Bear Hugs!

This was a very quick card to make. Using the bear from "Under the Stars" with Chocolate Chip ink on a Creamy Carmel cardstock oval, I then re-matted it onto a larger Chocolate Chip oval. Using the "Woodgrain" background stamp, (first time used) I decided to stamp the image and move it over ever-so-slightly and re-stamp it without re-inking. to give it a more grain without overpowering. It has a blotchier (is that a word?) look, but I did get the campier

(is that a word???) look I desired. I used an old image from my vast collection for the greetings as it seemed perfect for my 14 year-old grandson who is too big for hearts and birdies from Grandma!

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Have a great Day and C-ya soon!

Back to Stay!

Life in our home has taken some interesting turns in the last 2 months, but we are adjusting and in spite of the fact that my DH is unemployed and at home all the time now (in the county with the highest unemployment rate in the state). We knew this was coming a while back and were well prepared when it came to pass. What I wasn't prepared for, was all this "togetherness time." It sure is different to be under the surveilance of my "beloved boss" 24 & 7. As I said, we are adjusting. We've worked on some long overdue projects around the house and of course homeschooling our little girl goes on and I have been working harder on weaving my rugs for a local gallery where my stuff will be at this summer. It sounds so busy, but I realized that I have apparently been finding quite a bit of time for stamping, when I started taking photographs of my recent cards. So here is the first of a bunch of cards I have to share...I am committing to posting more regularly in 2010.
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My LoveBirds card has a Pretty in Pink base card and Mambo Melon Scalloped Heart, with both pieces being run through my Bigshot with Stampin' Up!'s Elegant Bouquet Embossing Folder. The birds and the branches were all punched with SU's new Extra Large Two-Step Bird Punch from page 10 of the Occaissions Mini Catalog. I sponged the birds' bellies and wings and the branches with Platinum Shimmers that was in the Holiday Mini Catalog (and still available as are all the Big Shot items in there as well). The label was punched from Modern Label and Word Window, and the words were from the set "Three Little Words" available for sale in the Big Catalog, or as one of the free choices for a Sale-a-Bration selection. To finish the card, I dotted the birds' eyes with tiny spots of black shiny paint, and added stick-on diamonds on the word window.

C-ya later!

Merry Little Christmas Skaters

I am experimenting with various ideas for Christmas cards for this year's cards. I like to make many before I decide which is "the one" that will be our family card.

This card combines the "Winter Post" skaters and reindeer with the "Scenic Season" pines, and the greeting comes from the Level 2 Hostess Set "Christmas Punch."

Using Card Pattern's Sketch #35 as inspiration, I also used the Stampin' Addicts Color Challenge 32 with Soft Suede, Kraft, Old Olive, Real Red with Very Vanilla as my neutral color.

Tools that I used on this card include the Top Note Die with my Big Shot, the Wide oval punch and the 1-1/4" and 1-3/8" circle punches and colored pencils.

Have a great day!
C-ya later!
Cheryl

Miss you a Latte!

As my first attempt to get back into regular daily stamping, I found a great "Clean & Simple" challenge at this site. After seeing the sketch challenge, I knew I needed to make a coffee card. For me, "coffee" is always the best place for me to start - for projects, road trips, mornings, even card making! This card went together quickly and I confess I do like how it turned out!

My card base is made from a cardstock I picked up several years ago, and while I cannot tell you the maker, I do remember it was called acurately "Gingerbread" if that helps anyone trying to replicate it. Real Red and Chocolate Chip trim for the Very Vanilla panel. I used Real Red Classic ink for the cup (What's Brewing?) and clear embossed over that with Faith's Miracle Embossing Powder, and added a light bordering blue for the steam swirls and some gingham ribbon. I used VersaMark with White embossing powder for the "Miss you a latte!" (Like it a Latte). The coffee bean pattern paper was a real find for me, as my love of coffee keeps me on the lookout for theme papers and stamps. This was a scrap from a GFS advertisement, and with careful trimming, I can make about 6 cards with the beany borders around the one page.

C-ya tomorrow!

NO stamps here!

Here is a card I made today for a challenge and when I had finished and started noting what I had used in the process, I realized I had not used a single stamp!

