Tagged!

I was tagged by Kirsten, to answer all of the following questions with one word. I've seen this going around, and have dubbed it, in my mind, the "man answer game". Why? It seems like such a guy thing. I feel like I should be grunting my one word answers in a nearly unintelligible, quiet voice. If it were a girl thing. You'd answer, explain, question anyone who may be listening to be sure they understand...Ya know what I mean?

Yourself: Bethany
Your Partner: Josh
Your Hair: blond
Your Mother: capable
Your Father: stern
Your Favorite Item: shoes
Your Dream Last Night: none
Your Favorite Drink: water
Your Dream Car: Lexus Roadster
Dream Home: in it
The Room You Are In: office
Your Fear: snakes
Where You Want to be in Ten Years: with friends
Who You Hung Out With Last Night: Josh
You’re Not: tall
One of Your Wish List Items: furniture
The Last Thing You Did: blog
You Are Wearing: American Eagle
Your Favorite Weather: sunny
Your Favorite Book: Shakespeare
Last Thing You Ate: cereal
Your Life: simple
Your Mood: contented
Your Best Friend: Josh
What Are You Thinking About Right Now: friends
Your Car: Mustang
What Are You Doing At The Moment: this
Relationship Status: married
What Is On Your TV: nothing
What Is The Weather Like: sunny
When Is The Last Time You Laughed: this morning

You see, it's driving me crazy not to tell you that the cereal was Frosted Mini Wheats, that I laughed most recently at my dog as I do several times a day, that I want new OFFICE furniture, and so on. No, not important details. But these are the things that give you the whole picture. So that was my version of "the man answer game".

Now I'll tag: Amy, Tami, Chris, Jen, and Lisa.

Yummy!

I've been wanting this stamp for quite a while, and it finally came in my Eclectic Paperie order yesterday. Isn't it yummy?

I've been having a hard time sitting down to stamp with the weather being so beautiful. It's another hot, sunny day here in Pittsburgh. It's not often that Pittsburghers get to say, "It's another hot, sunny day." Even if it's warm, it's most often cloudy or even rainy, definitely humid. But we've been having phenomenal weather for a while now. So, that's why I haven't been posting so much...I've been enjoying the weather. I think today I'll head over to grandma's (Josh's grandma, actually) to work on her huge flower box. I do it for her every year, and I'm behind schedule this year.

This card came together very quickly. It is pretty simple, after all. The card is 4-1/4 inches square. The designer paper is Stampin' Up's retired Sassy. The Tiers of Treats stamp by Stampendous is done in black StazOn on Papertrey Ink's white card stock (same as card base) and colored with markers. Real red, green galore, barely banana, pretty in pink, pink passion, only orange and bashful blue highlights on the platters. Then the platters were colored in completely with a Glitter Gems Blue Zircon glitter marker by American Crafts. I got it at JoAnn's online. The strawberries and cherries also got a coat of clear glaze pen by Sakura. I can't tell you how much I love these little sentiments by Papertrey Ink, in their Faux Ribbon set. Don't they look so darned perfect in the circle punch, finished off with those swirly stamps? LOVE IT! I added a Making Memories rhinestone brad to the sentiment and SU! red grosgrain ribbon. Simple, but I think cute.

Gotta run now! There's beautiful weather to be enjoyed. I'm sure you're all extra busy with the summer too, so I especially appreciate you stopping by. THANKS!

Thanks Julee! and Some Shopping

Julee Tilman over at Poetic Artistry is so stinkin' talented! I get excited when she pops up on my Google Reader, because I KNOW I'm going to see something awesome. She had a card contest a little while back which I placed in. I received my gift yesterday along with this way-too-cute card. I've been staring at it ever since. There are so many details: dimension, that really soft pink dry embossed bg, lots of *glitter*, and that sweet little doggie...he's cut out and popped on a dimensional, and the inside is even lined with beautiful shimmery paper! Now you know why I can't stop looking at it. I'm also excited about the Crate Word rub-ons, because I've been wanting to try rub-ons. Now they're here just waiting for me. Thanks again Julee!
And here is my May 25th (25% off everything on the 25th of every month...what's a girl to do?) shopping excursion to my local stamp store, Stamp Fanci. They do such a great job of keeping up with what's "cool". They now have Bellas (though they were sold out of the ones I wanted) and My Favorite Things stamps! I have the MFT dog set, Let's Go For A Walk, ordered already, so I bought Say Charge, which you see here.

And you see those Hero Arts birdies...Those were soooo an "Amy made me do it" purchase. I hope I can figure out something original to do with them since she has already done so many cool things.

