ATC color coach swap- Real Red

I joined a atc swap on scs. This swap was to use the color coach to show the possible and suggested color combos. I made this atc for the Real Red spot.

The cute little pirate boy is from the Ahoy Matey stamp set from Stampin' Up. I stamped him in Basic Black ink on Confetti White cardstock and colored him in with Stampin' Write markers. The ground beneath him was created with a Glorious Green Watercolor Wonder Crayon and a blender pen. Then I used my 2 way glue pen and Silver Shine glitter to create the silver on the sword and his hook.

The atc base is Real Red, then I mounted the image on a piece of Glorious Green cardstock (this was the Real Red's complimentary color). I added a small strip of Night of Navy cardstock along the left side, and mounted the image over the top.

I really love the atc cards for swaps. They are great to use for a starting point of a card, and you can whip up 9 of them for a swap in nothing flat. Plus they are SUPER cheap to mail. **wink**

I'm sick...

So sorry to have been so lax at posting this past week or so, but I'm sick. (insert pathetic sad face here). You know that yucky coughing, headache, 104 degree temprature sick? Yeah, that kind of sick. :( Hopefully I will feel better this evening and get some stuff posted. If not, tomorrow, I swear!

Cori

VT sympathy card

The color challenge on SCS this week is Pumpkin Pie and Bravo Burgandy. These are the Stampin' Up equivilant of the Virginia Tech colors. There is someone on SCS that knows two of the families who have lost loved ones, and they are forwarding on sympathy cards.
I totally lucked out today and came across a TON of the brand new Cuttlebug stuff at Michaels. I picked up a couple of embossing folders that I had been eyeing, and used one of them "Spots and Dots" on this card.

The card base is Pumpkin Pie cardstock stamped with a couple of the cool dots from the Green Thumb Papertrey set. They match up PERFECTLY with this embossing folder. Then I used the ink pad and the direct to paper technique to ink up the edges.

I ran a small piece of Bravo Burgandy through the Cuttlebug with the Spots and Dots folder, and mounted it on the card front. (This card is 4 1/4 inch square). I used my paper snips to create a small slit along the edge of the card, and tied a piece of white grosgrain around the embossed strip.

The images are also from the PaperTrey Ink Green Thumb set with Stampin' Up classic inks. Once the flowers were stamped, I stamped the "with sympathy" sentiment on top, using the PaperTrey set Paper Tray.

To finish the main image, I used my Bravo Burgandy marker with the color spritzer tool to add some dimention to the card. Then I sponged the edges with some Pumpkin Pie ink. This was mounted on a small piece of Bravo Burgandy cardstock.

I mounted this on the card, and then added a tiny bit of Diamond Stickles to the centers of each flower. I really like how this card turned out, the reason it was made though...well, it's just a tragedy.

A*Muse Love...

So ya'll have realized that I am madly in love with A*Muse stamps right? lol..Well, I bought some more, hehe.

This time around I even picked up some super cute cottage note cards. They are so fun! For this card I started my using my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up and stamp the fence across the card in Burt Sienna hybrid ink. Then I masked off the fence posts (yeah it was a hassle lol) and stamped the tiny bird on the fence. Then I masked him as well, and stamped the tree behind the fence.

I colored everything in with my Prismacolor markers (which work like a dream on these note cards), and used some Eucalyptus and Waterfall stickles to shine up the leaves and the birdie. Here is an up close pic of the tree and birdie, so you can see how cutie patootie they are up close and personal, lol.

To finish the card up, I stamped the sentiment (also from A*Muse) on the bottom corner of the card. A very simple card that was only time consuming because of all the masking. Luckily it will be easy to do next time, since I saved the masks, hehe.

Stamp Club Projects

My stamp club met this past Saturday, so I thought I'd share the projects we made with you. We made both projects using the Watercolor Wonder Crayons. These are really a product that you have to play with to love. Not everyone fell in love this Saturday, but hopefully they all enjoyed their "first date".

The first project was a 6x6 scrapbook page that featured the Doodle This stamp set and the slit punch. I love love love both of these, and even though my 3 year old slit punch passed away during the class (totally embarrassing), everyone loved it too.

