A Small Saying Disaster

Have you ever been working on a card and almost have it finished when disaster just wreaks havoc on your creation? Well, that's what happened with this card. I know, I know - it doesn't look like a disaster....NOW! Here's what happened... I had the card layers all glued down and decided I wanted to add the happy everything sentiment from Small Sayings. So I inked it up really good and stamped right on the flower panel, except....I missed - the stamp went tumbling and Eggplant ink that in no form resembled the saying landed on my paper! "Egads!" I said to myself. This is the second image RAK I got from jojot and I needed to use it to fulfill my CCRAK chain duties! No chance of just stamping a new image and starting over, so I decided to just paint over it with some white craft ink. Only as I painted, the ink wasn't quite dry, so I ended up with a lavendar looking mess - and smeared the not-quite dry stickles on the leaves at the same time. EEEK!!! So then I ended up trying countless variations of sentiment panels to cover the mistake before I finally decided on this one. So most of my night was spent fixing my nightmare card. It still has a smudge from the stickles - but to heck with it, I'm sending it anyway! :)

So on to the card details... I went with this week's color challenge over on SCS (Elegant Eggplant, Cool Caribbean and Certainly Celery). The rose image is a RAK and so I don't know what it's called or who makes it. I colored it in with Watercolor Wonder Crayons and an Aquapainter and then highlighted with Crystal Stickles (for an awesome deal on Stickles, visit My Inky Fingers) and my clear Stardust gel pen. I then doodlesd a frame around the image and matted on alternating widths of Eggplant and Celery crdstock. I used the Paisley background stamp in matching ink on all the Certainly Celery and Cool Caribbean layers. The Eggplant layers are stamped with Canvas in matching ink.

For my punch challenge I used the slit punch for my scalloped border at the top of the card and then used my handheld 1/8" circle punch in each scallop. I pulled out my favorite EK Success corner punch and used them at angles on the sides to draw the eye to the focal image. And finally I used two 3/4" circle punches on either end of my sentiment panel to give the tab some personality. I finished off the card with some ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon (they have great deals - organdy ribbon spools are $2 for 25 yards) and then did some detail dotting with my clear stardust pen around the punches.

Tune in tomorrow to celebrate March with blog candy!

Stella Ruby Baby!

Today was another big shopping day for me. An Archiver's just opened in my area and since my mother in law gave me a coupon I had to go check it out. And since it was just across the street, I figured I might as well go to the LSS and see if they got their shipment of the new Basic Grey papers in... and they are finally here!

This card uses the beautiful new Basic Grey Stella Ruby paper. I just fell in paper love! If I only had the Wild Rose stamp set, I'd be in stamping heaven! :) I received this flower image from Jojot on the CCRAK (Challenge Chaser RAK) chain over on SCS. When you receive the chain card, you also receive two images. You then make two cards with those images and send two RAK's out each with two images for the next person to join in on the fun. This is the first card I made and I thought the image matched my paper pretty well. Sorry, I have no clue who makes the image, so if anybody knows, please clue me in!

ETA: Thanks to Jan J. for the name of this image: Funky Cone Flower by Embossing Arts Company.

I started by coloring the image in with prismacolors and mineral spirits and then accented the swirls with my gold gel pen. I then used some new Fruit Punch stickles on the flower petals, Ice stickles on the flower center and Crystal stickles on the stem. Next I mounted the image on Chocolate Chip and cut around it.

For my punch challenge I used one of my favorite punches - the Stampin Up notch punch. When I first saw this punch in the catalog I thought, what a dumb punch! But now, I think it is one of the classiest punches around. Everytime I'm searching for just a touch of elegance I pull it out and wrap some gold cord around the notches - and voila instant frame. I also used my scalloped square punches for this card. One of my favorite techniques with these squares is to piece them together. I punch one full one and then line up my punch to overlap the punched out shape, so I end up with a perfectly fitted rectangle (one full and one partial) that are very hard to tell they are pieced together.

For the final touch on this card, I added some organdy ribbon around the scalloped rectangle.

Party Animal Punches!

My fourth order of Cat's Pajamas stamps arrived and I spent part of Saturday trimming and mounting them on rubber cushion. Man, am I addicted to these stamps! :) I only used one new one on this card, but I can already tell it's going to be a favorite one. Isn't the L'il Party Hat I used on this card just adorable?

From the responses I got to the weekly challenge, I guess you all want to see me make some cards using those punches we all keep collecting! One of my favorite things to do with punches is to fold a piece of paper in half and punch half the shape (I always use my punches upside down so I can see where I'm punching), giving me two identical half shapes. I then glue these on opposite sides and ends of the card to make it look like they are little tabs. This really draws the eye towards the focal image, which is what you usually want in a card. Other punches used on this card are the Mega and Giga Scalloped Oval punches. These are some of my favorite punches, but they can be hard to find. (If you're looking for one of these punches, Cindy over at My Inky Fingers is taking pre-orders right now.) I also used the small oval punch for the party animal phrase.

To begin, I stamped Big Sprinkle in Black Stazon on pearlized white paper and used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up and stamp the L'il Party Hat. I then colored the image in with Stampin Write markers and glaze pens. I punched it with the Mega Scalloped Oval punch and matted on a Basic Grey Color Me Silly Giga Scalloped Oval Punch and two offset Basic Black Giga Scallops for a slight shadow. I then glued on a Making Memories birthday charm with Crystal Effects

Next I used my new Karen Foster snap stamps (1/4" Casual) to stamp the party animal phrase on pearlized white and secured to another pattern of Basic Grey Color Me Silly paper (I'm on a mission to use this paper I've been hoarding!) with hodgepodge hardware. I tied a bow around the paper to hide where the two papers met and matted the whole panel on Basic Black. For the finishing touch I glued down the half-circle tabs and dotted the edges with my clear stardust pen. What a cute little birthday card. I can't wait to send it!

If anyone has any ideas or requests for next week's challenge, please either email me or leave me a comment.

Blogger RAK Club

I joined the Blogger RAK club over on Splitcoastbloggers last week and already received my first card! And what a beauty. Kendra's blog is one of my favorite blogs to read. I just love her stamping style and it's so cool to have one of her creations to admire in person!

This is the card she sent me. Isn't it just beautiful??? Her cards always have so much dimension, and loads of beautiful ribbons! Thanks Kendra - you made my day! I'm so glad to have you as a bloggin' friend!

I had such a lucky weekend. I won blog candy on both Kendra's and Rachel's blogs this weekend! I never win, so I quickly ran to the gas station to buy a lottery ticket before my luck ran out! I only won $4, so I guess I won't be re-outfitting my stamping room anytime soon, but it sure was a great weekend!

Geisha Friend

I just keep playing with these new Pink Cat Studio stamps! I pulled out another of the Becky Fletch Tag Maps for this one, but had to modify it a little for a card, and to go with the image I used. I was so excited today when I finally recieved part of the coaster order I made back in November! I knew I had to use one of these round medium-weight coasters on a card.

