Hip Hop Hangover

{You may want to click on the photo to enlarge it and see the detail.}
The Friday after Hip Hop Thursday is affectionately referred to as Hip Hop Hangover. This is the day where you can take a tour of Unity Stamp Company lovers!!!This is my contribution to the hangover. I wanted to create a piece that reflected my New Year's Resolution to be more consistent in all areas of my life. I seem to be able to do well in one or two areas, but then the rest of my life falls apart. I didn't have a stamp that said "consistency", but "always" captures the sentiment.

I was working on a Limited Supply Challenge on SCS(LSC201) to use your favorites. Well, the Dream Tree is my favorite stamp! It's just fabulous. I mean, who doesn't love the Dream Tree. I picked a favorite color combination and used my favorite embellishment, ribbon! Self adhesive pearls are a new favorite. I was introduced to these colored half-back beauties through Limelight Papercrafts. And you know they are awesome if they carry Unity!!! I tipped the branches with my Sakura Clear Star gel pen (although you will want to click on the picture to see this detail).

I picked up a frame from store that was closing out and created by piece to the proper size, 4"x6". I wanted pearls on the tree and the ribbon to hang out of the frame, so I placed the glass behind the piece.

Here are the specifics on this card:
Stamps: Dream Tree (Unity), Sentiments O'Simple(Unity)
Paper: Very Vanilla, Basic Black, BG Eva
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Kaiserkraft Blush pearls, M's self adhesive pearls, Vanilla taffeta ribbon, glue dot, corner punch, slot punch, Sakura Clear Star gel pen

All products not labeled are Stampin' Up!

So this is it, the last card I made over winter break!

I covered three more challenges with this one. I finished up the Jacksonbelle Embellishment New Year's Eve Challenges with this one to use neglected things (my stamp set, dp and brads). I incorporated two of the Holiday Challenge Extravaganza challenges in too. I used #12, as sketch challenge, and #15, a color challenge.

Boy, do I need work on my water coloring! Who was time with a two year old! Oh, I'm sure that she would love to paint with me, but I might be a bit to anal to allow that to happen!

This sketch gave me fits too!

Here are the details on the card:
Stamps: Long Time Friend
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Certainly Celery dp
Ink: Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Rose Red
Accessories: Blender pen, Aquapainter, CK brads
Techniques: watercoloring

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

I love this stamp set!!!

Can you believe that I have barely used it?

I mean...it's fabulous and I'm a coffee drinker!

I resolve to use it WAY more!

Can I just say I love Basic Grey? What? Oh, you have heard say that before. Sorry.

I backed off the number of challenges for this one, only three.

I used the Our Creative Corner sketch by Jennifer Meyer. She makes soft, sweet, beautiful cards, if you haven't seen her work. I used the technique suggested by Gina K in her challenge titled "You Wanna Piece of Me?", LOL! I determined my card type (birthday) for another Jacksonbelle challenge, see here.

Here are the details for this card:
Stamps: Short & Sweet, Coffee with Friends (Flourishes)
Paper: Not Quite Navy, Whisper White, Basic Grey Two Scoops
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Wild Wasabi
Accessories: Small oval punch, Large oval punch, white organdy ribbon, scallop edge punch, dew drops, glue dots, stampin' dimensionals, paper snips
Techniques: paper piecing

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

So I didn't learn my lesson...

I crammed five challenges into this card too! I think this one was a bit easier because the Gina K challenge was to make a non-standard sized card. I only had to cut my card down to a square. Oh and I guess I made it easier by making the tole fit for two different challenges.
The Holiday Challenge Extravaganza #11 was to use a new-to-me technique called paper tole. The challenge from the ladies at Stamp Something challenged bloggers to use something or try something "new".
I drew my colors from the Inspiration Challenge 161 on SCS. I chose the Grand Barton cake! Yum! My focal image became my sentiment after reading Melanie's challenge on her blog. She draws stamps for Gina K and is also on her design team!

The specs:
Stamps: Fall Flair, Imagination is More (Rubber Stampede)
Paper: Very Vanilla, Brushed Gold, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Water color paper
Ink: Encore Gold
Accessories: Gold ep, heat tool, aquapainter, stampin' dimensionals, glue dots, paper piercing tool, mat pack, scallop edge punch, pink organdy ribbon, corner punch
Techniques: paper tole

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Heartache, anyone?

