from my ink pad to yours

Bluebird

We are in a nice but small Chicago hotel room (Just brought our DD#2 down for Orientation week at University of Chicago. It's quite a tradition they have; we said goodby to the sound of bagpipes) and it's too early to turn on the light and wake my husband up so I thought I would post another card that I did for a swap last month.

This adorable little bird and daisy is from Fun and Fast notes. I stamped first on a piece of kraft cardstock and then stamped the bird again on Brocade Blue and Summer Sun. I cut out the bird, sponged him n his back and tummy in Brocade and mounted him on the kraft image with a Stampin' dimensional. It was kind of putsy but I also cut out the little beak and put that on the bird with a gluestick. It looks OK without it but the rythym of three Summer Sun elements does take the card up a notch.

I colored the flower with my white Signo gel pen and glued a punched Summer sun center on it. I drew in the imperfect circle to mimic the drawing style of the stamp. The stem is lightly colored with a Sage Shadow marker. I made the sun by punching a corner of a Summer Sun scrap with just four scallops of the round scallop punch. More sponging: lightly with only orange. For the grass I just used a piece of Wild Wasabi double stitched ribbon. It covers up the greeting: "thanks...I needed that". The layers behind the main image are Basic Black anc Brocade Blue.

Here's the part where you will have to use your imagination (I'll have to add a picture of the inside later.) On some cards - on the inside - I stamped just the greeting, cleaned my stamp and then used a marker to ink just the flower. You'll notice that there is a space in the stem where the beak overlaps the flower. I used a stamp-a-ma-jig (positioner) to stamp the flower so that the space went over the "..." of the greeting. Follow me??? Well, I'll try to get a picture of that posted when I get back home.

Well, I think I can turn on a light now - I've got to do a little studying before we go spend the day downtown and by the lake.

Have a nice Sunday and happy stamping!

Dare to Sparkle!

Here is monochromatic card I did for a swap last month. The layout is taken from a card I received from Kathy Hilden in a shoebox swap at convention. I often include monochromatic cards in beginner stamping classes. It shows how you can get a classy card before you've collected a wide range of colors.

Stamps: Fabulous Flowers, Rough Texture Jumbo Wheel

Inks: Mellow Moss classic, Always Artichoke classic, Whisper White Craft

Papers: Whisper White (3 ¼ x 4”), Always Artichoke (3 ½ x 4 ¼”) and Mellow Moss (5.5 x 8.5”)

Accessories: Mellow Moss taffeta ribbon, Moss Gingham ribbon, Two Way Glue Pen, Jumbo Wheel handle, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Horizontal slot punch

Love Note Box

Quick post for today as I'm really supposed to be studying... I've had a few questions about the Love Note Box so I am posting the cut box I had marked for the stamp camp. I hope these make sense. Sorry about the photo quality but I think it will give you the idea.

Added note: In case you are being referenced to this as a stand alone post, the box is originally shown here.

The bottom is a 7 inch square, scored at 1 3/4" on all four sides and cut as shown. (just ignore the ink stain on the left side, OK?)

Stamp your top before scoring and cutting. The top is 5" square and scored at 11/16" on all four sides and cut as shown. Use sticky tape to fasten the squares on the corners to the inside of the bottom or cover. I used my 12" Fiskars cutter/scorer for this. It is helpful to mark your 11/16 measurement on the ruler with a piece of removable tape.

I used 3 1/2" strips of Purely Pomegranite to make my scallops. I usually start in the middle and work toward the sides so that they are pretty close to symmetrical. I attached these strips to the bottom of the box.

I used a 1 1/4" x 12" strip for the band I put around the box.

Enjoy!

Punchy Love Notes

This is one of the projects we did at my stamp camp last month. I had seen a box with a So Saffron cover stamped with Purely Pomegranite flowers and black and green dots on Splitcoaststampers but can't find it now to give credit. Please let me know if it was yours so that I can give you credit. I love the color combination (Purely Pomegranite, Wild Wasabi, Basic Black - the three ink spot colors that come with the stamps and 3 flower punch in the Three for You Punch box PLUS So Saffron cardstock) and think it's amazing how much character a little dot stamp can give. I added the Pomegranite scallops and the band made with the scallop and circle punches.

Here are some of the cards I made to go in my little box:

I punched the additional flowers by (while holding the punch upside down) punching one set of three in the lower middle of the card. Then I lined up the punch with two flowers so that I added one flower to the side. I repeated this on the other side. If you have used the spiral punch you might be able to imagine how I got the idea.

The inverted Pomegranite scallop layer is just a leftover piece from the scallops I punched with the Slit punch.

More on hwo to make this here.

Maybe one of this year's Christmas cards?

Yes, it's been a very long while since I posted (that's why you should use google reader or some other reader service - so you don't have to keep checking in to see what I am or am not up to). I think that I mentioned quite a while back that I'm going back to pick up a 2nd bachelors degree in nursing. Anyway, I started 2 weeks ago. There are 16 of us that will spend much of the next 16 months together. So far it's been busy but very enjoyable!

Along with going back to school comes getting a new laptop - you wouldn't believe how much we do online. Even though I got mine back in July just before the Stampin' Up! convention, I'm still figuring things out - like the most efficient way to edit pictures etc. Last week Amy Westerman of Heartfeltgreetings shared a box she made to take photos of her work. I tried it out and am finally getting the pictures edited to post.

This is a card I did for the qswappers group last month. I had signed up for this set and waited until almost the last minute to get my swaps done. It seemed like none of my ideas were translating to paper very well. I kept thinking it would all be easier if i could only use some organdy ribbon. So, finally I kicked myself and decided to use what I had that was current and that was Kraft taffeta. So out came the Kraft cardstock. I added a little gold, Ivory Naturals, our new STRETCHY gold cord and voila! I'm now in love with Kraft taffeta, and of course Holy Triptych. I normally love to color but this one seems do well without it - great for making Christmas cards.

You might want to note that the left edge of the Kraft piece was swiped through the encore pad - the sloppier the better - and embossed.

Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Holy Triptych
Ink: Gold Encore (Versamark would do)
Paper: Kraft, Ivory Naturals
Accessories: Gold Glory Embossing Powder, Gold cord, Kraft Taffeta, Dimensionals