Wish me luck!

I have decided to try out for a design team for Sheetloads of Cards. Remember how I raved about this publication in a previous post? I decided to use the February 2009 issue and create these 3 cards (plus an additional card) and a framed photo of Lilly as my "beyond the card" project based on the sketch. Wish me luck!

For this card I closely followed the sketch along with the suggestions of which layers should be cardstock and which should be patterned paper. This card was created with the Botanical Blooms SAB set. The printed papers are from the Basic Grey Lilykate collection. I love how pretty those papers are. I used Kiwi Kiss, Pink Pirouette, Close to Cocoa and Whisper White cardstocks and Chocolate Chip and Pink Pirouette inks. The flowers were made with the Bojo Blossoms punch and a flat backed pearl from the Pretties kit. I also used the Kiwi Kiss/Very Vanilla satin ribbon. The sentiment is very tiny and reads "to thine own self be kind" which is something I completely agree with!

I pulled out some paper and embellishments from a kit I bought at the Portland CKU Scrapbooking convention. What a crazy shopping day that was! I turned the sketch on its side for this card. The printed paper is from the Crate Paper Lemongrass line. I don't know about you, but I love lemongrass! I used vellum as one of the layers because the paper is too cool to hide. Besides the base I eliminated cardstock completely. In this one the patterned paper strip (the flower border) is in front of the image rather than behind. The image is from the Good Friend set and I watercolored inside the letters with Kiwi Kiss. The floral border is glittery although you can't see it. I used Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon and HodgePodge hardware with a bit of ribbon tied to it for embellishments.

This card would have been a great one for Valentine's. I used Verve stamp sets called Sweet Valentine and Hearts on Fire for this one. The heart on top is popped up with a dimensional. The paper is from the Kiss and Tell collection by My Mind's Eye. Cardstock colors are Rose Red and Shimmery White. Again I substituted patterned paper for a cardstock layer. Ink colors are Rose Red and Basic Gray. I used Fancy Pants flowers with center pearls from K by Marcella. The flourish, which takes the place of the slim patterned piece along the side, is a Tim Holtz Grunge chipboard piece. There is a pattern embossed on it but it's really hard to see. I painted it white with Making Memories scrapbooking paint. There are little mini pearl in the curves of the flourish... can you see them? I used the label punch to punch out the sentiment and cut it in half. I was just thinking I could have put Crystal Effects on the stamped hearts, that would be pretty. I guess I still can do that, huh?

This is such a pretty photo of Lil. She was going out to a school dance so I had to take some photos. I used Basic Grey Marrakesh collection here for the patterned papers and embellishments. Really Rust and Pacific Point cardstocks matched wonderfully for the two layers. I used Making Memories rubon letters for her name. I like to layer the pieces in back and in front of the glass for a different look. Also, the pieces look as though they are floating on the glass. The frame is from Target and the easel is from Fred Meyer. I really lilke how it turned out. I wish you could see the paper in the background better though. LOVE the Marrakesh line! I want to go to Morocco now (isn't that where Marrakesh is?). I think I gotta take another geography class or at least get a globe or something, heeheehee.

This last card is an extra that I made. It's cute. At first I was not so in love with these penguins, but they've grown on me. They'll never replace my little Cheep Talk birdies though! There is no stamping at all on this card... Just layers and vellum and cardstock stickers and rubons. Easy Peasy! Everything here is from Imaginesce except the base which is Not Quite Navy.

So that's it for me tonight! I have to put in some Stampin' Up orders and get myself to bed! Goodnight!

Desiree

Glittery red cotton

Here is my card for Mojo Monday #83. I used the Soft Summer stamp set and Basic Grey Lilykate paper. The colors are Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red and Whisper White. When I look at this card I think of cotton.

I added a pretty Fluerette and ribbon from the Dress Up package. I stamped the sentiment in Whipser White craft and punched it out. Plus I glittered up the flowers with Christmas Red Stickles. Really an easy card. I actually forgot that I had made it last Tuesday night until I was looking at some card photos last night... and there it was.

