Sunday, June 29, 2008

Featured Stamper Day!

This week's featured stamper on SCS is Chelemon, Michele. What a terrific gallery, you should check it out! My card this week was inspired by the layout and BRILLIANT use of hardware on this card.
I used some of my horribly neglected Basic Grey Sugard 6x6 pack, which fits right along with this week's OCC challenge -to use Basic Grey on your card! I just LOVE the colors in the Sugared paper, and it gave me the perfect chance to use some of my brand spankin' new Prismatic papers! This stuff is great, it is slightly textured on one side and smooth on the other. It's not as thick as SU!, but it's great for framing -and it comes in a bazillion colors! Seriously, comes in 113 colors! This card uses the Frosted Pink and the Crabapple Dark colors. The image is from MFT, the MFT Presents line designed by Annie LaPoint. I colored the image with prismacolor pencils and "popped up" the lavendar flowers. That amazing striped organdy is from Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts. It has just the right amount of stiffness to make bow tying a breeze! The tag is a combo of my cuttlebug Flowers die and SU!s Circle of Friendship. The inside was sponged with Baroque Burgundy and has a corner from the Vintage CB die.

Oh, I should also mention that OCC is offering the chance to win a nice little prize for all who participate. A $15 gift certificate to Jacksonbelle Embellishments! How fun for a lucky winner -I hope my name is drawn -LOL!
Card Deets:
Stamps - Take a break, circle of friendship
Paper - Sugard, Prism papers
Accessories - SU hardware, pewter brads, ribbon, dimensionals, prismcolor pencils, gamsol

Friday, June 27, 2008

I'm DONE with the new home cards!

Whew! Sharon's (notimetostamp) Stamp Simply challenge today was a LIFESAVER! Her challenge was to do a 10 minute card. I had 2 more new home cards left to complete my order and I am super short on time today, so this sounded PERFECT! When looking at the samples on her blog, I found the perfect layout to CASE. Oh, thank you Jennifer Buck!

Never mind that these "simple" cards took me over 2 HOURS to complete -my youngest, Ryan, is in a cranky mood today and I had to deal with a tantrum about every 10 minutes -rolleyes!

Anyway, here they are, my last 2 cards! I just love cards that uses DP, I have an obsene amount of DP and I love to use it up. The card on the left uses the SU Ginger Blossom and the right uses Webster Pages, Parlour Collection. Here's my quick card tip: Cut the base cardstock just under the size of the card you are mounting it on. That way you don't have to worry about the "fine tuning" of the card front to get it to fit perfectly on the base.

Card Deets:
Stamps - Congrats all around by MFT, Warm Words, Happy Thoughts by Verve Visual
Paper - river rock, really rust, DP
Accessories - SU vanilla tafetta ribbon, rust and vanilla brads from Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts

Thursday, June 26, 2008

My Tuesday favorites on Thursday!

OOPs! I forgot to post a couple of my oldie but goodie favorites on Tuesday. Still very new to this whole bloggin thing, not even been at it for 2 weeks yet. So... here they are, 2 days late -lol!

7/30/07: This card was for the Dare to Get Dirty in '07. What a fun set of challenges, this challenge was a color challenge to use only black and browns, no colors! Who knew that 1 year later, I would be a Dirty Girl preparing for the next Dare to Get Dirty in '08?!? I borrowed my friends Baroque Motifs set and made this card. I quickly bought the set myself and I am sad to say I haven't really used it much (gasp). Isn't it funny how we HAVE to have a particular set and then never use it? Oh well, this card is one of my all time favs! This card can be found here in my gallery.

7/16/07: I love making baby cards, seriously, that is my niche! So soft, cute, and cuddly -the cards AND babies. Anyway, these cards were such fun to make -and still a fav of my clients. This card can be found here in my gallery.

So, there they are, this week's Tuesday Favorites! Happy stamping.

-Michelle (can't get my fancy blue siggy to work today, go figure?!)

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

8 down, 4 to go!

