Quickie Post Before Work

The title says it all: I'm doing my best to get this updated before I head out the door in, oh, 15 minutes - hopefully with a lunch.

Today's SCS color challenge was fun: Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, and So Saffron. It kinda reminded me of one we did earlier: Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise and Apricot Appeal. Of course, it could have just been me.

So, on to the nitty gritty of the card:

• Card base is Real Red
• Next layer up is Whisper White with the Print Pattern background stamp inked in Real Red - this layer is VIVID when it's not covered up.
• Tempting Turquoise - I grabbed this piece of cardstock as is from my file folder (I have a file folder cardstock colors - makes hunting for cardstock easier). Punched eyelets with my crop-a-dile which I cannot seem to punch straight. "Friendship" comes from the Wonderful Words set.
• The ribbon is a little goodie that I got in my Gina K. order. :) Thanks Gina!
• My main image is stamped in Basic Black (even though I HATE that ink, it worked for what I needed) and is spotlighted in So Saffron ink: spotlight layered on Tempting Turquoise. The main image is on So Saffron. Both the spotlight and the image are popped up on dimensionals.

And it's now 10 minutes later, and I'm done. :) Off to grab a lunch and out the door I go!

Triple Duty card: TLC, STCC, and FS

I wasn't feeling up to par yesterday, so I didn't get around to the Featured Stamper card today, even though I had a card picked out and everything. What a great gallery Chat has.

So today's a Catch-up day, because while I didn't do the Featured Stamper yesterday, I didn't get around to the Technique Challenge or the Stalker Thread Color Challenge either because I had errands to run before work.

• Technique Challenge: Cracked Glass. I LOVE this stuff... it's like bubble wrap - you can never crack it enough.
• Stalker Thread Color Challenge: Creamy Caramel, Bravo Burgundy, Not Quite Navy and Apricot Appeal. These look really nice together.
• Sketch: courtesy of Chat - nitestamper: the Featured Stamper.

I'll more than likely update this in a little while - I haven't done my Technique or Stalker Color challenges today. :)

But, I've been tagged by Laura to tell 7 random things about myself and to tag 7 others. I don't think I have 7 people I can tag, so I'll tag those I can.

1. I'm addicted to romance novels, especially vampire ones. Yes, I know they're cheesy, but they're good fluff reading.
2. I'm going to be Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween. The kids get a kick out of the teachers dressing up.
3. I work at a daycare that has 120 kids (thankfully not all at once.) The youngest will be 4 next month and the oldest is 12. This has currently held off my need for kids of my own.
4. I don't have NEARLY as many cards to make as Laura does, but my card list went up substancially(I don't think I spelled that right) courtesy of the SCS CCRAK list. I made 12 last year - my list is around 55 this year.
5. My little brother (who's 6'3") is a chef - Le Cordon Bleu trained. He tries to teach me/ turn me into his assistant when he decides to cook.
6. I have a Teresa Wentzler cross stitch that I've been working on for years - It's gonna take FOREVER to finish it at the rate I'm going.
7. I'm a reality show junkie... I love watching Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and America's Next Top Model. *I'm so ashamed*

Sketch Challenge

It's Wednesday: SCS sketch challenge day! I couldn't resist using my new Papertrey stamp set Piece of Cake with this sketch... the long panel is perfect for the 3 tiered cake.

• The background was originally going to be Mellow Moss... and no stamps on it. But that's plain, so I grabbed a piece of vanilla to layer with it and my Print Pattern background stamp. I colored the stamp Pumpkin Pie, Blush Blossom and Mellow Moss and stamped it out. Most of it's covered up, but I like the way it looks.
• I also did some experimentation on where the flowers should go. I think where they wound up works for me. *note to self: Next time, make the cake a brighter color so it's easier to see.*
• The sentiment was stamped in Mellow Moss and Pumpkin Pie. There was layering on all sides and it looks really nice (in my humble opinion.) Then I realized my panel was too big and would take up too much of the large panel - hide my cake. I cut the panel down to size.
• The flower centers on the cake are colored in with a Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust pen (wow, that's a long name!) When I first applied the color, it matched the Pumpkin Pie wonderfully.
• I finished my card, looked at it and realized that I really didn't use any embellies *gasp of shock and horror* So I grabbed my crop-a-dile and punched 2 holes and threaded my Pumpkin Pie 1/4" grosgrain through it.

