Circle of Blooms

This is my entry for today's sketch challenge on Splitcoaststampers SC226

The Cracked Glass tutorial here. thee is islkjd

Details:
Stamps: Circle of Friendship, In Full Bloom, Botanical Blooms
Ink: Certainly Celery, Lavender Lace, Pretty In Pink, Apricot Appeal
Paper: Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Lavender Lace - I think, The Pocket Full of Posies matstack
Accessories: SU - Glassy Glaze, SU - flower punch

Mothers Day Window

Originally I had intended or attempted to make a single layer card with a window cut out. It evolved some and is no longer a single layer, but I am satisfied with the outcome.

I really love the new Sizzix - Butterfly die that I purchased from The Memory Keeper - that store is huge! I embossed each butterfly then used my VersaMark pen on the edges and the embossed areas. Stickles on the flowers added some sparkle. I find the marker has more control on embossed items with the pen rather then just swiping with the my VersaMark pad.

After I finished the card I realized why this colour combo seemed so familiar, it's the colour palette of my DD's room


Details:
Stamps: SU - Mixed Bouquet, SU - All Year Cheer II
Ink: SU: Certainly Celery, Blush Blossom, Appricot Appeal, Pale Plum & Lavender Lace, Versamak pen
Paper: Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Lavender Lace, Whisper White
Accessories: Cuddlebug Swirls emboss folder & Circles emboss folder, SU - Apricot Appeal ribbon, Nesstabilities, Sizzix - Butterfly die, and stickles.

Botanical Thank You

My son's and my eldest daughters birthdays were this month, so I have a lot of thank you cards to send out - hence all the recent and up coming thank you cards.

Yesterday my new Spellbinders die came in as well as the embossing mat which I never got around to purchasing last year. How exciting. I had a lot of fun with it last night and am gonna poke around with it this afternoon too.

I finally used my SU - Botanical Blooms set which was one of my hostess rewards from my turn as hostess at Stamping Club last month. I was holding out on using it for Mother's Day, but I couldn't wait.

Studio G Clear Stamps Find:
I like to play around with the Studio G Clear stamps, particularly for sentiments. I find I can get a larger mix of sentiments purchasing them over the major brands, and they are usually fairly small sentiments allowing them to fit almost anywhere.

Just to share; I found a great eBay site with a whack load of Studio G stamps, which are hit and miss finding them at my local Michael's. If you are interested here is the link Ottclectic Impression - there were a lot of various holidays and many BBQ stamp sets.

Details:
Stamps: SU - Botanical Blooms, SU - Pocket Silhouette (sentiment)
Paper: SU: Kraft, Barely Banana, DS Delicate Dots
Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black, SU - Bashful Blue
Accessories: Spellbinders die cut, SU - So Saffron ribbon (I think), Martha Stewart punch

Kraft Homage

This is my homage to Jennifer Bucks - The Buck Stamps Here "Late" design for the No Time to Stamp challenge "Thread it Through"

I have Kraft paper and the SU - Simply Silhouette stamp set, but instead of merely casing, I was inspired to create this card:

I have wanted to use this butterfly since my hubby bought me this set Inkadinkado- Garden Delight last year, but never knew how to use it since it was so large.

I had planned on stamping it in Memento Rich Cocoa then adding the image to a card with an orange and cocoa theme. However when I stamped the image out in just the Memento Rich Cocoa it reminded me of Jennifer's card and before I knew it, I had a monochromatic homage to Jennifer Buck's "Late".

I didn't have any coordinating DS to match so I created my own using the Stampendous - Tiled Quad Cube, also a gift from my hubby - ain't he grand!

Details:

Stamps: Inkadinkado - Garden Delight, Stampendous - Tiled Quad Cube, SU - Pocket Silhouettes

Ink: Memento - Rich Cocoa, SU - Whisper White pigment

Paper: SU - Close to Cocoa & Whisper White

Embellishments: Silver Brad, Mat Pack

Jamie Case

This week's SplitCoastStampers featured designer is Jamie at Sweet Little Designs. Jamie has a fabulous SCS gallery, it was hard to choose which card to case.

