NO TIME TO STAMP BUT A CARD NON THE LESS!

I knew that the rest of this week was going to be way to busy to do any stamping or card making and it was. BUT I do have a few cards from my past card making sessions I have kept on file to share with you during busy times like these.

This card is one of those. I made it with items from my SCS Flybaby Winter Craft Kit. It was a fairly simple card to make since the stars are part of the designer paper. The only stamping was the sentiment which I stamped with Black craft ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder. Ribbon and three chocolate brads and it is all mounted on Chocolate chip card base. Very quick and very easy.

BELLI CHALLENGE TIMES TWO part 2

So as late as I was in getting up the card I made for last weeks Belli Challenge with inchies I will make up for it this week. You might remember my inchie card is going to a friend for here birthday today. Well last night I decided I needed a birthday present for here as well. It had to be REALLY REALLY simple to make (life is still out of control here in my world)! But of course I wanted something useful and nice as well. No one needs clutter (unusable items) or yukky looking stuff in there lives! So.........my friend is a teacher of 2 year olds (God bless her!), the Children's Ministry Director at our church and the Mother of the Bride for a June wedding (God double bless her!). You know how I purchased those inchies and never used them.......well at the same time I purchased a Monogram stamp set from Just Rite and......you're right never used it!
Note cards I thought. She is also writing nice thank you note to people who help her in her work. AND as the mother of the bride I figure nice note cards, elegant even maybe would work. So I dug out my monogram stamp set and set to work. After the prototype card was designed the other 7 to make a set of 8 were quick and easy.

Now this morning I get up and eagerly head to Chrissy's Blog to see what fun she has for us with the Belli Challenge this week (even though I don't think I will be able to take part as there is no more free time in this week for stamping. and what to my wondering eyes does appear.......Belli Challenge #56 Monograms or Alphabet sets!!!!!! I have a card! I have 8 of them....I don't have to miss a week of the Belli Challenge. Okay so maybe this is cheating......but a gal has got to do what she has got to do and I choose to think of it as a "God thing" Did you know there are no such things a coincidences they are all "Godincidences! Well this is one of those events. Here is my card for the #56 Belli Challenge.


Nesties once again....how did I ever live without my nesties???? I found the scalloped circle that would fit with my Just Rite monogram stamp and embossed the card front. I carefully stamped the monogram in gold encore ink in the center. Nice but definitely still boring. Next step scallop punch the bottom edge of the front of the card and paper pierce in each scallop. Better, but when card is closed you can't really see the scallop and the card is still boring.....place a strip of SU's Brushed Gold card stock at bottom edge of inside of the card....now we are getting somewhere, but the front of the card is still lacking something........AH HAH!...A little bow out of a lovely shiny very pale olive green ribbon I have that is edged in gold. I have just enough for the 8 note cards. Since I don't tie bows and I don't like the bulk of a tied bow on the front of a card I used my double slot punch on the top corner and thread the ribbon through is for a mock bow. Yep that's it! I like these cards and probably will be using this design again for other gift sets for birthdays and Christmas to come. Simple yet elegant and very easy to make.

Now I am sooooooo late for work I am glad that my boss (our minister is still sick and won't be there, but don't tell him that.....)

BELLI CHALLENGE TIMES TWO part 1

It's Wednesday and that has become one of my most morning of the weeks. I have totally and utterly fallen in love with Chrissy D's Belli Challenges which I can check out soon as I get on my computer on Wednesdays. If you want to check them out as well as all of her other wonderful cards and achievements the title of this post is linked to her BLOG Creating with Chrissy. I have completed all the Belli Challenges since I found them thanks to another BLOGing friend. Christy T. You don't want to miss her BLOG Story About a Girl either.

This past week has been over the top crazy in my life, but that is another story about my personal life and work which I'm sure you don't want to here since if you managed to find your way here you did so to hear about stamping not my personal crises and joys. I didn't get to work on last weeks Belli Challenge till Sunday and though I did get it posted in the Paper Craft Planet
I didn't get back till now to get it posted here. So with out further delay here is my card for the Belli Challenge #55 to use inchies on a card.

Inchies have intrigued me ever since I learned about them, I purchased some inchie blanks from a LSS when I found them, but it wasn't until Chrissy issued this challenge that I ever got around to using them.

