Hugs & Kisses

Here is another Valentine's Day card, my daughter liked the last one posted but wanted to see one that was more elegant. I'm happy to say she loves this one :) I used my Light Heart Set by Stampendous, inked it up with VersaMark and embossed it with Disco Black on pink decorative paper.
It is then cut out, glued to black paper and cut out with mini scalloped scissors.
The words on the heart are Class A'Peel stickers by Stampendous
Then the double hearts are stamped and embossed on glossy silver paper and cut out.
The hearts are mounted to a card where the top is swirl embossed using a CuttleBug then sponged with pink ColorBox chalk ink.
The bottom of the card is black with a white decorative paper glued to the top.
This card is very sparkly but the picture doesn't show it since it is so bright and sunny outside.
I hope my friends in the north and east are doing well with all of the terrible storms that I hear about on the news. Have a happy and safe New Year!

Love Always

Hi, welcome back after the holidays, hope everyone had a nice Christmas! Now I'm done with the Christmas cards and moving on to the next holiday, Valentine's Day. This card was made for two challenges over at SCS, the IS160 challenge which was to do anything other than Christmas and we couldn't use red or green on the card. And the LSC200 challenge which is an inspiration challenge. To make this card I inked up my new Stampendous "Mega Love" set with coral Brilliance (to me it looks pink, not coral at all), stamped it onto white confetti paper, over stamped with "always" with black Brilliance and then I shaded the pink letters with darker pink at the bottom of the letters. A SU corner punch was used to make a tag shape and the hearts were stamped at the bottom of the pink card with black VersaFine. Silver heart Class A'Peels by Stampendous were placed in the center of the three hearts and at the top left corner of the tag.
Have a great weekend!

Oops I Did It Again...

Oops I did it again, I made another Christmas card! This was made for SCS Limited Supply Challenge LSC199 "Holiday Blues". The card has to be 3/4 blue and you can only use one none paper embellishment and it had to be a holiday card. The blue paper I used is a steel blue that almost looks gray. For the background I inked up one side of a CuttleBug folder with iced blue ColorBox Chalk ink and embossed using cream paper. The snowflakes and saying which are by Stampendous are inked with denim Adirondack ink.
Have a fun weekend!

Just For You

Here is a nice spring looking card to enjoy while we are having bad winter weather. This was made for the Paper Craft Planet sketch challenge, I thought this image would fit the sketch perfectly and it just screamed spring. This is a clear stamp set, Sunny Flowers by Stampendous, it is listed under their new stamps from summer. Be sure to hop on over and take a look at their great new stamps!
To make this card I,
1. Stamped the flower with black, heat set it and colored it with water color pencils.
2. Glitter glue was added to the spots on the flowers.
3. The dots were randomly stamped with butterscotch ink and the leaf was stamped, colored and cut then glued to the bottom corner.
4. The scalloped circle punch by SU with the black paper and the white circle was punched using a 1 1/2" circle punch.
5. The sentiment was stamped in black and the dots randomly stamped with butterscotch.
~~~
Have a great day and try to stay dry and warm :)
Recipe
Stamps- Stampendous
Inks- butterscotch Adirondack, black VersaFine
Plus- water color pencils, glitter glue, foam squares

Have A Blast Birthday

Yesterday was my nephews 3rd birthday party and I got this great new stamp set "Hot Rocketz" from Stampendous just in time to make a card for him. To make it, the rocket was
1. Stamped in a black embossing powder that I added glitter to and then water colored it with watercolor pencils.
2. Then I colored over it with a VersaMark marker and embossed it with clear. I was worried that it would smear but happily it didn't!
3. Next the panel was sponged with stonewashed and denim Adirondack inks, when done rubbed the embossed area with a paper towel to remove any excess ink. Stamp stars randomly.
4. This was then layered onto several panels. Circle and star Class A'Peels were added to the edge for just a touch of bling.
5. The planet was water colored and glittered before cutting out and popping up.
6. Everything was mounted on a white card that was randomly stamped with the star swirls. It is hard to see in the picture but the white card was layered onto a dark blue panel to give it a framed affect.

Recipe

Stamps- Stampendous

Inks- stonewashed and denim Adirondack

Plus- stickers by Stampendous, glitter glue, foam squares, clear and black embossing powder, water colored pencils

~~~

Today I don't live in sunny Southern California, today it is rainy Southern California! I have had plans for today for about two weeks. I was supposed to get together with a friend I haven't seen for a while, go shopping and go to lunch. Well because of the rain and fog the portion of the freeway she takes to get here is closed, we are both so disappointed but hope to get together after the holidays, on the bright side we will get to shop the after Christmas sales, woo hoo!

