Black, White & Hot Pink!

How was your weekend? I had a very relaxing weekend. Didn't do anything too exciting. I had designed an anniversary invitation for a friend, and spent a few hours yesterday helping her make 26 of them. I wish I had taken a pic, but never thought of it until I got home.

For today's "Black, White &...", I threw in hot pink. The flower is stamped in black stazon and colored with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. It's surrounded on two sides with silver brads. Then layered on black and pink passion, which was trimmed with mini scallop scissors. The black polka dots are by Making Memories. This was all layered on whisper white and pink passion. The sentiment is from a Mike's clear dollar stamp set. It's stamped on a cuttlebug die cut. You can actually cut both colors at the same time, rather than sending the pink through first, then the white. In fact, I cut three at the same time, because I wasn't sure if I would be using black as part of the design. Finally, I added two pieces of white grosgrain. I pulled them up through a hole I had punched in the die cut oval, then knotted them.

Hello Friends!

Good morning! Even though I'm writing this Thursday night. I have to work tomorrow, but maybe I'll get done quickly and have some time to plant the flowers I bought today. Here's today's Friendship Friday card.

The card measures 3 1/2 x 6 1/4 to fit a regular (No. 6 3/4) envelope. A very fun size to work with. I stamped this flower from Stampendous using Timber Brown StazOn and colored with my aquapainter. I colored the stamens with my choc. chip marker. This was all done on a whisper white mega scalloped circle. It's layered on two more mega circles (Ruby Red) and set on dimensionals. Both the flowery and the blue paper are from my new Basic Grey 6x6 Gypsy pad. The ribbon is from Mike's dollar bin (Cherry). The sentiment was stamped on whisper white. Then I glued down the hardware and let it dry a minute. Lastly, I cut it out with my xacto. All this because I don't have the small oval punch. And I actually used ONLY ORANGE. I hate orange and years ago I accidentally bought TWO whole packs of it. Since it matches this Gypsy paper so well though, maybe I'll manage to use it occasionally now.

Thanks for visiting me. Don't forget to appreciate your friends. Gosh, imagine if we only had our husbands to talk to. (Not that I don't love my husband)

Details:
Stamps: Stampendous flower, Papertrey Ink Paper Tray
Ink: Timber brown stazon, choc chip, so saffron, marigold morning, more mustard, pumpkin pie, ruby red, marker: choc chip
Paper: only orange, choc chip, ruby red, whisper white, Basic Grey Gypsy
Other: pewter hodgepodge hardware, Cherry ribbon, dimensionals, aquapainter

Tagged

I was tagged at least a few days ago, but I couldn't think of seven interesting personal tidbits. I really want to play though, so I'm going to apply myself and see what I can come up with. Thanks to Rose Ann at Paper Delightz and Cathy at Crafty Thoughts for tagging me. If I missed anyone that tagged me (cause I know it's going around a lot), let me know and I'll add you.

So, here goes:

1. My senior year in high school, I was in our Senior Play, You Can't Take It With You. I played a ditsy, clumsy ballerina.

2. I got married at 19! (Yes, I know. Insert *gasp* here). No, I was not pregnant. And we are celebrating ten happy years this July. Oh yeah, and my husband was 18!

3. I have the craziest looking dog. Buster is a basset hound / lab mix. That means he has really short legs and a really long body. Fifty percent of the times I take him for a walk, somebody laughs at us. He's really goofy looking, but absolutely adorable. He's completely spoiled!

4. I LOVE to vacation. My favorite location is any Mexican vacation destination. I've been to Puerto Vallarta twice, Cabo San Lucas twice, and Cancun twice. But my dream vacation is Europe, especially Paris.

5. The last time I went to visit my parents, I had to stop on the driveway for several minutes and wait for their neighbor's sheep to cross the road. Needless to say, they live in the country.

6. Both of my parents are from families with seven children. So I have lots of aunts and uncles and cousins, but only one brother.

7. When I was a kid, I would often rather have another salad for dessert instead of sweets. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case.

