boo-hoo-hoo!

I'm going to throw myself a little pity party and you're all are invited! Last week, I caved and ordered the SU! Big Shot, yes, the whole shi-bang which included the Top Note die and the Pillow Box die. My intentions were all good...I justified paying "ah-hem" 2-day shipping so I could get my hot little hands on the aforementioned dies before Halloween, only to realize AFTER I'd payed the extra shipping costs and received all the other Big Shot goodies that I'd forgotten to check the backordered list, ah-hem...that's what I get for being greedy and impulsive! 'Nuf said.

I had visions of the cutest darn clear pillow boxes filled with Halloween in all it's sweetness (M&M's); those cute Frankenstein treat bag holders that I saw on Cambria's blog; and who knows what else my creative mind COULD have processed and created?! All for naught, and guess what: my dies are being delivered tomorrow, 10/31/08! That's a day late and a dollar short in my world...unless I suddenly feel sick, light-headed, in need of a mental health day?! End of pity party...I'm looking forward to all the delightful Thanksgiving and Christmas goodies I'm going to make with my Top Note and Pillow Box dies.

Here's one quick and cute card that I made while I was wallowing in self-pity. It's quick, cute and Big Shot-less! A 2x3 inch card decorated with a strip of black and a Curly Label punch stamped with "boo" using my retired Typeset Lower Alpha. I just love the way Kiwi Kiss pops when combined with black and orange--KK is perfect, in my humble opinion!

Eat your corn!

I stopped over at Kim Hughes' blog the other day and came across this designer challenge layout she'd done for Scrapbook & Cards Today Blog. I'd been wanting to scrap this picture of George using my All Things Fall set from The Rummage Bin (Cornish Heritage Farms), and Kim's sketch gave me the perfect opportunity to do just that.

The So Saffron cardstock is stamped with the corn image in Versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder and then sponged around the edges as is everything on the page. The patterned paper is Basic Grey's 6x6 Recess pad, and the horizontal banner piece is Tangerine Tango secured with jumbo brads (source unknown). I am just loving my new curly label punch and used it to highlight the "eat your corn" sentiment. I was tempted to keep adding to the page, but decided that if I'm going to scrap once in awhile, I need to keep it simple so that it doesn't seem "overwhelming" to me, kwim?!

Have a great day, and remember to {eat your corn}!

Featured Stamper Sunday!

Every Sunday there is a Featured Stamper challenge over at Splitcoast, and this week's feature is Speedystamper. She's got a great gallery with lots of cards that you can create in a short amount of time...guessing that's the origin of her name, wink!

So glad I decided that I had time to participate in the challenge because it gave me a chance to use some new yummies from SU!: Alpine Ribbon Originals, Ski Slope Designer Series Paper and the Felt Flurries, which I've used before. This card came together super quick with a bit of Chocolate Chip craft ink on my Joyeux Noel sentiment from Cornish Heritage Farms.

Click here to find out how to play the FS90 challenge.

Click here to see the card I cased from Speedystamper's gallery.

Have a great Sunday!

Give Thanks!

I've been wanting to put this set from The Rummage Bin, All Things Fall, available through Cornish Heritage Farms to good use since we are in full-fall mode around with Halloween knockin' at the door, so I chose to use it for Jen's Saturday Sketch For You To Try this week. I just love the corn image and the coordinating sentiment, "Eat your corn!", along with so many others in the set. To see the set in its entirety click right here.

The colors here are Old Olive, Kraft and Very Vanilla with a couple punches of Really Rust. I know, not necessarily your traditional fall color scheme, but I really wanted to use OO craft ink on Kraft for some reason...one of those color combos that just pops in your head, KWIM?! I started by stamping Baroque background in craft ink and then sidelined it with a strip of OO stamped with Aida Cloth in Versamark. The off set layers are stamped with various All Things Fall images in Versafine Onyx Black and then sponged on the edges with Ranger Distress Ink in Walnut Stain.

Punches, punches, punches! As you can see I've used three wonderful punches, all from SU!: large oval, curly label and word window, flanking each with embellishments--button/faux thread and a mini library clip. To highlight my scarecrow, I flipped the image over and dry embossed a frame around him using my Score-Pal. My scoring/embossing lines aren't perfect as you can see if you look closely, but I just told myself--that's the beauty of a handmade card! That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Have a great weekend all, and be sure to hop on over to Jen's blog for the original sketch and to see what she and guest designer Nancy Riley have done with the sketch. Then, get yourself on over to the blogs of the rest of the gals: Carole, Shannan, Susan and Amy!

cuppa for my daughter

I decided it was high time I participated in one of the Thursday Ways To Use It (WT189 for today) challenges. Julia Stainton is the challenge hostess each week, and today her challenge includes highlighting just one word in your creation and to also incorporate a bit of pink in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness week. Click right here to play along with WT189.

