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)

Triple Challenge

I combined three challenges for this card- the Splitcoaststampers (SCS) color challenge from Tuesday, the SCS sketch challenge from Wednesday, and today's challenge from The Digi Shack. The color challenge colors are Certainly Celery, Pixie Pink, Apricot Appeal and any neutral. The Digi Shack challenge is "Say it with Flowers" by using a digi flower image.

Look here to see all the creations from The Digi Shack's Design Team..my sister Maui-Wowies. :)

The image is called Bud Vase. I colored the flower with my SU! Pixie Pink marker; the dimension was added by applying more marker color along the flower lines and the small inside part of the flower. I also colored more heavily along the lines of the leaves. If the receiver looks real close, this will be obvious but when looking from a normal distance at the card, it looks natural and dimensional. I enjoy spending time coloring, but there are many occasions when I want a quick card and nothing beats this technique with markers especially the high quality of the SU! markers.

I did not add many embellishments so as not to detract from the image; and I hope to send it without extra postage. ;) I hope you like it.

Have a great Thursday!

Recipe:
Image: Bud Vase (The Digi Shack)
Paper: Apricot Appeal, Pixie Pink, Sahara Sand, WW, DSP- Apricot Apeal from 2007 prints pack (all SU!)
Ink: Markers- Apricot Appeal, Pixie Pink, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue (SU!)
Accessories: Apricot Appeal brads (SU!)

Clean and Simple Challenge Card

Another quick note as I am still catching up from my little Florida jaunt.
This evening I made my very first 'clean and simple' (CAS) card for the Splitcoaststampers challenge. The challenge was a sketch challenge based upon a card by Krystie Lee.
My image is called 'Potted Plant' (The Digi Shack). I thought it was perfect for a CAS. I re-sized the image using Adobe Photoshop which maintains the proportion of the dimensions. Next I colored it using ink and blender pen & a little bit of marker on the pot. I added the ribbon and brad. I left off a sentiment so I could add something later- either get well, thinking of you, or sympathy. The card is 4 X 4.
This was definitely way outside my comfort zone. The card doesn't have multiple layers, designer paper, or distressing; and it has limited embellishments. It is so different from my typical style, I can't even evaluate if I like it. {don't get me wrong- I do love the digi image}.
But, trying new things is always fun for me even if I don't like the results. Another reason to love this art is that it is an adventure! Have a great Tuesday!

Recipe:
Stamps: Potted Plant (The Digi Shack)
Paper: WW, textured real red, black (Stampin' Up)
Ink: Real Red, Creamy Caramel, Really Rust, Old Olive
Accessories: Blender Pen, Black gingham ribbon (Offray), Red Velvet Brad (Creative Imaginations)

Beach Bum

Hi friends! I just returned from a little four day vacation. I did not have any of my stampin' stuff and I did not have internet. Don't moan....it was wonderful...a relaxing beach vacation with restaurants, shopping and sun. I'll be making cards, posting and checking out your blogs starting tomorrow evening. In the meantime, I wanted to remind of the Manic Monday Freebie Funday at The Digi Shack.

Alien Birthday

What a busy weekend we had at our home! Tonight is the first time I have made it to the studio for more than a few minutes. I just couldn't go to bed without making a card. Plus I had to play with this fun Alien image from the Digi Shack. Check out the blog starting Monday morning for "Manic Monday Freebie Fun" where you can get this Alien image for free.

I also made this card for the SCS Featured Stamper; minnidr was chosen this week. Her gallery is filled with great cards. I chose her "birthday two" card to case. I wanted to use some of the new SU! incolors and found this DSP in my stash that coordinated well enough. I kept the layout, the brads, dsp on top and cs on the bottom. I changed the dsp, the colors, the image, the sentiment, and the border.

"Happy Birthday, Earthling!" on the front and the inside reads: "Hope your birthday is out of this world." The sentiments and inside were generated on the computer using a font called Neuropol and I printed in brown. I know a few people who will get a kick out of this card; and I think it is gender neutral, do you agree?

Have a great week, Friends!

