Thursday, December 31, 2009

Chipboard Lovebirds



Hi friends! The official "Winter Break" might not be quite over yet, but my little blog break definitely is. I'm SO ready to get back into more regular creating and posting - starting today!

I've pulled out a few of my current very favorite things to create a sweet, vintage{ish} anniversary card - the Life Stories #1 patterned paper collection by My Mind's Eye, chipboard, distressing, sewing, and bling.

I started with the wonderful decorative frame, which is a punch-out paper die-cut from Life Stories, then dressed the Maya Road chipboard lovebirds in some coordinating Life Stories papers, and then just played with pattern and layer combinations. I love the new Decorative 2" Round Wide Borders by JustRite Stamps, so I tucked one of those in behind the birds and the Melissa Frances glittered chipboard heart. The beautiful JustRite borders make such great background accents like this. The bling is by Zva Creative, and the "love of a lifetime" rub-on in the lower left corner is from my Stampin' Up stash.

I finished the inside with a simple top border that includes the Happy Anniversary semicircle sentiment, which is from JustRite's Celebrations Demi Phrases set. The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch.



Be sure to check out all the Sales & Specials at Stamper's Dream. The MME Life Stories paper collections, the newest JustRite sets, and a whole lot of other dreamy papercrafting goodies are on sale!

Thanks so much for visiting! I've missed blogging these last couple of weeks, and I've missed all of you! Happy New Year and farewell 2009!


Saturday, December 26, 2009

Make A Wish



Belated Merry Christmas wishes to all my blog readers! I hope those of you who celebrate Christmas had a wonderful, blessed time yesterday. My family sure did! I have a quick post today with my sample for Jen's Sketch For You To Try. Be sure to check out all the samples for inspiration, and then I hope you'll play along. Jen's got a sweet prize this week!

Jen and guest designer Kim
Amy
Kelly
Leigh

The Make A Wish sentiment is from the Just A Note set by JustRite, which is on sale right now at Stamper's Dream, along with a host of other JustRite sets and loads of other goodies. You'll find all the great Stamper's Dream deals under Sales & Specials. Happy shopping!!


Saturday, December 19, 2009

A Pair of Henrys



I adore the Henry Mouse character from Whiff of Joy. Whenever I see his precious little face, I just want to squeeze him! Stamper's Dream carries a wonderful selection of Whiff of Joy images, including quite a few of these Henry Mouse cuties. Here I've used Henry Mouse Hugging Heart, a Penny Black sentiment, and some papers from the Be-Loved collection by My Mind's Eye to make a bright and cheery Valentine card. I colored with Copics (mostly) and Prismacolor pencils, trimmed out Henry and popped him up once. The layout is Jen's Sketch For You To Try. Check out what these SFYTT sisters put together with the same sketch:

Jen del Muro with guest designer Kim Moreno
Kelly Lunceford
Leigh O'Brien
(Amy Rohl and Susan Liles are sitting out this week)

I couldn't get enough of either Henry or the fun sketch, so I did another one using Henry Mouse with Christmas Bauble.



This particular Henry is no longer available at Stamper's Dream, but you can check out all the other cute Henrys HERE. Coloring is with Copics and Prismacolors. The papers are from the Bissette pack by SEI. I keep telling myself I will *not* buy any more of the large 12x12 paper collections from Michael's/JoAnn's/ACMoore, since I have a hard enough time putting a dent in packs a quarter of their size, but the other day, I ended up bringing home three of them - yikes! I have a serious paper issue! Anyone else??

I'm going to hurry up and post this while I still have power. My part of Virginia has close to a foot of snow already and I think this might be just the beginning. That's a LOT for us!

Thanks for stopping by today!




