This and that!

Happy Friday! 

I have been in a rut of only posting cards that I have made for design team commitments, so this morning I have a couple of cards that I made recently for personal reasons! 

This first card was made for my niece's high school graduation.  I wanted to use her school colors so I pulled a couple of sheets with the two shades of blue from Jillibean Soup's Spotted Owl Soup and October Afternoon's Seaside. 

The background journaling note paper is from Making Memories' Noteworthy line and the stamps are from Cornish Heritage Farms' U R A Hoot set.

The owl was colored using Copic markers.  The sentiment and 'Graduate' on the cap were both heat embossed.

The second card is a thank you card I made for a recent gift from my mom, who has collected strawberry themed things for as long as I can remember. 

The paper is from Papertrey Ink's Fruitti Tutti pad and the stamps are from the Fruit Fusion - Berry set.  I added some Salmon Viva Decor Pearl Pen dots around the scalloped mat and a little faux stitching around both stamped panels using a pink Spica marker. 

On the sentiment panel I added a strawberry button I had in my stash for just such an occasion!

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a wonderful weekend!

A Birthday as Perfect as a Rose

Good Monday morning!  It's a dreary, rainy morning here - fitting for a Monday!

This is a birthday card that I made for my mother's recent 90th birthday.  I used a Thomas Kinkade stamp and coordinating sentiment.  The image is paired up with Graphic 45 paper (Tender Missives from the Le Romantique collection) and some gorgeous two-toned blue and copper ribbon.

The image was colored with a LOT of Copic markers and then aged using Distress Inks. Matching pale blue pearls were added to the scalloped borders.  For the inside, I used the same papers and a similar layout.

For you cat lovers, Repeat Impressions is offering an adorable kitty stamp for this week's Stamp of the Week, so be sure to head over to The House that Stamps Built to check out the details.

Come back Wednesday for another Belli Challenge!  Thanks for looking!

Who Loves You?

This silly card was made using four little owl stamps, from the Paper Source, Impression Obsession, Inkadinkado and Sassafras Lass (Oliver and Friends).  I used the Inchie Inklings Inchie Card Sketch #3 for my layout and stamped each owl on an Inchie square, colored them with Copic markers and then matted them with two different shades of green card stock. 

The patterned paper and matching ribbon are from Adornit's Fern Collection - Owls All Around.  The sentiment is from Cornish Heritage Farm's U R A Hoot set.  Pretty simple, fun little card!

Thanks for stopping by!

Make each day your masterpiece

Happy Saturday! This is a card I made for my brother-in-law's 60th birthday, which was this past week. He is an avid fisherman and I bought this stamp to make his birthday card last year but never got around to it, so I finally pulled it out and stamped it on some of Ranger's Sticky-Back Canvas. I painted it with reinkers and a waterbrush and cut it out with a Nestabilities Labels Three die. I adhered some twine on top of the stamped image for the fishing line and also wrapped it around my patterned paper. I used that paper because it has fish all over it, but you'd never know now that it's all covered up!

I cut out the fish using a QuicKutz fish die and tried to color it to look like a rainbow trout! An artist I am not...but I thought it was funny nonetheless. The stamps are from Cornish Heritage Farms and the patterned paper is from Hot off the Press Paper Pizazz.

Thanks for looking! Enjoy your weekend!

Sending Well Wishes!

Hope you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend! Ours was very productive, but unfortunately my productivity was not in my craft room.

All of the supplies for this card came from our last Krafty Kat kit. The flower image is from the Flowers Cotton Scraps from Crafty Secrets. The patterned paper is from the Chatterbox Botanico collection and the sentiment is from Cornish Heritage Farms' Script Essential Expressions set.

These Cotton Scraps are great for making quick cards - just cut the fabric image from the sheet, fray the edges a bit, adhere it and you're done! I used my Stampin' UP! eyelet border punch for the bottom edge of my mat and then layered the sentiment on top and affixed it with a couple of silver brads.

Sending you well wishes for a great week! Thanks for stopping by!

Creative Belli Challenge - Wood

Happy Wednesday! It's time for another Creative Belli Challenge! This week's challenge is to incorporate wood in your project. You can use a wood grain background stamp, wooden embellishments, sticks, a stamp of a wooden image or wood grain paper - whatever you have! If you would like to play along, please post your creation using Mr. Linky on today's post over at the Creative Belli Challenge!