Tonight is Crafter's Club night - our first get-together and we'll be doing the For the Love of Chocolate class that I posted a couple weeks ago. Yummy! This is the first club I've tried with my Stampin' Up! business so I am anxious to see how it goes over the next six months.

Have a marvelous Monday!

Desiree

Hey girlfriend!

Isn't this crazy lady cute? I whipped out this 3x3 card just perfect for leaving on a friend's desk to invite them out of coffee. The colors I used are Real Red, Summer Sun, Tempting Turquoise and Basic Black. Colors are inspired by the Pink Flamingo dsp from SU!. I cut out some flower petals from the dsp and layered them behind the image. This stamp is from the Emerson Quillin collection at Amercian Art Stamps. Kinda cute don't you think?

I can hardly believe how busy I've been.... I haven't even looked at any blogs lately... and I haven't participated in any challenges in awhile except for a MoJo Monday last week, but silly as I am I forgot to post the card. I'll show it to you in the next post.

I guess that's it for today. I'm pooped! I hope you had a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Desiree

Anniversary Man...

Here's another card featuring an American Art Stamps image by Emerson Quillan. This guy is really funny. He says "Everything you eat will get you in the end... especially wedding cake!" and I pared that with a Happy Anniversary sentiment. heeheehee

I gave him a scotch to drink while he sits at the bar, or maybe his desk... lamenting his wonderful marriage... The card colors are Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Basic Black, Blush Blossom with a smidge of Real Red for his tie and More Mustard for his drink. Close to Cocoa for the furniture. The dsp is from SAB and is Delicate Dots. Embellishments are black grosgrain (you can barely see it) and brads.

I've been working on a project for my lunch Buddy to make for her mom for Mother's Day and a project for a SU party on Saturday. So I better get back to my craft table cuz it's already late!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a Fabulous Friday!

Desiree

For the love of chocolate

I've been wanting to do a chocolate class for awhile now. Here it is... The projects are a chocolate book with chocolate sayings inside (lower right corner), a scratch and sniff card, a ghirardelli box, and stamping onto chocolate (you can't see it well here).

All of the instructions are found on Splitcoast Stampers - some in the resources section and some in the forums - do a search for chocolate.

I used the Pink Flamingo designer series paper - which I love!!! Plus Whisper White, Basic Black, Pink Pirouette, Real Red and Summer Sun cardstocks. For ribbons, there are white organdy, black grosgrain and linen thread.

Several stamps sets are used here as well: Crazy for Cupcakes, Oval All, Sweet Serendipity, Say it with Scallops, All Holidays and Embrace Life (this was used to stamp in the chocolate).

Stamping in chocolate is a bit tricky. First you have to sanitize your stamps - several gals on the SCS forums helped me out with that. Wipe down well with rubbing alcohol and then clean well with dishsoap and toothbrush. I applied a bit of vegetable oil to the stamp to keep it from sticking to the chocolate. Chill your chocolate, then with a heat gun melt it just a touch till you see a sheen. This is like 3 seconds, seriously. Then I carefully pressed the stamp into the chocolate and lifted. Here you might have to ease the chocolate off. Next go clean your stamp again.

I went through SEVERAL Hershey's bars to get one image to look halfway decent. But it was fun and yummy!

Have a great day and thanks for visiting!!!

Desiree

Too late for Verve....

Verve had a great challenge but the deadline was Friday. On SCS they posted three sketches and a color combo to follow, then you post them to the forum for a chance to win the new release. Yeah, I didn't make it.... but I did make two cards.

I used the SAB Botanical Blossoms set and the colors So Safron, Baja Breeze and Close to Cocoa. I am not sure what I was thinking on this first card. I think I was moving in a good direction until I added the flower in Baja with the Baja layer. It jsut doesn't go. What do you think???