My card uses Kim Hughes' set Little Gal and paper from TAC's Mimi paper pack. The cuppa (that's the fun way to say "cup of", thanks Sherrie/BCSherrie!) is paper pieced with the designer paper, and the tag featuring "daughter" is from a sheet of punch-outs included in the pack. Edges are sponged with Close to Cocoa ink and buttons draw your attention to the sentiment. I made this for my daughter, Kendra whom I've been thinking about a whole lot lately, and she's now at the age where we can go get a cuppa together!

Here's a fun picture of Kendra and George...they {heart} each other! The photo was taken this summer and it's one of my favorites!

A 4-pack!

First off, if you've never seen Lauren Meader/mytime's onesie creations, you must know that she has graciously shared not only her creation of these cuter than cute ditties, she's shared a tutorial for them on her blog. To view Lauren's onesie card tutorial, click right HERE! Thank you so much, Lauren!

Last night I finally sat down to create one of these onesies and ended up with a 4-pack! I wanted to make some sort of Halloween themed onesie for my niece and goddaughter, Brea, and once I got started, the ideas just kept flowing! To achieve more of a boy-look, I omitted the scallop edge on two of the cards, using my coluzzle circle template for the outside edge. Below are individual shots of each.

Supplies
Paper: Ghostly Greetings DSP, Basic Black, Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: scallop punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, coluzzle, large oval punch, googlie eyes, cuttlebug, red tag alpha dies

Dots, dots & more dots!

Last night, I got this bright idea that I really needed to pay some attention to my Pacific Point cardstock and ink. There have been bits and pieces of it here and there in my work but has never been in the spotlight. Well, in order to make my Pacific Point card pop a little bit, I decided to add a little Kiwi Kiss, and you can see where this is going...Kiwi stole the show! She's such a gregarious color, that she fits in with just about any old color you put her with--namely Riding Hood Red and Pirouette Pink in this case!

I used two different sized dots from PaperTrey Ink's Butterfly Kisses to make the dotted background. A strip of Kiwi behind the Kiwi satin ribbon and a Kiwi curvy label featuring images from Best Yet and Cute & Curly embossed in white finish each card. You can see how Miss Kiwi stole the show--sorta the Marsha, Marsha, Marsha thang all over again!

If you've been neglecting your Pacific Point, give it a whirl this week and let me know how it all worked out for you!

Too cute to spook!

It's time for another Dirty Challenge, and this month's challenge is being hosted by Emily/Waterpixie. Here are the deets on her Spook or Treat challenge:

Challenge Focus: Create a Halloween card or treat holder.
Required Element: Googlie Eyes!
Restricted Element: No pumpkins!

I decided to go one step further and not even use a traditional Halloween image, but instead chose Kim Hughes' funky chicken from her Comforting Hugs set. Actually, it's a pumpkin dressed as a chicken, but don't tell Emily!

Be sure to check out the Dirty Challenge gallery for all kinds of spooks and treats!

Deets
Stamps: CHF Comforting Hugs; SU! Best of Cluck (retired)
Ink: Versafine Black
Paper: Ghostly Greetings DSP, retired SU! Halloween dsp (chix), Kiwi Kiss, Black, Vintage Violet (retired)
Accessories: Googlie Eyes(!), Chills & Thrills rub ons, scallop edge punch

Best Yet in Baja

Sometimes things just work out when you give 'em a little time. That was just the case with this simple little card that came together with a few things lying around on my cutting table and my stamp table. I found this scrap of Old Olive cardst ock from which I'd punched out a curvy label (I think for my Frankie baby card), set it against a piece of Baja Breeze cardstock and fell in love with the color combo. I tried a few different things and nothing was working, so I let it sit overnight and picked it up again the next day. I'd originally wanted to stamp an image from Pocket Silhouettes in the curvy label opening, but it just wasn't working for me, so I opted for this sentiment from Best Yet (SU! Hostess Level I set) instead and used the Pocket Silhouettes image across the entire piece of Old Olive as more of a silhouette instead of a main image, and I {love} the peaceful, calming look and feel of it.

Below is a full shot of the entire A2 card. The strip of designer paper on the bottom (inside) of the card is from K&Co. Classic K Margo 12x12 pad, and the chocolate twill is from Taylored Expressions fantabulous online store--great products, great value!