This card measures 5.5 x 5.5" and all papers are from the DCWV Far East paper pack. I covered the round coaster with the floral paper, randomly stamped the butterfly from the Oriental Plate 1 in Cranberry Crisp, sanded off the excess edges and stained with a Ranger Tea Dye Distress inkpad and a sponge. Next I stamped the Geisha in Black Stazon and colored in with prismacolors, mineral spirtis, markers and crystal effects. I cut her out and glued her down with pop dots.

I used the slit punch for the top strip and did some faux stitch doodles around the edges. The twill tape is stamped with the friend stamp from the Oriental Plate and then highlighted with hodgepodge hardware and inked up with tea dye distress ink. Used my Creative Memories circle cutter to cut a mat for the coaster and pierced the edges with a paper piercer. Most edges are inked up with the tea dye ink. Hopefully it's not too bland - I struggled over whether or not to embellish heavily. I wanted the geisha to really stand out.

Big thanks to Lisa who sent me this adorable kitty RAK card and some delicious little Dove chocolates! Happy mail days rock my world! Thanks for thinking of me Lisa!

An Asian Detour

Okay, I thought I'd take a little break from my cat cards and let you see what I've been working on with my Pink Cat Studio Oriental stamps. This card didn't come together exactly as I had planned, but they can't all be winners, right? I fiddled and I fussed, but it just didn't get any better! LOL! This sketch is one of Becky Flecks Tag Maps, which I turned into a card sketch. It is actually the same sketch Cindy used on the RAK card she sent me yesterday.

I started out by stamping the Love circle with Ultramine Stazon on Paper Accents pearlized white paper. I then colored it in with prismacolors and mineral spirits and accented with L'il Davis Designs Ice Glitter Glaze. Using my Creative Memories circle cutting system, I cut the image out and matted on increasingly bigger circles, including a Marvy Mega Scallop Circle punch. The patterned paper used on this card is Blue Addison Garden Swirls by K & Company. I actually pulled it out of my scrap pile! Hooray for me! :)

Next I took a 2 x 5" strip of the patterned paper and used my stamp-a-ma-jig to line up and stamp the Vertical Characters in Ultramine Stazon. I then matted this piece with Night of Navy Cardstock and glued down. To continue my doodling challenge I used the Chatterbox Whimsical Doodle Genie and instead of drawing in the lines I just dotted them to add swirls to the patterned paper with my Night of Navy Stampin' Write Marker. I love the Doodle Genie. This line of plastic templates are a great way to add flourishes and doodles to your pages and cards if you're like me and stamp because you cannot draw! :) The flower is an Imaginisce Azure Tiger Lily that comes in a package of 10 pieces with 3 petals each. This card uses two pieces for a 6 petal Tiger Lily. I absolutely love these - asiatic lilies are my favorite flowers! The flower is secured with a Making Memories Jumbo Brad that I embossed with VersaMark and Stampin Up Navy embossing powder. To finish, I punched two rectangle punches in the top to thread my ribbon through and tie a bow. This Navy ribbon is from an order I just made from Really Reasonable Ribbon.

So what do you think? Is the card off, or am I just being too critical of my work? This concludes my doodling challenge for the week. Hopefuly I gave you a few ideas and tips to inspire you. Here are a few ideas for next week's challenge, please let me know what you would most like to see...

A. Altered Anything (anything goes.....except cards)

B. Cat Cards (Lord knows I have enough cat stamps --some you haven't even seen!)

C. Powerful Punches (projects using my seemingly endless supply of punches)

D. Reader's Request (give me your own suggestion for a challenge)

Enabler Alert: Another Pink Cat

I've been having fun with these Pink Cat Studio images. They're so much fun... you should all buy some and tell her I referred you! BWAHAHAHAHA! :) When I purchased this plate I thought this particular image was a librarian kitty. The more I played with her I realized she's just a tres chic fashion kitty! LOL. I started this card out with this patterned paper from the Blitzen Basic Grey line in mind.

I stamped the parisian kitty on Whisper White with Stazon Black and colored her in with prismacolors and mineral spirits. I then stamped her again on the Blitzen paper and cut out just the scarf and glued it on, so she has a fashionable coordinating scarf! Next I took a negative punch of the Stampin Up Small Oval Punch and used my grey prismacolor pencil and mineral spirits to give her an oval shadow beneath. I thought this was a pretty clever idea I had! LOL! :)

For my doodling challenge I tried something new. I used my mat pack to pierce all around the cat panel and then used a Micron .03 black pen to doodle semi-circles connecting each hole to form mini scallops. I drew curly cues in each corner and then dotted in each scallop.

Next I used my Stamp-a-majig to stamp in a semi meandering path along the side of a 5.25 x 4" piece of the Blitzen paper. I then added some black L'il Davis Designs stitched ribbon (secured with Terrifically Tacky Tape) and matted alternating panels with Basic Black. Accented with a prima and Making Memories rhinestone brad and highlighted her glasses and the center of each paw with a mixture of Dazzling Diamonds and Crystal Effects. Doesn't she look classy?

OH... and I want to give a big shout out to my girl Cindy over at My Inky Fingers (Her blog is awesome, so if you haven't, you should check it out! ETA: And she's giving out a triple scoop of blog cany-liciousness this weekend, too!). I got not one, but two amazing RAK's from her this week! The first one is just gorgeous and came complete with my very own box of chocolate covered espresso beans! These are my absolute favorite treats and they're really hard to find in my neck of the woods. She has assured me that they grow on trees in her back yard so I just have to go visit her! :) Isn't this card delish??? I just love the yummy papers, the textures, and the fabulous ribbons and hardware....oh and who can resist chocolate covered espresso beans?

And since she does have a chocolate covered espresso bean tree..... I booked my ticket! I'm gonna go VSN with my pal Cindy and her friend Jennifer! Woohoo! To celebrate she sent me this adorable penguin card! Isn't it awesome how the fiber exactly matches the grass skirt on the penguin? So cute!

Introducing Pink Cat

I just LOVE my new Pink Cat Studios stamps! These cats are just delish - I couldn't resist trimming all my stamps, mounting on rubber cusion and sitting down to stamp the minute I woke up this morning!!! :) Here is my first creation. It is a 5.25 x 5.25" card. Isn't she just so CUTE???

This card features LilyKate Basic Grey and Loves Me Stampin' Up patterned paper. I just love the polka dots and thought they would be the perfect accent for this fashionista kitty! I started by stamping the Hat Box Kitty in Stazon Black on Whisper White cardstock and coloring in with Prismacolors and mineral spirits. I then accented with my pink Sakura Stardust pen. I'm not sure if the photo shows it, but the rose, all the stripes and the bubbles on the scarf and hatbox are accented with Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds. This kitty SPARKLES in real life! In keeping with this week's doodling challenge, I doodled a frame around the cat image with my Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Marker. This frame is just straight lines, two little V's and then straight lines all around. Then I used little hash marks to break up the lines. This helps make it less noticeable that the lines are crooked and not evenly spaced! LOL! I then matted with Chocolate Chip cardstock and doodled around the edges with dots using my white gel pen.

