Monday, December 29, 2008

Birthday wishes card folder

A couple of months ago, my stamping friend, fellow Krafty Kat and Stampin' UP! upline, Miriam, showed me some card folders she had made, each containing matching cards and envelopes. I thought they were such a cute idea and that they would make wonderful Christmas gifts.

I had the great notion that I could make them themed - one for birthday cards, one for thank you cards, one for thinking of you cards, etc. Well, being the procrastinator that I am, when I finally got started on them, I quickly realized I was going to be lucky to get one folder set done for each person on my list, so there went that idea!

Over the next few posts, I'll show you all the ones I did, starting with the first one I made, when I still thought I'd be doing them by category. It contains four birthday cards, each with the same sentiment.

The first picture shows the folder cover. The ribbon goes through the folder to hold the cards in place, as shown in the next photo, and is tied with a bow to keep it closed up.

This is the open folder with the four cards held in place by the ribbon.

I stamped the focal image from each card on its coordinating envelope. I also decorated the inside of each card with strips of the patterned paper and card stock, but I won't bore you with all of those photos!

For each card there is the matted focal image, the matted patterned paper and the stamped sentiment, but each one is laid out a bit differently, using different Nestability dies.

All of the images were colored with Copic markers and each one was airbrushed while still in its Nestability die to give it a nice background and add the appearance of an additional mat. I was trying to keep them from being too thick so they would fit into the folders better. I did end up revising the folder template that Miriam had given me to deepen the spine and the pockets.

This was a fun project and I really liked how this whole set turned out. I only had one sheet of that beautiful patterned paper, so I'm not sure I will be able to duplicate these cards, but I will be able to create 'refill' cards using the same color scheme once these run out. Assuming the recipient liked them and lets me know when they have been used up, of course!

Card details:
Patterned paper: K&Company Ancestry.com Teal Floral & Newsprint Flat Paper
Card stock: Prism Island Mist Medium and Dark; Papertrey Ink Kraft
Stamps: Stampin' UP! Flores Suaves and Bloomin' Beautiful; Papertrey Ink Butterfly Kisses (sentiment)
Inks: Adirondack Mushroom, Stampin' UP! Baja Breeze
Misc.: Copic Markers (W1,E31, E37,E55,E57,G94,G29,G82,Y38,BG10,BG15,BG72); brads; Nestabilities

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!


This is the Christmas card I sent out this year. All the products are from Stampin' UP!, except for the Cuttlebug embossing folder, the pearls and the rhinestone. It was a fun card to make, but it turned out to be a lot of work to make 50 of them!

Tim's got the coffee made and some raucous Brian Setzer Orchestra Christmas music playing so I'm off to wrap the last two gifts and start my Christmas day!

Hope you have a very merry Christmas and enjoy spending time with your loved ones!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Birthday wishes

OK, I'm running out of things to post....I'm trying to keep the holiday theme going, but I don't have any other holiday cards to share....until I post my Christmas card tomorrow. So here is a birthday card, with holiday colors, that I made earlier this month.

I made this card using the SC205 sketch from Splitcoast Stampers. The patterned paper is all from the BasicGrey Wassail 6x6 pad. The three packages image is from Lockhart Stamp Company - I thought it was a perfect image for the patterned paper with the packages. I colored it with Copic markers to match the paper. I used my colorless blender to make the dots in the background.

Another simple card, but I liked the color scheme and thought it was perfect for a December birthday. This could have just as easily been a Christmas card, if I'd used a different sentiment, of course.

Hope you're having a good week and that you are ready for the big guy in the red suit ;-) I still have a little gift wrapping to do, and one more gift to make and then I'm done and ready to enjoy the long weekend!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Card details:
Patterned paper: BasicGrey Wassail
Card stock: Papertrey Ink Kraft
Stamps: Lockhart Stamp Company Itty Bitty Three Packages; Papertrey Ink Butterfly Kisses (sentiment)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Misc.: Copic Markers; brads; Nestabilities

Monday, December 22, 2008

Christmas Wishes

I'm a bit strapped for things to post at the moment since I've been working on Christmas gifts and Christmas cards exclusively for the last couple of weeks and can't post those just yet. I'll have a lot to share after Christmas! I'm happy to say that I am finished with all of it and now just have a few little things to wrap up and put under the tree.

This is a quick card I made a while ago, but never posted. There's not much to it - the Santa was punched from the same paper I used for this card. I cut the two mat layers using my Nestabilities. I tied the satin ribbon around the flourish patterned background paper and added a bow above the circles - it looks a bit like a Christmas ornament, I think.

Thanks for looking and I hope you have a great day!

Card details:
Patterned paper: Glitz Design - Kringle Santa and Kringle Flourish
Card stock: Stampin' UP!; Stardreams stationery
Stamp: Amuse Artstamps
Ink: Stampin' UP!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Winter bird

As soon as I saw the Winter Birds set from Inkadinkado, I had to have it - I think these birds are gorgeous and just wish I had been able to do more with them this season.

This is a I card I made to take to my massage therapist a couple of weeks ago for her to sell at her spa . Except for the bird stamp, everything on the card is from Stampin' UP!. The card is pretty self explanatory and not complicated, but I like the color combination.

I'm making progress on all my Christmas preparations, but still have more to do than I'd like. Today I am planning to gift wrap and pack up all the boxes for mailing, then it's back to the Christmas cards....

Hope your week is going well!

Card details:
Patterned paper: Stampin' UP! Ski Slope
Card stock: Stampin' UP! Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red
Stamp: Inkadinkado
Ink: Stampin' UP! Baja Breeze
Ribbon: Stampin' UP! Riding Hood Red

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Merry Christmas dear friend....again...

