Happy New Year!

Couldn't let 2011 come to a close without at least ONE blog post! Ha! So I grabbed the first thing I saw on my stamp table that I had made and snapped a photo. As usual, bad lighting. (New Year's resolution No. 87 -- use better lighting for blog pix!)

This is a card I made at one of our monthly stamp clubs earlier this year. Looking at it now, I see it needs some bling, so I'll have to take care of that and come back and post an "after" photo in 2012.

We made our own "ink pads" with Distress reinkers and baby wipes. I used Broken China and Peeled Paint and I think also a little Tumbled Glass. The butterfly stamp is from a retired Stampin Up set (Bold Butterfly, maybe?) and the "thanks" is from a current SU set. The scallop card base was cut with a Sizzix die.

I'm moving out of the closet in 2012 and into my own stamp room at long, long last, and I'm VERY excited about it! Hopefully this will translate into lots more stamping in the coming year!

Hope everyone has a happy and safe new year!!

Supplies: Butterfly and thanks stamps, Stampin Up; Distress reinkers in Broken China, Peeled Paint, Tumbled Glass; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Bazzill cardstock; baby wipes; dimensionals

Endless Summer

Well it always seems like summer is endless in the South, but we were in the upper 60s last night, so that was definitely a nice treat. We had a swap at the LSS for summer-themed cards, and this is what I came up with. Actually very little stamping involved, since the patterned paper is the real star here. I used Tangerine Tango c/s, ink and ribbon, paired with Summer Sun c/s. The sentiment is by A Muse.

And on the inside I used a flower punch and circle punch to make a little coordinating sun. The 'happy summer' inside is also by A Muse.

Happy Father's Day

Here is a Father's Day card I made for a swap at my LSS. The stamps and cardstock are all by Papertrey Ink. I love that tree stamp and how it's designed to work with a small circle punch so you can pop up various sections of the tree.

Happy Halloween!

It is MUCH too warm here tonight to feel like Halloween, but it's always my favorite day of the year! My oldest (12) had been saying all week that he thinks he's too old to go trick-or-treating this year, but as his younger brother was getting into costume shortly before sunset, he had a change of heart. Ha! So he pulled together a costume with pieces from his last 3 costumes and it turned out pretty good. They both got huge amounts of candy and began trading like mad once they got home. Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Swap Day Aftermath

Another card swap has come and gone. This month we did a sketch challenge with a Mojo Monday sketch. I ended up changing it up a bit because the original sketch and I just were not getting along. I used the Halloween kitty stamp from Inkadinkado, stamped in black pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder, and colored in the moon with an orange Spica glitter pen. I went looking for orange brads to attach to the ribbon, but I couldn't find them. I came across the orange rhinestones during my search, though, and they worked just fine. The cardstock is SU and the polka dot paper is something I picked up a few years ago at Hobby Lobby.

My dining room table is always a disaster area once I finish my swaps. I can't work on swaps here in the closet since I need lots of room to spread out when I'm mass producing, and I just don't have that kind of space here in the closet. Anyhow, I've since cleaned off the table, but here's how it looked after I finished the cards. A complete mess! :)

Supplies:
Stamp: kitty, Inkadinkado
Ink: SU Basic Black Craft
Paper: SU Basic Black, Green Galore, Only Orange, Georgia Pacific white, patterned paper from my stash
Accessories: SU black grosgrain ribbon, Kaiser orange rhinestones, Marvy circle and scalloped circle punches, Spica glitter pens, SU clear embossing powder, Stampin Dimensionals

Birthday Swap

I keep forgetting to post my card for the Birthday Card Swap at the LSS. It turned out really cute though the only pic I have of it was taken at the store before I swapped them all out. I had seen a card on someone's blog using this cupcake stamp (from the Stampin Up Party Hearty set) with the toppings cut out and popped up on top of another cupcake image, mixing up the colors, so I tried that and thought it was a really fun look. The sentiment is by Stamping Bella.

Our September swap is our first sketch challenge -- any theme -- so that should be fun to see what everyone comes up with. I still have last month's summer theme swap to post here too. I'll get caught up eventually!

