Crafty Secrets Challenge ... Homemade Designer Paper

Hello all ... thanks so much for stopping by!!

It is my turn again to host the Crafty Secrets Challenge over on the SCS forum. I thought it might be fun to see what the ladies came up with if I ask them to make their own designer paper to be used on their card/project. These ladies are all so talented, I'm sure I've going to be very impressed with what they create!!

For my card, I chose to use the Crafty Secrets Vintage Christmas set to create my background. I stamped this sentiment stamp onto Whisper White cs using Old Olive ink ... then, stippled real red, summer sun, old olive & pacific point over the words to give it the glow of christmas tree lights. The image is from the Crafty Secrets - Christmas booklet which I matted with Pacific Point cs and used a little stickles on the snow & berries for sparkle. The bird above the bow is from the same stamp set ... I stamped it onto glossy white and colored it in with SU inks ... then popped him up atop the pretty Michael's red velvet ribbon.

Making your own background paper is so much fun and ties into your theme so perfectly when you are using the stamps/sentiments all from the same set! You can also get the color combination you desire when YOU are the creator!! Thanks for looking and PLEASE ... come play the challenge with us ... we have great fun! Every once in a while, even LUCY & ETHEL show up ... really!!!

A Few EASY PEASY cards!

Here are just a few cards I made the other day for no reason other than I wanted to try a couple techniques I had seen around the blogs & SCS.

This teal colored card was so easy to do but I think has a great "WOW" affect. I saw it on someone's blog (who saw it on someone's blog) ... and I had to give it a try! I will have to edit this post later when I find the piece of paper I wrote down WHO the someone was so I can give proper credit!! Anyways, all you do is stamp your image using Versamark (a darker color of cardstock works best) ... clear emboss ... then with a sponge applicator, swirl white craft ink over/around your image to give it a "misty" appeal ... then wipe with a dry soft cloth to buff up the embossed area. EASY-PEASY!! Isn't this great!

Here is another EASY PEASY card using the new SU scallop punch. This was showcased on SCS last week for the Wednesday Technique. This technique also works with other border punches (i.e. Martha Stewart, Fiskars, EKSuccess) although you may have to increase your template size a little. For this card, my square was cut at 2-3/4" ... then just center your square and punch on each of the four sides! I chose to use an outdoor theme and stamped the center of the square using my pinebranch stamp by Just for Fun. The bird is from the Crafty Secrets Vintage Christmas set and was stamped on glossy white with India Ink Black then colored using SU inks. I cut him out with a swivel craft knife and popped him up with dimensional tape. The card base is SU old olive and the designer paper is DCWV. You could use any width ribbon with this technique ... I chose to use the small brown plaid so I wouldn't cover up too much of the dp. I think this turned out to be a great GUY card (and you know we're always looking for guy card ideas). What do you think of this one??? Be honest ... ALL critics are welcome!!

And in case 2 cards today wasn't enough ... here is a third! And again, this is an EASY-PEASY card to do. My image is actually the journal portion of an image from the Crafty Secrets Christmas Images & Journal Notes booklet which I matted on glossy black. I just added the Santa & sleigh for a little more affect! The right side of the card was Cuttlebugged using the snowflake embossing folder then I swiped Memories silver ink across the embossed images. I used a Stampscapes tree stamp on the left side to mimic the tree in the image. A little black sheer ribbon and silver cording and there you have it!!

Okay ... I'm sure you've seen enough from me today! Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. Enjoy this gorgeous FALL weather ... the snow will fly before we know it! Thanks ya'll!!

Featured Stamper - Anne Ryan

This is my card for today's Featured Stamper (Anne Ryan) Challenge over on Splitcoaststamper. Anne is such a sweetheart and always leaves such heart-warming, sweet comments. I was thrilled to see her name in lights today!! Her gallery is full of beautiful works-of-art. If you've never been there, please take a moment now to take a glance!!

Of course I chose THIS card to case so I could use some of my new Stampin' D'Amour stamps. Loving vintage style, this was a lot of fun to create. The three "lady" images are Stampin' D'Amour and the opposite corner stamps are by Hampton Art. I drew the lines on the main image by using a metal ruler and a Creative Memories fine point black marker pen. The little tag was in a group of tags I got in the "Hot Spots" at Archivers and the designer paper is by Anna Griffin.

