MAN i wish i could take credit for this card! there is one site that i am absolutely addicted to, and visit as often as i can. this lady is talented, i mean INSANELY talented! her work blows me away! this card was cased (well, i changed some stuff) from faith hofrichter, you should really visit her blog if you haven't yet!

started with a Cchip CB (all CS is SU). layers are Ggalore (ink distressed w/ Wwasabi), PIpink (distressed w/ Rred), Rred (distressed w/ Cchip), and Blossom (distressed w/ Rred).
stamped flourishes (TAC) in Cchip and added touches of sakura glitter pen. small hearts (stamps by judith) are in Rred. green heart (from SU retired set love matters") is Wwasabi ink stamped on Ggalore paper embellished w/ Cchip marker (dots). did larger heart free-hand w/ Cchip marker and used Q-tip w/ Rred ink to fill it in. bird (SU set "a little birdie told me") is stamped on PIpink paper then i stamped flourishes over image in Rred ink. sentiment (SU set "warm words") is stamped in Cchip on Bblossom. used crop-o-dile to set eyelets (do you have one yet? they're marvelous!!)

this was a very involved card.... i love that ribbon, too! i bought a grab bag of red, white, & black ribbons at a local craft store and haven't used much of it. the two layered together look great!

well, i think this might become one of my favorites. now do you see why i love faith? it's such a breath of fresh air to visit her blog. if i were creative, this is the stuff i'd make daily! i love the layers, the dimension, the colors, the distressing!

DH went to bed long ago... better get there myself. have a great week!

glitter and scallops and stripes, oh my!

wanted to do some fun cards, love those scallop punches, and had some new glitter to try out. so here we are!

fish is a stamp that i bought at a stamp show from the "10 for $1" un-
mounted bucket, have never used. stamped him in SU ink, Bblue. went
over his fins w/ sakura glue pen, then added blue glitter.

paper is DCWV (stack 5), ribbon is $1 michaels ribbon. added black
sparkled "stickles" to the outter edge of the inner scallop.




paper for the penguin card is from DCWV "winter mat stack".
penguin is from "great impressions" and is stamped in stazon black. used liquid applique under him for the 'snow'. colored him w/ pastels & blender pens. used blue sakura gel pen around outter edges of inner scallop, and clear glitter stickles around outter edge of outter scallop. ribbon is another $1 michaels find.

simple & sweet! i've spent too much time playing... i have a stamp a stack next week that i have yet to prepare for! AHHH!

super bella fun card (SCS SC150)

i got my first (and unfortunately, only) bella stamp a couple of weeks ago and haven't had a chance to play with it until now. thank god for vacations!!

started this for challenge 150 on SCS, it went a little ary though... and i kinda went a little "jennifer" on this card (i over-did it just a bit. some say that my cards look like parts of the craft store threw up all over them. i beg to differ.) i really like the funky-chunky layered look, coordinating papers, both card stock and patterned, and if it's a girly card, it's got to have flowers!

as with almost everything else, i ink distressed all papers. used my SU color spritzer tool on the card base. used cuttlebug swirl embossing folder on the striped paper then sanded. used watercolor pencils w/ blender pens on her. you can't see it very well, but used my sakura glitter pen on her cape and the "S" on her shirt.

well, think that's it for today; good thing there's tomorrow!
have a great night!

watery greetings

i've had all these fishy and ocean related un-mounted stamps for
what feels like ever, and this is the first i've used them. this is only a card front, knew i wasn't going to do anything with this, just wanted to do some playing around with the stamps and my new brayer.

this didn't turn out that cute, and it's totally not my style, but i enjoyed the process! used SU Wwhite CS and started with the dolphin and fish, then did the
wave. masked all the fish & the dolphin then used the stipple
brush w/ Bblue ink on top of CS. went to Ssage on top of wave,
then Tw/teal in middle of "ocean", and last but not least, went
with NQNavy on the floor.

colored the fish & dolphin w/ aqua painters & ink pads. used white gel pen to add some "foam" to the top of the wave and the little splashes around the bottom of the dolphin.

