Spring Flowers

 I was glad that Mary, the color challenge hostess on Splitcoaststampers, chose such pretty colors for the color challenge this week:  Primrose Petals, Raspberry Ripple, and Bashful Blue with the option of making either an Easter or Spring-themed card. I chose the Spring theme.

 

I don't have the new Stampin' Up In-Colors Primrose Petals or Raspberry Ripple, so I chose colors I did have on hand that I thought came close to the new ones.  I used Rose Romance (that's going back a bit, eh?) and Purely Pomegranate...both retired colors.

I inked up the flower stamp with the Rose Romance and then lightly spritzed with water for a water color effect.  The flower centers were punched using the circles on the owl punch out of Purely Pomegranate.   I also covered them with Glossy Accents.

Supplies I Used:

Stamps:  Secret Garden and Flight of the Butterfly (Stampin' Up)

Paper:  Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Purely Pomegranate

Ink:  Stamping Up Rose Romance, Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories:  Secret Garden Framelits, Paper-Piercing Pack, owl punch, Cheery Lynn Fanciful Flourish die, dimensionals, fan fold embossing folder, Beautiful Wings embosslit, Bashful Blue brads

Wednesday's Worktable Sneek Peek

Please visit the Stampin' Sisterhood blog for a full viewing of my project and have a wonderful day!

Wednesday's Worktable Peek

 Pop on over to the Rubbernecker Stampin Sisterhood blog for the full reveal!  Thanks and have a wonderful day!

CAS and Die Cuts

 Jen, challenge hostess of the Clean and Simple Winter Design Team on Splitcoaststampers, challenged the DT members to make a CAS card using die cuts.  I used:

1.  Flower Pot Nestability (Spellbinders)
2.  Flower Die-namics (My Favorite Things)
3.  Button Sizzlits Die (Stampin Up)

My colors are Elegant Eggplant, More Mustard, Cherry Cobbler, and Always Artichoke....all from Stampin' Up's designer pack.  I popped up the button centers with thick dimensionals.

Come on over and play along!

Dolce Stamps & Cards and CCEE Challenges!

It's time for yet another Dolce Stamps & Cards challenge! I am the challenge hostess for this challenge, and I challenged the team to make their own designer paper by using all or a portion of their main image.

For my card, I used this beautiful poinsettia image by Stampendous.   I stamped the poinsettia image twice; first on white cardstock with black ink and then on vellum cardstock with gold ink.  I heat embossed the image on the vellum with gold and colored the image from behind and in front.  I cut out the vellum poinsettias and layered them on top of the white cardstock with dimensionals.  I also gold embossed this same image on the background white cardstock.  I used my "Joy" sentiment Sizzix die on gold glitter cardstock and looped it over these fun Candi brads.

I hope you'll join us in this challenge!  You can get all the challenge details at the Dolce Stamps and Cards blog, as well as see the creations the design team made!  The winner of the challenge will receive a $10.00 gift certificate to the Dolce Stamps and Cards online store which is full of all kinds of awesome stamping goodies. In addition, any order over $40.00 from a challenge winner will be credited back shipping fees!  Be sure to read all the challenge rules on the left sidebar on the Dolce Stamps and Cards blog so that you're eligible to win the prize!

Next up is my weekly CCEE Stampers challenge.  Tosha challenged us to use three different shapes on our card.  I used my classic circle, lacey circle, big scalloped square Nestabilities and Stampin' Up's Peekaboo die.  I used this week's MoJo sketch for my layout, and I used Verve's Petals & Stems stamp set. 

Here's a closer view of the cute little peekaboo window.  I made the little door handles by stamping the smallest dotted circle from Verve's Petals & Stems set three times, gluing them together, and then covering them with Glossy Accents.

Here's yet another closer view with the doors of the window open so you can see the sentiment inside.

I'm so glad you stopped by, and, as always, I appreciate your comments!  Have a SUPERB day!

Favorite Color Combo

Shirley is the hostess with the mostest for our October CCEE challenges.  For this first one in October, she challenged us to make a project using our favorite color combo.  It was hard for me to settle on just one, but I did finally, choosing pink, green, white and black .

I used my Rose Creations Nestabilities to create my flower out of Pink Pirouette, sponging the edges of the flower with Regal Rose.  The sentiment is by Verve from their Celebrating You set given to me by my friend JoJo, along with the coordinating dies (thanks, JoJo!).  The ribbon is May Arts.
Here's a close up of the flower.  Obviously, this kind of card is best hand delivered to the recipient.  The flower would also make a lovely decoration on a gift.