Card #1
Stamps:
Henry Mouse Hugging Heart (Whiff of Joy), Piece of My Heart (Penny Black)
Paper: My Favorite Things Creme Perfect Paper Panel,
Neenah Classic Crest Solar White card stock, My Mind's Eye Be-Loved collection
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Ranger Antique Linen and Vintage Photo, VersaMagic Thatched Straw
Accessories: Copic markers, Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol, blending stumps, clear and silver Spica glitter pens, foam dimensionals, Spellbinders Classic Circle and Labels 1 Nestabilities, Ric Rac Scalloped Piercabilities, Papertrey buttons, May Arts burlap string, Martha Stewart border punch
Size: 5 1/2" square

Card #2:
Stamps: Henry Mouse with Christmas Bauble (Whiff of Joy)
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White card stock, SEI Bissette dp
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copic markers, Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol, blending stumps, foam dimensionals, Spellbinders Classic Circle and Labels 1 Nestabilities, Ric Rac Scalloped Piercabilities, K&Co snowflake brad, KaiserCraft bliss adhesive pearls, Stampin' Up! gray ribbon, Papertrey Ink satin ribbon, EK Success scalloped border punch, May Arts silver metallic string
Size: 5 1/2" square

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Joyeux Noel



Christmas is next week? Oh my! My kiddoes have their Christmas portrait appointment this afternoon, and then I'll be ready to start mailing out my cards. Until then, I'm determined to crank out a few more holiday cards. I have some beautiful images that haven't seen ink yet, and I'm not ready to put them away until next year without making at least a few more things.

This gorgeous Draft Horses image by Impression Obsession is one of them. The detail on this is incredible! I stamped in Ranger Walnut Stain Distress Ink onto one of the Kraft designer papers in the Life Stories line by My Mind's Eye, very lightly colored some brown onto the horses, and then added a bit more color to the wreath (all with Prismacolor pencils).



I really wanted to include a sentiment on the front, but was a bit stumped on where to put it. I ended up going with a JustRite circular sentiment (from A Merry Little Christmas - currently 40% off at Stamper's Dream) that I cut into a ring and placed just behind the big bow-snowflake-button embellishment combo. I like it there! Visible, but very unobtrusive. Other accents are some Offray satin ribbon, the same beautiful May Arts woven burlap trim that I also used yesterday (it works so well with the Life Stories collections), and some punched snowflakes.

Thanks for visiting!




Stamps: Draft Horses Cling (Impression Obsssion), A Merry Little Christmas (JustRite Stamps)
Paper: Close to My Heart Cocoa, Papertrey Kraft, My Mind's Eye Life Stories Collection 2
Ink: Ranger Walnut Stain and Frayed Burlap Distress Inks
Accessories: Offray satin ribbon, May Arts woven burlap trim and burlap string, Spellbinders circle Nestabilities, Martha Stewart snowflake punch, Papertrey button, foam tape, corner rounder
Size: 6" square

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Christmas Blessings



I stamped!! Yay, I stamped! My studio is put back together in reasonable order (my husband says it looks like a totally different room), the power tools have been returned to the shop (if you can call it a shop), and two 55-gallon garbage bags are sitting by the curb awaiting trash pick-up as I write. I still need to tackle the sprawl that has claimed a few basement closets, but at least the main room is back in working order. And not a minute too soon, as I've been quite ill-tempered without my daily creative fix. And I do mean quite! :/

First on my agenda was the much belated Sketch For You To Try sample. For those who get sketchy with us regularly, we'll call my project the SYAT this week, for Sketch You Already Tried. Or if you haven't tried it yet ... whatcha waiting for? ;) Here are some links for inspiration:

Jen del Muro and guest designer Kim Moreno
Amy Rohl
Kelly Lunceford
Leigh O'Brien
Susan Liles
SFYTT gallery at Splitcoaststampers

The designer papers are from the Life Stories line by My Mind's Eye, the text print is from an old book, the tree stamp is from Verve's Christmas in the Air set, and the sentiment is from Verve's Blessed Christmas set. And by the way, the SU polka-dot ribbon is a nearly exact match for the card base (made of Birchtone [medium] cardstock by Prism). I have no idea why it looks so different in the photo :)

In other news, it's VIP day at My Favorite Things! What's VIP day? Read all about it HERE! But hurry, the VIP package is available today only, and in limited quanitities.



