Clean and Simple... C.A.S.E.

Or should that title be a C.A.S.E. of Clean & Simple...
If you haven't yet discovered Jennifer McGuire Ink you should go see what she's doing!

She made these wonderful butterfly cards and did a tutorial on how she colored them HERE. I couldn't resist, I had to make some too!

The butterflies on the top card are from Hero Arts clear stamp set called Antique Engravings. Did I mention Jennifer is on the design team for Hero Arts?

The butterflies on the bottom card are from The Angel Company several years ago.

Birthday Wishes & a Flower Tutorial

Julie over at Paper Pleasing Ideas has a great tutorial on how to make these flowers that I had to try. I C.A.S.E.d her card because I thought it was a great way to showcase the flowers.

Card stock used - Neenah Supersmooth White, Kraft, PTI Hibiscus Burst, Blush, Via Vellum Green, Ink - PTI Hibiscus Burst, Stamps - Verve Visual, SU Build A Brad, SU Border Punch, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, and leftover tissue paper stamped with SU retired French Script background stamp.

In My Prayers

We've made Prayer Journal's in a couple of classes recently. These are two that I've made using a Stampin' Up! retired Groovy Guava designer paper pack. You can see the first one I made in it's entirety HERE back in January. We used the Zutter Bind It All and Spellbinder's Nestabilities Oval and Scalloped Oval dies. The butterfly stamp on the Prayer Journal above is from The Angel Company, In My Prayers is from a There She Goes set called Blessings. The butterfly below is a new set from Taylored Expressions that my friend Susan bought at CHA, it's called Whimsical Wishes.

I colored each of the butterflies with a Copic marker E95 and added a little glittery detail with a Copic Spica clear glitter pen. In real life you can see the shimmer!

Hello Sunshine

I've been playing with the Scor Pal again! I'm C.A.S.ing Silke Ledlow, her blog is My Life and I think her style is so elegant. I used almost the same colors and her sketch but changed the stamp set to something I had. I was intrigued by the embossed panel along the right side of the white card stock, I had to try it myself.

Stamps are by Verve Visual, Card Stock & Inks - PTI Summer Sunrise, Jardin Moss, SU Purely Pomegranate & Via Vellum Green a little bit of May Arts Apple Green dotted organdy ribbon and Spellbinder's dies.

Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

This kitty stamp came home from the Safire Designs Booth at CHA a couple of weeks ago. There was a lot of flocking going on at different booths and I knew it was a technique I needed to try. I can't say I'm really good at it. Yet. I'll keep practicing and show you how much I've improved another time.

Millie

This is Millie by Loralie Designs, isn't she pretty?! I colored her with Copic makers while looking at the picture on the stamp package to try to do her justice.

Below are pictures of the Loralie Designs Booth at CHA Consumer Supershow.
I was captivated and inspired by the presentation of their new line of rubber stamps. I'll be quiet now so you can just look at the pictures~

President's Day

I hope you had a nice Valentine's Day yesterday! We're on to President's Day and the kids have an extra day off school. Hmmm, I wonder what we could have fun making together today?

They helped me make some of these treat boxes and other Valentine goodies for their classes recently. They were a hit! Brenda has a tutorial on her blog, I know I'm a day late but they'd be fun to decorate anytime.

The stamps used are from Verve Visual and the frame is a Quickutz Silhouette digital die I cut with my Silhouette machine. Happy President's Day!

With Gratitude

Today's card is a repeat from a post a few weeks ago. I wanted to show you the envelope-box I made for it with my new Scor Pal!

I printed another sheet of the digital paper that I used on the card front for a special envelope. The ribbon on this card gives it a "need" to be hand delivered and I thought a special presentation would be fun. In my travels (on the internet) I came across the Scor Pal website and their tutorials. This tutorial is by Lauren Meader for an A2 envelope box and I adapted it to fit the A6 card.

Have a great day!

