Stamping Therapy

First Birthday

2012-01-25T09:08:00.000-05:00

A friend at work asked me to make a card for a friends' daughter's 1st birthday. I was happy to oblige but really didn't have any images that would work for a 1st birthday. So I went to one of my favorite online sources for digital images and found the perfect image. This is image is from Mo's Digital Pencil. I colored it with my Copic Ciao markers. The card stock is all from Stampin' Up! (Whisper White, Pretty in Pink and Soft Suede). I also used a new Edglits Die and textured impression embossing folders by Stampin' Up! My oval and scallop oval are Spellbinders Nestabilities dies. The glitter is done with an SU 2-way glitter pen and Dazzling Diamonds glitter. You can check out Stampin' Up Products on my Stampin' Up! blog HERE

Two "Vintage" Image Birthday Cards

2012-01-08T07:00:00.024-05:00

I made two birthday cards for 2 of my friends celebrating birthdays this month. I enjoy making cards with "vintage" digital images I find on the internet. These two cards feature images with flowers. I love daises and roses so I made 1 card of each type of flower. They are very quick and simple to make. The most time-consuming part is cutting out part of the image from a duplicate image and adhering it to the base image with layering tape to give it a dimensional effect. I finished the cards off by adding glitter glue to the flowers. The layout is the same for both cards but I varied it slightly. The daises felt more casual so I placed that image panel a little off center and the rose image felt more formal and I left it straight.

Happy New Year Vintage Cat Image Pleated Paper Medallion

2012-01-03T08:39:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year. This pleated paper medallion is one I made with a "vintage" digital image I downloaded from Vintage Holiday Crafts website. I printed two of the images out and cut the cat and holly out and popped it up with layer foam on the other image to give it dimension. I then used Diamond Stickles for some sparkle. The paper is Holly Berry Bouquet from Stampin' Up! and the gold waffle paper is also from Stampin' Up!. I had the gold silk ribbon scraps on hand that was used to wrap a Christmas gift given to me a few years ago (it was too pretty to throw away). I sincerely hope all my friends and family have a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2012. I especially wish all my crafting friends more crafting time and more money to do all the wonderful crafty things you want to do this year.

Happy Birthday Sailor Pleated Medallion

2011-11-26T15:50:00.000-05:00

This is a medallion I made for my brother. He was in the Navy and I thought this cute little Sailor would be perfect for a medallion I made for him with the stars and patriotic paper I bought at a local scrapbook store. I originally used the paper for my 4th of July medallions seen in my post from July 4, 2011. To make the Stars I punched out 4 star shapes for each one and layered them together and covered them with Crystal Effects (Stampin' Up!) and then sprinkled some Dazzling Diamonds Glitter (Stampin' Up!) and let them dry. The Brother and Happy Birthday were stamps that I stamped on white paper and cut out. Some glitter glue to finish off the edges. I have a tutorial for the medallions on my Stampin' Up! blog Stamp With Me Cindy G. Click HERE to see that tutorial.

Two More Yoga Cards

2011-11-07T01:12:00.001-05:00

Having a great time making yoga cards for my friend's yoga studio. Here are two more I created with stamps I got from American Art Stamps. On the first one I used the flourish stamp from Stampin' Up! set Elements of Style for the background. For the image panel I combined the Tree Pose stamp with the sentiment portion of the American Art Stamp Take Time to Savor. The rest of that stamp has some cat tails on it so I just inked up the sentiment portion to use with the yoga stamp. I used Stampin' Up! Tempting Turquoise to go with the Whisper White card stock. The card is embellished with So Saffron ribbon and a hibiscus sticker from (K&Company) and Basic Rhine Stones (Stampin' Up!)

For this card, I used another yoga stamp and the sentiment is another stamp that I just inked up the sentiment and not the flowers that went with it. The hibiscus is used to embellish the cards because my friend uses it in her logo as her studio is called Ohana Yoga.

Yoga Cards

2011-11-02T12:44:00.000-04:00

I am honored to have been asked by a friend to design some cards for her to sell at her yoga studio. Lisa is an amazing yoga instructor and I'm so sorry that she moved and I can no longer practice with her but I am glad that we are able to stay in touch via facebook. It was fun designing these cards and while I love my Stampin' Up! products, it is fun to design with something else every once in a while. My card stock is Stampin' Up! though. I also got to use my Copic Ciao markers that have been sitting idle for quite sometime. I still need lots of practice with those. The stamps are from American Art stamp. I found them through a post I placed on Splitcoaststampers.com looking for yoga stamps. I think these are perfect and they do have more poses available so I think I will have to get a few more. The card above features the Tree Pose stamp. The colors are current SU colors Melon Mambo and Tempting Turquoise. The background of the Melon card stock is stamped with a stamp from the SU Delicate Doilies set. I found the hibiscus dimensional stickers by K&Company at Michael's. Lisa told me her logo contains an hibiscus flower as her practice follows the theme of Ohana so I looked for something to tie into her theme. Below are two more cards the first one using the Downward Dog pose and retired SU card stock (Only Orange and Real Rust I believe). Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out my Stampin' Up! blog HERE for the latest I have been creating with my Stampin' Up! products.

Halloween Medallion Banner

2011-10-31T11:45:00.001-04:00

Made a few medallions and then strung them together to make a vertical banner. I used some vintage-style images I downloaded from The Vintage Workshop and some I had on my Stampin' Up! My Digitial Studio software. Below are close ups of the individual medallions.

Halloween Girl Pleated Medallion

2011-10-21T09:13:00.001-04:00

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Made with a vintage image downloaded from thevintageworkshop.com. I have a tutorial for the making the medallions on other blog, Stamp With Me Cindy G found here. These are fun to make and great for decorations, to string a bunch together to make a banner, or to decorate a gift. I will use this one to decorate the a small segment of wall in my dinette area.

Just a Note Ice Skates

2011-10-05T14:55:00.006-04:00

Petals-A-Plenty Embossing Folder was used on the embossed panel.
Click to enlarge and use your browser's back button to return.

Scored lines were made with Simply Scored by Stampin' Up!
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These cards are what I call MSU (which means Mostly Stampin' Up!). Everything on the card is Stampin' Up! except for the ice skate image. I made a set of 8 of these clean and simple note cards for my sister-in-law as a birthday gift. I made 4 of the one with the scored lines and 4 of the ones with the embossed panel. The skates are actually from a Christmas set I down loaded a couple of years ago from Whimsie Doodles. I used the large scallop punch to crop off the holly at the top of the ribbon so i tcould be used for note cards. The "just a note" was computer generated. The cards stock is whisper White and Bravo Burgundy both from Stampin' Up!. The embossed panel on the one card is done with the Petals-A-Plenty Embossing folder also from Stampin' Up! After I colored the skates and punched them out I used my 2-Way Glue pen (Stampin' Up!) to fill in the skates and then sprinkled on some Dazzling Diamond glitter (Stampin' Up!). The Basic Rhinestones are also from Stampin' Up! If you are interested in any of the Stampin' Up! supplies you can visit my Stampin' Up! website HERE.

Two Great Ways To Package Treats This Coming Holiday Season

2011-08-27T00:51:00.001-04:00

1x8 Cellophane Gift Bags
With Toppers
Stamps are from
Tags Til Christmas Stamp Set

Boy, have I been neglecting this blog. I have been so busy creating everything for my Stampin' Up! business that I almost never pull out any other supplies anymore. Projects made with all Stampin' Up! items are posted on my Stampin' Up! only blog. You can always visit me there at stampwithmecindyg.com.

This week, I have been busy getting ready to host a Christmas Card workshop. Here are a couple of things I have been working on. They are two different ways to package treats.

2-4-6-8 treat box
With Holly Berry Bouquet
Designer Series
Paper band and
rosette.

The 1 x 8 cellophane bags are new tems included in the Holiday Mini Catalog and will be available to order from Stampin' Up! starting September 1, 2011. The Holly Berry Bouquet Designer Series Paper is also new and in the Holiday Mini Catalog as well. These items and many other fun holiday products will be avaialble until January 3, 2012.
You can shop for Stampin' Up! products at my online store by clicking HERE

One Great Way to Use Stampin' Up Designer Series Paper - Pleated Medallions

2011-07-29T11:35:00.000-04:00

Happy Fourth Of July - Pleated Paper Medallions

2011-07-04T09:12:00.002-04:00

Click any photo to enlarge and then
click your browser's back button
to return to blog.

Enjoyed making these pleated paper medallions with the patriotic theme in honor of the Fourth of July. I used patterned paper is by Moxie and I got it from my local scrapbook store "Strawberry Fields." The image above is made with a digital stamps from Stampin Up My Digital Studio stamp set that I punched out with the Decorative Label punch by SU and star punch. Lots of glitter was added with Dazzling Diamonds glitter by SU. I also used vintage-style images I downloaded from The Vintage Workshop (see below). I have a quick tutorial for the medallions on my Stampin' Up! blog. Remember to click your browser's back button if you want to come back here.

Image from The Vintage Workshop. Stars are
covered with Crystal Effects (Stampin Up)
and Dazzling Diamonds glitter (Stampin Up)
is used for the sparkle.
Paper is Moxie

Image from the Vintage Workshop.
Stars were covered with
Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds
Glitter both are Stampin Up products
Paper is Moxie

Paper is Moxie
Bottle Caps and digital stamp sentiment
covered with Crystal Effects (SU) and Dazzling Diamonds
glitter (SU) added.

Father's Day Gift Bags and Medallions

2011-06-24T08:00:00.005-04:00

Gift Bags and Coordinating Medallions
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Click picture to enlarge. Click your browser's back button to return to blog.

I spent a glorious day on Saturday making Father's Day gift bags and medallions. I love making these medallions. They are addictive. I used paper from the Basic Grey Vagabond collection for them. Being a Stampin' Up! demo it is hard to find the time to do projects with supplies other than Stampin' Up! but I had this paper and thought it would be perfect for Father's Day themed projects. The larger medallions are 6 inch in diameter and there is a little 3 inch medallion on the bag on the right. The image on the medallions is a digital "vintage" image from The Vintage Workshop.

I spent some time in my favorite local scrapbook store (Strawberry Fields) today and in addition to a wonderful conversation with the owner, I picked up some paper to make some medallions for the 4th of July. I will be posting those soon. So be sure to check back and by the way, I do have a medallion tutorial up on my Stampin' Up blog, Stamp With Me Cindy G if you want to check it out.

Artistic Etchings - Father's Day Card

2011-06-14T16:01:00.000-04:00

Working on some Father's Day Cards. This one is made with the Stampin Up ARTISTIC ETCHINGS set. I did some sponging with Bashful Blue and Sahara Sand ink, stamped the images with Chocolate Chip ink all but the one Eiffel Tower are 2nd generation stamping so that the 1 Eiffel Tower is the focal point. I used the Decorative Label punch for the tabs on the sides. I made my own glitter brads because I felt it needed something and I didn't ahve just the right thing. So I made the faux glitter brands with small 1/8" circles punched out of the Bashful Blue card stock and layered 3 circles together for one "brad" and then covered it with Crystal Effects and sprinkled on some Dazzling Diamonds glitter. It did take a while to dry so you can't be in a hurry to finish your card doing this. The Happy Father's Day from the Plane and Simple Set (2011 Occasions Mini) was stamped on a scrap of the collaged white card stock and trimmed out. I ran the words over the Chocolate Chip pad to edge them with a little brown so they would stand out from the background.

To shop for any of the Stampin Up items mentioned above, you can visit my STAMPIN' UP! ONLINE STORE and shop 24/7.

Featured SU Items:

Artistic Etchings
Clear Mount Set

Plane and Simple Thank You Stars

2011-05-27T18:14:00.001-04:00

Working on some thank you cards. This one is for my son to send to some friends who sent him a birthday gift card. I used the double emboss technique. It is dry embossing coupled with heat embossing. See steps below. The airplane is an SU set from a recent occasions mini and the star embossing folder is an old Cuttlebug one that I've had laying around. Of course I love my little SU small star punch and my faux eyelets that I've been hoarding. The base is SU Crumb Cake and the s tars are embossed on Marina Mist card stock with white embossing powder over it.