Later today I will brave the rain and go grocery shopping, not my idea of fun in the rain but it needs to be done.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Let It Snow...

Let It Snow... but not here in southern California where I live! That's only something I dream of.
I made this for the sketch challenge over at Paper Craft Planet, and yet again I am using my new Christmas decorative paper.
To make this card, the snowflake was stamped three times on white squares with sepia VersaFine and embossed with a clear glitter powder. They are painted with Twinkling H2O's but the shimmer doesn't show up in the photo.
I'm thinking this will be my last Christmas card, but really this is a winter card :)
Hope you all have a great weekend!
Recipe
Stamps- snowflake by PrintWorks, sentiment by Stampendous
Inks-sepia VersaFine
Plus- punches by SU, stickers by Stampendous, Twinkling H2O's, foam squares

Rejoice-Two Challenges done

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! I got a card done this morning while my husband was watching football. The sketch challenge is from Paper Craft Planet and the snowflake challenge is from SCS. And again I have used my new decorative paper.
1. I stamped the snowflake on a cream card with latte ink stamping twice before re-inking.
2. The snowflake is stamped with blue and embossed then painted with white Twinkling H2O's.
3. Cut out the snowflake using a circle Coluzzle, sponge the edges and layer.
4. Punch snowflakes from blue and brown papers. Apply Circle sticker that has been colored brown with a sharpie.
5. Stamp rejoice with blue ink and layer. Add snowflake stickers that have been colored brown.

For the bling I used circle and snowflake silver stickers that I colored with a brown sharpie. I love this technique, so now matter what color I need as long as I have a sharpie the right color, I will have it :)

The sharpie dries in seconds.

Recipe

Stamps- word by Flourishes, snowflake by Stampendous

Inks- blue VersaFine, latte Adirondack

Plus- silver snowflake and circle stickers by Stampendous, brown sharpie, brown satin ribbon, clear glitter embossing powder, siam white Twinkling H2O's, foam squares, circle Coluzzle, snowflake punch

Merry Christmas Set

Okay, I took these pictures outside to get good lighting. It was a bit challenging since we have a slight breeze, I would set up the card and just about take the picture and it would blow over. It took a few tries but I did it! The natural light is much better outside than in the house.
I got some new decorative paper this week and had to use it so I made a card and a small note pad. I'm thinking these are good to give to a man since they are looking a little manly.
To make the card a cream card was stamped with a snowflake by Print Works (I had to dust that one off!) with latte Adirondack ink, stamping twice before re-inking. The snowflake was punched out of brown and blue papers and two way glue was put on the brown snowflake and then covered with glitter. When I put the snowflake on the card it blended in so I layered it onto a cream circle so it would stand out. Merry Christmas is from a clear set by Stampendous and it was stamped in brown VersaFine ink. This panel and the card were sponged with latte ink.
~~ Now here is the tip of the day. To get your holes even when you punch them in the corners or in a row, place a rubber band around your hole punch, adjust it to where you want it, then punch your holes. They will be in a straight line :)

