Hello Birdie

Oh I am so excited about this weeks Cupcake Friday sketch over on Taylor's Blog http://tayloredexpressions.blogspot.com/2009/01/taylored-expressions-cupcake-challenge_30.html  - First it's a really great sketch and 2nd I am more then happy with the card I created for the sketch (toot, toot) - Hey once in awhile we just have to toot our own horn!                        My first order of the new SU Catalog arrived Friday night and I had a chance to play today.  I just think these little birds from (Cheep Talk) are just so adorably cute.  I couldn't wait to ink them up.                       For this card I stamped the branches with Kiwi Kiss ink and then stamped my birds with Pacific Point ink.  Next I stamped the birds again (on Whisper White and cut out jsut the birds bodies and layered them over the main image with foam mounting tape.  Then I stamped them again on Bashful Blue card stock with the Pacific Point ink and cut out the wing and raised it up with foam mounting tape.  I then added 2 punched flowers in Summer Sun and 2 small green brads (Queen and Co.) to the flower centers.  I mounted this image onto Summer Sun card stock.  The hardest part for me was cutting "outside the box" with my birds but I managed it.

The sentiment was stamped with the Pacific Point ink as well.

I used my new, Good Morning Sunshine designer paper and layered that onto some Pacific Point cs that I punched with the new Eyelet Border punch.  I added some White Grosgrain ribbon (American Crafts) and a 1/4" punched circle of Summer Sun and a small blue brad. This was layered onto Kiwi Kiss stamped with the Canvas Background stamp in Kiwi Kiss ink and layered to the base card of Pacific Point. At the top I added 3 Dew Drops.  I just love the nice Spring feel of this card and believe me I am so ready for Spring and I hope this card gets you in the mood for some Springtime weather and fun too.  Don't forget to visit Taylor's Blog and check out the other cards being made using this sketch. 

Blowing in the Wind

Here is a card that we did at my last Stamp Club meeting.  I was inspired by this card.  I had just got my Raspberry Tart designer paper and absolutely LOVED the colors and patterns so that is what I went with for my card.  Of course when I went to cut everything for the meeting I found myself short on the Rose Red card stock and had to search through my scrap boxes for enough to come up with for 10 cards.  Next up was the fact that I had 2 different shades of Cameo Coral card stock which is the 2nd layer on this card.  My card stash was mostly the Old Cameo Coral which was more orange based so that is what we went with.  I needed a background stamp as I felt it was to plain without one and wouldn't you know it about the only non-retired (SU WE STILL NEED BACKGROUND STAMPS!) background stamp I had that would work was the Sanded Background so that is what we used. 

Next up was the fact that I didn't have time to order the new (Heart to Heart) punch so we ended up using a retired (Folk Heart) punch instead and I explained to all the members they could now purchase the new punch if they wanted to recreate this card.

We also used the Scallop Border punch, White Craft ink, White Embossing Powder, White Signo Gel Pen (for the few stitching) and foam mounting tape.  I love the Dandelion Image in this set.  It will work for more then just Valentine cards.

Mice Are Nice

Wow I had hoped to particpate in more then one of Taylor's Cupcake Friday sketches to help celebrate a year of wonderful, fun cupcake cards and sketches but alas it just wasn't meant to be.  For starters I have been having major issues with my right wrist (going numb, burning and tingling in my fingers, losing sleep, pain) so I just haven't been stamping all that much.  I've had a bit of relief that last 2 days so today I finally managed to do one of the sketches.

I chose this one from http://vickichrisman.blogspot.com/ because I really liked all the different layers it had.  I had spotted some paper on my desk when I was cleaning and decided to go with that as my color scheme for the card.  This is also part of the Blogger's Challenge this week (Week #84 - Theme, Birthday cards/projects).  So don't forget to check the other members out by clicking on the bloggers challenge icon on my side bar.

I also got to use my new Whiff of Joy stamp (Isn't that mouse just the most adorable thing you've seen in a long time!).  I colored the image with Prismacolored Pencils and blended with Gamsol.

Details:  Card Base: Real Red layered with Certainly Celery embossed with the Circles CB folder. I stamped the sentiment (SU) with Always Artichoke ink before embossing. I layered strips of designer paper (Artic Frog) and a piece of Pretty in Pink card stock that I embossed with a Martha Stewart border punch.  I added Always Artichoke Grosgrain ribbon.  My focal image was mounted on Tempting Turquoise cs and both were cut using my new Labels 2 dies from Spellbinders.  I added Red and Green jewels (Me and my Big Ideas) and raised up my image with foam mounting tape.  The flame and sprinkles on the cupcake were highlighted with Spica Glitter pens.

