Another Dirty Challenge

I can't say enough how much I love the challenges being posted this week for the Fan Club members on Splitcoast Stampers. This card follows two of the challenges from Wednesday and Friday, even though I just made it today. I think I'll be going back to these challenges long after the week is over. SweetMissDaisy's challenge (Wednesday) was to somehow involve a pet in your card, so I used my new Fluffles stamp. I also used the sketch by Julia S (Friday), turned sideways though, to accommodate my stamp.

I stamped Snail Fluffles by Stampendous with TimberBrown Stazon on Pearlized White paper by Paper Accents (available at Verve Visual starting August 1st!!!). This is a thin shimmery paper, so I wasn't sure how it would hold up to watercoloring, but it did just fine. I went over the snail several times (because I kept changing my mind on what color he should be) and the paper warped slightly in that spot. But I adhered it to the chocolate chip layer with a thin solid bead of glue and all is well. The designer papers and that green squiggly piece are from Crate Paper's Carnival Collection. I sponged the edges of the green with close to cocoa, because it need a little contrast to show up better. The background is apricot appeal wheeled with the Rough Texture jumbo wheel (stampin up) in pumpkin pie. I paper pierced the edges and did the faux stitching with a chocolate chip marker. The edges are distressed with the Tonic paper distresser. The sentiment is from Verve Visual's Thoughtful Phrases set, punched with Stampin' Up's word window tab punch. I finished off the layout with a We R Memory Keepers eyelet.

Recipe:
Stamps: Verve Visual Thoughtful Phrases, Stampendous Snail Fluffles, Stampin' Up! rough texture jumbo wheel
Ink: timber brown stazon, close to cocoa, choc chip, pumpkin pie, old olive, brocade blue
Paper: Paper Accents pearlized white, Crate Paper carnival collection, SU! choc chip, apricot appeal and pumpkin pie
Other: paper piercer and template, tonic distresser, aquapainter, sponge dauber, we r memory keepers designer eyelets: homemade

So, speaking of Verve Visual...have you checked out the site yet. I'm a little behind bringing you the news, but you can see the genius behind this new line of stamps, here. The actual store will launch August 1st. That means you have until tommorrow to sign up for the newsletter before the grand opening.

Ah!!!! I just looked at my calendar and saw I have a doctor's appointment in a little over an hour. Gotta run. Talk to y'all soon.

Dirty Dozen's Pure Joy

Today I got to do another of the challenges being presented by Splitcoast Stampers' Dirty Dozen. This was Thursday's sketch challenge created by Beate. Actually, it qualifies for Jen's challenge as well: to use only clear stamps. If you are a Fan Club member, you can see the link with the challenges here. If you're not a member, you may want to consider joining here.

My card starts with a 4-1/4 inch square certainly celery card base. The designer paper is by Me & My Big Ideas and is lined with Rose Red and stamped with a dotted border in Jumbo Java. The sentiment panel has a background stamped in Sahara Sand and lightly colored with Stampin' Up's Pure Color pencils to co-ordinate with the MAMBO designer paper. "PURE JOY" is stamped in Jumbo Java. The little flowers are also in Sahara Sand with a Cloud White center. The center is from Papertrey Ink's Paper Tray stamp set. All other stamps from Simply Stated by Fancy Pants. All inks are Versamagic's dew drop chalk inks.

I punched the flower (Martha Stewart) once from Rose Red and once from Apricot Appeal. The apricot flower edges, I sponged with rose red and softly folded the edges up for dimension. I punched two 1/8 inch holes in the flower to thread the American Crafts ribbon through and tie a knot. I highlighted the small flower centers and random areas of the Fancy Pants background with Star Dust Stickles.

RAK's: Thank You!

I got a couple more gorgeous cards in the mail over the last week to share with you. I commented on Charmaine's blog, Oodabug Alley, last week that Josh and I were celebrating our ten year anniversary, because Charmaine and her husband were also celebrating their anniversary. I swear it was the very next day (we live in the same city) that I got this beautiful card in the mail with anniversary wishes. Charmaine is such a sweetheart, and SO talented. Thanks Charmaine, I absolutely love the colors and style. What a sweet little pocket card the way it opens for the insert.


This second card is from Lynn Mercurio at Stamperostiy. Now I feel a little silly, but I couldn't decide if Lynn meant for it to be a vertical or a horizontal card, because it looked so good both ways. I love the corners and she even dry embossed! Thanks Lynn, it's so beautiful. That layered centerpiece is lovely.