I bought one, that's right one single sheet of designer paper by Lasting Impressions. I got just a little crazy with the ribbons. And I got these itty, bitty primas, Prima Petites in Flamingo. I'm very excited about them because my other primas sometimes seem too big to add as an afterthought. And I almost always add my accessories at the end, with no pre-planning. Lastly, a couple of A Muse stamps and some almost brown brads by Lasting Impressions.

Happy Friday!

It's Friendship Friday, so I'm sharing a "Happy hello"! These designer papers are all from the Scrapbook Walls line by Chatterbox. I stamped the vase of flowers from Stampin' Up's Sassy Stems in black Versafine on watercolor paper, and watercolored with an aquapainter and classic inks (pumpkin pie, vintage violet, old olive, bashful blue, apricot appeal, sahara sand). The pumpkin pie flower was stamped on a scrap of watercolor paper, cut out and glued down for just a bit of dimension. The flowers were layered on Pumpkin Pie.

The scallops were made with SU's slit punch. I like the big, chunky scallops it makes. The apricot appeal dots (in the scallops) were done with a little circle punch from Mike's dollar bin. I find it easier to get exact placement if I punch the circle and glue it down, rather than just punching the hole in the designer paper and letting the layer beneath show through.

"Happy hello" is from Papertrey's Paper Tray set, done in versamagic eggplant. I found that if you ink your stamp real well and hurry, you can emboss with these inks. "Happy hello" is coated with Irridescent ice ep. I also used a fine tip glue pen to add II EP highlights to the flowers and water. "Happy hello" is punched with the large oval punch from SU, layered on vintage violet and trimmed with Fiskars scalloped scissors. Another tip: when cutting an oval with scalloped scissors, cut all straight lines and just keep moving around the oval. When I try to make one continuous cut around the oval, the scallops don't cut right, there are fringies everywhere, and it's just a mess.

I added a little more bling with the green crystal flower by the sentiment and tiny clear crystals glued down in the flower centers. Finished with bits of Offray ribbon.

What I Used:
Stamps: Stampin' Up! Sassy Stems, Papertrey Ink Paper Tray
Ink: Versafine black, versamagic eggplant, SU! classic pumpkin pie, vintage violet, old olive, bashful blue, apricot appeal, sahara sand
Paper: Papertrey Ink white card stock, SU! watercolor paper, vintage violet, apricot appeal, pumpkin pie, Chatterbox scrapbook walls
Other: Irridescent Ice Embossing Powder, 1/4" circle punch, SU! slit and large oval punches, crystal flower, clear crystals, offray nice and narrow ribbon, fiskars scalloped scissors, dimensional

Stamps for Sale (or Trade)

I just thought I'd mention here that I listed some used stamps for sale or trade on Splitcoast's Buy/sale/trade forum. If you want to take a look, here it is. Feel free to make me an offer if you'd like anything.

Puppy Dreams

I wish I had a tiny bone stamp or brad I could have added to his dream bubble, but I still thought it was pretty cute.

This is for Challenge 4 - Get Punchy at A*Muse*a*Palooza, to use your punches with A Muse stamps. I used my giga scalloped square. I stamped Patch in Timber Brown StazOn on whisper white. Then used an aquapainter to brush bashful blue and sage shadow around him. Whisper White doesn't like to get wet, so I set in under something (my box of prismacolor pencils) to lay flat while drying. I stamped "dream" from SU Good Times in chocolate chip, cut it out with Provocraft small scalloped scissors, and ran my chocolate chip marker along the edges. After the square was dry, I drew the tiny circles from Patch to his dream bubble and adhered the bubble. Then, I pressed the whole thing into my Versamark pad and embossed with clear ep. It intensified the colors just a little, made it a bit sturdier, and of course shiny. I layered all my paper together and added the bow (with mini glue dot) and eyelets.

The goods:
Stamps: A Muse Patch, SU! Good Times
Ink: timber brown stazon, chocolate chip, sage shadow, bashful blue
Paper: whisper white, sage shadow, Paper Salon Harmony: stripe, K & Co. brown and green polka dots
Other: SU! white eyelets, Martha Stewart ribbon, marvy giga scalloped square, provocraft small scallop scissors, clear ep, aquapainter

More Ladybugs

This is the one and only card I got done for Virtual Stamp Night at SplitcoastStampers this past weekend. I was just too busy. The challenge was to use bugs. Well, you couldn't ask for better timing. My Little Lady had just arrived! So here she is, crawling around through the flowers with her little ones.

This tent topper style of card was designed by Michelle Wooderson, and I swear it makes any card so stinkin' cute! I stamped the ladybugs in SU rose red classic and Midnight Black versamagic inks, including the trail behind the large bug. Cut out the little ones. The large bug gets a 1/16" layer of black, then 3/8" celery. Ink only "a happy life is made of" and stamp. Clean your stamp and ink "little things." The dots are from Papertrey's Faux Ribbon. Do the same process with these, inking only the parts you need to stamp each side of the square separately. Put the black brad in and layer on another thin black mat.

