TSSC #80 - Wish for Peace

Here's another Christmas in July card using all Stampin Up products. I found Mary Jo's sketch to be an interesting challenge over on the Technostamper blog. I went through about 9 different colors of circles and about 4 different sizes until I got this one.

The main image is colored with Stampin Up markers and then stamped. Then I covered the whole thing with Versamark and embossed it with Irridescent Ice embossing powder. Christmas cards need a little glitter, don't they? :-)

Stamps: A Wish for Peace
Ink: Garden Green, Chocolate Chip, Barely Banana, Versamark
CS: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Merry Moments dsp
Other: Irridescent Ice ep, Circle Scissor Plus

MOJO97 - Olive Snowflakes

The Sweet N Sassy yahoo group has a little challenge going on to create something with a Christmas theme. I pulled out my Sweet N Sassy Snowflakes set and put this card together after supper tonight. It's a weird and unusual color combo, but I kinda like it. It's fun to shake things up by doing something different.

Stamps: Snowflakes and Christmas Poinsettias (from Sweet n Sassy Stamps)
Ink: Vintage Cream (PTI), Chocolate Chip (SU)
CS: Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Merry Moments dsp
Other: rhinestone brads, photo corner punch, nestabilities, red grosgrain ribbon

Sweet Stop sketch - Wisteria Miracles

There is a new sketch on the Sweet Stop blog today, so of course, I had to play along. I pulled out my Wisteria paper from Basic Grey and stamped the silhouette flowers from Sweet N Sassy's Dream Silhouettes set. I wanted to use a different sentiment, so I found this wonderful sentiment in Sweet N Sassy's In His Time set. The flowers and chocolate pearls add a nice little pop of color in this muted card.

Stamps: Dream Silhouettes and In His Time from Sweet N Sassy
Ink: Soft Suede
CS: Soft Suede, Vanilla, Wisteria dsp from Basic Grey
Other: pink flowers, chocolate pearls, oval punch, scallop oval punch, scallop edge punch, nestabilities

Wacky Wednesday - button trees

This week's Wacky Wednesday challenge on the Rubbernecker blog is to use circles. Well I sorta changed up the sketch challenge from SCS to use circles instead of the squares so it would fit for the Wacky challenge. I hit two birds with one stone, so to speak. :-)

I love these little bitty Inchie Trees from Rubbernecker. I stole them from Mom on my latest "shopping trip" and she just might not get them back. I have all kinds of plans for these little bitty trees. Hee hee heeeeeeee!

For this card, I kept it simple because the background paper is so busy. I rummaged through my containers of buttons and found some that closely match the colors in the designer paper. Once I got the circles cut, I just stamped the little trees with Soft Suede ink (fast becoming my new fave brown color), and then glued buttons down over the top part of the trees. I'll leave the sentiment off until I need this card, and then I can just stamp Happy Birthday or Congratulations or whatever the occasion is.

Check out the Wacky Wednesday challenge and play along. Find some circles or cut some out and create something fun! :-)

Stamps: Inchie Trees from Rubbernecker
Ink: Soft Suede
CS: Not Quite Navy, Vanilla, Lemonade paper from Basic Grey
Other: buttons, linen thread, nestabilities, olive ribbon

MOJO #96 - Butterfly Spirit

A friend of mine recently sent me a ton of scrapbooking papers, and it was only fitting that I use some of those for the Mojo Monday sketch challenge. I loved this gorgeous butterfly paper, but I had a hard time finding something to work behind it. I tried pale blue cardstock, I tried pink cardstock, and I tried about 12 different designer papers. I finally decided on this plaid paper, but I toned down the brightness by sponging on some Old Paper distress ink.

This sentiment stamp fit perfectly in the circle for this sketch, and I love the feeling this sentiment evokes in me. It's especially fitting this week considering what was going on last week. I kept this card clean and simple by just adding a gorgeous green and purple satin ribbon that Mom gave me. This card will be on its way to the sweet gal who sent me all those papers. :-)


Stamps: Impression Obsession
Ink: Orchid Opulence, Old Paper distress ink
CS: Orchid Opulence, White, Daisy D designer papers
Other: nestabilities, sponge, green/purple satin ribbon

Fiery Pinks and a flabbergasted stamper

I had no idea when I made this card that it would result in winning a $50 shopping spree at Cornish Heritage Farms. I was just floored when I found out this morning. CHF has a Summer Design Challenge going on this month, and last week's challenge was to use a resist technique.

