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!

Earlier I said I was going to show you a project I am working on to be a bit more organized. It is also a project that will hopefully teach me a few things in the process of setting it up. But it is getting to late tonight for explaining it so instead I will just share another quilt themed card.
Have I mentioned I LOVE these little blocks...... I thought so! So much can be done with them........Tomorrow I will try to get my project up here!

PHOTOS TO THE 6th DEGREE

Yesterday when I visited my friend Christi st her BLOG Story About A Girl she had a post about sharing the photo that was the sixth picture in the sixth file in you Pictures on your computer. I thought I would play along. I would have posted my pic last night but it needed a bit of work to make it presentable, but here it is now.......

I think it is a very appropriate picture since it is a winter scene from 2007. Ah the good old days when we used to get snow, not ice! This wasn't a big snow fall as I remember it and from the looks of the picture, but it was a pretty one. It's been a very long time since we've had any real snow accumulation totals. I would love to have another 2 foot snow storm like we used to get every other year or so.....they give so much time to stay home and stamp and sew!!!!!! No reason to go anywhere because you can't get anywhere and no one is open anywhere anyway!

Back to the picture. This is a picture taken from our kitchen looking out the sliding patio doors (that's what they are called even though we don't have patio) into our back yard. I guess actually it's looking more into our next door neighbors yard where the pretty snow covered trees are. Well that's my picture....tonight I hope to be back with some photos from an organizational project I started this week.

THIRD TIME IS A CHARM!

I finally got it right. That is my challenge card for the Belli Challenge of the week; CBC52 . This card has all five ingredients for my "cake".....no more no less!
There is...

1. Sugar: designer paper (hard to see in this photo but it is the layer my little quilt is places on and the layer my tag is placed on. Not much but it's there!)
2. Butter: vellum
3. Eggs: scallops (The border on the vellum)
4. Vanilla: ribbon
5. Cocoa Powder: hardware ( the metal buckle the ribbon is going through)

This card really did not photograph well. Its much prettier in real life. I must say however though it meets all the requirement for the challenge and the other two don't. Of the three this is my least favorite card. Oh well! I guess that's life in my stamping room! I need to once again give credit to Papertrey Inks for my wonderful little quilt blocks. They are from their Quilter's Sampler set. The rest of the materials except for the flowers are from Stamping Up.

I have one more card that I've made using my quilt blocks. It is one that came out of my head. My most common way to make cards is I start with a stamp set I want to use and go from there. They just seem to spring up on their own. Not a whole lot of pre-planning other than the kind of card I'm making; birthday, get well, sympathy etc.....I will explain the process I often use in "birthing " a card in my next post. Till then...bye bye!

BELLI CHALLENGE---2 CARDS!

This morning I wrote about finding a fantastic new BLOG to follow and that on this BLOG Creating with Chrissy a Belli Challenge is given every week. I also said I was going to try and take part in this challenge by making a card for it today. Guess what I did!!!!! I not only got one card done but two....though my first one isn't really a card for the challenge since I forgot one of my cake ingredients.

Here is how Chrissy presented the challenge.....

"For the week of January 28, Belli #52, we are hosting a VERY special Belli Challenge in celebration of our One Year Anniversary. ...........

We will be BAKING A CAKE to celebrate our First Anniversary of Belli Challenges.

How do we play BAKE A CAKE? Listed below is a list of cake ingredients. You all must pick 5 ingredients.

Here are the ingredients, be sure to choose 5!

Flour
Sugar
Butter
Vanilla
Eggs
Salt
Baking soda
Chocolate
Nutmeg
Milk
Cinnamon
Powdered sugar

Cream cheese
Cocoa powder
Coconut

Oil

This week to play here is what you need to do...

1. Anyone Can Play! Spread the Word! :)

2. Pick your 5 ingredients!!!
3. Find out what the ingredients equal to in Embellishments!

4. Make a completed project with your CAKE INGREDIENTS -

5. Share the link here in the comments linking to my Blog and CBC52. When you post to Splitcoaststampers or Paper Craft Planet or to your Blog, be sure and put CBC52 as the KEYWORD and mention of the challenge - with a link!
6. I will do a drawing and the person whose name I draw will be a BELLI GUEST DESIGNER the last week of February
7. Deadline for entry is Tuesday evening 7 p.m. Central time."

I have a favorite cake recipe "Flourless Chocolate Cake" so to bake my cake I choose flour, sugar, butter, vanilla, and cocoa powder as my five ingredients. I found out what these "ingredients" translated to in card making elements and got to work.

