Take Joy in the Little (ATC) Things

Have you been following this month's Project Parade on the Verve blog? If not, you should really go check out all the Artist Trading Cards the design team has been posting for the last week and a half. I know I've said this before, but I love, love, LOVE making Artist Trading Cards, and today it's finally my turn to post!!

My ATC was inspired by JulieHRR's Dare to Get Dirty Challenge on Splitcoast last week, which was to make a clean, simple white card. I usually have trouble with clean+simple+white, but I really like how this ATC turned out. I made it out of watercolor paper. The embossed rectangle was done with a Nestability, and then I just did a light Soft Sky color wash inside the rectangle. I created the flower trio using stamps from Floral Whimsy, and the sentiment comes from Petals & Stems. Because the Nestability is a little narrower than the "official" ATC size, I added some paper piercing along the left. Simple and sweet.

And here's how it looks turned into a full card:



If you're reading this early enough on Thursday, you can still get in on the challenge if you haven't already. At 12:00 pm (noon) Eastern Time today (July 31st) we'll be drawing two winners, one randomly drawn from all the entries, the other our favorite project using Verve stamps. Both winners will receive $15 in Verve Bucks. To enter, link up your ATC creation HERE.

Our Project Parade may be ending today, but just WAIT until you see what's next. Tomorrow is the first day of our much-anticipated Anni-VERVE-sary, and we have loads of fun planned. It all happens in the Verve Forum! Be there or be square ;)

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!)

Gratitude Silhouette

A huge congrats to Julia Aston, aka artystamper, yesterday's SCS Featured Stamper! I love Julia's artsy style!! If you haven't participated in that challenge before, it's free license to CASE away!! You pick one of the featured stamper's cards to CASE, but change at least two things about it. I printed out a handful of ideas to try, but ended up choosing this Garden Silhouette card for its striking simplicity. I kept the overall layout, but added a few layers, and changed the dp, ribbon, and the placement of the Dew Drops.

While I was at the beach two weeks ago, I took a little side trip one day to a stamping store called Artful Legacy. What a delightful place! The owner, Christine Davis, was super sweet and helpful. I told her I wanted to move in!! The store even carries its own line of stamps, which is where today's stamp came from. [Thank you, Shirley L for the link to http://www.rubberstampinglinks.com/ ... that's how I found Artful Legacy.]

[EDITED 8/2/08: I've received several inquiries for more specific information about the stamp I used here. It is called Wildflower (med) , and it's available in their online store or you can email Christine at christinedavis@artfullegacy.com or call them at (843)-839-2333. They also have two other gorgeous wildflower silhouette stamps. If you go into their store, do a search on "wildflower" and you'll be able to see all three!]

Happy Monday!



Stamps: Medium Wildflower (Artful Legacy); sentiment from Spiral Bouquet (Papertrey Ink)
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, dp by Bohemia/My Mind's Eye
Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black
Accessories: white satin ribbon (Offray), Dew Drops (Robin's Nest), ticket corner punch (SU!), foam tape

Saturday Challenges

I'm one of those nutters who usually waits until the last minute to start making my Christmas cards. One year, I *started* on December 23. Long story, but I was busy with a 2-month-old baby, so I decided not to send cards at all, then realized I had to send cards because family and friends would be wanting a picure, then decided if I was going to send cards, they had to be handmade ... sigh ... I did finish them in only two days, but they still went out the day after Christmas. So this week's "Christmas in July" challenge over at Our Creative Corner was a really good one for me! Head over there for all the details and to link up your creation when you're ready. You can also see all my teammates' samples there: Cindy Haffner, Dawn Easton, Denise Marzec, Jennifer Meyer, Laurie Schmidlin, and Lynda Benden.

I'm really falling for some of the cute, little Penny Black animals, so when I saw the adorable 12 Days of Christmas set, I had to have it. And right there to help get one into my ink-stained little hands was none other than Michelle at Stamper's Dream. What a doll!! And such great customer service, too -- a rare treat these days.

