Kittie is Queen

My dear friend and fellow Rubbernecker Red Hot Mama, Kittie747, has been crowned Queen for the Day! Kittie has a style that is all her own with her beautiful watercolored scenes. Each and every one of her magnificent cards is My Favorite. As much as I would've liked to have cased one of her scenes, what takes Kittie probably an 30-60 minutes to do takes me hours and hours and I'm limited on time. However, I did want to case one of her cards and finally settled on her beautiful Cupcake Wedding Cake as the main premise for my card.

I kept the cupcake and liquid pearls theme, changed colors , incorporated her signature gingham ribbon, changed orientation, and added a flower border panel.  I colored the cupcakes with Copic markers and then added pale pink liquid pearls around the Crystal Effects cherry and pink glitter to the frosting.
Congratulations, Kittie, and I hope you had a grand and relaxing vacation!

Love Without End Bookmark Card

I'm working on making cards for a swap I'm participating in next week.  I made my required masculine cards already with my horse post on June 17.  Here's what I came up with for my required feminine cards.

I wasn't able to capture the swirled embossing on the black vase that I made with an octagon Nestability cut in half, and now that I look at my photo here on my blog, the colors look kind of washed out.   I tried indoor shots and outdoor shots and this is just going to have to do because I've spent way too much time on trying to capture a good photo.  The pink on the flower really is quite pretty.  I wish my friend, Sabrina the photographer, lived here, but it'd probably be asking a lot of her to travel all the way from Ireland to take my photos for me, huh?

Well, I'll just try to explain what I did to make my card for those of you who like the details.  The colors are Pink Pirouette and Certainly Celery cardstock accented with black.  The green and white polkadotted designer paper is by American Crafts and does match Certainly Celery quite well in real life.  I heat embossed the Love Without End floral in black on pink designer paper (it's kind of polkadotted), cut it out, and popped up on a dimensional; the flower stem and the word "friend" are also heat embossed to make the black more prominent as opposed to when you just stamp with black ink.  We aren't suppose to use a sentiment on our designs as a part of this swap, so I'll keep this card for a friend and come up with something else to replace it on the bookmark.  The leaf on the right side of the flower stem was punched with the 1" circle punch and punched again by inserting the leaf almost halfway back into the circle punch to shape the leaf.

The corner piece is actually a detachable bookmark, which I made as part of the Our Daily Bread Designs blog challenge.  This was a technique challenge over on Splitcoaststampers all the way back to September of 2008.  Here's a link to TLC187 in case you're interested in making some yourself.  These bookmarks are so easy to make, and would make great little gifts for those who love to read.  Here's a picture of it removed from the greeting card.  Cute idea, huh? 

We're also required to use two embellishments on our swap cards.  For this card, I used a black brad and the pink polkadotted ribbon.  I used my wavy border punch for the black and pink panel behind my main image.  For the center of the flower I used the Boho Blossoms and 1/4" circle punches.

Thanks for stopping by, and I'd love to hear what you think of this card as a card for a swap.

Flowers of Summer

Thursday brings another CCEE Stampers challenge, and this week Shirley challenged us to make a summer-themed card using flowers or floral ribbon in our design.  I chose to use my Florals and Weeds images by Rubbernecker.  My red poppies were colored with a red marker directly onto the stamp onto glossy cardstock.  I added a touch of orange ink with a blender pen for color variation and then I took my burgundy marker to add shading for depth.  The lavender flowers were also colored with SU markers (lovely lilac and old olive).  The weeds were stamped in Peeled Paint Distress Ink.  I applied sahara sand ink using a paint sponge to create the wispy sky and then lightly sponged soft sky over that.  Because I wanted my field of flowers to be the sole focus of my card, I kept my design simple.  I matted this to a sahara sand panel and punched the lattice border.  I wanted to use these brads that match sahara sand perfectly, but, since I do not like to have the back of brads show on the inside of the card, I cut an extra piece of real red cardstock, punched it with the same lattice border punch, and stuck my brads through the lattice holes.  I applied this to a strip of sahara sand to hide the metal of the brads and then raised this panel on thick dimensionals.

If you'd like to play along with us and/or see the designs my friends, Frances, Joanne, Shirley, and Cindy made, check out the details on our CCEE blog.