I really like the first card I made, but I guess it probably didn't taste to good because I forgot the eggs! I'll show it to you anyway since I like it..........It's hard to see in the picture here but behind the vellum is a Quilt Block made out of squares and triangles of designer paper. You'll have to trust me that you can see it in real life! I ran the vellum through my cuttlebug with an embossing folder to look like quilting stitches. Like I say I got everything in this "cake" except the eggs! Into the card inventory this Get Well card goes and back to the drawing board or rather kitchen I go to come up with another card that contains all five ingredients!

Here is my second card......Can you figue out what element the eggs are????? You shouldn't have to look too carefully. I like this card also. With the first card I tried embossing the vellum for the first time. (Hint: If you emboss vellum treat it gently it will crack and slip if you are not gentle!) I tried another new technique on this second card. It is one that I read about on the Kub's BLOG back when cuttlebugs were realitivly new on the market. (Yes that long ago and I'm just trying it.) Actually I reversed his process. He showed inking the negative on a cuttlebug folder and I inked the positive and then I embossed the vellum. Like the Kub I used chalk ink to do this. I like how it highlighted the detail to the embossing. So here is my second card.

Can you tell I'm into quilt blocks at the moment. I think its because I have quilt show thoughts on my brain. Serious planning has begun for our local 2009 show in April and I'm on the committee.

So that is my work for the day! I hope you enjoyed seeing them. Oh I suppose you would like to know what the cake ingredients translate into for the card and its emements and embellishments. Here is the list Chrissy gave us to work with......

Flour = brads
Sugar = designer paper
Butter = vellum
Vanilla = ribbon
Eggs = scallop punch/nestabilities
Salt = watercoloring
Baking soda = beads
Chocolate = buttons
Nutmeg = markers
Milk = distressing
Cinnamon = sponging
Powdered sugar = embossing powder
Cream cheese = chipboard
Cocoa powder = hardware
Coconut = flowers
Oil = glitter or stickles

So my card needed to be made with.....designer paper, vellum, ribbon, hardware, and I had to use a scalloped punch. And my missing eggs was the scalloped punch use!

Drat!!!!! I just noticed I still didn't get it right!!!!! I must have ice on the brains.....I was debating whether to use chocolate or cocoa powder for the chocolate in my cake and I just realize I ended up using both!!!!! Oh well.....it will just be a super chocolatey flourless cake!

If I have time tonight or tomorrw I will try a third cake (card). They do say third time is a charm............I hope if you take up this challenge you do better than me!

I FOUND A NEW BLOG TO READ!

It's a very icy morning here in Maryland. A good day to stay home on the computer and in my stamp room!!!!!!! Every morning I do a quick check of the BLOGS I follow through Google Reader and this morning was no exception. One of my favorite places to stop (among many!) is my good the BLOG of my good friend and flying buddy Lee. What an incredibly talented young lady she is....I proud to say I knew her when....meaning when she was just getting started stamping and card making. WOW what a difference a few years makes! She is definitely a fast learner. If you have never visited her be sure and go to My Reality.....Its All Good! You won't be disappointed I assure you......

I was excited to see this morning that she had a new post so of course I visited.....it was from her I visited another amazing BLOG that is also now listed in my Google Reader.....I have heard this woman's name before on other BLOGS and in other places, but for some reason just had never made it to her site......How silly of me.....I've really been missing out, but I won't anymore believe me! So don't you make the same mistake I did. Right now.....well after you finish here....you must go check out Creating with Chrissy......Chris Dickinson is very talented, and very sharing of her talent. As an incentive to visit I Will tell you she is giving away some awesome BLOG candy in honor of her 80,000 hit! (I'll never see that day as I sit here patiently waiting for 5000 after almost 3 years!) You need to visit her by Midnight Central Time on January 31 to enter for a chance to win so don't delay!

While visiting Chris scroll on down and find out about her wonderful Belli challenges that are posted every week. I'm going to try and do this weeks Baking a Cake challenge today. One of my favorite cakes because it is so chocolaty and fudgy is a flourless chocolate cake so my ingredients will be sugar, butter, eggs, cocoa powder, and vanilla. When I post the card later today I will give you what these ingredients were that I needed to use on my card. Don't forget the BLOG CANDY!

PAPER QUILTS

i am finally breaking out my Quilt Block sets from Papertrey. It's definitely time....they have been feeling totally unloved I'm sure, but no more. I am in love. These little stamps are so much fun.

This afternoon I stamped three sheets of white card stock full of various quilt blocks which are now waiting to be colored. That's a lot of quilt blocks since they are only 3/4 inch in size! So far I've only colored my blocks using my Copics. I am somewhat limited in the colors I have for this because I need to use my Original style Copics which have a fine point nib on one end. I feel I have greater control in filling in the tiny spaces using a fine point than the brush point. I want to try colored pencils and Gamsol, but am not sure it will work with the small spaces without blurring. I don't think I would have much success with water coloring either. I will also try my SU markers since they have a fine point on one end and I don't think I will have a problem with a streaky look because of the small spaces being colored.

