate. I've done 2 of the challenges, but I don't know if I'll get any more done. Setting that 45 minute timer can be a bit nerve-racking, especially when I usually take more than an hour to create a card. The biggest thing it does for me is force me to make decisions, instead of dithering back and forth about what I should do on the card.

Anyway, I made a card for the 1st challenge, a sketch, and one for the 2nd challenge, a color combination. Both cards went together fairly quickly with time left over.

What's in it?
stamps: sentiment (yummy - SU), robin script heart (Stampington & Co.)
ink: jet black stazon, real red
paper, cream, basic black, whisper white, music dp (provocraft), handmade red
other: large & small oval punches, cuttlebug, scallop circle #2 die (Sizzix), foam tape

The second card uses chocolate chip, apricot appeal and cameo coral, one of the recommended color combinations. This card went together so quickly. I used the eyelet scallop border punch to make the fun corners.

What's in it?
stamps: butterflies (Inkadinkadoo)
ink: chocolate chip
paper: chocolate chip, cameo coral, apricot appeal
other: chocolate grosgrain ribbon, buttons, scallop lace border punch, large corner rounder


My third card is for the inspiration challenge. I checked this challenge last night, but just didn't feel like stamping. I had some trouble getting a clean image of the birds. And it seems like it took me forever to figure out the layout on this one, but am really happy with the end result. To get the background, I simply dragged my cool caribbean ink pad across the paper a few times.

What's in it?
stamps: birds (Inkadinkadoo), trees (Hero Arts)
ink: jet black stazon, cool caribbean, ruby red, garden green
paper: night of navy, ruby red, basic black, whisper white

I'm having a hard time keeping my eyes open, so I hope this post makes sense.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Be blessed.

yoyos

Good morning. It's Sunday - a new day - a new week of opportunity. I'm happy that I was able to use some leftovers today. Yesterday was my bobbin lace guild meeting, so I wasn't able to get a card done for the inspiration challenge on scs. I was going to work on it late last night, but just couldn't seem to get it together. I checked out the web site on the inspiration challenge and found Carolyn's Garden. I knew I had a bag of fabric yoyos leftover from a project from years ago that would work perfectly. I'd seen them recently when I was doing a bit of cleaning, but had to figure out where I put them. Using fabric also made this fit with the ways to use it challenge on scs. It took me awhile to figure out the layout, but I finally got one I liked.

I wanted the background to be subtle, so I stamped the lattice background (CHF) in blush blossom on vanilla card stock. The sentiment is also CHF and was stamped in chocolate chip.

I sewed buttons from my stash onto the yoyos with crochet cotton and then attached the yoyos with glue dots.

The leaves were cut freehand from some paper I picked up at a local stamp/scrap expo. It looks like it's speckled. I sponged the edges of the leaves, then scored down the center, folded in half and ran them through my crimper. Then I added glue and stuck them into the bouquet.

I had a really hard time deciding what color to use as a card base and finally went with navy. To finish it off, I added some faux stitching.

What's in it?
stamps: lattice backgrounder, sentiment (Cornish Heritage Farms)
ink: chocolate chip, blush blossom, garden green, night of navy
paper: night of navy, very vanilla, dp (unknown)
other: fabric, crochet cotton, buttons, brayer, sponge dauber, crimper

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a blessed week.

Happy Valentines Day

And happy Saturday. It snowed again last night (a couple of inches), so everything is all white again.

Yesterday, when DH came home from work, he surprised me with these. Isn't he sweet. It has pussy willows in it. I love them. Every spring as children, we'd go hunt some up and bring them home. I will probably let these puff out a bit more and then take them out of the water and dry them. That way I can enjoy them for a long time, even if there are only three stems.

I made him a card using yesterdays' limited supplies challenge on SCS. I didn't want it to be frilly and feminine, so I thought I'd try to get the look of someone carving in a tree. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

I started the card last night, but needed to let it sit for awhile. I do that a lot. Spurts of creativity and then need to walk away and when I come back, I have new ideas. I rarely visualize a card in my head and just go with it. I almost always change what I was thinking would work and come up with different ideas along the way. That's just the way I create. Most of the time, the final creation is nothing like what I started out thinking I was going to make.



