A Colorful World

Just a quick post as I'm off to bed.  I made this for the color challenge on Splitcoaststampers to use More Mustard, Melon Mambo, and Baja Breeze.  This is not a combination I would've thought to use, but I like it!

Images are by Rubbernecker in their Create a Garden Set 2 and Garden Phrase Set.

Tropical Birthday Birdie

It's all about the color this week.....bright, beautiful, tropical colors at da Mudder's tea party because we are headed to the rain forest to plan, carry out, and attend the 108th very colorful surprise birthday party for Miss Eula! You can read all about this amazing woman in the Teapot Tuesday Destination Station.

AND, if you want to play in this week's Teapot Tuesday challenge, you can check it out in the challenge forum here.

So, in honor of Miss Eula's 108th birthday and her zest for life and her parrot, Star, this tropical-wanna-be-parrot, Pascal, is flying all the way there to bring her balloons and a birthday banner. Pascal has a tendency to be a little wascal at times. You see, Pascal belongs to Miss Bertie and Miss Bertie has trained Pascal how to fling things. You can bet your bottom dollar that Pascal and Miss Bertie will be livin' it up in tropical paradise celebrating Miss Eula's birthday, sipping on pina coladas, and flinging colorful confetti-like bird seed! Squaaaaaaawk!

CSS Alumni Blog Hop

Welcome to another StampTV Center Stage Alumni blog hop!  If you've arrived from Carolina's blog, you are in the right place!  You can also start at the beginning by going directly to Stamp TV and hopping from there.

Carolina challenged us to create a card that contains only the following items and no others:

* one neutral color for the card base:  white, ivory, black, brown, or kraft
* two different colors of card stock
* one patterned paper
* three buttons
* one color of ribbon
* as little or as many Gina K images as we'd like

Since I really need to add to my Christmas card stash, I chose to go with that theme for my design.  I love this beautiful reindeer from Gina's The Magic of Christmas stamp set.  He has a regal bearing about him, don't you think?

I chose white as my neutral cardstock; burgundy and metallic green as my two different colors of card stock; my one patterned paper is obvious; my three buttons are actually a button die cut out several times and stacked for depth of a real button; I used gold for my ribbon; and, like I wrote above, I chose Gina K's The Magic of Christmas stamp set.   I colored this sweet reindeer with Copic markers, masked him off, and stamped the trees in the background.  The trees were colored with Stampin' Up's old forest green reinker, as well as creamy caramel and chocolate chip reinkers, and blender pen.  I used a gold paint pen to color the stars on top of the trees.  I added silver glitter on the garland of my trees.  For my clouds, I punched a scallop punch out of a post-it note and sponged my color around that.  It's hard to tell in my photo, but for the snowy ground, I dipped a paint brush in white craft ink and painted it carefully around my trees all the way to the bottom of the card.  I then used detailed white embossing powder and heat embossed it.  Last, I used a glue pen to adhere dazzling diamonds on top of the snow.

Now, to continue the hop, head on over to Cheri's blog and check out the marvelous creation she has designed!  Have fun!

Krafty Butterfly

A quick post this morning.  I made this for the SCS Clean & Simple challenge to use the colors kraft, turquoise, and white in our design.  I need some simplicity in my life, so making clean and simple cards fits that bill!!  Isn't this ric rac border punch cool?  Should help me save a few dollars by not having to buy ric rac ribbon!

I hope you'll swing by my blog tomorrow as I'll be participating in the Stamp TV CSS Alumni blog hop, and the crew has some awesome projects to show you!

Stamps:  Flight of the Butterfly (Stampin' Up)
Cardstock:  Kraft, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White
Ink:  Tempting Turquoise, Memento Black
Accessories:  ric rac border punch, turquoise button, hemp cord, pop-up glue dot

Create a Garden

I can hardly believe how fast the month of August is flying by.  The slight changes in the temperatures and light of the day, as well as the incessant sound of the cicadas signal to me that fall is fast approaching.  This also happens to be the last August challenge for the CCEE Stampers as hosted by Tosha (stamps4funinca).  She has given us some spectacular sketch panel designs with which to work this month.  Check out this cool design

You can view the challenge details, my team members designs, and all the other sketches Tosha had for us this month on our CCEE Stampers blog.  We hope you'll play along with us!



