Revolving door

This card was a first for me. During last weekend's mini VSN, my friend Stacey/Little Lou's challenged us to make a swing or flip-flop card. The VSN theme is Viva Las Vegas, and there are lots of revolving doors there! I had never made one of these cards before, and the SCS tutorial wouldn't quite work for me, because my paper cutter is a rotary blade, making it hard to make the precision cuts needed for the center. So I modified the tutorial and used my Creative Memories oval cutters instead.
I added a layer of patterned paper to each side, along with some Primas and ribbons for embellishment. Overall, I was pretty happy with the finished product. I might've putzed with it some more, but those VSN time limits forced me to stop after 45 minutes!
Supplies:
Stamps: Upsy daisy
Ink: certainly celery, night of navy
Paper: vanilla, celery, Basic Grey two scoops
Accessories: CM oval cutters, Primas, silver brads, ribbon

The strip(s)

I had a chance to make a few cards over the weekend for the mini VSN at Splitcoast. This was my card for the "Strip" challenge to use strips of paper on your card. I decided to cut my image into strips. The leaf from Unity's Gratitude=Joy was stamped in Versamark then embossed with Ranger clear EP. Then I inked my brayer with a green spectrum ink pad (an ancient one from Tsukineko called Serenade) and brayered over the leaves for an emboss resist technique. I kept the rest of the card simple to highlight the image. The colors work better in real life than in the photograph!
Also, stayed tuned - I am almost at 15,000 hits on my blog and I am working up some blog candy to share! It should be ready to go in the next couple days.
Supplies:
Stamps: Unity
Ink: versamark, Serenade pad
Paper: green galore, gable green, whisper white, Basic Grey Phoebe
Accessories: ribbon, butterfly, embossing powder, brayer

Amazing blog candy alert!

Check out this giveaway HERE! Nesties, Copics, stamps, ribbon and more! Wow!!!

Bellie up!

There's a mini Virtual Stamp Night going on at SCS this weekend. I need some decompression time, so this is the perfect excuse to spend some time at the craft table! You can play along HERE! This is my card for Jenn and Lori's mini VSN challenge. They asked us to "bellie up" to the embellishment buffet and use at least three embellishments on our card. I am a fairly clean and simple stamper, so even though I used several embellishments, I kept them simple. My embellies are: Cuttlebug swiss dots, scrap from a scallop die cut, ribbon, jumbo eyelet, and ghost flower. The daisies were stamped in brilliance black and embossed with clear EP. I added some crayon resist for white highlights before using several shades of blue to sponge the background. Thanks for a fun challenge, ladies!
Supplies:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Ink: brilliance graphite black, soft sky, bashful blue, ballet blue, night of navy
Paper: bashful blue, basic black, neenah classic crest white, textured white scallop die cut
Accessories: Cuttlebug swiss dots, ghost flower, jumbo eyelet, ribbon, embossing powder, crayon, sponges

ResQ Challenge #5: Glitter

This week's Res-Q challenge is being hosted by Jacqueline. She asked us to use glitter, sparkle or shimmer on our cards. You can see all the details of the challenge, and play along, HERE! I decided to glitter my card up in a big way. This is one of my favorite "wow" techniques. I stamped the rose image from Fifth Avenue Floral, colored it with Copics, then covered the entire panel with Versamark and then added some iridescent ice embossing powder over the top. After heating, the entire image sparkles! I also added a more delicate sparkle over the sentiment by highlight the words and swirls with a clear Spica glitter pen.
Supplies:
Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, All Holidays
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, lovely lilac, Copic markers
Paper: lovely lilac, almost amethyst, prints dp, neenah classic crest white
Accessories: Nestabilities Labels Three, ribbon, embossing powder

Sketch a flower

I had a chance to play with Jen del Muro's weekly sketch the other day. You can find the sketc HERE! I colored the image, then decided I had to flip one piece of the sketch, so my clip and ribbon tie are on the right. After I colored the image, I had to go on a hunt for some papers to match. I found a scrap of this Basic Grey Two Scoops paper and it was perfect!I also added some Stickles to the center of the flower for a little shimmer. Thanks for a fun sketch, Jen.
Supplies:
Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, copics
Paper: cameo coral, blush blossom, certainly celery, vanilla, Basic Grey two scoops
Accessories: Stickles, ribbon, hodgepodge hardware, cuttlebug, top note die

Flower pot!

This flower pot card was the Technique Lovers' challenge on Splitcoast a few days ago. I saw so many cute little flower pots in the gallery that I just had to try one myself. I thought this would be a perfect card to send my sister who is having surgery tomorrow. You can find out more about how to make this card HERE! The card is kind of like a pocket card; the flowers are attached to an insert that slides out. I used primas from my stash, some more of the daisy stickers for centers, and ribbon from my stash for the leaves.
Supplies:
Stamps: Sincere salutations
Ink: chocolate chip
Paper: kraft, whisper white, pixie pink
Accessories: EK Success punch, ribbon, butterfly, Primas, stickers

RESQ Challenge #4: Diamonds

My stamping and blogging time has been pretty limited lately, and my mojo seems to be, too! I've had a stressful few weeks, and I think I've discovered that I need to try to keep stamping even when I'm stressed. It really is good therapy! I finally had a chance to sit down to stamp today, and this is the first card I came up with! This card is for Pat/casep's fun challenge on the RES-Q challenge blog. You can find all the details, and play along, HERE! Working from this month's theme, Daisies and diamonds, Pat gave us a menu of choices using characteristics of diamonds. I chose to use circles on my card, purple, orchid, green and white for my color combination, and ribbon as my embellishment.
Supplies:
Stamps: Darling dots (SU)
Ink: orchid opulence, gable green, lovely lilac
Paper: whisper white, gable green, lovely lilac, orchid opulence, Euphoria DP from Basic Grey
Accessories: Cuttlebug, ribbon, Creative Memories circle punches, dimensionals

Happy Easter, Happy Spring!