This set has twelve images, one to go with each of the twelve days of Christmas. They are all just TOO cute. The 4 calling birds is a chicky making a call on a cell phone. The three French hens is a chick holding a wine glass in one hand and a baguette in the other. So fun!! When I went to color today's "partridge in a pear tree" image, I was a little stumped by the top of this chick's head. What are those funny things sticking out? Do you think she's sitting there doing her needlepoint with curlers in her hair? That's what I went with, so someone please tell me if you think they're supposed to be something else, LOL!

By the way, I went looking on the Penny Black site to see if I could find a colored sample for this image, hoping to figure out what's on top of her head. Bad idea!!! They didn't have the colored sample I was looking for, but oh, the stuff I did find! They have some really GREAT stuff in their Christmas 2008 catalog. And such variety, everything from cutesy to elegant, silhouette stamps to line art, whimsical to solemn. By the way, I'm not affiliated in any way ... just telling you what I saw.

One more thing, this card uses Julee's Mojo Monday #38 sketch. I just loved looking back through all her sketches to make yesterday's birthday card. Did you know she has a .PDF file with all of her sketches all in one place? Check it out on the right sidebar of her blog, Poetic Artistry.

Today is Saturday, which means it's also time for a new Sketch for You to Try. I'll say up front that I'm not happy with my card today. I'm sorry to disappoint with this one!! I spent FOREVAH working on this, certain that at some point the magic would happen. No such luck. But here it is anyway:



Check out i{heart}2stamp to see Jen's sketch, Jen's sample, and guest designer Jessie Rone's sample. As usual, Amy, Carole, and Susan are playing. Shannan said she might be late with her sample. Also, Jen's sketch is being featured on the Sisterhood of Scrap blog. Check it out!

Oh, and the cool color combo was one of the SCS Color Challenges a couple weeks ago. Isn't it neat?

Have a fantastic weekend!



Partridge in a Pear Tree:
Stamps: 12 Days of Christmas (Penny Black)
Paper: Cranberry Crisp (SU!); watercolor paper (Canson)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko); various reinkers for coloring (SU!); Cranberry Crisp, Always Artichoke, So Saffron, and More Mustard (for sponging)
Accessories: Large oval punch, crystal effects, foam tape, Cranberry Crisp stitched ribbon (SU!); Snowflakes Cuttlebug embossing folder (Provo Craft)

Welcome, Little One:
Stamps: Nursery Necessities
Paper: So Saffron, Wild Wasabi, Almost Amethyst, Amethyst Prints dp
Ink: So Saffron, Wild Wasabi
Accessories: double-stitched Wild Wasabi ribbon, classic and scalloped square Nestabilities, dimensionals, white embroidery floss, small star punch, sewing machine, paper piercer, corner rounder

Happy Birthday, Julee!!

That's right - today's is Julee's birthday, and the Verve Divas are doin' some celebratin'! We're all choosing a favorite Mojo Monday Sketch and using it to make her a vervalicious birthday card. And you know we always like for you to play along, and we always like to give stuff away, so come on over to the Verve Forum on SCS to join in the celebration! Happy Birthday, Verve Diva Extraordinaire!!

Now let's be honest, I'd have to create 47 birthday cards if I chose my favorite sketch (all of them!). I ended up going with Mojo Monday #46, a recent one. The butterfly from Fluttering By is stamped in Ruby Red craft ink onto the My Mind's Eye dp, heat embossed with clear powder, trimmed, and popped up. My circles are cut with Nestabilities. The larger one has a vellum overlay held in place by zig-zag stitching. For the butterfly trail, I lightly penciled the path, then pierced and connected the dots with a white gel pen. The four corners and the rose strip underneath the sentiment are dotted with Liquid Pearls.

Here's the inside, stamped with "Wishing You the Happiest of Days" from Wonderful Wishes:



Ooo, ooo, this just in ... Julee is having a birthday sale!! Shop ' til you drop!



Thanks for visiting!

