Simplicity

I keep talking myself out of buying another spectrum pad. I was eyeing the Pumpkin Patch one, but I deleted it from my order list, twice. All you really need are sponges and ink pads to get the same effect. Plus, you can do any combination of colours. Anyway, I had a few ideas for colour combinations I wanted to try. The first one, I was thinking: "Spring Morning". I went with So Saffron, Certainly Celery, and Brocade Blue. For the second one, I was thinking: "Prairie Sunset", so I went with Apricot Appeal, Groovy Guava, and Rose Red. I also did one other combination, for a sympathy card not pictured here using Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum, and Pale Plum. For that I was going with a somber mood. I have a few tips for this technique. First off, keep in mind that your colours will fade quite a bit. That was why I used Brocade Blue, and not Bashful Blue on the first card. Bashful blue would've become too washed out. As far as blending goes, I start with the lightest colour, go past the point I would want it, then start the next colour. Be sure to overlap all your colours, go back over the mid or darker colours with the lighter colour if you find it's not blending nicely.

To finish off the cards, I placed the main image on a black mat. I placed those on shimmery white cards to add a little something extra.

A few last chance items.

After some discussion, we (my mom, my sister, and I), decided we needed to get Fishy Friends and Mix & Mingle before they'd be gone forever. Here's are two cards I made today.

As soon as I knew I was getting the Mix & Mingle set, I had visions of embossing it with my Ruby Slippers gelly glitter. I was really liking all the shine to this card, so I dug out one of my beloved background stamps (Linograph) and embossed tone on tone with silver EP on brushed silver paper.

The other card, featuring Fishy Friends, has the seahorse as the star. I watercoloured with apricot and pumpkin, also bits of caribbean and turquoise for the water. I jazzed him up with some glitter, went on a bit of a distressing frenzy, then mounted him over textured turquoise cardstock with pop dots. It was today that I really appreciated having craft inks again. I could actually stamp with the Only Orange ink over top of the turquoise cardstock and you can see that it's orange, no awkward washed orange+turquoise mix (the greeting is way more vibrant in person than in the photograph).

My excitement for the day was getting to see the gel-a-tin Summer Release sneak preview. I cannot share them, but Oh My Goodness! It would've knocked my socks off had I been wearing any! It's like she knew all the types of stamp images I wanted, then took them out of my head and designed them. They are beautiful!

Bleached Stars

Some people say that you can't do the same techniques with clear stamps that you can with rubber stamps. Well, here is one you can cross off that "can't" list. I really wanted to try using bleach with the sketchy styled star. Because I didn't know how it would affect my stamps, I was very careful. I only used a bit of bleach, and I cleaned them immediately. I waited to see what the fully bleached out colour would be from the Pumpkin Pie cardstock before choosing the coordinating colour.

Lovely Times

I am one day closer to "freedom". I have been training a replacement at work before I leave, and last week was quite frustrating. But today, she was finally really getting everything. It was a huge relief, let's hope that keeps up!! In the mean time, to "waste time" waiting for the new catalog to appear, I have been creating all sorts of Love-themed card. June is really February in card publication times. So here I am, making Valentine's day cards. Here's a sneak peak of one card I made. I could show the whole thing, but I just really like this shot.



Here's a card I will show in its entirety. This one is based on Julee's sketch here: Poetic Artistry . I turned the sketch on its side, and changed it just a touch. Because I was using smaller images and I wasn't paying very good attention to my measurements, this format just worked out better. Once again my ribbon served as the inspiration for the colours. (For those wondering, I got the ribbon at a city wholesaler: Gale's Wholesale. They only had 2 stitched in this type, brown with pink, and pink with brown. They also had 2 saddle/double stitched grosgrain, cocoa with caramel, and caramel with cocoa).
I embossed the chocolates with the gel-a-tins chocolate bliss embossing powder. If you check out the set, you may have noticed that the quote I put on there is in a circle. Well, one of those handy things about clear stamps is you can cut a shape, and it will naturally bounce back to its original form. For this card, a circle quote wasn't appropriate, so I made a single cut (carefully!) breaking up the circle. Then I used double-sided tape to straighten out the circle (since it is inclined to go back to circular form). It's really easy, but if you want a picture explanation, let me know!

Bloom!

Here is a fun card I made today. I started with the kraft paper. I rounded the outer corners. Then I chose my palette. I knew that the soft subtles craft inks would show up well, so I went with those. Next, I knew I wanted to use flowers, so I got out my Bloom set by gel-a-tins. However, I didn't want floating flowers, so I went about creating stems with the long stitch in Sewing Kit. Because these are clear stamps, they are nicely flexible. This means I could change my stems and make them nicely curvy. I decided to keep with the whole stitched theme. I added dashes around the word bloom with the white signo pen. Then I added buttons to each flower and attached the flowers. I raised 2 up on dimensionals, and left the other 3 flat.

Thanks x 3

I felt like pulling these cute critters (Pet Shop by gel-a-tins) out again. This card all started with the ribbon. I found a 25 yard roll of this stitched ribbon for 5.50! So naturally, I had to use it immediately. I dug through my huge stack of designer papers. I got this one last summer during a trip to Grand Forks/Fargo. So I drew my ink colours from the paper. This layout is one of the "go-to" layouts in my book of sketches. Quick and easy!

