SC217 Cards

Oh I hope I have time to stamp today along with all the other things that need to be taken care of! I thought I should pop in and post the other two cards I made for SC217 while it's quiet here.

I think this one is my favorite, it's my second attempt. I really like the look of a card with the three squares in a row like this. They are extremely hard for me for some reason. With all the layers I like to add those squares get so very little! My palette is usually an A6 size card just because I love to layer things. I browsed the Sketch Challenge 217 gallery for inspiration before I started out. Someone made a card and used the Cuttlebug embossing folders and I just had to try it too. I like texture. The stamp set used is Lizzie Anne Designs Jolies Fluers colored with Copic markers RV19 & YG91. The paper is again Nut Brown and SU Purely Pomegranate, I changed the last color to Certainly Celery or at least as close to that shade as I had in my stash of cardstock. I also discovered that my Spellbinders Nestabilities squares worked nicely for the three squares and they are more "square" than I seem to get them cutting them myself and I used a Spellbinders tag die along with wide brown organdy ribbon. The stamped sentiment is from Clear Dollar Stamps, it was a thank you gift for being on their design team so unfortunately it's one that you can't buy.

My last card uses the same basic colors but I tried Pretty In Pink. I wasn't too sure about this one until I found the pink and brown striped ribbon. The stamps used come from Verve Visual's Petal's & Stems set and the sentiment is from PapertreyINK. The only thing that I did that was different on this card was to gently wipe my brown ink pad over the dots on the cardstock I'd used the Cuttlebug Swiss dots embossing folder on.

It's going to be another beautiful day here in Arizona, I have work to do outside today pulling weeds and getting a spot ready to plant watermelon and cantalope. My kids are going to love planting the seeds this weekend and it's fun for me to watch them go out and check "their garden" to see if anything has happened yet. We hope to be eating cantalope and watermelon from our own garden by mid June. We'll see what happens!

SC217

I got to do some stamping today! I feel like it's been forever since I've had time to sit down and play with the stamps.

I'm moving back into my stamping space and getting more and more organized, I love it! Today was my day to stay home and stamp. After accepting a going out to breakfast invitation I settled in and went over to Splitcoaststampers to see what I'd missed yesterday with the sketch challenge. Oh my... I love these with the 3 boxes, circles or whatever shape they choose. They are difficult for me, but I like a challenge! I actually did 3 different cards today and this is my first one. I've been trying to "revisit" my stamps and use them again and hopefully again! Ah hem... I've found so many neglected stamps since this remodel nightmare I've made myself go through the boxes one more time and pick out the ones that need new homes. How can I add more when there are those that haven't even seen ink?

Anyway... I used PapertreyINK's Beautiful Blooms and Verve Visual's Petal's & Stems for this card. I tried to choose colors out of my comfort zone and slipped right back into my zone I'm afraid. The paper is Thepapermill.com Nut Brown, Tan, Stampin' Up! Purely Pomegranate and White. Inks are SU Purely Pomegranate and Versa Fine Vintage Sepia. The three flowers are cut out using a die made by Cuttlebug, the flower stamp was designed to use with it. I like that. I used Cuttlebug embossing folders to give it texture and popped the flowers with foam tape. Last I added a Spellbinders tag with May Arts dotted brown organdy ribbon to compliment the dotted centers of the flowers then added the three half pearls. I like how it turned out but wondered if those three flowers were kind of big and had another idea so I set out making my next card using the sketch.

It was so good to get into my goodies and use my new space. I can't wait to do it all over again soon!

Tomorrow I need to go outside and do some yard work. The weather is getting into the low 80's and it's time to plant watermelon and cantalope. We've been eating and enjoying our tomatoes and bell peppers for several weeks now.

Kitchen Cabinets Complete!!

I've had a lot of company this past week and a half, but it's been good company! My craft room ah, kitchen cabinets are done. After 10 months of waiting and hiring a second contractor I have a kitchen that really looks like one again. Yea!! This is a view of the kitchen area as you walk in the front door. What? Most kitchen's don't come with a Cuttlebug on the table? If you take a closer look you'll notice it's a craft table not a dining table...

This is a view of where the fun starts! This is opposite the first picture and is my craft area and desk, you can see the reflection of across the room in the mirror. There's that table again too. It's an 8 ft. by 30 in. folding table that was in my Dad's office. I met with the contractor today to see if he'd give me an estimate on building a table that has storage space under it. A girl can dream right?

There are three tall roll outs to hold ink pads, stamps and die cutting supplies. This is where the ink pads live now.

