Wednesday's Worktable Sneak Peek!

Swing by the Rubbernecker Stampin' Sisterhood blog for the full view!  Thanks!

Fall Trilogy

Happy Wednesday, my friends!  Wednesdays are a fun part of my week because I hostess the Wednesday's Worktable challenge on the Rubbernecker blog.  I have a fun project showing how I used one image to create a couple different designer papers using different techniques, as well as using the same image as the focal point for my card.  Here's the completed card, but I'd love it if you popped over to the Rubbernecker blog to see the close-up photos and narrative description of how I made my card!  Let me know what you think!

Color Blocked Buds

Hello, my friends!  How are you today?  I got some devastating news earlier from one of my friends that her daughter has breast cancer.  She is only 27 years old.  I cried after I hung up from the phone call, but I also believe in the power of prayer.  I'd appreciate it if you offered up a prayer for sweet Lindsay.  You see, my friend lost her mother to breast cancer at a young age, so this is hitting her especially hard to learn that her daughter has been diagnosed with it, too.

Speaking of friends, my friend, Joanie, is hostessing the Technique challenge on Splitcoaststampers today and she's challenged us to do color blocking with a twist.  You can get all the details here.  I used Baja Breeze on my acrylic block for my color blocking.  I then used chocolately brown embossing powder to heat emboss my Rubbernecker Buds images and "friend to friend" sentiment.  The embellishments down the left side of my color blocked section are brown Mosaic stickers I purchased at Michaels.  I used the Martha Stewart double edge Infinite Loops Trim punch in the same color as my base cardstock (Baja Breeze) for a little added interest in the background.  After I heat embossed the "friend to friend" sentiment, I added some color blocking to it, sponged Chocolate Chip on the outer edge, and cut out with a circle Nestability.

Now, go give someone a hug and tell them you love them.

Petals in the Die

Sorry I haven't been around much.  It seems like I'm always multi-tasking and the time goes by much faster than I'd like it to some days.  I hope everyone had a pleasant Easter celebration.  We enjoyed time with family.  My sweet, adorable, precious great-niece Zoe (pictured with me in my avatar) is now three.  She has more energy than any other child I know of!   She is at such a fun age, and I enjoyed watching her look for eggs on her Easter egg hunt.  She was so funny.  Every time she'd find an egg, she'd squeal with delight and then throw it in her basket.  You could hear the eggshells cracking!!  OMG!  We were all laughing so hard!

Now, onto the stamping business at hand.....My friend, Joan (or Joanie as I like to call her), on Splitcoaststampers, is the hostess this week for the Technique challenge.  She gave us the challenge to "stamp in the die."  Here's how Joanie described the technique:

"All you have to do is stamp your image using a background stamp or any other large image that will cover the whole die so the unstamped edge under the die creates the frame. ....easy peasy!!!



1. Cut out your layer with a die...Nestabilities were used for my sample.
2. Leave the cardstock in the die and stamp the image covering the whole die. Press fairly hard so all the paper is covered with ink.
3. Remove the paper from the die...be careful because the ink on the die will be wet. If you try to clean the ink off the die before removing the paper, it may smudge the paper (I know this from experience...LOL!!)
4. Tadaa...instant frame around the die cut!!"

I pulled out some long-neglected, but still loved, Stampin' Up stamps for my design today.  I used Petal Prints and French Script background.

I used the fancy tags die cut in kraft cs first and stamped both the French Script and Petal Prints flower while still in that die. I then cut another fancy tag out of night of navy and trimmed off the ends and a little of both sides of the kraft cardstock so I could have the navy matting.

After I stamped the Petal Prints flower, I heat set it with clear embossing powder for a richer color than how it stamped on the cardstock.

Well, it's back to the multi-tasking since the dryer is buzzing and the clothes are begging to be folded.  Oh the drudgery of laundry!  LOL!

Have a fabulous day and thanks for stopping by!

Carrie Shimmers

My friend Joan is hostessing today's Technique challenge on Splitcoaststampers.  Her challenge is to do heat embossing on dry embossing.  Joan explains it like this:

1. Dry emboss your cardstock with an embossing folder.
2. Run an embossing buddy over the dry embossed cardstock before applying the ink.
3. Ink up your brayer with Versamark and run it across the raised area of the dry embossed cardstock using a real soft touch...you only want the ink on the raised part.
4. Apply the embossing powder, shake off the excess, remove stray embossing powder with a small brush, and emboss with a heat tool.