Card Drive for Delia

I made this card for a 10 year old little girl that's in the hospital in Colorado. There's a card drive going on for Delia, all the details are on Dustin Pike's blog. I hope you'll check it out and get in on it too.

Today's card is a hybrid! No stamping, no coloring, just printing, cutting and putting it all together. I've had an interest in Hybrid's for awhile, I'm looking for simplicity in mass production if I need a bunch of cards and something new, quick and easy, I'm also always looking for that WOW factor.

The digital images and designer paper are from Fred She Said Designs. I printed the designer paper, cut it in quarters and ran it through the Cuttlebug with my stamping friend Susan's SU Top Note die. Then I took a Spellbinder's Oval and placed it in the middle of the top note and cut again to make a window. I printed a sheet of the little girl from Smelling The Cherry Blossoms and cut them so they'd fit behind the top note die. I used foam tape on the back of the top note die to pop it just a little and attached it to the purple panel that's attached to the SU Taken With Teal panel. I also printed a second sheet of FSS designer paper on white card stock to make a matching envelope with my Scor Pal.

Razzle Dazzle Gift Set

I'm totally inspired by a fellow blogger, her name is Dawn and she's a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. She made these note cards back in June 2009. When I saw them I knew I just had to make some.
The simple elegance really spoke to me, what a neat gift set idea! I used a different sentiment stamp on my cards. Unfortunately the stamp company is no longer in business.
I also used PapertreyINK's card stock, ink and ribbon.
The card box idea came from my friend Paula Goff. When she visited in November 2009 she showed us how to make the little box in the first picture.
I hope you have a little time today to do something you love. Have a great day!

Quickutz Silheoutte

My card today is from a new toy I've been playing with and I really like how it turned out!

Several of my stamping girl friends have Cricut machines, I used one a couple of years ago when I worked at the local scrapbook store and thought it was neat but didn't feel the need to have one. I've run across web sites that have "cutting files" that made me curious. One thing led to another and I decided I wanted a digital die cutting system. I did a lot of reading and learning before I made my final decision and started watching E Bay to see what they "really" sold for.

After watching the auctions I made my bid and a Quickutz Silheoutte was delivered to my house a few weeks ago. What fun! I seem to be in a learning mode lately. I've been reading through the on line tutorials at their website and practicing, practicing, practicing.

I made the card above using the Silheoutte Heart Lace cutting file. I learned how to re size it to fit an A6 card and let the machine do the rest. Love it! It's so nice all by itself that I just added a Nestabilities tag and ribbon. I do need to find a better way to attach the "lace" to the card, my 2way glue pen seemed like a good idea but it isn't holding. Scor tape maybe?

The anniversay stamp is from Anniversary Birds by Verve Visual.

More CHA Pictures

Check out the Splitcoaststampers booth! I really thought the balloon flowers were great. We didn't make it up to the counter, it was packed every time we went by. There was a cute seating area at the SCS booth, Beate Johns was one of the ladies I recognized as we walked by.
That's me back at our room Saturday evening after being at CHA all day. It felt good to sit and kicking back was even better.
I did get off the bed so I could look over all the goodies I bought and take a picture for you. I've had a chance to use the new Purple Cow cutter and love it. The Scor Pal is sitting on top of my Scor It (that cat of mine likes to scratch my Scor It) and I'm practicing using it. Several of my stamping girl friends have one so we'll be making cool stuff soon!

I've spent most of my day today with that Digital Scrapbooking software you can see in the picture. I was having fun, getting pages done and then... I lost them. Don't you just hate being a beginner sometimes? That's okay, I learned some stuff today.
My last two pictures were taken Sunday afternoon. It felt good to be home again. I unloaded all the goodies on the kitchen table. Inky the cat sure likes the ribbon.
There she is again making her way through the mess. It's all picked up now and put away for the most part. We will be getting together to make cards in the morning and I'm almost ready.
Happy Stamping!

