Another Impression Obsession DT Challenge!

For this month's Impression Obsession Design Team Challenge - the rule was to use "stamps only" That means no decorative paper, no rub-ons, BUT embellishments were allowed!

So.... I came up with this window card showcasing one of the soon to be released IO stamps for summer - Cupcakes anyone? This stamp is so yummy! The window was created with the classic oval Nestabilities. I layered up the front of the card with a red layer on the lower half of the card and scalloped strip and THEN cut out the oval. After laying the main white piece on the red mat on the inside of the card, I stamped the plate of cupcakes to show through the window and started to color it up!

I added some pink chalk around the image to make it glow a bit. I colored the image with watercolor pencils, added some stickles glitter glue, the "You're Sweet" sentiment and that was pretty much it! On the front of the card, I did tie a bit of polka dot red ribbon and added the cutest embellishment. It's a hat pin style embellishment with a fun pink oversized crystal on the top! I love it! I picked up a whole bunch in a handful of colors.

Here's a look at the inside.....


Be sure to check out what some of the other IO girls did with this challenge! These ladies will be posting throughout the day today! Don't forget to check Penny's blog for a chance to win some new IO stamps!!!

Daniela
Penny
Tina
Laura
Bernadette
Deborah


Never look down on anybody unless you're helping them up. ~ The Reverend Jesse Jackson

Back with black.....

I guess you could say Sharon got me on a roll with her "hint of black" challenge a few weeks back because, as you can see - I haven't stopped! Just look at my posts this week! It's ok - you can tell me, "put your hands up and step away from the black ink pad!" Maybe I should--huh?

Moving on...

This little card was actually my first card that I did for Sharon's challenge. I didn't like it at first, but now it's kind of grown on me. It's a 4 by 4 square and fits perfectly into those little envelopes that Amuse Art Stamps puts out. The black mat is 3-1/2" by 3-1/2" and the center mat with my stamping is 1/8" smaller all the way around. I did use that ticket corner punch from Stamping Up and added my bling there with 3mm crystal rhinestones. I stamped my main image (Design Block Silhouette - Hero Arts), stamped and matted the sentiment (Hero Arts), layered it up, tied some ribbon and added them with a mini glue dot. Nothing to it!

Enjoy today! Thanks for stopping by!



No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted. ~ Aesop

A Shout Out!

Denise G. You know... my bloggin' and coloring bud - can you email me at juliekoerber@bresnan.net?????

A tisket a tasket......A May Day Basket

Happy Monday!
I wanted to share the other project I headed up at my LSS this past Saturday. If you saw yesterday's card, this one was designed to match it!

I have to start by saying -- I did NOT come up with this idea! I actually found it on Deena's blog A Necessary Creativity. Click HERE to see her tutorial! Her basket is darling! I know this was a SCS Technique Challenge but you gotta give Deena credit for the great tutorial! If you want to see more inspiration from the SCS gallery - click HERE

In a nutshell, what you do is start with an envelope! I used a larger 5 by 7" one. You're supposed to use the tag punch on both sides to create the handle, but I didn't have one, so I used a large rectangle punch - if you check out the tutorial, this will all make sense! I covered by envie with scallops and decorative paper (Lasting Impression) and then added some fun with the Inkadinkado stamps! It's a fun creation for those times when you just want to give a "little something!"

Have a great day!

Blog Candy!

My bud Penny has some AWESOME candy from Impression Obsession! Click HERE to see what she's got up for grabs!!! The samples she made with this set are amazing!

Page Plans Sketch

Well yesterday I headed up a make and take at my LSS and this is one of the cards we made. I love these images from Inkadinkado. As you can see, not a ton to this card! Just stamped everything in black, used my scalloped and classic oval Nesties, added some ribbon and a tag and used my slit punch from Stampin' Up to create a vertical scallop. This could very well be a 15 minute card!

The layout of this card is actually influenced by one of the fabulous designers --Jennifer Buck-- over at Page Plans. This sketch blog just started a few weeks ago for scrappers and card makers. I did only part of the sketch, call me a rebel!!! :-)

Here's the sketch....



I should mention, this was last week's sketch! They already have a new one up! In fact, they add one every Sunday. So.... go check it out! Click HERE.

Hope you are enjoying your Sunday! It's gorgeous here in Big Sky Country... the family is about to break out the bikes and hit the park to feed the ducks!

Have a fab day!

Stamp Simply -- out of the box!

Woo - hoo! It's Friday and that means.... drum roll please... a Stamp Simply Challenge (ssnotime32)! This week Sharon issued a challenge to think out of the box. Not an image outside of a box but stamping an image in a way that wasn't intended. To check out all the challenge details, just head on over to Sharon's place HERE. You can also see her FABULOUS card. Man, did she think out of the box on this one!!

