Paris tile

This is another card I made for the recent Virtual Stamp Night at Splitcoast. The challenge was to use the tile wall technique, but on an angle to make a diamond or harlequin pattern. This was a fun technique! I stamped a Tim Holtz image on patterned paper, then cut it into squares on the diagonal. I sponged the edges of the squares with antique linen distress ink to make them stand out a bit. I layered the image on another piece of patterned paper and then mounted it all on a black card base with a layer of shimmery vanilla. I added some black satin ribbon the sides for a finishing touch.
Supplies:
Stamps: Tim Holtz, Stampers Anonymous
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, antique linen distress
Paper: basic black, shimmery white, Me and My Big Ideas patterned paper
Accessories: horizontal slot punch, ribbon, ticket punch

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you and yours have a safe and wonderful holiday. I wanted to squeeze in just a few more autumn cards before I switch full gear into Christmas! I used some more of this delicious Indian Summer paper from Basic Grey - I love that stuff! I stamped the leaf image in several colors and then sponged the edges of the image panel. The sentiment is my favorite fall sentiment from Rosie's Roadshow.
Supplies:
Stamps: Darling Dots (SU), Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink: more mustard, pumpkin pie, ruby red, really rust, bravo burgundy, chocolate chip
Paper: Ruby red, really rust, whisper white, more mustard, chocolate chip, Basic Grey Indian Summer
Accessories: ribbon, Kaisercraft pearls

Res-Q #24: The podiatrist

I'm hosting this week's challenge on the Res-Q blog. The doctor on call this week is the podiatrist, who prescribed the use of felt! Podiatric felt helps prevent blisters on your feet, but on your card, felt can make a great layer or embellishment! You can see the complete details of the challenge, and play along, HERE.
I used some pretty felt snowflakes from Hero Arts on my card. I love the softness and texture they add to this otherwise pretty plain and simple card. I still have a ton of holiday cards to finish, so I'll be making those cards at every opportunity for the next couple weeks!
Supplies:
Stamps: Snow swirled
Ink: brocade blue, bordering blue
Paper: brocade blue, bordering blue, neenah white
Accessories: ribbon, felt snowflakes, rhinestone brad, ticket punch

Snowone like you

Somehow I forgot to upload this card to the blog! I made this a few weeks ago for Unity's Bachelor Bro contest. I have a limited supply of Unity stamps, and these challenges really put all of my stamps to work! This card called for using a pink and brown color combination, making a sweet card, and trying to keep it masculine. I'm not sure I mastered the masculine part, but I got the other two OK. :)
The background is Cuttlebug-embossed, then lightly sponged with chocolate chip ink. I stamped pale pink snowflakes over the tree and on the sentiment panel, and I added lots and lots of liquid applique to the tree to make it look snowy! I was trying to match up with the sentiment, which was my "sweet' element for the challenge.
Supplies:
Stamps: Unity
Ink: chocolate chip, pink pirhouette
Paper: Pink pirhouette, chocolate chip, neenah white
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, liquid applique, paper snowflake from Making Memories, Kaisercraft pearls, rhinestone brad

Lady in red (and pink!)

Here's another card I made for last weekend's VSN challenges. Deb/dcorder gave us a choice of several card recipes inspired by costumes from Carvnevale in Venice. I had the great fortune of visiting Venice on the last night of Carnevale while I was in college. It was truly an amazing sight and scene - the costumes were astounding and the festive atmosphere was so much fun. At one point there were hundreds of people, costumed and not, tourists and locals alike, playing a giant game of what could best be described as crack-the-whip in San Marcos Square. It was surreal! Experiencing Carnevale is one of the reasons Venice is one of my favorite places in the world.
Now on to the card; I chose the Lady in Red recipe, which required a color combination of real red, pink passion, pixie pink and summer sun OR brushed gold. I went with the gold! The recipe also called for adding some glitz or bling, piercing, and using embossing. The pink passion background layer is embossed with the Manhattan Flower folder, then spritzed with Glimmer mist in iridescent gold. I pierced around the edges and added some gold gems to the corners. I added some more gems to the center panel, too.
Supplies:
Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, sincere salutations
Ink: real red, pink passion, pixie pink
Paper: real red, brushed gold, whisper white, pink passion, pixie pink
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Manhattan flower folder, ribbon, Mrs. Grossman's gold gems, Glimmer mist, paper piercer