Here's a quick little Christmas card I made using some coordinating papers from Frances Meyer and the Merry Christmas dear friend stamp I used on a previous card. The ribbon is from Stampin' UP!.

I'm still way behind on all my Christmas preparations, so I'm taking some time off from work this week to get finished up in time to put everything in the mail. Hope you're in better shape for your Christmas preparations than I am!

Sorry, this is just a quick post to let you know I'm still alive! Thanks for looking and have a great week!

Card details:
Patterned papers: Frances Meyer
Cardstock: Stampin' UP!; Papertrey Ink Kraft
Ribbon: Stampin' UP!
Stamp: Stampin' UP!
Ink: Stampin' UP! Riding Hood Red

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

From the guy with the red suit

Here's another all-Stampin' UP! Christmas card that I made last week. The patterned paper is from the Ski Slope pack. I stamped the Santa image using Riding Hood Red ink and cut it and its mat with my Nestabilities.

I layered 3 Stampin' UP! felt snowflakes and put a silver snowflake brad through the center. For the blue snowflake, I added some new blue glitter I picked up a couple of weeks ago, when I took my husband with me to see Scrap Chic Boutique's new shop. While I was chatting with the owners, he was looking around and picked up this container of glitter and insisted on getting it for me. He always likes it when there is a bit of glitter on my cards, so he has been dubbed 'the glitter king'. Unfortunately, I think I got more of it on me and around my stamp room than I did on the snowflake!

This is obviously a pretty simple card, but it was nice to get a few done fairly quickly.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you're having a good week!

Card Details:
Patterned paper: Stampin' UP!
Stamps: Stampin' UP!
Ink: Stampin' UP! Riding Hood Red
Snowflakes: Stampin' UP!
Ribbon: Stampin' UP! Riding Hood Red

Misc.: Brad - JoAnn's; glitter - Powder Keg

Friday, December 5, 2008

Merry Christmas, dear friend

This card is a Stampin' UP! only card, which I think is a first for me so far. I really like the Ski Slope papers, so I've made a few cards with them this week. My massage therapist sells some of my cards at her spa and I needed to get a few Christmas cards ready to take to her when I go for my appointment tomorrow. I also used the sketch challenge from this week's card sketch challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers.

There isn't much to this card - I layered the three strips of patterned paper on top of another layer of patterned paper - too busy, maybe? I wrapped a bit of brown felt ribbon around the bottom of the middle strip.

Next, I stamped the Merry Christmas stamp from the Curly Label set twice, once in Old Olive and once in Riding Hood Red. I cut the sentiment from the Riding Hood Red version and popped it up with some foam tape on top of the Old Olive version, which I had cut out with the curly label punch. The panel was added to the card with some foam tape under the bottom so it rests flat against the ribbon.

I layered three of the felt snowflakes and stuck a rhinestone brad through the center for a little sparkle. I then adhered it all to a white card base.

Hope you've had a good week - mine has been busy and somewhat productive but I'm still ridiculously far behind...

Card details:
Patterned paper: Stampin' UP! Ski Slope
Stamp: Stampin' UP! Curly label punch set
Ink: Stampin' UP! Old Olive and Riding Hood Red
Misc. : Curly label punch; felt snowflakes and felt ribbon - Stampin' UP!

Monday, December 1, 2008

Snowmen fall...

I can't believe it's December already. I'm so behind on my Christmas cards, shopping, etc. Every year it's the same thing - I think I have so much time and then all of a sudden I'm in a panic because I've procrastinated and suddenly Christmas is right around the corner! So, forgive me if I'm a little spotty in my posting for a while as I try to get some things done.

This card is for Repeat Impressions. The main image is the Tiny Twig Hair Snowman, which I stamped three times - one just looked too lonely! I had some little 'snowballs' that I decided to use to make it look like my little snowmen are in the middle of a snowball fight. Their scarves are Liquid Pearls and their noses are orange Stickles. I went over the outline of the snowmen with my silver Copic Spica glitter pen. The image and its mat were cut out using my new Labels One Nestabilities - this is my favorite of the new shapes.

The red and white striped twine is from Martha Stewart and the bow has a snowflake brad in the center of it. The background paper is from the Stampin' UP! Ski Slope collection.

Hope those of you in the US had a nice Thanksgiving weekend! Happy December and thanks for looking!

Card Details:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions: 2016-D, Tiny Twig Hair Snowman, 4601-H, Snowmen fall...
Patterned Paper: Stampin' UP! Ski Slope
Card stock: Stampin' UP! Old Olive, Riding Hood Red
Ink: Memento Cottage Ivy, London Fog
Misc.: Martha Stewart twine; Ranger Stickles, Liquid Pearls; Snowflake brad; Copic Spica glitter pen; Nestabilities

Friday, November 28, 2008

Thank you pumpkins

I made this card using the sketch for this week's SC204 sketch challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers. I also took the opportunity to play with my new Labels Two Nestability dies. The Pumpkins in Wheelbarrow image is from Lockhart Stamp Company and was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with my Copic markers. I added some Spica glitter in gold and green on the pumpkins and the grass. The pumpkins and the mat were both popped up with foam tape.

The paper is all from Stampin' UP!, except for the card base, which is my ever-favorite Papertrey Ink Kraft. The sentiment is from Stampendous and I added a few dew drops in the corner to balance it out. Not much to it, but I like the color scheme. And look, Jenny, I've got NINE layers on this one (counting the card base)!

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving!

