Silhouette Thanks

Here is another simple card from the shopping trip in New Hampshire. One simple little stamp from Hero Arts, Elegant Eggplant card stock and white run through the Cuttlebug; ribbon, a wedding charm from Michael’s and the card is done.

I forgot the grapes . . . those are little crystals from Hero Arts.

I love this stamp. It reminds me of my two youngest grands. It looks like something they would, too.

Still thinking spring.

Clean and Simple Birthday

This little number id really simple. I ran some scraps through the Cuttlebug with a flourish folder. Stamped the middle piece and attached them to the front of a card. I stamped this little flower at Kate’s this weekend and colored it with Copic markers. I think she told me this set was from Verve. I used SU oval punches. The paper is Raspberry Fizz from Papertrey Inc.

Late Valentine’s and Birthday

I should have posted this Monday instead of today.

It is really my granddaughter’s birthday card.

Stamps are Stampin’UP! as are the papers. Markers were used on the stamps.

Dots are Cuttlebug Embossing folder and brayered lightly with black.

Nestabilities  Frame 8 and Classic Ovals.

Paper Therapy

Thank goodness for the need to create!

This was truly perfect timing for a big project. I found out Friday that I will not be in the classroom next year. There have been serious changes in the school. A Reading Specialist position was added. That is where I will be going. Thank goodness I have a job still. This position will be under a microscope!

The vision is that all children will be reading at grade level. . . just a little pressure!  Better than the last time I left the classroom. That was an administrative jump that was not my idea!  Anyway,

I made this pile of thank you cards for a shower gift this week. My friend and I also made 70 cello bag toppers for the cookie favors.

    The card is made with an old SU set I don’t even own. Papers are Pretty in Pink, Basic Black, Whisper White and Georgia Pacific white CS for the base. I used the Cuttlebug Swiss Dot Embossing Folder and the Martha Stewart Lacy Heart Edge punch. The ovals are the small and medium oval punches from SU.  Such a nice way to celebrate the adoption of a beautiful little girl!

 

 

 

     Have a great Monday!

Bridal Wreath

Here again is a little card that went unloved by the magazine gods. I have fallen in love with the Fine Linen paper from PTI.
It is so rich when used with ivory. The pearl accents are left over seed pearls from my daughter's wedding dress. I only have thousands left that I have stored for 8 years, might as well use them. If I did this again I would emboss the sentiment in an ivory, but didn't have any.

PTI: Wreath For All Seasons, sentiment from Delightful Dahlias
Cuttlebug: Swiss Dot embossing folder
Score tool, Medium scallop Die , Mat Stack die, PTI
Lace accent, seed beads attached with Crystal Effects, SU

Hope you like this one.

Monarch Magic

      Fall always brings lovely visitors to my garden. This fella was sunning himself on the rocks on a cool morning. I couldn’t have staged a photo this good. Between the mum and the fallen Veronica flower is shouted the end of the season. He was the perfect addition! We managed to raise several Monarchs this year. I let the milkweed grow in my garden (much to the neighbors dismay!) and was rewarded by several eggs. I gave one to my grandson for his school, kept one at home for my husband to monitor during his recuperation time, and took 3 to school. Every one of them was a male! Many of the ones that visited the garden were male as well.

 

They are off on their way to Mexico, now.  Here is the card I made with the photo.

  Papers are Lovely Lilac, Whisper White and Basic Black from SU. Stamp and scallop die are PTI. Chrystals are from Hero Arts. Cuttlebug E

mbossing Folder

Wedding season

Here is a little card for a wedding or Anniversary. Fast and deadly.

Image: KLM Digital design colored with Copics
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Paper: PTI white (image); SU Real Red; GP white
Accessories: Ribbon, Nestibilities, Cuttlebug and Embossing folders, Pearls




Now, outside to worship the sun and get some vitamine D. Maybe it will chase away this creepin crud I am starting to come down with. Why do teachers get sick on every vacation?

Ahh, a day to create

Hello all,
I hope you all had wonderful holidays. I finally decided to take a day to create. I needed to make an anniversary card for my in-laws for today. We had a big party for them this afternoon. A good time was had by all, and a lot more food on top of the holiday goodies. Diet, here I come.
If I stamp I won't eat!

This first card is a Mo Manning image. Her work is simply incredible. I thought this was perfect for an anniversary. There are several challenges out there addressing "NEW".
I decided to use this card. A new chapter in their lives, from a very long book.
See Mo's Challenge here .
For the No Time to Stamp challenge, here, I used a new technique to me, combining Copics and Prismas. I will be doing this more!

Three Clovers Designs challenge #45 was Celebration! 60 years worth!
Papers: SU Always Artichoke, Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive; GP white CS; DP from Provo Craft Scrap Pad
Image: Mo's Digital Pencil
Color/Ink: Copic markers, Prismacolor Pencils, Opalite Golden Mist
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Sizzix dies, MS fern punch. Primas, dimensionsl tape, Nestabilities


This next card was an attempt at combining challenges. The first is Mojo Monday's 119, and the second is SCS Color challenge CC251.
I used an image from KLM Digital Designs, colored with Copics and Prismacolor pencils.
Papers: SU in challenge colors
Accessories: Cuttlebug folder, Nestabilities, assorted letter stamps, SU hat punch, Hero Arts crystals.