The dsp is Delicate Dots which is also from SAB and so is the ribbon, So Safron 5/8" grosgrain. The buttons are from the Latte Button Bouquet. I also added 1/4" Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon. The sentiment is a hostess set from the fall, I think.... Looks like I am going to have to peal that Baja flower off and do something different. It's bugging me.

Now this card came together much better. I like it. It's very soft and simple. I stamped the leaf outline in Whisper White on the Baja Breeze cardstock. Hmmm... not a single embellishment or ribbon on this card. Is it too simple????

Maybe this card needs a second look too. I made these cards on Thursday night after a long day. Maybe I was more brain dead then I thought I was.

Well, that's all I have for now. Thanks for stopping by. Hopefully I'll have something better to look at later. :)

Desiree

American Art Stamps!

A while back I answered a design team call for American Art Stamps and I was selected as the April Guest Designer!!! I've been impatiently waiting for my new stamps (sorry Michelle) and they came on Friday! So I've been busy stamping!

This is the first card that I made. I love the saying "I met him in group therapy. We share the same anxieties." I can just imagine that will be me at some point! The stamp is by Emerson Quillin. I'm not the greatest at coloring but for this it was easy. I also wanted the card to be really bright and summery - we have sun - so I picked some Bold Brights: Tempting Turquoise and Green Galore. The dsp is Rainbow Sherbet. Added a little Apricot Appeal as well. Very simple card but just what I needed on a Friday night after a really long week.

I'll be posting more form this fun stamp company ver the next two weeks.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Desiree

Hello there!

Yeah, it's me and the birdies again. This is from the Good Friend set. I used Jen's sketch for you to try on this one. I started with a piece of dsp paper from the Sunshine Morning Simply Scrappin Kit. I chose Baja Breeze, Old Olive and So Safron to go along with. The base is textured Baja Breeze. I stamped the bird in Not Quite Navy, beak in So Safron and legs in Close to Cocoa. The flowers are punched using the Boho Blossoms punch.

Please excuse the crookedness of this photo. What was I doing???

I hope that you all had a great Easter weekend!

Desiree

Pieced and pierced

I think this is the first time I've pieced a stamped image. I kept it really simple just creating one layer. When stampers piece images like florals with several layers, they turn out so beautiful! I was hoping to get this one in for Dawn's Raspberry Suite Color Inspiration Challenge but I was late. I didn't touch my craft table at all last night. This will get into the Flourishes challenge and Mojo Madness 81.

I only have a few stamps sets that I can even do this technique with so I was really limited. So I pulled this one out and thought, who doesn't love a cupcake? The frosting was done with Basic Grey Lilykate and the bottom with SU Bella Bleu. The pattern in the background is from that retired paper that everyone loved so much - it went with Embrace Life and had lots of Groovy Guava and River Rock in it, you know the one.....

Blush Blossom, Ruby Red and Whisper White are the cardstocks and Chocolate Chip is the ink. I used that cute scalloped oval punch and a stamp from the Oval All set. For embelishments I used a bit of linen thread and three gems from Imaginesce. I added a few beads to the frosting. I also pieced the little cupcakes. Cute, huh?

Off to read a few more pages of Infinite Jest. I may be reading that thing for the next year.... ugh! Yeah I know, why don't I just put it down then... Well I did that once and that is really not my MO. I have to start what I finished. Plus it's an interesting book, just a slow read.

Have a great Friday! We are just hours away from the weekend!!!! I'll be at Mugs from noon to 3 on Saturday, so if you're in Hazel Dell stop in and say hi!

Desiree

Pretty floral card

WooHoo! I won the Baby Photo Challenge on Papercraft Planet!!! I wasn't even going to try it but on the last day I found a few hints and so then I thought, well, I'm a third of the way there I might as well try it. So I opened all of the blogs to see current photos of gals and I spent quite a bit of time comparing. It was a bit of guess work too. Anyway only 8 people had them all correct and I was picked out of that 8. So the prize was a $100 gift certificate to Amazon.com and the Mom and Me stamp set from Clean and Simple Stamps.

