Friday, March 27, 2009

Revisiting SU Power Up & SC221

This has been another productive sketch challenge for me. My boyfriend Rick had a cool idea I had to try. He said something about using tools with those band aids in the SU Happy Healing set for a masculine card. I tried it and liked it so much I thought I should bring out the Stampin' Up! Power Up set and make some masculine birthday cards. I used the SU Linen background stamp on the first Creamy Carmel panel, the SU Builder Bits wheel on the Bliss Blue panel and Cuttlebugged the second Creamy Carmel panel, matting them all on Basic Black. The Happy Birthday stamp is from SU It's Your Birthday set. The ink I chose for this was Versafine Onyx Black, I like the way it covers the bold rubber and acrylic stamps.
This is a picture of the inside of my card, I've had fun decorating that part too. I'll keep practicing! The birthday verse is from the PapertreyINK Birthday Basics set.

I made a dozen masculine birthday cards trying to use all of the stamps in the set, you get the idea and don't really want to see each one! Have a nice weekend, the weather is beautiful here in Arizona~


Wednesday, March 25, 2009

SC221 Happy Healing

It's been a long time since I've done the sketch challenge on Splitcoaststampers the same day it came out. I had so much fun today with this sketch! My first picture is of the inside of the card below. I've been trying to decorate the insides too.
Above is the first card I made with SC221. I used all Stampin' Up! stamps which is very odd for me. If you told me I had to, I'd have a really hard time coming up with something.
I've had this set on my mind for quite some time now. I bought it a few years ago and it's been put away, waiting... I colored the image with Copic markers, E33, E30, RV17 and 0. I had to go get a bandaid out of the box to find just the right color markers.
The stamps I used are Stampin' Up! Happy Healing, Simple Sayings, Paisley & Linen. I was surprised to notice 1999 on the stamps in the Happy Healing set, oh my, that set is 10 years old!
The paper colors are Basic Black, SU Creamy Carmel, PapertreyINK Razzberry Fizz and Neenah Solar White. I've discovered Memento Tuxedo Black ink, Wow, what a difference it makes with the Copic markers.

This set seems very appropriate right now. I had to make an ATC for my little girl with it, she closed her finger in my car door Friday night. It's her right index finger and it's looking better, the nail is black but the swelling has gone down and the skin color is normal again. Poor kid! The kids started working with a new typing program today, she said she wasn't having a problem with that finger at all, what a trooper.
I hope you have some stamping time today, have a good one!



Monday, March 23, 2009

ATC's

Happy Monday morning, the kids are back in school and the house is very quiet. Time to do a little blogging!

I have two Artist Trading Cards to share with you today. I've been in need of some type of card with my name and phone number on it for some time now. Business cards don't sound like much fun so I made ATC's instead. I printed four cards on a sheet of Neenah Solar White Super Smooth card stock to start, then I needed to figure out the measurements to make them 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" for the finished product.
A couple of my friends have the Lizzie Anne Designs set Le Jardin so I borrowed one and stamped some of the very small flowers from it for my project here. They are colored with Copic markers. The paper is PapertreyINK Razzberry Fizz, Summer Sunrise and my old standby Nut Brown from Thepapermill.com. The Hello stamp is from a PTI set too and Spellbinders Nestabilities dies.
The FedEX gal was just here with a Copic marker delivery. I gotta go sort out pens and make some phone calls to let my stamping girlfriends know "the pens" have arrived!! Have a great day!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Media Folder Mini Album

Stacy came over last night and we made a couple of mini albums out of media folders. I learned how to make these last November when Paula came to visit. I made this one for my brother's new granddaughter. The cardstock and patterned paper is from PapertreyINK Guidelines Collection. I also found the flower there, it's from Maya Road and is almost translucent. I tried coloring it with my Palette ink pad but the ink never dried and just wiped off. I then tried my Copic marker, hmm... two coats made it look even better, cool!
It's good to have friends! I borrowed a Sizzix top note die from Susan and a Sizzix envelope die from Marilyn to complete the inside of the mini album. Lucky for me I already had the old Sizzix large tag die.

I made a matching card to go with my gift using Lizzie Anne Designs Petite Phrases and sketch challenge 218.
I hope you have a wonderful day. I need to get with it, I'm having friends over to stamp today!


Thursday, March 12, 2009

I didn't forget...