Hope you enjoy. Until next time, create with reckless abandon.

Water lily season

 

I finally got a chance to play with this image. It is one of the digital images from KLM Designs. It lends itself well to layering. The droplets were created by removing the Copic green on the lily pad then, dotting on a bit of Crystal effects. The background paper was a piece of polished stone technique made ages ago. The darker piece is another of those scraps that I made to look like  batik fabric. All papers are SU except for the Scarlet Jewel layers from PTI. Image was colored with Copics. Green layer was embossed with a Cuttlebug and embossing folder.

Thanks for looking.

Friendly Turtle

Sorry, this photo isn't so hot. His squares were drying and I forgot to photograph him with the others when I had daylight.

Just a real simple card I can send to "Sport-o". Image, KLM Digital Designs;

Copic markers; paper, stamped sentiment, ink, Crystal Effects, Stampin'UP.

For the Birds

I had great fun with this one. We have many song birds in our yard and it is so nice to listen to them. Then again, there is this Cardinal who insists on whistling up a storm at 5:30 am. Naturally, he sits in the tree right outside the bedroom window, and the dogs get all excited because they think someone is whistling to them. Wingnuts!

This little Chickadee is nice and quiet.

Image, KLM Digital Designs; papers, sentiment stamp, ribbon, Stampin'UP ; hardware, Cuttlebug, embossing folders, Nestabilities

All day Stamp Fest!

This card says it all.

I finally decided to just take a whole day and finish the images I started to color weeks ago. My best friend came over last night and we just "played" like the old days. So . . . while all the stuff was already out I decided to take advantage. This is one of the KLM Digital Design's release this month. I colored the cottage with Copic markers. The papers and ribbon are Stampin'UP's Artichoke. A Cuttlebug folder was used for the background white. This next card seems to look a lot like one I did before! This is one of my favorite clowns. I colored the clown with Copic markers. This was an experiment with the air brush feature of the markers. I don't have the handle that holds the markers and directs the spray, so it is a bit of an akward two-handed deal. Papers are all SU; ribbons are Papertrey ; layers cut and embossed with Nestibilities from Spellbinder.

Will post some of the others next week as this weekend is pretty filled with the grandchildren.

Happy stampin'

Marathon stamping

Arrrgh!! It has begun. The crunch to get all the boxes unpacked, bulletin boards up and the eternal paper chase for the beginning of school is stress to the power of  . . . 10. In the 5 years I have been in this school I have moved 3 times. Is there a sign on my back or something???

Anyway, I thought I would take a few minutes today to load the marathon stamping projects I mentioned in last post. I didn't make as many cards as my friend did. I was busy designing. She was cranking!!! At last count she had completed something in the area of 90-100 cards if not more. She was mass producing of course. That goes pretty fast once you're in the groove.

This card is so much fun and FAST! I want to make them for all the teachers on my team for gifts. The composition paper is made from the PTI set Faux Ribbon. I used SU Soft sky and Rose Red inks, corner rounded one corner and punched the side with a hole punch. The celery leaves are SU's 5 petal flower punch. The white embossed flower came from the bridal section at Michael's. They market it as bridal confetti. A little pricey to throw, but it's GREAT for cards. The rust flower in the center is one of my old school punches. A drop of Stickles in the center, mount it on  SU Groovy Guava DS paper, Stamp sentiment from PTI  Floral Frenzy, and done.

This next one is also a mix of companies. The paper is all SU, WW, black, Wasabi, and Saffron.

The background,  stamped lightly in SU craft white is SU hostess set Garden silhouettes. The focal image is from PTI's Floral Frenzy. The stem is in Wasabi but the flowers are PTI colors. The image is a two step and lends itself to their Perfect Match Hybrid Inks. 

Cards just don't get faster than this one. The only fussy part was that I cut out the stamped scallop because I wanted the blue scallop to peek out a bit. This SU So Many Scallops from the Sale-a-bration promotion. The card was embossed on one side with the Cuttlebug Snowflake embossing folder. A bit of bling and a touch of organdy and here it is.

It's very white . . . but so is snnnnnnnn . . . snnnnn  . . . I can't bring myself to say that word  yet!

These are also using the Cuttlebug embossing folders and the SU hostess set Oh So Lovely (I think). I used whit craft for the texture stamp. Once it was dry I stamped on the flowers and then used reinkers and a blender to watercolor them in. The sentiment is from PTI Floral Frenzy and framed using their Corners and Borders oval and rectangle. I love the sentiment. You could use it for anything . . . nice or not ;-)

Well the phone rings . . . time to go back to school. 

Lost Post

I lost my homework, really!  I posted these cards last night when I gothome from NH. I should have known better than to try then! I was too tired and obviously forgot something and lost the whole thing! D****! Oh well, I'm up and had coffee and done some cleaning so I guess I'm awake. 

My daughter is inspiring! She is so talented and just knows what to put where. She kept us challenged all weekend so I will have several things to share this week. 