It's All About Susan

Did you see who's the SCS Featured Stamper this week? The amazing Susan Liles (susiestampalot on SCS), fellow SFYTT sampler and Verve Diva! Congrats, Susan!!! Of course I had to play. I chose to CASE her stinkin' cute Oh Fudge card. Usually when I do the Featured Stamper challenges, I CASE the layout and change the stamps, colors and embellishments. This time I CASEd the stamps and the teetering ice cream scoop idea, but changed the layout to this week's SCS Sketch Challenge. The ice cream scoops are all colored over with a clear Spica. You can kinda, sorta see it here, but it's much more sparkly in real life:

Susan will also be hosting a challenge over in the Verve Forum today. Have I mentioned that we're doing a "Get to Know the Verve Divas" series? Each Thursday, one of the Verve divas comes up with a challenge for the week (freebies to a random participant, of course), and spends the week answering questions in the forum. Wanna get to know Susan a little better? Head on over :)

While I'm on the subject of Verve, remember to check out the current Project Parade on the Verve blog. Our theme this time is ATCs, and we want you to play along (more freebies to a random winner), so be sure to check out all the details right here.

Happy Thursday!

Stamps: Here's the Scoop (My Favorite Things)

Paper: Rose Red, Whisper White, Certainly Celery card stock (SU!), Stamper's Select White (Papertrey), Urban Rhapsody dp (K&Co)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko), Cool Carribean classic pad (SU!), Certainly Celery, Rose Red, Pretty in Pink markers

Accessories: small oval punch, paper piercer, black journaling marker (SU!); Dew Drops (Robin's Nest); ribbon (Fancy Pants)

Dare to Get Dirty 2008

I love, love, love textured card stock! I really believe certain projects can be transformed just by switching from smooth to textured. I find this to be true especially with white. For this card I started with a textured white card base. The middle panel that's embossed with Swiss Dots is Stampin' Up's Whisper White. I stamped the sentiment on textured card stock just to see how it would turn out, and really liked the effect. It looks sort of like cross-stitch.

I created a lot of extra dimension on this card by using some thicker Pop-Dots (mine came from Wal-Mart [a LONG time ago ... I refuse to shop there now ... don't get me started {grin}]) instead of the Stampin' Up dimensionals I usually use. The Pop-Dots are much sturdier than trying to stack dimensionals. For the flower centers, I used those same little gum drop baubles that I gushed over on Monday (they're called Princess Pops by SillySkittles, and I get mine from Pez-A-Doodle Designs). I have no idea who makes the ribbon - sorry - but I LOVE it! I have it stored on a skinny wooden spool, so my bow had that nice curl without me doing anything special to it at all. Gotta love that.

I made this card for one of the Dare to Get Dirty challenges that are happening over on Splitcoast this week. Each day, a few past and present Dirty Dozen designers host challenges for the Fan Club members to participate in. Read all about it here! I can't give you the details of the challenge (you'll have to go to Splitcoast for all the 411), but I can tell you it is being hosted by Jody Morrow (aka texasjodylynn on SCS), and would you believe (wink, wink), it has to do with ribbon?







Stamps: All Holidays (Stampin' Up!); Simply Said (the flower on the inside of the card)
Paper: White textured card stock (Bazzill); Whisper White and Basic Black (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Basic Black and Real Red (I inked with markers, by the way)
Accessories: striped ribbon (source unknown); paper flowers (Prima), Swiss Dots cuttlebug folder (Provo Craft), Princess Pops (available from Pez-A-Doodle Designs), Xmas Red Stickles (Ranger), paper piercer and corner rounder (Stampin' Up!)

Another Cross Card

Before I get to today's card info, I wanted to give a few shout-outs. First, my congratulations go to Dawn Easton, one of the newly named Splitcoast Dirty Dozen. Dawn is one of my favorite bloggers and a fellow Our Creative Corner designer. I'm so happy to see her receive this well-deserved honor!! Woo hoo Dawn!!

Second, congratulations to two Our Daily Bread Designs girls: Kim Teasdale (blondie090277 on SCS) has joined as a permanent design team member. What rock have I been under not to have known Kim's work before? Oh my!! It should be illegal for one person to have this much talent!! Seriously, every single thing she makes is over-the-top WOW! Judy Rozema (StampingQueenJAR) has joined us as July's guest designer. Judy's gallery and blog are part of my "daily dose" because of her consistently amazing creations. She's a frequent participant in the daily SCS challenges, and I always look forward to seeing her challenge contributions. Love her stuff!! Congrats, Kim and Judy, and welcome to the ODB family. [The links are fixed now - thanks Cheryl (mochamama)!]

