Dazzling Diamonds versus Germs!

Which one spreads faster or farther? What do you think?
After I finished making this card, I went to pick up my daughter and noticed that I had DD all over me! The stuff gets everywhere, but the shimmer is so worth it!

I used my two way glue pen to "outline" where I wanted the glitter to stick on the heart image on the card. This was my compromised for using Sahara Sand. I just looked so BLAH that I had to add some sparkle. After I finished, I didn't think it was so bad!

I masked off my bird to create the look of the bird in front of the heart. I embossed the bird by stamping the image on Versamark first and then on my Groovy Guava ink pad. I tried to add some DD to the bird before embossing with the heat tool. It didn't work so well. I think it might have worked better if I mixed my clear EP and DD together and then coated the image. Maybe next time! Instead, I used the two-way glue pen to apply some DD to the bird too!

After I finished all this and stamped the sentiment, the card still needed a little more(IMO). So I whipped out my mat pack and paper piercing tool and pierced the corners up. And oh yeah, I started the whole card off by scallop punching the bottom edge with my corner rounder (sans guard).

Here are the card specifics:

Paper - Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Groovy Guava
Ink - Versamark, Sahara Sand, Groovy Guava
Stamps - Always, Hugs & Wishes
Accessories - Clear EP, Dazzling Diamonds, Two-way glue pen
Tools - Heat tool, corner rounder, mat pack, paper piercing tool

Ten year old birthday invites!

I volunteered to make birthday invitations for the daughter of my daycare provider. As it turns out, I only made the samples because she came over to my house and made them herself. I hope it was a nice afternoon for her. I had a really nice time! She is having a "make over" birthday party where she and four friends get to go have make overs done. How fun is that? So she asked me if I had a stamp with lips on it. I e-mailed her the link from this card of mine. She liked it and so I worked up a sample for her.



I shamelessly cased or should I just say copied a card I saw on Angie Juda's blog. You can find it here. I used Angie's tutorial and it turned out beautiful. This is the card that my daycare provider liked best, but she submitted to the birthday girl-to-be.
Finally, this is a case of a card that I saw on SCS when browsing for ideas to get the birthday girl started. I used the lipstick/compact stamp from Haute Couture to go with her make over party theme. If I had it to do over again, I would insert a layer of Real Red between the Pink Passion base and the Whisper White layer.

Here are the specifics for the cards.

1) Paper: Whisper White, Regal Rose, Rose Red
Ink: Regal Rose, Rose Red
Stamps: Whimsical Alphabet Upper, Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Hugs & Wishes
Accessories: Light Pink Sheer ribbon, Large oval punch, lipstick, unknown Clear EP
Tools: SAMJ, Heat tool

2) Paper: Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Real Red, Old Olive
Stamps: Tart and Tangy, Hugs & Wishes
Accessories: Red ribbon from JoAnn's, Stampin' Dimensionals, Scallop punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, popsicle stick

3) Paper: Pink Passion, Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Pink Passion, Real Red
Stamps: Pretty Princess, Haute Couture, Hugs & Wishes
Accessories: 5/8" Red Grosgrain ribbon, White grosgrain ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Scallop punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4 " circle punch, two-way glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds, White Inkssentials pen

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

So Very Thankful!

I recently won some blog candy from Jennifer Buck and wanted to say thanks to her, so I made her a little card! I am not worried about her seeing it here on my blog before she gets it in the mail. I mean, I read her blog, not the other way around.

So I used the set I won as blog candy and used a few challenges to spur me along. Since it was a thank you card it qualified for the No Time to Stamp? challenge to "give thanks". I used the sketch from Wednesday sketch challeng 185 on SCS. I had some similar colors on my desk already, so I just went ahead and used the colors posted by Shannan Steubner in the Verve Forum for the Meet the Verve Divas Challenge.

The card came together quickly after I found a satisfactory placement for my flowers.