Next I stamped Glamour Puss in Timber Brown Stazon, directly on the polka dot Loves me paper. I'm not sure why I changed ink color, just seemed wrong to stamp in in black! :) I then rounded two corners and matted with Rose Red and Chocolate Chip (with white gel pen dots) to make a tab. Then I glued the whole thing on a polka dot mat. I then folded a piece of the polka dot paper in half and punched a half circle on the open edge with my Marvy Super Jumbo Circle Punch. This gave me two matching halves, which I placed at opposite corners of a 5 1/8" square of gorgeous LilyKate Basic Grey paper. Accented with primas and Making Memories rhinestone brads. Tied a ribbon across and glued down the cat panel. Finally, I matted the whole thing on a Regal Rose card base.

Retail Therapy!

Okay, so I didn't do any stamping yesterday. I've been feeling kind of down and creatively blocked lately, so I decided to treat myself to a day of retail therapy! A trip to Michael's, JoAnn's and the local scrapbook store recharged my batteries, and filled up my car with stamping goodness. Here is a peek at what I got. Delish 12 x 12 paper from Bohemia, Basic Grey, Wild Asparagus, Signature,Reminisce and others. Three wood mounted stamps, 10 Rhonna Farrer acrylic $1 stamps, and 14 new Michael's $1 stamps. I also picked up a few extras for some future blog candy! :) What a load of goodies! Then when I got home, my order from Pink Cat Studios had arrived!!! Woohoo! I'm so excited to make some cards with these awesome new stamps. The gal who makes these is such a sweetie! The company is Canadian, but shipping was very reasonable and it only took a week to get here! I'm so impressed. Go check her out, as she has tons and tons of cool images available. She also has a great rewards program, so if you buy something, be sure to tell her Julee Tilman referred ya! Here's a peek at the two plates of rubber I got. You can definitely count on seeing some cards made with these beauties in the near future!

Friendship Blossoms

It's been a while since I did one of the SCS challenges and when I logged on and saw that this week's color challenge is Real Red, Basic Black and Gold in honor of the Chinese New Year, I couldn't resist. Although the design of the card, didn't really go with my doodling challenge, I still managed to sneak a little in. Today's card focuses on faux stitching. I usually do faux stitching freeform with a gel pen, mainly because I'm too lazy to pull out the ruler. This is what I did around the friendship square on this card. True faux stitching uses paper piercing, and that's what I did above and below the cherry blossom image. I used my Mat Pack to line up and pierce holes in a straight line, and then used the edge of the ruler to connect each hole using a gold gel pen. This gives a much truer stitched look.

I started this card by stamping the Rubber Stampede Cherry Blossom in VersaMark on Whisper White and heat embossing with black embossing powder. Next I colored in the blossoms with my Real Red marker. When I went to trim the image, the marker smudged! EEEEK! So I decided to sponge the entire layer with Real Red ink from my inkpad. Next I went back over all the branches with a gold gel pen and painted the flowers with a mixture of Real Red reinker and Crystal Effects. Matted on Basic Black, adden pop dots, then matted with Brushed Gold and Basic Black.

I stamped the Friendship stamp from Symbols of Solicitude in VersaMark on Brushed Gold and embossed with black and then matted on Basic Black and glued to the blossom panel. I then stamped Weathered background in VersaMark on a Real Red card base and embossed in black. The final touch was a ribbon tied around the card under the raised cherry blossom layer. Voila - Asian fusion.

To answer the question about what Cat's Pajamas stamps I bought... You can look forward to cards featuring Through the Shamrocks, Bold Happy Easter, Tree of Love, Kite, Lovebirds, Caldron, Party Hat, L'il Party Hat, Medium Whirlygig, Shaken not stirred, Fill er up, Wand, Small Whirlygig and Small Compass in the future

Dreams & Doodling

I just love the SAB Happy Harmony set. Both the flowers and the sentiments just call out to me whenever I can't decide on a stamp set to use. I've felt like I've been in a stamping slump lately. Do you ever feel like it just seems like work to sit down and come up with something original? That's been me lately. When I opened up my drawer and saw this stamp, I knew I had to use it. My dream is to be able to stay at home and stamp without having to do the regular 9 to 5 thing. Right now I'm temporarily living this dream, trying to come up with a way to keep cinderella at the ball! :) LOL! This card was good for the soul - it had no purpose other than to remind me why I love to stamp. You know what my favorite part of stamping is??? The DETAILS! I just love putting it all together and adding those finishing touches...ribbon, hardware, glitter, doodles.

This week's personal challenge is doodling suggested by Linda. I am NOT a master doodler, by any stretch. Actually, I was secretly hoping there would be some other suggestions, because doodling is something I really struggle with. LOL! For this card, I used one of my favorite doodle techniques...dotting. Dotting is so easy! The main thing to remember is to use straight up and down motions. Any angles and you're going to get uneven dots. For the dots around the Dreams circle I used the 2.3mm end of my Black Stampin Write Journaler. For the dots on the bottom panel of the Basic Grey paper (hopefully they show in the picture), I used my Stampin Write Basic Black Marker. Glitter dots are all made with a round stylus and Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds mixture.

I started by stamping the flower from Happy Harmony on Basic Grey Sublime paper in Black Stazon. I then used my Stampin Write Black marker to just ink the Dreams portion of the stamp and stamped over the flower stems. Next I used my Creative Memories Circle Cutting System to cut out the image and matted onto a Basic black Giga Scallop Circle punch. Then I stamped the entire Dreams sentiment in Black Stazon and cut out and used the ticket corner punch and matted on basic black cardstock. I used my 1/8" hole punch to make a hole and tied some black grosgrain on to make a tag.

For the background panel, I used two different papers from the Sublime Basic Grey collection and added ribbon and a slider to cover where they meet. I then glued the dreams circle on with 2 layers of pop dots and added all sorts of glitter with my stylus. It's pretty glitzy, but I had fun!

To distress this card, I used my Black Stazon ink directly on the tag panel, swiping on the edges and lightly across the top in a few places. I sanded around the edges of the flower circle with a sanding block, to soften the colors a little. I used my Tonic paper distresser (love this tool!) on the edges of the main panel and did a little light sanding as well.

If you have ideas for future weekly challenges, please either email me or leave me a comment. I'd love to hear what you'd like to see in future posts!

New colors and new stamps!

Did you notice I did a little Spring blog cleaning over the weekend? Thought I would try to get in the mood for St. Patty's Day by changing my banner and doing some much needed tweaking to my template. What do you think of the colors? March is a short season, so if you hate them, just know they'll be gone soon enough! LOL! As an added feature, I've added links on the sidebar to my cards sorted by stamp company. Feel free to check them out, as they link to posts that include a flash slideshow of many cards not featured on this blog. I also finally went in and edited the template so that if you're drilled down into a particular post, you can just click the banner to take you back to the main blog page! Woohoo! I haven't forgotten all my web design tricks after 5 months off!

