Thursday, May 29, 2008

Card Sketch #70 - Father's Day puzzle

Hi everyone! Here's sketch #70 - measuring the normal A2 size of 4 1/4 x 5 1/2. As you can see I turned this one into a puzzle of sorts. I used glossy cardstock and a stencil to create the fern back ground and then embossed it with clear embossing powder. The fern was sponged on with an Inkssentials blending foam by Ranger and Memories pigment ink in Alligator. Once I created the back ground, I cut it up and then re-assembled it onto a black card base. I stamped the Happy Father's Day onto a piece of cork and then cut it out with the large tag punch from Stampin' Up! The spring moss grosgrain ribbon is from Papertrey Ink.
Supplies:


The stencil is from the crafters work shop that I found at one of my LSS. A big shout out for the Memories pigment ink by Stewart Superior - awesome colors that work wonderfully with embossing! I'm also a big fan of their line of chalk inks, too! I've pretty much stayed with the Stewart Superior brands of inks - from their Palette line to their Memories line - nothing but good quality stuff!!!

Have a creative weekend!



Friday, May 23, 2008

New Rubbah creations

Hi everyone! Thought I would post some of the creations I've made with some of my new rubbah from last weekends stamp show. This first one measures 4 1/2 x 5 1/2! The flower stamp is from Yvonne Albritton Designs and colored with chalk and chalk blending solution. I added a bit of stardust gel pen to the flower for some bling in the center and on the edges. The grosgrain ribbon goes really well with the light burgundy and green Bazzill card stock in real life. This picture darkened them up a bit. The sentiment is from Alota stamps.

This one measures 4 x 8 and would make a wonderful wedding card - in a classy black and white sorta way! Stamp is from Sunday International and stamped in versamark and embossed with Glacier white embossing powder from CHF. I then stamped it in Memories black, then embossed with clear EP and cut it out. I then popped it up with foam tape. The white card stock is ran through the cuttlebug embossing folder twice - one end at a time. 5/8 grosgrain black ribbon was used to tie a knot and I had to slip in some skinny white satin ribbon for added dimension. This cards reminds me that opposites attract!


Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!




CC Designs trade

I got these really cute designs from a fellow stamping angel over on ASB (Thanks T. Joy). We actually traded CC Designs for some House Mouse stamp designs that I had. Anyway, here is one of the cards I created with one of the images I received. This was also one of the sketch challenges and a take #5 challenge from ASB - I just had to combine them! Trudy did a great job on both of these - and you can view them here and here!




Supplies:
Stamps - CC Designs
Paper - Paper Pizazz (HOTP) and solid green bazzill
Ink - Palette Noir
Green grosgrain ribbon
Colored with Copic Ciao Markers

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

I'm finally a Contest Winner!!!

I finally won a contest at The Angel Company! Woo Hoo! Now comes the hard part of choosing what stamps I want for the $75! Might just have to wait till the new catty comes out to make my final decisions!


Here's the card (link to TAC website is here) I designed for the "It's the little things" contest! It measures 4 x 4.
Supplies:
Stamps sets used are: Build a Buggie and tag tid bits (sentiment).
Inks: Palette Noir and Moulin Rouge
Black gel pen used to create the corner brads and dots around the outside of the card.
Black, white and red card stock
Red grosgrain ribbon

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Card Sketch #69 - Ferns

Here's sketch 69 - measuring 4 1/4 x 5 1/2. I gave this one a little tilt!
While at a scrapbook store up north, I found this sheet of linen paper. It's not really paper, its actual linen cut to 12x12 for use in scrapbooking. It was just beautiful and my mind was spinning with so many ideas on how to use it. As soon as I got home, I cut some strips off of it and began to play with some stamps and different inks to see what worked the best. I tried Chalk inks first, they don't work - it bled. Next up was Palette Hybrid inks - success! I stopped there, pulled some strings out to fray the ends a bit and whipped up this card.

The back ground is done with versamark ink and clear embossing powder on a ivory piece of card stock. I used SU tag punches to create the tag, added an eyelet (can you see it?) and added some jute and tied it into a bow. That took a while - jute is sometimes hard to work with. In this case, I think I actually used hemp instead of jute. Either way, the bow drove me crazy for about 10 minutes until it looked half way decent.

