5/30 Get Packing Challenge

With this being ballet performance weekend for my girls, I am about to put my stamps, ink and papers away for the weekend. But, before I do, I wanted to post a 6x6 scrapbook page and a card that I did for the Get Packing Challenge at SCS. This Ways to Use It Challenge encouraged us to use packing or shipping materials such as tags, string, tape etc. or stamps with a vacation theme.

I have a USA stamp from Rubber Stampede that I picked up at Michael's or JoAnn's years ago and the kids use it. They stamp the states out on index cards for as many days as we will be gone and then they color the states in as they see them on license plates. It gives them something to do on those long car rides. I personally have never used this stamp up until yesterday! I decided to get it out for the challenge and use it on a 6x6 scrapbook page to announce my upcoming trip to SU Convention this year! I love how it turned out!

Supplies I used to create this 6x6 page:

Stamps: Rubber Stampede
Paper: More Mustard, Basic Black, Naturals Ivory, K&Company designer paper
Ink: StazOn Black, More Mustard
Accessories: Fine Tip Black Marker, Earth Elements Brads, Mat Pack, Dymo Labeler, Dimensionals, Aqua Painter, Vintage Brads

This card uses a tag. I was inspired by one of the cards by Atomicbutterfly that I had saved to my favorites file. You can see it HERE. I took the colors and the tag idea from Kelly, but tried to make it mine as best I could. I didn't have any green ribbon that made me happy so I made "faux ribbon" by folding over a strip of green galore paper and cutting the ends at an angle. That helped me put the finishing touch on the tag and I like how that turned out. I considered doing a bubble wrap background but because I was so short of time, I whipped through a pile of designer papers to see if anything caught my eye and I found this piece that almost looks exactly like a bubble wrap background! Score! I distressed this card by rubbing parts of it directly to a Chocolate Chip ink pad. Thanks so much for dropping by my blog today. I'll be back next week!

Supplies I used for this card:

Stamps: Retired Stamp Set Garden Pleasures, Retired Background Antique Cracking Paper: Green Galore, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, K&Company Designer Paper Ink: StazOn Timber Brown, Garden Green, Close To Cocoa Accessories: Bold Brights Brads, Ticket Corner Punch, Dimensionals, Aqua Painter

5/28 A Trio of Challenge Cards!

A Featured Stamper at the Great Swaps Girls Blog this week is Jimmi Mayo. I've long enjoyed Jimmi's work so it didn't take long for me to find a card to case. I picked THIS ONE. I kept the layout very much the same with a layer or two less just because I'm lazy! (or is that speedy? hee hee!) This card uses all Stampin'Up products. I always find it kind of fun to case a card that doesn't use SU and turn it into all SU. I only used Lovely Lilac ink on my flower panel. To get the flowers just a shade lighter, I stamped off once before stamping onto my Whisper White. The smaller flower is stamped at full strength.

Supplies I used to make this card:

Stamps: Priceless Paper: Almost Amethyst, Basic Black, Whisper White, Almost Amethyst Designer Prints Ink: Lovely Lilac, StazOn Black Accessories: White Taffeta, Pretties Kit, Dimensionals

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This second challenge card takes us to Beate's Blog. She posted this Weekend Sketch Challenge. I didn't stamp even once this weekend so today I was making up. I LOVE this sketch. I used an unusual combination of stamps, but they all worked together so well . . . I'm kind of proud of myself! The lower portion of the card is stamped tone on tone with the background stamp from Dad's Day. The medallion that is on the main image panel as well as in the vanilla background is from the set Wanted. The round thank you in the middle of the medallion is from last fall's hostess set called In the Spotlight. This card's colors come from the SCS Color Challenge to use Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow and Very Vanilla.

Supplies I used to create this card:

Stamps: Dad's Day, In the Spotlight, Wanted Paper: Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow, Very Vanilla Ink: Sage Shadow, Chocolate Chip Accessories: Theater Ribbon Originals, non-SU ribbon, Marvy Punch for circle behind scallop punch, Scallop Punch, 1/2 Circle Punch, Star Punch, Vintage Brads, Dimensionals

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My third card is also two challenges combined. I was taken with the beautiful J.C. Crew dress that Beate posted as her inspiration piece. You can see her post HERE. As you can see, I took my colors from that dress: More Mustard, Basic Gray, Old Olive and Soft Sky. WOWZERS - not something I would think up on my own!! lol! (But, of course, I LOVE it!!) I took these colors and put them into the Sketch Challenge over at SCS which you can see HERE.

