Sara's Stamping Sanctuary

Simply Sweet

2012-01-29T22:02:00.002-05:00

My bakers twine from The Twinery came! I love the colors and dove right in using it. My lollipop obsession continues, only to be "traditional" lollipop faces this time. And since they're done, I should make them into cards - especially since Valentine's Day is coming up.

So here's my first card and I've since made 2 others - one in light yellow and another in light pink.

The card base is Georgia-Pacific white cardstock. Hawaiian Shores makes a mat for Kraft cardstock. The Kraft was run through my Cuttlebug with the Flourish Impressability plate. Instead of breaking into my stash of lollipop sticks again, I have some popsicle sticks close to my crafting table, so it was just easier to grab those. I'm glad I did, they're more stable to tape down.

Supplies: Stamps: MFT - Here's the Scoop. Paper: GP white, PTI - Hawaiian Shores, Kraft, SU- tag. Ink: Palette Noir. Accessories: popsicle stick, bakers twine, dimensionals, Impressability, red tape sheet.

Here's to a good week!

Snowflake Wreath Tutorial

2012-01-25T23:20:00.001-05:00

This tutorial has been in my mind for a while. One of the first things I "pinned" when I joined Pinterest was a snowflake wreath that was originally posted here on Better Homes and Gardens. It's beautiful and I wanted to recreate it - I had a ton of snowflake ornaments on hand and they'd make a neat gift.

Have you been to a craft store and looked at the price of foam wreaths? I couldn't find the size I wanted, the thickness I desired and priced under $5 for a single wreath. I looked for wooden "wreaths" as well - those apparently only exist in my head.

I'm sure I looked slightly deranged while wandering my local Hobby Lobby trying to find what I wanted. I then thought of cake rounds - the cardboard bases that bakeries place cakes on. They're sturdy, thin, and I could get a set of 6 for less than 3 dollars.

Tutorial Time!

What you'll need: an 8" cake round, ruler, writing instrument (I used a pen), cutting mat, cutting tool, 12 flat snowflake ornaments (I purchased mine at Target), strong adhesive (I used Goop)

Take your cake round, ruler, and pen and measure 1" in from both sides. Go all around and make as many marks as you need.

Use your pen to freehand a circle based on your marks. This will be your cutting line.

Cut along your line with your cutting tool. The cake round is corrugated cardboard, so I generally go around twice: once to make a cutting channel, the second time to go all the way through. This way I don't wind up with a skipping blade and a bleeding crafter.

This is your finished ring. You can use it as it is or you can cover it with clear tape (which will give it some weather protection.)

Lay out your ornaments on the wreath so you know how they'll fit and you like how they look. **I then take them off so they're in the same layout, only backwards (if you look in the top left of the next picture, you'll see what I mean.)

Glue down your bottom layer of ornaments. I will put down a generous drop of glue and then press the ornaments down into them. Goop doesn't set right away, so you have time to play with the layout. (Unlike hot glue - which was the adhesive in the original tutorial when I read it.)

With the upper layer of ornaments, I put the glue on the ornament itself and then carefully place it so it overlaps 2 ornaments in the bottom layer.

All glued down!

After the wreath is all glued, I put the cutting mat on top of it and then placed a heavy mini crate on it (it has my Nestabilities and Cuttlebug dies in it.) This makes sure that none of the ornaments have the ability to loosen themselves from the others as the glue dries. Let this sit for at least 4 hours so the glue can start to dry. After 24 hours, the glue should be dry and you can put a ribbon on it as a hanger.

And that's all there is to it! I hope this inspires you to create!

If You Create Some Cute Cards...

2012-01-24T00:02:00.001-05:00

You're going to want to show them off to your coworkers by showing them pictures on your blog. If you show them pictures on your blog, they're going to want to see them in real life. If you bring in a box of cards, they're going to want to order some cards from you.

Which is precisely what happened Monday and Tuesday last week. I brought in a photo box full of cards for coworkers to peek through on Tuesday and wound up with 2 orders totaling 27 cards. Yay for me - a little bit of spending $.

And I'm done with all 27 cards - I worked in batches sitting in front of the tv. It probably would have been easier to do them in the Dungeon where my work space is, but before getting started I assembled (and took pictures) of a snowflake wreath. The Dungeon's not very well ventilated and the glue is something that should be used in a well ventilated space, so upstairs I went.

Today, I was showing off cards to another 2 coworkers and they want some goodies too - some small Ghiradelli boxes I made 2-3 years ago and a Valentine's card.

I will hopefully be back tomorrow to post the tutorial on the snowflake wreath.

Getting back in the swing of things

2012-01-15T22:51:00.002-05:00

I am such a fair weather blogger. I apologize to anyone who follows my blog - I must be really boring.

My goal for 2012 is to post more than once every 2-3 months. I'm actually hoping to get back to post every week.

Here's to hoping.

Anyway, I've also been sucked in Pinterest. If you don't know what that is, it's a website where you can create virtual pin boards of your interests (get it: pins + interests = Pinterest?) I've been a pinning crazy person over there - it's so easy to get stuck on that site for 2+ hours.

Well, the first project I want to show was inspired by something I pinned - a lollipop card. Here's the link to the blog it was originally found on: http://daydesigns.blogspot.com/2011/07/cas-ual-fridays-challenge-11-sweets.html I thought it was absolutely adorable and I needed to do something like it because I had some baker's twine on hand. I was originally thinking of doing hearts because of Valentine's Day - which I might still do because it's a cute idea. I had these star shapes in red line tape that I'd bought from Texas Jody Lynn (her blog's in my blog list) and since I've had them for 3 years and not really used them, I figured that was a better choice than running a sheet of tape through my Cricut.

So after I got the baker's twine taped down and ran my backgrounds through my Cuttlebug, I realized that they weren't very Valentine-y. More birthday-y, especially with the birthday sentiment I had. So they became birthday cards.

OH, running the orange background through the Cuttlebug was an adventure. It's Impressability plate - which needs the tan embossing mats to actually make an impression into the cardstock. Well, they went missing and I had to tear the Dungeon apart to find them. Or rather, clean up. My work table is cleaner than I think I've ever had my work table since rearranging. I found them on the corner of a table - the other table, not the one I cleaned off. *shakes head*

Supplies: Stamps: PTI - Everyday Classics. Paper - Georgia-Pacific White, PTI Pure Poppy, New Leaf, Orange Zest, Harvest Gold. Ink: Palette Noir. Embellishments: Cuttlebug embossing folders, Impressability plate, red line stars, baker's twine, lollipop sticks, Diamond Glaze, PTI ribbon.

While on Pinterest, I came across a pin that linked back to Nicole Heady's blog (she's one of the owners of PTI.) It showed a technique where you stamp an image in white ink on colored cardstock, then outline the image with Copics. Which looks really elegant. So I decided to try it last night with the leftover cardstock from the lollipop cards. The issue I discovered is that you need to do this on darker cardstocks - Harvest Gold is too light of a color for the white to show. I liked how this looked so much that I made 15 more cards today in most of the other PTI cardstock colors I own.

Stamps: PTI - Year of Flowers Morning Glory and Lily of the Valley. Paper: GP White, PTI Pure Poppy, New Leaf and Orange Zest. Ink: SU White White craft. Embellishments: EK Success punch, Copics.

So that's it for right now.

I'll be back hopefully later this week with a tutorial on how to make a snowflake wreath (another Pinterest find that I tweaked.)

So I jumped in...

2011-10-14T10:19:00.000-04:00

and realized the pool was way deeper than I thought.

The Dungeon is an even bigger mess than before - there's stuff EVERYWHERE on both tables, so while the clean-up/move is working, it's super slow. The fact that I'm in a grab-my-materials-and-dash-upstairs-to-create mode isn't helping anything too. I'm pretty sure this method of card creation is the reason I have the mess I did when I started the clean-up.

Plus, I have a storage dilemma. Actually, I have 3: 1)Ribbon, 2) Nestabilities, 3) Punches. If anyone has any suggestions, I would definitely appreciate them.

On the plus side, I went through my Stampin' Up! sets and chose 63 to sell. That's right - 63. I thought I maybe had that many total, not that I could get rid of that many and still have more. Obviously, I live in denial.

Jumping in with both feet

2011-09-20T22:23:00.000-04:00

So, with a morning off, I jumped into the Dungeon renovation with both feet. I share the area with other stuff, so lots of children's books needed to be gone through, toys picked through, sports equipment moved, etc.

The good news? I have a table against a wall, my ink caddy has been moved over, and my PTI stamps are all sitting nice and neat in a cd rack on top.

The bad news? I have an extremely messy table that still needs to be cleaned up. It's BAD - I can't see the surface.

I'm also going through all my Stampin' Up! sets to see what I want to keep and sell. I've gone through the first round, we'll see how many of the "I don't know" sets get put into the sell pile.

Another year past

2011-09-18T21:47:00.003-04:00

I really need to start getting back to this place more often. It's all dusty and messy like the Dungeon - which is hopefully going through a major makeover soon.

I've been cardmaking, but not posting anything on Splitcoast or here (bad me.)

Here is one of my more recent cards:

I had the two marigolds already stamped and waiting to be colored and they fit right into the colors listed for the CC339 (wow, I've been gone a long time - the last Color Challenge I did on SCS was CC217.) The marigolds and sentiment are from Papertrey Ink - Year of Flowers - Marigolds and Year of Flowers - Sweet Peas. The paper is mostly Stampin' Up! - Always Artichoke, Really Rust (no Cajun Craze) and So Saffron dp; the paper the images are on is Papertrey Stamper's Select White.

Here's to hoping I keep up the habit of posting here,

Forever and a Day

2010-09-02T00:05:00.002-04:00

Yes, it's been forever since I've written on here. Life's been a major roller coaster and I've been struggling to keep up. So, the blog had to suffer for a bit.

I'm still stamping, just not at the volume I was before.

It's been a DOOZY of a summer. I started it with pinkeye, had my hair sprayed pink in the middle, and I end it with a sprained ankle, courtesy of a tumble down some steps.

Here's hoping that the school year won't be so busy.

Yay for days off

2009-06-09T16:02:00.004-04:00

Yep... I took a day off today. It's a Use or Lose situation at my work, so I'm working on the using them all up. :)

It's so nice. I finally made it to the post office - I've had a box of 40-some cards that was destined for the troops sitting on my floor for almost a month.

I picked up 11 more Copics at a local store. :)

I also made some cards that I've photographed and am actually about to post here. I know, I'm in shock too.

So after I put the new Copics into the basket, I was flipping through my cardstock to find a color combo that inspired me. I pulled Old Olive, So Saffron and then decided that Groovy Guava (one of last year's In Colors) would be a great pairing. It's such a summer color combo.

One of the things I knew I needed to make was a graduation card and following the inspiration of Joan B (who's in my blog roll), I used the stars from Papertrey's Anniversary set, Everyday Classics.

My first card looked so great, I had to do another - this time a birthday card. I already have a Christmas order - an assortment of cards to be given to a coworker's mother. So this card's going into that pile.

Stamps: PTI - Everyday Classics. Paper: So Saffron, Old Olive, Groovy Guava, Vintage Cream, dp. Ink: So Saffron, Old Olive, Groovy Guava. Accessories: dimensionals, quickie glue pen, glitter, spiral punch.

Hope everyone's week is going well,

On the other side of the wedding

2009-05-31T23:26:00.003-04:00

So... my brother got married last weekend and it was beautiful, I cried (because I'm sappy like that) and it was all-around fun.

I scrambled to be ready and now I'm scrambling to get back into the swing of things. And at the end of next week...

SCHOOL ENDS. *tries not to run screaming*

On the bright side, I went shopping with my best friend Erica this weekend and on a whim I went into Pottery Barn to see if I could find anything that would work for my Copic storage. Not that I have anything against the plastic containers, but I wanted something cute.

And I found this:

The basket - the markers are mine.

I tried to find a picture of it on the Pottery Barn website and it's only sold in the stores (I got mine on sale.) Because it's designed for carrying glasses or bottles, there's a wire and then nothing separating the sections - NOT good for markers. I cut up a piece of backing from an SU dp pack and created dividers. Now the Copics stay in place.

And I have room for more markers - when I expand my collection.

I wanted to show off.

Wishing everyone a great week,

Pictures

2009-05-16T11:44:00.003-04:00

I promised pictures of the bag and card that I'll be giving to my sister-in-law-to-be tonight. Before I went to bed, I packaged everything up nicely, wrote in the card and sealed the envelope.

Before I took a picture of the card. *HeadtoDesk*

I'm such an idiot sometimes.

Anywho, here's the bag - plain white from Michaels. I added the satin ribbons at the top and bottom of the bag and they go all the way around the bag. If you can't tell, the wedding colors are chocolate brown and sage/moss green.

The focal point of the bag is cut out with square Nesties.

I've had this stamp set for over a year and it's a little tricky to use for cards. But it's perfect for a bachelorette party! The tissue paper is stamped with the bra and undies too - as is the card. It all goes together. Which is surprising - I generally don't do this.

Stamps: Gina K/Langley Boy - Thanks for Your Support. Paper: PTI Dark Chocolate and Select White, SU Mellow Moss. Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate, SU Mellow Moss marker. Accessories: Square Nesties, ribbon, red line tape, Stickles, bag, tissue paper.

As I think I mentioned last night during my squealing post - did I mention I got my PTI Anniversary set? - this weekend is VSN over at Splitcoast.

I couldn't resist using my new set for the first challenge - Double up - make 2 identical cards. I had some Making Memories ribbon out on my table from earlier in the week and I realized that it was very close to PTI's Berry Sorbet in color. And I was off.

Stamps: PTI - Everyday Classics. Paper: PTI - Berry Sorbet, Spring Rain, Craft, Vintage Cream. Ink: Spring Rain, Berry Sorbet. Accessories: dimensionals, ribbon.

The 3rd VSN challenge was to use black, white and red - and ONLY black white and red. Do you realize how many shades of red there are????? I was nearly pulling my hair out trying to find a red dp that would be okay with PTI's Pure Poppy. I settled on using some Real Red dp that I got last year.

Stamps: PTI - Quilter's Sampler and Additions. Paper: PTI - Select White, Pure Poppy, SU - Basic Black. Ink: Palette Noir. Accessories: dimensionals, brads, Sakura Glitter pen, R29 Copic.

EEK! I just noticed the time and I have about 10 minutes to get to my hair appointment.

Wishing everyone a great weekend!

Running by squealing... with a cd case in my hands

2009-05-15T21:20:00.003-04:00

Yep, I FINALLY got my Papertrey anniversary set in the mail today. It's all assembled and ready to be inked.

Speaking of inking... it's Virtual Stamping Night at Splitcoast. If you're looking for some inspiration or just want to make a bunch of cards (there are 16 challenges) head on over. It's a blast!

Pictures coming soon!

Would you believe...

2009-05-13T19:08:00.003-04:00

I've been kidnapped by aliens?

No?

Okay, the truth: Casa Sara's a bit nutty. Well, I'm a bit nutty too, but I've always been that way.

Nutty Reason #1: I have a lot of work due next week. Lesson plans for the month of June, grocery list for special days, craft supplies I need, rules for games - all due. EEEK.

Nutty Reason #2: As if Nutty Reason #1 wasn't enough - my brother's getting married on the 23rd. Which means wedding stuff on top work stuff and making sure Casa Sara's up to snuff when the family rolls in.

I definitely need to get a picture of the gift bag, tissue paper and card for the bachelorette present. I think it's adorable and needs to be posted.

So... that's where I've been. And where I'll be until after Memorial Day.

Praying for my sanity,

An Inspiration Challenge

2009-05-01T23:34:00.004-04:00

I generally don't do the IC challenges on Splitcoast, but today's challenge was interesting. It was your choice of Faviana prom dresses.

After sorting through 10 pages of dresses, I found this one: Style 6222

The warm colors really caught my attention, the gold detail at the bottom is pretty. I want this dress... if only I were small enough to fit in it.

Anywho, back to the card. To get the shimmer of the actual dress, I spritzed my Really Rust cs with Sugar Cookie Glimmer Mist (only because the Peach Delight stuff was being stupid and not spraying.)

The images and sentiment come from PTI's first anniversary set Simple Little Things. They're stamped on vellum with Versamark ink and embossed with gold ep. I kinda wish I had PTI's Damask set - that would have been PERFECT!

I added a simple knotted ribbon as an accent.

And it didn't take me forever either. I'm proud of myself.

Stamps: PTI - Simple Little Things. Paper: Really Rust, Ruby Red, vellum. Ink: Versamark. Accessories: Glimmer Mist, gold ep, ribbon, corner rounder punch, Mono Multi.

In other news, I've found a home for some of my old cards! Keri Sereika (Sereikastamper on SCS) has a hubby in the military and she's running a card drive for cards to send to the troops. Well, since I'm sitting on a LOT of cards with blank insides (which is what is asked for), I'm going to send off a bundle soon.

Hoping everyone stays healthy and that H1N1 flu stuff stays far away (preferably disappears altogether)

Another Sunday card

2009-04-26T15:30:00.003-04:00

It's not a Featured Stamper card though. I went through the gallery and didn't find a card that I wanted to try to CASE.

