FS221

It's been awhile since I've played in the Featured Stamper challenge over at SCS but when I saw that the FS was Susan, AKA LateBlossom, I knew I had to play along.  I've been a fan of Susan's work for quite some time.  She is the Queen of Clean and Simple as well as doing an amazing job of embracing the white space.  This was a challenge for me and I've never done a white on white card before but I love how it turned out. 
All supplies are from a muse|studio and be purchased at my webstore 24/7.  Don't forget that if your order is more than $150, contact me directly so that you can get your hostess benefits.
Susan made two cards with the same layout and different colors and shared them on her blog.  I love how the vibrant colors just pop off the white.  I will say, I'm still scared of the white space and had a few choice words to share when I got a fingerprint on the top of my card.  My 6 yo suggested I just erase it--if it were only that simple, right?  I did carefully wipe at it with a baby wipe and got it off but the card is a little messed up where I wiped it off.  It's barely noticeable but bothers me especially since I was already done and admiring my handiwork.
Since I already had a bunch of stuff out, I decided to give a one layer card a try--that was a challenge and you'll have to come back soon to see how it turned out :-)
Thanks for visiting!
stamps:  clever girlspaper:  sugarink:  blush, bubblegum, papaya, orange, bermuda, ocean, slate

FS103

I had a little time to play along in today's FS Challenge at SCS.  I was inspired by this card of Vicky's.  I changed the Cuttlebug folder, stamp, ribbon, and used dewdrops.  I also added some liquid pearls and stickles.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy--I have another card to add to my stash.

Here are the deets:  Card base is shimmery white and other cardstocks used were Chocolate Chip and Pink Pirouette. I used the Floral Fantasy embossing folder on the lower half of the Pink Pirouette piece and stamped the branch from Stem Silhouettes on the top in Chocolate Chip.  I sponged the edges and went over the embossed area with Tattered Rose Distress Ink.  I tied some Chocolate Taffeta around this and matted it on a piece of Chocolate Chip that is edged in Versamagic Pixie Dust.  After I attached this piece to the cardbase, I added some White Opal Liquid Pearls and Cotton Candy Stickles to the branches.  Finally, I added 3 dew drops underneath the ribbon.

Thanks for visiting!

2 Challenges, 1 Card

I love 3 day weekends! It feels like Sunday to me. This is a very exciting week with the Martin Luther King Jr Holiday today and the Inauguration tomorrow. I'm crossing my fingers that our assembly will go well in the afternoon and the kids will be able to see the inauguration--it would be much better to be able to get a live feed at school but no local TV access and the stern warning to not stream it since if we all did Districtwide, it would crash the server, makes it hard to do.

Anyway, on to the card I made :-) When I saw that Lori Craig was this

week's Featured Stamper at SCS, I was determined to play along. Lori's work is awesome!!! I picked this card to CASE. Since I still had my BasicGrey Granola pad out, I also decided to do last Tuesday's Color Challenge as well. So, I kept the same layout that Lori did but swapped out the colors and stamps used. Instead of a little rope of hemp in the corner of the focal piece, I popped mine up on top of a few flowers. Cardstock used was Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, and Kraft. The image from Pocket Silhouettes is stamped in NQN on the Kraft and cut and embossed with my Labels Two Nestability. Buttons and flowers are from Making Memories Poolside Buttons and Blossoms box and the ribbon is Kraft Taffeta. I sprayed the whole card and the Kraft piece with Copper Glimmer Mist and dried it with a heat gun. Finally, I covered the Kraft piece with Ranger's Crackle Accents (Lori used the Cracked Glass technique on hers). This piece is attached to the card front with dimensionals. I also decorated the inside of the card as well. I love doing this to use up my little snippets of DP but dang, my cards are getting heavy since they have so many layers now :-)

Thanks for visiting!

FS100 JulieHRR

Her Royal Rubberness, Julie Ebersole, was the Featured Stamper over at SCS today and you know I just had to play along. I absolutely adore Julie's work and she makes Clean and Simple look so easy--it's not and I feel like I suck at it! If I can nail it, I'll be happy as a clam. So, here's my CASE of Julie's card that can be found at SCS and on her blog. I changed the colors, stamp set, border punch, and didn't put my sentiment on a tag.

