First Card in a Long Time!

Had a chance (and the motivation!) to sit down today and get crafty with my new SU! preorder stuff. Here's a card I made using the set Vintage Vogue which will be available Jan 4th, 2010.

This set reminded me a bit of a SAB set called Best Blossoms and I based this card on a card I made using that set. You can see that card here.

I first cut a mask out to make the rectangle shape using a large post it note and then sponged the area inside the mask onto Naturals Ivory cardstock using Crushed Curry ink. The flourishes are stamped in Old Olive and the flowers in Rich Razzleberry. The big one is popped up and layered. I added some spritzing using a Razzleberry marker and a spritzing tool for some added interest.

Thanks for stopping by today! Sorry it's been so long between posts :)

Have a great day and a Happy New Year!

A Few Card Camp Cards

Hi stamping friends!

It's been a while since I've posted, I know. I've been taking it easy lately and hanging out with the family a little more and in the stamp room a little less. But this weekend I had to get in there and get the designed finished off for the Card Camp I am having this weekend.

Here are two of the cards we will be making this weekend.

Usually I get nine designs completed and struggle for that 10th. I knew I wanted to use the Holy Triptych set (specifically this image since I have not yet used it at a camp) and the Medallion background together. I went downstairs and took a break as nothing was working for me. When I came back up I came up with this in about 15 minutes. And now I do believe it's my favourite of the 10! Sometimes it just comes together quickly.


Colours for this are Rich Razzleberry, Not Quite Navy, Crushed Curry and Kiwi Kiss. The image is stamped in black Stazon and coloured with a blender pen.

For this card, I was inspired by the colours (Taken with Teal and Sahara Sand) from the Holiday Lounge paper (which I used for this card). I also used the stamp from the hostess set "Christmas Punch". The background is the retired Polka Dot stamp using Sahara Sand ink. I love that background and will likely never get rid of it! I cut a snowflake cut using a Sizzix die and the Big Shot, then tied it to the card using silver elastic cord. I think this one is my second favourite ;)


Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! Later in the week I hope to have a few more of my camp samples up to share with you.

Have a great day!

Gift Card Holder

Good morning!

Thanks for stopping by today :)

I had a chance to play in the craft space last week to come up with a few designs we will be making at my card camp coming up in a few weeks. If you are in the GTA and are interested in attending, please let me know! I have a few spaces available Friday the 13th 7-10pm (2 spaces), and Sat the 14th (3 spaces) 1-4 pm and 7-10pm (4 spaces).

The first card we will be making is a gift card holder. I asked a few of my regular attendees and they were keen to the idea of replacing a regular card with one that will hold a gift card. I decided to make it fairly gender neutral in case the recipient was male. Gift cards are so easy for guys so I went that route.

The belly band slips off and here's what you see inside. Minus my Visa, of course ;)

I have loads of old "In Colours" paper and stuff left so I chose Cranberry Crisp and True Thyme as my starting point. I know I have other holiday paper around and about but was unable to find it. I managed to find some retired "Four Seasons" paper that had a stripe pattern I could work with. For the gift card itself, I pretty much followed this tutorial by Julie Buhler.

I wanted to be able to write the to and from info on the front so I replaced part of the patterned paper with the Vanilla cardstock stamped with the details from the set Christmas Punch. The belly band has another stamp from that same set attached punched with the scalloped oval punch. Notice I punched a poinsettia out a second time and adhered on a dimensional? A fun little detail. Well, I think so! ;) I finished it up by rounding the corners off on the card. Make sure you round the corners of the patterned and Vanilla paper before adhering though!

I hope to have a few more of my card camp samples up over the next week or so. Thanks so much for coming to visit me! Have a great day :)

Some SUO Stampin' Palooza Stuff

Hi friends!

I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth! Truth is, I haven't had much time or motivation for stamping the past little while. September is such a busy month for me! I think I'm getting set in my new school but there's so much to do... Plus, I was feeling a bit bummed and felt like giving things a rest.

However, I HAD to do some stamping on Friday to prepare for the 5 Minute WOW presentation I (in a moment of foolishness) agreed to do at Stampin' Palooza yesterday! I chose to feature handmade buttons made from paper as outlined in this tutorial by Jenni. Holy cr@p was I nervous! There was something like 185 stampers there yesterday-what was I thinking?

Anyways, it went pretty well. Here are the card samples I made using the technique. Clicking on the photo should take you to my SCS gallery where I have listed the supplies. That is of course, if I have done things right!