Card Details:
Patterned Paper: Stampin' UP! Haiku
Card stock: Papertrey Ink Kraft; Stampin' UP! - Tangerine Tango, More Mustard, Old Olive and So Saffron
Ink: Stampin' UP! Old Olive
Stamps: Lockhart Stamp Company; Stampendous
Other: Nestabilities; Dew Drops; Copic and Copic Spica markers

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

For the birds....

There are a lot of birds in this photo considering the image, the brad and the watermark! And yes, I know it's Fall, and this is a pretty 'Spring-y' card, but it's an image I needed to make a card with for Repeat Impressions, so there you have it.

I used the sketch from Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge, except I rotated it to be vertical rather than horizontal. The image was colored with Copic markers to match the background paper, and cut out with my new Curved Rectangle Nestabilities. I added some gold Spica glitter to the flower centers and a little green Spica glitter to the leaves for some sparkle.

The flowers and brad, which I think is very similar to the bird image, are my round element, and I balanced that in the other three corners with Dew Drops. That's it for this one - pretty easy, but a nice sketch that I'm sure I'll use again.

I'm glad it's Wednesday and the week is almost over! I'm really looking forward to the long weekend and some time with family and friends, as well as some time in my stamp room.

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Card Details:
Patterned Paper: BasicGrey Urban Prairie
Stamp: Repeat Impressions
Flowers: KaiserCraft
Brad: K&Company
Markers: Copic and Spica glitter
Other: Nestabilities; Dew Drops - The Robin's Nest

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Blog candy, awards AND a card!

Yesterday was a fun and interesting day! First, I received my first-ever package of blog candy from my blogging friend Pat for her blogoversary. I NEVER win anything, so this was a really fun treat! It was chock full of goodies - two stamp sets, a K&Company Hannah 6x6 paper pack, a package of glitter snowflakes, two spools of Christmas ribbon and four sleeves of self adhesive gems! And there was also a lovely Holiday Greetings card made with elements from Stampin' UP!'s Ski Slope paper pack, felt flurries and Snow Swirled stamp set. Such a nice assortment! Thanks, Pat!

Second, I received my first-ever blog award. I have to admit that I was not familiar with this particular award, but I was touched to receive it from the very sweet Heather and by its sentiment:











This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships!These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

So, now the hard part - picking eight blogging friends to pass it to. There are many blogs that I read, but I don't really 'know' the people who write them. The following are people I have met through the card making/blogging world, and who have become either real or cyber friends as a result, so the sentiment for the award seems to fit:

Pat
Julie
Janine
Jenny
Marcy
Susan
Sandy
Michelle


OK, on to a card! I've been working on a few Christmas cards lately, so here is one of them. I used my new Cuttlebug Snowflake embossing folder to do the background, then I rubbed red and gold metallic rub ons over the raised snowflakes and I rubbed the edges with the gold. I added some of the new Distress Stickles to some of the snowflakes.

The 'O Christmas tree' image was stamped with Memento Cottage Ivy and matted with green card stock. I ran my gold Spica glitter pen around the border to give it a little sparkle.

The ribbon is from Stampin'UP! and the card base is my favorite Papertrey Ink Kraft.

That's about it for this one. Hope you're having a good week!


Card Details:

Stamp: Repeat Impressions
Paper: Papertrey Ink Kraft; Stamper's Anonymous matte white
Ribbon: Stampin' UP!
Other: Metallic Rub ons; Distress Stickles; Copic Spica glitter pen

Monday, November 24, 2008

Cats are children in fur coats

This is an imageI have needed to use for a while, but have put off because coloring fur on a big cat image like this is a bit daunting to me. The image is one that Wendy at Repeat Impressions drew of one of her cats and I was afraid I wouldn't do him justice. The image was stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa and I colored him with my Copic markers. The image was stamped with StazOn Timber Brown and the background of the tag was airbrushed with a couple of the same Copic markers I used to color the cat. I also airbrushed the plain twill ribbon to match.

The patterned paper is from the Stampin' UP! Autumn Vine collection. I selected it because it reminded me of cat paw prints. The card base is Stampin' UP! More Mustard and the mats are Chocolate Chip and Really Rust. A nice collection of fall colors, I think. The kitty face brad on the ribbon is from Around the Block. Finally, I paper pierced three of the corners to fill in the white space.

That's about it for this card - the hardest part was just motivating myself to start coloring! Hope you had a nice weekend and hope those of you working folks like me have a nice, short work week this week!

Card Details:
Patterned Paper: Stampin' UP! Autumn Vine
Card stock: Stampin' UP! Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, More Mustard
Twill ribbon: Stampin' UP!
Brad: Around the Block
Ink: Memento, StazOn
Markers: Copic

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

When a man loves a woman...


This card was made for a friend who was recently married. At this stage of my life, I don't have many opportunities to do wedding cards, so this was fun. It also provided me with a great opportunity to play with a few new things. The first piece of the card was actually the bow. I saw Becca's tutorial on making a bow and threading the ribbon through the back of it and wanted to try that out. I had just purchased this beautiful double sided satin ribbon, so I used that. The pointed tails of the ribbon are cut off in the photo, unfortunately.

The other new toy I had recently purchased was the Cuttlebug folder I used to emboss the white background paper. I really like the pattern and it seemed perfect for a wedding card.

I'm embarrassed to say that I've owned this stamp set from Gina K. Designs for quite some time, but it had never met up with an ink pad, so this gave me an opportunity to use it. The wedding couple stamp really makes a nice, clean impression.

Finally, I pulled out my Copic airbrush with my new compressor (a birthday present from my hubby - thanks, honey!!) and masked the image of the couple so I could airbrush the background. It was really hard to get a good photograph of this card and show the contrast between the gray and the white, but it looks really nice in person!