I'm think it needs a "little more" but I didn't want to get too far away from the design Anne Ryan came up with. BUT, I'll probably "tweek" it a bit more (maybe a few pearls, gems) before sending it out to anyone.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by my blog and I'm always anxious/thrilled to hear your comments!! Have a WONDERFUL day!!

Can you say CONVENTION??

What a fun way to spend a Saturday! My friend, Sandy, will be picking me up at 8:00 a.m. ... headed over for breakfast ... then it's off to Strongsville, OH for an all day Adventures in Stamping. I don't really NEED anything but I have NO doubt I will find some cool things that I WANT!! We're hoping to run into some other stamping friends there too ... maybe all do lunch! Whatever ... it's Girls Day Out! and I'm excited!!!

Hope you all have a great day ... is there anything I can pick up for you?? TeeHee!


I'M BACK!!!

What a great time! I found a few new things at Convention and I'm so anxious to give them a try and share them with you! Tomorrow maybe?? I learned a few new techniques and was thrilled to run into a few local fellow stampers (Tammy [and daughter], Anita, Carol, Laurel, Crystal) and even one from Kentucky who was in town visiting friends/family. What a fun day ... I just wanted to "buy it all" ...

ssnotime56 Exquisitely Elegant with Sharon Johnson

In the past weeks, Sharon Johnson (notimetostamp) has been spotlighting each of her design team members and challenging all of us to make a card/project using their style of design. Well, today the spotlight is on Sharon! What fun is this!!! Becky Oehlers has hi-jacked Sharon's challenge so that the Leader of the Pack can be honored as she should be!!! Sharon has a GREAT style about her and I have admired her work from the first day I came onto Splitcoaststampers.

Sharon loves using birds/nature in her cards ... along with cuttlebug backgrounds and scrumptious ribbons. My card uses all of those features that Sharon has perfected so beautifully in the past!! Oh yea, Sharon also likes making square cards (5.5 x 5.5) ... so I have followed suite on this feature too!

Congrats Sharon on being honored for the wonderfully, talented stamper (who inspires us all each week) that you are!! It's an honor to be guest designer on your blog this month!! Keep up the good work!!

Don't forget to checkout what the other girls have done!

Sharon
Julie
Tammy
Janine
Dee
Jennifer

Time for bed ... it's been a very long day!!! Catch you in the a.m.

Guy Card for the Chemo Angels

Splitcoaststampers Cards for a Cause challenge this month is to benefit an organization called Chemo Angels ... please go to the forum and check it out. There was some concern expressed that they don't get enough GUY cards so here is at least one that will be going in my bundle of cards. If you are interested in participating in this challenge and have difficult finding it on SCS, let me know and I will gladly guide you in the right direction.

I just love making scenery cards using my Stampscapes stamps. It is a really easy process and always produces a great looking product!! This is done using ONE main stamp and just adding the geese and crane. I used a small sponge pod and SU inks to do the coloring ... matted it using a negative portion of the new SU diecut and mounted it onto hunter green cs. Easy-peasy!! Oh yea, I added a little rafia to carry out the "woodsy" theme. Thanks for taking time to look and please comment ... I love hearing what you have to say! Happy Stamping All!!

Ooops ... I almost forgot to mention ... please come back tomorrow for the card I made for Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simple challenge on her blog. Tommorrow's challenge is going to be SO COOL ... you won't want to miss it!!

A Mother's Pride ...

If you get a quick moment, here are a couple blogs for you to check out ... first is my daughter Carolyn and now, my granddaughter Morgan. Mo just started her blog last night ... she emailed me and said she was feeling left out of the loop ... so since her mother & grandmother had blogs she needed one too! We are a 3-generation blogging family ... humm, wonder if I can talk my 78 year old mother into starting a blog ... probably not!! LOL!!

S-P-O-O-K-Y ...

Last week while friends & I were visiting stamping friend Tammy at Toyrifix, my friend Linda Davis purchased this Cuttlebug spiderweb embossing folder and was kind enough to let me borrow it. (THANKS LINDA) I don't want to keep it long (Halloween is right around the corner) so I made a couple quick prints and here is a card I made.

I inked up the inside of the folder before running it through the cuttlebug ... actually I did the wrong side and this is kind of "inside out" from what I was expecting but it still has a really cool affect!! The house and witch are from SU "Home is Where the Haunt is" set and the spiders are stickers I had in my scrapbooking stash. Such an "easy-peasy" card yet so cute!! Thanks for stopping by my blog today ... please come back again!!

