A quickie

Somehow my card stash has been depleted, and I have next to no thank you cards in it! I use thank you's quite a bit, so I guess I better get busy making some more. I have had limited stamp time lately, so I had to pull this one from my files. I made this awhile back because I needed a masculine thank you card in a hurry. I used SU's Starring You, which is my newest go-to set for masculine cards! I finished the card with some hemp twine, another favorite of mine for masculine cards.
Supplies:
Stamps: Starring You
Ink: Navy, artichoke
Paper: artichoke, night of navy, whisper white, artichoke patterns dp
Accessories: word window punch, hemp

Dream

Well, vacation is almost over, which is good, since I think I am running out of un-published cards in my stash! This is my card for Sara's VSN challenge "Hitting the tables." Sara asked us to make a card using only red, black and white. This is one of my favorite color combinations! This Kaisercraft DP is one of my favorites and perfect for the challenge. I used Unity's gratitude=joy set, adding primas to the flower stem for some dimension.I finished the card with some layered die-cut tags, ribbon and pearls.
Supplies:
Stamps: Unity
Ink: memento tuxedo black
Paper: basic black, whisper white, Kaisercraft Dp
Accessories: Cuttlebug die cuts, ribbon, Kaisercraft pearls, Primas

Flower frame

I think this was my favorite VSN card this round. The challenge was based on the show "CSI" and it called for using a frame on your card. I used the large red die cut bloom as my frame, cutting out the center and popping it up on foam tape to frame the sentiment. I added some smaller die cut flowers around it, with some bling and brads in the centers.
Supplies:
Stamps: Say it with scallops
Ink: pumpkin pie, saffron
Paper: die cut blooms, Washington Apple dp, so saffron, pumpkin pie, whisper white
Accessories: die cut blooms, brads, rhinestones, ribbon

Full cup

During VSN, I finally had a chance to ink up this fun stamp from Shirley's 2 Girls. The card was for the buffet challenge, which called for making a card inspired by food or drink at a Vegas buffet. I love the breakfast buffet, but the most important part about breakfast in Vegas is the coffee to wake you up after a big night on the town! I colored the image with Copics and added some shimmer with a spica clear glitter pen.
Supplies:
Stamps: Shirley's 2 Girls
Ink: Memento rich cocoa, Copics
Paper: pink pirhouette, chocolate chip, neenah classic crest white, American crafts dp
Accessories: cuttlebug swiss dots, ribbon, spica glitter pen

Inspired wedding

I'm headed out of town for a few days, with limited computer access and no stamp time. But I'm scheduling some posts to run while I'm gone, so hopefully you won't miss me too much! I had a chance over the weekend to make several cards for VSN over at Splitcoast, so I'll be sharing them over the next few days.
This is my card for Diane's challenge. She provided an inspiration picture of a wedding cake and also asked us to use a knot on our cards. I used three ribbon knots, and was inspired by the cake's colors, the rounded edges, the dots and the overall delicate feel.
I stamped the flower image in white craft ink and then embossed it with white EP. Thanks for a great challenge Diane!
Supplies:
Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral
Ink: Colorbox white craft
Paper: Soft sky, white
Accessories: ribbon, cuttlebug swiss dots, corner rounder, embossing powder, Kaisercraft pearls

Res-Q #8 and Lee's VSN bling!

I combined two challenges for this card. First is Lee's VSN challenge to glitter your entire image panel. I love doing this technique! I stamped the flower, colored it with Copics, then covered the whole panel in Versamark before embossing with iridescent ice EP. It is so sparkly!
The second challenge is this week's Res-Q challenge to use a Mother's Day gift you gave or received as inspiration. See all the details of that challenge HERE.
Since I'm not a mom, I chose to use a gift I gave my mom for inspiration. I gave her a new American Crafts cloth scrapbook album in a periwinkle blue similar to ballet blue. Here's a link to my inspiration piece (in the color sky) HERE. It has a small opening on the front for a photo, which inspired my focal piece. The card measures 4.25 inches square. I kept the embellishments simple in keeping with my inspiration piece.
Supplies:
Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics
Paper: ballet blue, basic black, neenah classic crest white
Accessories: ribbon and fibers, Kaisercraft rhinestones, embossing powder, nestabilities

