More Gina K!

Well, if you are a Gina K. fan- let me interrupt myself-- why wouldn't you be? Anywho, she had a release party last Sunday to show four new sets and the DT put together some fun challenges. Well, remember yesterday's card???? I entered it for one of the challenges and won! It was a name out of the hat thing. No competition. So what do I have to say about that?? YEAH for luck! :-) I won one of her new sets! Can't wait to play. I already have an idea I am dying to hatch. If you just clicked on the link -- you'll see my horrible pun.


This was another card I entered for Julie Brook's challenge. You just needed to have a scallop at the top of the card. I love this stamp set (Heartfelt Hits) because when you stamp this man and woman, you don't need a lot of "stuff" on the card. It is so elegantly beautiful just by itself! I wanted to go for a kind of tuxedo look with the card, black and stark white with a hint of gold.

Well, I promised my daughter we'd have a little manicure party this morning! So, I best get ready for purple and glitter on my nails. Not my top pick but it's pretty sweet when your little girl says, Oh mom, you need sparklies on your nails! :-)

Have a good one!

This One's For The Girls!

This is a challenge posted from Gina K. Design's release party courtesy Miss Cammie King. When I saw this challenge, I thought, man, this is so simple---- which makes it so hard! Do you ever find that? I used the Heartfelt Hits set from Gina K. Designs and, made some fun circles using my Nestabilities to imitate the circles on my decorative paper. The large circle was created with the Nestie and then I punched a second smaller circle kind of off center inside to create a frame. I stamped my image on the third smallest circle in the Nesties set, mounted it on a piece of sheer ribbon and then wove the ribbon over and under my "frame" circle. Confused yet? It is easy to see - just hard to explain! :-) I added bling to the girlies bracelets, colored the hands and wine with watercolor pencils, corner rounded the edges of my mat and was done! This was a super fun challenge! Thanks Carolyn!



Here's a close up of the girlies' bracelets!

Have a happy day! Is it Friday yet?????? :-)

Good Monday Mornin' To Ya!

Well, after a weekend of work, I'm ready to play! :-)

This is a creation that I picked up from Angie through Janine. Isn't that funny how we surf, and pick up ideas that are other people's ideas from another site? Then, you sit and blog and end up going from one link to another and before you know it, it's lunch time. Anyone do that? If you want to see a HYSTERICAL example of this... click HERE I am laughing WITH Jacki on this one!

If you've never been to Angie's Stampin' Academy, you need to. She has a TON of fun tutorials and really great samples. I am in awe!

This was one of her ideas that I made for the ladies that were in my class last week... It's a candy purse! Isn't that such a cute idea???? I made them in a breeze and had fun dishin' them out!

Here's an inside look, I put Milky Ways in mine, but the purse was made for nuggets.


Well, off to just relax today! Hope you get a chance to do the same!

Oh Baby!

Well, this was the little card I came up with for my friend's baby shower yesterday. To steal the words of bloggin' bud Jennifer Buck, it's "easy peasy lemon squeezy!" :-) I just used my Nesties for the shapes on the tag. The image is actually a Stampin' Up image from forever ago. It was part of a set of nine or ten little mini images for all different occasions. Sadly, this is the only third time I have used that set! With this card, however, I think I could get a lot more mileage just by using the tag and ribbon style. I colored my little onsie with water color pencils and added a little glitter thanks to my clear Copic Spica pen. Don't you just love those little safety pins? I think those were put out by Making Memories. They are all in pastel colors which make them PERFECT for baby cards!

Here's a close up of the little tag showing the pin and the sheer ribbon....

Well, I am about to go off to my work cave (that's what I sometimes call my bedroom) I have some writing assignments for the magazine I work for so I'll lock myself in my room with my laptop and hopefully nail them out! Writers block can stink, so wish me luck!! :-)

Until tomorrow!!

Nothing but sweetness!

Hi all! Coming up Tuesday, I'm heading up what's called the Stampin' Snack Bar at my LSS and this is one of the creations we are going to make. It's going to be a ton of fun because it will be set up like a salad bar with all the "fixin's" for each card/creation in a little fun basket. We'll make two cards and a little candy container. I just love this set from Hero!

