SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT!

I've thought about this interesting challenge. It is to read 10 books between now and the end of the year. I love to read and don't allow myself time to do as much of it as I would like. There is so much else to do. I found out about the challenge from another BLOGGING, stamping, stitching and in general all around Internet friend LadyDoc. She posted it on her BLOG Tilting at Windmills, and she asked if anyone would care to join her? My response was: 10 books by the end of the year??? That would be not too much more than a book a week. There are only 15 weeks left in the year! But I also indicated I would look into it.

Well it turns out this challenge was started by a stitcher and listening to audio books counts. Ah, I like that! 1--I listen to audio books while I drive so I can count those. 2--I can kill two birds with one stone by listening to books while I stamp, quilt, knit, exercise or even clean house (well if I did much house work these days). Not that I would only listen to books. I would read at least half of them. But being able to listen as well as read does take some of the pressure off. I love to read but I am not a speed reader by any means! I like to enjoy a good read and that means taking the time to savor it! So Lady Doc I will take you up on this challenge. I don't have a complete list of what I will read or listen to having just found out about this challenge 30 minutes ago, but there are a few books sitting by my chair that I have been meaning to read and one n my car waiting to be listened to so here is the start of my list. I will finish it by tomorrow night.

1) Dragon Fly in Amber by Diane Gabaldon audio
2) The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
3) Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult
4) Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
5) Tales of the Beedle Bard by J K Rowling
6) This I Believe edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman
7) I'm Not Wonder Woman But God Made Me Wonderful by Shelia Walsh
8) The Magician's Wife by Brian Moore
9) Waltzing at the Piggly Wiggly by Robert Dalby
10) 12 Extraordinary Women by John MacArthur

this list may change as time goes on but these are the books sitting by my chair at the moment anyway............

So that's the start of my list. More to come tomorrow along with a card that I worked on today.

INSIDE OUT!

We had a very special 50th Birthday Party to attend last month. It was for two of our dear friends. A couple whose birthdays are withing weeks of each other so they always celebrate milestone birthdays together. Yes, 50 is a milestone!

I know that 50th Birthdays are often "Over the Hill" birthdays. The colors for decorations are often Black and white. I can do black and white. I love that combination, but this is a couple with spice in their lives so there needed to be a dash of red added in to liven things up. If there is a color combo I like better than black and white its black, white AND red!

I've been seeing a lot of cards lately with elements that peak though the front from the inside of the card and I've been wanting to try one and decided this was the card to do it on. A lot of the cards I've been seeing use a frame around the hole where the element shows through and this is what I chose to do.

Here is the front of the card. The papers and card stock are all Stampin' Up. The small circle punched out and scalloped frame around it in the upper left corner were done using SU punches. The larger punched circle and scalloped frame in the bottom right were made using Marvy punches. The stamps I used where from unknown sources. I simply know they aren't SU because they were acrylic stamps. The black brads are from SU and the black organdy ribbon is some I have left from a SU spool that is now retired.

Here is the inside of my card. It shows the black circles with the sentiments that show through to the front. Also you can see the black scalloped border that I added for interest on the inside. This border was made using SU's scalloped border punch.

It was a fun card but I had to be careful to design it so that the peak through holes were placed in a location that could be reached by my punches. I could have used my circle Nestibilities I suppose and then I wouldn't have had to worry about this placement but I didn't so I did........

So long till the next posting which may not be for a few days since the next few days and nights are pretty well packed with outside the home commitments!

LAST OF ALASKA STAMPS

My moose! This is the last of the three stamps I purchased in Alaska. I didn't color this one in as I need to find ways to use the stamps that don't take me 5 hours or more to do. They won't get used much if I stick to that method.

Gina K did a technique video called Smackin' Acetate and I tried to use that technique for my background. It's on her social network site Stampin' TV. I think I need a bit more work on this technique. Her background is so soft and smooth mine is rather jagged. Though the white in the sky area does look a bit like clouds.

It's a fun technique to try. It can get a bit messy if your are not careful but don't let that scare you off. I will be working some more with it.

Gina has a long list of technique videos she has made. So many things to try and so little time!

TIME FOR A DIFFERENT STYLE

Once again I have need for sympathy cards. I think there must be something connected here with the age I and my peers have entered into...........So far at least most of the cards have been for parents of friends and not friends themselves. I guess that will be the next stage.

But enough of that talk. This card makes heavy use of white and gold with just a touch of black as the layer between the two brushed gold scalloped rectangles. I used my Scor Pal to emboss the lines a little over halfway down the front of the card stock. Using the ribbon helps hide the slightly uneven ends of the score lines.

The ribbon is a piece from my stash. No idea where from??? All the card stock is Stampin' Up. I especially love their brushed gold card stock. The inks and Gold Embossing Powder is also from SU. The stamps used are from Papertrey. I can't right at the moment remember the name of the set.

For as easy as this card was to make I really like the way it turned out.

I just checked on Papertrey's site. The stamp set used is Everyday Blessings.

