Dream a little

Sorry I have been away so long! I will actually not be on here much the next few weeks, as I will be preparing all next week for a trip, then will be gone on the trip for a week! When I return, hopefully I will have more time to take pictures of some of the cards I have made recently! I had a dry spell for a while cause i didn't have much time, but due to a stampin' prescription from my blogging buddy Julie, (thanks, Julie!) I was able to get some cards done!
But for now, I will post this one:


This was the other card I had done for the swap we did a few weeks ago. I started with Taken with Teal for the base, then Baja Breeze, Apricot Appeal, and another Baja Breeze for the panels. I used the ticket corner punch for all the panels.
I sponged teal on the edges of the the white panel. For the flowers, I used sponge daubers to get the variation with Pumpkin Pie and YoYo yellow. For the Hummingbird, I used a combination of Baja Breeze, Taken with Teal, and Garden Green.
I used White Craft ink and the little flower that comes in the set for the background panel. It really makes it look like vellum! Lastly, I stamped the sentiment in Baja Breeze and punched it with the large oval punch.

swapping flowers

I made this card for a swap my upline hosts. It's actually not that difficult to make this card. Start with Old Olive cardbase, Pink Passion and Whisper White cardstock, Echoes of Kindness hostess set, Old Olive ink, and Rose Red ink. I used 1/4" and 5/8" Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbons, pink rhinestone brads, 1/16 hole punch, and the ticket corner punch. I used a blender pen and the inks to color the flowers and leaves. You could also use rose red for the mat, but I actually built this card around the idea that I wanted to use Passion Pink, which is a color I hardly ever use!
Well, we are expecting storms all day today, so maybe, just maybe I will be able to finally make a card today! I think I am going on week 2 without a single card made! Ahhhh! In the meantime, I have to get my Kindergartener ready for school now! have a lovely day!

Buggy Birthday!

I haven't had a whole lotta time lately to work at my scrap-desk :(
so I have had to resort to posting pictures of some older cards! I think I made this one back in August! Hopefully I will get to make something new soon! I am having withdrawals!

I used the Bugs and Kisses set for this card. It really is such a cute set!
I started with a Ballet Blue cardbase, then on Whisper White I stamped the various buggies in different colors and cut them out. I used the 5 petal flower punch to punch out several Certainly Celery flowers, then cut them up and 'notched' the edges for the leaves. I also cut a strip of Certainly Celery and used scissors to make the grass along the bottom.
I lined the inside of the card with Whisper White, punched a square through the front of the card and stamped the sentiment on the inside so that it shows through. On a separate piece of Real Red, I punched out a square using the same square punch, then hand cut out a square slightly larger than the punched window, creating a frame. I put the buggies on with dimensionals, and glued the leaves at the top.

Simply Said card

Today's card was inspired by this card by Marelle Taylor. Isn't hers just fabulous? I wish I had come up with the overall idea, but alas, I can't take the credit! Marelle has such wonderful creations!
I did my own interpretation of her card for this card. I also did a slightly different version of my card for a swap my group had a few months ago. When we do swaps, the gal who organizes it sends one copy of each swap card in to Stampin' Up. The Stampin' Up demonstrators website has a page called Stampers Showcase where they feature about 6 cards each day, all sent in by demonstrators. Well, last Saturday, I happened to check that page like I do every day, and to my ultimate surprise, there was my card! Woohoo! I was just thrilled!
Todays card was actually my prototype before I made my swap cards. This card is made with the Simply Said set, Soft Sky, Barely Banana, and whisper white cardstock, Basic Black, White craft, and Soft Sky ink, white gel pen, scallop edge punch and the large square punch.

Butterfly trails

I made this card a couple months ago for a swap. It uses the Whimsy Wheel, Garden Whimsy set, One of a Kind set, the Boho Blossoms punch, and the Best Yet set. The Best Yet set is a retired hostess set, but you can easily substitute this with another sentiment. I used a sponge dauber to ink up the flowers and butterfly, and used the Boho Blossoms punch for the flowers. I Stamped the Whimsy wheel in white craft ink on the Bashful Blue, then cut the wave freehand. I ran glue along the edge of the wave and sprinkled glitter on it. I put the butterfly on dimensionals and added glitter to the dots on the butterfly and the centers of the flowers.

