An Easy Treat

I was in the mood for a simple card today, so this A Muse popsicle pink note card seemed like a good place to start. The stamp is called Tiers of Treats by Stampendous, but I masked off the bottom tier (usually there are three) so that it would fit nicely on my card. I stamped on Whisper White with black StazOn and colored with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I added white dots to the cake and icing with my white Sakura glaze pen and covered the strawberries with the clear pen so they're nice and shiny IRL. FYI--the white glaze pen goes on rather clear, but dries white, as you can see. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and I doodled the framing by hand. And, well, I guess that's it. Told ya I was in the mood for simple today.

Recipe:
Stamps: Stampendous Tiers of Treats, Papertrey Ink Paper Tray
Ink: Black StazOn
Paper: A Muse note card, whisper white, real red
Other: sakura white and clear glaze pens, micron black pen, prismacolor pencils and gamsol, SU red grosgrain ribbon

My First Sneak Peak

Here it is, my first sneak peak of Verve Visual's upcoming stamp release Fancy Florals. It will be available for all of you hard core stalkers starting August 20th.

Yes, I know, there are no "florals" on this card. But these are some of the flower centers, and they just screamed snowflakes to me. Aren't the shapes so gorgeously modern? I stamped "Many Thanks", one of four sentiments in this huge set, with Night of Navy on Paper Accents pearlized white (light weight), then added my three sizes of snowflakes in Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue and Brilliance platinum. Then I used three sizes of the star burst stamp on the bashful blue border, again in Brilliance platinum.

That giant corner scroll is a chipboard knot by Maya Road. I smooshed it into the Brilliance platinum ink pad. This is a VERY easy way to cover your chipboard, but it takes a l-o-n-g time to dry, we're talking overnight. Then I just used the applicator tip of my Star Dust Stickles to haphazardly apply a thin coat to the chipboard. If you wanted it perfect, you could use a small brush. I finished with a bit of May Arts gold ribbon and three gold brads. So, with the Brilliance ink, the gold ribbon, and the pearlized paper, this card has some serious shimmer and shine going on.

By the way, this card is 5-1/2 inches square. And I use:
Stamps: Verve Visual Fancy Florals
Ink: night of navy, bashful blue, ballet blue, brilliance platinum planet
Paper: Night of navy, bashful blue, paper accents pearlized white lightweight
Other: star dust stickles, maya road chipboard, may arts ribbon, SU gold brads

Blog Candy Winner

Just a quick post. I put numbers one through 118 into random.org and it spit out #77. JULIE MASSE. I'll drop you an email for your address Julie and get that in the mail right away. Thanks so much everyone for entering, and I can't wait to do it again.

Share the Wealth Blog Candy

(Hopefully this will stay at the top until Sunday, so you'll have to scroll down for newer posts.)

I passed 30,000 hits on this l'il ole blog! Can you believe it? It gives me the warm fuzzies.

AND, I am so stoked about my design team gig with Verve Visual. <---That's the Design Team page. Julee will be having the grand opening on August 1st. I can't wait to see my stuff on a real manufacturer's site. WooHoo!

AND, I made my own blog banner! It's the first thing I've made with my Photoshop Elements 5.0. I used a free kit from Shabby Princess called Sun Porch by Amy Teets and a font called Bleeding Cowboys downloaded from Scrapbook Village. I'm sure it's not much to most of you, but I'm just thrilled with my little creation.
ETA: Well, it seems my blog banner could be considered in violation of Shabby Princess's terms of service. Figured my first Photoshop experience was just going too smoothly. I do thank the person who kindly pointed it out though. So, I'm back to one Amy Westerman made for me when I started my blog, which is quite purdee.

AND, I just love y'all! Thanks so much for stopping by.

So, here it is. I'm sharin' the wealth of a recent online shopping excursion. Up for grabs is:
*12 sheets (6x6) Making Memories Boho Chic embellishment paper (two each of six designs)
*1 package Basic Grey [un]dressed chipboard mini monograms
*1/2 package (approximately) Quick Pick Hydrangea Strawberry Primas
*1/2 package (approximately) Carribean Collections St. Martin Primas
*4 Heidi Swapp ghost shapes flowers
*1 Studio G clear stamp set

U.S. and Canada only please, due to shipping costs. So sorry. Only one comment per person. Thanks!