I went shopping yesterday. It was to get a present for my best friend who has a birthday on Friday - which I did get - but I wound up getting a lot of stuff for myself too.

I found 3 more Copics that I "needed" (aka - didn't have, were on sale and not too dark in color), I bought a non-stick craft sheet, a Tim Holtz ink spreader thingy, refill pads for that, some Distress Embossing ink, Distress Embossing Powder, 2 colors of Liquid Pearls, 2 Tim Holtz mini masks, and an Inkadinkado clear stamp set.

So... I wanted to ink up my new set. My fairy is stamped in Palette Noir and colored in with Copics. I then added some glitter on her wings and the trail. It's very sparkley in real life. She's cut out and layered with Oval Nestabilities.

The background is a piece of Bashful Blue dp that I got in a 6"x6" as a SU hostess gift last year. I ran it through my Cuttlebug and then made it visible by dragging my Certainly Celery pad over it.

The sentiment is from Stamping Bella.

Stamps: Inkadinkado - Beautiful Fairies, Stamping Bella - Thank You Fairy Much. Paper: Bashful Blue cs and dp, Certainly Celery, Select White. Ink: Palette Noir, Certainly Celery. Accessories: Copics, Nestabilities, glitter, dimensionals, ribbon, Cuttlebug, paper piercer.

I have the urge to make some more cards, so hopefully it'll be a 2 post day.

Another card... finally

2009-04-23T10:06:00.002-04:00

Today's Ways to Use it Challenge (WT) on SCS was to use white - ALL white.

At first thought, it was a little freaky. I know all white cards are classy and sophisticated, but I want COLOR! Following Julia's (the hostess) example, I grabbed my Glimmer Mist. My quilt and the Primas are sprayed with Sherbet and Spring Violet.

I'm in love with the Quilters Sampler stamp sets by Papertrey. It's so much fun to make your own quilts with paper. To add a little more variety in my quilt blocks, I colored parts of them in with my Copics.

Stamps: PTI - Quilters Sampler. Paper: Select White. Ink: Palette Noir. Accessories: Glimmer Mist, dimensionals, Copics, Primas, lace, brads.

Wishing everyone a wonderful day,

My Apologies

2009-04-13T08:03:00.002-04:00

I said that I'd post the blog candy winner at midnight EDT - as in 8 hours ago, but I've been sick.

Like haven't gotten out of bed except for bathroom trips and to go see the doctor to find out I have strep - sick.

So, like the title says, my apologies that this is late.

After plugging all the important information into random.org, I came up with my blog candy winner:

#5

Kim P.

Congrats!

Kim, if you could email your address to me at deipara@yahoo.com with the words Blog Candy in the subject line, I'll get your goodies out to you as soon as I can!

Thanks for playing everyone!

Another Tuesday Color Challenge

2009-04-07T10:37:00.003-04:00

***Don't forget! My blog candy is still open - if you want to enter, please comment on the Sunday April 5th post. You have until Sunday/Monday to enter!****

So, onto the business at hand - today's Color Challenge. Which surprisingly didn't contain any In Colors, greens or pinks - Emily the hostess loves those colors. The colors for today are/were: Bashful Blue, So Saffron, and Close to Cocoa.

I started off with the cardstock and then hopped over to where I've stashed my dp. Thankfully spring break at daycare's been good to me (so far) and I haven't lost all my brain cells (yet.) So I remembered I still have a stash of Le Jardin dp from SU - and that 2 of the colors in the paper are So Saffron and Bashful Blue.

I then remembered one of the PTI stamp sets I fell in love with as soon as I saw it - Quilter's Sampler. I think I like it so much because I can't sew a straight stitch on a machine, so this is the easy way to create a cute quilt without it looking like a 5 year old wacked out on sugar made it.

The quilt squares are stamped in Palette Dark Chocolate on the dp and cut out. I colored in parts of the blocks with Copics to add more depth.

The sentiment is also on another piece of Le Jardin dp and it's also from the Quilter's Sampler set.

Stamps: PTI - Quilter's Sampler. Paper: Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Close to Cocoa, Vintage Cream, Le Jardin dp. Ink: Palette Dark Chocolate (PTI). Accessories: buttons, corner rounder punch, Copics, dimensionals.

Here's hoping that your week is nice!

Blog Candy for 10K (and some cards)

2009-04-05T16:36:00.004-04:00

I've been doing better about actually making cards over the past week. Maybe not getting them posted here right away, but the creative juices have been flowing.

Behind Door #1, is the card that kinda came out of the Inspiration Challenge. I say kinda because while I loved the intricate patterns of the French Bull plates, I couldn't find a pattern I could do justice. This happens a lot for me.
The background image is the vine from PTI's With Sympathy and it's stamped in Palette Noir ink. I highlighted some of the leaves with a white Prismacolor pencil.

The image is also from With Sympathy and is stamped in Gable Green and Lavender Lace inks on Cryogen white cardstock (Shimmer.) The sentiment is from Out on a Limb Sentiments (also PTI) and is stamped in Palette Noir.

Stamps: PTI - Out on a Limb Sentiments, With Sympathy. Paper: Cryogen White, Pixie Pink, Gable Green, Lavender Lace. Ink: Palette Noir, Gable Green, Lavender Lace. Accessories: brads, ribbon, white Prismacolor pencil, scalloped rectangle Nestabilities, ticket corner punch, dimensionals.

Behind Door #2 is today's FS card. The card is chose to CASE is this one.

Stamps: MFT - Boho Blossoms. Paper: Old Olive, River Rock, Real Red, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Basic Grey Scarlet's Letter dp. Ink: Old Olive, River Rock. Accessories: corner rounder punch, brads, rhinestones, dimensionals.

*******************************************************************************

Now onto what probably drew you to this post: the BLOG CANDY. I've finally reached 10K hits on my counter and I figured it was time to celebrate. I haven't given away blog candy since May of last year, so I've had some time to save up the goodies.

A 3 pack of 4x6 pine frames from Ikea

Autumn Leaves Flourishes clear stamp set

Making Memories shimmer brads

Making Memories eyelets (grass stains, dusk and manilla)

Glimmer Mist (Peach Delight)

A frame embellishment kit

7 Gypsies handbag kit

We R Memory Keepers metal alphabet set

1 yard red gingham ribbon

Doodlebug Dotlets (copper and gunmetal)

Primas

Buttons

Rhinestones

As I look through my list, I realize that there are a lot of embellishments. Which makes me wonder...

What is your favorite (go-to) embellishment for cards, scrapbooks, altered items, etc?

Please answer the question as a comment on this blog post and I will randomly select a winner at Midnight ET April 12/13.

Good Luck!

Foiled Again

2009-04-02T10:40:00.003-04:00

So today's WT challenge was all about using foil on your cards: foiled paper, kitchen foil, etc.

I happened to find some Karen Foster metal sheets at my LSS on clearance a few years ago and thought it was a perfect choice. They're self-adhesive, so it makes it even better.

So I made my card.
Stamps: PTI - Out on a Limb, Out on a Limb Sentiments. Paper: Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, Select White, Karen Foster metal sheet. Ink: PTI - Berry Sorbet, Dark Chocolate; SU - Brilliant Blue. Accessories: dimensionals, classic rectangle Nestabilities, buttons.

And my card is driving me nuts.

**warning: rant about the flaws and a pity party to commence**

Nothing on my card is straight, the buttons are an "embellishment opportunity" (aka - I botched something and needed a way to hide it) and I had a fight with my Cuttlebug over embossing my cut out layers.

*sigh*

It's a nice card, but it's days like this that make me question my desire to join a design team. I don't feel like I'm consistent in my quality.

I'm just having one of those days - and it stinks.

Hoping your creative day is better than mine,

A new temptation

2009-04-01T10:56:00.004-04:00

No, I didn't buy anything.

But I've been introduced by my friend Michelle Redman over on SCS to a new way of stamping: DIGI-STAMPING.

It's an image you download and you print off in your printer.

Oh, what a dangerous world this could be.

Michelle directed me over to a blog by a man named Dustin Pike - he draws the cutest dragons for his company Mooseberry Graphics. He also had some freebie digi-stamps on his blog - the dragons are absolutely adorable and since they're free, I couldn't resist. :)

It's a Sketch Challenge day at SCS and the sketch isn't bad at all.

Since I've done this lead up into the dragons and it's incredibly windy here today, I figured it was fitting that I use the dragon flying the kite.

He's colored in with Copics, highlighted with a white Prismacolor pencil, and sparkled with some Crystal Stickles.
Stamps: Mooseberry Graphics - digi stamp Fly Kite. Paper: Old Olive, River Rock, Select White, Pumpkin Pie dp. Ink: printer ink. Accessories: Copics, white Prismacolor, stickles, brads, ticket corner punch, dimensionals.

Wishing for warmer weather,

Card Catch-up

2009-03-29T17:40:00.005-04:00

I figured it was time to show off the 2 cards I've made this week.

The first card is actually from Tuesday. It's for the SCS Color Challenge of Kiwi Kiss (I used Old Olive), Baja Breeze (I used Sage Shadow) and Pretty in Pink.

Since I am horrible about birthdays, I figured I needed at least 1 belated birthday card in my stash.

Image is stamped in Palette Noir and colored in with Prismacolor pencils and baby oil. Her jammies are paper pieced with Pretty in Pink dp. The sentiment is stamped in Sage Shadow ink and punched out with a 1 1/4" circle punch.

The background is a piece of Old Olive cardstock that I laid a Tim Holtz mask over and sponged with Old Olive ink. I think it looks pretty cool.

Stamps: MFT - Here's the Scoop. Paper: Sage Shadow, Old Olive, Pretty in Pink, PTI Select White. Ink: Palette Noir, Old Olive, Sage Shadow. Accessories: Prismacolor pencils, baby oil, stickles, ribbon, Tim Holtz mask, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches, dimensionals, button.

And then there's today's card. FS112.

Here's the card I CASEd: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1188266

Changes:
I added a card base (I didn't want the Copic bleed-through showing)
Colors
Ribbon placement
No sentiment
Used a scalloped oval nestability as a mask

*Useful information if you choose to do something like this masked image*
My mask is the "negative" image from the nestability (the frame you get after you punch out the oval.) It was also notebook paper so I didn't get gaps in my stamped image. Copics bleed through this VERY quickly, so keep your marker light when you're working around the edges. Make sure you're able to remove your mask when you're done (personal experience on this one.)

I think I might be getting better with my Copics. Which is good.
Stamps: MFT - Can Ya Dig It? Paper: PTI - Spring Moss, Select White. Ink: Palette Noir, Ripe Avocado. Accessories: Copics, nestability, ribbon, dimensionals, white Prismacolor pencil.

Here's to a week that hopefully brings spring,

The Slippery Slope

2009-03-25T10:30:00.004-04:00

Once I started buying again...

I won't say I can't stop - because I CAN. I just don't have the will or want to stop right now.

I'm trying, but it's not easy.

My LSS is now selling Glimmer Mist.

I found out because I was there asking for donations for work - my kids (my group) love playing with patterned paper and stickers and all that fun stuff.

I'm thinking of having an Ongoing Scrapbook for our summer. Have a table with scrapbook items out and when we get new pictures of a trip (or just regular day) let the kids create the page - and journal it.

***edited to add***

I just looked at my counter and I have less than 100 hits before I'm at 10,000! Blog Candy when I reach 10K.

An Early FS

2009-03-21T23:53:00.003-04:00

So... the Featured Stamper was posted early on SCS. Which is great, especially since I was in the mood to stamp.

Today's Featured Stamper is...

Beate.

Which is fabulous because she's one of the rock stars of Splitcoast. It's surprising that she hasn't been chosen before.

It's scary (in a way) because she's ONE OF THE ROCK STARS OF SPLITCOAST. How on earth do you CASE Beate - and make it look good?

Well, it's not nearly as rough as I thought it would be - or a rough as finding a card in her gallery that doesn't have more than 20 Favorites. (I told you she's a rock star.) I settled for a card that had about 25 Favorites.

Here's Beate's Card.

You have to change at least 2 things - rules of the Featured Stamper Challenge. I changed:

Stamp
Colors
Size of the card - mine is 5.25" square
Left off the circles
No paper piercing
Stamps: Rubbernecker - Rose. Paper: Sage Shadow, Basic Gray, Basic Black, Basic Grey Marrakesh dp, Stampers Select White. Ink: Palette Noir. Accessories: Prismacolor pencils, dimensionals, ribbon, brads.

I'm excited to see the start of my daffodils and tulips in front of the house - it means spring's definitely on its way.

Wishing everyone a great rest of the weekend!

Shopping Therapy

2009-03-14T13:55:00.002-04:00

I know it's been a while since I've posted - I'm creating, just not taking pictures of stuff.

Plus life's gone wacko again, so I've been laying low.

The kids at work were CRAZY this week - Wednesday, Thursday and Friday especially. It's the full moon at work.

So... armed with a 20% entire purchase coupon from Michael's, I did a little shopping therapy.

Yeah, making it past Easter without a purchase didn't fly.

It was a Tim Holtz day: one of his stamp sets, some Distress Stickles, the clockwork mask set, 2 jars of Distress Crackle Paint, and a set of Fragments.

Oh, and some Prima gem stickers.

I'm feeling a little guilty, because I cheated on the spending ban again.

But some time in stamping therapy (with my new goodies) with wash that guilt right away.

Frugal Stamper

2009-02-26T21:54:00.004-05:00

Today's WT challenge was to be frugal and find things that help us save. I think Julia was talking about embellishments, but I tried my best for my entire card.

Items I didn't buy:
Ribbon - it was given to me by my boss. She knows I make cards and apparently she's been saving ribbon for me.
Felt Flower - it was part of my reveal gift for the VSN Secret Sisters last August. It's one of the things I dug up when I was cleaning the Dungeon on Sunday.
Damask background - I won a contest on the Flourishes forum on SCS a while back. I don't think it's what I asked for, but I use it A LOT.
Dimensionals - part of a package from a CCRAKer.

Imogen the Fairy is stamped in Palette Noir on PTI Cream. She's colored in with Copics (very carefully, I had bleeding of both the markers and the ink.) The background is another piece of Cream, embossed in clear and sponged with Pure Poppy ink and Fired Brick Distress ink.

**NOTE: As you can tell, Palette inks (Pure Poppy is one) stick to embossing powder. This was a bad move on my part and this isn't what I wanted the background to look like.**

Stamps: Stamping Bella - Imogen the Fairy; Flourishes - Damask. Paper: Real Red, PTI Cream. Ink: Versamark, Palette Noir, Pure Poppy, Fired Brick DI. Accessories: Copics, clear ep, dimensionals, ribbon, felt flower.

It's pouring outside. I'm hoping that we're not about to wash away.

Wishing everyone a dry few days.

My Copics are here!

2009-02-24T22:45:00.002-05:00

Yay for super-fast shipping!

My 13 new markers, refill for my colorless blender and a new pair of Dahle scissors (which were free with my order) all arrived today.

I'm so happy.

I've already filled in the spots on my Copic marker chart and I need to get the marker cases and slide them into their spots.

A New Improved Dungeon Lots of pictures

2009-02-23T09:45:00.010-05:00

First off, I'd like to say that confession is good for the soul (yesterday's post.) I felt I needed to be honest with myself and make it clear to anyone who reads the blog (and possibly cares) that I'm not perfect when it comes to things like not spending $. I'm trying to save up, but the urges get to you sometimes.

On Saturday I mentioned that I needed to clean the Dungeon - my stamping area in the basement. It was a mess and desperately needed to be organized. I also promised pictures.

I headed down there yesterday afternoon with my handy-dandy iPod and set off to work. (I had laundry going as well, so multi-tasking was the name of the game yesterday.)

Two and a half hours later, it's not perfect, but it's a whole lot better than it was.

Before pictures:

A random box I brought downstairs and never cleaned out (I actually stacked stuff on top of it.) A crate of extra SU cardstock and a pile of things to be altered.

Cart where I put my SU stamps.

The view down my table.

My dp rack and area around it.
Papertrey cardstock (and surrounding mess.)

Table - closest to my ink caddy.

Table - where I sit and work.

Table - dumping ground.

Middle/After Pictures:

The box is gone! (the rest of that stuff isn't mine.)
Yeah, I know, the crate looks messier than before. I moved all my dp into one place and I had more alterables to store.

View down the table. Yeah, it's worse - I had to put stuff someplace in order to sort it.
The cleaned off dp rack and new storage.

Hey, you can see my box of Papertrey cardstock! (which will be replaced by a file crate and files)

Another shot of the messy tabletop. But hey, we're making progress! Final status of the cart - Cuttlebug alphabets, plates and Nestabilities are stored in that purple storage caddy on top. View down the table. I figured out that the tray is perfect for the rolls of ribbon I've had floating around. Messy tabletop - not so messy now!

A clean tabletop!

Confession

2009-02-22T15:14:00.002-05:00

Hello, my name is Sara.

(hello, Sara)

I have a confession.

(sympathetic noises)

I mentioned about a month ago that I was on a buying moratorium - no buying anything stamping-related for a while.

(nods all around)

Well, I cheated on my moratorium.

(gasps)

I was on the Buy/Sell/Trade forum for SCS and I bought some Bella stamps from a person cleaning out her stamping room. It was a good deal: 3 stamps and shipping for $15. I'm helping another stamping person out - the stamps are going to a good home.