This is a mini note pad (it looks like a small composition book) that comes in a four pack and is sold for $1.00 at the Dollar Tree, what a deal!
~~~
Have a wonderful weekend!

Baby Shower Time!

Today Melanie and I are going to a baby shower so I whipped this card up this morning. I don't have too many baby stamps so this is what I came up with. These little feet are soooo cute! Wish I had little hands to go with it. Now off to church, then the shower.

Have a great week :)

Recipe

Stamps- sentiment by Stampendous, I don't know where the feet are from

Inks- stonewashed Adirondack, blue VersaFine

Plus- CuttleBug folder, circle stickers, SU corner punch, ribbon

Pop Up Gift Card

Happy Monday and woo hoo to a three day week! This card is a fun pop up gift card and it is for this weeks TLC196 challenge over at SCS. It is so easy to make I didn't even have to write down the directions, you can view the tutorial at the Hero Arts Blog. The paper I used were random scraps I had laying around, the colors are cream, dusty blue and cranberry along with the polka dot decorative paper. The inks are currant and denim Adirondack's. Stamps are by Hero Arts and the circle stickers are from Stampendous.
Today is quite over cast so when I took the top picture with the flash on it doesn't show the colors. But when I turned the flash off for the bottom picture, it came out dark, so here are both of them and IRL it is somewhere in between.

This is the inside of the card, I wrote Love, but didn't sign it just in case my husband or kids needs a birthday card before I do.

Don't forget to check out the bottom of my page to sign the guestbook or if you would like people who visit my blog to be able to visit yours, just add yourself to my followers.

~~~

Have a Happy Thanksgiving :)

Two Challenges In One

I just love the sketch challenges over at SCS! I made this on Wednesday and then thought I would make the same card with the decorative papers reversed. In person I like the top card but the way it photographed I like the bottom. Then todays challenge at SCS is limited supplies and the theme is chocolate. You can use chocolate color paper, embellishments or candy. Well both these cards just happened to have chocolate colored DP so it fits the requirements!

It's going to be a beautiful weekend and we have absolutely nothing planned except I'm making our Thanksgiving dinner Sunday. We will be spending Thanksgiving with extended family and we like to have our own Thanksgiving dinner with all of the foods we like that we won't get at someone else's house.

The fires here in Southern California are all put out, we were never in any danger but they were about 8 miles away and the smoke was pretty bad. I haven't driven into Orange County yet but my husband said it's pretty amazing to see with all of the black burned hills.

~~~

I have a new guest book at the bottom of the page if you would like to sign it, I'd love to hear from you! Have a great weekend :)

Recipe

Stamps-Stampendous

Paper- Provo Craft "Slab"

Ink-VersaFine sepia, Adirondack mushroom

Plus-circle stickers, glitter glue, Dimensional Magic (on the second card)

Now What Challenge Was This For?

I made this card last week for two challenges and now I can't remember where the challenges were, oops! The day after I made this I got called in for jury duty and got put on a trial so I didn't get around to uploading it. I'm home today since it is a holiday but the trial should last until Friday.

To make this card I started off with glossy paper and sponged it yellow in the center then butterscotch, lettuce and then meadow around the edges. The flowers are stamped with black brilliance and colored in with yellow and green markers. The corners are punched with a ticket punch, layered onto black paper with white circle stickers put in the corners. A scalloped circle was punched from black paper and a white gel pen was used for the dots. Hello is stamped on a white circle with black Brilliance.

Recipe

Stamps- flowers by Stampendous, hello by Hero Arts

Ink- black Brilliance, Adirondack inks in yellow, butterscotch, lettuce and meadow

Plus- punches by SU

Happy Monday!

To start off this week I was able to do the Monday Mojo challenge again. I have a new pack of decorative paper that I've had for a while and finally decided it was time to use it. This card was super easy to make since it only has one stamp. The swirl Cuttlebug folder was used to emboss the cream panel then mauve pigment ink was sponged over it. The Happy Birthday stamp is by Stampendous as are the circle stickers. Stream Adirondack ink was used for the sentiment, then the edges were sponged with mauve.
~~~
Now on to the weekend. We went to the USC vs Washington football game and it was our homecoming, my husband and I are both alumnus. It was so much fun and the kids had a great time too. Everyone but me won a USC shirt but I did win a luggage name tag, woo hoo!. Here we are Melanie, me and Greg in front of Tommy Trojan.


Here I am with my handsome hubby Paul. These pictures were taken before it started to rain, last year when we went it also rained. It hardly ever rains here and now its rained on us two years in a row but this time it didn't last long thank goodness!

Now here is a picture of my new tile, we are very pleased with how it turned out. I find it very hard to envision how home improvements will look when done. Now next week I will have to seal the grout, I'm not looking forward to that it will take forever.