After coloring each block I punch them out using my Creative Memories 3/4 inch punch, but any brand punch of this size would work. If you don't have a punch you can cut them out with scissors. I am glad I have a punch though because that means all my blocks are exactly the same size so they fit together perfectly. (In this respect I guess paper quilts are no different than fabric ones!) After I have finalized the "quilt" layout I want to use and what it will be adhered to I run my blocks through my Xyron Create a Sticker machine. I love this little tool for things like this. It's so easy to use.

The borders on my quilts for these cards were all created through layering of different colors of card stock. For the first card the scalloped square which is behind the little quilt was easy. I have a Marvy scalloped square punch that is the correct size to be used with the four block quilt. The second card drove me nuts trying to get the scalloped square the right size with good corners on the square. I had to make it using my SU Scalloped Border punch. NOT FUN!!!!! I am now saving my nickles and dimes for a set of both scalloped squares and rectangles from SpellBinders. I definitely need nesties for these........

In all fairness I must say that the first card shown here was cased. It is not an original concept though I did make a few minor modifications. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I cased it from. I was searching through several BLOGS as well as Papertrey's gallery to get some mojo going on how to use this set and I just don't remember where I saw this idea. The second card is my own design. Right down to the felt flowers which cover up a boo boo.....but we won't tell the birthday girl about that.....will we?

SYMPATHY

Once again I had the need for several sympathy cards. It seems that they never end. It's funny (I think I've written this before) but I don't like making sympathy cards and yet I do like making them very much. Both emotions at the same time.

Obviously I don't like making them because it means someone I know has died or someone I know has had someone close die. That's sad. On the other hand when I make a sympathy card I find myself thinking about the person who dies and also the loved ones they have left behind. I find myself praying for all involve. That I find very comforting and a blessing to be able to do. Even when I make these just a card to keep on hand for when it's needed I can pray that the ones receiving the card when ever they receive it and who ever they are are comforted by it and pointed toward God who can heal all sorrows.

Both of these cards were made primarily using Papertrey's stamp set Every Day Blessings. I love the two step cross image in this set. The papers for the rust card came from my Winter Craft Kit and the sentiment on the card is from Stampin' Up's set Refuge and Strength. I'm thinking as I look at this card that I shouldn't have put the two pieces of fluffy ribbon on the card. They actually look like two caterpillars crawling around the card.....NOT GOOD! I'm thinking they will be removed before the card is sent out.

The second card uses papers from SU's Designer paper package Green Tea; which I love. Both the paper and the tea! I made the little flowers using one of my SU punches. I think the sentiment on this card came from a GinaK set that had a variety of sentiments in it, but I'm not totally sure. The little leaf twig is from SU's Refuge and Strength and I used their new Wide Oval punch to punch it out.

I did make a couple of other cards using another favorite group of sets from Papertrey. Their quilt block and sentiment sets. It should not be surprising that I would love those sets seeing as my other passion in life is quilting. Tomorrow I will hopefully be back to show you those cards.

Thanks for stopping by......TaTa for now!

CHECK OUT MY NEW T-SHIRT!

So do you see my new t-shirt. Well my new one in the BLOGing world anyway! It will take you to Melanie Muenchinger's wonderful BLOG. And yes I do love Melanie's stamps which I get from GinaK of course!!!!!!

A SHOUT OUT TO SHEETLOAD!

Two posts in one night...well really two posts in one hour. It takes something special for me to do that and this is pretty special. I want to tell you about SheetLoad of Cards. It's a great site with great helps and layouts for when you need to make a set of cards of the same design. I love it. Their designs are fantastic and I don't have to do any guessing of the measurements of the pieces. They do all that. Also they give you lots and lots of samples of how other designers used that same layout. All of this comes in a wonderful monthly E-zine.

I've also used there layouts to make just one card. And I go back and use layouts from past issues of the E-zine in a new way. The most recent layout I used was from their July issue Christmas in July. But I used it to make a Christmas card in December. You can see it in my BLOG entry here. It is the second card shown in this entry. For other things I done look for SheetLoad in my labels. There are probably others from before I started labeling items as well, but those will be harder to find.

You can see and download a copy of their January E-zine here. Check them out. Also anytime you are visiting me and would like to get to SheetLoad of Cards site just click on there "blinkie" on my right hand side bar. It will magically take you there.

Oh and to be totally upfront and honest, though I honestly do love there site and E-zine, by giving them a shout out and sharing them with you I can be entered into a drawing for some wonderful JustRite products. Another company I love!!!!!