Yep, this one took me forever and ever. I walked away from it and came back! I still wasn't really satisfied with it. It probably won't win any awards, but I guess it's alright. After I finished it, I thought that packing in so many challenges was perhaps limiting my creativity! I pumped four challenges into this one.

1) Taylor's sketch challenge
2) Sharon's Johnson Stamp Simply #68, to make another thank you note.
3) Jacksonbelle Embellishment's "ring" challenge - to use circles or something related to the idea of a "ring".
4) Holiday Challenge Extravaganza #13 to use something you have been hoarding.

I had been hoarding those little wooden hearts and that Basic Grey paper. I use it ever so stringently! I don't know why, it's only paper and companies are always coming out with fantastic new papers!

The details:
Stamps: Holiday Blitz
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Very Vanilla, Basic Grey Sugared
Ink: Regal Rose
Accessories: Painted wooden hearts, glue dots, MAMBI rhinestones, Magenta & Dandelion sharpies, 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, stampin' dimensionals

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Along came Jacksonbelle Embellishments!

I met four challenges with this one card. The first challenge that got me going on this one Gina K's New Year's Inspiration challenge,and then the Jacksonbelle Embellishment challenge to use black, white and some metallic color. I chose silver so that tied back into Ways to Use it 199 on SCS. That challenge was all about using silver! Finally, I borrowed Amber's sketch, this time for Verve, with a "twist" - use hardware.

I wanted to go back to Jacksonbelle Embellishments. I found them through one of my favorite artists, Jennifer Buck. Visit her blog, she is amazing. Her link is listed on the side of mine. Anyway, I find her to be very kind and thoughtful. Ages ago, I commented on her blog about taking her scrap paper off her hands. She remembered this and then I won some blog candy from her. Well, you know what she did? She sent me a bunch of her leftovers. So sweet! Why do I tell you this? The black glittery dp I used is from Jennifer Buck!

Here's the rest:
Stamps: Best Yet, Baroque Motifs
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Brushed Silver, Black sparkly dp from a friend?
Ink: Basic Black, Silver Encore
Accessories: D'Vine CB folder, Silver Flower ribbon slide, White taffeta ribbon, Scallop punch (2x), 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch
Techniques: dry embossing

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Did I tell you I love sketch challenges?

Sorry for the bad photo on this one. I'm not sure what happened there, but that's the way it is! It's hard to read the sentiment; it says "just because".
I adore Julee Tilman's sketches! I do! The cards that I make with her sketches just always seem to turn out good. Am I siphoning off her mojo...well, she has plenty!!! The sketch I used can be found here. Then she began her own sketch blog, called Mojo Monday Sketch Blog. Since I am plugging Julee Tilman, you might as well get your wallet and visit her other blog, Verve Stamps or her store! These are top notch stamps folks!!
Back to my card, I also used Holiday Challenge Extravaganza #8 to design my card. Everthing I did on the card is pretty self-explanatory. Since posting it on SCS, I saw a video that demonstrated placement of self adhesive rhinestones that will probably help me get my pearls and rhinestones on much straighter. That stamper used a craft knife to do it! I'll let you know if it works better after I try it!

This is what I used:
Stamps: Fluttering By (Verve Stamps)
Paper: Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, Pale Plum, PC Soft Serenity dp
Ink: Sahara Sand
Accessories: 2-way glue pen, lavender ultrafine glitter, lavender organdy ribbon, pretties kit, mini glue dots

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Sew...what?

One day, I will get to my sewing machine and I will further develop my card making craft. It's embarrassing for me to say that I have a machine and I just can't use it because my craft room is a disaster. It's worse than that...it's....I don't know what!
I am still on a challenge roll - three challenges in this one little card! My MIL came over when this one was sitting on the computer desk after I posted it on SCS and she loved it! She couldn't get over it! Now you know how good that feels (my chest puffs up just thinking about it). On to the challenges! I used two SCS challenges, Color Challenge 199 (So Saffron, Bravo Burgundy & Handsome Hunter) and Sketch Challenge 209. The third challenge was another Gina K challenge that she named Sew-Long 2008!

When I posted this on SCS, I forgot to mention that I used my Big Shot to cut the petals and leaves out of the felt. I used the Birds and Blooms dies. The photo does not show it, but the white flower has three layers of felt. You can imagine where the flowers are if you look at my stitching!

BTW - I hated the color combination until I started working with it. I just didn't think those colors were going to work well. Even now, they make me think of a stop light!