Krafty snowflake CASE

It was fun to play along with some of the VSN challenges over the weekend on Splitcoast. That's a great event for jumpstarting my mojo and getting my stash of cards built up. Shannon/Mrs. Mac asked us to CASE (copy and selectively edit, is what I think it stands for) a card from the SCS gallery, but add some ruched ribbon and lots of extra embellishment. Since I need to build up my Christmas card stash, I attempted to CASE THIS gorgeous card by Lauraly.
I know I didn't do her card justice, but I gave it my best shot! I changed up the colors, used a brad instead of a button, and made other little changes. I also added lots of Kaisercraft pearls all over for my added embellies. My ribbon is a pre-ruched polka dot organza I picked up at Michaels. It's so much easier to buy the ribbon already ruched than it is to try to ruch it yourself!
Supplies:
Stamps: Snow swirled
Ink: taken with teal, Colorbox white
Paper: taken with teal, kraft, very vanilla
Accessories: ribbon, Cuttlebug tag, snowflake brad, Kaisercraft pearls

Res-Q #23: The Gingers

Isn't this Gingerbread couple the cutest? I've nicknamed them the Gingers! The Gingers are a digi image from Doodle Palace. The company is sponsoring this week's Res-Q Challenge and they've offered up this image free to anyone who wants to play along this week on the challenge. And everybody who plays along by Sunday will be entered in a drawing to win two free images from Doodle Palace. I hope you'll join us and play along!
Doodle Palace designer Erin Bailey's challenge is to use the Gingers on a card and incorporate glitter, embossing, a scalloped border and a pull-out tag! As I type this, I realize I've forgotten the embossing! Oops! I promise I'll go back and add some on the tag or something! I colored the image with Copics, sponged the edges with some antique linen distress ink, added some buttons and then added Stickles to all the lines of 'icing' for from bling. I also added some bling to the red buttons - they looked a little naked! The main image panel is popped up and the tag just slides right out. The sentiment is from an old Paper Salon set from my stamp stash.
Supplies:
Stamps: The Gingers, Doodle Palace
Ink: printer, antique linen distress, Copics
Paper: real red, soft sky, neenah white, Basic Grey Dasher
Accessories: Cuttlebug tag, EK Success border punch, Stickles, buttons, ribbon

Going to the chapel ....

A coworker is getting married this evening - a 6 p.m. Sunday evening wedding, which is causing me much consternation. I don't know what to wear or how long I can comfortably stay at the reception and still make it to work on time tomorrow! I know I'll have to hold my self to a single glass of champagne. ;) The good thing about an evening wedding is that I have most of the day to figure out the wardrobe and get ready.
The wedding is being held at a photograph y museum, and the wedding and the couple are both what I'd call non-traditional! For their card, I decided to use the wedding invitation - seen peeking from behind the card - as my inspiration. It was also a good chance to break out the Amuse shimmer couture papers I won in a blog candy contest last month. The papers are so shimmery, they really add pizazz that I thought would work well for a wedding card. They also came in colors very similar to those used on the invitation. I kept the layout and design simple, embossing the main panel with the Manhattan flower folder, adding a sentiment from Hero Arts and finishing the card with some black satin ribbon and a sparkly rhinestone buckle I've been hoarding. I thought about adding some additional bling, but then thought better of it. I think this suits the bridge and groom.
Supplies:
Stamps: Hero Arts sentiment
Ink: Memento tuxedo black
Paper: Amuse shimmer couture
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Manhattan flower folder, ribbon, rhinestone clip

Trying to get back in the groove!

