Fall is in the air

Hi, my friends. I am so much loving the fall weather. We've been having chilly nights and temps in the 60's and 70's during the day.

My stamping tends to take on autumn hues this time of year. I can't believe I haven't posted in a week. I didn't stamp over the weekend, but then on Monday, I played catch up on the Hope challenges on SCS. And then yesterday, I did that one, and today, the one for today.

So I guess I'll just give you a bunch of eye candy today. I have cards for challenges on the 10th (walk on by), 11th (happy flowers), 12th (birthdays are a piece of cake), & 13th (don't be a square). I'm not going to give you all the details, but if you are interested in how something is made, just send me an email, and I'll try to answer your questions. Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy.

A wall of butterflies

Hi, my friends. I think fall has officially arrived. I had to turn on the heat this morning.

Yesterday, about mid-afternoon, I decided that I was going to do a card for the inspiration challenge on SCS, using the sample on the right given in the post. I finished the card just before we were headed out to an Indian restaurant for dinner, so I didn't get it posted last night.

I used a tiny butterfly (a muse) to randomly stamp in black on white and then I embossed the piece with my new bricked embossing folder (Tim Holtz/Sizzix). I really like this folder. I used a flower stem (Lizzie Anne) and a flower & butterfly (Innovative Stamp Creations), which I stamped in black, then sponged with tangerine tango, cut out and sponged the edges with cherry cobbler. A sentiment (SU), some black layering and a bit of dimensional tape and I was finished.

Thanks for stopping by today. May your day be wonder-filled.

Twinkling H2O's

Since I didn't show you a card this morning, I thought I'd give you a little eye candy now. This is another Dirty Dare challenge card, a different size and it had to have a clear element on it. I painted twinkling H2O's on the stamp and then misted before stamping. What a fun, shimmery effect and it washes off the stamp pretty easily. The rest of the card really doesn't need any explanation.

supplies
stamps: brushed coneflower (Paper Inspirations), sentiment (Lizze Anne)
ink: jet black stazon
paper: groovy guava, always artichoke, purely pomegranate, sahara sand, dp (old world mat stack - dcwv)
other: fun yarn, copper brads, clear baubles, dimensional foam tape, twinkling H2O's, waterbrush

Thanks for visiting.

Another shimmery flower

Hello everyone. I'm working my way through the Dare to Get Dirty challenges, but I'm already behind. I did the second one from yesterday, but didn't get any done for today. This one is for Jody's ribbon challenge. (If you are not a SCS fan club member, you will not be able to view this link.)

Since I still had Doodle This out from yesterday, I decided to use it again. I love that big flower. I started with some turquoise velvet ribbon, but that fell by the wayside as I went along. It was too thick for how I wanted to use it. So I ended up using this narrow dotted ribbon instead. I stamped the big flower on white five times with black stazon and painted them with twinkling H2Os. I really love the shimmer those give. I wish I had more colors. Then I cut them all out. This flower is so easy to cut out, because you don't have to be real accurate with your cutting. When I stacked the flowers, I added a small circle of card stock between each layer for a little bit more dimension, although I'm not really sure it made any difference. The black center is made of two punched flowers. I added some turquoise stickles around the jewel brad.

The rest of the layout is exactly what I had in mind, but I think I probably should have used a background stamp, so the background had a little bit of texture.

supplies
stamps: doodle this (SU), sentiment (Lizzie Anne)
ink: jet black stazon
paper: tempting turquoise, basic black, whisper white
other: buttons, thread, ribbon, jewel brad, turquoise stickles (Ranger), twinkling H2Os, dimensional foam tape

I'm so glad you stopped by. Remember if you haven't already done so, you have until Wed. evening to comment on the post for blog candy.

wildflowers

Oh, have I been a bad, bad blogger! I've been working on some projects that I can't share yet, so I haven't posted anything. Yesterday I spent the day at my sister's stamping, and I did get a couple cards almost completed, but I didn't have everything along that I needed to complete them. One I finished after I got home last night and the other today.

