Cool Beans

I made this card in honor of Coffeestamper, aka Sue, on Splitcoaststampers as she was chosen the featured stamper this week.  I cased her cute Bugaboo Perk Up card.  I made the required two or three changes and used the sketch design from this week's Stamp TV sketch challenge.

Stamps: Cuppa Joe (Gina K)

Paper: Bravo Burgundy, Sahara Sand, Whisper White, dp
Ink: Memento Black
Accessories: Copic markers, Bravo Burgundy marker, large polkadot embossing folder, oval Nestabilities, circle punches, zig zag border punch, dimensionals
Techniques: paper piecing

Flower Pots

Willow01, aka Charlene, is the Featured Stamper on Splitcoaststampers today, and girl, oh, girl, does she have a fabulous gallery full of fun and cute creations!!  I saw several of her designs that I'd like to case, but, for now, I chose to case her Remember Today card.  As a part of the challenge, we are required to change two or three things from the originator's creation to make it our own.  I changed:

1.  colors
2.  stamps
3.  added button to ribbon treatment
4.  added pots for my flowers

I used my Rubbernecker Create a Garden sets {Create a Garden Set 1 (#512), Create a Garden Set 2 (#513)}, again.  On Friday, I used these sets to create my background designer paper; today, I'm using the sets as the front and center images.  For the sentiment, I used  the Fall Trilogy set (#480).

Using my Stamp-a-ma-jig for every step, I first stamped the flowers pots, which were colored with Copic markers (E43, E35, E47, E08, W3).  I masked the pots and stamped the stems.  My flower images were also placed via the Stamp-a-ma-jig and stamped with Marina Mist and Baja Breeze (Stampin' Up) and Denim (Adirondack).  The stems and leaves were stamped with Certainly Celery (SU), outlined with Old Olive, and shaded with a blender pen and reinker.  I used Butterscotch (Adirondack) to stamp the dots over the flower images.   I distressed the edges of the cardstock with Tea Dye Distress Ink (Ranger).

For my gingham ribbon treatment, I threaded twine through my chocolate brown button and tied it around the ribbon to gather it.  I adhered my ribbon with X-Press It tape, trimming off the excess to align it with the edge of the cardstock.

Tea for Two

Congratulations to Lori, aka 3Bugs&Me, on being chosen as today's Featured Stamper on Splitcoaststampers! I chose to case her darling Tea Party card.

Things I changed:

1. color
2. used ric rac punch instead of ribbon
3. use Square Lattice embossing folder for pink panel instead of ribbon
4. added sentiment
5. different bottom border shape

I stamped my teapot from Rubbernecker's Teatime set (#424), masked it, and then stamped the tea bag and tea cup from Rubbernecker's Coffee & Tea Inchies set (#457). Watercolored with SU reinkers and watercolor brush/blender pen. Cut out the image and adhered with dimensionals.

With all the snow and cold here, it was refreshing for me to use some Spring colors in my design today. 

When You Wish

When you wish upon a star....
Makes no difference who you are!

The featured stamper star on SCS today is UKJem, aka Julie.  Julie has such a beautiful style with all of her designs.  I chose to case her beautiful Almost Amethyst card. 

Here's the inspiration I took from her card to make my own:

Here's a close up of the paper tole I did on the Rubbernecker wild flower (#496-06) image.  This flower is actually only one bloom from the larger stamp image.  I colored it with a marker, stamped it onto white cardstock three times, cut them out, layered with thin dimensionals.  The sentiment is also by Rubbernecker called Wishing Upon a Star text (#88-05).

Other supplies I used are Beaded Circle Nestability for my card frame, Octagon Nestability for the sentiment panel, leaf punch, Stampin' Up large star punch, pink gems, dimensionals, Pretty i Pink and Regal Rose inks by Stampin' Up.