The second project we made was a card that could be used for Mother's Day. This card featured the Petal Prints stamp set and the horizontal slot punch (which I also very much enjoy, hehe). I really think that the Petal Prints set is one of the best sets to showcase the Watercolor Wonder Crayons. It has a beautiful watercolor look to it, and paired with the crayons, it is just stunning.

Danelle Box

Ok, so here is the project that I worked on all day yesterday...well between cleaning Jaden's room, washing the dishes, 3 loads of laundry...well you get the point haha.

This is the Danelle box from Bare Elements. It is WAY cool! I got mine at Michaels with a 40% off coupon (it was 21.99 regular priced) but you can get them online from eclectic paperie for a bit less if you don't have a coupon. If you click on the "Danelle Box" link above, you can see what it looks like before I altered it.

The Danelle Box comes with 12 little board books inside. I'm planning on using it as a mini scrapbook for each month of the year. Since I'm already 4 months behind, I better get to work, lol. I'll post pictures of the mini books as I get them finished.

The above picture is one of the box slightly opened. This way you can see both the inside and the outside. To begin with, I painted the entire box with some Making Memories scrapbook paint (I forgot the colors but they were like a cranberry and a grey). Then I cut pieces of the American Crafts 6th Ave. line, to cover the main pieces.

Here is a picture of the front cover so you can see the way cool paper too!


I used modge podge to adhere the papers, and once they dried, I used a fine grain sanding block to sand the edges of everything. This gave the piece the worn vintage look I was going for, and removed any places where the paper was overhanging the box or where you could feel the paper's edge. Once I was done sanding, I added about 3 coats of the modge podge to each piece to seal it. (I let each layer dry before I added the next.)

For the inside of the book, I pulled out the little shelf and papered it the same way. Then I added some paper to the inside, modge podged it, and put the shelf back in. I am really liking how this turned out. I need to come up with a new way to open and close it, as I'm not especially fond of the plain black ribbon that it came with.

I really must apologize

I know that I haven't posted for almost a week. Bad me!! I have been sooo busy. I had a weekend class all day everyday this past weekend, then I had to work on Monday and have been catching up on schoolwork since. Anyhow, enough with the excuses, I have two projects to make up for it. *Grin*

Ok, after today I promise to get back to posting some Stampin' Up projects. I just can't leave these AMuse stamps alone. *wink*

The little Teddy bear was stamped in Burt Umber hybrid ink on Naturals white cardstock. I then masked him, and stamped the tiny bird on his paw in Noir hybrid ink. I colored them both in with my prismacolor markers, used a 20% cool grey prisma marker to create the shadow, and added some waterfall stickles to the birdie.

I punched them out with my Marvy jumbo oval punch, and then mounted it on a piece of Real Red cardstock that was punched out with my mega scalloped oval. I added a dot of white ink to each scallop with my signo white gel pen.

The card base is Bashfull Blue cardstock stamped with the Flannel Plaid bg from Stampin' Up. On top of this I added a piece of designer paper that I picked up a couple of weeks ago. It is MOD from Autumn Leaves. I mounted it on a bit of Real Red cardstock and then tied some stitched ribbons from May Arts around the entire piece.

To finish the card up, I mounted the designer paper on the card base and then mounted the oval image over the top of this as well.

Stay tuned for the next project...it was tons of fun!

Forever Friends

So I'm still on my A*Muse kick, lol. Getting 17 new stamps tends to do that. *wink* I have been wanting this tiny bird stamp FOREVER. The local scrapbook store never has it in stock, and I never got around to faxing in an order to Amuse directly, so imagine my excitement when I saw he was in the "Animal Wishes" acrylic set. Ok, enough gabbing, lol...here are the deets on the card.

To start with,I stamped "Patch" (from amuse) in hybrid noir black ink on Whisper White cardstock. I then masked him and stamped his little house on top of him, a little to the left and up just a bit from the bottom of his feet. This way when I removed the stamp, it looks like he is actually sitting in front of it. Then I masked the doghouse and stamped his friend "tiny bird" on top of his doggie condo.

I then used my So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip, and Creamy Caramel Stampin' Write markers and colored in everything but the doggie. After everything was colored, I went back in with a 20% cool grey Prismacolor marker and colored in the door and created some shadows under everything. I just love this marker for creating shadows, it is perfecto!

Next, I mounted the finished image on a piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock that was stamped with the retired Paisley Print bg. I tore the bottom edge and tied some light blue polka dot ribbon around it.