Check out our CCEE blog to see what Joanne, Shirley, Tosha, Cindy and Frances have to show you in terms of their favorite color combos.  Perhaps you'd like to play along with us, too!

Sunflowers Galore!

I love sunflowers!  I remember our family seeing field upon field of beautiful sunflowers in Kansas one hot August vacation many years ago.  My memories of that vacation is what inspired me to pull out my Rubbernecker sunflower image for my card today.

(you can always click on the photo for a larger view!)

My card is being featured on the Rubbernecker blog as a part of my weekly posting to that blog, if you'd like to see a close up of the sunflowers.

Framed Daisies

(click on the photo if you want a larger view)

I made this for my weekly Wednesday's Worktable with Charlene article on the Rubbernecker blog.  You might want to pop on over there to see what my design team mates have been creating for you, too!

Flowers, Flowers...Everywhere Flowers!

Hello, my stamping friends!  I love flowers and designing cards with them.  I have two cards to share with you today.

First, here it is another Thursday already, which means it's time for another CCEE Stampers' challenge.  I am the August hostess and this week I'm challenging everyone to incorporate glass into their design whether it be a glass image, a cracked glass technique, or actual glass!  You can get all the juicy details and see Shirley's, Joanne's, Cindy's, and Frances's creations on our CCEE Stampers blog. 

I chose to make a bookmark for my design.  I love these beautiful Aztec Gold Sunflowers by Heartfelt Creations that I bought at the rubber stamping show last weekend!  There are actually three sizes in this stamp set, but I only needed the two smaller ones for this creation.  What's really cool about them is that they match the Blossom 2 Nestabilities!  Woot!

For the glass challenge, I used Vintage Glass Glitter for the center of my flower and around the Memory Glass frame laid over my friend to friend sentiment.  Once the glue dried, I colored the glass with my Sepia Copic marker. Here's a close up view.

The sentiment and weed stamp are by Rubbernecker.  The ribbon is actually made from the same blue and white gingham checked designer paper at the bottom of the bookmark.  I used a checkerboard embossing folder on the Brilliant Blue cardstock.

I'd also like to share with you the fourth card in a set I made for Dolce Stamps and Cards with JustRite's Beautiful Blossoms set.  Dolce Stamps and Cards has been featuring each card on their blog over the last month.  Today's daisy card is the last one in the set and all the details are outlined on their blog.

Here's the entire set I shared with you back in July.

These lovely stamps made for a beautiful gift set and are available at Dolce Stamps and Cards.  If you visit the blog to see my card, you'll see a link to the Dolce Stamps and Cards store at the upper right entitled Shop at Dolce Stamps and Cards.

Patchwork Beautiful Blossoms

I made this card for Dolce Stamps and Cards using JustRite's Beautiful Blossoms set.  The full details are on the Dolce blog, and I'd appreciate your stopping over there and leaving a comment!

Here's a close up of how I layered the flower.

I'll be back tomorrow to show you some pictures from what I was up to this past weekend.  I hope you'll swing by then, too!  I always appreciate your visits and comments.

Have a spectacular day!

Blue Card

Yesterday I posted a floral gift card set I made using JustRite's Beautiful Blossoms, Just Because Set, and Happy Everything Tag Making Kit.  Today, I'd like to show you the close up of the blue card from the set.  Dolce Stamps and Cards is featuring my card on their blog today, and I just know they and I would love it if you visited them and left a comment.  Thank you!

Sympathy Collage

The Ways to Use It challenge on Splitcoaststampers is to create a collage using four different stamps.  For my Sympathy Collage creation, I used the following Rubbernecker images:  Morning Glory Frame (#523), Grid Pattern (#451), Wildflowers (#496-08), Thinking of You sentiment (#565-10).  [Note:  the numbers in parenthesis are SKU numbers that you can use to do a search for these images on the Rubbernecker website.)

 

I stamped the Morning Glory Frame onto Very Vanilla Cardstock using Stampin' Up's Soft Suede ink.  I stamped the frame again onto a piece of regular paper and cut it out to use as a mask so I could stamp the grid background pattern in the center in River Rock.  Stamped sentiment in Early Espresso.  I colored the flower image with Stampin’ Up markers (Rose Red and Always Artichoke), huffed on it, stamped it, huffed again, stamped again.  Added organdy ribbon with large round brad in corner. I tucked the Sizzlits Little Leaves in River Rock behind the ribbon, added the butterfly Embosslit in Barely Banana, and rounded the upper left corner only of the cardstock with a large corner rounder.

