Blogger's Challenge Friday #10

This week were were challenged to use the layout on page 92 of the Fall/Winter Collection (Circus Train) as our card inspiration. We did not have to make a pocket card, we just had to use the layout with the 5 squares.

This was a tricky challenge for me. I'm not good at randomly positioning things and having them look good. I'm more right brained -- orderly I guess. Anyway, trying to line up the squares just like the sample was making my head explode, so I decided to rotate the card 90 degrees and attempt my own pattern with the squares.

Aside from my personal issues with randomness, this was a really easy card to pull together. The color combination (groovy guava, ruby red, blush blossom and river rock) is from the In Color Combos sheet from Stampin' Up! It's like a color coach supplement with all the new colors for this year.

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Priceless
Ink: Groovy Guava, Ruby Red, River Rock
Paper: Groovy Guava, Ruby Red, River Rock, Blush Blossom, Confetti White
Tools: Crafter's Toolkit, 1 3/8" square punch

Q&A

In the comments, Nichole asked if I preferred the Heat & Stick powder with Dazzling Diamonds technique over just embossing with Hologram Highlights or Iridescent Ice embossing powder. I figured I would reply here so everyone could hear.

My answer is of course, it depends! I think that Heat & Stick with Dazzling Diamonds is sparklier and more glittery than embossing with Iridescent Ice. However it is also twice the work & clean-up so that is a factor as well.

For my last two Snow Burst cards, I chose heat & stick because I wanted them to really sparkle. I mostly use Iridescent Ice embossing powder for the Dazzling Diamond Dust technique or if I'm feeling lazy. ;)

Anyway, that's just my two cents.

Return of the Snow Bursts

This actually will be my Holiday swap card. I just have to make 30 of them by September 10. That doesn't seem too hard, right?

The layout for this card was inspired by Beate Johns' poppy anniversary card.

I first inked the snowflakes with VersaMark and then immediately inked them with soft sky classic ink before stamping. This left the ink sticky enough to hold the heat & stick powder. After heating, I poured dazzling diamonds glitter on top to make them sparkle.

The sentiment is embossed with silver embossing powder. Then I used the VersaMarker to color in the letters. We learned this technique at convention and it really makes the outline letters pop!

A little paper piercing and some white taffeta ribbon finish off the card nicely. The swap guidelines were to make a Wow Holiday card that is reproducible and not intimidating. I hope that I've achieved that here!

Stamps: Snow Burst, Glad Tidings
Ink: Soft Sky, VersaMark, VersaMarker
Paper: Soft Sky, Whisper White, Brushed Silver
Accessories: White Taffeta Ribbon, Silver Embossing Powder, Heat & Stick Powder, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Stampin' Dimensionals
Tools: Heat Tool, Embossing Buddy, Crafter's Toolkit, Coluzzle

Stolen Moments

I probably should have been working tonight, but I was pretty burnt out! So, I took a couple of hours to decompress, stamp and figure out what I'm going to do for a Christmas card swap that is due soon.

This will not be my swap card, but I do like it's simplicity. The layout is from Lauren Meader's Saturday sketch this week. Lauren is such an inspiration and I am loving the sketches on her blog! You can never have too many layouts tucked away.

For the tree, I first inked up the stamp in wild wasabi and then cleaned off the star and trunk with a baby wipe. This allowed me to color those in with markers before stamping. A little glitter applied with the two-way glue pen finished it off nicely.

This was also the first time I've used the new rhinestone brads from Stampin' Up! They really add that extra sparkle just where you need it! They were a little difficult to flatten, so I used the crop-a-dile to set the brads. Now they're perfectly flat.

Stamps: Season of Joy
Ink: Wild Wasabi, Rose Red
Markers: Night of Navy, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky, Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Tools: Two-way glue pen, Crop-a-dile
Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds, Ice circle rhinestone brads

Blogger's Challenge Friday #9

Sorry for being a day late with the challenge. My real job has been claiming my evenings this week which leaves no time for stamping. I don't think it's going to get better this week, so next Friday's challenge might be the next time you hear from me!