The background panel uses paper from Basic Gray. I believe it is from a 6x6 paper pack called Scarlet's Letter. Anyway, it just seemed to "work" with the inspiration challenge colors. The main image panel has another medallion on it . . . this one from the stamp set called Boho Backgrounds. I don't even own that stamp set . . . but my upline let me stamp a few images from her set that I could take home with me and play with. Ya, let see . . . that was hmmm . . . about three months ago!! lol! But, I knew right where they were when I was ready to play!!

Supplies I used to create this card:

Stamps: Boho Backgrounds, All in a Row Paper: Basic Gray, Old Olive, More Mustard, Soft Sky, Whisper White, Scarlet's Letter background paper by Basic Gray Ink: Chocolate Chip Accessories: Scallop Punch, 5/8" Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon, Earth Elements Brad, Dimensionals

5/27 GSG Challenge & 12x12 Paper Storage

Lisa Henke, one of the GSG, has a great gallery over at SCS. You can see it HERE. Since she was recently featured as a Featured Stamper, I wanted to case one of her cards. I picked this one. I changed the colors, images and switched the thanks from right to left. I was inspired by the branch she used, which inspired me to get out my Spring Solitude hostess set. I used Jersey Shore designer paper and added a blue bird. I also added a little bit of faux piercing in a couple of corners.

Supplies I used for this card:

Stamps: Spring Solitude, Make It Count (both are S/S 2008 hostess sets)
Paper: Brilliant Blue, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, Jersey Shore DP
Ink: Brilliant Blue
Accessories: Garden Green, Chocolate Chip, Brilliant Blue Markers, Double Stitched Wild Wasabi Ribbon, Dimensionals, Mat Pack

Since posting information about how I store my 48 colors of SU card stock on May 21 (see original post HERE) I've had a few e-mails asking me how I store my 12x12 paper. So, here it is!

As you can see, I have four 12x12 paper holders from SU. The first two store non-SU paper that I've picked up here and there over the last 8 years. The two on the right store SU Designer Paper. One unit holds retired SU paper and the other unit holds current SU paper.

I was a Creative Memories consultant for 10 years and one of my favorite CM products is called a 12-inch Decofile Folder. It's a heavy-duty clear folder that has a large and small pocket. It fits into the 12x12 paper holders that SU sells perfectly and it can hold up to two SU designer paper packs! I use the back pocket for full sheets of 12x12 and the front pocket for scraps. I love this because that way my scraps stay with my paper pack. I realize that it would be more economical to just carefully open the top of each paper pack and store the paper and scraps in the packaging that they already come in, but I'm kind of hard on my supplies and when I get into a stamping frenzy, I tend to lose my patience and supplies are flying! I just know that maintaining the original packaging would be next to impossible for me!

Hope you enjoyed the weekend. We went to our camper for the weekend and spent some time with Steve's side of the family. I didn't bring a single stamping thing along! When I wasn't golfing or shopping, I was reading, cooking or visiting. We totally missed all the severe weather that came through the Twin Cities, but some weren't so fortunate. My prayers to you.

Have a fantastic day and stamp something to share!

5/22 Color Challenge & I'm a GSG!

I am so excited to share some awesome news - I've been invited to be a Great Swaps Girl!! I will be in Group Two. (Doing the happy dance!) Well, to celebrate, I decided to go straight to the GSG site and do a color challenge. And, this was challenging! The colors to use were Kraft, Cameo Coral and Certainly Celery. Now Kraft and Certainly Celery I use often, but hmmmm, how to combine Cameo Coral into the mix? Turns out, I have a great supply of Cameo Coral paper (since I hardly ever use it!) so I decided to make my card base Cameo Coral and then proceeded to cover most of it up with panels of Certainly Celery and and designer paper from the Ginger Blossom pack. But, as the card evolved, I started getting excited about it and now I'm just thrilled with it!! Yes, this is why I stamp . . . it's a high! Kind of hard to explain to someone who isn't a stamper, but I'm sure that most of you reading this can relate!

