Rubbernecker April Release Blog Hop Winners and CCEE Challenge

Sorry for the delay in posting this; I've had some blogging issues.

You can view Bev Gerard's blog for the official announcement of the Rubbernecker April Release Blog Hop, but I wanted to let you know who the winners are, as well, in case you checked in at my blog.  The winners are:

from Karen’s blog: “Holly said…
“How soft and pretty - love this sweet pink card! That ribbon treatment is awesome! “

AND

from Julia’s blog: ”leslie said…

“I am always amazed at the beauty and creativity of your cards. I am going to give this card a try….it is simple but lovely. Thanks for the inspiration and sharing”

CONGRATULATIONS to Holly and to Leslie!   Thanks to everyone for hopping along with us!
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Now, onto my card for this week's CCEE Stampers challenge given to us by none other than the super uber talented Joanne (aka JoJot on SCS).  Jo gave us a terrific sketch challenge for our weekly challenge!
It was about 10:00 p.m. last night when I realized I hadn't made my CCEE challenge card, so I had to get my you-know-what in gear at the last minute. Thank goodness Jo gave us such a great sketch design with which to work!

It's never too early to start on Christmas cards, so I pulled out some Oldie But Goodie stamps. I colored the trees and buckets with reinkers and a blender pen.  I had to make this a quick, easy one so I could get to bed in a timely fashion for work today.
We hope you'll play along with us!  You can see the cards my talented team members made and get the challenge details HERE!

Rubbernecker Red Hot Mommas Blog Hop and Blog Candy!

The Rubbernecker Red Hot Mommas are having a blog hop to showcase some of the newly released collections at Rubbernecker Stamps!  If you haven’t seen these new images you will want to check them out!  At the end of this post, I'll tell you how you can win some of these new releases.

I made several cards for our blog hop because I wanted to show the various stamping techniques you can use with the floral images and get totally different looks. 

Card 1:   I stamped my floral , weeds, and vine images after I colored them with my Stampin' Up markers directly onto my stamps.  I then went over some of the images with a watercolor brush and reinkers to add some shading.  You can also spritz your stamp with a light mist of water after you've applied the ink for a softer watercolored effect on your cardstock.  Don't the images from these three sets blend beautifully?

Card 2:    I used the black magic technique on this beautiful flower image.  I described how to do this technique in my previous blog post using white craft ink and watercolor pencils.  I used a mixture of Stampin' Up pencils, Prismacolor Pencils, and SU metallic pencils to color this flower.  The clear embossed image on the black background is from Rubbernecker's Weeds collection and the flower from the Floral collection.



Card 3:   I gold embossed my flowers directly onto my wedding designer paper, as well as a separate piece of vellum.  I trimmed the gold-embossed images on the vellum and adhered over top--and slightly off kilter--one of the others that was embossed on the designer paper.  See that beautiful metallic gold paper?  It was gifted to me from my sweet friend, Emily, whom most of you know as Stamp Muse---or the Divine Ms M on SCS.  I embossed it with my music folder. 

Card 4:   For this card, I used a technique called acrylic resist.  This is where you apply white acrylic paint to your stamp, stamp the image onto your cardstock, and allow it to dry (you can use a heat tool to speed up the drying process).  Once dry, I applied Tea Rose and Peeled Paint distress inks and Adirondack Cranberry ink over that and wiped away the excess ink over the floral image to reveal the white.  I stamped Rubbernecker Vine images on the Wild Wasabi background piece and then sponged Peeled Paint distressed ink over the edges.  I really like how well Regal Rose coordinates with the Wild Wasabi.

For my last two cards, I'd like to introduce you to a couple of the newly released Rubbernecker fashion ladies. 

Card 5:  Meet Elizabet.  What I would give to have a bod like this!  LOL!  I wonder how she stays so trim carrying that basket full of chocolate bon bons.  But I digress.  I paper-pieced her skirt with some SU designer paper and watercolored the rest of her ensemble with Pink Pirouette, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, and Butterscotch inks.  I felt she needed some gemstone bling, too.  The sentiment is from the Fashion Icon #455 set.