A Toile Challenge

I stamped! I feel like I have to get back in the groove. It's been almost a week since I stamped. I picked up Charles Dickens' Great Expectations to read on the flight home from Chicago. Once I start a book, I can't put it down. I'll read to the exclusion of almost all other things. So the book is done, and now I can stamp ; )

It's the third anniversary of the Dirty Dozen Design Team over at Splitcoast, so they're featuring a whole week's worth of challenges, starting with FOUR, that's right...FOUR, challenges yesterday. This card is for StamperSharon's monochromatic toile-look challenge.

Here's the lowdown:
Stamps: Tender Toile and Toile Blossoms (both SU! retired)
Ink: Ruby Red
Paper: Ruby Red, Very Vanilla
Other: JoAnn Essentials cream rick rack, sponge, cream organdy ribbon, marvy giga scallop circle punch, uniball signo white gel pen, coluzzle

Anniversary in Chicago

I can't believe the way life is flying by. But I'm back and even have a card to share with you in my next post. Last weekend was our ten year anniversary, and we spent it in Chicago. What a wonderful city! It's really beautiful and has so much variety. Our short (one hour) flight from Pittsburgh landed just before 7 am. So we headed to our hotel on Magnificent Mile (downtown shopping district) and had them hold our luggage. After a light breakfast at the Corner Bakery, we walked to the end of Michigan Ave, up along the lake front, through Lincoln Park Zoo and Conservatory, then diagonal through the city to Wrigley Field for lunch and an afternoon game. It was a five mile walk, so I felt totally justified eating some traditional Chicago deep dish pizza the next day at Pizzeria Due. By the way, we took a cab back. My husband's feet were hurting! Ha! It wasn't me for once.



Saturday we walked into town to check out the architecture, but it was so crowded that we didn't spend as much time as I would have liked. It was just too irritating. But I did go in the old Public Library. It's absolutely stunning! I'm such a lover of architecture. I'm fascinated by the most common homes. So this was such a treat. Everything is done in marble and mosaics. The ceilings soar. I just looked around and around, saying "wow!" The second picture here, is of Millenium Park, also very cool.

Sunday, we spent some time shopping, an interesting experience. There's Express (with an actual DJ inside) and Niketown, next to Burberry and Louis Vuitton. In other words, something for everyone.

I already want to go back again. I kept putting off making the arrangements to go, so I didn't put as much planning into where to go and what to do, as I usually would.

Where Did I Go Wrong?

It's been a while since I've done any of the challenges at Splitcoast, so I've made myself do a couple this week. Yesterday, I posted my color challenge card and today I've got my sketch challenge card for you. I think I need to get back with the challenges. They push you to do what doesn't come naturally. They keep you from being stagnant. And eventually, they help you make better cards than this. I wasn't going to share this card. I'm not too happy with it, but, (1) I don't have anything else to show you today. (2) Maybe you can tell me where I went wrong. (3) Maybe you'll like it better than I do.

Stamps: SU! First in Fashion, Verve Visual Thoughtful Phrases
Ink: Versamagic dew drops in oasis green, red magic, and sage; black Versafine
Paper: Papertrey white, real red, Cosmo Cricket Dutch Girl
Other: black Sakura Gelly Roll pen, tiny rhinestones, dimensionals

Josh and I leave very early tomorrow morning for Chicago. It's our TEN YEAR anniversary! Can you believe it? I probably won't have anything to post until I get back. See ya Monday. Have a great weekend!

Apparently, *I ROCK*

I was so excited today when a couple of great bloggers listed me among their Five Rockin' Bloggers! Thanks Lauren (of My Time, My Creations, My Stampendence) and Karen (of Pottsplace). Now, I've seen that lots of you ladies have already been tagged, but I'm going to ignore that and just let you know five bloggers that I think ROCK, whether they've been tagged already or not.

1. Daniella Dobson makes the most stylish cards. And they're usually fairly simple, but I still stare wondering how she came up with such great designs.

2. Shannan Tuebner. Have you seen what this girl can do with a Rubber Romance stamp? So chic! No wonder she's an Eclectic Paperie featured blogger.

3. Leslie Miller makes the most downright beautiful cards. And I want to live in her garden. You should see the pics she shares occassionally.

4. Yeah, everybody loves Taylor VanBruggen, but so do I. Her cards are so good, that I can't even pin point what exactly it is that I love about them. They're just perfect every time.

5. Debbie Olson can color like no one's business. Some day I will stare at her creations for hours on end in the hopes that just a bit of that talent will wear off onto me.

So, no, I don't especially know these talented ladies, but they sure do ROCK the paper craft blogging world!