The card that almost wasn't

This card gave me so much trouble! I came so close to just chucking it! I started off by stamping the butterflies from Flight of the Butterfly onto a plain white cardbase, and I didn't care for the colors at first, then I added the flowers, and I realized everything I stamped so far didn't sit on the paper like I wanted it to, it was kind of off-balance. So then I thought I would cut it and use it as a panel. So after I cut it, it was still off balance, so I decided to push the piece all the way to the upper right corner, leaving only a band of color on the side and bottom. Ok, I liked that, but it still needed something. So I stamped the sentiment, but that stamped too high! I then added black with a pen on the butterfly bodies and around the edge of the white and while doing that, the pen slipped and I made a mark on the white! It was at this point I was ready to just throw it away. Then I wondered if maybe I could just add another line and make it like a vine.........hmmmmmmm........THEN I tried to add shadows to the butterflies, and in doing so, I messed up the yellow one! Argh! Lastly, in hopes of salvaging all this work, I added glitter just on the polka dots of the butterflies. Sigh. Still not satisfied with it, but I thought It would at least make for a good blogging story! And to top it off, I even had trouble placing my watermark on the picture! There really wasn't a good place to put it! Argh! Well, I sent this card to my mother in law for her birthday... I hope she likes it!

Little blue birdie notecard

Sorry i've been kinda quiet here the last few days...I seem to have acquired my husbands cold and have been trying to fight it! I am still not sure who is winning...me or the cold!

I made a set of note cards using the Fun & Fast Notes set keeping them.....guess what...simple! I used the same Polka Dot background stamp inked with different colors for each card, bashful blue, Certainly Celery, and Apricot Appeal. This example shows Bashful Blue. I then cut a simple square of white and stamped the bird, teacup, and porcupine images with black Stazon, then colored them with blender pens and ink. I matted each image with it's coordinating cardstock color, and that was it! I kept these to a minimum on purpose. I wanted to just have a little collection of coordinating notecards that I can give as a gift to a friend of mine. If you wanted to, you could go one step further and actually have the cardbase Bashful Blue, and then the white polka dots could be a panel on the front, but I wanted the white inside as well, so I just kept the cardbase white. Ok, I think I'm rambling....maybe it's time for more medicine!

Thanks.

Today's card is another easy one! (big surprise!heehee!)
I used the Illuminations stamp set in Pumpkin Pie, stamped the image again on a scrap piece then cut out the whole word and a little bit of the flourish and placed it over the original image with dimensionals. So Saffron, Old Olive, and Pumpkin Pie cardstock, added some wide Chocolate Chip Grosgrain ribbon tied in a little knot, and rounded the corners of the card! Great for when you only have a few minutes to come up with a thank you card!
If you changed the colors to something more valentines-y, you can substitute the Cherish stamp from the same set, and you have a very beautiful valentine card to give a loved one!

Happy February!

Happy February, everyone! I didn't make too many valentines cards this year, so this is actually the last one I have for now!

I have been finding it easier to complete cards as of late by keeping them as simple as possible. Maybe If I had a little more time on my hands, I will be able to get more elaborate again! But I really like the way this card turned out. I always have a tendency to get an idea in my head, and start to work on it, but it ends up transforming into something else entirely! But that's ok!

For this one, I used the Polka Dot background set with Real Red, then a strip of pale plum and elegant eggplant to edge the white strip. I stamped the heart with Pretty in Pink and Riding Hood Red, and the sentiment from Holidays and Wishes. I rounded the corners on this one to give it a cutesy look!

Heart box

Here is another project I made for my recent event. Its a valentine/heart box that can be used for anything you like! I made this one a generous size of 4x4, so it can be filled with little cards, candy, or a small gift! It has a base of Real Red (although it looks rose red in the picture for some reason) and Real Red Designer Series Paper, the lid is Pretty in Pink stamped with the Always small circles, then I stamped the large heart from the Always set in Real Red, cut it out then cut a mat of Real Red to go behind it, then tied it with the Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon.
I put the heart on dimensionals in such a way that the ribbon kind of threads though it, so it can be easily removed or even re-used!
before I assembled the lid, I punched the edges with the scallop edge punch. This box was actually pretty easy to make! The heart would be even prettier with glitter on it! I might go do that!