Supplies I used:

Stamps: You Make Me Happy (retired)
Paper: Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery, Kraft, Ginger Blossom DP
Ink: StazOn Black
Accessories: Fine Tip Black Marker, Large Oval Punch, Certainly Celery Grosgrain

5/21 Grad Day & Paper Organization

I wanted to make a few more grad cards today and since today is sketch challenge day over at SCS, it seemed like a great place to start. I have a great little grad background stamp from Inky Antics that I purchased at a garage sale and it was just begging me to get it out and ink it up. I had a feeling that the grad background stamp would be cute on that main panel. I was right!! It's super cute! (At least to me!) My sentiments are from Hero Arts and they compliment the mail panel perfectly. Those black crystal accents are something I picked up recently at Archivers while shopping with my SCS friend Beth. (Hi Beth!!!) They are made by Mark Richards and they are called Crystal Stickers. I am always and forever running out of black brads so I decided to pick some of these up. They are kind of fun and I'm glad I got them.

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Supplies I used on my grad cards:

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Stamps: Inky Antics, Hero Arts

Paper: Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White

Ink: Real Red, Basic Black

Accessories: Crystal Stickers, Black Grosgrain Ribbon, Ticket Corner Punch

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And, now, I want to show you a corner of my office where I store my 48 colors of Stampin'Up paper. I have a four drawer filing cabinet that is probably 20 years old. It is pictured below.

The top drawer of the filing cabinet holds odds and ends like spare batteries, extra adhesive, cellophane bags, and other kinds of junky things that you don't quite know where to put. The next drawer is where I store my 48 colors of SU paper, the third drawer is for business forms and extra paper packs and the 4th drawer is where I store family related files.

My SU punches are stored in a drawer near by so on the side of my filing cabinet, I have some of my punches represented on black paper squares. When I want to check a punch out for size, I just grab the paper square and hold it up to where ever I want to use it. I took a few magnetic business cards and cut them into strips, then I taped the magnetic strips onto the punch cut outs so that they can be easily removed and replaced. The calender off to the left is where I store receipts that are not business related. There is a pocket for each month of the year. That way, when I need to return an item, I can usually find the receipt fairly quickly. The small drawers on top of the cabinet are where I store my markers, gel pens, watercolor pencils, blender pens etc. I picked these up at a garage sale, but I am sure you can find them in any Target, Walmart or Office Supply store. The two wooden boxes on top of the small drawers are memento boxes holding treasures from my travels. The little boy and girl in the picture hanginf on the wall to left is a picture of my brother and me. He was one and I was four in 1967.

Here is how I file my paper. All 48 colors are filed alphabetically. I'm a chronological person and abc, 123 is the way I think. Begin at the beginning and end at the end. It's kind of amazing I have any creativity in me at all!

When I start to run low on a certain color of paper, I take the paper tab and move it over to the far right of the folder. Then, when I place an order, it takes only a moment to figure out what colors of paper I need to order. The key is then to remember to move the tab back over to the left once the order is placed. I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten to move the tab back and then I order the paper twice!! Not so serious when you are a demo and go through reams and reams of paper . . . but when I did this a happy customer, it used to kind of make me mad as that was money I could have spent of stamps or accessories!

Here is a picture of one of my paper files open. You'll notice that I have a page protector (heavy duty) in each color file. That is where I store my scraps. I am much more likely to use my scraps when they are stored and organized with the actual paper color.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the paper tour. I've never actually shared pictures of my room before as I didn't think I had anything particularly special to share about it. But, whenever my customers bring a friend along to a workshop or a class and they want to show them my room and how it is organized . . . well, it makes me think I must be doing something right. I hope to share more in the coming weeks.

Thanks for stopping by today!!

5/19 Double Pocket Bag

I've had such a busy morning already - getting my oldest daughter off on a 2 day eighth grade class trip, car pooling, deliveries from Apple Valley to Fridley, a stop at the post office, grocery shopping at Sam's Club and finally a chance to sit down and look at today's Technique Lover Challenge - Double Pocket Bags. Too fun!

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I learned how to make Double Pocket Bags at Regionals last month in Milwaukee. Today at SCS, we learned from a formal tutorial how to make these versatile bags. You can easily adjust the measurements to suit your fancy. See the tutorial HERE.

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This bag will round out my Make It Manly Class that I am having for my customers on Thursday night. I think it is perfect for holding some tickets to the ball game, or a couple of gift cards. What a cute tote for dad on Father's Day.