I needed to do a simple card because of the limited free time I have at the moment. No time for fancy coloring or fussy cutting so I set to work. First I made my inchies. I stamped some scraps of designer paper (I know not where from) using Pocket Silhouettes from Stamping' Up using Almost Artichoke then punched them out with my 1 inch punch. The greeting of Friend to Friend is also from this set and the Happy Birthday is just one I found in my Sentiment file that would fit on an inchie. It's also SU but I forget which set. After gluing them to the inchies I sanded and sponged the edges. My nesties came out to cut and emboss the rectangle they are on. A little embellishment with some ribbon and a flower and I was ready to figure out what I wanted to mount all this on. It was looking rather bland so I decided a patterned background would work. No paper I had seemed right so I created my own by stamping a Ballet Blue card with the Floral background stamp once again by SU using versamark ink. The watermark image it left was to pale so I embossed the whole cover with clear detail embossing powder. I think it worked and I am very happy with the card which will be going to a co-worker and dear friend to day to help celebrate here birthday.

So that's it for my much delayed entry for the #55 challenge. I am making up for its delay though in part two of this Belli Challenge posting coming right up!

BIG NEWS!

I think that today is a very exciting day in the stamping world here on the internet. To find out what I am talking about look over to the side bar at the right and click on the Stamp TV blinkie. This is really BIG NEWS! Check it out with a click and see what Gina K is up to! You will not be sorry you did.

DOILIES ON CARDS

I am slow on getting my last weeks Belli Challenge up here on my BLOG. These challenges can be found on ChrissyD's BLOG Creating with Chrissy. The challenge last week was to use a paper doily on your card. I wasn't sure I could find a doily but I eventually did and this is the card I made. I am totally in love with the look of doilies on cards now and am very happy that it was an unopened package of 25 doilies that I found so I can make lots of cards using them.

On thing I did learn was that it is very tricky to adhere your doily to the card front. They are very fragile, or at least mine were. They were very old though and that may have made the difference.

This weeks Belli Challenge is to use inchies on your card. You can find the details here.

Edited to add: I was once again surprised but thrilled to learn this card won the Belli Challenge for last week. A gal could get used to this. Picture me smiling!

ANOTHER SPECIAL AWARD

I will actually have two posts this first one is to share this special award given to me by my special BLOGing buddy Susan. She is extra special because she's been with me since the beginning of my BLOG! She has a wonderful BLOG called Susan's Saga. If you have never been there stop on by soon. Not only will you see fabulous paper craft creations, but you will also get a view into life in Australia.

Now it is my turn to pass on this award.

The rules for passing this award on: you must post the award on your blog, name the person who awarded you, then pass the award to 6 other bloggers and leave a message on their blog that they've received the award.

Here are my 6.........
Christi
Terresa
Diane
Judy
Beth

I hope you wander over and visit these wonderful stampers and their wonderful BLOGS!

CRISP, CLEAN, & SIMPLE

A FLYing and stamping buddy MissBoo started a new weekly challenge over on SplitCoast Stampers. IT is the CAS Challenge. CAS stands for Clean And Simple. This is a challenge for those who don't want to do cards that are overly elaborate with lots of layers and embellishments and that take hours to design and make. Those fancy cards are beautiful don't get me wrong. I love seeing them and I love making them when I need a card that will not be mailed, but I also like the idea of CAS cards. IF for no other reason but that they can be mailed for 42 cents (well at least until May).

I decided to take on MissBoo's first challenge. It was to take inspiration from one of two pieces of flannel and make a CAS card. One pieve of the flannel had butterflies and the other had frogs. I choose to be inspired by the butterflies since I knew I had lots of butterfly stamps to choose from. I'm not sure I have any frogs. I could have used the colors of the flannel for my inspiration, but I wanted to do a white card. Here is what I came up with............................................

You know CAS cards are not all that easy to do. Either that or they just take some getting used to doing. There's so much white space. My tendency is to what to fill in empty spaces. But I resisted. A caution also for working with mainly white cards. MAKE VERY SURE YOUR FINGERS ARE VERY CLEAN!!!!!!!! Also make sure your work space is clean. Smudges and fingerprints really show up on white card stock.

