Wednesday, August 27, 2008

My Choice For Love Your Blog Award!

Here I am again to finish the post I started earlier today as promised. These are my 7 nominees for the Love Your Blog Award!

Alisa Tilsner - Port Lincoln, South Australia
Scrapperlicious - Penang, Malaysia
Cindy Haffner's Corner - Saskatchewan, Canada
Fat Cat Stamper - Grass Lake, Michigan
I Stamp
More Is More - Southern California
Chicnscratch

Thanks for all of your wonderful inspiration!

A Blog Award!

Hey wow, I received a blog award from Chris over at Cat's Scratching Post. Thank you! Now I need to pass it on. You should see my blog list! There are so many extremely talented stamping bloggers out here it's mind boggling and overwhelming to say the least.

I copied the "rules" off of Chris's blog so I'd have them for mine:

1) put the award logo on your blog
2) link to the individual(s) that gave you the award
3) nominate at least 7 other blogs
4) add links of the blogs you've nominated
5) leave a comment on those 7 blogs to let them know they have been given an award.

I'm afraid I'll have to come back this evening and do an update with the 7 blogs I've chosen. I have to leave here soon to meet a friend for lunch...

I also wanted to share my entry for this weeks sketch challenge and color challenge over at Splitcoaststampers. I was happy that I had time to make this card this morning and complete both challenges.

The color challenge is Basic Black, Kraft & Rose Red.

I have a new stamp set from Impression Obsession called Smell The Coffee that I wanted to get inky. I really liked the sketch challenge and coffee beans came to my mind for one of the panels when I saw it. I don't have any coffee bean stamps so I browsed through Clip Art on line and found this picture. I down loaded it and opened it in one of my photo software programs and printed a sheet.

I stamped the image in Palette Noir and colored it with Copic markers, a clear glitter pen and used an Aqua painter in a white ink pad for the foam on the coffee. I cut the scalloped boarder with my Carl rotary cutter using the scallop blade. I wish the sentiment stamp would have been inked better in the middle, the practice stamp I did was perfect! Little things...

Have a great day, I'm off to lunch~

Friday, August 22, 2008

Clear Dollar Stamps - Sometimes You're The Bug...

I was a little disappointed this morning when I got up and realized I had "work" to do and wasn't going to have time to stamp today. But look what the mail carrier brought me!

I saw this stamp set on someones blog recently and thought, Wow! Is that ever cute!! Must have!

This is such a large stamp I needed my Creative Memories cutting system to make the circles. Luckily I found it out in the garage in the first box I opened.

The first card I used Tempting Turquoise and Black paper, my designer paper is SU retired several catalogs ago. The stamps I used are from 3 sets, Clear Dollar Stamps - Sometimes You're The Bug & Heaven Bound and Papertrey - Birthday Basics. To get the Happy Birthday stamp to fit the circle I had to shape it a little while I put it on the arylic block. Copic markers - C0, C3, C8, B02, B04, B05, R46. I used a Copic Spica glitter marker on the rear view mirror and tail lights, the SU Word Window punch and a couple of black brads.

I had a hard time with the ribbon ends so I used my SU corner punch to make the photo corners so I could hide the ends.

The designer paper again is SU retired, Lavender Lace card stock, Apricot Appeal foto corners, Wild Wasabi stitched ribbon and Copic markers - BV00, BV11, C0, C3, C8, G40, G24, R46 and once again I used the Copic Spica glitter marker (clear) on the rear view mirror and tail lights.

I just discovered Clear Dollar Stamps online, wow, she has some really cute stamps at very reasonable prices with fast shipping. What more could a girl want?

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Box In A Bag

I did some blog browsing last night and kept seeing this cute little Box in a Bag. I linked around to several places and found the lady with the tutorial her name is Diana Gibbs, her blog is called Stampin' With Di if you'd like to check it out. I had to go back this morning and try my hand at the Box in a Bag, I love it!

The next thing on my mind was I'd really like to make it again in a bigger size so I could use it as a gift bag/tote for half a dozen cards. So I did...

I like to make A6 sized cards because they give me a bigger palette to work with so my "tote" is sized to fit 6 A6 cards.