WHEN VALENTINES ARE NOT VALENTINES

Last year Stampin' Up came out with a new Valentine set called Happy Heart Day. I normally don't do special holiday cards except for Christmas, but I thought I should have at least one valentine set in my stamp collection so I ordered it. I did use it to make a couple of Valentine cards for family members, but it hasn't been out of its box since last February. I know that is really sad....With February coming on strong and fast I decided to pull it back out of the closet and see what I could do with it.

There was a challenge on SCS, I forget which one since I haven't gone back and uploaded to it yet, to use hearts on your card. I guess that's why I thought of this set. But I didn't want to do a Valentine card. I'm barely out of the Christmas mind set....I'm not even ready to consider that Valentine's Day is coming in less than a month. I also knew I wanted to kill two challenges with one card and I pulled out the striped designer paper to use from my winter craft kit.

My little mousie friend was holding his heart and I used a heart punch to create some interest along the bottom edge of the card. So those were my hearts. The strip DP had red in it and I wanted my punched out hearts to be red so I placed a red strip of paper under neath them. I then pulled in the blue from the striped DP in to the scalloped ovals. I just felt another color was needed to liven things up.

Going back a moment to the hearts and the red strip of card stock. The scalloped edge under the hearts make the top of the card quite a bit shorter than the back of the card. The card won't stand up because of this, but I don't really care about that. The red is adhered to the inside of the of the card. If I had wanted to design the card so it would stand I could have adhered the red to the back of the card front making the front the same length as the card back.

Looking at the outside of the card alone I guess it could be a Valentine card. BUT.......when you open it up you discover a big birthday wish! You can also see that by adhering the red to the inside of the card rather than the front I could add some more interest with another scalloped edge.

So this is my Valentine card that is not a Valentine. I still have a couple of weeks before I need to start thinking hearts and flowers of February. I do think this might just be a birthday card for someone who has a birthday around February 14, and I know more than one person who does............

BACK TO BASEBALL

I know there are places where the snow is flying but although quite cold here its just rain that's falling. Still neither snow nor cold rain make one think of baseball....I did though. Its time to get back to work on my nephews baseball album. When I got my winter craft kit I knew I would use part of what came with it in making pages for this album and yesterday I came up with five more pages.

Here are two of them. They are actually pages that will go at the front of the album since they deal with information on the season. So I had to move some pages around. I am so glad that I am using and SU album where you slip the pages into page protectors that are help into the album and not the Creative Memory Albums I started scrapbooking with years ago. If you found pages that needed to be made an inserted in between already completed pages it was much harder because it was the pages were attached into the album and the page protectors simply slipped over the pages. (Did that make sense?) So in many cases , and this would have been one of them I could not have kept the flow of the album what I wanted and also inserted these two pages.

Let me see if I can explain this better. I had finished pages 1, 2, 3, 4,.....of the album and they were in a chronological order. The odd numbered pages are on the top, inside the page protector, or the right hand side of the album. The even numbered pages are on the bottom, or the left hand side of the album. I needed to place pages A and B after page 1 so my new order now is 1,A,B,2,3,4,......With SU's system I simply needed to get a extra page protector remove page 2 from behind page one insert A in its place. Than put B in the front of the new page protector and page 2 behind it on the bottom. Of course I need to take the album apart to put the new page protector with pages B and 2 in but that's no big deal.

With the Creative Memory album and many other styles the problem is that your page layout is adhered directly to the album page. So you have to hope that you can remove the page two layout from its foundation without damaging or destroying it. It can be done, but its much more scary to do. The only other option is to forget about the flow of the pages and just insert the new pages so your new order is 1,2,A,B,3,4.........Also if you only have one page to be inserted than you do need to create a second page. With the SU album its a pain to add just one page because you have to shuffle all your pages not just one, but with CM you can't even add one page out of order without having a blank page!

So know I am sure I have either totally bored or confused you. But to end I will just say THANK STAMPIN' UP! Your albums are expensive, but I love them for their ease of use!

A HOLE THROUGH OLIVIA????

I got the glitter somewhat under control and have moved on to the next challenge. This one was not a SCS challenge, but a Sweet & Sassy sketch challenge from this past Monday. I haven't actually posted it for the challenge, but am posting it here.

So why have I titled this entry "A Hole Through Olivia?" Look carefully at this first scan of my card. I decided to paper piece Olivia's belly feathers. What do you think???? I think she looks like someone got her with buck shot, poor baby, and blew a hole right through her! That must have hurt.