Soft Sky wedding

I know, I know -- more bad lighting! I made this card in the middle of the night for one of my husband's co-workers, and the only place I could snap a quick photo of it without waking up anyone was in the dining room, where the lighting isn't all that bright.

This is about a 90 percent CASE of a card I saw on SCS. I loved the Soft Sky and Chocolate Chip color combo and the layout. About the only differences are that instead of tying a bow in the middle of the satin ribbon (didn't want it to look any more feminine than it already did with the doily edge punch at the bottom), I stamped the word 'congratulations' and punched it out with the new SU Modern Label punch and I used the adhesive pearls differently than they were used on the original card.

The only downside is that now I have even less Soft Sky cardstock! Eeek! Don't know what I'll do when my supply is gone! It's sooooooo pretty!!

It's swap time again at the LSS. The theme this month is birthday. And as usual I have no idea what I'll be doing. I'll have to post my card from last month's swap later this week. It turned out much better than I expected. I love it when that happens! Hee!

Supplies:

Stamps: Together Forever set (SU); congratulations (Wedding Centers set, CHF)

Paper: Very Vanilla, Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip (all SU)

Ink: Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip (SU)

Accessories: Oval Coluzzle, SU Modern Label punch, adhesive pearls, Paper Trey satin ribbon, Martha Stewart doily edge punch

Navy Swap

I joined a swap on SCS recently in which the only stipulation was that you incorporate the color navy into the cards. And since I've always loved my Night of Navy cardstock and ink, I had to sign up for a spot in the swap! And this is what I came up with. It's quick and elegant. Or at least it's quick NOW -- I fought with several variations of ribbon before settling on this combination. First I used just the narrow navy grosgrain tied into a knot, but I thought it was too small. Then I grabbed the wider vanilla grosgrain and tied it into a knot. Too much. I even tried navy organdy but it didn't look right either. Finally I thought to try this combo, which looked OK by itself, but I thought it needed one more little something. So then I went to my old standby -- punches! And there it was, the perfect finishing detail!

I have a Father's Day swap for the LSS to work on this week. They're due Sunday and, naturally, I haven't even started yet. But days off are coming up so I'll play around with some ideas then and hopefully be done BEFORE Sunday for a change!

Supplies:

Stamps: Floral background (retired), Thanks (from Thank You Kindly set) -- both SU

Paper: Night of Navy, Very Vanilla cardstock (SU)

Ink: Night of Navy (SU)

Accessories: oval punches, Boho Blossoms punch, 1/4" circle punch (all SU); dimensionals, vanilla 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, navy 1/4" grosgrain ribbon (both SU)

Rainy Day Brayered Roses

I made my first attempt at the brayered roses technique on the mother's day card I made for my mother-in-law a few weeks ago. I snapped a quick photo of it outside as we were leaving to go have dinner with her, and unfortunately it was overcast and you just can't really see the great colors in the roses. But the technique was pretty much foolproof and the results were fabulous! I really hope Stampin Up releases more embossing folders in the upcoming new catalog (which will be revealed to demos this week!!) Though I don't know how they could top this one -- I love it!

I took a beginner Copics class last week to learn some of the basics of using these markers. I have quite a collection already, but I wasn't using them to their full potential. I've been experimenting with blending and shading since the class, so maybe I'll be happy enough with one of the "experiments" to post here soon. And next time I'll be sure to use better lighting! ha!

Supplies:

Stamps: Paper Trey (mother), Stampin Up (rose on envelope from Fifth Avenue Floral set)

Ink: Summer Sun, Regal Rose, Cameo Coral

Paper: Shimmery White, Cameo Coral

Accessories: Brayer, oval punch, scallop oval punch, dimensionals

Christmas card swap

I had a card swap at the LSS on Sunday afternoon. Naturally I put it off until the night before. But for a quick card, I thought it turned out cute. I used the same sketch as a card I had seen by Nichole Heady as well as her nifty trick with the Scor-Pal to define the patterned strip across the middle. The colors are so light I had trouble getting a good photo, but if you click on the image to blow it up to a larger size you can see it fairly well. I didn't want to color in the penguin, so I punched a 2" circle out of the middle one of the scallop circle shapes and then used the scallop border that was left as a sort of mask to sponge the Aqua Mist ink inside a scallop circle punched shape.

