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I did the sketch challenge at Splitcoaststampers today! I haven't done a sketch challenge in quite a while, it was great! I check in each week and look at and print the sketch challenge then end up filing it away. The funny thing about this sketch challenge is that it looks similar to the card I made last night. The card below is a CASE from Jami at More Is More. I've been blog browsing and really like some of the Christmas cards using Stampin' Up! designer papers that the ladies have been coming up with.
The holly came from a Lizzie Anne Designs set called Celebration Frames and I thought red rhinestones would look nice for the berries. I actually think Stickles would be more cost effective if I was going to mass produce these. I colored the holly with a Copic marker, the Merry Christmas stamp is made by Inkadinkado and stamped in real red. The designer paper is Stampin' Up! Dashing and the card stock is from thepapermill.com, Red - Light, Forest - Light and Forest - Dark. I like the simple layouts today.

A Question From Willow

I received a question from Willow yesterday via e mail and thought answering it on my blog would be helpful.
Hello, I was in your site and liked it very much. I thought maybe you could help me. I am looking for ideas for small note pads I bought at the dollar store the other day. The Pads are (5x3). Any help would be much appreciated.
Willow

When I first discovered stamping blogs I saw these post it note holders that Cambria Turnbow had made and posted on her blog and thought, Wow! are these ever neat! Click on Cambria's name above and the link will take you to her blog with directions for how to make these. I think the idea could be easily adapted to fit any size note pad you might have.

Pictured above a few of the post it note holders I made after being inspired by and studying Cambria's instructions, if I can make them you can too! Have fun with it!

Maya Road Altered Dinner Break Tin

I haven't been totally goofing off today, I did work all morning on Christmas cards. But I've had this tin on my mind and was brought a bag of "vacation" goodies last week and just couldn't help myself! I think I would have been okay if I hadn't looked in the bag... This is a job I'm working on, a vacation in Spain scrapbook in a small container... or two... Two of the mini albums will fit in this tin and I have another tin the same size and type I received by mistake so who knows where this could go!
I used a bunch of the receipts, airline boarding passes, luggage claim stickers, money, etc. on this tin. I stuck everything on the way I thought I'd like it and modge podged over the top of it. I really like the way one of the boarding passes fit on the lid of this tin, I didn't have to make much of an adjustment in it's size at all. I was able to keep its integrity.

I think if (if? lol) I get to do this again I'll use the modge podge on the tin to glue the stuff down and then use it again on top of everything. I was kind of worried when the lighter weight papers started to wrinkle and bubble when I applied the modge podge, I don't think anyone I know will be returning to Spain soon so I could replace what I might have ruined. Then I had to remind myself... it's only paper!


When ever I make a scrapbook for someone and know I'll be doing it in advance I ask them to save me all the stuff that could be in their pockets at the end of the day. And to also pick up interesting stuff along the way that I might be able to use in their books. Kind of like a treasure hunt.
This tin and the chip board albums that fit inside came from the online store Frantic Stamper. She has a great selection of stuff and her shipping is quick!
I just posted this and thought of something else! dd2njoy, Diane left a comment the other day asking - Do you ever get days like you don't feel like stamping,especially after making the same card over 100 times??? The answer to the question is no, I can't seem to keep up with all the stuff that flows through my head and I want to get on paper so I just do the best I can. There are a few things in my life I feel I MUST do and this is one of them.

Have a great day!

They're Done!

I'm happy to say I have 100 Christmas cards finished and ready to deliver Monday morning to Pastor George at Grace Assembly. Yea! And before I start the next big job I wanted to play just a little.
I've been blog browsing today as I'm working and noticed some of my fellow (?) bloggers talking about using Cryogen White card stock to stamp on. Hmmm, I know I have a ream of that!? In the back of my file drawer I found 50 sheets of it anyway, cool!

I love the way it takes the Palette Noir ink and the Copic markers work so smoothly on it, and the shimmer... Wow, cool! I think I'll be playing with this paper a bit more often.

So, my card is a quick one using Inkadinkado stamps, Curious Irradescents Cryogen White card stock and Navy Blue cardstock and my few Copic markers. I also used my Stampin' Up! small slot punch to thread the wide organdy ribbon through. I'm not sure where the snowflake stamps came from that I used to stamp the Navy cardstock but I did use Brilliance Pearlescent Moonlight White ink to try and keep the shimmer thing going.