Now, on to today's card, a second look at the Cross of Christ set from Our Daily Bread Designs. Yesterday I used the smallest of the three crosses. Today you're seeing the middle size. I've also used some fun papers you can find in the Our Daily Bread Designs store. First is the foiled vellum (made by True Faith) that you see on the four background squares. Second is the metallic card stock. (I think it might be made by Prism, but I'll have to check on that to be sure.) It comes in five colors: the traditional silver, gold, and copper, of course, but then there are two of the most amazing shades of bronze, "bronze" (my fave) and "bronze ore" (second fave). These two shades are completely new to me, and I love them so much I immediately went into "horde mode" until I can order some more!

The cross is stamped in VersaMark, then heat embossed with a gold embossing powder. I don't know who manufactures this particular gold EP, but I love how it has flecks of glitter mixed in for extra sparkle. The scalloped ovals are cut with Nestabilities, then I dotted gold Stickles onto the scallops. There is a dew drop in the center of the cross. Metallic grosgrain is wrapped around the card base on the diagonal, like wrapping a package, and tied into a bow. A second bow of gold cord is tied onto the gold grosgrain bow. The gold brads in the corners of the four background squares are backed with 1/4" gold metallic circles.

I am totally addicted now to decorating my card insides (thank you Denise!!). A smaller square of ivory, matted in gold, is centered on the inside panel, and the smallest cross stamped and gold embossed in the lower left corner.

Many of the layers are raised up on dimensionals. Here's a detail shot:



Thanks so much for stopping by!



Stamps: Cross of Christ (Our Daily Bread Designs)
Paper: Gold Metallic card stock (Prism?), foiled white vellum (True Faith), Very Vanilla (SU!)
Ink: VersaMark
Accessories: gold embossing powder (source unknown), Dew Drop (Robin's Nest), gold stickles (Ranger), scalloped oval Nestabilities (Spellbinders), gold brads, 1/4" circle punch, metallic gold grosgrain, gold cord (SU!)

Cross of Christ

Whew!! We made it home from our beach vacation Saturday evening. A trip that should have taken us around 8 hours ended up taking us almost 10 hours, because of a big traffic snarl only an hour and half from home. About half of those 10 hours were spent accompanied by the whining and crying of our 15-month-old, who does NOT travel well at all. BUT, like childbirth, it will all be a distant memory when we pack up and do it all over again next year :) It's good to be back home! I did have internet access at the rental house, so I wasn't completely out of the loop, but I still have a ton of catching up to do!! Thanks for all your wishes for a great vacation and safe travel!

Today's card features one of the new stamp sets by Our Daily Bread Designs called Cross of Christ. It was designed by a fellow design teammate, too -- the uber talented Dina Kowal. The cross is the same as the gorgeous watermarks the design team members have been using. Customers liked it just as much as we all did and asked if it could be turned into a stamp. The cross comes in three sizes (this is the smallest), along with a fabulous mixture of sentiments. Be sure to check out the Cross of Christ gallery, where you'll find loads of fantastic projects created by all of the Our Daily Bread design team members.

The card is a tri-fold. I cut windows in the front layers with my rectangle Nestabilities to create a opening to the middle panel, which holds the sentiment. The sentiment panel (which is raised up on dimensionals) has been embossed around the edges with the rectangle Nestability and in the center with a small circle Nestability. The middle panel opens to the card base, where a personal message can be included.

Do you see the sparkly bauble in the center of the paper flower (and the three others on the inside corners of the outer frame)?? They are the coolest!! They look almost exactly like miniature gumdrops! Seriously, you almost want to pick them off the card and have a taste! What are they? They're called "Princess Pops" and they are part of a collection called Sugar and Scraps Embellishments made by Silly Skittles. The various baubles in the collection are very much like Dew Drops, but with lots more choices -- sugared, jeweled, polka-dotted, swirled, etc. You can find them at Pez-A-Doodle Designs. Check them out!! (The clear baubles are from my stash of Dew Drops.)





