W(h)ine...it's a good thing!

I actually think "wine" is better than "whine", but like many others, I fall into the "listen to me whine, please" trap for which I'm so thankful for good girlfriends--they're the best listeners! I don't have too much to whine about this week: I'm still employed, my family is healthy and relatively happy, and the big guy up there is always lookin' out for me! What more can a girl ask for, right?! Enough about me, on to this week's SFYTT which does, in fact, have something to do with my chatter!

I chose to use a great set from Our Craft Lounge--Going Gourmet for today's sketch. The wine bottle/glass/cork image is repeatedly stamped on three Kraft 1 3/8" circles with a paper pieced napkin on each. The fourth circle of the sketch was reserved for the sentiment: Thanks for listening to me whine, thus the chatter in paragraph numero uno. This beautiful paper is Crate Paper's Birdie Collection, just about as yummy as a good bottle of wine I tell ya! Two buttons highlight the upper horizontal strip, each tied with linen thread and bright orange taffeta ribbon finishes off the bottom horizontal strip from Jen's sketch.

Come out and play along with today's SFYTT, and be sure to check out more inspiration from the rest of the girls:

Jen/Kirsten
Amy
Carole
Kelly
Shannan
Susan

Have a great weekend!

TCP Tuesday!

For TCP Tuesday with a fun sketch from this week's hipster hostess with the mostess Leigh O'Brien. You can click on her name for all the deets if you find your self liking this sketch and wanting to play along.

I used these images from Havin' a Pow Wow, a super cute set! The paddlin' pooch is watercolored with reinkers and a watercolor brush. Please go easy on my feeble attempt at water and a sunset! I'm sorry to say that I couldn't find a source for the patterned paper, but the other papers are Baja Breeze, So Saffron and Riding Hood Red. A bit of piercing highlights the banner and a few buttons finish this one off!

Have a great day!

happy birthday jens!

Boy did I struggle with the SFYTT today! I think it was probably that I was trying to make a masterpiece in minutes, or perhaps my mojo has taken the weekend off, or maybe its because I struggle with teen-boy-birthday cards?! Whatever it is, I am happy to say that I did finish this card (after throwing out two others waaay beyond repair) and I'm semi-pleased with it. No, I'm not fishing for compliments, just lettin' you into my head for a sec! BTW, Jens is my 13 year old nephew--happy birthday to you! As if he reads my blog, bwa ha ha ha!

The card base is Archiver's textured white cardstock with layers of Elegant Eggplant and Kiwi Kiss DSP with a banner strip of Basic Black. The open circle was cut with my 1 3/8" and 2" punches a bit offset for a more modern look. The chipboard letters are from SU!'s Lots of Letters pack; sentiment is from CTMH's Happy Birthday set. To add to the modern look of the card, I used my corner rounder and notebook edge punches as well.

Couple of other housekeeping notes this morning! First off, be sure to check out the eye candy of my fellow SFYTT team: Amy, Carole, Susan, Shannan, and our fearless leader Jen and her January GD. Secondly, we have a new SFYTT team peep and you're going to be sooo excited: the Kelly Lunceford/Atomicbutterfly. She is fab-U-lous to say the least and a sweetheart to boot! Lastly, Jen has a super-duper SFYTT badge that you are more than welcome to stick on your blog if you happen to {heart} her sketches as much as the SFYTT crew does! Click here to find out to get it.

LoVe MaCHiNe!

Here's a little ditty for TCP Tuesday #42! If you're wondering what TCP Tuesday is, it stands for The Cat's Pajamas weekly Tuesday challenge, hosted by members of the TCP Design Team. This week's hipster hostess with the mostess is Karrie Baker, and here's the link to her blog with all the deets: TCP Tuesday 42.

I used the retro TV image from TCP's It's a Mod Mod World along with one of their sentiments which reads: I'm Just Your Love Machine. I suppose I'm stretching it a bit, considering a TV isn't necessarily a "machine" per se, but I'm giving this to my 13 yo son who, like many boys his age, is pretty much in love with the TV whether it's on ESPN or hosting his fav video game. Hope you get a kick out of it!

The TV set was stamped both on white and blue textured papers from DCWV, cut out, popped up and layered on another stamped TV set again on a larger piece of the textured white cardstock. Before adhering the TV screen, I stamped it with the sentiment and red hearts from SU!'s Small Sayings set. The rest is pretty self explanatory. I've seen a few ribbon/button combos like the one I attempted here, although it's a bit of a trick to get that button attached to the ribbon to lie flat!

