Monday, December 8, 2008

Bella Weekend

Happy Second Anniversary to Emily over at Stamping Bella. I love these great high quality stamps and really enjoy using them and so do many other people. In just two years Emily has been able to create a sisterhood of Bella Stampers. Thank You Em for all of your hard work. There is still time to join in the Bellaversary Challenges over on SplitcoastStampers in the Stamping Bella Member Company Forum. You have until 8pm Central time to be entered in to win prizes for your creations.

It just so happened that a small group of us decided to get together for a Bella Shoe Box Swap this weekend, not even realizing that it was her Birthday. I am happy to show you all of the cards we created. It was a lot of fun, a lot of coloring, a lot of chatting. Enjoy:

My Cuppacakeabella


My New Friends Ella and Looloo
Jeaneen's Sposabella


Jana's 3 Whimsy Flowers

Tracy's Giddyupabella


Jeaneen's Patterned Dove with Berries

Tracy's Cecily Cinnamonsticks

Amanda's Group Hug

Amanda's Causabella

Jana's Snowman Circle

Friday, November 28, 2008

Friday Fun Challenge

My friends have been posting Friday Fun Challenges every week this fall, but for some reason I have been a little busy the past 12 weeks. I am happy to have been able to play this week and to show you all what I have done. For more Friday Fun Information you can visit:
Kim ~ PaperTastic Creations


This will be a Christmas card for my Father-In-Law and his wife. They spend their summers up on Lake Erie so I thought this stamp was perfect for them and I had to get it.
Details

Stamps:
Lighthouse by Repeat Impressions
Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black
Paper: Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke, Rose Red, Dashing DSP
Accessories: Vintage Brads, Copic Markers, Clear Star Glitter Pen, Gold Glitter Pen, White Gel Pen

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Giving Thanks

One of the things I am most thankful for is our house and our neighbors. After living on a military base for so many years we got used to not really knowing our neighbors because it seemed like the minute we got to know them they moved again. Now that we have a home it feels like we really have roots here in the community. I am truly grateful for my neighbors and the support they have given us in the past year and a half that we have lived here. Today, to show our thanks in a very small way I baked mini loaves of pumpkin bread and naturally had to package them up and stamp in some way, how else would they know it was from me :) I followed the bread box tutorial by TechnoStamper Mary Jo Price-Williams.


The green plastic wrap was a little unfortunate, it kinda makes the bread look a little funky, but I promise it was yummy.

Details

Stamps:
Happiness Always
Ink: Really Rust, Pumpkin Pie, Close to Cocoa
Paper: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red
Accessories: Scallop Punch, Paper Piercer, Silk Fall Leaf

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Blog Award, Me??

My good friends Joyce and Sara gave me this blog award.

I need to nominate 5 other bloggers as well. This is hard since there are so many great and creative blogs out there. Here are a couple that I visit frequently. I tried to spread the love around so not all one group got all the attention.

Here are the rules:
~The winner may put the logo on their blog
~Put a link to the person who sent you the award
~Nominate 5 blogs
~Put links to their blogs
~Leave a message for your nominees

Kim
Dorinda
Pro
Amanda
Jimmi




I feel guilty since I have not been very good at keeping this place up to date, so now I guess I should add something new for you all to look at too.

This is the card that I made for the Christmas Shoe Box Swap that I went to a few weeks ago.



I was told at the Swap that I am the coloring girl. I found that funny as I rarely colored any of my images until last fall when Kim introduced me to Copics. I'll admit that I am now addicted to them, but I still found that funny.

Stamp image using Brilliance Graphite Black on white cs. Set aside to dry.
Assemble decorative panels mount on large Not Quite Navy panel.
Color image as desired using Copic Markers
Punch corners of image panel using Ticket punch.
Mount to small Not Quite Navy panel.
Assemble onto Baja Breeze card base
Use white gel pen to add accents to card
Finally, use Stardust glitter pen to add snowy accents to image.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Encore

Yay! The final challenge tonight was to add to one of our cards. I decided to finish up the Cameo Card. So here is the FINAL version.


Upgrades:
Additions:
Paper Pierced around the image
Metal Dots in the corners
Faux Piercing around perimeter of card

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Shake the Case

It's VSN time again. I love being able to participate and love the fact that DH has to take care of the kids while I stamp even more :)

I have a lot of cards to upload but wanted to get this one up first.

