Boo Box

For my last stamp club meeting, I wanted to make a 2-5-7-10 box. So, I pulled out the super cute Booglie Eyes stamp set and got cracking.

The tutorial on splitcoast says it all.

Stamps: Booglie Eyes, Spot On Jumbo Wheel
Ink: Stazon Jet Black, Pumpkin Pie
Paper: Shimmery White, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Basic Black Narrow Grosgrain Ribbon
Tools: Double Circle hole punch, 1/8" circle punch, paper cutter

Blogger's Challenge Friday #14

This week's challenge was to use spectrum pads on our project. In the past, I've brayered glossy card stock with spectrum pads to make backgrounds, but today I wanted to try something different.

The first card I made was with the Cotton Candy Spectrum pad. It is monochromatic, so I thought I'd make the whole card monochromatic. This card is 4" x 4" square.

This card was super simple to make, but it left me feeling kind of blah.

Stamps: Season of Joy
Ink: Regal Rose, Cotton Candy Spectrum Pad
Paper: Whisper White, Regal Rose, Rose Red
Accessories: Pink Taffetta Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals

So, I tried again. This time I pulled out my old Twist spectrum pad. The colors in this pad are Yo yo Yellow, Green Galore, Glorious Green, Ballet Blue, and Lovely Lilac. I stamped the large flourish from Doodle This onto a 4 1/4" by 4 1/4" square white card. Then I stamped two daisies from this set onto scrap card stock and cut them out.

To color in the images, I simply took a clean aquapainter and pulled the colors from the outline of the stamp into the center of each petal. Super simple and it allows you to use your spectrum pads with line stamps. This technique reminded me of those Paint with Water coloring books where you would just wipe the wet paintbrush over the paper and it would color itself in.

To finish the card off, I added a little glitter and popped up the flowers with dimensionals.

I hope you enjoyed my entries 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: Doodle This
Ink: Twist Spectrum Pad
Paper: Whisper White
Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds, Stampin' Dimensionals
Tools: Two-way glue pen, Paper Snips

Blogger's Challenge Friday #13

My parents came over for the weekend to help us with some household projects. Eric & my dad finished demolition on the part of the deck that used to connect to our pool and my step-mom did the primer coat on the baby's room. (It's kind of a cross between Bashful Blue and Soft Sky.)

At any rate, that is why I am late with this week's blogger's challenge. We were supposed to make a project using some kind of embossing. For this card, I decided to use both heat embossing and dry embossing.

The layout for this card came from Lauren Meader's Saturday sketch challenge #14. I've loved all the samples on splitcoast of black butterflies on colorful card stock, so I decided to incorporate that into the challenge as well.

The patterned paper is from a really old Die Cuts with a View stack. I just punched out three different colored 1 3/8" squares and then embossed the butterflies on each one with black embossing powder. I also embossed the sentiment in the lower left corner.

As a final touch and to balance the design, I dry embossed three little flowers in the right corner of the card. (It's a little difficult to see in the picture.)

I will be mailing this card out to Victoria, a teenager that is battling cancer right now. Her teacher is trying to collect a card from every state in the country for Victoria. I am more than happy to represent Connecticut. For more information on how you can help, visit Lauren's blog.

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, Curvy Verses
Ink: VersaMark
Paper: Basic Black, Papertrey Select White Card stock, Patterned paper from Die Cuts with a View
Accessories: Black Gingham Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Black Embossing Powder
Tools: Priceless Classy Brass Template, Embossing Stylus, Light Table, 1 3/8" circle punch, Heat Tool

Blogger's Challenge Friday #13

This week's challenge was to use embossing (dry or heat) on a card. I haven't had a chance to sit down in my stamp room this week though, so my challenge will be a little late. Check back on Sunday.

In the meantime, don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Santa Baby

This is another candidate for my card class. I bought this stamp set because of this Santa image. He is just so jolly looking, but I was having a hard time coming up with a card tonight.

So, I browsed the gallery on splitcoast and fell in love with the red & black coloring on Lee Conrey's Christmas card. I also loved the layout and polka dots in Genann's Jolliest Santa card. So, I combined the two and came up with this card.

If I use this card in the class, I will replace the polka dot layer with a strip of the Dashing designer paper. (I just don't have it yet.)

To get that vibrant red coloring I decided to use markers, but I was worried about getting streaks. Then I remembered a tip we learned at convention this year. I stamped the Santa on watercolor paper and then colored him in with markers. If I ended up with any streaks, I just went over them with a blender pen until the color was solid. I think this is a very cool technique and I am really pleased with the results.

Stamps: Jolliest Time of the Year, Glad Tidings, Polka Dot Backgrounder from Cornish Heritage Farms
Ink: Palette Noir Black ink, Real Red
Markers: Real Red, Basic Black, Summer Sun
Paper: Real Red, Very Vanilla, Basic Black, Watercolor Paper
Accessories: Black Grosgrain Ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds glitter
Tools: 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circke punch

Tagged!

