A New Ink on Life

A Quick Inkspiration

                                                                                                                                                          

My inspired card:

 

I have to say that inspiration challenges are diffinately my favourite challenges to do and Makeesha had such a great one this week that I needed to find a little time to make a card for it. I have been doing so much stamping and project making for swaps and design team commitments that it was nice to finally stamp for me!

The picture to me really spoke a more masculine feel even though I tend to struggle with masculine cards I thought this was the perfect oppotunity to try my hand at a more manly design. I didn't have much time to do any fabulous technique so I just kept it clean and simple. The card base is Basic Gray and I used the Classic Stars Jumbo wheel for a quick and easy background. I then used So Saffron Designer Series Paper layered on top of Basic Black and Textured Bermuda Bay card stock. The thin strip along the bottom of the card is the same patterned DSP but on the reverse side. I stamped the sentiment in Basic Black on Whisper White and used So Saffron stars to give it a little more pop. Again using the Textured Bermuda Bay I backed the words on to it and also added a little strip of Basic Black. It was then mounted on the card with dimensionals. And last but not least those fabulous Corduroy Brads. So glad that I still can use embelishments on a manly card, those cord buttons and brads rock on any project!

That's it Clean. Simple. Quick. Hope you enjoy your day I'm off to work on more swaps (or should I say start them LOL!)

Stamps: Classic Stars Jumbo Wheel, On your Birthday, Sporting(little star)  Paper: So Saffron DSP, Basic Black, Basic Gray, Bermuda Bay Textured  Ink: Basic Black, So Saffron, Basic Gray     Accessories: Basic Gray Corduroy Brads, Dimensionals

One Swap... Two Swap

 

Okay so I know I have been MIA as of late and I truly didn't realize how crazy the month of July was going to be. Yes I knew I was going to be away for a week and half and yes I knew I would have 3 BORED kids at home to deal with and yes I knew I had commited to several organized swaps for the Stampin' Up! Convention in Salt Lake City (only 7 more sleeps until I leave!) but some how I had obviously mistaken myself for Wonder Woman I thought I could manage all that and keep up with blogging! So guess what? Not so good at multi-tasking LOL! But I have managed to have some great fun with my kids and design two of the many swaps that I need to do so I guess the month hasn't been a total wash!

This first card is for a really fun Shoebox swap that we are making full cards for. I really knew I had wanted to use the Friends 24-7 Stamp set and some new in Colours but it also has to be a card that can be completed in 5 minutes. Okay seriously challenged when designibg something simple! But I am really happy with the result and hopefully so will the other participants. The card base is Sahara Sand and I used the same ink colour to randomly stamp the 24-7 after stamping the Damask image in Soft Suede (love, love, love this image). I then used a strip of Crushed Curry and a thinner strip of Textured Soft Suede which I roughed up with the Cutter Kit. The ribbon is the awesom Taffeta in Kraft. I need to do something different with that layer piece as it just looked to plain when attached flat, so to give it more interested and a little bit more of a vintage feel I turned down the corner. The sentiment was stamped in Soft Suede on Very Vanilla card stock punched out and layered on a Bermuda Bay Circle than that was layer on a Crushed Curry Textured Wide Oval. I think the Antique Brass brads just finish it off perfectly.

 

This second card is for a Christmas Card Swap and looks sooooo much better in person as the Reindeer and the dry embossed panel are both done using Shimmer White Card stock. I was inspired by this beauty HERE for my card. The dry embossing was done with a new Stampin' Up exclusive Textured Impressions folder called Final Press.The Reindeer was inked with Soft Suede and the edges of the cardstock was also sponged with it. The image was then layer on Bravo Burgady and Night of Navy. The Brocard Blue layer was randomly stamped with a Snowflake from the stampset Snow Swirled and I love that this set corresponds nicely with the singled Reindeer image. The Be Merry is stamped using Night of Navy ink on Whisper White and punched out with the Large Oval then layered on a Bravo Burgandy Scallop Oval. And of course I just couldn't use an In Color with out the yummy Polka Dot Ribbon.