For this card, all I did was stamp the cupcake and then stamp the little flower on top and colored them with watercolor pencils. The fun thing about clear stamps is I could see exactly where I had to set my flower in order to get it topped perfectly on my cupcake! Love that! I added some Diamond Stickles to the little sprinkles and to the flower. The paper is Crate Paper and on the blue strip, I added some fun polka dot ribbon from American Crafts.

Well, I am actually off to a baby shower this afternoon, so I best get crafting to come up with a card. Here it is in 2 hours and I have no card. That's pretty typical!

Have a great weekend!

You take the cake!

I just got this set and thought it would be so much fun for birthdays, and fun little notes to just drop in the mail whenever! I guess I caught the cupcake bug! Doesn't it seem like they are everywhere these days??? One thing that I realized when making this card -- don't do it hungry! I was like Homer Simpson. "mmmMMMMMmm Cupcakes." I love the saying on this one.... "You deserve a day sprinkled with fun!" This card is actually one I am sending through cyberspace to a wonderfully creative gal who is having a birthday today!!! :-) I hardly do snail mail anymore... I'm bad!


For this card, I just paper pieced the cupcake - stamping the "frosting" on dark brown paper, the cupcake wrapper on patterned paper and the little flower on polka dot paper. I added bling and "sparklies" to the cupcake. For the strip with the saying, I stitched along the top of this piece and added a scallop edge to the bottom with my Stampin' Up Slit punch. That's a really fun technique.

Here's a closeup of the flower so you can see the paper peicing.

Well ladies, I'm off for now! Hope you have a great Friday! TGIF!

Edited To Add: I must have been reading Sharon Johnson's mind when I created this card! Her Stamp Simply challenge involves a bake off! You can check out the details HERE. Thanks to my ESP, I'm going to link this one up!

Time To Share! A Gift......

How incredibly spoiled do I feel???? About a week ago this little number arrived in my mail box all the way from Ontario. Janine, I know you are rolling your eyes right now.. but I had to share! Janine is one of my sisters in the SBS5 group and she's one of my new blogging BFFs! You can check out her blog *HERE* She has some fabulous creations!

Don't you just love this tag card she made? And the goodies below? My heart stopped. I can't wait to use some of these things to make fabulous creations! She even sent rubber - a darling butterfly and a fun birthday stamp from Outlines!!! One thing I have never used is Radiant Rain. If anyone has and has a link or two to something you have done with this fun paint, let me know, I'd love to see! Thanks Janine! You are the best!!!



HAPPY THURSDAY Y'ALL!

I'm back!

Thanks those of you that shot me an email to check up on me! I got a few, "Hey, where are you?" notes because of my disappearance from the blogosphere! I love it when people notice that I am gone. Makes me feel all special!

Well, yesterday was enough to make my head spin! You ever have those days? Lately, it's been one a week! Anywho, last night I taught a class at my LSS. It's a fun concept, you make 3 cards of 3 different styles, so by the end of class you have 9 cards. Last night had a Valentine theme. Here's a look at one of the cards we did. You might recognize it actually! It's a spin on a card my mom did a few weeks ago on her blog. When I told her I planned to CASE one of her cards, there was dead silence. "What?" I repeated, "I think I am going to CASE one of your cards." More silence. I had to explain that just meant I planned to copy one of her cards. She got that "mom tone" in her voice. "Well, I don't know all that lingo!" Funny woman!!! :-)


I think this card is pretty self explanatory, I just gold embossed the heart scroll by Impression Obsession. I cut off an inch from the front part of my card, masked the inside and stamped my little fly away hearts (from the same IO set) so that it peeked out. I also dipped my front card edge in VersaMark and then embossed with gold so that I could have an embossed edge. It really helped the front to stand out a bit more. The image was just colored with watercolor pencils. Mat it up, add a bow and done!

Barely Stamped

Pretties! That's what Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply Challenge was all about this past week! Well, mine could be called barely stamped! The only stamp is the flourish that I embossed with a Hessonite embossing powder. I hate to admit this, but in the years I have owned this powder, I think this is the second time I have used it! After I stamped my image, I layered two sizes of silk flowers, punched a couple paper flowers out of coordinating paper and added some bling in the center. The metal embellishment in the corner is also something I have a bunch of and have had forever!

Here's a close up...

Have a good start to the week! I have to prep for a Valentine's Day Card Club (3 cards each of 3 designs). So, that means paper cutting, paper cutting and more paper cutting!

Off for now!