Well, I've done this a bit before - you can check out THIS post to see my take on a poinsettia. Or, THIS post to see how I turned a nail polish bottle into a light bulb!

For Sharon's challenge, I decided to be a bit more predictable!! I used a heart to create a flower!

Here's how I did it! I used an elongated heart (Impression Obsession) and I made an "X"....
Then, I just filled in the spaces so that when it was done, it looked like this...
It's not perfect, but when you cut the image out and add the pearl in the center-- no one will ever be able to tell! I did do two layers of the hearts and then used a scalloped circle (Stampin' Up) for the base to add a little more dimension.

Here's a close up!
I used Brilliance Orchid ink, added a scalloped edge to my strip and then stitched a border on top. The tag is just a scalloped rectangle punch that I used to stamp my "Thinking Of You" sentiment (Hero Arts).

Now that you've seen what I cooked up for this challenge, don't forget to visit the rest of the Stamp Simply crew!!!

Dee
Tammy
Janine
Jennifer
Becky

Hope you make time for play time! We'd love to see what you come up with!!
Have a great weekend,

Last Day Of The Tour!

What can I say about Janine Orchard other than she's the best! We met through the Sisterhood of the Blogging Stampers and we just completely clicked. If you've never checked out her site 2B Krafty, you need to. She never ceases to amaze me with all the cool ideas she comes up with!

Last fall, she sent me a goody package full of stamps and embellishments. I am slowly but surely making my way through everything in the box. It's kind of like a fine wine, just gotta savor it! This stamp was one of the things in the box. How fun? It's from Outlines Rubber Stamps I thought it was the perfect image to paper piece-you know how I love to cut things out! Must have been deprived in Kindergarten! I just cut and layered all the pieces. The yellow layer was popped up with a bit of foam tape. I also colored parts of the image with my Copic Spica Clear Glitter pen to make it sparkle. The candle flames and heart were also colored with my Spica pens.

Here's a close up! I'm amazed that in this angle you can't see the sparkle -- trust me--- it is there!!!


Thanks Janine! You rock!! Want to check out more friends and take a tour of your own.... all you need to do is hit my Blog Roll. The ladies here truly inspire!!!

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods! Tomorrow brings another Stamp Simply challenge. This one will be a ton of fun because you will all have to think "out of the box!"

Until then.....

The Bloggin' Princess!

When I first started this trip into blog land, one of the first ladies to pay me a visit was the princess her self!!! Miss Jacki Jones from The Card Castle. She has this wonderful way of making you feel like you have known her for ages. She is just this uplifting and spunky person and I've really loved getting to know her and visit her blog! She's uber talented too!!

Last fall I signed up for her PIF. I didn't even know what PIF was!!!! Since then, she's blessed me with a whole bunch of hand made creations! Here's just a sampling of some of the things I've gotten from "The Castle!"

Here's the lovely card she sent. I love how the tulips are underneath vellum giving it that really soft look! It, of course shows her signature color --- purple!

My favorite is the hand made name tag she made me - Isn't this so cool and creative??? Jacki, if that is a stamp with all the rubber stamped images, please share who makes it! I am sure people other that myself would love this!!! I laugh --- but I teach classes at my local stamp store. I have a group of regulars, whom I love - I don't care that they know my name -- this name tag just has to be displayed! LOL!

Did you see all the stamped images in the main picture - those are only about 30% of what she sent! She actually wrote - "don't be overwhelmed..." HELLO! How could you not??? It will be so nice to have such fun and lovely images on hand for a card in a hurry!

Now... to my creation! One of the things Jacki sent was a huge sheet of stamps from Posh Impressions. I LOVE those brush stroke type flowers! The set even has some fun background elements, some words, and some little add-ons like butterflies and lady bugs!

Here's the card I came up with! The flowers were colored and stamped with markers. I used old paper distress ink for the grid style border, a SU punch for the notebook style edge, and a distresser for the edges of my paper to rough it up a bit. I did cheat and use a Gina K. Designs stamp for the word "friend."

THANKS JACKI! You make me laugh and your cards inspire!

Tomorrow's our last stop on the blog friends tour - we'll go and "B Krafty" with one of my best bloggin' buds.

Until then!

Even More Bloggin' Friends!

I have no idea how Cheryl Moody and I became bloggin' friends, but let's just say, why question it? YOU can visit her HERE at God and I on the Railroad Tracks. She is this ball of sunshine that you can tell is just a genuine soul. A few weeks ago, she sent a PIF my way and in it came the nicest card and some fabulous goodies!

Love that lime green!! It's one of my favorites along with, of course, pink! She also sent some paper and embellishments that are a ton of fun!