Thanks for stopping by; have a peaceful afternoon.

Noel

I don't know how she does it every week, but Jen just keeps coming up with one great sketch after another, and this week is no exception! I really enjoy being part of the SFYTT team because it really forces me to think outside the box and get out of old sketch habits. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to have a "go-to sketch", actually that's a good thing, but to improve your stamping skills (or as Napolean Dynamite would say: skillzzz), I really feel that you need to try new sketches, new technics, new bellies! 'Nuf said.

With the long skinny rectangle as the focal layer, I once again went to my American Art Stamp stash and decided on this image from their cling mount set called Holiday Fun. The other stamping includes the sentiment from CTMH's Say It With Style set, and the snowflakes from CHF's Joyeux Noel. All stamping is done in Ranger Walnut Ink (love that stuff) with the exception of the snowflakes which are stamped in Versamark and embossed with Irridescent Ice embossing powder. Paper is Kraft, True Thyme, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White and Basic Grey's Figgy Pudding 6x6 pad. As for the embellishments, or as I like to call 'em--bellies: Felt Flurries snowflake, Basic Grey buttons and that yumm-O ribbon from SU! found in the holiday mini catalog.

Ok...here's your chance to stretch yourself: play along with Jen's sketch today and if you decide to upload your creation to SCS, just use the keyword SFYTT; and/or if you have a blog, leave a link to your blog in the comment section of Jen's blog entry for today. Last but not least, don't forget to check out the SFYTT team, including Jen and her super-duper October guest designer Nancy Riley.

Shannan
Susan
Carole
Amy

Have a great weekend!

Sketch Challenge 198

For yesterday's SC198 over at Splitcoast, I used some yum-O designer paper from Close To My Heart (CTMH) called Boom-Di-Ada--ain't it purdy?! The only stamping, sad to say, is the sentiment in Ranger Walnut Ink. I also used that same ink for a bit of sponging on all adges. The flower is cut from a piece of the designer paper, smooshed in Versamark and then embossed with Glassy Glaze ep. Sentiment is also from CTMH.

Thanks for stopping by today, and if you'd like to play along with SC198, click here for all the deets!

Halloween jar & tag

I was invited to a bridal shower this past weekend and after striking out on their gift registry at Target, I decided to pick up this cool jar, fill it with Halloween candy and add a fun Halloween tag. I thought the happy couple might have fun using it on their first Halloween and then finding other fun uses for it. A few thoughts that came to my mind were: fill it with all that extra change to save for a fun vacation; put hubby's stinky socks in it; refill it with holiday candy; store old wine corks in it; or if you're a "Martha" type, fill it with something that looks really cool! You get the idea, right?!

I've been a frequent visitor of Michelle Wooderson's blog Mish Mash lately, and loving her shabby--vintage style, I wanted to put a little Mish Mash in the tag. I used the pumpkin from Carved & Candlelit and the kitty-cat from Ghostly Greetings, stamped onto Kraft paper. The sentiment is stamped on Old Olive and cut in banner-fashion, underscored with a row of dots from PaperTrey Ink's Faux Ribbon set. A jumbo eyelet at the top with a length of black hemp secures the tag to the wide twill bow. A bit of my favorite May Arts black/ivory striped grosgrain and a smattering of black ink with my color spritzer tool finishes it off. Not sure if I really captured Mish Mash style, but I was pleased with the result.

Teacher of the Year!

One of my good friends and co-worker was awarded Teacher of the Year last week, so a few of us are taking her out for lunch today. Of course, I offered to whip up a congratulatory card, and this is what I came up with. I was a bit short on time last night, so I used this card as inspiration.

I'd created the original card while I was on the Dirty Dozen Design Team over at Splitcoast, so if you're a Fan Club Member, you'll be able to view my original card; if not you won't be able to see the card, BUT what a better time to join--tomorrow will be the unveiling of October's DDDT Gallery! The price of a Fan Club Membership is well worth it for all of the extra perks you receive--read all about it right here!

Ok, back to today's card, which is very simple--very minimal. I used the apple from the Rummage Bin's All Things Fall available through CHF; sentiment is from SU!'s Hugs & Wishes. Colors are all SU!: Riding Hood Red, Summer Sun, Kiwi Kiss and Pacific Point. Ink is Kiwi Kiss, RHR and Palette Noir Black. That's about it!

Have a great lunch today; I'm planning on a good one!

Ahoy, Matey--it's yer birthday!

Jen's Saturday SFYTT worked beautifully for me this week as I needed a birthday card for my teen nephew's birthday which just so happens to be today. Happy Birthday, Grady! A little of the pirate's booty is comin' yer way!