Well, I don't know how interesting that was, but at least I came of with seven facts. I'm sure I can't come up with seven bloggers who haven't yet been tagged, so I'm not even going to try. If you're looking for new blogs to check out, see my list of bloggers on the right. They're all fab! I'll try to make a card to post later today, and I'll definitely have something for Friendship Friday tomorrow.

Featuring: BELLAS

Good morning. I'm sure you already know and love the Bellas, but that's what I'll be using today for Featured Stamp Wednesday. Here's the home page for Stamping Bella. And here's Bloggabella. Be sure to check out more than just the bellas. Yes, there is more. In fact, there are even a few fellas now. These stamps are a really great quality gray rubber. That's it, just rubber. So they take up less space and you can use them with an acrylic block. I just use removable double faced sticky tape to adhere mine to the acrylic block. But I know others have mounted them on cling foam or even on wood blocks, if you prefer the traditional wood mounted stamp. I love that there are now some sentiments to go with the bellas, too. Makes them more functional to me. So here are my cards.

See, I told you there's more than just bellas over at Stamping Bella. This purse is in the Fashion and Makeup category. I stamped with Black StazOn and colored with markers. The dots were done with my tempermental Signo white gel pen and the shadow was done with ink and an aquapainter.

This card style was created by the wonderfully talented, oh so kind Michelle Wooderson over at Mish Mash. And she calls it a tent topper card. Makes sense, huh? She's a creative genius I tell ya. The card even fits right into your regular old, standard sized envelope. I'm sure you'll be seeing this design from me again. Can you tell I love it? I used papers from the Spring mini's Petals & Paisleys designer series, the dots from All in a Row, and the sentiment from Take Three. The pink strip is also stamped with canvas. Oh yeah, the purse clasp is colord with a gold Zig Painty.

Recipe:
Stamps: Stamping Bella purse, Take Three, All in a Row, Canvas
Ink: black stazon, close to cocoa, markers: creamy caramel, tempting turquoise, pretty in pink, old olive
Paper: Regal Rose, Petals & Paisleys, whisper white
Other: gingham ribbon, black eyelet, cropodile, aquapainter, zig painty

This second card uses Beachabella. She's my favorite, though Stacyfishabella is next on my list. What about you? Which bellas do you love?

I paper pieced her beach towel and bag with more Petals & Paisleys papers. She's standing on a large A Muse oval. And her sunglasses are coated with Crystal Effects and a bit of clear glitter. Otherwise, she's colored with markers. The sentiment from Riveting is colored with tempting turquoise and regal rose. I had stamped it a second time in Regal Rose, punched out the daisy center, and layered it on top. The whole thing is layered on a larger Old Olive circle. The two teeny tiny brads and the white flower are from Queen & Co's Sassy Sequins. The color is Kissy Fit. The photo corner I made with my square punch.

The goods:
Stamps: Beachabella, Riveting
Ink: black stazon, creamy caramel, regal rose, markers: creamy caramel, close to cocoa, blush blossom, regal rose
Paper: Pretty in Pink, tempting turquoise, old olive, whisper white, Petals & Paisleys
Other: turquoise grosgrain, Queen & Co. sassy sequins, dimensionals, 1-3/8, 1-1/4, and 1/2" circle punches, square punch

My Sunshine

Good evening everyone. I'm squeezing in a post tonight to share this cute little card with you. I wasn't in the mood for card making the other day. So I just stamped this sunflower and colored it with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol.

I bought these when they were all the rage, about a year ago, tried them, and didn't like them. So, in my desk they went. I finally read somewhere what I was doing wrong. The colors WOULD NOT blend for me. My hand would be cramped and tired by the time I got the look I was going for. It was as easy as this: I was using the wrong paper. I usually watercolor, which works best on watercolor or some thick paper. I figured this 'gamsol' technique was similar to watercoloring, so I'd use the same paper. I was using SU! Natural White. No, no, no. The colors just sit there. Now that I've tried it on Whisper White, I'm loving it. Very quick and easy blending on this nice smooth paper.