After I edited this photo, I realized I could have done a better job laying all this out! Cheryl's goodies included some metal alphabet letters, some stamped images, some fun paper, some really neat ribbon that even has some sparkle to it! (You know how I love the bling!) Some punched pieces like circles, photo corners, scalloped circles, word windows... and more! Plus, jeweled and colored brads! I will be having a ton of fun with this for a while!!!

I wanted to use some of her stamped images to create a card for today's post. I LOVE that poppy from SU that, I think, was in the sell-a-bration catalog. Cheryl also sent the bloom definition that, I think, is also in that set.

Here's what I did with it!

I "aged" the floral image with some tan chalk and then used a dot stamp to accent it with some tea dye distress ink. I colored it with watercolored pencils, accented the corners, added some ribbon on one of the mats, assembled and then added the tag with a jump ring. The tag was just cut using a 1-1/4" circle punch. I cut a second circle (same size) out of patterned paper and then layered it by skewing the red layer to the left so it just kind of hangs off the side.

That's it! Tomorrow, I'll continue my journey showcasing some of my blogging friends by taking a trip to visit a princess in a fabulous "castle"

Until then! Have a great day!

More bloggin' buds!

In an effort to thank some really great bloggin' friends, yesterday, I hinted that we were going to go searching for a "buck!" Well, that would be Miss Jennifer Buck from The Buck Stamps Here! She is so fun. I swear, if we lived in the same town and hung out, I wouldn't need caffeine! She just has this energy about her that is electric. HONESTLY, you can read it right through the computer screen!!!

A few weeks ago, she sent me this amazing package of ribbon, brads, beads, pearls, some really cool metal frames, a beautiful card AND some stamps! Wow. What did I do to deserve this???

This is a closer peek at her darling card!! Don't you just love those felt flowers she added? Cute! I am pretty sure this saying is Stampin' Up too!

I, of course, immediately wanted to play with the stamp set! It's one of the sell-a-bration sets from Stampin' Up!!

I just got this fun patterned paper and I wanted to pair it up with some of the pearls Jennifer sent -- so, I chose to do a really soft looking card - nothing but pink, pearl paper and dp! The layout is pretty simple! I stamped my flower twice using Versamark ink and embossed with Silver Pearl embossing powder (Stampendous). The saying was stamped with a light grey and then the flourish flower was stamped behind it with a really light pink. Then, add some ribbon, round off a few corners, mat it up, attach the pearls and DONE!

Here's a close up of the layered flower....

Thanks so much Jennifer! You rock! I had a blast and the fun is far from over!

Tomorrow, we'll hit the "tracks" in search of some more talent!!

A Shout Out To My Bloggin' Buds!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend! First off, I wanted to say thanks to Jackie over at Just Stamp It! and Karen at Karen's Kreations. They are the sweetest! Both gave me the ArteY Pico award. It's given to bloggers who share their art and contribute to the blogging community. WOW! Truly an honor ladies! If you check out their blogs, I'm sure you'll agree, they are a couple of talented cookies themselves!!

I have to tell you - I've made some pretty neat friendships in blog land! It's funny how I click of a mouse and a comment left can really make someone's day. I can't count how many times I have read a comment and laughed - I mean FULL belly laughed - at a comment that one or more of you have left! My husband officially thinks I need meds! But, maybe it's good that he thinks I am a tad bit crazy - I'll be able to get away with more and he'll keep on being nice to me! LOL!

In honor of my bloggin' buds, I am going to dedicate this week to some of the women whom have brightened my day. Those that made special gifts, those that sent a fun package my way, those that gave me a PIF or a RAK - CHEERS TO YOU! I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate it!!!


The first person... is my MOM! You can visit her HERE! She sent me this adorable little notebook that she took the time to deck out, gave me directions on how to make my own along with all the things needed to do the project. She even stuffed some fun papers and brads in the package. How fun is that? She got the idea from Angie at Chick n' Scratch. Check out her blog for this really fun tutorial!

Here's a close up of the darling notebook with all the fun ribbon on top!

Since the whole idea was to take her notebook and supplies and make one myself, I did!!

This is what the notebook looked like when we started....

Can you believe it was just .50 at Mikes? Seriously! That's what my mom paid. Here at my Mikes they are a buck, but still! What a fun, personal gift!!

I used grunge flower from Cornish Heritage Farms. It was the stamp of the month for March. If you've never checked out their SOTM deals, you should. You get one stamp and a sentiment for a discount. This one came with the saying, "Bloom With Abandon" and was a really pretty text. You can still buy both, but separately!

On to my creation... here's how it turned out! I love it! Just a breath of spring! It was so fast and fun to create! I know there are more to create in the near future.