Stamps: Friends 24-7, Dasher, Snow Swirled, Warm Wishes  Paper: Sahara Sand, Crushed Curry, Soft Suede Textured, Bermuda Bay, Shimmery White, Bravo Burgundy, Night Of Navy, Whisper White, Brocade Blue  Ink: Soft Suede, Sahara Sand, Night Of Navy, Brocade Blue  Accessories: Big Shot, Final Press Impressions folder, Kraft Taffeta Ribbon, Soft Suede Polka Dot Ribbon, Antique Brass Brads, Cutter Kit  Punches: Large and Scallop Oval, 1 1/4 and 1 3/8 Circles, Wide Oval

Well it  crazy hot here right now and I am off the set up the sprinkler for the kids, have a great day!

A Colourful Come Back!

Well I'm back and let me tell you does it ever feel good to be home! I received my first big order from the new Catalogue and am itching to get some stamping done with some of my new goodies. I thought I would ease my way back into stamping by participating in a fun colour challenge from Makeesha Byl an insanely talented demonstrator from Australia. These colours are not one I would naturally put together but to me they diffinately scream floral image and as luck would have I just received my Friends 24-7 set. Absolutely LOVE this set and can not wait to get some good use out of it. Maybe Convention Swaps?!

I started with 3 strips of Water Colour paer and stamped the Flower image using Basic Brown and sponged the edges of the paper with the same colour. Did you know that you can colour images stamped in our Basic Black, Basic Gray and Basic Brown images without fear of the ink bleeding? I love my Staz On ink but sometimes I like to have my outline image look a little softer. I coloured in the image using my favourite Water Colouring Technique using Marker and an Aqua Painter. You can get a really great result by taking a Marker and just place a little bit of color where desired then use the Aqua Painter that is just slightly wet and pull the colour towards the center. I really like how it gives a pretty painted effect with minimal effort. The base of the card is Mellow Moss and was randomly stamped in Always Artichoke with the beautiful Damask image from the set. This stamp set is so worth it just for that image alone! The Sentiment is stamped using Basic Brown again on Very Vanilla and the word Friends coloured in with Rose Red marker and Aqua Painter and attached with Dimensionals. I also used the Damask stamp again, this time inked in Mellow Moss as a background to the words.

Hope everyone is having a great day and with any luck I will be back later today with another post!

Stamps: Friends 24-7  Paper: Water Colour Paper, Mellow Moss, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla  Ink: SU! Markers in Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Rose Red, Basic Brown Classic Ink  Accessories: Key Tag punch (retired), Corner Rounder Punch, Dimensionals

Sweet Sunday on a Monday

 

 

Well  having very limited supplies with me I figured I would try my hand at a sketch challenge because I have a feeling that a colour challenge may be out this week! So if you are counting this would be stampset number 2 of the 4 I brought with me. This again was another MUST have for me from the last Catalogue but again has been sadly neglected. I have inked it up several times but never could seem to get the card to turn out the way I wanted and most of the stamped images ended up in my to "use later" pile.(but have yet to be used LOL!)

This sketch is from Karen Giron of The Sweetest Thing. She has such great sketches every week and this is the first time I have atemped one. I decided to pull out  one of the new In Colours Razzleberry. This is probably one of my least favourite of the 6 new colours but definately a favourite of a lot of people- guess I'm just not a purple person! The colour is a really rich tone and diffenately started to grow on me while I made this card.

I had stamped this image from Thoughts and Prayers on Shimmery White card stock the other night while making my card from the previous post. I again used markers (love them) to color in the image. This time using Real Rose, Chocolate Chip, and Old Olive. It's so hard to tell from the picture but the image on Shimmery paper is sooo pretty. The sentiment was also stamped on Shimmery White and punched out with the Large Oval Punch. The main image panel was then matted  on Melon Mambo and Chocolate Chip.  The base of the card is a 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 Square. I then took a piece of Designer Series Paper from the Razzleberry Lemonade pack and knew I wanted to Scallop the bottom edge-but alas I did not have my Scallop Edge punch with me! Then I remembered what we use to do before we got that amazing punch; Corner Rounder to the rescue! You can see the video HERE on YouTube.  I also rounded the top two corners. The amazinging Melon Mambo Polkadot Ribbon was flipped to the plain side and wrapped around the DSP, then I took a small piece of ribbon made a loop on both ends and used a Corduroy Brad to keep it together and look like a bow. I attached it to the strip of ribbon with sticky strip. Two Very Vanilla brads from the 5/16 Neutral Brads was used as per the sketch and Viola another Simple card!

