My friend, Joanne (Sleepyinseattle), challenged the Doubledog Dare Challenge members to make a St. Patrick's Day card.  I chose this cute frog image by Rubbernecker and colored him with Copic markers. To make my shamrocks, I used Stampin' Up's trio heart punch and hand cut the stems.

We'd love it if you joined us in our challenge.  Just make a St. Patrick's Day themed card and put DDC in your keywords when uploading to Splitcoaststampers.  You can also see the cards my friends made by doing a search on this keyword or clicking on their names in my sidebar.

I made my next card in honor of the featured stamper, angelladcrockett, on Splitcoast.  I loved her cute ladybug card.

This fun olive image is part of a stamp set from Rubbernecker called Garnish set (there's also a cherry, a lemon, and a lime in the set). I thought it'd be fun to use as a case of Angella's cute ladybug card. To create my "Olive You" sentiment, I highlighted with Olive and You with a black marker and used my stamp-a-ma-jig to line them up. The two words are also from Rubbernecker but the word "Olive" is from their Olive Jar stamp and the word "you" is from their A Star is Born Set.
My olives were colored with Copic markers (G94, G99, YG06, and R29). The olive under the top ribbon was cut out and popped up on a dimensional.
Wouldn't this be a fun card to put in your child's or spouse's lunch bag as a surprise?

Visit to the m&m Superstore

Thank YOU to my dear hubby who put together this awesome video clip of my visit to the m&m Superstore in Orlando, Florida a couple weeks ago. Thank you also to my dear hubby for traveling with me to the store and patiently, and I mean ever so patiently, waiting for me to do my shopping within this HUGE store! I had so much fun perusing all the m&m paraphernalia but showed (some) constraint in actual expenditures! Click on the play button to start the video. This video will stay at the top of my blog for several days, so please be sure to scroll down and check out any other daily postings I've done.

CCEE Color Challenge

It's a color challenge this week for the CCEE Stampers.  I challenged them to make a card using Ruby Red, Creamy Caramel, and Black. 

I love playing with different techniques whenever I can.  For the flowers on my card, I used the polished stone technique* in Ruby Red and Creamy Caramel on glossy cardstock, stamped Aida Cloth background over that and then stamped my flowers using Brilliance Black Graphite (great for stamping on glossy cardstock), cut them out, and sponged the edges with Ruby Red for greater contrast.

Here's a close up of the flowers so you can see (or so I hope) the polished stone and Aida Cloth a little better:

What?  Not close enough?  Okay.....how about this: 

I used one of the boho blossoms punched flowers and the small circles from the double circle punch to create my flower centers.  I gently lifted the edges of the flowers for a little dimension---not too much so that it will fit easily in an envelope.

That pretty border punch is an EK Success one that I stamped on all four sides.  The top two corners didn't turn out so great where the corners met, so I made photocorners to cover those "oopsies."

*to do the polished stone technique, apply rubbing alcohol to a good quality cottonball (trust me, I've tried the cheaper ones and they are awful for this technique) and then a few drops of your reinker(s) of choice.  Dab the cottonball all over the glossy cardstock, changing your cottonball for each new color.  Let dry (usually less than a minute) before you stamp your image.

I hope you'll visit our CCEE blog and see the cards my friends made and think about playing along with us!
Thanks for swinging by today!  Work has been pretty crazy for me, and I've started a new exercise class to see if I can lose some of my m&m stomach, so I've been on the go alot, BUT I WILL get to your blog; I promise!  I know how much I appreciate your visits and comments, so I want to be sure to reciprocate.

Abner the Abominable!!!

Alright, all you Olympians....have you seen today's SCS color challenge? Betty and Leisa have come up with a fabulous Olympic theme; you can even do up to FIVE colors for those of you who are over achievers! Giggle.

