Happy Halloween!!

Friday, October 31, 2008



Hands down, this is my favorite holiday!! I have the house decorated (this year it's only the inside that's decorated since we live in an apartment), the candy ready and my witches hat dusted off! DD will be trick or treating with her cousin, who she keeps insisting will be dressed as a Prince, since she is Cinderella this year! LOL

Today happens to also be Hanna Stamps Challenge day and I have a card to show you. I would have done a Halloween card featuring Riley with his broomstick, but part of the challenge was paper piecing and I decided that Riley was too small to paper piece something on him! Sorry!

I combined two challenges with this card today. On SCS, this week's 'Ways To Use It' challenge was to use a crackled effect on your card. I've been dying to do this technique! This week's Hanna Stamps Challenge is brought to you by Amanda Sewell and is a sketch with a twist - you have to use the 'paper piecing' technique too!

For my card, I first stamped the snowflakes from Hanna Stamps 'Ski Bunny' set onto the kraft cs, then sponged the edges with white ink. I then stamped the skis onto some scrap Basic Grey patterned paper, cut them out and then glued them onto the kraft cs. Then with my Versamark ink pad, I covered the entire piece with the ink and sprinkled my UTEE embossing powder all over it. Heat set it and quickly add another layer of embossing powder before it has a chance to cool down. I did this one more time so I had three layers of ep over my image. Then I popped it in the freezer to cool down and harden. After about a minute I took it out and started bending it to make the ep crack. And that's all there is to that technique - cool effect don't you think??


Hope you all have a SPOOKTACULAR Halloween!

Supplies:

Stamps: Hanna Stamps 'Ski Bunny'
Ink: StazOn, Colorbox 'Frost White'
Paper: Bazzil cs, Very Vanilla, PP - Basic Grey 'Fruitcake - Avalanche'
Access: Ribbon, Martha Stewart snowflake and edge punch, dimensionals, UTEE embossing powder
Technique: Cracked Glass, Paper Piecing

A Quickie!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Get your mind out of the gutter!! I'm talking about cards, not whatever you were thinking about... ;)

I wanted to share with you a card I made for the last Hanna Stamps release party but never uploaded to SCS. Since next week is November's (holy cow where did the time go?) release party for Hanna Stamps and I'm hoping to have a bunch of new sneak peeks for you to oogle over, I figured I ought to show you what a quickie card looks like using the Hanna Stamps 'Ski Bunny' set!

The card is 3 1/2"x3 1/2". I really like the white, pink and red color combo and thought the 'accessories' in the Ski Bunny set would lend itself to this layout really well. I think this would make a great Christmas gift card, don't you think??

I have some free time tonight and I'm looking forward to inking up my new stamps from Rubbernecker for a card tomorrow.

Toodles,
Sandra


Supplies:
Stamps:
Hanna Stamps!
'Ski Bunny'
Inks: StazOn, Pretty in Pink, Real Red
Paper: Bazzil cs, Georgia Pacific cs,
Access: EK Success square scalloped punch, dimensionals

Guitar Hero!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Can you believe this sentiment is a Studio G $1 brand from Michaels!? I always check the $1 bins at Michaels just in case they've actually updated their stock and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this set staring back at me!! It has other words in it that play around the same rock star theme. So you know I had to go home with it!

Hopefully I'm not boring you all to tears with my Anya cards of late. I'm just having sooo much fun coloring her that I can't quite stop! :D Imagine what I'd be like with some of Anya's beau, Ian. He's being released on Nov. 1st by Pink Poison, and I think I may just have to get him too!

So my very dear and funny friend Karen, who I might add, doesn't blog NEARLY enough, challenged me the other day to create a black and white only card. The last black and white card I attempted, I tried making my own background paper with stamps....didn't work out so well and I was afraid this challenge would go the same way. But, it's amazing what you can do with some patterned paper, glitter and some bling! :D

I know, I did break the rules a bit with the color on Anya's face, but I'm sorry Karen - I can't turn Anya into Marilyn Manson - it's just not right! LOL

Speaking of cute little pixies (Anya, not Marilyn!), yesterday was 'Tinkerbell Day' at our house. Disney released the new Tinkerbell movie yesterday and I have to tell you - it's the cutest little movie!! If you have a daughter, granddaughter or if you just want to get it for your collection - I highly recommend it!


