TDSC20

Update: 8:45pm Thursday- Things have settled down a bit so I wanted to let you know just a few things about this card that may not be obvious. First the layer under the teal with white dot layer started as Bella Rose DSP (retired SU!). Because the challenge required copper, I covered the DSP with copper glitter glue. This took a while to dry but I like the effects of a glittered layer just peeking out of the teal. The other not so obvious thing is the corner embellishment. This is a paper epoxy button like accent from Colorbok's Friendly Forest line. I punched a 3/4 circle from Taken with Teal and layered it on top of the button and threaded the ribbon through both. The rest is pretty much self explanatory.

It is a crazy hectic week so I won't be able to post the details of my card until late this week or early next but I would be remiss if I did not remind you of the fun challenge over at The Digi Shack. This week's challenge is a color challenge- chocolate, caramel. teal, and copper. You can see the challenge and the other DT members creations here.

Recipe:
Image: Apples (The Digi Shack)
Paper: Chocolate, Close to Cocoa, Taken with Teal, WW, DSP- Bella Rose (Stampin' Up)
Ink: Green Galore, Taken with Teal, Close to Cocoa. Bashful Blue, Summer Sun, Garden Green, Certainly Celery (Stampin' Up)
Accessories: White gel pen (Uniball-Signo); Mat pack, 3/4 circle punch, Scallop punch (Stampin' Up), Epoxy accent (Friendly Forest-Colorbok), Ribbon (offray), copper glitter glue (Hampton Arts)

Marvelous Manic Monday

Update: Thursday 8:45 pm. as noted in the above post, things have settled down a bit so I can give you the deets on this card. Pretty obvious that I used the SU! top note layered. The flowers are a mixture. The large ones I have especially enjoyed as these are white textured paper flowers that are easily colored with chalks, markers, watercolors, ink. I wish I could recall the maker, but I purchased them in 2007 { and they lost their packaging :( } I colored the large flowers with Rich Razzleberry and Dusty Durango. Each flower has a button and either ribbon or embroidery thread. The sentiment was the free image from Manic Monday. I distressed it with Really Rust ink (right now I just have the Dusty Durango marker {no ink}), layered it on Rich razzleberry designer label tag. The brads are layered with a 1/4" circle. I like that this is only flowers, paper, and sentiment (no image) . It makes a really special girlfriend card.

Manic Monday at the Digi Shack. Be sure to check it out today for your free digi image. Today, the image is the sentiment "wonderful friend". Perfect for cards or scrapbook pages. I'll be back later tonight to tell you about this fun flower creation, but I didn't want you to miss the freebie.
Have a great day!

Recipe:
Image: Wonderful Friend sentiment (The Digi Shack)
Paper: Dusty Durango, Rich Razzleberry, Sweet & Sassy Bold Stripe (The Paper Studio)
Accessories: Flowers from stash, Small pink flowers (Itty Bitty Blossoms-piglet- Imaginisce), small paper flowers were from my SCS secret elf in 2007 {I still never figured out the name of that generous person}; Buttons: Earth Elements & Earth Elements and Neutrals (retired SU!); embroidery thread; Ribbon: (American Crafts); 1/4" inch circle, Designer label punch, Top Note Die (SU!); brads (Creative Impressions).

Miss you Fish

What a great Saturday! Lots of things went together just right today! I love when that happens. I have had two of these fish images from The Digi Shack on my desk for several days awaiting coloring and I finally got to them.

My husband and I took the whole week off work to help my daughters get settled at college. They go to different colleges- one 5 1/2 hours away and the other is 3 1/2 hours away from home. This is the first year of having an empty nest; it is really quiet!

The reason I was anxious to get these fish images colored was so I could send cards to each of the girls. When they were little and unhappy, the pout-y face would appear. As they got older we made a joke of it. So I think they will get a little chuckle from this card. {the second is a duplicate}.

As it turns out, I was able to incorporate several challenges. First the SCS Featured Stamper this week is ' jojot', aka Joanne. I love everything she makes and when I saw her fish card that she made earlier this week, I knew I could get to work coloring my fish images. Joanne is a wonderfully supportive Splitcoaststamper. She leaves the nicest comments for so many. I can recall when I first started stamping, she was one of the few that would leave notes to my cards.

My card also qualifies for Mothermark's Tuesday's teapot challenge #60. SInce I cased Joanne's card for the Teapot Challenge, I think it qualifies for the Teapot too. See what I mean about things coming together nicely. I have been wanting to play for quite some time as Cindy is a wonderful stamping friend, but as you can image, things were a little hetic around the house this summer with getting two college kids ready to go. It seemed like I was shopping three times a week for stuff for the apartment or dorm. Anyway...you read more about the teapot challenge on Cindy's blog here.

