Classic Blocked Collage

I love this Botanical style set and thought it'd be nice to do a little blocked collaging with it. First, I made my mask, sponged in some caramel ink, then stamped various botanical images. I added a greeting, then dry embossed with some cardstock rectangles and my light box. This works well enough until I'm ready to add the rectangle nestabilities to my collection.

Supplies:

Stamps: Seed Series 2, Sunspirit Studios Greetings set

Ink: Creamy Caramel, Burnt Umber

Paper: White

Accessories, etc.: stylus, light table, sponge

Have a great new year's! I'm not big into new year's festivities, but I hope you all have a wonderful time, try not to party too hard!

Home again!

I am back home! I didn't get any chances for stamping on my little trip away. I had quite a bit of free time, unfortunately there was no trunk space for the craft supplies!

Here's a card I made just before leaving last week. One of the new Simply Sent kits features long notes (cards that are 6-5/8x3-1/4). I thought they looked pretty sharp and decided to make a few of my own, with slightly modified dimensions. To maximize a 12x12, I went with 6x3. This card features one of last year's Simply Scrappin' Kits, and Eat Cake.

Supplies:

Stamps: Eat Cake

Ink: Tempting Turquoise

Paper: Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, Party Pieces SS Kit

Accessories, etc.: corner rounder

Happy Holidays

To all my readers, wherever you may be, have a wonderful holiday!

I took this photo on the 18th. We had a beautiful day. Here are some more pictures to enjoy:

A few Christmas cards

One of the wonderful parts of being involved with a stamping community is receiving extra (and handmade) Christmas cards. Check out these beauties:

This stunning card is from Nancy. It sparkles and shine with all the metallic paper, glitter, and silver embellishments. Truly magnificent!








Then there's this amazing card by Lila. The paper piecing done with the Basic Grey Figgy Pudding collection is gorgeous!

I'm off to Calgary tomorrow, for about a week. I'm not sure what the internet status will be. I'm bringing some stamping stuff with me, but I don't know if I'll be able to upload it. I've got a few posts saved in here, just in case I find myself busier than I expect.

For now, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

Penguin's Santa Hat

Here's my submission for this month's Dirty Past & Present Challenge. The guidelines: Use penguins as a focus, incorporate something icy, and NO BLUE!!

I thought this little guy from Wild About You would look cute with Crabby's Santa Hat. I stamped the hat, masked it, then stamped the penguin. I extended his head about, so it fit the hat better. The snowflakes all around him were dabbed with greeting glue (it dabs out a lovely circle, perfect for the snow flurries flakes -thanks for the tip Joan!), then coated with glitter. His hat was coated with stickles and then I put more glitter on that. I find stickles take a tad too long to dry at times, but if you add MORE glitter to them, it speeds it up a bit.

Supplies:
Stamps: Wild About You, Snow Flurries, Crab & Co., gel-a-tins Oh Christmas Tree
Ink: Real Red, Green Galore, Versamark, Palette Noir
Paper: White, Green Galore, Glorious Green, Gable Green
Accessories, etc.: 5/8'' red grosgrain, green galore eyelets, pop dots, stickles, glitter, greeting glue

Thanks for looking! Check out everyone else's here.

I received an envelope full of goodies yesterday from an "elf". I know it was a fellow Canadian in the same postal region, but that's about it. I've got a guess, but I'm not 100% sure. Here are the goods! Some stickles, a palette ink pad, some primas, some doodlebug embellishments, gummi life savers, starbucks gift card, and starbucks cinnamon mints! Thank you, whoever you are!

Leaf Green Spectrum

I haven't used Shapes and Shadows in a long time. It was my hands down favorite, but it retired and it just wasn't "cool" to keep on using it. That's one of those things that makes me sad about the stamping world. Once something retires, items made with it just get buried under anything that's the newest rage. But you know what, this is a versatile set, and there's no reason you can't keep coming up with ideas! This is by no means a new idea, but it's a nice look freshened by the ever popular scalloped ovals, some double-stitched grosgrain, and textured cardstock. The 3 colours I used for my spectrum were garden green, wild wasabi, and certainly celery.