Bring Your Daisies by Three!

Ain't she sweet?

Just a-hoppin' down the street

Bringin' daisies by three

Then we'll all have some tea!

If my little ditty doesn't make sense to you, check out Mothermark's Teapot Tuesday challenge on Splitcoaststampers to get the full gist of what she's up to this week.  The main theme is to bring at least three daisies, some bees, and even a birdie or two.  Don't bring trees, though, unless you want to enter the party through the back door.  The back door really isn't so bad; it just where all the rebellious tea potters prefer to enter.

Aint' she sweet?  My image, that is.  She's a girly-girl froggie with her glitterfied green eyelids, batting those long eyelashes at all the boy frogs as she hops along to the tea party.  Even the bees are happy to be buzzing along with her inhaling the sweet fragrance of her daisies.

My images are all by Rubbernecker (see supplies below) and colored with Copic markers.  I added lime green stickles to Froggie's eyelids and scattered straw stickles to the daisy centers.   In reality the sentiment is totally horizontal, but I wanted a circular sentiment panel.  Therefore, I used my black marker to highlight the words individually, cleaning the stamp in between, lining the sentiment up with my stamp-a-ma-jig for perfect placement.

I'm so glad you hopped on by today.  Keep hoppin' along those hoppy trails!

Stamps:  Frog Holding Daisies (#67-09); Create a Garden Set 1 (#512); “Bee” Cuz Text (#149-08); Daisy Border (36-01 KK)

Cardstock:  Whisper White, Gable Green, Green Gingham
Ink:  Memento Black
Accessories:  Copic markers (YG05,YG17, YG67, G85, Y15, Y17, YR16, C1, C5, W1, W3, W5, W7), Ranger Stickles (Scattered Straw and Lime Green), 1 ¼” and 1 ½” circle punches, paper piercer, scallop border punch, sponge dauber, stamp-a-ma-jig

My Heart Stamps 4 You Irises

Purple happens to be one of my favorite colors, so imagine my delight when Sandra and Betsy, owners of Dolce Stamps and Cards, sent me this awesome iris image by My Heart Stamps 4 You. Copic markers are pretty much my go to coloring medium, although I do enjoy watercoloring with reinkers as well. I just love how well the Copic markers blend colors, especially on flowers.  This beautiful butterfly image is also by My Heart Stamps 4 You and colored with Copic markers.  I also favor polkadots and stripes in many of my designs.   I like how well the striped designer paper accented the beautiful irises.

Dolce Stamps and Cards will be featuring cards of the design team members every day on their blog.  You won't want to miss out on seeing the beautiful creations my friends on the design team have made.

Stamps:                    Iris Frame and Painted Lady Butterfly by My Heart Stamps for You (available at Dolce Stamps and Cards)

Ink:                            Memento Black
Paper:                       White, Black, The Paper Cut Festive Pastel Variety (Lilac), Recollections Purple Pinstripe
Embellishments:     Ranger Firefly Stickles
Tools:                        Square Lattice embossing folder, Marvy corner scallop punch, Copic markers

If you're looking for my CCEE Stampers card, it's the next post down. 

Thanks for visiting and, as always, I appreciate your comments!  Have a terrific day!

Time Together

I try to remember that I never know what each day will bring my way and to cherish each moment of this precious life we are given.  Time together with my family and friends is so important to me.  So, when I was perusing the gallery of today's featured stamper on Splitcoaststampers (RosiGrld--aka Rosemary), I knew immediately that I wanted to case her pretty The Blessing card and use this sentiment by Rubbernecker that speaks so well about time spent with each other.  The Hawaiin Vine image is also by Rubbernecker. 

 
I stamped my Hawaiin Vine images onto Cherry Cobbler designer paper twice, cut them out, and layered them for dimension.

I appreciate the time you are taking out of your day to visit my blog.

Fifth Avenue is Fab

Just playing around with my Fifth Avenue (Stampin' Up) stamp set today as I haven't used it in a long time.  I stamped the image in white craft ink onto Blush Blossom cardstock and heat embossed it. After I cut out the image, I sponged the various colors of pink and melon with small sponge daubers, spritzed champagne shimmer mist over it, and popped it up on dimensionals.