Give a little love

These are the little valentines I had prepared for my recent event. They are 3x3, and very easy to make! The main colors I used are Real Red and Pretty in Pink. Inkds: Riding Hood Red, Pretty in Pink. The stamp sets I used are Love You Much and Holidays and Wishes. It also uses one of my newest favorite tools....the corner rounder! Love that little thing! It really gives your cards a cute, finished look. And it punches easily through 2 layers of cardstock, which is really nice. It's very inexpensive, and you get TONS of use out of it! It's definitely on my list of must haves for your tool kit.
Lastly, I used a blender pen to color in the images. You could put glitter on them if you like, I opted not to this time. I kept it simple.
This is a great example of how you can make several things with just a few supplies. And you can do any variation of these, or even translate them into larger cards!

Bugs and Kisses

I was sitting at my scrap-desk, and wondering what I could do to make a valentine for a little boy. I was originally just going to go with more boy colors with a typical valentine, but then in my search through my stamps, came across the Bugs and Kisses set, and had a V8 moment! It works perfectly!

This little card is a 3x3, cardbase of Bashful Blue, mat of Real Red, and the cute little grasshopper is stamped with Certainly Celery ink on Whisper White. On a scrap piece of white, I used the heart trio stamp from Love you Much, inked just the little heart, and punched it out with the Heart to Heart punch. I then rounded all the corners and put it all together! You could easily make a lot of these for a child's class or for their friends!

Back to my roots

Since becoming a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I haven't done a whole lot of scrapbooking, which used to be my main hobby. I guess i was kind of learning how to make cards and concentrated on that for the last year. Well, In the meantime, I have all these pictures that need to be put on pages!
So last month, I decided to buckle down and make a page for my daughters kindergarten picture!
I wanted it to be easy enough that I could finish it fairly quickly.

I started with a 8x8 page of Pretty in Pink, and the Simply Said and Bugs and Kisses sets. I used Basic black to stamp the flowers, and Pretty in Pink for the flowers on the white panel. I inked the ladybug in real red and used a black marker to color the head, antennae and legs directly on the stamp. I then used the white gel pen to color in the flowers and the black marker to make the dots around the title panel and the picture.
I put mats on this page of going gray and white, but you can just have the whole page Pretty in Pink if you like.
I left lots of room for journaling on the top left. You could even put your title on the top left and put your journaling below that.

of Pumpkins and scarecrows

Ok, I had every intention of posting this yesterday, but during the time I would have normally been typing, my sweet husband decided to tinker with my computer to try and make it run faster. It seems to have worked, but it caused my post to be typed a day late. I'm not complaining though! lol!
But it all worked out, because now that I am posting this, I can finally start posting things that are more "seasonally appropriate" beginning Monday!
I will have a scrapbook page to post, and then on to some Valentines stuff!

These cards were made with the Autumn Harvest set (now on the Dormant list) and the Happy Blessings set, which was in the Holiday Mini, and I am hoping will return for the next catalog.
I used colored pencils and Gamsol to color the scarecrow, and a combination of colored pencils and watercolor technique for the pumpkins. The background papers were all scraps, cause I always like to use scraps when I can, cause boy do I have a lot! I hate wasting anything!

Happy dancing!!

why I am happy-dancing? well, because I got the most exciting news! I have been sent an award by my new blogging buddy, Julie Alberda! I feel so very honored! Her stuff is wonderful! Check out her blog and see her beautiful work!:

http://stampingstation.blogspot.com/

Isn't she super talented? And she's a wonderful person too! Thank you so much, Julie! I am seriously giddy about this! Can I tag you back?

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Ok. So here are the 6 random things about me.

1. If I had tons and tons of money, I would build/run a dog rescue
2. I'm fascinated by space and all its beautiful wonders
3. I would love to take a graphic arts course.
4. I like the rain and snow. (just not driving in it!)
5. I think polar bears are super funny!
6. I would love to learn how to 'stage' a home (when you are selling your home and someone comes and fixes it to be more appealing to buyers)



Yeah, I know, those things are really random!
I wanted to tag my wonderful friend Carrie Rhoades, but Julie tagged her too! here is Carries blog:

http://www.carriestamps.com/weblog/


Allright, now here are my tags! they all are so incredibly talented!:



http://britineyj.blogspot.com/

http://mercedesweber.blogspot.com/

http://inkingidaho.blogspot.com/

http://crafts.peteandkerry.com/

http://butternutsagedesigns.blogspot.com/

http://www.amazingpapergrace.com/