I mentioned earlier that I was asked to make 12 New Home cards by my real estate agent. After today's card, I only have 4 more to go!! I know I said all had to have a house on each of them, but I thought I would try a warm welcoming latte on one!! I figure at least ONE of his clients drinks Starbucks!?! I used today's sketch 182 for the inspiration.

This card measures 5 1/4" x 5 1/4" square. Each DP square measures just over 1" square and is from my one and only square punch. I designed the measurements of the card around it!! I busted out my much loved and horded Tres Jolie DP. My LSS was having a sale on all their Tres Jolie line as they are no longer going to carry it! Sob! I bought just about all the patterns I could get my hands on (and the matching jars of buttons). This particular card uses a combination of the Oui Oui and Bonjour lines. I just LOVE Tres Jolie by MME, for those of you who haven't seen it IRL, it is thick, double sided and has a texture to it.
I used my Like it a Latte set and some liquid applique for the foam. I then sponged it lightly with cocoa and popped it up. The sentiment is a combination of Warm Words (for the welcome) and Happy Thoughts from Verve Visual (for the home). I wasn't planning on putting a dew drop on the image panel there, but I had a brown ink smudge and had to cover it up! LOL! Thank heavens I bought some of the PTI cardstock colors, because the spring moss and light aqua are a PERFECT match for this DP.
I get asked frequently where I get my liquid applique. I find it at Joann's in the adhesive section. I haven't had much luck at Michael's. Here is a picture, I put a penny by it for a size comparison.




Card Deets:
Stamps - Like it a Latte, Warm Words, Happy Thoughts by Verve Visual
Paper - close to cocoa, vanilla, spring moss, light aqua
Accessories - dew drops (the Cowboy bottle), liquid applique, small flower punches


Tuesday, June 24, 2008

This week's Mojo Sketch

Oh oh oh, I just loved this week's Mojo Monday sketch that Julee posted! Lots of potential here, I plan on doing several more! It was just the thing to help me out of my mini stamping slump.








I decided to try something different for this card. A couple days ago, I was inspired by Gina K's tutorial of Crayon Resist. So after MANY attempts and just about all day working on this, I settled to resist on the single butterfly from Verve's Thankful Blossoms . It is kinda hard to see it on the pretty swirly butterfly, but it's there! The butterfly is sponged with barely banana in the center and working out I then used celery and then cameo coral. I used lots of stickles on the butterfly as well.

The striped image panels were made using my oldy but goody, Simple Stripes BG. I just love that backgrounder!! Stamped in PTI's colors Sweet Blush and Spring Moss respectively. I originally thought I would put dew drops around the entire oval, but ended up liking them being used for the butterfly trail instead. I added a clear dew drop in the center of the green button to bring some continuity to the embellishments. The top background panel was run thru the cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder and the bottom panel is PTI's Pink Patterns DP.

At that point, the card still wasn't quite where I wanted it to be, so I added some piercing (when in doubt -PIERCE I say!) and striped organdy ribbon (another fav of mine!). So, after 3 hours, and an entire scrap bag full of crayon resist disasters, I finally like this!!

Card deets:
Stamps - Verve Visual Thankful Blossoms, Simple Stripes BG, sentiment by Tech Tuesday
Paper - PTI spring moss, sweet blush and DP and SU cameo coral
Embellishments - dew drops, striped organdy by Pinkhedghog Papercrafts, buttons, paper piercer, corner rounder, white gel pen, stickles






Monday, June 23, 2008

2 more birthday cards and 2 RAKS

WOWeeeee! I just love getting birthday cards arriving late, I mentioned this before, but it just so much fun to open up real mail -and beautiful cards is even better! Most of you know that I am pretty active in the PIF (pay it forward) forum on SCS and these are from my PIF friends!

This lovely beauty is from Arlene Bridges. WOW, Arlene the colors and design of this is GORGEOUS. Thank you so much!



How cute is this little girl with the mini birthday cake? Just lovely! This is from Newstampinaddict, Alison. Hugs to you Alison and thanks for this amazing and sweet card.