The main card is this adorable glossy designer paper by Me & My Big Ideas that I picked up on my excursion to the mega JoAnn's. Layer on 1/16" certainly celery, tie on ribbon (Dashes, Dots & Checks), and layer on rose red. I use my Perfect Layers, because I'm a little obsessive compulsive about layers. I stuck the little bugs on with a mini glue dot and gently folded up the wings of the top one. So she's dimensional and looks like she might be ready to take off. Adhere the top (popped up) piece so that the overall card is no more than 5-1/2".

Yes, somehow I was able to finish a card in less than 45 minutes, as required for the VSN challenge. I am normally such a slow stamper, agonizing over where to put what and in what color.

Black, White &...Red, of course

Choosing the color for today's "Black, White &..." feature was a no brainer, seeing as how my new Papertrey Ink set arrived Friday. It's called Little Lady and is just so darn easy to work with. Nichole Heady is a stamp designing genius, making every element it's own stamp. This works especially well since they are acrylic stamps. You can see right through them and place all the elements together with easy, perfect alignment. Sorry for the ramble, but they're such a joy to work with.

I started by stamping the ladybug (black parts, then red body) and her trail. I re-stamped the trail on the main body of the card so the two would fit together to make one trail. Then I started filling in with red flowers. I put both sizes of flowers on one acrylic block and the stamping went twice as fast. I filled in with some tiny black and red flowers and added the starburst center (from Butterfly Kisses) in black. The starburst center idea came from Debbie Olson in the Papertrey online gallery, I believe. I made a terrible smudge right above the ladybug's head with an inky finger, therefore the dotted ribbon.

What I Used:
Stamps: Papertrey Ink Little Lady and Butterfly Kisses
Ink: Versamagic Red magic and midnight black
Paper: Papertrey white, SU basic black and real red
Other: hole punch, dashes dots and checks ribbon

Celebrating You!

I'm still trying to squeeze in some more challenges this evening. This card is for Beate's sketch challenge. She came up with another great sketch this week.

I wanted to make a girly card to go with this image, so I decided on pink and red, dots and stripes. Champagne girl by Inky Antics was stamped with black Stazon on Whisper white and punched with the Marvy mega circle. This was layered on a real red giga scalloped circle. The striped paper is from a retired Stampin' Up! series called Sassy. The dotted paper I stamped with Simple Shapes in pretty in pink, pink passion, and real red. My champagne chick is colored with markers: pretty in pink, real red, pink passion, barely banana, creamy caramel, blush blossom and the sakura stardust glitter pen. The sentiments were done is basic black with mini casual Karen Foster Snap Stamps. I finished with some doodling (basic black marker and white gel pen) and black grosgrain ribbon.

An A Muse Quickie

Wow! What a busy weekend. Friday, Josh and I went to dinner, and I got home in time to squeeze in ONE VSN card that night. (I'll be sure to share it later.) Saturday I was at my parents all day. And Sunday I went to my Stampin' Up! demonstrator's stamp camp. So, I just now threw together a super quickie for the A*Muse a*palooza Sketch 3 Challenge.

I colored the palm tree (A Muse) with chocolate chip, old olive and garden green markers and stamped. I masked the tree and stamped the large oval (A Muse) with Versamagic Sahara Sand. Punch it out with a mega oval by Marvy. Layer on a giga oval punch of a light blue-green from the Basic Grey Gypsy 6x6 pad. The dotted paper is from the same designer paper pad and the ribbon is Martha Stewart. I finished it with Karen Foster mini casual snap stamps in chocolate chip.

The white card base is the new 110-lb. card stock being offered by Papertrey Ink. It is fabulous! My card is not the least bit flimsy. I totally love it and can't wait to try it out some more.

An ALL DAY card

Why am I so late posting today, you ask. Because this card took me ALL DAY to make! No, it's not that difficult of a card, as you can see. I just had no mojo today. I didn't even want to stamp, but that my friends, is the start of a slump, because I didn't stamp yesterday either.

So I made myself sit at my stamp desk and just started inking up some stamps in different colors to see what they looked like on scrap paper. I would stamp for a little while...SCS...stamp...eat lunch...stamp...blog surf...stamp...well, you get the idea. I finally decided on the Autumn Leaves Swirls and Papertrey Ink Paper Tray flowers you see here in some colors I pulled from a piece of designer paper. I ended up not even using the designer paper, but hey, it got me started.

