Chistmas Snowman

I made this card as a result of a fun-looking challenge at SheetLoad. Although it should have been a quick card, it took way longer than I thought it would, but only because I was 'finger-inking' the black & white gingham ribbon and kept smudging red on my Bordering Blue card. The stamp is an older PSX image I got when I was a newer stamper, and the greeting is from SU's 'Heard from the Heart' set. I watercolored the snowman, using SU's Wonderful Watercolor Crayons and the Neutral Crayons, which is where I got the white from. I Liquid Appliqued the carrot with orange, and fastened my finger-inked ribbons with red brads.

'Finger-inking' is my own name for a technique I use to color ribbon to match my need without having to buy every shade and variety of color...but you wouldn't know that from looking at my ribbon stash! LOL I did not make up the technique, but gosh, I have to call it something when I am explaining it! I simply take my ribbon, (usually it's white grosgrain or satin but in this case, gingham) and the ink color pad that I would like it to match. Then I hold the ribbon end tightly between two fingers with one hand and push my index finger over the top of the ribbon, close to my gripping fingers, and pull the ribbon through the inkpad. Flip it over and do the other side for 'evenness.' (is that even a word?) You may have to do this a couple of times for the color you want, and then let it dry a bit so you don't smudge the paper when you attach...then be sure to wash your hands well before going back to work on your project. Soap doesn't always get the darker colors out, but use a cleaner like 'Awesome' (from Family Dollar or a dollar store - works great on everything and CHEAP!) directly on your skin and it should come right off.
Thanks for looking and enjoy your weekend!

Silhouette Nativity Peace Card

In my last post, I told you about the new Blog I found called Sheetloads of Cards. Here is my card I am entering for the contest. I am having trouble getting it on their gallery, but when I do, this is the one following the sketch this month. I first chose the Stripe Pattern Paper, and upon searching for a coordinating pattern, I cam across a sheet I stamped last year for some of the One-Sheet Wonder Projects I was working on...so that's what I went for. With the snowflakes on the front, I began to dig in my winter/Christmas drawer to find the right sized image for the squares I had cut out, and the Nativity Silhouette stamp was what I chose. Not your typical Christmas card colors, but I do like how they turned out. The batch to cut made 6 card fronts. So, tell me what you think!

SheetLoad's Blog Candy Blow Out

I found this neat Blog this weekend called SheetLoad of Cards. It has a free monthly

e-magazine with ideas for a new card sketch each month and the cutting diagram to get the best use of your paper and make your cards quicker, by batches with your colors, patterns, stamps, embellishments and let you spend more time having fun with your hobby, and less time figuring it all out. I love this place and its concept! Anyway, they are giving a few good prizes away, and you might want to stop by and see what SheetLoads of cards is about. You have until the November 16th to get your card entered!

C-Ya soon!

Wil Wild West Cowboy Card

This was my card for yesterday's Sketch Challenge #202. I made it using the retired set of Wild Wild West and watercoloring the images. I'n not sure I like painting over images that are so shaded as this one, as the lines don't seem as natural as layering darker colors to get the effect of shadows., but it's is a good guy card. The copper squares on the bottom of the pictures were a part of the sketch and I grabbed a scrap of leftover Heated Pearls from a PearlEx class I did way back when. With all the re-arranging things going on in my stamp studio, I am findind a lot of long-forgottens and needs-to-be-used-up stuff! Have a great day!

Enjoy the Little Things!

This is the Sketch Challenge card for Splitcoaststamper this week. I really wish the photo showed the sparkle it has, but many, many pictures later, this was the best one.

I really kinda fell into the design before I even realized it was the card I thought I wouldn't be able to think up. Everyone has seemed to be doing these neat square frames from the border punches, so I was playing around and found a way to elongate the square (could I just say rectangle? :). Then I dug around to find something that fit the size I had made..."Enjoy" worked like a charm. I embossed it with some black embossing powder that had glitter in it, and stamped "the little things" in black stazon. Still having the cupcake stamp in the table from a previous card, I put one in the middle and colored with gel pens, popping up the cherry with Red PolyMark (very cheap at Walmart!)

I am not sure why I felt the the card base had to be Cameo Coral, must have been the way the cupcake paper looked...but then I needed pattern paper to anchor the two colors together. I ran into this same problem last week with a color challenge using odd colors together, I found that making my own background paper was the most handy. Surely I must have sweet little candies in my stamps somewhere!!! Oh yes! here they are, haven't seen daylight in a few years, but I used the candy border from retired "Fun Frame Borders" at an angle and then painted them with the green and coral to match the solid colors...it looked okay, but after I added that sugary Dazzling Diamonds, it looked great. I stuck them together and I was done! Yay! Now, on to other things! Hope you have a great weekend!

