Something New . . .

. . . at least to me! I couldn't WAIT to try this technique after I saw it demo'd at Convention! While I HAVE embossed and glittered chipboard before, this is a little bit different. After inking up the flower with craft ink (in this case, Rose Red), I sprinkled it with Irisdescent Ice embossing powder and heat set it. Then, I covered it in Versamark (and it will get some glitter on your VM pad - but the results are worth it!). Next, I sprinkled it with Glassy Glaze and heat set it again. The end result is BOTH sparkly AND shiny! It's really pretty and fun! I did this card for SCS SC137. Sketch challenges are my favorite!

I also got to use my first Paper Trey stamps (the Chocolate Chip and Certainly Celery circles inside the chipboard flower). I got both the circles AND scallops "Borders and Corners" sets. This was also my first foray into the world of acrylic stamps. I think I could get used to these! I DO still love my wooden stamps, though! That'll NEVER change!

Hooray for New Stamps!

What stamper doesn't love getting new stamps??? I just got a mega order of fun new things on Friday, including the new "True Friend" set from SU's Holiday Mini Catalog. I love it! I wasn't sure about the whole "BoHo West" style, but I have decided that I like it. Today's challenge on SCS was for the Featured Stamper, Jen70. I have long been a fan of Jen's work. She is so creative and original with some of her designs. This card is a copy of one of hers. I used So Saffron double-sided designer paper. The rhinestone if from Memories (which is the same company that makes them for SU). I used some of the Mellow Moss stitched ribbon I had left over from last year's Ribbon Originals Prep School assortment. I just looovvveee ribbon! And the Boho Friend Wheel . . . that's what put me over the edge on this whole set! It's super cute! The paper and ink are Bravo Burgundy. I also used some Mellow Moss and So Saffron ink as well. I can tell that I am feeling Fall coming on!!

Artisan Award Winners

I saw so many requests on SCS for people to post pix of the Artisan Award displays. I've been feeling guilty, guilty, guilty, 'cause I had some, but just haven't taken the time to tweak 'em a little. I started posting them in a thread on SCS, but I thought it would be good to do them all here, since I had planned on doing that anyway and didn't want to have to do the whole process twice! Sooooooooo . . . here they are!!

Yahoo!

I guess I am on a "western roll". I seem to be thinking about wild west cards in my head ever since I got those cute little diecuts for my Cuttlebug. I have been thinking about this card ever since I got home from SU Convention.

I love that so many of the stamps work so well with the scallop punch (even if the scallop punch doesn't always work so well!). I stamped Blue Bayou on Soft Sky paper with the now retired, but forever loved, "Just Jeans' background stamp. I love that stamp! I was sooo sorry to see it retired. Other stamps that would work well include "Weathered" and "Flannel Plaid" (at least those are current SU merchandise!). I love layering the scallop punch, too. And the jumbo eyelets!! Don't even get me started! I LOVE those! (Never knew my Crop-a-dile had a "hole" you could peek through to line up the eyelets with the image - for those of you who have one, you know what I mean! I felt so dumb when someone pointed that out to me at Convention since I have had my Crop-a-dile for about a year!) Hemp is also a favorite for masculine cards . . . it just seems to add the perfect touch sometimes! Now, I gotta go find something else to play with!

Ready for Round 2!!

I have been meaning to post this for the last couple of weeks, but life has been super crazy for me! I was director for a church Girl's Camp for a week (July 16-20), then I turned right around and headed out for Convention! Between getting ready for both events and finishing up the first round of SCS Sketch Challenge books, life has been a little TOO crazy! My friends and I already have a few requests for orders for round two, so we are gearing up to go again! These books were A LOT of work, but we have been really pleased with the outcome. This photo shows a bunch of the books that we completed, but several of them were already gone by the time this photo was taken! I am proudly displaying my own book in my craft room, as I can't believe we actually did it! If anyone is interested in getting one, we are still going to charge $49.95 (which I have decided is more of a bargain than we had originally thought!). E-mail me at ronandwendy85@smartfella.com if you want more info . . . (you can scroll down to the post I did on May 20 if you want to see more details about the books!)

Have a great day!

Feelin' Patriotic!

Happy 4th of July, everyone! I've definitely been in the patriotic mood this week, as I have done TWO cards in red, white and blue in the last few days.

This first one was for Splitcoast's TLC123. I cut 1" square out of several colors of cardstock and made a patriotic patchwork quilt of sorts. I made the red stripes in the background using scrap strips of paper (a little trick I learned at Regionals). I used the "Starstruck" stamp set to make the white stars, and punched the big red stars and small glittery ones with large and small star punches. And, YES, those are REAL firecrackers on there! Pretty crazy. I used the Rough Edges alphabet to create the "USA" and finished it off with gold cord.

This second card was inspired by a trip to Roberts (love those 50% off coupons!). The cute little horseshoe, hat, and horse were all created using Cuttlebug dies. I also love my background stamps, as I used THREE of them on here - Weathered, Just Jeans and Paisley. I have NEVER used this many brads on a card in my life! SIXTEEN! This sucker is gonna be too heavy to mail. At least I won't get arrested for this one, 'cause the firecracker card is SURE to send the FBI knockin' on my door for trying to mail explosives!

Faith Inspires Me!

For the Featured Stamper challenge on SCS today, we had to come up with a creation aka Markie's Mom (Faith!). She is amazing! And MAN, can that girl layer a card and add some hardware! She always seems to pull it off, though. The challenge number is FS21. I used my Hologram Highlights ep on the flowers and the butterfly, but not on the the leaves or sentiment. That stuff has been sitting in my drawer forever. I was about ready to grab the Iridescent Ice ep, when the Hologram Highlights stared me down! It's always fun to do something new and step outside of our own boxes, isn't it?? I still really LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the new in colors . . . betcha couldn't tell . . .