Here are some additional pictures:







Oh, and if you're still with me, thanks so much for the feedback on Saturday's wild birthday card! It was great to read all the enthusiastic feedback. I'm already seeing it with fresh eyes -- all of yours!

Thanks for stopping by!



Stamps: Cross of Christ (Our Daily Bread Designs); Stitched (SU!)
Paper: Ruby Red, Blush Blossom, and Very Vanilla card stock; "Ella Precocious" dp (Bo Bunny's Shabby Princess Collection)
Ink: Ruby Red, Basic Black, and White craft
Accessories: classic rectangle and circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), dew drops (Robin's Nest), Princess Pops (by Silly Skittles), sewing machine and thread, paper flower (Prima), stamping sponges, Rough Diamonds Cuttlebug folder (Provo Craft), paper piercer, photo corner punch (Stampin' Up!)

Eight is Enough

My first-born turns 8 next month, and I tell you, enough already with this growing up stuff! It's happening too fast. Not to mention, my birthday follows his, so his turning 8 just puts me that much closer to the big 4-o. And can I confess I'm having a really hard time with 40? But let's not dwell on that today. It's not about me ... yet. My day will come soon enough, and then I'll have a whole decade to dwell there. Oh yipee.

Hopefully, you would have guessed I made today's card for my son without me even telling you, because who in her right mind would put this much "stuff" on a card for any other 8-year-old?! It's a little wacky isn't it ... the card, I mean? Not exactly my normal style, but I *think* I like it. It's one of those I keep looking at trying to decide. It's so different. I'll have to put it away until late August and then look at it with a fresh pair of eyes. I'm really curious to hear what you think!

The layout comes from Jen's Sketch for You to Try. Check it out at i{heart}2stamp, along with Jen's sample and guest designer Jessie Rone's sample. Then remember to visit Amy, Carole, Shannan, and Susan to see what they've put together. I hope you'll play along this week! If you upload to SCS, remember to add keyword SFYTT.

This is also my sample for this week's new challenge from Our Creative Corner, which is to do some kind of dry embossing on your project. What a perfect challenge for me! After all, do more than two or three days ever pass before I'm reaching for my Swiss Dots cuttlebug folder? Head over to Our Creative Corner for all the details on how to play, and to see samples by the rest of the OCC team: Cindy Haffner, Dawn Easton, Denise Marzec, Jennifer Meyer, Laurie Schmidlin, and Lynda Benden.

A couple notes about the card: The chipboard word "wish" came from my stash. It's not marked in any way, so I have no idea who the manufacturer is. It came in the natural chipboard color, so I first painted it white, then smooshed Old Olive craft ink onto it (a couple of coats), then painted it with Crystal Effecs for a nice lacquered look. While the CE was still wet, I sprinkled some Dazzling Diamonds onto the star only. The chipboard number 8 is from Cherry Arte. It came white already, so I didn't have to do anything to it except string it to the hemp. The balloons and a portion of the sentiment all come from Stampin' Up's Big Bold Birthday. I trimmed out the balloons, coated them with crystal effects, and tied some white embroidery floss onto them. The dry embossing is done with the Swiss Dots cuttlebug folder, and the designer papers are from Basic Grey's Cupcake collection.

Hope you have a truly fabulous weekend. Please say a quick prayer for safe travel back home for us today - thanks!



Stamps: Big Bold Birthday (SU!)
Paper: Whisper White, Brocade Blue, Real Red, Old Olive (SU!); Cupcake collection (Basic Grey)
Ink: Real Red, Brocade Blue, Old Olive classic, and Old Olive craft (SU!)
Accessories: white acrylic paint, crystal efects, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, 3/4" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, large star punch, Swiss Dots cuttlebug folder, white embroidery floss, natural hemp, Real Red eyelets, spiral punch, silver brads, paper piercer, corner rounder

Clearly Beautiful

Baroque Motifs is as beautiful to me today as it was the day I first saw it! For this card, I stamped the flourish in White Staz-On onto a piece of acetate. The card base is gold metallic card stock. I created the trio of medallions with a combination of one of the Baroqe Motifs images, along with punched cardstock flowers done with the Spring Bouquet punch, and a vellum flower punched with the Three for You punch. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.