(semi-understanding nods)

Then, today, I was monitor shopping (window shopping online) and found myself on Oozak.com - where I found out that their really low price on Copics was only going to last until March 1st. So... I started looking at what markers they had available.

(groans of "oh, Sara")

I bought 13 markers and a colorless blender refill. It was a really good deal: the markers were about $4 a piece and the refill was about $4.75.

(sighs)

I fell off the wagon. I acknowledge this and understand that not spending money on stamping supplies is an on-going battle.

My goal: make it past Easter before I make another purchase. I survived the temptation of a Papertrey release this month. :)

(cheers of "you can do it, Sara!")

Fun with Embossing Powder Day

2009-02-21T20:20:00.003-05:00

Well, that's what it turned out to be today.

A coworker and I are going to a scrapbooking event next Saturday and she asked me to decorate some chipboard letters for the front of her engagement album. No prob, she gave me the letters yesterday and asked if they could be purple, teal and silver. The purple and teal letters were inked with Brilliance Moonlight White before being sponged with Taken with Teal and Elegant Eggplant inks. They were then embossed with a combination of UTEE and glitter. The silver letters were done with 2 layers of embossing powder.

Ink: Versamark, Taken with Teal, Elegant Eggplant, Brilliance Moonlight White. Accessories: Raw Goods chipboard, embossing powders.

I miss having time/energy to just go down to my Dungeon and just play, so while I was there, I felt the need to experiment. A teacher at the school left a box of manilla shipping tags out for anyone to take if they wanted. Hmm... 10 tags for $2 at Rubbernecker or however many I want for free???

My first tag card is using PTI's With Sympathy. The sentiment and swirly vine were inked in Versamark ink and embossed clear. I then sponged PTI Lemon Tart, Summer Sunrise, and Dark Chocolate over the tag to make the embossing stand out. The hole in the tag is filled in with an antique copper snap and I added some smaller snaps down the edge to coordinate.

Stamps: PTI - With Sympathy. Paper: PTI - Lemon Tart, Summer Sunrise, Dark Chocolate, manilla tag. Ink: Versamark, Lemon Tart, Summer Sunrise, Dark Chocolate. Accessories: clear ep, snaps, dimensionals, cropadile.

Now for my other card. Same color scheme (I like the way the yellows cover the tag), but I went a little wacky.

I stamped a rose stamp I got from Rubbernecker in Versamark, embossed it in clear, and sponged the tag with PTI Lemon Tart, Summer Sunrise and Dark Chocolate inks. I decided I didn't like the way it was looking, so I grabbed my SU markers and colored in the leaves and stem with Old Olive and the petals of the rose with More Mustard.

I STILL didn't like it - too much color, too defined, I don't know, I just didn't like it. So I grabbed my spray bottle of water and spritzed the tag down. After 2 sprays, I was finally happy and I took my embossing tool to it to dry it.

I still can't use that hand-held sewing machine to sew a straight line - and to think I wanted a sewing machine for Christmas. The button is threaded with a very thin piece of Lemon Tart cardstock.

Stamps: Rubbernecker - rose. Paper: manilla tag, PTI Dark Chocolate, Lemon Tart, Summer Sunrise. Ink: Versamark, Lemon Tart, Dark Chocolate, Summer Sunrise, SU - Old Olive & More Mustard. Accessories: hand-held sewing machine, dimensionals, spray bottle, clear ep, button.

I think it's time to organize the Dungeon. I have too much stuff and it's all over the place. Time for an overhaul. This definitely needs to be photographed as well - befores, middle of the mess, and afters.

Wishing everyone a warm weekend (because I'm not having one),

A mid-week challenge

2009-02-19T10:51:00.003-05:00

And a quickie post because I have to be to work in an hour and I have a headache.

Today's Thursday and the challenge today was to use stripes - striped paper, striped ribbon, striped stamps, create your own stripes, etc. Which is right up my alley because I have a LOT of designer paper in all sorts of patterns: stripes included.

I also have stamps that I haven't used before. Which isn't as big of a shock as it would have been last year - I've been so tired. So I felt required to show some love. Flowahbella is stamped in Dark Chocolate Palette ink and colored in with Copics.

Stamps: Stamping Bella - Flowahbella. Paper: More Mustard, Really Rust, Chocolate Chip, white, My Mind's Eye dp. Ink: Dark Chocolate Palette. Accesories: adhesive pearls, dimensionals, Copics.

Grandma's doing better - she's out of the hospital and in rehab at a nursing home. Hopefully she'll be able to get enough strength to go home to Grandpa soon.

Wishing everyone a good rest of the week,

Work Takes Over

2009-02-09T10:26:00.003-05:00

Again.

Seriously, 'tis the season for daycare teachers to get sick (or really busy.) So while my hours have been cut, I'm one of the first people they call to pick up hours.

Speaking of work, I have a work-related project to share. Daycare has it's own little portable on the grounds of an elementary school and up until this school year, all the kids have been in it. This school year, the oldest kids (3-6 graders: my group) were moved over to a room in the elementary school. Everyone over at the school has been nothing but nice to us, so I thought I'd make a little treat to show my appreciation.

Beate had a tutorial a while ago about how to make boxes to hold the Ghiradelli squares. These boxes are adorable - and easy to make.

Stamps: PTI - Heart Prints. Paper: dp, Select White, PTI kraft. Ink: Raspberry Fizz. Accessories: tacky tape, corner punch, dimensionals, sponge.

I like to cook. I don't seem to do it very often, but I like to cook. I just got a recipe for white chicken chili and it calls for ground cumin - I have whole cumin seeds in the house. Well, I could fork out the $5 for a bottle of ground cumin (which is silly because I have the whole seeds) or I could get something to grind them up. So I picked up an inexpensive coffee grinder when I was at the store yesterday.

Problem? My new coffee grinder is identical to the one in the house used for coffee. I don't think the coffee drinkers will appreciate cumin-flavored coffee - and I really don't want coffee-flavored spices. I added some SU rub-ons to the body of my coffee grinder to make it stand out.

Accessories: SU rub-ons.

Papertrey Ink's 2nd anniversary is coming up this weekend - and they're having this huge bash to celebrate. Nichole's blog has been filled with contests to win some of the new products they're carrying. Friday's challenge was to create a card using the colors Ocean Tides, Summer Sunrise, Pure Poppy and Ripe Avocado.

I created a gatefold card out of Ocean Tides cardstock and stamped butterflies on it (not that you can really tell, they seem to have disappeared.) The white panel was cut with a Classic Rectangle Nestability die and punched with SU's spiral punch. All the stamps come from PTI's With Sympathy set.

Stamps: PTI - With Sympathy. Paper: Ocean Tides, Pure Poppy, Summer Sunrise, Select White. Ink: Ocean Tides, Ripe Avocado, Pure Poppy, Summer Sunrise. Accessories: ribbon, tacky tape, rhinestones, glue pen, spiral punch, rectangle nestabilities.

I've had a hard time concentrating on most stuff over the weekend. I found out on Friday that my grandmother had another stroke and was taken to the hospital. She's already had 2 relatively minor ones (at least), so everyone in the family's pretty worried. Mom flew out there and it seems like Grandma's going to be okay.

Wishing everyone a good week,

Gasp A mid-week post

2009-01-27T10:30:00.004-05:00

It's weird - I have time to stamp in the mornings again. And I also have time to post my stuff. So - hopefully - this will be an incentive for me to post more than Sunday nights.

If only this extra time in the mornings didn't come with the loss of work hours. But I'm okay.

It's a Color Challenge day and today's colors are Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, and Garden Green. Okay... this is going to be interesting because I don't own PP and BB inks. I have a small amount paper, but no inks. Then I remembered that I'd experimented with these colors earlier - and found the combos.

Stamps: PTI - Heart Prints. Paper: Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Garden Green, Select White. Ink: Garden Green, Brilliant Blue & Tempting Turquoise (Pacific Point), Bashful Blue & Sage Shadow (Baja Breeze). Accessories: ticket corner punch, brads, dimensionals, stickles.

The other 2 cards I made on Sunday when I was playing with my new stash of PTI.

Stamps: PTI - Made of Snow, Heart Prints. Paper: Raspberry Fizz, Aqua Mist, Select White. Ink: Aqua Mist, Raspberry Fizz, Dark Chocolate, Palette Noir. Accessories: rhinestones, dimensionals, ribbon.

Stamps: PTI - Snowfall Additions, Made of Snow. Paper: Raspberry Fizz, Select White. Ink: Brilliance Moonlight White, Aqua Mist. Accessories: brad, ribbon.

That's all for today.

Hoping you're warm wherever you are,

New Cards

2009-01-18T22:50:00.004-05:00

It's been awhile since I've posted pictures of cards I made, so I figure I'm due. For some reason, I'm in a very simple card kick at the moment: white base, an image and a small accent and sentiment. It's weird for me.

I made this card last weekend, but never took a picture of it at the time - I'm not quite sure why. It's super simple.
Stamps: SU - Garden Whimsy. Paper: PTI Select White, My Mind's Eye dp. Ink: Ocean Tides. Accessories: corner rounder punch, Basic Black marker, dimensionals.

Angel sent me some Riley images what seems like forever ago and I never used them. I pulled them out and colored them in with my Copic markers, then made cards out of them.

Stamps (image really): Hanna - Riley. Paper: PTI Select, Basic Black. Ink: Pumpkin Pie. Accessories: Copic Markers, brads, ticket corner punch, dimensionals, ribbon.

And now, for something completely different. A man with a tape recorder... Oops. Channeling Monty Python for a second.

But seriously, to take a step in the completely opposite direction, I made a card for the Featured Stamper Challenge on SCS. Here is Lori's Card

I changed: Colors, left the punched stuff off, added more brads, have shimmer primas instead of felt flowers.

Stamps: SU - Fabulous Flowers, PTI - Mixed Messages. Paper: Ripe Avocado, Spring Moss, Select White. Ink: Ripe Avocado, Spring Moss. Accessories: dimensionals, mat pack, brads, glimmer mist, primas.

Hoping for a good week (for me and everyone else),

Spending Moratorium

2009-01-15T20:18:00.003-05:00

It turns out that the budget at work is lousy, so hours are being cut. Mine included.

I was planning on doing another buying moratorium this year like I did last year around Lent.

It's going to start really soon. And it stinks because I just got the new Stampin' Up! catalog today from my demo and there are stamps that I want from other companies too.

I'll figure something out.

Copics on Parade

2009-01-05T10:30:00.004-05:00

I've been having fun playing around with my new Copic markers. On Saturday, I stamped a page of Stamping Bella images and sat in front of the tv and colored. Some of the images look better than others, but that's part of learning.

I made cards with my newly colored images. Each image is colored differently.

Stamps: Stamping Bella - Eloise Greengrass, MFT - Essential Sentiments. Paper: PTI Select White, Basic Black. Ink: Palette Noir. Accessories: Nestabilities, Copic Markers.

Today's challenge was to play with Tacky Tape and glitter. A sticky, messy business, but I actually came out of it glitter-free (well, as far as I can see.) I layed out my tape (relatively straight thanks to some graph paper I had on my table) and added 2 colors of Martha Stewart glitter. I'm a bit frustrated that I didn't get full coverage - there are bits of Tacky Tape still able to get stuck to other bits of paper, the table, etc.

My image is from Cherish by Clear Art Stamps. It was stamped twice - I colored just the rose on one of the images, cut it out and popped it up with a dimensional. It's all colored with my Copic markers. My black layer was hand-trimmed.

I rushed through this card - it needs something else: a ribbon for the bottom, a sentiment down there, another heart. I just don't know.

Stamps: Clear Art Stamps - Cherish. Paper: Regal Rose, Rose Red, Basic Black, PTI Select White. Ink: Palette Noir. Accessories: Tacky Tape, Martha Stewart Glitter, dimensionals, Copic Markers.

Hoping that the roads aren't total skating rinks,

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

2008-12-30T22:51:00.002-05:00

I know I'm late for the Christmas part, but I honestly haven't been around the computer recently.

I'm off from work until the 5th, so I'm hoping to actually get down into the dungeon and play with my stamps.

Oh, and make some cards with one of my Christmas presents:

the 72A set of Copic Sketch markers. :)

I've been playing around with them a little and I'm liking the results I'm getting. Next step: smaller images.

I'm hoping to post something tomorrow, but just in case I get completely sidetracked - as anyone who reads this blog is aware can happen regularly - have a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Christmas is coming

2008-12-20T10:27:00.004-05:00

And surprisingly, I actually have (some) time to stamp.

It's like a taking a deep breath. I finished the cards for my coworker (and have been paid), presents have been bought and wrapped, and thank you cards for work (they pay me for them) are up to date.

Oh, and yesterday's snow day wasn't bad at all. Yes, the roads were blech, I almost got run over by a snowplow, I watched a mail truck slide every which way, and we were afraid we were going to get stuck at daycare with all the snow, but it was a calm day kid-wise.

I also have my boss' Christmas present done. Since I have a TON of cards just sitting up here next to my computer - I bring them up from the Dungeon, take a picture and leave them here - I was encouraged to gift some of them away. So my boss is getting some of them - and a cute little gift set of a post-it note holder, beaded pen and a coaster calendar. All of which are really easy and quick to do (my trouble? Finding the time.)

Stamps: PTI - Butterfly Kisses. Paper: white, Elegant Eggplant, Cosmo Cricket dp (jumping joan, I believe.) Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Versamark. Accessories: acrylic 4x6 photo frame, post-it notes, UTEE, 4x4 coaster, staple, magnetic tape, RSVP pen, microbeads, tacky tape, Martha Stewart glitter.

The IC (inspiration challenge) was posted early last night. It's the Saturday challenge on SCS. This week's challenge is all about the work of Alexander Girard - and the company maXimo that markets it now. Here's the thread on SCS.

Inspiration is a funny thing. Things that inspire one person don't inspire another. I generally don't do the IC on SCS (wow, lots of acronyms) because I just look at it and think, "I'm supposed to make a card from this?"

This week was easy - a lot easier than others. I liked the attachment of the building blocks - the bright vibrant colors were refreshing. Especially since most of yesterday was consumed by white.

The snowflakes are stamped in Versamark on Very Vanilla cardstock, then embossed clear. I then sponged the color over them and added a rhinestone.

I stamped my sentiment on some SU twill tape in Chocolate Chip ink. My knot is tied off to the side to have the most stamping room.

**I never thought I'd ever say this, but I think my card would be better with kraft cardstock as the base. I don't own any, but I might have to get some from PTI the next time I order.

Stamps: PTI - Snowfall Additions. Paper: Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise, Pink Passion, Only Orange, Wild Wasabi, Very Vanilla. Ink: Versamark, Pink Passion, Only Orange, Tempting Turquoise, Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip. Accessories: clear ep, rhinestones, word window punch, twill tape.

Wishing everyone a very wonderful weekend,

I got an award!

2008-12-16T18:28:00.003-05:00

Riley over at Stampin' & Dancin' with Riley (in my blog roll under Riley) gave me an award today. I don't get awards often, so it's a special treat.

I think in the rules for this award, you list 5 things you're addicted to.

1) Romance novels. Gotta love the happy ever after (or vampires. I like vampires, especially when they get happy ever afters.)
2) Stamps and associated supplies. I don't think I'll ever have enough stamps or ink pads.
3) Caffeine. I work with kids, 'nuff said.
4) The tv show Top Chef (oh and Project Runway)
5) Candy canes.

I'm going to pass the award to:
Shelly
Cammie
Connie
Keri
Jessica

It's a little warmer today than it was yesterday. Which is a plus. :)

Hoping for warmer weather and snow that falls only on the grass (not on the streets or driveways),

2 Hour delays and updates in general

2008-12-15T08:50:00.002-05:00

Yesterday it was 46 degrees outside. Actually it was 46 degrees at MIDNIGHT (aka 9 hours ago.) It is now 15 degrees outside, the wind's whipping around and everything that melted over the course of yesterday is now ice. I could put on ice skates and skate around at the end of my driveway. I'd probably fall and hurt myself.

Since everything's ice, there's a 2 hour delay for the school district - meaning things will be crazy at work when I get in. Yay for working at the school district's daycare.

Excluding a few last minutes, Christmas cards are written in, envelopes addressed, and at the post office. I didn't think I was EVER going to get them done. I used all the cards I made this year - plus a few. I'm glad I get the urge to make Christmas cards when it's too late to send them out, so I have some that I just need to write in.

I think I'm done with my present shopping. Think is the main word - I keep coming up with more people.

************

In stamping news, I heard from my coworker who asked me to make a set of cards. Her best friend LOVED them and was impressed. This led to another coworker asking me to make her 3 sets of cards so she could give them out as Christmas gifts.

I should be working on those right now, but I was cutting ribbon and attaching it all through the Papertrey release party on their forum last night. I'll take some pictures of the cards as I go and post them soon.

I think that's all for now, so I hope everyone's nice and warm (because it's not here,)

TLC198 - Wineglass Shade

2008-12-08T22:19:00.003-05:00

When I saw this technique posted at 8:30 this morning, I thought it was GREAT. I wanted to do this technique and upload it NOW!