Anyway, this week's challenge was to get punchy! We were supposed to make a card using punches as our focal point.

For this card, I used the Small Tag punch and the Key Tag punch to make tombstones. I also used the Ticket Corner punch to make a couple 1 1/2" squares into tombstones as well. The moon was punched with the 1 1/4" circle punch. Too much fun!

For the tombstones, I sponged them with the same color ink as the card stock to make them look older. I also debossed the "RIP" on each tombstone to make them look carved.

This card will fit in the small open ended envelopes. It measures 6 1/2" by 3 1/4".

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Booglie Eyes, Rough Edges Alphabet
Ink: Going Gray, Basic Gray, Stazon Jet Black
Paper: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Barely Banana, Watercolor Paper, Going Gray, Basic Gray
Tools: 1 1/4" Circle punch, Small Tag punch, Key Tag punch, Ticket Corner Punch, Paper Snips, Aquapainter, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Embossing Stylus

Golden Snowflakes

Two years ago, I was in a private 100 person swap when the new catalog came out. That's when I received this beautiful swap card from Betty Saccocia. When I signed up for the Control Freaks Holiday Mini swap, I couldn't get this color combination out of my head. I loved the soft colors and sparkle of Betty's card and thought it would look awesome with snowflakes.

So, with my color combination and stamps chosen, I just had to pick a layout. That's when I ran across Lauren Meader's blog and saw her Dare to get Dirty sketch challenge. Perfection!

So you see, I ended up with a beautiful card by just mixing and matching card elements that I liked from other stampers. Easy, no?

For this card, I embossed the sentiment Warm Wishes on the card base with gold embossing powder. The snowflakes from Snow Burst were stamped in very vanilla craft ink and then sprinkled with heat & stick powder. I then heated the powder until it melted (like embossing), and then immediately poured the dazzling diamonds glitter on top. This makes it much more sparkly than if I embossed with iridescent ice embossing powder. (Although, that would have been faster!)

I finished the card off by tying vanilla taffeta ribbon around the brushed gold card stock and then popping the snowflake panels up on dimensionals.

Stamps: Snow Burst, Hugs & Wishes
Ink: Very Vanilla Craft Ink, VersaMark
Paper: Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Brushed Gold
Accessories: Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon, Gold Embossing Powder, Heat & Stick Powder, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Stampin' Dimensionals
Tools: Heat Tool, Embossing Buddy

Blogger's Challenge Friday #8

This week's challenge was to find inspiration for a card from something ordinary like clothing or a pattern in a rug. I found that when you are actively looking for inspiration it is a lot harder to find. But, I did manage to stumble upon this diaper bag from lexie barnes. I own a lady b and a flo knitting bag from her that I absolutely love. I also picked up one of these darling diaper bags off ebay for half price. (Mine is a different print though.) Anyway, I thought this bag was super cute and would be perfect for this challenge.

So without further ado, here is my card. The main panel is glossy white card stock which I first stamped with blush blossom and groovy guava flowers. Since I was planning to brayer over this with old olive ink, I needed to emboss the flowers with clear embossing powder so they wouldn't get muddy. To do this, I simply inked my stamps in VersaMark first, then I inked them in the color dye ink before stamping. This gives the image enough stickiness to hold the embossing powder. I then colored the center of the circles in with markers. After they dried, I colored over them with a VersaMarker and embossed again.

The stems and leaves were inked in always artichoke. Since this is a darker shade of green than old olive, I didn't need to emboss them. The last step was to brayer on the old olive ink.

In real life, the big flower isn't quite that dark. It started raining when I took the picture so the colors are a little off.

The layout for this card is from sketch challenge 80 on splitcoast.

I hope you liked my entry today! Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Bodacious Bouquet
Ink: Versamark, Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Groovy Guava, Blush Blossom
Paper: Old Olive, Groovy Guava, Basic Black, Glossy White
Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder
Tools: Heat Tool, Foam Brayer

Leftovers

This was going to be the second make-n-take at my workshop over the weekend, but it didn't end up happening. It was really hot, we started late and I didn't want to be there all day. So, we only did one card.