Happy Harmony Card

Yet another Angelosity Sketch Challenge Card #11! One more after this and then I am done! When I was working on these cards, I just seemed to pick up parts left froma different card - using up the scraps so I dont have to put them away! This set 'Happy Harmony' was one of the most beautiful Sell-A-Bration sets in my opinion. Having these 3 simple flowers in a grouping, and several really nice sayings, I stamped it all over with the springy flowers I imagined (desperately hoped) to see soon, in the chilly everlasting February days when Sellabration took place. But I never "saw" it though in terms of a nice fall set as well a spring set. Until today. I used the direct to rubber technique, using the markers to color the rubber for the stem (olive) and blooms (rust). I used Stazon for the words...in my opinion, lettering just comes out better. The Navy and Rust colors on the card make it sing "Autum Card!" Unless I come up with a better one, I think may use this for my parents' anniversay card this month...58 years! I love them both very much!

One more entry to do tonight! See ya there!

Another Angelosity Challenge Card

Wish Big Card

I have had a great time working on her challenges at her blog this week. I didn't do them all, as I found this site about half-way through, but it did inspire me to try some...I expand my spectrum of creativity when I force myself to use colors I wouldn't think of, or sketches I hadn't considered.

This was a sketch that required a small image or phrase in the center of a card. Once I found the phrase in the Short & Sweet set, I used the little cupcakes to embellish the work. Colored with markers, I used tiny dots of Red PolyMark (from Walmart and it's cheap!) to pop up the cherries.
For the Barely Banana background I stamped the retired background stamp called "Birthday Greetings" with So Saffron ink. Seriously lacking the sugary sparkle it needed, I used a stray ribbon from my drawer and topped it off, with a real bow...which is funny for me though, because I am usually a 'knotty' girl!

Off to another card post!

Coast to Coast Lighthouse

Angelosity's Day 17 Challenge Card

You may recognize this image and the way it's watercolored as being very similar to a card I posted a while back. That's because once I pull oout the image and the Stazon, I feel like it makes more sense to stamp several images and clean the stamp once. Then, as long as I have the Aqua Painters and Watercolor Crayons out, it is super quick to paint the extra images and the brush is all ready with each color I'd probably pick the next time anyway...and it does help me get some card put together quick.

Do you do this? Do you have a time-saving secret you would share with me? Post it in the comments for this card and you may win some images from this retired Coast to Coast set for you to have ready for a quick card set! I'll draw a name on December 1st - a long time away I know, but traffic here isn't too busy, and I really would like to find extra time when I stamp - can't we all? Please share!

On to the next entry!

One Sheet Wonder Card

Another challenge from Angelosity brought this card out of the corners of my imagination. The challenge was to use Olive, Red, Pretty in Pink and Bashful Blue all on the same card. Not in my wildest imagination would I have ever thought this up on my own, but after trying to lay my papers together in a variety of ways, I decided that a One Sheet Wonder might help me tie these shades together to come up with something. It came out a bit retro-looking...reminds me of vintage wrapping paper.

In case you are wondering, a "One Sheet Wonder" is rather like making your own hand-stamped background paper that you would use in projects, like cards, journals, scrapbook pages. By using your own images and colors, each print is unique and ideal to make sets of cards and accessories. More on that later.

Here is where I found the card challenges, when I was blog-hopping the other night and found a great site that has not only a lot of great ideas, but right now a celebration of 18 days of Angelosity with prizes, sketches and treats! It's not too late to join the fun!

C-ya Later!

Cheryl

Angelosity Sketch Challenges #1

I like to blog-hop around when I have some quiet time to really look and think. Last night, I was checking out a blog and found a link to a new one which happens to be having and "18 days of Angelosity" celebration and I was drawn right into the challenges...I did these two card sketches, the lower sketch being closer to the sketch and the upper one is the same sketched turned on its side. The color for that day was red, and I chose to work specifically with Riding Hood Red. I put Sticky Diamonds on the flower centers of the "Simple Florals" card, which background paper was from the K&CO McKenna Collection. The "Reverse Prints" card is just solid paper, Riding Hood Red, Black and White...I topped the image with a flourishy thing from the "Frames with a Flourish," added a black satin ribbon and had 2 very easy cards!

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Make it a good day! Take time to stamp today!

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http://angelosity.blogspot.com/ and you may have to go to October 20th to get the details...we have until November 7th to participate...so pop in over there and check out the fun! There are prizes...

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C-Ya Later!

Cheryl