Make a Wish, Cupcake!

This is a Kitchen Sink Stamps cards I created yesterday for the Featured Stamper Challenge on SCS. The FS was Danielle (dlounds) and she has a really nice gallery! I chose to CASE this cards of hers... http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/731708?cat=500&ppuser=54696 I changed the colors and the ribbon, eliminated the photo turn, and of course used a different stamp set! I really love how this turned out, but it was a lot of work! I don't often get such attention to detail in my work like this, so I'm always glad for an excuse to copy someone else's work for inspirational ideas!

Stamps: Kitchen Sink Stamps Happy Birthday Cupcake
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics; Stampin' Up Wild Wasabi and Groovy Guava; Hollo's white
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black; Versamagic Tea Leaves and Persimmon; SU! Groovy Guava
Accessories: clear EP; SU! Iridescent Ice EP; May Arts ribbon; coral grosgrain ribbon; SU! Hodgepodge Hardware, ticket corner punch and large oval punch; paper piercing tool

Thanks for stopping by! Stamp Happy, and Happy New Year!

Limited Supplies

We have a young lady at our church... her mom is our choir director, and her dad is our organist, so it stands to reason that this young lady is very musically inclined. During the Christmas season, she has played her flute several times as accompaniment with some of our choir anthems, and she does an amazing, beautiful job! Her heart is really in it, and you can just tell that she has put in some serious practice time. I have been wanting to send her a card to let her know how much her musical talent is appreciated, so today's Limited Supply Challenge on SCS was the perfect chance to get that card made! You can view the challenge here (http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=310003) if you'd like to read what the limits were or if you'd like to join in!

Thanks for stopping by! Stamp Happy!

Stamps: Gina K Designs Gettin' Buggy With It; TAC Be Authentic
Cardstock: plain white; striped and multi-dot DP from Paper Salon; background green dotted DP from Anna Griffin
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black; Versamagic Spanish Olive; Tombow markers for the butterfly; Stampin' Up Cool Caribbean to sponge around the main image edges
Accessories: American Crafts ribbon; foam squares

For my Wonderful Mom

This card is for my wonderful Mom. Today was her last full day of being the Activity Director at the nursing home where she has worked for years and years, and now she begins semi-retirement! She has always been so great at what she does there... planning events, etc. and is so well-loved by everyone. Her replacement has very big shoes to fill! I wanted to make her a beautiful card to mark the occasion and to let her know how proud I am of the wonderful work she's done for the residents of the nursing home. If you know a resident or staff member of Fulton Manor in Wauseon, Ohio ask them if they know Kay, the activity director! I guarantee they'll have nothing but good things to say! My Mom is the best!



Stamps: Kitchen Sink Stamps 3-Step Daisy and Never a Loss 4 Words

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics; Hollo's white; designer paper from Deja Views

Ink: Versamagic chalk inks: Spring Pansy, Purple Hydrangeo and Eggplant (daisies), Tea Leaves and Spanish Olive (leaves), Eggplant (sentiment)

Accessories: Color Spritzer with Tombow markers #098 and 676; sponges; Stampin' Up olive organdy ribbon; Stampin' Up photo corner punch; silver brads (source unknown); clear EP (sentiment), paper piercing tool; foam squares




This card is for my step-Dad, Keith. His birthday was last week and I forgot to send a card (as usual!) So I thought as long as I was sending a card to my Mom, I could get one sent to him, too!
Stamps: Pink Cat Studio (classic car); Impression Obsession (sentiment); Kitchen Sink Stamps (stripes)
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Sage Shadow, Bashful Blue, Night of Navy; Hollo's white; designer paper from unknown source
Ink: Versamagic Night Sky; Versafine Onyx Black; Versamark; Tombow markers N89 and 847; Stampin' Up marker Bashful Blue; Sakura Gelly Roll pen
Accessories: sponge; SU! ticket corner punch; Making Memories moulding strip, foam squares, clear EP
Thanks for looking! Stamp Happy!