Unfortunately, I didn't have a lunch packed, I hadn't eaten breakfast, and my car had snow on it still. All things that needed to be taken care of before I left for work at 9:45.

I promised myself I would do this challenge when I got home from work.

I did it!

I used SU's vellum cardstock and traced the pattern that Lynn (the TLC hostess) was kind enough to give us. I cut it out and scalloped the bottom using the a corner rounder punch with the guide taken off. It's a little tedious using this punch to make scallops, but I knew I could follow the curve of the vellum.

I stamped my snowflakes with Ripe Avocado ink. Since Palette inks don't dry as quickly on vellum as they do on regular cardstock, I sprinkled the snowflakes with Heat and Stick powder. After melting this with a heat gun, I added crystal glitter. I then assembled the shade, adding Bellas Baubles in pickle and clear rhinestones to the centers of the snowflakes.

It's simple, but I really like how this turned out.

Stamps: PTI - Snowflake Serenade. Paper: vellum cardstock. Ink: Ripe Avocado. Accessories: heat and stick powder, tacky tape, crystal glitter, baubles, rhinestones, corner rounder punch.

I'm not really looking forward to the freezing rain/snow combo we're starting to get now through tomorrow night. Can it be April weather now????

Wishing everyone safe driving,

Packaging

2008-12-06T19:38:00.003-05:00

I got the set of cards finished for my coworker - she loved them. :) I didn't get a picture of them before I gave them to her, but they're pretty much identical to the set I gave to my Secret Santa (I used a brighter pink and red for the new set.)

I got a pair of really soft fuzzy socks for one of my best friends for Christmas. This is only part of her gift, so don't worry, she's getting some good stuff too. The best way to package them are those box in a bag things. They are so easy to make - here's a link to the tutorial on Splitcoast:
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/boxinabag/

My dp was sprayed lightly with Honey Dew Glimmer Mist a few days ago so it would be dried and ready to go when I made my bag. The flowers on the front were originally white. I took 2 Bazzill flowers and 2 Primas and sprayed them with Honey Dew Glimmer Mist as well, then carefully dried them with my embossing gun. Carefully being the main idea - they're lightweight and went flying a few times in the process. I love the shimmer they have (though the Primas have more obvious shimmer - probably a difference in one flower being fabric and the other being paper.)

Stamps: None! Paper: white, round tab punched Certainly Celery, dp by My Mind's Eye (I think). Ink: Certainly Celery marker. Accessories: ribbon, tacky tape, Bazzill flowers, Primas, glue dots, brads, corner rounder punch, Honey Dew Glimmer Mist.

If it would stop snowing, I'd be happy. It's barely stopped snowing all week.

Wishing everyone good weather,

Goals finally accomplished

2008-12-03T23:04:00.004-05:00

Of course it's a day late - when do I ever seem to do things for this blog on time? For this, I truly apologize to whomever reads this blog.

I made my CC (color challenge) card last night... and forgot my camera upstairs. I get home after 6 every night and it's dark outside already. It's kinda depressing - especially when you want to take pictures of your work and the best lighting in the house is fluorescent. *sigh* That's going to turn into rant, so I'll stop while I'm ahead. I wasn't sure about the color combination - 3 neutrals: vanilla, sand and black? I need to stop doubting Emily - who chooses the color challenges.

I like how this card turned out. The card base is cut using the largest scalloped circle Nestie die I have. The black layer is cut out with another circle Nestie. My image is stamped in Palette Noir ink and colored with 2 Prismacolor pencils and baby oil. I then added some shimmer to the snow with some Oyster Twinkling H2Os and sparkle to the card with Black Diamond Stickles.

Stamps: MFT - Baby, It's Cold Outside. Paper: Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla, Basic Black. Ink: Palette Noir. Accessories: baby oil, Prismacolor pencils, Twinkling H2Os, Stickles, Nesties, ribbon, word window punch.

And, my 4 Christmas card designs for 2008.

On a great note: one of my coworkers who saw the set of cards I made my Secret Santa wants me to make her a set for her best friend. Yay for the fact I'm making money off my craft! (slowly anyway)

Wishing everyone a good night!

The Verdict is...

2008-12-02T08:42:00.003-05:00

My work Christmas party was last night - where we exchanged gifts.

My Secret Santa person was definitely impressed and felt spoiled. Some of the other coworkers at the table were amazed and I was told - yet again - that I need to sell my cards.

I'm glad she liked it.

My goal tonight: take a picture of my 4 Christmas cards, upload it, make a card for today's CC, and upload that.

In a way, I'm glad most of the tv shows I watch have ended - it leaves more time for stamping. :)

Wishing that I lived in a place with no snow,

The Christmas Gifts

2008-11-30T15:11:00.004-05:00

I'm involved in a Secret Santa gift exchange at my work. I've been busy working on the gifties for my person.

I hope she REALLY likes pink. She wrote on her sheet that she likes the color, so I kinda ran with it.

You can scroll down or click here http://sarasstampingsanctuary.blogspot.com/2008/11/work-in-progress.html to see the cards and card holder I already posted.

Now, for the rest of the gifts.

I asked her specifically what candy she liked - she responded anything with peanut butter and chocolate. This didn't really help with what I was planning, but it gave me another idea.

I think it was Becky who's on the Papertrey design tem that first came up with using the thin plastic boxes the $15 Papertrey sets come in as a holder for the little Reese's peanut butter cups. (Trying to give credit where credit is due) It works beautifully - and you get 25 little cups in it.

So... here's the unfilled box - all decorated.

Stamps: PTI - Holiday Treats. Paper: Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, Spring Moss, Polka Dot dp. Ink: Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush. Accessories: Crystal Stickles, ribbon, classic oval Nestabilites, dimensionals, Tacky Tape.

Now for the project that required knowledge of her favorite candy.

I was in a candy store and displayed on a shelf was a candy tree. Made with the "fun size" candy bars, it was so cute. I decided that I had to try and make one myself for my Secret Santa person.

I tried. Which is the main thing. I've changed it slightly since I took the picture: I moved some of the bottom Snickers to fill in the top and I stuck a peppermint lollipop in the top for the "star."

Items used: styrofoam cone, Snickers bars, satin pins, peppermint lollipop.

I found some adorable Christmas socks at Walmart that were pink (of course) and red with peppermints on them and I needed something to put them in. I've seen these Box in a Bags on blogs quite a bit lately and they're cute. So I wanted to make one.

Stamps: none. Paper: Georgia Pacific white, Cryogen white (shimmer), Heidi Grace snowflake dp, Regal Rose (already punched). Ink: Regal Rose (marker and sponged), Tattered Rose Distress Ink (sponged). Accessories: Tacky Tape, corner rounder punch, ribbon, white gel pen, snowflake brads, classic scalloped circle Nestabilities, Bellas Baubles, Diamond Glaze, glue dots.

The last thing is a little gift set I made. I got a magnetic coaster calendar from one of my VSN secret sisters and I love the thing. I found a downloadable template of a 2009 calendar on Splitcoast and went about making my own.

This set is the coaster calendar, microbeaded pen, and a mini journal (which was unfinished when I took the picture.)

Stamps: Damask by Flourishes. Paper: My Mind's Eye dp. Ink: Palette Noir. Accessories: Sugar Cookie Glimmer Mist, ribbon, printed calendar, staple, magnetic tape, chipboard coaster, RSVP pen, tacky tape, microbeads, Martha Stewart glitter.

I think that's all!

Christmas Cards

2008-11-27T23:44:00.003-05:00

It's been awhile since I posted about my search for this year's Christmas card (or cards.)

I finally decided which ones I wanted to make - I chose 4 sketches.

AND...

They're all done.

Completely stamped and assembled (and dry in some cases.)

All I need to do is make sure I have enough envelopes and get ready for them to be mailed out.

I'm impressed with myself. I didn't think I'd have all 48 done in a week.

Next up on the agenda: assemble the last bit of my Secret Santa present by Monday and upload some pictures.

Hope everyone has a great weekend (and had a Happy Thanksgiving here in the US)

Christmas Ornament Tutorial

2008-11-18T20:22:00.005-05:00

My coworker Christmas gifts this year are one of the easiest things to make, they look pretty and it's not a labor of $$.

I decided to make all of my coworkers glitter ornaments in their favorite colors.

What you need:
Clear glass globe ornament (I found a 12 pack at Hobby Lobby for about $4 - before the 50% sale)
Stamp pad reinker (I used SU! Bashful Blue)
Glitter (I used Martha Stewart Lapis Lazuli, but any glitter works)
Paper towel
Small Funnel (I made mine out of a Post-it note and stapled it so that it wouldn't come apart)
Something to keep the ornament upright (I used the lid of a gallon jug, but I've used empty ribbon spools)

Remove the top to the ornament. Check the ornament for cracks.

Set the ornament on the base so you have free hands and add 10 drops of reinker into the ornament. **This is just a guesstimate on reinker - sometimes you need more, sometimes you need less. It all depends on the size of the ornament.**

Slowly spin the ornament to coat the inside with the reinker.

Once the inside is completely coated with ink, turn the ornament upside down on paper towel to remove the extra ink. I get ink caught in the lip of the ornament, so pressing gently into the paper towel helps.

I don't have enough hands for this step!!! This is where having a base is useful - set the ornament on the base, put the funnel up to the opening and gently pour glitter inside the ornament.

When you think you have enough glitter inside, cover the opening (or you'll have inky glitter everywhere) and shake. **If you look at the picture, I'm using the funnel to cover the opening of the ornament - mostly because I don't really want inky glitter all over my hands.**

When the inside is covered to your satisfaction, turn the ornament upside down over a trash can or container and shake to remove the excess glitter. (No picture because there wasn't any excess glitter for this globe.)

Set your ornament someplace safe (where it won't be touched by little hands or roll off tables) to air dry, then put the top back on the ornament.

Embellish your ornament to your heart's content. Add rhinestones, rub ons, ribbon, etc. Here is an ornament that I just finished.

I hope this was easy to understand and inspires you to make some ornaments for yourself and friends!

Work in progress

2008-11-10T23:32:00.002-05:00

Which is obviously what I am.

But this is more on the lines of Christmas gifts. My work Christmas party is on December 1st; which means my heinie (which isn't little) needs to get in gear if I'm planning on doing anything for my Secret Santa person. So yesterday (Sunday) I sat down in my very messy dungeon and made part of my Secret Santa gift: a set of monogrammed cards with a holder for them.

This holder originally started out as the holder from the Au Chocolat tote and cards OSW on SCS - found here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=243314&highlight=Au+Chocolat+tote I changed some things. There are supposed to be 2 handles - one on each long side - and I switched it to a piece of ribbon. The flourish is Tim Holtz Grungeboard inked in Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters and the initial (which happens to be the initial of my Secret Santa person) is Basic Grey BonBon chipboard covered in Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint in Peeled Paint.

Stamps: None. Paper: PTI - Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, Pink Patterns dp. Ink: Berry Sorbet, Distress Ink - Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters. Accessories: Tacky Tape, ribbon, brads, dimensionals, Grungeboard, Basic Grey chipboard, Distressed paint - Peeled Paint, mono multi glue.

The cards that go into the box are monogrammed with the help of Papertrey Ink. Borners and Corners Monogram Edition and Ambassador Monogram sets were a big help.

Stamps: PTI - Borners and Corners Monogram Edition, Ambassador Monogram. Paper: Select White, Sweet Blush. Ink: Palette Noir, Sweet Blush. Accessories: 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, ribbon, dimensionals.

Wishing for a better day tomorrow,

Trying to Resist a Deal

2008-11-08T20:21:00.003-05:00

In which I failed COMPLETELY.

Here's what's up:

I was on the other side of town this morning because I was asked to babysit. Danny's a great kid, smart as anything and a cutie to boot - the dog gave me more trouble than Danny did. Goofy dog that tries to eat anything including yogurt tubs and wooden blocks.

I'm not often on that side of town, so I drove out to Pages in Time in Jenison because I was on the hunt for Twinkling H2Os. I wanted more colors and they don't have them at the Pages in Time 5 minutes from my house.

There's a clearance going on - a STORE MOVING clearance. They moved to a different part of the building (a smaller part) and needed to get rid of a lot of stuff. It was 75% off items or $40 for a shopping basket filled up flush.

I had a dilemma: Fill the basket! Don't go to temptation, you have enough!

The title of my post - and the first line - say it all.

I filled the basket. 1 paint can of primas, 4 corner punches, 1 tin of metal letters, 1 package Basic Grey chipboard, alterable wine holder, snaps, eyelets, rub ons, brads, a 7 Gypsies handbag kit, 3 font cds and lots and lots of paper. And I'm just listing things off the top of my head.

All the Twinkling H2Os were gone. :(

Hope the week was good for everyone and Yay! for deals!

It's All About Becca

2008-11-03T09:53:00.003-05:00

Yesterday's Featured Stamper and today's Technique Lovers challenge were the same person: Becca Stamps. Her gallery is great and I had a blast making my card yesterday.

The card of Becca's I CASEd (Copy and Selectively Edit) is this one: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/971519

I changed the colors, stamps, ribbon, well, pretty much everything but the sketch.

Stamps: Verve Visual - Thankful Blossoms. Paper: Lavender Lace, Wild Wasabi, Basic Gray, Very Vanilla. Ink: Palette Noir, Lavender Lace. Accessories: Tacky Tape, microbeads, glitter, corner rounder punch, brads, dimensionals, ribbon.

Today's Technique Lovers Challenge is based on a tutorial she has on her blog, Amazing Paper Grace. You can see it http://www.amazingpapergrace.com/circle-frame-tutorial/ Her video tutorial is fabulous - I watched it once and understood it enough to go and create.

I don't have that many decorative corner punches. Actually, I have 3 corner punches: a corner rounder, a ticket corner, and a stair step. I decided to use the stair step.

The tutorial says to use a circle Nestability die to cut your circle. Unfortunately, I just ordered my circle nesties on Saturday and they're not in my hot little hands yet, so I used my Coluzzle. I punched out the inside of the circle and taped it into place on a piece of Cryogen White shimmer cardstock (bought at Eclectic Paperie.)

I stamped the largest snowflake from PTI's Snowflake Serenade in the center of my medallion and added a rhinestone for some more sparkle.

Stamps: PTI - Snowflake Serenade. Paper: PTI - Pure Poppy, Cryogen Shimmer White. Ink: Pure Poppy. Accessories: Coluzzle, stair step corner punch, rhinestone, ribbon, dimensionals.

Hope that everyone had a safe and fun Halloween and that the week's great for you all!

The Wednesday Sketch Challenge

2008-10-30T08:50:00.004-04:00

Is being shown today.

I had a lot of fun playing with this sketch. It's the 200th sketch challenge for SCS. I really liked the simplicity of the sketch because in the middle of the week, I'm not really in the mood to fuss.

The colors came from a website I found the other day - Color Throwdown (it's in my blog roll.) Every Wednesday they come up with a color combination to use. This week's colors were Orange, Purple and Green - and black of course. I forgot the black.

The stamp is from MFT's Essential Sentiments.

The purple layer is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder - Diamonds in the Rough.

The primas are sitting on squares cut out with a 1 1/4" square punch and a scalloped square Nestability die. The flowers are held together with Eggplant brads that I bought at http://www.pinkhedgehogpapercrafts.com/

Stamps: MFT - Essential Sentiments. Paper: Gable Green, Elegant Eggplant, Only Orange, white. Ink: Elegant Eggplant. Accessories: primas, scalloped square Nestability die, 1 1/4" square punch, brads, Cuttlebug, Embossing folder, dimensionals.

Hope you have a fabulous Halloween tomorrow!

The Sunday... errrr, TUESDAY Catch-up

2008-10-28T10:03:00.002-04:00

The television is not my friend - especially on Sunday and Monday nights. Yes, those are my main television watching nights, but when I have cards to show and I have every intention of uploading said cards online... next thing I know, it's after 11pm and I need to get ready for bed.

*sigh*

The Featured Stamper on SCS this Sunday was Speedystamper - and I have to say I loved her gallery. I've been having trouble trying to find cards on Sundays that I want to CASE (Copy and Selectively Edit) - mostly because the cards I really like happen to be either CASEd from someone else or a Sketch Challenge.

I found two cards this week!

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1084228 This is the original card. I changed the colors, the sentiment, the stamp set... well, pretty much everything but the sketch.

Stamps: PTI - Out on a Limb. Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip, Select White, acetate. Ink: Chocolate Chip, Burnt Umber Palette, Tempting Turquoise. Accessories: Brads, word window punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, corner rounder punch, tacky tape, stickles, dimensionals.

The other card I CASEd is here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/864818 My card is a regular size card (4.25"x5.5") I loved the blended sky - which I did on glossy cardstock in a combination of Blue Bayou and Soft Sky. I found this Hero Arts stamp at Michaels and really liked it, so I stamped it in Palette Noir ink.

Stamps: Hero Arts - Travel Collage. Paper: Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Glossy white. Ink: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Palette Noir. Accessories: dimensionals, ribbon, sponges.

Here's to a great Tuesday (and a little warmer weather here)

2008-10-24T09:14:00.003-04:00

A quickie post - I have about 25 minutes before I need to leave for work and I'm not completely ready to go.

This is the card I made on Wednesday night with Tuesday's color challenge: Pink Piroette, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip.

