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.