Autumn Anniversary

I decided to pair up Fabulous Flowers with this delicious Cosmo Cricket line of papers called Gretel. I love the fall colors and the double-sided designs. All of the backs have a co-ordinating almost solid color on the back, just a bit of a distressed or dry brushed look. You can see I used one of the backs for the solid sage color behind the flower. The flower was stamped three times (chocolate chip, more mustard, ruby red) and cut to different sizes for layering. Then I finished it off with highlights of Star Dust Stickles. The scallops were cut with a pair of decorative scissors and rubbed along a chocolate chip ink pad, because they were getting lost in the design. The ribbon is from Stampin' Up's retired Rustic Retreat Ribbon Originals. My goal is to use up that entire card this season since it's full of fall colors and has been sitting here too long. The sentiment (Hero Arts) is stamped in chocolate chip on more mustard. Everything is adhered to a white card base.

What's In It:
Stamps: Stampin' Up Fabulous Flowers, Hero Arts Happy Anniversary
Paper: Papertrey Ink white, Cosmo Cricket: Gretel, More Mustard, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, Ruby Red
Other: SU Rustic Retreat Ribbon Originals, scalloped scissors, Star Dust Stickles

Whale Wishes for Baby

Saturday, I finally got to meet some Splitcoast Stampers! Phyllis (HUTstamper), in the center of the pic, arranged for some of us in the greater Pittsburgh area to get together at a local scrapbook shop. Who was there? HUTstamper, CharmWarm, chickers089, epiphany, GolfCat69, inkyfingersinpa, M_A_N_D_Y, Nicely Done, seasonalstamper, Sherialane, s_anthony, Vicky Gould. The shop had a great crop area, and we had a wonderful time together. So many laughs. What a great bunch of ladies. Thanks to you all.

This is one of the cards I got done during our get together. I thought this cute whale from Stampin' Up's Whale Wishes set would make a darling baby card. I pressed the whale into the bashful blue ink pad, then colored over the words with my Night of Navy marker, and stamped onto Paper Accents pearlized white. I stamped the seaweed with Old Olive, then ran my aquapainter over it to smear the ink around a bit, giving it a more overall "greenness". The sentiment is from Curvy Verses, the background papers from Basic Grey's Gypsy line.

What's In It:

Stamps: Whale Wishes, Curvy Verses

Paper: Old Olive, Real Red, Paper Accents pearlized white heavy weight, Basic Grey Gypsy

Ink: Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, Old Olive

Other: photo corner punch, aquapainter, making memories brads

A Bit of a Funk

I've been in a bit of a stamping funk this week. First, I didn't even want to stamp. Then yesterday, I sat down to stamp...and, oh my, was it scary! So I just walked away. I did manage to make this simple card this morning though. It follows the guidelines for today's Limited Supply Challenge at Splitcoast: to use just three of four layers and simple embellishments.

I'm so excited to have finally used my Jolies Fleurs stamps from Lizzie Anne Designs that I bought at least a month ago. I'll definitely have to give it some more attention. Here, the flower is stamped on Paper Accents Pearlized white using Versafine black ink, as are the swirls and sentiment (Papertrey Ink's Butterfly Kisses). I wish you could see the shimmer. It even shows through your coloring and stamping. LOVE IT! The flower is colored with Stampin' Up markers (rose red, so saffron, almost amethyst) and the "pink" is an aquapainter with rose red ink. That is all layered on Saffron prints paper (SU!) and highlighted with black layers and brads. The amethyst center is covered in Crystal Effects. I think I'll add some Star Dust Stickles to the petals too. It needs a bit more sparkle.

What's In It:

Stamps: Lizzie Anne Designs' Jolies Fleurs, Papertrey Ink's Butterfly Kisses

Paper: Paper Accents Pearlized white, SU! basic black and saffron prints

Ink: Versafine black, SU! rose red, almost amethyst, so saffron

Other: crystal effects, vintage brads (SU)

A Couple of Micro Minis

The challenge over the weekend at Caardvarks was to do these micro mini cards, anything 2.5 x 3.5 inches or smaller. So I made a couple that are both 2.5 x 3.5.
This first one uses a slide mount (Thanks Rose Ann! I finally used one.)covered with Stampin' Up's retired Pool Party designer paper. A few rhinestones were glued on to finish the slide. Inside, I colored this darling turtle from Silly Sealife using Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. The sentiment is by Verve Visual (Versafine black) and the ribbon American Crafts. Blue paper also Pool Party. White: Papertrey Ink. Corner rounder.

I decided to do two very differently styled cards. This second one started with the chipboard heart by Basic Grey, covered in Cosmo Cricket. After sanding off the edges, I sponged them with Close to Cocoa. All papers are Cosmo Cricket: Gretel line. Sentiment and card base on SU! very vanilla. I used my paper piercer to poke the holes for my pewter brads, and the cropodile for the large pewter eyelet. Sentiment by Papertrey Ink (Paper Tray) stamped in Versamagic Jumbo Java, which I molded to follow the curve of the heart. I used the corner rounder with the guard removed to make the scalloped edge. And the ribbon is Martha Stewart's piped nylon in 3/16 cloud.

Caramel Apples

It felt like a beautiful fall day today. My husband and I took our dog for a walk in the brisk air, and it felt soooo good. So I was quite happy making this card. The colors, and subject matter, remind me of caramel apples. Mmmmmm.

I didn't think I had any "almost card pieces" to do Julee's Mojo Monday challenge this week. But I was cleaning my desk today and found a meager little stash, including this already colored bucket of apples. I added the white highlights with my Sakura white glaze pen and started layering, adding in a few background papers. I shaped the sentiment layer by punching all four corners of a 3/4 inch strip of paper with my corner rounder punch. The rest is pretty self-explanatory, so I'll just finish off with the recipe below:

The Goods:
Stamps: Stampin' Up Give Thanks, Papertrey Green Thumb
Paper: SU! confetti white, chocolate chip, certainly celery prints, retired Sassy (the red), Basic Grey Perhaps (the caramel)
Ink: Versamagic Jumbo Java, black StazOn, for watercoloring: real red, certainly celery, going gray, so saffron, old olive, close to cocoa
Other: corner rounder, ticket corner punch, Marvy giga scalloped and mega circle punches, coluzzle, aquapainter, Lasting Impressions antique brads, Sakura white glaze pen

Verve Visual Card Contest

I've been remiss. I somehow manage to miss telling you that Verve Visual has a card contest going on, and the prizes ROCK! Among several prizes up for grabs are some of the new October stamp releases. These are so hot, I don't even have my sets yet. But I've seen the artwork, and trust me, you'll want these! You still have until September 26 to enter. You can get all the info here.

The Friday Funny

Okay, I don't even have children, but this is the second week in a row for a parent/child joke.

Daddy's Gonna Eat Your Fingers

I was packing for my business trip and my three year old daughter was having a wonderful time playing on the bed. At one point she said, "Daddy, look at this," and stuck out two of her fingers. Trying to keep her entertained, I reached out and stuck her tiny fingers in my mouth and said, "Daddy's gonna eat your fingers," pretending to eat them. I went back to packing, looked up again and my daughter was standing on the bed staring at her fingers with a devastated look on her face. I said, "What's wrong, honey?" She replied, "What happened to my booger?"



-Eeeeeeeeew!