Oh, I discovered a new blogger today and I think her artwork is great! Her name is Leann and her blog is Inky Fingered Fun, stop by and check her out!

Have a great weekend~

Where have I been?

Sorry I haven't been as bloggie as usual, life has been in fast forward again this week. I've been working on 100 Christmas cards for Grace Assembly of God church and took a picture for you. You've seen the card before in an earlier post, but now you get to see 100 of them! Actually it's 81 done and 19 to go... I should be able to deliver these Monday! Whooo hooo! Then I can start the 200 I need to make for Lane's Align and Auto Care.

But first I think I'll make a little side trip and make something just for fun. I have several new things I want to play with sitting on the table waiting their turn. A couple new stamps, Sizzlits Snowflake dies, Spellbinders Dies, Build A Brads, an On Board Art Journal, etc. Those little things that could get overlooked if put away.

Have a great weekend!

Starbucks Halloween Goodies

I love the way this turned out! I made it for a friend of mine who wanted me to make a nice card for his Mom. The card was going to be hand delivered so why not a sweet treat instead? Luckily he liked my idea!

I made this using empty Starbucks coffee bottles and the carton they come in. I first saw one of these at Taylor Van Bruggen's blog and thought it was so clever and cute I had to try it too.
I covered the carton with designer paper, tied a strip of organdy ribbon around it and attached the sentiment with a piece of gold twine you can't see in the picture.

The I Love You stamp is from a 1992 Stampin' Up! set called Great Greetings. After stamping I Love You I used a 1 1/4" circle punch to cut it out and then used the new Stampin' Up! scalloped circle punch for the orange layer.

For the bottle tops I used a 1 3/8" circle punch and the designer paper, attached those circles to the bottle tops.

I then used a Copic marker to color the flowers green and layered the orange ones from my stash on top and secured them together with a green brad, I used foam tape on the bottom of the flowers to attach them to the bottle tops.

I next wrapped orange grossgrain ribbon around the bottle tops. I found the best way to do this is to put them through the Xyron X first, what a great tool!

It's been a great day and totally busy! Our Stampin' Up! Demonstrator's meeting that we get together for every month was today too. Big Fun!

My First At Home Class~

I wanted to show just one more altered file folder today. I had my first At Home Class today and this is what we got together to make. We had a great time and it all went very well.

There will be another class Tuesday, October 30th at 10:30 a.m., we'll be making 3 Autumn cards. They are posted on my blog here and here. The class fee is $10.00, you can e mail me for directions to the house and reserve your spot if you are interested and please bring your crop kit and adhesives and we'll have some fun! Supply List: Paper - by PSX, Real Red card stock, Accessories - Ribbon, file folder, Prong fasteners.

I found the tutorial for this on Splitcoaststampers a few weeks ago and have had a lot of fun with them.

Wendy at Life In The Button Factory linked her blog to mine showing her cool altered file folder today. She e mailed to tell me she'd found my gallery at Splitcoaststampers and my altered file folders inspired her to make one too. I think that's pretty cool, thanks Wendy!

I think I've got it!

Our family moved to Arizona from Montana 37 years ago so I have a really hard time understanding what is meant by fall or autumn. Today I think I've captured it in a couple of cards. That's exciting for me! When asked to make "fall cards" I usually panic. My stamps today are made by Serendipity and Inkadinkado, I used background stamping and the rock and roll technique for the leaves in my main image. I hadn't tried that before today either, it's pretty cool! The cardstock colors in the above card are Forest Dark, Nut Brown and Forest Light and I used a strip of Chocolate Organdy Ribbon.

My second card today was started by bringing out ink pads and playing with the focal image to see what various colors looked like together. I really like the Ruby Red and More Mustard affect here. My "Ruby Red" cardstock is actually a Brick Red made by Via Vellum, the More Mustard is Stampin' Up!s. Instead of the organdy ribbon this time I used a strip of coordinating paper and three pumpkin colored brads. I'm not sure which one I liked the best so I thought I'd show you both.

We haven't had internet service all day today and it's been pretty quiet without it. Funny how we grow so accustomed to our technology. There was a storm here last night which brought lots of damage from the wind with it.

And the winner is...

Comment #48 and that's Brenda!