What a Day!!!

From 8:30 until 2:30 today I sat in different hospital waiting rooms while my DH was having testing done to see where his cancer stands at this point in time ... please pray it's GONE!!! He had testing yesterday and also tomorrow ... then results will be back next Wednesday ... I'll be sitting on pins & needles until we get the results!!



Anyways, this really exhausted him so upon arriving home he went directly to bed and I went directly to my craftroom! Here are a few challenge cards I was able to get completed. Please let me know what you think of these! Both cards will also be donated to the Cards for a Cause challenge over on Splitcoaststampers - Chemo Angels. (how appropriate, huh!)


Card #1 was done for today's Sketch Challenge over on SCS. To keep the weight of this card to a minimum, I chose to border panels 2 & 3 using a Creative Memories round black marker vs cardstock matting. Panel #3 was handmade using a stipple brush first, then stamping the fern image then sponging over with Ranger vintage photo ink. This cute bird image is by Magenta and I stamped it on glossy white paper and colored it using SU inks and inking nibs.


Card #2 was done for the challenge over on the Color Throwdown Blog. I had to improvise a little since I don't have all the new SU IN-colors yet but I came close!! I just received my Stampin' D'Amour stamps and couldn't wait to ink one up! Aren't these three little girls adorable?? You'll be seeing more of these Stampin' D'Amour images coming soon!


Thanks for stopping by and please, leave a comment ... I love hearing what you have to say!!!

Also thanks to all of you who have expressed your thoughts & prayers for me and DH during this cancer journey we are on!!! Bless You!!

1 card ... 2 challenges

Hope your day is going well!!! I finally got the opportunity to do today's Crafty Secrets Challenge over on the SCS Member Companies forum. Today's host is Lori Lynn Washburn and she has asked us to use chipboard on our project. I decided I could combine today's card to fit in with Saturday's challenge over on the Our Creative Corner blog - bling.

Stamps used here are all from the Crafty Secrets - Vintage Christmas set. The chipboard is also Crafty Secrets - Sweet Chips which I have covered in Diamond Stickles. I just LOVE this vintage Santa and I chose to stamp him using Versafine black ink on whisper white cs punched using the Marvy scallop circle punch. After stamping the image, I masked him and stamped/embossed the Memories silver snowflakes and added the acrylic jewels by The Beadery for the BLING! Oh yea, I simply colored him lightly using SU watercolor pencils and a blender pen. The background paper on this card is also from Crafty Secrets, their Radiant paper pack.

I'm not a very big "bling/sparkle" type of cardmaker, but I really like how this card looks. A friend of mine is a HUGE glitter, sparkle fan ... maybe she'll be the recipient of this holiday card!! Thanks for stopping by ... please come back again! Till then ... have a great day!!!

Featured Stamper Challenge #87

Hello All!

After a "whirl-wind" stamping day yesterday, I am finally getting around to doing today's Featured Stamper challenge over on SCS.

Today's stamper is LOVE STAMPIN. What a great gallery of art ... take a peek when you get a chance, you won't be disappointed. HERE is her card I chose to case. I kept pretty true to her card ... using the same SU stamp set (Noble Deer) and layout ... only changing the background designer papers and theme. The deer was colored with SU watercolor pencils & a blending pen. I scored around the image using my Scor-Pal (don't have the square Nesties YET) and since I don't have any SQUARE Nesties, I cut around the image using Fiskar's scallop scissors. I thought this would be a great GUY card but I also know a lot of "outdoorsey" ladies that would enjoy this card too! Thanks for stopping by and PLEASE come back. All comments are greatly appreciated!!

Happy World Cardmaking Day!!!

WOW ... it has been an extremely busy "stamping" day today. First I spent a few hours with a friend of mine (Sandy) at one of my favorite stamping stores in Zoar called The 1870's Shoppe. Of course, this got me off to a late start on all the challenges going on over on SCS in honor of WDM Day!! I didn't want to overwhelm you with individual posts for each card I made so, I'll just put them all here and if you have any questions, feel free to drop me an email or SCS/PM and I'd be glad to answer them for you.

There were seven (7) challenges total ... starting at 11:00 a.m. then a new challenge posted every two hours after until the last one being posted at 11:00 P.M. (It's not quite 11 pm here so I don't have that one yet ... I'll save it to post tomorrow!!). Without further ado ... here are my World Cardmaking Day Cards.