It's actually pretty good because now I can whip up these cards pretty quickly since everything is already cut and prepped. As a non-workshop card though, I think I'll need to step it up a little. Maybe some ribbon or something? Any suggestions?

This card once again uses Cindy Lyles' layout from her butterfly kisses card. I also can't seem to use this layout with glittering my patterned paper. It's so easy and I think it really pretties up the Prints series of papers.

To tie the sparkle in to the focal point, I stamped the swirl with VersaMark and used heat & stick powder to adhere the Dazzling Diamonds glitter. It sparkles much more than using Iridescent Ice embossing powder, so I think it's worth the extra step.

I ordered Priceless after seeing all of the beautiful cards on splitcoast using this set. Lori Craig in particular pushed me off the fence. Thanks Lori!

I didn't forget about the journal tutorial. It's still coming. I just need to resize all of the pictures.

Stamps: Priceless
Ink: Taken with Teal, VersaMark
Card stock: Lavender Lace, Whisper White, Basic Black, Soft Sky Prints Designer Paper
Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Pop-up glue dots, Heat & Stick Powder
Tools: Two-way glue pen

Glimpse of Fall

I designed this card on Friday for a workshop that I had this weekend. They wanted to learn how to emboss and Friday was a cold (60s) and rainy day, so I thought "why not make a fall card?" Of course, I felt a little silly on Sunday showing off this pumpkin card when it was almost 90 degrees out. They still enjoyed it though. ;)

The pumpkin was embossed with black embossing powder and then watercolored with the watercolor crayons.

The layout is from a shade of blue's sketch challenge 81. It really caught my eye and is the perfect layout to showcase the stamps from Year after Year.

This was the first time I've used my brand new crop-a-dile. I fell in love with this tool at convention, so it was on my first order after I got home. For this card, we used it to punch the holes and silently set the eyelets. It felt a little awkward at first, but I love it now! No more hammering for me.

For the background, we stamped the Flannel Plaid stamp in Always Artichoke ink on an Always Artichoke card base. The Pumpkin Pie layer was roughened up with direct to paper technique.

That's it for today. Check back tomorrow for a little tutorial on covering the On Board chipboard journal!

Stamps: Year after Year, Flannel Plaid
Ink: Versamark, Always Artichoke, Pumpkin Pie
Paper: Always Artichoke, Pumpkin Pie, Confetti White, River Rock
Accessories: Black grosgrain ribbon, Black eyelets
Tools: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter, Crop-a-dile, Paper snips

Blogger's Challenge Friday #7

This week's blogger's challenge is called "Alter It". Basically, we could alter anything from a frame to a tin. I chose to alter an On Board Art Journal from Stampin' Up! This also just happens to be the Ways to Use it (125) challenge this week on splitcoast. It's nice how that worked out. ;)

I had purchased this journal back in May to record my thoughts and feelings about my pregnancy, but I put off decorating it in case something went wrong. Now that I'm 4 months along, I should stop thinking that way. So this challenge is well timed.

On the drive up to the SSUS Cape Cod retreat in March, Barb & I stopped at the Scrapbook Clubhouse in Westbrook, CT. That's where I bought two sheets of the Stork paper from the Karen Foster Maternity line. It was just too pretty to pass up and it is the perfect paper to cover my pregnancy journal!

I took the two covers off the journal in order to cover them book-style like Carol Duvall always did on her show. I used Royal Coat Decoupage Finish to adhere the paper to the book. I've also heard that you can use Stampin' Up! glue sticks for this. If you'd like me to share some details & measurements, let me know!