Here are the specifics for my card:

Paper: Very Vanilla, So Saffron, Spring Flowers DSP
Ink: Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive
Stamps: Heartfelt Thanks, So Very, Thoroughly Thankful
Accessories: Olive colored Offray ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

This time I did it on purpose

That is right! I combined three different challenges on one card. Not because I wanted to be tricky, but because I want to play and I am short on time! I also used a wedding invitation and bridal shower thank you note (from the same couple) as my color and design inspiration. So basically the card was all laid out, I just had to put it together.

Oh yeah, I don't want to forget the three challenges. The first challenge was the sketch challenge from Jennifer Meyer on the OCC blog. Next was the "Dazzle us with something" challenge on the Stamp Something blog. Finally, I incorporated the weekly challenge from No Time to Stamp? to "Make it Girly!".

What do you think? I would love any feedback!

What I used:

Paper: Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, Vellum, Afternoon Tea DSP
Ink: Certainly Celery, Basic Black, Versamark
Stamps: Fresh Cuts, All Night Media Anna Griffin Sentiments
Accessories: Pretties Kit Brads and Flower, Heat and Stick Powder, Dazzling Diamonds, Stampin' Dimensionals
Tools: Heat Tool, Small and Large Oval Punches

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Astonishing Stars

Verve is now a member company on SCS and has a forum. That is where I found the starry challenge or did I find it on Julee's blog? I'm not sure, but I found it and I used a star on my card! So...it counts! Challenges really get me going lately. It's fantastic! It helps me not to do the same style, sketch, colors, etc. Enough rambling, I'll get to the specifics of the card.

Paper: Barely Banana, Whisper White, Ruby Red, DCWV Matchmakers 2
Ink: So Saffron, More Mustard, Ruby Red
Stamps: Holiday Blitz, Full of Life
Accessories: White Ribbon from JoAnn's that I colored with a Ruby Red marker, Colorbok Metal Stars, Stampin' Dimensionals
Tools: SAMJ, Corner Rounder

I should add a couple more things. I used a sketch out of the current SU catalog and all products used are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Basic Grey by the Inch

Sweet Pea went night-night and Mommy went to her craft room! I got this Basic Grey Sugared paper today and wanted to play with it immediately! I started working up a card earlier today when Sweet Pea was playing in her room and she just wanted to join me in my room. She's still to little and busy for me to craft and supervise (adequately for either).

A group of women who love to craft and create started a blog called Our Creative Corner and issued a challenge to use Basic Grey paper on your card. They have a nice give-away for the randomly drawn winner, too. The challenge spurred me on as well!

I wanted to try the design concept of inchies. So I cut my own 1" squares (thus "DIY inchies"), taped them down with removable adhesive and had a go! What I found more difficult was putting them back together on the Old Olive background. I could have fidgeted for another hour trying to get them all equi-distant from each other and the sides.

I stamped the flower image in Basic Brown and then used my blender pen to pick up color from the lids of my Stamping Pads. I used two-way glue on the center of the Burgundy flower and sprinkled on some Dazzling Diamonds for fun. I took the image panel and popped it up.

Here are the specifics of the card.
Paper: Pale pink ?, Basic Grey Sugared, Close to Cocoa, Old Olive, Very Vanilla
Ink: Basic Brown, Old Olive, Pretty in Pink, Bravo Burgundy
Stamps: Tag Time
Accessories: Sheer Pink ribbon, two way glue, Dazzling Diamonds, Stampin' Dimensionals

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Feeling Kind of Crazy

I came up with this card for Kristina Werner's #14 Color Inspiration. I will give this to my DH on his birthday next week. He told me not to write in it and then I could use it as a sample or something else. He would feel guilty throwing it away!! He watched my sketch it last night and was home all day today due to the thunder storms and knows how long I was upstairs in my disaster, I mean, craft room!
The colors that Kristina plucked from this photo montage are Basic Black, Basic Gray and Going Gray. She then added Ruby Red and River Rock as color options for those who wanted/needed them. She added to the challenge by asking for bold, high contrast and sassy submissions.

