6/26 Magnetic Note Box Makeover

I got this magnetic note box to put on the side of your refrigerator for a quarter at a garage sale this spring. There was a cute/country kind of image on the front . . . so not me, but I knew it had potential for a remake.

I cut a piece of glossy white cardstock and brayered it all over with Barely Banana. Then, I brayered it Pumpkin Pie through the bottom and middle. My last step to prep my background was to sponge some Really Rust along the bottom. This technique is called Brayered Sky. It makes the most beautiful backgrounds and you can use a lot of different colors . . . but I tend to the oranges. I guess I like sunsets.

The set I used is called Wild Fowl. It's a retired SU set that I purchased to make cards for my dad. He is an avid duck hunter! I will be reminded of him every time I add something to my grocery list. This will go in my kitchen for now and maybe eventually to our cabin in WI. It will fit in well with our north woods/nature theme. Oh, and by the way, this remake came about because the challenge at SCS today for Ways to Use It was to find a way to use birds.

Supplies I used:

Stamps: Wild Fowl
Paper: Glossy White, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Barely Banana, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust, Basic Brown
Accessories: Photo Corner Punch, non SU ribbon

6/25 KW Color Inspiration Challenge

WOW! What totally awesome colors . . . and Kristina Werner challenged us to incorporate them into a card!! And, I did! These are the colors she challenged us to use: Purely Pomegranate, Regal Rose, River Rock, Wild Wasabi, and Whisper White.

I knew I had some designer paper floating around that would be a great match for what I had in mind. The paper is from a 6"x6" pack called Perhaps by Basic Grey. I found every one of the colors represented in the two sheets I used. Then, it was just a matter of coming up with a design. For that I turned to the sketch challenge at SCS.

I am thrilled with the way this card turned out. I used my Cuttlebug and Vintage dies to make the corner accents as well at the antennae on the butterfly. To give the card a little more of an elegant feel, I took a piece of vellum, tore it an angle and sponged Wild Wasabi onto it to tint it green. All of the stamps that I used on this card are retired, but I didn't have to dig far. Just yesterday I had Nature's Secrets out and was browsing the gallery over at SCS to see what would inspire me. I am glad I stumbled across Kristina's blog this morning. It pepped me up quicker than a cup of coffee!! You can be sure that I'll be exploring more of her color challenges in the future!

Supplies I used to create this card:

Stamps: All Retired SU: Nature's Secret, Hand Stitched Background on WW panel behind the butterfly image.
Paper: River Rock Textured for the card base, Wild Wasabi, Purely Pomegranate, Whisper White, Perhaps 6x6 paper pad from Basic Grey, Vellum
Ink: Wild Wasabi
Accessories: Cuttleug with Vintage Dies, Dimensionals, Sponge

6/24 It's All About Being Inspired

Look at this Pier One advertisement that Great Swaps Girls Blog posted as our Inspiration Piece! Isn't it awesome!! Of course, I am sure I wasn't the only one to immediately think of the cute little set in our Mini Catty called Tart & Tangy. It would be perfect . . . except there is one problem as far as I am concerned . . . I don't OWN Tart & Tangy!!! Whaaa!!! I KNOW you are surprised as it seems like I own A LOT of sets and those of you who have been to my office KNOW that I do!! But, alas, Tart & Tangy is not one of them. So . . . I must try to find inspiration on a deeper level. (Well, not so deep really, but it sounded good.)

Looking just a bit deeper, I found myself being drawn to the flower plates. I also noticed the red bird and thought . . . hmmm . . . I think I have and idea! So, off to stamp I went. I came up with the card above and I LOVE it. I started with a base of Yo Yo Yellow, taking my inspiration directly from the wall. Then, I stamped the flowers over a 1/2 sheet of Whisper White randomly. (Using a 1/2 sheet, gave me enough flowers to create three cards in total.) I colored the flowers with my aqua painter using Summer Sun, Only Orange and Real Red re-inker. Then, using my Coluzzle, I just cut my "plate" out, edged it with my marker and ta-da! To give it a little more interest, I colored the flower centers black with my SU black journaler, and put little dots of three all over the surface of the plate. I flipped the marker over and using the bold point, dotted some more around the outside of the plate. I even found a spot for the little red birdie!! Thanks for stopping by my blog and have a happy day!