Supplies:
Stamps: Shapes & Shadows, PTI's Faux Ribbon
Ink: garden green, wild wasabi, certainly celery, versamark
Paper: Glossy white, white, wild wasabi
Accessories, etc.: stitched grosgrain, brayer, oval nestabilities

Card for Grandma

In all my rush to get my commissioned cards done, I almost forgot to make my grandma (the commissioner?) a birthday card!!! I wasn't feeling particularly inspired after making several cards on Saturday, so I asked my sister for a push. She said floral. I was looking at the shelf, and saw this Sell-a-bration set from a while back. The layout is a result of an embossing boo-boo. The white was a bit too speckly, so I covered it (since I had of course already stamped and adhered the flowers!) with a piece of linen-stamped artichoke. The greeting is from Flourishes Flourished Words. I thought it seemed like a good font for a Grandma card!

Supplies:
Stamps: Best Blossoms, Flourished Words, Linen
Ink: Rose Red, Purely Pomegranate, Mellow Moss, White
Paper: White, Rose Red, Moss, Artichoke
Accessories, etc.: stickles, double stitched grosgrain

Quick Birthday Cards

I was commissioned to make several birthday cards. I wanted something quick, but nice. This is what I came up with. I started with a simple quad of embossed squares. I chose 2 colours for each card and stamped 2 presents in each colour. I stamped the monogram dotted square over the embossed square and placed the opposite coloured present in the squares. These are really easy to crank out. I might do a few more just to have on hand.

Supplies:

Stamps: Paper Trey Ink's Borders & Corners monogram edition, faux ribbon, Stampin' Up!'s Holiday Blitz

Ink: Really Rust, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Rose Red, Purely Pomegranate

Paper: White

Accessories, etc.: shapes embossing template, pop dots

1-Layer Dream

Sharon's Friday challenge was to make 1-layer cards. I decided to give Flourishes Floral Fantasy Garden a shot with this type of card. I started stamping various flowers all over in charcoal. Then I coloured that in with various pastel coloured Copics. I added the sentiment, outlined everything with a 10% cool grey Prismacolor marker, then covered all the flowers in clear stickles. A whole set of these would make a really nice gift!

Supplies:
Stamps: Floral Fantasy Garden by Flourishes
Ink: Charcoal (palette)
Paper: White
Accessories, etc.: copic and prismacolor markers, stickles

Friday Fun- Colour Challenge

Hello! It's Friday again already, so I needed to think up a challenge. This time I'm doing a colour challenge. The colours are a classic palette. I just received my Flourishes Love sets so I used this palette for a romantic card. Feel free to do any theme however! If you decide to participate, put a link in a comment or under the key word TFF02 at SCS. Check out other submissions here.

For my card, I started with a 3.5x6 card base. I stamped the hearts with noir ink, then watercoloured them. I added a touch of white gel pen to give the hearts that glow. I popped those up on the XOXOXO stamped background.

Supplies:

Stamps: Open to Love by Flourishes LLC.

Ink: Real Red, Noir, Charcoal

Paper: Red, Black, White, Gray

Accessories, etc.: flannel grey 5/8'' grosgrain, pop dots, white gel pen, piercing tool and guide

Festival Letters

I just recently got this fabulous alphabet by gel-a-tins. I wanted to do something like this set by Stampin' Up!. I started with the fancy F. I masked that, stamped the journal frame over top, then added in the rest of the letters from the word friends. Next, I cut out the non-shadowed part of the F and popped that up. I cut out the frame with some scallop scissors and framed that on guava. For the wasabi background, I stamped the Damask style Wallpaper series all over. For the other background piece, I stamped Friendship by Definition, then lots of swirls all over. I muted that with some vellum.