I used my ticket corner punch to notch out the corners of the embossed white paper and placed some KaiserCraft pearls in the corners. That's about it for this one!

Tom and Helen, I wish you a long and HAPPY life together!

Thanks for looking!

Card details:
Paper: Stamper's Anonymous Matte Postcard; Stardreams Stationery
Stamps: Gina K. Designs
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Misc.: ribbon, Kaisercraft Bliss pearls, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Copic Markers and airbrush system

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Taylor's Cupcake Challenge and Tim Holtz Mask

This card was made using the sketch for Friday's Taylor's Cupcake Challenge. I needed to make a card using the Tim Holtz Flourish mask, so I used it to make the background for this card.

I thought I was being really clever when I pulled the mask off its original sheet, which is the mask material adhered to a transparency. There was a lot of unused area around the flourish, so I decided to try cutting my own mask in that space. I ran four different Spellbinder's dies through my Wizard three separate times and it still didn't cut through completely. I used a craft knife to finish off the cuts, which didn't work too well on one of the shapes and I ended up throwing it away.

I used the three remaining 'masks' to make my three elements on the left side of the card instead of the squares that were called for in the sketch. As you can see by the top flourish, the adhesive on my 'homemade' masks wasn't nearly as strong as it was on the real mask on the right side, so some of my ink ended up under the mask. Oh well, live and learn. I hate wasting things, but in this case, it just wasn't usable. I threw the makeshift masks away as soon as I finished this card!

The real mask, on the other hand, works great and was fun to use. I sponged two different shades of Distress inks over the masks to give that vintage look. The Santa postage stamp image was also stamped with Distress Ink and cut out with my postage stamp decoritive edged scisors. The edges of all the layers were sponged with Distress Inks. I topped the card off with that fun reindeer ribbon - I don't know who makes it, but I love it and only have two reindeer left!

Hope you've had a great weekend. I managed to make six cards, which is a lot for me, so it's been a good one for me! Thanks for looking.

Card Details:
Card stock: Papertrey Ink Kraft
Patterned paper: The Paper Studio - holly; red check - unknown
Stamp: The Paper Source
Ink: Ranger Distress - Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Vintage Photo
Misc.: ribbon, decorative edge scissors, Tim Holtz Flourish Mask

Friday, November 14, 2008

Moments that take your breath away...

This is a card I made earlier this week for Repeat Impressions. The card base is Papertrey Ink's Kraft card stock - love that stuff! The images were stamped with Stampin' UP! Old Olive ink. The center panel and its mat were cut with my long rectangle Nestabilities. The patterned paper used for the center mat is from Stampin' UP!'s Haiku set and the mats under the foliage images are Tangerine Tango.

For the left panel, I added a butterfly brad from Creative Imaginations in the upper part of the image. I wrapped some olive green ribbon and a bow around the bottom of the right panel. This is a very simple card, but I love the sentiment.

For the last four years, three months and one week (but who's counting?), my husband has been involved in a project that has snowballed to massive proportions. When we were fairly newly married, we purchased a brand new 1987 Toyota Supra. He always wanted an exotic sports car, and although the Supra didn't totally fit the bill, it was a fun car for him. Fast forward to 2004 and he decides to have a few things 'tweaked' to improve the handling and increase the amount of horsepower it makes. Unfortunately, our mechanic was only able to work on it part time, so it dragged on and on. And they kept doing more and more 'tweaking'....(i.e. spending LOTS of money....)

Finally, it was ready in September. We joked that our baby was finally home from college after four years. Except for one problem: Tim was disappointed. It wasn't really fast enough....so it went back to school for its Master's degree (to a different mechanic who builds and races drag cars).....and now it is turbo charged. Tim brought it home on Wednesday, and when I showed this card to him that night, he got a big smile on his face and said that he was having one of those moments that takes your breath away. He is now a happy camper, which makes me a happy camper! This isn't a great picture of it, but it's all I've got at the moment:


And the best part is, he knows that after all the money he has spent on this project, he can NEVER complain about what I spend on stamping supplies!!!

Hope today brings you a moment that takes your breath away! Have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Thinking of you!

When I received my compressor for my Copic airbrush system a few weeks ago, I pulled out a blank piece of white paper and a couple of my favorite color Copic markers and started playing around with airbrushing. When I did this background, I decided to pull this new stamp that I hadn't used yet out of my 'new toys that need to be played with' basket and stamped it in black on top of the airbrushed background. It's not perfect by any stretch, but I still liked it.

Fast forward a week or two, and I received this patterned paper from Scrap Chic Boutique that I needed to make a card with, and the two just seemed to go together to me. I hate to waste scraps, so this was a great way to make use of my practice airbrush piece!

Recently I've seen a couple of people post on their blogs about adhering Dew Drops to ribbon, which I have to admit had not ever occurred to me, so I decided to try it on this card. The ric rac was perfect , and it matched the background paper, so I perched a few Dew Drops in the peaks and there you have it!

The sentiment was stamped on some Stampin' UP! Whisper White card stock and the little flowers over the i's were colored in with my blue Spica pen. I also went over the letters of the sentiment and the larger areas of the scroll image with a clear Spica pen to add a bit of shine to them. And the sentiment is strategically placed to cover up a really dark spot in my airbrushing! As I have said many times, most of my cards are an exercise in fixing a mistake!