Supplies I used to create this card:

Stamps: Spring Solitude Paper: Yo Yo Yellow, Whisper White Ink: Basic Black, Real Red, Only Orange, Summer Sun Accessories: Black Journaler, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Coluzzle

6/23 Fresh Cuts in Wasabi

This is one of the cards I made for a Fresh Cuts class that I had a couple of weeks ago. I modified it just a bit . . . you can see the original HERE. Kelly Lunceford is a fabulous stamp artist and I have quite a few of her cards saved to my favorites! I kept the colors the same, added a couple more punches, eliminated a couple of layers and the brads. I really like how it turned out, my customers thought it looked very "fresh!" If you would like to take a stroll through Kelly's blog, you can find it HERE. Kelly is a Great Swaps Girl, too. I feel faint just thinking that someday I might possibly get a swap card from her!

Supplies I used to create this card:

Stamps: Fresh Cuts
Paper: Wild Wasabi, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Wild Wasabi, Basic Black
Accessories: Wild Wasabi Double Stitched Ribbon, Large Oval Punch, Key Tag Punch, Corner Rounder, Dimensionals

6/20 Beate's WSC53

Beate's blog called Fresh and Fun has been such an inspiration to me and recently I started participating in some of her challenges. Today, I found out that she is going to take a little summer break from stamping so this will be her last challenge until mid-August. I was happy to play and tried to pick some fresh, fun and summery colors in honor of Beate. I picked Bali Breeze Designer Paper to work with along with a card stock base of Barely Banana. I really like how this card turned out. It is sized to fit into the small open end envelopes that SU sells.

Supplies I used to create this card:

Stamps: Polka Dots and Paisley Paper: Barely Banana, Bali Breeze DP Ink: Barely Banana, Taken with Teal Accessories: Earth Elements Brad, non SU flowers

Oh, summer days - welcome to Minnesota. White puffy clouds in a pool blue sky. I can't wait to get outside. Maybe I can talk the girls into a round of golf! Have a happy afternoon!

6/19 Clean & Simple

Here is a Great Swaps Girls Featured Stamper card. Becky Carafa is know for her clean and simple style. You can read about her HERE at the Great Swaps Blog. I loved the card she made with the set called I'm Here. You can check out the card HERE. I kept the layout the same but I changed up the colors. I also made it super quick and easy by using some Jersey Shore designer paper that already had the stripes in it. I paper pieced the birdie with a little bit of designer paper.

Supplies I used to creat this card:

Stamps: A Little Birdie Told Me
Paper: Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, Jersey Shore DP
Ink: StazOn Black
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie Striped Grosgrain, Glue Dot, Dimensionals

6/18 Garden Party Cake

Isn't that cake just totally divine? It was Beate's Inspiration Challenge. I felt like it was a wedding cake at first . . . must have been the three tiers, but then, the longer I looked at it, the more it looked to me to be a party cake for almost any kind of celebration. I think I would use it for a garden party. I love the tiny cherries piped in the center surrounded by red frosting ric rak!

Well, I decided to go with the flow and find a cake to stamp. I remembered an old retired set called Sweet Treats that I just love. I've used the ice cream cone and the birthday cake fairly often, but I've hardly ever and maybe have never used the wedding cake stamp. So today was the day!

I wasn't sure at first if I should even post this . . . I was getting that "it's a flop feeling" that I repeatedly ignored. And then, realizing that I'd worked on it for a good long while . . . I couldn't just chuck it. Normally, I chuck stuff fairly quickly - ten minutes here or there into the wastebasket isn't a big deal. But after an hour, you feel like you're too far into the card to go back. Oh well . . . tomorrow is another day!!

Supplies I used to create this card:

Stamps: Sweet Treats, Everyday Flexible Phrases, Polka Dots and Paisley
Paper: Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Real Red, Cherry patterned paper from the Paper Patch that I found in my "stash."
Ink: Basic Black, Real Red
Accessories: Ric Rak, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Markers, Dimensionals

6/17 Three Set Card

I took the GSG challenge and made a retiring sets card in today's SCS color challenge of Kraft, Soft Sky and Basic Black. I love this combination of colors, but don't know that I would have ever come up with it on my own. I pulled three soon to be retired sets to create this card. The flowers are from Office Accoutrement, the sentiment from It's Your Birthday and the corner decorations are from the solid flower in the Polka Dots and Paisley set. I am most proud of my corners as I wasn't sure how it would turn out . . . would it be an enhancement? or a detraction? The corners just "needed" something and I think it turned out just fine. Yeah!