Wanna know what I used?
Stamps: Thank You Kindly, Heartfelt Thanks
Paper: Whisper White, Bravo Burgundy, So Saffron dp
Ink: Handsome Hunter
Accessories: white felt, green felt, burgundy thread, saffron thread, needle, paper piercer, stampin' dimensionals, Big Shot, Birds and Blooms dies
Techniques: sewing
Difficulty (1-Easy 5-Advanced): 3 (hand stitching took time!)

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

More Holiday Challenges!

I started to pick up speed with my challenges here. I combined 3 challenges on this card. I was still going strong with the Gina K challenges and this one reflects her black and white challenge! Black and white is always an elegant choice. I tried to stay elegant with the dry and heat embossing. It's very hard to see the dry embossing I did on the black layer, but it's there! I used Amber's sketch, so I busted out my Unity stamps to go with her sketch. I used three different Unity sets on this one. Finally, I didn't want my sentiment just hanging out all lonely, so I colored some rhinestones with my black Sharpie. That action met the criteria for Holiday Challenge Extravaganza #10, Altered Embellishments! Whew!

Here are the specs:Stamps: Tiny Trinity (Unity), Dream Tree (Unity), Sentiments O'Simple (Unity)
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink: Craft White, StazOn Jet Black, Versamark
Accessories: Clear ep, heat tool, D'vines CB folder, MAMBI rhinestones, Black Sharpie, corner rounder, Black Organdy ribbon (SU), Offray White satin ribbon, oval stencil, stampin' dimensionals
Techniques: embossing

All products used are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

More Holiday Cards, now Valentines!

Don't you just love Basic Grey! Most of the time, I get the 6x6 pads because they are the most inexpensive. However, one time a got the 12x12 version with the adhesive letters and fun stickers.

I buttoned up a couple of challenges here too! Sharon Johnson offered up her Stamp Simply challenge called Beyond Quick!, which made me think of my self adhesive BG products! The other challenge was another Holiday Challenge Extravaganza - Fun With Tags! And that fit with the beyond quick idea because I had die cut tags. I didn't do much else. So it was quick, quick, quick!

Here are the details:
Stamps: All Year Cheer III
Paper: Confetti White, Riding Hood Red, BG Sugared
Ink: Riding Hood Red
Accessories: Fuzzy ribbon (M's or JoAnn's?), Heart to Heart punch, BG Sugared Stickers, sponge dauber, confetti white tags, stampin' dimensionals
Techniques: sponging

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

More challenges over the holidays!

If you know me personally, you know that this was true in my real life. Not to be a downer, but one of our family pets got hit and killed on Christmas Eve and my grandmother has been hospitalized 3 times without medical staff being able to determine the cause of her illness. But the title of my post refers to the two challenges that I combined to make this card. I had fun with the Holiday Challenge Extravaganza and I made it a personal mission to complete all of Gina K's challenges during the last week/first week of 2008-2009. She gave away wonderful prizes, but you didn't have to make the cards. She chose easy challenges to help crafters ease back into stamping after all of the holiday stress!

So for Gina's challenge, you were to recycle an old card and use it on a new card. The Holiday Challenge Extravaganza #4 was another limited supply challenge! As easy as 1,2,3, birthday card made with 1 piece of dp, 2 colors of card stock and 3 punches. The only embellishment allowed was ribbon. That wasn't hard for me! I love to put ribbon on my cards. There wasn't a lot of stamping on this one and I feel kind of guilty about it, but it's a really sweet card!

Here are the details for this card:
Stamps: Short & Sweet
Paper: Baja Breeze, Close to Cocoa, Confetti White
Ink: Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Recycled birthday card, Offray celery ribbon (leftover from my wedding almost 7 years ago!!!), small oval punch, large oval punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, stampin' dimensionals, mini glue dots

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

For My Valentine

I got really focused on challenges over the holidays. I did more challenges than I can ever remember doing. This card is no exception. I met two challenges with this one. I used Gina K's challenge to put the piece of card stock on the diagonal behind my focal image. The other challenge was a Holiday Challenge Extravaganza limited supply challenge.

Most everything about this card is obvious, I think. I jazzed up my polka dot dp behind the heart by putting extra dots on it with my silver Sharpie. I used my aqua painter to color the inside of the heart and then put the colors back in. I used my red marker to darken the red flowers and colored the dots in the heart with the silver sharpie to tie the diagonal dp in with the heart. Too bad my sentiment doesn't looks so great. I still need a good plan when it comes to tiny little stamps. I try to use a light touch, but the silver encore ink would have been unreadable! Oh well, hubby won't card!