Thanks to all who left links to websites for stamp companies. I have enjoyed looking at them and will be updating my shopping links within the next couple weeks. After many hours of Internet shopping I finally gave in to my Cat's Pajamas weakness and ordered 14 new stamps, which will hopefully arrive this week. With my remaining Valentine's money I bought the 27 prismacolor pencils I needed to complete my collection of the 60 colormatches to Stampin Up colors! I ordered from Dick Blick, which at $0.92 per pencil was the cheapest I've found them anyplace. I can't wait for them to come - "bouquets of sharpened pencils" - what could be better? Anyone still reading and know what movie I'm quoting? :)

French Vanilla

All week I've been thinking about entering the black and white contest Joan has posted over on her blog, Paperlicious. Of course, nothing motivates me to procrastinate more than a deadline, so I waited until today to work on the card! LOL. Then she extended the deadline - so now I'm early! :) The rules are to use only black and white/cream on a card, but a "smidgeon" of color is allowed. I had much more elaborate plans in my head for the card I would make, but kept coming back to this simple sympathy card. EEEK! I hope that's not a sign that I'm going to need one soon!

Supplies are all Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted.
Stamps: Carte Postale, Small Sayings, French Flair, French Script
Ink: Stazon Black, Cranberry Crisp (inkpad & reinker), Blender pen
Paper: Basic Black, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Thermoweb foam dimensionals, Black grosgrain ribbon

To begin I stamped French Script in Black Stazon on Very Vanilla and then overstamped it with French Flair in Black Stazon. I then stamped the bird from Carte Postale on Very Vanilla and highlighted his breast with Cranberry Crisp reinker and a blender pen. I matted this panel on a Basic Black mat, then stamped my heart is with you from Small Sayings in Cranberry Crisp on Very Vanilla. Adhered the bird with foam dimensionals and matted on basic black and adhered to the background panel. Glued the whole thing with mono-adhesive to a Basic Black card base and tied a bow around the top with black grosgrain ribbon.

Happy Friday!

Oh the silly stuff animals do. My cat, Katie, has a plastic fetish. She'll jump through just about anything if it means she can chomp on some plastic. It's an obsession! Anyway, my husband caught her in action with the leftover wrappings from my Valentine gift (complete with Hello Kitty wrapping paper!). Mind you, her head is THROUGH the bag handle and she ended up scampering through the house with the bag attached to her head while trying to get a better angle on the plastic! LOL! Hubby took pictures for my blog, so I couldn't let him down and not share at least one with y'all. :)

Okay, on to the stamping stuff... Today's card features designer paper from DCWV (Die Cuts with a View). It is totally de-lish as it's already pre-glittered! I glued it to a Pretty in Pink card base that I ran through my cuttlebug with the flowers embossing folder. Pulled out my Penny Black smitten stamp and stamped on Very Vanilla with Stazon Timber Brown. Colored the image in with prismacolors and mineral spirits and then doodled a frame with my Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Marker. Mounted on Close to Cocoa paper and adhered with pop dots. Added some sparkle to the image with my pink stardust gel pen and some adhesive rhinestones. Used a dauber and my Stampin Pastels to lightly highlight the dry embossing and then accented with Coffee Ice stickles. The hot pink organdy ribbon is from JoAnn's.

There, I did it! A week of cards with designer paper. YAY!!! This challenge thing is kind of fun. Anyone have any ideas on what you'd like to see me focus on next week? Don't be shy... all reasonable requests will be considered! LOL! :)

Online Stamp Stores?

Anyone have any really great online stamp stores they shop at? The money DH gave me for stamps is burning a hole in my pocket! LOL! I need to pick out my bouquet of rubber! I'm looking for some fresh and funky images. Of course, part of my money will go to Cat's Pajamas and I already have some images on the way from Pink Cat Studio, but I thought I'd see if y'all could hook me up with some links of stuff I might be missing out on. I'm not too picky - mounted, unmounted, acrylic... if it can be inked I'm interested!!!! So if you've got a well kept secret favorite company out there, spill it Sistahs! :)

RAK Winner & Carte Postale

Did you all have a Happy Valentine's Day? I sure did. My DH asked me if I wanted flowers for Valentine's Day and I jokingly said, in lieu of flowers, I'll take money for stamps! I was ecstatic when he agreed! YAY! I get new rubbah! He also got me the new Sims Life Stories. I'm not much of a computer game player, but I LOVE the sims. I think it's because I get to dress them up in different outfits and decorate their houses! LOL! If only my house was as plush as my Sim's! :) My hubby is the COOLEST? So what did y'all get? Anyone's significant other surprise them with something cool or super romantic?

Okay, enough chit chat. The winner of the Little Princess RAK card is Amy who blogs at ZoeLife Creations. Congrats Amy, please email me your snail mail addy so I can send off your RAK. Thanks everyone for your comments. You guys keep me smiling every day!!!

Today's card features the Stampin' Up Enchante papers from the Winter Mini. I just HAD to have these papers and the Carte Postale set for Christmas, but I've been a little intimidated by it. By the time I actually received the set and got it mounted I'd seen so many cards on SCS with it, that I couldn't think of anything original to do with it. Today I think I finally came up with something unique.

I started by stamping the filigree stamp from Carte Postale twice in Perfect Plum on Pale Plum paper. I then cut and rounded two corners of each piece and matted on Perfect Plum Cardstock. Next I stamped the flower square on the Enchante paper with Perfect Plum ink and matted with Pale Plum and Perfect Plum cardstock. I painted the stamped images with a mixture of Crystal Effects and lavendar glitter and then mounted everything on the Enchante paper. I then cut two 1/2" strips of the double-sided paper and flipped them so the other design showed. The Thank You sentiment is from the Fancy Flexible Phrases and is stamped on a small oval punch of the Enchante paper. I added two Forever Flowers from my stash with a brad and finished off by dotting around all the edges with my Perfect Plum Stampin' Write Markers.

A Cute Little Blog Thing...

Saw this quiz over on Allison's blog, so I had to take it. I think it totally fits me! If you take it, be sure to post here and let me know what your candy heart says!

Your Candy Heart Says "Hug Me"

A total sweetheart, you always have a lot of love to give out. Your heart is open to where ever love takes you! Your ideal Valentine's Day date: a surprise romantic evening that you've planned out Your flirting style: lots of listening and talking What turns you off: fighting and conflict Why you're hot: you're fearless about falling in love

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?

Okay all you Glitter Girlz!!!

Here's the scoop on the glitter mixture I use. I LOVE sparkly things - especially glitter. But who can afford to have every color of stickles on hand? Not me --I'd rather save my money for new rubbah! So I make my own homemade stickles and use it on almost all my cards!