So what happened here. I made the mistake of using the same paper for her belly that I used for her background. This just doesn't work. It makes it seem hat you can see right through her to the background. Like I said poor poor Olivia! She needs some emergency medical care before she can be sent out to someone else to bring them Get Well wishes.

Of course the adhesive I used in the paper piecing was a very effective adhesive (my Xyron sticker maker). The stripped paper was not going to come off without some serious damage being done to Olivia.........(can there be anything more serious than an apparent hole straight through her???? I wonder???).....anyway...what I had to do was simply adhere the correcting paper over the top of the offending paper. Voila...Olivia now has a blue belly! No more hole!

Fully cured, she is now winging her way to a friend in need of a little cheering up. I hope her wishes for good health work. It's not fun to be sick...............

Today, I spent the better part of the day getting my creative juices flowing. I must tell you that once I got into the groove I was amazed. But that story is for another day as it is now well past my bed time and I must be heading upstairs. Tomorrow is a big day......the Christmas tree is coming down and being packed away for another year!

GLITTER IS EVERYWHERE!

I have discovered when using glitter no matter how much you try to contain it........IT GETS EVERYWHERE! I think I will be brushing glitter from things for weeks to come after doing this project.

This was the first time in a very long time that I decided to try the SCS Technique Challenge. Of course I had to choose the week when the messiest technique was the challenge. It was to use sticky strip and glitter to make a design element for your card. Well I have lots of sticky strip in various strip widths and shapes.....as well as letters. And though I don't use it very often because of the mess it creates I also have lots of glitter. So I thought WHY NOT???

I must say it was fun and I really do like the sparkle of the card. But no mater how I tried I ended up with glitter everywhere! Not only on my stamping surface, but on the floor, on my clothes and in my hair. Oh yes and on my card....

I chose to use two different width of sticky strip (I purchase mine from Oriental Trading and the package comes with three different width rolls at a price I can life with.). I used a turquoise glitter on the wide strip and a spring green on the skinny strip. Using my stamping grid paper from SU helped greatly in getting my strips straight and evenly spaced. I wanted to make sure my card was symmetrical so I started with the strips at the top and bottom and then placed the strip in the middle of the card. Then I worked from there filling in the top and bottom half of card with three more strips, two narrow and one wide.

So the glitter went on with out the colors getting mixed up I first removed all the tops of the wide strips and covered the exposed sticky with the turquoise glitter. I tapped and rubbed it in fairly hard so that all the areas would be covered and the glitter was well stuck down. I did this over a piece of copy paper so that when I was done and tapped the excess glitter off onto the paper I could easily get the glitter back into its container. Then I gently used first a swifter sheet to get off any other lose pieces of glitter and finally used a small soft paint brush on the card stock to get the final bits off. The next step was to remove the protective strip from the skinny strips and cover them with the green glitter. I used the same method as before and it worked well.

I now had a very glittery card front that still needed an image of some sort and a sentiment. I've needed lots of Get Well cards lately so choose to make another of them. I pulled out one of my favorite SU sets.....Nice & Easy Notes....got the Get Well pill bottle and stamped my image. I colored it with my copics and once again turned to my circle nestabilities. (I can't wait till I can get some other shapes). A little ribbon for embellishment and voila....................................................
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my card!

I only hope who ever gets it doesn't get showered with glitter when they open the card. Or if they do that they have a good sense of humor!

Oh, I just noticed when looking again at the card. When I created the circle to go under the stamped image I decided it looked too plain so I ran it through the cuttlebug using my swiss dots folder. I think it provided just the little additional texture that took the card to the next step.

So there's my messy project. I am afraid that my next few projects may have bits of glitter on them where they are meant to or not................................

A GOLDEN GET WELL

Here is another card that I made using items from the winter craft kit. The reds make it a lot different from the blues and purples I've been using.

It is a card I also made for SCS's sketch challenge 208.

The gold and black I think really complement the burgundy red of the designer paper. I once again got to use my new "nesties" and also my old friend tag punch. I am totally hooked on the nestability dies and hope to some how come up with some "fun" money that I can use to get some new sets in different shapes. I have a few sets that I know would work wonderfully with either the square or rectangle set.

Back to this card.....I used brushed gold card stock to back the black circle. It's a very heavy card stock, but my cuttlebug and the "nesties" handled cutting it just fine. The tag was embossed using a gold encore pad to stamp the image and then detail gold embossing powder. I also used the encore gold pad to stamp the snowflakes on the background card base, but did not emboss them.

Well that's it for today,s card....tomorrow I have a very sparkly project to show you. Not a card that is at all in my "comfort zone", but one that I do really like.

AN ICY STAMPIN' DAY

No snow here to make snowmen with; just a lot of rain and ice! Not as bad as the forecast, but bad enough to make me stay inside and off the roads. So I took the opportunity to spend time in my craft room. If I could do this every day January through March winter might be my favorite season!