AND THE WINNER IS.....

Ok.. to pick the winner I just added the scores together for the Super Bowl - 17 and 14 equals.... 31. So the winner is DENISE.. who wrote:

My favorite technique is distressing! I love the shabby chic look! TFS!

So, you feel like the Giants Denise? LOL! Sorry, no trophy, just some fun candy!:-) I'm emailing you now so you can shoot me your addy!

Thanks everyone. Hope you all had a fun weekend!

Fly & Be Free!

When my bloggin' bud Asela Hopkins first showcased this stamp set on her blog, I thought I have to have it! One, because it's pretty and two, because it's her illustration. Isn't she too talented for words?

This is the stamp of the month for Cornish Heritage Farms and thankfully, my LSS featured it today for a game of "stamping bingo" (bingo where stampers meet to win stamping stuff!) I didn't win, but I wasn't going to let someone else have this set and not me!!! :-) No offense Ann! So, anyway, I went home, grabbed a cup of joe, and went to my happy place (my stamp room!)

For this card, I used Butterscotch Adirondack and Rust Adirondack to direct to paper the background. I inked up just the butterfly with Black Onyx Versafine and then colored the flower with yellow and orange and the stem with two shades of green marker. After I heat set the black ink, I used my watercolor pencils to add color to the wings. For the pop of white, I dotted on some white acrylic paint. Stamp the saying, layer it up, add some polka dot ribbon and done! Ooops.. almost forgot...my base card was stamped with a Magenta background stamp using VersaMark ink.

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

p.s. Don't forget to sign up for Blog Candy in Friday's post! I'll draw a name tomorrow night!

BLOG CANDY TIME!

I wanted to throw some blog candy at you all when I hit 10,000 hits. Well, that's come and gone and I'm on my way to 15,000 sooooo, thought I'd celebrate!

For a change at getting your hands on these goodies-just leave a comment telling me your favorite (at the moment) stamping trend or technique!

I'll leave this post up until Sunday night.... so good luck and TGIF!

Cardmaking is a team sport!

Well, after yesterday, Ann gave me a great idea on how to modify my card. One of those spiral paper clips.... so I did it! AND, I think, of the three options, I like this one the best. The spiral still is a circle and it actually matches up with the swirls on the coffee's steam. Thanks Anne!!! I promise, this is the end of this card. Let's just say the third time is a charm on this one! :-)


I've got another one to share today. This is kind of like a gift in a card. The card is super dooper simple to make and features one of my favorite easy techniques. I take 4 mondo post-it notes and rip the edges of them. Then I line them up on a card front to make a box. After that, I stamp the images using Vesamark ink. This time I chose leaf stamps. After I stamp all my images in the box, I take a cotton ball or a Fantastix and run different shades of chalk over top until my entire "box" is covered. This creates such a unique look. You can use just about any image you like and any kind of color scheme. Once you are done, stamp a neat setiment over top and fini! It's a quick and easy 10 minute card!

Now to the gift part. This would go to one of my knitting friends... because.. inside is a knitting marker that I made. When you knit more intricate patterns (like cables) you need to mark where you have to do certain stitches. These just slip on your needles so you can mark it up in style!

Off for now! Have a great day!

Showing off my rejects!

This is a big step for me ladies, showing my rejects! But, I wanted to do it because this card was a stinker. It was one of those I just couldn't get right. If you read my post yesterday, you saw my challenge card for Taylor's sketch. Well, this was my first attempt. It's so funny because I took her sketch very literally. She said, put the sentiment in the lower right corner.... so I did.

If I did the sketch without looking at that, I would have put the little "Thanks a Latte" up in the circle. So, it left me wondering what on earth do I put there? Well, the set I used from Impression Obsession didn't have any little images. I thought - steam from the cup? No, looked to weird. I tried a LOT of different things and none worked. These little coffee beans are actually from an ancient Stampin' Up set! But, even after all that, I don't think they work! So, I took off the little circle and said, 'Well, I just won't do this card for the challenge.' BUT, when I took off the circle, everything was skewed right and off center. So, my dear friends, suggestions? Am I being to hard on this poor little card??!!???