Supplies I used today are:

Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, All Holidays, MS leaf

Paper: Blush Blossom, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Chocoate Chip dp

Ink: Early Espresso, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Melon Mambo, White Craft

Accessories: white embossing powder, heat tool, sponge daubers, oval punch, Spellbinder's Fancy Tags die, dimensionals, MS leaf punch, Champagne Mist shimmer, Sizzix embossing folder

Be sure to scroll down to my posts from Monday and Tuesday for a chance to see the new Rubbernecker images and win a $25 gift certificate!

Rubbernecker Preview - Day One!!!

Hello and welcome to Rubbernecker Stamps PREVIEW days!  Today is Day One.  Rubbernecker will be releasing more new stamps on Tuesday, May 3.  You will want to visit every one of the design team members blogs to not only see all the new stamps and their magnificent creations, BUT you also will have a chance to win a $15 Rubbernecker Stamps gift certificate!!!  You must leave a comment on each blog, though, because not even the design team members know whose blog contains the hidden opportunity to win this certificate!

For my design, I used this Impatiens image which is only one of the amazing floral stamps in this set.  Mr. Rubbernecker has really come up with some beautiful floral images that you won't want to miss out on.

I heat embossed my Impatiens with black embossing powder, and then I watercolored it with Adirondack inks (Red Pepper, Cranberry, Pesto, and Lettuce).  I just love the intensity of these beautiful colors with the black embossing.   I cut out the image and applied to the cardstock.

The Red Pepper and Cranberry diluted with watercolors reminded me of Stampin' Up's retired Cameo Coral, so that's the cardstock I used on the bottom.  It's hard to see in the photo, but I did score the Cameo Coral cardstock in a striped 1/4" pattern. 

(click on photo for a larger view)

I wanted the focus of my design to be on this beautiful image, so I kept the overall design clean and simple.

Now, be sure to visit the Rubbernecker Blog, if you haven't already, to find the complete list of today's design team participants.  Thanks for stopping by, enjoy all of the creations, and GOOD LUCK!!

Petals in the Die

Sorry I haven't been around much.  It seems like I'm always multi-tasking and the time goes by much faster than I'd like it to some days.  I hope everyone had a pleasant Easter celebration.  We enjoyed time with family.  My sweet, adorable, precious great-niece Zoe (pictured with me in my avatar) is now three.  She has more energy than any other child I know of!   She is at such a fun age, and I enjoyed watching her look for eggs on her Easter egg hunt.  She was so funny.  Every time she'd find an egg, she'd squeal with delight and then throw it in her basket.  You could hear the eggshells cracking!!  OMG!  We were all laughing so hard!

Now, onto the stamping business at hand.....My friend, Joan (or Joanie as I like to call her), on Splitcoaststampers, is the hostess this week for the Technique challenge.  She gave us the challenge to "stamp in the die."  Here's how Joanie described the technique:

"All you have to do is stamp your image using a background stamp or any other large image that will cover the whole die so the unstamped edge under the die creates the frame. ....easy peasy!!!



1. Cut out your layer with a die...Nestabilities were used for my sample.
2. Leave the cardstock in the die and stamp the image covering the whole die. Press fairly hard so all the paper is covered with ink.
3. Remove the paper from the die...be careful because the ink on the die will be wet. If you try to clean the ink off the die before removing the paper, it may smudge the paper (I know this from experience...LOL!!)
4. Tadaa...instant frame around the die cut!!"

I pulled out some long-neglected, but still loved, Stampin' Up stamps for my design today.  I used Petal Prints and French Script background.

I used the fancy tags die cut in kraft cs first and stamped both the French Script and Petal Prints flower while still in that die. I then cut another fancy tag out of night of navy and trimmed off the ends and a little of both sides of the kraft cardstock so I could have the navy matting.

After I stamped the Petal Prints flower, I heat set it with clear embossing powder for a richer color than how it stamped on the cardstock.

Well, it's back to the multi-tasking since the dryer is buzzing and the clothes are begging to be folded.  Oh the drudgery of laundry!  LOL!

Have a fabulous day and thanks for stopping by!

Make Mine Pink and Black

I love pink and black together and was thrilled that Cindy Haffner, our CCEE Stampers challenge hostess for April, chose this combination for our color challenge this week!