[Update: Doris asked if the acetate is only for the card front, and if so, how I attached it. Yes, the acetate is just for the card front. I don't have the actual card in front of me, but let's say the card is 5 1/2" square. Then the acetate is also 5 1/2" square. The metallic gold card base is roughly 7" wide by 5 1/2" high. I scored at 5 1/2" and folded the extra 1 1/2" to wrap around the acetate. As for adhering ... see the strip of white scallops that runs behind the part of the card base that wraps around to the front? I think I ran that through a Xyron so that the adhesive would be on the back, then adhered it to the acetate square. Then a generous combination of sticky strip and monoadhesive holds the ivory scalloped strip to the folded over portion of the gold card base. I sure hope this makes sense. (This is why I don't write tutorials ... I never feel like I'm very good at explaining in words!)]

I'm not sure about these acetate cards, honestly. They've definitely got the WOW factor, but sometimes it's hard to figure out where to write in them. For this one, I think I'll add a small ivory rectangle (to match the ticket corner-punched one on the card front) to the inside (aligned with the outside panel so it doesn't show). That way there will be an obvious place to write a short message. One of my scrapbook club members suggested putting a large photograph in the inside, which I thought might look really elegant behind the white flourish.

Be sure to check out the Verve blog today ... a new "Project Parade" begins today, and you know what that always means ... a challenge AND prizes! Hope you'll join in the fun!!

Thanks for stopping by,



Stamps: Baroque Motifs (SU!); Spiral Blossoms(Papertrey Ink)
Ink: White Staz-On, Encore Gold Metallic
Paper: Vellum card stock, metallic gold card stock, Very Vanilla (don't look too closely, I goofed and used Whisper White on the thin scalloped mat -- oopsie)
Accessories: gold brads, Three for You punch, Spring Bouquet punch, ticket corner punch, corner rounder, 1/16" punch, gold cord, ivory taffeta ribbon, acetate

Give Thanks

Our Daily Bread Designs officially releases three new sets today! This gorgeous cornucopia image is from Give Thanks, a set of 8 stamps, including the cornucopia, a few sentiments, and a few Scripture stamps.

The image is stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa on watercolor paper, and all the coloring is done with an aqua painter and reinkers. The stitching that partially runs around the green panel is faux stitching using a brown marker.

I wanted to add some shadowing to the various vegetables and fruits in the image, as well as fix that crooked ribbon, but I just plain ran out of time before I left for vacation. I'll spruce this one up when I return!

Thanks for stopping by!



Stamps: Give Thanks (Our Daily Bread Designs)
Paper: Papaya Puree Dark (Prism); Spirit "Bright" Sunburst/29th Street Market (My Mind's Eye)
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa (Tsukineko); various dye reinkers (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: aqua painter, sponges, corner rounder, paper piercer, brown marker, paper flower (Kaiser scrapbook); decorative concho (K&Co.)
Size: 5 1/2" square

Preppy Cupcakes

Some of the stuff I'm going to show you while I'm AFS (away from stamps) is from back in January, when I was Jen's guest designer at i{heart}2stamp. They were posted there in January, but I haven't posted them here. This first one uses one of the very first My Favorite Things set I acquired - Icing on the Cake. (There are LOTS of MFT siblings keeping it company these days!)

The cupcake is teeny!! I stamped six of them on watercolor paper to create the cupcake pyramid, then watercolored with an aqua painter and reinker, and trimmed, leaving a thin outline of the white around the edges. The image cluster is mounted on dimensionals over a layered circle that I cut with various circle cutting systems, including a scalloped circle Nestability. For some sparkle, I coated the cherries with Crystal Effects, dotted the cupcakes with Stickles, and colored over the cupcake bottoms with a Stardust Gelly Roll pen. I also added a bead of shimmer to the thin black circle mat with the Stardust Gelly Roll pen. The starbursts on the Celery background and the pink panel are done with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. I did the piercing free-hand. I could definitely use one of those circle piercing templates. The word celebrate is also heat embossed with black embossing powder.