I pulled out my Fiery Florals scrapblock and debated how to create this card. I stamped the Spanish Script with a very pale pink ink on a slanted angle, and then stamped the Fiery Florals with Versamark and covered it with clear embossing powder. After heating the powder and letting it cool, I sponged all over the background with different colors of pink inks. I love the way you see pale pink here and deeper pink there.

I really had fun making this card, and I wasn't even thinking about winning this particular challenge. There are so many wonderful cards in the gallery, and I was sure that the CHF folks would have picked one of the other ladies to win. You never know until you try, right? :-)

Stamps: Spanish Script, Fiery Florals, Mother's Day Centers (all from Cornish Heritage Farms)
Ink: Versamark, Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Memento Tuxedo Black
CS: Basic Black, Whisper White
Other: clear embossing powder, sponge, nestability, pink silk flower, black organdy ribbon, ribbon slide

Belli Challenge #70 - Metal Tags

This week's Belli Challenge is to use metal tags on your card or project. Since I don't have any metal tags, I chose to do a faux metal tag.

The scallop frame is actually chipboard, and I've covered it with Pewter crackle distress paint. Can you see the wonderful crackling? I love my crackle paints. :-) I've kept the rest of the card intentionally simple so the crackled pewter tag can stand out.

The background stamp is Ornamental Vines from Cornish Heritage Farms, and the sentiment comes from Mother's Day Centers, also from Cornish Heritage Farms. I stamped everything in Rich Razzleberry ink, and sponged more Razzleberry ink all over the background as well as very lightly on the sentiment tag. I'm really digging this Razzleberry color - can ya tell? Hee hee hee!

Go check out with the other Belli Girls have created for this challenge on the Belli blog. I hope you play along this week and share what you create. If you upload your creation to SCS or to PCP, please use keyword CBC70.

CBCC #41 - Water

This week's CBCC Challenge is a water theme. I had to play with my Ocean Friends set from Cornish Heritage Farms. I created an underwater scene with fish, bubbles, starfish, leaves, and coral everywhere. The leaves and bubbles are glittered with Stickles, as well as the top of the "water." This will be a fun and cute card to mail 'just because.'

You should see what the other Challenge Chicks have created:

Courtney Fowler
Maria Fiscella
Danielle Marcus
Sparkle Smith
Kim Gruetzmacher
Risa Malieta West

Play along with us and create something with a water theme. Think swimming, fishing, beach, boats, etc... When you upload your picture to SCS or to PCP, please use keyword CBCC41.

Depth of Field Leaves

I was playing around with a new technique found in the Technique Junkies Newsletter called Depth of Field. This is a fun and easy technique, and I really love how it looks.

I just picked shades of green and stamped the leaf from my favorite set, Fantastic Foliage (long since retired from SU), and stamped the sentiment (from My Sentiments Exactly). I added some tiny chocolate pearls and some yummy chocolate organdy ribbon to finish this card off. I had to intentionally keep this card simple so you can see the neat background that I stamped. Why create a beautiful background and then cover it all up? :-)

WICKED sketch challenge

I created this card for the new WICKED sketch challenge. The WICKED challenges are for SU demos on SCS, and we are challenged to use only current SU supplies. I also combined the theme challenge with this sketch. Joanne challenged us to take a Christmas stamp set, and create a non-Christmas card with it. Oh man......... I had to put my thinking cap on for this one.

Luckily, I had bought Scenic Season, a new Christmas stamp set in the new catalog, and the idea to do a fall scene with it popped in my head. I inked up the trees carefully, avoiding the Christmas sentiment that is right below the trees, with Eggplant Craft ink. I poured clear embossing powder on it, shook it off, and heat embossed the trees.

After this cooled down, I set to work with different inks and sponges to create an Autumn Sunset scene. I love how the colors worked together with this image. All I had left to do was put the sketch together and glue it all down.


Stamps: Scenic Season
Ink: Eggplant CRAFT, Eggplant classic, Mustard, Curry, Ruby Red, Artichoke, Hunter
CS: Eggplant, Dusty Durango, Soft Suede, Curry, Vanilla, Autumn Traditions dsp
Other: Dusty Durango ribbon, sponges, clear embossing powder

WICKED color challenge

I created this card for one of the new WICKED challenges over in the SCS forums. These are special challenges for Stampin Up demonstrators, and they are always fun to do. This particular challenge stated that we had to use only one neutral color such as Whisper White, and two - ONLY two - of the new In Colors. I put my thinking cap on and came up with this card.