This is an old stamp from The Angel Company that's long ago retired but a treasured favorite of mine. I have never posted three times in one day, but when your on a roll - your on a roll! I hope everyone has a great week!



Supplies:
Stamps - TAC, fern and sentiment is from tag tid bits
Paper - ivory card stock, green is Bazzill
Linen
Jute/Hemp
Versamark, palette noir and jardin moss inks
Clear embossing powder

Another Digi page

This page was inspired by an ad that I saw on all graphic design dot com. This was part of my eye candy homework assignment (from the J. Sprague class) and the challenge was to creat a layout from something that inspired you.
Here's the ad:



Here's my layout:

I think it turned out pretty good and thought I'd share it with you. Since I'm such a newbie on doing this digital stuff, I would love to hear your feedback!

Supplies:

Paper by NNorcutt



New Rubbah!

Yesterday I went to the Heirloom Productions Stamp Show in Puyallup (pronunciation = pew all up) and had a blast. Of course, I did go a tad bit over my budget, but sometimes that's just unavoidable.


We were afraid that it was going to be overly hot in the exhibit hall, but they had the AC cranked. Good thing, since it was like 90+ outside. I think we might have had a record high day here in Washington.


Here are some pictures of my loot and of me and Jenn!

We were digging pretty hard for bargains in the unmounted section of this booth. Looking at this picture I realize that I need to get out into the sun! Yes, Jenn just got back from Hawaii, but summer is upon us and I need some golden color on my skin! LOL!
Stay tuned for creations completed with all my new rubbah! I can't wait to start playing!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Card Sketch #68

Wow, I can't think of a name for this sketch and/or card. Marigold wildflowers? It isn't working for me!

No computerized sketch pattern to go off of this time - just some pictures and measurements. Overall card measures 4 1/4 X 3 3/4. I started with a piece of card stock measuring 11 x 4 1/4 and scored at 3 5/8 and 7 3/8. Folded it so that it's a tri-fold and then went to decorating.


I used my scalloped circle nestabilities die to cut and emboss the center cut out on the front. As you can see, I used the same stamp from last sketch. The inside panel (and the one peeking through the circle) is stamped with versamark on marigold card stock and embossed with clear embossing powder.

The sentiment is a stamp saying that I do not have (but would love to find) that I saw in my LSS. It was done up on a card and of course they didn't have the stamp or knew who had made it - the card was that old! I had the clerk make me a photo copy of the card so that I could print up the saying on my computer to use with this stamp. If anyone recognizes the sentiment and knows who makes the stamp, please let me know!

I stamped the same image on the right panel in Colorbox Marigold, which goes beautifully with the paper. Tied a golden grosgrain ribbon on the side and were done! This sketch turned out to be a great little note card that you can use for anything!

Heirloom Productions is in town this weekend for their annual stamp show! I can't wait! I've got money set aside to spend on whatever catches my eye! Looking for flower stamps to color using my Copic's, mostly. I'm taking one of my stamping friends (Hi Jenn) again this year - it's become a tradition. We always stop at Krispy Kreme before going - have to have the sugar to get us energized for negotiating the crush of stampers! Will take pictures and post about it later!


Supplies:
Stamp - Stampendous
White card stock (papertrey ink)
Marigold card stock
Nestabilities scalloped circle die
Versamark
Clear embossing powder
Colorbox Marigold ink
Grosgrain ribbon

Going Digital

Hello everyone! I've been busy taking an on-line class for digital scrapbooking using Photoshop 5.0! I've been having so much fun and learning a lot! Here's one of the layouts that I've done!



This picture was taken of me and my DH several years ago while on vacation in Aruba. This was our first "all inclusive" vacation that we took and found out that it's the only way to go! One price paid up front takes care of all your needs at the resort, from meals to all you can drink! Those tropical drinks get expensive - so it saved us some money there! LOL! Then all you need to spend money on is any sight seeing adventures and all the T-shirts and souvenirs you bring back!

Ok - getting back to the digital layout! I've learned how to use brushes, the lasso tool, how to re-color - and many more cool tools! This is so much fun! I'm taking the class from Jessica Sprague and it's well worth the money! I said as much from the very first video I watched! I'm a very satisfied customer and will return to take more classes and definitely recommend her to anyone! You can view her web site here.