SGGW - Penguin Love

Happy Monday!  Hope you are all staying safe and warm.  It's COLD here again with only a high of 28 expected today and once again we have snow on the ground.  Believe me this is very unusual for Walla Walla to have had so much snow.  I really am looking forward to Spring.  In the mean time I had an extra image left over from the SGGW Mystery Image swap (see card here) so I thought I'd make up another card and send it to the Swap Hostess,       Sue Davis as a, "Thank You" for hosting the swap. 

I used the same exact color scheme as my previous card but went with a totally different layout.  This layout is the Mojo Monday Sketch Week 69.  My card base is Close to Cocoa layered with Bashful Blue and Barely Banana (embossed with Heart Cuttlebug Folder) and distressed with Chocolate Chip ink and the Cutter Kit. The designer paper (SU Spring Showers - retired)was layered onto Chocolate Chip and distressed.  I stamped the sentiment (SU A Happy Heart) with Chocolate Chip ink and punched the individual letters out with a 1/2" circle punch.  Then I layered them onto a 3/4" circle of Bashful Blue.  I stamped the heart again in So Saffron Ink and raised it up with foam mounting tape.  My focal image was colored with Prisma Colored Pencils and the boxer shorts were also raised up with foam mounting tape.  I also stamped some splatters (Itty Bitty Backgrounds) with Sahara Sand ink to match the splatters on the DP.  The dot on the letter (i) is a very tiny punched piece of Chocolate Chip card stock.

Enjoy the week and don't forget to STAMP YOUR ART OUT!

BC83 - Love Birds

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Gosh the week sure went by quickly.  Of course I've been swamped with activities so that could be one reason.  Sunday we celebrated my mom's 80th birthday and I prepared a meal for 16 people!  She really enjoyed her day and that made me happy. Monday was Coleen's birthday and that meant another party with decorations (which Grandma didn't know she was expected to do until the morning of her birthday).  Then last night was my Stamp Club so I have been one busy lady for sure.
Our challenge this week was a color challenge:
(Black, Red, Kiwi and White/Vanilla).  I really liked this color combination.  It's very striking.


I started this card last night after my stamp club and decided that I wanted to put to use some of my Christmas goodies.  I got a Janome Sew Mini!!! 
My first attempt went okay except I missed a few stitches at the start so I decided to start again and then my thread kept breaking and breaking.  I spent well over an hour trying to figure out what was going wrong before discovering that my bobbin wasn't locked in place properly.  Somewhere in the midst of all that I picked up Coleen's Squishy Octopus toy that she got for her birthday and squeezed it and all the goopy insides came squirting out all over me and the carpet so I had to clean that up.  What a mess.  By the time I got most of the card assembled it was almost 1:00 am so I decided to hit the sack and wait till this morning to finish up my card. Then I had difficulties photographing it (I need a better Camera).  I like how it turned out though so it was worth all the trials I went through to finish it up.

Card Details:  Card Stock:  Black, Real Red, Whisper White
Raspberry Tart Designer Pape (SU) - I LOVE THIS PAPER!
Stamp Set:  Together by Hero Arts
Ink: Basic Black, Real Red, Kiwi Kiss (I used a blender pen and reinker to color in the branches with the Kiwi Kiss ink).  The hearts were highlighted with a Red Spica Glitter Pen which makes it shimmer in real life.
Other: Rectangle Nestabilite Dies, Label Die, Red Thread and Sewing Machine, Heart Punch, Shiny Metallic Heart Brads (Queen and Co.) Black Grosgrain Ribbon and foam mounting tape.

Now if you haven't already checked out the other members cards/projects please do so by clicking on the Bloggers Challenge Icon on my sidebar.

Have a great weekend!

TECC51 - HAPPY 80th Birthday Mom

HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY MOM!!! -  January 18th - This picture was taken in July and is one of the nicest photo's I have of my mom.  She hates having her picture taken so it's really hard to get a natural looking picture of her.  This is the first of the tomatoes she had from the plants she grew last summer so I took a picture of her with it and she was so excited about it that she smiled naturally for the camera instead of her usual sober look.  Anyway my mom is my dearest friend and this is a milestone birthday for her so I felt it was only fitting to share a photo of her with my viewers.