Have a great week and thank you for stopping by :)

Sketch Challenge

This was made for SplitCoasts Wednesday sketch challenge. I'm always in need of birthday cards so here is another one. I don't know if your husband is like this but mine will tell me in the morning before he gets into the shower that he needs a birthday card for someone at work TODAY, and can I make one before he leaves. Okay I'm good but not THAT good! Especially in the morning, not a morning person.
I made the card around the decorative paper (that I love). The top of the card is Cuttlebuged with a folder to go along with the stripes. Everything was stamped with blue VersaFine and heat set before coloring with pencils, a blender pencil was used to blend the colors. Glitter glue was then added to the images in the circles.
Recipe
Stamps-Hero Arts (word stamps), Stampendous (images)
Ink- blue VersaFine
Plus- Cuttlebug, ribbon glitter glue, green sticker circles (Stampendous)
~~~
I'm so excited, I'm having tile installed in my kitchen and master bathroom, it should be done today. When we moved in we got the linoleum that came with the house since the builder was so expensive. Since our dogs sleep inside, their bed just happened to be on the seam, it started to get loose and the dogs thought it would be quite entertaining to pull it up and eat it. Luckily nothing got stuck inside of them, you'd be amazed at the things they have swallowed. Well five years later we got tile! When it is done I'll post a picture.

A Fluffles Birthday

This card was made for the Mojo Monday challenge over at Poetic Artistry, she always has such cute sketch challenges. Fluffles was stamped in black and water colored, then glitter was added for pizazz. A Cuttlebug folder was used at the bottom of the card to match the polka dots on the gift box.
Recipe
Stamps- Stampendous and Hero Arts
Ink- Black and blue VersaFine, lettuce Adirondack
Plus- watercolor pencils, glitter glue, Cuttlebug folder, ribbon, Dimensional Magic

Sunday night my husband and I voted by absentee ballot, here he is reading up on some of the propositions. Voting is very time consuming but well worth it! If you're in the U.S. be sure to get out and vote to let your opinion be known.

Halloween Treat Pail

I have seen many people using this cute little spider on projects and thought he would be perfect for Halloween Treat Pails. To make the spider use the circle scallop punch (punches by SU) for the body and the photo corner punch for the legs, it's that easy. I used Fabri-Tac glue to glue him together and to the pail, I put a rubber band around the pail until the glue dries. He sticks great and I haven't had any pop off! A few ribbons were added to the handle and then candy corn in a bag and you have a cute little gift. The pails are from Targets dollar section, you get two pails for a dollar. Melanie will give some of these to her teachers and friends. Greg on the other hand doesn't want to give them to his teachers, he's a afraid kids will call him "teacher's pet". He did tell me who his favorite teacher is and gave his permission for me to deliver these. Boys and girls are definitely different!

Now here are my cute little dogs, okay maybe not so little but they think they are lap dogs! This is where they sleep, in the kitchen dinning area and they love their little pen. Maxie is the brown one and Minie is black and white, believe it or not they are sisters, a lab/pit mix. When we got them we only planned on getting one, Maxie was so pretty she was the one I wanted while Greg had his heart set on Minie because she has one white ear and one black I just couldn't say no. When we named the dogs my husband jokingly said "Mini will probably be bigger than Maxie", well guess what happened he was right.

~~~

Enjoy your weekend :)

Monogram Thanks

I'm stocking up on thank you cards for after the holidays and this is a quick and easy one to make. The "T" is stamped on decorative paper in black ink, cut out and layered onto goldenrod paper that was stamped with a swirl using ochre ColorBox Chalk ink. Thanks is stamped on cream paper with warm violet ColorBox Chalk ink, then cut into a tag shape. Ribbon is added using a brad, but the three gold squares are stickers by Stampendous.
Caardvark is having a monogram card contest, hop on over and take a look.
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The winds are gone and I didn't loose any trash cans, woo hoo! We had a beautiful relaxing weekend and now on to a busy, busy week. Tuesday is Girl Scouts at my house, Wednesday will be Chuck E Cheese's with my son and his friends (I don't think he will ever be to old for this), Thursday I'm working the high school snack bar during the water polo game and I think Friday might be a free day. It should be a great week, everything that's planned is fun!
Have a wonderful week.

Card For Mojo Monday Challenge!