Wedding duo

It's VSN weekend over on Splitcoast and I am in much need of some stamping therapy. I've had a rough week, so it was nice to get home and get inky for awhile! This weekend's theme is Viva Las Vegas, so that makes for some fun challenges. The first challenge of the night was to "Double down" and make of the same card, preferably using Vegas as inspiration. I immediately thought "Wedding" and came up with these two cards. I used some orchid Coredinations paper with the Manhattan Floral embossing folder, then sanded lightly to expose more of the paper's lighter core. I layered the embossed piece on silver and white cardstock, added the sentiment, ribbon and pewter pearls and that was it! Easy as pie!
Supplies:
Stamps: All Holidays (SU)
Ink: Stazon black
Paper: neenah classic crest white, unknown silver, Coredinations orchid
Accesories: ribbon, Kaisercraft pearls, Cuttlebug die and CM circle punch for sentiment, sanding block

Pomp and Circumstance

It's that time of year again! Graduation season is definitely upon us, so I decided I better get some cards made. This year, I pulled out an ancient piece of 8.5x11 piece of patterned paper with some tiny mortarboards and diplomas on it and paired it with Starring You from Stampin Up. I love this sentiment from that set! For the first card, I used red and black cardstock, since those are the school colors of the graduate, my second cousin.
The second card is a little simpler and more masculine, for my male cousin who just graduated from college with his bachelor's degree. I used black and silver cardstock and stamped the sentiment in black. The embellishment was limited to some plain black brads.
Supplies:
Stamps: Starring You
Ink: memento tuxedo black, real red, versamark
Paper: basic black, real red, silver, whisper white, unknown patterned paper
Accessories: circle punches, silver cord, silver EP, black brads

Trashy challenge!

I had a chance this weekend to play along with a new challenge on the Res-Q blog. Jacqueline has introduced Trashy Tuesdays to the blog! You can find out all about the first challenge HERE! This week's challenge was to take something you'd normally throw out and use it on your card. I had the card below sitting in front of me and thought I could put it to use!
I received this in a package of goodies I got from eclectic Paperie. The background was made with alcohol inks and it was very pretty. But the personalized note made it hard to figure out what to do with it. Finally I decided to trim out the leaf image and use it as foliage under a rose from Fifth Avenue Floral. The rose image was stamped on taken with teal and embossed in gold, then painted with perfect pearls to add some shimmer. The alcohol ink background has a gold shimmer that is hard to see in the photo.The first panel underneath is mellow moss embossed with the Manhattan Flower embossing folder. I layered it on a piece of brushed gold cardstock and a teal base. The gold ribbon was recycled off a package awhile back. Thanks for a fun challenge, Jacq! Can't wait to see what you come up with next.
Supplies:
Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral
Ink: brilliance black
Paper: taken with teal, mellow moss, brushed gold, alcohol ink background
Accessories: gold ribbon, embossing folder, Ranger perfect pearls, gold EP

We have a winner!

I used Random.org to select a winner for the blog candy:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

2 

Timestamp: 2009-05-11 03:25:55 UTC

Comment #2 is PAS! Congratulations. Please email me at eliotstamps@gmail.com with your name and mailing address and I will get your goodies to you! Please note if I haven't heard from you by Friday, May 15, I will select another winner! Congrats again, PAS!

Another card and a blog candy reminder!

Are you tired of these polished stone backgrounds? I hope not! This is another card made for the recent mini VSN, this time using some pink and purple alcohol inks and gold metallic mixative. The challenge was to use gold on your card, and this one has a gold shimmer to the whole thing I also used some Tim Holtz stamps I won in the recent SCS non-raffle. You can win your own alcohol inks by entering my BLOG CANDY giveaway on this POST!!! The giveaway closes at midnight Pacific time on Saturday.
Supplies:
Stamps: I love Paris - Tim Holtz
Ink: archival ink from Ranger
Paper: rose red, regal rose, basic black, glossy white
Accessories: Kaisercraft rhinestones, gold cord, gold embossing powder

Awards!