Double Emboss Instructions.

1. Ink a brayer with Versamark.
2. Roll the brayer on the inside of your embossing folder (bold design works best) on the indented/recessed side.
3. Place your paper or cardstock inside embossing folder and run through your diecut machine.
4. Sprinkle embossing powder (color of your choice to coordiante with project) and heat as usual.
5. Place double embossed piece on your project.

Sharing Your Sorrow

2011-05-18T16:15:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry I have neglected this blog for so long. I have been busy working on my Stampin' Up! business and updating that blog regularly but like to post some things on my first blog too. This is a project made using Stampin' Up! projects. Try as I might to do something with other than Stampin' Up! products, since I became a demo, I am conditioned now to reach for my SU products. I hope to change that soon because I do have some lovely Basic Grey paper sitting in a drawer calling my name and I have got to use it soon. Anyway, this card is a simple card made with the SU Elements of Style Set. I added a digital sentiment from My Digital Studio digital download Thoughts and Prayers set. I stamped the flower stamp on Whisper White card stock with Basic Black Craft ink and then embossed it with clear embossing powder. I colored it with Stampin Write Markers I then made a mask with a scrap of card stock to drawer the border around the image with a So Saffron Marker. It is a great way to give a look of layering without adding bulk. adhered the image panel to a base of So Saffron (finished size 5-1/2 x 4-1/4) and added the sentiment punched with a oval punch and a the Modern Label punch. Of course I had to add a little bling with the pearls.

Thanks for looking and come back soon when I have something posted that I made using my favorite paper company (shhhh don't tell SU) Basic Grey.

CINDY

OOPS. You were directed here by mistake.

2011-05-18T10:14:00.000-04:00

My friend linked you to this blog by mistake. To continue on the hop click the picture.

2011-04-18T12:04:00.000-04:00

Two very special people had their 50th wedding Anniversary on Saturday. My parents Jack and Carol Hess were married on April 16, 1961. We are so blessed to be sharing this milestone with them. My parents will be celebrating on a 5-night cruise with our family and my brother Jeff and sister-in-law Lauren. It will be a good time and will add to the many happy memories we share as a family.

I also wanted to share the card I made them. It is a Tri-Shutter design because I thought the occasion called for more than just a standard fold card. The gold glitter paper and gold glitter polka dot paper was purchased from a chain craft store. I used Stampin Up whisper white card stock and flowers and pearl stickers. Die cuts were used for the ovals, scallop ovals, numbers, and leaves. The poem and the Happy Anniversary were designed using my computer and color printer.

2011-04-02T02:28:00.000-04:00

Quick and easy card. I can't post this to my SU blog because while I used a SU image, the rest of the card is by other companies. I used Basic Grey patterned paper from the Marjolaine 6 x 6 inch paper pad. The stamp is a preview of something that will be in the SU catalog this summer. It is called Four Frame It is a series of 4 stamps (Fpdesigned to use with the Decorative Label punch. I used the an EK punch for the scallop border on the gray panel. I also gave the gray pannel a "ribbon cut' by placing the strtip into a square punch very carefully set it in through the corner until the corners of the card stock was barel visible on the sides and then punched.

2011 Graduation Card

2011-03-31T02:54:00.000-04:00

The picture of this card doesn't show how "brilliant" it is. The glitter paper really sparkles. This is one of the cards I am making this year for graduation. My daughter is graduating and I am making cards for her and her friends. This is one design I'm playing with. The school colors are Black and Silver which I am finding challenging. After I saw this glitter paper at Michaels, I thought it would be fun to use it for the graduation cards. It is inspired by this week's sketch challenge over at splitcoaststampers. I chose a little different format and the finished size is 3-1/4 x 6".

Funny Birthday Card - CAS style.

2011-03-14T08:07:00.000-04:00

This was for a challenge on splitcoaststampers.com last week. The challenge was to make a clean and simple humorous card. I chose this sentiment stamp from The Little Paper Company and used stamps from the retired SU set Button Bear (party hat and balloon) to go with it. I used Cuttlebug birthday embossing folder and a Nestabilities die also. Of course no card is complete without a little bling so the little red rhinestone stickers were added.

Vintage Beach Friends

2011-03-05T10:41:00.001-05:00

Working on some cards for a secret sister swap for the DIVAs and stepped out of my SU zone for a while to use this adorable image I downloaded from The Vintage Workshop. I used it with a technique I learned over at Splitcoaststampers called the double emboss technique. I thought it went well with the vintage image. I sized printed and trimmed the image on vanilla card stock and then ran it through my Cuttlebug using the double emboss technique.

Here is a picture of another card I posted on my Stampin' Up blog (Stamp with Me Cindy G) using the same technique but with a stamped and colord image.

Valentine Pleated Medallions

2011-02-12T08:05:00.014-05:00

More of these great medallions that I love to make. They actually get addicting once you get started. I made two of these for Valentine's Day decorations. I got the paper at my local scrap book store and don't remember off hand who the manufacturer is. On the first medallion, I used an image from The Vintage Workshop. It is embellished with Stickles, a button, crochet ribbon, a heart cut from a scrap of the paper. The valentine tag is from another image from The Vintage Workshop. The second medallion is made with the same paper with the large heart, Love sentiment also cut out from a scrap of the same the paper. The dotted paper around the edge is from a Stampin Up Designer Series Paper collection. It is hard to tell by the photos but the medallion on top is actually about 6 inches diameter and the one on the bottom is 4 inches.

Here is a link to some Medallions I made for Christmas where I have the 2 sizes together in the same picture.

Heat Emboss on Dry Emboss Background Card

2011-02-02T12:59:00.001-05:00

Besides the fact that I'm stepping away from my Stampin' Up! supplies on this card and went with this adorable digital Image from Mo's Digital Pencil, I also practiced with a few techniques. One was coloring with my Copic Ciao markers. The second was practicing this out of the box with Nestabilities technique for cutting out the image. The third technique was this week's Splitcoast Stampers.com technique challenge which is the double embossed background. The layout of this card was also imspired by the sketch challenge this week on Splitcoaststampers.

For the background panel was embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and then I applied VersaMark ink and heat embossed with SU Iridescent Ice heat embossing powder. I got a little too much of the VersaMark on the recessed areas so the embossing powder didn't just stick to the raised portions but it is a nice sparkly effect anyway. I'll try to be more precise with a brayer like you are supposed to do on the next one.

The image was sized and printed and then colored with the Copic markers. I applied the technique for cutting it so parts of it were outside the frame (see link above) and layered on SU Chocolate Chip and SU textured White card stock cut out also with the scallop rectangle dyes. SU rhinestone stickers were added for a little more bling. Finished size is 5-1/2" x 4-1/4".

For purchasing any of the SU products mentioned above please go to my SU web store .

Bookmarks - Altered Jumbo Paper Clips

2011-01-17T20:57:00.001-05:00

I have been a patient of Medi Weight Loss Clinic for over a year and have achieved 40 pounds of weight loss and have been maintaining it. I am very happy with my results and as a thank you to the staff at the clinic, I made these paperclip book marks utilizing Stampin Up card stock and an image from Mo's Digital Pencil. I will be giving them to the staff when I go for my biweekly visit tomorrow. To follow my weight loss journey you can visit my weight loss blog A Weighty Life.

Vintage Christmas Pink and Blue Printed Medallions

2010-12-26T20:18:00.001-05:00

Getting caught up on posting my recent projects. These are medallions made with vintage image clip art. The medallions are made with paper from Stampin' Up!. Lots of Stickles also used. I added some buttons for embellishment. The one on the right is 6 inches in diameter and the one the left is 4 inches in diameter.

Christmas Ornament and Gift

2010-12-23T10:22:00.000-05:00

I made this matching ornament that doubled for the gift tag and candy jar label for the staff at Medi Weight Loss Clinic. The jar is filled with SUGAR FREE caramel hard candies. Well, I wasn't going to take a sugar-laden gift to a weight loss place. I made the pleated medallion (some people call it a pinwheel) based on a pattern I had seen on Shabbychick Junk blog and the vintage clip art was found at vintageholidaycrafts.com The paper is from Stampin Up and I added some die cut leaves and lots of Stickles to it. On the jar, The Santa image was added digitally to the Stampin Up My Digital Studio designer series paper and printed on sticker paper.

Christmas Totes and Mini Cards

2010-11-29T08:20:00.002-05:00

Made 8 of these adorable Totes and matching 3x3 Mini cards to go with them for my friends in my weekly stamping club. We have our gift exchange on December 9 . I made 4 each of two 2 different papers I got from my local scrap book store. It is by Creative Imaginations. To embellish the totes I made the pleated medallions and added the flower and pearl and then added organdy ribbon for the handles. On the little cards I made the sentiment on my computer and then punched them out with a scallop oval punch and placed it over a sold green oval. I added some pleated chrochet ribbon and a little flower with a gold bead sticker. The sentiment and the flower were both sprayed with Smooch spray in gold. Template for the totes can be found here on the StampingPro blog.

Baby's First Year Book

2010-11-15T01:01:00.004-05:00

My neighbors' daughter and son-in-law had their first baby and I was inspired to make this baby's first year Pull-Out Scrapbook. I went to one of my favorite on line sources, which is The Vintage Workshop and found the baby's first year Octagon Baby Book as one of their collections. I down loaded it and after looking at the pictures, I thought it would be fun to put it in a scrapbook form. Their are spaces for the parents to write information about the baby like height, weight, and first words, date of first tooth, etc. In searching for a template for the scrapbook found, I found the tutorial for the Pull-Out Scrapbook at Splitcoaststampers.com in their resources section.

Baby's First Year Pull-Out Scrapbook
images by The Vintage Workshop

Baby's First Year Pull-Out Scrapbook
Inside View

Baby's First Year Pull-Out Scrapbook
Fully Opened View

2010-11-04T13:19:00.000-04:00

Cute little card for a cute little girl. I made this for my friend Alex. She is the daughter of a good friend of mine. She is a new little card maker herself so I hope she likes this card. The cute little bird is a digital image from the Doodle Pantry and it came with the sentiment. I colored it with Copic Ciao markers. The paper is the Origin collection from Basic Grey. Nestabilities dies, die cut flowers and pearl stickers were used as embellishment. The card stock is Stampin Up Chocolate Chip and So Saffron.

Circles and Flowers Christmas

2010-11-01T01:44:00.002-04:00

Clean and Simple Christmas Card inspired by a card I saw in the gallery on splitcoaststampers. The card used three circles as the focal point with a flower in the center circle and the sentiment in the lower right corner. I used three circle scraps I had left over from another project and whipped this card up. I used three flowers with pearls. The pearls were originally white and I used my Cardinal (R59) Copic Ciao marker to color the pearls to match the SU Cranberry Crisp (Retired) ink I used for the sentiment. The sentiment is from the Heard from the Heart Set. Finished size is 4-7/8 x 5-1/2 and I rounded the bottom corners. The circle colors are also SU retired colors (Handsome Hunter and Mellow Moss). The center circle was stamped with the snowflake stamp from the current SU Jolly St. Nick set (Holiday Mini Catalog). I'm trying to use up my retired card stock as I come up with design ideas for my November stamp camp in which we will make clean and simple handmade Christmas cards. Don't forget to check my SU website/blog if you are interested in shopping for current SU items. To make this card with current colors you could use Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery and Cherry Cobbler.

Fall Thank You Cards

2010-10-26T11:02:00.002-04:00

My husband needed some thank you cards for the office so I used a fall theme with Stampin Up's Day of Gratitude digital download brush set and digital paper. I recolored and sized the images via a publishing software program. I also added a little Stickles for some sparkle. The medallion on the 2nd card was the same medallion in 2 sizes so I could pop up the smaller one on the larger for some dimension. Digital download kit which includes Autumn Spice Paper and Day of Gratitude Images can be found on my Stampin Up website.