Happy stamping!

All Aboard the Birdbrain Train

Splish, splash, I was takin’ a bath
Long about a Monday night
A rub dub, just relaxin’ in the tub
Thinkin’ everything was alright

When what to my ears did I hear?
Comin’ down the track in the rain?
Yellin’ come on, Bertie, is party time
Why, it’s the tea partiers on the birdbrain train

Well, I stepped out of the tub
I put my feet on the floor
I shook my tail feathers
and I headed for the door

There I saw da Mudder
Reelin’ with the feelin’
Movin’ and a-groovin’
A-wheelin’ and a-dealin’, yeah

Bing, bang, I saw the whole gang
Headed for Californ-iiii-aaaaa
Flip, flop they wuz doin’ the bop
In celebration of mom’s 75th birthday

I began a-rollin' and a-strollin'
reelin' with the feelin'
movin' and a-groovin'
splishin' and a-splashin', yeah!

Hey, tea partiers!  Are you a-movin' and a-groovin' this fine Tuesday?  Be sure to check out Mothermark's Teapot Tuesday story and challenge and come on board the Birdbrain Train!

My bird and flowers were colored with Twinkling H20s; the center of the flowers and dots on the bird's shower cap were colored with pretty purple Smooch Broom sent to me (thanks, Hilda!); the bird bath was paper-pieced with SU dp; the sky was watercolored with bashful blue; and the grass and flower stems were colored with reinkers and blender pen.  I applied Lavender glitter to my faux brads (1/4" circle punch).

Hope to see you at da tea party today!  Bertie is movin' and a-groovin' to the tunes and flingin' soap bubbles today, so you're guaranteed not to get hurt or dirty!

Punchin' Cute Tree

Iris (Pam) is the chosen featured stamper on Splitcoaststampers today.  I chose to case her cute Happy Bird-day card.  Obviously, I made several changes with colors, stamps, and using no ribbon.

Isn't this punched tree cute? I got the idea for it after I saw Mary Fish use SU's 1 1/4" circle punch to make a leaf for her flower stem, and I thought, why not tree leaves?

 

These sweet flowers and grass are from Rubbernecker's Kittie Kits Cause a Scene and are the perfect size for fitting under my tree.

I used the same punch for the tree trunk on chocolate chip cardstock, using the remaining piece of cardstock after I cut out the leaf portion.  I then used my 1" circle punch for the center of the tree and adhered the leaves with glue.  You can see the pieced sections in the photo on the left and how I inserted just a portion of the 1 1/4" circle.  I then finished off the tree by adhering an olive green button with embroidery thread tied through it.

Want to know how I made those clouds? With my SU slotted punch! I just punched bashful blue and white cardstock at various depths, sponged the edges in ballet blue, and then glued them together.  Here's a close up.  The black buttons on each side of the main image panel were made with the Buttons #5 Sizzlits die.

Some Saturday Stampin'

Happy Saturday to you!  Thanks for stopping in at my blog.

I had a chance to make a couple cards today.  The first one is for the Inspiration challenge on Splitcoaststampers  from the LoveArtWorks Clay Pottery website.  I was drawn to Kristen's raspberry treat platter.

Kristen uses a lot of black/white line drawing with splashes of color on some of her designs, as well as a lot of bird images, so I brought all three of those elements into my design using an old SU hostess set. I relied heavily on my stamp-a-ma-jig to get the images lined up within the frames as well as for the solid image within that set to stamp the soft pastel colors over my images after I colored them with reinkers and a blender pen. I then cut each frame and adhered to a piece of black cardstock. I used my ScorPal for the scoring outside of the black frame. My card is 4 1/4" square.

My next card is in honor of this week's Queen for the Day zgirlsgranny, aka Linda.  Linda is such a sweetheart and a terrific stamper to boot! She's also a crazy tea partier at Teapot Tuesdays, and we always have such a blast.

My poochies are clear stamps by Inkadinkadoo in solid images. For the pappa pooch on the left, I stamped him first in creamy caramel, lined him up with my stamp-a-ma-jig and stamped him again in chocolate chip. I then took a black marker and colored just certain portions of the image and stamped the image again using my stamp-a-ma-jig. For the darling daughter poochie on the right, I stamped her in Adirondack's ginger (to reflect her lovely reddish brown tresses) and then took black marker and colored portions of her, too. I had to cut out each piece of both poochies and glue them to the kraft cardstock.