Just leave me any comment you'd like. If you prefer a topic for discussion (as I do on blog candy posts), let me know if you scrapbook. Hands-on or digital, or a bit of both? What do you scrap? Any scrapping info you feel like sharing is fine by me. I'll do the online random number choosing thing on Sunday night and post the winner by Monday.

A Second Group Challenge

Rose Ann from Paper Delightz took this round to send out some stamping goodies to six of us, to see what we would create all using the same basic supplies. She sent four stamped images of this girl from My Favorite Things' Hit the Beach. Two were brown and two were black. I wanted to use three, so I traced over all of them with my black Sakura gelly roll pen. Voila! Three black images. Actually, since I didn't know if the pen would hold up to water, I watercolored them first, then traced in black.

The idea came from an old commercial. I don't even know what they were selling, but do you remember the commercial were there were a whole line of bikini-clad girls lying on the beach in a row, and they would all flip over at the same time? Well, that's what I was thinking of with my little row of girls here. And the striped designer paper looked like a beach towel to me. So under the girls it went. And then it sat on my desk until Lauren's sketch challenge showed up at the Dare To Get Dirty challenges for Splitcoast Fan Club members. So I finished off this simple card according to her sketch. I liked this sentiment by Verve Visual, because these girls look like they're enjoying a bright, sunny day. I threaded the ribbon through a pewter swirl clip and set a new jumbo eyelet in the center.

Here are the other bloggers joining in the challenge. If they aren't up already, they should have their cards up sometime today. Check 'em out. I know I can't wait to see what they've done.

Adelina, Well Said Cards
Angel, Angelosity
Lori, Make a Difference
Rose Ann, Paper Delightz
Tracy, Misplaced Texans

What I Used:
Stamps: Hit the Beach by My Favorite Things, Thoughtful Phrases by Verve Visual
Ink: brocade blue, elegant eggplant, pumpkin pie
Paper: bashful blue, elegant eggplant, shimmer white, whisper white, Story Time from Cosmo Cricket
Other: Offray ribbon, pewter jumbo brad and hodgepodge hardware, black sakura gel pen, aquapainter

The Shopping District

I've had this image stamped and colored and laying on my desk for probably a month or more. So I finally decided that today was the day to get it out of my way.

I thought the circles from this stamp set (Let's Go For a Walk by My Favorite Things) could look a little like a cobblestone walkway if I colored them correctly. So I stamped the lady with her dogs, masked them, and stamped the circles underneath. This was all stamped with black Versafine on Stampin' Up's watercolor paper, then colored with an aquapainter and inks, and markers. And then it sat on my desk, as mentioned. Today I decided that they looked like they're strolling through a quaint shopping district (ya know, the cobblestones?). So I added the "awning" and "shop sign". Doesn't the sentiment just look like one of those shop signs that hang over the sidewalk, under the awnings? Mounted it on a white card, and tah dah! Finished! Oh yeah, I made the awning by gluing saffron strips of paper on real red and cutting with scalloped scissors.

I actually have another MFT card for tomorrow. It's another blog group challenge. Rose Ann sent us all some Hit the Beach images to work with, along with some other goodies. Be sure to check back tomorrow to see what I, and the other girls, came up with.

I Used:

Stamps: My Favorite Things Let's Go For a Walk and Say Charge

Ink: Versafine black and various Stampin' Up inks and markers for coloring

Paper: Papertrey Ink white, Stampin up watercolor, real red, so saffron, basic black

Other: provocraft scalloped scissors, black eyelets, aquapainter

Yvette's Tag Card Challenge

Here's another Dare To Get Dirty challenge card. This is for Yvette's challenge to make a tag card with only one stamp set. I used my review set from Rubber Stamping Fun. The entire card measures 9" x 5-1/2". I also used papers from Stampin' Up's retired Enchante. Everything is colored with Stampin' Up markers and a Marvy Uchida white paint pen (on the transparency). The first panel is stamped on a transparency with black stazon and colored on the back (rough) side. I then adhered it to the back of a Marvy giga scallop oval with the center punched out (mega oval punch), and set it on dimensionals. The second and third panels are stamped on whisper white in black stazon and colored with markers, then highlighted with star dust stickles.

Stamps: Rubber Stampin Fun
Ink: black stazon, perfect plum, various markers
Paper: Perfect plum, pale plum, sage shadow, enchante
Other: Marvy giga scallop and mega oval punches, 1/8" punch, transparency sheet, provocraft scallop scissors, paper piercer and template, ticket corner punch, dashes dots & checks ribbon, dimensionals, vintage brads