Playing with Bargello

I'll be honest that I have no idea what Bargello is in the Needlepoint crafting world but in the papercrafting world it's a lot of fun and a great way to use up small scraps of striped patterned paper.  I got this idea out of the June Stampin Up! magazine for demonstrators and combined it with a Sketch Challenge SC281 to make some cute cards in two different color schemes. The method of creating this Bargello look is simple: cut strips of striped paper in varying lengths and arrange them on a piece of cardstock to create a pattern to your desire.  You can glue them down and then trim off the excess. 

The card shown above uses paper fromt the Sweet Pea Stack of papers from the Occasions Mini along with some oval punches (scalloped and regular), a Texturz embossing plate, and some chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon.

This card uses Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive together with some Cottage Wall patterned paper, Razzleberry polka dotted ribbon, the same oval punches and a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder.

Clean and Simple Card Challenge

I discovered a new set of challenges to try...Clean and Simple Cards.  Sometimes Clean and Simple can be more practical and even look better than complicated and fancy.  My first challenge in this category was CAS66 (Inspired by Kelly).  The card inspiration was a card by kmahany on Splitcoast.  Since these cards are so simple, I had time to make 2!

The card above was made with Sweet Pea patterned paper, my paper piercer, Flower Burst Embosslit, and a leftover pink pirouette button bouquet button.

This card was made with a paper piercer, some Cottage Wall Designer Series paper, some white taffeta ribbon, and my Great Friend stamp set.

Mothers Day Card

For my Mom's Mothers Day card I used Sketch Challenge SC279 and Color Challenge CC269 (Lovely Gable Cameos).  I must admit, these colors were tricky for me...I do not use Gable Green or Cameo Coral much at all!  So I've found that the trick to these color challenges that have colors that you don't like is to use those colors sparingly on the card!  Therefore, my card is composed of mostly Lovely Lilac with "accents" of Gable Green and Cameo Coral.

Stamps: Wonderful Watercolors (retired)
Inks: Lovely Lilac, Gable Green, Cameo Coral
Papers: Lovely Lilac, Gable Green, Cameo Coral, Whisper White
Accessories: Scallop Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, Elegant Bouquet Embossing Folder, white organdy ribbon

Old Banana Ballet & Razzle Dazzle Giggles

Last week"s sketch challenge and color challenges were a lot of fun.  I created the card above using both and then tried the sketch challenge again with Razzleberry Lemonade papers and coordinating products.  Both Came out pretty cute, but I think the Razzleberry one is my favorite.

Stamps: Kind & Caring Thoughts, Pocket Silhouettes

Paper: Ballet Blue, Barely Banana, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Ink: Old Olive, Ballet Blue, Barely Banana
Accessories: Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon, Scallop Square Die, cuttlebug embossing folder
Techniques: Direct to Paper (inking on edges and embossed background)

Stamps: Razzle Dazzle
Paper: Razzleberry Lemonade, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry
Ink: Crushed Curry, Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo
Accessories: Scallop Square Die, Melon Mambo Dotted Ribbon
Techniques: Direct to Paper (inking on edges)

Basic Apricot Shadows Color & Sketch Challenge

Here's a card that I made for last week's sketch challenge (SC277) and color challenge(CC267) on Splitcoast Stampers.  The thought of using Apricot Appeal made me cringe...it's definitely not my favorite color!  But I actually grew to like this combination as I made the card.  I pulled out one of my favorite sets, Upsy Daisy for this one.  The Basic Gray helps this color scheme a lot by adding some contrast.

Stamps: Kind & Caring Thoughts, Upsy Daisy
Paper: Sage Shadow, Appricot Appeal, Basic Gray, Very Vanilla
Ink: Basic Gray, Apricot Appeal, Sage Shadow
Accessories: Eyelet Border Punch, Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon, cuttlebug embossing folder
Techniques: Direct to Paper (inking on paper edges and embossed background)

More Bella Rose

I had some extra precut supplies left over from my Catalog Unveiling so I made another version of the card that we made there using the Priceless Stamp Set.