And, in case you haven't been here for a while... I dazzled things up with a Christmas themed template. I hope you like it, it was lots of fun to make!

Supplies:

Stamps: Festival Vintage Alphabet, Wallpaper Series #1, Picture That, Spiral Symphony, Friend by Defintion

Ink: Wasabi, Guava

Paper: Wasabi, Guava, Vanilla, Vellum

Accessories, etc.: wasabi stitched ribbon, scallop scissors, piercing tool, pop dots

A little something

Sometimes, when you don't quite feeling like making anything, or when anything you do make isn't going so well, it's a good idea to step back and just go back to the basics. 3x3 cards are a good way to refresh the mind. Last week I saw a few cards featuring an ornament image altered into a wine glass (check out Melanie's amazing card here). I really liked it and thought, why not give that a try. I did the tipped glasses because it went nicely with the "cheers" saying. However, I used Christmas colours, to I inked up the word Christmas from another saying in the Take a Bough set by PaperTrey Ink. I popped that up on dimensionals and added another layer, and that's it. Sweet, simple, and tiny. So hopefully I will be able to get back to doing design work that needs doing tomorrow!

Also, I've got a question, has anyone out there bothered to match the Palette Hybrid colours to cardstock colours. I don't care if it's SU! or Bazzil, or something else. I was just wondering if anyone knew of such a list. I found that these 2 colours matched well with Old Olive and Ruby Red.

Supplies:
Stamps: PaperTrey Ink's Take a Bough
Ink: Palette Moulin Rouge and Landscape
Paper: Ruby Red, White, Old Olive

Let it snow!

A while back I received these fun glitter stickers from PaperCrafts. I have also been meaning to do a pearl-ex pull card with snowflakes. I started out doing a sparkly blue one, but then I spotted these stickers, and that just didn't go. I quickly changed my colour palette, and I was set!

To do this technique, brayer your cardstock with versamark, then liberally swirl pearl ex onto it in spectrum like layers. Next, ink up your 'pull' images with versamark, and stamp all over. Seal image and finish your card! This card measures 6x4.25.

Supplies:

Stamps: Snow Flurries

Ink: Versamark

Paper: White

Accessories, etc.: pearl ex- blue russet, pink flamingo, pearl white; glittery alphabet stickers by K & Company, organdy ribbon, sealer (I only had hairspray this time! It works well enough)

Tashers' Friday Fun!

Hello! I've been busy creating items, just not for public viewing yet. When you get on a kick, it's so disappointing not to share it all right away. Until then, here's a little something I made this morning. I am really quite obsessed with this layout. It's so easy and it works out with almost any image. This one was inspired by a shirt of mine from Aeropostale. I really wanted to make the card like the shirt, but my vanilla ink is less than fabulous and I do not have any vanilla embossing powder. When I bought the shirt, I was actually thinking about how well it matched gel-a-tins' Wild Things set. I'm kind of surprised it took this long to make a card to go with it!

The card is fairly straight forward. If you are wanting to do this layout, the image panel is 3x4 with a 3.25x4.25 frame. Sometimes I do the pattern paper and ribbon on the main panel (like here). Sometimes I place those elements under the main panel, like in this card. To add a bit more dimension, I put the main panel up on my Dollarama pop-dots. Seriously, that place is amazing, every time I go, there's more new craft stuff!

There's something I would really like to do. I know there are already a lot of challenges out there, but I was thinking of starting something too. I wanted to change it up, this week's would be an inspiration challenge (using the shirt). Look at the shirt, get inspired from it. Doesn't matter how!

Other times it might be a sketch, product, colours, etc. So I would really love to see a few participants. Let's see, for keywords on SCS, let's go with TFF01 (tashers' friday fun 1).

Supplies:

Stamps: gel-a-tins Wild Things, Papertrey Ink's Faux Ribbon

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Paper: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Au Chocolat

Accessories, etc.: 5/8'' Chocolate Grosgrain, pop dots

**If you do participate, I would love a link to your blog here, or upload to SCS with the keyword TFF01.

View gallery submissions here.**

A CPS Sketch!