I started by stamping the little tree image from the Amuse Sushi set with Soft Sky on a Square Cabana Blue notecard. I stamped the sushi from the same set on Georgia Pacific White with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored it in with a few copics. I highlighted the sushi with some Stickles and went over the chopsticks with Ranger's Glossy Accents and then attached it to the cardbase. I used my new Martha Stewart Star Border punch on a piece of Pumpkin Pie and then attached that to the cardbase as well. I cut a small slit in the seam of the card and threaded through some striped Pumpkin Grosgrain and then tied it off in a knot. The sentiment from the same set is stamped on the bottom of the card in Brilliance Starlight Black so it would be a little shimmery as well as the sushi and tah dah--all done!

My 9yo really likes this card--gotta love him! I've had sushi on the brain since we went to Sushi yesterday and it was sooooooooooooooo good, plus I've wanted to ink up this set forever and since Julie is the Queen of Amuse and enabled me to buy this set, I'm glad that I got to use it to CASE her. I think I'm probably going to try another one out tomorrow depending on how I feel in the evening--it's my first day back to work after 2 weeks off.

Thanks for visiting and don't forget that I've got blog candy up for grabs!

FS75

I got the chance to play around and do the Featured Stamper Challenge at SCS yesterday and this is what I came up with.  I CASED this card of Stephanie's which I think is adorable and swapped out the Changito image for a different one, used different colors and patterned paper, and changed up the sentiment but pretty much followed the layout.

My card base is Blush Blossom and I also used Neenah Solar White, Close to Cocoa, and Certainly Celery. The patterned paper is retired SU-I think it was in last year's Summer Mini but I can't remember the name of it.

Changito is stamped on Neenah Solar White with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored in with the following Copics:  E27, E29, E33,  E35, & RV34 for the body; R30, R32, B12, B14, & B16 for the flowers; G21 &b G94 for the leaves; and finally outlined lightly with W0.  The flowers all have a dab of Crystal Stickles in the middle.  Changito is matted on Close to Cocoa and popped up on dimensionals.  The sentiment is from PTI's Mixed Messages and is stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa on Neenah Solar White.  I overstamped a couple hearts from A to Z Accents in Blush Blossom over it.  This is punched out and matted on a Certainly Celery circle and then a Scalloped Close to Cocoa circle.  The dots were drawn with my Ranger Inkssentials White pen--the verdict is still out on whether I like this or the SU Signo White pen better.  I also popped this up on dimensionals.  When I started the card, I thought I had wide Celery Grosgrain ribbon but I don't.  Fortunately, I had some PTI Spring Moss and it coordinates well with the other colors :-)

Voila, all done!  I think it's rather cute if I say so myself.

Thanks for visiting!

Zany Featured Stamper

I was really excited to see that one of my blogging buddies was last Sunday's Featured Stamper at SCS. I *met* Maren when she was one of my SCS3 blogging buddies and was immediately impressed at her amazing creations. I knew it was just a matter of time before she moved on to bigger and better things. She's now on a few design teams that I know are keeping her busy and had to drop out of SCS3. This doesn't mean I don't visit her blog regularly!

I'm also really excited to say that I have one of her cards in my hot little hands and I can honestly say that they are as gorgeous, if not more, in real life as they are when she photographs them.

Anyway, here's the card I decided to case: Birthday Drinks. I pretty much followed the layout but changed up the colors, patterned paper, stamps sets, and I used a small circle punch for my sentiment instead of the word window punch. I changed it from a birthday card to a thank you card since I'm still finishing up the thank you cards for my little guy's 6th birthday.

Here's the deets:

Stamps: Prehistoric Pals (SU) and Mixed Messages (PTI)
Paper: Wild Wasabi, Pumpkin Pie, Naturals Ivory (SU), Archaic DP (BasicGrey)
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Wild Wasabi (SU)
Extras: Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinder), 3/4 inch circle punch (SU), Corner Rounder punch (SU retired), Pumpkin Pie Striped Grosgrain (SU), Stampin Dimensionals (SU), Pop Up Glue Dots (SU)

I totally and completely love the BasicGrey Archaic line. I generally buy the 6X6 pads and use the paper up a little at a time but I've already used several sheets from my pad and now I'm out! I love the colors and since my oldest is addicted to dinosaurs, this paper is perfect in my household. I think that I'm going to have to get more of this paper when I visit my LSS this weekend.

The card base is Wild Wasabi and I attached a piece of dp that I had rounded the bottom two corners to the bottom part of the card. I cut out my circles with my Nesties and then stamped the dino with Close to Cocoa classic ink on the Naturals Ivory circle and adhered it to the Pumpkin Pie circle. I attached this to the card front with Stampin' Dimensionals. I punched out a bunch of 3/4" circles and then I stamped the sentiment on a piece of Naturals Ivory with Chocolate Chip classic ink and then edged it with Wild Wasabi. You really can't see it in the pic but it's pretty subtle and I think matting it on Wild Wasabi would have been a little too much. I attached this to the dp with a pop up glue dot so it would be higher than the dino image. Finally, I tied a piece of Pumpkin Pie Striped Grosgrain across the top and all done!