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Here are the supplies I used:

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Stamps: Dad's Day

Paper: Jersey Shore, Whisper White, Basic Black

Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Wild Wasabi

Accessories: Jersey Ribbon Originals, Black Grosgrain, Coluzzle, Photo Corner Punch, Designer Label Punch, Horizontal Slot Punch, Dimensionals

5/18 A Couple of Featured Stampers!

I think I am finally caught up with the challenges issued by the Great Swaps Girls. The last challenge was featured stamper Lori Tecler. Lori, aka ltecler on SCS, has a great gallery that you can get to by clicking HERE. I was moved by this card HERE because I loved the colors and the design. I opted to use my Print Pattern inked up with White Craft ink to create my background on Basic Gray paper. Then, I pulled out my Live My Dream set. I inked it up in Basic Gray and stamped it on Soft Sky. I wanted to create a sort of halo around the flower and I attempted to do that by sponging on some Soft Sky. The brads working their way up the lower left are Vintage Brads in Pewter.

Supplies I used to create this card:

Stamps: Live Your Dream, Print Pattern
Paper: Soft Sky, Basic Gray, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Gray, Soft Sky, White Craft
Accessories: Vintage Brads, Basic Gray Taffeta Ribbon, Dimensionals, Photo Corner Punch


And, since it is Sunday, it is the Featured Stamper Challenge over at SCS. Today our Featured Stamper is known as dawnsing. She has a most amazing gallery that you can browse HERE. The card I picked to case is HERE. I needed quite a few grad cards and I wanted something super simple, but elegant, too. I eliminated a few of the layers, but I kept the layout the same. I wanted pattern paper with a big, bold, elegant look and I found some in my stash made by Me & My Big Ideas. It has a bit of a glossy look to it, too, making it even more "wow" IRL. I have a Innie and Outie stamp from My Sentiments Exactly. That means that you can stamp one part of the sentiment on the outside of your card and the other part of your sentiment on the inside of your card. This sentiment has a wonderful font. The inside part of the sentiment reads: "Wishing you much success as you pursue your dreams and goals."

Supplies for this card:

Stamps: My Sentiments Exactly
Paper: Basic Black, Me & My Big Ideas patterned paper
Ink: White Craft
Accessories: non SU Ribbon, White Embossing Powder, Heat Gun

5/17 Inspiration All Over!

This candle and matching gift box was one of the Inspiration Pieces that I gazed at this morning over at SCS. The color reminded me of Almost Amethyst so I used that as my starting point. I wanted to play with one of my newer background stamps called Riot of Petals. The frosted candle holder reminded me of vellum so that became the starting point for this card. The base of the card is black and I used a panel of Almost Amethyst to attach my layer of vellum stamped with Riot of Petals in StazOn Black Ink.


This card is simple, but the black corner accents give it some extra pop. The longest part of putting this card together was coloring the flowers with my Almost Amethyst marker . . . and really that probably didn't take more than 10 minutes . . . so I'd say this card was a true 15 minute card. Another thing I like about this card is that it is completely flat so it is very mailable! My card purchasing clients really like that.

Supplies I used to create my Amethyst Riot:

Stamps: Riot of Petals, A Little Birthday Cheer
Paper: Basic Black, Almost Amethyst, Vellum
Ink: StazOn Black
Accessories: Large and Small Oval Punches, Photo Corner Punch, Markers

The card pictured above is a Great Swaps Girls Challenge. You can read about Denise Hinton HERE. She is aka geekgirl at SCS. I really liked the card she made with the Die Cut Blooms featured in the SU Occassions Mini Catalog. You can see a picture of the card I was inspired by HERE.

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At the moment, I am on a chipboard roll, so I decided to try putting patterened paper on my chip board pieces. I used the SU Anywhere Glue Stick to adhere the paper to the chip board which comes from the On Board Blossoms and Basics kit. I went with a black card instead of the white card, and I also used textured black cardstock as a panel on my Basic Black card base. It doesn't show up too great in the photo, though. My sentiment is from the Eastern Elegance Rub On set. After I rubbed it on, I punched it out with my designer label punch and glued it into a styled silver hardware piece. Awesome and Easy! The leaves around my chip board flowers are cut out using the 5-Petal Punch. It also punched out the patterned paper flower that fit my 5-petal chipboard piece perfectly. I love that when SU products tie together like that!

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Supplies I used to make this challenge card:

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Stamps: none!

