from my ink pad to yours

Pieced Sunshine Garden

This is  one of a stack of cards I whipped up with the Sunshine Garden Simply Scrappin Kit. The colors in the kit are So Saffron, Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery, and Old Olive. I applied the Certainly Celery and Baja Breeze dotted strips of paper to the bottom of the card and then cut curved pieces to go over them.  The stitches were done with the Signo white gel pen and the buttons are Apricot Appeal - from the Fresh Favorites I collection. The Sun in the corner is actually one fourth of a larger flower in the kit.

My inspiration for the pieced landscapte after seeing  Patricia Wyatt's work at a art show in Tubac, AZ in February.  My color palette for this card is much different from her lovely bright art but playing with these layers of pattern is a lot of fun.

Pillowcase Cards

Well, I don't know that "Pillowcase" is technically the proper name for this kind of layout but that is definitely what kept coming to mind as I put this lace and trim together. This reminds me of pillowcases that my grandmother emboidered for me years ago.

I began this card wanting to use some of the Old Olive Designer Series Paper and striped grosgrain I'd ordered last month. I was thinking it would have a whole lot more Old Olive but I really like the way it plays with the white. I love the embossed dots from the Texturz plates.  The additional skinny strip of DSP is applied with the 2-way glue pen and is meant to mimic the look of piping. The birds and blooms flower is sponged to highlight the layers with a So Saffron brad topping off the center. Finally, the Oval All stamp set and scalloped oval punch, from the new Occasions Mini catalog lend the perfect finishing touch.

Stamps: Oval All
Ink: Old Olive, Regal Rose, So Saffron classic pads; Regal Rose stamp and write marker
Paper: Whisper White, Old Olive, Regal Rose, So Saffron cardstock; Old Olive DSP
Accessories: Punches: Scallop oval, Large oval, Eyelet border; Sizzlets: Little leaves and Birds and Blooms; Old Olive striped grosgrain ribbon, So Saffron brad.

Pillowcase  Border with  western theme:

I couldn't wait to try this technique shown at the Minneapolis Regionals last Saturday. I simply brayered the damask texturz plate with Close to Cocoa classic ink before embossing a piece of Red Riding Hood cardstock with my Big Shot. The ink covers the unembossed part of the design. The subtle striped kraft paper from the Taste of Textiles collection could easily have an image stamped on it though I chose to leave it plain for this card. I used a leftover strip and star in the inside:

Check out these and other wonderful, new stamps and accessories in Stampin' Up!'s new Occasions Mini Catalog.

A Sahara Hippo?

This is for today's Technique Lover's Challenge which called for a recessed window in the card. I had embossed some images last night and been thinking about doing a card with Red Riding Hood and Kraft from the Sweet Slumber specialty paper pack.  This hippo seemed like she would fill all requirements nicely!

The hippo is colored with a blender pen and inkpads. The balloon (Crazy for Cupcakes) strings are just slivers of paper though it took me a while to make them behave. You can find directions for making the recessed frame on the link to the challenge in the preceeding paragragh. The kraft paper for the balloon is from the Taste of Textiles pack.

Thanks for stopping by!

Chris

Another String of Hearts

Sharon (Notimetostamp) has weekly challenges for simple cards and this week's challenge is to focus on love. Since I'm on a roll with my Heart to Heart punch I thought I would try another. These sure are quick!

The paper is called Candy Stripe and if you've been surfing Stampin' Up! blogs over the past month plus you've probably seen it quite a bit as it has been part of the Love You Much Bundle. The bad news is that tomorrow is the last day of the special which gives you 20% off of the punch, paper and the Love You Much stamp set. The good news is that if you wait until February 1st even though you will pay full price, these three items will qualify you to earn a free Sale-A-Bration set. Either time you order its a good deal. Just don't put it off it you want to use it for this year's Valentines! 