Here I used a few shades of greens, browns and yellows. I had done the sunflower on a skinnier piece of paper. So I taped it to another piece of white and covered the line with the ribbon. "You are my sunshine" is done in timber brown stazon, as is the sunflower. The squiggles are done with a choc. chip marker. I ran the green thru my cuttlebug and added some brads, which were coated in copper ep. A rather simple little card, but I like it.

The Ingredients:
Stamps: Give Thanks, mini casual Karen Foster snap stamps
Ink: timber brown stazon, chocolate chip
Paper: kraft, garden green, marigold morning, whisper white
Other: brads, copper embossing powder, cuttlebug bloom dots embossing folder, taupe grosgrain ribbon, prismacolor pencils and gamsol

I'll talk to y'all in the morning. I actually have my cards all ready for tomorrow's Featured Stamp post. Shocking. I know.

Black, White and Purple

This Monday's posting for Black, White &... will include purple...and just the teeniest bit of green, because I couldn't stop myself. And my rarely used background stamps got a workout, too. In fact, I even used Carte Postale. Everybody else has made beautiful cards with this set, but I've been rather befuddled by it up 'til now.

The How To:

Stamps: Carte Postale, Canvas, French Script, Paisley

Ink: black stazon, lavender lace, perfect plum, certainly celery

Paper: black, lavendar lace, white, Deja Views Wedding Paisley Vine

Other: rhinestone (from Mike's $ bin), crystal effects, dimensionals, Dashes Dots & Checks ribbon, light orchid grosgrain, distressing tool, giga scalloped square punch by Marvy

I stamped the flower from Carte Postale randomly using black stazon and colored with lavendar and celery markers. Then I stamped French Script (lavender), Canvas (celery) and the bird (lavender) all over top of each other. I layered this piece on lavender then black, and pretty heavily distressed the black. The large purple layer is stamped with Paisley in Perfect Plum on lavender. The one bird is covered with Crystal Effects and set on dimensionals. The sentiment tab was punched twice with the giga scalloped square, stamped with "Bonjour" and pressed into the Lavender Lace ink pad a few times. The solid white was a bit shocking on this otherwise dark card. I added on the double ribbons and rhinestone, and this one actually was pretty quick.

Well, that's it. I'm eagerly looking forward to the 25th. My local stamp store has 25% off almost everything on the 25th of every month. So even though it's not THAT local, it's worth the trip.

Thanks for stopping by.

Feeling Challenged

Sorry, I didn't get to post yesterday. I spent all day in the yard. It felt great to be able to work outside in good weather. Then I had to hurriedly get ready for dinner with friends at Nakama. We go out to eat once a month somewhere new, and this was my friend Danielle's month to choose the date and place. I love trying new places and this was a fun, trendy place. Good food, too ; )

But, today I made time both to stamp, and share with any one who may visit. I was pretty stuck on a card design, otherwise known as a slump, so I turned to a couple of challenges posted by fellow bloggers. This first card is for Michelle's challenge to Find Some Inspiration at Twisted Chick Creations. Look in magazine ads, or anywhere around you, to find an inspiration for your card design. This is something I do all the time. It's a geat jumping off point. Sorry for the line thru my inspiration piece. I couldn't get it any better.

The How To for my card:

Stamps: Doodle This, Simple Sayings II
Ink: Black Stazon, markers: apricot appeal, pretty in pink, pumpkin pie, rose red
Paper: rose red, whisper white, Anna Griffin stripes
Other: pewter hodge podge hardware, round tab punch, paper piercer and template, rose and tangerine grosgrain

I colored all of the flowers and doodles with markers. And, because I couldn't choose which ribbon to use, I used both.

This second card is for Julee Tilman's sketch at Poetic Artistry. I think this is such a fun sketch. Thanks Julee.

And the How To:

Stamps: just the one little sentiment from a Michael's dollar stamp
Ink: Taken with teal
Paper: taken with teal, whisper white, harmony: stripe by Paper Salon, Key lime by memory box
Other: giga scalloped circle punch, coluzzle, cuttlebug (for the sentiment die cut), ribbon from Michael's wooden spools, primas, scalloped scissors (because I lent out my corner rounder)

I used my scalloped scissors to snip all the rounded corners, because I lent out my corner rounder. And to get the center for my prima, I used the ever-popular ribbon knot method. I tied my ribbon in a knot about three times to get the thickness I wanted, then I tucked the ends down thru the centers of the layered primas.