I really like how this card turned out. :)

The Stalkers Create a Challenge!

Generally by the time I get up in the morning and turn on the computer, the Tuesday Color Challenge is up on Splitcoast. Not so today. So I get involved in chatting with my fellow Challenge Chasers, talking about life and the recent Color Challenges - there have been some "muddy" colors in them - browns, greys, river rock, sahara sand, etc. and we wanted some COLOR. We decided that we wanted Wild Wasabi to be in the challenge because it hasn't been featured.

Thus a new challenge was created: the Stalker Thread Color Challenge. Challenge #1: Wild Wasabi and whatever you want to combine with it. My card for the challenge:

• I've had this Langley Boy stamp set (Thanks for Your Support) by Gina K for a while and haven't used them. *slaps hand considering I squealed like a little girl when I saw them and ordered them ASAP* The panty panel (which is so funny to say) is stamped in Wild Wasabi, Lovely Lilac and So Saffron. The Wasabi pair in the middle of the card has "glitter lace" courtesy of a glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds glitter.


• My sentiment is also from that set and is stamped on Wild Wasabi in Wild Wasabi.


• I love my Primas, so I dug through a bag of them and came up with 2 that matched the Lovely Lilac and So Saffron. They're on a 1 1/4" square punch of Lovely Lilac and that's on a 1 3/8" square punch of Wild Wasabi. The primas are attached with SEI brads and the squares are popped up on dimensionals.

So I was given a link to Jason - the designer's - blog in one of my comments on SCS and it turns out that I've adored this set for MONTHS now. One of the first cards I ever favorited on SCS was by his wife using THIS SET. Because of that card, I have been scouring the stamp world looking for something similar. What a crazy world.

Peek-a-boo Boxes for TLC

Today's TLC challenge was to create Peek-a-boo boxes (created originally by Qbee) and make them our own. That's easily done... Qbee was an angel and had a template made in Word so all you had to do was have Word on your computer, print it on cardstock and follow the directions written on it.

I have a lot of So Saffron paper, so I grabbed a sheet and sent it through the printer. I got 2 boxes out of 1 sheet, so I stamped one with the small swirl from SU! Priceless and the other was stamped with a snowflake from Papertrey's Snowflake Serenade.

Each box has a small square window after you open it so you can see what's in the box. I saved the acetate sheets my Papertrey stamps come on initially (before I move them over to the cd case) and I punched a square out of those with a super jumbo scalloped square punch. These acetate squares were glued and taped into place.

• The top of the Priceless box is just a 1 1/4"x 2" rectangle of Soft Sky cardstock, with a layer of Very Vanilla on top with Priceless stamped on it in Soft Sky.


• The top of the Snowflake box is a SU! scalloped circle punched in Soft Sky and paper pierced in the scallops. The layer on top of it is Very Vanilla cardstock, punched into a 1 1/4" circle. The So Saffron stamp says Holiday Treats from the Papertrey Holiday Treats set and there's a snowflake from Papertrey's Snowflake Serenade. There's a rhinestone brad set in the center of the snowflake. The scalloped circle punch is set up off the top of the box with dimensionals.


• Both boxes are wrapped with Vanilla 1/4" grosgrain.

Sketch Challenge

The Wednesday sketch challenge was easy. A fun card to send out. My friend Liz (divinelibrarian) had her wisdom teeth out Friday, so I sent it out that she hopefully got it before.