Now, I just have to have ds sign his name and pop all these thank yous in the envies and I'm good to go.

Thanks for visiting!

FS60

Ok, so it's after midnight which means I didn't get today's Featured Stamper challenge done on Sunday :-) I think I might retake this pic tomorrow when I can use sunlight or get enough of my desk cleaned up that I can use the Ott-Lite for it. We'll see.

Anyway, the featured stamper for this week was scrapnextras and Laura has an amazing gallery and blog!!!!! I chose this card to CASE and changed the colors slightly and used a different stamp set. Here's the details on mine. I used Textured Basic Gray and Whisper White for this card. I ran a piece of the Whisper White through my Cuttlebug with the Stylized Flowers embossing folder and attached that to the Basic Gray cardbase. I stamped the branch from PTI's Out on a Limb in Basic Gray and then stamped the leaves in Certainly Celery and flowers in Pretty in Pink and matted it on the gray. The sentiment is also stamped in Basic Gray on White and is attached to a Pewter HPH piece and then tied on with Gray Taffeta ribbon. Once I got everything attached and on the card, I liked it but felt it was missing something so I went over the pink flowers (or are they berries?) with Petal Pink Liquid Pearls. Much better and after it dried, I decided I liked it a whole lot better now!

Thanks for visiting and I'm beat so I'm going to bed. I hate when dh isn't here because I really don't sleep as well by myself. . .but I'm sure the by myself is temporary anyway since at least one little one will probably climb into bed with me in the middle of the night.

FS50 Inspired

This started out as a case of KathyC's card which can be seen here. I couldn't get the emboss resist to work for me so it went in a different direction. I like how this one turned out and my other card I started uses this same set.


I got the inspiration for the color combo from the patterned paper. This is a piece of my BasicGrey Infuse collection. The card base is Garden Green which is a color I rarely use. My first instinct was to go with Old Olive but I wanted something a little more vibrant. I tied a piece of wide Chocolate Grosgrain ribbon around the dp and then adhered it to the card base. I stamped the watering can and flowers from PapertreyINK's Green thumb on Whisper White with the following inks: Versamagic Sahara Sand, Jumbo Java, Red Brick, Pixie Dust, and Pink Grapefruit. The leaves and stems are Brilliance Pearlescent Thyme--you can't see the shimmer but it's very sparkly and pretty and a good match for the Garden Green. This is matted on Cameo Coral and Chocolate Chip and then attached to the card front. It seemed like it was missing something--I wanted a sentiment but it didn't fit in with the original card I wanted to CASE but I did it anyway. I stamped the sentiment in Brilliance Pearlescent Thyme and punched it out with a large oval punch and then attached that to circles that were punched out of Cameo Coral and Chocolate Chip. The sentiment is attached with dimensionals.

Even though this is not what I had in my head when I started, I love the way it turned out!!!!!! I really haven't used this set that much but I can see myself reaching for it more and more in the future.

Thanks for visiting.

FS48

Dh's basketball league resumed tonight after the holidays so I got time to do the Featured Stamper Challenge. I was inspired by this card of Nancy Riley's and changed up the colors, ribbon, sentiment, and size of the card. Hers is square but I went with a traditional
5 1/2" by 4 1/4" card.

I really love this color combination and I've been seeing so much of it because of the Ginger Blossom DSP which I still need to get :-) The card base and envelope is PapertreyINK Stamper's Select White. I'm still not loving how it takes SU Classic ink and I think I may play around with it and some of my other inks and see how it works for me. I stamped the images from Big Pieces and Little Pieces in River Rock, Groovy Guava, and Rose Red on Whisper White and matted it on River Rock. I then tied River Rock double-stitched ribbon around it and really noticed that it doesn't match my paper or ink :-) Oh well, it coordinates which is what is important. I punched out the River Rock, Groovy Guava, and Rose Red circles with a variety of circle punches and then arranged them on the card front. The sentiment is from All Holidays and is stamped in Rose Red underneath the focal point. I'm really, really loving All Holidays and am finding it one of the most versatile phrase sets I've ever owned. I love all the fonts and will definitely get a lot of use out of it.