This darling daughter pooch with the beautiful reddish brown hair is giving her pappa pooch a particularly delicious bone for Father's Day. It will be in the form of a gift certificate to one of his favorite stores.

Happy Father's Day Pappa!

Majestic

Shirley from my CCEE group gave us a terrific sketch challenge this week.  If you'd like to play along with us, please visit our CCEE blog to get all the details.  You can also see the fab projects my team mates Cindy, Joanne, Shirley, and Frances designed.


For my card, I silver embossed and watercolored with Basic Gray reinker this terrific horse image from Out West by Gina K. on Gina's Pure Luxury White cardstock.  I then cut him out and adhered him with dimensionals.  I think he looks majestic; therefore, his name!



I'm thinking about using this for a swap I'm going to be participating in.  We have to create half masculine and half feminine cards.  Obviously, this is a masculine theme.

Stamps:  Out West (Gina K)
Cardstock:  Basic Gray, Gina K Pure Luxury White, Pebbles Inc dp
Ink:  Soft Sky
Accessories:  Versamark, silver embossing powder, silver brad and lasso, star punch, paper piercer, dauber, dimensionals, oval Nestabilities, circle Nestability

Feature Stamper - LeAnne

LeAnne Pugliese is this week's featured stamper on Splitcoaststampers.   I chose LeAnne's striking My Hero card, changing the stamps, color base, and adding an eyelet.  Oh, yes, I also used an octagonal Nestability for my sentiment....using the smallest one in the package.....it's a wee baby ocatagon!

As a matter of fact, this card was so quick to make that I made two!  The only change I made is in the designer paper pattern.

From Masculine to Feminine

I was telling my friend, Lynn, the other day about needing to make a bunch of masculine birthday cards for all the June birthdays we have in our family, and how much I dislike making them.  It's not that I don't want to make my beloved family members a card; I just struggle so with making masculine-themed cards. 

Lynn offered to let me borrow several stamp sets that she thought might help out, one of which is Stampin' Up's Classic Pickups.  These images are perfect for my stepson.  Here's what I came up with for him:

Ever since he was a little guy, my stepson has always wanted everything to go "fast," so what better image to use than this pickup truck with the custom flames paint job.  I cut it out with an oval Nestability and put it on the inside of my card to meet the Free for All challenge requirements Silvia gave us to make a jelly-filled doughnut card. In other words, make a hole on the outside of your card and then put the image on the inside.  I stamped You're a Classic just above the pick up truck. I covered the black embossed panel on the outside with metallic Perfect Pearls for some added masculine gleam.  Vroom, baby!!!

Still in the mood to make another card, I checked out the Inspiration challenge on SCS which is this gorgeous Tea and Roses website.  I love decorative boxes, so I chose these beautiful nested hat boxes as my inspiration piece.  Obviously, this website called for a feminine theme.  Okay.  Okay.  I know.  It's not achieving my goal of getting my masculine birthday cards done, but I just couldn't resist, especially since Lynn also loaned me her Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set. 

I stamped the flowers onto SU pink pirouette dp, cut them out, sponged the edges in pink pirouette and pretty in pink, colored the stamens with white gel pen, and rolled some of the edges for dimension. I lightly stamped the larger Fifth Avenue Floral image on the background of the pink pirouette cs.    Ooooo!  I jes luvs purty, girly things.

Well, I need to sign off.  Hubby and I are off to visit some friends.  I'll be back!!!  Happy Saturday to you!

Golfin' and Rockin'

Shirley has us making masculine cards for our CCEE challenge this week.  Masculine cards have always been a challenge for me; I probably just need more masculine stamps, huh? 

I pulled out my Let's Hear It for the Boys stamp set from My Favorite Things, using the sentiment, golf club and ball on the tee from the set.  I watercolored the grass and then stamped grass sprigs with a grass stamp from my Rubbernecker Kittie Kits Cause a Scene set.  Sponged the sky and used an embossing folder that reminds me of golfball dimples.

My friends and I from the CCEE team hope you'll join us in our challenge.  You can get the details and see my friends' projects on our CCEE blog.