MORE ALASKA STAMPS

Several months ago I posted some cards I had made with a stamp I purchased in Alaska. It was a Hummingbird stamp that has Native Alaskan artwork in it. You can see those cards here if you missed them and would like to see them. I had purchased three stamps from the same company Earth Art International. They are part of their Animal Spirit Stamp line.


I really like coloring in these images but it is very, very time consuming and I must be in the right frame of mind when I do so because it is very detailed coloring. Here are two more cards. This time using the Bear image.

These are quite large stamps so I am really challenged on how to use them on cards. But I do love them and hope to find many ways to use them both colored and mono tone. So far I have been trying to use color schemes that are found in traditional Native Alaskan art. These include primarily red, black, white and turquoise.

The third stamp that I have is a moose. Soon I will show some pictures of it. I do have some cards completed just need to edit them.

ANOTHER TAKE ON SAME ELEMENTS

So I am the first to admit that I get bored easily! I cut out all the elements for my SheetLoad of cards....see previous post...but I got interrupted by other life events before I got all eight cards done. When I had time yesterday morning to get back into my stamp room I needed to do something more creative than just make the same cards I had been working on days ago. I also wanted to do the GinaK challenge to use stitching on a card. But I couldn't just put aside into a UFO (UnFinished Object) pile the remaining pieces for my SheetLoad Cards. (I know myself well enough to know the likely hood of my going back and finishing these particular cards was pretty small. Have I ever told you all I get bored easily!) So I decided to challenge my self to use these pre-cut card elements and create a new card. This would not be boring and I would not set aside or waste the elements I had already prepared. I also would use stitching on the card so I would have my GinaK challenge card!

The result of my playing around is on the left. I eliminated some of the rectangles and added three paper flowers and brads. I do not like the stitching by had however. I like the look just not the time it took! Did I ever say I get bored easily and also am impatient...........?

I have a few more of the element sets cut out I will play around with them as well and see what else I can come up with. But that will be another post!

Shout Out to SheetLoad

It's been a while since I have stamped and made any cards. Not sure what is up with me but I just got out of the groove and have been dealing with too many other things. BUT I missed my creativity and stamping mojo. How to get it back was the question I faced!

I have several sites that I visit when I need an inspiration boost. One of my favorite is SheetLoad of Cards. They put out a wonderful E-Zine monthly. Not only is it full of inspiration but the really break down how to make their featured card layout giving you measurements and supply lists and everything! Can it get any better when you are in a stamping slump????? I don't think so.

So SheetLoad is where I headed. Each month's E-Zine has a sponsor and it certainly helped inspire me even more when I found that the August SheetLoad E-Zine was sponsored by Sweet & Sassy another of my favorite companies. So it was a twofer inspiration hit!

Now I know that August is almost over, but all monthly E-Zines are archived and they are timeless. So you can refer to them throughout the year. And since it's almost September that means in a few days I'll get even more inspiration!

So what did I do with the inspiration I received from SheetLoad today. Why I made a card of course! I even went out on my own and made a few adjustments to there design which is just fine and in fact is encouraged! The card layout they did was for a square card and I just don't do square cards because I don't have square envelopes. So I played around a bit....see my mojo was returning...and came up with a rectangular card that is the same as their square one.

My other little added touches were using my Cuttlebug embossing folder tho emboss the background and layering my designer paper rectangles. Here's my card. (The Scalloped oval color did not scan well IRL it is much redder rather than the purple it shows up here And the oval is Shara Sand which is much browner than the blue it looks here.) I finally used some of my new Stampin' Up In Color card stock and I love it. I used Crushed Curry and Soft Suede. The third card stock color I used is Purely Pomegranate, a retired In Color. The Designer Papers are also from SU and are scraps I had left over from other projects. The ribbon is Purely Pomegranate double stitch ribbon and I used various SU and Marvey punches as well as my rectangle Nestabilities to punch out my shapes.

A wonderful side benefit of going to SheetLoad for my inspiration is I now have the pieces for 7 more cards cut and ready to assemble. I will do so using different sentiments so I have a selection of cards to use for almost any occasion. So if you have never been to the SheetLoad site why not do so now. You to may find wonderful inspiration there whether you want to make one card or multiples. They have the ideas.

August E-zine
SheetLoad main site.

I hope that now I have broken the ice and gotten back into my stamp room that I will be present here in the future more than I have been recently. See you soon!

BACK TO STAMPING!

It was so nice to get back into the stamping room today. Doubly nice because not only did I stamp and create three cards, but I also did some cleaning and putting away of stuff that had been sitting out too long and the cards I made used images that I had stamped several weeks ago. (I don't know about you but for me it feels so good to finish up started projects!)

The images I had stamped were made using a stamp that I purchased on our trip to Alaska in May. I actually got three stamps but have only used this one so far. It is a hummingbird image filled in with symbols and designs used by Native American groups. I fell in over with their designs which were found all over Alaska on our journey. I also have a bear and a moose, filled in with designs in the same fashion as the hummingbird.