I used SU's white cardstock, sponging it lightly in Pretty in Pink and then sponging with Regal Rose on the outer edges.  I used the large star punch as a mask to sponge over my sentiment.

I hope you're having a star quality day, and I thank you for stopping by and visiting me!

Rubbernecker Designs

Wow, another week has flown by and I haven't had time to catch up with posting to my blog.  So, I have four projects to share that I've worked on this past week.  All four of them use various stamps by Rubbernecker.
First up is for our weekly CCEE Stampers challenge.  Cindy Haffner challenged us to use lace in our design this week.  I used this lace doily behind my main image.  I used the emboss resist technique.  First, I stamped the sentiment with Memento Black and let that dry.   Next, I stamped the flowers with versamark and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder.  After the heat embossing cooled, I sponged Broken China Distress Ink over them to reveal the white flowers.

Swing by our CCEE Stampers blog and check out the designs of my teammates and play along with us!


My next card was made for Cindy's Teapot Tuesday challenge this week.  You can get all the details at that link about her challenge and the destination station for this card.   I colored this image with a mixture of reinkers and watercolor brush and Copic markers.  I added Icicle Stickles to the sugar cubes.

Last Sunday was Featured Stamper day, which introduced me to Sarah's SCS gallery (her username is criminalgrace).  Lots of cute cards!  Here is the clean and pretty card of Sarah's I cased.

After I embossed the silver cardstock with a snowflake embossing folder, I brushed some glitter paint onto it and added a touch of dazzling diamonds. It's very sparkly in real life!  The "Merry Christmas" sentiment is also from Rubbernecker; I absolutely love this beautiful font.  I heat embossed the sentiment with silver. The large snowflake was made with a Sizzix Snowflake #2 die; the middle one is a Stampin Up punch; and the very small one is a snowflake rhinestone.

Here's another card using the emboss resist technique.  This one was made in honor of the Queen for the Day, Maxell (Bev), on SCS.  Here's the beautiful card of Bev's I cased.

This is a one-layer card. After I dry embossed the Labels Ten Nestability shape onto the Soft Suede cardstock, I white embossed the largest Evergreen tree from the Rubbernecker Evergreen Trees set. I sponged Soft Suede ink over that, wiping any excess off the white-embossed tree. I painted the snowy ground and falling snow with white craft ink and white acrylic paint. I sponged the outer edges with white craft ink and then distressed the very outer edges of the cardstock with Soft Suede ink. Added the bow to the top of the tree and was good to go!

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Thanksgiving to my USA friends!

The Hearts of Friendship

Happy Sunday, everyone!  I had a chance to play in today's Featured Stamper and yesterday's Musical Card challenges over on Splitcoaststampers.  I combined these two challenges into one card.

(1) Dani's Musical challenge to make a card based on the song Chain of Love by Clay Walker; and
(2) The featured stamper challenge honoring Jellybean74 (Angela) on being this week's featured stamper! I love her gallery! I chose to case her Bold Bouquet 1 card.
Things I changed:

1. stamps
2. colors
3. used heart punch instead of ribbon
4. used brad instead of button

Supplies: 
Cardstock:  Marina Mist, Marina Mist dp, Whisper White, Rose Red
Accessories:  heart punches, brads, circle Nestabilities, Seeing Spots embossing folder, dimensionals

Whimsical Fall Tree

Even though the colorful leaves are almost done falling from the trees and the temperatures are cold here (41 degrees currently), it is still fall here in Michigan.  Fall is one of my favorite seasons as I love the vibrant colors and clean, crisp air.  So I chose to use some fall colors in my design today, which is in honor of Tobi, aka jazzytobi on Splitcoaststampers, on being this week's featured stamper!! I chose to case her artistic and pretty Chalk Pouncing card.

Things I changed:
1. image
2. used distress inks instead of chalk
3. added buttons in place of ribbon
4. colors

This image is a flourish in the Rubbernecker collection that reminds me of a whimsical tree. I colored the main image with SU markers (chocolate chip, pumpkin pie, really rust) and stamped it onto the cs. I used my distress inks and blending tool for the colors around and over the tree; I then added brads onto some of the leaves.

