Stamping Queens Sketch 28

I made a pretty masculine card for the Stamping Queens Sketch Challenge this week.  This is pretty out of the norm for me but it's good to stretch yourself and do something different, don't you think?

Again, I used My Digital Studio to create the card.  The stamp set is from Extreme Elements and Word Play.  The colors I used are Soft Suede, Not Quite Navy and Kiwi Kiss (which is retired but is one of my favorites!)

Ashley started her vacation today.  She is spending a couple of days in New Orleans with her friends before they all board the cruise ship.  They depart on Thursday afternoon for Cozumel although she doesn't care where they go.  The fun is being on the Rock Boat Cruise and enjoying all the shows and concerts on board.  She has been going on this cruise for about 10 years I think.  They missed the year Katrina hit and of course, she missed it last year.  Each year she adds to the group that goes with her on the cruise.  I think they are up to 30-40 people in their group now!  Friends from college, medical school, DC, Army, Seattle, etc. as well as their friends are in the group.   

Totally Addicting .... Pinterest!

Have you discovered Pinterest?  Oh, so addictive!  I find myself "pinning" so many things.  Who knows if I'll ever go back and do anything with them - especially the recipes I've been pinning but it's a good creative outlet to look at what others like.  Here's a link to my fav's.

I saw a card on Pinterest which inspired this card I have made.  .I did  two versions of the card .  After I made the first one, I decided it would be cool to paper-piece the butterfly to match the DSP so that's what I did in the second card.  What do you think?

 I used a FREE stamp set from Sale-a-bration - Outlined Occasions and colored it in with my Pacific Point, Daffodil and Lucky Limeade markers.  I stamped the butterfly from Flight of the Butterfly with Pacific Point ink.   I used the Adorning Accents die and embossing folder for the various layers along with the DSP from Beyond the Garden.

This is the second version of the card with the butterfly paper-pieced with the Beyond the Garden DSP.

Here is the inside of the card - you can see a peek of the DSP when the card is closed - you just can't tell from above.

I have a great tip for you using the Framelits Dies from the mini catalog - specifically the Labels  but you could also do this with the Hearts.  You can emboss with them as well as cut the frames.  Here is what it looks like:

Here's how to do it:
Set your Big Shot Multipurpose platform so Tab 1 is on the bottom and add the following:
-Plastic Cutting Pad
-Rubber Flexible Crease Pad
-The card stock you are embossing
-Framelit with cutting edge facing upward (make sure it's facing UPWARD! if you place the cutting edge down it will cut through your card stock and maybe your crease pad)  Ask me how I know this??
-scrap cardstock or lightweight chipboard
-Standard cutting pad
-Shim or extra piece of copy paper

And here is another great idea -

What I did on this one was first emboss the cardstock with the Lattice Embossing Folder.  Then I took the two Labels Dies and inked them with Versamark.  Then I made the sandwich as outline above.  Isn't it cool?

Monday Mailers

Just a quick post before I head out to play cards today!

I haven't shared the Monday Mailers I have received this month.  They are great cards!  Our theme for February is to use any item in the Mini Catalog or SAB Catalog so I have been getting lots of good ideas from the cards!!

Enjoy Every Moment

I made this great birthday card this weekend to send to a good friend for her birthday.  I had such fun making the card.  It was trial and error cutting the little squares and getting them spaced out but I finally got it pretty close.  The squares are 3/4" each and I didn't have a punch for that size so I used the good ole SU cutter.   I used last fall's Spice Cake DSP (which is no longer available) and Pool Party card stock.  I used a lot of different elements for this card - the eyelet at the top is retired but I still love them!  I ran a piece of the eyelet ribbon through it and used my Crop-a-dile to set the eyelet.  The tag is just a metal tag that I got at an office supply store.  The bird is from a retired SU set and I colored it with markers.  The butterfly is punched using the SU butterfly punch.  I layered the Pool Party behind the Spice Cake DSP and used the Butterfly Embosslit Die for the small butterfly in the center,  I wrapped twine around the center for the antennae.