These stamps are from a line of stamps called Animal Spirit Stamps and they are put out by Earth Art International. The original artwork for these stamps was done by a Washington artist names Sue Coccia.

The first card I made is a very simple card that makes use of colors that are often found in the Native American artwork in Alaska: reds, black and turquoise. This is a very detailed stamp but it stamps wonderfully and clearly.




The second card still makes use of the image being stamped in black in a solid colored card stock but I moved away from using the traditional colors and pulled out my Nestabillities to add an addition point of interest on the card. One of the challenges of using these stamps for card making is that the stamps are rather large. So for this second card I cut out the hummingbird and placed it off center agianst a circle of lighter card stock. This is mounted on a scalloped circle that has been pierced in each scallop and all is then placed on a rectangle of designer paper. To me it almost looks as if the hummingbird is flying in front of the moon. I added the ribbon on the bottom to balance out the card.

It doesn't show in the pictures of the first to cards but on both of them I placed a tiny yellow Stickles dot for some sparkle on the eye.




My final card what the most fun but also the most work to make. For this card I stamped the image using Memento Tuxedo Black ink on white card stock and very carefully colored it in using my copic markers. I say carefully because the spaces to be colored where very, very tiny! Fortunately I have a good selection of the original Copics which have a fine tip nib. I took awhile (about 90 minutes) to color in the whole hummingbird. I don't think I will regularly be coloring in these images but I really do like the look of it. When the inner child needs to come out and color in a detailed way I will consider doing so again. As detailed as the coloring is the card needed something more and the brads worked well to balance out the "get well" sentiment. (The sentiment by the way is from Stamping Up's new set Teeny Tiny Wishes. I'm pretty sure this is a set I will pull out often. I also used it for the "Happy Birthday on the first card.)

So the above is the result of my day of stamping. I have lots of new sets to lay with and hopefully will get a few more things done tomorrow. Until then be good and have fun with life!

THE FINAL RESULT

The mystery has been solved. I am somewhat amazed that I finished it. It has been a very, very long time since I have finished a quilt project. Well, it's not totally finished since I haven't quilted it yet, but the top is done.

There were 5 steps to this mystery and 64 four inch blocks to be made. Its was quite fun and I continue to be amazed at Carol Doak's talent for design. I think this pattern is stunning! Here are all the blocks for the quilt top in various states of being put together in units following
directions of the 5 steps. I finished all the blocks just before lunch today. I thought they were pretty impressive just piled together.


After a quick lunch (quilters don't take long lunches when a project is near completion; in fact they usually don't eat at all, but I was hungry and needed to move my joints so I took a break) I sat back down at my machine and began the final assembly. In my haste I did make a mistake or to and so needed to do a bit of "unsewing". Not fun when you are putting together a top made of 64 paper pieced blocks because you use little stitches.

One of my favorite parts of quilting is watching the final top emerge out of the pile of blocks. So without final ado here is the solved Anniversary Mystery quilt top in all its glory..................

It's coming

Be patient!

TaDa....................

Here it is!

I have no idea what design I will use to quilt it. That decision will wait for another week or so. I've loved getting back to my quilting, but now I am really itching to get back to my stamp room. It's been a long time since I have been there as well. Life must be easier when a person only has one passion, but then that would be boring............

SO WHAT IS SUZANNE UP TO?????

It has been so long since I havedone any posting here or any stamping or sewing I am surprised I finally got back to doing anything. For the past month I have been both traveling and working on some health issues that have kept me feeling pretty blue. Its time to get out of my funk and back to living. For the moment I have gone back to my first love, quilting.

I have been part of an online quilting group with Carol Doak the "Queen of Paper Piecing" for several years, but have not been active with them for at least two years. That's where I went to begin again. Carol was in the process of offering a mystery quilt project and though I was several weeks behind I decided to jump in.

Now you might ask what is a mystery quilt??? Well it's a quilt you make that is just what its name says....a mystery. There are clues (construction steps) given along the way. The first clue pertains to the fabric you need and the amount of each one. It is stated simply as things like 1 yard of dark for background, 1/2 yard multicolor small print, 1 yard light cool fabric etc...... You don't know what pattern you will be using just what the colors and values will be. Here is what I choose from the Step one instructions. (Note: the second fabric from the left didn't phoograph well it is actally a medium range rosey pink) Also givien qith step 1 was a cutting chart so you can cut our fabrics and have everything ready to sew as the other steps are revealed.


Step two was intructions for 16--4 inch blocks. Since this mystery is authord by Carol Doak it is a paper piecing project. So for this step there was a paper piecing pattern which is numbered in the order that you sew the fabrics on. I was instructed to make 8 each of two different color placements for this block. Here is the beginnings of my mystery. Things begin to get really intersting at this point.



Since I was a late comer to this mystery I actually already had printed out step 3 and was ready to go as soon as I finished step 2. Step 3 used the same block as step 2 in a different color pattern. We were to make 16 blocks and then sew them together into 4 sets of 4 blocks. Here that step is completed.