Toodles,
Sandra

Supplies:
Stamps: Pink Poison/Splendid Little Company 'Rockstar Anya', Studio G $1 from Michaels
Inks: Creamy Caramel, Distress Inks 'Black Soot'
Paper: Bazzil cs, Georgia Pacific cs, PP - Deja Views 'Botanical' (from Michaels)
Access: Ribbon, Martha Stewart glitter, Michaels bling, circle punch, dimensionals, stickles

A Rockin Mermaid or two!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

I stayed up late last night because my daughter was (and still is) battling a high fever. I wanted to be somewhat coherent in case she woke up. So I ended up stamping out a bunch of Anya's and coloring them up. And let me tell you - it's a LOT of fun!

I'm really kicking myself now that I didn't get any more of Pink Poison's stamps when I put in that order. You guys are probably going to be sick of seeing the only two I have by the end of the week! :) I promise to space them out!

Today I'm showing you three cards I made last night.

Meet Rockstar Anya! Isn't she the coolest thing!? One of the main reason's I got her was because my daughter likes to do the 'rock on' sign with her fingers. It's sooo funny to hear a 3 year old say "Rock On!" hahaha

I colored her up with my trusty aquapainter and SU inks again and sponged the edges of the watercolor paper with the same Pretty in Pink and Real Red colors that I used on Anya herself. When I pick out my patterned paper, I love putting high contrasting colors together for the 'POP' value. Black definitely makes the hot pink POP! To add the sentiment, I borrowed from the fabulous style of Paula over at Paper Possibilities.


My next card showcases the sweetest little Anya yet! Meet Mermaid Anya. And can anyone guess why I had to have her?? Yes, my daughter LOVES her Disney Princesses at the moment and Ariel is da bomb at our house! Hahaha

This is a nice and simple layout but I think the rich purples make this card stand out more.

Again, Anya is colored up with my aquapainter but this time I used chalk inks. They create a soft color intensity and I think Mermaid Anya is much more gentler than her Rockstar alter ego!

I did use SU's Vintage Violet on her shell and fin because I didn't have a darker purple in the chalk inks. The patterned paper is faux stitched and edged with some purple cs cut with decorative scissors.

I thought that a white tag was going to be too intense for the card, so I watercolored it with Creamy Caramel, sponged the edges in Distress Inks 'Tea Dye' and stamped the sentiment in purple.

My last Rockstar Anya card for today. Don't you just LOVE her blue hair?? I wish I could pull off that hair but with my curly hair, I'd end up looking more like a Brat doll than a rockstar! LOL

This card was inspired by the stunning work of Faith Hofrichter and her unique style of edging her layers in stippling or dots. She also happens to be on the Pink Poison Design Team!

I instantly thought of using stars and this glitter paper from Michaels when I ordered this stamp.

Normally I would use the glitter paper as an accent on a card and not as background paper, but this paper screams rockstar, so I decided to use it up front and only added some eyelets and silver cord for the finishing touch.

Honestly, I couldn't decide where or what to add as a sentiment, so I just left this card 'sentiment-less' on the front. I will probably make it into a birthday card and add a sentiment to the inside.