Thanks mom for the fabulous gift and the chance to be creative and try one myself!!!

Tomorrow, I'll find a "Buck" and share some of her fabulous creativity!! Until tomorrow!

A Touch Of Black....

TGIF! Time for another Stamp Simply Challenge. This week I am grinning from ear to ear because her "Stamp Simply Team" keeps getting bigger and better the gals I am going to be doing challenges with ROCK!

This week's challenge was to have some black accents on your card - you can do it anywhere or with anything - ribbon, stamps, embellies -- anything that makes a bit of a statement! If you want to check out the rest of the details - click HERE for Sharon's "official rules!" :-) If you want to upload to Splitcoast - the key word is ssnotime31.

Now for the fun! I bought this decorative paper - if you can believe it- at the dollar store! Our store in town is called Dollar Tree and Miss Elizabeth's sells exclusively there. Well, you might think dollar store paper - ick! BUT, I've really had fun with it. I grabbed a couple different packs! All I did was stamp Solid Florals from Impression Obsession onto a hot pink rectangle, layered it up and added some bling. The button is actually one of those epoxy buttons from Making Memories that I strung some gingham ribbon through and matted it on a scalloped Stampin' Up circle punch. I did add some foam tape underneath it to pop it out a bit more. That's it!

My mom used the same paper on her card... click HERE to see! Fun layout on her card -- don't ya think??

Here's a close up of the BLING!

Be sure to check out the rest of the crew's cards:
Dee
Tammy
Janine
Jennifer
Becky

Have a fab Friday! Make time for play time and join us in the challenge!

Full of glitter!

Hi All!
The other day when my mom and I were playing with paste... er... I mean embossing paste- I thought it might be fun to cover the tree with glitter. I imagined a tree just with fresh fallen snow on it. I think this look rocks. I WAS covered with glitter when I was all done though---glitter in the hair, on the face, all over my clothes. Put a light on me and I would have been a human disco ball!

Like I said yesterday, this is a technique from Dreamweavers - click HERE and surf around their site, they have GORGEOUS stencils. Me thinks I need some more!

Here's a close up of the tree showing the glitter. I had to up the contrast so you could see it well! IRL, it is really soft and glittery!


Well... I'm off and running! Have a fab day!

Embossed Tree

When my mom comes to town, she usually comes packing a stamp technique or two. This go round, it was embossing paste and gold leaf! It is such a pretty technique. I did have one problem. I didn't have any metallic embossing paste. Ideally, I would have used copper instead of white, that way if the gold leaf didn't cover all of your image, the copper would show through instead of white. you can see some parts of my image where it has a little peek of white - but- I'm ok with it. It was the first card and I say-- Not bad. Fun technique. It's a technique that was created from the owner of Dreamweavers stencils, so I'm not going to share a how-to. I think they sell the idea page - so that's not fair for me to share when they are trying to make a living!! BUT, you can click HERE and surf around for some more beautiful samples!

You'll have to click HERE to see my mom's creation with the same image. This is one she brought from home. She used the gold paste so you can see the difference in just how much more dazzling her image is. WOW, I say! Gotta get me some of that metallic paste!

Happy Tuesday!

Bloom With Abandon

Hi all ! Happy Monday!
This is a card that I am doing tomorrow in a class at my LSS. It is seriously a ten minute card!The image is the March Stamp Of The Month from Cornish Heritage Farms. While you can't buy the stamp and the phrase as a set any longer at their site, you can find the flower HERE and the saying HERE, if you like them!

To make this card, I cut two mats for my main image and then cut half of the card front out of a decorative paper. I colored the "grunge flower" with two shades of pink marker and two shades of yellow for the center. The flourish is also from Cornish Heritage Farms Rummage Bin Collection. It's called Beautiful and even has half of the grunge flower in the set. After I stamped and matted it all up, I added some pink "dew drops" to the lower right corner. That's it!

Sorry to make this so short and sweet..... just that kind of day. And.... we're off and running!
Have a fabulous day!

My Fui Fui Man!

Ok, Laura Davis is hysterical! She's got some blog candy going and.... to enter... all you need to do is show her a picture of your "FUI! FUI!" man. Ok, I know a lot of you are saying to yourself, "huh?" What's she talking about???? Well, this is how Laura described it. Have you ever been walking down the street and heard that oh so obnoxious whistle: "FUI-FUI", to let someone know they are "HOT?" Well, that's what FUI-FUI is! So, here's my man.......

He's my cutie patootie that I've been married to for 13 years! Thanks Laura for letting the men in our lives get their "props!"

If you have a picture of your FUI-FUI, just click HERE and leave a comment to be entered in her blog candy giveaway!!

Hope you are all having a good weekend!
Julie