I did this card for the sketch Challenge #15 over at Limelight's blog: http://limelightpapercrafts.blogspot.com/


I received the image from the PIF thread (Pay it Forward, where you swap images). I colored her in with Copics and tweaked with my prismas and gamsol. I dotted around with a rose SU marker and finished off with 2 dots of liquid pearls for her buttons. This panel was matted on burgundy and popped up on dimensionals. The background DP is from the Basic Grey Bittersweet pad - ooh la la, I LOVE every sheet in there! The middle panel is from same Bittersweet pad, matted on burgundy and finished off with a white satin/organdy ribbon with a bow. The flowers I received from my Secret Cupid (Thanks, Julie). I used 2 each and skewed them to make them look fuller before adding white mat brads.
How come all these stamp companies keep coming out with new stuff ... I want it all!!! (Don't we all, lol).
Thanks again for stopping by ....

OH - AND IF YOU'RE NOT DOING ANYTHING TONIGHT!!! ....
Stop by VSN's "What's Love Got to Do With It" challenges beginning TONIGHT at 5:00 pm EASTERN time ... continuing till 11:00 pm ... then starting up again tomorrow at Noon til 11:00 pm.
I'm hosting the Saturday Night, 8:00 pm EST challenge! Come on over!!!
Here's the link to start you off: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=54

All three of these cards were made with the Splitcoast sketch challenge SC216. This one I flipped on it's side for something a little different. This image is one of the new Whiff of Joy's by Elisabeth Bell, Willow sitting with Floral Wreath. I colored her with Copics and tweaked her hair with prismas and gamsol. The swirls on her dress were traced over with a clear glitter gel pen, as was the ribbon on her bodice. I used a blue glitter gel pen for her bows. She was cut out and popped up on dimensionals on top of the Tree Trunk image, which is part of the accessory pkg for this Spring 2009 Set. While I got the Spring 2009 Kit, they're now selling them individually over at Whiff of Joy, found here ... http://www.shop.whiffofjoy.com/ (For this one and the next, check out the Willow and Oakley *new* collection). I used my Nestabilities circle and scallop circle dies to cut the brown floral paper and kiwi mat. The clouds on the image panel were made with a free-form scallop template that I sponged bashful blue around, flipping & turning the template as I went. I finished off with a creamy ribbon knotted at the side.

This card followed the same sketch, but I made a square card. I love, love, love this color combination - the blue is unknown dp from the LSS .. the taupe looking one is from an SU paper swap - I need to check the catalog to see which paper it actually is. I sponged the edge of the background taupe with tea dye distress ink. I matted the blue dp with navy as well as the image panel which was stamped in Not Quite Navy on vanilla then sponged in tea dye distress ink. I pierced 2 corners and put brads in the opposing corners. I actually used my Creative Memories circle cutter for the 'arches'. I added some cream colored crocheted ribbon I got at the fabric store to finish it off.

This card is another one of the Whiff of Joy Elisabeth Bell releases, Willow with Sunhat. I colored her with Copics and tweaked with the prismas and gamsol (I only have a handful of copics, so shading is limited just yet). I added some more clouds, just like in the first card, then matted on navy. This is the same blue dp as above card, and the background is from the same swap ... not sure if one piece of 6x6 is going to be enough for me, lol ... going to have to buy the pack. I tied cream satin ribbon at the corner and popped the image panel up on dimensionals.

What I wouldn't give to have half the talent as Ms. Elisabeth Bell. Wowsa!

Anyway ... thanks for popping by.

Can you see the blinker to the left? Splitcoaststampers is having a blow out challenge this weekend in the Virtual Stamp Night thread found here:
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=54
The challenges start at 5:00 pm on Friday til 11:00 pm, then starting up again Saturday at noon, again til 11:00 pm. For each challenge, you're given 45 minutes to complete each of them. I'm actually one of the hosts, Saturday night at 8:00 pm, but I can't tell you what any of the challenges are, it's a secret.

I feel like I haven't stamped very much because I haven't posted too many card up on the SCS site, but I've got a box full of cards that I can't wait to upload for these challneges.