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Another 6x6" card - I seem to be on a roll here, and using K&Co Paper from the Blue Awning Pad. I guess the nice thing about using 12 x 12 paper is that I get 4 card fronts from each sheet.

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Today's SCS "Ways to Use it" Challenge was to use a pile of embellishments...and so I started with a monogram chipboard letter that came white with a glitter pattern all over it, so I sponged a deep blue over it to get the white out of it. (warning: you will probably get glitter all over your pad! LOL). Next I used Brocade Blue and Night of Navy to die-cut my Nesties Scallop and Plain Ovals, at which time I had one of those AHA! moments.

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***When cutting Nesties, I've been layering the top over a bottom piece. But today, I realized that if I were to die cut a frame for the back layer of my Nesties, I would also have a pre-cut smaller oval for another card...and there are times, when I am making my "sheetloads of cards," that I could end up with a stack of pre-cuts all ready for a future batch of cards! This can save me time and card stock and no one will ever even know the difference!***

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The flowers were some I had here (odd-looking to have green in the centers, but I think they sorta go with the green on the Pattern Paper). After removing the plastic centers, I secured the blooms with rhinestone brads, and stuck a few "diamonds" over the navy organdy ribbon that runs under the oval. I

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The last part to go on was a brass hummingbird. I liked the idea, but not the brass, so I grabbed my Gold & Silver Painty Pen and painted over the brass with the silver part of the pen and it dried quickly and I stuck it on...and done.

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Have a great day and stay warm if you aren't already in the tropics!

Cheryl

NEW!!! Echoes of Kindness

I thought of this set as soon as I read the Technique Lovers Challenge on Splitcoast today...a technique that I used to do alot, several years ago...so I hopped right back to that technique and it's alot easier than it looks. Hence, here's a tutorial with my hints along the way.
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First you want to raid your scrap pile. If you want to make tile, cut them on a cutter, use a punch, freehand cut (like I did) or tear. Such a great way to use up ALL your scraps!
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***I use 2 sided carpet tape, that I use a great deal of, when I am card-making. Unless you're very lucky, you cannot usually remove a piece once you tape it. It's about an inch and a half wide, and you first stick it on your piece to glue on, and then peel the remaining backing off. It is a dollar at a dollar store for 47 feet, and if you can't find an easy method to peel the backing off, grab your Tupperware orange peeler and it'll flip it up for you. I would not recommend this wonder-tape for scrapbooking, as I am not sure of it's acidity.***
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Stretch out a piece about 6 inches long to a lightweight sheet of paper. I used one width, but if you want wider, lay the tape lengths out, side by side with no gaps, so that you can peel up the tops without messing up the adjoining edges when you peel them.
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Peel the top/tops off.
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Put your little pieces all over the tape, leaving spaces between for the embosing powder to stick to (like the cement between bricks).
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**Here is where I invented tools to help pick up those itty bitty pieces. Use your 2-Way glue on the end of a crochet hook, stylus or a pencil-end eraser. Let it dry for a few minutes and then you can pick up pieces and put them where you want them on the sticky stuff. So easy now!**
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Fill in your area and then cover the in-between spaces with your embossing powder. Heat. Check after it has cooled for any spots you may have missed and re-heat those areas. It is easy to do, since you have so many edges to keep track of. Now cut down the mosaic to size and use on your card.
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Let me know if you tried this!
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On my card I used Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Brocade Blue, Soft Sky, Almost Ametyst, and Not Quite Navy, White cardstock. Copper embossing powder. A touch of Pearl-Ex (over the tiles) and a the "Alligator" Cuttlebug embossing folder, and Nestabilities Ovals and Scallops, Watercolor Crayons.

Howdy Cowboy

Howdy Strangers! I'm back to posting again after a few weeks of getting into the New Year routines...my DH was on vacation over the holidays and although he got a few things done around here, we mostly stayed around the homefires and sipped hot coffee. But it sure seemed I had lots to catch up on around here when he went back to work!...and this long stretch of a cold spell here in the UP has just about put me into hibernation! Maybe I'm getting old but it seems I can't warm up and stay warm like I used to. I've taken to wearing knee-high leather slippers and a knitted red shawl over my shoulders (when I'm not donning a bathrobe I use to help stay warm). Enough about the weather now, I know spring is c-c-c-c-c-oming...just seems alot further away than it did last year about this time. BRRRR!!!