Ok, so that's it from me today. I'm off to get some rest while my daughter is sleeping too - Sunday naps are the best! ;)

Toodles,
Sandra

Supplies:

Card 1
Stamps: Pink Poison/Splendid Little Company "Rockstar Anya", MFT sentiment
Inks: Archival Brilliance 'graphite black', Pretty In Pink, Real Red, Creamy Caramel, Distress Inks 'Black Soot'
Paper: Bazzil cs, Canson Watercolor paper, Georgia Pacific cs, PP - Crate Paper
Access: Ribbon, Scrapworks brads, dimensionals, Stickles

Card 2
Stamps: Pink Poison/Splendid Little Company "Mermaid Anya", MFT sentiment
Inks: Archival Brilliance 'graphite black', Vintage Violet, Creamy Caramel, Certain Celery, Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink 'Warm Violet and Wisteria' , Distress Inks 'Tea Dye'

Paper: Bazzil cs, Canson Watercolor paper, The Paper Studio cs, PP - DCWV 'Old World' stack
Access:Ribbon, dimensionals, Stickles, circle punchs and decorative scissors


Card 3
Stamps: Pink Poison/Splendid Little Company "Rockstar Anya"
Inks: Archival Brilliance 'graphite black', Cool Caribbean, Buckaroo Blue, Creamy Caramel, Distress Inks 'Black Soot'
Paper: Bazzil cs, Georgia Pacific cs, Canson Watercolor paper, PP - The Paper Studio (from Michaels)
Access: Making Memories Eyelets, silver cord, Fiskars star punch, signo pen, dimensionals

Pumpkin Festival

No cards yesterday, sorry about that, but I had a very good reason - Keene's Pumpkin Festival! It's a major deal around these parts and rightly so - we set the world record for the most pumpkins in one place back in 2003 with 28,592. (It was broken in 2006 in Boston, apparently using dubious tactics!)


We didn't break the record this year, but our family had lots of fun just the same. Especially my 3 yr old!



If you pop back in this afternoon, I'll have a bunch of Pink Poison cards to share with you! As happy as my daughter looked in these photos, she ended up sick as a dog last night and is needing some 'mummy TLC' today. :(

Pink Poison ROCKS!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Two posts in one day?! I just had to though because I have an amazing stamp to share with you all. I received my first two Pink Poison rubber stamps in the mail last night and these little Anyas are the most darling little things you have ever seen!

Back on October 1st Pink Poison's owner, Marie, posted some one day only pre-release singles that she is going to have in her shop on Nov. 1st (I think). There were four on offer and silly me only grabbed two of them! Doh! So they arrived last night and I already inked them up and made a card with them! :D I couldn't help it - they simply ROCK!!

I stamped out Rock Star Anya twice and colored one image of her with SU inks and my aquapainter on watercolor paper and on the other image I just colored the two strands of hair over her face. Then I cut both of them out, colored the edges in with my black sharpie pen then stacked the small piece on top of the main image.

If any of you have any Pink Poison stamps, then you may already know about the 'Pink Poison Olympics' Marie is hosting all this week over on her blog. The prizes she's giving away are CRAZY good! I may just have to make an attempt!

Oh, and dont' forget to scroll down for my earlier post I made today!


Supplies:
Stamps: Pink Poison/Splendid Little Company 'Rockstar Anya', Hampton Arts sentiment
Ink: Archival Brilliance 'graphite black', Pretty in Pink, Real Red, Creamy Caramel, Vintage Violet, Distress Inks 'Black Soot'
Paper: Bazzil Bling cs, Canson Watercolor paper, PP - Making Memories 'Black Small Dots', Scenic Route 'Salem Briggs-Street' & 'Loveland Ruby Ave'
Access: American Craft ribbon, dimensionals, stickles

Let it snow!

Wahooooo it's Friday! And I have the day off from work! That also means it's Hanna Stamps Challenge time! Today's challenge, HSC40, is hosted by Cindy Haffner and today's theme is snow and snowflakes!
I tend to do the obvious, so I chose Ski Bunny Hanna that was released this month! It was a no brainer - sometimes I like no-brainers! ;)


Hanna and the skis are colored up with SU inks and my aquapainter then cut out with my trusty detail scissors. I used the small snowflake stamps in the set on the band across the card too. I used my Martha Stewart snowflake punch and decorative edge punch as well as decorative scissors. Add some ribbon and some bling and I'm done!

If you get a chance, head over to the Hanna Stamps forum and have a go!