Card 6:   Please give it up for Miss Carrie, another one of the Rubbernecker newly released fashion ladies.  I went with a very different color combination for this smokin' hot lady and kept it simple to keep the focus on her.  She just sizzles, so I thought she needed  some "hot" colors!   I watercolored her with Adirondack Cranberry, Butterscotch, Ginger, and Denim reinkers.  I used my 1/4" circle punch for the Summer Sun dots on the Purely Pomegranate cardstock.  I made my buttons with a die out of Purely Pomegranate dp, glued those to white cardstock cut out of the same die, and covered them with Crystal Effects for some added shine.

If you made it this far through my lengthy blog post, thank you and kudos to you because now I want to tell you how you can win some of these new Rubbernecker images!  Two winners will be chosen randomly from the comments left on all of the participating Red Hot Mommas' blog hop postings.

Julia Aston

Tammy Hershberger

Joan Ervin
Kittie Caracciolo
Cathleen Torina
Karen Hunsaker
 Juliana Swanson
 Bev Gerard

Rubbernecker Dave (owner) is going to give two lucky winners a chance to win some blog candy! Winners may choose any ONE of the following complete collections:

African-American Figures
Fashion Ladies
Floral
Vines
Vintage
Weeds

Again, two winners will be chosen randomly from the comments left on all of the participating Red Hot Mommas' blog hop postings. Please be sure to let us know how to contact you!  Posts may be made between 5:00 a.m. EST today thru 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, April 28. Winners will be announced on Bev Gerard's blog on Thursday!  I will also post the winners.

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!

CCEE Sketch Challenge

Sorry I haven't been around this past week.  Life has just gotten outta hand lately, and I haven't had the extra time needed to keep up with my blog.  Thursday does bring me to my weekly CCEE challenge, and Joanne (JoJot) has a terrific sketch challenge for us.



This also qualifies for Julia's Ways to Use It challenge on SCS to mix it up with different patterns!

I made my ladybug by stamping Pick-a-Petal onto red and white polkadotted designer paper, cutting the petals, and assembling the body, head, and antlers with circle punches.  Isn't she cute?  I used my 1/4" circle punch for my faux white brads on my striped designer paper.  I hope you like it and always appreciate your comments.

If you'd like to see the projects my friends made and/or play along with us, please check out all the details on our CCEE blog! 

I hope life is treating you well; have a great day!

Get Well on Tax Day!

Today is a day we in the U.S. dread. It is by this date that our federal taxes must be paid. This fact makes many people ill. So.....the challenge this week from my friend Joanne (JoJot)  is to make a get well card!  The inside of my card holds the get-well sentiment "A Get Well Wish" (Rubbernecker).

I used my sweet Little Lovins Girl with Hat image by Rubbernecker; she is watercolored with mostly SU inks except for the Ginger Adirondack ink I used on her hair and shoes and the gray Copic markers on the kitty she is holding.  I stamped the background with a new Florals (#496-09) release also by Rubbernecker in Blush Blossom and Cameo Coral.  I used the SCS sketch and color challenges for this week.  The colors are Blush Blossom, Cameo Coral, and Ruby Red (with a dessert option of Close to Cocoa).  The cocoa corduroy button is by Stampin' Up and the other buttons were gifted to me in a bag of pretty buttons by my friend Traci (thanks, Traci!)

If you'd like to see the projects my team mates made and/or play along in our challenge, you can get all the details on our CCEE blog!

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!!

Silhouetted Butterflies

My good buddy, Joanne (aka JoJot) challenged our CCEE Stampers group to make a project using silhouettes as our main focus this week. I kept my project very simple. I black embossed Flight of the Butterfly images, sponged my background with Ranger Tattered Rose and Peeled Paint Distress inks, and then stamped Vintage Vogue images on the background.  I also sponged the same two colors on a background piece of cardstock since I didn't have any designer paper that I thought went well with what I created.


If you'd like to play along or see the projects my friends made, you can get the details on our CCEE blog
Thanks for looking and have a great day!