This is a topper-card I did this week for my card camp. Featuring some of retiring sets, I had to have this set included in the class. Using the Top-Note BigShot die, I cut-out, stamped and sponged it to distress it, tied on the rope and set it over a piece of western pattern paper with clipped corners. ***The folded card base is 4 1/4" square, and I always do this style of card laying the base on an A-2 envelope, aligning the bottom edges of the card and envelope's side together. You will see where to attach the topper and still be able to fit it into the envelope, rather than make the card too long.***

That's it for tonight, I've got more cards to post tomorrow!

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C-ya later!

Cheryl

Watercolored Winter Card

Often when my family camps, I take stuff to watercolor with me, so that I have something to do without packing an extra trailer full of stuff. I have a small space that is my Stamping Cubby, and it is just right to bring my watercolor crayons, colored pencils, and Aqua Painter brushes and clipboard. That's how I found time to come up with a card with all the watercoloring detail in December, that part was done last August! Wanting to keep a coutry homespun look to it, I opted to use the Ivory Naturals card stock and cuttlebugged the dotted texture onto the card...I love how these textures look on the Naturals card stocks. The Stampin' Up! set "Quilted Quotes" was a Level 3 Hostess set of 4 ~ Way. way, way back in 2001. Has it been that long?

C-Ya Later!

Cheryl

Sheetloads of Cards Challenge

This is the card I did to get the December Challenge Card done, before the month's end. I found this great fun little blog in November and have become really enthused about it. They have taken card making to a new level of creativity, by coming up with these card sketches, once a month. I do quite a few challenges to broaden my idea pool, and a sketch is kind of like a map that gives you a layout to use for your card. "Sheetloads of Cards" has gone one step better and besides giving us the sketch, they give you the measurements for one card, and also for a batch of cards. This sketch gives you the cutting guide for 8 cards, last month it was given for 6. i think it goes by the convenient size to get the most out of your cardstock and pattern paper. They (SOC) even tell you exactly how much ribbon you will need. You can read about this here. Please look at a few posts to get the gist of it, clicking on the e-magazine you can save it or view it...it's a free publication and you can go back to their earlier issues as well too.

I love "free" and sharing "free" is fun too!

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C-Ya Later!

Cheryl

Very Fast Ornaments on Cards

I finally finished mailing out all my Christmas cards yesterday - I did it a little differently than I usually do this year. I wrote out all the envelopes first and wow did I have a lot to mail out! I had made many cards throughout the year, but not quite enough to fill them all. So, when I was looking last Friday for some quick cards to mail to local friends and relatives (I mailed the out-of-state and Lower Peninsula cards last week), I came across a few challenges I thought I would like to try - but NO inspiration at that moment. Later in the day, when I was at the local St. Vinny's store, picking up some furniture for my daughter's apartment, I saw they had Christmas stuff marked 75% off...so I took a look and as soon as I saw these ornaments, I "saw" my cards.

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The challenges were (1) to make a card that was at least 75% blue, and only one embellishment that wasn't paper...which would is the single brass ornament. (2) to make a card that was beyond quick, or average about 5 minutes per. I set my timer for 30 minutes and went to work.

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Once started, the framing and attaching took a bit longer to figure out how to get the look I wanted, because the ornaments I used were slightly varied in sizes, and I had to use a combination of a colluzzle circle first, and then the scallop punched around the circle hole to make the frame. Next I needed to figure out how to attach the ornament so that it would be simple to take apart, and not show the string on the front. So, I when I attached the ornament, I pierced a hole through the middle of the card front and poked the string through it, pulled the string up (which would be down on the inside) and taped it with clear tape, and then covered the hole with the scalloped frame on the front, which makes it nearly invisible. As I was finishing my first card, the timer went off. I was amazed time went so quickly, but realized I had to put some design-time into the "little glitches" which seemed to be worked out.

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So I re-set it, and started on the remaining 5 and was done with them before the timer went off. A set of Nestabilities Circles would have definately made things much quicker, but I don't have the circle set in my collection yet!

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So there you have them! And they are all on their way to dear friends or family. Today - my daughters, Gretchen and Natalie and I are going to do all our baking, so I better clear the decks!