Hope you're having a good week. I received some really sad news today about one of my clients in Pennsylvania. He had a heart attack while raking leaves yesterday and passed away at the age of 56. He was a really nice man and he will be greatly missed. So, my heart is a bit heavy tonight, thinking about his family and co-workers, and remembering the night a little over 13 years ago when my family went through the same thing and my father passed away after having a heart attack. At least my father lived to be 76, but even that seems young to me, the older I get!

Take care and hug your loved ones. Thanks for looking and making it this far - sorry for the novel!

Card details:
Patterned paper: Melissa Frances - Fiona
Card stock: Stampin' UP! Old Olive
Stamps: Inkadinkado
Ribbon: Making Memories
Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black
Other: Copic Spica, Copic Markers, Copic airbrush, Dew Drops

Monday, November 10, 2008

Sweet Little Baby

I've had the Bitty Baby Blessings stamps from Papertrey Ink for a while but just got around to unpacking them this weekend. I stamped the little elephant three times - twice on pink paper and once on patterned paper. I cut out the one on the patterned paper and adhered it on top of one of the images on pink paper with some foam tape. Next I cut out the ear from the second pink paper image and adhered it on top of the patterned paper version with foam dimensionals from Stampin'UP!. These are only 1/16th of an inch thick so they are thinner than the foam tape, but still give a bit of dimension to it. I added a Heidi Swapp jewel for the eye and paper pierced some holes in each corner of the olive mat. Sorry the photo is a bit dark.

I experimented with something on the ribbon - I ran it through my Wizard with one of my Cuttlebug border embossing folders to emboss some flowers in it. I passed it through three different times and you can barely see the embossing, so that was a bust on this particular ribbon. I'll try it on some other ribbon, though, because I've seen it on other cards, so I know it works in some situations. If at first you don't succeed....

Hope you had a nice weekend! Thanks for looking.

Card Details:
Patterned Paper: Melissa Francis - Piper
Card stock: Stampin'UP! Pink Pirouette and Old Olive
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Bitty Baby Blessings
Ink: Stampin'UP! Old Olive
Jewel: Heidi Swapp
Ribbon: from one of Jody Morrow's ribbon shares

Saturday, November 8, 2008

We lost....

Do you remember this post, where our next door neighbor put up the "Elect Kirkpatrick" sign? Well, since we weren't actually running for anything, and not enough people cast votes for us as write in candidates, we lost. So last night when I came home from the airport after having been out of town all week, this is what greeted me!


Too funny, Chuck! Thanks for the giggles!

I didn't get any stamping done today - hopefully tomorrow will be better. I did get a chance to visit my massage therapist and am feeling much better! I woke up at 4:00am yesterday with a really bad tension headache, so I was glad to have this appointment scheduled.

Hope you're having a nice weekend!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Happy Birthday, Friend!

This is a birthday card I made for a good friend whose birthday is the day after mine. We had dinner tonight to celebrate our birthdays and I was finally able to give her this card, so now I can share it here!

The leaf/branch image and Happy Birthday sentiment were stamped on a chipboard coaster and the edges were sponged with some Distress Inks. The coaster was covered with Glossy Accents and when it was just dry, I bent it a little bit to get the cracked effect.

The chipboard scroll was painted with Distress Crackle paint and when that was dry, I sponged it with a couple of shades of Distress Inks to enhance the crackle effect. The front panel of patterned papers was wrapped with ribbon and I added a bow, then adhered the Friend tab to the back of it and adhered the panel to a Kraft card base. I added a few Dew Drops in the upper right corner to finish it off!

Hope you've had a good week! Mine's been filled with meetings and too many nights of staying up late! I'm glad tomorrow is Friday! Thanks for stopping by - have a great weekend!

Card Details:
Patterned Paper: Frances Meyer
Card stock: Papertrey Ink Kraft
Stamps: Stampin' UP! Fresh Cuts, Fundamental Phrases
Ink: Ranger Distress, Adirondack Terra Cotta
Miscellaneous: Chipboard, Coaster, Glossy Accents, Ranger Distress Crackle paint, ribbon, tab punch, Dew Drops

Monday, November 3, 2008

Thank you


This card was made for last week's sketch challenge at Splitcoast Stampers. I made a series of cards using the Stampin' UP! linen background stamp and the Fresh Cuts stamp set, so you'll see a few cards with this color scheme and stamp set.

The card base is Papertrey Ink kraft, which was stamped with the linen background stamp in Adirondack Espresso ink. The rest of the card is Stampin' UP!'s Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip card stock.

I cut one inch square sections out of the collage background stamp from the Fresh Cuts set and matted them with the Chocolate Chip card stock. For the center of the three squares, I added a butterfly, also cut from the collage background stamp and added a few pearls to give it a little 'body'!

The largest panel is the collage stamp from the Fresh Cuts set, also matted on Chocolate Chip card stock. The sentiment was stamped with Adirondack Espresso ink and cut out with my Nestabilities and matted with the Chocolate Chip card stock as well. I wrapped some Baja Breeze grosgrain ribbon around the whole card front and that's it!

Hope your week is going well so far. I had a really busy day today, filled with meetings. I planned to get to bed early since I woke up at 4:30 this morning, but here I am up late again. Tomorrow will be a rough one...

Thanks for looking!

Card Details:
Paper: Papertrey Ink Kraft; Stampin' UP! Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip
Stamps: Stampin'UP! Fresh Cuts, Linen background
Ink: Stampin' UP! Baja Breeze; Adirondack Espresso
Accessories: Baja Breeze ribbon; Kaiser pearls; nestabilities

Friday, October 31, 2008

Let It Snow!

Just so there is no confusion - I am NOT wishing for the stuff! This is a very snowy little card I made for Repeat Impressions.