I knew the basic layout I wanted to use for this card, but it took me a long time to figure out how to finish it. I really struggled with the right side of the card. I'm not completely happy with it, but it's ok, just a little funky. I really love this combination of colors - olive, rust and not quite navy.

The main image is made up of a couple of different stamps just overlapping. I colored them with markers, then huffed on them to moisten and stamped. I added faux piercing with not quite navy marker and rubbed my chocolate chip ink pad along the edge of both the vanilla and the rust layer under it to give the illusion of extra layers.

I stamped the sentiment in not quite navy and then used my cuttlebug and circle nestabilities to cut it out. I backed it with a scalloped circle of not quite navy. I added some white dots to the scallops and faux stitching along the edge of the circle. I popped the circles up on dimensional foam tape.

After much deliberation, I finally decided to add the 1/4" circles along the edge of the card as faux brads, and faux pierced around each one. Then I added a white dot in the center of each (although I think it would look better without that). I then coated each rust circle with crystal effects and added some swirls to fill in the blank space.

supplies:
stamps: priceless (SU), in the meadow & sentiment (Lizzie Anne), wildflowers (Inkadinkadoo)
ink: really rust, old olive, not quite navy
paper: really rust, old olive, not quite navy
other: cuttlebug, circle nestabilities, white gel pen, 1/4" circle punch, crystal effects, dimensional foam tape

I'm so glad you stopped by.

perhaps in the meadow

Another brisk day here, but mostly cloudy. But I'm not complaining, because it isn't hot. I don't like hot.

My card today was created for a challenge on the Our Creative Corner blog. The challenge is to use Basic Grey designer paper on a card and a randomly picked participant will get a $15 gift certificate from Jacksonbelle Embellishments. If you have ever checked out my gallery on SCS, you will see that I am basically a stampy stamper rather than a scrappy stamper. In more simple terms, I have an extremely difficult time (low level panic - yikes) using designer paper on my cards. I think I'm going to mess up my pretty paper, or pick a couple that don't match and ruin my card. I know it's unreasonable, but I have a fear of failure. So, needless to say, this wasn't an easy challenge for me, but I guess that's what makes it a challenge.

I chose 2 pieces of Basic Grey Perhaps paper from a 6" pad. Using In the Meadow stamp set by Lizzie Anne, I stamped on both pieces. I wanted a little bit brighter color than what was in the paper, so I colored the flowers with artichoke, rose red and burgundy markers, misted and stamped. I also stamped the dandelion in caramel randomly on both pieces. The edges of the dp are sponged in chocolate chip and the sentiment is stamped on vellum, because I really didn't want to cover the image with card stock. I trimmed the vellum with deckle scissors and then used some antique gold brads to hold the vellum in place. I stapled a small piece of twill on and attached this piece with dimensional foam tape.

I dug in my button jar for some brownish buttons, added some crochet cotton and attached them with glue dots. Although this card looks like it could be done in less than 30 minutes, it seriously took me well over TWO HOURS!

Supplies
stamps: in the meadow (Lizzie Anne)
ink: chocolate chip, creamy caramel, bravo burgundy, rose red, always artichoke, jet black stazon
paper: bravo burgundy, vellue, dp (Basic Grey Perhaps)
other: brads, buttons, twill, staple, sponge, large corner rounder, piercing tool, brown crochet cotton.

I'm so glad you stopped by today.

birthday candle

A second post today. By the time I finished this card last night (or early this morning), it was well past midnight and I knew I wasn't up to posting it. This is a card I created for the Rubbernecker blogger challenge posted on Jeanne's blog each week. This is another sketch challenge. It was a long card, but I decided to smoosh it down into a normal A2 size.

I recently purchased some stamps from Rubbernecker and am slowly getting ink on them. The candle and the strip along the bottom are both part of those stamps from Rubbernecker.

I started by stamping the candle with adirondack pitch black ink on GP white card stock and coloring with copic markers. Since my selection of colors in the markers is somewhat limited, I chose my card stock colors to match the image after it was colored. I used my newest nestabilities dies, petite ovals/scalloped ovals in my cuttlebug to cut out the image piece. I sponged the edges with ballet blue and added some faux piercing. The turquoise grosgrain was just stapled on.

