Copics on Parade

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,

TLC198 - Wineglass Shade

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,

It's All About Becca

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!

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

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,

It's time to show some cards

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!

Can you Believe it???

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),

Tuesday Catch-up

I actually had the card for yesterday's challenge done yesterday morning before work. I just didn't have time to take a picture or upload it.

Here it is. :) The technique for yesterday was to create a double pocket card. The tutorial is on my friend Judy's blog: http://jarfullofjoy.blogspot.com/ It's really easy to do. I taped the card together then added a snap to make sure everything stayed where it needed to be.
Stamps: Papertrey - Simple Little Things. Paper: Bali Breeze dp, Old Olive, Rose Red, white. Ink: Taken with Teal, Pumpkin Pie. Accessories: ribbon, jumbo eyelets, snap, corner rounder.


I had time today to do my color challenge card and upload it. Today's colors are: Basic Gray, Groovy Guava, Blush Blossom. I love Groovy Guava and Blush Blossom together - they're monochromatic and look fabulous. I love Stampin' Kub's tutorial for Dyeing Pearls because I think the little touch of shimmery pearl that matches pops.

Stamps: Fabulous Flowers. Paper: Blush Blossom, Groovy Guava (cs and dp), Basic Gray. Ink: Basic Gray (edging a layer), Groovy Guava. Accessories: brads, ticket corner punch, slit punch, ribbon, pearl corsage pin, Diamond Glaze, Groovy Guava reinker, pearl bead, dimensionals.

Last night was the Papertrey release. Since I haven't bought anything since January, I went a little crazy there this morning.


A little tidbit: check out Kim V's blog (she's the MFT Lady and in my blog roll) for a special that she's running through Friday. **I'm not affiliated with MFT stamps at all, I thought Kim's doing something great and that I wanted to pass the news on**

It's supposed to be in the 60s today. *happy dance* Hope it's sunny and warm where you are!

A Twisted TLC

I didn't twist it - the hostess did.

Our technique today was Paper Tole - which is generally done with flowers and making them 3 dimensional. Our assignment was to do the Paper Tole, but no flowers. Add dimension to other stamps.

I immediately thought of the animals from MFT - especially the lion. The lion was stamped on white cardstock 3 times. I colored the pieces I wanted from each image with Prismacolor pencils and cut them out. The mane and face are attached with dimensionals.

I tore pieces of Certainly Celery cardstock to create grass so the lion wasn't floating in space. I chose Blue Bayou and Soft Sky because they worked well with the Certainly Celery and the colors of the lion popped against the Blue Bayou.

I used my Coluzzle to cut the ovals and ticket corner punch on the edges.

I smeared the Stickles in the top corners. There is also Stickles on some of the flower centers in the DP.

I'm honestly impressed with my bow. I can't tie bows worth beans. It's actually tied free of the paper - I glued it on, so I had more play with it while making it.
Stamps: MFT - It's a Jungle Out There. Paper: Soft Sky, Certainly Celery, Blue Bayou (cs and dp), white. Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black. Accessories: Stickles, Coluzzle, Prismacolor Pencils, ticket corner punch, dimensionals.

It's a stormy day here today - thundering, pouring rain and all. Not very fun, kinda gloomy. Here's hoping for sun shining on the rest of you!

A Technique Challenge - kinda

Today's Technique Challenge was to combine different patterns of dp - polka dots and stripes or stripes and big flowers. I do this on occasion anyway, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

The colors come from the dp - which is the True Blue collection of Sweetwater designs. I had to shuffle through my various blues to figure out what color was the closest: Buckaroo Blue (one of the retired In Colors from last year.)

Stamps: Gina K/Melanie Muenchinger - Just so Hippy. Paper: Barely Banana, Buckaroo Blue, Bravo Burgundy, white. Ink: Buckaroo Blue. Accessories: ticket corner punch, brads, dimensionals, ribbon.

An update on my whining from yesterday. We're no longer in the Winter Storm Watch, we have a freezing rain advisory until 4pm today. Not as bad, but I'd still prefer 40+ temps.