Love Birds

This weekend I'll be doing my first Sale-A-Bration event with my stamp clubs. Here is one of the projects we will be doing:

This project features the Sale-A-Bration set Congrats along with two colors I've been using so much recently: Baja Breeze and Red Riding Hood. I also used the bird from the Birds and Blooms sizzlets.  The heart is from the same punch I used for yesterday's post, Heart to Heart. I used the smallest heart in the punch right under the inside greeting which reads "on another year of happy togetherness!" Even though this punch is featured in Stampin' Up's Love You Much Bundle with the coordinating stamps you can see that I've found many other uses for it.

he'Artstring

A few days ago I was making a card for a challenge based on art work form Lang Calendars. (The card is here.) Anyway, the original piece had crayons lined up in a rainbow type arrangement. I tried and tried to get something that worked for this element of the challenge but eventually gave up. These hearts are the leftovers from my efforts. The crayons originally were shaded on the right side so that's why my hearts are shaded too. I did that with a Versamarker and Versamark pad. My Stampin' Up! downline is called The he'Artstringstampers, hence the name for this card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Chris

Three Gerberas

Gerberas are one of my favorite flowers but I've never been particularly good at growing them.  Last summer I tried them in the ground instead of pots.  They seemed to be a little healthier but smaller than usual. When I saw the Daisies #2  bigz die in the new catalog I knew it would be on my first order.  I'd have success with gerberas at last!

Here is a card I planned almost as soon as I saw the Sweet Slumber paper and the daisies #2 die.

I love using this layout with a freehand curve.  I just knew it would be fun to try with these polka dots and stripes. The daisies #2 die has three sizes of fine petaled flowers. This is the medium sized flower, layered three times. The center is punched from the soon to be released Sale-a-bration set Polka Dot Punches which was embossed in white on Red Riding Hood paper. I used a 1/2 in circle punch, layered it on a 3/4" So Saffron circle and used the 1/16" punch to make the dots around that.

This next card shows the biggest of the daisies, along with the fact that no scrap of paper is too small for an impact.

Knowing that such a skinny strip of those stripes can still make a statement helps to me to dig in and use the paper. The goofy stripes on the baja at the bottom are made with the Versamarker and Polka Dot Punches was used again for the So Saffron background and flower center. BTW, this is the largest flower.

Here is the tiniest flower:

Thanks so much for stopping by my "inkpad" today!

Chris

PS: Please check out the Links sidebar.  "Chris' Google Reader: Shared Posts" will bring you to a whole bunch of great, mostly Stampin' Up! projects I've found on other blogs.  Just click through on the big title if you want to get to their actual blog to leave a comment or on the little title (it's the name of their blog) after "via" to check out the rest of their artwork. One of my customers tried this out and told me it worked for her. Let me know how it works for you.

Parisian Breeze Pair

These are from a couple of Splitcoast challenges I did over the weekend while playing with a few things from the new Stampin' Up! catalog.

This first card was one that incorporates last Thursday's Ways to Use It Challenge: Pattern Pizzazz and Saturday's Inspiration Challenge: Lang Calendars. One of the calendars posted on the challenge involved the colors from my new Parisian Breeze Specialty paper and I needed to stamp some swirls on it to approximate the look of the calendar and meet the challenge to do something to my patterned paper.

As you can see stamping on the textured papers doesn't give the crispest image though I think the image (Stampin' Up!'s Baroque Motifs) I got works for the look I was trying to achieve.  I had tried stamping some words too but didn't like the appearance. So, I tried rub-ons and they were perfect.

The partially completed card sat on my desk until this morning because I couldn't figure out what to do about the bird element from the calendar and the corresponding empty space on my card. A new day brings new answers and I dropped the bird idea and added dressed up wide oval. I got the scallops around the wide oval with my retired Stampin' Up! scallop scissors - much easier than I thought. Boy, do I wish those were still available! The ribbon is from the Valet Ribbon Originals, buckle from Hodgepodge Hardware, and the flowers from the Pretties Kit. Oh yes, the background is three papers pieced together. This mimics the look of the original calendar. 

Parisian Breeze Card #2   Featured Stamper Challenge 103: Vicky Gould  based on this card

I used her color scheme but with a finer pattern. Actually, I meant to use this challenge for a bold pattern but got sidetracked. I really liked Vicki's idea to wrap ribbon through the punch edge opening but decided to do a little overkill by adding more ribbon. I added my pearls to flowers instead of putting them on the scallop edges. With such a small background pattern it didn't work for me to embellish the scallops. Like the first car this features the Parisian Breeze Specialty paper, Valet ribbon originals and the Pretties Kit. I was also able to try out my new jumbo wheel, Friendly Words and the White organza Ribbon. The slots are made with the scallop edge punch.