Come on over to have some fun with the rest of us.

This card was for today's SCS color challenge, to combine Mustard, Rose and Kiwi. When you look at it typed, I can't imagine putting that combo together, but it actually turned out nice. I added a layer of close to cocoa behind the image cuz when I sponged the image panel, I grabbed the wrong ink pad (was going for the rose initially). I love this gold organdy ribbon - looks so close to the mustard cardstock. I'll for sure keep this color combo in mind.

This was for the SCS Techniques challnege from yesterday - to make a round topped box. There's a PDF template you can find here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=419606&page=4] if you're interested.

This card was for last week's sketch challenge at SCS. The different DP is actually just one sheet that I cut apart and flipped over pieces of. I used a dark brown grosgrain ribbon to help it stand out a little more. I just got this image from Whipper Snapper, "Eli and Frogger". I pushed a little too hard and ended up with an extra dirt spot on his forehead, but I think its so cute. I tried a little something new with this coloring. One of my SCS buds - forgive me, it was either leibetty or jenmarie, I forget - gave me a tip to color with Prisma colored pencils then use the Prismacolor colorless blender marker to blend the colors in. It seems to have given me a deeper color to the clothes than if I use the gamsol, what do you think? I'm still trying it to see if this was a fluke. I love this image, tho ... I don't have too many boy images and this one is perfect.

This card was from last week's Technique challenge - To cut out part of an embossed image. I used one of my cuttlebug folders and embossed a piece of lavendar lace. I then sponged over the leaves and flowers with inks to bring them out more and then cut around part of the embossing. Underneath, on the white layer, I stamped a sentiment in eggplant and added a flourish die cut in the corner. In real life, the lavendar flourish looked good, but here, I think I might have been better off using the eggplant to cut out the flourish - what do you think? - Anyway, I sponged the edges and finished it off by adding faux pearls here and there. I had Eggplant as the base to bring the deeper color in.

Thanks for stopping by to take another peek.

This card is one of my new favorites, I think. The challenge was to go all out with the embellishments. I'm typically a less is more kind of gal, so to ME, this looks slightly over the top, but I know in looking at other cards, it's still on the light side. The image was colored with Copics and then I added glossy accents to the flames and yellow stickles to the centers of the flowers. I sponged the edges with Tim Holtz' Tea Dye and matted on kraft. The 'ribbon' is actually embroidered lace from Walmart in the shape of butterflies. It was very moldable, so I sent it up a meandering path along the saffron paper lace strip I created by punching both sides with a MS border punch then sponging the sides with tea dye also. To keep the shape of the butterflies' path, I added gold brads at each butterfly's center. I used an unknown Daisy yellow background DP matted on kraft again before adding the gold organdy ribbon and finishing off with a blue dragonfly brad.

I'm really liking this saffron, kraft, white combination a lot!

Thanks for stopping by. As usual, I love to hear any and all comments you'd like to make - positive or negative.

These 2 cards were made using a sketch from sketches by Tamara. I used my Creative Memories cutting system after I had folded the card in half.

I didn't realize it til after I posted this one, but I used the same Mouse Under Hat WoJ image for last week's sketch challenge ... So sorry ... He's so cute, though, that I figured no one would mind. I flipped this sketch on it's side to give it a little more interest. After coloring, I added glossy accents to the mousey's hat and his eyes.

Fruit punch stickles added at corners finished it off.

They actually had 2 color challenges over there this week. The original poster was in California - Pacific time ... and I know alot of us were anxious about it, so around the same time, Emily posted this other color combination: Cameo Coral, Creamy Caramel and Old Olive ... way more up my alley.

Image was stamped in perm black ink (was a gift through the PIF thread), which I colored with prismas and gamsol. I also followed The Mojo Monday sketch #72, which can be found at http://www.mojomonday.blogspot.com/. The 2nd layer down, I scallop border punched the bottom and circle punched the sentiment, matting it in coral then with the scallop circle punch, matted it up on dimensionals.