The background was made using the Random Snow stamp. The Snow Post image was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and the scarf was colored with my Koh-I-Noor pencils. I matted it on a layer of green card stock, then a layer of red, which I trimmed with my postage stamp scissors, in keeping with the postage stamp theme. I added one more green layer to make it stand out from all the red of the background and ribbon. The little plastic snowflakes are from my stash, but I got them from Hobby Lobby, I think.

The sentiment and the main image are mounted with foam tape. Very simple!

Hope you've had a good week!

Happy Halloween!

Card Details:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions
Inks: Memento, Stampin' UP!
Ribbon: Stampin' UP!
Colored Pencils: Koh-I-Noor

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Happy Birthday


This card was made for two of Beate's challenges - the Be Inspired Challenge and the Weekend Sketch Challenge. Unfortunately, I didn't get it finished in time for the WSC, but I used the sketch nonetheless.

I used a new stamp that I received as a birthday gift from my Krafty Kat friends - the linen background stamp from Stampin' UP!. It really makes the paper look like a piece of linen fabric. I'm looking forward to playing around with it some more.

I used Stampin' UP!'s Pocket Silhouette stamp set to create the 'patterned paper' and for the focal image. The sentiment is from the Birthday Whimsy set.

It's a very simple card, but I love the color combination. Hope your week is going well. Thanks for looking!

Card details:
Card stock: Papertrey Ink Kraft card stock; Stampin' UP! Baja Breeze and Old Olive
Stamps: Stampin' UP! linen, Pocket Silhouettes, Birthday Whimsy
Inks: Ranger Archival Sepia; Stampin' UP! Baja Breeze and Old Olive
Ribbon: Stampin' UP! Baja Breeze

Monday, October 27, 2008

Joy

This card was made using Taylor's Cupcake Challenge sketch from last Friday.

The card base is kraft card stock from Papertrey Ink and the three paper strips are the same paper I used in the last card - Glitz Design Kringle Flourish.

The wreaths are the center of an Outlines stamp and were colored in with my Copic markers. They are mounted using foam tape on 1 inch circles of Core'dinations Black Magic, which I lightly sanded to make the red show through the black.

The joy sticker is from Me and My Big Ideas. Three little bows were added on the left side to finish it off. A very simple little card.

Hope you have a good Monday! Thanks for looking!

Card Details:
Patterned paper: Glitz Design - Kringle Flourish
Card stock: Papertrey Ink's Kraft card stock; Core'dinations Black Magic
Stamp: Outlines
Sticker: Me and My Big Ideas
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Markers: Copic
Ribbons: Making Memories; JoAnn

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Ho Ho Ho!


I made this card using last week's sketch challenge over at Splitcoast Stamper's. How are these for non-traditional Christmas colors?

I've had this Outlines stamp for a while but hadn't ever used it, and I thought it paired well with this Santa paper from Glitz Design. You can't tell from the photo, but there are three layers to the stamped image. I stamped the entire image three times, then cut out the holly/scroll frame and mounted that on top of the full image with some foam tape and then cut out the Ho Ho Ho layer from the third stamping and mounted it a little higher with a double layer of foam tape. And I can hardly believe it - I didn't use any Nestabilities on this card! I actually made two cards today and didn't use the Nestabilities on either one.

The image was colored with Copic markers, including the red and green borders. The diamond shapes were colored with a gold metallic pen, then topped with some gold Stickles. The holly berries also had some Stickles added to give them a little sparkle and dimension. Finally, I went over the black scrolls with my black Copic Spica marker to add a bit more shine.

Hope you had a nice weekend, I certainly did! My Krafty Kat friends came over Saturday for lunch and an afternoon of stamping related fun. They showered me with lovely cards and gifts for my birthday, which was Saturday. They are a wonderful bunch of women and I am so thrilled to have been asked to join the group.

Enjoy your week and thanks for looking!

Card Details:
Patterned Paper: Glitz Design - Kringle Santa and Kringle Flourish
Card Stock: Stampin' UP!
Stamp: Outlines
Markers: Copic and Copic Spica; gold metallic pen
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Misc.:Stickles; Perfect Layers; foam tape

Friday, October 24, 2008

All is calm....

This seemed like an appropriate sentiment after our experience last week with tropical storm Omar...

And yes, I'm aware that I did a better job of posting last week while I was on vacation than I have this week while I've been home, but it's not for lack of things to post. I've been working on a lot of things, I just can't post them yet...

So this is a simple card I made earlier in the week. The image is from Repeat Impressions, and was colored with my Koh-I-Noor pencils and Gamsol. I added a little Liquid Applique for the snow, then mounted it on some green card stock and then on the patterned paper. The sentiment was cut out with my long rectangle Nestabilities and I drew a green border while it was still in the die, but then decided it needed a little more color, so I added a red border too. It was mounted with some foam tape and I added a few half back pearls from Stampin' UP! and that's it!

So, after I photographed the card, I was reviewing all the photos on my memory stick, which were from our vacation last week, and decided I'd post a few of them here so you can see what it was like. They aren't great photos, but you'll get the idea anyway.



This was the beginning of the end of the dock at our hotel (Bruce Bowker's Carib Inn). We spent the first two days of our trip diving right off the end of this dock. The beauty of Bonaire is that there is great shore diving all over the island, and all of the hotels on the west side of the island have nice house reefs right off shore.

We did five dives the first two days and then Omar came and we watched the waves and wind systematically tear up the docks and other structures.



This next photo is of the dock at the resort next door to us, the Divi Flamingo. It was kind of ironic that the day before the storm hit, we watched some guys painting the top level of the dock, only to have it torn up during the storm. You know what they say - timing is everything!