I also used my new Versamagic inks. Here are a few thoughts I have on those:
1. The lids are rather hard to get on and off. They are brand new though, and I'm hoping they'll wear in a little bit.
2. The ink is FABULOUS. It has such solid coverage. It worked wonderfully with my clear stamps, even the cheap dollar ones I was messing around with earlier.
3. Because the ink is rather thick, the stamp wants to slide on the ultasmooth paper. SU doesn't call it ultrasmooth for nothin' (or at least that's what it used to be called). So you need a somewhat steady hand. Also, be careful not to over-ink your stamp. This will help some.

So here's what I finally ended up with for today's Friendship Friday card: I stamped Swirls in Aloe Vera. I stamped the Paper Tray flowers in Red Magic, Pink Grapefruit, Persimmon and Pumpkin Spice. I doodled the border with SU choc chip marker. This got layered on Rose Red and Certainly Celery. I covered my 6x6 acrylic block with swirl stamps, so I could stamp the background all at once with the Aloe Vera versamagic. Added some matching flowers to the
background. I cut a rose red cuttlebug flower and punched a white circle for the center. During my day long-one card-stamping event, the mailman came. WooHoo! My new Papertrey Ink sets! I was hoping they would arrive, because I had been counting on using this sentiment from Faux Ribbon on my card. Look at how gorgeous that sentiment (Persimmon and Aloe Vera) looks in its little flower center! I added SU Petals and Paisleys polka dotted paper and some orange organdy ribbon by Offray (JoAnn's). I'm so happy to be done, and I like it pretty well. Stamp slump averted!

I plan on trying a least a few of the challenges for Virtual Stamp Night at Splitcoast this weekend, starting tonight. So, hopefully I'll see some of you there. It's fun and stress free. I only do as many challenges as I feel like doing. You don't have to do them all. So now I have to go clean up today's massive stamping mess, so I can start again this evening. Have a happy Friendship Friday!

Featuring: The Cheap Stuff

Yep, today I pulled out my cheap dollar stamps from Michael's. These particular ones are by Kolette Hall. They really are pretty cute. I changed these ones up a good bit for my card today though. You can see the two stamps I used in the picture.

I stamped the flower in the box with Versafine black ink on vanilla card stock. Next, I doodle in the stem and leaves with a waterproof black pen. I colored everything (apricot appeal, certainly celery, close to coco, tempting turquoise) and outlined with tempting turquoise. Then I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp grazie, merci, and thanks in not quite navy in the box. (If I had stamped these first, coloring with markers would have smeared everything.) I layered on close to cocoa, then cuttlebugged Pumpkin pie and Autumn Leaves adhesive mats (Mod). Another layer of cocoa, then a vanilla top-folded card. I finished with accessories: celery grosgrain, two big primas with a brad from Queen & Co., and some Star Dust Stickles on the flower. At Queen & Co., I only see the Big Brads in purple right now, but these Bon Bon Brads look pretty similar.

Product List:
Stamps: Kolette Hall from Michael's $ Bin

Ink: versafine black, markers: celery, apricot, cocoa, turquoise, not quite navy

Paper: vanilla, cocoa, pumpkin, Autumn Leaves Adhesive mats in Mod

Other: Star dust stickles, primas, Queen & Co. brad, Zig Millenium black perm. pen

A Simple Card

Well, I'm not sure how many of you will like this card, since it is so simple, but I was really pleased. I love visually clean, uncomplicated cards like this.

I stamped the acorn first. Then, masking the acorn, stamped the pear on top. Both on SU! watercolor paper with my new Versafine black ink. I shot it with my heat tool, because it is NOT instant drying as it claims to be, but it does make a beautiful impression. I watercolored with my aquapainter and these inks: so saffron, certainly celery, old olive, garden green, creamy caramel, choc chip, ruby red. I added just a bit of darkness with my choc chip maker at the end. I layered on chocolate chip, Basic Grey Urban Couture, and very vanilla. Rounded the corners and stamped "thank you" from Take Three using choc chip. I love the small, block-like words from Take Three, and they're easy to ink up without the images.

Hmmm...I was just thinking...I'm not sure that pears get red, just apples. Oh well, consider it artistic license.

What I used:
Stamps: All Natural, Take Three
Ink: Versafine black, choc chip marker, for watercoloring: saffron, celery, olive, garden green, choc chip, caramel, ruby
Paper: vanilla, choc chip, watercolor, Basic Grey Urban Couture
Other: aquapainter, ek success corner rounder

Candy Winners

Hello! Thank you all so much for entering my blog candy give away. TONS of you said not to bother buying a paper crafting magazine, just surf SCS and the blogs. Yep, I do that already, and I love it. I sort of want the reading material as much as the ideas, something to curl up on the couch with.