I stamped the rose (from Rubbernecker) in Burnt Umber Palette and colored it in with Pretty in Pink and Old Olive markers. The sentiment (from PTI's Mixed Messages) is stamped in Old Olive.

The frame for the rose is cut out with square Nestabilities and popped up on dimensionals over the image.

I decided to make this card into a shaker card with part of a shaker kit I bought from Jody Morrow (texasjodylynn) and a Heidi Swapp ghost star. It worked really well, but I misjudged where everything needed to be, so I have tails hanging off the edge of the card. Ooops.

Stamps: Rubbernecker - Valentine Rose, PTI - Mixed Messages. Paper: Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip, Select White. Ink Burnt Umber Palette, Old Olive, Pretty in Pink marker. Accessories: nestabilities, dimensionals, brads, microbeads, ghost star, shaker kit.

Have a great Friday!

It's a Quilted World

2008-10-19T20:38:00.004-04:00

I am totally in love with Papertrey Ink's Quilter's Sampler stamp set. I think it's great that the stampers who can't sew a straight line to save their souls *raises hand because this is SO me* can create little quilts. This set has been at the top of my PTI cd stack.

This first card I made because I heard that a friend on SCS's husband died. I made this card to send to her.

Stamps: PTI - Quilter's Sampler, Quilter's Samper Sentiments. Paper: Basic Gray, PTI Select White and Aqua Mist. Ink: Charcoal Palette, Aqua Mist. Accessories: brads, ribbon, Nestabilities, paintbrush, dimensionals.

One of the things I'm a little frustrated about when dealing with the Palette inkpads is that you can't squeeze them to get some ink to color. I'm always afraid of cracking the lid, but I tried something new and it worked. You take a dry, small, stiff-bristled paintbrush (my paintbrush has 1/4" bristles) and brush some color directly from the inkpad and then color in the quilted squares.

After I figured out that dry paintbrush works to color in the quilt blocks, I sat down with my stamp set, all my colors of PTI ink (which is Palette formula), and paintbrush in front of the tv and colored in a bunch of quilt blocks.

One of the last sets of quilt blocks I colored in were these. I really liked the combo of Aqua Mist with Berry Sorbet.

Stamps: Quilter's Sampler, Quilter's Sampler Sentiments. Paper: Basic Gray, PTI - Select White, Aqua Mist, Berry Sorbet, Everyday Blessings dp. Ink: Berry Sorbet, Charcoal Palette, Aqua Mist. Accessories: ribbon, dimensionals, Sakura sparkle gel pen.

The ribbons on my cards are tied with a technique for stay put knots. I found a link on SCS to a tutorial and watched it. It's so easy to do - and saves a lot of hassle from regular tying.

Wishing you great creativity,

Back from my work weekend

2008-10-13T18:26:00.003-04:00

The weekend was great - I learned a lot and had a lot of fun at my conference.

Then I got to see my best friend from college - who lives near Detroit.

When I got home, I rearranged my Primas (paper flowers.) I've just kept them in the containers they came in: milk bottles, plastic containers, organza bag, etc. I bought some Making Memories plastic cracker jars at Michael's (they come in sets of 3.) I sat down on the floor with the tv on and separated all my primas into jars by color. It's going to be a lot easier to find what I want to use.

Hope everyone's had a great day!

Thursday

2008-10-09T10:25:00.004-04:00

Ahhh... the joy of short work days. I kinda like being a little lazy and taking my time in the morning, making a card or two, blogging, etc. I'd do this everyday, but I like to sleep in and that leaves little time for actually making cards and uploading them. Maybe at some point, I'll turn into a morning person.

I get to go to a 2 day conference for work. I leave tonight and it finishes up late Saturday. I'm excited.

Okay, back to the real reason of this blog: stamping. I've made some cards.

First card was for the SCS Color Challenge on Tuesday.

The colors were Tangerine Tango, Kiwi Kiss, and Chocolate Chip. I had the cardstock, not the inks, so I had to improvise. I used one of my new Stamping Bella images: Imogen the Fairy. She's stamped in Burnt Umber Palette on watercolor paper. I colored her with reinkers and an aquapainter. I need to practice this technique - I'm not good at it. Imogen's wings and dress have a little shimmer to them from Twinkling H2Os.

The background is watercolor paper stamped with the leaves from PTI's Out on a Limb Additions. It was misted with water to blur the images.

Stamps: PTI - Out on a Limb Additions, Stamping Bella - Imogen the Fairy. Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip, watercolor. Ink: Burnt Umber Palette, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive. Accessories: aquapainter, Twinkling H2Os, Stickles, ribbon.

The other 2 cards are for today's Ways to Use It Challenge: Monograms.

Card #2: I took a letter from a Basic Grey chipboard set and embossed it in silver. I love this chipboard because Basic Grey was smart enough to make it self-adhesive. You don't have to use the Tacky Tape or the heavy duty glues with this stuff. Of course, if you're like me and don't realize that it's self-adhesive... it's embarrassing, but true.

Note: if you're embossing chipboard, give it time to cool before you touch it with your hands. It's thicker and holds heat longer than paper. I've burnt my fingers touching the surface of embossing powder on chipboard. I have a pair of crafting tweezers that I use to move chipboard after being embossed. Please be careful.

Other than the embossing, it's a simple card: 2 ribbons, 3 brads and I was done.

Stamps: none. Paper: Apricot Appeal, Dark Chocolate (PTI), My Mind's Eye dp. Ink: Versamark. Accessories: silver ep, ribbon, Basic Grey chipboard, brads.

The last card is the one that I thought of first when I read the word 'monogram'. I wanted something really simple, classic and clean.

When I had my card base, I ran it through my trimmer with the scoring blade on it and scored 2 lines 1 1/4" apart. I laid my piece of Aqua Mist cardstock in between the lines after I wrapped a piece of Aqua Mist polka dot satin ribbon around it. The monogram is PTI's Ambassador Monogram set and the Borders and Corners Monogram edition. They're stamped in Palette Noir and Aqua Mist respectively. It's punched out with 1 1/4" circle punch and layered on a 1 3/8" circle of Aqua Mist cardstock. The monogram is on dimensionals.

After I put the T in the monogram, I almost kicked myself because a set of 4 or 6 of these cards would be great in my work Secret Santa's present.

Stamps: PTI - Ambassador Monogram, Borders and Corners Monogram Edition. Paper: Select White, Aqua Mist. Ink: Aqua Mist, Palette Noir. Accessories: ribbon, dimensionals, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches.

That's all for now.

Wishing everyone a great weekend,

Another layout and a card

2008-10-05T17:14:00.004-04:00

Wow, I'm on a roll! Another scrapbook layout is done and ready to be shown.

I would have been so stuck if it wasn't for the SBSC - Scrapbook Sketch Challenge - over at Splitcoast. I don't think I'd have been done with one layout, let alone 2.

I went to a college friend's handfasting (Norse wedding) in May. It was a beautiful ceremony and it was the most fun I've ever had at a wedding.

Stamps: SU - Celtic Knots. Paper: Brilliant Blue, Taken with Teal, Select White, Basic Black, Bali Breeze dp. Ink: Versamark. Accessories: copper ep, ribbon, ribbon punch, tacky tape.

Now for the card. I've been horribly late for some of my friends on SCS's birthdays so I know I need some belated birthday cards. I pulled out one of my new MFT sets - Here's the Scoop and stamped the main image 3 times: once on Select White cardstock, once on the patterned dp, and once on a solid peach dp. I colored the patterned dp with prismacolor pencils and baby oil to accentuate the striped wallpaper. I did the same with the peach dp as well - for the chair and the carpet. The woman was colored with prismacolor pencils and her lounge suit was blended with baby oil. I really like the sentiment because it's something I tend to say when I'm forgetful.

Stamps: MFT - Here's the Scoop. Paper: Groovy Guava, Really Rust, Chocolate Chip, Select White, My Mind's Eye dps. Ink: Palette Noir, Chocolate Chip. Accessories: prismacolor pencils, baby oil, 1 1/4", 1 3/8", scalloped circle punches, ribbon, dimensionals.

Hope this weekend was great!

A day at the Orchard

2008-10-05T00:57:00.004-04:00

It's been kinda crazy here at Casa Sara. And of course, the weekend flies by.

My best friend and I went out to an apple orchard Saturday to get out of the house. I've never picked apples, so that was an experience. As was eating apples directly off the tree - the Jonagolds Erica and I picked were delicious.

I got some great pictures - and have actually scrapped them already. I love the picture of Erica with the apple in her mouth!

Paper: Ruby Red, Wild Wasabi, River Rock, PTI Select White. Ink: Ruby Red, Wild Wasabi, Garden Green marker (for journaling.) Accessories: mono multi, chipboard, brads, eyelets.

I'm hoping to get some other pictures that I've taken over the summer scrapped soon. I'm getting into a scrapping mood again.

Hope you had a great World Cardmaking Day!

World Alzheimer's Day

2008-09-21T20:15:00.003-04:00

Today is World Alzheimer's Day and Cammie (she's over in my blog roll) has a PHENOMENAL blog candy going right now - it's bigger than any I've seen offered. You really have to see it to believe it - and trust me, you'll want to enter!

My grandmother has Dementia, which is pretty close to Alzheimer's. It's hard to handle - even from a distance (I live about a 14 hour drive away from my grandparents.) When I went to visit them in July - we were having a reunion - it was if the Grandma I had always known had disappeared. Thankfully she still has my grandfather to take care of her.

So I made a card for him in thanks for all he has to do.

I made a gatefold card with a piece of Pure Poppy cardstock from Papertrey. it's such a rich red - I'm in love. My main image is the oak tree from SU's Lovely as a Tree and the sentiment is from SU's Much Appreciated. The tree is stamped in PTI's Dark Chocolate and the sentiment is stamped in Pure Poppy. The tree is sponged with Pure Poppy and Dark Chocolate - the edges of the panel are sponged with Dark Chocolate as well.

The background is a stamped with SU's Print Pattern in Versamark and embossed with Winter White ep. I then sponged Tea Dye and Vintage Photo Distress Inks over the piece to enhance the pattern. The card is held closed by Basic Grey magnets.

Stamps: SU - Lovely as a Tree, Much Appreciated, Print Pattern. Paper: Very Vanilla, Pure Poppy, Dark Chocolate. Ink: Pure Poppy, Dark Chocolate, Versamark, Tea Dye Distress Ink, Vintage Photo Distress Ink. Accessories: sponge, brads, white ep, tacky tape, Basic Grey magnets.

The other card I'm showing today is for a friend of mine from church who just lost her husband. I just got Quilter's Sampler and Quilter's Sampler Sentiments from Papertrey earlier this week. I wanted to use this to make a card for her. The quilt blocks are stamped in Palette Noir and colored in with Prismacolor pencils and baby oil. I added some Frosted Lace Stickles to add some sparkle. The loops of ribbon are stapled onto the bottom layer behind the quilt. The sentiment is stamped in Lavender Moon ink.

Stamps: PTI - Quilter's Sampler and Quilter's Sampler Sentiments. Paper: Sweet Blush, Lavender Moon, Plum Pudding, Select White. Ink: Palette Noir, Lavender Moon. Accessories: stapler, prismacolor pencils, baby oil, dimensionals, ribbon, stickles.

Hoping for a smooth week ahead,

The 4th day in a row... well, kinda

2008-09-18T23:48:00.002-04:00

Since it's almost midnight I guess I don't really have the right to say 4 in a row, but it's close.

Today's Ways to Use it challenge was about silhouettes.

As I was choosing the cardstock, I remembered one of the past color combinations. So I grabbed Orchid Opulence, Certainly Celery, and Pumpkin Pie.

One of my favorite solid image stamps is Happy Harmony by SU. I stamped it in Brilliance black to be a "traditional" silhouette. The sentiment is also from Happy Harmony and it was stamped in Pumpkin Pie ink. The panel and corresponding layer are punched out with Classic Oval Nestabilities. I sponged the edges of the image panel with Orchid Opulence ink.

Stamps: SU - Happy Harmony. Paper: Orchid Opulence, Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie cs and dp, Whisper White. Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black, Pumpkin Pie, Orchid Opulence. Accessories: brads, dimensionals, paper piercer, sponge, Classic Oval Nestabilities.

I'm so glad that the weekend is almost here. It's been a WEEK.

3 in a ROW?????

2008-09-17T22:56:00.003-04:00

3 challenges in a row? That's a record for me - well, in the recent months at least.

Today's challenge was sketch challenge - a very pretty split background with a main image overlaying the background.

My base is PTI Plum Pudding. I took Lavender Moon cardstock and cut it to be 1/8" smaller than the base. I then cut it apart into sections and inked the edges with Lavender Moon Palette ink. The images in the background are stamped in Lavender Moon stamped off once so they're soft and imitate the main image.

My main image is the fluffy dandelion stamp from Gina K's Make a Wish set. It's stamped in PTI Plum Pudding. I adore this set - it's extremely versatile and I need to put it somewhere easily accessible so I use it more often. The sentiment comes from the same set and is also stamped in Plum Pudding.

I wanted to make the edges of my main image stand out more so I pulled out my Quick Stitch sewing machine (the little handheld one.) I need to work on my sewing.

The prima and rhinestone center were a last minute addition - the card was looking unbalanced and I needed something near the top to equalize the sentiment and the main image. Prima needs to get together with Stampin' Up and Papertrey to get some paper flowers made up in their colors. It would certainly make my life easier.

Stamps: Gina K - Make a Wish. Paper: PTI Select White, Plum Pudding, Lavender Moon. Ink: Plum Pudding, Lavender Moon. Accessories: prima, rhinestone, glue, dimensionals, sewing machine.

Wishing for the weekend to start now,

Again?

2008-09-16T21:09:00.004-04:00

I did it again: another challenge card made, photographed and uploaded on the same day.

I'm proud of myself. I think I've figured out how to fit stamping into my schedule again.

Today's color challenge was Riding Hood Red (I used Real Red), Always Artichoke, and Basic Gray. I made one of my favorite "not what the stamps are really meant for" images. The stamps are Papertrey's Sweet Love - the solid and outline hearts. I love turning them into flowers - by putting the points of the hearts together. I created some leaves by putting the tops of the hearts together. I cut them out and folded them slightly to create some dimension. The background it's on is sponged with Basic Gray ink.

Stamps: Papertrey - Sweet Love. Paper: Real Red, Always Artichoke, Basic Gray, Select White. Ink: Basic Gray, Always Artichoke, Real Red. Accessories: bone folder, dimensionals, ticket corner punch, brads, ribbon, clip, cuttlebug, Spots n Dots embossing folder.

OH, I needed to decompress after work today. I don't need more excitement for the week. Really. I'll probably explode - or go crazy. We had a kindergartner break her arm after school (it was obvious it was broken) and since I was the lead teacher there at the time, I got to be in the middle of the action. It wasn't as dramatic as I'm probably making it sound like, but I had a lot going through my head this afternoon.

Is it the weekend yet?

A Card, Picture, and Post all in the same day

2008-09-15T17:14:00.003-04:00

and it's a SCS CHALLENGE! My schedule is turned around today because I went to a Non-Violent Crisis Prevention program put on by the ISD all day. Very interesting and I now know how to restrain kids properly if necessary.

But since it was an 8-4 deal, I don't have to work until 6 like normal, so I got to play earlier. :)

Ahhh... the things we do for art. I'm not talking about the program I was at, I'm talking about the fact that I am covered in glitter. Courtesy of the Technique Lover's Challenge on Splitcoast - Glittered Backgrounds.

The heat and stick powder didn't really stick well to my background - which means I got a sketchy Damask in Smoked Quartz glitter a la Martha Stewart. It looks quite rustic though.

My main image is stamped in Chocolate Chip and Creamy Caramel ink.

Stamps: Flourishes - Damask, SU - Like it a Latte. Paper: Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Very Vanilla. Ink: Versamark, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel. Accessories: heat and stick powder, Martha Stewart glitter, ribbon, dimensionals.

Yay for a day of no rain and an email that my Papertrey package has shipped though it doesn't contain any of the new releases,

Christmas Cards #... Darn, I Lost Count

2008-09-14T14:59:00.003-04:00

I've been playing around with Christmas card designs for the last week and I've officially lost count.

Here are the 2 cards that I didn't take pictures of yesterday because of the dark. It's still raining, but there was enough light to take pictures - and for the pictures to turn out pretty well.

I wanted a card that leaned toward the masculine end of stamping. Something that was simple and not too fussy to make in bulk. Since I'm working a lot more than I was last year, I need something that can be cut and assembled relatively quickly. The tree is stamped in Burnt Umber Palette Ink and then watercolored with Old Olive ink - which warped the paper slightly. I think I'm going to make a change over to chalk pastels which should color nicely and not warp the paper.

Stamps: SU - Lovely as a Tree, PTI - Take a Bough. Paper: Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Olive Press dp. Ink: Old Olive, Burnt Umber Palette. Accessories: brad, aquapainter, dimensionals.

I was trying to think of other stamps that would make Christmas cards - when I remembered Baby It's Cold Outside by MFT stamps. I'm also in a very monochromatic mood, so the entire card is Rose Red. The image was stamped in Palette Noir ink and colored in with Prismacolor pencils and blended with baby oil. The snow, skirt, scarf and snowman are all shimmery with Oyster Twinkling H2Os - now that I figured out how use them successfully, I'm in love. The ribbon is woven through holes punched with a Martha Stewart ribbon punch.