Here are the specifics for this card:
Stamps: Love You Much, Everyday Flexible Phrases
Paper: Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White, Print Pack dp
Ink: Versamark, Silver Encore, Real Red
Accessories: Black ep, heat tool, aquapainter, silver Sharpie, scallop edge punch, Red organdy ribbon, stampin' dimensionals, SAMJ
Techniques: embossing

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Inspired by my Starbuck's pastry bag!

So I have had my empty Starbucks pastry bag (folded up neatly on my craft desk)for I am not sure how long because I just loved the color combo! I made sure to dump all the crumbs out before I stashed it on my desk. SCS had extra challenges like crazy over my winter break. They had their Holiday Challenge Extravaganza with 14 or so challenges in a row, in addition to the regular daily challenges. Oh yeah, there were a ton of extra challenges on New Year's Eve as well. I didn't do those, though;)

This challenge was called A Quick Card In A Hurry and I know that I could whip it out while my hubby takes a shower, if need be! It's so easy, it went like this: fold the card stock base, stamped the flowers in Craft White, heat set the craft ink, stamp the grass, stamp the sentiment, tie the ribbons and distress the edges!

Here are the details:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Inspired by Nature, Sincere Salutations
Paper: Kraft
Ink: Craft White, Kiwi Kiss, Basic Black
Accessories: heat tool, Always Artichoke grosgrain, Black Organdy ribbon, MM distressing tool
Techniques: distressing

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Part of my busy-ness of the holidays!!!

I think it's safe to post now. These are the thank you cards that I had Sweet Pea send out for the nice gifts that she received from family and friends. (Don't tell anyone, but I still need to send out my own!)
I used a few challenges to get these thank you cards done in a hurry. If you have read my blog, you probably know that I just love sketch challenges. Pretty soon, I will make a notebook to keep my favorite sketches in. I digress. I used Taylor's sketch for the kitty card and Julee's sketch for the monkey card.

I used two additional challenges for the Monkey card. Gina K hosted a week's worth of challenges and giveaways. The first was to double mat your focal image. You can find the post about it on her blog or on SCS, here. So I whipped up a double mat using Sweet Pea's coloring. I did this technique once before and learned from it, thus I limited the number of colors that I let her use and stamped my sentiment inside!!! The other challenge that I met on this card was to use something new, for Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply #67. My sister's oldest son, drew my name for Christmas and got me some stamping toys straight off my wishlist! (You really can't go wrong when you buy straight off the list!!!) So I used my new CB folder and then inked up the embossed dots. I'm not sure how to just get color on the dots and not the rest of the paper, but the cards are from Sweet Pea. I guess I will have to do a little research.

Here are the specifics for the cards:
Monkey:
Stamps: Zoofari, Sock Monkey (sentiment inside)
Paper: Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, Purely Pomengranate, Close to Cocoa
Ink: StazOn Timber Brown, Purely Pomegranate
Accessories: Theater Ribbons Originals, Michael's rhinestones, stampin' dimensionals, mini glue dots, CB embossing folder, crayola crayons
Techniques: embossing, coloring

Cat:
Stamps: Zoofari, Short & Sweet
Paper: Purely Pomegranate, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip
Ink: StazOn Timber Brown, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Fuschia Sharpie, Crayola Crayons, 3/4" circle punch, button hole punch, ticket corner punch, MM distressing tool, stampin' dimensionals,
Techniques: coloring, distressing

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

I've been busy over the holidays!

I made this framed art for my daycare provider. She goes above and beyond what is required of daycare! I couldn't find a better substitute for me than her. My daughter is treated like a part of their family, not only by my daycare provider, but also by her girls and her husband. She also makes the daycare crowd like a family, too! So, my daughter gets to have the sibling (5 sisters, not counting the daycare providers 2 girls) effect without actually having any siblings! She is my third daycare provider and unless she changes vocations, my last! I intend to keep Sweet Pea there until she starts Kindergarten, or if Sweet Pea goes half days, until 1st grade!

Here are the details for my project:

Stamps: Sidekick Sayings
Paper: Bravo Burgundy, Confetti White, White Tissue
Ink: Stazon Jet Black, Bravo Burgundy, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Aquapainter, frame from close out sale at Linens'n'things
Techniques: Faux Silk

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.