Last I incorporated the SCS Inspirational challenge. We were to use a cool, funky e-store called Pylones as an inspiration. I chose this flask as my inspiration. Actually, the store makes quite a few things with this pattern. The colors of this pattern reminded me of the colors in Euphoria paper from Basic Grey.

Whew! I don't usually combine this many challenges but it all flowed together. Have a great Sunday, friends.

Recipe:
Image: Huffy-fish (The Digi Shack), sentiment- All year cheer II (Stampin' Up)
Paper: Pixie Pink, Gable Green (Stampin' Up); DP- Euphoria (Basic Grey)
Ink and Markers: Pixie Pink, Gable Green, Green Galore, Bashful Blue, Tempting Turquoise, Bermuda Bay
Accessories: Brads (Basic Grey), Glitter glue from stash
Techniques: Sponging, Masking

Masculine Games

This card was made for two Splitcoaststampers (SCS) challenges; the Sketch challenge from Wednesday and the Limited Supply Challenge from today. The LSC was posted by a fellow Shabby Chick, Judy. And what a challenge it was...make a masculine card~ no ribbon, no bling, no flowers. Guy cards are always tough for me. I have to concentrate while girly cards just seem to flow.

I really like this Game Night stamp set and the matching Designer Series Paper (DSP) from Stampin' up! I have gotten the impression it hasn't been super popular & so I was super happy when both the set and the dsp made it to the new catalog. The reason I like it so much is because it is bright and cheery. So many masculine cards are earthy or rustic and although I like that, the red and yellow are a nice change.

This card was super easy; and I kept it Stampin' Up Only & did not add a single embellishment. Very unusual for me! Have a great evening.

TDS Challenge Card

Time for the challenge over at The Digi Shack. This week's challenge is an inspirational challenge; use one of the handbags from the Toni, the Digi Shack's owner, Etsy store. I chose this Gabby bag with Amy Butler fabric.

Be sure to stop by The Digi Shack. There is some awesome Shack Candy...I don't want to ruin the surprise, but I can tell you that you definitely don't want to miss this!

I love Tempting Turquoise and this new color, Bermunda Bay from SU! together. It might be a little hard to see but the left Tempting Turquoise panel was embossed with the small dots texturz background plate from SU!. I used last week's sketch challenge from SCS as the design (SC241), but I took the liberty of adding the sentiment panel. The image is the birthday balloon by artist Tracey Malnofski for TDS. I love having a balloon image and especially love that it is for birthdays; and since it is an open stamp that is colored, I will be able to pair it up with any color combo and DSP.

Have a great Thursday!

Recipe:
Image: Birthday Balloon (The Digi Shack), All holidays (SU!)
Papers: Bermuda Bay, Tempting Turquoise, BB, WW (SU!); DSP- Indian Summer Fall Matstack (DCWV)
Ink: SU markers
Accessories: Prisma pencils, Gamsol, belnding stumps, Small dots texturz plate (SU!), photo anchors (Creative Impressions), Brads (Queen &Co.)

Blog Hop with The Digi Shack Mauiwowies

Happy Saturday! Today the Digi Shack's design team, the Mauiwowies, are having a blog hop just in time for the Holiday image release later in the afternoon. To join the hop, start at the home base...The Digi Shack. We are celebrating the holidays. {There I go again on my holiday card making kick ;)}

My first card is this gorgeous shoe image. The inside reads, "Hey, Girlfriend, Happy Thanksgiving!" Paper piecing is so easy with digital images, just load your printer with your DSP. I kept the design very simple in order to keep the focus on the Houndstooth shoe. The DSP is from the new SU! holiday mini catalog {sales start 9/1; see my SU! sidebar}; it is called Autumn Meadows.

My second card for our Mauiwowie blog hop is the Christmas Chandelier. Even though, I chose to use it for a Christmas card but it would be great for Halloween or New Years'. It might be a little hard to see but after I printed my image, I colored over the chandelier chains or links with a silver sparkle jelly roll pen. The DSP is actually from the DCVW 'Safari Kids' matstack. I like the glittery dots and thought the colors worked well for a holiday card.

Have a great weekend! Time to hop over to see the Jazzy Tenia.