Thanks for looking!

Chris

The Time to Be Happy

Yesterday's Splitcoaststampers Inspiration Challenge came from Lang Calendars.  I was especially attracted to this image.  There are so many aspects of this that I liked: the black images on the warm shaded red, the checks at the bottom, the curved top piece.  I wanted to include all of these features in my card and set out to find some stamps that would work. 

If you look closely at the inspiration piece, you'll see that there are saffron colored details in the black images. The best set I had to get this look was Garden Whimsey. 

I started with the bottom of a piece of So Saffrom card stock, scoring a 1/2" line from the bottom so that I could make a relatively straight line of checks with my versamarker and black embossing powder. The red section is embossed with black ink on the upper part of the So Saffron card and then brayered and sponged with Red Riding Hood ink. I trimmed the black piece into a curve and used the curve to trim the curved saffron band.  The curve and checks are not perfect lending a handmade look - as does my less than perfect embossing.  My versamark pad needed reinking, but luckily I could use my black marker to fill in where needed. 

I've been having fun with new toys from my first Spring/Summer catalog order, so check back as I'll be posting more work soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Chris

Quick Happy Heart

Just a quick post today. This is a simple Happy Heart card I did a while back, using the same package of Baja Blue I used in the card yesterday.  I find that color irresistable!

Another thing I'm finding irresistable is the new Stampin' Up! Spring and Summer Catalog that arrived yesterday...so much fun!

Other supplies on this card: Chocolate Chip ink, taffeta ribbon, and card stock; Baja ribbon and DSP, Whisper White card stock with the corner punch. Stamp set: A Happy Heart (which is in the new catalog!!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Chris

2 in 1

I intended to get to yesterday's Splitcoast Color Challenge 201 but didn't so I set out to combine it with today's Sketch Challenge 211. Remind me not to try that again. I felt like I dilly-dallied forever.

Here's a synopsis of how I dilly-dallied my way through this card:

• I knew I wanted to use the lovely Baja Blue Designer Series Paper for the background layers and cut them according to Rox's measurements. These have Not Quite Navy layers behind them and they were all laid down on a kraft card.
• Then I chose the layers for the focal point piece, Kraft, Not Quite Navy topped with Whisper White and cut them out with the Kraft piece according to the measurements.
• THEN... I started going through my stamp sets looking for a greeting or image for the white piece. No red tones in the color combination meant no hearts (insert sad face!). I finally settled on Upsy Daisy, a lovely set which saw ink for the first time today! I chose "you're on my mind since it seemed to go with the subdued colors.
• I knew I wouldn't get the whole image on the card and the message would be tight so I got out a piece of vellum cardstock and stamped each stamp from the set into the corners using the stamp-a-ma-jig. I do this because a) I've long since lost track of the plastic sheet that came with the stamp-a-ma-jig and b)by using vellum I can slip the sheet into the stamp box and skip this step in the future. (Kurtis has a stamp-a-ma-jig tutorial on splitcoaststampers if you haven't used one of these before.) Then, I stamped the message near the top using the positioner and added the flowers at the bottom stamping off a few extra times for some depth.
• Once I got to this point I laid things out on the card and decided I wasn't happy with the look of my background layers so I turned to polka dot layer over to the layer you see pictured. Now I attached all the lower layers, leaving the focal point layer loose as I this didn't seem quite right.  After putzing a bit I decided to trim about 3/8" off the bottom to make it flow better with the strips.
• I almost set the whole card aside when I struggled with the embellishments. I tried the Baja buttons from Button Bouquet. I tried several sizes of silk flowers which all looked to shiney  and bluish. Finally I remembered that I had tons of NQN buttons and pulled those out.  They helped the flowers somewhat but they still needed to be toned down so I sponged 4 of the 1 1/4" flowers (Pretties Kit) with Creamy Caramel ink and tied little bows in the buttons with some linen thread. These were layered and applied to the card with mini glue dots.
• I nodded to myself in approval and hoped I could get a decent picture...and promised myself to only do one challenge at a time in the future!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Chris

Love Ewe

Have you used the Stamp-a-ma-jig, Stampin' Up!'s version of a stamp positioner?  That is what I used to replace the "Thank"  from the ewe stamp in the Pun Fun set with the "Love" from the cup (Love you a latte!) stamp. Either stamp, of course, would make a great Valentine card!

