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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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