Brenda said...
Congrats on all the hits...great blog! Thanks for sharing your creativity & inspiring the rest of us! Thanks for this chance to win sweet candy!~Brenda H.
October 18, 2007 10:57 PM

Please e mail me with your snail mail address and I'll get your new stamp set out to you! gonestampin@gmail.com

Congratulations!

Gobble Till You Wobble

It's been a good day! It's late and we've been out to Celebrate Recovery, the kids are asleep now so I have some time for blogging and maybe some stamping?
I worked on my Christmas card job today and took the time to play with some new stamps too. I had fun making 3 cards just for fun and this is one of them.

This is Cornish Heritage Farms stamp set of the month for October and I when I saw it I just had to have it!

I have 2 color families of Stampin' Up!s Watercolor Wonder Crayons now, I used them to color my turkey image and applied Crystal Effects to the eyes on this bird to give them a little pop.

The watercolor crayons are nice and give a richer look compared to using my ink pads. I'm still experimenting with coloring directly onto the stamps with the crayons, sometimes my stamped image looks really good! Other times it's a flop. I'll keep practicing~

Supply List: Paper - Via Vellum Brick Red, Bazzill, Fluttery Things patterned paper by Provo Craft, Stamps - Cornish Heritage Farms Oct. stamp of the month, Ink - Palette Noir, Accessories - Antique Brads, Hunter Grossgrain Ribbon, Stampin' Up! Photo Corners Punch, Crystal Effects, Stampin' Up! Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aqua Painter.

Give Thanks

I made this card a few days ago using my watercolor crayons from Stampin' Up!, quite honestly I don't know of anyone else who makes them. But I haven't done my "homework" on that either!
I'd like to give thanks tonight for all the people who stop by and check out my blog. Wow, I'm stunned, excited and grateful to all of you. I posted BLOG CANDY in my last post and the comments I've received about my blogging are so nice from everyone. Thanks! I needed that!

I'm coming into my busiest time of year right now, I have 300 Christmas cards to make at the moment and there will be more orders coming soon. So, I've spent most of my day working on one layer for 80 cards that are all the same. I love the process of card making as much as the designing and when all the cards are finished and ready to deliver it's very satisfying to me. Getting paid for it is always a bonus too! It still amazes me that I "get" to do this and it provides for my little family.

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to leave a comment on the BLOG CANDY post for a chance to win the Perfect Presentation hostess set this Saturday~

BLOG CANDY!!

My counter has made it past 5000 and I wanted to thank all of you for checking in on my blog and leaving comments too! I thought we should celebrate with a little Blog Candy!!

This is a Stampin' Up! Level 2 Hostess Set from the Fall/Winter 2007 catalog called Perfect Presentation I'm offering for my "candy". If you'd like a chance to win it, leave me a comment on this post and I'll draw a winner Saturday, Oct. 20th at noontime using Random Generator.org

Thanks for stopping by!

Miracle Of Christmas

I have a comment from yesterday's post from Kathy asking me to show the Ink, Spray & Smash technique, I've got something even better... the link! It's Faith's technique at Stampin' With Markie's Mom so who better to show you than her. Enjoy!
Tomorrow is Monday and I need to go see a few of my customers about their Chirstmas cards for this season. This is one of them I thought I'd offer this year. I'll be making somewhere in the neighborhood of 100, I want to keep it fairly simple so I can mass produce them in a short period of time.

My card body is Night of Navy, the second layer is Sky Blue light (papermillstore.com), Creamy Carmel and White. I used Prismacolor pencils to color my image (SU retired Miracle Of Christmas), Night of Navy eyelets on the strip of Creamy Carmel and my background stamp is from Eurekastamps.com.

The Ink, Spray and Smash Technique

In my travels (blog browsing that is) I've learned a lot of cool stuff and this technique is one of them.

I visit Stampin' With Markie's Mom as often as I can. Faith has some beautiful cards and cool techniques to share, this one is called Ink, Spray and Smash technique. Late last night I gave it a try. It's a little messy but the ink washed off my hands when I showered this morning and my friends all know I'm weird anyway! I had several sheets of glossy card stock ready and each one came out a little different. I also used left over photo paper just for fun. This is one of those photo papers, some of the top layer of the paper came off and gave it a weathered look.