And this was what was left of the Carib Inn's dock after it was over:



Never underestimate the power of water....

Hope you've had a good week and I promise I'll have some things to post next week!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Cheers to me!

Sorry I didn't post much last week, but we were gone on vacation and I only had a couple of cards I could schedule to post while we were gone.

We were on a dive trip to Bonaire and had the pleasure of having tropical storm Omar develop right on top of us. He hovered over us for two solid days and destroyed all the docks on the island. The diving industry will be hurt for a while as far as boat diving goes, as we were told by the people at the hotel where we stayed that it would be two months before their permit to rebuild their dock would even be approved. The wheels of government move even more slowly on these little islands than it does here in the states! Luckily Bonaire is known for its great shore diving, but when we did get to dive after the storm was over, it looked like there had been a snowstorm underwater - everything was covered in sand.

At any rate, we didn't get in as much diving as we had hoped, but we had a good trip nonetheless. It's good to be home, though, and we have received lots of kitty love since we returned Saturday night! Our cats are very fortunate that our next door neighbors check in on them every day while we are gone and make sure they are fed and have water and clean litter boxes (thanks Kay and Chuck!), but they are always happy when we are back and they have the run of the house again!

OK, on to the card....I submitted this card to Scrapbook News and Review for their September issue and it was selected! So, I've officially had my first card published, but unfortunately, it's a digital-only publication, so there are no hard copies to show - that will be my next step! They were doing a technique feature on embossing, which this card contains in two forms. The background was stamped with black pigement ink and heat embossed with clear detail embossing powder on the purple card base and the grape cluster focal image was dry embossed, using a brass stencil, on some Core'dinations card stock, which has a black exterior with a colored core. I used purple core paper and sanded the grapes after they had been embossed to make the purple layer show through the black. I also tore the edge of the panel to highlight the purple center. Finally, I used chalks to color and enhance the remaining portions of the grape cluster, added a gold embossed wine glass punch, layered a couple of pieces of ribbon and added a grape cluster charm to finish it all off.

This morning it was in the 40s here in Atlanta. What a rude awakening after a week of diving in the Caribbean! Thanks for stopping by!

Card Details:
Cardstock: Core'dinations; Joann's Craft Essentials (card base)
Stamps: Just For Fun (background), Impression Obsession (inside), Rubber Stampede (inside)
Ink: Versafine, Clearsnap
Embossing Powder: Ranger
Chalk: Stencil Collection
Ribbon: Offray, Making Memories
Wine glass punch: Marvy Uchida

Friday, October 17, 2008

Best Fishes

This is a birthday card I made for a friend, who is also a SCUBA diver and cat lover. I used the sketch from the World Card Making Day sketch challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers.

This is the first time I've used this stamp and I just love it. I also love the Baja Breeze color from Stampin' UP!, which is what I used for the mats for each of the four top panels, the ribbon and the ink. The patterned papers were from my stash.

It's a simple card, but I liked the colors together.

Thanks for stopping by!

Card Details:
Patterned Paper: Scenic Route
Card stock: Stampin' UP!
Stamps: Great Impressions - scuba kitty; Impression Obsession - sentiment
Ink: Stampin' UP! Baja Breeze
Ribbon: Stampin' UP! Baja Breeze

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Ho! Ho! Ho!

This is a Christmas card I made for Repeat Impressions using three of Wendy's stamps. The red and green holly paper on the left side of the card was made using her Holly Sprig stamp and coloring using my Copic Markers.

This is a criss cross card and I made it after I saw Beate's tutorial on how to do it. I've made one before, but didn't have the measurements, and her tutorial had them included, so it made it very easy. It's really pretty quick to do and is a nice change of pace from a traditional card.

I made the scalloped medallion that the santa is adhered to after seeing last week's tutorial over at Splitcoast Stampers. It's a quick way to create a different type of frame for your focal point.

Santa's eyes were given a little twinkle courtesy of Stickles glitter glue. His red hat, rosy cheeks and pink lips came courtesy of my Copic Markers. He was adhered to the scalloped medallion with some foam tape to raise him up a bit. Other than that, there isn't a whole lot to it. The most time consuming part was coloring in all the holly leaves and berries, because I made an entire 8 1/2 x 11" page of it, so you'll be seeing that again!

Thanks for stopping by!

Card Details:
Card stock: Stampin UP!
Stamps: Repeat Impressions
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Stampin' UP Riding Hood Red
Misc.: Copic Markers; Stickles

Friday, October 10, 2008

Change is good!

For the last few weeks, I've been working with the wonderful Heather Taylor on a custom blog header and watermark. For those of you who are reading this through Feedblitz, click on the link for Robin's Rubber Room in the email so you can check out the new look! Let me know what you think! Heather is a dream to work with and I highly recommend her for anyone looking for this type of design work.

This is a card I made a while back using the supplies from one of the kits from my stamp group, the Krafty Kats. This little bug-eyed kitty ogling the terrified goldfish cracks me up! And I thought the sentiment went with it perfectly, even though they are from different companies!

Hope it gives you a good laugh! Have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by!

Card Details:
Patterned paper: ??
Stamps: Class Act (cat with goldfish bowl); Rubber Soul (sentiment)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Misc.: Copic Markers, ribbon, cat eyelet, tag, black sticker strips, ric rac.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Joys of Nature

I made this card using the sketch from last week's sketch challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers. I stamped the bunnies using Memento London Fog ink and colored them in with my Koh-I-Noor pencils. The colors were blended with some Gamsol and paper stumps. For the bunny's hat, scarf, mittens, tops of his boots, and the snow, I added some flocking. The red flocking is a bit bright for my liking, but frankly, I'm not sure how to tone it down without making it look dirty, so I left well enough alone. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to add a comment!