Stamps: MFT - Baby It's Cold Outside. Paper: Select White, Rose Red cs and dp. Ink: Palette Noir, Rose Red. Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, Baby Oil, Twinkling H2Os, ribbon punch, organdy ribbon, tacky tape.

I've also been playing around with my Christmatini card - and trying to figure out how to stop the marker from smearing when I put the Twinkling H2Os on. After deciding that I needed to use a non-waterbased marker, and questioning if I wanted to buy a red Copic marker JUST for this, I remembered that Sharpie markers are alcohol based. The red Sharpie works fabulously and after I changed the color of the Twinkling H2Os, I'm getting the look I wanted.

Hoping the rain ends soon,

Christmas Card #3 - revised

2008-09-13T20:56:00.004-04:00

The laundry's almost done, I did my shopping and I made 3 cards.

It's been a good day - although rainy.

With the rain, it's been pretty dark this afternoon and I try to use as much indirect natural lighting as possible when I take my pictures. So, I only have 1 card to show off right now. Hopefully it's not raining so hard tomorrow.

The snowflake card. After I created the first card, I sat down with a pad of graph paper and really started thinking about what I wanted it to look like. I'm thrilled with how this turned out.

Stamps: Snowflake Serenade. Paper: Soft Sky, Select White. Ink: Soft Sky. Accessories: Scalloped Square Nestability die, white organdy ribbon, paper piercer, sponge, dimensionals, snowflake ornament.

Wishing for sunny skies,

Christmas card #4

2008-09-12T18:49:00.004-04:00

I am so glad the week is over. It's been long and crazy. It's also really interesting when you hear a boy say, "Miss Sara, I was hatching my egg..." (He was sitting on a basketball and someone took it away to play with it.)

So I have another Christmas card to show, with help from the SCS Sketch Challenge 193 and Kwerner's Color Combo #22 of Bravo Burgundy, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Soft Sky, and Whisper White. Kwerner's blog is in my blog roll, if you're interested in looking.

Stamps: PTI - Take a Bough. Paper: Select White, Bravo Burgundy, Soft Sky, Regal Rose, Rose Red. Ink: Regal Rose, Soft Sky, Rose Red, Bravo Burgundy. Accessories: ribbon, dimensionals, tacky tape, Burgundy and Crystal Stickles.

Hoping for a weekend that isn't completely filled with laundry,

Christmas card #3

2008-09-10T18:36:00.002-04:00

This card's been on my mind since I started thinking about Christmas cards last week. I remembered buying as many of these snowflake ornaments as I could last year when they went on clearance (I got them at 75% off) and wanted to use them on my cards this year.

It's definitely a rough draft of a card. Things are going to change - I just needed to see it in real life.

The layout is going to change and I need to "fancy" it up (maybe add ribbon, etc). The color's probably going to be a different blue.
Stamps: None. Paper: Select White, Baja Breeze. Ink: None. Accessories: dimensionals, snowflake ornament.

Hope everyone's enjoying their day!

2 Christmas cards

2008-09-08T19:00:00.004-04:00

Or prototypes more specifically. I'm trying to be a good stamper and get my ideas solidified before it's too late and I have to *gasp* BUY cards.

I was talking with my best friend about unusual color combos for Christmas cards and yellow and green came up as a possibility. I pulled out the one image I'm positive I want to use - the Christmatini stamp that I bought from Stamping Bella. I made the card, thought about it for a moment and decided against it. It just didn't look right.

Stamps: Stamping Bella - Christmatini, PTI - Snowflake Serenade. Paper: So Saffron, Spring Moss, Select White. Ink: Palette Noir, Spring Moss, So Saffron. Accessories: Argyle Cuttlebug folder, Twinkling H2Os, dimensionals, aquapainter.

After thinking about the first card, I realized that it needs a stronger color than just pale yellow and green. Red works. I switched around the layout and made the CB'd background only about half the card. It's still not quite where I want it to be, but it's definitely closer.

Stamps: Stamping Bella - Christmatini, PTI - Snowflake Serenade. Paper: Real Red, Select White. Ink: Palette Noir, Real Red. Accessories: Argyle Cuttlebug folder, Twinking H2Os, Aquapainter, Corner rounder punch, dimensionals, Burgundy and Crystal Stickles.

That's as far as I've gotten with my Christmas card creation ideas.

Wishing everyone stamping success,

The Search Begins...

2008-09-07T12:57:00.006-04:00

I have a card to share - it's one I made right after VSN but never got around to taking a picture or uploading.

I've really enjoyed the look of sewing on cards, but I didn't like the price of sewing machines. The cheapest I could find for a regular machine was around $100 and let's face it, if you've seen any pictures of my table in the Dungeon, I don't have room for a full size sewing machine. I found a Singer Sew Quick (a hand-held sewing machine) for $15 in a store and figured I'd give it a go.

It's easy to use and only does a straight stitch. The downsides that I can see are:
1) if you're left handed, you might have trouble because it's designed to be held in your right hand with your left hand holding and guiding the material and
2) the way the presser foot is designed - it holds down the material really well and I've had the problem of trying to get paper out, I inadvertently push the needle back into the paper.

Stamps: Out on a Limb, Out on a Limb Additions, Out on a Limb Sentiments. Paper: Tangerine Tango, Only Orange, Creamy Caramel, Very Vanilla. Ink: Creamy Caramel, Only Orange. Accessories: dimensionals, Sew Quick.

Now, onto my search. I need to find my Christmas card designs - I'm so behind where I was last year. I want one of my cards to be just red and white, another to be yellow and green (I'm different), and I have an idea for another card's image. I made a card last night in yellow and green, but I'm thinking that it would work better as my red and white card.

Wishing everyone a great week,

The first days of school

2008-09-03T23:21:00.003-04:00

Are insane.

That's where I've disappeared to - first week of school insanity.

I'm hoping to get back into some semblance of a routine that involves stamps and ink soon.

Help, my life's taken over and I want my stamping time back!

MORE VSN cards

2008-08-24T22:08:00.005-04:00

I think I did really well this VSN. I got 9 challenges done - which is half. I probably would have gotten more done, but work's been a little nuts. School starts on September 2nd, my group is moving to a new room for the start of the school year, and I have had a lot on my mind.

SO... onto the cards.

Challenge H: Create a Bookmark. Who would have guessed that THIS would take the longest out of every challenge I did????? I'm serious. 43 minutes to create this bookmark. The dress is paper pieced and I colored the rest with Prismacolor pencils (the background was blended with baby oil.) I wanted to add some dimension to the skirt with some well placed colored pencil markings, but I knew I wouldn't get done in the time.

Stamps: Rubbernecker/Stamp Oasis - Left Beauty. Paper: Riding Hood Red, PTI Select White, Basic Grey Boxer dp. Ink: Palette Noir. Accessories: Basic Grey Boxer fibers, eyelet, Prismacolor pencils, baby oil, glue pen, tacky tape.

Challenge I: This challenge was based on the poem in Alice in Wonderland - The Walrus and the Carpenter. We were to use Pearl Ex, Twinkling H2Os, or scallops to create our card. My card was created with my largest scalloped square Nestability die. It's a small card. The image and sentiment come from the PTI set Out on a Limb. The sentiment didn't show up very well, but it says "Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

Stamps: PTI - Out on a Limb. Paper: Blue Bayou cs and dp, PTI Select White. Ink: Palette Burnt Umber, Blue Bayou. Accessories: Square Nestability die, ribbon, corner rounder punch, dimensionals, glitter pen, tacky tape.

Challenge L: We had to incorporate the color purple into our card somehow. Well, I'm not subtle sometimes, so it was a LOT of purple for me. This was the fastest card I made - 13 minutes from picking my colors to attaching my main image.

Stamps: SU - Embrace Life. Paper: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Whisper White. Ink: Perfect Plum, Pale Plum. Accessories: primas, brads, dimensionals, aquapainter.

Challenge P: A color challenge based around the names of Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swensen series of books. Hannah Swensen is a baker, so they're all named for sweet treats: chocolate chip cookies, cherry cheesecake, strawberry shortcake, etc.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't really start this card to go with this challenge. This card started with me playing with some Antique Linen Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder that I got on clearance at Hobby Lobby. I started layering more and more colors of Distress Ink on top of it and wound up with what's the background on my card - and I added some Sugar Cookie Glimmer Mist. After I finished all this, I realized that it didn't fit ANY challenge that I was planning. Then I remembered the Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder.

Stamps: Flourishes - Damask, PTI - Out on a Limb Sentiments. Paper: Chocolate Chip, River Rock, PTI Select White. Ink: Chocolate Chip, Versamark, Distress Inks in Vintage Photo, Tea Dye, Antique Linen. Accessories: Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder in Antique Linen, Ribbon, double rectangle punch, Glimmer Mist.

Challenge R: The last challenge of the night was to use a stamp set that hasn't been used in over 4 weeks. Well, I don't have any of those *guilty blush* Okay, I have a LOT of those. I've used a few over the course of this VSN weekend. This card started off as another challenge, then I got frustrated with what I was doing and just pulled out my butterfly from Garden Whimsy and stamped it in Aqua Mist on watercolor paper. Add some Stickles and brads, and the card was finished.
Stamps: SU - Garden Whimsy. Paper: Aqua Mist, Watercolor paper, My Mind's Eye dp. Ink: Aqua Mist. Accessories: Corner rounder punch, dimensionals, brads, Crystal Stickles.

That's all for this VSN and I had a blast playing and sharing my cards.

My VSN cards

2008-08-23T18:00:00.005-04:00

I only got to about 4 VSN challenges last night - I was hoping to get to more, but I started later than I wanted to. I was in the middle of a really good book and I couldn't put it down. Which is kinda fitting considering that this VSN is called the Book Club.

How VSN works is challenges are issued every hour on the hour. You're given 45 minutes (you work on an honor system) to complete the card, and have 15 minutes to take pictures, upload, potty break, snack, chat, whatever you want.

I personally work in spurts. Since I don't have a computer down in the Dungeon with my stamping supplies, I tend to do 3 or 4 challenges in a row (timed with a kitchen timer) and then come up for air. If I'm in the cardmaking zone, I really don't want to be distracted.

Challenge A: The first challenge on Friday and the first challenge on Saturday are kid-themed challenges to let the kids get involved with stamping and having fun with Mom (or Dad.) The challenge revolves around Eric Carle's book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and the animals seen in the book. We were to pick an animal out of the book and create a card with it. I chose the Blue Horse and thankfully I have the Punny Farm set from MFT to create my blue horse. I finished pretty quickly - it only took me about 20 minutes to make this card, though I think something's missing.

Stamps: MFT - Punny Farm. Paper: Bashful Blue cs and dp, Whisper White, Basic Black. Ink: Palette Noir. Accessories: corner rounder punch, rhinestones, paper piercer.

Challenge B: The challenge was to take something out of a favorite childhood book and create a card with it. One of my favorite books when I was growing up was "Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast" by Robin McKinley. I read it so much that my original copy fell apart. The change in Beauty's life revolves around a rose - which was a perfect excuse to use the single rose stamp by Rubbernecker.

Stamps: Rubbernecker - single rose. Paper: Barely Banana, Old Olive, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, Olive Press dp. Ink: Palette Noir, Distress Ink: Antique Linen (or Old Paper - I can't remember at the moment), Barely Banana, Old Olive. Accessories: Mat pack, ribbon, brads, dimensionals.

Challenge D: It's all about the warm and fuzzy feelings of a book. So, time to use the fuzzy feelings of flock on a card. I have flock - in all the colors of the Doodlebug rainbow (I bought a sample assortment.) I have these shapes out of glue or tape made for flock and glitter and it was a match made in stamping heaven. I didn't want to create a traditional sized card so my card is 3.5"x8.5" The shape was put on a piece cardstock that I ran through my Cuttlebug with a Square Nestability die and the black mat was done with the same sized die, only scallopped. I stamped part of the card base with Flourishes LLC's Damask stamp and put my focal point where the stamping ended.

Stamps: FLLC - Damask. Paper: Lovely Lilac, Basic Black, Select White. Ink: Lovely Lilac. Accessories: flock, square nestabilites, flower sticker for the flock, adhesive pearl, dimensionals.

Challenge E: To use twine or hemp on a card. Hmmm... hello masculine card! With a masculine card in mind, I pulled my colors - and then realized that they match the Apple Cider dp from Stampin' Up! last year. I made a mat with that and fringed the edges (I think it looks a little like a rug.) My image is stamped in Burnt Umber (now Dark Chocolate PTI) Palette ink and colored using the Gamsol magic technique - in my world, Prismacolor pencils and baby oil.

Stamps: SU - Give Thanks. Paper: Really Rust, Chocolate Chip, Wild Wasabi, Very Vanilla, Apple Cider dp. Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate. Accessories: prismacolor pencils, baby oil, blending stumps, dimensionals, hemp.

I'll have more cards to show later.

VSN Reminder!

2008-08-21T22:42:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow night at Splitcoast Stampers the VSN - Virtual Stamping Night kicks off at 7pm EST and continues all day Saturday. The theme is Book Club, so be ready to think like an author!

I've seen the write-ups for most of the challenges (one of the perks of hostessing) and they're going to be fun!

Yay for the week being almost over!

How I store my Nestabilities

2008-08-20T20:39:00.008-04:00

***I wanted to give credit where credit was due, so I have to start out by saying that the idea for storing my Nestabilities in DVD tins comes from Gina K - who showed off the Gina K store's storage system on her blog in March. She's in my blog roll off to the right if you want to check her blog out.***

If you're new to stamping or haven't been keeping up with trends, Nestabilites are dies that are sold in sets of a certain shape and they graduate in size. The choices are mind-boggling sometimes - small classic ovals, large classic ovals, small scalloped ovals, large scalloped ovals... you get the idea. I've been buying mine from Cut@Home.com in full shape sets (aka: the large and small straight squares AND the large and small scalloped squares are in a full shape set.)

They come in plastic and taped to pieces of cardstock - great packaging for being in a store - not too great for my stamping room. I'd either have to hang them up or lay them down somewhere and space is limited.

So when I found how Gina K. stores her Nesties, I kept it in the back of my mind for when I was going to get them - I hadn't gotten any at the time of her post, but ideas were lurking in my mind. Metal DVD tins work amazingly for storage and I can personalize each tin for what's inside.

How I decorate my tins:

Items Used: DVD tin, DP, scissors, Mono Multi, Basic Grey Precision File set, magnetic tape, pencil.

Step 1: Trace your tin onto your paper and cut it out.

Step 2: Run Mono Multi all over your tin where the paper is going to go. Make sure you get the edges really well - sanding tends to loosen the edges.

Step 3: Let the glue set up for a few minutes and then use a file to get rid of the excess paper. I've found that using a coarse nail file and filing straight over the edge works the best.

Step 4: Now that the outside of the tin is done, I measure and cut my magnetic tape.

Step 5: Attach the magnetic tape. Now I don't have to worry about the magnet moving around in the tin - it's taped in.

The finished inside of the tin. For my Classic Rectangles and Classic Oval Nesties, they're narrow enough that I can fit a whole shape set in one DVD tin. I don't have that option with the squares, so I've split my shape set.

The finished outside of my tin. I was using double sided dp, so I could make each side unique. Since (as I said earlier) I have to split my shape set, I took some River Rock cardstock and ran it through my Nestie dies to show what's in what side of the tin. I also wrote on the diecut so I would be sure.

And that's how I make my Nestie tins stand out. Each tin has a different pattern of dp on it so I can tell just by looking at it what's in it.

Wishing everyone a great Thursday!

And today makes 3

2008-08-19T23:20:00.002-04:00

3 days in a row of blogging - maybe not big elaborate posts with lots of pictures, but I have one of those coming up hopefully tomorrow. (hint: tutorial on how I store my Nesties.)

Bellas arrived today and I can't wait to play with them. :)

Time to send a congrats card to my friend who got engaged last Thursday.

Two days in a row?!?!?!?!?!?!

2008-08-18T22:44:00.005-04:00

I got my Nesties today and can't wait to use them. :)

I also checked on my Bellas and they're to arrive tomorrow.

Let's hope that UPS doesn't deliver them to the wrong address - as they did to some movies of mine a few years ago.

I should show off my Nestie storage. Hmm... a tutorial idea... :)

Wishing my sunburn from Saturday would heal faster,

Sunday Catch-up

2008-08-17T19:15:00.006-04:00

I've been in an ordering mood. I wanted some new stuff to add to my "arsenal" (as my sister-in-law put it today.)

I've ordered from Eclectic Paperie, Rubbernecker stamps, Cut @ Home and Stamping Bella.

My stuff from Rubbernecker and Eclectic Paperie arrived on Wednesday and I was thrilled to see it. I've been playing around with it - as can be seen from the cards below.

I'm hoping that I get my Classic Square set of Nesties on Monday and Bellas by Wednesday. We'll see when they actually arrive.