Lauren tagged me to play a fun name game, so I was happy to play along.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) -Snuffy Jetta

That's right, I named my first dog after the Snuffleupagus on Sesame Street. What can I say? I was 5 (and yes, I did have to look up how to spell that just now.)

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Chocolate Chocolate Chip

Everything tastes better in chocolate.

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) -S-Sum

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) - Blue Horse

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)- Ann Hahn

I'm kind of cheating there since I was born on Hahn Air Force Base in Germany. I believe it is closed now.

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) - Sumst

I'm not even sure how to pronounce that one.

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put “The”) The Celery Fuzzy Navel

I don't even want to think about what that implies.

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)- Charles Thomas

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) Dial Reeses

I don't wear perfume ever, so I usually just smell like Dial soap. Lame and ungirly, I know!

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) Ann Joseph

That was fun!

Now it's time to tag five more people.

1. Kim
2. Lisa
3. MJ
4. Barbara
5. Toni
   

If you haven't been tagged, consider yourself tagged as my 6th choice and post a link in the comments so we can all see. :)

Blogger's Challenge Friday #12

Today was a really bad day. I didn't sleep well last night and felt pretty miserable because of it. On days like this, I most look forward to going home and putting on my favorite jammies (pictured at right).

That leads me to this week's blogger's challenge. We were supposed to find inspiration for a card from something in our non-stamping lives. I decided to be inspired by my jammies.

To make the main stamped panel, I started with a piece of glossy white card stock and brayered cool caribbean classic ink over the entire piece. Once this dried, I stamped the circles with VersaMark and then embossed with clear embossing powder. Finally, I brayered over the entire panel with night of navy classic ink. It came out a little more speckled than I would have liked because the embossing powder kept sticking. I probably didn't let the cool caribbean ink dry completely.

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: Seeing Spots, Polka Dots & Petals
Ink: Palette Noir black, Cool Caribbean, Night of Navy, VersaMark
Paper: Cool Caribbean, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Glossy White
Accessories: retired Flirty Ribbon Originals (ric rac), Clear Embossing Powder
Tools: 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, scalloped circle punch, Heat Tool

Happy Snowman

I haven't played with my Cold Play stamp set in forever! So, while I was coming up with possible cards for the fund raiser class, I thought it might be fun to bring back an oldie but a goodie. The hat & scarf were stamped separately, cut out and glued on after the fact.

This layout is from Lauren Meader's Saturday sketch #5. Aren't her sketches the best?

The color combination for this card came from the Color Coach. It's one of my favorites and a little non-traditional for a Christmas card. I decided to make one of the layers out of vellum card stock to soften the bordering blue beneath it. This is a technique that Lauren uses a lot and it was fun to try it out.


Stamps: Cold Play
Ink: Bordering Blue, So Saffron, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie
Paper: So Saffron Bordering Blue, More Mustard, Whisper White, Vellum card stock
Accessories: French Blue Grosgrain Ribbon

Crisp & Clean

This is another possibility for my holiday card class fund raiser. It is completely CASEd from rohla's card on splitcoast. I just loved the clean graphic design and the fabulous color combination of rohla's card. I only changed the stamps (since I didn't own those sets) and I made the card 4 1/4" square instead of 3" square.

Stamps: Season of Joy
Ink: Certainly Celery, Real Red, Certainly Celery Craft
Paper: Whisper White, Real Red, Celery Prints Designer Paper
Accessories: On Board Accents chipboard, Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Red Gingham Ribbon
Tools: Coluzzle, Heat Tool

Snow Kissed Tree

In a couple of weeks, I'm hosting a fundraiser card class for a local women's group. They are raising money for a scholarship fund for Connecticut women. The class will focus on holiday cards and this is card might be one of the eight that we do.

I was inspired by Miss Minx's Gorgeous Pine card on splitcoast, but I changed the layout to Lauren Meader's Saturday Sketch #3. I also changed the colors to be current.

To create the main stamped image, I used the Crayon Resist technique. I first stamped the tree in Olive Green StazOn Ink on glossy white card stock. The I colored in the tree trunk with my Chocolate Chip marker. Once that dried, I colored over each branch with a white crayon. Then I sponged night of navy ink over the entire image. Finally, I rubbed the entire thing with a paper towel to get rid of the crayon waxy residue.

The rest of the card is pretty self-explanatory. The sentiment was stamped in night of navy ink and then punched out with the designer label punch. I then backed it with a 1 3/8" circle of sage shadow to give it a little depth.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Party Punch
Ink: Olive Green StazOn Ink, Night of Navy, Chocolate Chip marker
Paper: Night of Navy, Bordering Blue, Sage Shadow, Glossy White, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Pop-up glue dot
Tools: Designer Label punch, 1 3/8" circle punch

Simple Thanks

When I was in Momento last week, I fell in love with this patterned paper by Heidi Grace Designs. I couldn't find a link for it online, but it was on sale at Momento.