Over at Poetic Artistry there is a sketch challenge that I really liked so I thought I would whip something up. Here is my first try, since it is almost time to send out Christmas cards that's a good place to start. Next will be a birthday card, I'm always in need of those!
To Make this first the resist technique was used for the snowflake piece and stonewashed and denim Adirondack inks were sponged on. The circles were cut using a Coluzzle then snowflake stickers were used as accents.
Recipe
stamps- snowflake by Stampendous, Joy by Flourishes
ink- Adirondack, VersaMark
paper- glossy white, black iris (it's really a dark blue)
plus- snowflake stickers by Stampendous, clear embossing powder, silver ribbon

~~~
Okay now for a weather update. We are having Really strong Santa Ana winds about 50+ mph, talk about a bad hair day! Tonight is trash night so that means our trash cans will be at the end of the street tomorrow, if I was smart I would spray paint our address on them. There have been two fires within 1-2 miles of the house but luckily they were small and put out quickly.
We haven't decorated for Halloween yet and it might be a while before we can do that, I always hate loosing decorations.
Have a nice week and thank you for stopping by :)

You Inspire Me

I received this wonderful award from my friend Curt forever ago but for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to get it on my blog! Well today was my lucky day and I finally figured it out, I don't know if I could do it again though. The only other award I have in my sidebar, by husband did for me because I was pulling my hair out, he's such a great guy. Curt's blog is a definite must see, he takes beautiful pictures and makes amazing cards so pop on over and take a look. Thank you for the award :)

Scor-Pal Time

I broke out the Scor-Pal to make a card and matching envelope. For the card a grid pattern was made, then it was lightly sponged with butterscotch and caramel Adirondack inks. The the flowers from Rubber Stamp Concepts were colored with markers, lightly spritzed with water to blend the colors and stamped. A hole was punched in the top left corner and a dragonfly brad was added. "Always" was stamped on vellum with black VersaFine ink then embossed with clear powder. Vellum tape was used to attach the vellum to the flower panel, then this was tied with beige jute and layered onto black and olive papers then finally mounted to a purple card.
Then I needed an envelope to fit the card so I just laid a piece of printer paper on my Scor-Pal, then laid the card on top of that and started scoring, nothing scientific! I'm going to enter this in a score challenge over at Caardvarks, hop on over and take a look.

Now I have some pictures of my weekend at Camp Surf in San Diego to share. We all had a great time. It is run by the YMCA and the facilities are kept very nice and the staff is super friendly. Here is my daughter Melanie with the pink surfboard and her two friends. It was really over cast but warm in the day. We were tent camping on the beach and it rained for a while Saturday night, luckily it didn't rain in the day!

One of the staff members found a baby octopus hiding in some seaweed. Who knew they were so small, I guess it just isn't anything I ever thought about, but I was surprised at how tiny is was.

And here is Melanie (in the brown top) with her friends, she took the picture, wow what a great job she did!

Thanks for stopping by, have a great week!

Holiday Thank You Card

Thank yous are always needed after the holidays so I thought I had better get started on those too. I used more glossy paper for this, I love this card but my family isn't so excited about it. Here is how I made it.

1. On a glossy panel 4" x 5 1/4" mask off some of the bottom with torn paper.

2. Brayer with stonewashed Adirondack ink and then sponge all four edges with denim Adirondack ink. Remove mask.

3. Stamp snowflake from Stampendous with black Brilliance and outline portions with a white gel pen.

4. Stamp thankful from Hero Arts at the bottom with black ink and apply snowflake stickers from Stampendous.

5. Then mount it to a folded glossy card.

~~~

Wow has this week has been hot so far! Yesterday it was 108 and today it was 104, at least it is starting to cool. I need to wash my car but when I go outside I feel like my skin is going to melt off!

This weekend my daughter and I are going to have a girls weekend with friends and go down to San Diego to go surfing, at least my daughter is, I'm not a fan of swimming in the cold ocean. We will be tent camping and this is only the second time I've slept in a tent, wish me luck!

Hope you all stay cool and have a good weekend.