So now I have 8 single 4 inch blocks, 4 units of two blocks sewn side by side and 4 units of four blocks. I however still have no idea how the quilt will look when all is done. The mystery is still safe!

50th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION!

I had a 50th anniversary party to attend this afternoon. So my morning activity was to make a special card for the special couple. They are not a very fussy or fru-fruy (I know, I know that's probably not a word and if it is it's probably not spelled correctly) couple so I wanted to make a very simple but nice card.

Being a 50th Anniversary there needed to be gold involved somehow. Fortunately I have just replenished my Stampin' Up Brushed Gold card stock. I was perfect for what I wanted to do. Using that and my Encore Gold stamp pad and gold embossing powder this is the design I came up with. There is also a stamped sentiment appropriate to anniversary celebrations on the inside of the card. The card base is white card stock.

I wish I could say they liked the card, but me being me......I left for the party without it. Hopefully they will be at church tomorrow. If not the card will go into the mail on Monday.

I've been making a lot of cards this weekend. So if I don't get to do much once I get back into the work week I will have plenty to showcase here on my BLOG. So do please come back.

BLOG CANDY ALERT AND RECYCLED ITEMS!

Quick second post in less than a half an hour. But after making my post about the collage card I went and did some BLOG surfing myself. The first BLOG is visited was Judy Rozema's Joy in a JAR. Green items are "in" right now. We all want to be environmentally friendly. One of the ways crafters do this is by using recycled items in their craft projects. Joy has come up with a wonderful project that does just that. Check it out on her Tuesday posting. Also she is giving away some BLOG candy in celebration of her 2nd year BLOGing.

Now I have another project to try out on my ever growing list!

COLLAGE CARD

This is actually an older card that I made quite some time ago, but it's been hanging around in my photos for the web long enough and so I decided to feature it today.

This is a style card that I find very difficult to do. Especially to do well. It's a one dimensional and one media collage. I used all different line drawn stamps and randomly stamped the images around the water color paper. All the stamps I used are Stampin' Up and most if not all are retired ones. Then I added some color using my watercolor crayons and an aqua painter. I think I may have been a bit too heavy handed with the color and a simple wash of color would have been more effective.

The card needed some dimensional element it was just too flat so I wrapped some hemp twine around the watercolor paper (after roughing up the edges) and attached a tag by hanging it off the hemp with a piece of hodge podge hardware. and placed brads from the same hodge podge hardware set. This unit was then mounted on a black card base. When I use black card stock for card basis I often place a piece of white cardstock that is sponged in a coordinating color from the front of the card or basic grey ink. I always do this if I am selling the card. If I am making the card to use myself I use a white ink pen to write my message and sign the inside.

That's it for today. Tomorrow is a day off work and I am trying to decide how messy I want to get. GinaK's technique today on Stamp TV is the shaving cream technique. I've never tried this but just may give it a try....it can also be used to lay color down on fabric so I can get a two fer' if I master it.

Thanks for stopping by. Please come back again!

OOPS! I'M WRONG AGAIN!

Well, I don't have my story straight once again!!!!!!

The Belli Challenge has gone to a bi-weekly challenge so I am not late but right smack dab in the middle with my posting. So I guess that's the good news.....the bad news is I need to wait till next Wednesday to get my Belli fix!!!!!!!!

I'm just going to have to find me another challenge for tomorrow. With all the challenges out there that shouldn't be too hard. And is suddenly occurs to me I need to get a Mother's Day card made and in the mail......it's this Sunday!!!!!! EEK!

BETTER LATE THEN NEVER!

Here is my Belli Challenge Card for last weeks challenge #64. The new challenge comes out tomorrow morning and so I am just under the wire. The challenge was to use large eyelets or brads on a card. I had planned to use my jumbo eyelets, but just couldn't come up with a design that I liked. I need to continue working with them to come up with something or just give them away. They've been lying around long enough. I did use some large brads though. Not particularly original but I got the used.

I so love Olivia. She's from Sweet' n Sassy's set Owl Occasions.

I used my nesties once again....love them too...I need to get some more sets soon I hope. Squares and Ovals are next on the list. And Olivia is colored using my SU markers. I didn't want a smooth color. The blotchiness I think gives the impression of feathers. The patterned papers are SU of indeterminate packs as they came out of my scrap pile and I am not familiar enough with all the old sets of paper to remember names.

So that is my card. To see more creations for this Belli Challenge visit the Creative Belli Blog. I know you will see some fantastic cards there. No doubt about it!

And don't forget tomorrow is Wednesday which means a whole new challenge will be posted on the Creative Belli Blog. I wonder what it will be????

BLEACHING

If you are a member of GinaK's StampTV you may have seen this card already. If you are not a member you really should be! It's a wonderful place to learn new techniques and also to get to know some wonderful stampers.

This card is a result of a video GinaK did several weeks ago on how to use bleaching on your cards. She showed two different techniques and this is the one I have tried and really enjoy doing....fortunately I like the smell of bleach....if you don't this may not be a technique for you.

