Thursday, July 31, 2014

Naked Stamping.... Huh?

Ok, I know you're wondering if you should read this but this is about a card with NO layers or embellishments.  Just stamps and ink. Period.  I decided to play with Red Rubber Inspirationals challenge #131.  I'm NOT good at this kind of card and I might even add some goodies on it later.


Oh, another requirement, NO pattern paper, strickly light colored solid card stock.  But I used a crackle stamp to make my own pattern!  Hopefully that will count. (I do have a few of RRD's large background stamps but they don't have this one.)  I used a light tan ink to make the pattern subtle.  Then I stamped the tree and leaves and text using a set from PaperTreyInk that I've had for a few years called Falling Leaves.  I stamped the tree twice as it just didn't stand out enough with the first try.  Here in southern Arizona we don't have many trees that do autumn colors so I  really miss northwest Wyoming and the Yellowstone Park area with the fabulous colors.


Here's a closer look at the tree.  I see a couple leaves didn't stamp real clear. Bummer.  I also stamped the single leaf, that I used next to the text, on the inside of the card.  I have not stamped any text inside as I don't know yet how I want to use this card.

Update on Friday:  I just didn't like the looks of the tree floating in space so I added grass but sponging off a piece of torn paper.  Looks a bit better to my thinking.  (My flash wiped out the yellowish color of the paper.)


So head over to Red Rubber Inspirationals and check out the inspiration cards and any challenge takes (I'm the first to pick up this challenge.)

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

A "By The Sea" Card With My Desk

I stayed home yesterday to play at my work desk (and today you get to see it). Also, today is the weekly "What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday".  Yep, every week!  Yep, I'm showing you my desk.  Yep, Julia over at the Stamping Ground is responsible for this fun blog tour.


Not a lot happening.  But my desk was in use for a bit yesterday.  There is my box of twine on the far left under the paper trimmer, glue dots, work mat, ink, water bottle and scrub rag, acrylic blocks, foam mounting tape, and scissors.  With this photo you can see the excessive "stuff" on the shelves behind my Cricut and above the scrub rag.  Believe it or not, I know what all is up there.

So here's the card that I made yesterday.  I played with a layout I've done before and wanted to try again.


I used an old set by Red Rubber Designs called "Light the Path".  This set is no longer available in cling rubber (which I have that has 3 lighthouses, text, and seagulls) but Pam does have 3 smaller sets of 2 stamps each which does have all the stamps that are in the larger set that I have. Just do a search of the site if you're interested.


I colored the lighthouse with my Copic markers and pop dotted the 3 seagulls.  Not bad to my way of thinking.  This would make a great guy card for any occasion.  Inside I have the stamped sentiment from the set, "We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own."

Now, head on over to the Stamping Ground and check out all the deskers willing so show their desks!  I get lots of inspiration, sometimes a giggle, sometimes an opportunity to pray for someone, and always a fun time of meeting crafters.  Enjoy!  (And can you believe August is day after tomorrow?  Where'd July go???)  I was hoping to get more stamping done but I did something I really needed to do... I cleaned a room.  I will be taking a LOT of stuff to a local thrift store this morning on my way to Curves (for my workout) and 3 BIG bags of stuff for the dumpster.  What a difference!

Monday, July 28, 2014

Butterflies for My Friend

I was checking out Pinterest the other day and pinned quite a few cards that impressed me.  This card was inspired by a pretty card here.


The background chicken wire image (from Distressed Backgrounds Flair) and label (from For A Friend) are both by Close To My Heart.  I used a small punch for the butterflies.


I added a couple clear rhinestones to each butterfly for that touch of bling.  I consider this a CAS (clean and simple) card even though it has a few layers.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

An Assortment of Box Cards for Christmas

Last Friday I attended a Christmas in July party at AZ Scrapbooking.  What a hoot!  I taught a Make 'N Take along with 4 other instructors. The customers had a ball but there was a contest for the best Box Card and the entries were amazing!


These are great but, unfortunately, not chosen as the top 3.  I like the Jesus one.


These also were wonderful, but not chosen as the top 3.  Did you see what is pulling the Santa sleigh in the left box?  It's a javelina!


The silhouette one on the left is very cute with the wreath but the Magnolia one on the right placed  3rd.


I got a kick out of the fuzzy snowmen.  The nutcracker box is wonderful (reminds me of our 2 youngest granddaughters who dance in the Nutcracker play put on by a dance studio where they live) and it placed 2nd.  Are you ready for the one that won first place?


Isn't this amazing!!!  Bonnie really had some imagination and the vision to get it done!!


Here's a front view of Santa.  He had a burlap bag full of toys!



Friday, July 25, 2014

A Copper Leaf Creations Happy Holidays

Oh yeah.  Christmas is right around the corner.  And at AZ Scrapbooking we are celebrating Christmas in July with a Christmas party today!  Yep!!  Merry Christmas - a few months early!  So I will be celebrating by showing you another card I made last Saturday at the Copper Leaf Creations Christmas card class.  I still have to finish 2 brown gift bags but there's nothing special about them so I'm not working very hard on them at this point.