This image is Carrie by Rubbernecker (SKU #494-05). I colored her with my Copic markers. I used my large polkadot embossing folder and heat embossed the dots with Stampin' Up's Iridescent Ice embossing powder.  I used my smaller polkadot embossing folder for the turquoise half circles. The brads in the corners are chocolate brown.

 I've taken two pictures here as the first picture with the lower light shows the shimmer of the Iridescent Ice better.

This second photo shows the true white and coloring of the card but, as you can see, the shimmer doesn't shine quite as well as it does with the lower light. 



The sketch design is an older one from SCS (SC175) that I thought was pretty cool the first time I saw and used it a few years ago on this card. 

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you like what I had to share today!

They're Baaaaack!

The CCEE Stampers are back in full swing for the new year, and Frances Byrne is the January challenge hostess.  For this first Thursday in January 2011, Frances challenged the team members (and you) to create a card/project with checks in our design.   If you'd like to play along with us, you need to include checks of some type on your card .... be it a stamp which a check design; designer paper; embossing folder, ribbon etc. 

For my card, I used some pretty purple checked designer paper I found in my stash.  I also used it on my clear buttons so I could have a matching design on those.

I painted my Rubbernecker daisy images with Stickles, which happened to be a technique challenge issued by Joan Ervin on Splitcoaststampers (SCS) this week.  I've included the link in case you'd like to check out Joan's tutorial on how to do this.  I apologize for the poor photograph, but I find trying to capture the pretty dazzle in anything with sparkle to it difficult to do.  I used Ranger's Lavender and Turquoise Stickles to paint my daisies. 

I used this week's SCS sketch challenge by Roxie for my layout.

Please swing by our CCEE Stampers blog and take a moment to gaze upon the fabulous creations of my team mates:  Joanne, Frances, Shirley, Cindy, and Tosh.

By the way, it is day #4 of my retirement, and I am so happy and thankful that I didn't have to drive to work since our roads are snow covered and slippery this morning!  

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

From Summer to Fall to Christmas

I'm late to Mothermark's tea party this week.  My poor stepson was attacked by a dog Monday night (unprovoked), so hubby and I spent Monday night in the emergency room at the hospital with him and getting him in to see a plastic surgeon yesterday.   He's okay, but the dog bite tore away quite a lot of his flesh just above his eye so that neither stitches nor plastic surgery are alternatives for him right now.  He has eight stitches in the bite mark below his eye.  Fortunately, his eyeball and eyesight were spared any damage.

Anyhow, I did have an opportunity last night after work to finish making a card for Cindy's special tea party going on this week. She's joined forces with Cammie on her Alzheimer's Care Givers drive, so I didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to participate in this great cause.   Perhaps you'd like to join in.  If so, you can click on either of the links I've provided for further details.

I chose to make a round card using my largest scalloped circle Nestability.  I heat embossed my flowers with clear embossing powder by stamping the flowers first in versamark and then in the colored ink.  I love how the heat embossing adds texture and enhances the color of the ink.  After I set them with the heat embossing, I sponged So Saffron and Certainly celery over the flowers.  I didn't like how the Certainly celery looked, so I added some Wild Wasabi.  I still didn't like how it looked, so I added True Thyme and was finally happy with the outcome!  I used my round tab and circle punches for the little panel and finished off the card with this pretty blue pearls.  I didn't want to cover the flowers with much else, so I left it there.  You can get these great flower images from Rubbernecker under the Create a Garden Set 1.

I made my next card in honor of Sallie, aka hobbydujour on Splitcoaststampers, as she was chosen as the featured stamper this past Sunday.  I had a really hard time choosing which one of her amazingly gorgeous cards I wanted to case until I saw this leaf I made a few days ago laying on my table waiting to be used.  The maple leaf image is also available from Rubbernecker.  I had also scallop punched these four designer paper panels for the Free for All Challenge to use scallops on your card, but the gallery went down Friday night so I never finished it. Therefore, when I saw Sallie's gorgeous Autumn Leaf card, I knew I could bring all these elements together.