Here's what I learned from reading your comments:

1. You ladies LOVE your PaperCrafts.

2. There are A LOT of paper crafting magazines out there! I got recommendations to 17 different mags.

3. Cheryl has found an awesome deal for PaperCrafts, which I'll be taking advantage of. Her comment:

"I like Paper Crafts also. I don't subscribe to it because my sister does. I just read hers and save my money for supplies. The best deal for Paper Crafts that I have found, you can get through Ebates (http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?id=24202062) which is free to sign up for. Then if you go to Magazines.com through Ebates, you can get 8 Paper Craft issues for $11.92 and get $2.62 cashback on your Ebates account AND Ebates will credit your account for $5 when you place your first order through them. So really, you are getting 8 issues of Paper Crafts for only $4.30!I have you in my favorites so I will definitely be back to check out your artwork.

I used random.org to pick a winner of the blog candy.

And the winner is: Adelina, who said: "Happy Anniversary! I really like all the cards that you have on your blog. I check it often and enjoy your ideas. I subscribe to Creating Keepsakes because I really like Ali Edwards. Her ideas work great for cardmaking and scrapbooking."

Adelina, send me an email with your mailing address and I'll get this right to you.

Also, Cheryl, I'd love to send you a little thank you package for your great idea. Email me with your address and I'll send you a few goodies. I had in mind primas, ribbon, etc.

Thanks again. I stalked Papertrey Ink last night to buy the new release Little Lady, along with a few other goodies. Now I have to go back to browsing today's Dirty Dozen unveiling. Have you seen the new designers? They ROCK!

I Cheated a Bit

Today is "Black, White &..." Day, but I used black, vanilla and bordering blue. Sorry, no white. I wanted to use this paper by Me & My Big Ideas, so I had to use vanilla to match. This paper is so pretty. It's actually glossy and has a different pattern on the back in the opposite colors.

This card was done for yesterday's Featured Stamper Challenge on Splitcoast. The featured stamper was Candy Williams. I chose to case this card by Candy. I used my Butterfly Kisses set by Papertrey. What do you think of my hand drawn antennae? I was pretty excited that they look decent, because my lack of artistry skills makes even that a challenge. I bent the words "Thank you" from the Paper Tray set to start the butterfly trail, then finished with dots off the page. A couple of bordering blue eyelets and some black grosgrain complete the card. This came together really quickly, and I think it's sort of elegant.

What I used:
Stamps: Papertrey Ink's Butterfly Kisses and Paper Tray
Ink: Versafine black, bordering blue classic
Paper: Very vanilla, basic black, bordering blue, Me & My Big Ideas LaJolla
Other: SU! black grosgrain ribbon and bordering blue eyelets, Zig Millennium Waterproof pen in Pure black

So, how many of you will be with me stalking tonight's midnight release of the new Papertrey Ink stamp set? It looks so awesome based on the sneak previews Nichole's been giving over at {capture the moment}.

Today's your last day to get in the drawing for my blog candy. I'll pick a random winner tomorrow morning. Thanks to all of you who have commented already.

Beate's Sketch

Go here for my blog candy until Tuesday morning.

I made this card for Beate's Big Deal Sketch Challenge. Can you believe she's already at 200,00 hits?!? You go girl!

The card is 5-1/2 inches square. Both designer papers are from Basic Grey's Urban Couture line. The palm tree is on SU! watercolor paper with Versafine Black. It's colored with an aquapainter and inks (celery, olive, garden green, brocade blue, close to cocoa, choc chip). The three cut outs are colored with markers (garden green, banana, caramel, olive, bordering blue). I gave my VersaMagic dew drop chalk inks their first mini trial too, on the acrylic Papertrey sentiment. LOVELY! The three brads were smooshed into TimberBrown Stazon and heat set. They look pretty decent for a quick fix. I use so much brown, I may as well just invest in some brown brads though.

Do you ever use bordering blue? I don't, and I don't know why. I really love the color. This may become a new fave. We'll see.

A little tip: When working with some ribbons (like this ricrac), if I don't want to tuck the ends under a layer of card stock, I'll LIGHTLY singe the ends to keep them from fraying. I have not tried this on all ribbon, so be very careful. But I have done this to the ricrac on this card and some velvet ribbon in the past. Works quite nicely.

The details:
Stamps: SU! Balmy Breezes, Papertrey Paper Tray
Ink: Versafine black, Jumbo Java Versamagic, timberbrown stazon, all of above mentioned inks and markers for coloring
Paper: bordering blue, choc chip, SU! watercolor, Basic Grey Urban Couture
Other: dimensionals, aquapainter, silver brads, JoAnn's brown ricrac, word window punch

My Shopping Trip!

If you're looking for my blog candy, go here.