I chose pumpkin pie ink and card stock for the lower strip and made the scallops with a corner rounder with the guide removed. Some sponging with chocolate chip ink and more faux piercing accented this piece.

The sentiment is from say it in script by Lizzie Anne designs, stamped in the same black ink, although I think a greeting in chunkier letters would have been more appropriate to match the candle. I added some more faux piercing and attached the candle oval with dimensional foam tape.

supplies
stamps: candle, decorative strip (Rubbernecker), sentiment (Lizzie Anne)
ink: adirondack pitch black, ballet blue, copic markers
paper: Georgia Pacific white, ballet blue, tempting turquoise, pumpkin pie
other: cuttlebug, nestabilities petite ovals, staple, turquoise grosgrain ribbon, dimensional foam tape, sponge

I'm so glad you took the time to stop by. Have a great day.

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.

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.

dp delight

The limited supplies challenge today on splitcoast was to create your own designer paper. When I first saw the challenge, I thought this will be fun and it was. However, it was also very time consuming. I'm not going to go into all the detail of creating this other than a brief summary.

I used crinkled chalks, direct to paper, misting with markers, sponging, piercing, and lot of different stamps. The bird is colored with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. Although I spent a number of hours (seriously) on this, I really love the result. I think I should have made a copy or two, so I could use it again.

Supplies:
stamps: touch of nature, garden silhouettes, itty bitty backgrounds, French script (SU), in the meadow (Lizzie Anne Designs), swirl (Hero Arts), crackle background (Judikins)
ink: jet black stazon, chocolate chip, pale plum, not quite navy, certainly celery, always artichoke, creamy caramel, Colorbox chalk inks (don't remember which colors)
paper: chocolate chip, pale plum, not quite navy, very vanilla
other: prismacolor pencils, gamsol, Japanese screw punch, brad, sponge, chocolate grosgrain ribbon, rectangle punch, tag corner punch, brayer, mat pack, piercing tool, mounting tape

I hope you enjoy. Thank you for stopping by.

the new and the old

The limited supplies challenge today on splitcoast was to use some embellishments that you'd purchased long ago and never used. I pulled out some metal edge tags with cork in the center. The store where I purchased them has been out of business for over a year and this package had never been opened. I'm sure I had gotten them long before that, so it was definitely time to break open the package. Yesterday I got a new set of Lizzie Anne Design stamps that I had ordered from Jacksonbelle Embellishments, and I was itchin' to play with them. I decided to pull out some card stock colors that I don't use much as well, so I started with sahara sand as the base for my image and a card base of perfect plum.

I colored the flower with markers and spritzed it with water and then stamped it on the sahara sand. I repeated this three times, so I had a cluster of blooms instead of just one. Then I took my aqua painter and went over the image to soften it a bit. After sponging the edges with plum, I backed the piece with black and added the sentiment. The next layer is a piece of dp from a mat stack. I sanded the edges and backed that with black and put those all together.

For the base layer, I stamped a flower on a square of always artichoke and then cut it from corner to corner and layered those on black. I glued them on opposite sides of the card to reflect the lines of the cork square. About this time, I realized that the card base was too plain, but since I had already glued on the triangles, I couldn't use a background stamp, so I used the tiny stamps in the same set and stamped them all over the background. I don't really like how that part of the card turned out, but I really didn't want to take the time to re-do it. I attached the image panel with mounting tape.

The cork square didn't match the colors on the card very well, so I sponged perfect plum over the cork and used black stazon on the metal edge. I pierced a hole through the cork and added some primas (another item that I just had to have and never use), which had been sponged lightly as well. Then I attached the square with mounting tape.

Supplies:
stamps: warm words (SU), in the meadow (Lizzie Anne Designs)
ink: perfect plum, always artichoke, elegant eggplant, jet black stazon
paper: perfect plum, always artichoke, sahara sand, basic black, dp (old world mat stack, DCWV)
other: sanding black, sponge, primas, brad, piercing tool, cork metal edge tag, mounting tape

I'm so glad you stopped by. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.