Here's the secret... I have a little plastic paint pallette I bought at the craft store for $1. I fill one of the holes with Crystal Effects (picture shows Diamond Glaze - they work the same). The amount you use depends on how much mixture you need. If I'm just doing accents, I usually use about a dime size amount of Crystal Effects. Most times I use a clear mixture, but if I want a color I then add the desired re-inker (usually only one drop or it gets too dark) and a pinch of ultrafine glitter (I use Dazzling Diamonds)... okay, I'm glitter happy, so I usually use more than a pinch! ;) I mix it all with the end of my paint brush and then wipe the brush off with a paper towel before it dries. (If you look closely at the pic you can see I'm not so good at remembering this step! LOL!) Anyways, you're looking for the mixture to have a stickles-like consistency. If it's too runny, add more glitter. Too thick add more Crystal Effects.

I am not so good with getting an even flow using a bottle applicator, so I prefer the precision of a paintbrush or stylus. To apply on an image like Sprinkle's crown I use a very fine detailed watercolor brush. (Make sure it's one you can devote just to this technique, since it's never going to lose all of it's stiffness after you've used it with the Crystal Effects.) The trick when painting with this mixture is to work from the larger areas to the smaller ones. For the dotted accents on my scallops and around ovals, I usually pierce where I want the glitter to go, so it has a guide to kind of settle into. Then I use a double ended stylus and dip the larger end into the mixture and then dot on each piercing. For the Sprinkle card, I was too lazy to find my stylus, so I just used my watercolor brush. Either way works just fine, but I think the stylus makes the dots look more uniform. You want to use enough mixture that there is a ball of it on the paper so when it dries you can't see the piercings.

I suppose you could clean out the pallette while the mixture is still wet, but I'm usually in the thick of things, so I let it dry and then it peels off in one big glittery clump. There you have it - homemade stickles. Happy glittering, sistahs!!! :)

Happy Valentine's Day RAK!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I figured I'd celebrate with a little Valentine's RAK. Just comment on this post before 10 pm Mountain Time (12 ET) tonight and I'll have my sweetie pick a random winner to receive this card.

A few weeks ago I was in JoAnn's and I saw this The Little Princess stamp in the $1 bin and knew I just HAD to buy it and make a card with Sprinkle and her crown! Isn't she cute??? In keeping with my patterned paper challenge, today's card features paper from the LilyKate collection of Basic Grey papers. Yummy!!! Here's the details on the card.... I stamped the Cat's Pajamas Sprinkle and the Crown (lining them up with my Stamp-a-majig) in Black Stazon directly on the LilyKate Paper and cut out with my Creative Memories oval cutting system and matted on Basic Black cardstock. Next I pierced holes around the oval and dotted with a mixture of Dazzling Diamonds, Crystal Effects and Cool Caribbean inker. (I thought I picked up Bashful Blue, but mistakenly picked up the Caribbean. Oh well, it turned out all right! LOL) I also colored in the crown and collar with the glittery mixture. Next I stamped The Little Princes stamp in Black Stazon on LilyKate Paper and matted with Basic Black and used my slot punch on each end to make a ribbon slider. A few Making Memories brads and we were done.

Live Big

Today I tried to come up with a new card and everything I did just seemed forced. Do you ever have days like that? No matter what I tried, brilliance was just not gonna hit in my stamp room ! :) This personal challenge to use patterned paper is a lot harder than it sounds. I decided I wanted to make a really special birthday card for my hubby. He loves distressing, so I had this idea to make a graffiti looking card with my Think Big set (since I don't have any masculine sets). It looked much better in my head than it does on paper! LOL! I'm kind of embarrassed to show you all this card, but I'm gonna upload it anyway. If only to remind myself that it's okay to have bad days! I know hubby will love it because he sincerely loves everything I make. Bless his heart!

So with out further ado... today's card features designer paper by Cross My Heart that came in my February Self-Addressed kit. I wasn't really impressed with this month's paper collection, but I did like the caribbean and brown striped papers. First I stamped the Big stamp from Think Big on the dark striped paper with Timber Brown Stazon and then ran through my Cuttlebug using one of my BISK (Big Impressions Starter Kit) texture templates. Then I sanded it to highlight the embossed sections and make it look like a brick wall. Next I did stitched outlines with my gel pen around the letters and then used my Stamp-a-majig to stamp again (a little offset) over the top with a mixture of Lumiere, Pearl-Ex and Cool Caribbean reinker. Once that dried I stamped over the top again with Timber Brown Stazon. I then tore the edges and mounted on the chocolatey cardstock (also ran through the Cuttlebug) and tore those edges as well.

On the turquoise striped paper I used my Stamp-a-majig to stamp dream and live across the top and bottom of the paper. I then used my Typeset Lower Alphabet and randomly stamped all the letters the words dream, live and big. I then matted it on a slightly larger piece of the brown striped paper and added the hodgepodge hardware to highlight the Live and then also added some brads around the big brick panel. Finally I distressed the edges of the card with my Tonic paper distresser and used the Timber Brown Stazon directly on the paper for a bit more grunge. (BIG mistake on my part! Got a little carried away, I think!) :)

Okay...I'm officially a dork! LOL

I just logged in to create a new post and I noticed that my last post was missing (the one with the announcement of the winner of the blog candy). I just KNEW I posted it! I looked high and low, signed out of blogger, closed Internet Explorer, logged back in... still gone. Rebooted my computer... nope still gone! Panic! Are posts just mysteriously disappearing???? Oh no, everyone will think I'm a big fat liar because I said I would announce the winner on Monday morning! GRRRR! So I go in to re-write the post and try to remember what I said when I wrote it last night! (Harder than it sounds!) LOL! Just for kicks I decided to click on the Blog Candy category label to see if it shows up. And guess what???? There it was.... filed as posted on February 12, 2002!!!! Hahaha! Must have been messing with the post time and made a typo! This meant it showed up as the first post I ever posted and none of you saw it! What a dork! Sorry y'all had to wait an extra day! *insert smiley too embarrassed to show his face here*

And the Blog Candy goes to....

Congratulations to Amy A (Stampin' Ink on SCS)! She's the winner of the western-themed blog candy! For a while now I've been admiring the way she uses patterned paper to alter the coolest keepsake boxes ever, so I guess it's appropriate that her name was drawn for this contest! You can see her cool boxes on her blog at http://pepperberrykeepsakes.blogspot.com/. Amy, please PM or email me your address so I can send you your goodies!

Well, whether we call ourselves "collectors of fine patterned papers" (LOL, Lisa!) hoarders, users, or a combination of everything, one thing is for certain..... we LOVE our patterned paper! Thanks for all your comments - I had a blast reading them all! I'm challenging myself this week to use patterned paper on all my projects. So tune in to see what fine eye candy I decide to cut into next!