Cake, Glorious Cake!

Well, I'm finally getting around to the SCS Color Challenge from Christmas day! The sample card by Christy S (http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/749192?cat=500&ppuser=79977) was so appealing to me because even though the colors are very traditional Christmas colors, her card wasn't Christmas-y at all. So I made it my personal challenge too, to make a card that wasn't for Christmas. Christy said her inspiration for the card was a Fazoli's ad with similar colors. Well, my DD's have had a box of candy canes sitting on the desk by the computer monitor for a week, and coincidentally the box is the same colors as the challenge too! So it was inspiring me.

Then I remembered this card by Michelle Boyer (http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/151027?perpage=48&thumbsonly=0&thumbcheck=) It was one of the very first cards I ever put in my faves, because I loved the striped background. I even PM'd her and asked how she did it, and she told me it was just ink taken from the lid of her pad and painted on with an aqua painter! So that's what I ended up doing for my card for this challenge!

I used a Versamarker and Iridescent Ice EP on the cake and stars... if I had more time this morning I would have used Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds instead. I have NO patience to wait for things to dry, though! The stars are from my snowflake Cuttlebug die, because I also have no patience for cutting out tiny things! Cutting out the cake was the extent for me today.

Stamps: Make a Wish by Gina K Designs
Cardstock: Stampin' Up Real Red, Glorious Green, Green Galore; Hollo's white; DCWV yellow (for star candle flames)
Ink: SU! Real Red, Glorious Green, Green Galore; Versafine Onyx Black
Accessories: Versamarker; SU! Iridescent Ice EP; clear EP (sentiment); Cuttlebug snowflake die (for stars) and Divine Swirls embossing folder; red dotted organdy (source unknown); foam squares

Merry Christmas, and Thank you!

Merry Christmas to all, and a big thank you to all of you who come to my blog to see what I've created! I appreciate everyone of you, and your comments always inspire me and bring a smile to my face! This card was made a few weeks ago, and I never got around to uploading it, so I thought I'd use it today as a thank you to all of you! Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart! I wish you all a very blessed, peaceful Christmas!

Stamps: Kitchen Sink Stamps- snowflake stamp (promotional), sentiment from Thanks with Style, background starbursts from Backgrounds & Borders
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics; Basic Grey Figgy Pudding; Stampin' Up brushed silver; Hollo's white
Ink: Versamagic Night of Navy; Versamark
Accessories: clear EP; silver brads; silver cord; circle punches; Marvy super-jumbo scalloped circle; sheer white ribbon

Whoop - de - do!

I have these Emerson stamps from American Art Stamps at the store, and they've been on the shelves forever! I don't know if they were funny at first, and now people are tired of them or what, but I'm trying to generate some renewed interest in them! I call them The PMS Stamps because they're all kinda' snarky and sarcastic... reminds of Maxine from Hallmark. Anyway, here's the first one I did yesterday, and used the new Daisy D's rub-on tape I have in stock for the faux stitches. My images is stamped on white cardstock from Hollo's using Versafine Onyx Black ink, and colored with Tombow markers. I used silver brads from Gary Burlin, and mounted my main image with foam squares. Cardstock is from Bazzill Basics, and the polka dot paper is from My Mind's Eye.


Hope you're almost ready for Christmas, 'cause here it comes! Thanks for looking!

Mark your calendars!

I'M GOING TO BE PUBLISHED!!! Mark your calendar so you remember to pick up a copy of the May 2008 Cards magazine to see my name and design in print!!! Wow, am I excited! SO glad I got out of bed! :)

Featured Stamper challenge!

