Wreath of Joy

One of my favorite parts of the holidays is the fresh greenery, especially those beautiful wreaths all filled with boxwood, holly, berries, and fresh fruits, so when I received this gorgeous holiday Wreath Rubber Stamp by Inkadinkado, I couldn't wait to ink it up. The artwork is incredibly detailed, and since all the shadowing is drawn in as part of the illustration, it's super easy to color. The best part? No need to refresh and replace the greens and fruits, and no dead needles to sweep up!

I used Prismacolors on the wreath and Copics on the bow (I liked the reds of my Copics better) then popped up the center of the bow for dimension. The patterned papers are all from Basic Grey's Wassail pack and the card stock is Prismatics. The sentiment is done with the Times New Roman font from JustRite Stamps. I used the 60-point letters that come in the 1 3/16" Damask Centers and Bonus Font collection (the 50-point letters of any of the Font Sets would also work well). The sentiment is die-cut with Spellbinders Fancy Tags, the image is cut with the Spellbinders Labels Three Nestabilities, and the decorative red border along the bottom was done with the Fancy Scallop Piercabilities (love my Spellbinders!). The white decorative border that peeks up from that striped pattern is the Fiskars Lace Border punch. It's hard to see in the picture, but the ribbon that's threaded through the sentiment tag is this amazing, rich, burgundy velvet ribbon - so luscious!

Thanks for visiting!



Stamps: Wreath Rubber Stamp (Inkadinkado), 1 3/16 Damask Centers and Bonus Font (JustRite)
Paper: Basic Grey Wassail, Prismatics Blush Red Dark and Herbal Garden Medium, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Prismacolor pencils, Copic markers, Spellbinders Labels Three Nestabilties, Fancy Scalloped Piercabilities, and Fancy Tags, Fiskars Lace border punch, Sakura Quickie glue pen, Art Institute ultrafine crystal glitter, burgundy woven velvet 3/8" ribbon, foam adhesive, sewing machine
Size: 5 1/2" square

Happy News!!

[If you're looking for the My Favorite Things Blog Hop, scroll down one post or click HERE]

I have some super exciting news to share today - I've joined the design team for Stamper's Dream! Michelle's Dream Team is full of so many of my favorite stampers and friends. I'm thankful for, and humbled by, the opportunity to join them! If by chance you haven't been to Stamper's Dream, stop by for a visit. The store is full of tons of stamps and sets from a multitude of different manufacturers, as well as everything else a stamper could dream of: paper, embellishments, tools, ribbon, and more. Now is a great time to visit, as Michelle is celebrating her recent birthday with a sale!

I recently received a most fun assortment of goodies to get started with! For today's card, I chose a cute pair of birds from Inkadinkado's Best Friends set, stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with my Copics. The designer papers are all from Kaiser's Spirograph collection. The borders are die-cut with Spellbinders Piercabilities, and the dry embossing is done with a Cuttlebug folder. It's hard to see in the picture, but I popped up the entire card front and layered it onto a slightly larger white card base. A little glitter, ribbon, and a button finish it off!

With my good news also comes some sad news. In an ongoing effort to keep my design team commitments in check, I have elected to resign from the Our Daily Bread Designs team. It's been a very difficult decision, but I have no doubt the incredible ODBD stamp sets will continue to find their way into my stamp room and in turn here on my blog. I won't go too far! I'd like to thank Kelley for the opportunity to be a part of her team since almost the very beginning of the company. I was still fairly new to the stamping community and "green" when I started, so I appreciate the vote of confidence she gave me! It's been a fantastic and rewarding experience. Thank you Kelley!

Speaking of ODBD, it's the first of the month, so that means new stamps! I'm getting my shopping cart loaded up right now, and waiting for their blog hop, which begins at 10 AM EST. You'll also see some fresh faces on the DT - congrats to all of those talented stampers!

Thanks for visiting today!



Stamps: Best Friends (Inkadinkado)
Paper: Neenah Solar White, Kaiser Craft Spirograph (Spirograph isn't in the store right now, but some other Kaiser paper kits are)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copic markers, Spellbinders Labels 4 and circle Nestabilities, Spellbinders Ric Rac Scalloped Border Piercabilities and Fancy Scalloped Border Piercabilities, Quickie glue pen, clear glitter, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Papertrey Dark Chocolate twill and button, foam tape

Groovy White Sands

Super quick post today, with a sort-of quick card. I started with this week's SCS color challenge, Groovy Guava, Sahara Sand, and Whisper White, and paired it with Julee's Mojo Monday Sketch #48 and some new Amy Smyth stamps by Inkadinkado. Coloring is with Copics, I masked the flowers and sponged Sahara Sand around the branches. The black speckling was done with my air art tool (when was the last time you used that thing?!) and a black Stampin' Up marker. I stamped a second branch, trimmed out the flowers and popped them up for some extra dimension. Frosted Lace Stickles are in the flower centers.

