Halloween Meets SC142

So I thought I'd try another card with the SC142 layout. I wanted it to be a longer card though, so I went with a 3x6 format so that it was elongated like I wanted but still would fit in envelopes that I have. I guess I could have done letter-size too, but I've never done one of those and didn't really want to yet. Anyway, this card is rather simple, I hope you like it but I'm not too sure if I do. I think it's because I didn't get to use a single image on the right, I didn't have anything that fit - even Booglie Eyes guys were too wide - so I went with what I had, oh well.

This close-up (Make sure you click on the picture - talk about CLOSE UP!!! look at the texture on that card stock (not SU!'s "ultra-smooth Whisper White, this is again Papertrey's White CS) is of the little pumpkin from the Bitty Boos Too set (part of the Fall Frenzy special you can check out as a link in my sidebar on the right) shows how I actually rock-n-rolled the little guy ( stamped him off first, then rolled him in the same ink). Like I mentioned, I needed a smaller image than I had originally planned on using. I wanted to use the Carved and Candlelit tall, skinny pumpkin while I had this card in my head and in its beginning stages, but once I stamped that giant "happy" sentiment too much of my card was taken up :) So, I stamped two of the little pumpkins, adhered them to some Basic Black, and popped that up on some dimensionals on my card. I would love to hear what you think (as usual!!)!!

Stamps: Bitty Boos Too, Happy Everything, Flexible Phrases
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Black StazOn
Paper: White CS (from Papertrey), Basic Black CS, Pumpkin Pie CS, Creepy Crawly DS Paper
Accessories: Piercing tool and guide, Black brads, Black grosgrain, stapler

LSC134

I decided to use the Limited Supply Challenge (see today's earlier post for the link - I've got to make this as quick as possible!) to inspire the development of this card for a friend's baby shower tomorrow. I got some really cool "detail" shots of different parts of the card too, so you'll get to see those below. First, however, I wanted to let you know that yes, my DH (Peter) is out of town, and yes (as Juanita mentioned) I'm getting to do lots of stamping lately. That's because without Peter here, I don't have much to do after the girls go to bed. Sweet little Daniel gets to play in his bouncer right next to me while I stamp away - or sleep if he feels like it - and it's fun for both of us!!! I don't know how long I'll be able to keep up stamping this much, but hopefully it won't come to an end!

This first detail shot is of the frayed ribbon. If you'll look closely at the shadow next to the Old Olive textured card stock, you'll realize that it's presence means that the Old Olive and everything on top of it is mounted on dimensionals. That shadow wouldn't be as pronounced if the layer was glued directly to the Regal Rose card stock base layer. Know what I mean? :) To get your ribbon to fray, you simply cut off the very edge of both sides of the ribbon (the part that's not "ribbed" - it should be pretty obvious when you look closely at a piece of ribbon what I mean) and then pull it apart. It's fun and creates a neat texture for your projects.

This next shot displays the shadow I added around the edges of my stamped images (you'll definitely want to click on this one to enlarge it). I got a gray marker from my friend Anne who is a demo for TAC, and I don't still have my catalog (loaned it out and never got it back) so I don't know what the marker is called in the book, but on it it says "TOMBO ABT N95" and I "bolded" the "AB" on purpose. Anyway, I LOVE this marker because it's just dark enough to not totally ruin your image by adding it, but gives it some depth/dimension in a matter of seconds. It has two ends, a brush tip and a more fine tip (not quite as fine as SU! markers though).

This last detail shot proves that this really is Shimmery White card stock, and that was really the point of it. I think the image looks really cool when you can see all of the shimmer through it. You may want to click on it to enlarge it and see the pretty shimmer better. I really like this shot!!! :)





Cards are so much neater now that I am looking at different elements on them more closely! The perfectionist in me has a little bit of a hard time seeing the tiny flaws that it brings to light, but that's what the "big picture" at the top is about - not seeing those tiny flaws. These detail shots allow me/us to see some different aspects of the card in angles and a closeness that isn't possible when you shoot the whole card at once. I hope you're enjoying these close-ups!!

Stamps: Event Full Ink: Black StazOn, Old Olive and Regal Rose classic ink Paper: Shimmery White and Regal Rose CS, Petals & Paisleys DS paper
Accessories: Regal Rose 5/8" grosgrain, gray Tombo marker, Olive (not SU!) and Rose SU! 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, blender pen


Take care!

Vera CASE in Wild Wasabi, Barely Banana and Soft Sky

For those of you that frequent SCS, you probably know Vera. She has some fabulous creations, and she's always leaving such nice comments for everyone. Well, I saw this little note card she did for a challenge a while back, and LOVED it! It stayed in my head for a while and then when I came up with this color combo, I thought I'd give it a try. I offer this color combo as a challenge to you. If you do take a few minutes to create something with it, PLEASE leave a comment with a link to your work so that I can take a look. I really like these colors and want to find a good balance for them on a card and would love to see what you come up with!!! HERE is the link to Vera's card on SCS, check it out and let her know how cute it is!

The dimensions of this card are 4" x 4". Here is the detailed shot of this card. I decided that the Banana ink didn't stand out a whole lot on its own, so I put some Stickles on top of it to give it a little bling. I changed her card up in these ways: colors, sentiment at the bottom is a shape rather than words, different stamp set, no textured paper (unfortunately), smaller ribbon (wish I had some larger ribbon that coordinated) and I added an extra layer to the "band" in the middle. I'd love to hear what you think!!