Thanks so much for stopping by ... I hope you were able to join in on some of the fun today. Oops ... I see it's 11:00 ... gotta go get the last challenge instructions and "get 'r done". See you in the morning!!

Morning All! I'm back with my last challenge card to share with you. The final challenge was a color combination of Lime, Lemon, Orange, Black, Gray & a neutral. Well I didn't have any dp with those colors (no little kids around the house to have those bright cheery colors on hand) so I had to improvise and make my own. I used large sponge pods and swiped Lime, Lemon & Orange across a piece of glossy white for the bg paper. Then again using my large pods, I made circles of each color on another piece of glossy paper to make my "balloons" ... I used a ZIG photo signature pen to make the strings and write the sentiment on one balloon. The little birthday sentiments on the card are from a Studio G set. Not bad for doing this card at 11:30 at night (my bedtime is 10 pm). What fun! Hope you enjoyed my little stamping experience as much as I did!!!

Inspired by Others!

I just had to share this card with you all!!!

I spotted this card on Joan Fricker's blog and commented to her how beautiful it was and I was thinking of casing it! Well a short time later I received this lovely email from Joan saying she'd be pleased to have me case her card and in her words "Isn’t that what this is all about?? hee hee" . I did change it up a bit to "Make It My Own" but the basis is from Joan.

You can click on either card for a closer view!

Keeping in mind that I made my card from MEMORY of her card, the changes I made are as follows. The main image is from Inkadinkado and the set is called "Winter Birds". I decided to use black instead of the Navy. I made my main image panel smaller and I popped up the owl image that is on top of the Nestabilities where Joan popped up both panels. I also used a thin matting of glossy black between the owl image and the Nesties cut panel. I really like how Joan did a little piercing in the corners (an element I totally forgot about when trying to remember her design) but I did do the little dots in each of the scallops. As you can see, we used different locations/shapes for our sentiments.

How much fun is it to be inspired by someone's work and try to mimic it! For me, it never turns out the same .... Close, but not the Same! Has someone inspired you today??? If so, why not share that experience. I just did and it felt really good!!! Thanks Joan!! I think I'll do this more often ... I'm inspired by SO many ... but when one really catching my attention I think I'll post here and share it with you all!! Thanks for stopping by ... please come back!!

Limited Supply Challenge

I decided to do the "Limited Supply Challenge" today over on SCS. I was intrigued by the fact that we were NOT allowed to use embellishments. I've kind of become a ribbon, brads, stuff kind of girl and was curious what I'd come up with when I wasn't allowed to use these yummies!

Well, I think NOT TOO SHABBY!!

I used all four stamps out of the new Holiday set "A Cardinal Christmas". I made the designer paper using the holly image with Always Artichoke ink and doing the stamping off technique ... then sponged out around for shadowing. The cardinal was stamped with Versafine black ink then colored in with Prisma pencils ... again I sponged out around with Always Artichoke ink. Matted onto Real Red cs ... did a little paper piercing and added the sentiment stamp. I made tabs using the SU word window punch and added faux brads using a Creative Memories round tip black marker.

Seems like making cards without embellishments isn't that difficult after all ... but I'm still not giving up my "goodies" ... they are so much fun!! Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek!! Your comments are very helpful and give me great encouragement ... thanks!!!

Stamp Simply #55 - Let's Sing N Stamp with Becky

This is my first post as Sharon Johnson's October Guest Designer!! How cool is that!! I'm both thrilled and honored!!

This week Sharon is featuring another member of her wonderful design team - Becky Oehlers, a/k/a Sing n' Stamp on SCS. Becky's blog is entitled Hemidemisemiquaver, please make time to pay Becky's blog a visit ... you won't regret it!

Our challenge is to CASE Becky's Clean, Crisp, Classy style of design. Becky's creativity overflows in her beautiful artwork ... both cards and 3d projects. Becky is also a singer (classical I believe) ... how about that ... talent exudes from her every pore. That musical talent was my basis for today's card. Images are from Crafty Secrets (Bird Lovers) and although you can't see it in the photo, the base card was stamped with musical notes using Versamark.

For all the challenge details, please visit Sharon's blog (while you're there, don't forget to check out her always fabulous sample!) Remember to check out the other team members blogs for more fabulous samples! What great fun, I hope you'll have time to join us! Remember to link your card back to Sharon's blog post, and if you upload to SCS, use the keywords ssnotime55.