This RAK is from my dear stampin friend Shirley (squirrellyshirley). She sent this to me to congratulate me for being invited to be a Dirty Girl. It is hard to see in the picture, but the main image is cracked glass! She loves that technique and is a pro at it! Love this, Shirley, just love this!

Last, but not least, is this gorgeous lily RAK card from Janette (Blessingsx3) sent to congratulate me for being selected as a Dirty Girl. For those of you who don't know, Janette was just asked to be on the design team for Hanna Stamps! Yeah Janette. Back to the card, I love the simple colors and framing in black. Thank you so much for thinking of me Janette.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

2 down 10 to go!!


Ha ha! My real estate agent just emailed me and asked me for another 12 "new home" cards. I love creating for him because he lets me design whatever I want as long as it has a house of some kind on it and says "welcome home" or "new home". I have to keep in mind NOT to make them too frilly or sparkly -I use very little ribbon and NO flowers. Sometimes hard to do! Anyway, for the next week, you will see lots of New Home cards from me!

This week's featured stamper offered me the perfect inspiration for a couple. This week it is Diane (Lost in the 60s) . I chose this cute card to case. For the card on the right, I kept the general layout and colors, but changed up the stamp set and added a ribbon panel. The card on the left uses different colors. The cute little house is from the My Favorite Things Congrats all Around set and the sentiment is from Verve Visual's Happy Thoughts set (p.s. LOVE that set, so versitile!).

I should mention that while browsing thru Diane's gallery, I saw a card using Kanji and it's what gave me the idea to use it for the home cards. Who doesn't need a little love, tranquality and harmony in their new home??

Card deets:
Stamp sets - Kanji, MFT congrats all around, verve visual
Paper - Choc chip, caramel, banana, moss, coral/black, going grey, pomegranite, bashful, banana and celery
Accessories - cuttlebug, swiss dots folder, silver brads, hodgepodge hardware

Thursday, June 19, 2008

My inspired 3x3s


Sarah Green is offering some delicious blog candy and to enter she is asking us to create something from her lovely inspiration photo. I haven't figured out how to link the actual picture, but here is the link to her post (please contact me if you can tell me how).
As soon as I saw the photo, I was reminded of my K&Company tin of tags and frames. I thought the "bloom" pieces resembled the droopy flower blooms on the picture! Thanks for the inspiration Sarah!


Card deets:
Paper - cocoa, pale plum, PTI spring moss, PTI aqua mist
Accessories - various ribbon scraps, some bling, irridescent cord (from Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts), purple paper flowers

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

OK, different but the same...


I just HAD to make another sketch card with the supplies I had lying around from the card this morning. I like the colors much better. Don't get me wrong, it's fun to play color challenges because I get introduced to combinations I normally wouldn't use, but I like the softness of these colors much better. Just not a big Kraft fan I guess. I received the large scalloped rectangle nestie piece from Mindy Young thru PIF! What would I do without those ladies???

Triple challenge card! Yep, 3!


Whew, this one was a challenge. Ok, this card covers this week's color challenge 171 (to use Soft Sky, Kraft and black), the sketch challenge 181, and the Double Dare challenge. This week's DDC was hosted by the lovely Joan and was to use flowers and birds (or in my case, butterfly) and create a summer feeling card.

Well, only having only 4 very small squares of Kraft paper, I had to plan carefully. So,when I saw the sketch last night, I decided to use it mainly for framing and make the majority of the card in Sky. I busted out my NEW set of small scalloped rectangle nesties and used the largest one to make the black frame. The flower is the cutest little stamp I found on sale at my LSS. It's called Garden Flower by Inkadinkado #95375-G. I colored the images with markers, keeping it simple today! The flowers and the butterfly have both the Sakura glitter pens and stickles on them. The tiny bling on the butterfly is from the Dollar Tree (the nail section holds many treasures!).


Card deets:
Stamps - Garden Flower, unknown butterfly
Paper - black, kraft, soft sky, white, designer prints in sky
Ink - black, sky, celery, yellow
Accessories - tiny bling, black SU gingham, black brad, stickles, sakura glitter pens

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The card that was almost dirty!