For the cross bar, I stamped a coral strip of paper with coral ink of a generic leaf, then matted it onto the Olive cardstock with a wider bottom margin so I could cut with the SU scallop border punch. On top of this, I added a strip of wasabi ribbon across the coral cardstock, finishing with a tied bow.

This color challenge was a bit hard.

SU's Lovely Lilac, Green Galore, Pink Passion and Temting Turquoise.

I'm not typically drawn to these bright colors ... (Ask me, then, why is it I had every shade of cardstock - except the pink passion - and every shade of SU inkpad) ... but I gave it a whirl. I stamped the flourish on SU's glossy white c/s then took above 4 colors of ink and randomly stamped them all over the cardstock, then covered the swirls in diamond stickles to sparkle it up a bit. I matted on lilac cardstock then put brads in the corners. This image panel was squared against the base of the card with another layer (green) set askew after having run it through the CB Swiss Dots folder. The base is actually white with a layer of turquoise that I also ran through the CB using a floral folder. After, I sponged some ink in green for the stemps and leaves with some lilac on the flower.

This second card was done with same technique- Versamark on glossy with different colors smoodged over the versamarked image. I matted on turquoise then green galore - both of which had the right side scalloped all the way down.

The base is lovely lilac with some polka dot paper that I ran through the CB argyle embossing folder then sponged with some lovely lilac. I finished the card off by adding some thin pink organdy ribbon that I threaded through the pink eyelets.

This card was made using the shadow box method, TLC206. The template can be found [url= http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3889159&postcount=1][color=blue] Here [/color][/url].

This was the first card I've ever done using this technique. The image is on white and then I colored with gamsol and prismas colored pencils before matting on red. This was actually fairly easy. The harded part for me was cutting out the red papers to put on top of the green to give a bit of a green border around the recessed window. That, and packaging it so it doesn't get squished when it goes through the postal thing.

This card was for the LSC 205 Limited supplies challenge over on SCS. Miss Boo had us create a clean and simple card. I had to add one layer ... I stamped the image and the sentiment on white then ran it through the cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder, then I sponged the edges with blue bayou before finishing off with a blue bayou double stitched ribbon. Base is Bashful Blue.

Today's challenge on SCS for Ways to Use it was to use our alcohol inks to create. I have a limited supply of copics, and only 4 alcohol based re-inkers, so the choice wasn't as daunting as some. I didn't have too much to think about.
I created a faux polished stone look on glossy white with some stream and a wild plum inks then taking some off with the alcohol blending solution. I received the image through the Pay It Forward thread on SCS and distressed it a bit after crumpling it up. I also had a ghost flower image that I used the same polished stone technique with the same colors. I added some clear embossing powder to the flower and while warm, molded the petals to make it a bit 3D. I don't have any purple brads, so I took a copper one and added some purple embossing powder which gave the brad a bit of a purple metallic sheen.
I think I'm going to head out to my local scrapbook store for some more natural inks to try it again.
Thanks for popping by.

Only had time for one today

This card is for the SCS sketch challenge. It's actually upended, but followed the same parameters.

I wanted to use this mouse cuz I have to send out a few birthday cards, so I wanted to keep it a little simple. I used 2 panels that I had embossed with the cuttlebug, one in paisly and one in swiss dots. I sponged saffron over the paisley and real red over the swiss dots. The image was colored ... Wait for it ... Yes, with colored pencils and gamsol, lol. I added some glossy accents to the party hat circles as well as the eyes of the mouse. I think I may have taken the pic while the glossy accents was still wet, but as I look at it now, it's perfect ... His eyes look almost real. And if he weren't so danged cute, I might have to throw this one away.

Thanks for looking ... I'm hoping to post some more tomorrow.

Take care and have a wonderful rest of the day.

I was all over the Place Last Night

Omygosh, I went on a challenge hunt last night ... Sometimes insomnia is fun ... other times it drags you down ... Apparently I was having fun last night because I came up with 5 cards from various different challenges across the web.

