Blog Candy Winner: Cindy Vernon

Congratulations to Cindy Vernon for winning the beautiful Ribbon Candy that I offered this past week. I'm sure she'll put it to good use! Thank you all for participating.

Well, my All-Day Crop was a huge success on Saturday. I got 20 pages done!!! Of course more than half of them were all ready created from my classes, and I just had to put pictures in and add some journaling. The day just flew by, and of course I had hoped to get even more done!

Here's one of the layouts that I created. This is a layout showing a bunch of pictures that I gathered of my sweet baby Alexa. I captured several moments when she was trying to put her toes in her mouth, I just love how babies do that!!!

The background for both pages is Sahara Sand, a great neutral color to scrapbook with. I used Rebecca Designer Series paper from Stampin' Up! for the lower portions of the background. The photos were framed in Regal Rose, Sahara Sand, Close to Cocoa, and some light pink textured Bazzil Cardstock. The large Regal Rose pieces were inked along the edges with my Close to Cocoa ink pad. I stamped "baby" in Cocoa ink using my Big Deal alphabet. The "sweet" came from the Sweet Shapes set. I punched out some baby pins in Regal Rose for along the bottom edge of the left page and within one of the Sahara squares on the right page (added a cocoa pin too). I stamped 2 of the Sahara squares with the feet from "I'm Here" in Regal Rose ink.

All-Day Crop...here I come!

I'm so excited about this Saturday!! I'm going to an All-Day Crop at a local church and I'm hoping to get A LOT of scrapbooking done. My challenge now is to fit all the supplies I need in my car without having to rent a trailer!!!! It's so hard to narrow down what supplies I will be using. Too bad I can't just pack up my whole craft room in a suitcase and go!

My hope is to scrapbook the remainder of my Autumn and Winter photos from this past year. I hope that's achievable...I'm anxious to start scrapbooking more warm weather photos so I am very motivated to get this accomplished this weekend. Here's a layout that I just completed using a ready-made layout from one of the scrapbooking classes that I taught last Fall. So many of you have been telling me that you love to watercolor and so I thought you might like it. One of my favorite stamps to watercolor is the bucket of apples from "Give Thanks". So I created an Autumn page using images from this set and used it to display our photos of last year's trip to the local apple orchard. It was such a beautiful day, but it seems so long ago!

The background cardstock for both pages is So Saffron and I also used Very Vanilla, Garden Green, Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, and Certainly Celery cardstocks as frames. The brown scratched paper is one of the double sided sheets from either the Spring Showers or Spring Flowers double sided paper pack. I used a lot of punches in this as well, circle punches for the letters (Best Friends Upper). The tag corner punch for the tag elements and the little slot punch for the twill tape to come through the tags. I fastened the twill tape with Ruby Red brads. The Ruby Red pieces of cardstock are stamped with the leaves from the set in Ruby Red ink, for some extra pattern. I used my watercolor wonder crayons for the watercoloring of the stamped images. I stamped on Very Vanilla using chocolate chip ink, colored with the crayons and then blended with blender pens. My favorite part was coloring the apples, blending the shades of ruby red and saffron to make it look realistic....yum!!

Blog Candy!!!

I know this blog is still very young compared to many other blog artists out there, but I want to celebrate my successes and reward my subscribers and fellow artists with some blog candy!! I'm getting close to 1000 hits on my blog, and I'm hoping that is a sign that I'm inspiring some people out there. Over the last few months I've gained quite a few subscribers, but I really don't know many of you. I'd like to get to know you a little bit, so here's the challenge. Comment on this post and tell me what your favorite technique is. Also, any comments on this blog would be greatly appreciated so that I can improve (what do you like/not like, what would you like to see on this blog, etc.).