For my card, I started out with the wooden butterfly from Kaisercraft and then figured I'd add the wooden tag from Judy's Stone House Designs Creative Laser Wood Accents for good measure! Next I settled on last week's SC237 sketch over at Splitcoast Stampers, and finally, I selected the Making Memories Flower Patch paper collection for my patterned papers, Prism Teal card stock for the card base and mat layers and KI Memories Bloom Tulips Surreal Frost Lace for the strip across the middle

I inked the edges of the butterfly and the tag with Versacolor Old Rose ink and added some Patina and Fruit Punch Stickles to the butterfly's antennae and wings for a little extra interest. The sentiment is from Cornish Heritage Farms' Script Essentials Expressions set.

I think that about covers it. Hope you are having a good week! Thanks for stopping by!

CHF Summer Stamp Star - Challenge 5 - One Sheet Wonder

Brace yourself, this will be a long one...This is the last week of Cornish Heritage Farms' Summer Stamp Star Contest. The challenge for this week was One Sheet Wonder. For those of you who are not stampers or card makers, One Sheet Wonder means that you create your own sheet of patterned paper (either 8 1/2 x 11" or 12 x 12") using rubber stamps, and then you make something using up as much of that sheet of paper as possible.

So, here is where I started...my one sheet (not exactly a) wonder...

I used CHF's Nature's Silhouettes set and various shades of Versamagic chalk inks (Pumpkin Spice, Tea leaves and Wheat), Adirondack Caramel Dye Ink and Brilliance Cosmic Copper ink to make my One Sheet Wonder on SU Whisper White card stock.

I used the All Boxed Up template, one of the Timeless Templates available from Papertrey Ink, to create a card folder to hold four cards and envelopes. I made the folder out of Kraft card stock and layered a section of my hand made patterned paper on top. I added the 'just a note' sentiment and stamped one of the butterflies from the Vintage Butterflies set on Whisper White using Memento Rich Cocoa dye ink. I colored the butterfly with Copic markers and cut it out. I covered it with Ranger Glossy Accents to give it some shine and stability. When it was dry, I adhered it to the front of the folder.

Here is a photo showing the whole kit and kaboodle - the open folder and all four cards. There are two get well cards, one sympathy card and one generic card. For the inside of the folder, I made each of the pockets out of Kraft card stock and then stamped them with the Nature's Silhouettes images, and one of the butterflies.

This card was made using the Mojo Monday week 97 sketch. I used a small strip of my patterned paper on the bottom, the large butterfly from Vintage Butterflies, stamped with Cosmic Copper ink and clear embossed. Each of the Certainly Celery layers was paper pierced around the edge. The buttons were sewn on using twine and the flourish in the corner was made using a Spellbinder's Floral Accents die. While the paper was still in the die, I rubbed some copper metallic rub on paste on the embossed parts.

This card was made using Card Positioning Systems' CPS125 sketch. Once again I used a small strip of my patterned paper and matted with two layers of card stock that were cut on the right side using a Martha Stewart border punch. I wanted to use the border punch on the bottom Certainly Celery layer, too, but then I wouldn't have had a place to anchor my brad for my sentiment, so I left it alone.

The left top and bottom corners of the two mat layers were cut using a corner rounder punch. I used another butterfly from Vintage Butterflies for this card, as well as some Mango Kaisercraft self adhesive pearls. All sentiments are from CHF's Script Essential Expressions set. It's a wonderful set containing 55 beautiful script sentiments.

This card was made using the Clean and Simple FTL 52 sketch. I stamped some of the same images from my background paper on the Kraft card stock, using Adirondack Snow Cap pigment ink, and the same inks I used on the background. The sentiment was cut out using a Spellbinders ribbon tag. The flowers are from Prima and the brad is from Basic Grey.

This last card was made using CHF's The Bee List stamp, which was stamped on Rustic White card stock and colored with Copic markers. I stamped it a second time and cut out the bees and the flower and colored them with Copics and Spica glitter pens and mounted them on top of the main image for some additional dimension. The ribbon is SU's Certainly Celery herringbone ribbon, which I also used on the folder to tie it closed.

Whew! This has been a GREAT challenge and I'm so glad I participated in it. I have really stretched myself in a number of ways and it has been very rewarding.

Thanks for hanging in there with me! Hope you've had wonderful weekend!

Summer Stamp Star Challenge - Week Four

The theme for this week's CHF Summer Stamp Star challenge is Make A Scene. Since I am a SCUBA diver, I knew immediately that I would make an underwater scene, so I picked up two sets from Cornish Heritage Farms' Scene It line just for the challenge (although I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of them in the future!) - Under the Sea and By the Seashore. I stamped the images on Stamper's Anonymous Matte Coated card stock and then colored them with my Copic markers. I airbrushed the sky using a torn piece of Eclipse masking tape to make the clouds.