Faith's TLC

Today's Technique Lover's Challenge on Splitcoast was hosted by one of my good friends, Faith - markie's mom over on Splitcoast.

Faith LOVES a technique she calls Ink, Spray and Smash. You take a piece of glossy cardstock, spritz it with a water bottle, dribble reinkers onto the paper, spritz another sheet of paper with water and smash the 2 sheets of paper together. You can do it multiple times before you run out of ink on the bottom sheet.

Kinda messy and lots of fun. I only just tried it today - I've been too scared to in the past.

I'm still in my "it's freezing, give me warm colors" phase.

The Ink, Spray and Smash paper was made with Pumpkin Pie and Pink Passion reinkers. The background is the second sheet pressed and the flower is made with either the bottom sheet or the first sheet - I can't remember.

I made this flower on another card earlier this year and really liked how it turned out - the petals of the flower are made from the outline heart from the Papertrey set Sweet Love. One layer is stamped in a circle, cut around the outside, the top petals are all individual, taped on separately and folded to give dimension.

Stamps: Papertrey - Sweet Love. Paper: Glossy white, Pink Passion, River Rock. Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Pink Passion. Accessories: ribbon, mat pack, charm, rhinestone brads.

My friend and coworker asked me a while ago if I could alter a composition book to give to her boyfriend for Valentine's Day. He's a musician, writes lyrics and she wanted to give him a gift that would mean a lot to him. I hope I didn't make it too feminine.

Stamps: Papertrey - Out on a Limb. Paper: Music and alphabet paper I had laying around the house, Basic Black. Ink: Brilliance Moonlight White. Accessories: mod podge, super jumbo scalloped oval punch, brads, ribbon, spiral clip, composition book.

Dahlia Fold

Today's Technique challenge was to create a flower out of circle punches - using the Dahlia Fold. The fold is very simple once you get the hang of it. And it's a learning process.

Mistake #1: using patterned cardstock - which is really hard to fold.

Mistake #2: Not so much using the scallop circle punch, but folding it in different ways. One of the reasons my flower looks funky.

I chose to use some Tres Jolie dp by My Mind's Eye and I pulled the colors for the rest of my card from that.

I really want to try to make another card later today with regular dp to see the difference.

Stamps: MFT - You Take the Cake. Paper: Close to Cocoa, Always Artichoke, Taken with Teal, Very Vanilla, Tres Jolie dp. Ink: Close to Cocoa. Accessories: scallop circle punch, coluzzle, Close to Cocoa marker, celery ribbon, spiral clip, brads, dimensionals, word window punch.

Monday - double challenge post

It's been a busy day with some fun challenges.



First challenge was Faith's last time hostessing the Stalker's Thread Color Challenge. She chose Real Red, Handsome Hunter, Mellow Moss and Old Olive. Hello green!

• I chose to use Papertrey's Snowflake Serenade as my background stamped in all the colors of the challenge.
• The main image is from SU! The World Over. It's stamped in Basic Gray and colored in with my Prismacolor pencils.
• I wanted to add a little punch (and some ribbon) so I tied some Real Red grosgrain around my background 3 times and pulled the knots to the bottom.

The other challenge was the Technique Lover's Challenge: Clear sleeved Nugget boxes. Now, I'd heard about Nugget tins - I have a bunch, courtesy of a buy with a friend on SCS - but I'd never heard of Nugget boxes. I followed the links to the different sized boxes - I'd like to thank that person - they did a great job.

• Bottom of my box is a piece of Scenic Route paper - it's vanilla with an olive pattern on it. There's no tape holding it together - it's just folded.
• The slide is a piece of acetate (like a transparency) that's leftover from when I made an acetate card. It's held together with 3 brads.
• The nuggets are wrapped with an address label stamped with a snowflake from Snowflake Serenade in Old Olive.
• The slide is tied with a piece of olive velvet ribbon.

Triple Duty card: TLC, STCC, and FS

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

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

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

Peek-a-boo Boxes for TLC

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

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

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

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


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


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

A quickie TLC candy slider

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

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

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

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

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