Stamps: In the Spotlight
Ink: Barely Banana, Wild Wasabi
Paper: Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky and Barely Banana card stock
Accessories: Crop-A- Dile, Soft Sky Double-Stitched ribbon, Scallop Circle punch, Stickles

Limited Supplies Challenge

This challenge on SCS is one that I've always been a little reluctant to try. I figured it would be too hard to have to use only certain items, etc. Well, I did it, and this week's challenge (LSC134) isn't too hard, either!! It makes us limit our layers to 3-4. You're also supposed to limit embellishments, so hopefully my four brads aren't overboard! ;) This card also falls under the WT132 challenge again, using Basic Gray.

I decided to do some paper piercing to make the lines of the layers pop. I hope that it worked. Here's my up-close and personal shot of my paper piercing. Don't you just love that textured paper!?!?! It's funny all of the little things you notice in a picture that's this close. I noticed that the White paper has a little bit of frayed edges, and I was using my Tabletop Trimmer, so I'm not sure why. It's NOT SU! paper though, this is Papertrey's White paper that's a little heavier weight. I used it for the table-topper's at my sister's wedding. Anyway, I hope you like it and I'd love to hear what you think!!

Stamps: Close as a Memory
Ink: Basic Gray classic ink
Paper: Basic Gray textured card stock, White (Papertrey) card stock, Basic Black card stock
Accessories: Black brads, paper piercing tool and guide, sponge

Another Try at WT132

So, I changed the layout of my previous card a little. I turned this one into a square card, added a punched square, and pushed them together. I also decided to try and simplify the stamping by stamping on all four colors at once with VersaMark. If I hadn't been worried about embossing powder sticking in the tiny crevices between the squares, I would have embossed the image in clear detail embossing powder because it would have made it pop more and also it would have been darker. As it is, it's hard to see the image on the Barely Banana square, but bear with me. It's much easier to see in real life - hard to photograph it well. So, I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think!

Stamps: True Friend, Hugs & Wishes
Ink: VersaMark, Basic Gray
Paper: Basic Gray textured card stock, River Rock, Groovy Guava, Soft Sky and Barely Banana card stock
Accessories: 1 3/8" square punch, silver brad, Basic Gray Taffeta ribbon

Ways to Use it Challenge

So, I'm four for four now!!! I've done every challenge at SCS this week. This challenge is WT132 and it's to use the new Basic Gray color that SU! has.

I had an idea in my head of what I wanted to do, and this card is pretty much it. I wish I had some wider ribbon to tie at the top, but I wanted it to be Basic Gray colored and the only ribbon I have in that color is the Taffeta.

I hope you like it - it was MUCH harder to do than I thought. I wanted the image stamped in Basic Gray on the Basic Gray textured CS to line up EXACTLY with the image stamped on the assorted punched squares and it was a little difficult to do that. Oh well, hopefully no one looks THAT close. Speaking of which, this card doesn't really have any interesting dimension to photograph up close, so I won't do a detail shot for this one.

I do wish that this flower image extend a little more to the right and left so that it would have stamped more of the image on the River Rock and Mellow Moss squares. Because I had to use my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to get everything as closely on top of the Basic Gray stamped image as possible, I didn't want to stamp multiple images to make the branches cover more. It would have made it very difficult to get it even this close to the image that's underneath the squares and thus lined up with the Basic Grey parts of the branches that stick out from under them. Make sense?

Thanks for looking, and let me know what you think!

Stamps: Artfully Asian
Ink: Basic Gray, Ruby Red, River Rock, Mellow Moss
Paper: Basic Gray textured card stock, Ruby Red, River Rock and Mellow Moss card stock
Accessories: 1 1/4" square punch, Basic Gray taffeta ribbon, Stamp-A-Ma-Jig

Criss-Cross Card

I first learned of criss-cross cards at a TAC workshop hosted by Keri Sereika for our friend Anne who is a TAC demo. Anne mentioned that she found the idea on SCS, so after I went home that evening, I found the cards that are on SCS by Michelle Wooderson. The card that we made at the workshop and the ones that I made were much more simple than the ones Michelle had posted, and because I didn't have any great ideas floating around in my head for more cards, I haven't made any criss-cross cards in over a year, until now! After seeing Beate's wonderful tutorial on SCS and her beautiful card, I was inspired to try again and this card was my first attempt.

I made this card for a friend who's having a birthday soon, and she really liked Cool Caribbean last year, so I thought Soft Sky made a nice replacement. I also wanted to flip the card and do a vertical one rather than a horizontal one. I love these cards, except for the fact that usually you have to "scrunch" your note inside due to the amount of card that shows in the front (if you want the card to still present well). Maybe I'll just write "Happy Birthday!" in there and put my actual message on the back...what do you think? Here's the recipe and also my "close up" of the band. I used Stickles, and in the close-up you can tell that they don't distribute as evenly as if I had used Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I think Stickles are cleaner to deal with though, so I've been using them lately (and forgetting that they take a while to dry - so smearing them too!!! :P) over the glitter. I hope you like it!

Stamps: True Friend (2007 Holiday Mini Catalog), Party Punch (hostess level I set)
Ink: Black StazOn, Basic Black marker, Soft Sky Classic ink
Paper: Soft Sky Prints DS paper, Whisper White, Basic Black and Soft Sky card stock
Accessories: Label punch, Scallop Circle punch, 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" Circle punches, crimper, Black grosgrain and Soft Sky Double-Stitched ribbon, Black brad, Stickles, blender pen (to color flower in center with Soft Sky ink before putting Stickles on it), stapler