Recipe:
Image: Alien (The Digi Shack), Sentiment - Computer generated (Neuropol font)
Paper: Soft Suede, Dusty Durango, Crushed Curry, DSP- Kick the Can (American Crafts)
Ink: Dusty Durango, Crushed Curry, Bermuda Bay (for eyes)
Accessories: Gold Brads (Making Memories, Diamond Border punch (Fiskar)

TDSC14

Here's my take on The Digi Shack Challenge for the week (TDSC14). The challenge is to use clouds in your design. My clouds are in the form of designer paper. The digi image used was the gerber daisy image. To get four in a row, I used my picture editing software to resize the original image smaller. I kept the dimensions or ratio the same as the large daisy so the image wasn't distorted. Then I requested printing of 4 copies of the image on the same page. {I use Adobe Photo Shop elements, but any program will work}. Ta-da...4 daisies in a row and all perfectly aligned.
Even though I colored these daisies in the monochromatic purple shades, I can't help but want to do a 'crazy daisy' card in four different bright, bold colors. This was a super simple and fast card!
Hope you can join the challenge this week.

Recipe:
Image: Gerber Daisy- The Digi Shack
Paper: Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac, Black, DSP-page from travel scrapbook kit (DCWV)
Ink: Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac
Accessories: Lavender stickles, gold rhinestone stickers (Michaels)

Manic Mondays at The Digi Shack

Check The Digi Shack every Monday for the Manic Monday Freebie Fun Day image. That's right- a free image every Monday. No strings attached. How cool is that?!?!!!
I had technical difficulties last evening so I don't have a sample for you, but I think you'll love the image.

Yellow Bird

This card was made for this week's inspirational challenge over at SCS. I liked the green, orange and yellow combinations that are found in many of the Chasing fireflies products; here are two that really struck me: Enchanted Forest Tutu- http://www.chasing-fireflies.com/enchanted-forest-tutu/productinfo/27089/and the plaid board shorts- http://www.chasing-fireflies.com/plaid-board-shorts/productinfo/27616/

The card was also made for the monthly challenge for a blog group of friends (the Shabby Chics Blog Roll). We are to make a card this month with something that comes from nature; I chose this image of the tree with the bird.

I started this card last evening but didn't complete it. I began by stamping the tree with Garden Green craft ink and then I embossed it. The little bird was first colored with crushed curry and then summer sun. The paper is part of a 6.5" X 4.5" matstack called Safari Kids by DCWV that I got on clearance at M's. I had the layers and the design layed out but not attached. The embellishments were a row of five small buttons instead of the ribbon and three regular sized buttons instead of the corduroy buttons. {the buttons were the retired SU! earth elements and they matched perfectly.}

I kept looking at this card last night; and I was not quite pleased with it; and I was unable to come up with a better idea. So..I went to bed. When I woke up this morning I knew exactly what embellishments to use and I finished the card in 20 minutes. I like this much better that what I had previously. Have you ever had this experience of problem solving while sleeping? It's sort of weird, but I love when it happens.

Stamps: Friendly Forest (colorbok)
Paper: Garden Green, Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango, WW, DSP-Safari Kids (DCWV)
Ink: Garden Green craft, Crushed Curry& Summer Sun markers
Accessories: Summer Sun Corduroy buttons, Jersey ribbon (retired SU), crystal clear stampin emboss, heat gun
Techniques: Embossing

Happy Cupcake Day

Here is a card I made earlier this week but I had not had a chance to post it until now. It's my take on the FS126 challenge. Sandra has a great gallery~ I finally chose this one to case: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1299287?cat=500&ppuser=123966I kept the layout, the ribbon and banner for sentiment. I changed the papers, images, added brads and eliminated the stitching.

The DSP in the Basic Grey collection called off-beat are really fun. And these cute little cupcakes were from the $1 bin at Michaels. I just love them.

Recipe:
Stamps: Cupcakes Forever (studio g), All Holidays (SU!)
Paper: baja Breeze, Sahara Sand, WW, DSP- Off Beat (basic grey), Ski SLope (SU!)
Ink: Black, Real Red, Baja Breeze, Barely Banana
Accessories: Baja Breeze ribbon, brads (basic grey)