I made a tag for the journal using one of the big circle tags from the On Board Accents chipboard. I colored the tag with Very Vanilla craft ink and dried it. Then using my Palette Noir black ink pad, I stamped the my from the retired Stampin' Up! set Phrase Starters. I stamped the 2" x 1" pregabella from Stamping Bella on some watercolor paper and then cut her out and glued her on the tag. I wasn't sure how well I'd be able to watercolor directly on the tag. (Did you know that some of the bellas come in two different sizes?) Anyway, then I stamped the word journal down the side of the tag with the also retired Stampin' Up! set Euphoria Alphabet & Numbers.

I was worried that pregabella might come off, so I smooshed my Versamark pad all over the tag and embossed with Glassy Glaze (UTEE). I did this 3 times to get it nice and smooth. Now I'm not sure if I like the shiny look of it next to the vintagey paper. I might redo that part later.

A little twill tape finishes it off nicely. Now I just need to start using it before the baby comes!

I hope you liked my entry today! Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: pregabella from Stamping Bella, Phrase Starters II, Euphoria Mini Alphabet & Numbers
Ink: Palette Noir Black, Very Vanilla Craft Ink, Versamark
Paper: Stork by Karen Foster, watercolor paper
Accessories: Twill Tape, Pop-up glue dots
Tools: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter, 1/4" square punch, Royal Coat Decoupage Finish, Sponge

Annika's Card

My friend B had to leave convention a day and a half early because her daughter, Annika, was being hospitalized for pneumonia.

Annika is four years old and had to have surgery to drain the fluid from her lungs. She is starting to feel better now, but she still has a couple more weeks of recovery in the hospital. Please keep Annika in your thoughts & prayers.

This card measures 4 1/4" by 4 1/4". I cut the circle out of shimmery white card stock with the coluzzle. Then I went around the whole circumference with my new corner rounder punch to make a large scalloped circle.

Stamps: All in the Family, Family Accessories, Quick Thinking
Ink: Palette Noir Black, Cameo Coral, Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, Blush Blossom
Card stock: Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery, Shimmery White
Accessories: Narrow White Grosgrain Ribbon, Narrow Apricot Grosgrain Ribbon
Tools: Coluzzle, Aquapainter, 3/16" Corner Rounder

Blogger's Challenge Friday #6

I know I've missed the last two, but my schedule is back to normal now and I am super excited about this challenge. We were supposed to use the layout on page 165 of the Fall/Winter Collection as our starting point.

I wasn't feeling like flowers, so I pulled out my Booglie Eyes stamp set. Even though I'm not much of a Halloween girl, this set cracks me up. I stamped the spider and mummy in Palette Noir ink on whisper white card stock. I watercolored the spider by scribbling a Basic Black marker on a stamp case and then picking up the ink with my aquapainter. This is a great trick since the Basic Black ink pad is waterproof. I did the same thing with the mummy, but I used the Going Gray marker instead. I just wanted to give his rags a little shadow. As if that weren't enough, I came back with my Stardust Sakura pen and added some glitter highlights.

The pumpkin pie circle was punched with a Marvy Mega Scalloped Circle punch and the smaller vintage violet one was punched with the Marvy Super Jumbo Scalloped Circle punch. I then cut my booglie guys out with the Coluzzle to fit inside the scalloped circles. The circles are both popped up with dimensionals.

I haven't gotten any of the new wide grosgrain ribbon yet, so I settled on the now retired wide organdy ribbon instead. I also used last year's Halloween paper since I still have a lot left.

I hope you liked my entry today! Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge cards! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Booglie Eyes
Ink: Palette Noir Black, Going Gray marker, Basic Black Marker
Card stock: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Vintage Violet, Whisper White, retired Halloween designer paper
Accessories: Black Wide Organdy Ribbon, Vintage Brads, Stampin' Dimensionals
Tools: Marvy Super Jumbo and Mega Scalloped Circle Punches, Coluzzle, Aquapainter, Sakura Stardust Pen

Faux Icicles Tutorial

For a great tutorial of the faux icicles technique I mentioned yesterday, check out Lisa Somerville's blog post today.

Tomorrow I will be back with some actual stamping for this week's blogger's challenge!