This card was for the Cameo Card challenge. We had to make a card that was reminissant of a cameo. I personally love cameo's and have always wanted one...so now I have one. While I was making this card I came up with a new technique, I am calling it "Shake the Case" until someone comes up with a better name. I wanted the background to look like there were veins in it and a bit uneven. I put a few drops of re-inker into a stamp case and then spritzed it with water a few times. I closed the lid and shook the case back and forth and then laid the card stock in the case and smooshed it in. I got a nice vein look this way. I may have to try it with multiple colors and see what happens as well.



I then used some Glassy Glaze on top of the image and heat set it to make it shiny. Unfortunately you lost the details of the technique by making the card stock darker. Oh well. I know it's there.

In the end this was a very involved and messy card....for me. I left several cabinets and drawers open and had cs and materials everywhere.




Here is the finished card. I need to add more to it, but in 45mins this is all I had time to do. I was actually adhering everything when the timer went off.



Details:

Stamps: Inspired by Nature
Paper: Cameo Coral, VV, Old World DSP
Ink: Cameo Coral, VV
Accessories: Glassy Glaze, vanilla grosgrain ribbon,
Techniques: Shake the Case

Here is my SCS gallery post

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Wall Hangers

I invited a few friends to join me for the SBS so I wanted to make them something special for making the drive and taking the time to spend the day with Peanut and I (yes, I had the baby with me.) I saw a few of these in the gallery and thought it was an awesome idea and I happened to have all the supplies on hand.



I started with 4" chipboard coasters (I have nearly as many coasters on hand as I do paper cliips) and cut some dsp in 4" squares. I grabbed my 5" Xyron only to discover that 2 little monkeys must have gotten to it up on my counter top and pulled out the entire roll of the cellophane top layer. *Sigh* Fortunately, I was able to discover that I could still use the adhesive roll if I laid it flat and then stuck the coasters to the adhesive and pulled it back off the adhesive came off the waxy layer and made my whole coaster sticky. I was able to easily stick my 4" squares of Bella Rose dsp directly to the coaster, and they WILL not be coming off any time soon. I then trimmed 1/16" off all four sides of the coaster to square off the rounded coaster corners. I cut coordinating card stock into 3-1/4" squares and used my punches to create interesting shapes. I folded the ribbons in half and created the hanging loops. I adhered the ribbon to the back of the coasters using hot glue. Then, I embellished the panels. These wall hangers can be a cute way to display photos or your favorite stamped images.

Details:

Stamps:
None
Paper: Bella Rose dsp, Pink Pirouette, Red Riding Hood, Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: Ribbon, Large Brad, Silk Flowers, Buttons, Corner Rounder Punch, 4" Chipboard Coasters, scallop punch

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

SBS Frames

Part of the fun of the Shoebox Swap was making an altered item for a door prize. I bought a few white frames the last time I was at Ikea and thought we would use them in the girls bedroom, and I got a few extras to put in that bottomless project drawer. Well, none of them are in the girls room yet, but I was inspired enough to cover them with Bella Rose dsp and use the coordinating card stock to create a mat. I think they came out very cute. I found the little silk sticky flowers in the bridal section of JoAnns and I think it accents the soft Pink Pirouette roses nicely.



Details:

Stamps: NONE
Paper: Bella Rose dsp, Pink Pirouette cs, Kiwi Kiss cs, Whisper White cs
Accessories: White silk stick on flowers

I also included a bottle of assorted white Prima flowers, but decided I needed to dress those up a little too, so I packaged them in this little popcorn box I cut using my Tags Bags Boxes and More cartridge for my Cricut Expressions. Sorry, i don't remember the name of this dsp, it was some really old Stampin' Up! paper I had in my collection.

Monday, September 29, 2008

My First Shoe Box Swap

I went to my first SCS Shoe Box Swap this weekend and had so much fun. I can't believe I was able to get everything prepared just 3 weeks after having a baby. I will be showing you projects over the next few days.