I got news today that my friend and the owner of our local stamp store lost her husband in a battle with dementia.  What a cruel disease!  He had steadily been going downhill for the past year and died in her arms last night.  She told me recently to enjoy every moment I had with my husband and I am passing that advice along to you.  Enjoy every moment of life and take time to give thanks for what you have.

Well, it's starting to storm here - thunder, lightning and winds outside so I'd better sign off and shut down my electronics!!

Wednesday Stamping Queens Challenge

It's time for another sketch from the Stamping Queens.  As usual, I did my card using My Digital Studio.  It's so easy to do a sketch with MDS.

Here's the sketch we were to follow:

And here is my card:

For this card, I started with a card template and just changed things up .... quite a bit!  Here is the MDS template that I used:

I divided the red paper in half and matted it in white.  I added a Designer paper to the card.  I deleted the stamp "for you" and the white grid on the orange piece.  I removed the frog and put the stamp from Apothecary Art.  I added Digital Tape with a stamp overlay.  It's easy to redo a template but sometimes it's just as easy to start from scratch!

Check out the cards from the rest of the Queens HERE.
 

Did you notice the "I've Been Published" on my side post?  Well, I was approached by Papers and Pixels  (an onlinecrafting  magazine) last August to write an article or a tutorial for them.  With us being in Texas in August and again in December, I put it off until after the first of the year to give me time to come up with something.  I decided to do a calendar tutorial using My Digital Studio.  The magazine covers a wide range of crafting projects - digital, paper crafting, scrapbooking, etc.  Subscription rates are very reasonable at $12.00 per year, or $1.50 per issue.  The back editions, September 2010 through August 2011, are available for free, and you can purchase the September 2011 through January 2012 editions individually for only $1.50 each. Here’s the link to subscribe to Papers and Pixels Online Magazine: http://www.papersandpixels.com/forum/showthread.php?t=890   My article appears on page 97 if you decide to purchase a copy. 

Here are a few of the cards we are making this month during the February Club.



This card is a Wow and so easy.  It uses Mixed Bunch and the Blossom Punch from the Occasions Mini catalog.

This is another easy one.  It uses the Twitterpated DSP along with the Stripes Embossing Folder which you can get for FREE during Saleabration.  The colors are Blush Blossom and Island Indigo.

And here's another great one.  This uses several items from the Occasions catalog -  the Apothecary stamp,the Framelits Labels Die and the Adorning Accents Edgelits Die.  (The ribbon is retired.)

Hope you have a great week!

Snow??

This has been a very mild winter .... so far!  Today it was dreary and cold all day - a good day to stay inside and be creative!  Around 5 pm there were reports from friends and family in Mooresville that it was snowing.  It's funny how excited people will get over a few flakes of white stuff!  I went outside and saw a tiny bit of snow - mostly it was sleet and rain.  But, as the South tends to get excited and nervous about snow, schools in our county have already announced a delay in the morning!!  I really can't believe it but I'm sure the school kids are excited to be able to sleep in a bit.

I spent the afternoon doing a little rearranging of my stamps.  I have always kept them in alphabetical order but I decided today to mix them up.  I arranged them on my shelves by categories.  I have my retired stamps separate from the current ones.  I sorted them into Sentiments, Floral, Holidays, Occasions, Animals, Backgrounds, Kids, Vintage, Love, Nautical and Love.  I don't have as many current stamps so their categories are:  Mini Catty, Sentiments, Nature, Floral, Elements, and Occasions.  We'll see how this works out.  Now I need to work on my stamp catalog.  I try to stamp each set when I get it and put it into a notebook.  I have been a slacker with this project for about 6 months so I need to get caught up.  Right now, my notebook is in alpha order but I think I may change it also.  I also keep a notebook of sentiments by category but it is very much out of date.  Another project for another rainy day.