My post is a day early but I wanted to get the card posted ahead of time as it's part of the Cupcake Friday Challenge.  I've missed the last couple of sketches but thought I'd do this weeks and decided that I'd just make my mom's birthday card using the sketch. 

I went with flowers and butterflies because those are a couple of my mom's favorite things.  Then I remembered that I had some paper by Chatterbox that had poppies on it that I thought would work well for my card.  Once I started making the card though I decided to not use the poppy background paper but went instead for the striped pattern.

I stamped the poppies (Oh So Lovely - retired SU) with Palette Noir Black ink and colored them with Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol.  I masked the flowers and sponged Barely Banana Ink around them while my paper was still inside the Nestabilities Die.  I stamped a second set of poppies and cut the flowers out and raised them on my main image with foam mounting tape.  I added the buttersflies from (Beyond the Basics - SU) by coloring them with Ruby Red, Really Rust, So Saffron and Always Artichoke markers).

I layered this onto a scalloped rectangle of Always Artichoke.  Then I realized that I needed another panel as the strips in the sketch go under the main panel so I added the So Saffron Panel. 

The Main Card is Always Artichoke layered with So Saffron and a Textured Piece of card stock in a dark red color from Chatterbox.  I added 3 punched circles of Really Rust with dark green brads (Queen and Co.).  My sentiment is from Sincere Salutations) and was stamped with Bravo Burgundy ink and I pierced underneath the sentiment for some added insterest.  I added 2 punched butterflies to the focal image to complete my card. 

I even stamped the inside of the card (which I don't do often but I like how it turned out.  I hope my mom will like it.  Be sure to check Taylor's blog and see all the enteries for the Cupcake Friday Sketch.

My Funny Valentine - BC 82

Time for another Bloggers Challenge and this time was, (Same but Different) which can be interpreted many ways.  We could use the same stamps but different layouts,  Same layout but different stamps,  different techniques, colors/papers etc...as long as something was the same on each card.    I chose to use the same layout for both my cards but different stamps, papers and embellishments. My first card is also a Mystery Image for the Stamp Girls Gone Wild group I belong too.  Since Kerry is a member of both groups she's bound to see this card before she gets it.  Sue Davis was the Hostess this time around and she sent this cute Penguin image from Memory Box.  As an added "twist" to the challenge she also sent each participant a piece of Designer Paper that we had to use somewhere on our card.  We could use all the paper or just a piece of it but somewhere on our card we had to use the paper she sent.  My piece is from the SU collection called, Spring Showers which is now retired.  I must admit to not being thrilled with the paper I received but after I got my card going it all fell into place and I really like how it turned out.

My card base is:  Close to Cocoa that I layered with Barely Banana edged in Chocolate Chip ink.  Then I layered a piece of Bashful Blue card stock that I ran part way through the Cuttlebug with the Hearts embossing folder and layered on my piece of designer paper.  I added a piece of Chocolate Chip twill ribbon.  I colored the penguins boxer shorts with Prismacolor Pencils and cut them out and layered them on the main image.  This was then layered to a circle of Whisper White and a Scallop of Barely Banana edged in the Chocolate Chip ink and pierced.  I added 3 small circles of Close to Cocoa with 3 small hearts punched in Bashful Blue (punch source unknown).  Then I stamped the sentiment (SU Holidays and Wishes) in Close to Cocoa ink and used a stamp from Itty Bitty Backgrounds to create the spatters to match those in the paper.  The sentiment and focal image were raised with foam mounting tape.

For my second card I chose to use the adorable Skunk image from SU Pun Fun.  I stamped him in Palette Noir Black ink on Whisper White card stock and colored him with Copic Markers.  I masked the image and sponged in some grass with Kiwi Kiss ink.  Then I added a small red brad to the flower center and highlighted the petals with a Clear Spica Glitter Pen for some shimmer.  My card base is: Ridinghood Red layered with Certainly Celery and Pink Pirouette ran through the Cuttlebug with the Floral Fantasy embossing folder.  My designer paper is from Kaisercraft.  I added 3 circles of Certainly Celerty and 3 light pink heart brads.  The sentiment was stamped with Ridinghood Red ink.  I used Ridinghood Red Taffeta.

So there you have it 2 cards with the same layout but different stamps/colors - Now go check out the other members blogs and see what they created for this fun challenge.  You can do so by clicking on the Bloggers Icon on my sidebar.

