STAMPIN' SUNDAY

Last Sunday I went to the home of a fellow SU demo along with several others. We are part of the same downline group but haven't been together in quite some time since our "fearless" leader has moved to Florida. As part of the gathering we had a shoebox swap.

These are two of the projects we did. The pink is the one I designed. It is actually a design based on the July Sheet Load of Cards design. I love Sheet Load of Cards and for putting together a shoebox swap it's perfect. They've provided all the measurements for you. Just need to gather the supplies and cut........

I did a lot of embossing on this card. I just love to emboss.....The medallion in the circle is embossed with silver powder on silver ink. The sentiment is embossed with clear powder over Tempting Turquoise craft ink. The most fun though was the scalloped strip was stamped with Versamark ink and then embossed with clear powder. I did it on the newBaja Breeze paper and then sponged over the whole strip with Pacific Point ink. Then I took a tissue and buffed off the ink that was on top of the embossed part of the image. The ink will not stick to the embossing it just rubs right off.

I used the new scalloped boarder punch on the two sides of the strip. This is so much easier and nicer than using the corner rounder punch without the guide. I absolutely love it!
These are the projects that one of the other gals designed for us to make. They are a card on the left and a post it note holder on the right. All new In Cololrs here--Pacific Point and Kiwi Kiss. I'm loving these colors. I am amazed when the first pictures of them came out that I didn't like them. They are all awesome!The fun thing about the card project here is we got to play with the Big Shot which is a new SU product that will be available I think September 2. IT is a die cutting machine. I doubt I will get one becasue I already have a Cuttlebug. I will be getting some of the dies though to use with my bug! I love them...sign what don't I love. We also used the new stamp set, Pocket Silhouettes. It's a really neat set and you know what from now through September 30 you can get it and other great new sets for 15% off. Isn't that awesome! Interested??? Ask your Stampin' Up Demonstrator. If you don't have a SU demonstrator ask me! Feel free to also ask about the Big Shot and cutting dies.

Tomorrow I'll shar with you a few more of the projects we made last Sunday.

WHAT'S BLACK AND WHITE AND RED?

This is one of the cards that I made for the VSN on SCS last weekend. I forget now what the title of this challenge was but we were to use some sort on newsprint in it.

I have a retired set from SU that is vintage writing implements. I can't remember the name of it right now, but will find out. I really like the set and it just seemed perfect for this challenge. So I hunted through the stacks of stamp boxes and found it. Then I did a Google search for vintage newspapers that could be printed on my home computer. I choose one and printed it onto white card stock. I've always liked the black, white and red color combo so decided to use that color recipe as it seemed to go well with the newsprint and it would provide a contemporary touch to an otherwise vintage card. I've also thought I needed to work with some chip board so did so inking it with Real Red craft inks. Thisis what I came up with for the challenge.

I like using newsprint so much I thought I would try another one using same stamp set and still focusing on the black, white and red color scheme. This was my second creation. You can't tell by this scan, but I even gold embossed the nib of the pen.

I still have some of the printed card stcok and will be working on another card or two with is. Maybe for those I will work with a different color scheme. Though I REALLY DO like the black, white and red. Maybe I'll try black white and yellow.

Oh and before you think I forgot to go back and check the name of the stamp set is Letters From Friends.

CELBRATE A CHALLENGE!

Did you know that Shelli...the Stampin' Up Shelli has her own BLOG now? If not you need to check it out. It's called So Shelli and it's not just for SU demonstrators. She just started BLOGing after the SU convention so she is still new at it, but there are some wonderful pictures from her recent trip to Australia. She got to hold a cute Koala. Though I hear they can be mean...Susan tell us more about Koalas.....

Also Shelli has a Creative Challenge that she has given out to her readers. You can find the info on it here. But don't wait too long to check it out if you are interested. Submissions are due by Aug 30. In honor of SU's 2008 convention theme which was Celebrate 2008 the challenge in short is to make a project with the word celebrate on it. Post your project on the internet, a BLOG or a gallery and then comment on the challenge BLOG posting with a link to your project.

Since this weekend was a big stamping weekend and since I didn't get to celebrate at convention this year I thought I would make one of my VSN cards using the word Celebrate and join in with Shelli's Celebration Challenge.

So here is my card. It was made for the Color Purple challenge on SCS and I actually think it is all SU (Though being so is not a requirement for Shelli's challenge.) Thought the stamp set and ribbon I used are both retired. Send a Celebration is the stamp set and it is one of my favorites. I love it and use it probably the most of any of my sets. It's just so fun.

The card didn't scan perfectly. For some reason the card stock layered under the green always scans blue when it is actually Lovely Lilac. It blends together much nicer in real life. You will just have to take my word for it.

Thank you Shelli for the opportunity to use this set again.

AUGUST FUN ON SCS

Its late and I really need to get to bed, but before I Go thought I would just stop by and share a bit of my VSN fun that I had on SCS this weekend.

First let me say that I loved all the challenges that were offered. I found time to finish about half of them. In the process I tried some new techniques and I also dug out some stamp sets that have not been used in quite some time. That's always fun.