I'll have to post some of the cards I received in the swap. These girls sure love their Cricut machines! I don't need the temptation. I only just found a home for my new Big Shot here in the closet. There's NO way I'd have room in here for a Cricut. But ohhhh.... You get SO much from just ONE Cricut cartridge! Eeek!

Supplies

Stamps: Juggling penguin (Elzybells), Have a jolly Christmas (Hero Arts), polka dots (PaperTrey Ink)

Ink: Aqua Mist (PaperTrey), White Craft (Stampin Up), Palette Noir

Paper: Aqua Mist (PaperTrey), Whisper White (SU)

Accessories: ribbon (A Muse), SU dimensionals, Marvy Super (blue) circle punch, Marvy mega (pink) scallop circle punch, sponge

Batty For You

This is the other SCS Halloween swap card I made. I had already made these black cards with the SU Sanded background stamped in craft white ink, so then I just had to figure out what to do with them. I had also put together these little batty scallops for another project and ended up not using them then, so I didn't want them to go to waste. (Yes, I know, smiling bats -- but I actually do like this set!) But here's what I discovered (the thing that drove me batty, so to speak, as I alluded to in my previous post) -- this set does not lend itself to full-sized cards very well. It's great for treat covers and 3x3 cards, but aside from a few cute ideas that have been done many, MANY times since this set came out last fall, there was not much coming to me. In fact, I thought it was just me, so I went to check out the SCS gallery, and most of what I found was for treats and smaller cards. Hmmm... What could I do to make it different? Then I remembered a nifty trick I just saw on an SU stamping DVD. You can punch a large circle (larger than any of SU's current circle punches) using the rounded tab punch. You just punch it twice, at two different angles, and it makes a circle. A circle which the SU scallop circle punch will fit in very nicely. So once I had a home from my scalloped bat (adhered to a piece of white c/s on the inside of the card), the card was easier to finish. I didn't like the way any of the designer paper looked with it because the background was already busy enough as it was. So a plain pumpkin strip with two black brads, a couple more punched bats and a 'happy halloween' sentiment were all it needed. I considered adding some ribbon, but I didn't want to overdo it. Ha!

I've been watching QVC's papercrafting fair today, but, amazingly, I haven't ordered anything yet. There have been a couple of cute Halloween kits, but I've managed to resist. The one thing I really want is a set of the new Glue Dot dispensers (yes, Michelle, this is all your fault!) but there's other stuff thrown in with QVC's set that I don't need, so I'll just wait until I can find them on their own.

I'm going to start gathering up some unused/unwanted supplies this week to put in a crafting garage sale coming up at our local scrapbook store next month. I've got a few QVC scrapbooking kits that I've never used, among other things, that need a good home. And with ebay fees what they are now, you barely make any money there anymore. So with just a one-time $5 fee to display my stuff at the store's garage sale, it is definitely worth a try to free up some space here in the closet. Maybe then I could finally buy a Big Shot!

Supplies
Stamps: SU Batty For You, All Holidays, Sanded background
Ink: Staz-On black, SU whisper white craft pad
Paper: SU Whisper White, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: scallop circle punch, rounded tab punch, 1" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, paper piercer, black (vintage) brads

Spooky Nights

This is one of the SCS Halloween swap cards I came up with. For such a simple card, it really gave me fits! I must have changed it at least half a dozen times. I'm not a big fan of cutesy Halloween stuff -- I prefer the creepy, weird, eerie images rather than smiling spiders, though I have lots of both -- which is why the new House of Haunts stamp set is one of my favorites. Even the jack-o-lantern in the set looks just a wee bit demented. Heh. Anway, since the bats in this new Halloween DSP aren't smiling, they worked well with my spooky tree. I sponged around the focal image with black ink -- but not the SU Basic Black classic pad. Why? Because it looks purple! Drives me nuts! I had the Staz-On black pad out anyway, so I just used that, even though that ink dries so fast it's not the greatest to use for sponging. At least it's a true black. And this was an all-SU swap, so I tried to stay true to that. I'll post my other card this weekend. It also drove me batty, but I'll explain that in the next post. I'm thinking maybe the creative juices just weren't flowing this week.

