Ombre Background

Happy February!  January sure flew by fast!  Of course, since I was gone the first two weeks, maybe that is why I think so.  Below are two calendars that I received for Christmas.  The top one was made by my sister, Marianne and the second one was made by my friend and neighbor, Gayle.  I love them both and love having my own calendars to look at.  I always make calendars for every one else and never for myself!

I attended the Newcomers Coffee today.  It was good to see everyone again.  I missed the January meeting and I usually go to the coffee's each month.  I am going to be the photographer again this year (last year though!) and I was busy today taking pictures of the new officer installation.  I finished the memory book for the outgoing president and got it back from the printer in time to give it to Sandy today.  I hope she will enjoy it!

I made a card this afternoon after seeing a video about ombre backgrounds by Jennifer McGuire.  I just had to try it before I forgot!

I used the Flourishing Phrases stamp set for the background stamp.  I stamped it with VersaMark ink; sprinkled Clear Embossing Powder all over and heat set it.  Next I took a large dauber and rubbed Watermelon Wonder ink all over the bottom of the card until I got it as dark as I wanted it.  I used a Blender Brush (like a big paintbrush) to get the lighter Watermelon ink on the rest of the card.  You could also use a sponge but just go lightly.  When you get the background the way you like it, take a clean cloth (or paper towel) and rub the ink off the Versa-marked background.  For "hello" I used a piece of thin white craft foam (from HL, M's, etc.).  First I adhered a piece of Stick It adhesive sheets (found them in my stash and I have never used them!) to both sides of the craft foam.  Take the protective cover off one side and adhere a piece of white card stock.  Die cut "hello" (SU Hello You thinlits) on the card stock side of the foam.  Before removing it from the negative, ink it with the Watermelon ink - darker on the bottom.  To get the sparkle, tap the VersaMark ink pad on the die cut, sprinkle Dazzling Diamonds embossing powder on and heat set.  (Or you can do like me - I forgot to do that step before adhering "hello" to the card.  So I used a VersaMark Pen and went over the die cut while on the card.  Then embossed and heat set.)  Stamp the sentiment (from Cottage Greetings) on a strip of white card stock, emboss with clear and heat set.  Rub your dauber with Watermelon ink over the strip.  The ombre panel is on a white card.  I daubed Watermelon ink all around the edges of the white card so it would all match!

Try it and see what you can do with this technique!

Stamp Club January Calendar

I think I should leave a sticky note at the top of my blog saying "sorry - I've been busy."  I have been snowed under (not really snow) and neglected posting to my blog on a regular basis.  I am the photographer for the Newcomers group which means I take pictures all year of events going on and at the end of the year, I put together a memory book for our president.  Well, I've been busy trying to finish up the book.  I finally finished yesterday and sent it to the printer.  Now, hoping it will be back in time to present it at our next meeting but I have my doubts. 

Last week was Stamp Club.  I am doing something a little different this year.  One of the gals from my Club (and my neighbor) gave me a calendar in a shadowbox frame for Christmas.  She bought the frame at Hobby Lobby.  I just love it!

So I decided that each month in Stamp Club, we would do a calendar page.  The gals can use the calendar this year and at the end of the year, they can just add the 2018 months and give it away as a gift to a friend.  This is the page we did this month.  The snowman is not Stampin' Up.  Believe it or not, I do not have a Stampin' Up snowman!!  Everyone had a different background snowflake piece of DSP.  We framed the snowman and calendar with Emerald Envy card stock.

Speaking of calendars, this is one Marianne gave me for Christmas.  It is hard to see in the picture, but she used glitter on the ground beneath the Lovely As A Trees.  It is so sparkly!!

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I'll be at Buffalo Wild Wings later today cheering on the Steelers.  If they win today, we are Super Bowl bound!  Unfortunately, our opponent is the New England Patriots.  I am a little nervous!  We are definitely the underdog in this race.

Using Photos in Punches with MDS

I am playing around with My Digital Studio today.  I am determined to finish my New Zealand scrapbook in the next few months.  It's only been a year!!  I worked on the scrapbook a lot last spring but have neglected it since.  The problem is I have soooo many photos (plus Ashley's, Courtney's and Taffy's) and I want to include them all.  It's hard for me to select just a few.

In the meantime, I thought I'd do this page for MDS Monday before the deadline.  I actually couldn't decide which one I liked best so I did two pages!  They both are meant to go on the front of a 2015 calendar.  Wish I'd thought to use it on Ashley's calendar this year, but I will remember it for next year!

The challenge this week is to use pictures in punches.

The pictures above were taken last fall when we returned from New York.  We walked around this beautiful fall area at Ft. Belvoir.  Funny what is hidden on Army posts!!  I used the Timeless Junior Numbers Punches for "2015" and a square punch for the background, lowering the opacity to about 50.

This is probably my favorite!  It is similar to the cover for Ashley's calendar except I didn't think about adding pictures to my punches at the time!  This picture is from Lake Tekapo in New Zealand.

There are some great ideas for photos in punches on MDS Monday's blog.  Make sure to check them out here.

2015 Calendar with My Digital Studio

As much as I loved the holidays and spending time with my family and friends - especially having Ashley here for almost two weeks not to mention Bogart for 4 months (!!), it was nice to get back to "normal" today.  Ashley was a sweetheart and helped Sonny and I take down the tree and all the house decorations before she left so I didn't have to bother with that.  Last night after taking her to rhe airport, I straightened up all the gift wrap paper, bags, ribbon, tags, gift card holders, tissue, etc. and put them away in the attic until next year.  So today was wide open for doing a little card making!  I have two swaps (Occasions catalog and Sale-a-Bration) due in two weeks plus a shoebox card to make for this Saturday so I knew I had to get busy.  It was great to do some stamping that wasn't in red and green or other Christmas colors!!  Don't get me wrong - I love Christmas but by New Year's I'm done with it!