Hope you all have a fabulous day today! The banner above was hard to photograph (if you click it, you can see it larger!) but it was my favorite spring/Easter project this year. I made this for my mom. I covered chipboard coasters in patterned papers, added the glittery letters, some flowers, gems and other embellishments and then tied each panel together using ribbons. It was a fairly quick and easy project, but I am really happy with the final results! Now I'm off to decorate some cupcakes to take to Easter dinner!
Supplies:
Paper: paper pizazz
Accessories: chipboard coasters, corner rounder, crop-a-dile, ribbon, glittery letters from Making Memories, primas, Marcella K flowers, Making Memories chipboard button butterflies, Kaisercraft pearls, Making Memories brads

A muddy challenge

It's week three of the new Res-Q Challenge, and this week JoAnn/Sarahzoe has a great one for us. You can read all the details HERE and please feel free to join us! These are no pressure, just for fun challenges! With daisies and diamonds as the theme this month, JoAnn asked us to use brown as a major color (for mud in the spring), a bright color such as pink, red, orange or yellow like those found in gerbera daisies (I chose yellow), and white for regular daisies as our neutral. She let us interpret diamonds however we wished, and I chose the bling kind! The inspiration for this card is the glittery dimensional sticker flowers from Adorn It. I have had these in my stash for awhile, just waiting for the right occasion, and this challenge was it! Thanks JoAnn!
Supplies:
Stamps: All holidays
Ink: chocolate chip
Paper: chocolate chip, yoyo yellow, whisper white
Accessories: Cuttlebug swiss dots, nestabilities labels three, ribbon, corner punch, stickers

Weekend sketch and bunnies!

Mary Jo Albright is hosting the Weekend Sketch Challenge this week, and she posted a long, narrow sketch. I love making cards to fit business envelopes (about 6.25 by 3.5 inches) so I had to give this sketch a try. I also had another of these cute Magenta bunny images all colored and ready to go, and it was perfect for the sketch. I didn't use the bottom circle, replacing it with the ribbon instead.I also used my new EK Success border punch. I just love this punch - it is so delicate and makes such a neat border. I added some glitz using my Spica clear glitter pen but it it almost impossible to see in the picture.
Supplies:
Stamps: Magenta bunnies
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics
Paper: lovely lilac, whisper white, amethyst prints dp
Accessories: circle punches, EK success border punch, ribbon, copic spica clear glitter pen, Ellen Hutson ribbon

Starring you birthday

I took a break from Easter cards to play with my new "Starring You" set from Stampin Up. It was a last-minute purchase, or rather a freebie. I had hostess benefits to use and nothing I "needed" so I added this to my cart. I thought it would be good for masculine cards, something I struggle with and for which I have very few stamps! I needed a masculine birthday card, and the recipient of this card loves the color orange, so I paired the stamps with tangerine tango and night of navy. The sketch is from Taylored Expressions' weekly cupcake sketch challenge. This is a great sketch! My card measures 4.25 inches square.
Supplies:
Stamps: Starring you
Ink: night of navy, tangerine tango
Paper: night of navy, tangerine tango, whisper white
Accessories: Silver brads, circle punches

Easter sketch challenge

I am all about Easter cards right now! I don't make very many, usually 10-12, but with so much other stuff going on lately, I managed to let Easter sneak up on me! Also complicating matters is the fact that I didn't purchase a new bunny/Easter stamp set this year to get me inspired. However, my sweet friend Karolyn/garkarlon sent me some stamped images from this bunny stamp (I think it's Magenta?) so I have been coloring them for use on some of my Easter cards. I think these bunnies are so cute! I used this week's SCS sketch challenge layout for this card, and attempted to make it a more masculine card, with kraft and green galore as the dominate colors. Hopefully my dad won't mind the pink ribbon! This is the first of several cards using this image I'll be sharing in the next few days. Hope you don't get tired of it!
Supplies:
Stamps: Magenta
Ink: Copic markers
Paper: kraft, green galore, unknown white
Accessories: cuttlebug, ribbon

Lee's sketch, inspired

I still had all my supplies out from my last card for the res-q challenge (see the challenge here: http://resqchallenge.blogspot.com/) So I used those supplies as the starting point for this card.. The card uses a sketch by Lee aka luvlee, who made a sketch for some of us VSN alums who have been challenging one another to jump-start our mojo. This one will be an Easter card. I wish the pattern on the designer paper was a little closer together, it kind of gets lost in this design. I colored the image with Copics then went over the flowers and bird with a spica clear glitter pen. Thanks for a great sketch, Lee!
Supplies:
Stamps: Flower for all seasons
Ink: memento tuxedo black, copic markers
Paper: pixie pink, pink pirhouette, soft sky, neenah classic crest white, Creative Imaginations dp
Accessories: ticket punch, ribbon, nesties, Cuttlebug swiss dots