Having made my first CAS card I wanted to try and make another. Totally on my own no jumping off point from a challenge. I had recently found this wonderful quilt block stamp from the Lockhart Co. I decided to try a birthday card with it. Here is my card. I colored it using my copic markers and I was happy that I have quite a few of the original style markers. They have a fine point nib on one end and that was really helpful in getting into the small spaces on this stamp.

IF you have a few moments of stamping time why not try a CAS card. They may not end up being your favorite style of card but they can be fun and yes they can be a challenge.

Tomorrow I'm taking a break from cards and showing you what I have been doing to my stamp room. It took some work, but I'm loving it.

TIME FOR A CHANGE

My husband is gone for the evening and I got a bit bored an so thought it was time for a change here! Also I had a suggestion to put a Follower list on my sidebar and I took that suggestion. If you would like to be a follower of this BLOG then please do sign up. I was very pleasantly surprise to find out when I did it that I already had 4 followers......thanks guys!

Also a big Thank you to my friend LadyDoc at Tilting at Windmills for this award. I love visiting her every time I see she has a new post. Never know what I'll find.....stitching news, paper crafting, wonderful YouTube videos, or just plain musings on life. I love cyberspace friendships! And I love reading all comments posted here. Plese let me know what you think of my new look!

2 MORE CARDS FOR HEROES

Here are two more of my cards designed for Cards For Heroes.

I am really getting into using designer papers lately. I don't know what has taken me so long. They are wonderfully create so much interest on the cards and it takes so little time to use them. Lots to look at on the card but not a lot of stamping needed.

Both of these cards are Happy Birthday cards. The layouts for each of these cards came from sketch challenges. I wish I could remember whose, but unfortunately I can't. Often when I find a sketch I like I just copy and past it to a sketch file on my computer. Usually it is a year or so before I actually get around to using the sketch and by them I a=have totally forgotten where I found it.

One thing I have noticed when I use a sketch is that I stick pretty closely to the sketch. I am always amazed when looking at cards people make from a sketch that I sometimes have a very hard time even seeing the sketch in the card because they have changed things around so much. I never really thought of myself as a rigid follower of rules for things, but I guess when it comes to sketches I am. Either that or I am totally uncreative!

I really like the simplicity of this second card. Boy only three strips of paper and a sentiment layered on a scalloped oval. Can't get much easier than this. Yet with the colors and designs of the papers its not boring. Also it was a great way to use up odds and ends of leftover scraps of designer paper.

So that's it for the cards I designed for Saturdays workshop. Today I played around in my room working with doilies and quiltblocks and also making a few more cards with very simple and clean lines. I will show you those in the coming days.

I'm coming up on 5000 visits soon. I know that doesn't sound like much for people who ave that many visits in a month or two or some even in a week, but for me that's a big number. I'm thinking I might just have to come up with some type of BLOG candy so stay tuned for that announcement.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

A very Happy Valentine's Day to all. We don't celebrate it much here at our house, but I know for many folks it is a very important day. Since I had asked for a group of people to come out and help make cards today at our church I told them I would have a couple of designs just for them. These would be Valentine's cards they could take and give to whom ever they choose.

These were simple cards; a bit of punching and a little stamping, but nothing wither time consuming or difficult. Though simple because of the paper I choose to use for them they were I think classy. The papers I have had for several years....can we all say horde??? They came from a very large package of handmade papers I found at Costco at a price that could hardly be believed. I did two simple designs one using red paper on a white card stock base the other being a red card stock base with white paper.

I think everyone that choose to make them were very happy with them. As for the other cards we made for the Cards For Heros program, 8 of us finished 80 cards in two and a half hours. I thought that was pretty good for mostly card making novices. by this coming Tuesday these will be packaged up and mailed off.

Every one said they really enjoyed making the cards and had a good time, but I don't think I convinced any of them that they could do it on their own. Of course I think they all could if they would just give themselves a little credit for being creative! I will just have to keep working on them...........

I still have a few more designs for the project to show. I will post these tomorrow. For now I need to think of what my next project will be. Probably going back to preparing for the Spring Quilt Show!

Bye for now!

A SHEET LOAD OF CARDS!