I chose the card that I am featuring here tonight becasue it is one that I was ready to upload as a finished card when I looked at it again and decided that it still needed something. There just was something that didn't look right. I couldn't see it on the card itself for some reason, but when I looked at it on the computer I noticed that there seemed to be a big empty space in the lower right corner.

Because of the 45 minute time limit on making cards for the challenges I didn't have a lot of time to figure out a fix so I thought a moment or two and came up with something to try. Fortunately it worked. I rescanned the card and uploaded it with only a few seconds to spare in the 45 minutes.

Before I show you my fix let me tell you a bit more about the card itself. I was designed and made for the Alice In Wonderland challenge. All the challenges were based on books. This is what we were given for this challenge:

"I’ve heard recently that Johnny Depp and Tim Burton are going to team up to make a movie of “Alice in Wonderland”. My favorite passage from Alice in Wonderland is this:
<>
So in tribute to this passage, your challenge is to make a card using pearl-ex, twinkling H2Os, lumiere or scallops (circle, square, whatever scallops you like)."

That was it. I created a shimmery water picture using pearl-ex, twinkling H2Os, and lumiere to paint the image of the crab and then sprinkles a glittery gold embossing powder over it all. If I had nestibilities I would have used an outer scalloped circle behind the stamped image but I don't have them so I had to settle for another plain circle out of brushed gold card stock. I placed it all on a background made using one of my cuttlebug embossing folders that sort of looked like bubbles in water to me. Finally I added a Birthday Wish also on brushed gold card stock.

So back to my final fix. Simply three small rhinestones glues in a row. Maybe not the perfect fix but one that allowed me to finish in 45 minutes.

Now I will go to bed and in the next few days I will have lots to share. After stamping like a mad stamper all yesterday; designing and making 7 cards. This evening I went to a meeting with some of my SU stamping cohorts in the area and made 8 more projects. 7 cards and one post it note holder. Plus I still have more fun from the fall craft kit to share........See you later!

SOCK MONKEY FUN

I remember sock monkey's from when I was a kid. I don't think I ever had one but I thought they were so cute.

Then when I was a young adult they became popular again and I though maybe I would make one. IT wasn't hard to find a pattern because when you bought a pair of men's rag wool work socks they came with a pattern for them. You didn't even have to go to a craft store. Just ruin down to your local Sears and Roebuck or "Monkey" Wards, which is what our family called Montgomery Wards. Those of you who are youngin's have probably never heard of them as they went out of business I think in the last 1980's. Anyway, I did get socks that had the pattern and I did intend to make one, but.......I think it was about 10 years later I found the socks on a shelf, couldn't find the pattern so got rid of the socks and of course immediately there after found the pattern. Needless to say I never made me a sock monkey!

Now Stampin' Up has come up with a stamp set that will let me easily make a sock monkey for just about any occasion. He comes with his own party hat, banana, cupcake, balloon and more. Plus they have a companion accessory set with even more fun things for him to wear and hold.

Here is my first "monkey" card. Doesn't he have just the cutest grin? And he is ready to party! I colored him with my Prismas and OMS. I need to visit my buddy Lee again and get a few lessons on coloring well with these. An artist I am not when it comes to coloring and shading. But I am happy with my little guy.

So tonight is the start of SCS's VSN. Don't you just love acronyms? That's Split Coast Stampers Virtual Stamp Night. IT will be a fun night and then Saturday of stamping challenges. The theme for this event is authors and all the challenges will somehow relate to books and authors. I hope to take part in a few of them. That probably means I need to go up and do some cleaning in my room. There is a 45 minute time limit for making each card so you really do need to be organized and clean when you start because a mess will quickly develop! It is fun though and there is a lot of laughter and chatter on line along the way.

One final comment....in case you haven't noticed I still am using up bits and pieces from my summer craft kit.

LOVELY TREES

Two more cards here using the Lovely As a Tree stamp set from SU. They sympathy card actually was one of my fair entries. It was judged worthy of a red, 2nd place, ribbon which made me very happy.

Once again both of these cards use papers and embellishments from the Summer craft kit. (Don't worry I'm almost done using up everything and will soon move on to something else.)

I used watercoloring and masking with both of these cards, but think it worked out much better in the sympathy card. The birthday card is okay, but I am not totally happy with how it turned out. I think my background sky ended up to dark. Oh well live and learn. Right?

CARD AND PAGES

The 2008 Montgomery County Fair is now history! That means there is once again time to get back into my stamp room and play. My playing involves finishing up the use of the papers and embellishments in my Summer Craft Kit. The papers are almost gone. Only scraps remain, but since I mainly used this kit to make pages for my nephews baseball album I have quite a few embellishments left, especially the flowers. Somehow they just didn't seem appropriate to the baseball theme. Don't worry though they will not go to waste! They will be used on other projects in the future.

So here are two more pages for the album. I now have February and April
pages complete. All the pages I have completed so far have been fun though challenging. There are not many photos like you see in a lot of albums. Mainly the memories are of newspaper clippings and programs. Lots of print. Of course this does mean I don't have to do much if any writing which I do like.