So I had my card layout all ready by Tuesday night. I was quite impressed with myself. I just needed an embellishment to go in the right corner. First I thought a flower would look good, so I went out and bought some white paper flowers and used my reinker to color them Red Riding Hood. They came out great, but I couldn't find anything to put in the center that I liked. Then on Friday I was looking at the gallery on SCS and was inspired by my friend Kathy's (BeadFreak22) card and decided to use a jumbo paperclip and add the flower. For even more guidance I went back and looked at a paperclip that Kath had sent me quite a while ago when we were first getting to know each other. Thank You Kath. I happened to find one paperclip in my drawer and then decided that I would stop at the store on my way to the Swap and get a box. Well, it just happens that they were out of single boxes silver jumbo paperclips, so I had to get a 5 pack. I now have enough jumbo paperclips to keep me well supplied the rest of my stamping life. I am sure you will be seeing paperclips on quite a few upcoming projects and I will be sending a few with ever RAK. If you have any other ideas of how to reduce my supply, let me know.

This was my project with the directions I included in my shoe box.



Bella Rose Monkey
• Stamp Monkey image on large white rectangle using Brilliance Coffee Bean ink set aside to dry
• Stamp cupcake image on small white rectangle Brilliance Coffee Bean ink set aside to dry
• Fold Close to Cocoa cs along score line
• Attach large rectangle of dsp to Red Riding Hood card stock
• Attach Red Riding Hood panel to lower right of card front
• Attach small rectangle of dsp to Kiwi Kiss card stock
• Use adhesive along top, bottom and left side of Kiwi Kiss panel only, leaving an open pocket along right side
Create Paper Clip

Creating Paper Clip

• Cover front of small chip board flower with small Bella Rose dsp flower (one small dot of Mono Multi Glue on each petal works well for complete coverage.)
• Cover front and back of one large chipboard flower with Red Riding Hood card stock
• Cover back of second large chipboard flower with Red Riding Hood card stock.
• Cover front of second large chipboard flower with Bella Rose dsp.
• Fold ribbon in half and attach to back of cs covered flower
• Apply Red Sticky Strip over ribbon flower and on back of large dsp flower
• Create flower sandwhich
o Ribbon Flower
o Paper Clip (open end)
o Large dsp Flower
• Attach small flower to large dsp covered chipboard flower.



• Use markers to color monkey and cupcake images stamped earlier
• Attach monkey image to small Red Riding Hood panel
• Attach monkey to center of Kiwi Kiss panel
• Cut out cupcake
• Attach to monkey paw using dimensional
• Use Yellow Stickles on candle flame
• Apply Stardust Stickles to pink frosting on cupcake
• Slide flower paper clip onto the right side of the Kiwi Kiss panel

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Thank You Baby

Ok, I know it has been nearly 2 months since I posted last, but I have a VERY good excuse.



Yes, that is me holding my new little Peanut, which I seem to be doing a lot in the evenings. I swear, I don't remember having to hold my other two this much, but those early days are such a blur I really don't remember anything.

I do want to say Thank You to all my cyber friends for the love and support you have shown my family and I recently. I can't believe the kindness we have experienced from so many people that we have never met irl.



Card Details

Stamps: By Ones and By Twos
Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black
Paper: So Saffron, Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss, PTI White
Accessories: Swiss Dots CB Folder, Copic Markers

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Twin Card



This is a card I made a while ago for my friend Karen (SCS- Jusgottastamp) when her twins arrived. We all know that Karen loves giraffes and the fact that there were two on this stamp made it perfect for this card.

Details:

Stamps: Circus Train (SU!)
Paper: So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink (SU!), K and Co Amy Butler dp, PTI White CS
Accessories: Mini brads, safety pins and tabs in pastels, Metal Card Charms, Copic Markers

Monday, August 4, 2008

Scrapbook pages

Ok, I have been a very bad blogger. I really have been creating but have not been uploading much lately. Sorry about that.

One of the projects I was working on was a scrapbook for one of my friends. Her husband had commissioned me to make it up and gave me the pictures and that was it. No guidance or direction. It wouldn't have been too bad except that the pictures were of their 18 month old IDENTICAL twins. I should be used to this challenge, but if my pictures are not marked I sometimes have a difficult time telling my own girls apart. My solution was to just put the pictures on the pages and I supplied them with Stampin' Write(r) markers for journaling.

I didn't think of taking pictures of the pages before adding photos....doh! I did make extra pages for the book so those are the ones I am showing here as well as the title page. Since the pictures are not mine, nor are the children I don't feel it is appropriate for me to post them here.