Birthday Emergency

Both my dad and my hubby have birthdays this week. My dad was born on Valentine's Day and hubby's birthday is the next day. And guess what??? Both were born 7 weeks premature! Amazing that these strong men were once so tiny they had to be fed with eyedroppers! My dad was brought home from the hospital in a shoe box!!! Wild, huh? Earlier this week I sat down to make some birthday cards and discovered that I had sold every masculine stamp I owned. EEEK! I remember thinking that the men in my life had already had countless cards made from those sets and I should get some new ones. So I sold them and completely forgot about replacing them! LOL!

SCS to the rescue! I mentioned my dilemma to a fellow SCSer and she sent me an emergency kit with some stamped Loads of Love images! Woohoo! No need to call off birthdays this year! LOL! :) So this is the card I made for my dad. He's red-green colorblind so I have a hard time picking colors for his cards. I've always wondered what my cards look like to him. (Hopefully they look GOOD in any color! LOL!)

I colored the truck from Loads of Love and the presents from Loads of Love Accessories with my prismacolors and mineral spirits. I then cut out the presents and used my craft knife to make a slit in the truck bed to slide the presents in behind. Next I doodled a frame around the outside and matted onto an orange piece of Crate Paper. I accidentally put the mat through my Xyron with the wrong side up, so to fix the stickiness I placed the truck image and then poured Dazzling Diamonds on the whole thing to give it a sparkly border. (Errr, I MEANT to do that! Hahaha!) The layout for this card is from the SC110 sketch challenge. In keeping with my patterned paper challenge, all paper (except the watercolor paper the images are stamped on) are from the Cowboy Collection line of Crate Paper. I cut two stars out of the paper and attached them as accents and then used a mixture of Dazzling Diamonds and Crystal Effects to paint highlights all over the card for some extra sparkle.

Yeehaw! Time for Blog Candy!

So, inquiring minds want to know... Are you a patterned paper hoarder or a user? Do you use patterned paper on you cards? Leave a comment with your answer on this post by Sunday at 10:00PM Mountain Time (12 ET) and I'll draw a winner for some western-style BLOG CANDY. The winner will be announced on Monday morning and will receive eight 6x6 sheets of delicious Crate Paper from the Cowboy Collection, a package of Jolee's Boutique Cowboy stickers and 5 each of blue, cream and chocolate Bazzill Wings flowers. Yeehaw!!! Ya'll come back now ya hear? :)

The Paper Fiasco

I confess....I am a paper hoarder. There, I've said it. *sigh* I'm not just a dabbling collecter, I'm a real-honest-to-goodness-I've-got-a-SERIOUS- problem-HOARDER! LOL! In fact, I have entire drawers full of *gasp* UNOPENED packages of Basic Grey, Chatterbox, Cloud 9, Crate Paper, SEI and other patterned paper. When I was chatting with Cindy Lou Who the other day she mentioned that it was tough for her to make a card without using patterned paper. I on the other hand have to try REALLY hard to use patterned paper. Don't get me wrong....I love patterned paper - I'm just afraid of not doing the paper designer justice with my failed attempts at creativity! LOL! So that got me thinking...I need to challenge myself to use this beautiful stuff that's collecting dust. So this week I'm going to challenge myself to use patterned paper on every project I create. Lord knows I have a stash of Valentine's paper that needs to be used by next week or it's out of luck for another year! HAHA! :)

To start things off, this morning I made two cards using some of my stash. These cards feature delish papers by Cloud 9 and Heidi Grace. I also broke out my (until now) untouched Big Blossom. I got the idea to stamp on the back of the patterned paper and cut out the Big Blossom from Cindy Lou Who. The centers of the flowers are Basic Grey chipboard flowers that my hubby put in my stocking this year. Isn't he a sweetie? (He said he had a blast in the craft store picking out embellishments for me!) Both cards measure 5.25 x 5.25". I think Big Blossom is a really hard stamp to use. It's so big it's hard to know what to put with it. I started the first card thinking I would have room to put some punched out letters down the side, but it just looked so crowded and busy that I left the letters off. For the second card I went with a little simpler design, but it looks unfinished to me. So... tell me what ya think... Does it need something? Maybe a little ribbon across the top? Which card do you like best and why?

Irish Kisses

Today's challenge over on SCS was to use the much neglected color Glorious Green. And since I've been wanting to use my new JoAnn's Kiss Me I'm Irish $1 stamp, I switched gears to St. Patrick's Day and made two projects.


The first project is a modified coaster box. I was inspired by this project by Stampinsilvia. I'm not sure how she did hers, but here's what I came up with. The project uses two 4" coasters for the front & back, two 1.75" x 3.5" coaster strips for the sides, and a 1.75 x 2.75" coaster strip for the inside bottom. I cut a 1.75" x 9.75" strip of Glorious Green CS, scored 2.75" from both ends, ran it through my Xyron and stuck the coaster strips to it to form a U shape. Next I covered the two full coasters with Glorious Green and used UHU twist and glue to adhere them to either side of the U shaped coaster strip to form a box.


While that was drying I cut two 3.75" squares of Whisper White and randomly stamped with the Shamrock image from Purple Onion designs (this was one of several images included in my February Self-Addressed kit) in Black Stazon. I also stamped the Kiss Me stamp at this time. I then colored with prismacolors and mineral spirits and added a few dot doodles next to each stem and then painted all the shamrocks with a mixture of crystal effects and Dazzling Diamonds.


To finish, I rounded the corners of the squares and applied them to the front and back coasters. I then cut the Kiss Me image out with my Creative Memories circle cutting system and layered onto a Basic Black Mega Circle punch and then onto a Glorious Green Giga Scalloped circle punch. Glued down with pop dots and added some organdy bows with some extra strength Zots glue dots. Couldn't resist filling it with kisses! LOL!


I'm trying to experiment with making some simpler cards. I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out. It is 4 x 9 inches folded and will fit in a regular long envelope. Used the same focal image and layers as on the box and cut out three already colored and glittered shamrocks with a 1" circle punch and layered onto Basic Black circles and affixed with pop dots. Used a 1.75 x 9" strip of the Chatterbox polka dot patterned paper. I LOVE polka dots! They're getting harder and harder to find though! :) Finished off with some organdy ribbon across the length of the card.

Isn't this AMAZING???

So I woke up this morning to a dreary rainy day. No motivation to do anything, kind of just in the doldrums for no apparent reason and then....there was a knock at the door! Mr. Brown delivered a surprise package from a totally awesome fellow SCS sistah! And holy cow was it AMAZING!!!

Included was this totally AWESOME name frame for my blog!!! Isn't it GORGEOUS?!?!?! If ya'll read my post a few weeks ago about my love for all things Asian, you'll know this is the coolest personalized gift I've ever received!!! And it matches my favorite red chest perfectly! It came with a beautiful matching card and that was not all...oh no that was not all...