if anything, the end result reminded me that a hobby is not something you do to impress someone else, it is something you do to fill an inner need. my need has been filled... temporarily. =)

have a great rest of the week!

coluzzle christmas card

isn't that little penguin just too cute? he's from the SU set "punch pals". that's a great set, by the way! this card was inspiration from markies mom
she has a great blog, LOTS of way cute stuff. if you haven't checked her out, it's a must to do so!

everything on this card is SU. it's not often that i do that anymore, but i'm looking for something to do for a stamp-a-stack in the next few weeks. CS is Wwhite, last years in color Ccrisp, and Oolive. inks are craft white, Oolive, and Ccrisp. used scallop punch and hemp twine. colored the penguin with blender pens & pastels. used dimensionals everywhere!


well, that's about it for tonight... i am on vacation though! that means that you just might get a few more projects in the next week or so! my little sis (*wink*) is coming to visit later this week so i have to get my stamping fix from the last few weeks caught up before then so i can give her my absolute undivided attention! unless she wants to make some holiday cards with me while she's here.....

have a great rest of the week!

faux frame technique / fall card

i just love this SU set "(trees three", from winter mini '06-'07) with this technique! thanksgiving is almost here and i need to get some cards in the mail (yeah, right -for those that know me well). all CS & inks are SU.

faux framing:

step 1: cut out desired frame (i used "coluzzle" oval template on a piece of scratch paper), remember, you don't want the cut out, you want the 'frame'.

step 2: use double stick tape to adhere 'frame' over card base. you can also use a couple of paper clips, one on each side.

step 3: start stamping! this is a great technique for snowflakes, trees & leaves, pictures of people or animals.

step 4: when finished stamping "inside the frame", take frame off card base and finish card. add embellishments, layers, whatever is missing!

have fun with this, i sure did! have a great week!

brayering technique / favorite snowflake card

i learned a new technique and had to try it out. this technique kinda combines emboss resist and layering using a brayer, i'll go into detail about this technique in just a minute. i found the snowflake stamps (cube stamp w/ 4 sides) for $1 at michaels. used SU Bblue, Wwhite, and Bblack CS, and SU Bblue & NQnavy inks. ribbon is also a $1 michaels find. so now on to this cool new technique..............


step one: heat emboss images (bold images are best, i used versamark ink and embossed w/ glassy powder).

step 2: ink your brayer w/ a the lightest color of ink that you want on your card and bray your cardstock. (wipe off excess ink with a tissue)

step 3: use a sticky note to cover portions of your paper (i used large circle punch w/ my sticky notes in 3 spots, and very small circle punch in 3 spots). if you don't have circle punches, the "coluzzle" system works well, too!

step 4: ink your brayer with a darker ink and bray your cardstock.

step 5: remove sticky notes and look what you've got!

*you can repeat steps three & four many times, progressing towards darker inks.

hope you all have a great week and give this new one a try! when you do try it, let me know how they turn out! have fun!

card candy (hostess gift)

have you seen all the hype of "card candy"? i have and i thought
i'd try my hand at it.

"card candy" is generally embellishments that are either almost or
fully card ready. i chose almost ready.

for my candy, i chose to use the SU set "it's snow time". i stamped
all images in stazon black so i could color them without the ink
bleeding on the images. i used three of every image and colored,
glittered, and roughly cut out for my hostess to use later.

to add to the amount of candy that i had so far, i used my SU
scallop circle punch to punch out some back grounds, and my SU
tag punch. for the tags, i used several different colors of SU CS and used crop-o-dile to punch hole in the top and kept them all together by stringing some hemp twine through them.

to house all the candy, i wen to the local $1 store and found this
little metal bucket that i covered in SU designer series paper
(using red strip tape). embellished the handles with SU ribbon,
and ran ribbon around the bottom of the pail also. i got out
all my left-overs and picked out christmasy colors to make a
paper salad out of to go into the bucket behind the candy.

my hostess loved it, it looks good, and now she's got a head start
on her christmas cards this year!

hope everyone has a great rest of the week! happy stamping!

happy birthday card

well, better late than never, right?! this is for my newest (the second and last) brother-in-law (his birthday was in mid-october. it wasn't bad enough that he's so new, none of us knew when his birthday was, but when i found out, i made and kept the card!).

this card is one of my newest favorites! <---i think i say this about 90% of the cards that i make. i can't help it, i finally have some self confidence in my hobby!

i'm really not sure quite how long this card took to make as it was one of those that i started, walked away from, came back to, left again, worked a bit on it, then had to go some where, then came back to it and finished it. kinda hard to guestimate the completion time of a project like this.