I'll be back later to post a card sketch!


Supplies:
Wild sorbet paper and elements
Whitie Tighties from Amy Teets
Brush from Scrap Girls

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Card sketch #67 - Black and white build

Good morning! Here's card sketch 67 - this one is a little different and needs just the right stamp in order to make it work (IMO). Card measures 4 1/4 by 5 1/2.

I did a lot of layering and used a lot of foam tape on this one! I stamped the main image four times (you can only see three of them! snort) and randomly cut it up and layered it on black card stock. Since this flower stamp had stems it was easy to line up the layers on top of each other and basically build the image up. I added three black brads in the top left hand corner to finish it off.

I've never really done an all black and white card - so this one was fun to try and I really like how it turned out - stark and dimensional. I hope everyone has a wonderful mother's day weekend!



Supplies:
Stamp - Stampendous
Ink - Palette Noir
Paper - Black and white card stock
Brads
foam tape

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Asian Influence

I just completed this card for the sketch challenge #175 over at SCS. I love how it turned out - very soft and serene. The designer paper is from times to cherish from Current. Great paper - heavy duty card stock in prints and solid papers that came in a pack called Tranquil Garden, which you can view here.

I cut the circle out with my coluzzle, then cut it in half. I added a little light distressing around the edges with Palette French Lilac ink.

The stamped image is done using Marvy LePlume II markers. I colored directly on the stamp, huffed, stamped the image, huffed again and re-stamped the image to give it that ghost like faded look. The Palette french lilac ink is again used to dauber on a light outline around the stamped images.

I found these really cool pearl stick on half round thingies that are from K&Company to add to the left bottom corner. They come in a range of sizes in the package and do come in a lot of different colors, as well. They are so awesome - but on the expensive side!

Hope everyone has a great week - another card sketch coming from me shortly!



Supplies:
Stamp - SU -The art of life
Marvey LePlume II markers
Tranquil Garden designer paper
Palette French Lilac ink
K&Company stick on pearls

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Card Sketch #66 - RAK from Sweden

Here is sketch #66 - it measures 5 x 5. This stamped image came to me all the way from Sweden - I won a RAK from Cards By Maria and received a set of four stamps! This teddy bear stole my heart!



After stamping the image - it just begged out for me to cut out it's parts and pop them up for a cool 3D effect. I almost thought about putting some brads in so it would be movable, but all the brads I have are too big for this image.

Teddy is colored using Copic Ciao Markers. The back ground panels were done so long ago, I'm not sure how I did them. I do know that they are done on glossy paper and it appears that I used some alcohol inks, too. I tend to experiment with different techniques for back grounds, and then stash them away for future use. I guess I need to start writing on the back what it was I did! =) I used my rectangle nestabilities to cut out and emboss the main image.

So, hop on over to Cards by Maria, she does publish her blog in English so we can read it - and she also makes her own stamps! Thanks for the new fun rubbah, Maria!

Today is National Scrapbooking day - off to participate! Have a wonderful weekend!

Supplies:

Stamps - Cards by Maria

Kraft, brown, white and glossy card stock

Palette Noir ink

Copic Ciao Markers in E33 (sand) and E35 (Chamois)

Grosgrain ribbon and Jute

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Technique spotlight - sponging

This is a card I did for the technique challenge over at a shade of blue. The challenge is to do a bit more sponging than just the outside edges of an image or card.



I fell in love with this stamp when I attended a basic stamping class at my LSS. It's from Just for Fun stamps. Anyway, during the class we brayered the background orange while masking the sun. I have never been able to duplicate that look! I own three brayers and I can not get one of them to work for me! So, in frustration I got out my sponges and daubers and went to work and this is the end result.

I'm also really excited to announce that I have been asked to be on the Altered Angels Design team on A shade of blue. I don't alter a lot of things - stuck in the card rut, I guess. But this should be a great way for me to step outside of my four walls and be a little creative!

Happy May Day everyone!

Supplies:

Stamp - Just for Fun

Ink - Palette noir, colorbox queues

Black and white card stock

Black grosgrain ribbon