Today was a day full of card designing and then cutting and preparations for a big card making workshop at my church tomorrow morning. We will be making cards that will be sent to Cards For Heros. At this time I am expecting 10 women and we will be working for two hours making cards. Most of these women have little if any experience making cards so I decided the best bet was to design a batch of cards and then do all the gathering of materials for them and do the cutting of the elements. So today I came up with 5 designs for the Heros and 2 card designs for Valentine cards. (Since tomorrow is Valentine's Day I said that anyone coming to help could make a Valentine Card to take home and give to a special person in their life!)

Very early on in my planning I decided that I would use some card sketches I have been collecting. The first place to go to find a design was my stand-by favorite site for making multiple cards of the same design: SHEET LOAD OF CARDS! They make it so easy because not only do they give you the sketch, but a materials needed list and a cutting chart. So the first card I am showcasing here used the sketch from the February 2009 Sheetload E-Zine. I doubled their "recipe" and now have 15 cards ready to be made plus the sample I put together. Here is the card........

It's on a white card base and all the card stock and papers are retired SU products. I know the card stock colors are True Thyme and Cinnamon Crisp, both 2006-07 In Colors. The designer papers I think were from a Simply Scrapping kit but I'm not sure. The stamps are from SU and Inkadoo. (The Inkadoo stamp is the scroll image in the corners.) I'm pretty sure both of the SU stamps are retired ones. I colored the flowers with BIC markers. I let people use a lot of my stuff, but my COPICS and SU markers are not included in my generosity; so they get to use my Sharpies and BIC markers tomorrow.

They also will be able to use my plain old colored pencils tomorrow and those are what I used on the second card.
This card is all Stampin' Up products. It is a mix of current and retired. Though the only things current are the Summer Sun and Garden Green card stocks and the brads. Both stamps I used are retired. The main image is from Nice and Easy Notes and the background is Print Pattern. I know both those names because they are both among my all time favorites.

Tomorrow I will show you the two Valentine's Cards I designed for them. They are both quite simple, but each use the wonderful handmade papers I have. So please come on back........thanks for visiting now!

A SWEET TREAT VALENTINE CHALLENGE

Thanks to a FLYing and crafting buddy Teressa I found out about a fun challenge on the Paper, Pads and Pictures BLOG. I figured if I could bake a cake and come up with a card; I could make three Valentine wishes and come up with a card. It turned out to be more of a challenge than I thought it would. Here were the rules......

"In honor of Valentine's Day, I am putting together this "Sweet Treat" Challenge. Everyone has a Valentine's wish list. For this challenge we will for once and for all get those items we have been wishing for all these years. Here is my wish list:

Heart Shaped Box of Chocolates
Diamonds
Pearls
Rubies
Perfume
Romantic Dinner with that Special Someone
Cruise
Day at a Spa
Latest and Greatest Camera
Emeralds
New Craft Workspace
Bottle of Dom Perignon
Shopping Spree
Luxury Car
Sapphires

Here are the rules for the challenge:
1. Players should pick at least 3 items from the above list and post it to PCP or leave a comment here with you selected wish list no later than 11:00pm EST Friday February 6th. You may "wish" for as many items as you like!
2. On Saturday February 7th, I will post what the "wish list" items equal in supplies.
3. Your challenge will be to craft a card or scrapbook page using EACH item from your wish list and ONLY those items. There are a few freebies listed below.
4. Post your completed project on the PCP site or a comment here with link to your blog with the item no later than 11:00pm EST on Friday February 13th.
5. On Saturday February 14th there will be a random drawing from all the entries for a "Sweet Treat" goodie bag! My cat, Carlie, has promised to help me with the drawing to make sure it is kept fair. :o) I will post the winner both here and on PCP that day.
6. The following items are freebies for the project
a. white CS and 1 additional color of CS
b. black ink and/or black marker
c. 1 stamp
7. A special twist to the challenge...everyone MUST use a piece of ribbon somewhere on the project."

I chose:

1. a cruise
2. A day at a spa
3. A new craft workspace

So When the translation into card making supplies was given I had to use:

1. Cruise.....Glitter or Bling
2. Day at the Spa.....Paper Distressing
3. New Craft Workspace.....Stitching either hand or machine
   

And the ribbon, white card stock and one other color CS, one stamp, and black ink. YIKES!
I am a stickler to rules of a challenge and I was determined to use nothing more. Also in my small little mind, distressing and glitter and bling just didn't work together. It was time to stretch my conservative ways.