Also included was this absolutely adorable Hello Kitty box filled with the most beautiful (and delicious!!!) homemade candy I've ever seen! All I know is DH is totally up the creek in trying to get me the best Valentine's gift this year! LOL!

A special shout out to my my SCS friend (you know who you are!) Thanks so much for this wonderful surprise and for your awesome friendship!

Prismacolor Bear

Okay, as some of you know, I've been on a mission to figure out the prismacolor technique. I've tried all sorts of things (including baby oil! LOL!) with very disappointing results. So, boy was I ever thrilled when Cindy Lou Who offered to walk me through it in a live chat! (Cindy has an AWESOME blog - check her out! Oh and while you're there let her know you want to buy some coasters. If there's enough interest, she's planning on doing a bulk order soon and I want more supplies to make coaster boxes!) What a patient soul she is!!! My coloring didn't turn out near as awesome as her creations, but I'm just pleased as punch it actually worked! :)

So, here's my first prismacolor and mineral spirits card. Went for a simple layout with an old CTMH wood mounted image from the deep, dark bowels of my collection. Began by stamping the CTMH Teddy Bear Love with Stazon Timber Brown on Whisper White cardstock. Then colored in with prismacolor pencils and blended with Odorless Mineral Spirits and a tortillon. Then I used my Stamp-a-majig to stamp the Cat's Pajamas Happy Valentine's Day in the center of the heart. Matted on the reverse side of the yummylicious striped Crate Paper and another mat of Chocolate Chip. The base is Cranberry Crisp stamped in the same color of ink with Linen. Used some cranberry crisp stitched ribbon and the small and large oval punches and some brads for the tabs. Rounded corners with my Creative Memories corner rouner and added some glitz with crystal effects and dazzling diamonds. There you have it, just about as simple as this stamper gets! LOL! :) And don't forget to wander over to Cindy's blog! :)

Cat's Pajamas Spotting

Just a quick post because I'm excited to see someone else making cards with Cat's Pajamas stamps! Check out Emily's blog, Icing on the Card for a super cute Sprinkle ATC!

The Big Pieces Funk

Have you ever felt like you HAD to have a set and then once you got it you were so intimidated by it that you didn't use it? That's me and Big Pieces. I love geometric shapes and patterns and fell in love with all the cards in the SCS gallery, but since I got it I've been afraid that I'd try and fail, so I haven't stamped with it. Today when I was at the LSS I saw this new Magnolia line of My Mind's Eye paper. The bright colors are ones I wouldn't normally use, but the paper just drew me in. Once I got home I decided to break out the Big and Little Pieces. This is the result. Nothing spectacular, but it was fun.... and that's what stamping should be, right?

The Big and Little Pieces are stamped on Very Vanilla with Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip and Brocade Blue and cut out with varying sizes with my Creative Memories Circle Cutting System and 1/2 and 3/4" circle punches. Used my paper piercer to punch holes and layered on varying levels of pop dots.

Real Life from the Designer Label Punch Box is stamped on Brocade Blue with Night of Navy ink and layered onto a chipboard coaster and punched out with the designer label punch. Made the ribbon slide slots with the ribbon punch and threaded both orange and chocolate ribbon through and secured with Terrifically Tacky Tape. Matted the whole thing on Chocolate Chip and a Whisper White cardbase.

And the WINNER is....

Okay, you guys and your comments have just amazed me! I didn't really even think there were more than a handful of people who actually read my little blog. I so LOVED reading everybody's reasons to celebrate. Life is so sweet, and you all have definitely made my life a little sweeter.
Since I know you're all dying to know who the winner is, I won't draw this out. :) The randomly selected winner of my first blog candy giveaway is Jenny W who left this comment...

"I love the lunch box! My reason would be my wonderful husband and daughter for
both my husband and I still being employed through the rough economical times in
Michigan."

Congratulations Jenny! Here's what you won...the So Very lunchbox filled with Scalloped Chipboard Plain Janes, 2 Rhonna Farrer clear stamps and some pink and brown striped ribbon from Starlit Studio. Please email me your snail mail address so I can ship off your goodies. I can definitely relate with you on the joys of staying employed. My husband and I have been down the lay-off-with-no-job-prospects path twice too many. We now thank God everyday that he has an amazing job with amazing benefits and as much job security as is possible in the turbulent tech industry.
Today was a bittersweet day here in Boise. My favorite scrapbook store closed their doors today. They were the first store to bring exciting and innovative scrapbbooking products to Boise, and I will definitely miss pleasant afternoons spent oohing and ahhing over the latest and greatest from Rusty Pickle, Basic Grey, Tim Holtz, Heidi Swapp, Heidi Grace, Karen Foster, Rhonna Farrer and Chatterbox, to name a few. The chain stores in our area just don't get the kind of variety and selection that a small privately owned store does! So since everything was 50 percent off today, I ventured out for one last shopping adventure.
The line was 1.5 hours long!!! I debated over and over if I really wanted to stand in line or not - I was only purchasing a few items. (There were people buying entire shopping carts filled with just cardstock!) But I really wanted the boxes I have only been able to find there that are perfect for giving card sets. So I decided to wait it out. So after an hour and a half of snaking around the store, I am finally the second person in line. Then a lady I have never met walks up to me and says, "I don't have time to wait in line, so I won't be able to use it, please have it." And she handed me a $25 gift certificate!!! Pretty AWESOME, huh?! I ended up getting $50 worth of product for FREE!

Here comes the Easter Bunny!

So, I've been sick most of the weekend and didn't get to play along with most of the challenges on VSN. :( To cheer myself up today I decided to make another coaster box. While I was organizing my stamp room for VSN, I ran across an unopened and forgotten pack of Making Memories Boho Chic -Lauren patterned paper. It was so cute and springy that I had to pull out my new Cat's Pajamas bunny stamps.

To begin I cut four 4" squares of the paisley printed paper and ran through my Xyron. (I didn't cover the bottom coaster, because...what's the point? LOL!) Placed the patterned paper on the lightweight coasters, cut the rounded corners and sanded lightly with a sanding block. Then I Modpodged the outsides of the coasters and let them dry.

While that was drying, I stamped Bunny Kitty on watercolor paper with black Stazon ink and cut out with my Creative Memories circle cutting system. Next I colored the image with Tempting Turquoise, Gable Green (thought I grabbed celery, but it worked out anyway) and Pale Plum Stampin Write Markers and a blender pen. Then I highlighted with Crystal Effects and poured Dazzling Diamonds on the top. Layered the image onto a circle of caribbean patterned paper and a Mega Scalloped circle punch of plum patterned paper (all from the Making Memories Lauren pack) with holes pierced in the scallops. Next I stamped Some Bunny in Black Stazon on watercolor paper and matted on caribbean patterned paper.

When the Modpodge was dry I punched holes with my Crop-a-dile and laced the box together with white grosgrain ribbon. I really wanted some plum, celery or caribbean organdy, but didn't have any so I settled for the grosgrain. The handle is made with a 1" x 9" strip of patterned paper layered onto a 1.5 x 9" piece of pale plum and attached using a Crop-a-dile and a W-R-Memories square snap.