What I did was stamp the Iris image from GinaK's Elegant Flowers set using black craft ink from Stampin' Up. I then embossed the image with clear powder. You could use versa mark in and then emboss with black embossing powder, but I don't have much luck with black powder. Even with using an embossing buddy to reduce the static on my card stock I still get black speckles...so I prefer black ink and clear powder. In order to get the effect of bleaching you also want to stamp your image on colored card stock....NOT white!

I then painted inside the embossed lines using plain household bleach and a fine paint brush. I did not use an expensive brush in case the bleach would harm the bristles...it didn't but I was sure about whether it would or not. The cheap on worked fine and so this is probably what I will always use.

One of the neat things about bleaching is that you never really know what color your card stock will bleach to. And the bleaching is not always uniform throughout the image. I haven't tried another image but will. (My list of things I am going to do again is getting longer and longer!)

Above is a close up of my bleached Irises.

I finished off designing my card using my circle nesties and brushed gold cardstock, some fun ribbon, brads and digital background paper available from GinaK. The paper I printed out onto HP Brochure paper which is heavier weight than regular printer paper and smoother than regular card stock. It is not as smooth though as glossy card stock. Here is a picture of the finished card. The sentiment is also from the Elegant Flowers set.

Tomorrow I need to work on designing and making a card for a 50th anniversary party I am going to on Saturday. So I will probably work some more with my brushed gold card stock. Hopefully I will make it back to post a picture. If my mojo is missing I will show you the card I made for this last weeks Belli Challenge to use large brads or eyelets. Come to think of it tomorrow is Tuesday so I better get that posted here! Then next day there is a new Belli Challenge!

FLOWER SOFT

A few weeks ago I purchased a new product to use in my cards making adventures: Flower Soft. I've only used it a few times bur am enjoying it when I do. This card was so quick and simple its almost a shame to even show you. But, sometimes we need quick cards because they need to get in the mail ASAP and there is not a lot of time for design thought.

The only stamping on this card is the sentiment "Praying for You". The tree branches are on designer paper. By themselves the branches were pretty boring. Outside my window is a beautiful ornamental cherry tree. At the time I was needing to make this card that tree was just beginning to come into bloom. It reminded me of a card I saw at Queen's Ink, a local stamp store, which is where I found my flower soft. I also got the paper there.

The flower soft is put on the branches in little tufts that look like clumps of cherry blossoms. It also takes a rather mundane looking card and gives it a bit of zip. Add some layers, moss green satin ribbon, and some lovely little self adhesive pearls and voila a lovely card ready to send to someone who needs a lift and a friend.

PAPER FOLDING

I 've always been intrigues by articles in magazines showing paper folding on cards. Up until recently though I had never tried the technique. I think part of the reason I have been drawn to cards using this technique is that it reminds me of a style of quilt blocks that I like making.

I needed a congratulatory card for a FLYBaby Buddy and decided it was time to try the technique. I liked how it turned out but did learn several things in the process.

Here is the card and a close up of the paper folding image.

I choose to do a heart design. I guess actually the correct term for this technique is Iris Folding. I discovered my mistake in the name of it while searching for the web site where I got the directions. It is Iris Folding @ CircleofCrafters.com. If you are interested in trying the technique yourself I would suggest you visit their site. It's very helpful.

There are a few things I would like to add as tips for having sauces with this. The first is use as light a weight paper for the design paper that you are folding. Double sided paper will not work in my opinion. Most of it is just too heavy and you end up with a lot of bulk. My next card I make I plan to try Origami Paper. It's very light weight. My other tip would be get yourself some large punches or nestabilities to create the hole that shows the design. Unless you are much better with a hobby knife than I am (which very likely you are because I am terrible with them) cutting the hole using the knife will be the most frustrating part of the whole process.

Here is a close up of my heart. It doesn't show in the photo but the center paper I used was a glitter paper. This was a very simple card. The heart is the primary element. I want to play around with other design presentations for this technique.....

....we'll see if I ever do....I'm know for trying things wanting to do more and then moving on to a new technique. BUT I do have a lot of origami paper know and it will need to be used so there is hope it will happen....some day.....

TILE #2

Here is the second tile I made following GinaK's directions on StampTV.

I can not say how much I love these and how much I enjoy making them. So much so that today I purchased more colors of Stazon ink. I am ready to go and make more.

Unfortunately it is past my bed time and so I must head off to bed.

At the moment I do not remember the name of this stamp set I used for this tile. It is a retired Stampin' Up set. That I do know. Except for the leaves they I do know are from GinaK's Elegant Flowers set. The set I used on my other tile.

JUST A LITTLE SIDE FUN!

I took a little quiz I found on my friend LadyDoc's BLOG and I love the results....I haven't been to London in a long time so maybe it is time to go again.....

You Belong in London

A little old fashioned, and a little modern. A little traditional, and a little bit punk rock. A unique soul like you needs a city that offers everything. No wonder you and London will get along so well.

What City Do You Belong In?<

I am a little of this and a little of that so I guess this does fit me.