Here is what I came up with..........

I surprised myself! I love this card. Partly because I love this stamp image. I chose it for this card for a number of reasons. I think it works well being stamped in black, it is one stamp that includes image and words, it lends itself to distressing, and I could use glitter on the wings of the dragon fly. I wasn't happy with just the white and one other color card stock. The card was looking blah and so I choose to add a splash of bold color in the ribbon. My stitching was done by hand with black embroidery floss.

So that's it: The results of my three special Valentine wishes. If I can't have the actual wishes at least I have a pretty card.

All the materials I used are from Stampin' Up and as seems usual lately everything is retired except the Whisper White card stock. Part of me felt bad about using all SU items for a challenge posted by a Close to My Heart demonstrator, but I don't have anything from CTMH at least not yet.....who knows about the future!

MONKEYING AROUND VALENTINE

Another card using my COPICS for coloring. Sometimes they work better for me than other times. This is one I was very pleased with.

I think SU's Sock Money is such a fun set. I don't ink it up as often as I'd like to. It's just one of those sets that needs the right inspiration in order to use well. The bottom border is another stamp from the set I used in my card posted yesterday; A Little Bit of Happiness. Besides the shading with pink and red COPICS I used my white gel pen and red stickles to add some detail interest. And I am so loving my rectangle nesties. That is what I used to cut out the sock monkey image and the scalloped background behind him.

The coloring on this card took a while, but other than that it was a very easy card to put together.

That's it for today.....I hope to have time tomorrow night to share the card I made for a Valentine Wish Challenge. It was a very challenging challenge because I had a very limited set of supplies I could use. So please stop back.

COPIC CHALLENGE

I am taking part in a COPIC club through Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. Korin has set up a Yahoo group called SNSS Copic Junkies that is handling these clubs. The price was right and she has an advanced group where the members can choose the COPICs they want each month. This is the only type of club that would work for me since I already have quite a few and it means I don't have to worry about duplicates. There is also a lot of information on Copics and tutorials on how to better use them. Its a new group and at the moment it is a very active group.

One of the members of the group has set up a Copic Colour Challenge BLOG. The challenges will be listed every other Weds. starting on Feb 11. (They have listed the first challenge set of colors a bit early because everyone was so excited about it). The colors we were to use are

B28 - Royal Blue
V06 - Lavender
YR07 - Cadmium Orange

Or as close as you can get to there colors if you don't have the exact ones yet. I have the Lavender, but not the others so I had to substitute for them. I used

B26-Cobalt Blue
V06-Lavender
YR09-Chinese Orange

Here is the card I came up with.....


my blending with Copics definitely needs work. I think I must be too heavy handed. These were not easy colors for me to work with. I wanted to see if I could stick with just using these three and no others...not an easy task, but I did it. I love forward to learning how to be more effective in my using these markers. It will be a major art lesson for me. One that I am looking forward to participating in.

The stamp sets I used are SU sets I think both of which are retired. The large butterfly is from Bold Butterflies and the strip is from A Little Bit of Happiness.

BITTY DOT CHALLENGE FROM PTI

Another day of celebration over at Papertrey on Nicole's BLOG {capture the moment}. Today's fun was sketch challenge, with a twist. The twist was that you needed to down load a connect the dots puzzle to find out what the sketch was. Nicole was rights it's been a very long time since I've done a connect the dots puzzle, but this was a fairly simple one.

The sketch itself was also fairly simple and I decided to use it to make a "guy" birthday card. I need a couple of these in the next few months. I also decided it had been a while since I used my watercoloring supplies and so I'd use them. This is the card I came up with.......


Almost Artichoke is the card base. I don't know the origin of the strip DP since it came to me via a craft kit. The image from SU's set For Father(which is a retired set). I stamped it on Watercolor paper using Stazon Black ink. The sentiments are from Lots of Thoughts (also a retired SU set). This is layered on top of a Ruby Red background. I don't remember the name of the background stamp I used but it is another retired SU stamp. (Yes I keep most of my retires sets. I don't buy a set unless I really like it and so I figure why would I get rid of it just because it is not a current set. I guess that is something I enjoy about being a hobby demo. I use what I like not what I think others will that I don't!) I finished off the card and the sketch requirements with the three buttons on the right side. I don't often use buttons because I don/'t want to risk the card being to thick to mail, but the just seemed right for this card and they are small buttons.