CHA Consumer Show - Anaheim, CA 2010

I've been away all weekend at CHA!! Susan and I decided last Wednesday that we should go to CHA in Anaheim, it's only 4 or 5 hours away... I asked my husband what he thought and he said go... and I said really??? Cool!!!

We got on the computer to see if we could still get tickets and a room and both were still available. I was so excited I could hardly wipe the smile off my face! The picture above is my ticket for Saturday and below is the view of the convention center in Anaheim from our hotel.
Susan picked me up Friday morning and we set out on our road trip. She had a GPS she hadn't used yet so we figured out how to set it up and started our adventure. We had several really bad storms last week but the weather was good until we got to Palm Springs where we found rain, it followed us all the way to Anaheim.

We arrived about 2 p.m., checked into our hotel and took off on foot for the convention center 2 parking lots away. It was still raining but we took precautions like wrapping Susan's feet in plastic bags before she put her shoes on so her feet would stay dry. Her shoes had mesh tops and were soaked.
Look what I won Friday night!! I took a survey when we first arrived at CHA about ribbon and was entered into a drawing. About 45 minutes before 8:00 my name was called, luckily Susan heard it and I went running over to the booth number they gave. The ribbon basket is from BOC Design Group (Berwick Offray Cleo) and the lady with me is Shira Lowry their national sales manager.

We decided to go back to our hotel room after that, the basket was too big to carry around the show floor and we were going to be back in the morning for day 2 anyway. Much to our delight it was no longer raining for our walk home. It was quite a trip carrying that basket of ribbon back to the hotel room, it weighed a ton. I'll show more ribbon pictures later. We opened it in our room and couldn't believe all the beautiful ribbon, it ended up being 1300 yards. I'm not sure what to do with all that ribbon but I'm certainly going to try to use as much as I can!!

Mojo Monday 121

My mojo is a little late, but that's pretty normal! There are so many fun challenges and creative things to do that I have a hard time keeping up.

My image is a digi stamp from Fred She Said Designs. My paper scrap drawer has had a lot of good use lately, my patterned paper came from there. It's from PapertreyINK, the dotted satin ribbon is also. I used a Martha Stewart border punch, and did my coloring with Copic markers. To make the second butterfly I enlarged the digi image and printed it again and cut it out.

Happy Stamping!

Birthday Wishes

This is kind of a weird color combination for me. Do you ever seem to use the same colors all the time? Maybe it's because of Christmas and Valentine's Day that I keep going back to RED a lot.

The card stock, ink and ribbon are PTI Summer Sunrise and Ocean Tides, the White is my standard Neenah Super Smooth Solar White. I used Verve's Thankful Accents and Circular Sayings sets, birthday cards are something I try to keep a good stash of.

I made the patterned paper from the stamps in the set. I penciled a 1 1/4 inch square grid on the white card stock so I could stamp the flower image in straight (almost!) rows, then I stamped the hearts to fill in the bare spots. This is also a Mojo Monday sketch from July 2009.

C.A.S.E.ing Edna!

It seems to me I've been doing a lot of C.A.S.E.ing lately, I've been fortunate enough to see some beautiful cards in my browsing around the internet. I didn't have exactly the same stamps as Edna but I did have one so I thought I'd see what I could do. This took a long time to come together but there it is.

I used Spellbinders Flower Creations One & Two for my flowers, I sponged PTI Pure Poppy Ink on the white cut out flower pieces before I took them out of the dies. The flourish stamp is made by Hero Arts - I think it's going to be a wonderful background stamp! The Thanks so much is from Verve Visual. Oh, I added Crystal Effects to the dots around the flourish, when I took my picture it wasn't completely dry so it isn't as shiny as it will be. I loved Edna's black pearls on her card but I didn't have enough to cover all my dots so I improvised. Happy Stamping!