CB is WW, used SU solid CS and DCWV patterned paper (ran patterned stripe paper through cuttlebug w/ swirl dry embossing folder, then sanded). all paper is ink distressed (NQNavy). Cake is a cuttlebug die, star is from michaels, used oval scallop punches, and circle punch for corners. used lots & lots of dimensionals.

i'll mail it tomorrow... wait, i think i've said that before... man is my sister going to be upset! but then again, she is my sister. she should totally know from past experiences that it takes me FOREVER to mail cards out!

Have a great weekend!

"then came U" scrapbook page

so everyone in my house has been sick for days, and we haven't been up to much. i had two days off in a row and felt like crap for both of them. i layed around the house watching the new drew carey "price is right", rented "marie antoinette" (i don't know how to spell it), ate crackers, and worked on this page.
all papers are DCWV , except the notebook paper.
--found a new technique for age distresing paper! tear the piece that you will be working on and put (i poured a small omount into a small cup and used a paint brush to "paint" it on) a small amount of lemon juice on the edges. use heat gun on edges of paper to dry the juice, instant distressing!
the flowers are from my sizzix die used w/ my cuttlebug, added dimension to them by curling the edges with bone folder, layered w/ dimensionals, used
buttons in the centers. wanted the pregnancy pic. to take center
stage, so that's the only pic you can see without taking them out of
their little holder. on the back of all the pic's in the holder is journaling about that certain picture.

my daughter is 5 1/2 now and i am just doing her first pages. about 3 years ago now, our computer got messed up and we lost all the pictures that we had. our daughters birth, our wedding, every holiday in between for the last 3 years, we lost. my mother had some pictures that had been laying in hiding, when she found them, i got such a great gift! i can now scrap these little hidden moments!
if you store your pictures on your computer, please, please, please copy them to disk every now and then! take it from me, you'll be SOOO sorry if you don't!

take care and have a great weekend!

more halloween cards

so, i can't figure out why this is underlining everything! it's driving me crazy and i can't fix it!

i got new stamps! so i had to play........

i did this card for a sketch by laurie unger (sketch #24), you can view her card here. she always has great sketches, try em' out!
CB is SU Bblack, used Ppie as a layer w/ some designer paper (no idea) that i ink distressed w/ Bblack ink. stamped pumpkin ($1 michaels) in black stazon on Wwhite CS and colored w/ pastels, then added some orange glitter (wish i hadn't. i don't like the glitter). punched out with SU scallop punch then layered w/ marvy scallop punch on Ppie CS. black glittery puffy paint accents the scallop.


CS used is SU White, Aartichoke, & Ssaffron. stamped truck (SU "loads of love") and pumpkins (SU "loads accessories") in black stazon and colored w/ watercolor pencils & aqua painters. used crystal effects on pumpkins, cut out and mounted on truck w/ dimensionals. i masked the truck (stamped it on a post it note, cut it out and stuck it to the original image) and stamped the trees (SU "it's snow time") using SU markers (Oolive & Cchip). colored the trees w/ aqua painters & ink (SU Oolive, Mmoss, Ccelery). used sponge w/ ink on it to dab at bottom of white CS for ground effect. clipped the corners (used circle punch) and since i am out of black brads, i used glittery black puffy paint in the corners. this is my favorite out of the two, it's just so harvesty! and the dimension of the trees turned out great!

hope you all have a wonderful day!

mummy wrap halloween card

i went to the local stamp store this last week to get some halloween supplies, and i saw the cutest halloween 8x8 scrap book with a custom made cover. the cover looked like this------------->
and i thought it would make the cutest card! all CS (Bblack, Wwhite, Oolive) and ink (Bblack) is SU. used "stamps by judith" spider and $1 michaels stamp "boo to you". i took all my white scraps and cut to around 4" the ink distressed them EVERYWHERE. glued to CS leaving a few open areas where i glued googly eyes.

