those who paid the ultimate sacrifice so that our wonderful country can remain FREE!
I am taking a blogging break today, but I’ll be back tomorrow with my ColourQ challenge. Enjoy your day, no matter what country you call home. Be safe, healthy and happy! Blessings to you all!
Just a quick little heat-embossed Christmas card using the sketch from Stamping 411 this week:
Oops, here’s the sketch:
I had to leave off the sentiment from the front; it just didn’t look balanced to me, so I stuck it on the inside! Thanks for visiting today---off to church!
Wow, I am so sad that May is almost over because that means my Featured Designer gig with the wonderful JUGS girls is over! But hey, there were FIVE Saturdays in May, so I actually got an extra week to play! This week it is sweet Alicia’s turn to host Wild Card Week, and she has chosen to highlight dry embossing. I chose this sketch from Karen:
and I used Lesley’s lovely colors, just like in the card shown here. (Since this obviously was not going to be a 10-minute card, I made another one for her challenge! :D) So here we go:
Now, on to how I did my dry embossing. Almost all of us have some sort of embossing machine, whether is be a Big Shot or Cuttlebug, but I wanted to go back to basics and challenge myself to do it the old-fashioned way! Okay, so I still used my Big Shot, but I made my own stencil by cutting out two SU Swirls & Scribbles diecuts from cheapie cardstock, then gluing the negative portions together, making one thicker piece. Before I began embossing, however, I rubbed a piece of waxed paper over the BACK of my card front…..makes the embossing easier! I then placed the stencil under my card front, holding both over my light table (read: my window) and using a stylus, I traced the design, pressing into the cardstock and embossing as I went along. Now remember, your embossed piece will be reversed when you flip it over, so make sure you have your design going in the way you want it!!! It takes a little practice, and perhaps I should have done it again, but here’s a closeup:
I love the fact that I can have embossing “stencils” for any diecut I own!!! I will tell you that it is much easier to emboss on Whisper White cardstock than colored cardstock. One, colored cardstock is difficult to see through, and two, it is thicker! So I just stuck with the white for my first try! I did use my Big Shot to emboss the Chocolate Chip flower centers with the Perfect Polkadots EF, though!! This card also qualifies for the City Crafter Challenge 6, to use one ribbon, two papers and three flowers! Oh, and here’s the inside view:
So now you need to go check out what the other JUGS designers have come up with! I am sure their creations are stellar this week! Get all the details on the JUGS blog and play along! And a big THANK YOU to the JUGS designers for having me along for the month of May!
My card to share this afternoon is for three challenges!!! The SCS challenge F4A14 is to use one of your collections as your inspiration; Krystal’s Stampin Celebration challenge is to use a summer picnic theme; and Makeesha’s challenge was a sketch:
One of my many “collections” is vintage Americana. Most of my collection contains items that I have made over the years; I can’t afford the real stuff! But I love anything patriotic, red, white & blue, country….that kind of stuff! When I realized I had not used my patriotic embellishments from PTI’s Vintage Picnic set, I thought today would be a good day to break them out! The image is stamped on Sahara Sand for that vintage look:
I printed some digi gingham paper for my front panel, and did a little grunge job on some SU ribbon for embellishment! The flag was stamped twice and popped up outside the Nestie scallop frame. And for fun, I decorated the inside as well.
And I have decided to try something new! This card will be for sale on my Etsy shop! Hopefully I will be putting some of my other creations on as well…..my “shop name” is SillyStamper, so be sure to check it out! Thanks for visiting today—I’ll be back tomorrow with my last JUGS creation!
And just for fun, here are a few of my Americana collection pieces:
(Can you see ME taking the picture?)
A couple days ago I was playing around with the Stamping 411 sketch:
I an effort to use up the designer paper that I feel sure will be retiring soon, I made these SU-only cards using the sketch. The second one was altered a teeny little bit, but I think it will still “pass”!:
It’s difficult to see here, but the upper & lower decorative mat is the Designer Label punch, cut in two, and there is a black brad on each “curve”. The sentiment was inked with a marker and it is from Best Wishes & More. Here’s the “adjusted” one:
I just love this neutral palette! I left off the sentiment on this one, as I will just add one when I need it. TFL!
I am calling this my Neopolitan challenge because these colors remind me of the Neopolitan ice cream my dad always got when we were kids…vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. The strawberry ALWAYS got left behind….ick, I didn’t like those seed-filled berries in my ice cream! I do like strawberries ON my ice cream, but I still am not crazy about strawberry ice cream. That must be the ONLY kind, though! :D
Anyway, this card is for two challenges:
AND it is a 100% case of Jaydee’s cards (that I fell in love with), shown here!
I am not so happy with the pink DP I used; it doesn’t really match my pink ribbon as well as I would like, but since it was supposed to be a 10-minute card (I won’t tell you exactly how long it took…..but it was a LITTLE longer than 10 minutes) I didn’t want to fuss with it any more! You MAY just see something similar to this again soon, as I was playing around with these colors for another card challenge…so stay tuned!
Thanks so much for visiting today---I am blessed by it! ♥
Happy Wednesday, peeps! Kristin has chosen a fabulous color combo today, and there is a special sponsor, too! Check out the CTD blog to find out all the details---and then come play along!