This week Flourishes is sponsoring the CPS sketch. So us ladies on the Flourishes team are making cards too! I started with a card base of 6x3.5. I covered that with some of the brown paper from a 6x6 pad of Basic Grey's Periphery paper. The pink comes from Basic Grey's Perhaps 6x6 pad. I thought a stack of cupcakes would make a cute element for the vertical element of the sketch. It felt a little too plain, so I added stickles to the cute cupcakes and some regal rose ribbon in the background.

Supplies:

Stamps: Sweet Treats by Flourishes LLC.

Ink: Chocolate, Caramel, Cocoa, Pink, Rose

Paper: 6x6 pads-Periphery and Perhaps by Basic Grey, White

Accessories, etc.: pop dots, stickles, ribbon

Minimalistic Holiday Greeting

Looking for a quick and easy holiday greeting? This card came together in about 7 minutes (that's with the dry embossing!)I cut my card base to 4-1/4x8-1/2 I don't have any large square brass embossing templates, so I used some cardstock- a 3-1/4 square and a 3-5/8 square as my templates. With a light table, it is easy to center the cardstock templates (I did the bigger one first).Next, get some silver cord, make a small bow. I found that the elastic cord worked WAY better for this than the other type of cord. Now, I suppose you're wondering how I got my bow to stick. Take your mini glue dots. Cut off one, wax strip included. Fold the wax backing over the top of the dot, cut the dot in half (no sticking to the scissors this way!). Then do that again, so now you have 4 mini-mini glue dots. It's a good way to stretch your materials!I cut out the joy square, freehand with scissors, and popped it up with 2 dimensionals.Thanks for looking!

Here's a close-up of the present and embossing.

Supplies:

Stamps: Glad Tidings

Ink: Real Red

Paper: White Cardstock

Accessories, etc.: elastic silver cord, quarter of a mini-glue dot, dimensionals, light table and stylus, cardstock embossing templates.

Forest Meadow Scenes

These images by Kristin for Artful Inkables are so serene. I started with the autumn one. I stamped the image on confetti white, then set about watercolouring it. I distressed the edges, then mounted that on some more distressed paper. For the mustard piece, I scored 1/4'' away from each side to give it that elegant embossed look. The summer scene was pretty much the same pattern, except using Old Olive as my main colour instead of More Mustard.







Supplies:
Stamps: KSAI-208
Paper: confetti white, not quite navy, old olive, more mustard, white
Ink: old olive, not quite navy, close to cocoa, more mustard, garden green, certainly celery
Accessories, etc.: distressor, scoring blade

Best Wishes

Don't you love it when certain colour combinations just come to you and then they actually work out. I chose my colours somewhat randomly. I knew I wanted teal for part of the hummingbird, and I wanted a pink for the flower, then since I was in that marker container, hunter and artichoke came out too. I saw an interesting sketch this morning, and it served as inspiration, even though I didn't follow it at all. Basically, it had an out-of-the-box component. That's pretty much the only part I kept. For the background, I was going for the argyle look, but since I didn't quite place my stamp correctly, I got the shadowed harlequin look instead. I was happy enough with it, that I kept it.

Supplies:
Stamps: 25.01 Harlequin background, Sun Spirit Studio Celebrations set available through Starving Artistamps; KSAI 108 Hummingbird and Flower

Ink: Rose Red, Handsome Hunter, Taken with Teal, Pumpkin Pie, Always Artichoke, Whisper White

Paper: Rose, Teal, Hunter, White

Accessories, etc.: moss 5/8'' grosgrain, dimensionals

In other news, you know what's a BAD idea, trying to squish your left pinky with a 100lb television. That is not a wise investment of your time on a Saturday morning! I have this "talent" where, even though I have a fairly high threshold for pain, I go into shock really easily. So even though I'm sure my injury isn't that bad (it's not even purple or 3 times it's original size), I could feel the shock coming on- ears ringing, eyes start to get tunnel vision, pasty face, clammy skin, dry mouth. It's so stupid, so I just sat there with a cold wash cloth around my pinky, trying to psych myself up so I could get out of the shock. I finished up my card before my injury, but I hadn't realized just how much I use my left pinky for typing.

