Ombre Wetlands

Hi there!  Today is another sample of a card that the Club ladies made at our meeting on Tuesday.  The inspiration came from Linda Heller's Stamping School, which you can join here for a nominal fee.  She has done all the work of figuring out the measurements.  There is a video to watch, plus she has an instruction sheet with a supply list that can be printed.  This Ombre technique is a little bit of a challenge but fun to do.  Love the results! 

That's it for now -  much to do before the weekend.  Thank you for stopping by today!

All Stampin' Up! supplies used unless otherwise noted. 

Stamps: Wetlands 

Paper: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Vanilla 

Ink: Memento Black, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede marker 

Tools:  Circles Framelits (#6 from center), Decorative Dots EF, 2-1/2” Circle punch, Postage Stamp punch 

Other:  Blender pen, Natural 7/16” Trim (4-1/2” piece), Dimensionals, clear blocks

Wetlands

Hi there!  This is a scheduled post while I'm stamping and chillaxing at the girls getaway retreat!  I know I'm having fun!  lol
This card was CASE'd from one that was made at Sally Nusbaum's Demo Shoebox Swap back in June.  I believe it was Kathy Morales' swap card, but not totally sure about that.  LOVE this stamp set so this card was a no brainer to be in our Card Buffet line-up!  We're always looking for masculine cards, right?

All Stampin' Up! supplies used unless otherwise noted. 

Stamps: Wetlands, Teeny Tiny Wishes 

Paper: Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Vanilla 

Ink: Crumb Cake, Pool Party, Soft Suede 

Tools:  Oval Framelits, Woodgrain embossing folder 

Other:  Natural Trim ribbon, blender pen, sponges, post-it notes (for masking), clear block

Inspiration: Kathy Morales (?)

That's it for today.  Thank you so much for peeking in today!

 

Oops!

Hi there!  I had a great day with my stamping peeps today and really great cards from the shoebox swap that we did!
It was brought to my attention by a kind reader (yay! a reader!) that I posted the same card twice this month.  Oops, sorry about that!  Guess I really liked that card.  lol  So here's a different card to make up for that little blunder. 

This is actually a 3x3 fridge magnet (or it could be a small notecard) showcasing a technique that Cheryl Renth demo'd at Pam D'Urso's stamping retreat last month. It's the white wash technique.  You may have seen it on other blogs.  Line art images work best for this technique.  Stamp your image with Versamark, sprinkle some white embossing powder onto piece, then heat set.  Let it cool for a minute.  Stampin' Up! White Craft Ink, which is a pigment ink, was applied sparingly with an aqua pen - as if white washing.  I prefer dipping my aqua pen into a small well of water, then picking up some White Craft Ink that has been pressed into the lid of the stamp pad.  The water thins the ink and helps to achieve that "white wash" look.  When that layer dries, a color (or colors) of your choice can be applied by using markers and a blending pen to color and shade your image.  In this sample I used the marker around the inside perimeter of each bloom, then  "pulled" the color towards the center of the bloom with the blender pen.  Make sure your project is completely dry before trying to glue it to anything. 

OK, need to get to bed.  Hope the rest of your weekend is awesome!  Thanks for stopping in!

                                                                                                                   

Elements of Style

Hi there!  Today's card is one that was sent to my friend in the hospital to let her know she's in my thoughts.  The Elements of Style flower image was stamped on watercolor paper with black StazOn ink.  Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, and Old Olive ink was applied to the image with a blender pen.  The embellishment was made from the Decorative Label punch, oval punches, plus a sentiment from the Layered Labels set.  A 1/8" hole punch was used on the scallop oval piece along with a scrap of crochet trim tucked behind the Decorative Label to dress it up a bit.

Stampin' Up! supplies used unless otherwise noted
Stamps: Elements of Style, Layered Labels, French Foliage (text on Designer Label)
Paper: Old Olive, Night of Navy, Vanilla, watercolor
Ink: Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, Old Olive, Black StazOn
Other: Decorative Label punch, Large & Scallop oval punches, Victoria crochet trim, pearls, blender pen, hole punch

Must run along for now.  Thank you for coming by today! 

Snow Much Fun

Hi there!  Going through some cards that didn't make the cut for Stamp Camps, swaps, or this years Christmas card for various reasons.  The above snowman card in non-traditional Christmas colors is one of the outcasts.  I really like the card but it's too labor intensive for my purposes.