This stamp I've had for several years and really haven't known what to do with it, it's so BIG! I really like the affect of this background with it. Wise men traveling through fog...

Supply List: Paper - Basic Black, Astro Brights Lunar Blue, Forest Light, Stamps - Merry Christmas by Sweet Impressions, Wise men by Stampendous, Ink - Palette Noir, Accessories - Tempting Turquoise, Sage Shadow, Creamy Carmel reinkers, Black Brads.

Watercolor Crayons, Wow~

My life is getting really busy again, I think it's just that time of year!

Working at the scrapbook store is fun too, it's only two days a week but I've gotten really wrapped up in what I'm doing and loving it.
I ordered watercolor crayons for a technique class I'm going to teach and couldn't wait for the stamps to come in so I tried them out on just one of my stamps. It's been awhile since I've done this and I "wowed" myself with them.

I only made one card and put them away, I'm supposed to be coming up with designs for Christmas cards for two different businesses in town. I have to go Monday and show them what I have for them and close the deal so to speak. No pressure, ya right! They are both awesome customers of mine that I've done a lot of work for in the past.

This card was someone's sketch challenge not to long ago I think. The give thanks tag looks like it's attached to the ribbon but it isn't. I colored my Grape Leaves stamp by Personal Stamp Exchange first with Old Olive, Creamy Carmel, Close to Cocoa and Really Rust watercolor crayons randomly and spritzed the stamp with a fine mist of water, gave it a second and stamped it on my white cardstock. When I lifted the stamp I thought Wow! that's cool!

I was actually expecting a mess...

So I matted it on Nut Brown cardstock and went from there. The card body is Forest Dark cardstock, and the circle shape is Forest Medium. I used Basic Brown ink, I'm not sure where my organdy ribbon came from, but the verse stamp is made by Stampendous and the Give Thanks is made by Impression Obsession. I also used my circle cutting tool made by Creative Memories. It's a nice tool, but boy I can't wait to get my hands on the Spellbinder's circle and scalloped circle dies!

Oh No!! I Can't Stop...

Have you ever made a project and had so much fun with it you had to make another one? And another one, and another one? I think it's happening to me... Good thing I'm in recovery!
I worked at Scrapbooker's Corner today and on my way I stopped by my bosses office to show her what I'd done with her file folders and punch I "borrowed" Saturday. She thought they were cool and suggested I add ribbon to the prong fasteners. Ohhhhhhh, what a great idea! And I was off ~
So, oh boy!! Look what I made at work today! hehehe (insert silly grin)

Halloween will be fun this year knowing I have a cute album to fill with pictures of the kids.

There's a reduced table at the store and I was straightening it this morning and noticed this paper and thought, how cute is that! One of my girl friends came in to ask me if I'd gotten her e mail about a get well card she needs and saw this and wants two of them for her grandkids Halloween pictures too. What could be better, another "job" in the works.

Supply List: Paper - American Traditional Designs Spooky Town Brights, Bazzill cardstock, Stamps - Hero Arts Happy Halloween, Ink - Noir Black, Accessories - Prima flowers, Brads, foam tape, Stampin' Up! Slit Punch, Grossgrain and Organdy Ribbons, Prong fasteners.

Altered File Folders

Hey these are fun! Quick to put together too! The most time consuming part for me was adding the pictures.
SCS has a tutorial for Altered file folders this week so I had to check it out and make some. This is my first one and I'll post the other one tomorrow. My second one doesn't have pictures in it yet, it's a Thanksgiving theme and I though I'd wait and fill it after this Thanksgiving.

There wasn't much stamping going on in this project and that can be a challenge for me too.

Supply List: Bazzill cardstocks, Patterned paper by Scrapease, Ink - Night of Navy, Stamps - Memories by Just For Fun, Christmas by SU Season of Joy and a date stamp from the office supply, Accessories - Prong fasteners, glue dots, brads, Su Photo Corners Punch.

I have file drawers in my "stamp room" that hold my paper and stamps and other stuff, these will go in there nicely too!

Poochie Christmas

I just love Poochie Frankie! He's too cute!

I stamped him in Palette Noir and colored him with Copic markers, the vellum panel is stamped with Memories White ink and the holiday wishes sentiment is from a Papertreyink. stamp set.