Since I wanted the scene to be the prominent item on the card, I didn't do much else. The patterned paper is called Cannon from BasicGrey's Oh Baby! Boy collection and the Magic Mesh behind the image is from Magic Scraps. I used the blue scalloped edge card stock for my card base to mimic waves.

Hope you've had a nice weekend! Thanks for looking!

Summer Stamp Star Challenge - Week Three

This is the card I made for week three of the challenge going on over at Cornish Heritage Farms. The challenge this week was to make a card uing a resist technique.

I stamped the freesia on white matte paper using Versafine black pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I colored in the flower with several Sampin' UP markers, colored over the whole image with a Versamark pen and then embossed with clear embossing powder again.

Then the brayering began...I started with Stampin' UP So Saffron in the top, then added Adirondack Salmon and then a bit of Watermelon. For the bottom I started with SU Mellow Moss and then added some Old Olive.

The sentiment is from Script Essential Expressions and was stamped in Old Olive and sponged with Salmon ink while still in the die. I matted the main panel, the checked panel and the ribbon tag with Old Olive card stock.

The butterfly is from the Vintage Butterflies set and was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics. The ribbon is from Michael's, the buttons from BasicGrey and my stash and the thread I used on the button is from my grandmother's sewing basket! And speaking of grandmothers, I am sending this card to a friend who lost her grandmother this past week, so that seemed appropriate.

Have a good week!

Have a Delightful Day!

This is my second entry for the Cornish Heritage Farms Summer Stamp Star Challenge. This is the second of five weekly challenges and it was paper piecing. Whew....who knew paper piecing could be so exhausting?? I'm worn out! This card was a lot of fun to play with, but it was a lot of cutting. I have a renewed love for my Cutter Bee scissors and tweezers!


I used three Shady Tree Studios flower stamps (Artsy Blooms, Closed Tulip and Iris Bloom) and several from the Saturday Evening Post Vintage Butterflies set for this card. The patterned paper is Stampin' Up!'s Tea Party collection and BasicGrey Urban Prairie and Boxer.

Many of the elements were popped up using different thicknesses of foam tape to give it a 3-D look. Here's a closeup to give you an idea of all the dimension. I used Stampin' UP!'s dimensionals for the thinner layers and Therm O Web foam squares for the thicker layers. I also used two different papers for each flower to give them a variegated look as well as some additional dimension.

The sentiment layer was also popped up with the foam squares. As I often say, much of my design is about covering up mistakes and that's how the sentiment came to be....I had a flub on my airbrushing and got some green on the blue and had to cover it up!


The butterflies were all stamped on the Urban Prairie Hayfield paper, cut out, covered with Glossy Accents to give them some stability.

Here's a closeup of the one I adhered to my bow. The ribbon is from Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply Ribbon Store and is a dream to work with! I used the Bow Easy to make the bow - you can also get that invaluable tool through Sharon. The butterfly was adhered with a glue dot.



I cut out 2 of the ladybugs from the Hayfield paper (THAT was a challenge in and of itself!!), covered them with Glossy Accents and stuck them on top of my brads for the sentiment panel.

Sorry for the novel but there is a lot going on with this card! Thanks for hanging in here with me!

Hope your weekend is going well!

Gobsmacked!

Sorry to do two posts in one day, but I have BIG news to share! I won the first challenge of the Cornish Heritage Farms Summer Stamp Star Challenge for the card I posted on Monday! I received the email with the announcement first thing this morning but couldn't say anything until it had been posted on the CHF blog, which is why I didn't include it in my earlier post.

There were SIXTY entries in the challenge and my little card WON! I've been on cloud nine all morning!!! As our English friends say - I'm gobsmacked!

Here's the announcement - Announcing First Week's Winner.

You're always there

As soon as I saw this stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms, I had to have it! I wanted to color the bird as a robin, of course, but I thought the image was perfect with the sentiment. I finally inked it up this weekend and colored it with Copic markers as my entry for the first challenge in CHF's Summer Stamp Star Design Challenge.

The image was stamped on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White paper using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. After I colored the image and cut it out using a Nestabilities die, I covered it with a mask made of Eclipse masking tape. I also tore the edge of an extra piece of the masking tape and moved the torn edge of the paper around the background, airbrushing over it to create the clouds.