The bow on the wreath and the bunnies' eyes were glammed up with some Stickles. The sky was airbrushed with my Copic airbrush system and the edges were distressed with Antique Linen Distress Ink and my paper distresser.

The sentiment was stamped with Memento Cottage Ivy and all the panels were matted with Stampin' UP! Handsome Hunter card stock.

That's about it. Thanks for stopping by!

Card Details:
Pattern Paper: The Paper Studio - Holly; Red and Green plaid - ??
Card stock: Stampin' UP! Handsome Hunter
Stamps: Repeat Impressions
Ink: Memento London Fog and Cottage Ivy; Ranger Distress Inks - Antique Linen
Other: Koh-I-Noor colored pencils, gamsol, Copic Markers, Stickles, Flocking (Stampendous and Doodlebug Designs), Perfect Layers, Tim Holtz paper distresser

Monday, October 6, 2008

Thinking of you

Once again I find myself in need of a sympathy card - too many of them lately. This one is for one of my clients whose 30 year old wife died unexpectedly a week ago. Very sad.
This photo is of the front of the card and the envelope, which was stamped on the front, and on the back flap, to match the card.
I received a box of supplies from Stampin' UP! while I was out of town last week and was able to immediately put them to use on this card. All of the paper and the inks I used are from Stampin' UP! but the stamps are from Repeat Impressions and Impression Obsession.

I started out by stamping the Foliage in Old Olive on the card panel then I stamped the sentiment using Really Rust. I love the Stampin' UP! names - they are almost all alliterations. The papers are from the Haiku and Muirfield paper packs.

Here's a shot of the inside of the card:

Originally I only had the larger of the two strips of green paper across the top, until I accidentally got some of the Really Rust ink on it, so then I covered that up with the striped paper....most of my cards are an exercise in fixing a mistake of some sort...
Anyway, I really like these colors combined with this stamp set and will definitely use it again. Oh, and I used the sketch from last week's Sketch Challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers.
Hope you had a nice weekend! Thanks for stopping by!
Card Details:
Designer Paper: Stampin' UP! Haiku and Muirfield
Card stock: Stampin' UP! Really Rust and Old Olive
Stamps: Repeat Impressions (Foliage Positive and Thinking of You) ; Impression Obsession (With Sympathy)
Inks: Stampin' UP! Really Rust and Old Olive
Other: The Robin's Nest Dew Drops

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Spooktacular Halloween

I'm not usually too big on Halloween, but Wendy has challenged each of us on the design team to make several Halloween-themed cards, so I've done a few lately and have been having fun with them.

I stamped the kitty with Ranger Distress Ink in Black Soot and then embossed him with some Distress Embossing Powder, also in black soot. The Distress embossing powders create a rough texture, unlike regular embossing powders, so it seemed appropriate for this spooky cat.

For the background, I punched a circle out of a piece of Eclipse masking tape and used the piece I had cut the circle from to create my moon shape and airbrushed with a yellow Copic marker. I then covered the moon with the circle I had punched, and also masked the cat image and the area where he is standing, and airbrushed the sky using several shades of blue. Then I covered the sky area and airbrushed in some grass to complete the little scene. I edged the image with a silver leafing pen and mounted it on a mat of shimmery gold paper, and then matted that with white card stock.

It was the darkest blue in the sky that steered me to choose the non-traditional blue card base for this Halloween card. I ran my card base through my Wizard with a Fiskars texture plate to dry emboss the spider web. To highlight the spider web and make it glisten a little, I rubbed some metallic rub-on paste over the raised portions. I adhered the stamped image and its mats on the card base with some foam tape to raise it up.

Finally, I stamped the sentiment and cut it out and embossed it with a Spellbinder's label die. While the tag was still in the die, I airbrushed the background with the same yellow I used for the moon. The last touch was to knot a length of yellow binding tape around the front of the card.

Whew, this was a long one...sorry about that! Hope you have had a good week!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Card details:
Card stock: Stampin' UP!; Marco's Paper Stardreams Stationery
Stamps: Repeat Impressions
Inks: Ranger Distress Ink - Black Soot
Embossing Powder: Ranger Distress Ink - Black Soot
Markers: Copic and Spica
Other: Krylon Silver Leafing Pen; Martha Stewart ribbon; 7 Gypsies brads; metallic rub-on paste; Fiskars spider web texture plate

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Best fishes!

I made this card last month for Ellen Hutson's Inchie Challenge, but just realized that I didn't post it here at the time. The theme was 'top coat', and my top coat was a layer of Glossy Accents over the goldfish bowl. The coloring was done with Copic markers and the inchie was edged with a silver leafing pen. The inchie was mounted on the card with foam tape to add a little dimension.

The embossed border around the inchie was made using two of my square Nestabilities - I love that look.

The watery-looking paper at the bottom of the card was made using a background stamp from Stamp Camp and my Ranger Big and Juicy Waterfall ink pad. I topped it off with a little ric rac to resemble waves.

These little inchies are a lot of fun to play with if you haven't tried it.

Hope you're having a good week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Card details:
Card stock: Papertrey Ink Kraft
Stamps: Lockhart Stamp Company, Inkadinkado, Stamp Camp
Ink: Memento Black, VersaMagic, Ranger Big & Juicy
Miscellaneous: Glossy Accents, Copic markers, ric rac, Nestabilities, Silver leafing pen