• I used Soft Sky as the card base, the yellow strip is Barely Banana and it's stamped in Linen.



• The main image is from Gina K Design's Make a Wish set (which I absolutely adore), stamped in Versafine black and colored with my Prismacolor pencils and blended with the blender pencil.



• I found stick pins at Hobby Lobby in the jewelry section - 2/99 cents. I dyed a pearl bead using a tutorial I found by StampinKub. The stick pin is tied on with organdy ribbon.

Nugget tin for the color challenge

I got my nugget tins from Stampinsilvia yesterday and I was so excited. The mailman brought this huge box of baby wipes up to the door and hands it to me (I happened to be BY the front door at the time.) Being the curious soul I am, I look at the return address - it's Silvia - and I know EXACTLY what's in this giant box.

So today's Color Challenge is pinks in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Pinks... I'm generally not a fan of pinks all together - disperse the pinkness, please. But when I think of pink, I think of something girly... what's more girly than the Bella stamps? So I pulled out one of my newbies - Grumpabella (who looks like me in the morning) and decided to make her the star of my show today. Her robe is a piece of Chatterbox paper that I stamped on and cut it out.

**edit: it's after work**

I colored the rest of my Bella with Prismacolor pencils and used the tag corner punch to decorate the corners. It's layered on Basic Black and Rose Red cardstock. I added "Hot Lips" baubles from Stamping Bella to the corners, but they'd have shown their color better if they weren't on black cardstock. The sentiment is from Papertrey's Holiday Treats set, stamped in Rose Red. The band underneath my bella image is Pretty in Pink, 2 1/8" x 11" and scored at 3 5/8"; 4 5/8"; 8 1/4" and 9 1/4" The band won't be super snug when closed, but it stays in place around the tin.

The nuggets inside the tin are covered in Avery mailing labels stamped in Rose Red and Pretty in Pink. The stamp is also from Papertrey's Holiday Treats set. I love how there are stamps in a holiday set that you can use for "regular" occasions.

This became a gift for my boss today. A "just because I think you might need it" present.

I'm a VSN Hostess!

That's right! I came up with an idea for a Virtual Stamp Night project, submitted it and the coordinators thought it was good enough for me to hostess.

That's pretty much it.

I bought more Papertrey stamps at the release last night. *sigh* Nichole keeps creating some amazing stamp sets - and I can't resist them.

Mail was good today: I got a giant box of baby wipes - actually it was my nugget tins that I bought through Silvia (Stampinsilvia) - which are absolutely small and adorable.

And my new Bellas and Baubles showed up today. It's a good stampin' day.

A quickie TLC candy slider

Ahh, the SCS Technique Lover's Challenge: TLC for short. This is such fun - when you have all the 'ingredients.' You learn a lot doing this challenge. Today's challenge was to do a popcorn or candy slider cover.

Since I'm a popcorn snob, I don't have any microwave popcorn in the house. Okay, I'm not actually a popcorn snob... I happened to do the math one day and realized that buying a bag of popcorn, bottle of canola oil, buttery spray, and a jar of whatever shaker flavor strikes my fancy was cheaper than buying the 3 bag box of ____ flavor for $3 on sale. So it takes 10 minutes instead of 5... I can deal.

Anywho... back to reality... Slider covers - I have chocolate bars, so I dug one out and proceeded to choose what color I wanted the cardstock. And the phone rings - it's work. "can you come in at 10:15 instead of 11:30?" *internal sigh, look at the clock - it's 9:40* "Yeah." Time to make the fastest slider I can so I can get it uploaded before I leave.

Purely Pomegranate cardstock, cut at 4 3/4" x 5 1/2" (I'm guestimating on the second measurement - I was in a hurry.) Scored at 1 3/4; 2 1/4; 4 and 4 1/2. Closed with Tacky Tape. I stamped the main image from Haunting Halloween in Palette Charcoal ink, punch it out with a Marvy Uckida mega scalloped square punch. It' colored with Prismacolor pencils. The pomegranate bubbles and frog's eyes are covered with a Sakura clear Glaze pen... the pupils of the frog's eyes were touched with the black glaze pen. The main image is on dimensionals.