I layered the stamped image on top of a sheet of Desert Coral Prismatics card stock and trimmed it close on three sides. The bottom edge was cut using a Martha Stewart border punch and layered on top of a piece of Eames Painting Canvas Brown Umber card stock that was cut with the same border punch. The sentiment was popped up in the center with some foam squares. The orange ribbon is from Martha Stewart and the button is from BasicGrey, as is the background paper. The card base is 51/2" square and was also cut from Eames Painting Canvas Brown Umber card stock. For the last little detail, I added some Glossy Accents to the drop of water and the bird's eye.

Thanks for looking and be sure to check back on Wednesday for the next Creative Belli Challenge. I hope you have a great week!

Strawberry thank you

I needed a thank you card recently, so I made this card using the June 6th sketch challenge from Our Creative Corner. The strawberry collage image is a new stamp I recently got from the Angel Company. The image was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics and Spicas. The sentiment is from Cornish Heritage Farms.

The card base is Papertrey Ink's Kraft card stock with a layer of their Vintage Cream on top. The patterned paper is from Provocraft Pathways Romance Pad and is matted with Stampin' UP's Always Artichoke. The main image is matted with Riding Hood Red in addition to the Always Artichoke. The Riding Hood Red layer was cut using a Scalloped Rectangle Nestabilities die. The square green brads are from Bazzill and the ribbon is from the Paper Source.

Not a lot to it, but I liked the way it turned out and it came together pretty quickly - start to finish it was about an hour. That's the closest I'll ever get to a ten-minute card!

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

Don't forget to check back next week for a chance to win some blog candy!

Never give up!

Happy Monday! Hope you had a nice weekend! I was glad to be home after a week on the road for work.

A few weeks ago, Ellen Hutson posted a tutorial in The Classroom about a technique called ghosting and I thought I would give it a try. The technique involves stamping with white pigment ink, then inking over it to accentuate the stamped image. The white stamped image will resist the ink, leaving a ghost-like effect. I used a wood grain background stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms, stamped with Ranger Snow Cap Pigment ink on a regular shipping tag. I sponged some Ranger Distress Ink in Antique Linen, Vintage Photo and Weathered Wood around the tag to accentuate the wood grain.

Once my tag was complete, I stamped the fly fisherman and sentiment, also from Cornish Heritage Farms, in Memento Rich Cocoa ink. Both were cut out using Nestabilities dies (I cut out the fishing line section first, and slid the die under it in order to keep it from being cut by the die) and sponged with the Distress Inks while still in the die. I assembled the card using the Card Architecture Blue Print #1 sketch that Ellen provided in the Ghosting post.

My background paper is a wood grain pattern from Basic Grey's Granola collection. On top of that, I layered my ghosted tag, then a couple of strips of blue papers, also from Granola, then my main image and the sentiment. The sentiment was topped off with a couple of Papertrey Ink's Rustic Wood buttons and twine. The end result is a nice masculine card.

Next week is my one year anniversary of blogging and I'll be giving away some goodies to celebrate, so be sure to check back!

Thanks for looking and have a great week!

Have a Delightful Day!

Happy Tuesday! Hope you had a nice Memorial Day weekend. We had company over Saturday and Sunday nights, so I spent most of my time in the kitchen, and very little time stamping, unfortunately. So, today's card comes from the archives...it was made using supplies from one of our Krafty Kat kits and was submitted to Take Ten magazine for the Design Challenge for the Summer 2009 issue, but it was not accepted. Oh well, if at first you don't succeed...

The stamp is from Cornish Heritage Farms, the inks are from Stampin' UP! and the patterned papers are all from Sandylion Sticker Designs - Kelly Panacci collection. I believe the crystals are from Kaisercraft, but I don't recall whose ribbon it is. There's not much to explain about this card - pretty simple since it was supposed to be a ten-minute card, although I've personally never been able to make that happen....;-)

Have a delightful day and thanks for looking!

Plant a seed of friendship

I created this card using the CPS104 sketch from March 22nd. The embossed and glittered patterned paper is from Mind Mind's Eye's Laundry Line collection (Sundress Heirloom) and the rust colored paper I used for my mats is from BasicGrey's Marrakech collection (African Nectar).

The flower stamp is an old one from Hero Arts and was colored using Copic markers (E11, E35, R02, YR00, YR41, Y26, YG95, G99,0). The sentiment is from Cornish Heritage Farms. Both stamped panels were sponged/distressed using Ranger Distress Inks (Antique Linen and Vintage Photo). The ribbon is from May Arts. Here's a close up of the glittery embossed background:

Hope you're having a good week! I'm excited about going to see A Chorus Line tonight at the Fox Theater. Thanks for looking!