Tonight I will be back to stamping.....I took a picture of my other tile this morning so stop back by to see it.

I'M BACK

Wow it's been a long time since I have updated this BLOG. I have been dealing with some health issues and though they are not yet all resolved I have resolved that I need to get back into life. I've missed posting here and also missed spending time in my craft room.

My fingers aren't yet pain free and still are pretty swollen and stiff, but I can't wait for that to change because it just may not ever do so. (For those who do not know, I have been diagnosed with active and severe Rheumatoid Arthritis.) So it is time to stop feeling sorry for myself and move on to my "new normal" life.

GinaK's new video on StampTV was just the exciting kick in the pants I needed today. IT was on stamping tile coasters and how to do so without having to do any extra work to make them waterproof. Wow....they are so easy when you know how....if you want to make wonderful coasters for gifts you MUST watch this video!

Here is my tile.


I'm not sure if it will be used as a coaster or as a home dec. accessory tile propped on an easel. The tiles I found in my stash are a bit large I think for coasters. But the are waterproof and so certainly could be.

I followed GinaK's instructions pretty closely. Except that since the stamp I used, which is from her set Elegant Flowers which is available in the Floral Frenzy kit, is a solid image and I wanted to use several colors I colored the stamp using ink picked up on ends of Q-tips. I had to work pretty fast so the ink didn't dry in the stamp before I could stamp the tile. I wasn't sure it would work but it did.

I made a second tile using a Stampin' Up stamp, but haven't photographed it yet. It was a outlined image so I colored it in using daubers like Gina did on the video. I will try to get a photo of it in the next day or so. I also like how it turned out.

Now I just need to get some more tiles and padded feet for the bottom as well as more colors of Stazon! I see Christmas presents for everyone.......give them a try.

I MISS MY BLOG and NEWS ABOUT BLOG CANDY!

Sorry I haven't been posting lately. I am having some health issues and typing is not an easy thing to do. Hopefully after a visit to a new Dr next week I will either get some advice on exercises, diet or drugs to help my fingers function better. I did want to stop by though and pass on some news about a wonderful opportunity to enter into a drawing for some wonderful BLOG candy. You simply need to visit Creating With Chrissy and see what Chris is offering. It's a wonderful stamp set from Sweet & Sassy. Simply leave a comment on the BLOG entry about the Blog Candy. Of course while you are visiting her Blog do check out her other posts and discover how wonderfully creative she it.

Do hope to be sharing some cards and other projects with you in the new week. In the meantime have wonderful Easter tomorrow.

CHECK IT OUT!

The Belli Challenge #61 that is.......Its April Fools Day today and in honor of that the challenge is to make a humorous card. Also as I said last night I am their Guest Designer for the week and I am honored with this designation......I hope that doesn't have any April Fools significance.....??? Also part of the Belli Challenges is to use what we have and often to unearth and use what we haven't used in a while.

Humorous cards maybe easier for some than others.....I found myself in the others category. The question became what is humor on a card? I knew there are lots of "lie down and roll on the floor laughing" humorous stamp images out, but alas I don't own any of those stamps......so I needed to take what I had and make it humorous. I think I got to cute not so sure about humorous...... You be the judge!

I have two cards. The first is a Birthday party in the making.....



I love my little SockMonkey from Stampin' Up.....he's as humorous as I get....but once again I think hes more cute really than humorous....He is joined by a few other of his Stampin' Up friends one from A Little Bird Told Me and the snake from Zoofari. They all got together, donned their party hats and are ready to wish someone a Happy Birthday!

I colored my images with Copics and "fluffed" up the little bird using my new Flower Soft kit. Sock money is wearing a brown marbled skin, but everything else is colored. There was a lot of fussy cutting of images on this card and also a bit of Stickle sparkle that didn't photograph well.

My second card is for all you BoaBabes out there.........

Once again I think the card is cute It will bring a smile to your face not a roll on the floor laugh..........

The stamp set I used hasn't been off my shelf in ages, but is one of my favorites....Hats Off a retired set by Stampin' Up I love giving this Babe a real boa!!!! This one was made by using some fibres stripped from a length of brown fuzzy yarn. She's also sporting pearls and a ruby ring......

I love the edge punch I used here. It was a yardsale find! Why people would want to give up some lovelies like this I'll never know but I'm glad they do! It obviously didn't show up nicely when it was white against while so I placed a narrow strip of black card stock behind it to pop out the detail of the punch.

So there you have it. Now its your turn.....try your hand at a humorous card and then head over to the Creative Belli Challenge Blog and link it up using Mr Linky! Come back to the Creative Belli Challenge and one day you to might have the honor and the thrill to be a Guest Designer!

Have a wonderful stampin' day!

SIMPLY A FISHY CARD!

Just a simple card tonight. I've been working on reorganizing my stamp room and in so doing am uncovering some older well loved stamp sets that have not been used in quite some time. Fishy Friends is one of these sets. It is a retired Stampin' Up set. I have lots and lots of retired Stampin' Up sets. Some people are better at getting rid of their retired sets....personally I have separation anxiety just thinking about it doing so!