So, my stamping is going to slow down a little because my 2 week break is up and I'm back to work tomorrow. I gotta hit the lottery so I can retire :-) Fortunately, I like what I do so having to work isn't that bad in the overall scheme of things.

Thanks for visiting!

Another FS47 Card

We took down the Christmas trees today and I had a little free time to stamp so I decided to do another Featured Stamper Challenge. I'm so glad that Danielle was the Featured Stamper because it definitely gave me a new gallery to look at. Her stuff is awesome.

Here's the card I CASED. I kept the layout but changed up the colors and image. I also didn't have room for ribbon and used eyelets instead of brads. My cardbase is River Rock and I cut 1/2 inch off the front of the card so you can see the inner edge. I wheeled the So Swirly wheel in River Rock on the inside edge of the card. I rounded the corners with the small corner rounder. I paper pierced and scalloped the edge of a piece of Loves Me Designer paper and attached that to a piece of Pixie Pink paper and then adhered it to the card front. I got the idea to use Pixie Pink with River Rock from the famous JanTink. The focal image is an American Art Stamp design called With Flower and designed by Karen Stolper. I stamped it on Whisper White with Versafine Onyx Black and then colored it in with a Blender Pen and Pixie Pink and Pink Passion inks. Then I went over a few areas with my Melon, Black, and Pink Copic Spica Glitter pens. This is matted on Pixie Pink and then River Rock. The River Rock layer is sponged with Close to Cocoa and pierced around the edges. The eyelets are from the old small flowers collection that is retired.

I'm so glad that I have one more week off so I'm sure that you'll see more stamping coming from me.

Here's a little update on the new dog. I think we've decided we're going to keep her. She's so little that she's really not in the way and the kids (and I) want to keep her around. Dh doesn't mind so now we have 3 dogs: Shango, Isis, and Josie aka Josephine Bruin :-) I do have to make some time this week to take her in and get her spayed and shots updated. I have no idea how old she is but hopefully the vet will have some idea.

Thanks for visiting!

I'm on a roll

Here's my take on the Featured Stamper for Sunday. This card is totally up my alley and I love what what I did with this one. Here's the card I CASED. I changed up the colors and stamp sets but kept everything else the same.

Here are my details. The cardbase is Certainly Celery. I used a piece of Old Olive Prints paper and matted it on Old Olive. I didn't want to use Real Red Grosgrain so I colored a piece of Whisper White (?) Tafetta ribbon with one of my Copic markers to make it red.

The sentiment is from Wonderful Favorites and is stamped on Very Vanilla with Versafine Onyx Black because I wanted a really crisp and dark black ink. I matted this on Real Red and used my perfect layers and a craft knife to get a 1/16 inch border around it. This is my favorite matting border and mine is getting a little raggedy since I've let others use it and SU doesn't sell it anymore and I'm stressing about where I'll replace it when I can't use it anymore.

The flower is from PapertreyINK's Beautiful Blooms. I stamped this with Real Red on Very Vanilla. I don't know why some people say you can't use SU Classic inks with acrylic stamps since I've never had a problem with PapertreyINK and SU Classic ink. I guess that's why Nichole is a genius! I punched out another piece of Old Olive DSP and attached it to one of my Build a Brads to put in the center of the flower and then attached it with a glue dot.

I'm so gonna copy this layout again! Thanks for visiting!

Featured Stamper

I know, I know. . .no posts in forever and then 2 in one day! I had some time today and popped over to Splitcoaststampers and saw that today's featured stamper was none other than Kristina Werner aka starofmay. I absolutely {heart} her work and really aspire to be able to come up with clean and impressive designs like she does. I copied her card here: Thank You for inspiration and changed up a few things.

The card base is Basic Grey Textured Cardstock and the fold is at the top. The main image is Shimmery White paper and I stamped the flowers from Stem Silhouettes in Purely Pomegranate and Groovy Guava on is. The sentiment is from So Many Sayings and is stamped in Basic Grey--I've seen wonderful hints from others about cutting it up so I got it in a trade and put my scissors to work--now I have a gazillion little sayings on EZ-Mount ready to use and I don't have to worry about markering up just the one saying that I want from the bunch. I adhered this to Purely Pomegranate Textured cardstock and then tied some Groovy Guava double stitched ribbon around it. I mounted this on dimensionals and voila! I'm done. It makes it so easy when you've got a great design to CASE.

Ok, now that I've put up 2 cards in one day, I can feel my mojo coming back and the itch to stamp is strong!

Thanks for visiting.