Have a beautiful day!

Fifth Avenue Gets Beaded

CherylQuilts is our Featured Stamper on Splitcoaststampers today, and I could spend forever in her beautiful gallery. So much beautiful eye candy! I chose her Christmas Rose for BeckyTE (another fabulous stamper and good friend of Cheryl's) to case.

Things I changed:

1. colors
2. stamps
3. less layers
4. no sentiment
5. slight change in ribbon treatment (only because I forgot to put the ribbon on my image panel before I adhered the images---ugh!)

I watercolored the images with a combination of reinkers, blender pen, and watercolor brush.  I have all the supplies I used to make this card in my Splitcoaststampers' gallery, if interested.

CONGRATULATIONS, Cheryl! Enjoy your day/week of well-deserved honor!

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.

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.

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.

Playing Catch Up

I haven't had much time to blog lately, so I'm playing catch up with a few cards I've made in the past few days.

Today is Teapot Tuesday, and Barbara20 is hostessing for Mothermark this week.  She's got a fabulous nautical-themed teapot she's given us for our inspiration this week.  You can get the details here.  This is a one-layer card.  I brayered all the various colors to create my sand, ocean, and sky.  I used my Cricut Life's a Beach cartridge for the ship, lighthouse, sand dollar, and starfish.  I used Liquid Applique for the water's foam.

My next card is in honor of my friend and fellow Rubbernecker DT member, Cathleen (aka ctorina), who was chosen as the featured stamper on Splitcoast this past Sunday.  Cathleen makes such elegant and beautiful cards.  It was an honor to case her.  After I settled on wanting to use Blush Blossom, I knew I was going to have to make my own designer paper, which I love to do. I stamped Baroque Motifs and Linen bg in Blush Blossom and then finger walked French Script in True Thyme over that. I used my finger dauber in Blush Blossom reinker to sponge the edges of each piece of cardstock.

This last card I made for the Inspiration Challenge this past Saturday.  I used a napkin transfer technique.  This is where you split the top layer of the napkin from the back, place it on the shiny side of freezer paper, put a piece of paper on top of the napkin and press with a hot iron.  The napkin sticks to the freezer paper.  Then you can adhere this to a piece of cardstock.   I love these napkins I bought at Michael's.

Thanks for stopping in!  I hope to get to your blog soon, too!

Featured Stampers

Congratulations to GloriousGreetings (Gloria) on being honored as this week's featured stamper on SCS! What an awesome gallery she has, and I have long appreciated her encouraging comments on my cards. I don't know if being featured stamper is a dream of Gloria's or not, but I thought the title was fitting! :-)


Here's her beautiful Lily of Valley card that I love.  We are required to change two or more things when casing the featured stamper.  I changed:

1. colors
2. stamps
3. minor sketch design changes
4. no ribbon or buttons or faux stitching

I used the black magic technique on my Rubbernecker florals. This is where you stamp your image onto black cardstock (or any other dark color of your choice, but black works best IMO) with white craft ink. Let the ink dry and color with your pencils. I then dotted and outlined parts of my image with white gel pen. Lastly, I went over parts of the flowers and leaves with glitter pens for some added shimmer. I then fussy cut out my image, like Gloria did with her lily of the valley.

I inked the inside of my dotted swiss embossing folder with Buckaroo Blue (love that blue!) and then ran my white cardstock through my Cuttlebug since I didn't want a stark white panel, and I don't have any cool designer paper that would coordinate.