Enjoy your day!

Pattern of Friendship & Accident Update

This is a Sketch Challenge Card for today that I started out with the front most panel (from my S&F box, so it was already stamped, pieced and sponged), and worked to the back. My biggest challenge was deciding what colors to compliment the paper-pieced dresses with. My cold is still miserable and I am truly challenged for picking colors when I am sick. When I got to the ribbon, I was stumped, so I asked for the helpful advice of my stamping buddy, Natalie, who is also my 4&1/2 year old daughter. I gave her about 5 choices and she chose the one I least liked and based her decision on the white flowers matching the pinked white layer and daisies, and the pinks daisies matching the dress. I had asked, so I did put it on, added some buttons and made it "our" card. It's a cheery looking card if nothing else!

An update on my parents, who were in a car accident last week: I can not express my gratitude to all who have prayed for them...and me. All I can say is that God is truly merciful. My mom's face is continuing to bruise, but she is doing all right...probably overdoing it if I know her. My dad's shoulder and wrist pain brought him to the doctor's office yesterday to be examined again, and his wrist was broken after all. His shoulder also looks to have some rotator cuff?/cup? (not sure what she said) problems as well. So he is looking at having his wrist cast tomorrow, and not sure how long he'll have to wait for help on his shoulder. I dearly wish I could be out there to help out more, but until I recoup from my cold, I'm keeping my distance. The woman in the other car, has some neck injuries, 2 fractured neck bones, but not paralyzed, thank God! Still, she is restricted on what she can do, so Ill be continuing to pray for her too.

Cedar Moose Card

I did a dozen of these cards in about an hour last week. So easy and simple, yet I do like how they turned out. I am a "gadget girl" and this card helped me play with a few of them, but it did make the job go quickly. I began with half sheets of Natural Ivory cardstock, creased with my Score-Pal, and then I cut my Chocolate Chip cardstock into 5.25" x 4.0" size. Next I used my Nestabilitie Ovals on the center of each. When that was done, I used the Stressed Stripes cuttlebug Folder on brown frames. I adhered the frames to the front of my cards and used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to place the moose...(***HINT: Do not lift the handle of the Stamp-a-ma-jig until you are satisfied that the image is dark enough! If you keep holding it in place with one hand, you can re-ink the moose and restamp until you get it as sark as you want it!***) Lastly, I decided to send a piece of "Home" to my friends and kin that are afar off at Christmas time, and picked a danglin little branch of cedar of a tree in our yard, picked it apart and and attached pieces and bowls with "Fabri-Tac" glue - (wonderful stuff at WalMart in the crafts - which also works great for gluing bulky stuff on cards, mending clothes, purses and gluing velcor back on my little girl's shoe straps. Like hot glue with out the hot!) On a second look back on the stack, I realized they would not be the same without some 'snow'...so with a little two-way glue on the branches, I added Dazzling Diamond Glitter along the top parts and these cards are good to go!

CHEAP TRICK: Save the ovals with your Nestabilities or with your Colluzzle templates, and you will save the time and paper of re-doing it when you need brown ovals or layers. Of course you were probably going to save them somewhere anyway, but if they are there with your tools, you may be able to use them sooner.

Fairy Nice Card

My how time has flew by since my last post! That's how summers seem to go around here - FAST!!! I did this card over a week ago and am just getting to post it now. It was a SCS Challenge that challenged us to make out card using an all white card base, no layers, I think, although that may have been only my interpretation of it. The idea being to enjoy the white space and not clutter it up with so much stuff. (I could take some life lessons on this! LOL)

So, I dug out a set, Stampin' Up!'s retired Fairy Nice set, and stamped the image and words in Stazon Black. I watercolor-crayon painted the image and outlined it with a glue pen for a thin outline of the image. Next I sprinkled Dazzling Diamonds over the glue, and dug through my ribbon drawer until I found a ribbon that matched part of her dress and put on a ribbon across the top. I like the look more than I thought I would...definately I need to try some more of these cards with 'white-open spaces!'

Have a Fairy Nice Day!

