What's Cookin'

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!  I decided to post this card in honor of today's cooking and eating frenzy! Lol.  Although I won't be cooking up a storm today, since we'll be driving into El Paso, I WILL be indulging in the eating frenzy part of it. :) 

I made this cute card using MFT's a la mode girl, called What's Cooking.  Aren't these a la mode girls just the cutest!!  I've been stamping and coloring up a storm with them, so you can expect to see lots of a la modes for a while.

I pulled out my long neglected Prismacolors and OMS to color her in.  Her apron is paper pieced using some patterned paper from my new Circa 1934 paper pad.  I added some liquid applique to her ruffle and used Paula's glitter technique for her bowl.  I added a  few cream pearls from Pizzazz Aplenty to the patterned paper for some interest.  The vanilla and red stripped ribbon in from Stampin Up and the hat pins are from Maya Road.

I hope everyone has a wonderfully blessed day!  Thanks for stopping by!

PPRS Fall Stamp Sneak Peeks

Prickley Pear is releasing new rubber on Saturday and I've got some speak peeks to show you!  Saturday's release is full of great, versatile fall images.  Ready to see some in action? Lol.

I used some orange designer paper to cover the spine of this mini composition notebook.  Two cream panels cover the front and back of the book.  I stamped the trees in brown ink and added some copper glitter to the trees to jazz them up a bit.  A big fluffy bow and an orange hot air balloon completes the notebook.

I also made a quick mini card.  I always find myself needing small cards to attach to gifts or to send a quick thank you.  This card is just the perfect size.

I colored the pumpkin with prismacolors and OMS, added some pumpkin colored glitter to the design, and sponged with pine needle distress ink around the edges.  I added a craft panel embossed with a cuttlebug folder and sponged with distress ink.

Be sure to stop by the Prickley Pear blog, they *might* have something special going on over there, *wink, wink*.

Notebooks and Swaps

Today I have two cute projects to share.  The first one is a small composition notebook I made using some scraps I had lying around.  It all came together in about 10 minutes! 

I have a story about the swirl design on the bottom.  Last month I went to one of the local scrapbook stores and noticed a layout that had a gorgeous swirl embossed on the corner.  When I asked one of the girls where I could get the stamp, she refused to tell me!  She said that it was a personal stamp she had brought for the class and the class was no longer being offered.  Oh well.  Then, later that day, I went to Jo-Ann's and found the stamp!  It's from Inkadinkadoo and is part of a flourish stamp set.  And, the stamps just happened to be on sale that day.  Lol, how cool was that!  So much for secrets, huh.  Now, don't get me wrong, the lady was very nice and sweet but she just didn't want to share the information.  Maybe it's a store policy, I don't know... I'm just thrilled that I found it. :)

Anyways, I also have a card to show today.  I made six of these for an MFT swap that's being hosted on Splitcoast Stampers.  Reading Flopsey is one of my favorite MFT stamps, so I just couldn't resist using him for the swap, lol. 

Flopsey was colored with color pencils and OMS.  The library card and notebook page on the notebook and the card were made using Microsoft Excel.  They were so super easy to make and format.  Now, I have them ready to go and I can just insert phrases or journaling as needed. 

That's all I've got today, have a great weekend!

Bon Voyage

Hi!!  Boy it seems like my blog entries get further and farther in between!  Lately my stamping time feels just as scarce! :(  Well, hopefully things will get back to normal soon.  Anyways, enough about that! Lol.  I've got a few things to show you over the next few days.  Today I've got a journal and card I made for a lady at work that has accepted a new job out of town.  I thought I would keep the journal quite flat to avoid losing any of the embellishments while it's in use.

To make the journal, first I covered the spine with brown cardstock, then I covered the front and back with blue cardstock and some designer paper.  I kept the verse panel simple but added some depth with some sponging around both layers.  The large blue swirl is chipboard inked up with metallic pigment ink.  I covered the chipboard with UTEE, but left it uneven for added texture.  Everthing was attached with scor tape to keep it nice and secure.