To finish I attached the stamped images with pop dots and filled with easter grass and plastic eggs for a totally cute Easter basket.

Thanks for all your wonderful comments! They're so much fun to read. Tune in Monday for the winner of my Blog Candy giveaway!

More VSN!!!

I was able to finish a few challenges tonight and thought I would share my creations. First up is the Inspirational Challenge.


For this card I began by stamping Love Puppy in Basic Brown and accenting with my pink stardust pen and Pretty in Pink watercolor crayon and aquapainter. Also did a swipe with the Close to Cocoa watercolor crayon for his dirt pile. Next I dotted all around the image with Rose Red, Pretty in Pink and Chocolate Chip Stampin Write Markers. Cut out with scissors and sponged the edges with Rose Red Stampin Pastels.


For the next layer, I cut strips of Chocolate Chip and glued them on to Rose Red and cut out to border the puppy image. Used my stardust pen for some doodles on the edges. Just got a new embossing folder for my Cuttlebug with my 40% off Joann's coupon so I had to test it out! Ran Pretty in Pink through the Cuttlebug and then highlighted diagonal squares with Rose Red pastels and a dauber. Made a few highlights with the gel pen and added some random pink jewel stickers for some bling.


Next I cut the pink edge with my Creative Memories Wavy Cutting System and then cut one more time about a 1/4" over to get the wavy strip at the bottom. Glued the Pretty in Pink piece on to Chocolate Chip randomly stamped with the Medium Heart Circle in Chocolate Chip. Then I highlighted with my stardust pen and added some adhesive rhinestones. Added some doodles to the wavy strip and glued to the bottom and then cut a slit in the edge of the card for my ribbon to go through. Tied the ribbon, adding a padlocked heart charm and then used my heat gun to do the heated ribbon technique. Had never tried that before...boy was it fun! Finally glued the puppy layer on with pop dots.




The next card was for the Diamonds & Pearls challenge to use both glitter and Pearl-Ex. I had never tried Painted Pearls and I think I found a new addiction. This was so fun.

The background piece is Very Vanilla painted with a mixture of Crystal Effects, Micro Pearl-Ex and Cool Caribbean re-inker. Before it fully dried, I poured Dazzling Diamonds over it and then stamped with Ronna Ferrer's Swirls in Black Stazon.For the black rectangle, I stamped the swirls with a mixture of cool caribbean, Lumiere, micro Pearl-Ex and water and then poured Dazzling Diamonds over it while it was still wet.For the scalloped oval, this is Very Vanilla painted with Cool Caribbean reinker, Lumiere, micro Pearl-Ex and water and then overstamped with Happy Harmony in Black Stazon. Glitter mixed with Crystal Effects was applied with a paint brush to the flowers and swirls and around the perimeter of the black oval.

VSN is HERE!

Here's the first of hopefully many projects for VSN on Splitcoast. The first challenge was to make a chocolate bar wrapper or hot chocolate holder. Since I didn't have hot cocoa I went with a chocolate wrapper.


First I wrapped the bar in Chocolate Chip Cardstock (cut the ends with scalloped decorative scissors) and secured in the back with Terrifically Tacky Tape. Then I placed a piece of this fabulous SEI Granny's Kitchen paper down on the top panel and sanded the edges. wrapped the two ends with some coordinating ribbon and some Bazzill Wings flowers secured with Making Memories brads.


Next I glued some SEI paper to a lightweight coaster and stamped the Designer Label in Chocolate Chip and then punched out with the Designer Label Punch and sanded the edges. Attached a Making Memories charm with UHU twist and glue, punched holes with my crop-a dile and threaded through with some cocoa ric-rac. All that chocolate smell is making me hungry! Don't forget to leave me a comment in the post below to be eligible for my Blog Candy drawing on Monday!

Celebrate February with a little BLOG CANDY!

February is finally here!!! Years ago I read about a woman that celebrates the first day of every month like it's a birthday. The entire day is about her and celebrating this journey we call life. Pretty cool, huh? For some reason, that just struck a chord with me... I have so many things worth celebrating in my life. So today I'm celebrating life, love and art. Here are just a few of my reasons to celebrate...

• I have a wonderful husband who is my best friend and appreciates and encourages my stamping hobby/addiction.



• I am (for now) able to stay at home and enjoy the afternoon sun streaming in on my face as I craft to my heart's content.



• I have met so many wonderful stampers and friends through SCS who inspire me and keep me coming back for more.



• VSN (Virtual Stamp Night) starts tomorrow!!! :)

Do you want to celebrate with me? Do ya, do ya? What better way to celebrate than with some BLOG CANDY!? Remember this little old lunch box from a few posts back? Just leave a comment on this post telling me your reasons for celebrating life are and I'll pick a random winner on Monday. The winner will receive this box filled with some stamping goodies!!!

Now on to the project of the day. Since I'm celebrating I wanted to make something more than just a card today. When I read that the Ways To Use It challenge on SCS was to use sanding blocks, the first thing I thought of was this coaster gift box project that was in the SCS newsletter a few weeks back. I used the tutorial by Taylor VanBruggen.

To begin I cut five 4x4" squares of the BoBunny Valentine paper and ran them through my Xyron. Then I stuck them on my lightweight coasters (I got mine from Stampinsilvia) and sanded the edges with a sanding block. Next I applied a thin coat of modpodge over the coasters, because I was worried that sanding the edges might cause the paper not to stick as well. With my Crop-a-dile I punched 5 holes in each side of 4 of the coasters and then tied them together with red, turquoise, black and pink grosgrain ribbon. I used some UHU glue I got as a freebie and am testing (look for a future review) to adhere the bottom coaster to the others. Next I used Glue Lines all around the top and bottom of the box to adhere some turquoise ric-rac.

I stamped Cupid Sprinkle (The Cat's Pajamas) in Black Stazon on Whisper White paper and colored with my pink Stardust gel pen. Next I cut Cupid out with my Creative Memories Oval Cutting system and dotted around the edge with my black glaze pen. Also used my green glaze pen to give Cupid her sexy green eyes! :) Next I layered onto a Real Red Mega Scalloped oval and a Basic Black Giga scalloped oval (with holes punched in the scallops with my 1/16" punch) and stuck on the box with foam squares. I then stamped the Medium Heart Circle in Regal Rose (stamped off once) on Whisper White and then stamped Lovestruck in Black Stazon through the center. Cut out circles with my Creative Memories Circle Cutting System and glued to the corner of the Sprinkle oval with UHU tape runner. Finally I cut three hearts out of the leftover BoBunny paper, highlighted them with Coffee Ice Stickles and stuck them on the box using different heights of pop dots. Inside the box I put a bag of Hershey nuggets into a Valentine cello bag and tied with BoBunny ribbon. The perfect Valentine for my sweetie! :)