Stamps: Thoughts and Prayers  Ink: Chocolate Chip Classic Ink, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip and Regal Rose Markers  Paper: Shimmery White, Razzleberry, Chocolate Chip Textured, Melon Mambo, Razzleberry Lemonade DSP  Accessories: Melon Mambo Ribbon, 5/16 Neutrals Brads, Chocolate Chip Corduroy Brads, Corner Rounder Punch, Dimentionals, Sticky Strip

Finding My Mojo?

 

Okay, so I first want to apologize for my lack of posting this past week. I am on holidays and apparently my mojo went on holidays too-with out me lol! After travelling for over 10 hours on Friday with two children and trying to adjust to a 4 1/2 hour time change I finally did some stamping at 4am! (Not as bad as it sounds it was really only 11:30pm to me!) This is the card I came up with, having only taken limited supplies with me; 4 stamp sets (gasp), two ink pads, several markers and very few embellishments.

I decided to try something a little different when making this card. I used the Direct to Rubber technique with my markers colouring the flower images in with Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, So Saffron,Summer Sun,Chocolate Chip, and Old Olive. I then very lightly misted the rubber with water and stamped on to a full piece of water colour paper. What I did next was a little different. I took my Blender Pen and in a small circular motion started to blend and soften the image. I then took my Pretty in Pink Marker and ran it along the edge of the paper to make a very fine out line. I am really pleased with the results as I was able to achieve a softened intensity, so to speak. I used a piece of textured Chocolate Chip card stock and put in on a So Saffron card base, applied two Chocolate Chip Brads to the main image panel, stamped the sentiment in Regal Rose and mounted on the crad. Very simple but I actually like the pretty and clean result.

I am thinking that you will be seeing a lot of very Clean and Simple cards over the next few weeks as that is really all I am able to make with my current supplies! Can you believe I used no Designer Series Paper or Ribbon? Enjoy your day! 

Stamps: Inspired By Nature, Great Friend  Ink: Regal Rose Classic Ink Pad, Chocolate Chip,So saffron, Pretty in PinK, Regal Rose and Old Olive Markers  Paper: Water Colour Paper, Chocolate Chip Textured, So Saffron  Accessories: Neutrals Jumbo Brads 5/16

A Labor of Love- Literally!

 

 An amazingly wonderful friend of mine gave birth to another healthy baby boy back at the end of May. She had asked for some help with the birth annoucements, I of course took over and this is what we finally came up with. I thought it would be fun to create a pocket card and was inspired by a card that was in the last Idea Book and Catalogue. You can view my original draft HERE, we didn't change much and I am glad she was happy with the end result. The cute picture of Luke was taken by  local photographer Deanna Nilson. You can click on the picture to enlarge it. He is just sooo adorable! 

The pocket for the announcement is made from Basic Gray and layer with Tangerine Tango and a piece of fun and funky designer series paper from A Walk in the Park pack. The little sailboat is a take on the cute little image from Nursery Neccesities. I used several different punches and just cut them to shape to contruct my image. The sentiment is from the Nursery Necessities set and was punched out with the word window. For the insert I used a great newly discovered set called Introducing, which also has stamps that say You're Invited and Save That Date. It's a great all Occasions set. I printed his information off the computer on Vellum cardstock and over layed it on Tempting Turquoise.

I know these are not your typical baby colours but when you are designing something for some one who has done interior design you need to think out of the box! And she nor I'm sure will her little boys ever be pastel people LOL! Thanks for stopping by.