Card #1 - I started this card on Wednesday night. One of the things I ordered from Eclectic Paperie was some Glimmer Mist and I couldn't wait to play with it. So I blended the 2 colors I got: Sugar Cookie (which I ordered) and Robin's Egg Blue (a sample they sent me) and it was really close to Soft Sky in color. So after stamping the large flowers from Thankful Blossoms by Verve Visual, I left it to dry. I finished it Thursday night.

Stamps: Verve Visual - Thankful Blossoms, MFT - Essential Sentiments. Paper: PTI - Select White, SU - Soft Sky cs and dp. Ink: Versafine Black Onyx. Accessories: dimensionals, word window punch, black jumbo eyelets, brads, Glimmer Mist - Sugar Cookie and Robin's Egg Blue.

Card #2 - I forgot until Friday night that I had a baby shower to attend Saturday morning. Since I bought a gift card for the mom-to-be, I wanted to hold it easily and I thought that a pocket card was the best choice. Completely forgetting that I DO OWN baby-themed stamps (I HAD to HAVE Bundle of Joy last year), I went with one of my new Rubbernecker stained glass stamps. I really like how this turned out.

Stamps: MFT - Essential Sentiments, Rubbernecker - Daisy Stained Glass. Paper: PTI - Lemon Tart, Lavender Moon, Select White. Ink: Versafine Black Onyx, PTI Lavender Moon. Accesories: Prismacolor pencils, Stickles, staple, ribbon, dimensionals, baby oil, slit punch, tacky tape.

The last card is the Featured Stamper for today - Knightrone. The card I CASEd (Copy and Selectively Edit) was http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/936445 I pulled out another one of my new Rubbernecker images - a single rose and stamped it in Palette Noir.
Stamps: Rubbernecker - single rose. Paper: PTI - Berry Sorbet, Spring Moss, Select White, Everyday Blessings dp. Ink: Palette Noir, Berry Sorbet, Spring Moss, Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery. Accessories: dimensionals, Heidi Swapp distressor, brads, aquapainter.

Next weekend is the big VSN, so I will hopefully have a bundle of cards to show off before next Sunday.

Wishing everyone a great week,

Featured Stamper 79

2008-08-11T19:55:00.002-04:00

It's a day late, but I got some stamping done yesterday.

It's something that's going into my VSN Secret Sister's reveal package - a little book journal, paperclip bookmark and a matching pen.

It's based on this set by the Featured Stamper for this week: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/581097

I have one of these little journals that sits in my purse for me to jot little ideas or shopping lists. It's so nice to have something pretty to pull out.
Stamps: none. Paper: Bali Breeze dp. Ink: none. Accessories: mini composition book, giant paperclip, RSVP pen, chipboard, Mod Podge, files, primas, tacky tape, brads, rhinestones, ribbon.

Hope everyone's enjoying the Olympics!

Comments made during the Opening Ceremonies

2008-08-10T12:23:00.002-04:00

My brother and I were talking during the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics on Friday.

Me: (as fireworks go off around the "Birds Nest" Stadium) that makes sense since the Chinese invented gunpowder. Of course they also invented paper and writing.

Brother: And, if you put them all together, you get fireworks with instructions printed on them.

It was definitely funnier when it happened.

A Discovery

2008-08-03T18:19:00.004-04:00

I've been trying to play with the sheets of the new In Colors to decide if I want to order them when the catalog comes out. Today's color is Pacific Point. It's a really nice color - a pretty royal blue.

This is also my card for today's Featured Stamper challenge. You can find the original card here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/983281

I have a thing for cupcakes at the moment and I love this set. I wanted some colored frosting on the top of my cupcakes and I didn't really want to make the entire card Tempting Turquoise with a Pacific Point base. I had to use quite a bit of Tempting Turquoise as it was.

Taking a good look at the Pacific Point cardstock, I thought it could be a combination of Brilliant Blue and Tempting Turquoise - which would make a great color of frosting for my cupcakes. I save all my pieces of acetate that my Papertrey stamps come stuck on, so I used that as a palette for my experiment. Using my markers, I put a little bit of color down next to each other on the acetate and, with an aquapainter, blended them together and colored the frosting. It turned out pretty close to what I wanted.

The chipboard 'C' on my card was inked with Brilliance Moonlight White and embossed with UTEE twice. Them I embossed it again with UTEE mixed with glitter - so there's a lot of sparkle.

Stamps: MFT - What's Up Cupcake? Paper: Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, East Coast Prep dp. Ink: Palette Noir, Brilliance Moonlight White, Versamark, Brilliant Blue, Tempting Turquoise. Accessories: Classic Rectangle Nesties, chipboard, brads, dimensionals, ribbon.

Hopefully I have a quick week and free time to get some stamping done - I need to start gathering my VSN Secret Sister reveal package goodies.

Sunshine and cupcakes for all,

A bit of old, a bit of new

2008-08-03T01:08:00.004-04:00

In Colors that is. :)

I mentioned in my last post that I was fortunate as a non-Stampin' Up! Demonstrator to get some pieces of the new In Color cardstock before it's available to the regular customer. I'm a matchy-matchy girl, so it's a little difficult to work with the cardstock without the "correct" color of ink, but I've been making do.

So... an idea popped into my head yesterday night about using Tangerine Tango (one of the upcoming In Colors) - which is a really deep rich orange. I thought it would look great with River Rock. Oh, and I didn't really want to stamp the main image - it was going to be a Cuttlebug background. I've left a lot of cards without sentiments and I didn't really want to do it with this one, so I pulled one out of Starlight Starbright from Verve Visuals. My "image" panel and accompanying layer were cut out with Nestabilites. I sponged the Cuttlebugged image with Pumpkin Pie ink to make the image really stand out.

Stamps: Verve Visual - Starlight Starbright. Paper: River Rock, Tangerine Tango. Ink: River Rock, Pumpkin Pie. Accessories: Classic Rectangle Nestabilites, D'vine Swirl Cuttlebug folder, rhinestones, corner rounder punch, double rectangle punch, ribbon, crystal Stickles, dimensionals.

It's the middle of the night, but I wanted to get this posted.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Update!

2008-07-28T08:09:00.004-04:00

Since I forgot to bake scones yesterday for today's afternoon snack at work, I'm up bright and early and I have time to update. *gasp*

This last week on Splitcoast, it's been a treat for Fan Club members - the Dare to Get Dirty challenges arrived! For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, Splitcoast has a design team which is affectionately referred to as the "Dirty Dozen." These women are phenomenal stampers and I can only dream to be 1/5th as good a stamper as they are. Fan Club members pay a small amount a year ($25) to get instant uploads and access to themed gallery the Dirty Dozen created that month.

As a thank you, Fan Club members have access to special challenges created by current and past members of the Dirty Dozen - the Dare to Get Dirty challenges. Thankfully there weren't as many as last year - I was pretty sick of making cards by the end of the week last year.

The major thing I learned with these challenges: when possible, combine. It makes life easier and you don't have as many cards laying around at the end of the day.

So... the cards from the Dare to Get Dirty Challenges:

I almost went blind when I saw this color combo together on my table. Is it obvious I don't use Bold Brights that often? Thankfully the card turned out not as bright when it was assembled.

Stamps: PTI - Garden of Life. Paper: Real Red, Brilliant Blue, YoYo Yellow, Whisper White. Ink: Real Red, Brilliant Blue, YoYo Yellow. Accessories: slit punch, corner rounder punch, oval nesties, velcro, tacky tape, ribbon.

I love cupcakes.

Stamps: MFT - What's Up Cupcake, PTI - Mixed Messages. Paper: Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Real Red, My Mind's Eye dp. Ink: Palette Noir, Real Red. Accessories: oval nesties, dimensionals

I loved this sketch when I saw it. This card is a combo of 2 challenges: the sketch and a monochromatic card challenge. Thanks Manda (tropicalichick) for the image!

Stamps: none - image received as a gift. Ink: Really Rust and Blush Blossom markers. Paper: Really Rust, Blush Blossom, Groovy Guava cs and dp. Accessories: brads, primas, ribbon, dimensionals

My interpretation of a really pretty cake that was used for an inspiration challenge.

Stamps: Flourishes - Damask. Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Basic Black, PTI Select White. Ink: Versafine Black Onyx, Accessories: brads, dimensionals.

A masculine card challenge

Stamps: none. Paper: Tempting Turquoise, More Mustard, Real Red, East Coast Prep dp. Accessories: Basic Grey fibers - Boxer, brad, Heidi Swapp ghost star, dimensionals.

**Some of the new In Colors are intermingled with regular SU! colors. I'm not a demo, but I was extremely fortunate to get my hands on some of the paper before it's available to everybody.

Typing in 12 minute spurts is getting annoying. Thankfully, my baking is on the last pan.

Hope everyone has a great day!

I'm back

2008-07-25T23:36:00.002-04:00

I'm getting really bad at this blogging thing and I apologize to whomever reads this.

But I have been creating and as soon as I get some pictures taken, I'll be uploading them here.

Hope everyone's been doing well,

It's time to show some cards

2008-07-14T21:32:00.004-04:00

I need to get myself back in the mindset of make a card, take a picture and upload it all in the same day. I need to do a KETCHUP post.

Not long after I did my last post, I was printing someting out and the paper jammed. Not a problem, except I'm working in tight quarters and all the cards I make wind up sitting in a pretty Ikea planter/tin on top of my printer (and more recently, take over my desk in general.) Everything had to be moved.

As you can see from the picture, I had a lot of cards. All the cards that are in the white box weren't in the tin, they were piled precariously on my desk - the threat of avalanche was constant. I'm slowly RAKing the cards - I sent out 11 cards this morning.

Something I wanted to try last week when it was a TLC challenge was making a suspension card. They're super easy and lots of fun.

Stamps: Papertrey - It's a Celebration. Paper: Aqua Mist, Purely Pomegranate, Select White, My Mind's Eye dp. Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Aqua Mist. Accessories: thread, cuttlebug, classic oval Nestabilities, dimensionals, adhesive pearls.

Carole's color challenge last Tuesday was really pretty: Groovy Guava, Barely Banana and Chocolate Chip. I'm not sure I really like how my card turned out, but it's a great color combo.

Stamps: MFT - Boho Blossoms. Paper: Groovy Guava, Barely Banana, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White. Ink: Chocolate Chip, Groovy Guava, Barely Banana. Accessories: dimensionals, ribbon, halfback pearls.

I haven't done a Saturday Inspiration Challenge on Splitcoast in forever - almost a year. (I did the math.) The challenge was to be inspired by some wedding cakes - and there was a beautiful aqua cake with branches wrapped around it. The branches reminded me of SU's Embrace Life, so I went from there.

Stamps: SU - Embrace Life, Papertrey - Piece of Cake. Paper: Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, Select White. Ink: Burnt Umber Palette, Aqua Mist, Spring Moss. Accessories: ribbon, slit punch, dimensionals, Sakura pen, aquapainter.

And this brings us to today's TLC challenge - grids. Since I don't have a Scor-Pal, I had to use my scoring blade on my trimmer to make my lines - and they're not fancy and on an angle or anything. After scoring my background piece, I stamped it with Flourishes' Damask background stamp and then sponged the edges. The main image is from Time for the Bubbly by My Favorite Things. It's stamped in Palette Noir and colored in with Prismacolor pencils and baby oil.

Stamps: Flourishes - Damask, MFT - Time for the Bubbly. Paper: Plum Pudding, Lavender Moon, Select White. Ink: Palette Noir, Plum Pudding, Lavender Moon. Accessories: Prismacolor pencils, baby oil, blending stumps, sponge, ribbon, staple, dimensionals, word window punch, brad.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Promised Pictures

2008-07-06T22:32:00.003-04:00

So I promised you the pictures of my newly cleaned Dungeon. Well, it's a little more organized than before. I wouldn't go out and say it's clean. :)

But...

The new place for my extra paper and a whole bunch of alterable items.

Where I sit.

Looking down the table from the file box holding all my cardstock.

I also got some stamping done between cleaning and fireworks and more cleaning - stuff from another part of the Dungeon (not my stamping part) went to Salvation Army.

The card for the Featured Stamper today (wow, I'm posting a picture the day of the challenge!) I wanted to put all the greens together to create a spring or summery scene. The UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel) had glitter in it, so my scene is all glittery.

Stamps: SU - Lovely as a Tree. Paper: Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Spring Moss, Whisper White. Ink: Spring Moss, Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Palette Burnt Umber, Versamark. Accessories: UTEE, dimensionals, cuttlebug, paper piercer.

Hoping everyone had a wonderful weekend and has a great week,

The Dungeon's been cleaned

2008-07-04T11:35:00.002-04:00

On Wednesday, we had a storm. I actually need to clarify that. Have you ever seen the newsclips that are videotaped DURING a hurricane with the wind swirling and the rain going full force? That's what was unleashed on us Wednesday afternoon and night. Power's out in some places around the city - and not expected to be back until Monday. Thankfully, I didn't lose power.

But we do have a leaky Dungeon. Some leaks are pretty close to my stamping area, others are in another part of the Dungeon. Regardless, my stamping stuff has exploded and I needed to organize it to get it under control.

So while I didn't have internet or cable Wednesday night, I cleaned up. The box o' projects is now gone - I went through it and have grouped things that belong together and put them on a spare shelf. Anything I don't want is going into a "white elephant" or blog candy pile.

I have a few things I still need to do, so when I'm finished I definitely will take pictures. This needs to be documented!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful 4th of July,

I'm around, I'm around

2008-07-02T09:24:00.004-04:00

I've actually been stamping. :)

I'm really liking the polka dot satin ribbon from Papertrey that I ordered in ALL the colors. As noted by the fact that all 3 cards that are going to be in this post have some on them.

Since my birthday was last Tuesday, I needed to make some thank you cards. I also had all this new Papertrey stuff. Hmm...

I made 2 at the same time, using the same colors, main stamp set, and dp. I also bought myself a Cropadile Big Bite at Michael's last week with a 50% off coupon, so I had to try it on snaps in the middle of the card. For those who are curious: PTI - Papertrey Ink; SU - Stampin' Up!
Stamps: PTI - Spiral Bouquet. Paper: Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, Select White, Everyday Blessings dp. Ink: Aqua Mist, Spring Moss. Accessories: Big Bite, snaps, dimensionals, word window punch, PTI ribbon.

Stamps: PTI - Spiral Bouquet, SU - Much Appreciated. Paper: Aqua Mist, Spring Moss, Select White, Everyday Blessings dp. Ink: Aqua Mist, Spring Moss. Accessories: PTI ribbon, dimensionals, word window punch, snaps, Cropadile.

The last card I made was also using Papertrey papers, but since I have these gorgeous Verve Visual sets sitting out, I decided to use one of the flowers. I wanted to keep it super simple, but absolutely gorgeous. I stamped the flower twice - once in Lavender Moon and once in Plum Pudding. I cut the extra leaves away from the Plum Pudding flower and layered it onto the other flower and connected them with a pearl brad.
Stamps: Verve Visual - Thankful Blossoms. Paper: Plum Pudding, Lavender Moon, Very Vanilla, Guide Lines dp. Ink: Lavender Moon, Plum Pudding. Accessories: corner rounder punch (to make scallops), paper piercer, dimensionals, PTI ribbon, pearl brad, Frosted Lace Stickles.

I'm waiting for Papertrey to send me the right stamp set. When I was unpacking my box, I had Boards and Beams instead of Out on a Limb Sentiments. So I sent them the set back and I got an email on Monday saying that the correct set is on its way.

I'm getting a little antsy about my Nestabilities that I ordered over a month ago from Cut @ Home. I ordered from them over a month ago - and while I do know that Nesties are REALLY in demand, it's kinda hard to be patient. I guess I got spoiled last order when I got them within 2 weeks.

Life's just crazy right now.

Wishing everyone a little less craziness than I currently think I have,

Happy Birthday

2008-06-24T19:58:00.002-04:00

TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm a whole year older. Am I thrilled about it? Eh, it's another year closer to 30. At least I get prezzies. That makes up for getting older.

A special surprise was that my Papertrey order arrived today - I didn't get an email from them that it had shipped or anything. It was a nice treat to get stamping goodies.

I also got to see one of my college friends whom I haven't seen in a while. She was driving through on her way to a job interview, so we got together after she got done for a snack.

I had the day off, so I actually got some stamping done. *gasp, shock, horror* Not only that, I did a challenge on the day it was issued, and I'm UPLOADING it on the same day.

Wonders will never cease.

The CC for today was Taken with Teal, Wild Wasabi, and Whisper White.

Well, I was at the Local Scrapbooking Store (LSS) and they had this set of Doodlebug flock colors (tiny bottles of 12 different colors) and I couldn't resist getting it, along with some Doodlebug stickers that work with the glitter or flock - Always being one of the stickers in the set.

It's a No Stamping card. :)
Stamps: none! Paper: Taken with Teal, Wild Wasabi (cs and dp), Whisper White. Ink: Wild Wasabi - to sponge on an edge. Accessories: glue dots, ribbon, dimensionals, Doodlebug stickers, flock.