Back to your regularly scheduled post:

Oh my gosh! Have you ever been to a Super JoAnn's? Well, apparently not all JoAnn's are created equal. I don't go to JoAnn's a whole lot. It's not very close for me, and they don't have very much, esp. anything different than the closer Michael's has. I saw something in JoAnn's flier, but then it wasn't at the store. They sent me to a different JoAnn's, a "super JoAnn's", or whatever they call it. I got lost in the store it was so big. It took me 15 minutes just to find the paper crafting department. I was so excited that I went a little crazy.

I sure hope I like these VersaMagic inks, because I bought EVERY color. This is not like me. I take my purchases seriously. I don't like extra junk laying around my house. So I don't like to buy something spur of the moment. I see something. I think about it. I go back to the store to buy it. I decide that I'm still not sure. FINALLY, I end up buying it on the third or so go round. But this was so overwhelming. I bought all the aforementioned inks, a new easy-to-use corner rounder, the famous Mono Multi glue of which I have heard so much and the 5 for a $1 sale designer papers. I could barely carry it all. Never did I dream upon entering the store that I (the non-purchaser) would be buying all this. But it was so much fun!

So, you see the two sheets of paper on the right. They're by Me & My Big Ideas. They're kind of thick and glossy, a totally new concept to me...glossy designer papers. So I'm pretty excited to give them a whirl.

Well, if you made it this far, thanks for letting me get out my excitement. As much as he tries to be happy with me, Josh (husband) really doesn't understand or care. I'll have more cards next time.

Yeah! A Color Match!

Would you believe how perfectly these papers and ribbon match? I was rather euphoric upon this discovery. This ribbon is the only thing I've bought so far from Martha Stewart's new paper crafting line at Michaels. It was also probably the cheapest thing in her line, which explains why it was kind of disappointing to work with. It's called piped nylon, and it's kind of stiff and wants to curl and twist. I still think it was worth it though, because it is just so pretty. I bought it even knowing that the gorgeous color wouldn't match any of my Stampin' Up! paper. I did find this EK Success designer paper in my stash though. Turns out it matches the ribbon perfectly. What you see is two sides of the same sheet of paper. The only other thing I did to the card is one (sort of) stamp and colored with Cool Caribbean using my aquapainter. I say sort of one stamp, because I mixed the sentiment from one stamp with the images from another stamp, both from SU! Take Three.

Supplies:

Stamps: SU! Take Three

Ink: Timber Brown Stazon, cool caribbean

Paper: Very vanilla, choc chip, EK Success Mint Espresso Dotty Flowers/Mini Dots

Other: Martha Stewart piped nylon ribbon, mini glue dots

Thanks for stopping by on Friendship Friday. I know I say it every week, but thanks to all my friends. You are so appreciated!

If you haven't signed up for blog candy yet, it is in this post. I don't know how to make it stay at the top of my blog.

Happy Anniversary To Me!

And "THANK YOU" to you! Today is my one month blogging anniversary. I'm so glad I started blogging a month ago. It's given me a little bit of focus for my stamping, a reason to stamp, a place to share just a little bit more of me and my creations than at Splitcoast.

I feel like I've joined a fabulously friendly community. Bloggers really band together, don't they? And I have so much appreciation for my readers and especially those of you who leave comments. You all ROCK! And so, I'm giving away my first blog candy to celebrate my anniversary and your kindness.

You'll get this thank you card and the stamp set pictured here. It's by See-D's. There are 23 die-cut rubber stamps on two (approx. 4.5" x 5.5") sheets of rubber. So, these are pretty big stamps. It even includes a CD-type storage case. I was kind of excited when I saw these in the store today. And they're even a fun, beachy theme for the upcoming summer. The stamps can just get stuck (I use temp. two-sided sticky tape) right to an acrylic block or you could mount them on cling foam.

How can you win? I'm thinking of subscribing to a stamping / card making magazine. Give me your recommendation. What do you like to read, whether you subscribe or just pick it up at the store? Thanks for visiting during this first month of blogging. It's not required, but if you'd like, let me know what you like, dislike (kindly please), might improve, etc. about my blog. I'll pick a random winner from your comments sometime on Tuesday, probably in the morning.

Here are some details on this card. I finally bought my Versafine black ink pad. And I really do like it a lot better than StazOn for stamping on paper. It's more crisp, darker, and stays wet on your stamp longer. I stamped these poppies by Stampendous, then colored them with markers, including a sahara sand shadow and bashful blue outline. I also edged them with my Sakura gelly roll glitter pen. The papers are from the Dutch Girl line by Crate Paper, as well as basic black and ruby red. The "thank you" and the polka dots on the thank you are from the Paper Tray set by Papertrey Ink (see link on right). "Thank you" is layered on the back of the red Crate Paper, then on a ruby red 1 3/8" circle with white dots from the signo white gel pen. I finished with some paper piercing in the top right corner.