I'm no Olympian when it comes to doing that many colors, nor can I be accused of being an over achiever, so I went for the silver medal by using the Brilliant Blue and Brocade Blue colors from the Olympic colors---with a hint of silver matting---for my Olympic trees (trees courtesy of Rubbernecker in the Kittie Kits Cause a Scene set). After I stamped them, I covered them in clear embossing powder to bring out the richness in their color.

Now, there's another side to this story, see. Da Muddermark (aka Mothermark) has her Teapot Tuesday challenge up, too, you see and it seems Abner, the Abominable Snowman is desperately in need of a splash of color in his life. He is sick of white, white, white. You can get the full story on da Mudder's blog.

Now, da Mudder didn't want us to overwhelm Abner with too much color nor were we to put snowflakes, divinity, or vanilla milkshakes on our card, but Bertie convinced me that a few snowflakes were needed in the background for my Olympic theme. You see, the tea partiers are getting free snowboarding lessons today, so I definitely want us to have some snow to board on! Yeah! Hang ten, dude....oh, wait, that's surfer talk.

Okay, so if you're still with me in this story, the other reason that Bertie wanted me to add the snowflakes is cuz she was traumatized as a child when she first watched Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer and that skeery ol' Abominable Snowman came on the television screen. Bertie figures he needs some niceness knocked into that thick, furry skull of his. When ol' Abner sees these snowflakes while learning to do the Loopy de Loop in his snowboarding lessons, she says he's sure to get real mad, flub up on his Loopy de Loop technique, and fly right into these blue Olympian trees. She says it serves him right for skeering all the little kiddies in the world with his meanness. But, more importantly, mebbe it'll knock some niceness into him
.
So anyway, why not come along and join all the colorers and tea partiers in these challenges today? I'm sure there'll be about 42,000 of us having a great deal of fun!

Be there or be square!

Snow Day!

I gave myself a snow day today and stayed home from work due to the snowstorm that made for hazardous driving conditions.  Lord knows our state government would NEVER shut down.  They expect you to drive under treacherous road conditions, but that just isn't for me anymore, especially since we've had a couple accidents due to bad road conditions in the last few years.  Instead, I had fun stamping my day away and catching up on some of my challenges since I was gone on vacation.

Julia, aka artystamper, challenged the Doubledog Dare Challenge (DDC) group a few weeks ago to make a card using Mercy's flower tutorial.  Mercy's tutorial is quick and easy.  This makes for a beautiful flower, but you definitely wouldn't be able to mail this type of card in a regular envelope!  What better image to go with a flower than a bee to pollinate it?  This cute bee and sentiment are from Rubbernecker Stamps.

I stamped his wings an extra time onto vellum, colored them in on the back with Copic markers, cut them out, added MS glitter, and adhered with vellum tape. Since I cut the bee image out, I wasn't able to keep the original antennae because they were too narrow to cut, so I added my own I made from cardstock.

Do you Stampin' Up experts recognize this old SU designer paper?  It's always been one of my favorites.  I also used this pretty border punch my friend Joanne (aka JoJo, aka JoJot, aka SnoSnot, aka SnoSnertie) gave me for my birthday this year.

My next card was for another DDC challenge given to us by Anne, jdmommy, to use a frame on our card.  I chose to make a shaker card---something I haven't done in AGES---and framed my image that way.  This designer paper is from Chloe's Closet and the cupcake is from SU's Little Layers.

Why not join us in our DDC challenges?  You can check out the forum we have on Splitcoaststampers here.

I saw a really cute card that Denise, aka cardcrazy, made using SU punches to make an adorable dog the other day, and I just HAD to try one for myself. A friend's birthday is this week and her dog is her baby! She'll get a kick out of this.  What do you think of her painted toenails and earrings?  Giggle.  I used a retired SU In Color, called Pink Pirouette (another In Color I wish SU would keep!!!)

They say to be careful what you wish for, but after a day like today, I sure wish I could stay home from work and stamp more often! 
As always, I appreciate your taking the time out of YOUR busy day to visit my blog and blessing me with your comments!  I'll be by to visit yours soon, too!