Stampin Up Holiday Promotion

2010-10-19T22:53:00.001-04:00

Check out the latest and greatest Stampin' Up! holiday promotion. They are offering 20% off selected holiday products for making cards, packages and gifts. Check out my SU website and do some "holiday" shopping.

Skateboard Dude

2010-10-11T12:38:00.002-04:00

I have been working on cards for my October Stampin' Up! Stamp-A-Stack event which features the theme Cards for the Men in Your Life. This is a card I made that would be good for one of the younger men in your life and it features the SU Stamp Extreme Skateboard and a technique for the background called Striped Wipe and the twist version. It was a good way to get the colors I needed in the background without using Designer Series Paper. The tutorial for the technique is in Splitcoaststampers Resources . The Dude was designed on my computer and printed out.

A Jolly Halloween

2010-09-30T12:26:00.000-04:00

This cute vintage-style image was downloaded from Vintage Holiday Crafts. I stamped the background on the bottom black panel and added dots with Smooch ink. Black Diamond Stickles was added to outline the layers. The girl was actually cut out of a second printed image and popped up over the bottom one with dimensional dots. Blue panel was embossed with Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Figure Skater Birthday Card

2010-09-16T10:19:00.000-04:00

Vintage-style card for my sister-in-law (the former figure skater). I used this week's SCS sketch challenge for my layout. It lent itself well to the digital image I got from The Vintage Workshop. I used Spellbinders Nestabilities and Fancy Tag dies. Basic Grey Capella 2 sided pattern paper and Brushed Gold (SU) on a Chocolate Chip (SU) base.

Disney Theme Cards

2010-09-13T11:32:00.000-04:00

Minnie Happy Birthday Shape Card
Cardstock: SU Basic Black and Whisper White
Stamps: Happy Birthday (Hero Arts)
Tools: Spellbinders Nestabilities Dies (Circles and scallop Circles),
Swiss Dots Embossing Folder
Accessories: Flat back Rhinestones, Crystal Effects glue, Ribbon, glue dots,

Hidden Mickey
Stamp Sets: Circle Circus Digital Brush Set
Tools: Circle Punches
Cardstock: SU Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White
and Yo Yo Yellow (retired)

I made these cards for a contest going on in Stampin Up forums. The incentive trip this year is to Disney World and to commemorate the announcement of the trip, SU is going to have a contest. to enter, demonstrators can make a project based on their favorite Disney World character or ride and upload them to the SU showcase gallery. Five winners will be selected to win the SU stamp set of their choice. Well, I had to enter because I need more SU stamp sets so these are 2 of my entries. I would also like to win the incentive trip so I am going to get working on increasing my sales for the incentive period which ends in June.

Flowers Photo Card

2010-09-09T10:00:00.002-04:00

The main image on this card was a photo taken by my friend Johnna. She uploaded it on facebook and when I saw it, I immediately thought it would be pretty on a card. I hope I didn't detract from it with the embossed backgrounds. I might try it again later and do it a little more clean and simple.

Hinge Technique Card

2010-08-31T13:29:00.000-04:00

Hinge Card - Closed

Sharing the technique of the Hinge Card with my friends from my weekly card club. I learned the technique on Splitcoast Stampers and really enjoyed it the last time I did and thought my friends would enjoy it too. This one is made with the Stampingbella stamp set called Just My Type. I colored it with Copic markers and the keys and inside of the type writer are colored with Smooch pearlized accent ink. I also sponged around the image with distress inks. The buttons are from an sizzlits die from SU called Buttons #5. I threaded silver cording through the buttons and then applied to the card and covered them with SU Crystal Accents. The large brown scalloped button is adhered on top of a large-head brad which acts as the inge for the top portion (see open card below). The green panel is embossed with a SU embossing die called Petals a Plenty. The printed paper is punched with a large scallop punch from EK Success. The paper is 2 sided so I did a ribbon-like cut on a thin scrap of that and adhered it with the opposite side the bottom of the page. A brown scrap is used for the eyelet border punch. Following the instructions, the card actually goes together fairly quickly depending on how detailed you get with it.

Hinge Card - Open

For base of card you need a piece of card stock cut at 4-1/4" x 5-1/2"
Bottom portion can be card stock or pattern paper cut at 4-1/4 x 3. Allow yourself an extra 3/4" for the length if you are punching a border that should be 4-1/4 x 3-3/4 with the punched border.
The accent/image panel could actually vary but should be approximately 1-1/4" x 4-1/4"
Then the top panel (the panel that hinges) is 4-1/4" x 3"
You will need 1 brad.

Sometimes we are on autopilot when we are making it cards that I just want to remind you on here not to glue the entire back of your bottom panel so the top panel has a place to slide into and likewise remember not to adhere your image panel to the bottom portion or it won't hinge.

Big Flower - Thanks Big Time

2010-08-21T20:47:00.000-04:00

Sorry it has taken me so long to post to my blog. I just got back from Vacation on Tuesday and I have been busy gearing up for my inaugural event as a Stampin' Up demonstrator on Sunday, August 29. I have been working on the cards the guests will make as well as door prizes and little favors. This flower card is one of the cards I will be featuring next Sunday. I posted all 3 cards on my SU-only blog - Stamp with Me Cindy G . I did not realize it was going to be so challenging to make everything using SU items. It will take me a while to collect every think I need from SU so for now my cards will be a little simple. I will post my door prize items as soon as I take pictures.

Winter Post Christmas Card Variations

2010-08-07T01:25:00.000-04:00

Felt like playing a little tonight after a stressful week. I inked up this skating couple image from Stampin Up with Staz On Timber Brown ink and stamped a half sheet of kraft cardstock. I played around with them and made a couple cards. First I colored them with my SU Pastel chalks. I liked the chalk for this because it showed up nicely on the Kraft cardstock and had a very soft appearance I was looking for. I was initially thinking going vintage. So to accomplish that on the red card, I wanted to make one of those paper flowers. I punched out some of the sheet music paper and used my own "glimmer mist" concoction (a travel-sized bottle of Dove liquid hairspray and Pearl Ex powder. It is an oldie technique but a goodie). The background on the red card was made with the Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder from the SU catalog. I rubbed the Timber Brown Staz On pad over the embossed areas and then sprayed the Pearl Ex mixture over it. The sheet music is a vintage download from The Vintage Workshop that I just printed on plan printer paper and distressed and sprayed, The flower is made with the "sheet music" that used a 5-petal flower paper punch and crumpled and sprayed with the Pearl Ex mixture.

On the second card, I went with a little more clean lines. I used Bashful Blue and Chocolate Chip cardstock. I only embossed the corner of the blue cardstock with teh Petals-a-Plenty folder and added some pearl stickers. The image is adhered with foam layering dots. The sentiment is from the SU Heard from the Heart set inked with StazOn Timber Brown ink. I added the ribbon and the scallop lace punched border to soften the edges a little.

Christmas in July

2010-07-25T09:46:00.001-04:00

I know it is late in the month but I managed to get 1 Christmas card made for July. I enjoy the digital images from The Vintage Workshop. This is from a gorgeous poinsettia set of digital images that I purchased and decided to use this one that has the wording Loving Christmas Wises. I put 2 copies of it on the page and printed it with my color printer. I mounted one copy to the gold card stock and then used the Spellbinders scallop ovals to trim out the center and another piece of gold cardstock. I adhered it to the other vintage image with some foam squares. I used all SU card stock, except the gold and I don't remember where that is from. I added gold bead stickers and a strip punched with the SU decorative edge punch.

Big Announcement!

2010-07-20T00:05:00.005-04:00

I am proud to announce that I am now a Stampin Up demonstrator. I have wanted to do this for years and I finally made the big plunge. Things have changed in my career as a medical transcriptionist and I decided to try to make money with my hobby. I have enjoyed SU products for years and I look forward to sharing them with my friends and their friends. I've never been a salesperson but I think by knowing the SU products as well as I do and using them for many years, it will be easy. If you have any advice please feel free to share with me. I am working on a new blog for my SU only projects called Stamp with me Cindy G and I hope you will visit me there as well. If you enjoy SU products and would like to order anything or have any questions please also feel free to order from my SU website as well. I hope to focus on the digital products SU has developed. With digital images being so popular, SU has jumped on the bandwagon and I have already made a couple of samples using them. The first one used the Digital July 4 Stamp Brush Set and the second one used the digital Baroque Motiff Stamp Brush Set.

Alcohol Ink Background Birthday

2010-07-07T09:21:00.002-04:00

For Stan's birthday, I chose to make a card inspired by his photography. I wish I had his photos on my computer so I could upload one and show you my inspiration piece but he loves to do nature photography as his hobby and does these wonderful pictures with beautiful colored skies and plants and trees, etc. in the foreground. I tried to recreate that by using my alcohol inks and stamps. The Inspired by Nature (SU) stamp was perfect for this. Since the colors turned out so stunning, I didn't want to get too fussy with it and even used a second sheet of the background for the layer underneath the main image panel. It makes a cool effect. I just added the rhinestone stickers to the corners and to dot the "i" and that's it. Adirondak alcohol ink colors are Eggplant, Stream, and Sunshine Yellow. I just dripped them on a sheet of acetate and smeared the glossy card stock in it. I had to do it a bunch of times to get the desired effect which was to simulate the sunset sky at the beach.

Happy Birthday Birdie Circle Card

2010-07-02T09:21:00.003-04:00

I have always wanted to make a shape card so last night I got to try it out. I had another one of these bird images that I colored and thought it would be cute on the circle card. The circles were cut wit hthe Nestabilities scallop circle dies. The ribbon was the inspiration for my colors as I knew I wanted to use a ribbon and so picked this one because of the color of the bird. I used a couple more of my retired SU In Color colors Crushed Curry and Dusty Durango and used Old Olive this time instead of the Bermuda Bay in my previous card. I embossed the Olive panel with a CB embossing folder and added a Happy Birthday Sticker from SRM Stickers and a flower and some buttons I got in a package from my DIVAS Blogging Group secret sister Amy.

Birdie Birthday

2010-07-01T01:46:00.013-04:00

A new month and a need for more birthday cards. Here is one I made using an adorable image from the Doodle Pantry. I already had it colored and realized that it was perfect for this week's color challenge at Splitcoaststampers.com . The color challenge (CC277) was to use SU colors (or similar colors) Dusty Durango, Crushed Curry and Bermuda Bay. Being that these colors are retiring and the new SU catalog starts today , I thought it might be a good idea to use my supply of old colors. I figured also that while I was doing a SCS challenge, I might as well make it a double challenge and try out this week's SCS challenge (CC287) . I closely cut out the bird and placed him on angle with foam squares on the Dusty Durango panel. With his wings above his head spread wide in a joyous fashion, I thought it was perfect for putting the sentiment between the wings

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: SU Whisper White, Dusty Durango, Bermuda Bay and Crushed Curry

Image: Doodle Pantry

Stamps: SU Well Scripted (Sentiment), background stamp (SU)

Ink: Versamark, Night of Navy (SU).

Accessories: Markers (Copic Ciao), Metal Dots (Jo-Anne Craft Essentials), Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug), adhesive foam (Fiskars).