I don't often try challenges on SCS. (I just don't think of them.) When I do I really have fun with them so that is what I did today. I actually finished 3 of them, but since I don't know when I will actually get to stamp again I'm only going to show one today.

This card not only was made for SCS's sketch challenge 209 but it uses card stock and papers from my winter craft kit. It's actually a get well card for a friend of mine who is going in for surgery next week. The hope is that the surgery will give here major relief from growing back pain that she has been experiencing for several years.

It is a fairly simple card. I colored the image using my copics and added stickles and white liquid applique for interest. I should have stamped the word "hope" before I put the "Get Well" stamped on the inside.

WINTER KIT

I have a number birthday cards that need to be mailed out this month. So I thought I would make them with a winter theme.

The Stampin' FLYBaby Winter Craft Kit supplied me with the perfect papers and embellishments for this project. I was also able to put to use my Cuttlebug.

The first card I made features snowflakes and snowmen. (Not that we see much of either here in Maryland lately.) I combined embellishments from the kit on a background embossed using my snowflake embossing folder . Of course with that much snow you have to have snowmen!

The snowflakes were covered in glitter and I ran them through my smaller Xyron to put adhesive on the back of them. The cute little snow men are made of felt and I cut the three off a 12 inch boarder strip. I adheared them with mini glue dots. To give the embossed cardstock background a softer look I rubbed Blue Bayou ink carefully over the embossing using a sponge.

For the second card I pulled out my brand new circle nesties....thank you Nate!...I used them to create a background for the snowflake. The layout for this card came from the SheetLoad of Cards Christmas in July e-Zine. You can find it by clicking on the SheetLoad Archives and downloading July 08.

On both of these cards the only stamping is the sentiment. The interest comes from the papers and the embelishments rather than an image. I'm happy with both cards. Especially since they will each be going to a mail I don't think they will be considered to "girlie".

Well that's it for today. Not sure yet what tomorrow will bring........

TIME????

Oh my!!!! Where has the time gone? I'm having a hard time believing that it has been almost a month since I last posted here. Not that I have done a whole lot of stamping or crafting in that month, but the time has gone by soooooooo......fast and so much has taken place since my last posting. Most notably the Christmas and New Years holidays.

So let me take a moment and wish each of you who stops by here a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!!! 2009, boy talking about time speeding by we will all to soon be into the second decade of the new millennium at this rate and it seems as if we were all just worried about Y2K just yesterday. My grandmother was so right all those years ago....the older you get the faster the days and years speed by......

Well so much of that bemoaning the speed at which time passes. 2009 promises to be a year of new beginnings as well as a year of many challenges to be met. One of my new beginnings is working toward more playing with my crafting in order to learn and try new things. I want to be willing to make mistakes so I can learn how to do things better and to learn new techniques. I want to stretch myself to move out of some of my comfort zones.

That said, my first projects of 2009 DO NOT meet those goals or challenges. They are fairly simple Thank You cards for the wonderful Christmas presents family and friends gifted me with. I had purchased the Handmade Holiday Card Element kit from SU (item no. 112016). I think I thought they would be quick and easy Christmas cards, which I', sure they would have been if I had time to make Christmas cards. Rather than just pack the kit away for next year, when I probably wouldn't have time to make cards either, I decided to see if I could adapt the cards to make my Thank You cards. (Now that Christmas is over I have more time to craft.)

I think this worked quite well. I to do not particularly like blank card space on the background of cards so I did use some stamps to do a watermark on the card bases. I then simply exchanged using "Thank You" sentiments for the "Merry Christmas" or "Seasons Greeting" that the kit called for. I followed the same basic layout to save time in planning, but didn't follow the particular paper and diecut plans that SU suggested. I put together my own.

I really like the combination of Ruby Red and Mellow Moss for Christmas colors. I think it is a much softer and more vintage combination than the standard Real Red and Glorious Green.

Now that the Thank You cards are complete I can move on to more challenging projects. First up will be beginning to work with my Winter Craft Kit from my SCS FlyBaby group.

I hope all have a blessed and exciting as well as a creative 2009. I hope you visit often and I hope to visit you as well if you have a BLOG!

LOVE MY BUG!!!!

1. I love my Cuttlebug!!!! Unfortunately I don't use it nearly as often as I should, but I will be using it more as a result of two things. I just acquired a bunch of new embossing folders for it, including the much sought after Swiss Dots.
2. I found a fantastic blog site for inspiration it's called "Cuttlebug Challenges"

There is a blinky to the right on this Blog page that will take you to their wonderful blog where you can find all sort of ideas on how to use your cuttlebug in new and exciting ways. Check it out! As soon as I get some breathing space I plan to try out several of their ideas.