Most of you know this month's Dirty Dozen theme is FASHION! Well, I had this idea floating around and asked my friend Shirley (squirrellyshirley) to borrow her Pattern of Friendship. Well, the time got away from me and I only had 1/2 a card done by the time the deadline creeped up on me! So, here it is...the card that was almost Dirty!!

Rememeber paper dolls? I may be dating myself here, but I just loved playing with paper dolls when I was a girl. So, I had an idea to make a paper doll and some clothes for her. I stamped the dress onto some coordinating patterned paper and hand drew the "clothing tags". I was inspired from my old tin of my grandma's buttons. They appear on this card in abundance and one even has the old thread still in it! I stamped the BG panel in Aida Cloth tone on tone and the sentiment is from Hanna Stamps, What would Hanna Say? I think she would say "Let's PLAY!"

Card deets:
Stamps - pattern of friendship, aida cloth, things Hanna would say
Paper - ruby red, river rock, groovy guava, white, patterned paper by Cosmo Cricket
Accessories - grandma's buttons, river rock double stitched ribbon, corner rounder, paper piercing tool

My Tuesday Favorites

As most of you know, I am a HUGE fan of Sharon's (notimetostamp) and she has a segment on her blog called "oldies but goodies" which showcased some of the older cards in her gallery. I LOVE that idea!

So, in true "highest form of flattery", I will have my Tuesday Favorites. Each Tuesday, I will post 2 or 3 favorite older cards in my gallery. With having over 425 cards posted, this should keep my Tuesdays full for some time!

This card was the first card I custom made for someone. My mom's friend placed an order to make several birthday cards for her. I was thrilled that someone wanted to actually PURCHASE my cards, and I took special care in designing each one. Here are the card deets.










(5-27-07) I love the Bellas! This card was so fun to make. I had just purchased the HUGE My Mind's Eye paper pack from Costco and used it in about EVERY card I made for months -lol! I still have that paper. I have moved on a bit, but still grab for it every now and again. Here are the card deets.






(3-27-07) Here is the last card for this week's favorites, if memory serves, this was one of my very first color challenge cards at SCS. My challenge with color challenges, was that I didn't have all the colors in inks or papers. Most of the time I stayed away, but with this challenge, I got lucky and had the colors covered. Here are the card deets.



Have a great day!

Monday, June 16, 2008

My Two Hearts mojo and inspiration


One of my FAVORITE layout challenges every week is Julee's Mojo Monday sketch. This week I combined her sketch challenge (here) with her Verve Visual inspiration challenge. You can click on the amazing inspiration photo to view here.

I was inspired by the colors and the swirl pattern in the bedspread. I used my much loved Anniversary Birds set (LOVE their swirly tails) and decked them out with glitter! The 3 thin strips are stamped randomly with the Priceless small swirl and the banana panel is stamped with Aida Cloth. I also stamped the little wings with banana, popped them up and covered them and their tails in glitter. The image panel is also stamped with Aida Cloth in banana and edged in glitter. The brads in the center of the primas are dipped in versamark and embossed with kaleidoscope EP and then dipped in glitter and the primas are covered in Stardust Stickles! Glitter, glitter, glitter -see a pattern here? Super sparkly IRL.

Card deets:
Paper - black, red, banana, white
Stamps - anniversary birds by Verve Visual, priceless, aida cloth
Accessories - dew drops, glitter, rectangle nesties, red satin ribbon, primas, white brads and kaleidoscope EP

Holy Smokes! More birthday cards!


WOWeeee! More cards. Oh, I love getting birthday cards a tiny bit late... it extends the birthday love!! Here are some more beauties I got in the mail today.
Clockwise from the top:
Lovely flower cake from Lori (artsylori)
FUN and hip tall pink and black card from Charlene (LilLuvsStampin)
Amazing fold/tuck card by Julia (artystamper
and fun little dog from Lori (artsylori) -yes, 2!!

Oh, ladies! What can I say??? Charlene, your card is so amazing and cheerful! Julia, that design is super fun and I will have to CASE! Lori, WOW super cute cards and you sent TWO? I am smilin' ear to ear!