DIVAS June Challenge - Patriotic Card

2010-06-26T11:56:00.003-04:00

Here is the patriotic card I made for our DIVAS Monthly Challenge for June. Peggy (The Wired Angel) is our hostess this month and she chose for us to do a patriotic theme or something with red, white and blue. I did both. I made this for my dad's birthday. It is for the kids to give him. The fun thing about this card besides the red white and blue is that it is created with digital images from the Stampin Up My Digital Downloads . I discovered their downloadable images last week and indulged in a few digital sets. This set is their July Fourth Set and it includes the patterned stars, the solid smaller stars, three different large fireworks, a firecracker, and a Happy 4th of July sentiment (that obviously I did not use for the birthday card). I used Microsoft Publisher to manipulate all my images and recolored the images based on a SU Real Red and Brilliant Blue. I got the directions to match the colors from an SCS forum a long time ago. The background paper was made using the firecracker images that I sized and changed the colors and then copied and pasted them on a Publisher page and then printed it out and cut it to size. I used my SU star punches and corner rounder punch as well as an EK Success Border punch on the horizontal panel behind the image. The other tool I used was the Cuttlebug Stars Embossing folder. White Metal Dots from Jo-Anne Craft Essentials finishes off the card. Inside I created the sentiment and then took the firecracker image from the SU set and after changing the color selected the washout feature in my program so I could superimpose the sentiment on top of it. I then added a star punch out. I then added more punched out stars to the envelope. This card did not employ any true stamping but I was able to use some stamping techniques to create it.

Father's Day Easel Card

2010-06-19T00:55:00.003-04:00

This is my first easel card. I'm having a good time experimenting with different card styles besides the usual 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 card. I had always wanted to try an easel card. The image is a downloadable image from The Vintage Workshop. The image was edited in Microsoft Publisher and I added the quote over the image. I added photo coroners to the picture and used an EK success punch. I like this punch because it almost reminds me of baseball pennants just a little fancier.

I also made a matching gift bag by covering a brown paper lunch bag with cardstock and added the image and sentiment.

Friend Envelope Card

2010-06-12T23:09:00.003-04:00

This is my third envelope card. I thought I would share the technique with the weekly card group as I am hosting Thursday night. I found this pretty paper at a local stamping store. It is from KaiserCraft's Tea at Elsie's Collection. The sentiment is from Digiments. I cut it out using the Nestabilities plain oval and scallop oval. I used Nestabilities Fancy Tag Die as a design element behind the sentiment. I added flowers, butterfly punches and rhinestone brads and rhinestone stickers. I stamped the flower stamp as a border on the oval and the inside card. It is from the SU Reason to Smile set and I tend to use it a lot lately for borders and backgrounds.
Here are links to my other Envelope Cards:

April 18 Divas Secret Sister Challenge

April 15 Mom and Dad Anniversary Card

Here's the link to the tutorial on making the card. One of these days, I will actually try doing a tutorial of my own but I figure with so many great resources out in the blogs and on Splitcoaststampers, why reinvent the wheel, right?

My First Stair Step Card - The Older the Fidler

2010-06-05T02:38:00.005-04:00

I had a blast making this card. I enjoyed the TriShutter Card I made last week for my mom's birthday and it got a great reaction from my her so I decided to step out of my box again with my Dad's card and try the Stair Step Card. I utilized the tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.com for the Stair Step Fold. It is actually very easy. I decided to make a humorous card and use the old man image from Gina K. Designs You Know Your Old set. I did the paper piecing technique on his jacket and tie. I also took a second image that I stamped and colored and cut out the cake, gift, and hat and popped them up on the main image with foam squares.

The circles are obviously cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities dies. The base carstock is SU Kraft. The designer paper is all from the Basic Grey Vintage Collection called Vagabond. I used my big scallop EK Success punch also. The black scallop behind the Happy Birthday, is edged with Liquid Glass (CTMH). The black metal dots are from Joann Essentials. I distressed te sentiment panels with Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Tea Dye). The "fiddler" sentiment is a downloadable sentiment from Digiments. I printed it on white card stock, cut it out with the Nestabilities died and trimmed it with a large scallop circle on the Basic Grey stripe paper. It is time for male cards as Father's Day and my Dad's birthday fall in June followed by my husband's birthday in July so I will be making a few male cards. So be sure to check back for more..

Christmas Leaves

2010-06-01T20:09:00.005-04:00

It's June 1, and I've started mass producing some Christmas cards. I'm hoping to make 5-10 Christmas cards a month in hopes I will have enough by December to send out without the frantic push to make them to mail before Christmas. I was inspired to make this one by something I saw in Paper Crafts Card Creations Volume 8 that I picked up at Barnes and Nobel this past weekend. I just love when I flip through these magazines and see something that I say to myself "now I can do that." This is pretty much a straight case except obviously I changed up the papers, colors and stamps. I did really like the straight lines and simplicity of the design and the bling on the leaves really gives it that little something special. Since it is so simple, it was easy to mass produce and I only got 5 out of the Basic Grey Eskimo Kiss patterned paper I had so I may try it again with different paper at a later time or try to get some more of this paper to make more of them. The leaves are from Stampin Up's Best Blossom set and the sentiment is from another SU set called The Very Best. I trimmed the patterned paper to 5-1/4" x 4" and adhered it to the SU Pretty In Pink card stock. I stamped the leaves and the sentiment on SU Sage Shadow cardstock with VersaMagic Ocean Mist ink. Added the ribbon and then adhered the sage panel to the card with foam squares. To finish it off I applied the pink Glitz Frosting stickers to the stems of the leaves. I just have to do the inside and the envelopes and these are in the hopper and ready to sign and mail.

TriShutter Cards

2010-05-28T18:10:00.014-04:00

I was looking for something special to do for my Mom's birthday card instead of the usual and looked at one of my CardMaker magazines and found the trishutter card in there. I looked it up on line and saw this tutorial on you tube. It is actually very easy and very out of the box for me. I made my mom's card and then had to make a second one. This is the card closed. Because it is so springy, I had to keep it closed with a paperclip. The sentiment is computer generated. I trimmed it with the Nestabilities scallop oval dies. The Prima flowers were white and I colored them with the Copic Ciao markers. There is actually a little pink in the black pattern paper so I tried to bring that out more with the flowers. The cardstock is Bazill and the paper is Basic Grey. Below you can see what the card looks like from viewing it from the top.

I was so happy with how my mom's card came out that I had to try it again. This time I used different Basic Grey paper and added a House Mouse Image and embossed some of the panels with the CB embossing folder. The sentiments on this one area lso computer generated and I also colored white flowers to match with with the Copic Markers.

DIVAS Blogging Group Secret Sister Challenges

2010-05-22T21:01:00.008-04:00

I caught up this weekend on my Secret Sister Challenges. The first one as to make Anything But a Card. So I made this: I altered a Crystal Light drink mix packet container. I covered it with the Basic Grey paper and I made a medallion and mounted it on a Bazzill Bling scallop circle. I placed the flower over an initial that is in the center of the medallion so as not to reveal myself to my SS. This will hold a few goodies I am including in my package to my SS.

The next challenge was to Use Paint on a Card.

On this card, I embossed white card stock with the CB numbers embossing folder. I then applied green pain to the card stock and spread it with a used gift card. The sentiment is computer generated (c/o Digiments). The scallop oval behind the sentiment was also white card stock on which I applied brown paint. I only had green and brown paint on hand. We had green and brown because our son did a diorama on dinosaurs for a school project a few years ago. The scallop border on the yellow panel was made with an ek success punch. I added the Prima flowers, green rhinestones and bow for the finishing touches.

The last project I caught up on was to make a Cheerful Summer Card. So I made this lemonade card. The image and sentiment are from a set by Taylor Expressions. I just made it clean and simple with a strip of Basic Grey Origins paper.

Vintage Black and White Father's Day

2010-05-19T02:40:00.004-04:00

This is for the SCS DIVAS blogging group May Diva challenge. Dru was our host this month and she recommended a vintage style male card. I used a digital image that I got from The Vintage Workshop . I work within Microsoft Publisher when I am using my digital images. The image was originally a color image, which reformated to "gray scale" to get the black and white feel. I chose Basic Grey Tuxedo paper and a diamond Cuttle bug Embossing folder. The "dear father" is from SU's Well Scripted set. So I hope I did the challenge justice. I love the vintage images. The verse actually was on another vintage image in the downloads I did but I liked it better over the baseball image since my dad loves baseball and I thought the reference to summer could lend itself well tot he baseball image because baseball players are known as the "boys of summer." Is that too much of a stretch, do you think?

Taking age with humor

2010-05-11T14:42:00.003-04:00

I need of some birthday cards to keep in stock so I made 3 using this same sentiment which is from Digiments (no longer available). I thought the little old lady stamp from the Still Hot set from the Little Paper Shop was perfect to go with it. Kind of gives it the little shot of whimsy as it it looks like she is giving a toast. Here, here! SU Kraft is the base and DCWV paper from their Pocket Full of Posies Matstack. Nestabilities dies and EK Success large scallop border punch were used for the shape elements. Prima flowers and blue Glitz Frosting that I got from fellow blogger and DIVAS sistah's online store Scrapbookstoreatyourdoor were used for embellishment. Here are two other versions with an unknown name pattern paper.

More Mother's Day Cards

2010-05-09T21:32:00.010-04:00

For my mom. It is made using a vintage image from The Vintage Workshop.
I arranged multiple copies of the image on a page in Microsoft Publisher and printed it out and did the 3D technique by closely trimming out the flower and leaves and popping them up on a second image panel with foam layering squares. I distressed the edges with a distressing tool from Close To My Heart and the sentiment was computer generated and cut out with the Nestabilities Scallop Oval die. I added pink rhinestone stickers. The Kraft base is run through the CB with the Swiss Dots Embossing Folder.

This one I made for our kids to give my mom. I used this one as the prototype for the card I helped my friend Alex make for her mom(see my May 8 post). I embossed the SU Kraft panel with the CB large flower embossing folder and outlined it by paper piercing. I punched a scrap of white CS with a scallop circle punch for the center and added button. The strip of patterned paper was trimmed with a scallop edge on my and placed under the flower. I then punched out the butterflies with the Martha Stewart butterfly punch out of a scrap of the same patterned paper and added pearl stickers to the centers of the butterflies. scalloped punched the top corners of the Kraft layer and then adhered it to SU Really Rust and then assembled the whole thing on a SU Sage Shadow Base. The wording on the small tag is computer generated and the tag was punched out with a Marvy Uchida triple tag punch.

Mother's Day Cards

2010-05-08T16:51:00.005-04:00

My friends Alex and Drew came over to make Mother's Day cards for their mom, my friend Anne today. I had come up with the prototypes and had the kits ready for them when they got here. Both kids were very crafty and took to the projects rather quickly. Alex's card is made with the Cuttlebug big flower embossing folder and we added some paper piercing around the flower, a punched scallop circle and a button in the center We added some butterflies from Martha Stewart's triple butterfly punch. Drew's card is embossed with CB stars folder and then he punched out some stars and glued them under the embossing. He then added the Wonderful Mother stamp from the SU Well scripted set. It was a lot of fun and Alex says she wants to do it again for Father's Day.

Pair of Hinged Cards DIVAS Secret Sistah Challenge

2010-05-05T10:27:00.001-04:00

I'm late getting my DIVAS blogging group secret sister challenge done from last week. It took me a few days to work on this based on the short amount of time I had. The challenge was to make a Hinged Card. You can see a tutorial for the technique on the Wikedly Wonderful Creations. I liked the idea so much I made 2 cards. The one on the left is indicating how the card looks when it is flipped open at the hinge made by putting the brad through all the layers. The one on the right obviously is what it looks like together. This is a unique way to do a card for me and is actually a great way to only use just 1/4 sheet of card stock as it is not a folded card. I printed the sentiments on my cardstock first using a sentiment I found and created in Word. The Stampingbella image was stamped with Memento Tuxedo ink and colored with Copic Ciao markers. Both pattern papers are from the Basic Grey Bittersweet 6x6 paper pad. The coffee cup is a stamp from a clear set called Coffee Cafe from The Paper Company. I stamped it on a scrap of BG paper from the Bittersweet pad and trimmed it closely. The Wonderful Mother sentiment is from the SU Well Scripted Set.

Had a wonderful time...

2010-05-02T21:22:00.005-04:00

...celebrating my birthday Saturday night.