This next card is one I made on Friday for the Queen for the Day challenge on SCS honoring my fellow Rubbernecker design team member, Cathleen, also known as ctorina on SCS.  Here's the gorgeous card of Cathleen's I chose to case.   And here's my card:

I used different colors, embossing folders, sentiment stamp, added piercing, and did the out-of-the-box technique with my sentiment.
I hope to catch up with all of you soon.  I've been busy this weekend preparing for a Rubbernecker blog hop this coming Tuesday, so I hope you'll come back and see what the design team members have created for your viewing pleasure using some of the newly released Rubbernecker stamps!

Patty Cakes!

Thanks for choosing such an awesome stamper for our Featured Stamper today, Mudder!

42,000 hours later I have finally finished my Featured Stamper card in honor of the one and only PATTY CAKES, aka patsmethers! Talk about a challenge! Pat's amazing creations are always so wonderfully detailed and always made from her BIG heart for someone who is dear to her. It only took me 42,000 hours to make this card, but, it was so worth it for our sweet Patty Cakes!

I chose a blend of various projects from Pat's gallery. In her Christmas album, she uses this adorable Relaxed Snowman a lot. I happen to have and love this image, too, so I cased him from her Christmas ornament here.

I also love the vast array of easel cards Pat makes. I wanted to go the extra mile, like Pat does in everything she does, and try my hand at making this four-drawer easel card. I found a fabulous tutorial by Kristine on her blog, Ink Something.  These boxes are an origami fold, which were fun and easy to make, and I didn't need to have another die of some sort on hand to make this project!

My snowflakes and snow on the ground are heat embossed with white detail embossing powder. For the snow on the ground, I also added some dimensional snowflakes by rubbing two styrofoam balls together to create my flakes and gluing them on top of the heat embossed snow.

The knobs I used on the drawers are jingle bells!

CONGRATULATIONS, Pat! If you ever make it to Michigan, I'd love to meet you in person and be added to the awesome gallery you have of all the stampers you've met!!

Life is Caaaa-rrraaaazy!

Man, oh, man!  Where do the days go?  They just fly by anymore.  I haven't had time to keep my blog updated this past week, so I thought I'd share a few projects I've made but didn't get uploaded starting with the most recent and working back to last Friday.

Tuesday of this week, was Mothermark's Teapot Tuesday and she showcased the cutest crossword puzzle teapot.  I had purchased this birdhouse at one of my local hobby stores quite some time ago and decided it would be perfect for altering for this challenge!  After I painted it with white acrylic paint, I covered it with designer siding using a crossword puzzle  I copied out of my local newspaper.  I used SU's largest oval punch and Cuttlebug embossing folder to create my rooftop.  The little flowers and "for you" sentiment are SU rub-ons.  The bird is a QuickKutz die.

On Sunday, my friend Cathy (aka Mutnik) and fellow Rubbernecker DT member, was chosen as the Featured Stamper on SCS!  Here's the cute I Smell Chocolate card of Cathy's that I cased, obviously changing mine to cows in Cathy's honor of her love of cows.  She is one mega-talented artist!  The cows are SU's Very Punny, and my grass and flowers were created with my Kittie Kits Cause a Scene by Rubbernecker.

MarilynPrestonn was Queen for the Day on SCS.  I cased her adorable bee card changing mine to these hilarious fishies by Rubbernecker.  I colored them with my Twinkling H20s and gave them googlie eyes.

For those of you who know me, and Sheri (ksnurse) obviously does, you know I love penguins!  I just think they are such cute little creatures and just watching them walk their goofy walk makes me giggle.  Sheri sent me these darling penguins she created with her Cricut for my birthday this year.  Stef, over at SCS, had us go to the cutestfood.com website for the Inspiration Challenge on Saturday and I chose the penguin egg for my inspiration piece.

Don't forget that today is the last day of the sale going on over at Rubbernecker (see my post below).  You have until midnight (EST) to place your order!

That's it for now as I'm off to a hair appointment, a little shopping, and then plan to stamp this evening!  I hope you'll stop by tomorrow when I'll have my weekly CCEE challenge card posted!

Happy Hump Day!!

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?