Stamps: Christmas in the Air, Blessed Christmas (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Birchtone Medium (Prism), Cocoa (Close to My Heart), Life Stories dp (My Mind's Eye)
Ink: Frayed Burlap and Walnut Stain Distress (Ranger)
Accessories: Stampin' Up ribbon, May Arts wired woven trim and natural burlap string, Spellbinders Piercabilities, Flourish Accent Shapeabilities, and Labels 1 Nestabilities, Martha Stewart snowflake punch, Papertrey buttons, sewing machine

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Update

I am soooo sorry if you've stopped by yesterday or today looking for my sample for Jen's Sketch For You To Try! In my last post, I mentioned a much-needed stamp room purge and overhaul. My room right now is in such disarray that I can't possibly get any stamping done. I keep thinking I'll carve out some time and space to get something made, but I've been so busy hosting family that it just hasn't happened. I'm aiming for tomorrow! Again, so sorry!

If you haven't checked out the sketch and everyone else's samples yet this weekend, here are some links:

Jen del Muro and guest designer Kim Moreno
Amy Rohl
Kelly Lunceford
Leigh O'Brien
Susan Liles

Be back soon!


Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Merci Beaucoup



Just a quick post today. Wanted to share a card I made a few weeks ago for Verve's most recent release. The butterflies are from an older, but favorite set called Beautiful Kindness, and the sentiment is done with one of the thank you greetings from the new Thankful Hearts. I used lots of different patterns from Basic Grey's charming Nook & Pantry collection (the 6x6 size). The ribbon and buttons are by Papertrey, and the buttons are threaded with thin strips of cardstock, an idea I got from one of Susan's awesome Susie Q-Tips.

I also wanted to give a heads up that my blogging is about to become rather sporadic as we fly through this holiday season. I promised myself and my husband I'd take December off except for a few posts here and there, including Jen's Saturday SFYTT. I'm looking forward to spending extra time with friends and family and to completing some home projects that are long overdue - including a huge stamp room purge/reorg. (Watch for some Christmas candy soon!)

Thanks for visiting!

Saturday, December 5, 2009

From Our House To Yours



Helloooooo Saturday! What an awesome morning I've had so far. For the first time in 2 1/2 years, not one, not two, but all three of my kids decided to sleep past 9 am! Being the night owl that I am, for this I am so grateful. Not only that, but we all woke up to the white stuff! Covering the ground and still falling. I was looking forward to doing some shopping this morning, watching my oldest son's first basketball game of the season this afternoon, and then going to see New Moon (finally) with a friend tonight, but we all might be staying put instead. The Sheriff's Office is reminding us, "Do not travel unless absolutely necessary." The shopping and basketball I can do without, but the Edward fix? Smiley

Today's card is my sample for Jen's Sketch For You To Try. It's not exactly a literal interpretation, but all the sketch elements are there, so it should be good and legal :) I used the ornament in place of a large circle on the sketch and created a faux rectangle layer behind it with some scoring and piercing. The ornament is part of a beautiful piece of Fancy Pants designer paper - Deck the Halls from the Christmas Magic Collection. In fact the whole card front is from that dp collection. No card stock except for the ivory base. Not much stamping either. Just the sweet sentiment, "from our house to yours," which is from Verve's O Christmas Tree.

I finished the inside with a Merry Christmas sentiment, also from O Christmas Tree:



And below is a better look at the scoring and piercing that create the faux layer. And by the way, in case it's not evident, for the ornament, I just cut it out of the patterned paper using a hobby knife, then popped it up on the hole it left in the dp. Not something I'd normally advise, but I wanted to keep the brown bow and string part of the ornament design, and it turned out looking just fine (IMHO):



Be sure to visit all the SFYTT sisters for more inspiration. And give a warm welcome to our new December guest designer, too! You're going to love her!!