Paper: Basic Black, Textured Basic Black, Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi, Cutie Pie DP

Ink: none!

Accessories: 1" Circle Punch, 1/2" Circle Punch, 5-Petal Punch, Styled Silver Hardware, Bashful Blue Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Pop Up Glue Dots, Black Marker for Faux Stitching, Eastern Elegance Rub Ons
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Thanks for visiting my blog! Have a great weekend!

Everything Always

At the Great Swaps Girls Challenge Blog, the very first Featured Stamper was Jackie Pedro. She has a fabulous blog which you can see HERE. I decided to case this card linked HERE. I don't think mine turned out nearly so well as Jackie's . . . I was trying to do something different, but similar. (My first instinct was to copy Jackie's card exactly . . . but then that kind of ruins the spirit of the challenge! lol!) I don't have those wonderful nestabilities, but I do have the SU corner rounder punch, so a few scallops made it into my card. I changed the colors, the stamp sets but aimed to keep the layout similar. I took a fine tip black marker and outlined the bird as best I could. If you stand far enough away, it looks pretty good! lol!

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Supplies I used:

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Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Always

Paper: Basic Black, Soft Sky, Soft Sky Designer Prints, Whisper White

Ink: Basic Black, Soft Sky

Accessories: 1 1/4" Circle Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Soft Sky DS Ribbon, Corner Rounder Punch, Vintage Brads, Dimensionals

5/15 Fun with Chipboard

I am not very experienced with Chip Board, but I figured I at least should figure out the basics . . . so, I am attempting to use it. (Of course, I have experience "buying" chip board, I only had to go to my "stash" and I was off and running.) (Well, not quite running!)

So, what do I do when I haven't the faintest idea of what to do? I go straight to SCS like every good stamper should! lol! I went to the gallery page and in the search box, I typed Chip Board. Oodles and oodles of samples . . . obviously other stampers have figured out what to do with it! I found THIS CARD by Christine aka Chrisations.ink. She cased Sparklegirl . . . so here we have a case of a case!

I used SU craft ink in Rose Red to color my chip board. My chip board is from the On Board Blossoms and Basics pack. This card is sized to fit an A6 envelope. It gave me a little more room to play so I was able to add some diamond chipboard pieces off to the side. I accented these pieces with rhinestone brads found in the Pretties Kit. I just cut thier little legs off and put them on with a drop of glue.

Supplies:

Stamps: Stem Sayings Paper: Groovy Guava, Wild Wasabi Textured, Purely Pomegranate Textured, Soft Sky Ink: Rose Red Craft, Wild Wasabi Accessories: brads from Pretties Kit, Flower Fusion, Dimensionals, Purely Pomegranate DS Ribbon, On Board Blossoms and Basics Chip Board

5/13 Inspiration Challenge

The picture above is Beate's Inspiration Challenge for this week. You can read about it on her blog called Fresh & Fun. I looked at those luscious colors and just had to grab my Soft Sky, Blue Bayou and Chocolate Chip papers. I designed my card in the same way as the pillow case, and then I added the ribbon layered over Chocolate Chip just like the way the turned down sheet is layered. Here is my card:

Since this is an "Inspiration" Challenge, I went to my new set called Define Your Life. (I earned it free with my SAB sales!) I picked the Inspire definition and then used my letter "I" from another new set (that I also earned FREE!) called Defining Alphabet. I kind of thought I needed a little something along the top so out came my Mat Pack and my Chocolate Chip marker to do some faux piercing. And, a flower from my Pretties Kit and I felt like it was done.

Supplies:
Stamps: Define Your Life, Defining Alphabet
Paper: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Blue Bayou, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Blue Bayou Double Stitched Ribbon, Pretties Kit, Earth Elements Brads, Mat Pack, Chocolate Chip Marker, Dimensionals

Now, off to do some cleaning. We've got company coming into town and staying over night. That means all the bathrooms have to be really clean, knick knacks have to be dusted (can't even remember the last time I did that!!) and my windows look pathetic . . . Windex to the rescue! Dust Bunnies BEWARE! I'm guessing this will be a two day job, but I'm sure I'll squeeze in a little stamping time. I have to reward myself somehow, right? Have a great day!

5/12 Fun with Flower Fusion

The Technique Lover's Challenge at SCS today was Embossed Watercolor. That is simply embossing an image and then water coloring it. I really wanted to use my Flower Fusion Kit today, too, since I am in another challenge to use these lovely felt flowers. This card is the result.