Cheryl

Grid Card Challenge Card

Hello,
This morning's Technique Lover's Cahllenge was to make a grid card using a scoring tool. As I have used both the score blade from the Fiskars Personal cutter, and more recently acquired the Scor-Pal from my husband, I used the latter tool for my card this morning...and did it ever work wonderfully easy!
Here's how I did the my card. I began by looking at this Grid Tutorial and then grabbed a piece of Kraft Paper to try it out. Well, it turned out well, so I just decided to use that scrap for my project. I chose Real Red for the card itself. Next, I determined that my grid needed to be a window frame, so I used a large square punch and punch it from all four sides to make a larger square...I'll do a tutorial later this week how I do this. I planned to do a single inking of red on my Canvas Background stamp and for some reason, it cme out weird, so I huffed the stamp and put the paper on again, then again, and kept trying to get an even look to it. Not to be done, but it did come out with a kind of "shabby chic" look about it (read: LAZY), but I was satisfied, so Iwent on to stamp the Queen Anne's lace silouette from Garden Silhouette...and then dotted the tips with my White Signo Gel Pen. I would have liked to do something white on it (words or something) but my white Craft Pad is missing in action somewhere, so I settled for the white dots. Then I tied a very ravel-lish ribbon aound the frame, like a gift ribbon. This is a very fun technique...and I'll probably be looking what else I can do with this tool I have not used to full potential yet.

So there you have it! Have a very good day!

Cheryl

French Swans on the Lake

I loved making this card, once I decided on the image and background paper. That's alway the hardest part of getting started. Although I have a LOT of stamps and cardstock, sometimes it is a hinderance to getting started. The image, I decided would have to be based on the size I needed for the measurements given. In the way back of a drawer I found a set (SU's Birds, ret.) that had NEVER been used! So I stamped it with Going Gray and Watercolor Crayon painted it with Celery and Bordering Blue, and Pumpkin on the beaks. Then, I found one pattern paper I really waned to use, and nothing else in the K&Co Bailey collection matched. So, I found a muted celery-ish pattern there and stamped French Script over it with a Blue Bayou, to tie it to the piece I loved...on the right. I bordered the pieces with Going Gray and used Soft Sky as my card color...then I wondered if there was a way to pull our the swans a little more.

From 'Out of the Box' to 'Out on a Whim!'

This was my SCS "Ways to use it #172" challenge card today. Although I have a lot of bird stamps, I decided to put an idea of mine to work before the 'Polka Dot & Paisley' set retires this August. I got the idea quite a while ago, when I first saw the paper design...so I dug a scrap up today and there it is. I paper pieced the body and wing colors. The head is a 3/4" punch, the head feathers were one of the stamps. The branch is from 'Artfully Asian' another set I will really miss when it retires in August also. Hope you like it!

Have a great evening!

Cheryl

There's a Lighthouse on a Hillside...

Does anyone know this song? It's a favorite of mine. I made this card to encourage my beloved Son-in-Law who is going through some bad storms in his life right now. I really liked painting with the inks on the previous card, so I just kept on the same technique. 'Coast to Coast' is one of those sets I could never part with, and because I helped him outfit his first apartment with a lighthouse theme, this had to be the set I needed for him. I used 'Sanded' for the background, and took a word saying from 'Refuge & Strength' and cut the rust rectangle and punched the circle to finish the Designer Label Punch...makes that punch get even more mileage!

See you later!

Cheryl

My Technique Lover's Challenge Card

Good Afternoon!

Here I am practicing my newly acquired skills again and showing my card from yesterday's Technique Lover's Challenge on SCS. It involved using re-inkers to paint the cards with. Needing to come up with a layout, I also checked out the sketch challenge from last week and came up with this greeting card. I'm not sure who it's for yet, but perhaps will use it for a stamp camp card at some point. I really do like how delicate the simpe details are on this 'Embrace Life' set, especially the leafy stem twig.

See ya later!

Cheryl

Posting with a Photo...Here we go!

Hello!
I told you I'd be back, and although this is day #3 of reading and re-reading tutorials in short bursts of how to put a picture up...and I think I may just have it this time!
In honor of Summer having officially arrived this past weekend, I thought it was fitting to post a beach card with real sand. Real sandpaper, that is, all torn and layered, and it even sparkles like beach sand too. I used SU's "Crab & Company."
If this post works, I'll keep studying the tutorials and learn something else to do here!
Have a great day!
Cheryl