I was browsing again this morning and went to Andrea Walford's blog and much to my delight she's done the same thing for A2 sized cards. Ah, great minds think alike? She's also posted a tutorial for her Purse Box.
I think it's really neat the way one person's idea can give birth to so many variations. The original is a Box in a Bag, Andrea's is a Purse Box, I thought I'd like a "Tote".
My variation to the Box in a Bag is making it fit A6 cards and changing the handles to something a little larger. The round tab punch wasn't in proportion to the size of my tote so I had to think of something else I might have.

I wondered how my oval Nestabilities dies would work for handles so I cut out 2 of the larger ovals. Then I put one of the smallest oval up top like you can see in the picture and cut it again. I ended up with 4 of them for stability. I'm happy with the way it turned out for the first time.
Is everyone as obsessed as I am? I like the way striped paper hides the seam but I'm not crazy about the colors I have together. I will probably make this over and over until I have it just the way I like it. Practice, practice, practice! Can you see Christmas paper?
Happy stamping!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Mint Chocolate

I was inspired by the complementary ribbon samples that accompanied my Verve Visual order the other day. There were two pieces of satin ribbon in Aqua and Chocolate Brown.

I spent the day stamping and just couldn't get enough of this new set, it's called Artful Elegance, the scripture verse is called a Plain Jane. I love being able to make my own patterned paper, it always matches so nice!

The layout for the above card is SC188.

This next cards are also from the Artful Elegance set.


Supply List: Stamps - Verve Visual Artful Elegance, Verve Visual Plain Janes, Stampin' Up! Canvas background, Paper - PapertreyINK Aqua Mist, Nut Brown, Ink - Palette Umber, Accessories - Satin, Organdy & Twill ribbon, Dew Drops "Men", Spellbinders Nestabilities dies.

My day is going better than yesterday when I did my blog post. I called the cabinet maker and talked with him in person. He promised my cabinets would be installed by the end of next week. I plan to keep calling until the job is done. It will be so nice to have my stamping space back again.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

A Little Stampin'

It's been a month since my last blog post, wow... I've been trying to work through some issues lately and thought getting back to stamping is part of the answer.

The issue I'm trying to work through is the frustration I feel because my stamp room/kitchen isn't finished yet. Heaven knows I've done my part. The room is repainted, the fixtures are installed, the ones that can't be are purchased and waiting. Even the flooring is ready and waiting and in my way in the laundry room.

When I'd like to stamp I can't find my stuff because I took the room apart and put everythng in boxes because my cabinets were to be installed by the end of May. The boxes keep getting moved around because I couldn't stand them in my living room anymore, etc...

So, I'm still waiting for the cabinets to be ready and installed. When I call about them I don't get any answers about when, she'll check and call me back. My phone hasn't been ringing! Is it any wonder I put this off for so long?

Thanks for letting me vent. On to the fun stuff~

I was in Lake Havasu City (visiting the cabinet maker) a few weeks ago and stopped by The Sugar Shack, she had some of the cutest dollar stamps. I had to have several, this Lizard is one of them.

I used my Copic markers to color "her". G40, B05, C0 & 0. Pulled out my Spellbinders Nestie dies and Cuttlebug dots embossing folder and had some fun. The background stamp is SU Print Pattern in Versamark and the sentiment is also SU Heard From The Heart. Paper colors are Certainly Celery, Tempting Turquoise, Black & White.

The inside of the card reads: "Age is only a number... mine is UNLISTED. Happy Birthday!" The sentiment came with the Lizard, I loved it!

I made a cool new discovery I thought I'd like to share with you recently. Pictured below is a Stampin' Up! stamp from the Heard From The Heart set that I'm using unmounted. I feel like I'm running out of room and would like to use any new SU stamps I buy unmounted to save some space.


These are die cut so I didn't have to cut them out, how nice! I popped them out, took the label and cut around it as close as I could and attached it to the foam backing trying to line it up as it would be on the other side. (Just like when I use the wood blocks.) Then I stuck it down to a plastic sheet I found at the hardware store. They looked at me kind of weird when I bought it and asked for 6 inches of that plastic tablecloth material.
Next I used a different storage box that's smaller and will be easier for me to store. I was using CD cases for my unmounted stamps but some of the acrylic ones that are tiny after I've used them a bit don't stick as well and I lose them out that little opening on the side. These boxes also keep the grit off my stamps, we've had a bit of that lately with the construction going on.
I found theses boxes at Flourishes, I really like them.
Thanks for letting me vent today, sorry to be a bummer but I needed that. I think I'll go make some phone calls about cabinets now!