Thinking of You

Here is another Starving Artistamps card for you! I started by stamping the harlequin background on mustard. Next, I stamped the big daisy on vanilla. I inked it up with various markers (chocolate, olive, and mustard), then coloured it in with lighter markers (sun, caramel, and celery). Originally, I wanted to place the butterfly on the flower, but because I hadn't introduced any other colours into its wings, that just didn't work out. Instead I placed it flying away, as if it was just passing by, or had just been there. The greeting is from a Sun Spirit Studios sentiment set.

Supplies:

Stamps: P25.01 harlequin BG, P18.02 Medium daisy, P1.5 Butterfly, Sun Spirit Studio Greetings set

Ink: Chocolate, Olive, Mustard, Summer Sun, Caramel, Celery

Paper: Vanilla, Mustard, Olive

Accessories, etc.: brown grosgrain, paintbrush for splattering, distressor

Tuesday Challenge

I haven't participated in a challenge for a while, and today's appealed to me. I haven't made a more "complicated" card in a while, so it was time for that as well. First, I decided I wanted to do panels with the stem silhouettes. I stamped various images with craft ink then embossed them with clear. Next, I inked up Friend by Definition with Basic Gray, stamped off once, then stamped on the white. Next, I cut up the big panel into 3 smaller panels. I sponged around the edges with celery, then mounted that onto gray paper. The celery background was run through my cuttlebug with the Fiskars Grass texture plate.

Supplies:

Stamps: stem silhouettes, friend by definition

Ink: Celery, Bashful, Gray

Paper: White, Celery, Bashful, Gray

Accessories, etc.: Flannel Gray 5/8'' grosgrain, clear EP, oval nestabilities, sponge, texture plate

Quick Thank You

The other week, I had some friends over for cardmaking. They mentioned that they always need thank you cards. Of course, we didn't make any of those while together. But I'm getting together with them again soon, for holiday baking, and I thought it'd be nice to give them each a little packet of thank you notes. This layout is ultra-simple. Decide on your colour scheme first, find some designer paper to coordinate, and you are pretty much set! For these ones, I started with a 4.25'' square white card. The designer paper is 1.25'' and the matting paper is 1.5''. Tie some 5/8'' grosgrain on there, stamp the greeting, then attach it all! You could easily whip out several of this design in an hour. The sentiment is one of the many great fonts from Sun Spirit Studio's Thanks set. The paper is shimmery green, I received from PaperCrafts Magazine, I can't recall who makes it...

Supplies:
Stamps: Thank You from SSS thanks set
Ink: Basic Gray
Paper: White, Basic Gray, Mystery DP
Accessories: Flannel Grey 5/8'' Grosgrain

Venture Ever Forward

Here's another Starving Artistamps card for you! This one is an inspirational sort of card. I liked this sentiment and thought it fit nicely with the bamboo image. I stamped the bamboo on the vanilla, outlined it with a marker, then the sentiment. I sponged all around the edges, then mounted that on garden green, and again on caramel. With the bamboo theme, it only seemed fitting to use textured wasabi paper. I like the look that stamping a solid image has on textured paper. I sponged the edges of the wasabi paper, added some vanilla grosgrain, and done it was!