The hummingbird was stamp on a piece of scrap Whisper White with Black Craft ink, embossed with Black Detail Embossing Powder and water colored with my Aqua-Painter and ink squeezed onto the lid of my ink pads . . . my absolute FAVORITE way to watercolor! Then, I cut the bird out, thinking I might pop him up on dimensionals, but as the card progressed, I nixed that idea and just glued him down. This card is 5 1/4" square and fits perfectly into SU's Whisper White Medium Square Envelopes.

Supplies I used to make this card:

Stamps: Pretty Amazing, All In a Row
Paper: Old Olive, Rose Red, Whisper White
Ink: Old Olive, Rose Red, Black Craft
Accessories: Flower Fusion, Black Detail EP, Heat Gun, Aqua-Painter, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Earth Elements Brads, Fire Circle Rhinestone Brads

5/12 A Weekend Sketch Challenge

One of my favorite blogs is called Fresh and Fun. Beate is an incredible stamp artist and everything she posts is fresh and fun so her blog is aptly named! Well, once a week Beate posts a Weekend Sketch Challenge. This past weekend, I actually had some time to play and the card below is what I came up with.

I just love the way my card turned out . . . I love the way the vellum looks, it gives the card the division that the sketch was directing me towards, but it still shows off the whole image. I used two stamp sets to make this card. The loving couple image is from the stamp set called Summer by the Sea. It is on SU dormant list at the moment but is still available for ordering. The sentiment is from the set called A Beautiful Thing. I love how this sentiment goes so well with this couple. I think it would work so well for an Anniversary, Valentine or Just Because I Love You card. Tomorrow is my hubby's birthday and I'm tempted to give him this card . . . but I also love the Pun Fun Skunk that says "I stink you're sweet." Or, maybe I'll go the nature route . . . Hmmm. I just don't know - so many choices!!

Supplies I used to make this card:

Stamps: Summer by the Sea, A Beautiful Thing
Paper: Purely Pomegranate, Whisper White, Rose Red Designer Prints, Vellum
Ink: Purely Pomegranate
Accessories: Vintage Brads, Mat Pack and Paper Piercer, Marvy Punches for the ovals, Dimensionals

5/11 Mother's Day Pic & a FS Card

Happy Mother's Day. Being with my girls has always been one of my greatest joys. Today we went to church and then Dad took us all out for breakfast . . . we went to Taste of Scandinavia in North Oaks - so yummy! My girls baked and decorated a cake for me and purchased my favorite kind of flowers (fake . . . as I always feel so sad when real ones die!) and best of all they wrote a poem for me. In the poem, I have "laughing green eyes!" (They must have forgot all the times those green eyes were shooting daggers at them! lol!)

I had a little time to stamp today and I made a Featured Stamper card. You can see the card I cased HERE. Jennifer aka lovestostamp6 has a great gallery over at SCS. You can see more of it HERE. My card uses Jersey Shore Designer Paper and the stamp set called Pun Fun. I kept the ribbon placement the same but my panel around the main image is larger. I did a little bit of paper piecing and a little bit of paper piercing, just as Jennifer did. I love my Pun Fun set . . . as my customers can attest to! Thanks for looking!

Supplies I used to make this card:

Stamps: Pun Fun Paper: Brilliant Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Jersey Shore DP Ink: StazOn Black, Bashful Blue Accessories: Pumpkin Pie Marker, Pumpkin Pie Striped Grosgrain, Mat Pack and Piercer, Dimensionals

5/10 Raks and Ballet Cards

Debra Tack aka dtstampz sent me this gorgeous RAK. We've been card buddies for a couple of years now. She became a demonstrator for SU this past year, as I did, and we are excited to meet each other for the very first time at Convention 2008. Stamping is such a wonderful way to build friendships with people from all over the country. Debra is from the state of Washington . . . a place I would love to visit someday. Her card is stunning, the forward petal is raised up and there is a bit of glitter enhancing the flower. I have been on the fence about this set ever since I saw it. Not because I don't love it . . . I loved it immediately, but I have quite a few (ok, a lot!) of flower images already. I didn't think I "needed" another flower stamp set. Well, I got this card yesterday, and I ordered this set called Bloomin' Beautiful from the Occasions Mini Catalog today!
Then, my upline, Shanna McLaughlin, surprised me with a SU product gift along with this card made with RubOns. I LOVE the colors . . . . Chocolate and Greens - too yummy! Thanks, Shanna!

