A True Friend

Hello! I've actually got a card for you today. It's been a pretty rough week. Hopefully I'll be able to post more frequently next week. Today's card is for A*Muse*A*Palooza's Challenge #6, to use heat embossing. The sentiment and all of the stamped flowers are done in black embossing powder. The top red flower, by the sentiment, is also covered in Star Dust Stickles. To even out the design a bit, I pierced along the large flower on the bottom left. A very quick card.

I used:
Stamps: A Muse flower and sentiment
Ink: versamark, markers: real red, bashful blue
Paper: Papertrey Ink white, SU! real red and bashful blue, DCWV Star Posies
Other: detail black embossing powder, dimensionals, star dust stickles, paper piercer, american crafts ribbon

Using the "Other" Stamps

I finally got some gorgeous My Favorite Things stamps. This card uses the Say Charge set. I wanted to make a card that didn't focus on the large main image that comes in most of the sets. I love the large image. It's gorgeous, but I also want to use the "other" stamps. So here we are with the sentiment and purses.

It's all pretty self-explanatory, execpt maybe the tabs and purses. The purses were each stamped on white and cut out. Then the bodies of the purses (not handles) were stamped on designer paper, cut out, and layered on top of the white cut outs. The tabs: the half-inch circle didn't look quite big enough, so I used the slit punch. I punched right on the edge of a piece of scrap paper, so that I would just have a loose half circle. I glued it on top of the sentiment layer and added rhinestone brads.

Ingredients:
Stamps: My Favorite Things Say Charge
Ink: Versamagic black
Paper: Pixie pink, certainly celery, Papertrey Ink white, Memory Box ring toss and cherry blossom
Other: SU! slit punch, dimensionals, ribbon from Walmart, making memories rhinestone brads

I also got my first blogger's RAK! Isn't it so cute? I LOVE the felt rick rack and how the green is up on dimensionals with the cut outs for the frogs. It's from Shannon at Hoppy Creations. Thank you! I love it! Definitely stop by and check out her really cute stuff.

Have a fabulous Friendship Friday! Now, I have to clean the house to have the in-laws over for dinner tomorrow.

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!

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.

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.

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

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!

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.