Well, I'm off to run some errands! Hope you all have a fabulous Friday!


Supplies:
Stamps: Hanna Stamps 'Ski Bunny'
Inks: StazOn, Cool Caribbean, Buckaroo Blue, Pretty in Pink, Morning Marigold, Creamy Caramel, Distress Inks 'Black Soot'
Paper: Bazzil cs, PP-Basic Grey 'Figgy Pudding - Dasher'
Access: Ribbon, dimensionals, MS Snowflake punch and decorative edge punches, decorative scissors, detail scissors, 1-1/8" circle punch, Michael's bling

Our Creative Corner Challenge

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Our Creative Corner is made up of 8 ridiculously talented card designers who's cards make my jaw drop! Every time I venture over to their site I am always stunned at the creations they come up with every week! Last Saturday's sketch challenge was a very simple layout full of possibilities. I like sketch challenges because they take care of the hard part for me - coming up with the layout!

I had seen cards on SCS with wreaths made from snowflake stamps and wanted to give it a go. The little snowflakes from the Hanna Stamps Ski Bunny set were the perfect size for this card. First I stamped a ring of snowflakes in Cool Caribbean, then another ring of snowflakes in Buckaroo Blue off centered from the first one. I then stamped over the Buckaroo Blue snowflakes in Versamark ink, added Kaleidoscope embossing powder and heat set it. I could have left it at that, but I ended up adding clear ep to the cool caribbean snowflakes with made them kind of blurry.

Then I sponged Distress Inks 'Antique Linen and Tea Dye' around the wreath to make it glow. Final touch was adding 'snow' with my white signo pen. I decided to create a window or picture frame and mounted the image behind/below a piece of dark brown bazzil cs. I like this look. The patterned paper creates a cold, snowy feel yet you're looking at a warm Christmas wreath in a window. Ahhh....now where did I put that hot chocolate?!

Happy Thursday everyone!

Supplies:
Stamps: Hanna Stamps 'Ski Bunny'
Ink: Cool Caribbean, Buckaroo Blue, Versamark
Paper: Very Vanilla, Bazzil CS, PP - Basic Grey 'Glisten/Avalanche
Access: Gold Cord, Making Memories brads, dimensionals, Stampendous 'Kaliedoscope' ep and clear ep, MS snowflake punch

Under one hour!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

There are lots of things you can do in one hour. For example I can paint my toe nails, bake a cake, pay some bills, dress my 3 year old, and even clean my tiny apartment. However, before this morning, I would have swore black and blue that there is NO WAY I could create a card in under an hour! I spend at least 45 minutes coloring an image and for me, picking out paper always an internal debate! I'll find the perfect paper in my stash then spend the next half an hour trying to convince myself that it's ok to cut it up! Hi. My name is Sandra, and I'm a paper hoarder! LOL

So this morning I woke up at 6am (from a crazy dream!) and remembered that today was Sketch Challenge day on SCS. I fired up the computer and peeked in at today's challenge, SC199. Now what happened in the next few moments, I don't know....but somehow I convinced myself in my sleepy stupor that I could actually make a card before going to work!!? Huh??


Fast forward one hour later and presto! One quick card! I was debating on whether to show you gals or not because it hasn't been hummed and haaed over by me for hours, but it's still a card in it's own right and for a one hour card it's pretty darn good! (Trust me when I say that I'm still shocked that I had this much energy and creative umph before work!)

The stamp is a Sarah Kay image put out by Stampavi. The detail on these stamps is amazing! I watercolored her as usual with SU inks and pulled a few patterned papers out of my stash that matched.