The card base is Creamy Caramel cs stamped in Chocolate Chip with the Paisley Print bg as well. I then mounted a piece of brown paper from the Stella Ruby collection by Basic Grey across the card. On top of this, I mounted a blue piece from the Phoebe line of Basic Grey, that had been stamped with a swirl from Doodle That in Brocade Blue ink. I also used the direct to paper technique to the edges of this piece.

I mounted the main image over the top of this and decided that it still needed something, so I inked up the sentiment "Forever Friends" also from the Animal Wishes with the palette hybrid black noir ink and stamped it just below the dog house.

As a last minute thought, I added the three blue brads (from the Rich Regals collection) to the bottom right corner. Such a fun card to make. I really enjoy the amuse stamps. Don't get me wrong, I am a die hard Stampin' Up fan...they will always be number one in my book, but I am really liking how tiny the amuse stamps are. The size of them makes it really easy to mask and layer them to create a "scene" on your card. Nighty night!

Have a magical day...

Isn't that an awesome sentiment?? And who makes the bestest sentiments? Why A*Muse does of course!

So my highly anticipated Marvy scalloped punches aren't coming as soon as I had hoped. *insert pouting face* anyhow, so I decided to use my Cricut to make some scalloped circles for this card. The smaller of the two is 2 1/2 inch circle (these are cut with the Mini Monograms cartridge) and the larger is a 3 inch scallop. The smaller is cut out of white naturals cardstock and then I stamped the princess and the frog in Palette Hybrid Noir Black ink and colored them in with my prismacolor markers. I have found that the hybrid ink is the only one that keeps from being smeared by the prismacolor markers. I also used a 20% cool grey prismacolor marker to create the highlights under them. The larger scallop is cut out of the new Perhaps paper from Basic Grey. Once they were colored in, I used my paper piercer and pierced each scallop and then highlighted them with the pink prisma marker.

The cardbase is Bravo Burgundy and then I adhered two pieces of the Perhaps BG paper over the top and tied a hot pink polka dot bow (ribbon is from Starlit Studio) to separate the two patterns.

To finish the card up, I stamped the sentiment "Have a Magical Day" on the bottom corner with the hybrid noir black ink, and then added some hero arts bling to the princesses wand and to dot the "i" in magical.

Have a groovy night!

Birthday Wishes..

for a very dear friend who is celebrating her birthday today. I made this card for her a week or so ago, and wasn't going to post it till she received it. Guess what? Um yeah, I haven't mailed it yet today, lol. So, it is going in the mail tomorrow and she can still see it today, hehe!

I'm not normally one for the distressed look on cards. I love the look, but never seem to get it just right. Anyhow, for this card I decided to step out of my little stamping box and give distressing a whirl. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out too.

The cardbase is Chocolate Chip cardstock and then over it I mounted a piece of the new Basic Grey Stella Ruby paper. I just love this, and got a great deal on it and the other new BG releases in the 6x6 pads, so I have plenty to play with! *wink* So I took this piece and added a little more distressing to the edges with my Chocolate Chip ink pad. Then I tied some light orange and brown polka dot May Arts ribbon around the piece and adhered it to the cardbase.

On top of this, I mounted a piece of Cameo Coral cardstock that was distressed a TON with the ink pad, stipple brush, and an edge distresser. The photo corner was then added. I made it myself with the 1 1/4 inch square punch and then stamped a flower from the Papertrey Ink Butterfly Kisses stamp set in a random pattern with some rose chalk ink. While the ink was still wet, I used my finger to smear it a bit and make it look even more distressed. The sentiment is also from the BK stamp set. I stamped it in dark brown chalk ink on the bottom of this piece of cardstock.

All that was left was the main focal image(s). The solid base of both butterflies were stamped in chalk inks (Rose and Alabaster) on Shimmery White cardstock. Over the tops of these, I stamped the flowered butterfly image. The pink solid butterfly was stamped with Dark Brown, and the Alabaster one was stamped with a combo of the dark brown and the rose inks.

I then took my paper snips and cut these pretty little guys out, and adhered their bodies to the Cameo Coral piece, leaving their wings free. That's it! Not too bad for my first distressed card, lol.