Supplies:
Stamps: Stampendous, Papertrey Ink
Ink: versafine black, sage shadow, markers: real red, ruby red, mellow moss, sage shadow, sahara sand, bashful blue
Paper: Dutch Girl by Crate Paper, basic black, ruby red, whisper white
Other: paper piercer, circle punch, sakura glaze pen, signo white gel pen

A Day Late

I didn't stop working around the house all day yesterday. So I'm a day late with this week's Featured Stamps. Since there's lots going on with Amuseapalooza right now, it seems like a good time to feature A Muse stamps. I only own a few, but they are just so cute! Here is the A Muse site. And here is a*muse*a*palooza. Lots of fun stuff going on for the next several weeks.

Here, I embossed the bride and groom with detail black ep and colored the bride's dress and veil with star dust Stickles. The sentiment is from SU! Mini Mates.

Supplies:
Stamps: A Muse bride and groom, SU! Mini Mates
Ink: versamark, black stazon, pretty in pink
Paper: whisper white, brushed silver
Other: cuttlebug embossing folder, light pink organdy ribbon, silver cord, sliver brads, sponge, star dust Stickles, dimensionals


Here's another card I made a while back with A Muse stamps. Isn't Patch just so cute?

Stamps: A Muse palm tree, large oval and Patch, Karen Foster mini casual snap stamps
Ink: timber brown stazon, close to cocoa, creamy caramel, old olive, garden green
Paper: Whisper white, cool caribbean
Other: Sweet and Sassy Ribbon

Julee's Sketch

I did this card for Julee Tilman's card contest seen here. All you have to do is use the card sketch she provides. Go check it out.

I made my card using all papers from Basic Grey's Gypsy paper pad and solids from Stampin' Up! I colored this sentiment from Alphabet Soup with markers, huffed and stamped. Then dotted the exclamation point with a brad I had coated in copper ep. The white mega circle is layered on the patterened giga scalloped circle which is, in turn, layered on close to cocoa cut with my coluzzle. Otherwise the papers blended together a little too much. I used my paper piercer and faux stitched with a chocolate chip marker. The straight scalloped trim was cut with Fiskars scissors. The big brads I think may have actually been those things from the office supply section made to hold papers together. I don't know...are they called brads too? But they were rather brassy, so they got coated in copper ep too.

The stuff:
Stamps: Alphabet Soup
Ink: all markers: regal rose, ballet blue, real red, green galore, pumpkin pie, chocolate chip
Paper: close to cocoa, whisper white, basic grey gypsy
Other: mega circle and giga scalloped circle punches by Marvy Uchida, paper piercer, coluzzle, copper embossing powder, copper cord, SU! silver brad, office supply brads, fiskars scalloped scissors, dimensionals

Black, White & So Saffron

Hello! I'm much later today than I had planned, because I had a minor computer malfunction. I think I've got it all fixed now.

So, how was your weekend? Josh (my husband) and I and some friends tried a new restaurant called El Campesino. It's authentic Mexican, and based on the website, it must just be a local thing. It was pretty good and some of us even got free t-shirts (WooHoo, huh? But I love free stuff). I guess because it was Cinco de Mayo.

For today's "Black, White & ..." combo, I added So Saffron. I think it's a really classy look. I stamped the Stampendous flower with black detail ep and colored with three shades of prismacolor pencils and gamsol. The gamsol seemed to break down the embossing as well though, so I had to be careful. I probably won't combine the two in the future. All the stamping is done in black ep and I added a few rhinestones to the flower, swirls, and sentiment.

The goods:

Stamps: stampendous flower, hero arts sentiment, rhonna farrrer swirls

Ink: versamark

Paper: whisper white, basic black, petals and paisleys

Other: detail black embossing powder, rhinestones, dashes dots and checks ribbon, dimensionals

Friendship Friday

Woman's Best Friend? So I was thinking about what to do for today's Friendship Friday card and "man's best friend" came to mind. But for every couple I know with a dog, the woman is far more attached and loving to the dog. So today's card is devoted to "woman's best friend", the dog.

Here I stamped Butterfly Surprise by Penny Black on SU! watercolor paper using black stazon. I used my aquapainter and stamp pad ink to watercolor him, including a little grass under his feet. I went back with a few markers for darker color on the butterfly and collar and outlined the whole dog with bashful blue. His tag got a dot from my silver Zig Painty.

The stazon was very light so I colored over the black with my black marker too. I'm going to have to get a Versafine black and see if it does better on watercolor paper.

The 'faux eyelets' that you see on the scallops I discovered on Jen del Muro's blog. Poke a hole and color around it with a white gel pen, or in this case, a zig painty. That zig painty got a real workout today, as I also used it to do all the doodling. The background was done with Rhonna Farrer Swirls and for "woof" I used my mini casual snap stamps.