I might just do another card tonight to show you what a 3 hour card looks like! LOL

Supplies:
Stamps: Stampavi 'Sarah Kay - Rose's Garden', MFT
sentiment
Inks: Archival Brilliance 'graphite black', Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, True Thyme, Buckaroo Blue, Distress Inks 'Tattered Rose'
Paper: Bazzil Bling, My Mind's Eye 'Blossom - Mi Amore', Chatterbox Scrapbook Walls 'Rosey Flowering Vine', Dream Street 'Everyday Celebrations - xoxo'
Access: Prima flower, Making Memories bling brad, circle punches and dimensionals

Fall, Family and Reflection

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

I've done a lot of reflecting lately. Probably because of the fall weather which tends to do that to me which could explain why I've been drawn to this stamp set by Hanna Stamps of late. It's called 'For The Soul'.

This layout just kind of created itself. I picked out the yummy patterned paper by Crate Paper, matching Bazzil cs and played with it until I was happy. It kind of looks like a pendulum, doesn't it?

I stamped Hanna in StazOn 'Timber Brown'. To leave a gap between the image and the edge of the circle, I use a trick I've developed. I take my circle punch and a post it note and punch out the middle of it. I then place what's left of the square post it note on the cardstock that I'm going to stamp my main image onto. This gives me a guide as to where my stamp will go and it also crops the image at the bottom for me. Once I've stamped the image I pick up my circle punch and center the image within the punch and voila - a perfectly centered image!

The top panel was created using my corner punch with the guide removed and popped up on some dimensionals. Added some ribbon, flowers and some bling and it's done!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Supplies:
Stamps: Hanna Stamps 'For The Soul', Inkadinkadoo sentiment
Inks: StazOn 'Timber Brown', SU Pumpkin Pie, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Real Red
Paper: Bazzil cs, Very Vanilla, PP - Crate Paper - Crush Collection 'Island'
Access: Ribbon, dimensionals, Michael's bling, Making Memories brads, Prima flowers, piercing tool, corner punch

Are you serious?

Sunday, October 19, 2008

This little guy's name is Mimo. Isn't he the kookiest?? I couldn't resist him and his friends when I saw them over at Starving Artistamps. They are sooo much fun to color! I know that they might not be everyone's cup of tea, but you have to admit that they put a smile on your face when you see them!

Today's card is for the Featured Stamper challenge on SCS. Today's fabulous stamper is Emily AKA 'ink-e'. She's only 18 and already creating stunning cards! I think we'll be seeing more of her in the future! ;)

I ended up choosing her 'birdies' card to case. I flipped the layout on it's end, changed out the paper and stamp set. I stamped him on watercolor paper in Versamark and heat set him with black ep. Using my aqua painter and SU inks (Buckaroo Blue for his body and Pumpkin Pie + Real Red for his pants) I watercolored him. I intentionally cut around him leaving a small margin of paper showing because that would make him pop off the paper a bit more. The matching sentiment is also from Starving Artistamps. Those sentiments crack me up!!

Hope everyone is having a relaxing Sunday - last night's turkey was sooo good that I'm making turkey soup from the leftovers! Yum!!

Supplies:
Stamps: Starving Artists/Doodle Factory 'Creatures' and 'Quirky Sentiment'
Ink: Versamark Ink, Buckaroo Blue, Pumpkin Pie and Real Red
Paper: Canson Watercolor, Kraft cs, Bazzil cs (black) and PP - Basic Grey
Access: Ribbon, dimensionals, piercing tool

Clean and Simple

Saturday, October 18, 2008

I adore clean and simple cards! They look like they took no effort at all yet they're probably the most hardest to come up with if you're not that way inclined! I stumbled upon today's Inspiration Challenge over on SCS and fell in love with the inspiration for this week.I took the inspiration literally (cause I'm like that!) and used an old SU set that I thought would be perfect for this challenge. It's called Best Blossoms and it's retired now, but I ended up buying it on the Buy/Sell forum on SCS. Not much to this card, but that's what I like about it!

I stamped the images with versamark onto the Old Olive cs, sprinkled white ep on is and then heat set it. I then sponged the edges with Distress Inks 'Peeled Paint' (because I don't own Old Olive ink). The sentiment I used is from MFT's Essential Sentiments set.

Hope you're all having a fabulous Saturday! I have a turkey in the oven and the smell is driving me crazy this afternoon!! :) Fall is definitely here!