I don't own any Basic Gray and opted out on the River Rock when I found my theme. Being sassy isn't so much me, but I managed.
I got a little crazy with my image! I wanted lip prints but did not have a stamp. I carefully read the labels of my Versamark and SU Classic Stamp Pads. I said a little prayer that I had read and understood correctly. I then took all of my stuff to the bathroom. I applied my Versamarker first like lipstick and then I applied by Ruby Red marker to my lips. I quickly kissed my card stock twice and placed it in my powder pall. I covered the two prints with clear ep and heated it up with my heat tool. I was surprised at how well it turned out. I had read about how you could emboss with the Classic ink pads, but didn't realize that I would use a body part for my first try. I'll let you know later, if I have a reaction to the inks! Ha Ha!

Here are the specifics:
Paper: Going Gray, Basic Black, Ruby Red, Whisper White
Ink: Versamarker, Basic Black, Ruby Red, Going Gray
Stamps: Whimsical Alphabet Upper, Hugs & Wishes, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Accessories: Clear ep, Sheer Black Ribbon from JoAnn's, Stampin' Dimensionals
Tools: Heat Tool, SAMJ

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Getting Things Done!

It seems that I want to do every challenge and it just isn't possible at this time in my life with my two year old Sweet Pea. However, I killed two birds with one stone today. My mother's birthday is Saturday and so I made her a card with the colors from the SCS color challenge 173. Mom isn't really picky. She will just appreciate that I made it for her! I honestly struggled with what to do with this color combination. I could only think flowers or Christmas and I didn't want to do either. So...I caved and did flowers. But I paper pieced, so that felt a little bit better. I took some of my inspiration from a blogger that I love to visit. She did a beautiful card that you can see here. Here are the details:

Paper: Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, Whisper White
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi
Stamps: Vases in Vogue, It's Your Birthday
Accessories: Blender Pen, random white ribbon died Wild Wasabi, MM eyelets, Stampin Dimensionals, Oval template, paper snips, crop-a-dile

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Getting caught up!

I uploaded these to SCS yesterday and then didn't get back here to give the details as soon as I wanted too! Oh, the shame of it! So I will have to do it now! All of these cards turned out pretty simple. Nothing really spectacular or with 7 layers! Ha, ha, ha!
The first is the card I made for the Limited Supply Challenge 174 from last Friday. I got out all my brads and all the images that I thought that I could incorporate them into and landed on a Christmas theme. It was really hard not to dress it up with ribbon or glitter or embossing. I still like it! Hopefully, it wasn't really cheating when I used my SAMJ to change the placement of the sentiment. I really could have eyeballed it!
Here are the details:
Paper - Real Red, Brushed Silver, Whisper White
Ink - Real Red, Rubber Stampede Silver
Stamps - Solemn Stillness, All Year Cheer III
Accessories - MM silver star brad
That's it, pretty simple!
This one was created for the Try a New Technique, TLC175. The technique here was chalk pouncing. It is differentiated from Poppin' Pastels as the background for the image is chalked as well. I like the idea of this and I like the technique. When I do it again, I will choose my colors more carefully. This just wasn't my favorite color combination. I built this color combination around a ribbon that I ended up not using. I used So Saffron, Rose Red and Pumpkin Pie chalks on the background and then Lovely Lilac, So Saffron and Garden Green on the flower. Oh yeah, I borrowed the glow/erase technique from Markie's Mom. She is a wonderful artist and you can see the card she did and where I got the idea. (BTW - she has an amazing muse and very funny stories).
Here are the details:
Paper - Apricot Appeal, Pale Plum, Whisper White
Ink - StazOn Jet Black, Versamark
Stamps - Live Your Dream
Accessories - Stampin' Pastels, MM mini ribbon charm, Light Orchid Grosgrain ribbon, eraser, tissue
This card was inspired by Kristina Werner's MACM. I really liked how elegant her card looked and my DH is in a wedding in two weeks. I need a card for this wedding. When I got started, I found that my rub-ons were not as elegant as I wanted. I still liked the card so I continued on. Just when I was really getting into it, it dawned on me that this card would be really easy to replicate. A light bulb went on and I remembered the No Time To Stamp? challenge. This card is perfect for it as it could be easily whipped out in 10 minutes! So that is the story behind this card.
Here are the details on this one:
Paper - Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Ink - none
Stamps - none
Accessories - Love and Happiness rub-ons, Very Vanilla taffeta, mini glue dots

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.