THANKSGIVING AND GRATITUDE

It's the time of year when our thoughts turn to things that we a thankful for. Studies have proven that when we look for the good in our lives and regularly focus on finding things to be thankful for our health is better and we live longer.

I find it helpful to have a place to record and keep a record of things that I am grateful for. This way when I go through a stretch of time when I am tempted to think nothing good ever happens I can look back through what I have written down and see that there is much to be thankful for on a daily basis. Big things as well as small. I know other people like to do the same type of recording and so one thing I love to make are Gratitude Journals. I enjoy making each one unique and I definitely try to make each one pretty.

A few weeks ago a friend asked me to make some of these for her to be used as gifts. I made six. Here are three of the designs I came up with. I've also made a few prayer journals and another friend has asked me to make a gardening journal that she can give as a gift.

These are very easy to do especially if you have a Xyron machine that can be used to put adhesive on the back of the various elements of the cover. The books I use to alter as the composition books that are found in most office supply stores. I stock up on them at the back to school sales in August and September when I can get them for 99 cents rather than the normal $1.99 or more. I personally like the college ruled ones, but that's a personal preference. I've made a few for children and then I use the wide ruled.

The backs are covered with the same papers as the front but with no embellishements. The inside if the front and back covers are covered but only in a coordinating solid card stock. If I have a supply of RSVP pens I will often make a matching pen to go with the book.

These make nice gifts to give as well as a wonderful tool to use to daily remind yourself to look for something to be thankful for. Each and everyday no matter how bad things may be going in our lives there will be at least one thing we can find to be greatful for. Even it it is only having woke up in the morning to see another day. I find that when I make a consious effort to look for the good in my life and the workd around me I find plenty. Its only when I forget to look for the good and focus on the bad that life becomed bleak and unbearable. So why don't you join me and make yourself a gratitude journal and make the first entry in it one of gratitude for the joy you had in creating your journal.........

All that said I hope each and everyone of you had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving weekend with family and friends.

Now it's on full speed ahead into the holiday season how ever you celebrate it.

GOOD NEWS!!!!

Okay I am jumping on the band wagon that Teresa started on her BLOG about good news in November. It's been pretty dreary and nasty here on the East Coast so far this month. Add to that the end o Daylight Savings Time and the darkness that now descends around 5pm and we need some good news to keep our spirits up. December bring the excitement of the impending holidays, but November can be just down right depressing until you begin to focus on Thanksgiving. So post here what you are looking forward too and what is the good news right now in your life and then ask the same of readers on your BLOG if you have one.

What am I looking forward to in November??? Time that will be spent in NC with my sister and mother helping my mother move into a new home. Also my daughter will be joining us so it will be a three generation Thanksgiving celebration. This also means I will be away from work for a week....always something to be thankful for!!!!!!! Just kiding I really do love my job even though it drives me nuts!!!

MORE CHIRSTMAS

Halloween is over and it is still a bit early for Christmas at least for Christmas decorations and carols, but shopping and making items for Christmas has definitely begun so I am more and more thinking Christmas cards. This is one that I made for SCS's November mini VSN. Unfortunately, I am not sure if I will be able to do the full VSN next weekend. I'll have to wait and see what this week brings. Anyway I digress, back to my card.

I used my new SU stamp set Scandinavian Seasons. I think this set is absolutely gorgeous. Especially when it is embossed with gold. Each of the four images in the set is elegant, but I think the tree is my favorite. I also have the coordinating wheel, Scandinavian. I haven't had time to use it yet, but plan to soon.

This really is a very simple card. The embossing is pretty basic. When I emboss with the metalics I always stamp with the same metallic ink so in this case I stamped the tree with gold encore ink and then embossed it with gold embossing powder. The gold edging on the rectanges is using the Kylon gold leafing pen.

PLEASE VOTE!!!!!

I don't have anything to show today. Life and work just got inthe way and now I am headed out to set up our polling area for tomorrow. I know I won't be here tomorrw as it will be a very long day working the polls.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!!

Of course I Would like you to vote for my candidate, but since I'm not going to tell you who that is since I don't want this to turn into a political BLOG please just vote! Keep those of us working the polles as election judges very very busy!!!!

CARDS FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Well it turned out to be a stamping day. No sewing today.

It's now November. Halloween is over and we are rapidly moving towards Thanksgiving and Christmas. A co-workers asked me to design a Christmas card for her using the Christmas stamps she has. Last week she gave me her stamps and today I decided to play around with them and see what I could come up with.