We attended a fundraiser for an organization of which my husband is on the board. The Alvin A. Dubin Alzheimer Resource Center that assists caregivers of Alzheimer patients. It is a function Stan and I have been attending for 10 years with my parents and brother and SIL. This year Steven and Carrie were old enough to attend with us. I specifically wanted them to attend because this year the event fell on my birthday. We had a good time enjoying food and participating in the silent and live auctions and looking at everyone in their pirate costumes. The theme of this year's event was Pirates and Pearls. I was not disappointed as a Captain Jack Sparrow look alike was there but unfortunatley I didn't catch up with him to have my picture taken with him. We relaxed after the event at my parent's house.

I am working on cards for the DIVAS blogging group secret sister challenge as well as my mother's day cards and some birthday cards that I hope to have posted soon.

Skater Dude

2010-04-29T00:49:00.004-04:00

Got this skater stamp from SU to make cards for my son and his friends. This card is for my son's birthday. His last year as a preteen. He turns 12 on the 16th. This is for this week's SU sketch challengee.

My finished cards is 5 x 5. The base and the large white square panel is Bazzill textured card stock. The patterned paper is by KaiserCraft. I got it from my favorite LSS, Strawberry Fields. Man, I just realized I haven't' been in there in a while. I feel the need to go to a bricks and mortar store and have some tactile stimulation with some new things. Oh, back to the card...these Dude is computer generated with my Word, WordArt. I printed it in navy blue on my color printer. The skater image is stamped with SU Night of Navy and then embossed with clear embossing powder. I added silver metal dots to the corners of the panels.

DIVAS SS Challenge #2 Card/Graduation Cards

2010-04-24T12:36:00.010-04:00

This week's DIVAS Secret Sister Challenge was to do paper piecing. I decided to use flowers. I liked how my SS challenge card turned out so I decided to use the same style for a couple of graduation cards I needed. I stamped the flowers stamp from SU's Delight in Life Set multiple times on some paper from my Basic Grey Sugar Rush 6x6 paper pad and trimmed them closely and layered them with foam squares. I ran the white card stock through my printer to print the sentiments I downloaded a while ago from Digiments. Then I took the white card stock and embossed it in the Cuttlebug with the CB Swiss Dots embossing folder. Applied the ribbon to the white and adhered the panel to the base cardstock. Applied the flowers and the flower gem sticker from Making Memories (Chloe's Closet line).

Supplies/Tools:
Cardstock: All SU (Certainly Celery, Perfect Plum, Whisper White)

Designer Paper: Basic Grey (Sugar Rush)

Sentiment: Digital download from Digiments

Embellishments: Ribbon and Flower Gem Stickers (Making Memories)

Tools: Cuttlebug, CB Swiss Dots Embossing Folder,

I'm Honored to receive a blog award

2010-04-23T01:00:00.003-04:00

My sweet blogging friend, facebook friend, and sistah in cardmaking VICKI has bestowed upon me this sweet blogger award. Visit her blog Bountiful Blessings I am honored she chose me and I am passing it on to some blogging friends who also inspire me and are so sweet to me with their kind comments on my blog posts.

Micki at Micki's Cards, Cameras, and Cats.

Jule - Special Craft Mom of 4

Dru - Garden of Dreams

Kirby - KrB's Korner

Teresa - Enjoy the VA Sunshine

DIVAS Secret Sister Challenge - Envelope Card

2010-04-18T02:25:00.002-04:00

I finished my 2nd envelope card. This one is for the DIVAS Secret Sister Challenge. My previous envelope card was made for my mom and dad for their anniversary. You can see the card and the link to the technique in the April 15, 2010 post. With this one, I used 2-sided patterned paper by g.c.d. Studios. I chose an image from the collection of vintage images from The Vintage Workshop. I sized he image and printed it out and then layered it and put the flowers and butterflies on. Pearl stickers were used for the centers of the flowers and the butterflies. The instructions for the Envelope Card technique showed an option for sewing the card to keep the sides together. I don't sew so I used rub-on stitches. The friendship stamp and the flower are from SU sets.

Mom and Dad Anniversary Card

2010-04-15T03:08:00.001-04:00

I used our the DIVAs Sistahs blogging group spring Secret Sister challenge as the inspiration for my mom and dad's anniversary card. The challenge was to make an envelope card and Sarah posted this a link to the tutorial at The Pixie Cottage blog. I am also getting my money's worth out of my SU two-step bird punch. I used it in my last post and I pulled it out again for this card. This pictures shows both the envelope and the insert. Oddly enough, the double-sided paper that I chose is actually from Basic Grey's Wassail collection. This particular sheet is not traditional Christmas-y and worked well with my theme. I used an old SU Anniversary Sentiment stamp from an All Year Cheer set and cut it out with Nestabilities Labels 6 die. I added pearl stickers and the flowers. on the insert card, I sponged it with Tim Holtz Distressing Ink in Frayed Burlap. The inside sentiment came from my Hallmark card program. This went together rather quickly and now I can't wait to make the one for my SS.

Yoga Card Set

2010-04-14T00:00:00.004-04:00

Post my yoga cards before I send up them to my Yoga instructor and then I'm going to work on my SCS DIVAS Secret Sister challenge. This card was easy to make and I really enjoyed doing the paper piecing technique on the image. I made six cards and I did something different with the image on each one. I paper pieced the background, mat, shirt, or pants. The patterned paper is 2-sided and it is from the Basic Grey Marrakesh line. I alternated stamping on both sides of the paper a couple of times and then cut them out, laid out the images I stamped on white cardstock and then played around with the pieces and I almost felt like when I was a kid playing with my Colorforms (who else is old enough to remember coloroforms.) I put the link for a reference to you younguns who may not know what they are but I think I even remember my kids playing with them when they were younger. THe yoga cards were made with MFT Serenity Now set and the Basic Grey paper. I also used Basic Black cardstock, and some various green and orange card scraps to frame the image. Some I used a border punch and tag punches. I also used metal dots and on the distressed solid BG paper, I stamped Sm. Flourish Three stamp by Impression Obsession.

CCEE014 Challenge Card - Silhouettes

2010-04-10T00:00:00.003-04:00

Made for this week's CCEE Stampers Challenge . This is my first time participating in their challenge. It just so happens that the inspiration for using the bird punch-out behind the vellum was this card I saw on SCS by Jami. I bought the SCS two-step bird punch and then wondered, okay what do I do with it and so I perused the SU gallery for cards using the bird. When I saw Jami's card, I mentally slapped myself in the forehead (a la "I could have had a V8) and thought, why didn't I think of that. The both patterned papers are from a pack of 12x12 paper that I bought from Close to My Heart and oddly enough is called Silhouette. The frame is cut using a CB die, Damask Duo. SU gray card stock was used to punch the bird and branches as it gave a softer look behind the vellum. I stamped the sentiment from SU's Best Yet set on the velum and added black "pearl" stickers to highlight it. I also added white "pearl" stickers to the points on the frame.

Vintage Image Violets

2010-04-08T01:46:00.004-04:00

This is the second card I made for the SCS DIVAS monthly challenge, which is to use a vintage image and make it 3D. This is an image from a downloadable collection from The Vintage Workshop. I printed the image twice on my color printer and then I trimmed out the flowers from one of the images and then applied it to the other with foam layering squares. Pima Flowers were added along with some purple rhinestones. I also had printed out another one of the images and cut out the flowers to put on the envelope. I tied a little sheer ribbon into a bow and adhered to the stems of the flowers as well. All the CS is Stampin Up. Of course I added stickles also to the flowers around the image panel. The light plum card stock was run through the CB with the Swiss Dots Embossing folder and a Marvy Ychida corner punch was used on it also.

Easter 2010 Projects and SCS DIVAS April Challenge

2010-04-04T01:56:00.010-04:00

Since I have fallen in love with vintage images especially the downloadable images from The Vintage Workshop, I jumped right on our DIVAS blog group April challenge Vicki is our hostess (Bountiful Blessings) this month and she suggested doing vintage for the challenge and the she upped the ante a little by making the images 3D. You print the picture twice and then cut out elements on one copy and place them on your other

printed image with foam layering dots or squares. See close up picture on the right, which illustrates this. On this card, I filled in the centers of the flowers and egg with Stardust Stickles. I left the background monochromatic because I didn't want to detract too much from the image. I just added the green border around the image so it would standout a little. The base of the card was embossed half way with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder and added a scrap that I punched with an SU border punch.

Of course, I couldn't stop with just one card using the vintage Easter images and the 3D Vintage technique, so below is another one I made. I had the Cuttlebug border embossing folder that I used down the left side of the card and then used a corner punch on the image panel, the red panel and the moss base. For some reason, I feel the need to add stickles to all these images.

The third project I did was to make a couple of 2-4-6-8 boxes. I wanted something little to hold a few meringue cookies I made that I just wanted to give as token gift to my mom and dad and my brother and SIL. I used vintage images that I got from Vintage Holiday Crafts. I did the 3D technique on these too by printing 2 copies of each image and then trimming out the birds and applying with foam squares. I wasn't able to cinch the tops of the boxes because I did not want to crush the cookies. The boxes are made with SU card stock and decorated with the vintage images, patterned paper from DCWV Garden Party Matstack, and Prima Flowers.

Lastly, I made another card with the The Vintage Workshop image that I did not do the 3D technique on and this little musical bunny image is so cute. I decided to pretty much let him stand by himself and used the tent topper design. I had some sheet music that I bought from my favorite LSS (Strawberry Fields) and beneath that is some metallic brown paper (the right half of the paper card reacted to the flash). I used SU Mellow Moss card stock for the base. A Nestabilities Labels 1 die was used on the sheet music.

I will be back later this week to post another Vintage 3D card I did as my DH needed a birthday card from one of his assistants at work.

Baseball Thanks

2010-03-31T01:17:00.001-04:00

I made this card for my son to thank a friend of my dad's for some baseball tickets to a spring training game here between the Boston Red Sox and the Minnesota Twins. The gentleman has season passes for the Spring Training games and he was not using them last Sunday so he gave them to my dad to take Steven. I used the vintage baseball images that I downloaded from The Vintage Workshop. I thought it would be nice to print them a little smaller and use a couple of them in triplicate. I was inspired by this week's Splitcoaststampers Clean and Simple Challenge that consisted of a sketch challenge this week. I punched the images out with my SU 1-1/4 punch and matted them on black punched out with the 1-3/8 punch. The SU corner punch was used on the teal card stock and I used a EK Success Border punch on a scrap of alcohol inked cardstock. All the cardstock is SU (Basic Black, Tempting Turquoise, Crushed Curry) On the yellow cardstock, I stippled on some Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Black Soot. I don't know if this qualifies as clean and simple but since it is a masculine card and will be mailed, I left off any dimensional embellishments. I am glad I got to steal a little time away from working to make a card. I hope to make a couple more tomorrow night.

Celebrate Bowling

2010-03-16T01:54:00.004-04:00

This is a double, double card. The card is for my cousin whose bowling team came in first place in their league at the end of the season and also it is his birthday. So I can use 1 card for to celebrate both his milestones. The second double is that it is a SCS double challenge card. It is for this week's Technique Lover's Challenge (TLC) which was to make your own designer paper (DP). The second challenge is the Clean and Simple (CAS) Challenge, which was a color challenge this week and that was to use green and brown.

For the TLC challenge, I made my DP by finally using a couple of those big SU background stamps that I've had forever. I used Crosshatch and Linen. I added some stars on the green panel from an Autumn Leaves set. I also added Crosshatch to the brown panel as well.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Generic Ivory, SU Certainly Celery, Soft Suede

Stamps: Athletic Hands from Cornish Heritage Farms, Celebrate from SU All Year Cheer, and unknown You're #1, SU Background stamps Crosshatch and Linen, Stars from Autumn Leaves Hearts and Star set.

Accessories: Cuttlebug concectric star die, metal dot from Jo-Ann's.