I'm back!

Sorry folks, it's been a blah kind of week. I haven't been much up for creating. But here's a little something I put together for the sketch challenge. I always like the look of liquid applique, but I've never bought it. I do, however, have liquid pearls, and I thought they would give a similar effect. I embossed the elephant from Year after Year, then I coated him with the white liquid pearls. It took a while to dry. Once it was done, I set about making a scalloped circle a la the corner rounder. I wanted the whole hand-sewn kind of theme, so I threw in the Linen background, did some faux stitching, and a small button. For my "thread", I used my table top trimmer to cut an exceptionally thin piece of white paper.

My big news that I alluded to a few weeks back is that I am going to be attending CHA in Chicago! I am so excited to be going!! I hope to have several fun photos of upcoming product releases for you!

Have a wild and crazy birthday!

This card all started with a background I had stamped. I thought, hmm, these groovy ovals sure remind me of martinis. So I went with that theme. Amazingly, I managed to find my Michael's martini stamp. The ovals and the words wild and crazy are from the Scrapitivity/Tin Box Creations exclusive set from this month's kit. I cut out the words and added some extra scriggles to "crazify" them. It was a really fun card to make. The martini was watercoloured using the old olive, the soft sky, and blue bayou reinkers.

A little spring, a little summer...

I've made 2 cards so far today. The first one was loosely based off of the cover of the preview brochure. I was basically in the mood to watercolour the sketchy petals from this set. I thought the Happy Everything set went nicely with it.

The second card I made started out with me playing with the new chipboard. Believe it or not, this card started out with me colouring a piece of chipboard with elegant eggplant, then coated it with dazzling diamonds and waiting for it to dry. Well, I had to do something else while waiting, right? So these 2 pieces are the other parts of that eggplant coloured chipboard. I used some scraps lying around on my desk, and poof, this card practically made itself. I really like how this sentiment fit so perfectly inside the large circle. I wanted to jazz up the wheeled part, so I coloured in any lined image with apricot or celery.

A quick note

I have finally broken down and added the feedblitz updates by email function. So hopefully it works. Sign up if you like!

The Colours of Summer

First off, I've got these colours of summer, the new In Colors that is... I've used 4 of the 6 new colours here. The floral center is guava, the next circle of colour is pomegranate, followed by an outline of wasabi. The background is bayou. I threw in a bit of caramel as my 2nd neutral. This card opens up vertically, the caramel piece with the greeting is actually on the bottom of the interior. So the cardfront is cut about 1-1/2 inches shorter.

Now for some other colours of summer! I love taking flower pictures, and our garden is in full bloom. Here is a really neat iris. Instead of the blend of one colour into another (like the yellow into red, or the purple into white), this one actually has lines of white in it. It's very pretty! We also finally had some black irises, and white irises bloom with the rest of them (they seem to be a little off, the black ones hadn't come up at all before, and the white ones bloomed in the fall) .

Our poppies just started opening these past few days. They are insane! The one I photographed here comes up to my chest! It also is crazy how so much flower can be jam-packed in one small bud.

More new stuff.

This is a set that I wasn't going to get, but then Tamara was looking over my shoulder at the preview and said "you're getting that one?", in not so much an asking voice, but a telling voice, so I did. I'm really glad I did get this set though. It's perfect for making clear cards like this one:

I used timber brown and white stazon for the acetate stamping. Old olive and chocolate chip were my other choice colours. The set here is Baroque Motifs, one of the new sets that will be available July 1 in the new SU! catalog.

New Chipboard and a RAK!

Here's a cute little card I made using the palette of prints and the new chipboard. I coloured the chipboard with craft inks. I also covered the center piece with some of the palette paper. I paired the sweet shop ribbon with this card, and stamped a greeting from the new holidays and wishes set.

And now for the RAK! I got this gem from Julee Tilman of Poetic Artistry.

New Stuff!

So here I was, all annoyed, since my preview order wasn't scheduled to come until Thursday. I was also kind of annoyed since the UPS website said that my package was only .4lbs, but I shrugged it off as input error. Well, today my stuff arrived, imagine my delight. But, there was one stamp set missing!! It turns out that the shipment I've been checking for the past week was actually the one for the "missing" stamp set. Anyway, so THAT is scheduled for a Thursday delivery, everything else is here, safe and sound. Here is my first creation. I didn't order the ink pads, just the reinkers and paper. I wanted to try everything without buying it all. I used the ol' reinker+blender pen for all inking on here. It worked well! I also made some pomegranate grosgrain while I was at it. So this card features 3 of the new colours: Wild Wasabi, Groovy Guava, and Purely Pomegranate. It also used the new hostess level 2 set, In the Spotlight.

Scenic Route Star Box

I was browsing my long list of blogs tonight, and I happened upon one that pointed me to this site: http://scor-pal.com/boxes/index_files/Page327.htm. It's got very easy to follow photos and instructions for making a star box. I am somewhat obsessed with all things starry, so I HAD to try this. Plus, my Scenic Route paper had arrived today, so that had to be used.

