Groovy Inclinations

Happy Saturday to you!

Stef has another great inspiration challenge going on over at Splitcoaststampers. Today she's provided us with inspiration from Groovy Inclinations. To quote Stef, "The artist is Mindy Wilson from western Montana. Her digital prints stem from illustrations and photos combined with alterations with a graphic program and her own painted textures." I chose this beautiful Jade and Topaz print for my inspiration piece.

And here's my interpretation of it using the Fall Trilogy stamp set from Rubbernecker Stamps. Dave has 20% off on his stamps right now with a huge selection to choose from!



I used the polished stone technique to create my designer paper. If you're not familiar with this technique, you drop a bit reinker (I used Stampin Up's Sage Shadow) and rubbing alcohol onto a cotton ball and dab it all over glossy cardstock. I then swirled my cotton ball after I dabbed to help blend and mute some of the color.

I stamped my image several times in shades of Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, and Chocolate Chip. When stamping onto glossy cardstock, you want to be careful stamping your image because it can slide easily, unless you're using an archival ink which is best for stamping onto glossy cardstock.

After my ink dried, I ran the glossy cardstock through my Cuttlebug using the fleur de lis embossing folder for added texture. I also embossed the sentiment panel with this same embossing folder.

Thanks for stopping by! You know I always appreciate it and your comments!

We're Baaaaaaaaack!

Good morning! Well, it's been a while since we had our CCEE challenge (2 months to be exact), but after a holiday break, the CCEE Stampers are back at it, and we're kicking off the month of January with a series of sketch challenges hosted by Cindy Haffner. Cindy has a great eye for layout design and always comes up with cool challenges.

We've had a few changes to our group and schedule. I'm sad to see four of our original members leave our group: Cindy Motherway, Carolyn King, Dawn Lusk, and Deb Mills, but they haven't left the stamping community, so you'll still see them out there. On a happy note, I hope you'll visit our CCEE blog and give a warm welcome to two new members, both of whom are exceptionally talented: Joanne Grzelak and Shirley Quarry!!! Also, our challenge day has moved from Monday to Thursday of each week.

I hope you'll find some time to play along with us!




I used one of my favorite floral sets from Gina K. Designs, A Year of Flowers. I love the tulips in this set. I colored them with Copic markers and shaded all around my flowers to tone down the white in the cardstock. I felt that flowed better with my earthtone colors of Ruby Red and More Mustard.

My next card is unrelated to our CCEE challenge. I just didn't get a chance to upload it to my blog last night. This is one I made for a friend's birthday using the sketch design from the sketch challenge on Splitcoaststampers and Stampin' Up's Flight of the Butterfly stamp set. My colors in this are Pink Pirouette and Chocolate Chip.



Thanks for stopping by! I have a busy morning scheduled at work and then I'm off in the afternoon for some personal appointments, but I'll be by to visit your blog soon!

Big News!!!

I am so excited to announce that I've been asked to join the RubberNecker Design Team for 2010! I join this sensational group along with six other new members:

Julia Aston
Cathy Bomgardner
Francie Gumprecht
Karen Hunsaker
Anne Ryan
Cathleen Torina

We newbies join existing design team members:

Kittie Caracciolo, Design Team Coordinator
Joan Ervin
Bev Gerard
Tammy Hershberger
Shelly Kuck
Juliana Swanson
Candy Williams

I have a link to everyone's blog or gallery on my sidebar. Am I in good company or what??? I'm so excited to be a part of this team and anxious to get started on making cards/projects as soon as I get my stamps this week!!!

RubberNecker, owned by Dave Miller, has such a wonderful variety of quality stamps. You can check out the website here.

Back in the Saddle Agin!

Bertie is in a singin' mode today and is a hummin' and a strummin' the old Gene Autry tune Back in the Saddle in honor of da Muddermark being back in the Teapot Tuesday saddle drivin' the wagon train of tea partiers to greater heights of creativity and story tellin'!! Yeeee-haaaaaaw! I'm so happy yer back, Muddermark!

Listen' up:

I'm back in the saddle again
Out where a friend is a friend
Where the longhorn cattle feed
On the lowly gypsum weed
Back in the saddle again

Ridin' the range once more
Totin' my old .44
Where you sleep out every night
And the only law is right
Back in the saddle again

Whoopi-ty-aye-oh
Rockin' to and fro
Back in the saddle again
Whoopi-ty-aye-yay
I go my way
Back in the saddle again

Don't I sing purty?