This roll out has all of the acrylic stamps in it...

These roll outs have some of the wood mounted stamps in them. I've discovered that I have tons of Stampin' Up! sets that still need homes. Maybe in the new kitchen table storage?

It feels so good to have this job complete, I'm in kitchen heaven today!

Totally C.A.S.E.d

This week is off to a really good start! I accomplished a lot of - just the stuff of life - yesterday and found out that the crew from Kirk's Construction would be at my house today. Yea! They arrived this morning and started the process of finishing my stalled cabinet job. It was a big enough job that they need to return tomorrow morning to finish. I've moved as much of my stuff back into the kitchen cabinets as possible this evening and will be able to settle in the rest of the way tomorrow evening. I'll take pictures when it's complete and I have the aftermath cleaned up - hopefully very soon! I'm so excited!! Today's project is a total C.A.S.E. of Jackie Pedro, she has a fabulous blog called The Scalloped Edge. When I saw her gift set I loved it and felt inspired to make one too, I hope she is flattered by my take on her project!

The paper I used is from Sugar Plum Paperie called Calico Harvest. It's digital!

The template for this gift card set is by Lauren Meader and is called All Boxed Up, it's available for sale at PapertreyINK as a download. This is what it looks like open. When I make this again I think I'd like to print these two sheets of paper on both sides so the inside of the pocket isn't just white.

Jackie made four cards to go inside and I used her design on each of the ones I made except I changed the stamp to the Lizzy Anne Jolies Fleurs set and my font sets are by PapertreyINK.

I used Copic markers to color the images, a Spellbinders Nestabilities die, Stampin' Up!s paper piercing template and a piercing tool. The cardstock colors are Stampin' Up! Close To Cocoa and Mohawk Satin White. I spent most of my day Saturday working on this fun project, I'm so glad I came across Jackie's blog I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

I need to shut down my computer soon and disconnect wires so we can get them all hidden away tomorrow. Wow... this is really happening! Yea! I'm so excited!!

You might be wondering where I've been... Right here busy making stuff! It seems everytime I get something off of my camera and onto my desktop so I can do a blog post someone walks in...

I have the kids in school this morning and the house is quiet so I thought I'd try again. My first project is the Origami box from an earlier post made up in a different color. My friend Susan came over and we made a couple of these boxes to put Valentine gifts in. I'm desparately trying to us up some of my surplus paper so I chose this retired Stampin' Up! designer paper and really like how the box came out. The layout for the top of the box is a Mojo Monday sketch from a few weeks ago.

This is a simple Valentine we made in a class. I found the "love you" stamp in Lake Havasu at The Sugar Shack. We stamped the heart from a Verve Visual set, masked it and stamped the love you over it. It's then cut out and embossed using a Nestabilities die. Instead of ribbon I used a black strip of paper under that, the white panel has gone through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots embossing folder, the edge was punched with a Martha Stewart border punch.

On to SC214! I have been able to do a few of the sketch challenges over at Splitcoaststampers and had a lot of fun with them. I know Valentine's Day is this coming Saturday but I had this image from High Hopes Rubber Stamps... I placed an order a few months ago and haven't gotten to use all of the images I received, they put in several "extras". I couldn't tell what this was until I stamped it, how cute is he?! The Happy St Patricks Day isn't a stamp, I used Microsoft Word and printed it on my cardstock, after a few practice runs I managed to get it right where I wanted it! The designer paper is another retired Stampin' Up! pack I have called Uptown, the coordinating cardstock is Almost Amethyst and I colored the image with Copic markers.

SC213~ This is my second attempt at SC213, I used a Prisma paper pack called Hello Space Boy and this Stampendous set. I'm sorry but I don't remember what it 's called I threw away the packaging. The cardstock is from Thepapermill.com and I colored the cute image with Copic markers.

SC213~ This one is my first attempt at SC213. I used the Basic Gray Ambrosia paper pad and this cute elephant image from High Hopes. I colored this elephant with Cool Gray Copic markers, I have several elephants that have been colored waiting on my desk. I was experimenting to see if they looked better in Cool Gray or Warm Gray. I'll post another one later this week and you can be the judge!

I hope to be back here with you soon - I'm playing with a half finished project using Lauren Meader's Timeless Templates. I saw the cutest ensamble that another super talented blogger had done and had to try it too!

I'm also waiting anxiously for my kitchen cabinets to be completed!! The deadline is Wednesday, we had to extend it another week because I added some stuff to the job that we'd overlooked. I did see my cabinet doors last week in their shop completed!! I'm so excited!!

Have a great day~