We had a great time and made quite a  mess of her kitchen and dining area. I'll have to share the pictures I took. 

This is a really  simple little card and only took a few minutes to make ( unlike the cherries). It was another SCS challenge. They are really fun. I used all SU papers and inks.  Stamp: Memory Box

   Papers and Ink: SU WhisperWhite, Black, Basic grey, Pomegranate

   Accessories: Cuttlebug, organdy ribbon, Fiskar punch, Hero Arts                                 pearls, blender pen

 This was an exercise in using teeny scraps. The thin 

strips are trimmings from another project. The images were stamped on really small scraps, cut, sponged and layered using dimensionals. Everything here was SU except the little crystal in the corner and the accent dotting, which is hard to see. Anywhere there was a dot I went over it with a Sakura glitter pen.

Stamp: SU, One of a Kind

  PTI, Mixed Messages

Paper and inks:  Not Quite Navy, Bayou Blue, Soft sky, DS               and Texture

Accessories: Sakura glitter pens, Hero Arts crystal,               dimensionals

This is a double challenge at Split Coast.

SC182 and CC132. I had been meaning to do the sketch challenge but was busy with kids. I really like this size and think I will work on some gift sets using this. 

Stamps: PTI, Beautiful Blooms and Mixed Messages

Paper and Inks: SU, WW, Chocolate Chip, Rust texture,

River Rock DS

Accessories: Signo white pen, GG ribbon, Nestabilities, Blender Pen

Another batch

Here it is!  This is the one I lost on yesterday's post. Never did find it. Probably floating in cyber space somewhere! Do all the dots do funny things to your eyes?  I didn't think of that when I started punching all those spots. I was getting sick of the same old shapes. I just finished a lesson on geometry and the rhombus came to mind. ( Geometry in  grade 1? Go figure.) Then  I decided to make the giraffe "out of the box".

Kind of fun. I added a little hair to the critter with my cocoa pen, punched the spots away with hand held punches, rimmed them with a Sakura iridescent pen and popped it up on the rose layer. Papers and ink are Apricot and Regal rose with a swipe of bashful blue shading on the white. The ribbon was white grosgrain until I used my markers on it. 

Monochromatic (sort of) was the idea for this. I'm am still limiting 

myself to what I can use. I am finding it so much easier to create  as the images are already done and I don't have to agonize over what set to use! No choices on paper either, only the scrap box. I am having a field day with the DP paper. I have so much and rarely use it. Not any more. This is the saffron DSP, mustard accents, banana ribbon, a teeny little crystal from Hero Arts. The coloring was done with water color crayons and blender pen. These are really growing on me. "Friend" is from the Beautiful Blooms set at Paper Trey Ink

Oh, I feel like I'm entering the big time! I finally used my Nesties and my cuttlebug. They were burried in a drawer. I really think limiting myself is turning into a good thing!

This is a  Lochhart stamp from Ellen Hutson. I used the WC Crayons again and an aqua painter this time. Cut and embossed the layers with my one and only set of Nestabilities ( for now ). Layered them all with dimensionals. Papers are River Rock ( get it now w

hile still available), bashful blue and artichoke. I used the SU small oval punch and the designer lable punch. The ribbon was ivory and I added the green and blue marker. 

The message is from PTI. It is their Mixed Blessings set.

Well, "Cookie" is here and wants to dance. Good exercise, right?

Have a great night.

Day to Play!

Well now this has been a fun day. Hubby is golfing and after the weeding and sweeping and laundry, I did nothing but play!

This card is for my grandson who is nearly 3 and nearly potty trained. 

He loves to get mail so I thought I'd send this. I had not touched this set. My intent was to use it for scrapbooking but there are just so many hours in a day. 

I am trying to use some of the papers that I have in my scrap pile. So far I have not had to cut into a new piece of paper. 

This one is for the little "peanut". She is only 3 months but how can

grandma send a card to the "big boy" and not to the  little "peanut"!

Stamps: Wild About You

Paper and inks: SU Whisper White, Brilliant Blue, So Saffron

Chocolate chip, Pretty in pink, retired DP

*** Fun trick - I didn't have ribbon I liked for the pink card. I used my 

markers and drew lines on white grosgrain ribbon. Just keep the motion smooth, don't stop or you'll have a blob.

This one is just for fun. I used the Cuttlebug for the background.

This is the cutest croc/gator if there is such a thing. The expression 

is perfect. Again, I used my markers to make my own striped ribbon.

Papers and ink: Green Galore, Celery, Whisper White, Navy

The corners of the navy layer were punched out to expose the green  behind. I didn't want to introduce a new color and had no hardware handy in green.

Will post the rest of the cards I did with this set later.

Have a great evening.

Simple again

Very simple layers off center make this easy but interesting. I Cuttle bugged the eggplant strip then layered it up. The Paisley Background just finished off the look. A word or two and some ribbon and you're done.

Scraps anyone?

Even if you only make a few cards a month, there are always scraps. Trimming results in those long skinny strips, yes? Here is a card that will use those various sizes. I NEVER resize them. I use them at the width they are and add a stamp or two, Cuttle Bug, attach to the standard envy sized card and it's done!