I used MFT's Going Places stamp set to make her a good bye card as well.  The girl is paper pieced with the same dp used for the back ground.  I weaved the thin brown ribbon through the holes of the lace and layered it over brown cardstock die cut with MFT's large scallop border. 

That's all I've got for today, be sure to stop by tomorrow for a Prickley Pear sneak peek!

Miss You Much

Hi guys!  My stamping time has been at a premium lately and it's not likely to get better anytime soon.  Life's been busy, busy, busy.  So when inspiration struck last night, I gave in to it and came up with this:

Jolinne was previously colored with prismacolors and OMS and was patiently waiting for me to make her into something.  I wanted to use this image for a luggage tag and it's a big one at that, lol!  I tried to go for an aged, vintagey feel so I focused on browns and muted colors.  I also created a sleeve to slide the tag into.

The sleeve felt a bit bare, and I had an extra flower embellishment I made with the new PPRS dies and stamps, so I put the two together, and voila, a well balanced sleeve. :)  To make the flower, I die cut several flowers using craft cardstock and stamped them with the texted flower stamp.  I inked up the flowers with distress inks, sprayed them with pumpkin shimmer spray, crumpled them up and then flattened them out to dry.  I pierced a hole in each flower, threaded them onto a brad and shaped the layers to my liking. 

Don't forget to swing by the PPRS design team members' blogs this week.  Right now there's sneak peeks going on and starting the 18th we'll be hoppin' and giving prizes away!  See you then.

Earth Day Fairy and TCP Tuesday

This week's MFT challenge is to create something that uses trees or is commemorative of Earth Day.  I decided to turn Jolinne into a woodland fairy in order to depict Earth Day.

Jolinne was colored using prismacolor pencils and OMS.  Her wings were shimmered with gold shimmer spray using a reverse mask.  The papers are from Basic Grey's Origins line.

I also had time to play along with this week's TCP Tuesday challenge.  This week's challenge was to use cork in your card.  It's the perfect opportunity to use that huge roll of corkboard that I purchased on clearance at Michaels with the intention of using it someday.

The cork was thin enough to cut with a nestie in order to layer it on the background.  Now that I've got the cork out, maybe I'll use it on more cards.  It was super easy to use and adds some great dimension to the card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Spring Time

It's time for MFT's monthly guest designer contest.  Details are posted here at SCS.  This month's challenge is to think Spring.  That's quite a challenge since is about 32 degrees here in the DFW area!  So, I sat at my desk and tried to think warmish thoughts and then it came to me.  Last week as Aldo and I browsed through Home Depot, he commented on the vast amount of gardening stuff they were putting out.  My response was, "Spring's around the corner".  For some reason, spring time conjures pictures of gardening in my mind.  Rich soil, shovels, spades, packets of seeds, wheel barrows.  I don't know why since I have NO green thumb and I've never gardened a day in my life.  But there you have it.  So, for this competition, I made a pull treat to hold a packet of sunflower seeds.  I used the oh so perfect Gardener Flopsey and added a rustic feel to the treat with distressed and brown sponged edges, plenty of twine, and some spring like paper covered with flowers and strawberries.  Flopsey is colored with colored pencils and there's plenty of green smudged all around him, but the camera didn't catch it to well.

Be sure to stop by the MFT Lady's blog and get a sneak peek of all the goodies the design team cooked up for us.  Have a great weekend!

Supplies: hot fudge cardstock (MFT), flower paper (MME), strawberry paper (BG-Nook & Pantry), Distress Inks, Memento Inks, Gardener Flopsey stamp (MFT), twine, green ribbon, prismacolors, OMS

Merry Christmas

Whew, it’s been a crazy month!! After Thanksgiving, Aldo & I went on a cruise for his birthday and I’ve been playing catch up ever since then. Thankfully, most of my Christmas shopping is done. I’m missing only one gift, and I’ll pick that up later today. Below are a couple of things I’ve done with my new Pure Innocence girls. I apologize for the terrible photos, but my camera is acting wonky! The first project is a card I made using Jen’s sketch from Saturday. I colored the image with Prismacolors and gamsol.