I made three other cards today for various challenges, but I will show them to you another day since I'm thinking there probably won't be much stamping time in the up coming week....and guess what???? None of the use quilt blocks! I'll spare you those for a while.

OVER THE RAINBOW CHALLENGE

Papertrey Inks is celebrating its 2nd Anniversary the first two weeks of this month. There is a lot of fun stuff that has been going on on Nicole's Blog {capture the moment} in connection with this event. Today's fun is a color challenge called "Over the Rainbow". You can find the instructions for this challenge on her BLOG here. But be quick as the entries are due soon....like 3am February 7 EST which is midnight tonight PST! There is a wonderful prize for the winner of the drawing for this challenge, but I will let you go to Nicole's BLOG to read what it is for yourself.

So here is my card for the challenge...


Since I don't yet own any of Papertrey's papers or inks....just some of there stamp sets I had to go through my supply of inks and card stock to find things that were close. I used all SU colors since that is what I have. All the colors I ended up using are In-Colors from various years. I used Riding Hood Red for the base of the card which is current and then retired In-Colors Marigold Morning, Cool Caribbean and True Thyme for the pieces. The green was the hardest to match....I did the best I could. The flower is a retired SU stamp and the butterfly and square of flowers are Inkadoo stamps I recently found in a set at Costco.

I have been wanting to try Papertrey's colors of cardstock and inks, but didn't know what to start with so I was very pleased to read today that beginning Feb 15 you will be able to purchase sampler packs of the card stock. From there I can move into the colors I can't life without!

QUILT CARD AS PROMISED

I did say you would be seeing another quilt card today.......Yes I do love this set. For this card I got to use my "bug" in several ways. I made the YoYo Yellow background using the Swiss Dots embossing folder and then I also used the "bug" to cut out the scalloped rectangle using my new rectangle Nestibility set. So much easier than making a rectangle with my scalloped border punch.

I still need to work on on ribbon tying. I blame my bad tying skills on being left handed. Even when I try and follow the directions for nice ties they just don't tun out right for me.

I will be back in a moment with another post. Yes its going to be a two post day!!!!!!!

I AM SO HONORED!

If you are a regular reader of my BLOG (and I know there are a few of you out there) you know that last week I had quite a time "baking my cake" for the 52nd Belli Challenge. But I persevered and on the third try got it made correctly according to all the rules of the challenge. You can see my card here.

Yesterday I went back to Chrissy's BLOG to see what this weeks challenge was and as I was reading through the post I came upon the winner of last weeks challenge. I cannot describe the squeal that came out of my mouth when I realized IT WAS ME!!!!!!! I was so honored! Thank you Chrissy. I think that was even better than finding out I won BLOG CANDY.....not that I Would ever turn down winning BLOG CANDY mind you.

So today I worked on this weeks Belli challenge #53. It's a Valentine Challenge. I'm not big on Valentine Cards (I think it goes back to my childhood when I was the one in the classroom that didn't get many. It was before they made the kids give one to everyone so no one felt left out!) but hey, this is a challenge and I'm up for it.

Here is my card. I had fun playing with my Cuttlebug both embossing with my Swiss Dots folder and also cutting out the swirly heart outlines. The out lines are so thin I was glad I have a xyron sticker maker to use for applying adhesive to the back of them. It worked great. I also got to dig out some of my special handmade paper I've had for a couple of years. I love its texture and also it has cute little hearts embossed on it. Add a little double heart charm I got from the bridal aisle at Michael's hanging on red gingham ribbon, and of course a few stamped sentiments from various Stamping Up stamp sets and voila a Valentine card. I was a fun one to make because I got to play with and use a lot of my stamping toys.

Thank you for another great challenge Chrissy!

Tomorrow I have a few more quilt cards to show you. I promise that will be the last of them for a while. But they are so versatile. Thanks for stopping by.

I'M BACK WITH MY PROJECT!