I was a bit frustrated because I didn't have any of the Christmas designer papers to play with and I really would have like to use some of them. But I had to work with what I have that is not retired since if she likes my design she needs to be able to purchase the supplies needed to make them. I decided that I didn't want to just give here one design. What if she didn't like it???? So I decided to increase the odds that I would do something she might like and did three different cards with several different sets that she has. Here is what I came up with.

The first card used a set that SU has retired. It's called Peaceful Wishes. I used Mellow Moss card stock for the base of the card and rolled it with a snowflake wheel in Mellow Moss to make a background. I punched the bottom edge of the front of the card with the scallop boarder punch. The other card stock colors I used were Riding Hood Red and Always Artichoke. The sentiment "Peaceful Wishes I embossed in gold and the pine cone I stamped in Chocolate Chip craft Ink and embossed with clear powder. I did the same with the holly sprig, but stamped it with Old Olive craft ink and then put in small red brads for the berries. The ribbon is the Mellow Moss taffeta ribbon.

Card number two also uses a stamp from the Peaceful Wishes stamp set. This is the full holly branch stamp. I once again used the Riding Hood Red card stock as an accent color this time placing it against a card base of Kiwi Kiss. To make a background for this card I used a snowflake stamp (of unknown origins) and randomly stamped it around in versa mark ink then embossed the whole card front with Iridescent Ice. This give the card a sparkly festive look. Unfortunately it doesn't show up in the scanned image. The holly sprig is stamped on white card stock in Old Olive and I colored over the berries with a Real Red marker. Then I put little drops of Crystal Effects to give a bit of shine and dimension. The Merry Christmas sentiment is embossed in silver. Both the sentiment and the holly sprig element are raised on dimensionals.

Finally for the third card I went with a color scheme other than the traditional red and green. This is basically blue and amethyst. For some reason this card did not scan well at all. (One of these days in my free time, HAHA, I need to work on making my light box to take photos in.) The card base here is Bashful Blue and again I stamped the small snowflakes in Versamark and embossed with Iridescent Ice. The set used for this is Loads of Love which has been around forever! I had to use masking to get the lady in the cab and the tree in the pickup bed. The tag that the pick-up is stamped on is glossy card stock stippled with Bashful Blue, Almost Amethyst, and Perfect Plum inks. It is edged with a silver leafing pen. This really did not scan well at all! If I have time tomorrow I may try and take a photo in daylight to see if it comes out better. I colored the truck with markers. The ribbon was white taffeta ribbon that I ran across the Almost Amethyst pad to color. Inside the card I stamped "Merry Christmas"

So I don't know which if any Nancy may like, let alone choose to make for her family cards, but I had fun making Christmas cards and once again making a mess of my stamping room! Just out of curiosity let me know which one you like the best. We'll see how your choices compare with Nancy's.

QUILTING TODAY BUT A CARD TO SHOW

Today has been a day of small quilting projects. I've made 2 sets of placemats and I don't know how many quilted pot holders. It has been fun being down in the sewing room (aka basement). I don't seem to be doing much sewing these days and I have so much fabric to use up! I do enjoy sewing and using my lovely machine.

However, I haven't taken any pictures to show you. So I have gone into my card archive of cards that were made sometime in the past, but have never made there way to my BLOG. I found a picture of a birthday card I made that has a quilt block on it. I do have this connection between my two passions.

I have added some wonderful quilt related stamps to my inventory. Sometime this week I hope to break them out. Maybe tomorrow, unless I feel that it is a sewing day once again.

I'm trying to guess what the buying public will be interested in next Saturday and see that I have some of it. I would like to do one more placemat set, at least one baby quilt, maybe a wubbie or two. Plus I have cards to finish up and a few framed pictures as well as a couple more journals. This is not a week that I need to have disrupted by the presidential elections! I need crafting time, but I am committed to working as an election judge all day and night Tuesday so I will have to make good use of the remaining non work hours of the week!

If anyone reading this happens to be from the Maryland area I would like to invite you to the 2nd Annual Fall arts and Crafts Festival at our church. It will be on Saturday, November 8 from 9am to 3pm. There will be 16 vendors as well as a large collection of hand painted porcelain collector dolls, a bake sale and wonderful Silent Auction baskets to bid on. Our church is Covenant United Methodist Church and is located in Montgomery Village at the corner of Montgomery Village Avenue and Wightman Raod. The address is 20301 Pleasant Ridge Drive.
I would love to see you there! I will be in the library with my goodies. We are working toward raising money for repairs and reoutfitting of our kitchen. (Which a favorite project of mine as I cook dinner in it every Tuesday night!)

Oh.....even if you live out of town you are invited if you want to fly into town.....well I didn't want you to feel left out!