Doodle Dragon Studio Challenge Blog's 1st Challenge

I just had to do Dustin Pike's first challenge for his new challenge blog! The challenge is to make a Valentine card with one of his digital images. Who can resist Dustin's digital images?! Did you know he's a new designer for High Hopes Rubber Stamps too?

This was a really fun card for me, I used last years Basic Grey Bittersweet paper pad, Copic markers, Spellbinders Nestabilities Oval & scalloped Oval dies, and a new Stampin' Up! border punch. I also added a little self adhesive heart to finish it off.

Have a great day!

Shirleys 2 Girls Valentine

For today's card I used a digital image from Shirley's 2 Girls. Aren't they cute?! I colored the elephants with Copic markers and cut them out and popped them on another print out that I'd already colored the hearts on. I used a little Copic Spica clear glitter marker on the dots by the hearts, it's kind of hard to see in the photo.

The colored image is cut out with a Nesties rectangle die and layered onto a PTI Hibiscus Burst scalloped rectangle. The red card body is Neenah Red Linen card stock and I used a Martha Stewart border punch and a little dotted grossgrain ribbon from Michael's. Is that considered a one layer card? Hmmm, I'm not very good at making one layer cards - I tend to get carried away, good for me!

I have new stamp sets from Verve Visual today, Thankful Accents & Thankful Hearts. I saw this beautiful card at Sarah's Creations.

I knew I "needed" this set! I couldn't resist C.A.S.E.ing Sarah's card. Again, I used heat embossing and Spellbinders Nesties dies. The patterned paper with scallops around it is digital paper I printed and the other panel is the SU Linen background. I also used adhesive backed black half pearls and wide Organdy ribbon.

I'm really enjoying the digital papers. I've been exploring different web sites that do digital scrapbooking and they have my interest. Don't worry I'm not going to become a scrapbooker, my life is pretty much in albums already. What I'm really interested in are the hybrids they're using for cards. I'll fill you in as I learn more! For now, I'm working on learning Photo Shop Elements 7. I used it to edit my pictures and then couldn't export them... in the end I won.
Have a fun day!

Waltzing Mouse Valentine

I have another Valentine to share with you today, I just love this set from Waltzingmouse Stamps, it's called Season's Of Love. A quick and simple card. I stamped the heart image in SU Craft ink, added SU Clear embossing powder and heat embossed it. I must say my white paper is a super heavy weight card stock I bought last year on line, I really like the way it holds up to the heat gun. There isn't as much warping going on as I wait for the embossing powder to melt.

Next I cut out the heart with a Spellbinder's Nesties Heart die and one in red using the Scalloped Heart die. I love the way a lot of the Waltzingmouse stamps go with the Spellbinders dies. The body of the card is Carnival Red card stock and the first panel is Neenah Super Smooth Solar White run through the Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots embossing folder. I added 1/3" Red Organdy ribbon and my card is ready!

Tiny Treats Valentines Day 2

Can you stand a couple more cards from the PapertreyINK Tiny Treats Valentine set? I hope so! I mass produced ten of these to finish a project for a friend that sends them to her math students for encouragement.

The black and white polka dotted paper is digi paper I printed myself. I'm sorry I don't remember where I got it, I have quite a collection! I colored the Kitty with Copic markers and masked off the "friends" part of the purr-fect in the sentiment stamp before I inked it. Kellee has eight cats right now and I think she'll think these are purr-fect!
And... here's that frog again. The sentiment is from another PapertreyINK set and those dots on the kraft paper are too. I colored the dots with my Spanish Olive Copic marker because in real life it all matches!

Tiny Treats Valentines

Help! I think I'm obsessed with this stamp set... I started playing with it yesterday and C.A.S.E.d Nicole Heady's card from her blog Capture The Moment and so far I have 24 cards.
The stamps and ink are PapertreyINK, I used Spellbinders Nestabilities dies and a little stitched ribbon and Copic markers. I think my favorite is the frog!
Have a great day!