And here's my design.  After I stamped the checked background, I heat embossed the flower image in black over that and cut them up into 1 1/8" squares.  Both of these pretty flower images are new Rubbernecker images from the Create a Garden Set.  To mat the white wide oval panel in black, I just punched two more wide oval panels out of black cardstock and lined them up the way I wanted in order to get a different look.  I absolutely and totally LOVE Stampin' Up's Cherry Cobbler; it is such a rich, deep red.

Thanks for swinging by and visiting my blog today.  I wish for you a day full of joy, happiness, and blessings.


Stamps:  Rubbernecker's Create a Garden Set 1,Garden Phrase Set, and checked background
Cardstock:  Cherry Cobbler, Black, White
Ink:  Memento Black, Cherry Cobbler, Lettuce
Accessories:  black embossing powder, heat tool, spiral border punch, wide oval punch, photo corner punch, black brad

Witch You All the Best!

Tosha has another terrific sketch design for the CCEE challenge this week, and we'd love it if you played along!  You can get all the details and see my teammates cool samples here.

For my card, I used this darling witch image from Rubbernecker's Halloween set.  There are some really cute images and sentiments in this set.  I made her cauldron with Stampin' Up's decorative ornament punch with a portion of the top cut off and I added a piece of drippy goo border punch on the top of it, as well as my border under the three designer papers section.  I colored my little witch with Copic markers and added this pom pom ribbon trim.

Isn't she witchin'???

Catching Up

Here are a few cards I've made in the last several days.

I think it's fun to play with punch art in card designs, and I don't do enough of it.  However, I did take the opportunity to create these fishies using the Stampin' Up decorative ornament, trio heart, 1/4" circle and double circle punches.  I made this card as part of the Teapot Tuesday challenge for an eight year old boy who recently underwent a bone marrow transplant.  Details are here if you're interested!

This next card I made in honor of my friend Cindy, aka Mothermark, as she was selected Queen for the Day last Friday on Splitcoaststampers.  Cindy was one of the very first SCSers to befriend me, and I haven't stopped laughing yet. Her imagination, creativity, and talent are like none other.  I had the good fortune to fly out to Colorado about three years ago and meet Cindy, as well as Traci (Tracim) and we all had a riot of a good time!!

Anyhow, the Queen for the Day challenge is where you go into the Queen's gallery, select one of her projects and case it.  Cindy had made this darling tri-shutter card.  My changes are obvious in that I used these adorable trees and penguin image by Rubbernecker for a winter scene.

And another great stamper, Kathy (aka CAKath) was chosen as this week's Featured Stamper on Splitcoaststampers. Her work is always stellar. I settled on her gorgeous VSN Serigraph card because, not only is it GORGEOUS, but I had never tried the serigraph technique, and I love the looks of it.   It was an easy technique with beautiful results.   I used Rubbernecker's Fall Trilogy set for this design.

Thanks for stopping by!  Sorry I'm not posting as often as I'd like, but there are only so many hours in the day and work continues to claim most of them, and I try to fit some stamping time into my evenings as I can (a huge stress reliever for me).  I know many of you can relate.

Tosha has another beautiful sketch design for the CCEE team this week.  I used this beautiful pearlized metallic designer paper with the Create a Garden Sets 1 and 2 and the Garden Phrase set from Rubbernecker.

We'd love it if you'd play along with us.  You can get the challenge details and see the beautiful projects the CCEE team members--Cindy, Frances, Joanne, Tosha, and Shirley made on our CCEE blog.

Stamps:  Rubbernecker
Cardstock:  Blush Blossom, Whisper White, DCWV Luxury Stack
Ink:  Blush Blossom, Peeled Paint, Certainly Celery
Accessories:  ric rac punch, pearls

Meeting Fellow SCSers and a Beauteous Box!

This past weekend I worked the Rubbernecker (RN) Stamps booth at the Rubber Stamping Show in Novi, MI. I had so much fun demonstrating, meeting people, and showing off the fabulous RN stamps! Not only did I get to meet the owner, Rubbernecker Dave (sorry, no photo of Dave, per his request), but I also met and worked with Juliana (on the right--known as Julesiana on SCS), a fellow RN design team member. Here she and I are wearing our Ranger aprons (mine was personally signed by Tim Holz!!!). Isn't she just the cutest?  She is such a sweetheart; I really enjoyed chatting and working with her.