I wanted to use the set and I wanted a simple yet cute card. This is what I came up with. I choose the colors because the reminded me of underwater colors. All the images were stamped in plain black and all are layered on navy card stock. I didn't want boring so I added the navy strips punch with the word punch from SU and to one added five golden yellow brads and to the other the "miss you" sentiment embossed in white and two lavender brads. These strips are also raised on dimensionals to give some added interest.

That's it for my easy card tonight. Tomorrow morning I will post my Belli Challenge cards for this week. I am this weeks guest designer and am so honored to be so! Come back and see what I came up with for this weeks challenge and it was a challenge for me!

MORE SYMPATHY FOR PETS

It seems that there is a rash of sick and unfortunately dying pets once again; so I find my self making more pet sympathy cards. These are so sad to make because in most cases the pets lost truly were family members and even the children of the couples.

I am still so grateful to have my Pet Stack card stock pack from DCWV. IT is my first go to collection of papers for these cards.

I've made cards both for the loss of cats as well as the lose of dogs. At the moment I only need the dog ones, but I will be ready for future loses.

The cat and dog stamps are from Inkadinkadoo and the sentiment on the dog card is from Papertrey. They each have a specific stamped message about the loss of a pet on the inside.

I've always wondered how these cards are received. At least until Thursday night when I saw a good friend who just lost her beloved Westie, Sherlock, last week. He was her and her husbands "little boy". They had no human children of their own. She told me how touched she was that I took the time to make a person card for the lose of a pet. That it showed them I really did care and understand what Sherlock had meant to them both.

So I will continue making these cards. I thank the Lord that he has given me this small talent that can be shared with others and provide them some comfort.

I did get my Copic Colour Challenge card done today and it is waiting patiently to be photographed. Oh and a little side note.....my mouth feels much better today. I am thinking rather than a tooth problem it was stress reated pain in my jaw.....I'm working real hard to reduce the stress that seems to be pervasive in my life at the moment.

BELLI BOOKMARK

Belli Challenge #60 was to make a bookmark. The Design Team Projects were awesome! So many good ideas and new bookmark styles and techniques.

I love to read and I love bookmarks so this was a fun challenge for me. In fact I made four of them so I have some for gifts. This is my favorite of the four.

The base of the bookmark is a double sided designer paper from a marvelous pack I found at Costco a month ago. My Costco rebate check bought it for me (along with a whole basket of groceries). It is a gray background with brown collage design printed on it. I finally used some marvelous vintage style stamps I got from Clear Stamps about 3 years ago and never used.......oops! I stamped some images with Rose Red craft ink and embossed them with detail clear powder. I used the detail powder because I wanted some shine, but didn't want a lot of height to the embossing. Then I attached three Prima flowers in various pale pink shades. (The back of the book mark is a dusty rose color.)

I like my bookmarks to be laminated. They last longer this way and I don't need to worry so much if I get them wet with spilled coffee or tea or water. I don't have a machine that laminates but I use the self laminating pouches. this is actually why I made 4 bookmarks. That's how many I can fit on a page so everything seals well and I don't waste a lot of the laminating material. The laminate was trimmed down to 1/4. WARNING: If you laminate your bookmarks don't trim them right to the edge! The laminate sticks to itself NOT to the card stock so if you don't leave a edge of laminate everything falls apart!!!!!!!!!!

The final step was to use my Crop-i-dile and place a jumbo brad at the top of the bookmark and then loops a burgundy tassel through it. Normally tassels this full and nice can be pricey, but I found a bunch of them at a yard sale for less than 10 cents each. I think they finish off the bookmark nicely!

So that's my Belli Challenge for this week. I still have my Copic Colour Challenge card to do, but was waiting for my new Copic order from Korin it arrive and it came today!!!!!! I now have pretty new colors to play with and one of them I needed for the challenge. Tonight I am still dealing with my tooth ache so maybe tomorrow. IT'S SATURDAY!!!!!!!!

EYELET AND FLOWERS

I wanted to work some more with the paper eyelet edging again so yesterday I pulled it out.

This card looks so much prettier on real life. I am not seeming to get the correct colors with my current camera.....The pinks show up correctly but the cards stock base reads way to gray! It should be Bordering Blue which is a light blue with gray tones, but is definitely blue. The gray cast here I think makes it look dirty which trust me it is not.

I places a strip of Rose Red behind the eyelet to make the holes stand out. The flower was created by layering two Prima flowers with a yellow brad.

I colored the one flower on the left with my copics and then put a touch if icicle stickles on the bud for some sparkle.

That's my card for today.......I haven't done the Belli Challenge for the week yet. That's on tomorrows stamp list. I need to make a bookmark for it. Also tomorrow I will hopefully get to the new Copic Colour Challenge. My brain just wasn't up to a challenge today. And right now I am dealing with some aching teeth after a visit to the dentist and after 4 Advil I think I just need to go to bed!