Inspiration

I have another Squigglefly digital image for you today, she's called Inspiration. I took my picture in the mess of markers and stamping stuff on the table, I wanted to tell you what Copic markers I used but there were so many of them on the table when I finished that I wasn't sure anymore!

It's a mess but a creative mess none the less! Once again I used the Basic Grey Urban Prairie 6 x 6 paper pad and Stampin' Up! Rose Red card stock. I also used Spellbinders Nestabilities dies and half a dozen black brads. This is another sketch I wanted to try. I discovered the Skipping Stones Designs blog, they have lots of sketches for us to try.

Have a great day!

Mia and Bosko

What a fun digital image Mia and Bosko are to color! This is a digital image you can find at Squigglefly. I used Copic markers and the Basic Grey Urban Prairie 6 x 6 paper pad, SU Tempting Turquoise and Neenah Super Smooth White card stock, a little ribbon and some black brads. The "happy birthday" is from a PapertreyINK set.

I was intriqued by this sketch. Jody Morrow made a cute card and it's posted on her blog here so I should say I C.A.S.E.d Jody's card. In my browsing I found Jody's blog, I really like her style and the way she uses patterned paper in her designs.

Have a great day!

Prayer Journal C.A.S.E.

I was blog browsing the first part of December after checking out what was new at Clear Dollar Stamps and came across a really nice prayer journal. I've included a link to their gallery, I have first hand knowledge being a design team alumni, they have wonderfully talented ladies on their team! I'm not sure who's original idea it is but I knew I had to make one, at least one!
I kind of filed the idea in my mind but it just kept coming up. One of my dear friends had a house fire on December 4th, they lost almost everything. I thought okay Lord, I'm going to make the prayer journal and start using it right away! I thought of several people who would enjoy one as a gift too so I got busy. The one you see pictured here is mine, I made one almost identical as a gift and I need to make a few more.
The paper is a pad of double sided designer paper I bought at Michael's, the stamps are from There She Goes and Verve Visual. For the actual prayer card I used Microsoft Office Publisher to make it, I loved the Clear Dollar Stamps idea but knew I could make that part myself. I borrowed my stamping friend Susan's SU Top Note Die for the prayer cards too.
I also used Spellbinders Nestabilities dies, Copic markers and a Zutter Bind It All to put it all together. Have a blessed New Year & happy stamping!

Project Planner

It's almost the new year, I've been busy planning projects to make for 2010 in our classes. I get stressed about what I'm going to make for a class usually. I thought maybe a little pre-planning might help. I'm constantly making and trying new things but I'm not sure if they are "class material" and that causes stress. As I said in a previous post my attention span for techniques and such is short, I'm ready to be on to the next thing as soon as I finish what I'm working on and that doesn't help me either!

So anyway, I put together a 3 ring binder with cards I want to make for classes, ideas, etc. I needed pockets to put things in and live in an extremely small town (did I mention in the middle of nowhere?) so I had to make my own pockets. I stole the desk calendar off my son's desk and folded each month to make pockets for my binder. I think I should mention his desk is piled high with junk and the desk calendar was on the bottom with July showing for the current month. So don't worry... he hasn't even missed it! ;)
I printed a 2010 calendar and attached them to divider tabs, filled my pockets, wrote myself notes and I'm somewhat prepared now. Whew!

Have a safe and happy New Year! We invited a few friends for dinner and board games, our 2 youngest children will be visiting Grandma and Grandpa. See you next year~

Making Plans

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with family! It's a busy time with kids out of school and all the fun get togethers with friends and family. Things are settling down at my house for now...

I've had to share my big kitchen table with my kids, they needed space to build their lego creations from Christmas. We crowded each other a little but I managed to share my stamping space with them.

Today's cards are a Patterned Embossing Class we are going to do in January. I saw the technique on Stamp TV and loved the idea. The card in the top of the photo is just SC258, I got tired of the patterned embossing technique before I had 3 cards finished. Sometimes this stampers' attention span isn't very long - on to the next thing!