Friendship Friday

It's Friendship Friday again, so here's another card just because I appreciate your friendship.

The How To:

Stamps: Love Matters
Ink: Black Stazon, vintage violet, old olive, pumpkin pie, markers: baroque burgundy, pumpkin pie, old olive, certainly celery, bashful blue, apricot appeal, basic black
Paper: Chatterbox olive poolhouse paisley and beach blossoms, bashful blue, baroque burgundy, white
Other: aquapainter, SU! blue gingham ribbon, eyelet, clear embossing powder, ticket corner punch

I stamped "friends" with black stazon and colored with all the markers. The 's' was done with an aquapainter and vintage violet ink. I also made the shadow all around the word with the aquapainter and bashful blue. The ticket corner punch has got to be the best $4.95 I ever spent. It got a workout here on all the corners. I doodled the frame and layered on burgundy then bashful. I personally don't much care for the newer Bravo Burgundy. It's too dark for my liking. But I found this old piece of Baroque Burgundy and found it suited my purposed rather nicely. I used some miscellaneous eyelet I bought years ago and tied on the ribbon on the right. One strip of the vertical ribbon seemed to get lost in the design, so I added a second ribbon.

I'll have you know, I first used stitched violet ribbon...too dark. Then white...too chunky. It looked like hospital bandages to me against these dark colors. Finally...blue gingham...Juuuuust right. I feel like the Goldilocks of the ribbon world.

The hearts were stamped with pumpkin pie, vintage violet and old olive. Then colored with apricot, bashful and celery. They were cut out and got two coats of clear ep.

That's it. Thanks to all of you, my friends out there in cyberland, for stopping by today. Now I'm off to cut my grass. It's the first day for quite some time when I'll be able to cut the grass without a winter coat on. Yeah!

Tagged?

Okay, you can really tell how new I am to the blogging world. I saw that Yvette at Yvette's Paper Garden "tagged" me. I've seen this going around all day at many of the blogs I visit. What I can gather is that when you are tagged you are supposed to choose five more blogs to tag. I'm not sure why. I figure it's to let them know you enjoy their blogs and let your readers check them out, possibly find somewhere new that appeals to them. So ladies, thank you for blogging. I really enjoy your work and love to "visit" with you a little each day.

Leslie Miller's Running With Scissors

Angie Z's Quacking Creations

Chris Smith's from my inkpad to yours

Rose Ann's Paper Delightz

Julee Tilman's Poetic Artistry

Feel free to choose five blog artists who inspire you and let them know.

Hugs all,
Bethany

ETA: About two minutes after I posted this, Lisa Zappa at Shabbychick Junk let me know that she also tagged me. So, be sure to check out the fab creations on her blog as well. You'll be glad you did.

Featured Stamp Wednesday

I did a little tweaking. I didn't like the title of the Wednesday feature: New Stamp Wednesday, because they weren't new stamps. It just didn't make sense. So the concept will remain the same, but I'll be calling it Featured Stamp Wednesday. I'll feature a different stamp company each week, at least until I run out of stamps. Today's stamp company is Inky Antics. You can order directly from the company on their website. They have ALL kinds of stamps. But I really like the Girly Girls, the turtles, and Petey the penguin. They tend to run some sort of special every month, which is fun. I LOVE free stamps. They also have a message board and gallery.