I started by stamping the bird heart in versamark on glossy white card stock. I couldn't use my heat gun since the house was asleep, so it didn't give me quite as sharp an image as I wanted, but I'm pretty happy with it anyway.

Then I stamped the woodgrain background (CHF) in chocolate chip over the heart. At that point, I was totally disappointed, because the heart wasn't showing up at all. So, I took a paper towel and rubbed over the ink to dry the versamark and then I brayed creamy caramel over the whole thing. Ta dah! The heart just popped out. I think if I could have heatset the versamark first, it would have been much more vivid. I wiped it again with the paper towel, but nothing much more came off.

I added some brads, scalloped square punches, the little bird and some leafy branches. With a bit of sponging and a sentiment, I was done. All in all a pretty simple card.

What's in it?
stamps: bird heart (Stampington & Co.), woodgrain backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms), always (SU)
ink: versamark, chocolate chip, creamy caramel, pacific point
paper: very vanilla, chocolate chip, tempting turquoise, glossy white
other: brayer, sponge dauber, brads, scalloped square punch, leaf punch (Martha Stewart), cuttlebug, bird nestabilities die (Spellbinders), foam tape

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you are able to spend the day with someone you love.

playing with fabric

Hello, everyone. Today I got to play with fabric.... on my card! How fun is that? The ways to use it challenge on SCS was to use fabric on your card. I thought it would be fun to try cutting some fabric with a sizzix die (or several as it turned out). First I pulled out some fabric scraps and of course, they were wrinkled and needed to be pressed. Then I found some iron on interfacing, so I could use that to stiffen the fabric. I went ahead and ironed some interfacing on several scraps and then put them through my cuttlebug with a few sizzix bigz and originals dies. I also did some without the interfacing. As far as cutting, there didn't seem to be any significant difference between those with or without the interfacing, but I do think I like the fabric stiffness better with the interfacing.

For my card I used a Sizzix bigz die from the Hello Kitty line called flower boquet. I just purchased this one this week at JoAnn's. If you're looking for these, they're bright pink! But the store had them on a different rack than the other dies.

I used a flower from echoes of kindness for the flower stem and leaves, then just glued the flower over the stamped one and added a button. I tied a strip of fabric around like a ribbon. The lacy edging is a Martha Stewart punch.

What's in it?
stamps: echoes of kindness (SU)
ink: garden green, real red
paper: basic black, real red, whisper white
other: fabric, cuttlebug, Hello Kitty flower boquet (Sizzix bigz die), black brads, button, black crochet cotton, ticket corner punch, doily lace punch (Martha Stewart), sponge, foam tape

Thanks for stopping by. Be blessed.

krafty punches

Hi all. We had a few days of nice warm weather and most of the snow melted. Yesterday got up to 55. Today was a bit cooler, around 40, but it rained all morning. I needed to do a bunch of laundry and this afternoon, we met with the tax lady. It's always nice to get that all done.

I did get to spend some time with my stamps today. I made a card for the Gina K forum challenge on splitcoast, get krafty (or use kraft card stock on your card). Years ago, when I became a SU demo, I did not like kraft. But in recent years, I've seen some others make wonderful cards using it, so I've learned to like it, although I still don't use it very much.

For this card, I used the Gina K set botanical dreams (again). I need to get some more of her stamps. I stamped the image in stazon on kraft card stock and colored it with colored pencils and gamsol. I didn't bother coloring the flowers, since I knew I was going to cover them up anyway.

Yesterday, I was at Michaels and another Martha punch jumped right into my basket, so I had to use it on my card. The flowers are made with my new hydrangea punch. I sponged the edges and placed two together with brad in the center for each flower. I also used my doily lace punch for a lacy edging.

What's in it?
stamps: botanical dreams (Gina K)
ink: jet black stazon, ruby red
paper: basic black, white, ruby red, kraft, dp (old world mat stack - DCWV)
other: koh-i-noor colored pencils, gamsol, sponge, doily lace & hydrangea punches (Martha Stewart), piercing tool, black brads, dimensionals

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Be blessed.

class cards

Good morning. I just have a couple of cards that we did in my workshop Friday night. I tweaked them a bit for my class tomorrow, so they'll be getting a slightly different version. Thanks for stopping in.

bazillions of pieces

Well, that's what it seemed like, anyway. Hello, everyone. Today's ways to use it challenge on SCS was layered embellishments. I wanted to combine it with a challenge in the Gina K forum for a birthday card for Gina.