Stamps: Snow Much Fun
Paper: Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie, Crumb Cake, Silver Glimmer
Ink: Black StazOn, Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzelberry, Craft White
Other: Blender pen
Inspiration: Joan Daily   www.joansdailystampede.blogspot.com  (Nov 18, 2011 post)

That's all for now.  Thank you for stopping in today!

Apothecary Art and Elegant Bird

Hi there!  What a gray day here.  Good day to stamp!  Before I do, though, I want to share one of the projects from my Stamp Camp this past Saturday.  I have the BEST group of ladies who attend!  We had such a fun time.  Thank you so much for coming and for those who couldn't make it, we missed you! 

Yesterday was a another fun filled day.  I attended a Welcome Back Open House for a friend who moved back to the area.  We were best friends during high school but life got in the way plus she lived out of state for the past forty years (yikes! - where did the time go?).  It was so great to reconnect with her and her family!  Looking forward to spending more time together once she gets settled.

Guess I'd better get on with the card before you lose interest, if you haven't already. lol   The focal piece on the following card was made with the new Label Collection Framelits die and the coordinating stamp set,  Apothecary Art.  So cool!  You can purchase these items from the Occasions Mini catalog.  They'll be available until March 31, 2012.

Stampin' Up! supplies used unless otherwise noted

Stamps: Apothecary Art (w-125525, c-125527)

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, So Saffron, Very Vanilla

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Pear Pizzazz, So Saffron, Stampin' Write markers = Cherry Cobbler, Pear Pizzazz, So Saffron

Tools: Framelits - Labels Collection Dies (125598), Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder (120175), Boho Blossoms punch (119858), flower from Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack (118309)

Other:  Victoria Crochet trim (118481), Cherry Cobbler seam binding (120992), Pearls (119247), Dimensionals, sponges, mini glue dots, blender pen

Inspiration: Maureen Ward on Stampin’ Connection (Demo site) posted Jan 14, 2012

Tomorrow I'll post another Camp card.  But for now I want to show you a thank you card I made for Penny Thomas, my upline's (Pam D'Urso) upline - and sister.  (Two of the sweetest and most genuine people I know.)  Penny was planning a visit with Pam so our February Pieces of Heart Stampers team dinner meeting last night was scheduled around Penny's visit. Our meeting got a little rowdy (...but that's another story! lol)  We had an awesome server who was very good natured about everything.  Anyway, Penny awards "Million Dollar Prizes" to the Demonstrators in her downline who rank in the top three for sales.  I was one of the fortunate recipients for December sales - thanks to my wonderful customers!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!   Mr. Brown (aka, UPS) delivered my gift, the Elegant Bird die, on Thursday.  Woo Hoo!  Since Penny was going to be at the Team meeting, I delivered my thank you note AND a big ol' hug to her personally!    

The inspiration for this card came from Sharon Burkert as seen here on her Feb 9th blog post.   

First Edition DSP was used for the bird.  The heart is, of course, our Red Glimmer paper.   I added a pearl (colored with a black Sharpie) for the eye.  The sentiment is from Just Believe (I added the ...)  Can't wait to use this die in other projects.  Thanks again, Penny!

We're supposed to get some snow (an accumulation of 3-4").  Rush hour is predicted to be the time for the "nasty" stuff.  The prediction might be "right on" since it's coming down pretty steady now.  Just hope everyone who has to drive in it is careful!

OK, need to get back to stamping.  Hope you've had an awesome day so far and thanks for stopping in!

Easy Events - Card #4

Hi there!  Hope you're having a great week.  Here is another Camp card.

Stamps: Easy Events

Paper: Cherry Cobbler stripes from Regals DSP Stack, Cherry Cobbler, Red Glimmer, White

Ink: Black, Old Olive, markers = Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, and Old Olive

Tools: Heart to Heart punch (119881), blender pen, scissors, acrylic block

Other:  Dimensionals

Inspiration: Sale-A-Bration brochure (Page 4)

Pam's Surprise Farewell Party

Hi there and happy Monday!   Gosh, can you believe next week is Thanksgiving and then all the hustle and bustle begins to get ready for Christmas.  Yikes!  I'm already sick of the Christmas music some of the stations are playing.  Why do they do that???  Let's have Thanksgiving first!