And then......I heard this sweet southern voice behind me.....I turned around and lo and behold Christine (aka whim6915) was standing there!!!  Christine and I had chatted on line a couple times and knew that we lived a little over an hour apart.  I had told her several months ago that I'd be working the RN booth and that I hoped to meet her.  At that time, she didn't think she would be able to make it to the show due to another commitment, so imagine my surprise when she showed up and introduced herself!   What a delightfully charming personality she is!!

Now.....onto some project work....

My boss had ordered a set of 10 greeting cards from me.  When I realized that they weren't going to fit into the usual clear box I use for gift cards, I decided to make my own box.  I split open an invitation envelope box and traced the template onto 12 x 12 black cardstock (thinner than Stampin' Up's so I could fold and crease it).  I added Stampin' Up's beautiful Soft Sky designer paper punched with this floral border punch.  Then, I made these beautiful paper flowers following a tutorial I found on line.  I don't have the link with me right now, but I will add it later.  These flowers were so easy to make!!!  I added just a touch of turquoise stickles to some of the petals.  I made three of them and grouped them together onto the top of my box.  I hand cut the leaves and crimped them, adding darker green ink for shading.  I then sprayed gold shimmer mist onto the flowers and top of the box for added shimmer.  All ten cards and envelopes fit into this box with enough extra room to allow for added embellishments.  I was a happy girl!

Here's a closer view of the flowers.  Sorry about the poor photo.  It was late at night when I took this and I struggled to get my lighting right.  I finally gave up at almost 1:00 a.m. because I was so tired and needed to get to bed.  I already gave the box of cards to my boss (who loved the whole thing), so I can't take another photo.

Shane the Dane

Meet Shane the Great Dane. Shane loves baseball but has a little issue with confidence in his ability to be a great baseball player. You see Queenie the Weenie is a tough, macho daschund who heads up the team and was barking orders to Shane the Dane to hit a home run for the team. Shane's tender heart just couldn't stand all that barking.

Enter Dwyer the Umpire giving Shane hugs of encouragement to run the bases as fast as he can, telling him to follow the paw prints. Now Dwyer knew he shouldn't play favorites among the baseball players, but he knows how soft hearted Shane the Dane is and his feelings are easily bruised whenever Queenie the Weenie barks at him. Therefore, Dwyer the Umpire felt compelled to run out to give Shane puppy hugs of encouragement and love, telling him that he could do it.

Armed with this love and support, big ol' lumbering Shane the Great Dane put that baseball stick in his mouth and hit the ball outta the ball park on the first pitch! Woo-hoo! He turned his baseball cap backwards and ran those bases with his head held proudly high and his tail waggin' to the beat of the band. When his paw touched the home base, scoring the 42,000th run for his team, he cried tears of joy. He jumped up and placed his paws on Dwyer's shoulders, knocking him to the ground, and slobbered him with wet doggie kisses out of gratitude.

I made this card as a part of Teapot Tuesday on Splitcoaststampers for a ten year old boy, Andrew, who  has multiple brain tumors and is not doing so well right now. He loves baseball and loves his fellow team members. And they love him! They are so good to Andrew that they all shaved their heads in his honor and are referring to themselves now as the Elm Grove *Bald* Eagles! 

If you'd like to play along, check out the details at Teapot Tuesday.  Bertie plans to be there flingin' hot dogs to all the fans.

My baseballs were made with the 1/2" circle punch, and I drew the stitches with a marker.  The bases were made with the spiral punch with the ends snipped off.

Stamps:  MFT

Cardstock:  Creamy Caramel, Garden Green, Whisper White

Ink:  Memento Black, Cherry Cobler, Denim, Chocolate Chip

Accessories:  Copic markers, blender pen, 1/4" and 1/2" circle punches, ticket corner punch, double rectangle punch, spiral punch, dimensionals, marker

How's It Waggin'?

Hello!  How's your day waggin' so far?  I hope it's totally "woofy!" 

August brings a new challenge hostess to our CCEE challenge group.  Tosha (aka stamps4funinca) has given us some really unique and cool sketch designs.  Check it out:

I found this cool Woof Woof clear stamp set by Recollections on sale at my local Michael's store.  Isn't this dude tough looking?  I colored him and his bones (yes, I cut out the bones) with Copic markers.  My designer paper is Stampin' Up's chocolate chip dp.

Here's a close up of his jowly mug:

We hope you can find some time to play along with us.  You can see all the cool creations my friends Tosh, Joanne, Shirley, Frances and Cindy made, as well as get the details, on our CCEE blog.

This card also qualifies for the Stampin' B's challenge.

WOOF!  WOOF!