 

Delicious Treats

Hurry you don't want to miss this!  The very "Talented" Kerry is having a Blog Anniversary and is offering up some Sweet treats (no not those delicious looking cookies) to not 1, not 2 but 3 Lucky people.  All you have to do is follow a few simple rules for your chance to win.  See this post and spead the word.  I didn't include the pictures of the Prizes so you will have to go check it out for yourself.    I couldn't resist the picture though of the cookies.  I'm with Kerry...Give me Baked Goods any day over Candy (although I like candy too)  Okay I admit I have a sweet tooth period. 

What you're still reading this,  why haven't you headed on over to Kerry's blog and checked it out - Get Going!!!

"Designed" For Love - BC 81

It's been awhile since I've done one of Julee's Mojo Monday sketches so I figured it was high time I got in and participated.  There is now a blog dedicated to MojoMonday and you can find it here:  Beside's this being a lot of fun you can also get a lot of inspiration from viewing all the great cards and have your chance to win FREE Verve Stamp sets so be sure to check it out.  

My card is also the card for the Blogger's Challenge Group this week who's focus was on Designer Series Paper.  I thought the sketch really fit being able to showcase designer paper quite well. 

For this card I used the following:  Card Stock:  Rose Red, Regal Rose, Whisper White.  My designer paper is from DCWV (Heart Print) and the Polka Dot Piece is from an unknown source .  I know pretty sad since the challenge was to focus on Designer Paper.  I cut off the Company name after I got it (I don't do that now) so I can't really say who makes it.  The reverse side is the solid raspberry color under the polka dot pattern.

Ink: Regal Rose and I computer generated my sentiment to match SU Rose Red.

Other: Sheer Pink Ribbon (JoAnn Fabrics), Large Heart Eyelet (Old retired SU brad), 6 light pink heart brads (JoAnn Fabrics), Lg. and Sm. Oval Punches, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Heart Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Angel Dust Glitter (Art Institute) and Foam mounting tape.

I love how this all turned out and hope you do as well. - Be sure to check out the other members blogs to see how they spot lighted Designer Series Paper.

Think Spring

I'm sure those of you who have been having a cold, icy or snowy winter like we've been having are more then ready for Spring,  I know I am.  I signed up on another group I belong to for a "Think Spring" card challenge and this is the card I created for my partner. 

Stamp Set:  Upsy Daisy, Sanded Background
Card Stock: Tangering Tango, So Saffron, Old Olive, Whisper White and Haiku Designer (to bad it's retiring soon as it's so refreshing).
Ink: Tangering Tango and Basic Black
Other: Fire Rhinestone Brad, Designer Flower Brad,  Notched Corner Punch (retired), Scallop Punch, Paper Piercing Tool, Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon, Foam Mounting Tape and Dazzling Diamonds Glitter.

I stamped the flowers once with the Tangerine Tango ink and then stamped again (without reinking) slightly above where I first stamped ( I just love the shadow look this makes) and then highlighted the darker flowers with the Dazzling Diamonds Glitter.

Romance is in the air - Blog Candy Alert

Just a "heads-up" on some cool Valentine Blog Candy being offered up here at Stamps, Paper, Scissors and Donkey Smiles - Plus you get to read all about their cute little Donkeys - They are adorable.

Then if you're in the mood for Romance you can check out ABC tonight for the latest addition of The Bachelor - Okay call me a "hopeless" romantic but I love this show. Yes, I realize that very few of the couples have ever stayed together but it's fun to watch and just maybe there may actually be a real romantic connection.

BC80 - Happy Valentine's Day

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! -  First I want to thank everyone who visited my blog last year and left wonderful comments.  It really meant a lot to me. I hope that 2009 will be a good year for everyone and that you'll drop in often.  This is my first card of the New Year.  I hope you like it.                    The Bloggers Challenge Group was issued a Color Combo for this weeks challenge (Chocolate Chip, Red, Baja Breeze) and White/Vanilla optional.  For some reason these colors just seemed to shot out Valentine's Day to me so that is the theme that I went with. 

Stamps: Cat & Bird - Whipper Snapper Designs, Sentiment from SU Holiday and Wishes

Card Stock: Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Baja Breeze, Whisper White and

Ski Slope Designer Paper

Ink: Basic Black, Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeae, Real Red

Other:  Cuttlebug Embossing Folder - Birds and Swirls, Lace Punch (Martha Stewart),Oval and Scallop Oval Punches - Marvy, Heart Die (Source Unknown), 3 small red brads (Queen and Co.), Real Red Glitter (Art Institute) and foam mounting tape.

Don't forget to check out the other members creations by clicking on the Bloggers Challenge Icon on my sidebar.