Year Four: Kittie and I

Another fun thing I got to do on my vacation to Florida is visit my dear friend, Kittie (aka Kittie747). This was our fourth year getting together. My family and I travel to Florida every winter, and Kittie works close to where we stay. Kittie's work life has been much too demanding for us to have some actual stamping time this year, but we're keeping our fingers crossed for next year!

A Couple Bright Creations

I was so excited to discover that today's featured stamper on Splitcoaststampers is jovialjudi!!! Judi's creations are always stellar whether she's making something simple or complicated, plus she's just one of the nicest people you'll meet on SCS.

I chose one of Judi's simpler designs called Rudolph because the simplicity of the card really appealed to me for making my get-well card for one of my friends who was recently in an automobile accident.  I bought this Little Duckie by Stampabilities stamp last year and this is the first I've used it.  He's so cute; he just quacks me up!!  I computer-generated my sentiment on the inside which reads "Hope you're back to quackin' soon!"



I made this card for the Inspiration challenge yesterday and never got a chance to upload it to my blog.  I chose a red and white birthday banner as my inspiration piece from the Lark website.  I cut one-inch squares in red, halved those; then I punched 3/4" squares in white and halved those to resemble the triangle of the banner.  The checked designer paper is from SU's Bella Rose and the pretty teapot image is by Rubbernecker. 

Happy Sunday!  I'm off to see if I can figure out how to upload a video clip I had my husband put together for me of my visit to the m&m superstore in Orlando a couple weeks ago!

Patience is a Virtue....

....but never when shopping!!  Don't you just love that great sentiment?

I made this card for the limited supplies challenge on SCS to use ribbon and trim (as in border punches).  I used trio-colored ribbon to bisect the four squares and my EK Success border punch on the Blush Blossom cs.

I black embossed the images and then colored them with markers with blush, pink, and rose. I used a Copic marker to color the top flower embellishment because it was originally white.

The base cardstock is dry embossed with small retro squares which is a part of a card and envelope set my friend JoJo sent to me---thanks, gf! The card measures 5 1/2 x 5 1/2.


Stamps: Rubbernecker Fashion Icon Set #455
Cardstock: Blush Blossom, Pretty in Pink, White
Ink: Tuxedo Memento Black, Blush Blossom, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Pink Pirouette
Accessories: black embossing powder, versamark, ribbon, black brads, pink felt flower, white flower, Copic marker, SU markers, border punch, dimensionals, pop-up dots, daubers

How Sweet It is!

SWEET is the word this week over on our CCEE (Cheers & Challenges Electic Ensemble) blog. I challenged my team members to incorporate a SWEET treat into their creations this week, and I challenge YOU to do the same! Your sweet treat can be stamped, baked, altered…let your imagination soar!

You can see the designs my friends made on our CCEE blog or you can click on their names in my sidebar which will take you directly to their blogs/galleries.  Here's mine:

I chose to use Papertrey's strawberries from their Green Thumb set.  After I stamped the strawberries I colored in the chocolate on them.  And, yes, this is dark chocolate because that's what's good for us!

Stamps: Sentiment by Craft Affair Clear Stamps, Strawberries by Papertrey
Cardstock: Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Ink: Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive
Accessories: EK Success border punches, Cuttlebug dotted swiss embossing folder, round tab unch, red gingham ribbon, gold cord, Basic Gray Eva button, dimensionals, dauber

Balloons on Bourbon Street

Da Muddermark (that's code for Mothermark) has the tea partiers traipsing off to Bourbon Street in N'awlin's this week. To quote da Mudder, we need to "bring some purple, green, and gold color to Martie McGraw's place along with doubloons (medallions), beads (lots of them), masks (all kinds), feathers (tickley ones!) dragon/snake like parade suits (fire breathing) wacky/goofy party costumes (the sky's the limit), confetti (just bring some spagetti!), balloons (not the kind you ride in!), wigs (curly and colorful) and sparkley embellishments (don't bring your diamonds cuz they might get stolen!!) You know, the whole Mardi Gras thing!"