March DIVAS Challenge Card

2010-03-13T01:02:00.008-05:00

This is my DIVAS March Challenge Card. Gina is the hostess this month and the challenge was to use something that has to do with books or reading. I used this stamp by Penny Black called Quill-Pen. I actually got this image to make up some cards for my brother who is a book editor and aspiring author. I think I will end up sending this one to him since it is rather masculine looking. I used my Basic Grey Tuxedo paper that I ordered directly from Basic Grey. I got the 12 x 12 collection this time instead of the 6x6 paper pads that I usually get. The paper in the collection is is mostly different black/white patterns but this set also comes with a few contrasting colors of the distressed paper. I ran the green panel through the Cuttlebug with the script embossing folder. I stamped the image on ivory card stock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored it slightly with Copic Ciao markers. I then made a mask with an extra image I stamped and then stamped over it with a small script stamp using Black Soot Distress Ink. I stamped it off twice before stamping it over the image. The Just a Note stamp is by Memory Box. I used black metal dots from Jo-Ann's for embellishment as well as ribbon and an oval clip from my old SU's Hodgepodge Hardware set.

Vintage Fashion Patterns Birthday Card

2010-03-07T23:43:00.011-05:00

You might have seen all this green and thought I made a St. Patrick's Day card. Well, I am on 1/8 Irish and I don't drink green beer so I am not usually inclined to make St. Patrick's Day cards but I did find this green in the Cosmo Cricket Material Girl paper appealing. It went perfect with this Fashion Pattern image I downloaded from The Vintage Workshop . The image already had the green coloring in it so I just went with it and used black as the accent color. I already had the green buttons in my stash. I brought up the image in Microsoft Publisher and made different sizes on the sheet. That is what is so cool about digitals. You can size them to suit your needs. I cut the lady on the right out closely and applied her to the image panel with foam dots.

I also cut a couple of the smaller images out and glued them onto the envelope and the inside of the card. This is for one of my weekly card group friends, Carole. Her birthday is Wednesday and she loves these vintage images. So I wanted to honor her by making her a card in her style. The sentiment is from the SU Best Yet set. I used Nestabilities Labels Seven for the image and the sentiment. SU scallop border punch was used on the strip on the left.

Supplies:

Cardstock: SU Basic Black, generic ivory.

Paper: Cosmo Cricket Material Girl 6x6 Mini Deck.

Stamps: SU Best Yet

Accessories/Tools: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities Labels Seven dies, SU Scallop border punch, Buttons, Ribbon, foam dots.

King of the Hill - Its Your Day Drew

2010-03-06T03:03:00.001-05:00

For my son's friend Drew. His birthday is Monday and he is a really special kid and I wanted to make him a special card. I used the King of the Hill image I bought last year fro Mo's Digital Pencil Too . I chose SU Chocolate Chip and Mellow Moss cardstock to go with it along with Basic Grey Archaic paper. I specifically got this paper to make cards for boys/men. This particular paper looked like rocks and I though went with the sand/dirt hill. I live in Florida so I was actually thinking sand but I guess it could be dirt too. The Mellow Moss panel is embossed with the Cuttlebug and CB Tiny Bubbles embossing folder. I colored the image with Copic Ciao markers and then did some reverse masking with an oval scrap to sponge on the color around the image. I wanted to give the boy an appearance of being in the spot light while he is on top of his hill. The sentiment is from an SU All Year Cheer set. The onside says:

On Your Birthday, You may feel extra special.
But, we think you are pretty special every day.
Happy Birthday

That is thanks to a sentiment that was inside Microsoft Publisher. It is another weekend and my boys (DH and DS) are going to Miami to watch a couple of baseball games between the Gators play the Canes. I will bask in my glory of card making, having lunch with a dear friend, and going to see Jersey Boys at the local performing arts all on Sunday with my Mom. I cannot wait to see the show. I hope you all enjoy your weekend and I will be back to post more cards from the weekend.

Supplies:

Images: King of the Hill from Mo's Digital Pencil Too.

Stamp: It's Your Day from SU's All Year Cheer set.

Cardstock: SU Chocolate Chip, Mellow Moss, generic white.

Paper: Basic Grey Archaic 6x6 paper pad

Tools/accessories: Cuttlebug and Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (Tiny Bubbles), Nestabilities Labels 2 dies,Copic Ciao Markers, sponge,

2010-03-03T03:08:00.004-05:00

Stayed up late tonight and participated in the Splitcoast Stampers sketch challenge. See sketch below and click HERE to see the gallery for the rest of the cards. As you can see, I turned the sketch on its side because I already had this image colored and ready to go on a card. I made this card for a neighbor who is having back surgery tomorrow. I chose this duck image from Clearly Delightful Digital because he is so cute. I chose the Basic Grey Picket Fence 2-sided paper because it is bright and cheery and hopefully the card will bring some cheer to my neighbor. I used rub on stitches to help delineate the different panels.

SUPPLIES:

Image: Clearly Delightful Digital.

Paper: SU White, YoYo Yellow, Basic Black, unknown name of Bazzill pink, designer paper is Basic Grey Picket Fence 2-sided paper.

Accessories: Pink rhinestone stickers, Prima flowers, rub-on stitches, Copic Ciao markers.

Razzleberry Congratulations Folded Paper Frame Card

2010-02-28T09:40:00.007-05:00

Don't forget to scroll down and see the other cards I made this weekend too. I just had to get them all uploaded before I start working. I loved this folded paper frame technique that I got from SCS so much that I had to try it again. I used it for my Easter card posted on February 16. I remembered that I had this Rich Razzleberry patterned paper and thought of giving it a try with the technique. I need a congratulations card and used the stamp from my new SU Well Scripted set. I stamped it with white ink and embossed it with white embossing powder (as you can tell from the stray powder all over the place). The flower image is my tried and true favorite flower stamp from SU from their Delight in Life set. I stamped it twice on a scrap of Rich Razzleberry in white ink and then embossed it with white embossing powder. Cut out one flower to fit inside the frame and then closely trimmed the other to layer over top for some dimension. I had also just picked up some new Prima Flowers from Strawberry Fields, my favorite local scrapbook store and saw that I had flower colors that went with the Razzleberry. I layered the smaller on the bigger flower and added a rhinestone sticker to the center.

SUPPLIES:

Cardstock and Paper: Rich Razzleberry from Stampin Up. Gerneric White.

Tools: Cuttlebug, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Nestabilities Scallop Square, Scor-Pal,

Accents: Prima Flowers, Rhinestone Sticker, Diamond Stickles, Dimension Dots.

SU Punch Bird

2010-02-27T22:28:00.008-05:00

This is my first card using the SU 2 step bird punch that I got from the mini catalog. I guess I went a little punch and die crazy on it but the distressed gray paper from the Basic Grey Ambrosia 6x6 paper pad was already cut out with the with the Nestabilities labels 1 die. I then ran it through the Cuttlebug with the CB Birds and Swirls embossing folder. I also chose the print paper to go with it. Then I used other distressed solid paper from the same pad of paper for the punched and die cut images. A pearl sticker was used for the eye. The branch was punched out with white paper and then I colored it with Copic Ciao markers. Not sure how happy I am with it but I think it is okay for my first card with the punch. I wanted to get it when I saw it in the catalog and then it got here and I was looking at thinking, "Okay, now what?" So, I perused the SCS gallery for inspiration for the bird punch.

Vintage Baseball Image Birthday Card

2010-02-27T22:17:00.006-05:00

I made this for a cousin who is a huge baseball fan. It is made with a vintage image that I downloaded from the Vintage Workshop. I chose SU Basic Grey and Basic Grey Ambrosia collection paper from a 6 x 6 pad. I used the Top Note Die as well for the background. The bottom portion of the card is embossed using the CB Argyle embossing folder. The sentiment is computer generated. The full sentiment says:

Whatever will bring a smile to you,

Whatever is most worthwhile to you...

that's what you're wished today.

Happy Birthday.

Thank goodness for my Hallmark Card program for help with the sentiments for my cards.

2010-02-21T11:38:00.010-05:00

Had some quiet time yesterday to make some cards. This is my favorite one I made utilizing the Basic Grey paper from their june bug collection. This came from a 12 x 12 two-sided called Picket Fence. This is the more subdued side. The other side is the bright yellow with pinks and black. I used this paper on my folded paper frame Easter card in my post on February 16. I like this side and wanted to use it on a card. I paired it with a coordinating piece of Bazzill cardstock that I ran through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots embossing folder. The layout of the images were inspired by this week's S CS268 sketch ch allenge. The image is Large Daisy Patch from Cornish Heritage Farms. Even though the name of hte stamp is "Large" Daisy Patch, it reall yis a small stamp. I just had to laugh when I got it because when I ordered it I thought the stamp was much bigger (I don't have a good sense of relating an image to size and do not tend to read all the details). I guess "Large" is a subjective adjective. Anyway, I got this stamp a while ago and it is the first time I inked it up. I also used my new SU border punch that I got from the Sale-a-Bration catalog. The SU Word Window punch was used for the sentiment.

This is the second card I made. I went a little different direction and used the other side of the BG june bug paper. I used a Cuttlebug design element die and put some black underneath it with a rhinestone sticker in the center. I should stick to designs that don't require a straight placement as I have a hard time with that. The paper sticks and pretty much has to stay where it is because I can't pull it back up to reposition it. so my dies are not exactly straight nor are my dots. But that is what makes it handcrafted I guess. I put score lines on the white using my Scor-Pal and then layered on the SU Basic Black, YoYo Yellow and the Bazzill pink. So that is it for this weekend. I'll see if I can come up with soem time to work on more cards tonight. I need to make a couple of male birthday cards to send out this week. Have a great Sunday everyone.

Happy Easter Folded Paper Frame Card

2010-02-16T09:30:00.001-05:00

I saw this technique by Beate Johns on Splitcoaststampers.com and just had to give it a try. It is called Folded Paper Frame technique . I am going to share it with my friends when I host our weekly card group next Thursday night. This is the card I made for the sample. The image and sentiment stamps are by Cornish Heritage farms. I colored the image with Copic Ciao markers and added some Liquid Pearls to the dots on the egg. It did not photograph well, but i also used a Spica glitter pen on some of the designs on the egg. This is a really fun project and since some of us in the card group started getting the Scor-Pal, I thought it would be fun for us to do another project using it. You can obviously do the technique without the Scor-Pal and Beate shows you how to do that in her tutorial. You can check out other cards made with this technique in the SCS Folded Paper Frame Gallery
I think this will be my DD's Easter card and I am going to try one with another one a little more masculine for my son.

Supplies
Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms An Egg For You and Happy Easter Script.
Designer Paper: Basic Grey Junebug collection (12 x 12 sheet)
Punches: SU Key Tag and Modern Label
Dies: Spellbinders Nestabilities Scallop Square
Embosisng Folders: Cuttlebug Swiss Dots
Embellishments: Prima Flowers Summer #1, and Liquid Pearls Petal Pink

To My Love Valentine Card

2010-02-14T17:05:00.001-05:00

This is the Valentine card I made for my husband. I used an image that I downloaded from The Vintage Worskhop . It was part of a collection. I changed the image to black and white within Microsoft Publisher and printed it on velum. I then used my Copic Ciao markers and colored the image on the back side. I used my long scallop rectangle Nestabilities die as a frame and Nestabilities heart die cuts for embellishment. I used a Spica glitter pen to highlight some things on the image. The blue paper is Bazzill and the pink is SU Pretty in Pink and Black is SU Basic Black. I messed up a little with my dots but I guess that is what makes it look homemade. I just love these vintage digital images. They were having a sale on the collections this weekend and I purchased some more today including and Easter Collection, Birthday Collection, Baseball, and Fashion Patterns. If I get any more of them, I am going to have to change the name of my blog to Digital Image Therapy ...hee hee. I'll try to get some stamping in this week as I have to come up with a project for my weekly card group as I am hosting next week.