Still no Paper Crafts magazine. If it doesn't show up in tomorrow's mail, I'm going to go buy a copy at AC Moore!

Supplies

Stamps: House of Haunts, Halloween Frights

Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Basic Black cardstock; Ghostly Greetings DSP

Ink: Staz On black

Accessories: small and large oval punches, circle punch, black (vintage) brads, sponge, stampin' dimensionals

Enjoy Every Moment

I finally got to do some stamping this past week, though I'm still woefully behind on my projects. This was a birthday card I made for a friend whose birthday was three weeks ago -- eek! I didn't want to use a 'happy birthday' sentiment since the card was so late, so I pulled out my SU Enjoy Every Moment set for the sentiment. The background of the card is CASEd from a card by Jill Hilliard. I loved the Baja Breeze, black and white combo with the flowers from the Embrace Life set colored in with the white gel pen. I just changed the sentiment and its presentation on the card. Initially I had stamped the little flower in the middle of the "O" in "enjoy" in Baja Breeze, but it was just sort of floating there and didn't look right. So then I thought it would pull everything together nicely to punch a circle in the Baja Breeze cardstock and place it within the letter "O" then stamp the flower in black and color in the middle of it with the white gel pen. Except none of the SU circle punches are the right size to fit just inside the "O" without covering it up, so I had to dig out every circle punch I had until I found the one that worked -- the Paper Shapers 5/8" circle punch. Perfect! On the inside I used a sentiment from a retired SU birthday set that says "Life is not a matter of counting years. It's a matter of making years count." I tell you I am going through this Baja Breeze cardstock VERY quickly. I love it!

I stopped in Michaels yesterday on my way to work to pick up a magazine with my half-off coupon. Turns out they have now stopped accepting coupons for magazines! What?! AC Moore tried that restriction for a couple of months earlier this year, but then came to their senses and began allowing it again. Probably because it's bad for business when there is a Michaels store one block away! So yeah, I probably won't be making nearly as many stops in Michaels now. Craft magazines cost way too much to pay full price -- especially the Cards and Paper Trends mags. Maybe I should look into subscriptions... Speaking of which, I have seen the new issue of Paper Crafts magazine in the stores for two weeks now, but my subscription copy has yet to appear in my mailbox! Ack!! I have to have it! It's the Halloween issue!

And finally, in my never-ending quest for the best in Halloween stamps, I have discovered THESE new wood-mounted stamps by Inkadinkado. I especially had to have the Katmoondu stamp! They are on their way to my mailbox as we speak! I have to say I am VERY happy with all the Halloween crafty goodness that has been released this season. I don't think I've ever had such a fabulous selection from which to choose before, and it's been pretty much across the board with so many different companies coming through with must-haves for my most favorite of holidays! Love it!!

SCS Swap

I participated in a swap on Splitcoast last month. There was no theme. You just had to use current SU stamps. This is the cardfront I made. It uses the new Fall Flair and Happiness Always hostess sets, as well as my favorite of the new In Colors -- Baja Breeze. It was a 25 card swap and I received my box o' cards in yesterday's mail, so all the work of making 27 card fronts (one for the hostess and one for me to keep since we weren't getting one of our own cards back) is now worth it to have so many new samples and ideas. Anway, I went through so many different options with what to do next to the sentiment while I was designing the card. When I decided to use the flower punch, I considered brads, but the rhinestone brads looked too heavy and I didn't want to introduce any other colors to the card. And then the answer seemed so simple -- just use the small circle punch. Perfect. I love it when a card comes together! There was an incident with the Scotch Quick-Dry adhesive I had originally planned to use to adhere the small circles to the flowers. It was clogged, and, uh, well, let's just say I do NOT recommend squeezing the bottle as hard as you can while it is hovering directly over your otherwise completed card. Yeah. So I actually had to make 28 of them!