In this first card, I used one of the Girly Girls, Champagne Girl, with a couple of designer papers.
Here's the How To:

Stamps: Inky Antics Champagne Girl
Ink: black stazon, going gray, and markers: blush blossom, creamy caramel, close to cocoa, pretty in pink, apricot appeal, tempting turquoise, certainly celery
Paper: whisper white, tempting, turquoise, chocolate chip, gable green, My Mind's Eye magnolia, Paper Salon harmony: floral
Other: aquapainter, paper piercer and template, silver brads, cuttlebug flower die, half inch circle punch

I used the corner of the MME paper that had the brown swirls, cut to the size of a card front. AFTER putting in the brads (because I prefer to hide the "workings" of my cards), I adhered it to a top folded white card. Champagne girl is stamped in black stazon and colored with markers. The light shadow was done with Going Gray and an aquapainter. This was layered on Gable Green and pierced. The flowers were cut from Paper Salon, choc. chip, and turquoise using the cuttlebug, some of them layered, and placed so they kind of look like they're spilling down the card.




This second card is done using Beate's Triangle Trifold tutorial from SCS. It was also the Technique Lover's Challenge for this week. Since the tutorial covers it, I won't tell you how I made it. I'll just list the ingredients:

Stamps: Inky Antics turtles flowers (#H1-0780-F because it's hard to find) and sentiment (#D4-0752-D)
Ink: Black Stazon, markers: rose red, taken with teal, apricot appeal, certainly celery, old olive, creamy caramel, close to cocoa, pretty in pink, sahara sand
Paper: old olive, apricot appeal, taken with teal, Petals and Paisleys
Other: red grosgrain ribbon

One description: To get the flowers by the sentiment, I covered the rest of the turtle with scotch tape, inked, removed tape, and stamped.

An Honorable Mention

As I said yesterday, I was so excited that Nichole Heady's blog listed my card as an Honorable Mention for Papertrey Ink's Guest Star Stamper Contest. This is the card that I submitted, among a few others.

So, even though I didn't win, I'm really glad I bothered submitting. It's something new for me and I'm trying to keep the right attitude: don't stress. If you don't win a contest or get published, maybe your card just isn't what they're looking for right now. Push a little harder to get a little better, and next time, make something a little nicer. It took me a l o n g time of lurking on SCS before I started uploading my cards. But doing so has improved my card making. And that is my goal, at least for now. If I'm going to stamp, do it as well as I can. Thanks for "listening" to my little pep talk.

And here's the How To:

Stamps: Papertrey Ink's Butterfly Kisses

Paper: SU! Kraft, certainly celery, white, Basic Grey Skate Shoppe

Ink: Versamark

Other: clear and detail white embossing powder, brad from Queen & Co., Prima (from my local Target. Yes, I said Target. How cool is that?), celery grosgrain

Stamp the large solid butterfly in Versamark on the designer paper. Emboss with clear ep. Cut out and gently mold into shape you'd like. With detail white ep, emboss "Heartfelt Thanks" on 3-1/2" by 6-1/4" folded Kraft card. This will fit a standard No. 6 3/4 envelope. Tie on celery grosgrain. Layer prima (with brad) and butterfly with glue dots to white square on celery. Really quite simple.

Black, White and ...

Whew! There was some serious learning curve going on today. I want my Monday feature to be Black, White and ... cards. That would be cards made of black, white and one other color. This is a major stretch for me, but that's why I started blogging. To push myself a little. And it was so worth my while in this particular instance. I tried a technique I've been putting off for quite some time (stamping on transparencies), and I found a use for a product that had me totally baffled (a Marvy paint pen). Today's card uses black, white, and bashful blue.

The How To:

Stamps: SU! Doodle This, Papertrey Ink Paper Tray

Paper: black, white, bashful blue

Ink: Versamark

Other: detail black embossing powder, paint pen, transparency sheet, silver eyelets, black grosgrain ribbon, stickles, paper piercer and template, dimensionals

I stamped my flowers in versamark on the transparency and covered in detail black ep, then repeated the process for the doodles. I've heard this can warp your transparency sheet, but I found it to be pretty minimal. This is where my paint pen comes in.

It's a white Marvy Uchida Extra Fine Opaque paint pen. You can see it here. In my experience, the paint pen does not work on card stock. It's not like a gel pen. The paint pen just sinks into the paper and you can't even see it. But, for transparencies, lovely! I colored all the white areas you see. I was being all careful trying to stay exactly in the lines. No need. I flipped it over to apply some adhesive and realized that this side looks perfect. Lesson learned: color on the back of transparencies. I used a couple dots of Scotch Scrapbooker's Glue which I buy at Target, layered it on bashful blue, then black. I added the eyelets with my cropodile. The "Thank you" is also done in detail black ep. The main image is on dimensionals and I finished it with a bit of piercing, grosgrain ribbon, and star dust stickles.