Stamps: Nuursery Necessities, Introducing  Ink: Tangerine Tango, Basic Black  Paper: Basic Gray, Tangerine Tango, Tempting Turquoise, Real red, Whisper White  Accessories: 1 1/4 and 1 3/8 Square Punches, Wide Oval Punch, 1 3/4 Circle Punch, Word Window Punch, Tag Corner Punch, Basic Gray and White Tafetta Ribbon, Silver Brad

CAS Seeing Circles

  

Today's Clean and Simple Challenge over at SCS was to make a CAS card with a birthday theme. I had pre-ordered the Circle Circus set when as a demonstrator I got a sneak peek of some of the new items back on June 1st. I really liked it, but once I had it in my hands I wasn't too sure what to do with the images. Ever have that happen before where you are so excited to get something only to have it sit on your shelf staring back at you LOL?

So today was the day I pulled the set back out and decided to show it some lovin' with our fabulous In Colours. I inked up several different images using Melon Mambo (of course!), Soft Suede, Bermuda Bay, and Crushed Curry. Then let the punching begin! One of the really great things about this set is that it corresponds perfectly with various sizes of our circle punches. I also used the Happy Birthday circle stamp from Wow Flowers and layered it with dimensionals on top of the large scallop circle image from Circle Circus. The base of the card is Whisper White and all the circles were also stamped on Whisper White. And what would a card be without wonderful polka dot ribbon?! The Fabulous Friend sentiment is from the really cute Really Retro set, it is full of cute short sayings and fits perfectly in the Word Window punch.

That's it, a very Clean and Simple birthday card. Have a great day!

Stamps: Circle Circus, Really Retro, Wow Flowers  Paper: Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Crushed Curry   Ink: Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay, Soft Suede  Accessories:  Circle Punches 3/4",1", 1 1/4", 1 3/4", Bermuda Bay Ribbon, Large Oval Punch, Word Window Punch, Scallop Circle Punch

I Stamp, UStamp!

    

The start of UStamp is just around the corner and I hope you can join us for this fun and exciting on-line course! There is still time to join so make sure you head on over to  UStamp with Dawn and Friends and find out what all the excitement is about. I also have information in THIS POST that explains all the benefits of joining in on the fun!

I've had a lot of people asking what type of projects you can expect when signing up for UStamp, so with out giving too much away I thought I'd give you a little glimpse of my contribution to this round.

   

 

Intrigued? Trust me it is so worth it and I have had the chance the see some of the other projects- amazing! There is so much talent with 10 different designers from all over the world sharing their creativity with you. So what are you waiting for? "See" you there!

I will be back tomorrow with a new post and project.

2nd Times a Charm? Suite Challenge Take Two

 

 

So last week I was so excited that I had finished this card for Dawn Mcvey's Colour Challenge #10. Well, my youngest got sick that night and by the time I had posted the entry on my blog Mr. Linky was closed for the contest! Let's just call this Take Two! This colour combo certainly pushed my creativity to the edge. The colours I chose to use are Melon Mambo, Certainly Celery, Basic Black, Going Gray and Real Red. A far cry from my comfy Earth Elements LOL!

The base of the card is the standard 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" in Going Gray. I then stamped the Butterflies from Great Friend in Real Red, Certainly Celery, Melon Mambo on a Whisper White square and then mounted them on Basic Black. The layout for this card was inspired by this amazing card by Jenn from Stamp Your Heart Out. The word "You" was inked up with a Basic Black marker stamped on Whisper White and punched with the 3/4" circle and layed on a 1" circle of DSP. The Desinger Series Paper is from Razzleberry Lemonade and a strip of Textured Real Red was punched with the Scallop Edge Punch. Which by the way is on special this month! How exciting is it that not only can you now order from the New Idea Book and Catalogue, but for the whole month of July SU! will feature a new product each week on sale! If you still haven't seen the new Catalogue yet make sure you check it out by clicking on the picture along my side bar.

I know I'm a day late but I hope all my fellow Canadians had a wonderful Canada Day (I spent the day with my kids at the park, unfortunately my hubby was out of town) and wishing my American Friends a Happy Fourth of July this up coming weekend. Have a great day!

Stamps: Great Friend  Paper: Razzleberry Lemonade DSP, Real Red, Basic Black, Going Gray, Certainl Celery  Ink: Melon Mambo, Certainly Certainly, Real Red, Basic Black marker  Accessories: Vintage Brads Black, 1" & 3/4" Circle Puches, Flower Trio Punch, Scallop Edge Punch