I hope you like them :)







Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! Hope the rest of your day is great :)

Baby Boy Christening

Here's one of two identical (the cards are identical....not the babies) baby boy Christening cards I made yesterday for my friend and her husband (the godfather to both babies). I was still loving the sketch from yesterday and went with that for these cards. Inside the sentiment reads "on your special day". I have a Baptism stamp, but no Christening. Will have to add one to my collection :)


Cardstock is Bashful Blue, Brushed Silver and Whisper White. I embossed the sentiment and image from SU!'s Special Blessing stamp set in silver. Kinda hard to photo well due to the shiny-ness of the embossing. Sorry about that!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today!

DDIC11

Good morning!

The card I've got for you today is inspired by these magnets.

I used the SU! set Best Wishes and More to create this card inspired by the third set of magnets.


For colours, I chose Not Quite Navy, Rich Razzleberry and Baja Breeze. The sentiment is from SU!'s Thank You Kindly and stamped in white craft ink which was heat set. Rich Razzleberry polka dot ribbon finishes it off.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! Be sure to check out what the other Divas have in store for you :)


Anne

Chat

Chris

Julie

Keri

Have a wonderful day!

DDIC10

Happy Thursday!

Today is another installment of the Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge hosted by Lori. Here's the picture we were to use for inspiration. You can find this gorgeous bedding set here.


A few weeks ago I worked on this challenge and actually ended up using the card for my card camp last week. It is a Very Vanilla base with leaved from Lovely as a Tree embossed in gold onto Chocolate Chip card stock. There is a mat layer of gold cardstock and it is tied with gold cord. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and is stamped in Chocolate Chip. SU only, baby!


Check out what the other ladies have come up with for today. Make sure you stop by and welcome Anne to the challenge!

• Chat Wszelaki
• Chris Olsen
• Julie Warner
• Keri Brown
• Lori Rider

I know I have been a very bad blogger the past few weeks and I apologize, but I must admit I have been a little addicted! I feel like I am the last person on the planet to read the Stephanie Plum novels and I have been reading just about every chance I get. Love them! OMG that grandmother cracks me up! And, I am totally picturing Shemar Moore in my head as Ranger. I know, Ranger is Cuban, but I loves me some Shemar so it's all good... Anyways, there are 15 books and I've read 5 so far with the rest on order at the library. They are a pretty fast read and I'm hoping to have most of them done before I go back to work Sept 8th. I think I have read more this summer (not just this series but other stuff too) than I have the entire time since my kids have been born! It's been nice.

Anyways, hope you have a great day! Thanks for stopping by today :)

DDIC9

Good morning!

Today is another Divine Diva Challenge. Here's the picture that is to inspire us today.


I was drawn to the colour scheme, the flowers and the large white frame around the top. Here's what I came up with.


And it's SU! only! Imagine that! ;)

I pulled out the Big Shot and cut some flowers in Ruby Red using the Birds and Blooms die and used Old Olive to cut an image using the Little Leaves die. The centers were made using hand punches and a 1/2" circle punch. The middle sized flower is on a dimensional. I added a sentiment from Really Retro stamped in black onto Marigold Morning cardstock and finished it off with an Old Olive ribbon. The Marigold piece is layered onto a white base using dimensionals.

Check out what the other Divine Diva's have some up with for you today!

• Chat Wszelaki
• Chris Olsen
• Julie Warner
• Keri Brown
• Lori Rider

Have a great day! And thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today. I've been limiting my computer time lately as there's so much to do offline so I do appreciate when you use your time to come and visit me :)

CAS25

Good morning!

I've been trying to participate in some of the challenges this week. I've got two cards for you today using the Clean and Simple challenge (a sketch). The first card also combines the colour challenge for this week at Splitcoast.

For the above card, I used some textured Pixie Pink for the card base. I love the little extra some textured card stock gives a clean and simple card. The images are from Unity's July KOTM and Bevy of Butterflies. I coloured the images on white card stock using and Aqua painter with Pixie Pink, Apricot Appeal and Certainly Celery inks.

This second card uses the new level 1 hostess set from SU! called Out of the Box. It's an SU only card.

I pulled the colours Bashful Blue, Kraft and Vanilla from the Manchester DSP. The box is stamped in Sahara Sand which is about the closest Kraft coloured ink I have. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes. The elephant and Vanilla/DP layer are on dimensionals. I thought this set would be so fun to use with dimensionals and it's well documented how much I love to use them ;) I'm thinking this second card might be a card camp card for next week.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! Hope the rest of your day is wonderful and less rainy than it is here...

DDIC8

Design Diva time again!

The inspiration piece we were challenged to use is below and you can find the print here if you just have to have it!I was inspired by the colours for this card. I am finding that seems to be my starting point for most of my cards lately. I challenged myself personally to use SU! only stuff and to use some of the new catalogue stuff. I'm thinking I'll use this for my card camp coming up the second weekend in August. E-mail me if you are interested (I'm in the GTA-west of Toronto by the way).