I took a mini vacation two weeks ago, and my mojo never returned home with me! So I am trying to get back in the stamping and blogging groove. Fortunately, this weekend is Virtual Stamp Night over on Splitcoast. VSN is almost always the cure to my ailing mojo, and this round is no exception! The theme is Masquerade Ball and the fun continues all weekend.
This card was for Kelly's challenge - she asked to choose a song from the Top 100 songs of 1999 and use it for our inspiration. You can find out more about her challenge HERE. I chose All Star by Smashmouth, hence the stars! The card also fits this week's Res-Q challenge, which was a sketch challenge and a color combo using red and blue. Check out the Res-Q Challenge HERE! All star makes me think "All-American" so it seemed like a good pairing of challenges.
I hope to play in some more VSN tomorrow, but for now, I'm off to bed! It's been a long week.
Supplies:
Stamps: Darling dots, Starring You (SU)
Ink: real red, night of navy
Paper: real red, night of navy, whisper white, real red prints DP
Accessories: Creative Memories oval cutter, star brads

Christmas cardinal

This is another card I made for World Cardmaking Day last month but never got on the blog. This was another Splitcoast challenge, and this one was to use colors from a country's flag. We got to pick the country, so I chose one that was red, green and white so I could get started on some holiday cards! I have a small stash of holiday cards built up, but I still have a ways to go! One of the things I'm trying to do this year is use up stuff I've had in my stash for ages or just haven't used before. I didn't buy any new Christmas stamps, and so far, I haven't bought any new paper! This paper is from the Basic Grey Dasher collection; I had a whole package of 12x12 that had never been opened, so I'm finally cutting into it. I paired it with this image from Flower for All Seasons; I love the cardinal and poinsettia pairing. The image was colored with Copics and I added a little dot of Stickles to the center of each bloom for some sparkle. I think one of the best things about this card is that it is super flat - no extra postage required!

Supplies:
Stamps: Flower for all Seasons, Sincere Salutations (SU)
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copic markers
Paper: Basic Grey Dasher collection, neenah white, artichoke, riding hood red
Accessories: circle punch, scallop punch, stickles, Hero Arts red rhinestones, ribbon

Happy Harvest with Gina

I made this card last month for World Cardmaking Day, but just realized it never made the blog! The card was for Gina K's challenge on Splitcoast; she asked us to use a color combination of pumpkin, chocolate, and vanilla. Sounds like dessert, doesn't it? I wanted to use a Gina stamp for the card, so I pulled out the pumpkins from Happy Harvest. I stamped them in Memento Rich Cocoa ink on shimmery vanilla paper and colored them with Copics. I used half-squares from my Nestabilities to layer them. On the bottom is my favorite Indian Summer designer paper from Basic Grey. I finished the card with ribbon and a button from my stash.
Supplies:
Stamps: Happy Harvest, Gina K Designs
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Copic markers
Paper: Chocolate chip, pumpkin pie, shimmery vanilla, Basic Grey Indian Summer
Accessories: Nestabilities, Cuttlebug, corner rounder, ribbon, button, linen thread

Circle time

I'm taking some time away from the stamp table for a long weekend off. My mom's visiting and we're heading to do some sightseeing and maybe some shopping in San Diego! We might even hit some stamp/scrap stores and pick up some new goodies to play with. My mom's not a stamper, but she is a scrapbooker so I always try to take her to an LSS or two while she's in town. I think we'll hit some new stores this visit.
Now on to the card. I made this a few weeks ago for my friend's son who was turning 7. I struggle with masculine/boy cards, but I know this particular kid likes circles and bright colors, so I went with a geometric circle theme. The open circle stamp is from the SU set Riveting. The star circle is from SU's Starring You. I'm not sure about the layout, but I was trying to fix a little boo boo and that dictated the placement of things!
Supplies:
Stamps: Riveting, Starring You
Ink: Brilliant blue, tempting turquoise, green galore
Paper: brilliant blue, tempting turquoise, gable green, whisper white
Accessories: Cuttlebug, circle punches, corner rounder, brads