Supplies:
Stamps: SU Best Blossoms, MFT 'Essential Sentiments'
Ink: Versamark
Paper: Old Olive, Georgia Pacific CS, Bazzil CS
Access: White EP, Circle punch 1-3/8" and 1-1/2", dimensionals

Poor Riley is sick!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

And so is my husband! Poor baby! Emphasis on the baby part! Why is it that all men turn into complete babies when they're sick? Granted, my husband needs to be more cautious than most (transplant recipient) but geez louise!! So this card is for my man....man baby!


The Ways To Use It challenge on SCS this week was to use plaid. Now, the last time I wore any plaid was probably in primary school (or elementry school). Plaid skirt, collared shirt and grey knee high socks! Blah!
It wasn't even a private school! But I'm not against having plaid in my dp stash! I found this nice piece in my scrap pile (bonus!). I borrowed the layout and the stamping on kraft cs technique from Paula Tracy's Santa Card. I {heart} her cards! :D

And poor Riley! He looks just like my hubby right now! Hope you feel better today sweetie!

Thanks for dropping by!

Supplies:
Stamps: Hanna Stamps 'Sick Riley', MFT sentiment, The Paper Studio 'stitches'
Ink: StazOn, Creamy Caramel, Close To Cocoa, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Bazzil CS, PP - Chatterbox Scrapbook Walls 'Statue Plaid'
Access: Ribbon, Making Memories flowers, brad - unknown

DO witches have all the fun?

If you've ever been in Salem, Massachussets around this time of the year, then you would probably agree! Salem was made famous by the witch trials held in 1692. Alot of mystery and hysteria surrounds those trials and still, to this day, people from all over the country decend upon Salem in October for a glimpse into this bizarre period in time. Which (hahhaha - excuse my pun!) brings me to the card I created for Wednesday's sketch challenge (SC198) on SCS!

I found this challenge tough because I don't naturally think of circles when I create a layout for one of my cards. So I spent about a hour just staring at my cardstock and patterened paper hoping some inspiration would jump out and clobber me over the head! ha ha

I knew I wanted to play with the blog candy that I won on the Doodle Factory/Starving Artists blog called 'Witches Brew'. It's been sitting on my desk for a few weeks now - uninked! Shame on me! ha! I watercolored and cut out two of every image on this card. Popped them with dimensionals and added the sentiment (which also comes with the set). I've definitely been on a paper tole and Halloween kick - can ya tell?!

Happy Thursday!

Supplies:
Stamps: Starving Artists/Doodle Factory 'Witches Brew'
Ink: StazOn, Vintage Violet, Pumpkin Pie, Morning Marigold, Distress Inks 'Black Soot, Tea Dye, Vintage Photo, Peeled Paint'
Paper: Bazzil CS, PP - Making Memories 'Noteworthy'

Access: Scrapworks brads, dimensionals, stickles

Halloween is almost here!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Halloween happens to be one of my favorite holidays of the year. Not really a holiday I guess, but still a fun event none the less! I must have about 4 or 5 of those Lemax Spooky Town houses that I put up in my house every October. They create a fun atmosphere for the holiday!
Which leads me to the card I made Saturday night.....don't you just LOVE this haunted house from the Doodle Factory and Starving Artists?? I swear I bought this set just for the house! :D


I used the paper tole technique for the house. It was begging for this technique to be used on it! If you look closely, the house has three parts to it; the connector part between the two towers, the two towers and the front door part.
I started out by stamping the image on watercolor paper three times with versamark ink. I then applied black EP and heat set them. I then just colored the connector part on the first image and cut just that part out. On the second image I colored the two towers, the front door and the shrubbery and cut them out (as one piece) - omitting the connector part. On the last image I colored in just front door and the shrubbery and cut just those out as one piece. (Whenever I cut pieces out, I like to run my black sharpie around the edges of the piece so that the white from the paper doesn't show through. It's just a nice finishing touch!)