I just got this new Kim Hughes set, called Ahoy Matey-Pirates, last week from CHF and was itching to use it...love the ship silhouette, and who can resist a parrot-pirate, eh matey?! Speaking of my parrot-pirate...he's entirely paper pieced with cardstock for bold color. I initially tried coloring him with reinkers and an aquapainter, but I just wasn't satisfied with the results (guess I need some of the Copic Markers that everyone is using, huh?), so I tried the paper piecing and really like the results. There is a bit of gold on his earring and toenails, he he!

I think the rest of the stamping speaks for itself (no pun intended...Polly want a cracker?!): the ship silhouette stamped in Versamark on the Chocolate Chip panel; the tiny skull/crossbones stamped repeatedly on the olive circle; and the gold embossed chipboard circle frame/perch. I decided that I needed a bit more gold incorporated, so I used gold cording for a few hand stitches on the top and bottom corners of the CC panel, but not too many because I didn't want to cover up the pirate ship!

Be sure to check out what me hearties have done with today's fun sketch! Don't forget to stop by Jen's blog for her creation along with October's Guest Designer, Nancy Riley's...sure to be some eye candy there for ya!

Amy S.
Carole
Shannan
Susan

A {grown-up} Halloween treat!

I found these notepads at (where else?!) the Target $1 spot and thought they'd make a fun Halloween treat for the grown-ups. Keeping it simple so that I didn't cover up too much of the spooky scene on the bottom right corner, I used a simple band of cardstock cut from (retired) Eggplant Envy and Basic Black and topped it off with a Halloween medallion of sorts, stamped and embossed using TAC's fun Halloween set Glitter Goblins.

The inspiration for the Halloween medallion came while visiting my of my favorite blog spots, Mish Mash, and she'd embossed a Halloween tag and it looked so cool that I just had to try it myself. You can see Michelle's creation here.

Here's a full shot of the entire project:



Be sure to stop by tomorrow for another fabulous Sketch For You To Try!

Sketch Challenge 197

Determined to participate in a Splitcoast challenge this week, I chose yesterday's Sketch Challenge and here it is in all it's holiday glory! Christmas must be on my mind, and it may be due to the fact that the new SU! holiday ribbon and felt snowflakes in addition to my CHF set, Joyeux Noel are sitting in plain view on my stamp table, just callin' my name!

There's very minimal stamping and maximum embellishments per my usual style, but I'm happy with the mix of textures, layers and bellies. After sponging the edges of my sentiment panel, I decided to do the same with the Cuttlebug'd panel, and now I'm disappointed that I did that--dirty snowflakes aren't as purdy in my book. Oh well, that's the beauty of stamping--I can always make another one! The curvy Chocolate Chip tab is simply a curvy label punch folded in half--gives it a nice vintage look I think.

Thanks for stopping by today, and if you're looking for some sketch inspiration check out this week's sketch challenge over at Splitcoast by clicking right here!

Glitter, Goblins & Ghosts!

I guess the title of this post is a bit misleading, because as I look at these cards--there's not one speck of glitter to be found, no goblins hob-knobbing, and not one (visible) ghost! However, that's the sentiment on this fun new stamp from The Angel Co. (TAC) that I just picked up from my good friend and TAC demo, Mary. The set is called Glitter Goblins and you can view it here. I kept the stamping pretty basic and simple on both cards, just in case I decide to mass produce either one, but you could easily add a little glitter on the designer paper or on the stamped images themselves. I did add a couple of googly eyes to the 2nd card just because they make me giggle every time I use them and what better place than a double "O"?!

Have a glittery day, and hey--thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Stamps: TAC Glitter Goblins
Ink: Versafine Black
Paper: Ghostly Greetings DSP, Kiwi, Pumpkin, Basic Gray, Basic Black
Accessories: button, circle punch, ribbon

Joyeux Noel

Before we even start talking about stamping, I just have to give a few snaps to the folks at Cornish Heritage Farms! Besides the fabulous stamps they offer in high quality, deeply etched red rubbah, their customer service and shipping is out of this world! And, on top of that they offer Club CHF--a customer appreciation program that automatically takes $ off your order when you've reached various levels on top of free shipping for every order over $35! Snap-snap-snap!

I'd been looking at this set, Joyeux Noel, for some time and finally took the plunge last Wednesday, got it Saturday in the mail and sat down yesterday to stamp with it (how's that for an impatient stamper?!). I love that this set can be so versatile as seen in my cards today--one more classic and formal, the other more cozy-country.