[Gerri K asked about the colored flower on the inside of the card, specifically whether I colored it with a Copic marker, and if so, did it bleed through. Yes, I used a Copic marker and no it didn't bleed through. The card base is Stampin' Up's Whisper White, which I have found very difficult to saturate -- a good thing when you don't want it to bleed through to the back, not so good when you're trying to color and blend. (I suspect it's because of the coating, which is what makes it so smooth for stamping.) Papertrey's Stamper's Select White would work well, too, because it's thick enough that you can do a light coloring without it bleeding through. The Papertrey card stock is my preferred card stock when I want a white card base, because it's thick, heavy, and will hold up to weighty layering and embellishing on the front. The only other white I have is the Georgia Pacific that you can get in reams at Wal-Mart for about $5. The bleed-through is really bad on that, plus the card stock itself is too flimsy for a card base. But it's great for coloring things that will be layered! The Copic color goes on nice and smooth with almost immediate saturation - and no streaking. (I know I said the other day I refuse to shop at Wal-Mart ... this card stock is one of a handful of products I will buy there, but only because I can't find them elsewhere).]

Funny story ... Monday afternoon, I took my daughter and niece a couple of hours down the road so they could spend the week with my parents. Yesterday morning, I headed back home earlyish, since dh was at home with my two boys waiting to go into work. Next thing I know, I'm getting pulled over for a speeding ticket (73 in a 55, yikes). I tried to make light of it with the officer telling him I must have gotten carried away with the freedom of not having three needy children as passengers and being able to blast my own music rather than I'm a Little Teapot, Froggy Went A-Courtin' and such. I think he *may* have chuckled ... right before he said, "Now just sign here, ma'am." (And I thought gas was expensive! Prepay on the ticket is more than $200!)

Apricot Appeal

It's been several months now, but I can remember blurfing one day and coming across a post where the writer mentioned her strong dislike of Apricot Appeal. I was so surprised, because I love this color! When it first came out, I even bought paint to match, thinking I'd paint my craft room. (My craft room is open to the rest of my basement, so to paint it, you almost have to paint the whole basement. Not so appealing on that scale ;) What do you think of Apricot Appeal??

This first card is a makeover of a card I CASED several years ago (I forgot to take the "before" picture), and only took 10-15 minutes to make. (That's lightning fast for me!) You don't see the torn edges much anymore, but I still like the look. I tried to update it by adding the scallop border, but honestly I'm not sure I like the scallops and tearing together. They just kinda don't go together. I stamped Stitched in white for the background, then stamped the flower from Baroque Motifs in Apricot Appeal. The apricot flowers on the sentiment panel are dotted with Stardust Stickles. Everything else is pretty straightforward.

While I had these colors out, I went ahead and made a card for this week's Featured Stamper challenge. I had printed out three of nutsymuhl's cards for a possible CASE, and ended up choosing this one to modify. And this is what I came up with:



If you haven't played along yet, be sure and take a look at Kim's fabulous gallery. She's got some fun stuff in there and lots of eye candy!

The flower on this one is from Doodle Flowers by Inkadinkado. I stamped in Onyx Black Versafine on watercolor paper, then colored with reinkers and an aqua painter. I went back over and added some white dots with a white gel pen. The black center is a 1/2" circle of Basic Black dotted with a white pigment pen. All the black pieces are cuttlebugged with Swiss Dots, and the white scalloped square is done with nestabilities. Lotsa dimensionals to add some depth.

Thanks for visiting today!



Mother's Day Card:
Stamps: All Holidays, Baroque Motifs, Stitched
Paper: Apricot Appeal, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black, Whisper White craft, Apricot Appeal
Accessories: corner rounder, black gingham ribbon, paper piercer, Stardust Stickles
All supplies by Stampin' Up except the Stickles.

Doodle Flower Card:
Stamps: Doodle Flower (Inkadinkado); Stitched (SU!)
Paper: Papertrey White (for card base, it's sturdier than most whites); Basic Black, Apricot Appeal, Whisper White
Ink: Onyx Black Versafine (Tsukineko), Whisper White craft and Apricot Appeal (SU)
Accessories: aqua painter, white pigment pen, 1/2" circle punch, Swiss Dots cuttlebug folder, classic and scalloped square nestabilities, black gingham ribbon, dimensionals, photo corner punch, Apricot Appeal brads

All Things Grow With Love

Ahhh... spring. I love it! My family and I enjoyed some absolutely PERFECT weather on a Friday/Saturday overnighter up to Baltimore's Inner Harbor: 70-75 degrees, sunny (even though the forecast called for showers), breezy. We had a great time at the Maryland Science Center and The Baltimore Aquarium (the 4D immersion theater was the best!). Then on Saturday, I even got outside for some yard work. Just enough to remember why we usually let the pros come do our spring clean-up. Sorry, but I'd rather pay the landscapers to clean up our landscaping while I play with my kids than pay a babysitter to play with my kids while I clean up the landscaping. (And I used to love gardening! Actually, I still do, just not the clean-up part.)