It's so funny to look back and see how you've changed in only six short months. One thing I would definitely do differently on this card: take a better photograph! Which I would have done before posting it today, except that I can't find this card. Which means I have sent it, sold it, or given it away. Which is a good thing.

Have a fantastic day!



Stamps: Icing on the Cake (My Favorite Things); Celebrate Today? (Stampin' Up)
Paper: Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Basic Black, Whisper White (SU!); watercolor paper (Canson)
Ink: Jet Black Staz-On, VersaMark, Basic Black
Accessories: crystal effects, Stardust Stickles, aqua painter and reinkers, Stardust Gelly Roll pen, circle cutters, scalloped circle Nestability, paper piercer, dimensionals, black brads, corner rounder, white gel pen, black embossing powder

Double Play

Sorry for the tired cliche of a title! Today's card combines both Jen's Sketch for You to Try and Our Creative Corner's new challenge, an inspiration challenge (more on that in a minute).

Check out i{heart}2stamp for Jen's rockin' sketch for this week, Jen's sample, and guest designer Jessie Rone's sample. And be sure to give a warm welcome to Amy Rohl, who joins the sketch team this week!! Woo hoo!! How lucky are we??? Hop on over to Amy's blog, Carole's blog, Shannan's blog, and Susan's blog for even more sketch inspiration!

The creamy ivory and saffron color combo today comes from this gorgeous dining room:



which, you guessed it, is the inspiration piece for today's Our Creative Corner Challenge. Head over there for all the details on how to play and to link up your creation once you've played. You'll also find all the samples from the OCC girls there: Cindy Haffner, Dawn Easton, Denise Marzec, Jennifer Meyer, Laurie Schmidlin, and Lynda Benden. If you played last week, remember to check to see if you're the winner of our Mothers & Daughters Creations gift certificate!

Hopefully, by the time this posts (if I've scheduled it properly), my family and I will be well on our way to North Myrtle Beach, SC. I've actually found a handful of "oldies" to post while I'm gone, as well as a new Our Daily Bread Designs project, so I won't be as scarce next week as I thought. I'll still miss my stamps and this little ol' blog while I'm away, you know?

Thanks for visiting!



Stamps: Embrace Life, One of a Kind
Paper: So Saffron, Very Vanilla, So Saffron prints
Ink: So Saffron
Accessories: So Saffron brads, Cream grosgrain ribbon, stamping sponges, sewing machine and ivory thread, classic and scalloped circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders)
All supplies by Stampin' Up, unless otherwise noted.

Just A Note

What's your most under-loved Stampin' Up set? The one you just had to have, but have barely used? For me, it has to be Frames With A Flourish. Here I've paired one of the frames with two stamps from Verve's Asian Flair to make the "Just a Note" label. The yellow diamond panel is stamped in VersaMark ink with the flourish from Baroque Motifs, then embossed in white. The color combo comes from this week's SCS Color Challenge. All the white dotting is done with a white gel pen.

Just a quick note -- I'm leaving Saturday morning for a family vacation. I've got a few things scheduled to post automatically while I'm away, but if I'm a little scarce next week, you'll know why. We're headed to North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with my parents, my brother and his family, and my sister and her boyfriend. Should be lots of fun! Anyone know of any stamp/scrap stores in that area, or even along the Virginia/North Carolina I-95 corridor? I'm sure my family will be thrilled to go stamp shopping with me ;)

See you again on Saturday with a fun NEW Our Creative Corner challenge and a VERY cool Sketch for You To Try from Jen!