Title Page. Not knowing who was who in the pictures I asked her husband to add the pictures and birth info.





I used Jersey Shore DSP, Crew Kids Simply Scrappin' Kit and Special Delivery Boy Simply Scrappin' Kit by Stampin' Up!(r) to complete most of the pages. I also used the Cricut Design Studio and Cricut Expressions machine to add titles.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Dirty Cupcake

This was for Jenn's Dare to get Dirty Challenge http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10548221&postcount=3 Seeing the inspiration piece made me have to have cupcakes...or maybe that has something to do with the fact that I am 8 months pregnant. In any case, I had to try a few things out to combine my stamping and new cake decorating skills.

The wrap was done using my Cricut and the Accent Essentials Cartridge. I really like the flourishes, but if I ever make a cupcake wrap again, it will not be such a detailed design. Then I frosted the cupcake and used my Priceless flourish to make an impression in the frosting. I went over the impression with black icing.....don't ever use black icing if you don't have to, it is messy and tastes gross, and stains, but I was committed to this project and wanted to do it right, so I suffered for my passion.

Here are a few additional photo's for you.



This is the wrap I designed using my Cricut Design Studio Software.



This is the wrap on the cupcake tied on with Certain Celery grosgrain ribbon.




Here is the finished project. I should have been a little more patient and let the frosting set up just a bit more before stamping the impression into it, but it was getting late and I have spent 2 days on this project so I was getting anxious to finish up.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Want Cake???

You may be wondering where I have been and why I haven't been posting lately. Part of the reason is because this big belly is getting in the way of my stamping. It's not the belly really, but the fact that by the end of the night my back is so sore I can't stand the thought of sitting at my desk. I do have a few projects I will show you later.

So here are a few pictures of my final cake. It was a fun class and I certainly learned a lot, but am glad that I won't need to spend quite so much time in the kitchen any more.

Our homework was to make 10 roses. I needed to practice and wanted to be sure I had 10 good ones to take so I started out making 30. Here are the ones that survived but did not end up on the cake. The pink one is the sample my instructor made.




Now for the final cake. You can see I only ended up using 3 roses. The rest will be saved for another time. I don't plan on making any more roses for quite while. On top of the cake are sweet pea flowers and on the side are some drop flowers.




The girls and I will be cutting into this cake for snack time today :)

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Happy Father's Day!





We had a great Father's Day here! My girls made their first cards today and Daddy was thrilled. This is the second time they have ever stamped (they are only 2-1/2) but apparently I taught them their lessons well. When I opened up the ink pad Reganne started saying, "Ink Ink Ink Stamp." Mackenzie repeated, "Stamp on paper." They were quite proud of themselves and the "rainbows" they drew on their cards. I had to share with all of you as I know only fellow stampers could truly understand what a momentous occasion this was.

1) Reganne working on her card
2) Mackenzie showing off her tools
3) Completed cards (front) using Sketch It
4) Completed cards inside with "rainbows" drawn inside

Saturday, June 14, 2008

New Challenge

Everyone seems to be so busy lately that we decided to stop the Sassy Challenges, and I have been too busy and tired to stamp, so sorry about the lack of posts lately. Today two of my Sassy Sisters revealed a new weekend challenge. I was thrilled that I was actually able to take a minute to play along. Great challenge ladies!

The Challenge:
Use one color from EACH SU color family plus a neutral. If you don't have SU colors, that's ok...just pick 4 colors plus neutral to play along.

The Blogs:
Kim: http://kmuhl.blogspot.com/
Kath: http://mystampinsistahs.blogspot.com/

My Card:


Details:

Stamps: Sassy Suzie
Paper: Creamy Carmel, Pixie Pink, Certainly Celery DSP, Elegant Eggplant, WW
Ink: Basic Black, (Creamy Carmel, Pixie Pink, Certainly Celery DSP, Elegant Eggplant, Blush Blossom, Going Grey, SU Markers
Accessories: White Grosgrain Ribbon, Ticket Corner Punch

Yes, I used my Stampin Up! Markers to color this image. I wanted to be sure that the colors were accurate. I kinda like the card but if I had to do it again I would skip the Elegant Eggplant and Creamy Carmel card stock and just use Pixie Pink and Certainly Celery. Thank you ladies for making me stamp again :) You know I love you and am grateful that you always seem to spark new creativity within me.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Canisters


OK, so I know I have not been posting much, so I decided to add another project this week. I did this a few weeks ago. I was cleaning my kitchen and decided that it needed a little spicing up. I pulled out the rub ons I got during Sale-A-Bration and jazzed things up. Now I get to smile every morning as I reach for the coffee.