Last Wednesday I went to the Reynalda House in Winston Salem (I blogged about this earlier this week).  I took a few pictures of the orchids in the greenhouse.  They were beautiful.  Enjoy!

This is a lemon plant - see the lemon hanging on it!

This is a huge Rabbits Foot Fern.  I have one of these but not nearly so big.  The roots came out of the pot and were all over the table that it is sitting on!

Some of the roots that were spreading everywhere.

Happy Birthday Debra.  Today would have been my sister, Debra's 55th birthday.  She died 5 years ago from breast cancer and I miss her every day.

Drier Sheets

I had my Stamping Club last Thursday and was busy preparing for it.  My Tuesday group meets this week.  Those dates threw me off!  My clubs meet on the 3rd Tuesday & 3rd Thursday.  Well, this month (and next), the 3rd Thursday comes before the 3rd Tuesday!  We did two cards together and then I had optional cards for them to choose from.

I taught the Drier Sheet Technique and they loved it!  Half of the group did the card using Lovely As A Tree and the other half did the card using Easy Events.

• Using White Craft Ink, stamp a small leaf background all over Night of Navy card.  Set aside to DRY!
• Using Labels Die and the Big Shot, cut out Labels in Cherry Cobbler, Night of Navy and the SU Adhesive Sheets.
• Stamp birds from Easy Events onto white card stock and color with markers.
• Using Labels Die, cut out the white bird label.
• Adhere SU Adhesive Sheet  on TOP of the stamped image.
• Peel off the top protective sheet & adhere a USED drier sheet on top.  Trim the edges. 
•  Pour glitter on top of the drier sheet using your fingers to rub it in.
• Stamp sentiment on white scrap and punch out with Oval Punch.  Adhere red rhinestone.

This card uses the same technique.  The colors I used are River Rock and Night of Navy.

 I realized today that I never posted my Stamping Queens Sketch on Wednesday.  It's funny - I wrote a post with the intention of posting the card.  I was watching TV at the time and I guess I got distracted because I now see that I posted one of the cards for Stamp Club!!  See - I tell you, I'm losing it!!  


I used My Digital Studio to create this card.  But, you could make it without MDS.  It uses the DSP and one of the stamps from Saleabration, Everyday Enchantment and  Fresh Vintage.  I used Calypso Coral card stock for the base.

 Here is another card using Fresh Vintage.  This is a very simple card to make:

It is a white on white card.  I used my Corner Rounder Punch on the top layer.  The flower is stamped in Cherry Cobbler.  The trim on the bottom is stamped and embossed in Gold.  A great sympathy card or you could change the colors and ribbon and make it bright and colorful for a birthday or other occasion.

 I

Day Trip

I took a day trip today with some ladies from Newcomers to Winston Salem.  We toured the Reynolda House which was built in 1917 as the home of Katherine and R J Reynolds, the founder of R J Reynolds Tobacco Company.  The property originally consisted of over 1,000+ acres but is now a little over 100 acres having donated a large portion in the late 1940s to Wake Forest University to move from their location in eastern NC to Winston Salem.  In the late 60s, the home and outbuildings were opened to the public as an institution dedicated to arts and education.  It is renowed for its extensive American art work.  Today we heard a presentation about Audobon's work and saw several of his pieces.  We also wandered around in the Historic Village that houses very expensive shops!  I went in a couple of dress shops and everything I saw was in 3 figures!!  Too rich for my blood!

Here is one of the cards that will be an option for my stamp clubbers this month.  Simple but great!

• Cardstock is Rose Red with a white card stock layer.
• Emboss white layer across the middle with the Adorning Accents Textured Embossing Folder (mini catalog, pg 7) and the Big Shot
• Wrap Wisteria Wonder Ruffled Ribbon around white cardstock and adhere to card.
• Stamp “Remember When” from Word Play stamp set on bottom right of card.
• On a scrap of Wisteria Wonder cardstock, stamp the heart w/girl & boy on bike (Take It To Heart set) in White Craft Ink. Cover with white embossing powder and heat emboss.
• Use Hearts Framelits Die to cut out the embossed heart and adhere to card front with dimensionals.