Last night was my monthly stamp club meeting. A group of us get together one night every month and have so much fun. Food, wine, friends, laughter and stamps. Who could ask for anything more? And last night there was even dancing, since it was the finale of So You Think You Can Dance! We made a star-shaped gift box as our project and filled them with Starbursts, of course, since the box was shaped like a star! (mine is already half-empty -- or is it half-full? -- but I can blame it all on the kids and no one will ever know! Heh.) I also won a door prize that came in the most GORGEOUS stamped box, made by my friend Judi. I'll post a few pics in a couple of days. I'm trying to get some shots that will truly show off just how pretty it is.

Supplies:

Stamp sets: SU Fall Flair, Happiness Always

Ink: SU Baja Breeze, Pink Pirouette

Paper: SU Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Pink Pirouette, Very Vanilla

Accessories: SU Boho Blossoms punch, SU 1/4" circle punch, mini glue dots (a much less messy way to adhere the small circles to the flowers), Stampin' Dimensionals

Monthly Swap

I have a swap due in a week (actually two swaps since I signed up for both swap groups) and I have no idea what I'm going to do. If last month's swap is any indication, I won't know what I'm doing until two hours before the actual swap at the LSS. But I'd rather not put myself through that mad rush again. The theme this month is summer. I might use some of my summer stamps by The Cat's Pajamas or the July release by CC Designs...

This is the card I did for last month's swap. The theme was red, white and blue. I had cut the cards and layers the night before the swap, throwing in the silver cardstock because I was planning on doing something with fireworks. But the next day when I started working on them again, I decided I didn't like the way the fireworks looked, so I had to come up with something else fast. So I dug out the Statue of Liberty stamp and thought it could work, but what to do about the silver? Aha! A few silver brads and my trusty Stampin Up star punch to the rescue! (Yes, two of the punched stars ARE the SU brushed silver cardstock, though it doesn't really look like it in the photo.) I like the way it turned out, but I don't want to have to cut it that close to be hit with inspiration again this month!

I just found out that some of the new Cuttlebug dies and folders have already been released -- right on schedule! If I had known they were going to come out when they were supposed to come out this time, I would have preordered a month ago! Must. Have. Them. ALL!

Supplies:

Stamps: Lady Liberty (Inkadinkado); sentiment (Stampin Up, from Land That I Love set, retired)

Cardstock: Stampin Up Brushed Silver, Whisper White, Real Red and Night of Navy

Ink: SU Night of Navy

Accessories: silver brads; SU star punch; SU 1 1/4" square punch; paper piercer; SU dimensionals; SU grosgrain ribbon (retired)

Onesie Card

It's been a baby-filled summer, so after having seen so many cute onesie cards I finally had to make one myself. The top got a little smushed so I had to make another one, but this is the one I photographed. I think next time I'll try the Cuttlebug polka dot folder instead of the polka dot background stamp and see how it looks. I used textured white cardstock for the scalloped trim around the neck and legs. It was also on this project that I discovered, much to my horror, that I didn't have any small white brads. How is this possible?! So I found some very light pink Bazzill brads that worked well. (And I have since picked up a pack of small white brads at AC Moore!)

So far the sneak peeks I've seen from the new Stampin Up catalog are fabulous! And I'm SO glad they have finally included the Cheers To You set in the U.S. catalog! It will be one of the first sets I get. Also loving the Halloween rub-ons!
Supplies:

Stamps: Think Happy Thoughts (polka dot circle), Many Happy Returns (tickled pink) and Polka Dot background, all Stampin Up.

Cardstock: SU Pretty In Pink, textured Whisper White

Ink: SU Pretty In Pink, Regal Rose

Accessories: Bazzill brads, SU Scallop Circle punch, SU Three For You flower punch, SU 1 3/8 circle punch