My cake is not only in the oven, but it is almost done......I do get sidetracked very easily and so there is also a load of laundry done another in the washer and I've done a lot of BLOG hopping myself. BUT I'm back now and ready to show you the new project I've started that I am very excited about. It will be a long term project to set up and it also will be an ongoing one that if done right will always be being updated! I am sure it will be a great aid to my card making especially in the times my MOJO has fled.........

For years now I have been reading of technique notebooks or albums. I have toyed with making one every time I have read about them. I've downloaded many templates and ideas on how to put one together. But I guess none of them struck me as right for me or what I wanted. I'm not even sure I really knew what form I wanted it to be in except I knew it had to be easy to put together and easy to use. I wanted a simple description as to what the technique was and if necessary simple directions on how to do it. Also I wanted a simple sample of what the technique looked like. As I thought more about it I decided I wanted a system that I could easily pull out the technique I wanted to use and than easily put it back.

Of course me being who I am the years went by and I simply kept thinking about it taking no action to actually do it. In the meantime I also became interested in various challenges. Especially sketch challenges. I do have a full sized notebook with sketch challenge ideas, but it is too big to keep out on my stamping table while I am working. I do have sketch layouts kept on my computer in a file folder somewhere, but when I am stamping I don't have room on my table for my computer to sit and my eyesight is not exactly good enough any more to see the details of the sketch from across the room.

Two weeks ago I wandered into our local Office Depot to see what they had on clearance sale....they are closing our store so everything was 25 to 50% off. It was there while strolling up and down the isles I found my solution. Here it is in its beginning stages........

I had been thinking about the possibility of using Rolodex card system on and off in my musings. IT seemed to fit most if not all of my requirements of size and accessibility. The main reason I kept rejecting it was the price! Rolodex systems I discovered a pretty expensive. Especially the ones that use the larger cards. This one is the 3x5 card size and the price at 40% off was right. The cards a bit small, but I knew lots of people are doing albums of techniques on 6x6 pages. I am using both sides of each card so effectively I am working with a 6x5 space which isn't a whole lot less.

Here are two of my first cards I made. I will be filing the techniques alphabetically and so each letter of the alphabet will have its own color card stock as a frame for the technique so it stands out from the white card and isn't so boring to look at and the tab at the top of the card will be the same color as the frame. So here my first "A" card which is for Aqua Painters uses Brocade Blue for the frame and tab and all "A" technique cards will use Brocade Blue. My "B" techniques will be using Purely Pomegranate (good thing I stocked up on it before it retired!). And so on throughout the alphabet. (I haven't gotten beyond "A" and "B" yet.)


I am formatting and printing out the technique description and instructions on my computer. They are on white card stock. After trimming them down as close as possible I layer it onto the correct color of card stock and use my perfect layers tool (I still don't understand why SU retired this tool it's wonderful!!) to put a 1/16th border around it. Tis then goess on to the front of the rolodex card. On the back I put a sample of the technique. How I do this will probably vary with what the technique is. Since these two cards were both coloring tool uses I simply stamped an image to be colored using each medium. For the Aqua Painter I have an example of what the image looks like painted using ink from the stamp pad, from watercolor crayons and watercolor pencils. For the Blender Pen card I have samples using it and the stamp pad ink and the pastels. Other than the different color medium everything else is the same: the image, the ink used to stamp the image and where possible the colors used to color the image. There is a difference on how each image looks in real life though its hard to see here.

So that is my project and yes it is a big one!!!!! But I am excited about it and finally getting it started. I plan also to print off the chetch challenge layouts that I really like so I can have a section for those that I can go to when I am stumped for a layout. I am also toying with including a section for color challenges and maybe even materials to use challenges. I think all thiese things will be a great help when I am at a lose as to where to get started with making a card. I can pull out one of my rolodex cards and simply go from there.

Now I need to go finish up my cake and move the load of laundry to the dryer. Oh by the way the cake is a Double Chocolate Khulua Bundt cake! And boy does it smell good!

ANOTHER NEW BLOG FOUND!

Cards and Coffee....what a great combination and a very nice BLOG too. Stop by and check it out. AND Anita has an awesome BLOG Candy offering going on right now so don't delay!

Back soon with my project I've been promising to show you. I need to put a chocolate cake in the oven for dinner tonight! YUM!