This next card is one I made last night for the sketch challenge on Splitcoaststampers.

The diner, records, and sentiments are from the Fabulous 50's stamp set by Rubbernecker.  The diner was silver embossed and then colored with Copic markers to resemble the colors of the 1950s. Those are platinum records at the top of the design which were also embossed in silver.  I made this card for a family member who was born in 1950.  Since she's an Elvis fan, I'm going to tell her that these are Elvis's platinum records.

Thanks for swingin' by today; now, go rock someone's world and do something nice for them!!!

Show the Love!

I don't know about you, but I get so much inspiration just by participating in challenges from various blogs and websites.  They really help me get my mojo going....especially when I feel my mojo has up and left me.

One of my favorite challenges on Splitcoaststampers is the Featured Stamper challenge.  This week Beth chose a stamper whose gallery I had not come across before:  NikkiSchmaltz.  I chose this darling, glittery heart card she made.    Isn't it just the sweetest?

Of course, we are required to change two or more things when we case the featured stamper.  I changed:

1. stamps
2. designer paper
3. different embossing folder
4. used heart punch instead of ribbon

Yesterday I made a card for the Inspiration and Queen for the Day challenges on Splitcoaststampers.  The inspiration website Stef provided was Layla Grace, whose, as Stef wrote "...tagline is Love your Life, Express Your Style. The founders of Layla Grace state, "We feel that beautiful surroundings bring harmony, balance, and happiness to your home and life, and strive to showcase products that will achieve this philosophy.” There store is filled with inspiration.

I fell in love with this Beige Provincial Decoupage Frame. 

Secondly, the Queen for the Day was Connie Jo9 and I chose her beautiful Mom card to case.     As an option, we could also tell a story with our card.  I don't have a humorous story to tell as a lot of the other challenge participants did, and I don't know if this qualifies as a story, but I did want to relay that I am constantly touched by the deep bond of sisterly love between Connie Jo and her sister Cathy (Mutnik). They always encourage, inspire, uplift, respect, and love one another that comes through clearly in their posted comments on one another's designs.

So, I thought I'd use a photo that was taken of me and my two sisters a couple years ago when my sister, Kay (middle), came to Michigan to visit me after I had my hand surgery. We haven't been able to see each other often (like Cathy and Connie Jo) over the last 35 years because she lives on the Pacific coast and I'm alllllllllll the way over here in the midwest of Michigan. Nonetheless, we have a deep sisterly bond as well, which includes our baby sister, Wendy (left). Wendy and I have been fortunate to live near one another and we, too, share a close relationship as sisters. We took my parents to the local cider mill on a beautiful fall day, and we had so much fun! My husband had us pose for this picture in front of the wagonload of pumpkins at the cider mill.

I used my Rubbernecker Weeds and Vines images by stamping and heat embossing them in white onto kraft cardstock.  To line up the vine image for framing my photo, I relied on my Stamp-a-ma-jig.   I matted the kraft with SU's Soft Suede.

Am I Too Pink?

You know that saying "Does this make my butt look big?"  Well, I'm wondering if my card is too pink for ya'll?  Woo!  It is kinda bright, aint' it?  Bertie (my alter ego for those of you who don't know Bertie...and at least I admit to having one---ha! ha!) and I were up late the other night tryin' to git our CCEE challenge card done.  Shirt the Squirt, aka Shirley (wannabcre8tive on SCS) is our June CCEE challenge hostess and gave us a fabo sketch challenge this week.

Well, as you might have guessed, Bertie loves the bright colors and she really wanted to use this Pink Passion in the sketch design this week.  I liked my idea to use the black and white designer paper squares, and Bertie just kept insisting that it called for Pink Passion, so I just let her have her way.  It's so much easier than listening to her yammer on and on and on.  LOL!  I did convince Bertie, though, that it would look better to do a watermark effect for our cupcake image behind the happy birthday sentiment.  I colored the stamp with Pretty in Pink and Going Gray markers and then stamped it off once first before adhering the image onto the cardstock.

So, whadda ya think?  Would we make someone lose their cookies or go blind iffin' we wuz to send this bright birthday card to someone?    :-) 

If you'd like to play along in our challenge and see the magnificent cards my team mates made, please check it out at our CCEE Stampers blog!

Happy Stampin'!!!