Classic Christmas

When I made this Christmas card I was going for a muted type of look. To do this the tree was
1. Stamped with VersaMark ink and embossed with champagne powder.
2. It was colored with chalks then green and red stickers were used as ornaments.
3. Glitter glue was place over the dots and star and the corners were punched with a ticket punch.
4. This was then layered onto green and gold panels with red circle stickers placed in the corners.
5. Add a bronze swirl to the edge and tie with a red ribbon.
6. On a white panel the Christmas sentiment was stamped with beige Brilliance, then glued to a green card.
7. the holly swirl was stamped on green paper with gold Brilliance, the bottom edge is torn and a gold strip of paper is glued to the top and glued to the card.
8. Mount the tree to the card and add holly stickers to the bottom corner.
Recipe
Stamps- Stampendous
Inks- VersaMark, Brilliance
Paper- dark green, white, gold
Plus- stickers by Stampendous, bronze swirl, red ribbon, chalk, champagne embossing powder, ticket punch by SU

No Background Paper Used Here!

Who needs background paper when you have stamps! I started with a cream panel and randomly stamped leaves (Stampendous) with butterscotch, lettuce and rust Adirondack inks, stamped the leaf two to three times before re-inking. Thanksgiving (Paper Inspirations) was then stamped with black VersaFine and the edges were sponged with butterscotch and layered onto clay colored paper. The card is cream cardstock that was stamped with an aged paper stamp (Paper Inspirations) using butterscotch Adirondack and the edges were sponged with the same ink. To make the glitter square I placed 1 1/2" double sided tape from Scor-Pal on clay paper leaving a small border on the top and bottom. Using a leaf punch, punch out a leaf and place the leaf on the center of the tape and sprinkle around it with sea green glitter (Stampendous). Tie the card with ribbon and mount all of the pieces.
~~~
I'm getting ready for a busy weekend. Melanie is going to the homecoming football game and dance that follows, which means I have to stay up till midnight to pick her up, wow is that way past my bed time! Then Saturday my husband won 4 tickets to a UCLA football game that starts at 12:30, so we will go to that for a few hours even though we are USC alumni, Go Trojans! We will need to rush home then go to Knott's Scary Farm with a pre-scare dinner that starts at 5:00. I think they stay open until 2 am, again way to late for me. And on Sunday Melanie has two water polo games. It makes me tired just thinking about it but it should be fun!
Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend.

Halloween Fluffles

Halloween is right around the corner and you never know if you might need a Halloween card, I never have but they are fun to make! This card is totally cased, I remember seeing it on one of the many blogs that I have visited but sorry can't remember where :( What I love about it was all of the white without a bunch of different prints, sometimes when we make cards we forget simple can be nice. The stamps and stickers are by Stampendous and the image is colored with watercolor pencils.
That's all for now, time to go clean the house!

Fall Bookmark

Here is a quick and easy fall bookmark for today. Fall colors are so pretty, they are some of my favorite color combinations. For this I used Adirondack inks in lettuce, plum and butterscotch and stamped the flower from Great Impressions on cream paper. The edges are sponged with butterscotch and the words from Hero Arts are stamped in black. Glue the cream tag to clay, punch your hole and add matching ribbon. For the final touch apply glitter glue to the center of the flowers and you are done. Oh so easy!

Thanks for stopping by today :)

Time To Break Out The Glossy Paper!

In my stamp room I have tons of glossy paper and decided it was time to use some of it! This is one of the things I just forget to use but the results are beautiful. To make this card yellow ink was lightly brayered over the paper, then a circle punch was used to make a mask out of a post it note and it was placed at the top right of the glossy paper. Yellow ink was then brayered again. Then rust Adirondack ink was sponged starting at the bottom going about a quarter of the way up. Butterscotch Adirondack ink is then sponged to blend the rust into the yellow to give a gradual change of color. The leaves by Great Impressions are stamped twice in the left corner and the words from MSE are then stamped, the ink used is black StazOn. For accents silver square stickers from Stampendous are used.

~~~

Now it's time for me to get ready for lunch with Mom, today we are going to Mimi's Cafe yum yum, one of my favorites! Then tonight is back to school night for Melanie (10th grade), I can't wait to meet her teachers and to see her classes. That must be a goofy Mom thing.

Have a great week and weekend.