Supplies:
Stamps: 37.12 Venture Ever Forward, 36.07 Bamboo
Paper: Vanilla, Garden, Caramel, Wasabi
Ink: Wasabi, Garden, Caramel
Accessories, etc.: sponges, pop dots, vanilla ribbon

Time Well Spent

I received this freebie set for demos today! So of course, I had to put it together and create something immediately! I used this week's sketch challenge as a starting point. I embossed the greeting on white, coloured it in, then put stickles in the letters and flowers. I stamped flowers in amethyst all around that. Next up, all the flowers. I wanted to have flowers bursting everywhere, so I stamped a few, coloured them in, cut them out, glittered them up and popped up different parts of them. I added a bit of faux stitching on the lilac to pop the framing a bit.

Supplies:

Stamps: Time Well Spent

Ink: Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac, Lavender Lace, Pretty in Pink, Pixie Pink, Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi

Paper: Celery, Lilac, White

Accessories, etc.: black EP, stickles, pop dots, white signo pen, mat pack

Happy Day!

First off, a big Happy Thanksgiving to any of my American readers. I hope you have a great day!

Secondly, check out the pretty sights from this morning! We had a few centimetres of snow yesterday. I think we may have had some freezing rain in the night, which makes for very pretty pictures, especially when the sun shines just so. Click it if you would like to see it a bit bigger.

Thirdly, I made this card a few weeks ago. I love this whole set from gel-a-tins. I've got both the alphabet and the numbers. I wanted to do something with the numbers, so I thought, why not a countdown. I got a square piece of acetate and started stamping the numbers with white Stazon. Next, I stamped the letters for Happy New Year (with this set) and cut them out and layered them onto the acetate. As is typical with this type of card, it was extremely difficult to photograph. If you were to see the card flat, the black paper, framed with the white paper, would fall nicely behind the greeting.

Supplies:

Stamps: Weathered Crate Numbers, Roman Alphabet

Ink: Versafine Black Onyx, White Stazon

Paper: White, Black, Acetate

Best Fishes

I love this fish image from Starving Artistamps. I stamped it onto Naturals White paper, then masked it and stamped some seaweed all around it. I watercoloured the images with some Twinkling H2Os. I coloured in the seaweed with a maroon gel pen. The background panels were stamped with the sentiment "sea you soon" in ruby. The card is quite big, 5.5x5.5. I figure for a best wishes/fishes type of card, a big size is good- more room to sign it from a large group!

Supplies:

Stamps: Starving Artistamps 56.01, 57.01, 57.02, 13.12

Ink: Versafine Black Onyx, Ruby Red

Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Summer Sun, Ruby Red, Naturals white, White

Accessories, etc.: twinkling H2Os, gel pens

A Dirty Challenge

A few weeks back Jami issued a challenge.

The requirements?

• Use A Winter Song from Elzybells



• Use the color Pretty in Pink in your card or project somehow, somewhere.
  
  
• Restricted - NO patterned paper

The images from Elzybells are small, but lots of fun to colour. Because they are winter-themed, I just could stay away from adding to the snow with glitter, stickles, and liquid pearls. So, for this card, the first thing I did was colour in the stamped image. I used SU! markers, pretty in pink and regal rose for the jacket and tuque. Her hair and the log were coloured with caramel and cocoa. That left the bird, it had be stumped for a bit, but then I thought, why not red? It worked, especially for such a small element. For all the snowy parts, I applied liquid pearls, for the coat trim I applied stickles. While both of those were still wet, I poured more glitter on! I stamped a corner of the repeated "let it snow" stamp from Glad Tidings, then set it aside to dry. Because patterned paper was off limits, I set about making my own. I used a Sheet Music stamp several times on cocoa. I applied some of the x-stitch-like images along the top and bottom. That went on regal rose, then I tied some rose ribbon on that. The card base is chocolate chip with white snow embossed all over. Finally, I added little dots of liquid pearls in the pink scallops, and rounded the corners. So there it is! Here's a close-up of the main image. When you spend that much time on something, it's nice to share it in all its glory.

Be sure to check out the others cards here!