It's funny, you go to all this work to make a 3-d object, only to take a flat picture of it. You know, it's not the easiest thing to photograph a 5-pointed object.

Snow Panels

In a recent Creating Keepsakes, I saw a very cool card. It was this basic layout, small and square with rounded corners. It had 3 coloured panels. I really liked the layout, so I adapted it to this. Instead of using different designer paper, I made my own. For these, I stamped the snowflakes with craft white ink, then brushed pearl ex overtop. This way, the pearl ex really does pop a bit more than it would over just versamark ink. I added my greeting, but it didn't feel done, so I accentuated the panels with some piercing, and threw on some navy ribbon, because really, everything seems to need ribbon lately. It's one of those amusing things, when I first started buying ribbon, I used it so sparingly, but I have so much now, and such large amounts of some of it, that I use it all the time.

This is a 4.25x4.25 card by the way, in case you like to keep track of that sort of thing :)

Take Two, Part Two

Last night, Tamara and I did a 2nd challenge. She chose the gelatins set Fancy Flakes, and we went with the 3 pinks: Rose Red, Regal Rose, and Pretty in Pink. This time we added another rule, to make square cards. This meant our cards were a little more similar than last time, but we were okay with that this time. I had made a card a while back with layering the snowflakes from Snowflake Spot (it was inspired by Alesha, I believe). I knew I wanted to try that again with these snowflakes. And Tamara was in a cutting out mood, so that's what she did.

A Trupptastic Take Two

I'm sure if you are a regular blog browser, you may have seen this type of challenge. Two different designers take the same supplies, then see the different cards they come up with. So for the first one, I chose the stamp set Eat Cake, and the colours seen in the Party Pieces Scrappin' Kit (orange, turquoise, and olive). I also allowed the use of chocolate, white, and kraft as neutrals. Those were pretty much the only rules. Tamara and I did this challenge. It's a bit different, since we were actually in the same room. So I had started doing something, and she saw that I was doing that, so then she altered her design (we wouldn't want the same idea, at least for our first challenge like this). Here are our cards.Tamara's is on the left. I love how she made the On The Spot background truly, and awesomely, unique. She embossed the cake with the gelly powder EP pearly sparkle. It gives a rainbow-holographic effect. Mine is on the right. I dyed my own glitter. Because I didn't wait for all the moisture to be out of it, it's a bit fluffy, and almost looks more like orange liquid applique. I made a little shrink plastic oval charm. I remember reading about string called "scrapper's floss", so I figured, I'll try actual unwaxed, unflavoured dental floss. It worked wonderfully.

Ter-ruff-ic!

I needed to make a birthday card for my cousin's youngest daughter, so here is something that was quick and cheerful. It's funny, I never thought that the orange and turquoise would go with the caramel, but it worked! Half the reason I even incorporated orange and turquoise onto this card in the first place, was so that I could use some of my bold brights eyelets and some of my 100 yards of turquoise grosgrain. This card measures 7x4.

A RAK and a colour challenge!

First up, is this lovely card by the very talented Charmaine of Oodabug Alley! What a delightful treat to receive in the mail! Thank you!

Next up, I was feeling rather uninspired, so I checked out the Tuesday challenge (the colour challenge). This week the colours are ruby red, elegant eggplant, and certainly celery. I paired those with 2 neutrals (kraft and white) and set to work. I pulled out a non-retiring set, Simply Said. I keep forgetting that this set is still around. I used it a ton last spring, but then the new catalog came out, and there it sat, in my drawer.

Cheerful Congrats!

A while ago I made this fun spotted background paper using You Spin Me Round by gel-a-tins. I kept looking at it and not knowing what to do with it. Finally I decided to cut it up and use it as designer paper. Then I didn't want to cover it. So I stamped a greeting (Paper Tray) in black. But it still wasn't feeling done. Then I realized, hey, I need a grad card for one of my friends. So I punched out a 1-3/8 red circle, then stamped a grad cap (Little Layers Plus) and popped it up on a dimensional. I really like how it turned out.

Whimsy Cake

I felt like doodling something today. So this cake was the end product. I drew it with my wacom tablet and then printed it out in a couple different sizes. I watercoloured it, cut in out, then added some stickles. The word background behind the cake is one of the sentiments from a Studio G clear set. The card is 7x4.5 in size. I also used a lot of foam tape here (as you may have guessed by the shadows. The cake is on foam, as is the entire panel.

Cruising by with a birthday hi!

I still have a tiny glimmer of hope that "The Wheel Thing" will make the cut into the new catalog. I liked pairing it with the gel-a-tins dotted birthday present on this card. I find something terribly amusing about putting a gigantic present on an average sized scooter. I wanted to add some words to the card, so I used the smallest snap stamps and stamped the word "vroom", then doodled some dashes near it. This colour combination was actually inspired by a customer that came in on Thursday. He was wearing a so saffron coloured golf shirt and very teal shorts. I figured that chocolate chip was a good accent (instead of his grey and black). The ribbon is brown, but it showed up a little black in my photo, oh well, don't feel like puttering with it at 10:41 at night.