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Supplies I used to create this card:

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Stamps: Office Accoutrement, It's Your Birthday, Polka Dots and Paisley

Paper: Basic Black, Kraft, Soft Sky

Ink: Versa Mark, Basic Black Craft

Accessories: Black Journaler, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Vintage Brad, Dimensionals, Coluzzle, Black Embossing Powder, Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Gun

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My kids recently wrecked their digital camera . . . not the best timing since they are hard at work on their 4-H photography projects. I'm not much into letting them borrow mine so off we went to the camera store today. All three of them are totally into saving their money so they didn't even have to borrow from mom to purchase a new one. But, we took a step in a different direction today. For years we have used only Cannon cameras, but today, we purchased an Olympus Stylus camera because it can take a beating! They had a heads up with this one when their aunt and uncle recently purchased one and after checking it out, decided they wanted one, too. It's not only drop proof, it's waterproof too . . . they tried it out in the sink immediately. I couldn't bear to look, but I guess it turned out just fine . . . at least it's still working! It even takes the cold . . . important when you are on a snowmobiling trip with dad. I'm anxious to check it out myself . . . if they let me borrow it. So far, not!

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Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

6/12 Summertime!

Summertime . . . . well, it's about time!! We've had a long, cool spring. I'm ready for some heat around here!! (You know the kind - it's so hot that you have to stay inside and stamp!) Today, I stamped some homemade lemonade! My grandma used to make this for my brother and me when we were kids. She spent her winters in Florida and would always bring a big box of lemons home to Minnesota with her. A delicious memory that I savor! This SU image is from a long retired set called Simply Summer.

I stamped this lemonade card because of a challenge that was issued on the Great Swaps Girls blog. This challenge was to case a card from Featured Stamper Vickie Waugh. I was drawn to THIS CARD from Vickie's SCS gallery. I love round cards . . . but, I like my cards to easily stand up, too. Not so easy with a round card. So, I took the idea of the round card and put it into a square card. You still get the round feeling . . . but it's easy to display!

Supplies I used to create this card:

Stamps: Simply Summer (retired)
Paper: Ballet Blue, Basic Black, Patterned Paper from my "Stash", Whisper White
Ink: StazOn Black, Barely Banana, More Mustard, Ballet Blue, Bashful Blue
Accessories: Soft Subtles Brads, Black Grosgrain, Corner Punch from All Night Media, Coluzzle to cut the circles, Marvy Circle Punch for the black circle just a tiny bit bigger than the white circle, Aqua Painter

6/11 Be Inspired Challenge Card

I love inspiration challenges. Pictured on the left is a pillow from Coldwater Creek that Beate posted her blog called Fresh and Fun. We were to take our inspiration from this pillow.

I immediately knew that I wanted to used my textured black card stock. But, hmmm, what stamp set?? I decided to forgo the stamp sets altogether and pulled out my pack of Eastern Elegance Rub Ons. The nice thing about Rub Ons is that they make very FAST cards, but they are not so easy to duplicate because once you use a rub on . . . it's gone - and then you have to purchase a whole new pack to make another card just like it!
To spice up this card, I added some half-back pearls from the Pretties Kit. I attached the pearls with mini glue dots. Super easy peasy! This card took all of ten minutes to make from start to finish!!

Supplies:

Stamps: NONE!! Paper: Whisper White, Textured Black Ink: NONE! Accessories: Eastern Elegance Rub Ons, Pretties Kit

6/11 Super Star Card

I decided to make a chipboard card today. I was cleaning my office recently and came across some chipboard that I purchased last fall - On Board Garland Greetings. It has some great star images in it that I thought I could just for some 4th of July cards or for some Congratulations cards. This is what I came up with.

My card stock base is a little bigger. This card is 4 1/2" x 5 1/2" and fits into an A-6 envelope. It's a very simple card to make. I sanded the bumps off the chipboard with my block file from SU. To get the bumps off of the inside of the the outline star, I used a regular nail file and it worked just fine. I colored the stars with craft ink: Whisper White and Real Red. I let it dry naturally, but had I been in a hurry, I would have taken a heat gun to it. The corners are from
the photo corner punch. The ribbon is from Michael's. The button from my "stash."