This is my take on Jamie's card Tip Your Waitress. I know that you aren't suppose to do Sketch Challenge cards, but this layout is from Taylored Expressions January 2009. I had wanted to try it out back then, but never got around to it. This was a fun card to make. I only wish I had a sentiment that said "dad" instead of "father", father sounds so formal, especially when your handing them a beer. As well I noticed after I had mounted the image that the orange cardstock mat should have been laced under the 3 horizontal stripes - my bad!

I of course paper pieced the Fella, it's my favorite thing to do to the Bella stamps.

Details:
Stamps: Stamping Bella - Beerafella, Studio G Clear stamp sentiment
Paper: SU: bashful blue, pumpkin pie, barley banana (should have been so safron, but I didn't have any), Designer Series - Washington Apple
Ink: Memento - Tuxedo Black, Copics
Accessories: Swiss Dots Emboss Folder, SU Mat Pack

Baby Announcement

A friend of mine just had her first grandchild and asked that I mock up a design for Thank You / Announcement cards. I used 3 different Clear G stamps and mounted them together on an acrylic stamp plate so that I could stamp all 3 images at once.

I know Grandma wants to include a photo with her cards, so I think this could work very well with the new babies image printed in black and white and used as the circle punched image instead of a stamped image as seen in this example by Kerry J. I can swap out the star stamp on the blue card stock for baby boy, or baby boy can be stamped across the striped designer paper above where the stars are.

I used SU Designer series paper: Delicate Dots. I have been itching to bust open this package, the colours are so cute and so boyish to me.

Details:
Stamps: (all stamps) Studio G Clear stamps
Ink: SU: Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark, Tombow marker
SU Paper: Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Delicate Dots
Accessories: Cuddlebug - Swiss Dots embossing folder, Cuddlebug - star die cuts, Gellyroll pen, scallop circle punch, circle punch

Archival Cleaning Up

So I just spent the last hour going over ALL of my post so that I could add a new gadget at the side bar for sorting my archives into categories, such as: stamp brand, occasion, and or special effect used. It's a bit redundant because some of the archives fall in more then one category, but it is certainly going to make it easier for me to find things when I am looking for them.

Manhattan Breeze

There is a story behind this card. Last night I arrived at my monthly stamp club to find out that I was a week early. My SU Rep Jennifer Tinline was having a BIG SHOTS night and since it's a half hour drive for me, I decided to stay.

One of the projects we made last night was using the Manhattan Impressions Die on a full piece of vellum mounted with a ribbon at the top of the card - the whole card being covered in vellum. I had seen a very similar card on SplitCoastStampers using this Impression on vellum, but didn't know how the look was achieved. I had asked the designer, but had no response - I wish I had book marked the link.

At that time I had thought the Manhattan Impression plate was a die cut only, not an embosser. Once seeing the vellum embossed in person, Jenn and I played with the vellum and accidentally discovered that if you gently pull at the vellum on the edges, the vellum will tear away from the embossed edges giving the below effect. It gives an intentionally ragged edge look.

Now I know how the SplitCoast sample was achieved and so do you. I mounted the the vellum at the bottom of my card and covered the tape remnants with SU Organza ribbon. It's a very elegant effect with out a whole lot of work.

Details:
Embellishments: Manhattan Impression Die, SU Organza ribbon
Paper: Baja Breeze, vellum
Stamps: SU sentiment (not sure what set)

Dress Up Billy Birthday!

It's my littlest second Birthday tomorrow. I special ordered the Pink Cat Studios "Dress Up Billy" for his card as well as the SU Designer Series - Manchester to co-ordinate with the Kraft and Baja Breeze cardstocks that I bought a month or so ago.

I'm super happy with the turn out. It went smoothly which doesn't alwasy happen with me, I am always second guessing myself. The whole outfit, hat, shirt, overall's even bandanna are paper pieced in "Manchester" paper. I brushed the outside edges of the scallop rectangle in Baja Breeze ink and raised the image with Dollar Store dimensionals.



Details:
Stamps: Pink Cat Studio - Dress Up Billy
Paper: Baja Breeze, Kraft, SU Designer Series "Manchester"
Ink: Baja Breeze, Copic, Tombow
Embellishments: SU Billboard Diecut, retangle nestabilities, Dollar Store dimensionals