Bertie is still recuperating from her vacation (that visit to the m&m super store in Orlando totally wiped her out---pictures to be posted soon), so she'll probably be along later. I'm sure she'll be bringing some m&ms to fling....er, I mean to pass out to all the tea partiers.  She and I are also bringing some balloons to today's shindig, as well as some bling and beads, baby! See those gold thingies? They are gold brads with pretty green microbeads glued on top of them.

Come one, come all and join us for Teapot Tuesday! You can get the full story and details HERE.

Stamps:  Print bg, SU Baroque Motifs and Party Hearty, Stampendous Party Balloons
Cardstock:  Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Whisper White, Black
Ink:  Tuxedo Memento Black, Perfect Plum, Pale Plum
Accessories:  Copic markers, daubers, gold brads, green microbeads, word window punch, EK Success wavy border punch

 

CCEE Inspiration Challenge

I'm still away enjoying vacation with my family, but it is soon coming to an end :-(.   I know I must be missing my stamp room BIG time, as well as all of you!

As the CCEE challenge hostess for the month of February, I challenged the design team members to use the ImageKind website for their inspiration.  I chose this Love Hearts Sweets piece because I love those candy conversation hearts.  I used the small love heart stamp from I Heart Hearts to create my background designer paper.

My friend Traci sent me this cute "love" stamp in my birthday package, and I used my tag Nestabilities to create the matting.  I also found these sweet heart brads in my stash.

We'd love it if you played along with us in our challenge!  You can get all the details on our CCEE blog.

CCEE Hearts Challenge

I'm away enjoying a much-needed vacation with my family, but I did manage to complete a few projects ahead of time.

I am the CCEE challenge hostess for the month of February, and for this first week, I challenged the team members to make a card/project using hearts and a charm.  That's it!  Easy peasy!

I used the I Heart Hearts stamp set by Stampin' Up and this pretty EK Success border punch my friend, Joanne (JoJot), gave me.  My color scheme is Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose and Purely Pomegranate.

I hope you'll join us in this challenge.  You can get all the details from our CCEE blog.

Have a wonderful day!

Clean and Simple

I managed to make a couple cards for today's Clean and Simple challenge on SCS using a sketch design by kmahany. 

The first one I made uses Rubbernecker images from the coffee and tea inchies set.  It's such a cute set and coordinates with their coffee and tea images in the individual stamp sets.  I colored the tea cups with reinkers and blender pen.  This pretty border is from an EK Success punch my friend Joanne sent to me.  Thanks, JoJo!  I love it!

For my second card, I used Stampin' Up's I Heart Hearts.  I love this stamp set and will be using it a lot.  I also used All in a Row for the floral line with the sentiment.  I staggered Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, and Rose Red throughout my design.  This little row of hearts at the bottom are the smallest heart punch from Stampin' Up's trio of hearts punch.

I hope you'll scroll down to my next post that I did earlier today using images from the larger sized coffee images from Rubbernecker.  I love the cool coffee bean background stamp.

Thanks for stopping by!  I appreciate your visit and comments so much!

A Great Cup of Coffee

Bev (beestamper) from my Doubledog Dare Challenge (DDC) group challenged us to make a non-challenge card.  I never was very good at math but wouldn't this challenge make this a challenge card thereby cancelling the non-challenge?  LOL!  I'm just pickin' on ya, Bev! 

Anywhooo, I've been anxious to ink up my coffee-themed stamps by Rubbernecker. Isn't that coffee bean background stamp a cool idea for us coffee lovers? I used the polished stone technique on the background and then stamped the coffee beans over that. I used Copic markers to color my coffee pot and mug.

I like to finish off the inside of my cards as much as possible.  For this one, I kept it simple.  I black embossed the coffee pot inchie and also tag punched the corners to coordinate with the outside of the card.

If you'd like to play along with us, just be sure to use keyword DDC when uploading to Splitcoaststampers!