For Valentine's day, my sweetie sent me flowers and took me out for an early dinner today. I also went shopping at my favorite local scrapbook store Strawberry Fields, where I visited with shop owner, Pam and purchased some some fabulous paper and embellishments. I got to open a piece of chocolate to see what I would save on my purchase and my piece had 10% on it. I was happy with that. I also made a quick stop at Michael's to use my 50% off coupon, where I got some ribbon ($1 clearance rolls), a CB embossing folder, and a ribbon storage unit. I used the coupon on the ribbon storage. It was only $9.99 so I got it for $5. I am going to see how it works and then go back to get a few more if I like it. All my ribbon right now is in a jumble in a couple of storage bins. I should be good for supplies for a while. Until I see somebody else's card on their blog with something else that I just absolutely have to have.

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine holiday with your sweetie.

Friends 50th Birthday

2010-02-08T08:41:00.006-05:00

Happy Monday! Here is a card I made over the weekend for a couple I know who are celebrating their 50th birthdays this month. I made them one card with this great stamp I have. I'm so happy to use it again and to use it for something other than an Anniversary card. I got it second hand years ago from a friend who was cleaning out her stamps. It is called Couch Couple by Diamonds. I colored the image with Copics and then used Memento London fog ink to sponge around it. The paper is Basic Grey's Ambrosia collection. I designed the circle sentiment on my computer with the word art in MS Publisher.

Supply List
Stamps: Couch Couple by Diamonds
Ink: Brilliance Black Graphite (embossed with clear embossing powder).
Paper and Cardstock: SU Basic Gray (for base), Basic Grey Ambrosia 6x6 paper pad.
Tools: Cuttlebug, Lables One, circle and scallop circle Spellbinder Nestabilities Dies.
Accessories: Rhinestone Stickers.

Love Is All You Need...Feb. Diva Challenge Card

2010-02-06T12:58:00.001-05:00

The February DIVAS Challenge hostess this month is Annie. Her blog is Stamping with Annie B. The challenge is a sketch challenge (see picture of sketch below). I used Basic Grey Bittersweet paper and the corner stickers from the Basic Grey Bittersweet element stickers that I got from Julie (Specal Craft Mom). Julie has an online store called Scrapbook Store to your Door. Besides shopping at my favorite local scrapbook store, Strawberry Fields for beautiful things to make cards with, I like spending time on Julie's site also. I also belong to Julie's Monthly Copic club as I thought it would be a fun way to collect my favorite markers and support a DIVA sistah as well.

The words were generated on my computer. You can tell from my picture that my Stickles are still wet. I love using Stickles but I am never patient enough to let it dry before I take a picture. I am always so starved for time that I try to cram as much as I can from making the card to taking the picture and posting it. I don't know what my hurry is but now I have to clean up and move on to other things. I usually start the day with the cleaning and the housework and then get frustrated if I don't have time to make a card or I am too tired to make a card. I took advantage of the fact that my husband and so are gone for baseball until this evening so I thought I would mix it up and start with the card and then move into the other stuff. This way if I'm too tired for the housework or my transcription work, then it won't matter...right?

For all of you who love blog candy...scroll down below the supply list for links to some blog candy. I also have the posted on my side bar. of course, you shouldn't bother entering because I'm going to win them all anyway...bawhaahaha .

Suppplies:
Cardstock and Paper: SU Chocolate Chip, Basic Grey Bittersweet 6x6 pad.
Accessories: Basic Grey Bittersweet Element stickers, Recollections pearl stickers, Diamond Stickles, computer generated words
Tools: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities Dies (Scallop circle, circle, and hearts).

BLOG CANDY OPPORTUNITIES By the way, follow the links below or on my sidebar to see some great
opportunities to win some blog candy from other bloggers. Jacque's Joie De Vivre , Rosette's Crafting World , Kelley's Kreations

Make Lemondade

2010-02-06T00:04:00.013-05:00

This is similar to my Make Margaritas card. I stamped and colored it the same I made the margarita card because I wanted to use the other stamps in this Taylored Expressions' Chillax set. Not all my family and friends drink so now I have a card that would more appropriate for them. I also thought the lemonade card would be good if I needed an encouragement card for one of my kids or one of their friends.

High school softball season has started and Little League season officially starts here at the end of the month. Baseball/softball season is a glorious time. I enjoy being a "diamond" mom. It is always a good time to watch my kids play and socialize with the other parents.

Have a great weekend!

Diamonds are a girl's best friend...

mine just happened to be covered in clay.

SUPPLIES
Cardstock: SU Whisper white.
Paper: Basic Grey "Lime Rickey"
Tools/Accessories: Copic Ciao markers, EK border punch, Diamond Stickles.

BLOG CANDY OPPORTUNITIES
By the way, follow the links below or on my sidebar to see some great

opportunities to win some blog candy from other bloggers.
Jacque's Joie De Vivre , Rosette's Crafting World , Kelley's Kreations

When Life Gives you Limes...

2010-02-03T00:14:00.002-05:00

For the SCS CAS challenge CAS52. It was a sketch challenge this week and I worked on it last night and finished it tonight. That's the only pockets of time I have been having lately. I'm actually supposed to be working right now to get a head for tomorrow but I'm doing this. Priorities. After I did this, I started doing some research on getting good results with Copic Ciao markers and realized I used the wrong paper and the wrong ink. I had used my Copics before obviously with some good results but I am not happy with the results of the coloring I did so I researched it and found out why. Normally, I do stamp the image with Brilliance Black Graphite and emboss them with clear embossing powder. I did not have time to do that last night and just stamped with Black StazOn. Well that was a mistake. The black was smearing. Then I read in the SCS forums on Copic FAQs that SU Whisper White is not good for coloring with Copics. Well, now I know why. I probably will try this card again in the future and will probably not use the Stickles across the edge of the patterned paper and will make sure I have the card stock with the embossed line on the right side. Wow, I was just a mess last night. I don't even know why I'm posting this card. I want a redo. Well, it is getting late and I should try to get a little work done.

Have I Toad You...

2010-01-27T18:15:00.001-05:00

Making cards for my 11-year-old son is a challenge so when faced with making him a Valentine card, I decided to go a little cutesy and chose the frog stamp and sentiment stamp from the SU Unfrogettable set. I have had this set forever and have not used it in quite a while. I used a couple of sheets from a 6x6 Basic Grey Archaic paper pad to paper piece the frog as well as die cut the hearts. This is also made for the SCS CAS51 (CAS means Clean and Simple) challenge which was to use DP on your card. Click on the challenge name to see the challenge gallery. Of course, I also had to dig out the googlie eyes. The base of the card is SU Sahara Sand.

Scallops and Buttons

2010-01-22T00:55:00.003-05:00

I will be away this weekend so I thought I better get my card uploaded tonight. Steven has a baseball tournament in Tampa so we are leaving Saturday morning, which means Friday will be a mad rush to finish up my work, get the grocery store for things to pack in the cooler, finish up some laundry and pack.

This is another card I made with one of my downloaded vintage images from the Vintage Emporium. I used the Fiskars single scallop border punch to create the layered scallops at the top. Tore the sheet music, which was also downloaded, and aged it a little bit with some distressing ink. I used my SU tag corner punch on the image panel layers and punched the hole for the ribbon. I just picked up a package of the red heart buttons at Michael's last week. I threaded the ribbon through them also.

SUPPLIES:
Cardstock: SU Real Read and Basic Black, and office supply store ivory.

Image: Downloadable image.

Tools. Fiskars Single Scallop Border Punch, SU Ticket Corner Punch.

Embellishments: Ribbon, heart buttons

Bicycle Smile Sew Faux Card

2010-01-18T17:37:00.000-05:00

This card was made specifically for the SCS Design DIVA Sistahs challenge. Cindy (Luciesfloozies) was the host for our January Challenge. She suggested using sewing or faux sewing. Well since my sewing machine is buried in the back of my closet, is cumbersome to pull out and use just on a card, I resorted faux sewing. First. I used an CB embossing folder that looks like stitching and embossed the left edge of the card near the fold. Then after I layered the image I used rub-on stitches and then used a paper piercer to make it look like actual stitches. I don't think I'll fool anywone but it was fun and does add a little something to the card. The flower tag is made with a cuttle bug dye and you can tell my Stickles is not dry yet but I had to finish this project and get it posted before my few moments of quite time are interrupted. The paper on the outside and inside and for the flower is from a Basic Grey "Infuse" 6x6 paper pad. The size of this card is a 5x5 square and I punched the right side with the single Fiskars Scallop punch. I have been having a ball buying the punches at Michaels or A.C. Moore with either my coupons or when they are on sale for 40% off. I have quite a growing collection. Nestabilities Labels 1 were also used for the image and the DP panel.

SUPPLIES:
STAMPS: Bicycle from SU Lifecycles set, Smile from SU Fancy Flexible Phrases, Background flowers from SU Reason to Smile set.
Paper: SU Soft Suede, Whisper White and DP Basic Grey "Infuse" collection.
Tools: Fiskars Single Scallop Punch, CB Embossing Folder (stitches), CB flowers die, Nestabilities Labels 1,
Accessories: Rub-on Stitches, Stickles.

Vintage Valentines

2010-01-15T17:39:00.012-05:00

These are my first attempts at some vintage cards. I have enjoyed the work of two of my D.I.VA. sisters utilizing vintage images. Their creations have inspired me. I saw a link to The Vintage Workshop on Dru's blog Garden of Dreams . Dru was my Secret Sister recently and she sent me a beautiful card using a vintage image. Her style is just lovely and I enjoy visiting her blog. On Julie's blog My Little Scrap Shop I saw some wonderful Christmas cards that Julie created using the sheet music as background. I just had to try the style out for myself. I have a lot to learn but I love challenging myself to try something new. Speaking of Vintage, did you see my profile picture in the sidebar. That is circa 1983...

I purchased the downloadable collection of Valentine of images and sheet music from the Vintage Workshop. Sized the images and printed them out on generic ivory paper. The frames around the images were created with a Damask Frame Cuttlebug Card duo (It came with the embossing folder and die). It cut the wide frame as well as well as the oval frame with flourish. I ran the SU Ruby Red card stock through the CB with the Damask embossing folder and then ran the embossed cardstock through with the die and I had these great embossed pieces to work with. I layered the little boy image on gold card stock and then the oval frame with the flourish over him. The wide frame was then layered over the little boy and girl image on top of the sheet music image. I added the gold bead stickers on the corners and added stickles all around both cards because I like all things glittery for some reason. Going to play around a little more hopefully later this weekend but first I have to get some organizing and cleaning out done in both the office/craft room and my closet. My closet is a disaster and now that I'm losing weight, I have to dig in the back to find some of my smaller clothes that I held on to. And that's a good thing.

SUPPLIES
Cardstock: SU Basic Black, SU Ruby Red, generic ivory and gold.
Tools: Cuttlebug and Cuttlebug die and embossing folder.
Accessories: Crystal Stickles, gold bead stickers.

Embossed For You With love

2010-01-13T09:50:00.001-05:00

I finally stole some time to post a card I made the other night. Work has gotten so busy after the holidays, I have not hardly had time to create let alone spend time on my blog. However, I got this wonderful technique from page 54 of the January 2010 Cardmaker magazine. Sharon Reihnart was the designer of the card on that page and she had done the alcohol ink technique on glossy cardstock and then embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I loved the idea so much that I just had to try it. I used my pouncer and applied the alcohol inks to the felt pad, and added a little blending solution and then pounced it lightly on the card stock trying to let a little white show through. It is one of my favorite techniques and embossing is another great way to use it on a card so I am going to share it with my friends when they come over tomorrow night for our card night. I have to go get some more of the Blue Bazzill Bling card stock so I have enough for everyone but had enough to make my sample. The pink is Melon Mambo from the SU In Color selection. The sentiment is from the SU set Riveting. I stamped a scrap cut off the embossed card stock and stamped over it and then punched it out. I love adding the rhinestone stickers to the CB images. It really turns something simple into something else.