Recipe for Shoe Card:
Image: Shoe 7 (The Digi Shack)
Paper: Chocolate Chip textured, WW, Autumn Meadows DSP (SU!)
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel (SU! Markers)
Accessories: Chocolate Chip 15/16' satin ribbon (SU!), Bow-Easy

Recipe for Chandelier Card:
Image: Chandelier (The Digi Shack), Teeny Tiny Wishes (SU!)
Paper: Real Red textured, Tempting Turquoise, WW (SU!), DSP-Safari Kids Mat Stack (DCWV)
Ink: Silver Glitter Jelly Roll pen (Sakura), Crushed Curry (SU! marker), Real Red (SU!)
Accessories: Top Note Die (SU!), Modern Label punch (SU!) red gemstones (the Paper Studio)

DRS- Featured Friday Designer

Here are the cards I made for DRS Designs as this week's Featured Friday Designer. {pinch me!! because even though it has been several weeks since Cathy contacted me, I still can't believe it}.
I chose to focus my Friday around the upcoming holidays. I jibber-jabbered on an earlier post how much fun I am having creating cards for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. And preparing for the DRS Friday was no exception. But really...who wouldn't have fun with these fantastic rubber stamps?!

The Halloween card is 6X6 Brazzil textured black card stock as a base. The purple panels are both 4X4, and the upper square panel is covered with DSP. I love these brads, but I have lost the manufacture information, but I doubt that they are available anymore as they were on closeout when I picked them up a few years ago. The thing I like most about this card is the sentiment from DRS Designs. I plan to make these for my team at work...they know I love chocolate and sometimes...well...the other part of the sentiment fits too.

The Thanksgiving card is a gate fold. I really enjoyed coloring this beautiful Autumn bouquet. I am going to love having this stamp in my collection. I've already thought about some different color variations for the bouquet. I used the Scor-Pal for scoring the card stock which made it super easy. On the grid across the top, there are two dots- one at 2 1/8 and one at 6 3/8; these are the scoring lines for a gate card using 8 1/2 paper. Scor-Pal has lots of tutorials including the gate fold card; you can find it here: Scor-Pal boxes and cards

And the last and final card that I made for the DRS Designs Featured Friday Stamper was the Christmas card using the Dryer Sheet technique. You can find a photo tutorial on Splitcoaststampers. You will need a Zyron machine or a spray adhesive but it is not difficult at all. Basically you stamp your image (let dry), run it through the Zyron so the sticky side is on the image, place a used dryer sheet on top (trim sheet to cardstock size) and then add glitter. The glitter sticks to the sticky image and dryer sheet. It gives a soft, glittery focus. I really love the look of the Dryer Sheet technique for holiday cards or snow card & love it because the glitter really stays put.

All the recipes are below. Have a great Friday and weekend!

Recipe for Priceless Halloween:

Images: Witch Accessories-K154, Priceless Halloween-G433 (DRS Designs)
Cardstock: Blackbird (Brazzill), Lavender Lace, Basic Black, Green Galore, Whisper White (SU!), DSP-Trick or Treat Polka Dots (the Paper Studio)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); SU markers: Lavender Lace, Basic Gray, Green Galore, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Crushed Curry
Accessories, Brads- cats and bats (unknown source); ribbon (the Paper Studio)

Recipe for Autumn Beauty:
Images: Pumpkin Bouquet M684, Beauty of Autumn D704 (DRS Designs)
Paper: Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, DSP- Razzleberry Lemonade (SU!)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Pumpkin Pie, Only Orange, Yoyo Yellow, Crushed Curry, More Mustard, Really Rust, Dusty Durango, Ruby Red, Rose Red, Mellow Moss, Creamy Caramel, Soft Suede
Accessories: Bender Pen, Hodgepodge Hardware (SU!) Brads (Angelica by Marcella) Ribbon-Striped (Michaels), Pumpkin Pie (SU!), Scallop Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders)
Technique: Gate Fold

Recipe for the Christmas Night card:
Stamps: Traveling Afar L673 (DRS Designs)
Paper: Night of Navy, Bravo Burgandy, WW
Ink: Night of Navy'
Accessories: Texturz Plate 1, Large silver Grommet, 5/8' Bravo Burgandy Grosgrain Ribbon, 1/2' Night of Navy Grossgrain ribbon (SU!); silver brads (Making memories), oval scallop nestabilities (Spellbinders), Zyron

Digi Diva Challenge

Happy Thursday! I love Thursdays. Why you may ask? One reason is that there is only one more day of the work week to have to wake up & start the sprint to get ready. {A slower wake up, sipping coffee is more my style, which is what the weekends allow most often}. The other reason I love Thursday's is the Digi Shack's weekly challenge. I love seeing what everyone creates & the variety of cards that are made while adhering to specific criteria.