This card was inspired by dawnSing's Simply Elegant card on splitcoast. I loved the monochromatic look of her card with the patterned paper matching the card base. So, my challenge was to make a vanilla card that wouldn't fall over with the weight of all these layers! Stampin' Up's very vanilla wasn't going to do the trick. It is really designed to be layered onto a card and not the be the card base itself.

The quest for a stronger vanilla card stock base led me to Ellen Hutson's store where I purchased some Classic Crest card stock in the Classic Cream color. I had heard Ellen rave about this paper, but I wanted to see it for myself. Let me tell you, it is great! So smooth, yet sturdy. It stamps like a dream too. Ellen also carries this card stock in Natural White and Solar White.

I really wanted to use a taffeta ribbon on this card, but Stampin' Up! only carries it in neutral colors. I thought the narrow grosgrain would be too thin, so I tried this Craft Seam Binding from Martha Stewart. It is light and wide, but I didn't like the knots that I made with it. I don't think I'll buy the seam binding again.

The sentiment is from A Muse and the oval frame is from the Oval Borders & Corners set from Papertrey Ink. (It's the smaller double lined oval.)

I made 12 of these (from 2 sheets of the patterned paper) . I figure they'll be perfect for Christmas thank yous.

Stamps: Borders & Corners {oval} set from Papertrey Ink, sentiment from A Muse
Ink: VersaMagic Night Sky chalk ink
Paper: Night of Navy from Stampin' Up!, Classic Cream from Classic Crest, Snowflake Park Small Snowflakes by Heidi Grace
Accessories: Navy craft seam binding from Martha Stewart
Tools: Mega Scallop Oval punch by Marvy

Blogger's Challenge Friday #11

This week's challenge was to use the layout of the star card on page 12 of the Holiday Mini Catalog as our inspiration. As you can see, I didn't stray too far from the original.

I also need lots of thank you cards, so I hope you won't get too tired of seeing them. ;) The meta challenge for me was to make a boy card. I might as well start now, right?

The patterned paper here is from the Chatterbox Playhouse collection (specifically the Swing Stripe & the Cowboy Paisley patterns). This paper is double sided, so the textured red & yellow papers are just the back side of the stripe & paisley papers. I think this paper is discontinued because I got it on clearance at Michaels a few months ago and can't find it on the Chatterbox website now.

I adhered the paper to the chipboard star (from the On Board Accents) with an anywhere glue stick and then sanded the edges using the sanding blocks. This method has the benefit of being easier than cutting out the paper in the exact shape of the chipboard and it gives a nice distressed look around the edges.

I used the thank you from Seeing Spots and the diaper pin from Short & Sweet again on this card. I think it makes a cute combo.

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. Look closely because we have some new members. :)

Stamps: Seeing Spots, Short & Sweet
Ink: Palette Noir black, Brocade Blue marker
Paper: Brocade Blue, Cranberry Crisp, River Rock, Playhouse paper by Chatterbox
Accessories: Twill Ribbon from American Crafts Elements: Tan Essentials, On Board Accents from Stampin' Up!, Earth Elements brads, Pop-up glue dots
Tools: 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch

Quick Update

It's a boy!

First batch of thank yous

When we first told our family that we were expecting, we were flooded with cards of congratulations and even a couple gift cards for maternity clothes. Well, I finally went maternity shopping a couple weeks ago and I'm faced with the fact that these thank yous are well overdue!

This layout for this card comes from one of Lauren Meader's Saturday Sketches (number 3 to be exact). I really wanted to use this new patterned paper I bought over the weekend and this sketch was perfect.

Speaking of the paper, it is from Paper Salon and is called Harmony: Stripes and Harmony: Petite Paisley. Isn't it too cute? I bought this paper at a brand new scrapbooking store in the same town I work in. How cool is that? I can get there in 10 minutes on my lunch break. That is going to be dangerous! Anyway, the store is called Momento and it is really nice! They even had some copic markers in stock so I was able to play with them a little. I'm going to hold off to see if they offer a class before taking that leap.

Anyway, the main image is expectafellabella from Stamping Bella. I was super excited about this one because this bella has the same haircut as me -- short & straight. The guy kind of looks like my husband too so it was too perfect! I stamped the happy couple on watercolor paper with Palette Noir black ink and then water colored them with my watercolor wonder crayons.

The sentiment is from the Seeing Spots set from Stampin' Up! I then stamped the little diaper pin from Short & Sweet which fit in the center perfectly.

Stamps: expectafellabella from Stamping Bella, Seeing Spots, Short & Sweet
Ink: Palette Noir black
Paper: Certainly Celery, Watercolor Paper, Harmony paper from Paper Salon
Accessories: Chocolate Taffeta Ribbon, Pop-up glue dots
Tools: 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, Aquapainter, Watercolor Wonder Crayons