• Supplies:
• Stamps: Winter Song, Glad Tidings, Snowflake Spot, Sheet Music
• Ink: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Blush Blossom, Real Red, Ruby red
• Paper: Chocolate, Rose, Pink, White, Cocoa
• Accessories, etc.: stickles, liquid pearls, circle nestabilities, glitter, ribbon, corner rounder

Sweet!

The Flourishes Design Team announcement was early today. I am now on their design team! I am joining: Design Team Leader Sharon Johnson, and design team members: Tracy Durcan, Leslie Miller, Dee Jackson, Janine Tinklenberg, Lisa Somerville, and Kelly Sampson!

I made a little Flourishes card this morning, with Sweet Treats. I stamped a variety of treats and the word Bon Bons for a fun background on the caramel. Next I inked up the middle plate from the tiered image. I stamped a bunch of treats on vanilla paper and cut them out, placed them all around the plate, then added some stickles for icing. It's funny, when using these images, I have a hard time staying away from the yummy sounding papers- caramel, chocolate, cocoa, and vanilla. I also did a little bit of paper piercing around the chocolate layer, it's better seen in person.

Supplies:
Stamps: Sweet Treats
Ink: Caramel, Cocoa, Chocolate
Paper: cocoa, caramel, chocolate, vanilla
Accessories, etc.: stickles, piercer and guide, pop dots

Christmas Blessings

Today was the Winnipeg Crop at Wenchie's place. It was lots of fun, especially being see what fun stuff everyone else brought. Both the swirl cuttlebug folder and the stamp set were supplied by Cindy. I was in a colouring mood, so I was happy to see this set. I stamped the image onto Naturals White, and coloured it in with just Stampin' Up! markers and one 10% grey prismacolor marker, no blender pen, no aquapen, nothing else!

Supplies:
Stamps: Jesus is born
Ink: Sage Shadow, Mellow Moss, So Saffron, Barely Banana, Blush Blossom, Pretty in Pink, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, Bordering Blue
Paper: Naturals White, Barely Banana, Mellow Moss, White, Bashful Blue
Accessories, etc.: cuttlebug swirl folder, pop dots

A Little Cafe Scene

I just got this fun set, Meet Me at the Cafe, by My Favorite Things. I don't have many line art sets, so this one works well for me. It also has some really fun phrases in it, like the 2 in the background (good friends and good times). It's one of the things I love about clear stamps, being able to use the word stamps to create a diagonal background. The image was stamped and embossed, since I don't have any alcohol marker proof stamp ink. Even with embossing powder, you have to be careful, the markers still can pick up the black. I coloured this in with a few graphic artist markers and Copics. The little white bit on the wine glasses is from the signo gel pen. I finally picked up a second pen. I keep one with my stamping stuff (for faux stitching, touch ups, etc.) and one with my markers (for highlighting purposes, such as this).

In regards to a question, yesterday, yes the greeting on the card is from the Take a Bough set, take a look here.

Today is the 15th, you know what that means- Dirty Dozen reveal day. This month was a really fun theme, Deck the Halls. Check it out here if you're a fan club member! Lots of good holiday decorating and card ideas! It's funny, as is typical, I can never predict what project of mine will be best received. And so far, the favorite is something that came to me last minute yesterday and didn't take longer than 20 or 30 minutes to make. It just makes me laugh. You never know, do you!

Supplies:

Stamps: Meet me at the cafe

Ink: Versamark, black EP, sage shadow

Paper: White, black, soft sky

Accessories, etc.: signo gel pen, wide ribbon, pop dots, copic and graphic artist markers

Starlight, Starbright...

I received this set about a month ago, and have barely used it! These stars called out to me. I love all things starry. I can never have enough star stamps (although I am picky about them, they need to be a clean style, symmetric, or at least bold). Anyway, this card is quite simple. I made it while I was still on my square card kick. There is some glitter on the 2 popped up stars, but it's hardly noticeable in the photo. I thought that mustard, navy, and white made for a classic, almost folk-art colour scheme, perfect for Christmas!