As you can see, I changed my blog header to a simple one for now.  I'll probably work on a Valentine one later but this was good for now.  The pennants and dotted background piece is actually a sheet of Designer Paper that I just filled a rectangle punch with.  All was left was my text and I used an Alphabet Punch (Smitten) and paper filled it - easy, peasy!

I always make Ashley a calendar for Christmas and she does the same for me on My Digital Studio.  This year, with her being at Ft Belvoir, she wasn't able to get it done for Christmas.  So, on Sunday, she used my computer to create one and I should be receiving it in a week or two.  Here is the one I made for her this year (without the date pages).  They end up being like an album of our year.  I always keep mine to look back at the pictures.

JANUARY

APRIL - New Zealand road signs

MAY - New Zealand 

JUNE - still New Zealand

JULY - DC / Virginia in September

AUGUST - Pittsburgh October

Pittsburgh

OCTOBER - NYC

Don't forget the Stampin' Up Year End Sale.  You can shop by hitting "ORDER ONLINE" at the top of this post.  Please use my Hostess Code when ordering - N4KDHCAU

Holiday Home MDS style!

The sketch for Paper Craft Crew this week is very similar to one we did a couple of weeks ago.  In fact, I emailed the gal in charge to ask if it was a repeat!  I don't think she had realized that she had put the two sketches so close together.  I decided to make this week's card a Halloween card.  It's funny - when I first looked at the Holiday Catalog, the stamp set with the houses, Holiday Home, was not on my list at all.  But after seeing all the cute cards that everyone is making with this set, I had to get it.  Not only did I order it as a Clear Stamp, but I also ordered the digital stamp too!  Here is the digital card I made for the challenge:

I have been working on my calendars for 2015 and I also used this set for October.  This is my favorite so far!  I followed a tutorial on-line and learned a lot of new tricks for this page.  (An old dog can learn new tricks!)

I will be offering my calendars for sale.  They are $20 which includes the wooden holder for $10 for refills.  The calendars are 6x6.

2014 Calendar

Before Christmas, I made several calendars using My Digital Studio.  One of the gals I made one of the calendars for asked me to make another one for her sister.  I decided to use stamps and paper to make this one instead of MDS.  Most of the stamp sets that I used are retired.  She really loved it and is taking it to her sister in Florida next week.

Button Buddies Stamp

Love You More stamp & Hearts A Flutter

Owl Punch

Single Stamp (All Ears???) and Fringe Scissors

Retired Daisy Die and Butterfly Die

Whale Sizzlit

No Stamping - just Patterned Paper

Perfectly Preserved

Wetlands

The More the Merrier

No Stamps - 5 Flower, 1" Circle and 2 3/8" punches 

Holiday Lineup

If you are interested in buying a calendar similar to this one, let me know.  I sell the calendar plus a wooden display to hang it on for $20.

Calendar Pages June - September

Almost finished with my room!  I moved furniture around today and cleaned out drawers.  I found some things in one drawer that I got when I first started with Stampin' Up - 6 years ago - that had not been opened!  Oh my - that is bad!  I found about 10-12 12"x12" tag sheets in various colors from my earlier days.  So, tonight while watching tv, I punched all the tags out and put them in a container.  You just might see me using tags in some of my cards in the future!!  Maybe if I'd punched them out 6 years ago, I would have used them!  I filled up a couple more garbage bags today too.  I have a friend who recently moved to Georgia.  She got interested in stamping while attending my classes.  I am putting together a goody bag for her to keep her going.  I'm trying to convince her to sign up as a SU demonstrator.  She would make a good one.  Sonny is going to hang my Clip Up Ribbon Organizer tomorrow so I will get my ribbons organized in it when I return from playing Mahjongg.  I bought it for myself for Christmas present and bought one for my sister, Marianne.  I don't know if she has found a spot for hers yet or not.

Here are a few more months of my calendars for you:

The wind has really been howling all night.  We have a lot of tall pine trees behind our house and they have just been swaying.  I think the wind is blowing in a cold front.  It is supposed to get really cold here tomorrow and stay that way for at least a week - with temps only getting in the mid-40s.  I wouldn't mind some snow falling!!  After all, it is January!!

More Calendar Pages

I worked all day getting my room organized today and finally am making progress!  I can actually see the top of my desk.  I hope to finish up tomorrow and sit down and put some ink to paper and be creative!  I've got some Occasions Mini Catalog items as well as Saleabration things to play with!! 

Sonny resumed his painting today.  He only has 2 rooms and he will be finished.  They are both our guest bedrooms and we are painting both of them pink.  I have never had a pink room before so it is very different for me. 

I have a few more calendar pages to share with you today.  I hope this gives you inspiration to make your own calendar.  They are so much fun to make.

And here is the calendar stand that Sonny made for it.  You just slip the 6x6 pages into 6 page protectors, use a jump ring to hang them from and sit on your desk.  Each month you just flip the pages over.  You only need 6 page protectors - the end of June, you just turn the calendar around for the other 6 months.  If you are interested in purchasing one, let me know.  They are $10 plus shipping.