You can line words up like a charm with a postioner! The cuttlebug background picks up on the idea of the ewe's wool. I love to use just a bit of black and white to bring life to mostly white cards. The white dots are done with a signo white gel pen.

I have quite a few other cards to post but need to pick the right time of day for a photo shoot.

Thanks for stopping by!

Chris

Origami Box

I made this for today's Technique Lover's Challenge #203 at Splitcoaststampers. Instead of paper and lightweight chipboard for the cover, I used Close to Cocoa card stock and the cardboard that comes in the designer paper packages. The box it self is made with Chocolate Chip Designer Series patterned paper and was much easier than I thoug it would be.  If you follow the link to the challenge you will find directions and a pdf file with folding diagrams.

I'd pulled out a bunch of new and retired Valentine stamps thinking I would make some chocolaty, cherry type concoction.  But, by the time I got done sponging the edges - to camouflage the white core - I had decided to keep it masculine and simple.
I added the chocolate ribbon from the retired Theater Ribbon Originals (which is included in Stampin' Up!'s Inventory Blowout special). The congratulations stamp is from a Sale A Bration set that comes out in February and it lends just the right sort of sophistication to this box. I stamped it with Chocolate Chip craft ink intending to clear emboss it, but once again decided to leave well enough alone.  The softer matte look seemed right for the soft sponging I had done.

Thanks for stopping by my "inkpad"!

Chris

Bella Blossom's (not quite) Leather and Lace Story

Here is the first Bella Blossom card I made a few months ago. You can't see the embossing as well on this one as on the card I posted a few days ago. I had started by trying to emboss both the blossom and the stem onto Bella Rose designer series paper.  The leaves came out OK but the flower on the Pink Pirouette pattern had the bolder print on the reverse side showing through so the blossom is embossed on cardstock. The pieces didn't quite look as nice as I had imagined they would - the embossed portion didn't contrast much with the unembossed details. SO, after embossing, I sponged both pieces with Chocolate Chip ink  and wiped off the excess.  Voila, this really made the detail of the stamp pop. 

Now, I know I mentioned Leather and Lace (one of my favorite '80's songs) in the title. There is no leather and lace in this card but the contrast of two seemingly clashing elements exists with the dotted swiss and embossed pastels against the weathered wood tone card base. This base was made by rubbing a Chocolate Chip ink pad roughly over Kraft cardstock. While I usually try to see that the parts of my cards blend, I kind of like the way these disparate pieces work together. Maybe it's the Chocolate Chip that ties things together. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Chris

Top Note Bella

This is one of three of these roses that I have clear embossed.  I originally did this to use this stamp with designer paper but quickly discovered that sponging over the embossed image allowed me to outline the image and emphasize the stamps detail. Now I get out the Versmark and clear embossing powder every time I use this stamp. 

This color combination, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery, Sage Shadow, and Bordering Blue came from a color challenge that Kristina Werner posted a few weeks ago. (I'm just now getting around to posting my take on the color combination.) The beautiful shade that results when Pale Plum is clear embossed was a delightful surprise. It gives me a whole new perspective on Pale Plum which has never been one of my favorites. I think I'll be using this color combo again too. I used a Versamarker on the edge of the Top Note layer and clear embossed that too. It seemed like I got a little carried away with the embossing but it did seem to help tie the card base to the rose.

Recipe:

Stamps: Bella Blossoms, Polka Dot

Ink: Versmark pad and Versamarker

Paper: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery, Sage Shadow, and Bordering Blue

Accessories: Top Note Big Kutz, slot punch, Sage Shadow grosgrain, dimensionals, clear embossing powder

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit!

I'm back with today's Splitcoaststamper's challenge

It's been months since I've posted but I'm glad to tell you that I'm done with school and hope to be posting more frequently. I still have to take boards to get my RN license and, of course, start some job hunting but hopefully you'll be seeing me around here more often.