I finally got around to creating a card for the Featured Stamper challenge on SCS from last Sunday. The Featured Stamper was Charlene, aka LilLuvsStampin and she really does some awesome work! I decided to CASE this card of hers... http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/688757?cat=500&ppuser=39689 because as I looked it over I could think of the possibilities for doing it with my Kitchen Sink Stamps! I used three different sets on this card... Playful Petals (the flower and leaves), Never a Loss 4 Words (sentiment), and Backgrounds & Borders (the diamond pattern). The flower petals were laid out on a large acrylic block (thank you to whichever KS Crew member passed along that helpful hint... I can't remember who it was!) and inked with Versamagic Pink Grapefruit ink. I then embossed with clear EP. The leaves are stamped in Versamagic Sage ink. I then masked off several of the petals on the right side and stamped the diamonds using Stampin' Up Creamy Caramel ink (stamped off once so it wasn't quite so dark.) The sentiment is stamped in SU! Ruby Red. My green cardstock is Bazzill Basics Ivy, the red layer is SU! Ruby Red, and the white is from Hollo's. I added a red Great Big Brad from Hot Off the Press, and some coral grosgrain ribbon, and mounted the main panel on dimensionals to finish my card!

Thanks for looking! Stamp Happy!

More fun...

Sorry for anyone waiting on details for these cards... my morning got away from me! The above card uses the Playful Christmas set from Kitchen Sink Stamps. I was "talking" with Maria and some other Crew Members yesterday about these dew drops that I have at the store and how I bought some for myself but hadn't used them yet because they weren't "Christmas-y!" Well, Maria said something to the effect of "you can make it work" so I just had to try! I think this is rather cute, and kinda' retro! The card base is Bazzill cardstock, the white is generic, and the orchid is Stampin' Up Orchid Opulence. I stamped the first layer of the tree in Versamagic Spring Pansy, and then the second layer is stamped with Versamagic Pretty Petunia. I adhered the dew drops with glue dots. The star was stamped with Versamark, then embossed with silver EP. I cut it out and mounted it to the tree top with a dimensional. I sponged some Spring Pansy ink around the edges. The sentiment is from Kitchen Sink Stamps Never a Loss 4 Words, and is stamped in Pretty Petunia then embossed with clear EP. Adhered a few more dew drops, tied on a bow and finished! This card measures 3"x3".

This card was created using more wonderful images sent to my by Cammie! The penguin and "Winter Wishes" sentiment are from 2 different Gina K Designs sets, and the Happy Holidays is from a retired Stampin' Up hostess set called Riveting. My designer paper is from a free package I got at Archiver's designed especially for them by ki memories. I colored the penguin with Tombow markers, and used a Sakura glaze pen on his hat brim and pom-pom. The edges of the penguin piece are done with a Daisy D's rub-on tape zig-zag stitch! It's the coolest thing... rub-on tape that comes in a dispenser, just like a mono-adhesive tape runner! Lots of fun! I added a Making Memories snowflake brad to the bottom left corner, and silver brads to the sentiment. Cardstock is Bazzill Basics (the red) and Stampin' Up Not Quite Navy.

Thanks for looking! Stamp happy!

Just Be-Claws!

I got some fantastic stamped images in the mail today from Carolyn King! "Cammie," as she's known by on SCS is just the nicest person I've never met, but I always enjoy bumping into her online! She offered last week to send me some images 'cause I was complaining about a lack of funds to buy new stamps! LOL Story of my life!

The stamps on this card are from a stamp set from Gina K Designs (http://shop.ginakdesigns.com/product.sc?categoryId=10&productId=21) called Just Be-claws! As soon as I found those images in the envelope, I knew I had to get a card created!

My cardstock for this card is all Bazzill Basics, and the white is generic. The designer paper is the Holly Jolly Collection from Flair. I colored the crab and pail with Tombow markers, and LOVE how it turned out! Oh, to have a HUGE set of Copic markers... please, Santa, please!?!?! But I make do as you can see here! I added the holly leaves at the base of the pail using a stamp from my Paper Salon Winter Wonderland set, and punched the holly berries from the red cardstock. Created a lot of layers, used a few dimensionals, added ribbon and brads and done! Very fun card, and I am so appreciative of Cammie sending me these! I'm heading back to my stamping sanctuary for some more fun!