SNIFFLE GET WELL WISH

It's Tuesday night and the excitement mounts as I eagerly await tomorrows Belli Challenge. To keep myself in stamping and card making form I did make several cards today. I'm still working on cards for our quilt boutique in April and I needed a few to send myself.

Fortunately no one I know is sick right now, but I got a new Lockhart stamp last week and wanted to use it.....I thought it was so cute....a little tissue box. Even though no one is sick right now I know that someone is bound to get the sniffles soon; what with pollen and allergy season bearing done on us as winter tries to leave to make room for spring.

The XX's are from a Gel-i-tin set I purchased in KC at last summers Flybaby gathering. The sentiments from Inkadinkadoo.

In making this card I got to pull out some tools that I really like but haven't been put to much use lately...they were today and you will see the fruits of their labors in other posts this week. I used my circle and scalloped circle SU punches and one of my favorite tools of all time....the perfect layers tool. I never have figured out why SU retired this tool. It makes getting nice layers of many different widths so easy! I'm so glad I got one before they went bye bye!

So that's it for today.....now to bed so I can get up bright and early and see what Chris and the Belli DT has for us tomorrow.

YARD SALE FIND!!!!!!

I'm taking a momentary break from showing cards to post a picture of what I consider a wonderful yard sale find. I know can have all my markers withing easy reach and they are all stored on their sides so their points don't dry out. The copics don't need to be stored on their sides, but it is nice having then so since then I can see their caps with the numbers and colors. I am finding that I use my different markers a lot more having them out and accessible.

This holder is actually a retail "fixture" from our local stamp store that closed. A good friend of mine purchased it and then decided she didn't like using it. So her mistake is my gain......I don't know what she paid, but I got it for $1.00.

Not only is it a very useful organizational tool for me, but I really do like looking at the colors arrayed in front of me when I stamp. I love color.

Now I think I will go visit my markers and do a bit of stamping, coloring and card making!

ANOTHER COPIC COLOUR CHALLENGE #5

This weeks Copic Colour Challenge was to be inspired by a card from Charmed Cards and Crafts a company in the UK. To see the card go to the Copic Colour Challenge Blog. We could use any color copics as long as our coloring method was copics.


My card is a loose representation of the inspiration card. I used the idea of vertical panels and also really liked the blue at the top. I simulated it by using mulberry paper and tearing one edge of it. The stamp set I used was a new one by Stampin' Up Just Buzzin' By. The images were stamped in Memento's Tuxedo Black. I colored them in using the following Copic colors:

Y11, Y15,YR09, R09, R37, G17, BV31, E21 and Black which is 100.

Each of the three panels is sponged on the edge with a different color of classic ink. The colors I used were also suggested to me by the inspiration card.

So that's it for this weeks Copic Colour Challenge..........I still have a few other challenges to do this weekend if I can manage to get off the computer, get my grocery shopping for the week done and come up with some ideas.

BELLI CHALLENGE CARD !

The challenge given in this weeks Belli Challenge was to use wheels. The original intent was to use standard or jumbo sized stamping wheels, but a number of the design team members didn't have any so the challenge was revised to be that you could also use a stamped image that had wheels on it. For full details of the challenge you can go to the Creative Belli Blog. It is challenge #59. You have until Tuesday night, March 24 to up load your challenge card.

Personally my only problem with the original wheel challenge was choosing which of my many wheels to use. I have plenty of both sizes and really do not use them very much at all. Not sure why.....I just don't. I chose to use my On Spot one because I saw some fun possibilities for making it the main focus of the card. Here is what I came up with..........


I started out by rolling the wheel on Mellow Moss card stock using a freshly inked Mellow Moss ink cartridge. Take a helpful hint from me....if you re-ink cartridges to use with your wheels let them set for a hour or so to let the ink really soak in before you use it. Suffice it to say if you use it right away you get a rather inky mess.........

Secondly I placed the designer paper on the side.

I wanted to really take advantage and highlight the different circles made with this wheel so I found some small circle motif stamps and stamped them within the circles using craft ink and embossed them with clear embossing powder...another hint, well really tip....I don't think I will buy anymore colored embossing powders other than metallics. by simply using clear powder over colored craft or pigment ink I can have what ever color I want with only having one container of powder. Also it means I can stamp a whole lot of different colored images to be embossed and use one powder and emboss them all at the same time!

My next step was to create a little dimension so I used my little lady bug and punched her out with a small I think 1/2 inch punch (it may have been 3/4"). I stamped her in Riding Hood Red Classic Ink and colored over the antenna with a fine tipped marker. I placed them over several of the circles popped up with SU dimensionals. Additional dimension was attained by puting the sentiment under a piece of HodgePodge Hardware for SU.

The final embellishments used were a length of ribbon, a flower and button brad and then a few little pearls. This all was put on the Mellow Moss panel and was then attached down on top of a card base. I don't like my ribbon ends or brad prongs to show so when I use them I almost always make sure and use them with a layer of cardstock that goes on top of the card base.

So that is my Belli Card for Challenge #59. Thanks for visiting and looking at it!