We stamped little inchies with a cute little holly and layered them on some white ones that were deckle cut.  I also deckle cut the white around the sentiment. And stamped the holly on the back flap of an envelope.


For some bling I added some red Stickles on the holly after I colored the leaves with a Copic marker.


And I added dots of Icicle Stickles to the snowflakes on the sentiment.  I really like the simplicity of this card.  What do you think?  At this rate I'll have more than enough cards for Christmas this year.  Will you?  I may even have some to either give to the kids to use or sell!

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Desks and Pinwheels


I thought since today is "Hump" day I'd bring back this funny little guy.  He reminds me of the goofy commercial using the camel walking through the office saying something like, "Do you know what day it is?"  Well, to many of us today is "WOYWW" day!  The fun day you get the opportunity to view desks from all over compliments of head desker Julia!  Just click on the WOYWW button in the left sidebar to find out more.  And click on Stamping Ground to go to her blog and see the links to desks all over the place!  And here's mine today.


I have been quite busy.  I'm preparing 10 Christmas cards for a Christmas party on Friday at the AZ Scrapbooking store where I teach.  This week is our annual Christmas in July week and I had my Trio of Shaped Christmas Gift Card Holders yesterday.  (I had 5 students and 3 kits plus anything more kits I can put together even though I am out of the particular paper I was using.)  So, my desk has LOTS of stuff on it and I want to get this project "put to bed" so I can go on with something else.  Let's see, left to right: Blue case with card components that are ready (sitting on the Cricut mat), little blue flashlight for searching out small stuff on my desk (yep, a couple items flipped out of my hands and I had to go searching),  little toothbrush holder that contains styluses, kraft knife, pokey tool), empty artist sponge envy, blue pieces with Cricut words to take apart, Cricut "Winter Wonderland" cartridge box,  Cricut book, and 2 new sets of CTMH stamps (just got them in the mail yesterday).  This is a total mess!  But by Friday afternoon or Saturday morning all will be put away and a new project will be on the kraft mat.


And now for the pinwheel.  Last Saturday I took part in a Christmas card class put on by Deb of Copper Leaf Creations (see my last post for links and more cards).  This card was the most difficult as trying to make sure it closed properly and edges aligned was a challenge.


Here it is closed. It's been a LONG time since I made one of these.  It's not something I would want to do daily.


Here is the back or bottom of the card.  The base is a good place to write your sentiment or whatever.  This card does fit a standard A2 envelope.


And the inside.  I did a bad job lining up the circular "Merry Christmas" as 2 of them overlapped a bit. There are Stickles in the centers of the 6 small snowflakes around the center and the large one in the center.  All the background snowflakes were stamped off once so that they wouldn't be to visible and detract from those with the glitter.

So now, please click on the Stamping Ground and head over to Julia's.  I'll be traveling the world today enjoying all the great inspiration and desks so please join me!  Seems the desk count is down today.  Hopefully everyone is enjoying families! God bless you all!





Monday, July 21, 2014

A Copper Leaf Creations Christmas

Saturday I was on standby for a class sponsored by AZ Scrapbooking in Green Valley, AZ.  By 8:30 a.m. I had my ticket and I was in the class!  Deb, owner of Copper Leaf Creations in Phoenix, taught the class, and, of course, I ordered a couple stamps.  Mind you, only 2.  I was being good.


Here's Deb. She is quite the sweety and very fun!


We white embossed the cactus image then used chalks to color.  I've not done this before and like the effect!


We made this scenery card and chalked the colors.  Did a bit of masking.


This was just black stamped then we used PrismaColor pencils to add red and white.  We also used a fine point sharpie pen to add the stitching around the card.

I still have more to show so stay tuned!  Oh, what did I order?  I ordered the barb wire border and reindeer (which I could not find online)!

Friday, July 18, 2014

A Modern Grid

Each month I take part in a swap called Technique Junkies 1 on 1.  The requirement is that we must use a technique from the newsletters or CDs.  This month I used a technique from the April 2007 newsletter called Modern Grid.  I've not tried it before and it was fun.  Background stamps are retired from The Angel Company and banner and text stamps are from Close To My Heart.


Isn't this wild?  I added some dots and stitches and a few touches of color for fun using a journaling pen, a fine tipped Sharpie, and an ancient ColorBox coloring stylus tool.


For a touch of bling I added dots of Stickles glitter glue to some flower centers and on each end of the text.  This card is heading to Canada.   It was fun going way back in the newsletters to revisit the older techniques.  Today I need to get it in gear and prepare for my Trio of Shaped Christmas Gift Card Holders class next Tuesday morning.  I'll be making 8 kits so hope I've purchased enough paper....

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Wednesday Workdesk and I Love You

Today is that day, you know, the day you get the opportunity to see desks from all over the place for inspiration, organizational ideas, and who knows what!  And we all have Julia at the Stamping Ground to thank for this fun blog tour!  You need to pop over to her blog when you finish here and check it out!  I've been doing this for over a year and thoroughly enjoy the visiting I do.  But now on to my desk....