Today's Technique Lover's Challenge over at Splitcoaststampers features fun fold that reminds me of a Mother's Day card I taught years ago.  I'll have to see if I still have the set I used so that I can recreate it. The folding itself is really quite easy.  I just started with a 8" square piece of designer paper, folded it in half, opened it and folded it in the other direction. Open it again and fold it in half diagonally once. Open it again and fold a diagonal in just one of the four squares so that this diagonal fold is parallel to the first diagonal fold. Here is how the folds end up looking once I've added the front and inside message piece. 

I paper pieced the monkey with paper from Bella Rose and Very Vanilla stamped with the Twill background stamp in creamy caramel. Actually, I did this last summer and am just now finding the perfect home for this little monkey. The whole folded piece is layered onto a 4 1/4" square of Red Riding hood cardstock.

Recipe:

Stamps: Sock Monkey, Twill

Inks: Basic Black, Chocolate Chip

Paper: Red Riding Hood and Very Vanilla cardstock, Holiday Treasures, Bella Rose, Red Riding Hood and Baja Breeze DSP

Accessories: 12" paper cutter with scorer, dimensionals, Red Riding Hood taffeta ribbon, Chit Chat Rub-ons

Thanks for stopping by my "inkpad".  I've got more to show you ... just be patient as I become reacquainted with my camera and the changes with Typepad while I've been away from the blogging world. 

Tale of Two Flowers

 

I was inspired by this morning's SCS Color challenge to remake a card I designed for my stamp club this last spring. That card was inspired by the beautiful wedding invitation that we had received to my niece Kessia's and her (now) husband Nate's wedding. I used the posie type stamp from Bloomin' Beautiful with Real Red  for the first card. I embossed the Floral background stamp (Kessia's invitation was wrapped in a folder that was like kraft metallic printed with a black floral pattern much like the Floral background stamp) on kraft for the lower border. The layout itself comes from another floral card I did. 

In today's card for the challenge I just changed the flower to the more traditional looking rose from the retired Flower Garden set, used Rose Red instead of Real Red for the flower. I also added and additional layer of ribbon, using black organdy over a strip of grosgrain. 

Both cards are done on a base of Ivory Naturals cardstock. 

Intricate Dry Embossing...NOT

I saw this done at convention a few years back but never tried it until I saw it as the Technique Challenge on SCS this morning. Why, oh why, did I wait to try this?! I used the border stamp I hadn't yet inked from Beautiful Borders, stamping first with Baja Breeze on Baja Breeze cardstock. Then I took out my stamp-a-ma jig and stamped just a tiny bit higher and to the right with Whisper White craft ink. I used the same technique with the message but maybe next time I would just do that in white. Mount on white card and tie an indispensible white taffeta ribbon.  I can't wait to try more of these. Alas, I'm heading off to take care of school stuff...

Thank you so much for stopping by my inkpad!

I never knew...

that I could have so much fun with the Big Shot.  Frankly, I invested in it knowing that Stampin' Up! would eventually be adding tools for dry embossing but how fun are these die cuts! Add some Bella Rose designer paper along with some luscious Red Riding Hood taffeta and Voila!

The message is from the hostess set Best Yet.  I dry embossed the stripes with my Fiskars cutter/scorer. Scallops are with the scallop border punch. I sponged the edges of the Red Riding Hood flowers and curled them a little with a pencil.

Torn Paper

When I first saw Julias' Ways to Use It challenge on Splitcoaststampers yesterday I thought of this old favorite.  But a challenge shouldn't be to repeat something I've already done but to try something new. Right? Anyway, I thought about it awhile and decided that I would use torn paper to make my card without actually incorporating the paper itself. 

I decided I wanted to try some torn edge stems but didn't trust myself to tear just the way I wanted to so I painted the curve I wanted with a wet paintbrush on a quarter sheet of copy paper. Then I tore along the watermarks and taped the pieces back giving the stems the width I desired. A late thought was to add the leaves which I did the same way, painting them and them sort of punching them out (with my fingers while the paper was still wet) to form a small leaf shaped stencil.

I used the flowers and words from Happiness Always and Summer Sun and Pumpkin Pie markers along with Kiwi Kiss, Old Olive and Chocolate Chip  inkpads. The corner is punched with Stampin' Up!'s larger retired corner rounder. The olive ribbon is also retired from Stampin' Up! The card base is Kraft.