Supplies:
Stamps: Take a Bough
Ink: More Mustard
Paper: White, Mustard, Not Quite Navy
Accessories, etc.: pop dots, stickles

Big & Little Pieces

This was a card I quickly threw together for a stamping get-together. The main panel was stamped first, then embossed with pearly glitter embossing powder (like iridescent ice, but more rainbow reflectant). I had kind of forgotten about these 2 stamp sets. They really work quite nicely for a festive card.

Supplies:

Stamps: Glad Tidings, Big and Little Pieces

Ink: Real Red, Green Galore, Glorious Green

Paper: White, Glorious Green, Green Galore

Accessories, etc.: White EP, Pearly Sparkle EP, 5/8'' red grosgrain

Olives and Eggplants

Two of my not-so-favorite foods, but the colours? Fabulous! It's funny, I actually started out with the colour scheme first, and then found the paper to match. However, I had my eye on using this paper for a few weeks now, so it was probably in the back of my mind, somewhere.

I started with the vanilla panel, stamp a few trees from Oh Christmas Tree, added the sentiment and a few stars, then that part was done. Next up, I scalloped the paper with a corner rounder. I wanted a bit more decoration on the card front, so I punched several holes in the bottom, and filled them with green and purple brads. The ribbon added the finishing touch, before mounting the focal image with pop dots. This card is kind of a weird size. I thought my original piece of paper was 8.5'' wide, but clearly, it was not. More like, just under 8'' wide. Whatever, it still works, and it still fits in a standard A5 envelope!

Supplies:

Stamps: Oh Christmas Tree

Ink: Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant

Paper: Vanilla, Eggplant, Olive, Chatterbox DP

Accessories, etc.: olive 5/8'' grosgrain, brads, pop dots

Happy Little Cupcakes

I was at Michaels the other day, picking up a few more cheap clear blocks for a Christmas card get-together, and I saw that they actually had the Series 6 studio g stamps. This birthday one was too cute to leave there, especially at $1.50 for a set of 5. I picked my paper first, from the stash. One thing I have done to make the stash a little more bearable for me as a cardmaker is cut it down to 6x6 squares. I have come to terms with that fact that scrapbooking just isn't for me right now. So, instead of leaving all that pretty paper in awkward 12x12 format, I cut a whole lot of it down into the card friendly 6x6. I have been keeping it in the Paper Trey Ink packaging. It fits 6x6 paper exactly. Just thought I'd throw that out there as a tip.

Anyway, I started with the paper. I believe this one is by One Heart, One Mind. I took my colour palette from that. It's not a 100% match, but it's close. I used Sage Shadow and Creamy Caramel for the cupcakes, with Not Quite Navy and Pumpkin Pie for the candle. I cut them out, popped them up onto a word background, put a thin layer of stickles on, and voila! Done. I have been on a square card kick lately. I made at least 3 square cards today.

Supplies:

Stamps: Birthday, series 6 by Studio G

Ink: versafine black onyx, sage, caramel, pumpkin, navy

Paper: white, sage, caramel, one heart one mind DP

Accessories, etc.: stickles, pop dots

Bringing you joy

Have you seen these darling stamps?? They are called Elzybells and are super cute. This one is called Girl With Sleigh. I coloured it in with mostly SU markers, the snow was coloured with a Copic. I added clear stickles to the white parts of her snowsuit and the snow. Here's an up close picture of the main image, so you can see all the details.

Here's the card itself. I kept it fairly simple. I mounted the image on some oval die-cuts and popped that up on a 4-1/4 square confetti white card base. I added a little bit of brocade wide grosgrain and tied a paper star charm on. The word joy was handwritten, since I couldn't find any stamps small enough.

Supplies:

Stamps: Girl With Sleigh

Ink: Black Onyx, Ballet Blue, Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, Barely Banana, Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Blush Blossom

Paper: White, Confetti White, Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue

Accessories, etc.: oval & star nestabilities, wide grosgrain, silver cord, stickles, copic marker