Mini Pizza Gift Box

If you are in need of a small box, here is a cute little pizza box style to make. I found the template over at Scor-Pal and it is very easy to follow. I stamped the grapes on a cream panel with VersaMark ink, embossed it with champagne powder and colored it with markers. To help with the shading on the leaf, a blender pen was used. The edges of the panel were sponged with mushroom Adirondack ink. Green ribbon was glued around the right and left sides and the front, don't glue it to the back or you won't be able to get your box open!
Have a great weekend :)

Adding Interest with a Scor-Pal

To make this card I inked up my brand new Paper Inspirations clear stamp set that I absolutely love! It is a large set that has many different types of fruit and a long stamp with different words.
1. To make this card I stamped the words on a cream card with latte ink and over stamped it with the peach and berries stamps in the same color ink.
2. The pear is stamped with VersaMark and embossed with champagne embossing powder and painted with Twinkling H2O's.
3. The pear is then over stamped with an aged paper stamp, also from Paper Inspirations with latte ink.
4. "To Remember" is stamped at the bottom with current ink.
5. The corners are then scored with two lines using the Scor-Pal. This is then layered onto olive and gold papers.
6. The olive strip is scored with a lattice design using the Scor-Pal and then ribbon is tied around it.
~~~
I'm going to enter this in a contest for scoring over at Caardvarks, go check it out and see all of the other amazing cards that have been entered in their gallery.
~~~
My daughter starts high school tomorrow, wow she is now a sophomore, it's hard to believe. I am ready to fall back into my routine but only for one month then my son will be out of school for the month of October, he is in Jr. High and is on a year round schedule. I'm hoping to post more cards this month than I have been so keep checking back for new stuff! Have a great week :)

Twinkling H2O Background

To make this card it painted watercolor paper with three different colors of Twinkling H2O's, a green, pink and purple. After it dried, I stamped it with this flower stamp from PrintWorks using black VersaFine ink, heat set it and outlined some of the image with a white gel pen. It was then layered on to black and purple papers, I dotted the purple paper with the white gel pen, then mounted it onto a black card. The water colored strip at the bottom is a piece I cut off of the main image. This is stunning in person since the Twinkling H2O's are very shimmery, the camera just can't pick that up :(

Twinkling Butterfly

As promised here is a card made using Twinkling H2O's! I love the look of this card and it is so easy to do. Here are the step by step directions.

1. Stamp a light blue panel with script (Hero Arts) in beige Brilliance.

2. Paint directly on a large butterfly stamp (Stampendous) with three colors of Twinkling H2O's, I used olive, brown and blue. Be sure the paint isn't too wet, you want it on the thick side so the color will be more vibrant.

3. Lightly mist stamp with water and stamp in the center of your blue panel. Mist stamp again and stamp on a couple of the corners.

4. Sponge the edges with beige and layer onto a dark blue pane, wrap the left side with silver cord and apply a silver circle sticker (Stampendous) to the top right corner.

5. Glue this diagonally to a card that has decorative paper triangles glued down (these are a 3x3 square that was cut corner to corner).

6. Stamp small butterfly three times each time painted once in olive, brown and blue.

IRL this card is very shimmery!

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This weekend the kids are spending the night at Grandma's and my husband and I are going to have date night! I'm really looking forward to it since Paul was out of town two weeks this month, it will be nice to catch up. Hope you also have a wonderful weekend :)

My Last Christmas Card For a While...

This card was pretty easy to make (my favorite kind). Using a rectangle Coluzzle I cut a rectangle out and then the frame, discard the thin frame. Stamp the outer portion of the panel with the swirl image by Great Impressions with VersaMark and emboss with champagne powder then color in the leaves with a green marker. Stamp the rectangle with the aged paper stamp by Paper Inspirations using latte Adirondack ink. Stamp the Christmas saying (one of four stamps in their clear stamp Christmas set) in the center with VersaMark and emboss with champagne. Stamp the left side with the floral stamp (from the same set) in warm green ColorBox chalk ink and lightly sponge the edges to all pieces. Tie the edge of the frame with ribbons, glue pieces onto a dark green card and apply red circle stickers from Stampendous.
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Okay now I will give the Christmas cards a rest for a while, the next cards I post will be cards made using Twinkling H2O's so be sure to stop by again soon :) Have a great weekend!