One thing I have discovered is that rubbery (sticker) embellishments though really neat do not make sliding the pages they are on into page protectors very easy. They want to stick to the protector. So you have to be real careful with them. I do like the way they look however as they are thick and give a 3 D look. Also the ones I found are great colors. The strip of baseballs down they right side of the first page are these type of stickers as is the baseball bat and ball on the first page here. Come to think of it so is the "varsity" pennant. This page was a real bugger to get into the page protector, but I did it!

I didn't want to stop with the two pages so I also made another sympathy card. I used my new Stampin' Up scalloped border punch to make the scallop fringe that peaks out from the right side of the patterned paper strip. I then used the tip of my finger to "fluff" the scallops up a bit so they didn't lie totally flat against the card. I love this punch and know that it will get a lot of use.

I once again used the Lovely As a Tree stamp set from SU. I don't know why I waited so long to get this set. It is quickly becoming a favorite. I really like how the pine tree turned out here. The paper I stamped it on is a plain side of one of the double sided papers that came in the kit. It had a texture to it. Normally I don't like to stamp on textured paper because you get a texture showing on the image, but I like it with this pine tree stamp. I think it gives the feeling of the pine needles.

I hope you've enjoyed these and hope to be back to a more regular posting schedule. If you are interested in my week at the county fair I am posting about that on my companion BLOG Life Out My Window. Feel free to stop by.

FAIR TIME!

It's county fair time here in Montgomery County MD and that means the only crafting I have completed in the last few days are fair entries. I would like to say that I have pictues to show you, but alas not yet. As usual I was working on entries right up to the last minute so there was no time to get our the camera. I will go around on Monday afternoon and take a picture of some things if they are displayed in a way I can get a decent photo.

Entries were way down in areas other than baked goods last year so I did my best to help and boost the count for this year. I ended up with 28 items which includes one tote bag that will be donated to Headstart at the end of the fair.

While waiting for anything crafty to post here I will share with you an award I was given by my BLOGing friend Susan, who lives in Australia. Hmmmm....seem to be some cyber errors so I can't get the award image to upload onto my page which is too bad since it is a really cool image. It is the Wylde Woman award, which personally I think is totally appropriate for me as I am a total wild woman! LOL! To see it you will have to go to Susan's BLOG which if you have not been there is not a bad place to have to go. Not only does she create great things but you can also learn great things about Australia while you are there...like Wombat Day which is celebrated in October.

Well that's it for today. I hope to have some actual pics to share with you soon.

DREAMY BIRTHDAY

I needed to make a special birthday card for a friend so that was my project today. I didn't have any original mojo so I totally CASED a card from SCS and Maria.

I did make a few changes and tried a few more that didn't really work. This card uses a stamp set that will be in the new SU catalog which can be ordered from on August 11 which is next Monday. It is called Dreams du Jour. I love it.

I watercolored the Dreams stamp using watercolor paper and my watercolor crayons. Also to add a little sparkle I used stickles around the scalloped circle edge and around the edge of the Dreams stamp.

So that's it for my stamping today. Next up is cleaning in my stamp room....somehow it got our of control.

PLAY BALL REVISITED!

I am continuing to make progress with my nephews baseball album. I don't know why I have been putting this off for so long!!!!! I am rediscovering with every page how much I enjoy scrapbooking.

This album does have its own set of challenges. There are not sofar many pictures. It's mainly newspaper and internet articles. I do have lots of pictures on my computer that I downloaded from his dad's computer and I do need to go through them and have some printed up. But until I get to that project here hare two more pages that I finished this week.

These are pages from stories and games in April. The plan of the pages at least was determined by my sister in that she nicely gave me an accordion folder of stuff sorted by month. That solved the problem of determining the flow of the album. And the mice thing is I don't have to work on the pages in order as long as I work on them a month at a time I can go in what ever order I want. So far I have February and now April. I still have one more April page to finish.

Once again these pages use papers and embellishments from the Fall Craft kit. On the second page you will notice that there seems to be a green tab just floating in the middle of a page of writing. There are actually two pages to this particular story and I wanted to come up with a way that I didn't have to put them side by side. The front page was shorter than the back one and so I layered them and put this little tab at the bottom of the first page. (Punched out using the SU tab punch of course.) Personally I thought this was rather ingenious. Of course if they want to read the whole story they will need to slide the page out of the page protector.

Just for fun I have included a close up of one of the elements on the second page. It is one that actually does have a photo. (By the way Ben was a pitcher.) I purposely placed the cut out picture so the flower at the top looked like a halo around his head. (Not that he is an angle or anything! Though he is a good 22 year old guy.) But I didn't really like how it looked with his feet covering up the bottom flower so I got out my craft knife at cut around some of the flower petals so I could slip the photo behind them. I did like how this turned out.

Okay enough chatter on my part. It's your turn if you would like to leave a comment. And thank you for visiting and putting up with my ramblings.