My daughters are all at rehearsals this afternoon for the ballet production of Cinderella. I always sell cards as part of the Minnesota Alliance for Dance Arts fundraiser and I needed some ballet cards quick. That performances are scheduled for May 31 and June 1. If you live in the Twin Cities area and would like to attend, let me know, I will give you all the details.

This card uses some patterned paper that was in my "Stash." I couldn't find a manufacterer name on it anywhere. I stamped the ballerina on vellum cardstock with StazOn Black ink. I layered the vellum over a panel of Pink Passion, attached it with Silver Brads and adhered it all to another panel of Basic Black. A very easy card to make and that's a good thing!

Supplies I used to make this card:

Stamps: Ballerina from Serendipity Stamps Paper: Basic Black, Pink Passion, Vellum Cardstock, unknown patterned paper Ink: Black StazOn Accessories: Silver Brads

Another quick ballet card. This one uses the retired set called Dance Sketches. I was able to create six cards with one sheet of designer paper which I believe is from K & Company. To get the shoes the right shade of pink, I mixed Regal Rose and Blush Blossom re-inker and applied with an Aqua-Painter. It worked wonderfully!

Supplies to create this card:

Stamps: Retired Dance Sketches Paper: Blue Bayou, Very Vanilla, K & Company patterened paper Ink: Basic Black, Blue Bayou Accessories: DS Blue Bayou Ribbon, Dimensionals, Sponge

5/7 Monday Makeover Challenge

I know, I know . . . it's Wednesday! But, I read about this challenge called Monday Makeover on Andrea Walford's Blog. Andrea is a fantastically creative stamper and a very successful demonstrator. I am always inspired to create whenever I visit her blog. Anyway, the gist of the challenge is to select a card that uses mostly or no SU products and make it over with all SU products. I selected this card called Beautiful Daisy from Valerie Stangle's blog. I love the colors and the way the daisy just filled up the panels. Oh, and the way Valerie stamped the sentiment in black and just a touch of a swirl . . . ummmm, just so awesome!! So here is my card:


I made my card 5.25" square. The black panel under the squares is 5" square. The Whisper White squares are all cut at 2 5/16" of an inch. The square center panel has a black base that is cut at 2 1/2" square. I used a paper piercer to make holes in each corner and stuck a Vintage Black Brad into the holes for accents. I realized too late that I didn't follow the rules exactly . . . we weren't supposed to change the sketch of the card and I did . . . I put my square on tilty like a diamond because it showed off the centers of the flower panels better that way . . . and I've never been one to follow a design exactly! I'll try harder to do so in future challenges.

My supplies for this card:

Stamps: Riot of Petals, Priceless
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink: Only Orange, Orchid Opulence, Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise, Pink Passion, StazOn Black
Accessories: Vintage Brads, Dimensionals, Stamp-a-ma-jig


Below I made a tutorial that shows how I got the Riot of Petals to stamp the same way on every single one of the squares.


First, I stamped my image sheet with the Riot of Petals in Basic Black ink. That way it shows up nice for me and the photo. When I remove the ink from the image sheet, I take it off with StazOn Cleaner. Works like a charm. Then, I took on of the Whisper White panels and using Dotto repositional adhesive, I lined the square up with the lower right hand cross section in the SU Grid paper. (oh, I love my grid sheets . . . don't know how people stamp with out them!!)




Next, I put my stamped image panel over the Whisper White square and select the area of the flower that I want to appear on my white panel. When I am satisfied with the image placement, I take a pen and draw around the image sheet so that whenever I remove the image sheet, I know exactly where to replace it in order to get the image stamped again in exactly the same way.

Her you can see what it looks like with the image sheet removed

Now, I've put the image sheet back over the area I want to stamp, line it up with the lines, put the stamp-a-ma-jig where it belongs, remove the image sheet and stamp.

Here is the result after one stamp with the Orchid Opulence ink.

Then, I just repeat the same process with the rest of the panels, making sure to line them up with my center grid line in the lower right and replacing the image sheet and the stamp-a-ma-jig and stamping with the other colors. It goes so quickly - it's just amazing!

I hope you've enjoyed the tutorial and thanks for stopping by my blog today!