To build the house, I stamped the image one last time onto the red CS. I then glued the connector piece directly to the red CS. Then I added dimensionals to the tower piece and layered that piece over the connector piece. I then added dimensionals to the front door piece and applied that to the image to complete the tole effect. I took a close up shot of the house so you could see the layers and how they stack. The photo explains it better than I tried to do!

Yes, it's a VERY labor intensive, time consuming technique, but well worth it the effort when you see the end result!


Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends!

Supplies:
Stamps: Starving Artists/Doodle Factory 'Halloween II'
Inks: Versamark, Vintage Violet, Morning Marigold, Distress Inks 'Tea Dye, Black Soot, Vintage Photo, Peeled Paint'
Paper: Bazzil CS, Georgia Pacific CS, Canson watercolor paper
Access: Black EP, dimensionals, Scrapworks brads

Fall is here!

Friday, October 10, 2008

It's a bit hard to not notice around the New England area. The hills look like they're on fire here with all the bright yellow and red leaves on the trees. Even the bus loads of 'leaf peepers' are out in force! It's my favorite time of the year here. So when I saw today's Friday challenge over at the Hanna Stamps forum has a fall theme - I couldn't resist! :D

I stamped Hanna from the 'For The Soul' set using Versamark ink and applied copper EP from Ranger on watercolor paper. I've never watercolored an image that has been heat embossed but I tell you, it sure makes watercoloring easy!! You can work quite quickly and none of the colors bleed into other areas - its fabulous!! Try it if you haven't already.

TGIF!! Hope you do something fun this weekend!


Supplies:

Stamps:
Hanna Stamps 'For The Soul', MFT sentiment, Autumn Leaves 'Flourishes'

Ink:
Versamark, Creamy Caramel, Close To Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Morning Marigold, True Thyme, Real Red

Paper:
Bazzil CS, Canson Watercolor, PP - My Minds Eye 29th Street Market 'spirit cousins'

Access:
Ribbon, dimensionals, brads - unknown

Going in circles?

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Found some time last night to play the Wednesday sketch challenge on SCS! I don't always play but this sketch was really versatile and I started playing with ideas in my head all day yesterday! The sketch is below:For my card, I flipped the sketch on it's side because I knew I wanted to ink up my spider stamp I got from Rubbernecker a couple of months ago. I really love how this card came together, don't you? (Nod your head and say yes!) The patterned paper was something I picked up last year at Michaels and it plays sooo nicely with SU's Pumpkin Pie and Morning Marigold! I sponged the edges of the two orange pieces with Distress Inks (DI) from Tim Holtz. Stamped the web, sentiment and spider in DI 'Black Soot'. When the web was dry, I traced over it with my quikie glue pen and sprinkled Martha Stewarts black glitter over it to add a bit of sparkle! And boy does that glitter sparkle!!! I didn't like how flat the spider looked, so I went back and added black ep on his body.

Hope everyone has a great Thursday!

Supplies:
Stamps: Rubbernecker
spider and sentiment, Starving Artists Doodle Factory web
Ink: Distress Inks, Versamark
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Morning Marigold, Bazzil CS, PP - unknown from Michaels
Access: Ribbon, Doodlebug brads, MS black glitter, black EP

Shades of Pink

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

So ever since I bought my first Hanna Stamps, I've tried to participate in the challenges held every Friday over at their SCS forum. I really enjoy them because the DT mixes it up a bit by changing the challenge theme. One week it might be a sketch challenge, the next week it might be using a particular embellishment or a upcoming holiday.

Last week it was a color theme - hence the title - Shades of Pink! Loved this challenge! :D

For this card I found the perfect patterned paper in my stash! It's called 'Charlotte Scrap Strip #2' by Scenic Route and I picked it up this past summer at the Creating Keepsakes Convention (CKC). I adore their paper....I have tonnes of it but this is the first time I've actually used any of it! Me bad? No, I just like to have it and admire it and pat them.....don't look at me like I'm weird.....you know what I'm talking about! haha The nice thing was I didn't have to add much to the card to finish it off......except a stamp of course!