I was in a floral mood so I created this card the other night. The main stamp set is Soft Summer from the SU Occasions Mini Catalog. Check it out in the side bar ====>>>>> to see lots of great sets and accessories. Plus there is a way cool Matchbox Sizzix Die in there. I haven't tried it yet but I think I'll break it in this weekend. Check out what Lynn did with her Matchbox die here!

The card base is Very Vanilla with a layer of Close to Cocoa. The first step was to ink up En Francais with Close to Cocoa all over then bits of Chocolate Chip here and there. I stamped off on scrap paper before stamping on Very Vanilla. I lightly sponged the edges of that with Chocolate Chip. I used markers to color the large floral stamp in the set - Close to Cocoa, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Blush Blossom, So Safron, Pretty in Pink, Almost Amethyst and Bashful Blue then I misted and stamped. I used the leaf outline from Botanical Blooms (SAB set) in Kiwi Kiss in the lower left corner. The stamp in the upper left is from Embrace Life. The main image is from Soft Summer and again I colored with markers, misted then stamped on Whisper White. I used Nestabilities to cut the image and Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip layers. The ribbon is 5/8" Very Vanilla grosgrain. The last thing to do was add a smidge of Dazzling Diamonds here and there on the pretty little blossoms. It's too bad you can't see the glitter because it makes the image pop and look way better then in this photo.

I'm off to bed. I'm reading this book called Infinite Jest that my brother Misha gave me 10 years ago for my birthday. He must have been 18 then. He had included a great retro postcard inside and there was my mom's handwriting for my address. Mom died 7 years ago in a car accident (I still haven't gotten over it) so it was really a surprise to see her distinct scrawl. Anyway, this book is really daunting, about 1000 pages plus 200 pages of footnotes. It is not an easy read and basically it's about how entertainment dominates our lives and how it affects who we are. The main characters are a crazily dysfunctional family. Anyway, I read for an hour before lights out every night.

So goodnight all. Have a crafty good day tomorrow!!!

Desiree

Hearts of Blue!

Once again reaching for my Cheep Talk set... If you don't already have it, you need to get it! I love these little birdies!!!

For this card I combined the Weekend Sketch Challenge #75 with Kristina's Color Inspiration #48. The colors are a wonderful combination and I kept the card very simple. The colors are Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss and Baja Breeze. The dsp is from the Ski Slope pack from last winter. The ribbon is Kiwi Kiss satin and the hearts are from the So Tweet Onboard Chipboard collection. I inked them up with Baja Breeze and then glittered them up with Art glitter. I used the liquid glue from SU so that glitter is stuck on there but good. Don't you hate it when glitter comes off everywhere as you handle a card??? Here's a closer look at those little hearts...

Tomorrow evening is my Funky Folds class, I might come up with a bonus card... maybe the Never-ending card would do the trick. I've never made one so now's as good a time as any!

Back to work for me. This making a living thing really cramps my real life, heeheehee! Have a great day!

Desiree

Shout Out for Sheetloads!

As I was blurfing (blog surfing) I came across this publication called Sheetloads on a blog called Sheetload of Cards. The issue that I took a gander at features a cute sketch and then cutting diagrams to make several of the same card. What a great way to get the maximum use out of your paper! I hate it when I have lots of scraps left over and they end up in my ever growing scraps box -- usually never to be heard from again.... Take a look at the April issue pictured here:

The idea is to use up your stash of supplies while building up a stash of cards! The sketch and cutting diagrams are well illustrated with a special supply list if you only want to make one card instead of six. There are quite a few examples and also some instructions for various techniques.

I couldn't resist trying this out and I wanted to go with some bright colors. I pulled out my Bali Breeze DSP and Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Kiwi Kiss and Whisper White cardstock. Following the cutting diagram I had all my pieces ready for assembly in minutes.