Project Supplies:

Stamps: Pure Innocence Flower Girl – My Favorite Things

Color: Memento, Prismacolor, gamsol

Tools: Nestabilities, brads, ribbon

Paper: Bazzil, Bo Bunny, My Mind’s Eye

My second project is a gift tag (a big one!) for my mom’s Christmas gift. Michael’s has several chipboard albums in their dollar bin in various shapes. I like to keep some on hand for making unique cards or tags. This tag is using the Presents For You PI girl and some My Mind’s Eye paper. The top of the tag on the front is covered with pink stickles and the back is covered with red microbeads. This PI girl is colored with Copics and accented with liquid appliqué to make her hat and collar fluffy and glaze pens to color her buttons and the heart on her pocket.

Project Supplies:

Stamps: Pure Innocence Presents For You – My Favorite Things

Color: Memento, Copics, Brilliance

Tools: chipboard ornament, Mod Podge, microbeads, stickles, ribbon, Nestabililities, Liquid Appliqué, Glaze Pens

Paper: My Mind’s Eye

Merry Christmas!!

My First Bella Card

I LOVE the Stamping Bella lines but I only own one stamp and have never used it before today. I’m not sure why, since all their stamps are so cute! I used Curly Surpriseabella to make a birthday card for my aunt’s birthday this week (actually it was yesterday). Although it’s a pretty straightforward card, it took me over an hour to make! I was rather surprised when I looked at the clock and realized that so much time had passed by. Here’s the card I made for her:
I also added a gift card slot inside. When I make these flaps, I like to use my Tombo Mono Multi and stick an old gift card inside while the glues still wet to make sure I leave enough slack for my gift card.
Supplies:
Paper: Basic Grey – Gypsy; Bazill-Preppie
Inks: Memento – Tuxedo Black; Impress – Poppy Red, Lemon Yellow
Misc: prismacolors, OMS, ribbon, button, floss, pop dots, nestabilities

I’m taking a class tomorrow at Anthologies on how to make a decorative cover for candle holders using Ten Seconds products. I just discovered Ten Seconds and I’m loving all of their stuff. The videos on their website are hilarious. I still haven’t purchased any of their product since I don’t know how to use it, but hopefully that will change tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

Matchbook Treat Tutorial

A nice lady on SCS asked me to provide her the directions for making the coffee packets I made on this post. Feeling brave, I decided to make a tutorial to post on my blog as well. It’s my first tutorial, so I’m quite nervous about posting it. Please feel free to leave me some nice constructive criticism in the comments. Okay (deep breath), here we go.

Materials Needed:
Cardstock
Designer paper
Stamped images
Strong taper runner adhesive (glue glider pro used here)
Glue dots (mini and craft used here)
Scoring tool
Paper trimmer
Stapler
Embellishments
Goodies for inside your matchbook (coffee packets, tea bag, and Ghirardelli chocolate used here)

Step 1: Cut your covers to the selected size. The measurements for the different types of treats are as follows:
Coffee sticks: 3” x 10 ¾“ (4 sets can be made from one 12x12 sheet)
Tea bag: 3” x 8” (3 sets can be made from one 8 ½ x 11 sheet)
Chocolate: 2 ½“ by 7 ¼“ (4 sets can be made from one 8 ½ x 11 sheet)
Step 2: Score your covers at the following measurements on the long side:
Coffee sticks: ¾“, 6”
Tea bag: 1”, 4 ¾“
Chocolate: ¾”, 4”
Tip: If you are making several of these, score your lines on your uncut sheet of paper first and then do your cutting. This will save you some time.