There are a couple of cool things about this card that I thought I would share. Have you ever made "faux suede?" It's when you brayer Liquid Applique onto a piece of paper and then heat set it? No matter how hard you try, you won't get the application even which makes this such a cool technique. Maybe I'll take some photos of the process to show since all you can see is 1/4" of the mat on this card! It's a neat technique. The other thing I did, which is not rocket science is, I distressed the brown gingham ribbon to look "coffee stained." It worked a whole lot better than the bright white from the ribbon!

Well ladies, have a happy Wednesday! My daughter woke up today and said, "Mom, can we craft today?" What do you think my answer was? :-)

Friendship is a sheltering tree....

I was feeling a little drained in the creative department. When that happens, I usually surf a bit to find a challenge lurking out there in the blogosphere! Well, I decided Taylor's was just the one to get me out of my funk.

Here's the sketch...


You'll have to take a trip to her blog and see her card. You can click HERE. She did the most darling Bella with bright, spunky colors. LOVE it!

Her card had a cupcake feel, but I decided to pick up a stamp set I just got to play. This set is so cool! You can build your own tree! It's from Impression Obsession. Isn't this neat?????



The card is really pretty simple. I just stamped the pieces of my tree using brown Vivid ink. The leaves were done with Leaf Green Adirondack ink. After inking up the little leaf, I stamped it twice - once with full ink and then the next a "second generation" to get that color contrast. Don't ya just love the little owl! He is too cute! I stamped him on the smallest circle in my Spellbinders Geometrics Circle set and then matted it on a 1" circle I just punched out. Layer up the paper, punch a ribbon hole, mat up your tree and call it good. I just love the saying... "Friendship is a sheltering tree.."

Off to work. Catch y'all later!

Sexy Little Stilettos!

HHHHHhhhhm. I "googled" the word stiletto to see if it had one "l" or two and came across an interesting tidbit. Did you know these shoes were named after the stiletto dagger? It's a knife specifically used - not to cut - but stab. EEK! Ok, so now you know that if your hubby or SO acts up, you can use your shoes as a weapon! LOL!

I thought I'd keep it flirty today with this little number. I stamped the shoes (Impression Obsession) using Versafine Black Onyx onto my circle shape that I cut thanks to my circle "Nesties". I colored them with watercolor pencils and then added a bunch of bling thanks to my Copic Spicas and a couple little rhinestones. I matted it on a scalloped Nestabilities shape. The saying -gotta love it- is also from IO. Ticket corner punch, scallops, more bling, black and white sheer polka dot ribbon, black mat on a white card... and done!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are rested up to take on the week!

Stamp Simply

You could say this card is all thanks to Miss Sharon Johnson! It's a part of her Friday "Stamp Simply" challenge. This week's challenge was to make sure your card edge - not a frame - not an embellishment - no - the edge of the card was scalloped. So, scalloped it is with my Martha Stewart edge punch. The stamps are from Impression Obsession and the image was just colored by stamping it on patterned paper and then paper piecing onto my main card image. Add a little white sheer ribbon, a rhinestone for the necklace and a pearl over the knot of the ribbon! I did line the inside of my card with a fun green and pink argyle pattern so that when the card is closed, you see that peeking out.
Here's a close up of the paper piecing...



Thanks Sharon! Another great challenge!

Happy weekend everyone!

P.S. Got an email asking about what I did to the "body" of the dress form. I guess I left that out! I "fake watercolored" it by picking up marker color off a pallete with a blender pen. Thanks for asking!!

N2U and... a sweater!

OHHHHHH... I so wanted to stamp today. I dreamt up some new ideas for some stamps that came recently. In my head... they rock. Who knows if they will work on paper. Do you ever have those ideas? When you think them up and you say to yourself - 'I can't wait to create this one!' And, well, it just doesn't work and you end up crumpling up paper, throwing it, screaming all the way? Anyway, I digress....

I couldn't stamp because it looked like an F4 tornado hit just a 12 by 12 section of my home - my stamp room! It took over an hour just to get it all back put away. I was ---THIS CLOSE-- to taking a picture and posting it in hopes of shaming myself to be a more organized stamper but I just couldn't do it. Maybe I don't want you all to see "the real me!" :-)

So, here's my N2U

This card was created thanks to one of the Outlines Rubber Stamps that I had. These stamps are fun because you stamp the same image multiple times and use different pieces to layer. I stamped the image on a red piece and then used a heart punch to cut it out and align it up on my card. I think this a cool technique that could be used with other stamps. For the black layer, I stamped my image with Versamark and then brushed on some Brilliant Gold Pearl Ex. Love that stuff! The rest is pretty self explanatory - ribbon, ribbon slide.. and Voila!