Those of you who know me understand that I am a "Ribbon Freak"! I just love to collect ribbons. Recently I acquired a lot of ribbons from a local store that was closing and I'd like to share some of them for blog candy. The winner will receive over 20 2-ft strips of ribbon including a sampling of each color of the flower printed Rik Rak that I recently have been using in my scrapbooking classes, some SU! ribbon, May Arts, and others. A winner will be drawn randomly from all the entries on Tuesday June 26th. One entry per person please. Good Luck, and thanks for reading my blog!

Beate's Challenge #6

This week's challenge was to create a circle card. Here's what I came up with. A circle card was definitely more challenging, but Beate's sketch/sample really helped. I just got my Fall-Winter Collection Preview items and was excited to play with them. I used Purely Pomegranate for the card base. I created the base by creating a typical 5.5" by 4.25" card and then cutting through the front and the back of the card using the largest circle of the Coluzzle circle. I allowed the circle to go beyond the folded edge so that I would have a flat edge for the card fold (make sense?). I also used my Coluzzle to creae the circles for the focal image in So Saffron and Wild Wasabi. I used my corner rounder punch to scallop the edges of the Wild Wasabi Circle. This card uses the flowers from the new set Year after Year. I stamped the flowers in Rose Red on the base card. I stamped the flowers in Garden Green on the So Saffron Circle and colored in with Pearl Ex and Floor Wax (Painted Pearls Technique). I colored the edges with gold pearlex as well. I added a punched white circle with the Warm Words "Giggle" in Rose Red and some White Organdy Ribbon for some extra sparkle. The binding of the card was created with a strip of Wild Wasabi, and some scalloped Palette o Prints Paper. Three Saffron eyelets were added for extra embellishment.

Gate Cards (Beate's Challenge)

This week's challenge from Beate was to create a gate card. Since I had a few cards to make for some friends of mine I decided to make 2!! This one I made for some friends of ours that just found out that they're pregnant! We are so excited for them and I just couldn't wait to send them a card. I used the retiring hostess set Reason to Smile for this card. The central image was created by stamping the butterfly in Versamark on white cardstock and then sponging Pink Passion, Certainly Celery, and Tempting Turquoise chalks on it. This technique is called "Poppin' Pastels" and I haven't done it in a REALLY long time. I framed this image in Positively Pink and added a punched flower with a black eyelet center and some black gingham ribbon for embellishments. The base of the card is Pink Passion Cardstock and it is folded such that it opens from the middle (scored 2-1/8" on both sides of the 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" cardstock). I layered the sides with Tempting Turquoise and the Celery Palette of Prints Paper. I stamped the words on the bottom right corner and attached the central image to the left panel.

The second card I made was for a friend of mine that is having a touch week. The inside of this card reads thought you could use a little pickup". I'm not sure about my color choices for this card, oh well....

I used Almost Amethyst for the card base and layered the panels with Rose Red and the flowery Rose Red Palette of Prints paper. I pulled out my Loads of Love Stamp Set and Accessories for this card, which I haven't used in a while. I stamped the truck on white and colored it in with Regal Rose, Almost Amethyst, and Going Gray. I added some flowers in the back and a brunette driver. On top of the flowers I used my 2-way glue pen and dazzling diamonds to add some sparkle (hard to see in picture). For a final touch I added a white flower with a rose red brad center and some black gingham ribbon for embellishments.

Little bit of Scrapbooking

I got a little bit of scrapbooking done this week. I keep an 8x11 calendar going, so at the beginning of every month I make a simple page to attach to the calendar with recent photos that I've taken. Here's this month's page, very quick and simple, displaying a few pictures of the kids at a little playdate with my local Moms Club. It was a beautiful summer day and the kids had lots of fun playing in the little swimming pools and the sprinkler.

I used Only Orange for the Page base and added some background images using Polka Dots & Petals from the Stampin' Up! Spring Mini Catalog. On the left I used the outlined flower and on the right I used the solid flower. I separated the 2 sides with some Ric-Rak that I found at a local scrapbooking store, unfortunately the spool was not labeled with the manufacturer. I framed the photos in Summer Sun and mounted them. I used my white gel pen to add centers to the outlined flowers on the left and also hand wrote my title and added some doodling around one of the pictures. To label the month on the calendar I used a strip of Summer Sun and stamped some outlined flowers in Only Orange. I added some white centers to these flowers as well, and then Stamped "JUNE" using my Best Friends Upper Alphabet in Only Orange.