Another Christmas Card

As promised, here is another Christmas card. This one is a little more time consuming than the others but I have a few friends that love snowmen. This card was made using just two stamps! The snowmen and sentiment are one stamp that I stamped with blue pigment ink and embossed with a clear glitter embossing powder. It was then painted with Radiant Pearls, cut apart and layered onto dark blue and confetti papers. The card was stamped with snowflakes using stonewashed Adirondack ink, then the edge was torn, sponged with stonewashed the dark blue paper was glued to the inside top panel. After that ribbon was added and the pieces were glued on. For the final touch snowflake stickers were added to the dark blue panel and a circle sticker was put in the center of the two layered snowflakes.

Today it is 104 degrees here is sunny Southern California, I wanted to wash the dogs and my car but it is way to hot! Hope you are staying cool where you are!

Recipe

Stamps- Great Impressions

Inks- Stonewashed Adirondack, blue pigment

Plus- stickers by Stampendous, ribbon, snowflake punch

A Glittery Christmas

I had a Christmas card class last night at Stamp Fever in the city of Orange and this is one of the cards we made. I think it was the ladies favorite with the snowflake glitter strip which is so easy to do! Here is how it is done. Scor-Pal has a great double sided tape that is 1 1/2" wide, all you do is place the tape on a white strip of paper that is 5 1/2" x 2" (it doesn't matter if it is crooked, it will be cut), remove the carrier (the paper backing), punch it three times with a large snowflake punch, place the carrier back on the tape and make sure it is rubbed flat. Then you sprinkle blue glitter in the punched out sections, rub with your finger, shake off the excess and remove the carrier. Now you will pour on white glitter, rub with your finger (it is okay to pour it over the blue snowflakes, it won't stick) and shake off the excess. Finally rub off any excess glitter and cut the strip so you don't have any paper showing on the edges.

Recipe

Paper- periwinkle (unknown brand), white

Ink- Cool Peri Adirondack, VersaMark

Plus- Scor-Pal double sided tape, white glitter, blue glitter, silver cord, corner mount sticker and snowflake stickers by Stampendous, white embossing powder, foam squares

Time To Start On Christmas Cards!

It's never to early to start on your Christmas cards! I know it's hard making Christmas cards when it is 100 degrees or hotter out, but don't put it off or you might end up having to buy some at the last minute like I did last year! When I design my cards for Christmas, the goal is to come up with an attractive design that is easy to mass produce since I make about 100. Of course I get board just making one card over and over so the next few months I will post many different designs, be sure to keep checking back for more ideas.

The Christmas stamp is stamped on Vellum with VersaMark ink and embossed with champagne embossing powder. This is then placed over a panel that has been stamped with the floral design in warm green ColorBox Chalk ink. Next layer this onto dark green paper, tie with ribbon and layer onto red and gold panels. Glue to an ivory card, place corner mount stickers in the two right corners and three red circle stickers on the right side.

Recipe

Stamps- Paper Inspirations

Ink- VersaMark, Warm Green ColorBox Chalk

Plus- Stickers from Stampendous, ribbon

Twinkling Birthday

This was a fun birthday card to make. First I picked out the decorative papers, I wanted something that could be used for a guy or a girl then I chose matching Twinkling H2O's to use. The cake stamp is by Printworks and it is a three layer wedding cake so I put tape over the first two layers, inked it up with VersaMark, removed the tape and stamped it onto watercolor paper and embossed with black glitter powder. Using only portions of stamps is one way to get different looks from the stamps you already have!
Recipe
Stamps- PrintWorks, Hero Arts
Ink- VersaMark, Denim Adirondack
Plus- Twinkling H2O's, ribbon, black glitter embossing powder, corner rounder
Paper- whatever I have on hand which is way too much!

Okay, now it's time for family pictures! My son Greg won two tickets to the Orange County fair and to see BB King in concert! So we only had to pay for two tickets and Greg and Paul went to see the concert while Melanie and I shopped the booths then we met up again went the concert was over. We let Greg play a basketball game but told him most people don't win and guess what, he won! That is his prize he is holding and 8 ball basketball, boy was he happy!

Now this is Greg in his first set of P.E. clothes, isn't he cute!

Melanie played water polo this summer for the first time and she loves it, there is only one week left and she will be sad when it is over but will try out for the team in winter. Here she is in her water polo suit, the blue at the bottom of the suit is her second suit, they have to wear two in case on is torn off!

Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by :)