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!!!

Our Shoebox Swap

I was so excited to do a Shoebox Swap at my Quick Inkers Downline meeting last night. We had such a great time! I was so please with both of the cards that my fellow demos made I just had to share. Both used stamp sets and accessories that I don't have (yet!) which made it even more fun. The cutest part was listening to my kids giggling while playing with their Dad while we stamped.

Aren't these cards just lovely? I'm so glad I get to stamp with these talented women. It's so wonderful to know that there other stamping addicts like myself! The card that I made for this swap will be in my next post.....

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!

Beate's Challenge #10

I've skipped a few of Beate's sketch challenges, but I'm really excited about this one because I got to use lots of new products! I finally got my first delivery of new products from Stampin' Up! today and I couldn't wait to play...

I did some watercoloring with this one, stamping in black stazon ink and using my watercolor crayons with an aquapainter. The card base is Blue Bayou and covering most of the card front is textured moss cardstock (very nice!). All of the stamped images are in black stazon on watercolor paper. The blue berries are from the new hostess set appropriately named "Oh, So Lovely," and "love you" is from the new set "Short & Sweet." The ribbon is Wild Wasabi double stitched (couldn't resist!).

Stamps: Oh, So Lovely, Short & Sweet

Paper: Blue Bayou, Garden Green, Textured Moss, Watercolor

Ink: Stazon Black

Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter, Wild Wasabi Double Stitched Ribbon, Circle Punches, Word Window Punch

Tip: Since I haven't purchased any of the new In-Color ink pads (yet), I've found that some of the regular 48 colors coordinate nicely. For this card I found that Garden Green goes well with Wild Wasabi and Not Quite Navy goes with Blue Bayou.

A Day at the Beach

Here's a page that I created a while ago for a class but recently added pictures and journaling to. These are photos from a vacation that our family took to Hilton Head, South Carolina last spring. We were so fortunate to vacation with my parents and my brother and his wife, it was a wonderful week.

To get the look of sand on the paper I took a sheet of 12x12 Sahara Sand Cardstock, ripped it, inked the ripped edges with Sahara Sand ink and then overlayed the 2 pieces. I stamped the crabs and other critters in True Thym ink on the Sahara sand, I found this to show up a little bit better than Sahara Sand Ink. The celery piece is inked with Turquoise ink, using a sponge. For embellishments, I stamped and watercolored a crab, cut it out and placed it in the sand. I also wrapped some grosgrain ribbon around the corners of one of the photos.

Stamps: Crab & Company, Best Friends Alphabet Lower
Paper: So Saffron, Sahara Sand,Certainly Celery, Cool Carribean
Ink: Sahara Sand, True Thyme, Tempting Turquoise
Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Blender Pen, Cream Grosgrain Ribbon

July Calendar Page

I was a little late getting this month's Calendar page done, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It's a little different than my typical style...I actually pulled out my circle cutter!! I used pictures from my youngest daughter's first birthday that we celebrated last week. Boy, did she have fun with that cake!!!

This one uses papers from the Storytime Collection by Cosmo Cricket. The words "Little One" and "giggle" are from a sheet of transparencies that came in a PineCone Press Kit. The "giggle" was stapled onto the polka dotted paper before I glued it down. For the calendar month, I stamped "JULY" using my Best Friends Upper alphabet and then randomly cut out the letters in odd shapes. I added some Lovely Lilac ink to the striped paper using the Direct-To-Paper technique for the calendar month strip. The circle photos are framed in Bashful Blue.

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

Stamping on Walls

Sorry I've been so quiet lately...I've been consumed with preparations for our Independence Day Party! In the process of getting the house ready, I realized that since my bathroom is clean I should take some pictures of the stamping that I did on the walls several months ago. This was so easy and I would definitely recommend stamping over stenciling if you have a design that will work for you. Stamping is just so much easier and fast!

I used the Autumn Leaf Prints stamp set with various shades of green and brown acrylic craft paint to add a random pattern of leaves all over the walls. I was going for the look of leaves blowing through the room. I actually found a leaf print pattern fabric to make matching curtains as well.

Here's some tips for stamping on walls.

1. Use a craft paint, don't use ink! Even craft ink is not a good idea. Just the regular acrylic paints that you can find in the craft store in a million colors work fine. I apply the craft paint to the rubber of the stamp with a foam brush and then stamp it right onto the wall, it's that easy!
   
2. The base paint of your walls should have at least a little bit of gloss in it. I think anything other than Matte should work fine. The reason I say this is because Matte paint will be harder to clean if you make a mistake since the paint will absorb into the texture of the Matte faster.


3. Here's the best part - use Baby Wipes to clean up any mistakes. I'm sure a wet paper towel would work fine too, but for some reason baby wipes seem to clean up the paint without diluting it and smearing the color around. A paper towel with water may just dilute the paint and smear it around a little bit and may take longer to remove all the color. I read about the baby wipes technique for "erasing" mistakes and that's the only thing I tried - it worked perfectly.
   
4. A random pattern may be less stressful. My leaves could go wherever I wanted them to, so I didn't have to worry about lining anything up perfectly. I think I stamped the whole bathroom in 2 hours or so...not bad for a custom look!

I hope you try it! I was so intimidated for such a long time, and regret not having tried it sooner. Even if it's just adding a little splash of color around a mirror on your wall, or a border around your ceiling, be brave! You'll definitely get compliments. And if you realize right away that you don't like it, just wipe it off!