Not lots happening.  I have some stamps and scrap pieces on the left, my Scor-Pal (with 2 Hershey Kisses that barely made it through the photo before they were scarfed down) in the middle, and scissors, ink, acrylic blocks, and eraser, and small scraps of paper on the right.   I had just finished a card and was starting to put some stuff away when I took the photo.  The stamps on the left are what I used.  It's a set by Close To My Heart that I recently purchased.


I used a sketch by Operation Write Home.  The stamps are from the set "Country Born".  I colored with some Copic markers then sponged some ink around the images.  I used OWH sketch Challenge 233.  I love simple cards and there are both simple and some that are a bit more complex taking part in the challenge. So, if you are so interested, you can pop over there, too, when you're done here.  But please, click over to the Stamping Ground and check out the desks!  Have fun and it might be wise to have your cuppa coffee, tea, water, or whatever as your trip might take you longer than you plan!

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Elegant Ovals Sympathy

Here's the last of the 4 Seaside cards I recently made for class samples.


I purchased the Elegant Ovals die set from Spellbinders a while back and haven't done much playing with it.  I thought it worked great with the Inkdinkado stamps I was using.


The dies are very intricate and, with the Tool in One by Spellbinders, they came out of the dies so nice and the tool took out all the little cut pieces that didn't release right away.  You can see the added bling on the ends of this oval to beef up the elegance.  Today is our meeting and I'm not ready.  Bummer.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Boxing It Up

You all know I teach classes at AZ Scrapbooking in Green Valley, AZ.  Well, in a couple weeks the store is having it's annual "Christmas in July" week and all us instructors will be teaching a class with a Christmas them PLUS helping put on a Christmas party for the customers on the 25th.  Yep, coincidence but a fun one.  The customers will be taking part in a contest making a box card.  I was given the "box" just for fun and, since it was orange, I thought of a southwest theme with snowflakes.


I got out my Southwest Cricut cartridge and made 3 different cacti.  All the snowflakes are from dies by Spellbinders.


The scalloped square that is stamped is also by Spellbinders.  The Spanish text is from stamps that I purchased from The Angel Company years ago.


I know the snowflakes seem quite busy but I sure had fun putting them on.  I even cut up a clear plastic box into narrow strips to make 3 flakes look like they're in the sky.  Now, isn't this a hoot?!

Friday, July 11, 2014

Some More Turquoise Flourish Beach Cards

I have been working like crazy trying to finish the 4 cards I need for my August class as next Monday we have a store meeting concerning the classes.  By golly, I did it!  I showed you 1 in my last post so here's a couple more.  I'll save the last for another post.


I like to start my class with the easiest card and this is it.  The sunburst is made using my Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge.  I also used the Fiskars "Bubbles" border punch, the Inkadinkado "Down by the Seashore" stamp set, and Fiskars "All Seasons Greetings" set.  Very easy and fast.  I added some white liquid pearl dots to the sun's rays for some bling.


This design I seen on Pinterest but other than the offset lighthouse there is no resemblance.  I reinked my black ink pad and it is not being real nice at this point, that's the reason the words are heavy inked at the bottom.   I added some silver sequins for bling.  Both of these cards are easy to replicate which is what I like.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Turquoise Flourishes on my Desk

Yep,  I'm working on a project and my desk is a mess!  I actually used my Cricut but I won't be showing you that card today along with my desk.  I'm working on getting my class card samples for my August class ready for a store meeting on Monday.  I do have 2 of 4 cards (plus 1/2 of one that is on my desk) done.  I'm using a set by Inkadinkado called "Down by the Seaside".  I'll be doing 2 get well cards and 2 sympathy cards.

But my desk....  And you can thank head desker Julia over at the Stamping Ground for uniting crafters from all over the planet into this weekly get together.


As you can see my red Cricut Expression is open and the mat is kinda stuck in the roller to keep it in place.  I have the CTMH "Art Philosophy" book open as I study what I might want to do for the card that is on the mat in the center of the picture.  I do have the card mostly assembled now and it's looking doubtful I'll be using any die cuts on the card.  I'm getting my mojo back to some degree but have been blurfing (blog surfing) to get some ideas that work with the paper and stamps I'm using.


This is one of my cards for the class but I may have to change out the yellow cloud embossed panel for something else.  I need to call or stop by the store and see if this is an embossing folder they carry. If not, I'll find a flourish folder and re-do the panel.  (I think I had my camera on the wrong setting when I took this pic and a lens scratch is throwing a shadow.)


This folder is by Darice and I know the store carries their wood grain embossing folder.  I couldn't find this one at the online vendor so.... darn.  I like this!

Ok, now that you've see my messy desk and my card please pop over to the Stamping Ground and check out all the desks.  I'm late getting linked as we had an amazing electrical storm last night and just got the power back on.  And I'm installing a new TV in my computer/craft room to keep me company.  Hope you have a GREAT day!