Jen and the NEW December guest designer
Amy
Kelly
Leigh
Susan

To play along, link up your sketch creation to Jen's post and remember to use keyword SFYTT if you upload to any online galleries.

Thanks so much for visiting, and have a fantastic weekend!



Stamps: O Christmas Tree (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Papertrey Vintage Cream, Fancy Pants Christmas Magic dp
Ink: Ranger Old Paper, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress Inks
Accessories: gold cord, Papertrey buttons, May Arts natural burlap string, Michael's gold baubles, Martha Stewart snowflake punch, Scor-Pal, paper piercer

Friday, December 4, 2009

JustRite Christmas Countdown



Today, Stamper's Dream is wrapping up another JustRite Week. Hope you've enjoyed all the projects shown so far! Be sure to visit Cammie, Michelle, and Tosh, who all have projects to share today as well.

I'm excited to share a Christmas countdown project today. The windowed pocket at the upper left holds a tag that shows the number of days left until Christmas. (I think 21 is accurate for today - how scary is that??). Here's a closer look:




The circle frame on top of the pocket was made by stamping one of the 2" Decorative Round Wide Borders on green and one of the Just A Note 1 5/8" borders on black. (For the black ring, I used a star border and stamped in white ink. To help it stand out a bit more, I dotted the centers of each star with a white gel pen.) I cut both stamped images into rings using Spellbinders circle Nestabilities.

On the tag is a punched circle that shows the number of days left until Christmas. Here's a look at the tag out of its pocket:



The brackets and numbers are from the Curlz Monogram Kit 1 5/8" and have been stamped onto a circle punched from one of the patterns from the Mistletoe collection by Making Memories. (The green "Merry & Bright" ring, and the white journaling lines on the red background were part of the patterned paper. This pattern was *perfect* for this project. I'll show you some more number circles later.) Another thing that's perfect for a project like this? JustRite stamps. Can you imagine how many rub-ons this would take? Gotta love how the stamps keep on giving and giving and giving.

At first, I was going to make a whole bunch of tags, each with its own number and just switch out the tags each day, but that's a lot of tags! What I did instead was wrap the tag with a piece of acetate to create a clear pocket. Now all I have to change each day is the stamped number circle inside the clear pocket. The acetate is just a sleeve wrapped on the left and right secured on the back with Scor-Tape. I added a line of machine stitching along the bottom to close the pocket bottom and allow the number circle to rest in such a spot that it can be seen through the pocket window when the tag is in place. High-tech engineering here, folks ;) I put a little pull tab on the number circle to make it easier to get in and out. Here's a closer look:



Did I mention how *perfect* this Mistletoe pattern is??



Okay, some more details and pictures:



The glittered green chipboard letters? Be still my heart!! They are glittered Thickers by American Crafts. Can we talk major hoardfest with these? I've had them for at least a year waiting for just the right project. They look pretty sparkly in the pictures, but they are even better in real life. And they came just like this! No painting, no heat-and-stick powder, no glue pad, no fuss. I just thought it would be cool to substitute a fun little Christmas tree and button for the letter "i." There are actually two trees, layered, and both were cut from one of the Mistletoe patterns. The little "until" banner was done with JustRite's 15-point Times New Roman letter stamps (part of the Deluxe 2" Round Monogram Kit, as well as some other JustRite sets.)

The whole thing is mounted onto a 6x8 glossy ceramic tile (the kind you'd see in a bathroom) of all things. I wanted something flat, super thick, and sturdy, and this fit the bill. I plan on displaying this on a small wire picture stand that I got at Michael's.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

MFT December Blog Hop & Shop



Hi everyone! If you've been blog hopping with My Favorite Things tonight, then welcome to the end of the line! Do you love this month's sets? And how amazing have all the projects been? If you just happened by, then you'll want to catch up first. Scoot on over to Kim to begin!

