I Cheated!

If you live anywhere in the state of Virginia or parts of western Maryland, you may have heard the squeals emanating from the Sheffer house Tuesday afternoon when I opened an email from Jen del Muro asking if I'd be interested in getting her weekly SFYTT sketches early and joining her and her friends Carole Burrage, Shannan Teubner, and Susan Liles in posting samples along with her sketches. Would I? Oh baby WOULD I! How fun is that?!

That said, I'm feeling like I SO cheated this week. When her sketch came, I was in the midst of creating Sue's blocks, so I had these little 2" x 2" canvases on the brain, and naturally translated her sketch into more of the same. Doesn't it make for a wild, crazy, fun card, though? You know what I love most about this card and the original altered blocks? They use bright colors (big phobia #1) AND designer paper (big phobia #2)!

THANK YOU Jen, for inviting me to participate! Now don't forget to go check out the sketch and Jen's sample first, and then Carole's, Shannan's, and Susan's interpretations. And then, go stamp! If you upload to SCS, use the keyword "SFYTT" so everyone can see everyone else's all in the same place.

Stamps: Live Your Dream, Amazing to Zany
Paper: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Purely Pomegranate, Bali Breeze dp
Ink: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Purely Pomegranate
Accessories: styled silver hodgepodge hardware, felt fusion flowers, purely pomegranate double-stitched ribbon, dimensionals, sponge daubers, small oval punch, rose red, tempting turquoise, old olive brads
All supplies by Stampin' Up. Size 5" square.

Gift Ideas

Who knew a visit with my upline would yield a week's worth of fodder for my blog! As I mentioned earlier this week, Sue spoiled me rotten with gifts this week. These first two are the make-and-take projects she had for everyone back at her Christmas party (which I missed).





This third picture was an adorable little gable box she decorated ...



and she put THIS inside!!



Now I did not know about this pickle tree ornament tradition when I first created the user name PickleTree, which I have been using on AOL for many years. I stumbled upon the tradition a few months ago after an SCS user inquired about my user name and told me there's a pizza place by the name The Pickle Tree in Michigan (?? I think it was Michigan). For some reason, I did a google search on pickle tree and found this neat little Christmas tradition of German origin. A glass pickle ornament is the last ornament hung on the tree the night before Christmas. On Christmas morning, the first child to find the pickle gets an extra gift and gets to be the first to begin unwrapping gifts. When I discovered that, I knew I'd have to get a pickle ornament, but I had never seen such a thing. How cool is it that Sue found one? And I don't think she knew of the tradition either!

Not only did she spoil me, but she spoiled my daughter as well. She had cleaned out her craft room a while back and had told me she didn't know what to do with all the stuff she wanted to get rid of (old stickers, die-cuts, etc.) I told her my daughter and future SU demo/downline was accepting any and all donations of unwanted crafting materials. She brought this ginormous bag FULL of stuff. My daughter's eyes were even bigger than mine were when I opened my last gift from Sue, which was a color caddy with extender (!!). Is she the most generous person EVAH?!!

My Kind of Color Combo

You can't go wrong with this week's SCS Color Challenge: River Rock, Basic Black, Whisper White. Love it! I also used this week's Sketch Challenge sketch for the layout (but turned on its side). And isn't that some cool background paper? I found it in the Halloween section (of all places) at my local Recollections store when it was going out of business. In real life, it's just a shiny black baroque pattern on a matte black background ... none of that purplish cast the camera picked up.

Stamps: Always, All Holidays
Paper: Whisper White, River Rock, black dp by Making Memories
Ink: Basic Black, River Rock
Accessories: classic and scallop rectangle nestabilities, sponge daubers, dimensionals, black stitched ribbon by Making Memories
Supplies by Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted.

Sue's Blocks

I missed my upline's Christmas party in December, so she and I exchanged gifts Tuesday during our visit. And even though it's the end of February, would you believe my gift to her wasn't finished?! In my defense, here's what happens ... I make something and if I don't give it right away, the second-guessing begins. Will she like it? Is it nice enough, creative enough?

I told myself I'd make something new for Sue if inspiration struck. Otherwise, she would get her original gift. Inspiration struck at 1 am Tuesday morning (she was due to arrive at 10 am). I worked as fast and furiously as I could for more than an hour, but ran out of steam (go figure). Anyway, I put the finishing touches on it last night, so she'll either get it by mail or at her March meeting. (I did show it to her while she was here. I know, isn't that tacky? "Here's your gift, but you can't have it yet.")

The other three sides are all decorated, too:







These are 2-inch wood blocks that I painted first and then covered in various Bali Breeze designer paper squares. Dressed-up white binder clips are attached to the top of each block for displaying photos, to-do lists, cards, etc.