On another note, I was so happy to see an Honorable Mention for my Papertrey Ink Butterfly Kisses card on Nichole's blog. I've added a link to Papertrey Ink's website to the right. They've now released four stamp sets and each new one sells out more quickly than the last. I LOVE working with their clean, crisp images. Because every part of every image is an individual stamp, they're perfect for any card-making style. Just use as much or as little detail as you'd like. So, I'll post some info on that card tomorrow.

I Couldn't Throw It Away

If you saw yesterday's post, you know I ripped my card apart to change the top layer. I just couldn't throw it away. Not with glittery polka dots! So I used it for today's card.

The How To:

Stamps: SU! Heartfelt Thanks, Papertrey Ink's Paper Tray

Ink: perfect plum, pale plum, certainly celery, garden green, versamark

Paper: whisper white, certainly celery, old olive, Enchante designer paper

Other: paper piercer and template, irridescent ice embossing powder, silver brads, signo white gel pen, SU! taupe grosgrain ribbon, round tab punch, Cuttlebug textile embossing folder, dimensionals

I colored markers directly onto the flower stamp, spritzed it lightly with water and stamped three times. The dots were stamped with versamark and covered in Irridescent Ice ep. I matted this on Old Olive, then used dimensionals to add it to the Enchante designer paper. The other side of the card got some certainly celery that had gone thru my cuttlebug. I tied on the ribbon, then added some visual bulk by faux stitching on both sides. I think I might have a disfunctional gel pen though. It's very persnickety. I may have to try a new one. Then I finished it off with the Paper Tray sentiment on my tab punch and a few brads.

I actually had a request for subscription service to my blog (shock!) so I added Feedblitz. If you'd like email updates, go ahead and sign up on the right. Thanks for stopping by! I'm off to watch the Penguin game. Let's go Pens!!!

Friendship Fridays

I'm going to give this a try for a fun Friday theme: Friendship Fridays. I'll make cards with no theme or purpose other than to say, "Hey, thanks for being my friend."

So, here's my first Friendship Friday card. It also works for yesterday's Splitcoast Challenge, to use markers. I had a HECK of a time getting a decent picture of this card. This is the best I could come up with. Maybe there was too much white and glitter for the camera.

Here's the "How To":

Stamps: Heartfelt Thanks, Curvey Verses

Ink: versamark, pale plum, perfect plum, certainly celery, garden green

Paper: whisper white, perfect plum, Enchante designer paper

Other: Irridescent Ice embossing powder, ribbon, paper piercer and template, dimensionals

I was shooting for a bright, crisp card. That's why I used so much white and these springy colors. I tend to be a very slow card maker. I lay different things on my card until I like what I see. In fact, originally I had shiny dots on the top layer of this card. I didn't feel like changing it. I wanted to be done. I had photographed it, worked with it in my photo editing software, and was all ready to go. And I just couldn't take it. The dots were all clashing. I had to rip it apart and change the top layer to what you see now.

The dots were done with the stamp from Heartfelt Thanks in versamark and Irridescent Ice embossing powder. For the flowers, I colored with my markers directly on the stamp, spritzed it lightly with water and stamped three times. I went back in with my versamarker to add II embossing powder highlights. Things weren't quite right, so I tried a couple of different ribbons in a couple of different spots. This one was not too overwhelming and brought some balance to the design. I think I picked it up at Walmart.

So there you have it. Take a minute to tell one of your friends "thanks" today. A girl can never have too many friends.

Not a Double Challenge

Well, I thought I was being all clever and doing both the color and sketch challenges for this week in one card. But then I realized I was supposed to use black, not brown. So, I packed it in and used So Saffron too. It really does work for the sketch challenge though.

I just picked up these Cosmo Cricket papers today at my LSS (local scrapbook store). Ooh ooh, much fun!