Anyways, here's the card.


It uses the new Bermuda Bay cardstock and ink (marker), Kiwi Kiss (retired, but still much loved), white and Chocolate Chip. Pretty straight forward stamping on this one. Chocolate Chip ribbon finishes it off. The sentiment is from SU!'s Teeny Tiny Wishes.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! Don't forget to check out what the other ladies have come up with for this challenge :)

• Chat Wszelaki
• Chris Olsen
• Julie Warner
• Keri Brown
• Lori Rider

Baseball Season Begins

Hi all!

I am soooooo ready for summer! Long weekend coming up. Can't wait!

So, my boys started baseball this week. They are loving it! And I am loving taking photos there. They turn out sooooo much nicer than the hockey pics I took last season. They all seemed to have a weird colour happening from the florescent lights in the arena.

Nathan's love of baseball inspired me to create this card for his Thank You cards for his First Communion gifts.



I wanted to use the colours of the Toronto Blue Jays but I couldn't make the white work so I changed it up wtih Kraft. Much happier with this results now. Other colours are Brillliant Blue and Basic Black. The images are from Just Baseball by SU!. I stamped the background in Versamark on the Kraft paper and added the sentiment stamped in black from Family Phrases. This layout is from Natasha at Clean and Simple stamping. I'm pretty sure it was the 3/4" punch I used for the baseballs and mounted them on dimensionals. A length of Kraft taffeta ribbon finishes it off.

And now that I have your attention, I must show off my boys playing!


Thanks for stopping by today! I hope to get loads of stamping time in this weekend so I'll have some There She Goes eye candy for ya. Check out the new forum! There are challenges and chats happening so we'd love to meet you :)

Have a wonderful Friday!

CAS14

Well hello! Thanks for stopping by!

The card I've got for you today is for the Clean and Simple challenge this week at SCS which is to use the technique Rock n' Roll. I'm not much of a "technique" stamper, but I do love this one.

You can see details of how to Rock n' Roll here.


I used a soft colour combo of Pale Plum and then rock and rolled into Almost Amethyst with the butterfly stamp from the SU! set Great Friend. I stamped an extra butterfly on a scrap, cut it out, added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter with a 2 way glue pen and mounted it on a dimensional.

This baby is OLC, CAS, and SUO (one layer card, clean and simple, and Stampin' Up! only). Enough acronyms for you? :)

So. I am thinking that I am no longer in love with my camera. I've been disappointed with the shots of cards I've been getting lately. Plus, I am coveting the Canon Rebel my SIL just got but deep down I know that I should just bother to read the manual for mine and I'd get better pics! And that the Rebel is likely too complicated for me. I have one of those tent thingys to take shots with but it seems like a big o'le PITA to drag it out. Not to mention the fact that my hubby teases the heck out of me! It pretty much takes over the whole kitchen when I get it out with the lights and such and there are references to James Cameron filming Titanic/George Lucas filming StarWars and other such mocking by DH. It could also be the editing. I really don't have a clue beyond cropping and hitting what amounts to "I feel lucky" when fixing colours. So much to learn...

Anyways, thanks for stopping by! Have a great Monday :)

DDIC03

Hi friends!

I just noticed on my Feedblitz and Google reader combined, there are now 200 people subscribed to my blog! I am in SHOCK! lol I had no idea that there were that many of you out there :) I totally appreciate you coming by to see what I've come up with, even though it's not every day that I post and I don't do a whack of tutorials and all that stuff. If only I had the time!!! Bring on summer, I say!

So, I haven't been able to get much in the way of stamping completed lately. A bit of time constraints, and a bit of mojo. I've been hanging close to my family the last few days and not really dissappearing into my craft room for a few reasons :)

Anyways, today is the third Diva challenge hosted by Lori. Here's the picture we had for inspiration.



And here's my card.

I went with colours on this one. The yellows and greens made for a good card camp card in that you could give this to kids and adults alike. I did get some inspiration from a card posted out there in cyberland, but didn't save the one I was looking at. Sorry I can't give her props! If I come across it, I'll be sure to let you know.

Check out the other Diva creations-

• Chat Wszelaki
• Chris Olsen
• Julie Warner
• Keri Brown
• Lori Rider

And congrats to Nola who won the blog candy offered up by Jessica at There She Goes :)

Thanks so much for taking the time to look! Have a great day,



Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
Ink: Certainly Celery, Barely Banana, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Certainly Celery, Barely Banana, Very Vanilla
Accessories: ribbon (SU!)

DDIC1

Good Morning!