Dirty Girl Challenged

Ok, so here's my real challenge lately: remembering deadlines! Yes, yesterday was the 20th day of January which means that the current and alumni Dirty Dozen Girls over at SCS were to upload their monthly Dirty Challenge cards/creations. So, when one of my students told me that yesterday was actually January 20th, not January 19th, I realized that once again--I was late to the par-tay! Determined to participate in the challenge anyway, I just showed up fashionably late.

Dirty Girl Jodi Collins/Kharmagirl issued the challenge for us this month and here it is:
Challenge Focus: A Valentine's Day/Love-y Dove-y card!!
Required Element: Texture!! Anything you can *feel* (ie: Fun Flock, Crystal Effects, Embossing/Debossing, velvet ribbon...
Restricted Element: No RED!! Pink is ok...but no red...

My texture comes from the retired SU! designer paper I used and you won't find a lick of red on this one! I think this will be going to DH for V-Day, so lookie there--I've finished something like totally weeks before it's deadline! Things are lookin' up Ü

Card deets:
Paper: retired SU! dp, so saffron, brocade blue
Ink: Ranger Distress inks in walnut and old paper
Accessories: chit chat rub-on, heart and top note dies, button, sponge

Sunday's FS102 on Tuesday!

I seem to consistently be a day late and dollar short these days when it comes to keeping up with the goings-on in the blogger world of stampers and over at SCS, so the fact that I just tuned in to see that Lori Craig/stamp_momma was Featured Stamper #102 on Sunday should come as no big surprise. What is a big deal though is this "stamp_momma lady"! Although I've never met her, I can just tell what a warm and wonderful lady she is from visiting her blog and seeing the things she's doing here and there as well as the swell comments she leaves me! Go, see for yourselves what I'm chattin' about: check her out her blog or her SCS gallery and see this wonder!

To play along with the FS challenge, you choose a card from said person's gallery and CASE it with a few changes, whether it be colors, stamps, embellishments, etc.. Well, in this case there were two of Lori's cards that tripped my trigger, so I'll give links to both.

Inspiration card #1
Inspiration card #2

I used the same stamp set as card #2 and the same layout as card #1, using different colors, papers and embellishments. I also stitched a bit of red thread around the perimeter to pull in the red color of the heart in "honey". Ranger Stickles (Diamond) were used in the wings and the heart for a little extra sparkle, cause these two bees are in love and 'cause Lori did that in her card (#1)! The images are watercolored with reinkers and a brush adding sponging on the edges to tone everything down and give it a little shabby love. The trio of heart brads replace the dew drops in Lori's card (#2 in case you're keeping track!).

I had a great time perusing Lori's gallery and I always love to stop by her blog, so if you're looking for a challenge or just some great eye candy and down to earth chatter, be sure to stop by, see her and play along: Featured Stamper 102 Challenge.

Whoot whoot, let's celebrate!

Quite the color combo here, eh?! There's a reason for that and it goes like this: I was invited to attend a bachelorette party on Saturday night where each attendee was to bring a pair of undies and a bottle of kickapoo-joy-juice (that's my name for a bottle of what ever trips your trigger!) for the bride-to-be. Well, wouldn't you know I found the cutest pair of undies at our nearby ShopKo store, complete with purple owls on a yellow background, so of course I had to make my gift tag all matchy-matchy! I'm sure you're all just dying to see those cute undies aren't you? Well, guess what...I forgot to take a picture--story of my life!

The owl and sentiment are from URA Hoot by Kim Hughes, available through CHF. Simple watercoloring with a brush and reinkers and then a bit of added bling to her eyelids cause she's goin' out and about, baby! The bling-bling is just a bit of Ranger Diamond Stickles, so easy! The patterned paper is Scenic Route Sonoma Collection with two bling-bling brads holding it together.

Have a hoot of a day!

Hot Dog!

If you follow my blog, you know that we expanded our family shortly after Thanksgiving this past year, adding "Idgie" to our clan--a mini dachshund. I'd completely forgotten about the cute dachshund stamp that is part of the Kim Hughes set Little Gal, and so I decided to use it for my SFYTT card this week. Maybe that stamp was somehow subliminally calling us to Miss Idgie...one must wonder?! I've also been dabbling in my The Cat's Pajamas sets lately, and noticed this "Hot Dog!" sentiment from It's a Mod, Mod World and thought it would pair perfectly with my lil' hot dogs in Kiwi Kiss, Tangerine Tango and Riding Hood Red inks. Sorta like a hotdog with all the fixin's, don't you think?!