Shimmery Iris

I love the new line of Shady Tree Studios stamps from Cornish Heritage Farms. They are a lot of fun to color and there are so many options for using them. I colored this Iris Bloom with Copic markers to match the patterned paper and then went over the lighter areas of my coloring with some Shimmerz paint to give it a bit of sparkle. The image was stamped on Cryogen white paper, which also has a nice shimmer, and then it was cut with a long rectangle Nestabilities die and layered on a scalloped mat that was cut from Prism Majestic Purple card stock. The embossed patterned paper is from Cloud 9 Design.

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Mixed Messages set. I die cut the tag and its mat using two Spellbinder's Double Ended tags, but cut them on one end with my scalloped edge scissors. The tag was adhered to my main image panel with a Stampin' Up lavender rhinestone brad. The sheer lavender ribbon is from Offray and was added to cover up a mistake I made....but I won't tell what it was ;-)

Thanks for looking. Have a good weekend!

Happy Anniversary

Several months ago, a friend asked me to make a card that she could buy to give to a couple she knows for their 25th wedding anniversary at the end of January. Did I jump right on it? Of course not! So here it is January and amidst all the other cards I'm obligated to make right now, I also had to come up with a special anniversary card for her. One of these days I'm going to learn to stop procrastinating....

So, here it is. I struggled with this one and ended up having to re-do almost all of it, but overall I'm happy with the way it turned out. The heart image is one I bought from Stamp Camp at last year's Heirloom Pro show, and since it's almost time for this year's show, I figured that stamp ought to see some ink. I stamped it with the new Versamark Dazzle ink, then heat embossed it with silver embossing powder. The happy anniversary stamp is from Cornish Heritage Farms' Script Essential Expressions set. After I cut the heart out (oooh, that sounds bad...), I decided it needed a black border, so I stamped the image again on black paper and cut it out, leaving about 1/8th of an inch all around to create the mat layer.

I embossed part of the silver paper with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder and then scored several lines across the middle, 1/8th inch apart. I used my ticket corner punch for all four corners and added some black Heidi Swapp bling in the corners and through the middle.

Now my question - what do you think would be a fair price to charge for a card like this? I struggle with this as I will never be able to charge enough to actually make any money on my cards, but I don't want to just give them away either. So, let me know what you think.

Thanks for stopping by!

Card details:

Patterned paper: from my stash (no name on it)

Card stock: Papertrey Ink Silver Shimmer card stock; Cryogen White

Stamps: Stamp Camp; Cornish Heritage Farms

Ink: Versamark Dazzle

Misc.: Ribbon - Michael's or Hobby Lobby, not sure which; Silver embossing powder - JoAnn's; Bling - Heidi Swapp

With Sympathy

Sympathy cards are always a bit tough to do, especially when the recipient is a male. Sadly, I've had to do 3 of them this summer for co-workers and a client. This one I whipped up this morning before I headed out of town. The background is made up of several images from Cornish Heritage Farms' Nature's Silhouettes set. The different images were randomly stamped using a variety of inks and colors. The sentiment and its border were cut out and embossed with my long rectangle Nestabilities.

Not much to it, but hopefully it will provide a bit of comfort to the recipient.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a good week!

Card Details:
Stamps - Cornish Heritage Farms
Inks - Clearsnap Colorbox Chalk Ink - Burnt Sienna; Tsukineko Versamagic - Wheat, Aloe Vera, Pumpkin Spice; Tsukineko Brilliance - Cosmic Copper
Other - Spellbinders Nestabilities

And another....

Here's another card with the new Basic Grey Euphoria paper. I just received an order of scented embossing powders from Cornish Heritage Farms and was itching to try some of it, so I decided to make a baby card.

There's not much to this card - I stamped the baby feet image with Versamark and embossed it with the Baby Powder Pink powder, then dragged the edges of the paper through the Versamark ink and embossed that too. The scalloped squares were cut with my Nestabilities. The edges of the card were sponged with Ranger Adirondack Cranberry ink.

I stamped directly on the grosgrain ribbon with my Adirondack Cranberry ink and then tried to heat set it before it bled too much, but it bled a bit anyway.

Thanks for looking!

Card Details:
Pattern paper - Basic Grey Euphoria - Frenzy and Utopia
Stamps - Hero Arts - Baby Feet; Rubber Stampede - Sentiment
Ink - Ranger Adirondack Cranberry
Embossing Powder - Cornish Heritage Farms - Baby Powder Pink (scented)
Other - Ribbon, Spellbinders Nestabilities