the girls both loved it and mike was even impressed!
hope you all have a great week!

halloween cards

so i started out with the intention of making halloween party invitations and got side tracked! i came up with these three cards, in the order that they are liked by me. since i thought i'd be making lots of cards, i went to michaels and bought several blank note cards (for $1 and they came with envelopes) to use as the card bases.

this ones ok, without the pumpkin it would make a cute thanksgiving card. used SU CS (Ppie, Bblack, and Wwhite). used SU stamp set "trees three" from 06'-07' winter mini. all inks are SU (Cchip, Ppie, Ssaffron, Oolive, Mmoss, Rred, and Ccelery). pumpkin is a $1 michaels stamp that i stamped in stazon black and watercolored w/ Ppie ink, adhered w/ dimensional. over stamped SU "script" & "print pattern" and put "jeepers creepers" near top ($1 michaels stamp). used corner punch on top and embellished with pewter brads.




this ones a little better. used SU CS Bblack & Ppie (used cuttlebug to dry emboss swirl pattern then went over it w/ sponge & back ink). patterned paper is from a dollar store pack that i picked up. stamped house ($1 michaels) in stazon and used blender pens & pastels to color. punched out with oval scallop punches and embellished w/ gel pens & black glitter puffy paint (you can't really see it in the photo, it's on the right side of the house on the black CS). stamped "boo" ($1 michaels) in versamark and used "snowdrift" embossing powder to make it pop.



and this ones my favorite. it turned out so well! used SU CS Bblack & Ppie (used SU set "fresh fillers in black ink for background), and punched the corners out for effect. black strip down the middle is textured black CS and i used white gel pen around outter edge. used patterned paper ($1 store) w/ SU scallop punch under white square punch (rounded the corners on two, ink distressed one w/ eggplant, one with olive, and one with pie, used black gel pen to embellish outter edges). characters are $1 michaels, stamped in black stazon and cut out. black scalloped strip above and below characters is SU (used corner rounder to get the scalloped edge). "boo to you" ($1 michaels) is stamped in black and went over w/ black embossing powder, stamped on Ppie SC that's layered on black. used orange eyelets to help the purple ribbon ($1 michaels) to go under and around the card. all CS is mounted on dimensionals.

if you have learned nothing, visit your local michaels! LOL, they have some great $1 bins!

hope you all have a great rest of the week!

quincenera card

(i'm guessing on how to spell that)

went to my first quincenera this week (when a girl turns 15 years old, there is a big ceremony and reception to celebrate), the food was great and it was neat to see another side of another culture.

i made this for her birthday card. CB is SU Bblue, then layered black onto white. stamped argyle background stamp (SU) in soft sky ink, used SU script stamp in soft sky (stamped off once) on top of that. used TAC swirl set in black (stamped off once) on bottom. flowers are from sizzix (large is white paper, stamped script in black ink; middle is from DCWV pad, black is stamped with swirl & heat embossed in white; center flower is a silk pink flower embellished w/ a pewter brad.), ink distressed the flowers & CS w/ both soft sky & black (on ink pad & w/ sponge). used "carte postal" SU set for bird in black ink, cut out and used dimensional to make it POP! tied around a piece of pink organza and called it good!

hope you all have a great week!

national people week cards

well, it's national people week! what are you doing for your people?

for my co-workers (managers) i made them each cards to let them
know that i appreciate them and all they do. for our crew, we are
doing something special for them every day this week.

the layout if pretty much the same for every card, with a few
different takes on it. card base is white, there are top folds & side
fold cards. i used my SU script background stamp in black for the
background. all circle papers are from my DCWV 8x8 stack. used
coordinating SU paper for layers under sentiments. sentiments
are from my $1 michaels clear stamps and my small alpha stamps in
black ink. used coordinating ribbon on each card. of course, almost every paper is ink distressed with either black or chocolate chip.

they turned out really cute, even did two more masculine cards for the boys! i'm definitely proud to give these away!