RECEPIE
Paper: Bazzill Bling Crystal Blue, SU Melon Mambo Glossy White
Alcohol Inks: Cranberry, Stream
Tools: Cuttlebug and CB Embossing Folder, circle punches.
Embellishments: Rhinestone stickers, ribbon.

Simple Cards...somewhat.

2010-01-06T22:27:00.004-05:00

I made some simple cards because I need to stock up on birthday cards. The one to the left features a stamp from a set by Taylored Expressions called Chillax. This one has a story. It was going to be a CAS card on a white base. You can see I stamped the Cheers on the white. I had everything up to the plain scallop border on a white base and messed up the base. So as not to lose what I had already done, I cut from the spotted paper down and attached it to a Kraft base. I then added the plain scallop border over the dotted paper then added the middle strip and the top lacy scallop to finish it off. I don't think it looks too bad in the end but such drama for a "simple card." The image was stamped, colored and trimmed it out with the scallop oval Nesties after I adheared it to the card, I added CTMH Liquid Glass to the glass and Crystal Stickles to the umbrella. The paper is Basic Gray from a 6x6 pad of Nook and Pantry paper. The little flower was cut with a Cuttlebug flower die with a scrap of the dotted paper. The dotted strip was cut from the Basic Grey pad.

The card on the right went together a little more quickly. The flowers are from a Close To My Heart set and I stamped the stems and flowers and sentiment and then added the paper. Buttons were adhered to the center of the flowers and the little ribbon into a bow and glued it on the stems.

My next big project is that I am hosting our weekly card group next week and have to come up with a couple of projects and put together the kits to make the cards. I think we may do the flower card as it was really simple and will go quickly and then we can do a couple of others. I'm thinking one valentine card and one male card. The set from Taylored expressions comes with a beer mug so that may be good for a male card and I just got in an order of supplies and got Heart shaped Nesties and some new CB embossing folders.

Mojo Monday Contest Card

2010-01-05T01:48:00.003-05:00

Made this for Mojo Monday contest. My first one. I was dying to ink up a new little clear set by The Paper Company that I have had for a while and not used yet. It is called Coffee Cafe. I just picked this Basic Grey paper because it is from their Nook and Pantry collection and I though the brown would go well with the theme. The flower colors were a littel hard to match but I ended up using SU Blush Blossom and thank good ness I had a little Dusty Durango left to finish the job. Circles and scallop circles are cut with the Nestabilities dies. The square panel was cut and then ran through the CB with the Swiss Dots embossing folder. The decorative border is a punch by SU. The ribbon is what took me a lot of time to find the right sized ribbon and color. It was not easy because I couldn't find the right size and colorI was looking for but I guess the brown goes okay. It is late and I need to get to bed. I have some other quick little cards to upload but I will do tomorrow night. Come back and see those.

Sympathy Cards

2009-12-30T10:58:00.017-05:00

I started with this week's Mojo Monday sketch and SCS color challenge colors as my starting point for these cards. As my DH needed some sympathy cards for his office to send out, I thought I would make some and a couple for myself. These are a few of the variations I made. The larger picture above is the one I made for to submit for the Mojo Monday sketch.

The one with the gray is for the SCS color challenge (CC251 - SU Dusty Durango, Basic Gray Barely Banana). Click on the challenge name to see other cards made with the color combination. The image and sentiment panels were sponged with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Black Soot.

After doing the Gray embossed panel, which was okay, I switched to the Soft Suede for the embossed panel, which I like better.

On those cards the image panel and the sentiment panel are sponged with the Distress Ink in Frayed Burlap.

All the images were stamped with Timber Brown StazOn and colored with Copic Ciao markers. The butterflies were trimmed closely and adhered with foam squares. I used a marker to make the dots on the image and sentiment panels.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Barely Banana, Basic Grey, Soft Suede, and Dusty Durango

Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms August Stamp of the Month

Ink: Timber Brown StazOn, Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Black Soot (on gray card) and Frayed Burlap (on Soft suede cards)

Tools: Cuttlebug, CB Textile embossing folder, Nestabilities Dies, Markers

Embellishments: Ribbon, Crystal Stickles, foam squares

With Gratitude Topiary

2009-12-28T15:04:00.000-05:00

This card features a set I got from the Little Paper Shop. I like the long format of the image and it fit nicely with the long rectangle Nestabilities that I have and have not used a lot. I stamped the image with Brilliance Graphite black and then embossed it with clear embossing powder so I can keep the definition of the leaves when I colored them using Copic Ciao markers. The DP is from a 6x6 pad of Basic Grey Origins. It was nice to work with the bright colors. I kept this simple because I made 9 of them to share some with my husband for him to send out for his business. I just scallop punched the top and bottom edges of the DP on this one. Christmas is over but I hope to keep making cards throughout the year so I'm not so bogged down with them. I have some birthday cards to make also so hopefully I can get to those over the long New Year Holiday weekend.

Happy New Year

Cindy

CB Flourish Frame Christmas Card

2009-12-23T21:03:00.005-05:00

Last minute Christmas cards. I have the whole year to make Christmas cards and I'm still scrambling to make more at the last minute. This one is one I made with the CB Flourish Frame Embossing Folder. I have loved cards made by my blogger sister and DIVA sister Dru made with the folder. Her blog is Garden of Dreams and her Warmest Wishes card is an example of her beautiful work using the folder. I was thrilled that my friend Sue had the folder and loaned it to me. This is the first card I came up using it. I plan on making a couple more before I bring the folder back to her. The sentiment is from Digments and I sized it and printed it out, trimmed it to fit and distressed it a little with Tim Holtz Distressing Ink in Frayed Burlap. I stamped the pine bough stamp from my SU Holiday Hedgehog set and put it on a SU Brushed Gold rectangle. I added the gold bead stickers and ribbon. Very quick and easy. I really like the SU Handsome Hunter card stock. It looks so rich embossed with the gold accents.

Dachshund Card and Tile Gift

2009-12-21T22:15:00.003-05:00

My neighbors have an adorable little Dacshund named Lucy. When I got this Lil Gal set from Cornish Heritage Farms, I just had to make them a card and tile with it. The tile is made with the alcohol inks on a glazed ceramic tile I got from Lowes. I stamped the dog, butterfly and "smile" (from SU Wonderful Words set) with Jet Black StazOn. I then filled in the butterfly with some pink Stickles. I added the rhinestone stickers and ribbon. The card is made with SU Purely Pomegranate paper, SU Whisper White, Sentiment from a Sentiment and Holly Stamp from Christmas Wishes set from Little Paper Shop. I Embossed the white with the CB snowflakes embossing folder and cut out the dog panel and pomegranate panel with the CB and Nestabilities dies. Added diamond Stickles to the snow flakes and burgundy Stickles to the holly berries. Of course, I had to add the rhinestone stickers to the sentiment panel. I love those things. I'm into bling this season. Can you tell?
Merry Christmas to all my friends. Hope you all have a warm and wonderful holiday with your family.

Axelent Christmas

2009-12-15T18:41:00.006-05:00

I'm am amending my original post because I gave the original a makeover. I made a new horizontal panel. I discovered my small CB embossing folder so decided to use that instead. I also added Diamond Stickles. For the CB panel, I embossed white chard stock and used VersaMagic Agean Blue directly on the cardstock to give it color and added Stickles. The picture above is the new version and the smaller one to the left is the original version. See original of post below for info and let me know what you think of the change.

This is another great digital image and sentiment that I got from Whimsiedoodles I used paper from the Basic Grey Eskimo Kiss collection. I like the softness of the colors with the image and that they are nontraditional Christmas colors. The image is colored with Copic Markers and the blades are colored with a Gelly Roll Glitter pen. The image and sentiment are cut out with Nestabilities dies and little rhinestone stickers and a flower with a rhinestone in the center were added for embellishment. I have lots of Christmas items to make yet so I will try to get to them as I can. It is not like I didn't know Christmas was coming for the last 11 months. My New Year's resolution will be to make at least 2-3 Christmas cards a month. So I will have a nice stash by December. Well that, and to be more organized...oh yeah, and to lose weight. {{Sigh!}}

Figure Skater Gift Tag

2009-12-15T10:44:00.003-05:00

Found a package of great die cut gift tags at a local wholesale warehouse club and just loved them. Naturally, when you are a crafter you just can't leave well enough alone. I added this Whimsiedoodle image and sentiment to the die cut skate tag. Sized her and printed her out and then colored her with Copic Ciao Markers. The Go Figure was cut out using a CB tag die. Sorry for the blurry picture but DH was helping wrap gifts (I know, he is a sweetheart) and already put the tag on the gift before I had a chance to "alter" it. So I had to alter it and take the picture while it was on the package. This is for my SIL the former figure skater and current figure skating choreographer. This is my first Whimsiedoodle digital design that I purchased. I was so happy to see they had a couple of different ice skating themed designs. I printed some more of the Ice Skater girl to make some note cards for SIL.

Gift Envelopes

2009-12-11T07:23:00.005-05:00

I repurposed these large 9 x 6 (approximate size) envelopes into "gift envelopes." Our weekly Thursday night card group had our gift exchange dinner last night. I made these envelopes to hold my gifts to my friends, which were clear stamp sets I ordered from the Little Paper Shop. The images used on the envelope are from KLMdigitstamps.com. The sentiments are by Digiments. The patterned paper is Basic Grey and the cardstock is plain white and SU Purely Pomegranate. On the embossed envelopes, I ran the envelope through the Cuttlebug with the embossing folder placed on one side and then ran it through the other side. That left a gap in the middle, which is covered by the paper. These were a lot of fun and made a nice presentation. I also used a couple of different border punches that I got at Michael's. Naturally, stickles in a couple of colors was used to add a little sparkle.

KLM Digital Design Christmas Moose -- Gift Tag and Card

2009-12-08T01:16:00.003-05:00

Well, I liked one of my D.I.V.A sistah's torn paper snow technique so much that I CASED it again and I used it again on a card this time as well as another gift tag. Thanks again for the inspiration Gina (Making and Musings). I made a couple of tags with the KLM Digital Designs Girl Elf and Boy Elf images on November 30 and wanted to try it for the KLM Digital Designs Christmas Moose image. I made the tag and card for my daughter. The moose was printed in a couple of different sizes and colored with Copic Ciao markers. The snow is made by tearing paper and layering it to look like snow. This is white dotted swiss paper that I found at Office Depot. It is actually report cover stock and was on clearance so I grabbed a couple of packs. This was before I got my Cuttlebug and dotted swiss embossing folder so I thought it was really cool at the time. I just came across it again and thought it would be great for the technique. I of course also added Diamond Stickles to the snow drifts as well as Frosted Lace Stickles for the snow that grounds the moose. The tag is a package of Avery tags that I got at Office Depot also. The card is made with SU Kraft and Garden Green cardstock. I also chose Digiments for the sentiments on both the tag and the card. I used Nestabilities dies to cut trim the sentiments. Nestabilities Labels Six is used on the card and Labels Seven for the tag. I also did some sponging with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Frayed Burlap.

Silver and Gold On Angel's Wings

2009-12-04T02:26:00.001-05:00

Made this card to go with the Angel tile I made as a gift for some friends of ours. I did the alcohol background technique called Polished stone on white glossy paper with Tim Holtz Adirondack metallic alcohol inks and then stamped the Angel from SU's On Angel's Wings set on it in Jet Black StazOn. The "Joy" is also from an SU Set. I used my new labels six Nestabilities dies to frame the image and Cuttlebug swirls embossing folder. I was out of gold after making 50 invitations and using gold gold cardstock two weeks ago and the embossed scrap was the only piece of gold I had left The CS is SU also Brushed Gold and Brushed Silver as well as Going Gray. I added gold bead stickers also. This look is is very different for me as I don't normally use Silver and gold so it was a little difficult.