Blog candy winner

I know it's hard to believe, but it's been 10 days and the blog candy was never claimed. It just felt wrong not to mail it to someone, so I went back to Random.org and had it pick me another winner. Guess what number it drew? Number one! How funny is that??

So, congratulations to Sherri R. you are the new winner of the yummy blog candy!!

Sherri R said...
OHHHH I am loving Bellas. So that is gonna be my next purchase. I love all the samples with them! I love all your samples! You do great work! Hugs, Sherri


Sherri send me a quick email with your addy and I will get your goodies in the mail tomorrow!

Watermarks

You know the card condoms? The little bit of writing over people's cards that protect them from nasty internet theft? Well...when I started blogging, I had NO idea how to make one, and a great gal Cindy Kerry made one for me.

Since then, they have been popping up EVERYWHERE, and since I was thinking I needed a couple more for my Papertrey Ink and A*Muse creations, I decided to figure it out myself today. Voila!! Here are my first two attemps, what do ya think? I actually think I get it now! Whoo hoo!


If you are interested in one, and would like me to make a watermark just for you...to keep your beauties safe, just email me. While I'm figuring this whole watermark business out, I will be creating them for only 5 bucks!! Let me know if you're interested!

Bucket of berries

Omgosh I am just loving these strawberry images from the PaperTrey Ink set. This card was created only using images from the Green Thumb stamp set. One of my favorite cards ever is one that Amy Rysavy created a few months back with a wheel barrow spilling out flowers. This card was inspired by that...no wheel barrow, but a great planter full of berries.

To start with I stamped the planter on Whisper White cardstock in a brown chalk ink. Then I masked off the bucket and stamped some of the two step strawberries. The red part is warm red chalk ink and the stem is SU!'s Green Galore classic ink. I masked off the berries as well and then stamped a couple of more overlapping them. The last berry was stamped on WW cardstock and then cut out with my paper snips. I mounted it over the others using a dimensional. To finish them up I took some diamond stickles and glitzed up the stems a bit. To finish the image part up I masked off the entire image (berries and the pot) and used a Green Galore marker and my color spritzer tool to created the grass underneath. The final touch for the image piece was to take a black journaler and doodle a frame around the image.

Next I used my ticket corner punch and punched each corner. I mounted this partially on Real Red cardstock and partially on some Green Galore cardstock. Then I punched each of these corners with the ticket corner punch as well.

The card base is Real Red stamped repeatedly with the two sizes of the 2-step strawberries. Then I stamped three sizes of the flower in the set in Green Galore ink on the matching cardstock. I distressed the edge of this piece with my bone folder. I tied a piece of stitched red May Arts ribbon around this piece and then mounted this onto the cardbase and mounted the main image piece over the top.

To finish up this piece I faux stitched around the green piece of cardstock and then stamped the sentiment "Thank you berry much" on the bottom of the green piece with some brown chalk ink. Then I used a mini glue dot to adhere a small piece of the stitched rubbon to the pot.

Loving this set!!! Don't forget you can click on the picture to see a larger image.

New A*Muse stamps

OMGosh, I got the best deal ever!! I found a set of 19 A*Muse acrylic art stamps on the bay. The set came brand new with 12 images and 7 sentiments for only $15.24. Can you believe that? These baby's when wood mounted would have cost about $135 big ones. WOWZA!!

Anyhow, the little duckie on this card came from my new set. I actually already had the little blow-up pool and the palm tree. *wink*

To start with, I stamped the pool in Real Red classic ink on Whisper White cardstock. Next I masked off the pool and inked up the palm tree with Always Artichoke and Close to Cocoa Stampin' Write markers. I stamped them on the cardstock overlapping the pool so that it looks like it is behind it.


The duck was also stamped on Whisper White cardstock in black Stazon. Then I used my Stampin' Write markers to color him in. After he was all colored in, I took my paper snips and cut him out (cutting off the poor guys legs in the process). I cut a small slit in the pool center with my craft knife and then slid the duck into the slot, and taped him on the back. To finish up the image portion of the card, I masked off the pool again and used my Chocolate Chip marker and Color Spritzer tool to create the ground under the pool. Then I took some Waterfall Stickles and added them to the middle of the pool for water.