Other details include a bit of wonky stitching with my sewing machine, a bit of sponging with Ranger Distress Ink in Old Paper to soften the white layer and the other edges as well, and the clear button/faux threaded star to mimic the encircled star in the October Afternoon patterned paper. A bit of SU!'s Rope Twine ties it all up, and I think it sort of looks like the knotted rope my little Idgie chews on and uses to play tug-of-war with our other family mascot, Keah and George too, of course!

Be sure to see what the other SFYTT girls have up their sleeve with this week's sketch, except for Miss Carole...seems she's off cavorting this weekend--the nerve! Just kidding, we love ya Carole!

Jen & Kirsten
Amy
Shannan
Susan

Scenic Hearts!

Why the post titled "Scenic Hearts"?! Well, because I've used some delicious Scenic Route (Sonoma Collection) patterned paper in combination with my Hearts dies from SU!, of course! My objective when I started this Valentine, of sorts, was to create something pretty simple yet "wow", that I could mass produce. I think I achieved my objective and I like it very much! Hope you enjoy these two versions as well. Lastly, this designer paper heart is a great way to use those little pieces of your beloved designer papers that you don't have the "heart" to part with...pun intended, oh yes indeed!

Supplies
Stamps: Kim Hughes Collection--The Birds and The Bees, Mocha Chica (CHF)
Paper: SU! Kraft, Very Vanilla, Basic Black; Scenic Route Sonoma Collection
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
Accessories: buttons, linen thread, scallop edge punch, 1/8" hole punch

Thank you, birdie!

This is a trio of thank you cards I made to give co-workers for Christmas gifts I was given by them. I fell back on my tried and true Top Note Bigz die from SU! paired with the bird from the Birds and Blooms set of dies. Simple stamping includes the branch from PTI's Out On A Limb set and a sentiment from Inque Boutique's Birdies set, both stamped in Versafine Onyx Black ink...love the coverage of that ink! The designer paper is from SU! and is from the retired collection Holiday Harmony, layered on a Naturals Ivory card base (SU!). Very simple and straightforward, but I sure like the look and the dimension the bird gives along with the subtle design of the designer paper.

Thanks for popping in today...have a great Monday!

You're A Treasure!

I started working on this card Wednesday night for Splitcoast SC210 and was having such a hard time making it work, so I thought I'd let it simmer a few days and finally put the final-final touches on it yesterday. The original stamped layers were larger but I had trouble achieving a good balance with the sketch, so I trimmed them a bit and that really helped. Unfortunately, I had already set the brads in place, so they had to stay put. If I had my druthers, I'd have moved them down and to the left!

Moral of the story: never, never, never give up! (he he he...that was the sentiment I stamped on my SFYTT card posted yesterday!). I'm glad I didn't give up on this one because I'm really happy with the end result!

Have a relaxing Sunday!

A {big} blog candy SFYTT!

Good morning, peeps! Lots to share with you today, so I'll get right to it. The ultimate sketch gal, Jen del Muro, is having a huge blog candy giveaway to benefit Dallas Baptist University students, so first and foremost, check it out! You can find the details right here: Jen's Blog Candy Giveaway! You are asked to donate a card(s) in order to be entered in the giveaway; cards that will be going to university students from over 50 different countries in the world who are attending Dallas Baptist University. There is a crazy amount of gift certificates and stamps sets included, so you are sure to be pleased and motivated to stamp a card or three once you view Jen's BCG!

Speaking of Jen (nice segue, don't you think?!)...there's also this weekly Saturday SFYTT thang going on today and here's my sketch card:

My card features a great rooster stamp from American Art Stamp designed by Adriana Cirstea. I have roosters adorning areas of my kitchen as a remembrance of my late Dad. Besides being an all-around great guy, he was a dairy farmer, and every once in awhile, he'd add a few Bantam Chickens to the farm (I always thought there were "Banty" Chickens...good thing I googled it!). Unfortunately, the chickens never lasted too long due to lurking area farm dogs, probably including our own. Anyway, about a year before Dad died, he started collecting cool rooster memorabilia (that's when roosters were popping out everywhere in home decor), and after he passed, I began picking up rooster "stuff" here and there in his memory.

Deets on the card: a variety of papers from TAC, SU! and Daisy D's; colored using watercolor pencils; JoAnn's jumbo vintage brads; flower embellishment derived from a Heidi Swapp flower, layered with a Prima flower and topped with a SU! felt fusion flower--all held together with a vintage brad. Almost forgot about the (crooked) sentiment, but that's probably because it's crooked and it was too late to start over, so I'm suppressing it! It's from CHF's Motivational Centers.