For my card, I've used the new Robot 4 digi stamp and a sentiment from Love Machine. Love Machine was released in kit format a few months ago, but tonight it became available separately. I used papers from Cosmo Cricket's Boyfriend and Early Bird collections along with this week's Card Positioning Systems sketch (#144). The image is printed onto Neenah white card stock using an HP inkjet printer, then colored with Copic markers and trimmed out. I just got some of MFT's baby braddies (summer collection)- love them!! I used three of them in place of some of the dots on the robot, and also used them to flank each segment of the sentiment.

Thanks so much for hopping with My Favorite Things tonight! You'll find all the new stamps and products in the Brand Spankin' New section of the MFT store! Happy shopping!




Stamps: Robot 4 digi stamp, Love Machine (My Favorite Things)
Paper: Papertrey Ocean Tides, Stampin' Up Basic Gray, Neenah white, Cosmo Cricket Boyfriend and Early Bird Ink: Ranger Weathered Wood Distress Ink
Accessories: MFT summer baby braddies, Stampin' Up word window, spiral, large star, and small star punches, Copic markers, foam adhesive, Papertrey Ocean Tides saddle stitch ribbon
Size: 5 1/2" square

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

JustRite Week - Day Two



It's Day 2 of JustRite Week at Stamper's Dream! All week long you'll see the Dream Team posting projects with the newest JustRite stamps. Here's the full schedule for the week:

Monday: Michelle, Denise, Laurie
Tuesday: Michelle, Denise, Tosh, me
Wednesday: Michelle, Denise, Silke
Thursday: Michelle, Silke, Laurie
Friday: Michelle, Cammie, Tosh, me

Don't forget - all JustRite Christmas stamps have been marked down 30%!

For my project, I used three of the new JustRite products: the sentiment and circle border just behind it are from Just A Note 1 5/8" Borders & Centers, the white flourish pattern on the dark blue square frame is from the new 2" Square Decorative Borders, and last, the row of tiny circles that is stamped on the dark blue horizontal strips along the top and bottom is from the Curlz Monogram Kit 1 5/8". Can I tell you how much I'm loving the square frames? Such pretty patterns and so much fun to combine with the existing circle and oval JustRite sets.

There's a lot of punching, layering, and die-cutting going on with this one. The circles, squares, snowflake frame, and ricrac border are all done with Spellbinders dies. The brown scroll die-cuts are from a Cuttlebug die, and the large red scallops are actually hand-cut, following the circle pattern on a piece of patterned paper (from Kaiser Craft's Grandiose collection). The light blue-gray paper and the blue with white scroll piece that's behind the snowflake frame are both from Kaiser Craft's Vagabond Collection. I wrapped May Arts ivory burlap string around the snowflake frame and secured the four corners with ivory buttons. Brown brads and machine stitching add a little somethin' to the edges.

One more thing - you can't see it well, but the raised, dry embossed parts of the snowflake frame are covered with clear glitter. With the die in place, I sponged on VersaMark ink to the embossed areas, then added the glitter via heat-and-stick powder. For the ricrac borders, I smooshed them in VersaMark, then added glitter the same way. Very sparkly in real life.

Thanks for visiting!



Stamps: Just A Note 1 5/8" Borders & Centers, 2" Square Decorative Borders, Curlz Monogram Kit 1 5/8" (JustRite Stamps)
Paper: Prism Simply Smooth Ivory and Island Mist (Dark), Papertrey Dark Chocolate, Kaiser Craft Vagabond and Grandiose dp
Ink: Stampin' Up Not Quite Navy and white craft, Ranger Antique Linen and Vintage Photo Distress Ink, VersaMark
Accessories: Spellbinders classic circle, scalloped circle, classic square, scalloped square Nestabilities, Snowflake Frame Frameabilities, Ricrac Piercabilities, Cuttlebug 2x6 Ornamental die, May Arts ivory burlap string, Papertrey buttons, heat-and-stick powder, clear glitter, sewing machine, paper piercer, brown brads, foam adhesive
Size: 5 1/2" square