Stamps: Baroque Motifs and Frames With A Flourish (Stampin' Up); Asian Flair (Verve Stamps)
Paper: white textured card stock (Bazzill); Chocolate Chip, Barely Banana, Groovy Guava, Whisper White (SU!)
Ink: Chocolate Chip, White craft (SU!)
Accessories: Three for You punch, white gel pen, paper piercer, wide Chocolate grosgrain ribbon
Size: 4" square

The Lord's Prayer

When I was little, my twin sister and I each had matching little plaques that hung over our matching little twin beds. They had the prayer "Now I lay me down to sleep ..." on them. When I received this Lord's Prayer stamp from Kelley at Our Daily Bread Designs, the first thing I thought was to make each of my children some type of wall decor to hang over their beds. I like this prayer better, too, because you know how that other one ends ... "If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to keep." Maybe it's just me, but I think that "if I die before I wake" part is kind of scary for little kids to be thinking about right before bed! I don't have a suitable frame for this yet, so for now I've mounted the prayer on a card base. A couple of details that are hard to see: The bottom part of the background panel (below the ribbon) is stamped in white ink with Stampin' Up's Stitched background; and the Elegant Eggplant mat behind the prayer is scored on both diagonals to create a lattice pattern.

This stamp, as well as two new sets, will be available from Our Daily Bread Designs on July 15. I can't wait to show you the other two sets!

(Note: The flowers with the dew drop centers are too bulky to go under the glass in a traditional frame, so I'll either frame it in a shadow box or I'll take the flowers off and put them on the outside of the glass, as well as add a few to embellish the frame itself, too. Another option is to mount it as-is onto a wooden plaque.)

Have a great day!



Stamps: Lord's Prayer (Our Daily Bread Designs, available 7/15), Linen (SU! retired), Stitched (SU!)
Paper: Whisper White, Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, White craft
Accessories: Prima flowers, Dew Drops, wide Celery grosgrain (SU!); white gel pen, cornerr ounder, sewing machine and thread, stamping sponges
Size: 5 3/4" square (will fit in a 6x6 envie)

FS74 {Teneale}

This past Sunday's Featured Stamper on SCS was {Teneale}. What a fun gallery to look through! She's got an amazing clean, elegant style that I couldn't wait to CASE. I chose to copy the layout and the butterflies of this card and the colors of this one. I changed around the layers a little bit and used a different butterfly, then added some sparkle and shine with some heat embossing. I inked the edges of some of the panels with VersaMark, then heat embossed with Iridescent Ice. The swirl from Baroque Motifs on the Sage Shadow background is embossed in clear, and the medallion on the Chocolate Chip background is embossed in Iridescent Ice.

Here's a detail shot:



Thanks for stopping by!

Delight

I have a couple more samples from the most recent Verve Stamps release that I haven't shown here yet. This first card uses a stamp from Verve's new Plain Janes line. Plain Janes are single stamps at a super affordable price. The first in the series is Psalm 37:4. Isn't the type treatment on this gorgeous?! And the price is only $3.00!! That's less than a gallon of gas these days, and you'll get a lot more mileage for your bucks, too!

I used some scraps of a designer paper by Wild Asparagus for the background. The light brown panel is dry embossed with the Textile Cuttlebug folder and embellished with some blue and taupe satin ribbons. For the focal panel, I started by stamping SU's Linen background stamp in Chocolate Chip (I stamped off once first for a lighter image) to give the panel a fabric look. The sentmient was stamped "full-strength" in Chocolate Chip. I dotted the four corners with Liquid Pearls and matted the panel with a scalloped blue square that I cut with Nestabilities. (I also dotted the scallops along the bottom of the card with Liquid Pearls.) Super quick and easy!

I've been having lots of fun with the long tall cards, can you tell? This next card uses the sentiment "You are not alone" from Verve's Here For You set. I love the thought of this sentiment used in a religious way. (Reminds me of the beautiful Meredith Andrews song "You're Not Alone.") I strung a cross charm on a short length of silver cord and adhered to a Blush Blossom oval. All the ovals are cut with Nestabilities. I added a clear adhesive crystal to the center of the charm, as well as on each scallop. Dry embossing again is done with the Textile Cuttlebug folder. This time, I lightly sponged on some Blush Blossom ink after dry embossing just to bring out the relief a bit more. The scalloped panels, taffeta ribbon, and sentiment are all in Basic Gray.

Have a wonderful Monday, and thanks so much for stopping by!