(click on the photo for a larger view)

I colored the sundae image (by DeNami Design) with Copic markers.  I then dotted the glass with black fine tip marker and covered with Crystal Effects.  For the ice cream, I added a little Icicle Stickles.  The cherry on top is a small Basic Gray Eva button.

I created my own designer paper using my MFT Die-namics flower.  I cut the flowers out of Pretty in Pink and the leaves out of Certainly Celery.  I added 1/4" circle black dots to the center and then added small white circles from my double circle punch to the very center.  I glued these to black cardstock and added white dotting with a Signo Gel Pen.  I then ran this piece through my Big Shot using the Square Lattice embossing folder.  This technique is referred to as Embedded Embossing.  The Square Lattice embossing folder works exceptionally well for this technique as it presses the flowers into the black cardstock.

Other supplies I used are oval Nestabilities, 1/8" thick dimensionals for my oval panel, pink and white striped ribbon, and pink flirty ribbon.

Why not play along with us by pulling out your pink and black and showing us what you've got?  Check out the details for playing, as well as seeing Joanne's, Tosha's, Cindy's, Shirley's, and Frances's designs, on our CCEE Stampers blog!

Thanks for swinging by!  I love your visits and appreciate your comments!

Honoring Another Queen for the Day

Clownmom (Lois) is Queen for the Day this week on Splitcoaststampers!!   Lois joined SCS about eight months after I did-----way back in 2005-----and she has always been there providing support and encouragement to other stampers in her posted comments.  She also happens to be a very talented stamper!

As I perused Lois' gallery to settle on a project of hers I wanted to case, I actually came across two designs.  One is a set of lovely gift cards called Gerbers in Purse and the other is a pretty stationery box called Southwest Stationery Box.  I actually had started making my stationery box several months ago, but never finished off decorating the inside nor did I ever create my cards and tags for it.  Lois' two beautiful projects really gave me the inspiration and motivation to complete mine.  I have several photos in order to show you the different views and items.  There's a great tutorial on how to make these stationery boxes under the Resources section on Splitcoaststampers.  Just click on my tutorial link to take you there!

The pretty pink and white designer paper I used is Letterbox by American Crafts.   The opposite side of this designer paper is the brown I used for my punched floral band around the box top.  I glued this band onto my box top except for the front.  In front I used Sticky Strip because I wanted to adhere some pretty white gold glitter to the inside flowers on this band.

Here's a top view to show you the layered flower I made with my Sizzix Flowers, Daisies #2 die using the same designer paper.  I separated each layer with dimensionals.

Here's an open view of the box.  I designed four 4 1/4" square cards, 3 1/4" square cards, four 3 1/2" envelopes I made for the 3 1/4" cards, and four tags.  I also included postage stamps and a pen.  The chipboard "W" and little flower on the postage stamp cover were originally purple, so I colored them brown with my Copic markers.

Here's a view of the cards with the box.  On the 4 1/4" square cards, I used my favorite tulip flower image, called a Year of Flowers, designed by Melanie Muenchinger and distributed by Gina K. Stamps.  I watercolored the tulips with Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, and Mellow Moss.  I first stamped the image and then cut out the flower and stem leaves for dimension.  The tulip bulb was stamped onto Cryogen Sparkle White cardstock which has a natural shimmer to it.   I used Vintage Vogue and Itty Bitty Backgrounds on the 3 1/4" square cards.  I used Pocket Silhouettes on the tags.

Here's a photo of just the cards, tags, and envelopes.  I made the 4 1/4" square cards with my Lacey Squares Nestabilities.  Since I couldn't get a clean cut of the double-layered Pretty in Pink cardstock with these Nestabilities in my Big Shot (not sure why since I've used my other Nestabilities for card shapes), I adhered them together with my Word Window punch and pink brads.  Since this technique makes it a little difficult to open the card, I scored across the top of the card about 3/4" down to make it easier to open without ruining the design.  The 3 1/4" cards were made with Square Nestabilities.  I added a little half circle tab with pink brad on the side using my 1" circle punch.




Here are photos of the individual projects.  Sorry for the fuzziness on the Friends one.  The focus feature on my camera has been acting up for some time now when I try to zoom in on projects.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and view my project!  I spent a LOT of hours putting this together.  I'm gifting it to my baby sister who I know will appreciate all the work I put into this.  She makes beautiful jewelry for me, so I wanted to give something back to her that I made.

Congratulations, Lois, on being chosen as Queen for the Day!  You so deserve this honor!