A little while ago, Lori (chanteuse on SCS) contacted me to see if I would be interested in participating in an Inspiration Challenge she is hosing on her blog. It's a bi-weekly challenge (bonus! Lots of time between challenges) so I thought, why not? Actually, it will be the first and third Monday of the month. Challenges often inspire me to create something I never in a million years would have thought to create on my own. Inspiration challenges are my personal favourites because there is so much room for interpretation. Great if you're not so good at following runes (like me!) And, best of all, they get me stamping! Motivation is always good for me, and sometimes needed. Plus, it gives you guys something to look at!

So, I present to you the Divine Divas Inspiration Challenge. Ta-dah!

Here is the inspiration picture we were challenged to work with.


I was inspired by the large brown flower on the pink comforter. Here's what I came up with.

I didn't have a flower image similar to the one on the comforter, so I decided to use my Baroque background stamp instead. I only inked up part of it with a Chocolate Chip ink pad and stamped it off to the side. The Stamp-a-ma-jig was used to get that sentiment just so, and a length of ribbon added to make a bow. The final touch was three small rhinestones added to give it a bit of shine.

I hope the bedding photo inspires you to create something! If it does, be sure to leave me a comment with a link so I can check it out. Or, you can upload at SCS using the keyword DDIC1.

Check out what the other Divas have come up with!

• Chat Wszelaki
• Chris Olsen
• Julie Warner
• Keri Brown
• Lori Rider

Hey, thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! Have a wonderful Thursday. It's almost the weekend!

CAS06

Well, hello!

The March Break is here and I could not be more excited! No plans to speak of, just hanging out and relaxing. Ahhhhh.....

I kicked off the weekend attending the SU! Regional conference in London, ON. What fun! We made some cool stuff and I'll try to post pics of it later this week.

In honour of the Regional, I've got an SU! only card for you today.

The Clean and Simple challenge this week was to create a card using inspiration from the site www.robeez.com I *adore* the soft soled shoes there! My boys both had a Canadian Flag pair when they were babies. Loved them so...

I chose to use this pair of shoes for inspiration. The shoes spoke to me and said "die cuts" so I obliged and used the Birds and Blooms Sizzlits to make the flowers. Did you notice that I reversed the colours of the petals and face of the flowers? Neither did I until just now. Oh well.... The sentiment was stamped in Basic Black ink using a sentiment from the Really Retro set. A piece of Certainly Celery twill finishes it off. This is the Sale-s-bration twill. A good tip I read is to run the twill between your thumb and a bone folder to soften it up before you use it. Great tip. I find it a bit stiff to work with but that trick helped me get a neat knot.

I am hoping that since it is March Break I will get a change to spend more time in the craft/crap room to create and get ahead on some of my DT stuff. We were planning to redo the room, but as I looked about at all the stuff I would have to pack up, I got tired. So it will have to wait until summer :)

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! Hope the rest of your day is great.



Stamps: Really Retro
Paper:Pink Passion, Certainly Celery, Barely Banana, Whsiper White
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Birds and Blooms Sizzlits, Certainly Celery twill ribbon

Another SUO card

I tried my hand at the OCC Challenge today which was to use 2 or more hearts on your card. I missed the "2" part and only used one. My bad. I'll still give it to hubby though as he won't care if it meets the challenge or not!



I used the retired set A Light Heart for this card. The love part was stamped in Regal Rose ink. I stamped the o again and then inked the small love sentiment up with marker and stamped it over the heart. It was punched out with a 3/4 inch punch and popped with a dimensional. I then layered it up with some Sweet Always paper and ribbon. It was corner rounded with a punch before adhering it with dimensionals to a Chocolate Chip card base.

Not much to this card. As I said, it's for hubby and quite honestly he doesn't appreciate the embellishments so they are not wasted on him! He knows that and is not offended. Straight and to the point. Love you.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! We've got a busy weekend ahead. Hope yours is great!

LSC205

Hi!

Here's an SUO card for you gals who come here for that :) The limited supplies challenge (LSC205) at SCS was to make a Clean and Simple or CAS card. Clean and Simple can be considered in the eye of the beholder, I think. I tend to think my style is fairly clean and simple. I don't do a whole lot of layers or embellishments together and try to let one element be the focus, be it a gorgeous image, beautiful paper or embellishment. Rarely do I combine the three on one card! I guess the challenge with CAS is to have the card look simple, yet finished.


I think I will use this card for my card camp coming up next weekend. Better get crackin' on my designs for that!

This card is pretty simple. I used the sketch from SC208 from Splitcoast. The flowers from Eastern Blooms are stamped randomly on the Pale Plum card stock in Pale Plum ink and also onto a Very Vanilla piece. The sentiment from Hugs and Wishes is stamped in Certainly Celery. It's layered up after using the scallop border punch on the celery piece and punching slots with the slot punch. It's mounted on dimensionals and then the ribbon threaded through and knotted.

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today! Hope the rest of your day is great :)