I also used the rock & roll technique on the butterfly. I always love trying that with different stamps. These colors are just so much fun!

I have been out of town so much already this summer. Looks like the whole month of July is packed! I will post more as I get a chance! Thanks for looking!

I'm in LOVE!

The new "In Colors" from Stampin' Up are just wonderful! I have bought not only both the 8 1/2" x 11" AND 12" x 12" assorted paper packs, but I also have now broken down and bought 8 1/2" x 11" packages of each and every color! I totally love it. I wasn't so sure about the "Pick a Petal" stamp set, either. But, after having played with it, I can see a lot of versatility going on there. Many ideas are floating around in my head. I used my Bashful Blue craft spot to emboss the chipboard flower. I think it matches pretty well.


I also love, love, LOVE the Groovy Guava paper! It goes great with so many things! For this "monkey" card, made with the Zoofari set, I decided to try a buckle card. I was dying to use a "banana" stamp, but since I didn't have one, I improvised and used the leaf from "Watercolor Garden." I thnk it turned out pretty good! I used the slot punch to create the hole in my "belt buckle." If you make one of these, don't forget that you only need to tape down the RIGHT side of the buckle (ask me how I know this!). That way, your "belt" will have an exit point (DUH!!).


I also got some of the Soft Sky designer series paper. For SCS TLC120, I attempted to make a "tiled" card, as suggested. I thought the designr paper would look really old and neat if I did the "cracked glass" technique with it. After apply 3 separate layers of Glassy Glaze embossing powder (stamping each tile in the versamark ink in between), I decided a couple of things. First, I decided that doing a card with 15 individual pieces of "cracked glass" was slightly psycho Second, I also decided that I could have used just plain old Soft Sky cardstock and it would not have made any difference. After adding so many layers, you can hardly see that it is patterned paper. I sponged the cracks with some Blue Bayou ink to make it look antiqued. I like how it came out, even if it was insanely labor intensive! The stamps I used for this card were from "Heartfelt Thanks" and "Small Sayings" which I really, really hope makes the new catalog!

Happy, Handy Dad!

I've been having the hardest time getting motivated to make cards for Father's Day. I just don't have a lot of stamps that are masculine. A friend of mine (hey, Pete!) was doing a little object lesson for the children in Sunday School He ended up buying a little package of tiny "tools" used for scrapping/card making or whatever (made by Karen Foster). He ended up not using them in his lesson, but he knew I was a crafty geek, so he gave them to me! I was off and running. I did this for SC126 on SCS. I finally found a use for the Creative Impressions brads I had, too! (The ones that look like straight-slot and Phillips screws!) I also can't stop using my paper distressor! The more I use it, the better it works. The stamp sets used here, all retiring, are Measure It Up (wheel), Crosshatch, Alphadots & Letter Prints. I kinda thought the thumbprint stamp looked like woodgrain. Paper colors are chocolate chip, close to cocoa, so saffron and really rust. I need to make another one using some of the other tools now!

I Died & Went to Heaven!

. . . and the sign over the Pearly Gates said "I-K-E-A". Hooray! It's finally here, and man, was it worth the wait! It is a crafter's paradise! A million different ways to store any of your wonderful stuff! My craft room is relatively new (finished last September) and I have been (im)patiently waiting for Ikea so I could get something to store my stamps in! I bought both of the cupboards in the corner, plus an awesome noticeboard (it's kinda like a white board, but it is made of tempered glass - I love it!).

I finally was motivated to organize my stamp sets and thought I would share my "system" . . .


I have 9 color-coded categories. Using my lovely SU cardstock and a Xyron machine, I created little "dots" to color code each stamp set:

Outdoors/Nature = Pumpkin Pie
Flowers = Garden Green
Holidays = Real Red
Alphabet Sets = Pretty in Pink
Words/Sentiments = Orchid Opulence
Baby/Juvenile = Bashful Blue
Shapes = YoYo Yellow
Backgrounds/Borders = Green Galore
All Occasion = Taken With Teal


It is nearly impossible to pigeonhole every stamp set into a specific category, so to make it easier for myself, I used the basic categories listed, then notated specific sets within each category by writing a letter on some of them. For example, in the Outdoors/Nature category, some sets are notated by Season with and "F" for "Fall", "W" for "Winter" and "Su" for Summer. Likewise, in the "Holiday" category, sets are marked with a "C" for "Christmas", "H" for "Halloween" or "V" for "Valentine's Day". Other subcategories are as follows:

Words/Sentiments marked with an asterisk mean that the set contains words or sentiments that are integrated into a shape, as in "Alphabet Soup" or "All in a Row."

All Occasions sets marked with the letter "T" indicate that the set can be used with a tag/punch made by SU. Sets like "Tags & More", "Little Pieces" and "Circle of Friendship" have a "T" on their sticker.

Also in All Occasions, I have noted "B" for any all-birthday set; "G" for "Get Well" sets; "Fd" for sets containing food images; "V" for vintage-type sets (think "Artifacts"); the number "4" when the set is a "four-season" set, such as "All Through the Year"; and the number "2" when the set has a "companion" set, as in "Loads of Love" and "Loads of Love Accessories".

Whew! That's a lot of info! I've tested myself a few times and seem to be able to find what I am looking for. I forgot to mention that the sets are arranged on the shelves by size, just because I find that more aesthetically pleasing. Each size contains sets from all of the categories.

The noticeboard is going to be so much fun to have in my room. I plan to add a list of things I "need" to order, plus I can use it to list upcoming classes, etc. for my stamp groups! Hooray!


Now I just need to go and stamp something!!