I used Mary Jo's TSSC77 sketch from her Technostamper blog, and used ribbon in place of the torn paper panel. For the background, I stamped 3 different sizes of circles from the new Circle Circus stamp set with Melon Mambo ink on the same color of cardstock. To make the background pop a little bit, I used a white gel pen and colored in various areas of each circle.

Stamps: Circle Circus, All Holidays
Ink: Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay
CS: Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay
Other: Bermuda Bay polka dot ribbon, White satin ribbon, white gel pen

Rubbernecker Challenge - Pink, Purple, Green

When I first saw the Rubbernecker blog's challenge for today, I thought, pink, purple, and green??? Those are Easter colors??? But after looking at the design team's awesome samples, I was totally inspired by Bev's card. I love the deeper richer colors in the Basic Grey Eva set, so I pulled out my stash and found some papers to use for this challenge. (Thanks, Bev!!!)

The sentiment is from Rubbernecker's Petite Sentiments set, and I sponged a bit of Eggplant around some of the layers. Then I distressed all the edges and set the background pieces on opposing angles. In contrast with all the rough edges, I used a gorgeous soft silky pale pink ribbon that Mom gave me (in my Christmas stocking last year).

To add a little more interest (yes, ME getting foo-foo!!), I added some Pearl Dew Drops, and then the cutest little white crocheted butterfly from Leah. I just got some more stuff from Leah today (thanks, sweetie!!), and I had to use this butterfly. She does the most awesome crochet flowers and butterflies - check it out at Paper Blooms. I think the butterfly really completes the card. :-)

Lest you wag your finger and say that there is no green here, look again. See the tiny touches of green in the background paper? Hee hee hee! Why don't you try to make a card with pink, purple, and green? Give it a shot! You never know what could happen.

Stamps: Rubbernecker Petite Sentiments
Ink: Eggplant
CS: Pink Pirouette, Eggplant, Whisper White, Basic Grey Eva
Other: pink satin ribbon, crochet butterfly, pearl Dew Drops, distressing tool, sponge

Belli Challenge #69 - Texture

This week's Belli Challenge is to use texture on your cards. What kind of texture? You can use anything that gives your card a "feel" - Magic Mesh, flocking, Flower Soft, hammered metal, or even velvet. Look at your stash and see what you can use.

For my card, I used Flower Soft. I only have one color of Flower Soft - Ivory. So how did I get it pink? That was one of my experiments. I love to play and see if something works or not. So I put some Flower Soft in a baggie, dribbled about 4 drops of a Shell Pink Alcohol Ink into the same baggie, and smooshed it around. The Flower Soft is now a wonderful variegated ivory and pink mix. I love it! It worked!!!

Check out what the other Belli Girls have created for you on the Belli Blog. I hope you join along and play in our Texture challenge this week. :-)

Stamps: Vintage Picnic from PaperTrey Ink
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa
CS: Kraft, Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss, Very Vanilla, Raspberry Tart dsp
Other: nestabilities, Flower Soft, Shell Pink alcohol ink, Copic markers, Kiwi satin ribbon, Eyelet border punch (Stampin Up)

CBCC #40 - buttons

This week's CBCC Challenge is to use buttons. So, knowing how I have to be different, I tried to come up with a different way to use buttons. LOL Whatcha think? I like the buttons on the top of the trees. It looks funky and fresh and different. :-) This is also a good way to up some big buttons that you would otherwise never use on your cards.

Are you ready for more button inspiration? Check out what the other Challenge Chicks have created for you:

Courtney Fowler
Maria Fiscella
Danielle Marcus
Sparkle Smith
Kim Gruetzmacher
Risa Malieta West


Stamps: Bear Hugs, Spring Trees (all from Cornish Heritage Farms)
Ink: Archival Jet Black
CS: Artichoke, Chocolate Chip, Archaic dsp from Basic Grey
Other: buttons

Razzleberry Snow

I was just playing around with my new Razzleberry ink color and sponged it all over a sheet of Whisper White cardstock. I thought I would try doing a snow scene (more Christmas in July!!) - just for fun - and this is what I ended up with. I had to use my Star Dust stickles everywhere just to give the snow some sparkle. :-)

Stamps: Heart Warmers, Summer Trees (all from Cornish Heritage Farms)
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Memento Tuxedo Black
CS: Rich Razzleberry, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Other: Star Dust stickles, copic markers, sponge, white gel pen

Razzletree Christmas

Another Christmas in July card for you today! I saw a card that Adele Heffern had done for a swap on Patty Bennett's blog, and I just had to case it. It's not an exact case - I changed a lot of things around.