Here's a close up of the window....


And, here's another reason why I didn't stamp today! I started this sweater more than a year ago. It's made with wool from sheep right in Montana, hand dyed, very cool. Well, I have no idea why I don't just finish the thing! It's a really cool ribbed cardi. So, today I blocked the pieces so I could sew it all together. FUN! And the great part is - it's still cold enough to wear it! Normally, I finish sweaters in the summer when there's no way I can even enjoy the hours it took to put into the darn thing!!!



Well, off to pick up kiddos from school! Happy Friday!

You Light Up My Life....

I decided work just gets in the way of my stamping addiction, so maybe I shoud quit work.... Ok, maybe that's not the best idea!

Moving on!

This card was so fun because I stared at this little bottle of nail polish in Gina K's Text Messages Set FOREVER.
Here's a look at the nail polish bottle...

I knew if I tried hard, I could see something other than a nail polish bottle (not that there is anything wrong with this darling bottle... just wanted to challenge myself!) So, I had a "light bulb moment".... literally! What's really quite funny about this card is - today I interviewed the Environmental Compliance Officer for the city of Billings (my city) for a story I am doing for the magazine I work for - how appropriate is this card? We're talking energy conservation and I make a light bulb card. It was completely a mistake... I'm not that nutty!

So, what I did was I stamped the polish bottle using Conch Shell Adirondack Ink (it's one of the Sea Brights colors) and then I used my blender pen to bring the color out and into the actual "bulb" part. I stamped and embossed the "bulb" again in silver and cut out the bottom to make it like the part where you screw in the light bulb. The back ground stars are the stars from another Gina K. Set called Heartfelt Hits and the background (can't see it very well) is the desk light stamp also in the Heartfelt Hits set. I used the Stampin' Up Word Window punch to make my little tab that I used to attach my rhinestone brad, which in turn, attached my ribbon to the back of that piece of paper. I stamped the yellow piece of paper with a paisley background stamp from Stampin' Up that is retired now. I LOVE that stamp! The words are from the Heartfelt Hits set too and I stamped them with Versafine Onyx Black. That is my new favorite black ink pad. It is so crisp and it works WONDERFULLY on clear stamps!

When you look at this card, it kind of looks like the light bulbs are floating - well, I just attached them with foam mounting tape. I also "glitterized" them with a little bit of Stickles. Gotta have the bling!

And there, my friends, you have it! Happy Thursday! T minus one day until.... THE WEEKEND!

When A Man Loves A Woman....

Golly Jeepers, I wish pearl paper showed up better in photos! This paper actually made my heart stop it is so pretty. It is like a pearl Bazzil but it feels like fabric. I knew right away, a wedding card was in store. The stamp is one of the new ones from Gina K. Designs - Heartfelt Hits I stamped the man and woman with Versafine Smoky Grey ink and that was the only stamping I did! I layered it with the help of one of my rectangle scalloped Nestabilities. The only difference here is - the scallop was cut twice - once from the pearl paper and a second time with the pearl fabric feeling paper. I cut one of them in half and layered to have the reverse colors match up with each side of my base layer on my card - make sense? Hope so! Since the layer is half and half, I didn't want the mat around my stamped image to get lost so I made the scalloped rectangle layer half and half - only in reverse. I put a line of pearls down the center separating both sides of my base mat layer and on the left side of the card, I embellished with some paper piercing (Lasting Impressions template). The fun part about the stamped image is the fact that I wanted the woman to have a kind of wedding dress on - so.... I cut a line at her waist using an Xacto knife and then strung 2 pieces of wired sheer white ribbon through to make her tulle skirt. At the top of the skirt, I added some mini pearls as well.

Like I said - not a lot of stamping - but, thanks to the paper and embellishments, it has plenty of flair!

Happy Hump Day!

p.s. Part of the reason why I chose paper piercing on this card was thanks to a challenge from SBS5 Sister Donna *HERE* That was part of her first ever little ole weekly challenge!
p.p.s. I actually was spoiled today. I got to make TWO, yes two, cards this afternoon. Tomorrow, you'll see my "light bulb" moment with one of the other Gina K. Designs sets I got recently. Fun stuff!