{I think I already blabbed on an earlier post how much I like challenges}.

This week Joni challenged us to make a card using handbags or shoes to salute the new images at The Digi Shack. I started with a 6X6 square of Brocade Blue and used my Scor-Pal to create the scores across the top. Next, using my sewing machine, I stitched the DSP together to create the lower layer. My shoe images were colored or paper pierced. The bow was created using the bow easy.

Have a great day!

Images: Shoes (The Digi Shack), Sentiment-First in Fashion (retired Stampin Up!)
Paper: Brocade Blue, Night of Navy, Garden Green, WW (SU!), DSP- Prestwick (retired SU!)
Ink: Garden Green, Night of Navy, Brocade Blue
Accessories: Sewing Machine, Brocade Blue 5/8" grossgrain ribbon, Bow Easy, ScorPal

Triple Challenge Card with New SU! DSP

Hi friends! Busy week for me..how about you? And although the weekend will be busy, I am happy to be able to spend a little more time in the studio. I recieved my Stampin' Up shipment today with my demonstrator order from the Holiday mini catalog which will be released on September 1st. This DSP is called Autumn Meadows. Aside from this woodgrain, there are some gorgeous leaf patters, a houndstooth and more. I like this fall pattern with Taken with Teal; which is probably no surprise as I love blues... in any shade.

The DSP was augmented with a little watercoloring...just a little more teal in the corners. The actual DSP is distressed with mustard and teal already but I added just a bit more to even out the center band of teal. The rectangle started as very vanilla. The Fresh Cuts image was inked up with Chocolate chip. Then I used my aquapainter and grabbed some chocolate chip ink from the ink pad lid and brushed across the entire rectangle. {I usually just squeeze the top and bottom of the closed pad together and I get enough ink for watercoloring}. I added Taken with Teal and More Mustard in select areas in the same manner with the aqua painter. I covered the vanilla nestie scalloped circle with the aquapainter watercolored chocolate chip. While the nestie vanilla surface was still damp, the floral image in choc. chip and more mustard were added. I stamped, stamped off once and twice to get the different looking inked images.

The teal band is pleated and covered with a thin tan velvet ribbon that is stitched along the edges with a chocolate brown. I picked this ribbon up at Michael's. I really couldn't resist this ribbon although I have lots already. My justification was that could be used for masculine and fall cards.

Since I didn't have much time to participate in the SCS challenges this week, I combined three with this card. First the Sketch Challenge, the Ways to Use it challenge (use pleats) and the Inspiration Challenge. I chose this vase for the IC challenge.

I believe the rest is pretty much self-explanatory, so I'll sign off until sometime tomorrow. Have a great weekend, friends!

Tuesday Morning Sketches

Good Tuesday Morning!

What a fun day today is starting out to be! The Digi Shack is sponsoring the Tuesday Morning Sketches.

I am really getting into the mood for creating cards and papercrafts for the upcoming holidays. This is totally not like me to be way ahead of any holiday so it must just be a paper art thing. With all the cool images and products available, it is certainly understandable. I will be concentrating on Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas cards over the next several months with lots of other cards and papercrafts in between the holidays things.

Today I chose the Christmas holiday and one of the new images from The Digi Shack. Not only is it a new image but we have a uber talented artist working with us at the Digi Shack; she's Tracey Malnofski . I just love her designs! This little stocking was so fun and easy to color. I chose the traditional red-green holiday colors, but it would look great in any color combo and super fab paper pieced. And paper piecing is so easy to do with digi images...just print right onto DSP and cut out.

If you get a chance, hop over to Tuesday Morning Sketches and play along. And don't forget yesterday was Manic Monday Freebie Fun Day at the Digi Shack where you can get a free digi image of a barrell of apples this week only.

Have a great week!

Recipe:
Image: Stocking by Tracey Malnofski for The Digi Shack; Teeny Tiny Wishes (SU!)
Paper: Real Red, Old Olive, WW, DSP- Christmas Stack (DCWV)
Ink: Markers-Real Red, Old Olive, Sahara Sand, Ruby Red, Summer Sun, Certainly Celery, Glorious Green (SU!), Jelly Roll, Metallic Green(Sakura), Gold Spika (Too Marker)
Accessories: Oval scallop and oval nestabilities (Spellbinders), oval punch, oval scallop punch, and 1/2" circle punch (SU!), snowflake brads (Paper Studio), Paper Lace (Creative Imaginations)