I used Hanna Stamps (it was a HS challenge afterall) 'Domestic Goddess' clear set. Sometimes I just use the head of my Hannas as an image and that's makes them just that much more versatile. I stamped the image on Very Vanilla with StazOn and used SU inks and an aqua painter brush. I prefer watercolor paper to paint on because it doesn't soak up the water as quickly, but I didn't have any vanilla colored sheets so I just worked very quickly in applying the ink. I find that if I keep the brush very moist I can move the ink around and cover the area I need to before any dried 'edges' set in. Then I just apply more color in layers making sure to wait in between applications too otherwise you don't get the intensity you want. Here's a close up so you can see the layers of color.

Sorry about the yellowish pictures....I took the photos at night under a bad light....I'll replace them with better ones tonight!

Supplies:

Stamps: Hanna Stamps 'Domestic Goddess'

Ink: StazOn, Pretty In Pink, Real Red, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip

Paper: Kraft, Very Vanilla, Metallic Bronze (from Michaels), Bazzil Basics CS, PP - Scenic Route 'Charlotte Scrap Strip #2

Access: Ribbon, Prima flower, Heidi Swapp flower jewel, dimensionals and a paper piercer

Toodles!

Guest spot + Release party experience

Monday, October 6, 2008

As October's guest designer for Hanna Stamps, I had the fantastic opportunity of getting their new stamps and playing with them before they were released to the public. (Very cool!) There's something very fun about getting stamps before their release! It's a bit like Christmas when you know what's under the tree but others don't!? hehehe

Being that this was my first experience being a guest designer, I was a little nervous about making cards with stamps that I didn't personally pick out. Up until this point I'd only made cards with stamps I had bought, so this was definitely a new experience for me. But I wasn't that worried though because I've ever met a Hanna Stamp I didn't like! lol

In all, I made about 10 cards using the three sets I was given. I wanted to show off their versatility. If you want to look at the cards I made, you can go to my SCS gallery. They all have the words 'Sneak Peek' in their title.

The release party was a hoot!! It was fast paced and full of chatter, giveaways, fabulous sneak peeks and never before seen Rileys! If you've never participated in a release party, I suggest you give it a go! It's a lot of fun and you never know, you might learn something. Wanna know what I learned (after the fact)? F5 is your refresh button!! (Thanks Mary!) :D

Toodles,

And off we go!

If you had told me six months ago that I'd be starting my own blog and have a guest designer spot with a fabulous stamp company, I'd have probably laughed at you! Heck! Even six weeks ago I would have thought you were crazy! So much has happened to me in a few short weeks that sometimes I don't know which way is up!

Rewind to the start of September:

The family and I attempted to go to NYC for an appointment. On our first attempt I lost my wallet (left it on the roof of my car) and didn't realize that I had until a toll bridge right outside Manhattan! DH had lost his wallet the weekend before! So between us we have no money, no ID, 4 hours from home and half a tank of gas! Can you say freaked out?! Eventually we got home (pleaded with our bank in the City). Five days later we tried again. This time we weren't even an hour from home and I (yes, me again) hit some scaffolding on the highway and tore my radiator in half! I had to cancel my appointment again. Aarrggh!!

After all that, I was feeling pretty low. Then, two days later out of the blue, I get an email from Kristi Ferro, owner of Hanna Stamps, telling me that she loved my gallery and was wondering if I'd like to be a guest designer for HS??! My reaction: I broke down and cried!! After all that bad luck, something good had happened.

Last Thursday was the October Release Party over at the SCS Hanna Stamps forum and I had such a great time! There was lots of chatter, lots of giveaways and a boat load of gorgeous sneak peeks! Best of all, I had my SCS friends with me (in spirit and in person). Honestly, without them and my dear friend Jane, I wouldn't have caught the stamping bug and I certainly wouldn't be starting my own blog on it!!!

So thank you girls - YOU DA BOMB!! lol

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