This first one was for the House Mouse challenge found over at their challenge blog. This week it was to use piercing on the card. I actually just had a bowl of popcorn so this stamp was the first one that came to mind, so I had to work around it.

After coloring with my colored pencils and gamsol, I added glossy accents to the silver/chrome part of the stove and the ring on the pan handle. I tried to get the color of the electric burner just right, but still needs a smidge of red to it. I'm liking how it turned out, regardless. Hope you do too.

For this card, I searched the Mojo Monday blog and found this sketch. It's actually a mirror of the sketch that was up, but Michelle's balloons kept getting in the way, so I just flipped it over. This is one of the newer stamps released through the Whiff of Joy site called Michelle Celebrating Donkey. I tried to bring in mats for the layers that would coordinate with the dots on the dp, hence the navy, ruby and tangerine colors. Fun, festive card.

I made this card after having been inspired by the website of http://www.iheart2stamp.com/, to send cards to Dallas Baptist College that foreign students can send out. I had just gotten this image in from Whiff of Joy (my new favorite supplier cuz they have Elisabeth Bell!) so I had to make it work for the challenge. They're looking for mostly blank note card types of cards. I just found out about it Tuesday, and the deadline is the 31st, so if you see this and are interested in HUGE blog candy ... take a peek at the above website.

I cut out a heart shape from the DP and layered this over the image panel that I had sponged. On top of the DP, I laid a piece of white that I punched on one side with a MS border lacy punch. Looked a little stark, so I actually drew some vertical lines in a pale pink and gamsoled it to soften the line up a little ... Looks like pleats to me. This one is a very pretty one in real life.

This card is one of I hope 9 ... I'm going to try to get all the sketch challenges done from the Tayloered Expressions blog. This one was the sketch by Taylor Vanbruggen. Like I said, I'm hoping for 8 more before Saturday. I like the wide oval with embellishments at the opposite ends.

This card was for the Whiff of Joy challenge found at www.wojmondaychallenge.blogspot.com. While their layout was square, I didn't think it was taking too much license to make mine the standard size as long as I was faithful to the layout. I used my colored pencils and gamsol to color him in (I know, you're SHOCKED and AMAZED, lol) ... I did add some stickles in fruit punch, baby blue, lavendar and diamond for the confetti on the icing. I used 2 different sized circle punch masks to creat the glow on the candle (larger with banana, smaller with summer sun) then added some glossy affects to the heart of the flame. I got this ribbon last year from a Secret Sister and thought this was a perfect fit - colors looked good with the DP ... and I liked the stripes against the polka dots. Another fun one.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Have a great day!

This first card was for the new Wish RAK Blog Featured Stamper challenge, week 3 - Don't know if I've said it yet, but Stacy has a wonderful style. I love her cards (and her stamps even more). She has all the stamps that I want (or at least want images of), ranging from her incredible vintage stamps to the House Mice ... Incredible is about all I can say. (I digress) Anyway ... Her card was set the other way with the ribbons going up the left side, but I liked it so much that I used the layout here for this cute Moose in Love. I'm thinking I may have to get this image for myself - it's just too cute, and fairly versatile - as long as you use it with love, lol.


This card here was made in accordance with the TLC205 challenge, to use pleats. I took a sheet of daisy dp and fan-folded it then trimmed it so it would fit on this piece of chocolate card stock. Folding it lost some of the imagery, so I took some Tim Holtz tea dye ink and sponged it over the pleats to emphasize them a little bit more. I also took a flourish stamp, with tea dye, and stamped an image over the pleats. This was alot of fun ... Easier to do it with a thinner paper, tho, so be forewarned.

This card was made for the color challenge for Tuesday, January 27th: pacific point, baja breeze and garden green. I stamped the image from Upsy Daisy in baja then slight moved and stamped in pacific point to give it a shadow effect. I cut it with the Nesties Label One die and cut a pacific point mat. For the green, I cut a thin strip (about 1-1/4 inch) of garden green and punched both sides with a MS border punch that I lined up on the opposite side. I really like the pearls going across the bottom. Think they add just the right flair.

Thank you for stopping by. I always love your comments.