have a great week and don't forget to thank your people!

wedding card

we have friends who are getting married soon, and i have been working non stop (well, it feels like non stop)! i just love the SU set "carte postal" (winter mini '06-'07) and think it's just so elegant. my sister used that set for her wedding invites, and they turned out beautifully! so needless to say, this set
jumped out at me when sitting down to do a wedding card.

i cased this card from joyk on SCS, you can see her card here.

card is 5x7, all ink, paper, and stamps are SU. used last years in color "cranberry crisp" for CB. nuetral CS is VV. used script stamp for background in CC ink. for the added background, i wadded up some cardstock and put it into a plastic bag (like a sandwich bag, without the zip closure), then inked the bag and used it like a stamp. gives great texture! i ink distressed the edges of the VV cardstock using the CC ink & a sponge. i stamped the flowers & leaves about three times each (not re-inking after using, gives it that nice faded look). the ribbon is actually a great find from the local thrift store, the only thing that's not SU.

well, need to get this into an envelope and get ready for bed. thanks for looking and have a great weekend!

just because card

i liked the color scheme and paper that i used for the duck card (and had some left over) so i decided to do another card with it. there is no sentiment on this card (although when i go to use it, i'll stamp it in the bottom right corner). stamp is from great impressions. CB is SU Ppink; yellow is from the DCWV stack and i used my TAC flourishes for the background in SU Ppink ink (and once again, distressed the edges using ink & sponge); used coluzzle on patterned yellow paper (ink distressed also), and colored the chicks (great impressions) using blender pen & chalks. used sponge & ink (Ccelery & Ppink) to give the white some color behind the chicks. simple, fast, easy, still cute.

have a great week! i might actually get some more stuff done tomorrow! i have been working non stop without any "me" time! i have tomorrow off with both the girls in school. not sure if i want to sleep or stamp! =)

ducky birthday card

i made this card for my nieces first birthday. i am just horrible at mailing stuff and mailed it late (her birthday was on the 11th and i mailed it to her in hawaii on the 10th). well, i got it back in the mail saturday (yesterday) the 15th. now wayyy late. they put a sticker on it saying it was too fat to go through their machine. well, it may be fat, but at least it's cute too!
i got the duck from joanns, CB is SU Ppink, used my DCWV stack for yellow paper (stamped w/ TAC flourishes in SU Ppink ink & distressed the edges) and the squares (used my SU punch). used lots of dimensional adhesive for this card, it actually is pretty fat.

friend

i got this set (SU "that's nice" -retired) from my uplines garage sale and haven't gotten to use it yet. i love chocolate and tourquoise, so i figured my friends would too! =)
paper is from the depleting supply of "i have no idea where i got it" stash, CS used is SU Cchip & Wwhite. used SU Tw/teal ink, 1$ michaels ribbons, rounded the corners, and used white gel pen to add a lil' somethin' to the base.

well, i think i'm gonna have to call it a day! what an accomplished day off i've had!

have a great rest of the week!

ASB product challenge #64

this challenge was to get out your brass stencils and use them. so i did! you can see the challenge here.

started off w/ generic blue-something CS for CB. cut SU Wwhite to stamp on and cut out a scallop, double sided taped it to CS to use as "faux frame" (didn't work, tape wouldn't come off, ended up covering it up with another scallop punch out w/ sentiment). used some foam michaels flowers and 2 flowers from my SU set "mixed bouquet" (retired). all inks are SU, used Ppink, Llavender, Ssaffron, and versamark. stamped flowers, then used
flower brass template on top w/ dreamweaver translucent embossing paste. covered paste w/ lavender & pink glitters
then heat embossed to get paste to harden.

rounded bottom corners, used wide organza around card, layered same size scallop oval (under oval is Wwhite, distressed w/ Llavender, used pink stickles on edges) in the center. sentiment is from SU "love matters" (winter mini '06-'07).

this second pic. shows just how "puffy" the card turned out. i wasn't thrilled with it after the stamping, stenciling, pasting, and embossing, but i do have to say, it turned out ok.

great challenge, thanks ASB!