Stamps: Priceless
Inks: Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red
Papers: Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Very Vanilla, Bella Rose DS Paper
Accessories: Rubon (greeting) Paper Piercer and template, dimensionals
Note: the darkest red butterfly was cut out and adhered with dimensionals.

This one I made as part of a sketch challenge on Splitcoast (SC187), though I strayed a bit from the orientation. It's been a while since I did a challenge, so I had a lot of fun.

Stamps: Priceless, Aida Cloth background
Inks: Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red
Papers: Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Bella Rose DS Paper
Accessories: Chocolate Chip Twill Ribbon, dimensionals
Note: the darkest red butterfly was cut out and adhered with dimensionals.

Cards, Challenges, and more!

Thanks to my amazing husband, I actually got some time yesterday to sit down and make a bunch of cards. The only minor distraction that I had was my youngest daughter sitting on my lap while I worked for some of the time. She was very well behaved, so I didn't mind at all! I had taken notes about a few challenges that I could use to get me started and I'm so happy that I was able to satisfy many of them!

The first card satisfies 2 challenges- yeah! The layout is using Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge (WSC41) and the colors are from a Splitcoast Color Challenge (CC159): Whisper Soft Gray.

What I like about this card is the focal image which I coated with Irridescent Ice (hard to see in the picture). The image sparkles so much in real life that as I was finishing the card, I realized that I wanted to keep the card fairly simple so as not to detract from the sparkly flower.

Stamps: One of a Kind
Papers: Soft Sky, Basic Gray, Whisper White
Inks: Tempting Turquoise, Basic Gray, Versamark
Accessories: Love & happiness Rub-ons, Basic Gray Taffeta Ribbon, Irridescent Ice
Notes: To make the flower sparkle, I covered the flower with versamark ink by wiping it on the pad. I then added the Irridescent Ice and heat embossed. To color the flower in I used tempting turquoise ink and a blender pen to get a Soft Sky shade....still haven't bought the pad!

The next card was for color challenge CC158: Krafty Orchid Shadows. I just received my "She's All That" stamp set and I couldn't wait to use it!

Stamps: She's All That
Papers: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow, Very Vanilla,Orchid Opulence
Inks: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Ticket Corner Punch, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Scallop & Circle Punches, Orchid ribbon, Chocolate Chip Twill Ribbon

The last card here was another using the One of a Kind stamp set. I was trying to use the Weekend Sketch Challenge for this one, but just couldn't make it work. So here's what I ended up with...a little more simple than I had envisioned, but still nice.

Stamps: One of a Kind
Papers: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Rose Red, Berry Bliss DS paper
Inks: Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red
Accessories: Pink brads, Chocolate Chip wide grosgrain ribbon, Pretty in Pink Taffeta Ribbon, Ticket Corner Punch, Brown Button

I actually made 3 more cards yesterday, but they're for my Technique class so I won't be able to upload those until after the class next week. Stay tuned!

Beate's Inspiration Challenge - Textured Cutting Board

I'm sorry I've been so quiet lately...it's been hard for me to find time to be creative lately. But I'm so happy that I was able to steal away a few minutes this morning to create a card using Beate's inspiration challenge. This week's challenge was to create something inspired by this textured cutting board. I also wanted to play with the "Love & Happiness" rub-ons that I recently received as part of Sale-a-bration. So for this card I used NO STAMPS!

I must say when it comes to rub-ons, I'm not a big fan. I haven't used them much, but the few that I have used have been really difficult to apply, requiring way too much "rubbing." So I was very pleasantly surprised with Stampin' Up's rub-ons since they required very little effort to apply and left high quality images that looked like they were printed on the paper. So, needless to say, I'm very excited to see all the cards that I can make with my new rub-ons since the package came with so many in 4 different colors!

Stamps: NONE!

Papers: Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip, River Rock, Rose Red

Inks: NONE!

Accessories: Love & Happiness Rubons, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Light blue rhineston brads, chocolate chip twill ribbon, soft sky double stitched ribbon, corner rounder.

Another Resist Card!

I'm participating in a card swap in a few weeks so I figured I'd try embossing resist one more time before I move onto another set of techniques for next month. So here's one more, a variation on embossing resist called "Emerging Color." It's the same as embossing resist, except I stamped some swirls on the paper before I applied the embossed image.