Here's a list of the SFYTT peeps along with Jen and January Guest Designer, Kirsten! Thanks for hanging in there with all my chit-chat today! Hope you can play along and for sure check out that blog candy over at iheart2stamp.com!

Jen & Kirsten
Susan
Shannan
Carole
Amy

Cuteasaurous!

A quick post to share a card I worked on last night for Color Challenge 200 over at Splitcoast. The colors for the challenge are: Brilliant Blue, Pumpkin Pie and Garden Green, aptly titled Brilliant Pumpkin Gardens! Pretty clever, eh?! I thought the colors would work perfectly for a "boy" card, and I happened to still have my Kim Hughes Little Guy set sitting on my stamp table--a match made in stamping heaven!

If you have any questions about the card, please leave me a comment and I'll get back to you. Like I said, this post needs to be short and sweet!

Card details
Stamps--Kim Hughes Little Guy (CHF), SU! Canvas background
Ink--Brilliant Blue, Garden Green, Pumpkin Pie
Paper--PP, BB, GG, October Afternoon patterned paper
Accessories--SU! clip, staples, buttons, notebook edge punch

The Pooch is Back!

That's right, the pooch is back at it again! Last week I posted two cards using TCP stamps, and I commented on how much I love TCP images but for some reason they are very challenging for me to use. Well, I think I figured out two possible reasons for this:

1. Have you ever seen Leigh O'Brien's work, her TCP work specifically? I tell ya, that woman is unbelievably talented...just take a look at her blog, Sunflower Studio! If I could just have a hangnail of her talent, and now she's been knitting and sewing-geesh, the girl is on fire! So, here's my thinking--I think I have to create some sort of Leigh O'Brien magic every time I use the Kitty or the Pooch, thus setting myself up for failure before I even begin, oy!

2. Second reason is that I just don't use the stamps often enough! The more I used those sweet little bad-boys last week, the easier it became to make something that I was really pleased with, thus Exhibit A:

The moral of the story: "Render creation using TCP images on weekly basis!".

Bee Mine!

Here we are starting off the first Saturday of the 2009 year with a fun sketch from Jen's weekly SFYTT challenge. I think the sketch offers a great chance to combine some of that fun patterned paper that we all just had to have...kwim?!

I chose papers from Basic Gray's Urban Prairie collection which coordinate perfectly with Kim Hughes' The Birds and The Bees set available through CHF. Darling paper--darling stamps! The buzzing bee was first stamped on white and watercolored with So Saffron on the body and a bit of Cool Caribbean on the wing tips and then covered with another bee stamped on acetate. I love the acetate layer, but it does take away from the intensity of the watercoloring a bit. I added a machine stitched flight line and a bit of ric rac to break up the straight lines of the sketch. The ric rac is actually playing two parts today, the other being a major "cover up" of some machine stitching gone way bad! Ü

It would "bee" just terrific if you played along with the sketch, so remember to use the keyword: SFYTT if you upload to SCS, and/or leave a link to your blog in the comment section of Jen's blog. Last but not least, take pleasure in a bit of inspiration from the rest of the SFYTT gals and give a warm welcome to Jen's January Guest Designer, the Kirsten DuBosque!

Jen/Kirsten
Amy
Carole
Shannan
Susan

Thanks for stopping by and a happy first Saturday of 2009 to you!

Card deets
Stamps: Kim Hughes The Birds and The Bees (CHF)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, So Saffron, Cool Caribbean
Paper: Basic Grey Urban Prairie 6x6 pad
Accessories: sewing machine, glitter brads, ric rac (Offray), black hemp, SU! hearts set dies

Season's Blessings for the New Year!

I had time again today to participate in the SCS daily challenges. Today's Ways To Use It (WT199) challenge required using silver somewhere, somehow in your creation. I decided to really go all out and stamp & emboss my favorite CHF snowflakes in silver. A silver strip across the bottom is fashioned with a Stampin' Up! rub-on in white, highlighted by flat-sided (or is it flat-backed?) pearls. I also used pearls to dress up the larger snowflakes. A bit of gray taffeta ties it all together.

Thanks for all of you who stopped by Ink About Me this year. I appreciate your sweet comments and am looking forward to another year of fun and fabulous stamping!

Card details
Stamps: CHF Joyeux Noel
Paper: Soft Sky, brushed silver
Ink: Encore silver
Accessories: SU! rub-on, gray taffeta, silver ep, pearls (My Pretties kit)