First, I sponged the entire background with the new Rich Razzleberry ink color. Then I used my white gel pen to make some snow dots falling everywhere. The trees are cut from Old Olive designer paper and the new Razzleberry Lemonade designer paper. I love this fresh new color combo: Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive! It's so fun and different.

Stamps: The More the Merrier
Ink: Rich Razzleberry
CS: Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive dsp, Razzleberry Lemonade dsp
Other: sponge, yellow rhinestone brad, white gel pen, Word Window punch, Modern Label punch

Sweet Stop sketch - glittery chocolate

Have you seen the sketch over on The Sweet Stop blog? I had to play along and use my yummy Chocoholic set again. :-)

The paper by DCVW is already glittery, so after I colored the chocolate candies with copic markers, I had to go back over them with a Chocolate Glitter pen from Atyou Spica (Ellen Hutson's store). I used different colors of brown so I could get different kinds of chocolate here. You can see one is dark chocolate, one is a pale milk chocolate, and the middle one is a sort of normal caramel chocolate. Mmmmmm..........


Stamps: Chocoholic (Sweet N Sassy Stamps)
Ink: Dark Chocolate (PaperTrey Ink)
CS: Dark Chocolate (PaperTrey Ink), Very Vanilla (Stampin Up), glittery chocolate paper from DCVW
Other: Dark Chocolate ribbon, brown buttons, copic markers

Christmas Poinsettia Tag

It's time for Christmas in July!!! Can you believe we have less than six months to go until Christmas is here again? Wow! Time just flew by!

One of my yahoo groups (Sweet N Sassy Stampers) issued a challenge to create a Christmas themed tag. Like I could pass that up? Hee hee hee! I love Christmas and all things associated with Christmas, so of course I had to take on this challenge. I stayed up way too late last night working on this. I should have gone to bed, but once I got started on this, I just couldn't stop. I didn't crash in bed until after 11pm.

I stamped the poinsettias (from Sweet N Sassy Stamps) with Versamark onto Poison Ivory (shimmery cream) cardstock, covered them with clear embossing powder, and heated them up. After they cooled, I used my aquapainter and some Fired Brick distress reinker to paint the poinsettias.

While those were drying, I smeared some Fired Brick distress ink all over my craft sheet and sprayed it with some water. Then I smeared my tag all over this inky mess, letting the tag soak up some of the reinker. It's a neat way to color your tags or cardstock.

I wanted some shimmer on my tag - after all, it's Christmas - so I filled a mister bottle with some water and some Perfect Pearls powder and shook it up. Then I sprayed this shimmery mist all over the colored tag. It's so pretty and shimmery!

Since I didn't want to stay awake for another hour waiting for the tag to dry, I used my heat tool to dry it quickly. Then I stamped the poinsettias with the same Fired Brick ink all over the tag, and sponged the edges for a little more depth. The sentiments are stamped with a black Archival ink.

All I had left to do at this point was cut out the poinsettias that I had colored, attach some buttons, adhere the flowers to the tag, and tie some ribbon to the top. I wish you could see this tag in person - it's so pretty and shimmery.

Are you gearing up for Christmas? How about making a Christmas tag like this? Escape from the heat of the 4th of July by working on something for Christmas! :-)

Have a wonderful and safe 4th of July tomorrow!

Cracked Glass Silhouette

I wanted to play along with the MOJO93 sketch challenge tonight, so I pulled out some stamps that I thought would fit the sketch. The flower silhouette comes from I Brake for Stamps, and the sentiment is from Winter at Home from Sweet N Sassy Stamps.

I used the cracked glass technique on both images, and tried to age them a bit more by smooshing them into my Walnut Stain distress inkpad. You can see how the dark brown ink seeped into the cracks - so cool!

It's coming up on my bedtime, so I'm keeping this short and sweet. Nighty night! :-)


Stamps: floral silhouette from I Brake for Stamps, sentiment from Sweet N Sassy Stamps
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Soft Suede, Walnut Stain distress, Versamark
CS: Soft Suede, Bordering Blue, Very Vanilla, Wisteria dsp from Basic Grey
Other: Soft Suede ribbon, nestabilities, oval punch, scallop oval punch, sponge, UTEE, blue buttons