Earlier today, I had an idea for part of a card pop into my head. It was a background of Flourishes' Damask stamped in River Rock on white cardstock. Everything else was fuzzy, but I wanted the sandy color of River Rock against the white. I also wanted to keep that as open as I possibly could and not hide it away under a big main image, so I just stamped the flower from SU's One of a Kind in River Rock on white and cut it out. I layered it on a black scalloped circle punch out and added a black jumbo brad. I pulled some sheer white and black polka dotted ribbon through the eyelet and tied a knot.
Stamps: Flourishes - Damask, SU - One of a Kind. Paper: River Rock, Basic Black, Whisper White. Ink: River Rock. Accessories: jumbo eyelet, ribbon, dimensionals.

Hoping everyone had a good day,

Before Work Post

2008-06-12T09:03:00.004-04:00

Which seems to be the norm for me.

2 cards to show you today - I did a challenge! Actually, I doubled up.

I did the Color Challenge (Real Red, Regal Rose, Apricot Appeal) and Sketch Challenge 180. It's a birthday card for my boss. My Savvyshoppabella was inked in Palette Noir and colored with reinkers and rubbing alcohol. It's a little tricky to get the hang of (my non-name brand aquapainters probably aren't the best) but it looks great and you don't get washed out colors. **I stumbled across this on Jody Morrow's (texasjodylynn) blog a few months ago.**
Stamps: Stamping Bella - Savvyshoppabella, Papertrey anniversay set (can't remember its name), Papertrey - Garden of Life. Paper: Apricot Appeal, Real Red, Regal Rose, Whisper White. Ink: Palette Noir, Brilliance Moonlight White, Regal Rose, Real Red, Apricot Appeal. Accessories: aquapainter, rubbing alcohol, dimensionals.

The other card is one that i just got the urge to create.
Stamps: Embrace Life. Paper: Cameo Coral, Groovy Guava, River Rock, Very Vanilla, Ginger Blossom DP. Ink: Palette Noir, Cameo Coral. Accessories: slit punch, dimensionals, aquapainter, ribbon, brads.

It's the first day of summer here, wishing everyone a great day!

**I got an email that my Verve stamps are being shipped. Yay for new images!**

New Stamps

2008-06-11T19:50:00.003-04:00

I'm ordering some new stamps (like I don't have enough?) from Verve Visual and can't wait to stamp with them.

I've seen Verve stamps used often and I liked what I saw, but never actually made it over there to order some.

I did today. :)

I'm excited to work with the stamps. I also have an itch to go visit Papertrey, MFT, Gina K, Flourishes, High Hopes, and other to get stamps.

Hello, my name is Sara and I'm addicted to stamps. :)

Hope everyone's day is going well and you have a great rest of the week (if I don't get my heinie in gear and photograph the cards I've made - or am planning to make)

Sunday update

2008-06-08T21:08:00.003-04:00

Today's challenge is the Featured Stamper. Today's FS person was YLM - Cindy. Her gallery was awesome, but I loved this card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/488523
This was a fun card to copy. I dug through my rack of designer paper to find a paper that had polka dots on it. I love polka dots. I'm also a matchy-matchy person - I try to get as close as I can to the colors of the paper. I also decided that I wanted to change the layout - I wanted to flip it onto its side.

I liked the ovals, so I pulled out my Nesties and went to work. I cut out the layers, then stamped the olive cup and the foam. I then went over the outline of the foam with Liquid Applique so it would look like foam.

I also wanted to decorate the card with more than just ribbon, so I pulled out a hat pin and added some beads to the top and pushed it though the ribbon knots.

I really like how this turned out.
Stamps: Like it a Latte. Paper: 3 Bugs in a Rug dp, Bordering Blue, Old Olive, Blue Bayou, Whisper White. Ink: Bordering Blue, Old Olive. Accessories: Oval Nesties, Liquid Applique, hat pin, beads, ribbon, ticket corner punch, snaps, dimensionals.

I don't think I mentioned this, but I'm a hostess for the August VSN on Splitcoast. I'm a hostess of another mini challenge - one of the mini challenges that are on June 20th. I'm excited and I'm pretty organized about what I need to do for this even with all the stuff that's going on at work. If you can, please play!!! I'd love to see what you can come up with!

Summer session at daycare starts on Friday. I'm nervous, but I'm really excited at the same time. I hope the kids like the things we've planned.

Hoping for better weather than we've had this weekend (it's been hot, humid and sudden thunderstorms for the last 3 days),

Can you Believe it???

2008-06-04T09:02:00.005-04:00

Created yesterday, picture taken and uploaded today. I'm starting to get back into the groove!

I finished off my TLC project and went to work on the Color Challenge for yesterday which was a repeat of Blue Bayou, Real Red and Soft Sky.

I had a blast working on my TLC challenge which was to create 3x3 cards, envelopes for them and a little box to hold them all. I loved this idea and went straight for my Wild Asparagus paper that I'd gotten in a slab from Hobby Lobby a while ago. Since it's single sided, it would give the impression of lined envelopes. I printed the templates off onto the paper and cut them out (the box too. I pulled the colors for the cards out of the paper. I've also had these Imaginisce (?) stamps for a while and I decided to break them out for this project.
Stamps: Imaginisce - Popsicles. Paper: Wild Asparagus dp, Ballet Blue, Bashful Blue, River Rock, Always Artichoke, Whisper White. Ink: River Rock, Bashful Blue, Always Artichoke. Accessories: slit punch, ribbon, corner rounder, mat pack.

My Color Challenge card. I'm really liking how this turned out - I think it's pretty and elegant. I didn't want to go too ornate with this card - the whole "too much stuff on one card" deal. So I picked the flower image from One of a Kind and stamped it 3 times - twice in Blue Bayou and once in Real Red. I cut the flowers down and layered them on top of one another with dimensionals - which you can't really see in the picture. The 2 layers that are popped up are washed with a little bit of color to make them stand out a little more. The background is Flourishes LLC's Damask background stamped on Real Red in Real Red. I added a dyed prima to the flower and topped it with a Glitter dot.
Stamps: Flourishes LLC - Damask, SU - One of a Kind. Paper: Real Red, Very Vanilla, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky. Ink: Blue Bayou, Real Red, Soft Sky. Accessories: Crystal Stickles, ribbon, dimensionals, glitter dot, prima, aquapainter.

Since it's a little gloomy here, I'll wish everyone a nice warm sunshiney day (and hope that it catches up with me),

Sunday creations

2008-06-02T23:50:00.002-04:00

I made these cards on Sunday, took a picture of them on Monday and it'll be Tuesday by the time I get them uploaded. Go figure.

I'm such a slacker when it comes to taking pictures and uploading. I need to work on this.

I'd also show the TLC challenge for today, but well... I got sucked into watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs (it's Game 5) and I pulled myself away as it was going into 2nd Overtime. I have envelopes and the box cut out and folded - I need to use the tape and actually make the 3x3 cards. Then we get into the fun of taking pictures and uploading...

Does anyone see a cycle here?

So... cards. I'm showing off 2 of the 3 I made - #3 is going to my VSN Secret Sister.

I've been meaning to send a thank you to my CCRAK "Flower" from the last swap. I made her card yesterday using some of the things she sent me.
Stamps: Papertrey - Garden of Life. Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla. Ink: Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red. Accessories: ticket corner punch, half back pearls, ribbon, dimensionals.

The other card I made is a "whatever" card. I seem to make a lot of these - which gets really helpful for crunch times.
Stamps: SU - All Through the Year; Stamping Bella - Cakeabella. Paper: Whisper White, Real Red, Taken with Teal. Ink: Palette Noir, Real Red. Accessories: Prismacolor pencils, corner rounder punch, sewing machine, dimensionals, ribbon.

I'm running out of steam here. It's been a long day and tomorrow's going to be just as long.

Hoping for a sunny day ahead,

I stamped!

2008-05-31T00:54:00.004-04:00

I'm a little later than I planned to be in posting pictures, but I did get some stamping done when I said I would.

It's getting crazy - the school year's ending and I have a list of things that need to be typed out so that my binder of summer plans is complete. Details of literacy activities, journal entries, craft projects, games, etc. It helps me from having to dig through a mountain of papers for instructions on things and will hopefully help anyone who's in the classroom not wander around cluelessly.

6 years as a substitute teacher causes me to GREATLY revere the detailed lesson plans.

Since I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off (or so it's seemed from my perspective), I missed some birthdays. So... I thought I'd use Melanie Muenchinger's Just So Hippy set to create some belated birthday cards.
Stamps: Just So Hippy - Melanie Muenchinger/Gina K. Paper: Lemon Tart, Sweet Blush, Whisper White, Pink collection dp. Ink: Sweet Blush, Lemon Tart, Berry Sorbet. Accessories: prismacolor pencil, word window punch, spiral punch.

I bought an alphabet Cuttlebug set this last weekend and I was playing with it Thursday night when I was working on some scrapbook pages for a friend. Some of my dies are now curved because of the layout of the plate sandwich (the way CB says to lay them out). Solution is to reverse the order. Order from the bottom to the top: B plate, paper, die, 2nd B plate and put the A plate on top. The dies I put through in this layout are as straight as if they just came from the package.

Hoping for a cooler day tomorrow because I have to clear the jungle of weeds from the daylily bed,

I'm alive

2008-05-29T18:51:00.002-04:00

And back from my trip. It was fun, I'd take Amtrak again, but I'd make sure I had plenty of time between connections. Due to situations out of my control, I missed my original train home - I had to stay in Chicago overnight to catch one the next day.

My life's been kinda crazy since I got back - mostly on the lines of figuring out what I need to be doing when - so I haven't even thought of stamping. Which will be rectified tonight so I should have something to show later/tomorrow.

Cards I've made and blog candy winner

2008-05-13T23:41:00.003-04:00

It's 11:42pm right now and I'm not quite ready to choose a winner - but I'm sure I will be by the time I finish this post.

It's also been a rather crazy day in general. I'm trying to get ready for my trip to a college friend's wedding. Then this afternoon Mom got a migraine at work (we work together) and then proceeded to sneeze - which did something funny to her eyesight and made her dizzy. So she went to the Med Station (mini emergency room) who sent her downtown to the big hospitals for a CT scan. She's okay and back at home now, but it was a tense few hours.

I've been such a lazy person and not uploaded pictures of the cards I've made over the past few days.

I made 2 similar cards for Sunday's Featured Stamper Challenge. Then I sent one out as a birthday card. I used Papertrey's Berry Sorbet and Sweet Blush cardstock, the Pink collection of dp, shimmer white cardstock that was cut out and embossed with my Nesties (oh how I love them) I used Flourishes' Cake Decorating 101 set - which is such a fun set.
Stamps: Flourishes - Cake Decorating 101. Paper: Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, Shimmer White, Pink collection dp. Ink: Berry Sorbet and Sweet Blush. Accessories: Classic Oval Nesties, dimensionals, aquapainter.

At the same time I was making the Featured Stamper card, I needed to make a wedding card for a friend of mine who's getting married on Saturday. I decided to make it really simple - a Cuttlebugged piece of cardstock, some primas and a sentiment.
Stamps: Papertrey - Mixed Messages. Paper: Green Galore, PTI Lemon Tart. Ink: Green Galore. Accessories: Swiss Dot Embossing Folder, primas, brads, word window punch, dimensionals.

My last card to show is going to be my last card for a while - I'm going out of town for the wedding. I have a friend who's birthday isn't too far off and I wanted to get a card for her done so I don't have to rush around when I get back. It actually goes with the Color Challenge today of Soft Sky, Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red.

I had fun making this card. I actually used a sewing machine that happens to reside in a different part of the Dungeon - and isn't mine - to sew the Soft Sky dp to the Ruby Red layer beneath. I'm amazed at how straight the sewing is - I'm not known for my straight sewing AT ALL. The image is stamped in Palette Noir and colored in with Prismacolor pencils that I went over with baby oil - I don't use Odorless Mineral Spirits or Gamsol. The dress is paper pieced and also colored with Prisma pencils and baby oil.

The tilted layer is Soft Sky cardstock that I rubbed with Tea Dye Distress Inks - it turned a funky color. I think it looks interesting. The Pumpkin Pie ribbon is layered on top of a Soft Sky ribbon.
Stamps: MFT - You Take the Cake. Paper: Soft Sky cs and dp, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie cs and dp, Whisper White. Ink: Palette Noir, Tim Holtz Distressing Inks - Tea Dye. Accessories: Baby Oil, Prismacolor pencils, mat pack, sewing machine, ribbon, dimensionals.

Now for the winner of my blog candy! Post #6... which was scfranson - Claudia!

If you could email me at deipara@yahoo.com with the words BLOG CANDY in the message line and your address, I'll get it to you as soon as I can after I get back from my trip!

Congrats again Claudia and I hope everyone has a great week!

Craziness... and blog candy

2008-05-08T22:12:00.006-04:00

Strange things happen when I start making cards with a growing headache at 11pm.

I decide sheep need to be purple.

I loved the color combination this week - Lovely Lilac (finally!), Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery. Since I didn't really have time to do this card until last night, I thought I'd combine it with the My Favorite Guest Designer contest. I didn't like what I created in terms of entering it into the contest, but it's a cute birthday card. The piece of cardstock that has the sentiment on it is removable - the piece of dp is a pocket.
Stamps: MFT - Punny Farm. Paper: Lovely Lilac, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Certainly Celery dp. Ink: Palette Noir, Lovely Lilac, Certainly Celery, Almost Amethyst (marker). Accessories: brads, ticket corner punch, ribbon, dimensionals.

This is what I made for the My Favorite Guest Designer challenge:
I've finally gotten around to taking a picture of the blog candy on offer. :) No cute things - like what's in the mailbox or pick your favorite card. Just make a nice comment on this post. You have until midnight Eastern time Tuesday/Wednesday to enter. I'll use random.org to choose the winner. What's up for grabs:
**NOTE: I'm leaving town for a very long weekend Wednesday night and won't be back until sometime the next Tuesday. I won't be mailing the candy out until I get back.**

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Nothing new to show, but...

2008-05-03T23:06:00.001-04:00

I'm really really close to 5,000 visits. :)

Which means I'll be offering blog candy soon.

Thursday - An excuse to use...

2008-05-01T19:39:00.003-04:00

My ruffled ribbon that I picked up at my LSS last week - or the week before. Or it might have been last month... I can't remember anymore. All I know is I got it at my LSS and it was in one of my ribbon jars.

The Ways to Use it Challenge is all about Ruffles - pleated paper, crimped paper, ruffled ribbon, etc. Since I don't have a sewing machine I can use for sewing on paper and I seem to regularly forget that I own a crimper, I went with the pretty yellow ruffled ribbon.

And because I bought the blue ribbon at the same time because I thought they looked fabulous together, they're together now. The colors for the card came from the ribbons - which are really close to Papertrey's Lemon Tart and SU's Brocade Blue.

I decided to use one of my new MFT stamp sets. I haven't gotten around to using Boho Blossoms yet, so I inked up the solid flower with Lemon Tart ink and stamped it on Whisper White. Since I'm pretty bad about lining outline images up within the solid images, I stamped the lines on vellum cardstock in Brocade Blue. I trimmed the flower out and attached it to the rest of the image with a brad.

The large layer of Lemon Tart cardstock is also stamped with the solid flower image. The large layer and the image layer are both up on dimensionals.
Stamps: MFT - Boho Blossoms. Paper: Lemon Tart, Brocade Blue, Whisper White, vellum. Ink: Brocade Blue, Lemon Tart. Accessories: ribbons, dimensionals, brad, ticket corner punch.

A cute story to share. The director of my daycare brings her 4 year-old daughter to work with her every day. K (the daughter) spends the mornings with kindergartners who go to school in the afternoon and takes a nap in the afternoons. On Tuesday she was back for her nap while I was planning summer stuff and she was fidgeting for a half hour or so. Fed up, I told her to roll over so I could rub her back. 30 seconds into rubbing her back, she's out cold. Her mom was amazed.

Hope everyone has a good Friday and weekend!

Technically it's Thursday...

2008-05-01T00:03:00.004-04:00

but I haven't gone to bed yet. So it's still Wednesday in my head. And Wednesday's at Splitcoast mean Sketch Challenges. My schedule has been crazy and I just haven't had the time to do any of the sketch challenges until tonight.

Generally sketch challenges are given in terms of A2 cards: 4.25"x5.5" Today's card was to be long - mine is 4"x9.5" And I just grabbed a business size envelope... it's too long. By about a 1/4" but it's still too long.

I can't seem to keep my hands off my new Papertrey stuff - ink, paper and stamps. My card is made with Sweet Blush, Berry Sorbet, and the pink pattern collection (I can't remember the name.)

We had to fold back part of the front of the card. I added scallops to the edge of mine with the corner rounder (removing the guard) and sponged on Berry Sorbet to accentuate it. I cut 3 strips of Berry Sorbet - 1/2", 3/4" and 1/8" - to attach to the front of my card. I stamped one of the flowers randomly and then adhered the strips on top. I paper pierced the top and bottom of each strip.

The oval was a necessity on the card - the rules of the challenge said keep the oval. I used my Coluzzle to cut my ovals - I ordered Nesties on Monday, but they haven't shipped yet. The image panel is stamped in Sweet Blush and sponged lightly with Berry Sorbet. A rhinestone brad is the center of my flower.
Stamps: Papertrey - Garden of Life. Paper: Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush, white, pink pattern by Papertrey. Ink: Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush. Accessories: mat pack, corner rounder, Coluzzle, brad, tacky tape, sponge.

Hope your Thursday is great!