The slider ribbon is SU! Always Artichoke run through 1/4" square punch holes. My sentiment is from Papertrey's Spooky Sweets and was stamped while the candy was in the slider - very carefully.

I'm BACK! With a new Featured Stamper card

What a great trip - although VERY short. I drove over to the other side of Michigan to see Liz (divinelibrarian) for the day. We chose not to go to our college homecoming yesterday.

Liz's gallery is set up... there's not that much in there right now, but hopefully I taught her how to upload her photos from her camera with ease.

We also went shopping at Ikea. I want one of them on MY side of the state. Where else can you pick up 3 tiny tin planters (which would look fabulous with ribbon threaded through holes by a cropadile) for 99 cents, white journals that scream to be embellished (1.99), and a 3 pack of unvarnished small picture frames (1.99)? WONDERFUL STORE.

Got back, had a 2 year-old's birthday party to attend, then came home to do my Featured Stamper card. Each Sunday, a stamper is chosen and everyone else takes a card from his/her gallery and CASEs it: CASE stands for Copy And Selectively Edit. You change at least 2 things on the card to make it your own. Here is the link to the card I chose to copy: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/662232

Here's my card:

I changed the colors, placement of the image, stamps within the set, the ribbon and put the image up on dimensionals.

Off a'visiting I go

Today, I'm heading off to visit Liz (divinelibrarian on SCS) - who also happens to be one of my best friends from college... she followed me to Splitcoast.

So we'll do some shopping, maybe get our fingers inky, watch a movie, and DEFINITELY get Liz's gallery up and running on SCS.

I'm currently running a little later than I planned to - I'm still at home when I was hoping to be on the road already.

SCS Limited Supply Challenge 137: Nothing to Lose

This is my card for the LSC challenge: Nothing to Lose. We were to create a card for someone who has cancer - because we have nothing to lose and it will brighten the day of whomever gets it.

Because it's Limited Supplies, our guest hostess said we weren't allowed hardware (brads, eyelets, etc.), ribbon, or designer paper. My eyes nearly popped out of my head - my favorite things not allowed? Suck it up and deal Sara - as the kids at the daycare I work at say, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit."

So I decided to sleep on the idea and see what came to me in the morning. And it was about 7am when I came up with the idea of shaving cream background and a flower with petals made of scalloped ovals. So I'm half asleep, dreaming up my card - which sounds absolutely absurd, but that's pretty much how this card came together. So now to the gritty details:

• Card is SU! Lovely Lilac (which I think is often overlooked as a color choice)
• Background is shaving cream technique with Lovely Lilac and Certainly Celery reinkers
• Petals on my flower are Lovely Lilac and shaving cream paper; punched out with Marvy Uckida Super Jumbo and Extra Jumbo scalloped oval punches.
• Leaves and stem are hand cut in Certainly Celery
• The center of my flower is 1 3/8" circle punch in Groovy Guava; 1 1/4" circle punch in Whisper White - Think Happy Thoughts is stamped in Certainly Celery; the flower in the center is stamped in Groovy Guava, cut out and popped up on dimensionals. The black center is done with a Sakura Glaze pen in black.
• The faux brads are 1/8" punches from my crop-a-dile, glued on the card and shined up with a bit of black Glaze pen.

Brand new Blog!

Yes, I fell into the blogging madness.

I'm deipara on SplitCoastStampers.com and I can't wait to share my projects with anyone who wants to look at them.

All contents of this site are COPYRIGHT to Sara (me). That means, all text, photographs and designs are mine. They can't be used for submission to contests or publication. If you are inspired by my work and create some of your own, please share it with me.