Old School No Layers


Our Sassy challenge this week was to make a one layer or no layer card (depending on how you define it.) This took me back to my stamping roots. Back when I started out there was no DP and I was too cheap to add too many layers to my cards, so I tried to make due with as much plain cs as I could. Stamping has developed quite a bit since then and I have been transformed into using lots of layers and dp on my cards. This was a stretch for me to go back and not use anything. I also eliminated all accessories, I just stamped.

Details:

Stamps: Text and Texture, Canvas, All in a Row
Paper: More Mustard
Ink: More Mustard, Old Olive, Ruby Red
Techniques: Sponging, masking

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Lovely Lady


This weeks Sassy Challenge was to make a Lovely Lady card, well...it was actually to make a Rubber Romance Lady card, but I didn't have any of those so I improvised. I just received this MFT Can You Dig It stamp set this weekend from my Sassy Sister Frances (StampOwl) and had to use it. I think this perfect little lady looks to be all decked out as she digs in her garden.

Stamps: MFT-Can You Dig It
Paper: Old Olive, More Mustard, PTI White, K&Co Urban Rhapsody
Ink: Brilliance Basic Black, Copic Markers

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

A Princess Card


Sorry I have been MIA from the blog world for the past month. Wow, I didn't realize it was that long. I have been creating, but by time I finish my creations I am too tired to upload them. I knew I HAD to publish this card though.

The Sassy Challenge for this week was to make a card fit for a Princess (that would be me.) I guess I really couldn't go wrong, but last night I couldn't get my original idea to work at all. So I decided to put it all away and look at it again tonight. I changed everything except for the sketch I was going to use (SC150) and I think this card is now fit for a princess. I even used the grid pattern technique from today's Weekly Inkling on the River Rock panel behind the image. I needed just something extra and I don't have a Cuttlebug Embossing Folder that seemed to work.

Details
Stamps: Stamping Bella~friends in all shapes and sizes
Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black, Copic Markers
Paper: River Rock, Pretty in Pink, Basic Grey-Perhaps, PTI White
Accessories: Fiskers Paper Trimmer, Rhinestone Brads

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Amazing Weekend Sketch


This is my first time trying one of the Weekend Sketch Challenges. As you know I haven't had the best time trying to stamp lately, so I was hoping that the clean, uncomplicated design would help me get my motivation back.

I just bought the K&Co Urban paper this week. I pulled the colors from the designer paper. The dimensions of this card are 5.5" square. I like working with this size as it allows me to use some larger images and not have it be too overwhelming. I can use a greeting card sized envelope to mail. I stamped off the flower image twice before stamping it on the Very Vanilla, and stamped off the Chocolate Chip once for the background flowers.

Details:
Stamps: Pretty Amazing
Paper: River Rock, Purely Pom, K&Co Urban designer Paper, Very Vanilla
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Purely Pom
Accessories: Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon
Techniques: Sponging, Stamping off

Friday, April 11, 2008

Rainy Day Sketch


This week our Sassy/Fab Friends challenge was a sketch challenge, and last week was to make a rain themed card (April Showers.) I was unable to do last weeks challenge and was a little late with this weeks as well, so I decided to combine them.

I used Hanna Stamps "Rain Rain Come this Way" stamp set which seemed to be quite appropriate. I stamped my image using Brilliance Graphite Black, colored with Copic Markers, then used my Coluzzle to cut out the image and the Apricot Appeal layer. I paper pierced the background circle and then faux stitched using a white gel pen. The dsp I used was Soft Sky and it is all mounted on a Certain Celery Base. In the corners I used some light blue Rain Dots to accent the piece.

Details:
Ink:
Brilliance Graphite Black, Copic Markers
Paper: Certain Celery, Soft Sky DSP, Apricot Appeal
Accessories: Colluzle Circle Cutter, White Gel Pen, Paper Piercer, Rain Dots