Pink is not one of my favorite colors, so I was working a bit out of my comfort zone on this one.

I actually was working around the crocheted flower. I used the two leafy stamps from Botanical Dreams. I stamped the narrow branchy one several times on the white card stock and colored with colored pencil. Then I stamped the broad leaves on some scraps and colored with colored pencil and gamsol and cut out.

I punched several leaves from certainly celery card stock with a Martha Stewart punch and sponged the tips of the leaves with old olive. And then I punched lots and lots of ferns (another Martha Stewart punch) from pixie pink card stock. I really didn't want everything green with just a small pink flower in the center, so the addition of pink here made sense. I sponged these with pink passion ink. I just kept adding the ferns until it looked pretty good.

The crocheted flower is backed with a retro flower punch and some bits of ribbon. A pink button on top completed the pile of embellishments.

What's in it?
stamps: hugs & wishes (SU), botanical dreams (Gina K)
ink: old olive, pink passion, jet black stazon
paper: pixie pink, whisper white, certainly celery
other: crocheted flower, koh-i-noor color pencils, gamsol, sponge, button, crochet cotton, leaf & fern punches (Martha Stewart), retro flower punch (EK Success), celery grosgrain ribbon

Thanks so much for stopping by. Be blessed.

Sale-a-Bration

It's that time again - Stampin' Up!'s biggest sale - Sale-a-bration (SAB)! From February 1 through March 31, 2009, with each purchase of $50 in SU merchandise (shipping & tax are extra), you earn a free SAB item. There's a selection including stamps, ribbon and paper to choose from. Both the catalog and the SAB brochure can be viewed online. Please see my sidebar for links.

If you wish to take advantage of this fantastic sale, please contact me (*US only, please). My email link is under my picture.

Have a great day!

It's a blue butterfly

Hi everyone. Today I had a bit of time to stamp, so I did the technique challenge on splitcoast, a recessed window. I had never done this technique before and it was a bit tricky to get the squares all lined up and cut and folded, but I like how it turned out.

I used my flores suaves set again. I really like this set. I colored the image with prismacolor pencils and gamsol and cut out the butterfly, so I could pop up the wings. I even cut around the antenna, something I don't usually do.

The frame is made with a nestabilities labels one from a piece of designer paper that was on my desk. I added some liquid pearls as an accent.

I needed a sympathy card for a friend whose father passed away, so I used the sentiment from close as a memory.

what's in it?
stamps: flores suaves, close as a memory (SU)
ink: jet black stazon, brilliant blue, ballet blue
paper: naturals ivory, brilliant blue, dp (unknown)
other: sponge, cuttlebug, nestabilities labels one, liquid pearls, foam tape, gamsol, prismacolor pencils

Thanks so much for visiting today. Be blessed.

a little more - a little less

Good morning. If you look back a few posts here, you will see a card very similar to the one I have to show you today. This one is an updated version that I'm using in my class on Tuesday.

I know that most of the ladies are so over winter and snow, but it'll be awhile before spring comes to Wisconsin, so I made this card bright and cheery. I changed the colors, added a background, slimmed down the image panel and made some changes in the embellishments. On this one, I used my stamp-a-ma-jig for placement, so it's much neater. I'm sure the ladies will like it.

What's in it?
stamps: flight of the butterfly, pretty petals (SU)
ink: summer sun, tangerine tango, regal rose
paper: summer sun, tangerine tango, whisper white, dp (unknown)
other: orange ribbon, scor-pal, sponge dauber, flower trio punch, piercing tool, white brads, foam tape

*****
And for those of you who asked about the crochet flower, rather than reinvent the wheel and since I don't make mine all the same, here are some links to instructions:
here and here. If you do a google search for 'crochet flowers', you can find plenty of patterns and tutorials.

FYI: I use size 10 cotton crochet thread with a size 7 hook. Sometimes you need to experiment a bit to get the correct size hook for the size thread you use, depending on how tight or loose you crochet. I tend to crochet fairly loosely.

Thanks for stopping by. Be blessed.