I have a couple of blog awards to share today! I can be very bad about posting and sharing awards, but I am trying to get better! I really do appreciate the recognition! The first award is from Paula of the Paper Spa! This According to Paula, The Lemonade Stand Award is for being a blogger who shows great attitude and gratitude. Thank you so much Paula!
Today, I was delighted to receive this award from my friend Ann of Ann's Creative Nook! Thanks so much Ann! I have such wonderful blogging friends, it would be hard to chose just a handful of people to pass these on to, so I won't name any specific people for these awards.
I think you all deserve them! Thanks again, ladies!

Res-Q #7: Marbling

This is what I came up with for Denise's Res-Q challenge this week, a very clever challenge that called for using some kind of marbling on your card. You can see all the details of the challenge HERE. I made a polished stone background using my Ranger alcohol inks. I just love those inks. The panel with the sentiment is what I got after I had cleaned off the felt pad from the ink applicator - I actually prefer the lighter version, I think. And I also added some alcohol inks to the clear acrylic flower charm. Also a reminder, if you'd like to win some alcohol inks and other goodies, enter my blog candy giveaway found HERE! The contest is open until Saturday.
Supplies:
Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Alcohol inks
Paper: glossy white, basic black, ballet blue
Accessories: Acrylic flower, ribbon, kaisercraft pearls, ticket corner punch

Sharing some favorites - and Blog Candy!

This is one of the cards I made for the recent mini VSN. The challenge was to take inspiration from a Beatles song, and I chose Black Bird. I was having such a good time playing with my Ranger alcohol inks; I made this background using the inks and gold metallic mixative. I love how you can achieve so many different looks with these inks. On this one, I allowed some of the white to show through. I stamped the bird on a separate piece of the background, cut it out with my Creative Memories oval cutters and mounted it with dimensionals. Now, would you like to make some backgrounds like this?
If so, now's your chance! I recently won a gift package from eclectic Paperie as part of the non-raffle on SCS to raise money for Australian bushfire relief. The package included lots of wonderful Ranger and Tim Holtz goodies, along with a fabulous eP apron. Thanks so much to the eP girls for donating to the cause. What does that mean for you? Well, since I'm already a fan of alcohol inks, some of the goodies in the package are duplicates for me. So I'd like to share them with one of you. Along with these goodies, I'll be sending out a bookmark I made using some of my new eP stuff, and maybe some other goodies, too.
Here's the details on the blog candy: To enter, leave a comment on this post between now and midnight Pacific time Saturday, May 9. I'd love to hear what some of your favorite stamping techniques are, so mention one of those in the comments, as well! I'll pick a winner Sunday, May 10, using Random. org. Good luck and thanks for playing along!
Supplies:
Stamps: Tim Holtz Nature and I love Paris; CTMH Free spirit (card)
Ink: Archival black, distress ink
Paper: card - tempting turquoise, kiwi kiss, glossy; tag
Accessories: Ribbon, tag, hardware, alcohol inks

Res-Q Challenge #6: Lee's favorites

I finally had some time to tackle this week's Res-Q Challenge, brought to us by my friend Lee, aka Luvlee on SCS. The theme this month is Daisies and Diamonds, and she challenged us a with a color combination of pink, black and white, which are three colors diamonds come in! You can see the full details of the challenge, and play along, on the Res-Q blog HERE!
Elements of this card have been in my head for awhile; I really wanted to do a scallop circle card, but I need a bigger set of nesties. I used the plain standard circles for my card base because that was the biggest one I had! I then layered the white scallop layer and a pink pirhouette circle embossed with swiss dots. I added some black Kaisercraft rhinestones for some bling around the edges. The image was colored with Copics and the center filled with more bling. A little ribbon and the card was finished!
Now for a couple of news items: A new Res-Q Challenge will go up Monday, then on Tuesday my pal Jacqueline's got a new challenge in store for us also on the Res-Q blog. Hope you can join us to play! Also, Sunday night I'll be posting some blog candy! So please come on back then!
Supplies:
Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics
Paper: basic black, whisper white, neenah classic crest white, pink pirhouette
Accessories: Cuttlebug swiss dots, Nesties, ribbon, Kaisercraft rhinestones