I also was able to pull one page together of Alexa when she was 2 months old using some supplies that I got out of a PineCone Press Kit (the Baby Book- Kit A).

The yellow background paper which was part of the kit is made by Bazzill. The patterned paper in the corner is from Pinecone Press. I stamped "Happy Baby" on Vellum cardstock using the "happy" stamp from the Happy Everything Set and my Best Friends Alphabet in Stazon Black ink. I attached the vellum title over the striped paper using some brads (that look like eyelets) from Pebbles Inc. I framed the 2 4x6 images in Only Orange and Green Galore, and embellished with some Orange Gingham ribbon (no source). I added some cropped photos in the lower right and wrote the date and added some faux stitching around the edge of the page using a black marker.

Beate's Challenge - inspired by a RAK

Last week I got a cute RAK from Cindy Lyles of StarlitStudio. Her beautiful choice of colors inspired me to use similar ones for this week's sketch challenge on Beate's Blog. I liked the combination of Not Quite Navy, Old Olive, Certainly Celery and So Saffron, so here's what I came up with:
I made this card for my brother, whose birthday is this week. I used the Unfroggetable stamp set again for this one. The card base is So Saffron, overlayed with Not Quite Navy cardstock stamped with the dragonfly in the same color ink. I stamped the frog in Not Quite Navy ink and then watercolored him in with an Old Olive Water Color Crayon and a blender pen. I framed him in with a navy circle and a scalloped saffron circle (used my corner rounder for the scallop). I mounted him on the card on top of some more Palette o' Prints Celery polka dotted paper that I had stamped hearts on the bottom with Navy ink. The ribbon accents are a stitched olive colored ribbon from May Arts. I also added a stamped greeting on white cardstock in olive ink. The final touch to comply with the sketch was to add some punched out olive circles and attach them with Saffron brads. I really like this sketch and I'm so glad that I got my brothers card done so that I can give it to him tonight when I see him!!!


I know I haven't put any of my scrapbooking pages up lately....I'm preparing for a class early this week, so I hope to upload a scrapbook page later this week. Stay tuned!

More Pearly Doodles

First, I'd like to say WELCOME, to all my new subscribers...I was away for the weekend at the Women of Faith Conference in Rochester, NY, and was so excited to find several more subscribers and apparently a lot of viewing activity that had occurred on my blog...how exciting!

I made this card for my parents for the 34th wedding anniversary. Now that they've received the card I can share it with all of you. I didn't want my Mom to discover it online before getting it in the mail. though I did submit it for last week's color challenge on Splitcoast (CC116). Wow! These colors are really interesting, Chocolate Chip, Garden Green and Cool Carribean. I would have never picked these colors if it hadn't been for the challenge, but I am really pleased with how it turned out.

I began by stamping the Chocolate Chip Card Base with one of the swirly stamps from "Doodle This" for my background. On a strip of Cool Carribean, I stamped in Garden Green ink, the round flower from this same set and then colored them in using the Painted Pearls Technique again (I'm sure I'll be doing more cards with this technique, just can't get enough of how pretty the results are). I scalloped the edges of this strip using my corner rounder (removing the guide piece). I then used some left over Heidi Scrap brown painted brads for some extra embellishment on the bottom edge of this strip. I framed this piece with a strip of Garden Green and then mounted it to the card base. For the final touch, I stamped Congratulations (from Warmest Regards) in White Craft Ink, and added a little knotted piece of pale blue polka dotted May Arts Ribbon using a mini glue dot.

Now that I love this painted pearls technique, of course I NEED to have all the pearl ex colors...so guess what's going to be on my next order???