The card base is Real Red cardstock, and 4 inches squared. I stamped the base with the On the Spot background with Real Red ink. I then used my horizontal slot punch to punch the slots on the top and bottom to run the ribbon through. Next I ran some brown polka dot organdy ribbon (from Michaels) through the slots and tied a little bow.

To finish the card off, I stamped the sentiment "Just Ducky" on a tiny tag that I cut out of a chipboard coaster with my Cuttlebug. I then ran my Real Red marker around the edge and hooked it onto the chocolate bow using a little silver jump ring.

Wow, the description took twice as long as the card did, lol! Hope you all are having a great weekend!!

My first ATC

If you have never heard the term atc then you're definatly not the only one, but these little mini cards are sweeping through the stamping world like a wildfire. I have always thought they were cute, but always wondered what the heck you do with them. What better way to figure this out than to participate in a swap, hehe.

I joined a swap on SCS for Spring Mini catalog ATC cards. Every participant had to make 10 of these little 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch cards. Mine are stamped with the Doodle Alphabet.

To create my card, I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to position the letters and stamp the word thanks with the Doodle Alphabet on Whisper White cardstock in black Stazon. Then I colored the letters in with my Stampin' Write markers. The "you" was masked from a "your" stamp out of the Everyday Flexible Phrases stamp set. The little white piece was then mounted on a piece of Lavendar Lace cardstock. This was mounted on a larger piece of Cameo Coral cardstock that was stamped with the little flower from Doodle That. These were also colored in with my markers and then mounted to the card with some dimensionals. To finish the card up, I added a drop of Crystal Effects to the center of each flower, dusted that with some Dazzling Diamonds glitter and then used my color spritzer tool with a Certainly Celery marker to help lose some of the starkness to the white cardstock.

So, I guess the verdict is that I love these teeny little baby cards, hehe!

The new Papertrey set...

is so flippin' cute!! If you haven't seen it yet run over to their site to get yourself a peek. The set is called Green Thumb and is "A"dorable!



To begin with, I stamped the bottom piece of the strawberry with warm red chalk ink all over the Whisper White cardstock in a random pattern. After that I inked up the stem (yes...they do come in two pieces, how cool is that??) with pastel olive chalk ink. Then I punched out one of them with the small SU! tag punch and mounted it on to a piece of Real Red cardstock punched with the large SU! tag punch. I punched a whole in the top with my 1/8th inch circle punch and tied a bow with some white polka dot organdy ribbon that I got from Cindy at Starlit Studio.

The card base is Real Red stamped with the warm red chalk ink and two of the small circle stamps from the Green Thumb set. Then I took a strip of Old Olive cardstock and punched it with my slit punch to make the scalloped edge, and dotted it with my Signo white gel pen. I mounted this slightly under strip of strawberry stamped piece. I mounted this on the card, and then stamped the sentiment "Thank you Berry Much" also from this set on the bottom corner in Whisper White craft ink.

Phoebe the snail

So, yeah, I know I haven't posted a card in forever, and I really do apologize. I have been beyond busy and my poor little blog has taken a backseat. But...I did get to stamp today and I am pretty pleased with the results.

Meet Phoebe the snail...isn't she just the cutest??


Phoebe, who is from the Unfroggetable stamp set was stamped on Whisper White cardstock with Black Stazon and then colored in and blended with Prismacolor pencils, gamsol, and a stump. I also colored in the ground beneath her with a couple of grey prismacolors. The googlie eyes were adhered with mini glue dots and the "snail trail" was created with some Diamond Stickles. This was cut out using my colluzzle and then mounted on a Pink Passion mega scalloped circle.

After "Phoebe" was adhered to the scalloped piece, I took my white Signo gel pen and dotted the scallops of the circle and Phoebe's shell.

The card base is Certainly Celery cardstock and then I added a piece of designer paper from Basic Grey's new Phoebe line (hence her name **wink**). Under this I adhered a strip of Pink Passion cardstock that I scalloped with my slit punch. Then I used my Signo gel pen again to doodle on the scallops.

To finish up the card, I stamped the sentiment (from last year's hostess set Small Sayings ) on the bottom corner in black stazon and added the green organdy polka dotted ribbon.

Happy Wednesday everyone!!

Blog candy winner!!!!

Edited...

Our winner has not claimed her prize as of today 04/11/07...so since it has been 10 days, I'm going to draw a new winner.