Stamp happy!

Some more from the Sink!

HOW EXCITED I am to be able to type "this post was removed for publication!!!"

Chocolate!

I have had several stamps sets from My Favorite Things (http://www.mftstamps.com/) at the store but they're not getting a whole lot of attention. My customers are still a little leary of clear stamps. So I grabbed this set today to bring home and make a few samples, and hopefully turn some heads. Only problem is, after I got done with this card I realized I can't display it at the store since I don't carry that particular ribbon, (or Stampin' Up cardstock!) in the store! Darn, I'll have to have more chocolate and start over again!

Stamps: My Favorite Things - How Sweet It Is
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics (brown); Stampin' Up Soft Sky and Very Vanilla
Ink: Ranger Adirondack Pitch Black; Colorbox dark brown; Versamark
Accessories: Tombow markers; Cuttlebug tag die; 1" and 1 1/4" circle punches; May Arts ribbon; Martha Stewart baker's twine; pop-dots; glue dots; sponges

Thanks for looking! Stamp happy!

A Celery Tree!

LOL Had you thinking, didn't I? This card was created for the Color Challenge on SCS today... Stampin' Up Certainly Celery, Old Olive and Summer Sun. Lately I just can't make anything but Christmas cards, so even though those colors screamed SPRING! to me (oh, how I wish it was!) I came up with a card for Christmas!

My stamps are all from the Kitchen Sink... Playful Christmas for the tree, and Never a Loss 4 Words for the sentiment. The Playful Christmas set is 2-step stamps, so the tree base was stamped in Certainly Celery on plain white cardstock, and the overlay is stamped in Old Olive. This is a great card to show the wonderful quality of these clear stamps and how well they take dye inks. Most clear stamps you just can't use dye inks... they bead up and/or you just don't get good coverage, but not with Kitchen Sink Stamps! The star was inked first with Versamark, then with Summer Sun. I did this so the ink would be "juicy" enough to take the clear embossing powder. Then I cut the star out and mounted it to the tree top with a small dimensional. The tree is punched out with my mega oval Marvy punch, and then I punched out a scalloped oval with the giga Marvy punch. The sentiment was stamped the same way as the star, and embossed. I added the sparkly red ribbon for a punch of color and to make it a little more "Christmas-y!" (I have a spool of that ribbon at the store, but I'm sorry I don't know what company it is from... the spool has no identification on it!) The finished card is 4" square, and I'm really happy with it!

Thanks for stopping by, and stamp happy!

Christmas Decor!

I was not in attendance at the Stampin' Up convention this past summer, but read several threads and saw a few pictures on SCS about a project that was done there using CD's covered in designer paper. This is my variation of the project, using round chipboard coasters! I finished this today, and immediately wanted to make more for Christmas gifts! But then realized, you can't do this without having to buy a whole set of alphabet letters to spell out "noel" over and over! Bummer! Someone needs to come up with chipboard letters sold in individual letter packages! If you know of a company that does, let me know! :)

I used paper from the Holly Jolly Collection from Flair, and my chipboard letters are from Stampin' Up. The round coasters were given to me by my friend Trina, but I don't know where she got them. (Sorry!) I used modge-podge to adhere the DP to the coasters and letters, attached my different accessories and embellishments, then used red-line tape to adhere the letters to the coasters. I punched holes with my Crop-a-dile, and tied them all together using Stampin' Up red organdy ribbon, with some thinner green organdy ribbon. Other accessories used are: Letter n - snowflakes from Cuttlebug Snowflake #2 die cut; letter o - white snowflake brad from Making Memories, and red button from SU!; letter e - red ribbon from unknown source and Ice circle brad from SU!; letter l - red button from SU!, red star punched from EK Success punch, red velvet rick-rack from May Arts.

And voila'... the finished project!

Thanks for looking, and stamp happy!