Thanks so much for taking time to stop and take a peek!! Happy Stamping All!!

Stamp Something MFT Challenge

The Stamp Something Challenge for this past week was to do exactly that ... Stamp Something!!

The crew over at Stamp Something was excited to have Kim, from My Favorite Things as the host for their challenge. So of course, I had to use my favorite, MFT stamp set for my card submission.

Then, I just started using up scraps to create what I think turned out to be a pretty great card! I bg paper was in my scrap bin and is by Kelly Panacci. The sky panel is a piece left over from playing around with alcohol inks. The sand was a piece of scrap laying on my worktable which I tore to give it a rougher edge. This MFT image from the (by the seashore) set is so much fun to paper piece. There was a scrap of Crafty Secrets - Radiant dp laying in the same scrap pile that I thought would work quite nicely ... and was I right??? Huh?? Nice outfit, don't you think!! LOL!!

I had a lot of fun making this card and I got it done just in the nick of time!!! All entries had to be in by 7 pm tonight to be eligible to win free stamps!!! Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Please come back tomorrow when I get to upload my first card on Sharon Johnson's (notimetostamp)blog challenge as October's Guest Designer! How great is that!!! See you then!!

Fall into Fall

Don't you just love the FALL?? I enjoy making fall cards ... I think it's the colors involved!! Now I just need to get some of them addressed and sent out! No sense in hoarding them, right ?

I made this card for a sketch challenge over on the i{heart}2stamp site. I used the H&M stamp set (old fashion hayride) which was designed by an online friend of mine, Beverly Cole. It's a really fun set and has 22 pieces! The inside of the card is also stamped with the row of gourds positioned in the corner.

Papers used were: Burgundy cs, chocolate cs, so saffron, pumpkin pie & Flair Designs designer paper

Inks used were: Versafine sepia, more mustard, pumpkin pie, old olive & Kaleidocolor (autumn leaves)

I used a fall polka dotted ribbon I found at Joanne's, edged the papers using a gold Pilot marker, stamped & cut out the pumpkins using a swivel craft knife then popped the one pumpkin up for dimension. I also did some paper piercing to tie in with the dotted ribbon. What do you think??

All That Scraps Challenge

What a perfect day to play in the craftroom! With everything going on around here lately, I haven't had time to keep up with my challenges (I know, I'm pathetic) but today is quite cool outside and not very sunny ... so, to the craftroom I go!!!

This card was made for a sketch challenge over on the message board of All That Scraps. I used my stamps from The Rubber Cafe to make both the background dp and the main image. This beautiful butterfly image lends itself so well to the crayon resist technique that I instantly knew what I wanted to use for the main image on this sketch challenge.

What a fun sketch to work with. I did take one liberty and added sheer ribbon to the bottom of the main panel. Also, since the main image is double matted, to save on layers, I used my round black Creative Memories marker to edge panels 2 & 3. Gives the illusion of matting without the weight. What's your thoughts?? Thanks for stopping by!!

Sketches! {by tamara} Challenges

Here is a pretty easy-peasy card I did for two different challenges over on the Sketches! {by tamara} blog. Tuesday is her "recipe" challenge ... this week the recipe is Use something CLEAR, Ribbon, and Dimensionals. Thursday is the sketch challenge. I decided to combine the two for today's card.

You can click on the card for a closer view. The card base is made using SU garden green cardstock. The overlay is from a 12x12 sheet of dp I purchased at Deals ... real bargain ... 6 for $1. I had a couple acrylic flowers left that I had purchase a LONG time ago and popped them up using popdots. The ribbon is from Michael's and the garden green flowers were punched using the retired SU triple floral punch that I borrowed from a friend (thanks Anita)! The sentiment is from a Crafty Secrets clear set called "mini memories" ... this little set has come in handy so many times!! Hope you like it and thanks for stopping in!!

Teapot Tuesday Card

Here is a card I made today for Cindy's (mothermark) Teapot Tuesday challenge. This teapot is pretty basic so I didn't have a lot of trouble coming up with the "goods" needed to mimic it!! This was actually fun and I'm so glad I had the time to play! The circle was cut using my Creative Memories cutting sytem and the lines were scored using the Scor-Pal.

Here is a peek at the teapot!

The coloring on my card is not as white as the teapot but I'm still happy with the outcome!! Please check out this challenge ... it is so unique and Cindy has such talent!!

Thanks for stopping by!!