The stamping is pretty straightforward, but if you have any questions, just ask!

Update:
How did you attach the binder clips?
with a generous amount of crystal effects. I'm thinking the E6000 glue would be great too. I don't know if it will hold up to actual repeated use yet ... I hope so!

Where did you find the blocks?
I'm pretty sure I got these at Michael's. Near the section with all the big unfinished wood items (shelves, stools, frames, etc.), they have a row of small wood items, including cut-out shapes, wooden spools, spheres, the little buttons you use to cover up a screw, etc. I think the unfinished blocks were there.

Stamps: Live Your Dream, Embrace Life, Little Pieces, Tiny Talk, Amazing to Zany
Paper: Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, Purely Pomegranata, Pumpkin Pie, Bali Breeze designer paper
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, Purely Pomegranate
Accessories: felt fusion flowers, styled silver hodgepodge hardware, artichoke ribbon, turquoise ribbon, purely pomegranate double-stitched ribbon, chipboard letters, dimensionals, heat and stick powder, dazzling diamonds glitter, sponge daubers, turquoise brad, rose red brad, old olive brad.
All supplies Stampin' Up.

Variation on a Theme

I spent the day yesterday with my upline, Sue Hyer, who came over to visit. We had the best time talkin' shop. She also loaded me up with goodies (and my daughter, too), but I'll have to wait for another post to get all that photographed and uploaded. In the meantime, here's a card I made last month and just never got around to posting. If it looks familiar, it's because I used the same color scheme, painted and glittered chipboard flower, and fun ribbon that I used on a card last month. Just another variation on the original theme. Enjoy, and have a great day!

Stamps: looks like spring (argyle background), sweet shapes (sentiment), rustic flowers by close to my heart (flower center)
Paper: whisper white
Ink: chocolate chip, soft sky, versamark
Accessories: stamp-a-ma-jig, blue flower ribbon by may arts, chocolate satin ribbon, chipboard flower, daquiri acrylic paint by making memories, heat and stick powder, dazzling diamonds glitter, chocolate chip marker
Supplies Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted.

FS: Part Two

This was my second upload for the Featured Stamper Challenge (see my first card in the post just below this one). Featured Stamper is the amazingly talented Mary Jo Albright. The challenge is pick a card to CASE, change at least two things, and identify those changes.

This time, I started with this fresh and adorable baby boy card. I kept the original layout and stamp set, but changed these things:

1. new color palette. (I did keep the basic gray, though. I might not have thought to use gray on a baby girl card, but I really liked the depth it adds.)
2. added a few layers
3. changed the star accent to a prima flower
4. took out the scalloped square mat on the main image (but only because I don't have the square nestabilities yet)
5. raised the elephant up on dimensionals
6. changed the three right-hand eyelet/rhinestone brad combos to two brads from the new styled silver hodgepodge hardware kit and topped them with Heidi Swapp pink jewels

This card will go to a stamping friend who had a baby girl earlier this month. I hope she likes it!

Stamps: nursery neccessities
Paper: basic gray, barely banana, whisper white, regal rose, certainly celery
Ink: going gray, barely banana, certainly celery, rose red
Accessories: pink heavenly prima flower (from texasjodylynn's recent prima share), dimensionals, sponge daubers, distressing tool, sewing machine, styled silver hodgepodge hardware kit (coming March 1), heidi swapp pink jewels, corner rounder, 1/16" circle punch, 1/2" circle punch
All supplies Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted.

Featured Stamper: Yo Yo Mary Jo

I had the best time yesterday participating in SCS's Featured Stamper Challenge. This week's challenge was to CASE something from Mary Jo Albright's awesome gallery. If you haven't seen her work, you MUST. That girl's got some wicked talent! (She was one of last year's winners of Stampin' Up's artisan award!)

I chose this card of hers to CASE. I've had the Baby, It's Cold Outside stamp by My Favorite Things for a while, but have only played with it a couple times. I loved the olive greens in Mary Jo's dp, so that's where I started. I also kept her layout and the fibers along the bottom. I changed the dp, the sentiment treatments, and added some layers and extra brads.

Stamps: Baby It's Cold Outside (My Favorite Things)
Paper: chocolate chip, old olive, bashful blue, shimmery white, dp (lily kate by Basic Grey)
Ink: palette noir, bashful blue, old olive, creamy caramel, going gray, pumpkin pie
Accessories: aqua painter, vintage brads (old-style), white acrylic paint (making memoies), dimensionals, small oval punch, word window punch, key tag punch, wide chocolate grosgrain, fibers (source unknown)