I used the baby wipe technique to color my leaf image. I did this by dropping the various colors of reinkers onto a baby wipe and using the baby wipe as my stamp pad. After I cut out the leaf, I outlined it with my chocolate chip marker for definition. My punched leaves were sponged with really rust and ruby red.

This last card is one I made in honor of sweet Carla, cmsuto on Splitcoaststampers, as she was chosen Queen for the Day last Friday.  Carla always makes beautiful cards.  I cased her gorgeous Mudlark Candle Set Inspired card.  Things I changed are stamps, colors, slight sketch alteration, and I added paper piercing.  Congratulations to Carla!  I love this fun holiday designer paper by Stampin' Up!  I stamped the inside of the card with a stamp from Gina K's Winter Foliage set.

Paper and Vellum Posie

Hello, dear friends!  Thanks for stopping by my blog today.  I hope those of you who celebrated Independence Day yesterday enjoyed your day.  We had fun by having family over on Saturday for a cookout and to celebrate June and July birthdays.  It was such a beautiful day weather wise for us.  We had clear, blue skies with warm temperatures accentuated with a light breeze to keep us comfortable as we sat outside. 

Anywhooo, as a result of the holiday, I have today off from work, and I plan to make cards!  The first card I completed today is for two challenges on Splitcoaststampers:  (1)  the Clean and Simple challenge to choose one of the outrageously beautiful wedding cakes from Carrie's Cakes.  Here's the cake I chose because I love black and white accented by pink; and  (2)  the Technique challenge to make our own paper posie.  Here's my card:

I used my 1/4" circle punch on black cardstock to add the larger dots to my dotted paper, and I cut 3/4" strips of black cardstock for the stripes on the top layer.

and here's a couple close ups of the flower I made:

And, if you're interested in knowing how I made my posie, here are the parts I used to make it:

Supplies:  vellum punched with the five-petal flower punch and one of the boho blossoms flowers embossed with dotted swiss embossing folder; regal rose cardstock punched with the scalloped circle and the 1/4" circle; pink glitter; glitter glue; barely banana brad. 

The vellum and cardstock was sponged with regal rose ink on the outer edges.  You can see in the photo how I cut slits between every two scallops on the regal rose cardstock.  This helps with shaping your card once you're ready to put it together.  The vellum five-petal flower petals were folded upwards with my bone folder and then just the tips bent backward to shape them.  For the little boho blossoms piece, I added tiny dots of the glitter glue and applied the pink glitter for a bid of sparkle.

I'm off to do some more creating.....possibly using stamps this time!.....and plan to stop by your blogs later to see what you've been up to!

Some Catching Up

I hope everyone has been enjoying their holiday season. Ours was very good spent with family and friends alike.

Like most of you, I've been running short on time and haven't had much time to blog. Therefore, I have a few things I'd like to share today.

The most current one is for today's technique challenge on Splitcoaststampers to use the VanGogh technique in our creation. Well, I'm no artist for sure, but I do love learning new things and wanted to give my hand a try at this technique. I used Stampin' Up's Boatloads of Love, my Copic markers, sponges, liquid applique, and heart punch to create this fun card. I'm thinking my granddaughter would enjoy this for her birthday......or so I hope, anyway.


My next one is in honor of yesterday's featured stamper on Splitcoaststampers known as SmilynStef. Stephanie is the Inspiration Challenge hostess on Saturday and always has such cool inspiration pieces for us to choose from. I knew I wanted to do a bird theme with blues since I was making this card for Kheila Kirwan's mom who is turning 90 on January 4. What a milestone!! The designer paper is Heidi Grace with flocking on the bird wings and the main bird image is a QuikKutz die.

Last is a gift card holder I made using the video tutorial Gina K did last week on StampTV. I LOVE this pop-up gift card holder! Here's the inside:

And the outside using Stampin' Up's Holiday Lounge designer paper.

I wrote this post in a hurry since hubby and I are off to catch a movie and some shopping since I'm off work this week, so if you have questions or want more information, please let me know. I'll be back to surf your blogs and see what you've been up to later!