The first card showcases the largest of the snowflakes stamped in Palette Noir Black as is the sentiment on a jumbo curvy label from a sheet of Daisy D's punch-outs. The rest is pretty simple: a strip of Riding Hood Red and a wider strip of Crate Paper's 5th Ave. designer paper with a few buttons for pop.

The 2nd card is a Baja Breeze base with layers of Kraft, RHR and Chocolate Chip. The snowflakes are stamped in RHR ink and the sentiment in Palette Burnt Umber with a color wash of Baja over Believe. I desperately wanted to incorporate my new SU! striped ribbon, and decided to secure it with 2 buttons actually sewn on with Linen Thread. The piercing was an afterthought, so please be generous and don't scold me for crooked piercing.

Kiwi Skinny!

I decided to turn things upside-down a bit with Jen's sketch this week and with my use of non-traditional Halloween colors, with the exception of black. Pink Passion and Kiwi Kiss were still in my head and on my stamp table from the card in my previous post, so I decided to change it up a little and use those colors along with black for my leggy witchy-woman! And, since she's so darn tall and skinny, I had to flip the sketch to accommodate her, he he!

Just a couple of notes on the stamping part: my skinny witch is colored with reinkers and a blender pen; her black boots, hat and cat, as well as the pink portions of her skinny outfit are all shined up with Crystal Effects (even though its a bit hard to detect in my photo).

Jen has a new and fabuloso guest designer lined up for October--Nancy Riley/stampinat6213, so be sure to stop at Jen's blog to see what those two have done with the SFYTT. Also, check out the other witchy-women (just kidding, girls!) while you're out blurfin' around, and if you can play along, remember to use the keyword: SFYTT when uploading to SCS, and/or leave a link to your blog on Jen's blog.

Carole
Amy S.
Susan
Shannan

Supplies
Stamps: AAS Halloween2
Paper: Bella Rose dsp, Black, Kiwi, Pink Passion
Ink: Palette Noir Black, Kiwi & Pink Passion reinkers
Accessories: blender pen, Chills & Thrills rub-ons, Crystal Effects, scallop edge punch, clips asst

merry!

I was browsing through the latest issue of my PaperCrafts magazine the other night (actually wrestling it away from George before he shredded it) when I spotted a really fun color combo of red, green and hot pink featured on a Christmas card (pg. 67 of the Nov/Dec 08 issue if you have it). I was inspired to create this fun little ditty, keeping it simple and hopefully fresh at the same time.

Thanks for stopping by and have a merry morning!

Supplies
Stamps: Typeset Alpha lower; PTI Green Thumb (dots)
Paper: Kiwi, Pink Passion, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White
Ink: Craft White, Kiwi, PP, RHR
Accessories: scallop & circle punches, button

Color Inspiration

If you've never hopped over to Kristina Werner's blog before, you must do so--a must! Each week she hosts a color inspiration challenge of sorts, and although I usually check it out, and drool over her color swatch each week, I've never participated. Well, today is the day my friends! Above you see the graphic from her color inspiration--it just shouts "Autumn"!, and below is my card using her color combo.

I ordered this set through CHF, called All Things Fall by the Rummage Bin, and decided to finally cut into it. Mr. Moose is a bit lonely...I suppose it's the middle of the rut or some dang thing, and he's lookin' for Ms. Right!

Supplies
Stamps: CHF All Things Fall; SU! Sanded
Paper: Au Chocolate dsp, Pumpkin, Kiwi Kiss, Vanilla
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: CTMH button

Monkey business!

Have you ever made a card and didn't know if you really wanted to share it...you liked some parts but not the whole? Well, this is one of those cards! It's a combination of this week's SCS Color Challenge 186 (Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip & Really Rust) and Sketch Challenge 196. It's also a combo of two different stamp companies: American Art Stamp's Women and My Favorite Things sentiment (from the naughty set, as I call it--winky-wink!). The part of this card that I'm not crazy about is that the sentiment just doesn't quite fit, and of course I mounted my layers on the base BEFORE sizing up the sentiment...ever done that before?! I'm also not overly crazy about the big Baja button bc it really doesn't match, color-wise, and it's supposed to, but I'm going with it! The parts that I really like about this card are the Really Rust panel with my flying lady stamped repeatedly and the main image panel itself.

Accept my apology for sounding a bit whine-y about this one...not meant to come off that way, just one of those love/hate cards that I'm guessing you may have had the same experience with at some point?! Ü

Almost forgot to say...thought I might just leave this in Ed's work truck some morning--ha! He won't care about the big button or the sentiment, he'll just think I'm getting "fresh" with him!