Anyway, I digress. With warmer temperatures and so much in bloom, I found myself reaching for a color that's a bit of a departure from my norm: purple. The beautiful papers in the Sprout collection by Memory Box** were my starting point. I paired them with a butterfly and sentiment from the Expressions stamp set by Inkadinkado. This card has all my current favorites: nestabilities, bling (Lavender Stickles on the butterfly and Hero Arts Gemstones under the sentiment), ribbon (grosgrain from SU; fibers from Stamper's Dream), piercing, and of course, lots of dimension.

A quick word about the Lavender Stickles, because I made a big personal discovery with these. I used to think I didn't need colored Stickles because I could just add sparkle to a colored image with one of the clear Stickles (Stardust, Icicle, etc. -- btw, does anyone know what the difference is between these, it seems like there are a LOT of clear choices). It's so NOT the same! Because the glitter in the colored Stickles is an actual color, it is much richer-looking once applied. I was actually preparing a nice little sample to show the difference, but alas, it wasn't dry and I just found it stuck to the bottom of my almost-1-year-old's foot. Maybe another time :)

I also have to tell you my layout came from a sketch I made from paper scraps lying on my desk. If I told you how much of my inspiration comes from my messy craft table (unusual color combos, layouts, ribbon placement ... pretty much anything), you might excuse me for not cleaning it up more often. So go forth, make a mess of your workspace (if it isn't messy already), and then look for your next layout!

**I got the Sprout 6x6 collection from Stamper's Dream. Michelle is out of stock at this very moment, but should have packs available again by the end of the week.

Stamps: Expressions (Inkadinkado)
Paper: Perfect Plum and Pale Plum cardstock (SU!); Sprout 6x6 (Memory Box) patterned paper
Ink: Perfect Plum craft; Onyx Black Versafine
Accessories: Lavender Stickles, Hero Arts Lavender Gemstones, classic and scalloped circle Nestabilties, 1/16" circle punch, dimensionals, sponge daubers, corner rounder, ticket corner punch, paper piercer, wide celery grosgrain, light orchid 1/4" grosgrain (retired SU!); fibers from Stamper's Dream

I'm Dreaming ...

... a stamper's kind of dream! Michelle Rodgers, owner of Stamper's Dream online store, has asked me to do some guest design work for her for the next month or so. Have you been there yet? Oh my gosh. She carries all the favorites ... stamps by a wide variety of manufacturers, everything from Hero Arts and Stampendous to My Favorite Things and GinaK; of course ink, paper, and loads of embellishments; and tools and accessories (think Bind-it-All and Cuttlebug folders). Seriously, if there's something you're dreaming of, there's a good chance she'll have it. Great customer service, super fast shipping, and to top it off, Michelle is just a gem of a person. She blogs, too, and let me tell you, she can stamp!

She sent me these super fun clear stamps by Inkadinkado. One set, Doodle Flowers, is loaded up with various flower images. The whimsical, line-art style is so right up my alley. The second set, Expressions, has some fun images, but even better are the really cool sentiments with some of the neatest type treatments. Today's cards both use the same two stamps, but couldn't look a bit more different.

Here's the second one:



Blue Flowers:
Stamps: Doodle Flowers and Expessions (by Inkadinkado); Canvas background (by Stampin' Up!)
Paper: Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, and Sahara Sand (Stampin' Up!); Bluebird "Cousins" (from the Bohemia line by My Mind's Eye)
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Soft Sky, Sage Shadow classic pads, and Not Quite Navy craft (by Stampin' Up)
Accessories: sponge daubers, edge distressing tool, corner rounder, sewing machine, aqua painter, clear embossing powder, dew drops (Robin's Nest), dimensionals
Notes: I stamped the flower image in Not Quite Navy craft ink, heat embossed with clear powder, the colored with reinkers and an aqua painter. All the edges are distressed and sponged.

Red Flower:
Stamps: Doodle Flowers and Expressions (by Inkadinkado)
Paper: hot-press 80-pound watercolor paper
Ink: Real Red and Mellow Moss (by Stampin' Up); Palette Noir
Accessories: aqua painter, paper piercer, red ribbon (source unknown, I'm guessing May Arts)
Notes: The watercolor paper totally "makes" this kind of card. It gives it the feel of fine stationery.