My stash of “little boy” cards is sadly lacking, so I was glad to use this cute little Chicken Girl digital image for today’s creation:
This little pirate and his feathery friend are colored with a blender pen and SU inks, and they are sailing on a Soft Sky “sea” cut with an EK success punch. The cloud sky is from Bella; the polka dot paper is MME, button is from my stash. Now let’s see what the other designers have come up with:
Thanks for visiting today!
I am sneaking in a quick little post here…..another sweet little card using Kathy Martin’s digital images:
This is a 4x5” card, paper-pieced, colored with Copics and a little glitter on the bee’s wings. Sentiment is from CHF’s June 2009 stamp of the month; I inked just a little portion of the stamp and punched it out with the Word Window punch. A little ribbon tab, a little scallop trim punch, and it’s done! FAST and easy! Thanks for visiting!
Well, Arielle must have peeked into my life this weekend; two baby boy showers in one day (and a funeral), and these colors were very prominent in all the gifts! Take a look at this sweet challenge:
This little giraffe just makes me want to pinch somebody’s cheek! I had JUST borrowed Bundle of Joy from my friend Athena, and the little giraffe just jumped out of the box and said “stamp me!”….so I did:
I also used Jen’s sketch, turned on its side, shown here:
I used a lot of different papers here, but I am wishing I used a little more Kraft than just under the orange panel and the linen thread!!! The little heart “buttons” were made by punching two holes in a scrap of cardstock with a 1/16” punch, then centered SU’s small heart punch over the holes and punching out the heart. Sponge the edges for some depth, add a little piece of linen thread, and you have instant buttons! The card base was run through the Big Shot with the polka dot Texturz Plate, then I highlighted each embossed dot with some white Craft ink and a blender pen. Truthfully, I am not too sure about this card…..maybe I am just worn out from all those baby showers! LOL! But it is a cute image, and obviously, once those babies arrive, I’ll have a card all ready for at least one of them!
Be sure to check out all the other ColourQ Royal Court designers by clicking on the blinkie found on my right side bar. There are some CUTE samples today! And I must say, all the submissions for the last couple of weeks to the CQC have been phenomenal!! You guys ROCK!
Don’t forget to stop back tomorrow for the Color Throwdown, too! Yippee! And if you need deets on the above card, email me….I am just too darned tired to post the ingredients! Thanks for your patience!
The CAS challenge at SCS today is to “think summer”! There are a LOT of things I could think of when I think of summer! But flip flops say it all—warmer weather, no shoes, toes in the sand, bees in the grass---oh, that doesn’t sound so good, does it?! Anyway, I paired the challenge with the Card Patterns sketch 65:
to make my flip flop birthday card:
This uses some retired SU paper, a flip flop set that I bought from a bloggin’ friend and some bling! Here’s the inside, with sentiment from the set as well as a Simon Says Stamp set:
Gotta run! Hope you have a flip flop kind of day---my day is going to be a rainboot/umbrella kind of day!
I know, it’s Sunday, not Wednesday, but today was the first time I had some free time to do Susan’s one-layer challenge! You can find it here; it was to use faux embellishments. I really don’t have anything “faux” except buttons, and I really didn’t want to make my usual Sunday Christmas card with buttons. I thought about my JUGS project and the Waltzingmouse set I used, which looks like the images have all been appliqued with a blanket stitch, so I thought I would go with that:
Pretty basic; the cardstock is textured Very Vanilla; stamps are inked in Memento black and colored with Copics! There is a little gold “brad” embellishment made with a Zig Painty pen! As usual, despite my best intents, my sentiment is crooked (sigh). Hopefully the recipient won’t notice! :D
Hi everybody! This week, Just Us Girls is challenging us to use a template!
Check out the JUGS blog for all the details---you can find info on various templates to use. I chose one from MTME called the Card Catchall….and it was very easy and fun to make! Since I have been making a Christmas card each week, I thought it would be appropriate to make a little holder for some of them while they’re waiting for December! I originally was going to do a prototype with some Kiwi Kiss textured paper I had, but it turned out so well, it became my project. What do you think?
I kept it pretty simple; the DP is Basic Grey’s Eskimo Kisses, along with Rose Red, Whisper White and Baja Breeze; all stamps are from Waltzingmouse’s Sewing Box Christmas….such a cute set! I used a Nestie for the circle embellishment as well as a rhinestone brad on the snowflake….and some retired SU ribbon for the front. My trusty gel pen added some highlights. I can see that this little box could have lots of possibilities for other goodies…have any suggestions? Be sure to check out the JUGS blog to see what the other designers have come up with! They are sure to inspire!
Thanks so much for visiting today!
I love this verse, and I was happy to incorporate it into a card that satisfied two challenges: Our Daily Bread’s SNTODBD10, which was this sketch by Silke:
and the FOF54 challenge at Christian Paper Crafts, which is to use Copics. I am still on a learning curve with Copics; I know now that Copics behave differently on Naturals Ivory than on other papers!!! Anyway, I pulled out a retired set from SU, some miscellaneous DPs from my stash and made this:
Thanks for visiting today!