Sunday, June 15, 2008

More Birthday cards to share!

WOW! I am truly blessed with my wonderful stamping friends. Here are some more birthday cards I received.

Clockwise starting at the top: Riley Moose from Roseanne (SumToy), Dansing bella from Diane (Glamour), Adorable Cow from Meg (Stamping Meg), Amazing Eiffle Tower from Jen (JenMarie), and Wonderful Sunflower fromPatti (MommaPatti).

Oh, ladies! Thank you all so much for thinking of me on my day. I love the cards, each amazing in it's own way!!

A double challenge card

Sundays are just the BEST! I love the Featured Stamper challenge over at SCS. Every week we get to drool over a new wonderful gallery. This week's FS is Denidill and I chose this sassy card to case. I also combined this with Sharon's "Go Bold" challenge. As soon as I saw the challenge was to use BOLD colors, I knew I wanted to use some of this retired SU paper Sweet and Sassy.
This image is from Rubber Romance Bunnie and I received it thru the PIF thread. I colored this cute Diva with my prismacolor pencils. The turquoise piece at the top is embossed with the Stylized Flower CB folder and sponged with white craft. The bottom panel is stamped with Orchid Opulence with the long retired BG Simple Stripes. I left the sentiment off, so this can be used for just about any occasion.

Card Deets-
Stamps: Rubber Romance Bunnie, simple stripes BG
Paper: Turquoise, orchid opulence, green galore
Accessories: primas, gem brad, may arts striped grosgrain ribbon, stickles, cuttlebug



Friday, June 13, 2008

A sketch for me to try with Elmo



This week's sketch on Jen's blog was just perfect for my cutie patutie Elmo Gives a Flower PIF image from Ajitzi. I colored Elmo and Zoe with my prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I used some of my Basic Grey Cupcake paper and primas. The flowers and Zoe's jewelry have stickles on them.


Card deets-

Stamp: Unknown Elmo image
Ink: Black
Paper: real red, soft sky, Cupcake DP
Accessories: primas, buttons, May Arts red striped ribbon, stickles, paper piercer, CM oval cutting system

Happy Birthday to me!


Yep! I am 40 today. Yikes! No wonder my kids tucker me out everyday -LOL!

I have more birthday cards to share from my wonderful stamping friends! Thank you ALL, my mailbox has been overwhelmed these last few days. I am truly blessed!

The cute pink jumper card is from my DDC friend, Anne (jdmommy) and the cupcake beauty is from my fellow Dirty Girl and DDC friend, Joan Ervin!

These cards ROCK ladies! Hugs to you both!

Here are some more! WOWzers, aren't they beautiful? Clockwise starting from the top left:

Mindy Young
Deb (dcorder)
Debi (bottomphish)
Bev (triasimite)
Michelle (justpaintingaround)

WOW! What can I say ladies? Amazing cards!! Hugs to you all :-)

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Happy mail!


What a fun day at the mail box! I got several birthday cards from my stampin friends. This first picture shows a super cute Inky Antics turtle card from Denise (Peanutbee) and a card using Best Blossoms Anne (Itsapassion).

Thank you so much ladies, these cards are amazing and so detailed! Just love them.

I will be back later to post pics of rest of the lovely birthday cards.

Fun with Tilda!


I am delighted to have been invited to join the Double Dare Challenge. This is a weekly challenge with several SCS stamping friends.

This is my first challenge from Julia (artystamper), it was to use this cute Tilda image from Magnolia Stamps and the piece of PTI DP. I combined the DDC with this week's sketch challenge over on SCS. I colored the image wiht prismacolor pencils, gamsol and blending stumps. The amazing 5/8" striped organdy ribbon is from Pinkhedgehogpapercrafts.

Receipe-
Stamps: Magnolia Stamps, Aida Cloth
Paper: Groovy Guava, River Rock, Blush Blossom, PTI DP, Very Vanilla
Ink: Blush Blossom
Accessories: Dew Drops, prima flowers, striped organdy ribbon