This card also satisfies one of Beate's Fresh & Fun weekend challenges, which I haven't done in a while. It feels good to jump into the game again!

Stamps: Fabulous Flowers, Priceless
Inks: Bravo Burgundy, Ruby Red, Cameo Coral
Papers: Ruby Red, River Rock, Whisper White, Bravo Burgundy, Groovy Guava, Ginger Blossom DS
Accessories: Brass Brads, 1/4" circle, River Rock Double Stitched Ribbon, Versamark, Clear Embossing Powder, brayer

Note: On the right side I punched 1/4 inch holes and inserted a brad in the middle, this made the accent a little more visible. Also, after embossing the flower, I brayed over it with Ruby Red ink and stamped more swirls in burgundy.

First Holiday Card

Oh well, I left my camera at a friends house so I couldn't get this picture uploaded in time to enter Beate's weekend challenge. No big deal, I had fun with the challenge anyway! It gave me a chance to make my first Holiday Card of the Season. I'm starting to get in the mood to buy some more Christmas stamps!

The base of this card is Soft Sky and the patterned papers are from the Wintergreen collection of Designer Series papers. I love the colors in this set of papers. I used "The Snowflake Spot" stamp sets for the stamped images in Always Artichoke ink. The snowflake is embellished with some Dazzling Diamonds glitter that I applied with my 2-way glue pen and a rhinestone brad from my Pretties kit. For the ribbon embellishment, I used White Taffeta ribbon and threaded it through a clear bead from the Pretties kit and tied knots on both sides of the bead. The "Joy" embellishment was created using circle punches and my large oval punch, along with some silver brads.

Stamps: The Snowflake Spot

Papers: Soft Sky, White, Certainly Celery, Buckaroo Blue, Always Artichoke, Wintergreen DS

Inks: Always Artichoke

Accessories: Bead and Rhinestone Brad (Pretties kit), silver brads, Dazzling Diamonds, Taffeta Ribbon, Circle & Oval punches

True Friend Thank You

I am so pleased with how this one turned out! This is my submission for Beate's Fresh and Fun Weekend Challenge. I just loved this sketch, and I hope to use it some more this week with some different themes. Once again I used my newest stamp set "True Friend" along with the very versatile Apple Cider paper.

The card base for this one is River Rock, sponged with Chocolate Chip around the edges. The background is Apple Cider paper with the corners punched with the ticket corner punch and the edges sponged with Chocolate Chip as well. The flower was stamped once on Very Vanilla with Chocolate Chip Ink. Then on a scrap piece I used my markers to color the blossom with Really Rust and Perfect Plum, and then I stamped it, cut it out, put it on some Chocolate Chip card stock and then trimed the chocolate chip really close to the blossom. I glued the blossom on top of the already stamped complete flower and glued an off-white button on top.

I used "All in a Row to apply some Faux Stitching to the edges of the Flower piece before layering it with a slightly larger Chocolate Chip rectangle. I then put this on a larger Really Rust rectangle that had 3 corners rounded and the edges sponged with Chocolate Chip. I attached all of that onto the card and then put a thin strip of sponged Perfect Plum over the bottom portion. I used my little slot punch to create a hole in the seam of the card so that I could wrap some river rock ribbon around the card front over top of the plum strip. Finally I added my greeting which was stamped with Chocolate Chip on a sponged Very Vanilla circle layered with another Perfect Plum Circle and a Chocolate Chip Scallop Punch-out.

Sketch & Inspiration Challenge

This weekend I tried really hard to stay
off the computer and spend more time stamping. I actually got to stamp for a few hours on Saturday since it was a rainy day. I had printed out a few challenges from earlier in the week to keep me focused. This was last week's sketch challenge (SC141) and the picture of the girl dress below was the Inspiration Challenge from a week ago (IC92). The pale pinks, blues and browns were colors that I haven't used in a while together so it was a fun challenge. I also hadn't used my only "vintage" set, "Carte Postale," in a while so it was nice to dig that out too. Here's what I came up with:

Stamps: Carte Postale
Papers: Very Vanilla, Bashful Blue, Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink, Mellow Moss, Apple Cider DS Paper
Inks: Bashful Blue, Rose Romance, Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink, Mellow Moss
Accessories: Brass Hodge Podge, Flirty Ribbon (from last year's Winter Mini?), Corner Rounder Punch (for the scalloped edge)

More Taken with Pomegranate Artichokes

I had some scraps left over from when I made last week's color challenge (CC131), so I made a quick generic card with the leftovers. The butterflies are stamped on Naturals White in Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise and Always Artichoke. I used my small tag punch on those and then layered them with some Chocolate Chip tags that I cut with my larger tag punch. The teal cardstock was run through the Cuttlebug machine with a swirly embossing folder. I wrapped some Pomegranate Double stitched ribbon around the teal background and then attached the tags with adhesive and some brown brads. The edge of the Pomegranate card base was punched with my paper piercer for some faux stitching using my White gel pen.

Tough Color Challenge

I love the color challenges because they force me to go outside my confort zone. Otherwise I usually end up using the same colors over and over again. This week's was a doozy for me (CC131), I think because all the colors were so dark. So I struggled with this one for longer than I'd like to admit, and eventually decided to just do something simple. I'm still loving the faux stitching using "All in a Row" so I added that to liven it up a bit. It's been a while since I've used my Cuttlebug too, so I was excited to add some dimension to an otherwise plain card.

Here's the recipe:

Stamps: Polka Dots & Paisley, All in a Row
Paper: Taken with Teal, Purely Pomegranate, Natural White, Always Artichoke
Inks: Taken with Teal, Purely Pomegranate, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Pomegranate Double Stitched Ribbon, Dimensionals, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder

Click here to see the Splicoast Gallery for this challenge

Challenge Times Two

Here's my attempt at Beate's Fresh and Fun Weekend Sketch Challenge. I feel like this submission is very similar to one of her samples...I didn't deviate as much as I would have liked. I chose this color scheme from the Splitcoast Color Challenge CC129: Pretty Pink Pomegranates. The challenge was to use Old Olive, Pretty in Pink, and Purely Pomegranate.

Here's the recipe:

Stamps: True Friend

Inks: Chocolate Chip, Rose Red, Versamark

Papers: Purely Pomegranate, Rose Red Prints DS paper, Old Olive, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Pomegranate Double Stitched ribbon, Pink brads, circle punch, scallop punch, ticket corner punch

Note: I added some Versamark flowers on the patterned paper to just add a little extra (it's hard to see in the photo)

Double Doodle Challenges

I felt like doing some challenges tonight so I tried Splitcoast's Color Challenge for today (CC127, Blue Bayou, Sahara Sand, and Chocolate Chip), and I combined this with Beate's Fresh & Fun weekend challenge which is due tomorrow.
I love it when I can create a whole project using just one stamp set. This time I pulled out a set that I got at last year's Regional Conference, "Double Line Doodles." I haven't used this set much, but I just love the long paisley stamp. It's hard to tell but I adhered the scalloped "I just love you" piece with dimensionals to help it "pop out" a bit, and the circles around the bayou piece are doodled by hand with a chocolate chip marker. Here's the recipe:


Stamps: Double Line Doodles
Inks: Chocolate Chip, Not Quite Navy
Papers: Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip, Blue Bayou
Accessories: Double Stitched Bayou Ribbon, Scallop Punch, 1.25 inch circle punch, brown brad


I felt like making just one more card tonight before calling it quits, so here's what I came up with:

I guess I was in the "doodling" mood tonight because I used another doodle style set and did more doodling by hand arond the bottom of the focal image. Here's the recipe:

Stamps: Doodle This, Short & Sweet
Inks: Chocolate Chip, Not Quite Navy
Papers: Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip, Blue Bayou
Accessories: Double Stitched Bayou Ribbon, brown brad

More is More

I'm still working on last week's Dare to Get Dirty Slitcoast Challenges. Not sure how many I'm actually going to accomplish. I tried to tackle a couple of them while preparing for the Shoebox Swap with my downline (see previous post). There was one challenge called "More is More" that asked us to create 2 cards, one simple and then add a lot of stuff to the card, layers, embellishments, etc. Then there was another challenge that requested using lots of brads. So I combined these and came up with 3 cards, the middle one being the shoebox swap card that we all made last night.