The layout is pretty basic and I'll use it to mass produce these for my Chirstmas card sales.

I've been playing with the Altered File Folders from this week's SCS tutorial. I don't have one complete yet, I have to use the Cricut machine at Scrapbooker's Corner to finish decorating the cover. Then I'll take some pictures to share with you.

I'm off to play... I hope you are too!

Is it Saturday yet?

For some reason I keep thinking today is Saturday. The kids are out of school must be why... I've had a totally productive day working here at home. I just looked over at my kitchen table and had to laugh... it was almost cleaned off several hours ago, what happened!

As I was putting things away I discovered more than a dozen cards I'd made with a sheet of Basic Grey Elephant paper and set aside 3 to talk to my boss about for a class at Scrapbooker's Corner. I've gotten the okay and it looks like I'll be teaching that one as our first morning class on the 16th of this month. How fun! You can click on the first part of the store name if you'd like to check those out.

On to the card! This is for my friend Bill who moved to New York to be close to his family as he goes through his cancer treatments. I thought it would be nice to make a special card for him from our Wednesday night family group to let him know we miss him and are praying for him too.

The bear image is from Copper Leaf Creations, the background is a stamp called Montana Tree Bark from Cornish Heritage Farms and friends always is from my Papertreyink. Faux Ribbon set. I colored the bear and fish with Prismacolor markers and used 3 of my Stampin' Up! punches for the sentiment. The small oval, 1 1/4" circle, and the designer label punch. The card stock colors are Old Olive, Chocolate Chip and White.

Best Fiends

I love this stamp set! It was in last year's Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini catalog and I almost didn't buy it. I think I waited until the last day and I'm so glad I have it. So far this is the only image in the set I've used, there's something about that booquet of eyeballs that just kills me!

I made this card for a friend of mine who needs a Halloween card for a teen girl. Hope she likes it!

The patterned paper came from the scrap bin at Scrapbooker's Corner so I don't know who it's made by and I used my Prismacolor pencils to color the image and my Lime and Black Copic Spica glitter markers for highlighting. I"m sorry I didn't have a bright orange brad for my photo corner it looks kind of bare to me without one.

Practicing With Patterned Paper

I practiced card making with patterned paper today. I spent my day at Scrapbooker's Corner and wanted to try Bad Sherry's Just Because We Wanna weekend sketch challenge with some of the patterned paper there.

She used flowers on her example and we just got some nice big flowers there last week. I scaled back a little with the flower sizes on this card and think it's my favorite.

I'll post a couple of my other cards on the Scrapbooker's Corner blog next so if you'd like to see them you'll have to link over to there.
The paper is by Basic Grey and is part of the Blush collection. My only stamping is the sentiment from the All Holiday's stamp set by Stampin' Up!

It was fun today to work with someone else's stuff and just make these cards today.

I also wanted to say thanks to everyone for their nice comments about my exterior art project from yesterday. My neighbor visited today and asked if I'd like him to paint my back fence, he has some grey paint. I smiled and told him I'd love it and didn't care if it was hot pink! Maybe this weekend we can get together and paint my other neighbor's fence too, I might have the right color for that job. I'm not really sure what to do about the garage door other than just cover the spot for now. One thing leads to another with me and I could end up painting the whole house and trim if I'm not careful.

Have a great day!

The "Art" Of Life

This is how my day started today. My kids have 2 weeks off school and went out to play first thing this morning.

They weren't gone long before they came inside and told me I had to come out and see this.

They were pretty upset and I was curious about what I was going to find. Something dead?

This first picture is my garage door. I wasn't real happy but thought okay...

This next picture is part of my neighbors fence and below is thier horse trailor.

The last picture is my fence out back along the alley.

The police arrived shortly after. We were just a couple of many homes to be tagged last night. They were out following the trail of vandalism that ended at the end of our street.

I was pretty mad at first about all this. After spending time talking with our local police I found out our paintings were not as offensive or graphic as some of the others. I'm thankful for that, I have young children.

As the day wore on I realized this is just one of life's irratations that will take some effort and paint to cover. Nothing personal, life goes on.

I'm thankful that I can afford paper for my "art" and when pictures are taken it's not to use as evidence against me. It makes people happy and they leave nice comments for me and lift me up. I feel sorry for the people who did this they have no idea how satisfying the "art" of life really is.