Step 3: Attach your stamped image to a panel of your designer paper and attach to the front of your book. Align the top of your image with the score line for an even border. For 1/8” borders the panel and images should be cut to the following sizes:
Coffee stick panel: 2 ¾” x 4 ¼”
Coffee stick image: 2 ½” x 4”
Tea bag panel: 2 ¾” x 2 ½”
Tea bag image: 2 ½” x 2 ¼”
Chocolate panel: 2 ¼” x 2 ¾”
Chocolate image: 2” x 2 ½”
Step 4: Attach your goodies to the inside of the matchbook. For the chocolate and the tea bag, I use a craft glue dot on the back side to hold the treat in place. Align the bottom of the packaging along the bottom score line. For the tea bag, make sure you scoot the bag up to the top of the packaging as much as possible to avoid stapling your tea bag. For the coffee sticks, attach your sticks to a 3” x ½” strip of paper with staples. Place a mini glue dot on the back of the packets and use your tape runner to apply adhesive to the back of the paper strip. Align your paper strip with the bottom score line and press down to ensure good adhesion.
Step 5: Embellish your matchbook as desired. Here I used flowers, brads, and ribbon. If you are using ribbon, make sure you do not glue it down the front as you will need to gently push your ribbon up to add the staple at the end.

Step 6: Fold all your score lines with a bone folder and add your staple to the bottom of the packet. Remember to push the tea bag up again to avoid stapling the bag.

Variations: You can substitute the inside packet with lots of things: creamer packets for a coffee and creamer set, fun size M&M’s, small gummy bear packets, etc.

Tips: A Scor-Pal won’t work for this since the score lines are fixed at set intervals. If you are making LOTS of these, I recommend using a solid image or stickers for efficiency. Also, set up your steps for an assembly style project: cut out all panels at once; score covers first, then cut; stamp all images at once; set up all your embellishments; etc.

Does this make sense? If you have any questions, please feel free to post them in the comments.

Materials Used:

Cardstock: Bazill

Paper: My Minds Eye, Basic Grey, K & Co

Inks: Memento - tuxedo black, angel pink; Brilliance - coffee bean; Distress Ink - Weathered Wood

Stamps: MFT - Hot Stuff; Whiff Of Joy - Lizzie with Muff; Stampin Up - Bundle of Joy

Embellishments: ribbon, glazed brad, flower brad, Prima flowers

Coloring Tools: prismacolor pencils, OMS, Copics, Sakura Glaze Pen

Thanks for stopping by!

A Little Dirty

MFT is having another challenge over at the Splitcoast Stampers Forum!! This week's So You Think You Can Stamp challenge is to make a card that has an unexpected flip, swing, or twist. Kim purposely left the challenge rather vague which was driving my overly analytical mind B-A-N-A-N-A-S! Lol. After much thought and consideration, here's what I came up with:

I added an extra flair to this swing card by cutting the inside panel with a Label One nestie instead of a traditional rectangle. I decided to add quite a few different elements to this card, including: rhinestones, diamond glaze, lots of paper piecing, and liquid applique. Can you spot them all on the card?

Here's what the card looks like on the inside:

The girls skin is colored with copics and the tub, dress, and TV were colored with prismacolors. The floors were made using a journaling pen, a copic marker, and diamond glaze. The mirror in the bathroom scene is a metal flower with a tiny mirror fitted inside. The hem on the girl's outfit is puffed up with liquid applique that I painted pink with reinkers and a tiny brush.

Supplies:

Paper - Basic Grey: Sultry, black cardstock, pink paper

Stamps - MFT: Time for the Bubbly, Maid for You; SU: Baroque Motifs

Inks - Memento: Angel Pink, Tuxedo Black, London Fog

Extras - pink rhinestones, liquid applique, diamond glaze, metal brad flower, round mirror

Color Tools - Copics, prismacolors, OMS

This challenge took several of us out of our comfort zones in many ways. Although I like to stick to familiar territory, I'm glad I got the chance to participate and explore new techniques. I'm looking forward to the next challenges and new techniques. Care to join along? Check out the MFT forum for all the information and details HERE!