The Goods:
Stamps: Butterfly Surprise by Penny Black, karen foster mini casual snap stamps, rhonna farrer swirls
Ink: black stazon, for watercoloring: garden green, old olive, bashful blue, going gray, real red, pretty in pink, ballet blue; markers: real red, brocade blue, bashful blue
Paper: black, ballet blue, bashful blue, watercolor, SU pool party designer paper
Other: aquapainter, zig painty, ticket corner punch, provocraft scallop scissors, SU! gingham ribbon, paper piercer, dimensionals

I often use dark card stock as a base, so here's a quick shot of what I do inside. Layer a lighter color inside so you can write your message. I like to pretty it up just a bit with a couple layers and one quick light colored stamp. And if I know what I'll be using the card for, I add a stamped sentiment too.

Have a great Friendship Friday and weekend, and give your dog a hug from me.

When I was finished with this post, I went downstairs and found this. Since today's post was devoted to "woman's best friend", I snapped a pic of Buster and am sharing with y'all. Isn't he the sweetest thing? He's just so hard to photograph though, because he's so dark.

My Last Sheet!!!

I cut into my last sheet of Pink Passion to make this card. I don't know that I can handle being basically out of any color of SU! paper. It's a paper emergency! I'll have to call up my demo in the morn. (I'm writing this late Wednesday night.)

A Note on Yesterday's Post: Malissa asked how to do the sentiment tag from yesterday's Butterfly Kisses card. I had the link to Asela's directions, but sometime during my editing it disappeared. I've now put it back though. So you can click on Asela's name in the above post and see her fab directions with pictures and all. Sorry about that.

I received these cute little mice in an image exchange a while back. I found them yesterday while rummaging through my stampin' stuff. The stamp is by House Mouse, and you can see it here. I colored them with my newly beloved Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I used three shades of green, a hot pink, and a yellowy-apricot for the tulips, then a brown and pale pink for the mice. I think it's important to use several shades of the same color to get more depth.

The sentiment is actually two parts: the circle is a Mike's dollar stamp, and the flowers in the center are from a Mike's dollar clear stamp set. The circle is stamped in black stazon, the flowers in lime pastel and orchid pastel Colorbox Chalk inks (the queue). The black swirl is Autumn Leaves by Rhonna Farrer from, get this, Walmart. Now I'm not a huge Walmart fan, but if I can get Rhonna Farrer stamps for less than ten bucks, I'm there! I used a sponge and pixie pink ink to shade around the mice and finished with piercing and a wee bit o' ribbon.

The Stuff:

Stamps: House Mouse, Mike's, Rhonna Farrer Swirls

Ink: Black stazon, pixie pink, colorbox fluid chalk in lime pastel and orchid pastel

Paper: Pink passion, gable green, whisper white, basic black

Other: Mike's ribbon on the wooden spool, coluzzle, paper piercer and template, sponge, prismacolor pencils and gamsol

Featuring: Papertrey Ink

Today's featured stamp company is Papertrey Ink. Here's the website, and Nichole's blog. Nichole is one of three partners in the company. Papertrey releases one new stamp set a month (plus the occasional special release) on the 15th of the month. And they keep selling out more and more quickly. I didn't think I needed the March release, Green Thumb. Oh was I wrong. And now it's still on back order. I'm already so anxious for the next release, and I have over two weeks to wait.

I used last week's sketch challenge to make this card with Papertrey's second release, Butterfly Kisses. I ordered it (like any crazed fanatic) at Midnight as it was released. And it's a good thing too, because, like I said, it sold out and was back ordered for a while too.

I'm really loving working with these acrylic stamps. You can see right where your image is going. I've ruined many a card with a crooked sentiment after everything else was done. Not so with these acrylic stamps.

I stamped the butterflies with timber brown stazon and colored with markers (celery, turquoise, apricot). The turquoise dots also got dabs of Star Dust Stickles for some glitz. I ran the celery thru my Bloom Dots cuttlebug embossing folder and stamped the turquoise layer with Paisley in Close to Cocoa. The apricot appeal for the sentiment was cut using Asela Hopkin's great idea with the biggest scalloped square punch. I added gold eyeltes and brads and some dark brown gingham ribbon from JoAnn's to finish it off.

The stuff:
Stamps: Butterfly Kisses by Papertrey Ink
Paper: chocolate chip, tempting, turquoise, certainly celery, apricot appeal, whisper white
Ink: timber brown stazon, close to cocoa, markers: turquoise, celery, apricot
Other: gold brads and eyelets, brown gingham ribbon from JoAnn's, SU! ticket corner punch, Marvy giga scallop square punch, xacto knife, cropodile, star dust stickles

That's it for today. If you haven't already been there, RUN to Papertrey Ink's gorgeous site!