These all used Bashful Blue as the base for the cards and applied the canvas stamp from "Oh, So Lovely" 3 times in Bashful Blue ink on the bottom left corner of each card front.

The one on the right was the "simple" card, using the "Oh, So Lovely" flower on watercolor paper (stamped with Stazon Black) and then watercolored with WW crayons and an aquapainter. Actually, before I stamped the flower, I stamped the canvas rectangle in Bashful Blue off on scrap paper and then put the "second generation" lighter image on the watercolor paper (it's a little hard to see in the picture because it's light. I then framed the flower with Wild Wasabi, tore the right edge of the Wasabi, and tied some orange grosgrain ribbon along the left side. I stamped a greeting vertically in black ink on the left side of the Wasabi. Pretty straight forward.

The middle card took it a step further, by adding a black border around the watercolored image, shifting the image up so that it hung off the Wasabi paper. I also used the notebook punch on the left side and wrapped Wasabi double stitched ribbon horizontally around the flower image. I tied a little piece of orange ribbon the the double stitched ribbon. Put the greeting on the bottom of the Wasabi for this one.

The card on the left I used to satisfy the "Lots of Brads" challenge by adding 7 black brads to the left side of the Wasabi instead of the hole punches. This one had the flower image back on the Wasabi entirely and the greeting on the left again.

Challenges are so much fun!!! I wish I had time to do more!!!

Sparkle Card

I made this card for 2 of the "Dare to Get Dirty" challenges on Splitcoast Stampers this week. This is a fun week of challenges for Fan Club Members of Splitcoast Stampers. One of the challenges had a sketch like this, and another challenge was to use lots of Pink, so I got 2 challenges done for the price of 1! I pulled an old technique out for this one, called masking. I really haven't used this technique much, but it worked out nicely for this card.

The sketch required that there be 2 sides to the background, and I wanted to make this card simple, since I wanted to make 6 of them. So I tore a piece of scrap paper to create a rough edge, and layed it down on the card (this was my mask). I used a sponge and my Rose Red ink pad to add color along the edge and on the remainder of the right side of the card. When I removed the mask, it looked almost like I had 2 different papers for my background. After this I added a strip of patterened paper edged with Rose Red ink (direct to paper) and a flower embellishment. The embellishment was created using the new scallop punch. I punched out a scallop circle in Rose Red and applied Irridescent Ice embossing powder all over it, and then embossed. I added a circle punched flower on top which I had colored in with markers. The final "sparkle" greeting was added on the bottom right to tie it all together.

Here's the recipe:

Stamps: Doodle That, Warm Words,

Paper: Regal Rose, Rose Red, White, Flowers for You, White

Ink: Rose Red, Black

Accessories: Irridescent Ice

I made 6 of these cards to send out to some fellow Moms ... just to add a little "sparkle" to their day!

I finally Caved!!

I finally gave in and got a Cuttlebug. I received so many comments from people saying that their favorite technique was using their Cuttlebug that when I got my 50% coupon in the paper, I just had to give in! So far I'm finding it very fun to use, the kids love it too. I've just made 2 cards so far, and added a few embossed embellishments to one of my scrapbook pages. I got it for embossing primarily, but am happy to learn that my Sizzix dies work in it as well.



Here are the 2 cards I made so far, both pretty simple cards. Both cards use the same color scheme with 2 of the new In-Colors: Wild Wasabi and Soft Sky.

This one I made for this weeks sketch challenge on Splitcoast (SC131).
Stamps: Warm Words, Zoofari
Paper: Real Red, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, Black, Confetti White
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirls Embossing Folder, Red Gingham, Close to Cocoa Watercolor crayon, blender pen
Techniques: watercoloring, Cuttlebug

This one can be a cute birthday card for just about anyone.

Stamps: Wild About You
Paper: Real Red, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, Black, Confetti White
Ink: basic black, garden green
Accessories: Cuttlebug Traffic Jam Embossing Folder, red gingham ribbon
Techniques: Cuttlebug

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.