I'm so 'cited to be at the tea party agin this week hepin' out Miss Kitty by providing Marshall Dillon with a brand new saddle so Festus can saddle up his horse fer him and deliver him to the weddin' alter to finally marry Miss Kitty! Talk about a man with his feet in the molasses!!! These two have had a love affair for nigh unto 40+ years, if I did my cipherin' correctly!

So why don't ya'll come on over to the tea party in the Teapot Tuesday forum and join the shindig! I'll be a-flingin' my rope today, ropin' in all the li'l doggies to bring 'em on home to the range. That be cowgirl speak for playin' miss matchmaker. Lemme know if yer in need of one of them thar ruggedly handsome cowboys to spice up yer life. I see a few others have brought the Wild Wild West man, so there might be some cat fights over him.

Happy New Year!

I made this little gift set a while ago and never uploaded it admidst all the holiday preparations. There's a great tutorial on Splitcoaststampers in the Resources section on how to make this window treat box. I filled mine with Ghiradelli chocolates.





I wish you all a very happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year! We will be staying home, as is our tradition, playing games, watching movies, stuffing our faces, and toasting in the New Year with a little of the bubbly.

No Bears Here

Sabrina, aka Cook22, is our fabulous Teapot Tuesday hostess today, and I just know we are going to have some scrumpdillyicious food to feast on at today's tea party because Sabrina loves to cook! We're having honey-glazed ham with honeycomb ice cream and even some mead for those who want something stronger to sip on than tea.

We have to be real careful with our food today, though, because we're talkin' bears. Not teddy bears either....we're talkin' the kind that live and hunt in the forest.

Since I don't have any bear images (except for the cute, cuddly teddy bears), I decided to build a log cabin for our tea party today, nestled snuggly in the pretty pine trees.



Oh, you should also know that Bertie is on the loose and JoJot guessed right: she's flinging pine cones today and man, oh, man can that sap create some mighty sticky situations. I think she's just planning to fling the pinecones at the bears, but ya never really know with Bertie around. She gets to influencing Maxie (marilynprestonn), too, and those two can.....well, let's just say really liven up a party. So, you might want to wear your hats made for the woods today because you certainly do not want sap in your hair!!

I also made this card for a challenge issued by Francie G of my Doubledog Dare Challenge (DDC) group to make a card/project that is something we'd enjoy doing....especially after the hustle and bustle of the holidays. Of course, I'd love to be stamping and to me there's no better place for inspiration than snuggled all cozy like in a cabin in the woods inspired by nature!

My scene was colored with Copic markers. The sky was sponged. After I cut out my square rectangle frame in my Very Vanilla cardstock, I stamped the pinecone images in versamark and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder. I then used sponge daubers to wipe on Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, Sahara Sand, and River Rock ink to reflect the inspiration teapot. I wiped off the excess Chocolate Chip from the clear embossed pinecones. I matted More Mustard behind the cut out rectangle and adhered my colored scene.

I hope you'll join us at the tea party and the DDC challenges today. You can find them in the challenge forums at Splitcoaststampers!

Some Catching Up

I hope everyone has been enjoying their holiday season. Ours was very good spent with family and friends alike.

Like most of you, I've been running short on time and haven't had much time to blog. Therefore, I have a few things I'd like to share today.

The most current one is for today's technique challenge on Splitcoaststampers to use the VanGogh technique in our creation. Well, I'm no artist for sure, but I do love learning new things and wanted to give my hand a try at this technique. I used Stampin' Up's Boatloads of Love, my Copic markers, sponges, liquid applique, and heart punch to create this fun card. I'm thinking my granddaughter would enjoy this for her birthday......or so I hope, anyway.


My next one is in honor of yesterday's featured stamper on Splitcoaststampers known as SmilynStef. Stephanie is the Inspiration Challenge hostess on Saturday and always has such cool inspiration pieces for us to choose from. I knew I wanted to do a bird theme with blues since I was making this card for Kheila Kirwan's mom who is turning 90 on January 4. What a milestone!! The designer paper is Heidi Grace with flocking on the bird wings and the main bird image is a QuikKutz die.

Last is a gift card holder I made using the video tutorial Gina K did last week on StampTV. I LOVE this pop-up gift card holder! Here's the inside:

And the outside using Stampin' Up's Holiday Lounge designer paper.

I wrote this post in a hurry since hubby and I are off to catch a movie and some shopping since I'm off work this week, so if you have questions or want more information, please let me know. I'll be back to surf your blogs and see what you've been up to later!