Card info:

Stamps: Doodle This, Noteworthy

Paper: Sage Shadow, Choc Chip, White, Cosmo Cricket Dutch Girl Klara and Audrey

Ink: Brown Stazon, Sage Shadow, Real Red, So Saffron

Other: sanding block, vintage brads, eyelet, cuttlebug, hemp, dimensionals

The vertical strip is from a sheet of Dutch Girl: Klara paper. I trimmed it out with my exacto knife and rubbed some choc chip ink on the edges with a sponge to give it more interest. The red paper only had that scuffed up look on the top left side, so I went at it with my sanding block, making it all look the same. The top sage layer is the back side of the same paper. Don't ya just love double-sided papers? You get twice as much design, and I never would have used the whole sheet of one design anyway. The tag was cut with my Cuttlebug. Once again, I tore apart a piece of twine and only used one strand to get something more like linen thread. The Doodle This flowers were colored with markers and the Saffron one popped up on dimensionals.

From the French Cafe

Unfortunately, no, I am not in a French cafe. That's just how I think of this picture. It's from Stampin' Up!'s retired set Travel Sketchbook.

This will also be the start of NEW STAMP WEDNESDAY! While I wish that meant buying new stamps every Wednesday, that will not be happening. But, I will focus on a different stamp company every Wednesday. We'll see how long I can keep that up. I'll start today with the obvious. Most likely, all of you are aware of Stampin' Up! You can buy their products thru your very own Stampin' Up! demonstrator (nope, I'm not one of them). I won't go on about this particular company any more, since most of you already know.

I did this card for the Featured Stamper Challenge on Splitcoaststampers from last Sunday. I used this card by HB (Carol) as my starting point. I liked the fold with part of the inside showing on the right and the sketchy watercolored image.

So here's how I did my card:

Stamps: SU! Travel Sketchbook, French Script, and Carte Postale for the "Merci"
Ink: Black Stazon, Handsome Hunter, Basic Black; and for watercoloring: close to cocoa, creamy caramel, going gray, sahara sand, so saffron, real red, handsome hunter, garden green
Paper: Real Red, So Saffron, watercolor paper
Other: ek success circle punch, SU word window punch, paper piercer and template, gingham ribbon and vintage eyelets. The big brad is from JoAnn's and the bit of hemp is from a ball of twine.

I stamped my French Cafe and watercolored it with an aquapainter. The saffron layer, I randomly stamped with French Script using Handsome Hunter, also smearing some ink around with a sponge. The saffron circle and Real Red also got "the smear treatment". Merci is stamped on a scrap of watercolor paper then punched twice with the word window punch. The second punch was to make it shorter. The big brad went into the Saffron circle, so I could then tie on the hemp. By the way, I actually unraveled the hemp and only used one strand of it so it wouldn't be so bulky, a little more delicate. I taped down the right half of the saffron circle so the top of the card could still tuck into it. Pierced the corners of the red. Put in the brads and ribbon. And put it all together.

But For Now, It's Black and Vanilla

Given the name of my blog, I figured this would be a good card to start with. I love that it has a classic (black and vanilla with a monogram) but fun (butterflies!) look. And here's how I did it:

Stamps: Papertrey Ink's Butterfly Kisses
Ink: Versamark
Paper: Stampin' Up!'s Basic Black and Very Vanilla
Other: SU! detail black embossing powder, American Crafts ribbon, Marvy Uchida giga scalloped oval punch, coluzzle, 1/16th hole punch, Cuttlebug Hippie Chick alphabet die, tiny crystals (unknown source)

I always use an embossing buddy, then I stamped the large butterflies with Versamark and embossed. Then I repeated the process with the small butterflies. I thought the versamark might dry too quickly to do all the butterflies at once. I don't know. I punched the scalloped oval and cut an appropriately sized oval to fit inside it with my Coluzzle. Cut the B with my Cuttlebug and glued it in place. Then I punched the 1/16th inch holes all around the scallops. I added the ribbon and glued down the two sets of crystals. The monogram frame is adhered with dimensionals.