5/6 Pottery Barn Christmas

Can you believe it? The temperature has dropped 15 degrees in the past hour! That's Minnesota for you. We started the day so gorgeously. My daughter and I ate lunch on the deck, I pulled brats out of the freezer to grill for supper and now we are sitting at 59 degrees and dropping. Huh? I've got to golf in league this evening in a turtleneck . . . for the fourth Tuesday in a row!! Will I ever be able to put my turtlenecks away for the season??

The blog called Great Swaps Girls issued an Inspiration Challenge today. The picture above is from Pottery Barn Kids and it was to be our inspiration. I was immediately inspired by the dots that made me think of snow, the green that made me think of Wild Wasabi, and those big splashy spots on the back wall reminded me of a stamp that I have in SU's Little Pieces set.

Since my mind was on snow . . . I started thinking about Christmas. I need to get back on the ball with my Christmas cards so I decided to make a fairly easy Christmas card as I wanted to make 10 of them. This is also a card that my customers can choose to make at my Christmas Take Ten nights. Thanks to the inspiration challenge, I was able to come up with something fairly quickly. I just love the colors: Kraft, Ballet Blue, Wild Wasabi, Purely Pomegranate and Whisper White.

Supplies I used to make this card:

Stamps: Peaceful Wishes, Holidays & Wishes, Little Pieces, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Paper: Kraft, Ballet Blue, Wild Wasabi, Purely Pomegranate, Whisper White
Ink: White Craft, Wild Wasabi, Ballet Blue, Purely Pomegranate
Accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Double Stitched Purely Pomegranate Ribbon, Dimensionals, Chunky White Glitter

5/3 Musical Thanks

I needed a Thank You card for Kasey's music teacher and it had to be large enough to handle a lot of student signatures. I also wanted to make sure that it was sturdy enough to stand up to lots of handling so this is a flat card. But, there is a panel of torn vellum going from top left to bottom right and that is what gives this card a bit of elegance. Of course the Thank You with so many swirls is also quite elegant.

The background paper is by DCWV and I purchased it at JoAnn's. The only musical background stamp that I own has the words, "We wish you a Merry Christmas . . . " so didn't think that would work so well!

It's my ten minute card that anyone can stamp with minimal supplies. Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies:

Retired Stamps: Musical Manuscript, Elegant Greetings Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Vellum, DCWV background paper Ink: StazOn Black

5/2 Circles of Love

There's a whole lot of circles going on in this card! I checked in to see what the Limited Supply Challenge was at SCS and our only limitation was to use circles in some way on my card . . . well, I certainly did!

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I selected the stamp set called So Much because it has a couple of marvelous circles that I was able to incorporate into this card. Every bit of stamping was done with my Silver Encore pad and embossed with Silver Embossing Powder. I made that wonderful shimmery background that you see in pink by brayering Pixie Pink over our Brushed Silver card stock. I learned how to do that at Regionals in Milwaukee. I just love how it shimmers IRL. The edges of most of the circles where sponged with Basic Gray to give them a little more depth.

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I'll bet you are wondering how I would come to use the retired stamp set called Memory of the Heart as my focal point . . . good question. I have an "Inspiration Book" that I keep in my stamp room and in it are pictures that I've cut from magazines. It's everything that makes me happy so whenever I look at it, I'm always inspired to create. I get my magazines from the thrift store for a quarter a piece and I pick up Martha Stewart, Real Simple, Better Homes and Garden's and Country Living most often. Well, as I paged through my Inspiration book, a woman's powder compact from 1905 caught by eye because it was A) Round and B) Pink, Black and Silver with a touch of Blue. That caught my eye. The center of the compact had an image that reminded me of the flower basket in Memory of the Heart and that's how it goes when you are a stamper . . . one thing just leads to another. It's in the May 2008 issue of Country Living on page 54 if you have an issue sitting around and want to check it out.

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My Supplies for this card:

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Stamps: Current - So Much Retired - Memory of the Heart with the sentiment from Smorgasborders.

Paper: Basic Gray, Ballet Blue, Brushed Silver, Pixie Pink

Ink: Pixie Pink, Basic Gray, Silver Encore

Accessories: Silver Embossing Powder, Sponge, Coluzzle, CM Circle Cutter, 1" Circle Punch, Styled Silver Hardware, Foam Tape, Pop-Up Glue Dots, Brayer