Here is my project part way through... For embellishments I pulled out my Sizzix Big Shot and SU Butterfly die. I used the Rounded Tab punch to make the butterfly bodies and then drew on the antennae. I used glue to adhere the butterfly along the fold line and then dimensionals underneath the wings to raise them a bit off the paper. The little flowers are punched out with the Boho Blossoms punch and a rhinestone brad is in the middle.

Take a look at the end result... I stamped the sentiment in Basic Black on Whisper White. It's from the Soft Summer set in the Occasions Mini Catalog and the only stamping on this card. I really enjoyed this process, it was quick and easy and now I have 6 more cards to add to my card box. Yeah, at some point I am actually going to have to send some cards out. I haven't reached that part in my stamping addiction therapy. However, with 6 matching cards I should be able to part with 5 of them and still have one left over to hoard, right?

Ok, now it's your turn to get on over to Sheetloads and give this a try! Thanks for stopping in and I hope your weekend has been going along wonderfully!

Desiree

Use a little, keep a little...

Hello fellow paper hoarders... you know who you are! Susan Roberts (Rainy) is a self-admitted paper hoarder... just like the rest of us she buys oh-so-pretty papers and then can't bear to use them. Yeah, that's why I have a gajillion papers packed into my craft area! Well, Susan posted this blog about dividing those gorgeous 12x12 sheets into four 6x6 pieces. Now she can use some and still have some left over to keep for that "very special project in the future." She came up with a great one sheet wonder using a 6x6 sheet and a sketch to go with it and created 4 great cards --- take a look at her blog!

Here are my cards based on her formula. They are definitely not as beautiful as her cards. The first set I worked on was Real Red, Whisper White and Sahara Sand. It was late and I really didn't put much thought into it. I used a Cuttlebug paisley embossing folder (I like them WAY better then the Sizzix texture plates) and a sheet of 6x6 DSP from last year's Level 1 Hostess Paper pack. The stamp set is called Lovely Labels stamped in Real Red on Whisper White then punched with a circle punch and layered on Sahara Sand that was punched with the scallop circle. I also punched little 1/16" holes all around. Linen thread and a white eyelet were used for embelishments.

The second card is much better I think. I used Bella Bleu DSP and Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla and Bordering Blue cardstocks. Here I did use the Damask Sizzix texture plate. I love this stamp from the Cute and Curly set and I stamped it in Not Quite Navy then punched it out using the corresponding punch. The Not Quite Navy layer was handcut. I added Very Vanilla 5/8" grosgrain ribbon as the final touch.

Happy Friday!!!

Desiree

More cards to benefit Alzheimer's

As I mentioned in a previous post, Jen Tapler is collecting cards to auction off and she will donate the money to Alzheimer's. Since my dad was recently diagnosed I sent in a card. Well, I was playing around and made four cards that go together as a set and sent those off today as well. I actually CASE'd Andrea Walford, her card is infinitely better looking than mine, but I tried.... :)

I pulled out my Fun and Fast Notes set. I rarely use it. But when I saw Andrea's card it was the closest set I had to recreate her card. All the cards are on a Basic Gray base, use white eyelets, watercolor paper for the images and white ribbon from the Dress Up set. For the focal point used a chipboard frame, Whisper White Craft Ink, Heat & Stick powder and Dazzling Diamonds. Behind the chipboard frame is a piece of vellum that I stamped the sentiment on to. The sentiments are from the All Holidays set. An additional embellishment is a scalloped edge in Whisper White.The first card uses retired patterned paper and I can't remember what it's called... The other card use paper from the Level 1 Hostess Patterned Paper package from last year. I used various SU markers and a tiny paintbrush to color the images.

There's still time to enter a card and win on Jen Tapler's blog. Deadline is April 3.

Thanks for stopping by! Now go make that card!

Desiree