Double Dutch Challenge and Whiff of Joy

Double Dutch has a fabulous sketch for this week’s challenge. Since I had some time last night, I decided to make another card for Whiff of Joy’s design team challenge and combine it with Double Dutch’s sketch. Here’s the resulting card. I’m very pleased with the way this card came out! I used my brand spankin’ new Prismacolor pencils and gamsol to color in Willow. Since the sketch has a lot going on and I was planning on using several bling elements, I decided to keep the coloring soft. Her mug is coated with Diamond Glaze for a shiny finish. I also decided to add a rhinestone flourish to one of the corners and a clear button threaded with pink and brown floss for a finishing touch. All the panels are edged with Rich Cocoa ink and the smaller brown panel is distressed and edged with Angel Pink chalk ink. The shaker card was made using my classic circle nestabilities, acetate, pop dots and chunky glitter. Gina K has a great tutorial on making shaker cards here and here. If you’re interested in participating in Whiff of Joy’s design team call, please visit Katharina’s page for more details. You can also see the other two cards I’ve submitted here and here.

Supplies:

Paper: Bazill - chocolate brown; Basic Grey; pink cardstock

Inks: Memento - Tuxedo Black; Rich Cocoa; Versamagic - Angel Pink

Embellishments: pink rhinestone flourish; brown/pink embroidery floss; clear button; white chunky glitter

Misc: acetate; Diamond Glaze; classic circle nestabilities; Cuttlebug

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Whiff of Joy

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. Although I did do some papercrafting related stuff this weekend, I didn’t actually create much. I did, however, take one of the Whiff of Joy colored images and make it into a card for their design team challenge. If you’re interested in joining, please read Katharina’s post HERE.

I sized this card to 5 ½ x 5 ½ to keep the image proportional to the card. The yellows on this picture are a bit off. In real life, they’re much softer and muted. The light yellow background panel was stamped with the flourish in the Baroque Motifs set from SU in Memento Paris Dusk. The main image panel was softly sponged with a soft yellow ink to give it a glow, at least that’s what it looks like in real life! The sentiment is from the Michael’s dollar bin; it’s stamped in green ink then edged and sponged in blue and yellow inks. With such a beautiful image, I decided to keep the card clean and simple.

Supplies:
Paper: white, yellow cardstock; K&Co paper
Inks: Memento: paris dusk, tuxedo black, willow green; yellow ink
Stamps: Willow with Baby – Whiff of Joy; Baroque Motifs – Stampin Up; Once Upon A Time – Michael’s dollar bin
Misc: green sheer ribbon; pop dots

Thanks for stopping by!

Color Pencils v. Copics

Happy Friday everyone!

I recently started investing in coloring mediums for my cards. Now, I’ve used color pencils and markers in the past, but I didn’t really have a good understanding of which ones to use and how to use them. Since I’ve slowly been purchasing Copics and since they are so pricey, I decided to take a beginners class at Scrapper’s Boutique. The classes are given by the wonderful Jen Del Muro and it was absolutely FABULOUS!! Since then, I’ve been experimenting more with my markers and practicing my new blending techniques.

Now, I’ve also been following Paula Tracey's blog for a while now and realize the value of color pencils and OMS (odorless mineral spirits), so I recently purchased some OMS and a small set of Derwent color pencils. At first, this technique seemed so time consuming to an instant gratification type gal. But now, as I continue to practice with this method, I find that I’m appreciating color pencils more and more. For one, there is something therapeutic about coloring and blending and shading. It just seems to soothe me in a way that blending with markers doesn’t. Crazy I know. Another reason is I can buy way more pencils than copics with the same amount of money, so that tiny speck of frugality in me is very pleased.

I know that there are several people out there that are very attached to one coloring method or another, but not me. I like them both! I like the soft dreaminess of color pencils and OMS and I like the vibrant pop I get with copics. So for now, I will continue to practice and learn both methods and use the one that suits my mood and my card the best.

Here are some side by side comparisons of the same stamp using copics and color pencils. Now keep in mind that I only have about 12 copics and 12 color pencils. Also, I’ve only been coloring with copics sporadically for a few months up until last week when I attended Jen’s class and I’ve used color pencils for about two weeks now. So the work here is far from professional or technically correct! They’re just for comparison purposes. Thanks for stopping by.