You know how my blog has been neglected lately?  Well I can now share one of the reasons for that.  We were putting together a surprise farewell party for our "inkcredible" leader, Pam D'Urso.  Once we learned of her move date, it was a scramble to organize a party in a short amount of time.  The stars and moon must have been aligned just right because it all fell into place!  We had a good turn out for such short notice.  Our group (Demos, customers, and neighbors) met at Las Fuentas Restaurant.  Megan, Pam's daughter, brought Pam about a half hour later.  Pam was so surprised.  It was great!  Her expression was priceless.  I took pictures but they did not turn out.  (I keep telling you all I'm camera challenged!  Hopefully, I can get pics from someone else to post at a later date.)  Pam will be moving about three hours away on Friday.  : (   We will miss her soooo much - but ya know what that means .... road trip!

Our thinking caps burned up with all that cerebral activity going on to come up with a unique gift for Pam. We decided to pool our resources to present her with a gift card that she'll be able to use to buy whatever her heart desires.  Not so unique, but it won't take up much space!  lol  Well now, that finally brings me to the card for today.  It is a criss-cross pocket card.  I ran the Neighborhood jumbo wheel (retired) on Whisper White card stock, colored some of the houses using markers & a blender pen, and then cut them out.  The image on the little tab is from the Loads of Love Accessories.

The inside has slots to hold the gift card in place and enough room for everyone to sign.  I had to make an envelope since the card wouldn't fit in an A2 size envelope.  I just took some copy paper and ran the wheel over it several times.  Easy enough - and everything coordinated!

Whew, this ended up being quite the novel!  lol  Thanks for hanging in there with me!  Must step away from the computer to finish organizing everything for my Stamp Camp this coming Saturday and work on plans for our Christmas Workshop and Customer Appreciation Open House that Jayne Singleton and I are co-hosting.  Busy, busy,busy!  Really need to squeeze grocery shopping in there today, too.  Must start stockpiling supplies for "Cookie Baking Day" that the youngest daughter and I do every year.

OK, I'm out of here.  Thank you so much for stopping in today.  Hope your day is fantabulous!

A Flower for all Seasons

Edit Post: For some reason Blogger has failed to post my last two days of entries - so I had to do so manually.  Noticed on other blogs the last entry was from Wed.  What's going on????

Hi there!  Just wanted to share another card we made at Mary Ellen's Demo Stamp Camp last month.  We used the A Flower for All Seasons set from the main catalog.  A square of Regal Rose punched with the Dotted Scallop Ribbon punch makes a perfect frame for the stamped focal piece. The turned up corner at the bottom adds a nice touch, too.

Recipe
Stamps: A Flower for all Seasons, Create a Cupcake (sentiment)
Paper: Crumb Cake, Regal Rose, Old Olive, White
Ink: Chocolate Chip, markers - Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Old Olive, Crumb Cake
Other: Brads, Regal Rose grosgrain ribbon, mat pack, Dotted Scallop Ribbon punch, blender pen, dimensionals

Hope you're having a great week.  Thanks for coming by today!

A Day Without Internet is Like... CRAZY!

Hi there.  The sun is shining, the snow is melting, and my internet is working again!  I've been quiet the last several days because my internet was down. Yes, tragic I know! You can take the TV, but not my internet!  It’s like an addiction.  Fortunately, I was busy with our granddaughter during that time.  Now that life is back to "normal", I have a card to share with you.

This dresser card was CASE’d  from a swap that my friend received at Leadership in Nashville.  Sorry I don’t know who to credit for the original idea.  I needed a baby card so this idea fit the bill perfectly. The cut out portion of the dresser was actually punched out with the Curly Label punch on the original card.  Mine was made with a Nestability since no one (including me) in the stamping group had that punch with them.  So I had to borrow a Nestability for the job.  I don't know which one it was - sorry. You know how babies seem to accumulate tons of stuffed animals?   I added the bunny from a retired set to simulate a stuffed animal, which made my card a little different from the original one.  A little scrap of fabric would be cute hanging out of one of the drawers, too.  You could also easily transform this card into one for a young child just by changing the toy - a ball, a doll, or blocks would do the trick.

Recipe:

Measurements for the card are as follows - base is 4-1/4" x 11", scored and folded at 5-1/2". 

The drawers are 1" x 3-1/5" - edges of dresser and drawers are inked with Crumb Cake.

Stamps: A New Little Someone (retired Stampin' Up!)

Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White

Ink:  Crumb Cake, Pretty in Pink, Ballet Blue (retired)

Other:  Blender pen, brads (non-SU!), Spellbinders Nestability 

Have a great Valentine's Day and thanks for stopping by!