Good Morning! I've been in a creative frenzy lately but not a good blogger it seems. I'd like to share my Snail Birthday card with you today. It left with one of my friends' last night that needed a birthday card.

The sketch is from Mojo Monday 73, the stamp set is a new one from There She Goes called Slow & Steady. I used Copic markers to color the images, YG17, YG11, E34, G82, B02, E25, W3, W1, W0 and a blender. I'm happy to say I finally found Memento Ink, it's great for use with Copic markers, no bleeding when you touch the lines!

Paper - Neenah solar White, Neenah Classic Columns Charcoal, Astro Brights Lunar Blue, Via Vellum Green, Stampin' Up! Basic Gray. Accessories - Lg Pewter Eyelet.

I've been having fun decorating the insides of the cards too, but unfortunately I forgot to take a picture and the card is gone. I'll have to get in the habit of taking pictures of the insides now too, sorry!

I'd like to thank all the ladies that came to my classes Tuesday! I was blessed to have 9 ladies sign up and 7 ladies at my kitchen table making cards. The ladies that coudn't attend asked if I'd make "packets" for them. I did their stamping and they get to assemble the cards later for homework.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

SC218 Girlfriends

I had some stamping time this morning and worked on SC218 using Stampin' Up! Girlfriends set. It went together pretty well using some of the retired Stampin' Up! designer paper from my stash. This could be one of those sketches I have to try over and over again!
Supplies: Paper - SU Cameo Coral, SU designer paper retired, Neenah Classic Columns Charcoal, Neenah Solar White. Ink - Verasfine Onyx Black. Accessories - Copic markers. Stamps - Stampin' Up! Girlfriends, PapertreyINK.

I have good news! The plans for my new kitchen table are drawn up and it will be ready in about four weeks. It's going to have storage built in under it and should seat 6 to 8 people comfortably. I can't wait! The current table holds 5 of us comfortably for classes right now so this will be neat. More organization will be a big bonus too.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Triple Challenge

I'd like to share a card I made on Friday with you today. I was on Splitcoaststampers in the morning browsing, looking for ideas, inspiration, some kind of jumping off point to get me started on something fun. I came across Limited Supply Challenge 209, it mentioned designer paper. When I read the "rules" it said we were to make our own designer paper, oh... that's one of the things I love about stamping, making my own paper! I'd had this Lizzie Anne Designs set on my mind and was thinking about putting it on one of my biggest acrylic blocks and making a background stamp out of it. In the end I stamped each image randomly and separately.

I also saw Limited Supply Challenge 177, it called for a different fold in your card. Several of the examples used gate folds so I thought I'd like to try that too.

And then... I feel like I get in a rut using the same colors over and over, yes those are the colors I'm drawn to it seems but there are so many others that are beautiful together too! So I went over and checked out the color challenges. Oh my, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun and Old Olive.

So okay, that was my starting point and below is what I ended up with. I like it!

I used the Lizzie Anne Designs Jolies Fleurs set, stamping it randomly on my white card stock. I found the SU papers I planned to use and went over to my Copic markers and pulled the matches to my paper and a blender. It took awhile to color all the images but it was FUN! When I was finished coloring I thought that there were a lot of white areas left so I grabbed a little tiny stamp from my stash that has three dots on it and used it to fill in the white areas. Oh no! I just cheated on the LSC!! Too late, it's done. You could only use one stamp set. Oh well, I was looking for inspiration not rules.

I used Old Olive as the base of my card, I had to do a little math to figure out where the folds belonged, used my Scor It and hoped for the best. I then cut my designer paper into a 5" square and sponged it with brown ink. I then attached it to a panel of Pumpkin Pie, next I cut it in half and attached it to my Old Olive card body. I'd colored the big flower in the set so I cut it out and went back over it with YR14 to cover the white around the edges. I took a scrap of white and stamped two of the flourishes in each corner (kinda) and colored them in with G99. The flower is popped with foam tape and I used that tiny stamp again with SU Pumpkin Pie ink in the other corners. That panel is attached on the left side of the card front.
This is a picture of the inside of my card. I had a strip of designer paper left so I used it. I worked too hard coloring it to throw it away! It looked funny so I added a strip of SU Summer Sun and stamped the sentiment, it's from PapertreyINK.
Since my kitchen a.k.a. craft room remodel I've found a lot of neglected stamps. I'm sure you can relate! It's exciting and fun to be using them again!
Happy Monday~