Like a Pinata!

 The human mind is kind of like a piñata.  When it breaks open, there's a lot of surprises inside.  Once you understand that, you see that losing your mind can be a peak experience.   I fully intended to post a card on my blog last night.  But, I haven't broken open the pinata I guess and I forgot!

We went to the hockey game (Charlotte Checkers) in downtown Charlotte last night with friends.   It was fun even if they did lose.  We had dinner first at a small little NY deli bar/restaurant that Sonny had gone to about 3 years ago and has been looking for it ever since.  (He hasn't cracked open the pinata either!)  It was a neat little place right on the corner of 5th and Tryon so I don't know why we didn't see it before.  I'm sure we've walked by it plenty of times.  Oh well - we know where it is now.   

When we got back home, I watched what remained of the Grammy's.  I hate that I missed the Beach Boys come back performance.  I was a HUGE Beach Boys fan when I was in high school.  I thought L.L. Cool J did a good job of hosting the event.   The death of Whitney Houston the day before definitely put a pallor on the awards show but Jennifer Hudson's ode to her, singing "I Will Always Love You" was fantastic.  Whitney had such a gift.  It is too bad that her demons got the best of her.   I thought the performer, Nicki Minaj, was insane doing whatever it was she was doing (can't call it singing) with an exorcism performance.    What a freak!  I loved seeing Glen Campbell perform although I hardly recognized him.  He is a true legend and it is so sad that he is suffering from Alzheimers.  Campbell was another of my favorites 'back in the day."  The audience gave him a standing ovation .... EXCEPT for two gals who were caught on camera tweeting on their phones.  It's sad that you can't put your phone down for 5 minutes.  So rude!  And then there was Sir Paul!  Love him!  Sorry I missed his earlier performance but was glad that he performed a medley at the closing of the show.  He did a few songs on the piano which I loved and then took up the guitar and and was joined by Joe Walsh, Bruce Springsteen and a member of the Foo Fighters (not sure his name).  He may be 69 years old but he still has IT!  I guess the real star of the night was Adele who walked away with it all practically.  Her speech at the end for Album of the Year was so funny!  I didn't realize she had such a Cockney accent - she acknowledged her mom by saying "Mom, the girl did good" and spoke of a "rubbish relationship" that was her inspiration for the album.  And then amidst the tears, she acknowledged that her nose was running and said "I've got a bit of snot" in that marvelous accent!  That was priceless.  It reminded me of the English waitress who told me something was a "bit of a shit" last year when we were in Nottingham.


OK - I do have a card to share after all that!  It is a vintage-y card using a great DSP - Well Worn and no stamping!

The supplies I used are all SU - no stamps but a lot of accessories!


Cardstock:  Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Well Worn DSP
Accessories:  lace ribbon, Lace Ribbon Border Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer Punch, Blossom Petals Builder (for leaves), Heart to Heart Punch, Color Spritzer Tool, Soft Suede & Cajun Craze marker, Finial Press Embossing Folder, Big Shot


I pleated the Well Worn DSP by scoring a strip every 1/2" and folding it.  I ran tape all along the back of it to adhere it to the card.  

Here is a close of the flower.

I punched out a Scallop Circle (Cajun Craze) for the bottom layer; the next 3 layers are punched with the Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer Punch.  The top layer (from Well Worn DSP is punched with the Heart to Heart punch (4 hearts) with a pearl on top.  They are all layered with dimensionals.  The leaves are punched out with the Blossom Petals Builder punch.    I used the Color Spritzer on the Vanilla rectangle with the Cajun marker to splatter.


Hope you have a great Tuesday and a wonderful Valentines!