Adhesives are so important to the paper crafter and you really do need several kinds to make your projects come together easily. For example in this project, the outline star is adhered with Mono Multi Glue. The red star is stuck on with a pop up glue dot. The button is adhered with a piece of sticky tape. Other adhesives I keep handy in my drawer are mini glue dots, a two-way glue pen, dimensionals, 3M foam tape, double stick tape and regular old scotch tape.

Supplies I used to create this card:

Stamps: Everyday Flexible Phrases for the " * ", Amazing to Zany
Paper: Brilliant Blue, Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Craft White, Craft Real Red, Brilliant Blue
Accessories: Chip Board from On Board Garland Greetings, Button, Ribbon, Photo Corner Punch

6/10 So Much Fun!

It's so much fun to use my Crimper!! I am always amazed at what a challenge will get me to use . . . and today it was my Crimper. I knew where it was, I knew I would need to dust it off . . . but like riding a bike . . . I hadn't forgotten how to use it! lol!

Here are the supplies I used to create this card using a Crimper for a Great Swaps Girls Challenge:

Stamps: So Much, All In a Row Paper: Kraft, Real Red, Blue Bayou, Naturals Ivory Ink: Real Red Accessories: Crimper, Real Red Grosgrain Ribbon, Photo Corner Punch, Crop a Dial, Large Pewter Eyelets, Rhinestone Brads, Sponge Dauber, Real Red Marker

My life has been crazy lately . . . thus the lack of posts . . . I think we are over the worst of it though, and I'm looking forward to actively stamping for several days to come. I have decided that the end of May/beginning of June is every bit as busy as Christmas for our family. We are going here, there and everywhere as well as doing a little entertaining on top of it! But, I'm seeing the light - today we only have Jr Golf League, Ballet, Ballet again, and Ladies Golf League this evening. Next week we'll throw piano into the Tuesday mix and and then I might not have as much time to stamp . . . but maybe if I get up earlier. Staying up later is just not an option. I am SOOOO not a night person!

6/4 Dreams

This is the latest Great Swaps Girls Sketch Challenge. I decided to use the Live Your Dream stamp set. This set has three flowers all in a row that worked perfectly in the lower right hand corner of the card.



I love silhouette looks so that is why I decided to stamp the flowers in Chocolate Chip in a Coluzzle Oval. I then ovaled out the next Coluzzle Oval size and using my SU corner rounder, I just cut out a scalloped edge all around the oval. This makes the chocolate oval mat much more interesting. I have no idea how I got those scallops to work out so perfectly - I'm sure that will never happen again! lol! I accented each scallop with a dot of white from my SU gel pen. I popped up the flowers with a dimensional and the oval panel is also on a dimensional.

Supplies I used to create this card:

Stamps: Live Your Dream Paper: Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Afternoon Tea DP Ink: Chocolate Chip Accessories: Coluzzle, Chocolate Chip Marker, White Gel Pen, Mat Pack, Theater Ribbon Originals, Corner Rounder Punch

6/3 Bloomin' Beautiful!

Bloomin' Beautiful . . . that's right, I resisted purchasing this stamp set for soooo long. Did I "need" another flower set? No, certainly not. Did I want another flower set? Of course!!! It's the ONLY way I garden . . . no fertilizer needed!! lol! This is my first card using this new to me set from the Spring Occasions Mini Catalog. By the way, the last day to order from this catalog is June 30. You have a whole nuther month to decide if you "need" another flower in your stamp garden!

This card is a Great Swaps Girls Challenge to case a layout from the Spring Occasions Mini Catalog. I picked the layout on page 18. Of course, I LOVE how it turned out. Watercoloring with ink off the lid of my ink pad using an Aqua-painter is one of my most favorite ways to color my images. It's just so easy and yet everyone oohs and aahs!!

Supplies I used to create this card:

Stamps: Bloomin'Beautiful, Essence of Love
Paper: Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi, So Saffron, Naturals White
Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi, Basic Black
Accessories: Sherbet Ribbon Originals, Photo Corner Punch, Vintage Brads, Dimensionals