I've Been Tagged!

I was tagged twice today by Kathy and Deb. They are two different tags, but I think I can combine them.

For Kathy's, I have to answer the following:

10 years ago: I was living in Indianapolis. Daniel was 8 years old. I did lots of crafts, but I had never stamped. (Now that's all I do!!)

5 things on my to-do list:

1. Make calico beans for a potluck at work tomorrow.

2. Get up early to see what Stampin' Up is offering for our new catalog preorder!!!

3. Post my card for Wednesday's Workshop Wow challenge.

4. Sweep off the deck.

5. Straighten up my craft room. (This one is permanently on the list...)

Snacks I enjoy: cheese, chocolate, Chex Mix

Things I would do if I were a millionaire: Pay off my house, travel, donate money for AIDS research, donate to World Vision, buy more stamps

Places I have lived: Dallas, GA; Pompano Beach, FL; Grand Forks, ND; Gary, IN (This is not an all-inclusive list!)

I'm tagging:

Debbie

Lorien

Here are my 7 random things from Deb's tag:

1. I am a Georgia Bulldog. Go Dawgs!!

2. I have curly hair and always wished it were straight. (Not anymore, though!)

3. My favorite snack food these days is chocolate Zingers. Remember them??

4. My favorite color is purple.

5. I have a dog and a cat.

6. My favorite movie is Gone with the Wind.

7. I love to watch HGTV and the Food Network.

Quick graduation card

My friend, Carol, asked if I would make a grad card for her to give to her son. I don't have any traditional graduation stamps, so I really wasn't sure what I was going to do! His school colors are blue and white. I wasn't feeling any of the sentiments I had. I started looking through my rub-ons, and I found "Follow your heart". That was when the whole card came together in my head. I colored the chipboard heart with Rose Red craft ink. I made a Whisper White card base and mounted a piece of Brilliant Blue behind it. I stamped Tres Chic onto Brilliant Blue cardstock with Brilliant Blue ink and attached it to the card base after tying Whisper White grosgrain around it. I think it turned out pretty well, and she loved it!
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Tres Chic; Paper: Whisper White, Brilliant Blue; Ink: Rose Red craft, Brilliant Blue; Accessories: On Board chipboard, ticket corner punch, Eastern Eclectic rub-ons, Whisper White narrow grosgrain ribbon

Ghosting

The demonstratable card challenge this week was to use the ghosting technique. This is the same as versamark resist. You just stamp on glossy cardstock using versamark ink then brayer classic ink over it. The versamark resists the ink producing a "ghost" image. I used Britta Ward's banded brayer technique, which is using Stampin' Spots to ink up the brayer. The flower is from the Die Cut Blooms in the Occasions Mini. I applied a rub-on then used the white gel pen to color in a few areas. I just love the striped ribbon! It reminds me of Fruit Stripe gum. (I'm pretty sure I dated myself with that one! LOL)
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: A Beautiful Thing; Paper: Glossy white, Wild Wasabi; Ink: VersaMark, Pumpkin Pie, Wild Wasabi, StazOn black; Accessories: Die Cut Blooms, bulk buy rub-ons, Ice Circles rhinestone brads, Wild Wasabi and Pumpkin Pie striped grosgrain ribbon, white gel pen
Happy stamping!

My first challenge as hostess!

Well, this week I am hosting my first workshop wow demo challenge on SCS! I'm very excited. I will be co-hosting with pattyb. We have been working hard on a list of upcoming challenges that will be fun but will also help demonstrators plan their workshops.
What is a workshop wow? Let me quote Patty: Something that you can do at a Workshop, that's still fairly easy, but makes your Customers say "Wow, I can do that!"
This week's challenge is to use rose/roses on your card. I don't have any rose stamps, so I used Regal Rose and Rose Red.
So what do I think makes my card a wow? Here is how I took a basic design and stepped it up: 1. I made the focal image into a tag and added some fab ribbon. It's also on shimmery white cardstock; that's a wow on its own! 2. I used a coordinating wheel across the card base. 3. I used a Build a Brad in the center of the O and applied a small rub-on to the top of the plastic "bubble". Hopefully, now you're saying, "Wow, I can do that!"
If you're a demonstrator, and you'd like to play along with any of the challenges, you can find the Demo Challenges Forum here.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Enjoy Every Moment, Daisy Dash jumbo wheel; Paper: Shimmery White, Regal Rose, Rose Red; Ink: Night of Navy, Regal Rose, Rose Red; Accessories: Fairy Tale Ribbon Originals, 1/2" circle punch, Pewter Build a Brad, bulk buy rub-ons
Happy stamping!

Another Fresh Cuts note card

I just love these note cards! I first saw this technique on Cambria's blog. You pull up the flower petals, leaving them attached just at the center, mask off the rest of the card and then stamp just on the petals.
I used the Floral background in So Saffron craft ink then embossed with Irridescent Ice EP; only a little stuck, so it's not too sparkly. Then I sponged the edges of the petals with Pumpkin Pie to add a little definition to them. I added a Pumpkin Pie felt flower and a brad to the center.
I tore the edge of the card and sponged it with So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie. I stamped the vine image from the Fresh Cuts stamp set in Old Olive then added ribbon and a flower slide at the fold of the card.

Here's how it looked after I masked off the card with Post-It notes.
Here's just the stamped flower before I did anything else to the card.

Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Floral, Fresh Cuts; Paper: Fresh Cut notes; Ink: So Saffron classic and craft, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie; Accessories: Irridescent Ice EP, sponge, Old Olive polytwill ribbon, Flower Fusion, Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware

Happy stamping!

Shadow Wheeling tutorial

OK, I admit that I just made up the name for this technique. It was shown at Stampin' Up's convention a couple of years ago, and I can't remember what it was called. So I am calling it Shadow Wheeling. Here's how you do it:
First, put your ink cartridge and wheel into your handle. Ink up the wheel and bring the seam in the rubber to the front. (Important tip: Make a note of how you put the wheel in the handle by checking which side the label is on. You need to be able to put it back in the same way later.)
Line up the wheel seam with the edge of the cardstock. (I also used my wheel guide since I would be wheeling twice.)
Wheel across the cardstock. Repeat if desired. Remove the wheel and ink cartridge from the handle. Rinse and dry the wheel.
Put the wheel back into the handle the same way it was before. Roll the wheel across a white craft pad a few times. Bring the rubber seam to the front again. Line up the seam with the edge of the cardstock and wheel!
The white will be offset a little from the original making it appear as a shadow. The trick to making this work (for me anyway) is NOT to try to make it offset but to try to line it up the same. Since it's pretty much impossible to line it up, it will usually be offset just the right amount.
I would also recommend using the same color ink and cardstock to enhance the shadow effect.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: All Through the Year, Garden Annuals wheel; Paper: Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant, Mellow Moss; Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Mellow Moss, Whisper White craft; Accessories: Mellow Moss taffeta ribbon, horizontal slot punch, ticket corner punch, 1/16" hole punch, Ice Circles rhinestone brads, wheel guide and handle
I have some exciting news to share: I will now be co-hosting the Workshop Wow demo challenge on Wednesdays on SCS. My co-host is the fabulous Patty Bombyk, known as pattyb on SCS. I'm really excited! If you're an SU demo, be sure to come and check out the challenges! They are a lot of fun as well as a great way to get workshop ideas. We are in the process of reworking the challenges to make them easier to use in planning your workshops.
Happy stamping!

More retiring love

I have decided that I really need to give my retiring sets some love before they are gone for good. Today's featured set is Be Happy. I love this set, but somehow I never used it much.
For the workshop wow demo challenge, we were supposed to make a wow card to feature for the eScape promotion. Don't forget that we are supposed to eScape on June 25, one week from today! I don't have Circle of Friendship from the promotion, but we could substitute another circle stamp.
Hopefully, you can tell how fabulously glittery the flower is! Stampin' Up posted a video for demonstrators showing how great the Heat & Stick powder works with chipboard and glitter. Somehow, I didn't think of this before, so it's a good thing they told me! LOL I coated the chipboard with VersaMark and then poured on the H&S. I heated it just until the powder turned shiny and then poured on the glitter (purple of course!). Finally, I briefly heated it again to set the glitter down into the adhesive. Definitely a wow!
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Be Happy; Paper: Basic Gray textured, Soft Sky, Soft Sky Prints; Ink: Wild Wasabi, Basic Gray; Accessories: On Board Basics, heat & stick powder, fine cosmo glitter, 1 3/8" circle punch, Wild Wasabi ds grosgrain ribbon
Happy stamping!

New product line from Stampin' Up!

Stampin' Up has introduced a new product line: Decor Elements! They are vinyl artwork for your walls and home decor, and they coordinate with our stamp sets. (I think they included a sneak peek of some upcoming sets from the new catalog, too, because some of these are new designs!) They come in chocolate and white and some of them come in different sizes. They are completely removable as well. They will not be listed in the new catalog. Contact me if you would like a brochure; this brochure is the only way to see them, and they will be available for order on July 1st. SU also said that they plan to have more of these soon as well as introducing more products outside of the catalog in the future!

Beautiful Blossoms

I am in love with this card! It turned out great (IMHO). I saw this paper lantern technique on JanTInk's blog a while back, and I knew that Blossoms Abound would be perfect for it. Since it's retiring, I decided to show it a little love along with Weathered, another retiring background (BOO HOO HOO!! I love this one.) The sketch is from Taylored Expressions, and I think it fit this perfectly.

The paper lantern technique is pretty easy. You just stamp your image and put it through your crimper. Then you use Chocolate Chip Ink to hit the high spots unevenly. I think it looks really cool! Be careful when you attach your crimped piece to the mat; I flattened mine a little. My color combo is Almost Amethyst and Lovely Lilac for the lilacs and Old Olive and Always Artichoke for the leaves. I stamped Weathered and the sentiment from Fresh Cuts in Always Artichoke onto Old Olive cardstock.

Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Blossoms Abound, Weathered, Fresh Cuts; Paper: Confetti White, Lovely Lilac, Old Olive, Kraft, Almost Amethyst Prints DSP; Ink: Almost Amethyst, Lovely Lilac, Old Olive, Always Artichoke; Accessories: crimper, Aged Copper hodgepodge hardware, horizontal slot punch, Always Artichoke narrow grosgrain ribbon

Happy stamping!

Stampin' Up! Retiring List

Here is the retiring list for the Spring/Summer Collection. What do you think? I am losing 14 sets, 3 of which I got free from SU to begin with. Not too bad, I guess. But Weathered and Flannel Plaid???? I'm crying over those! I hope that means they will have some awesome new backgrounds that will work for men's cards. Thank goodness I still have Sanded! I'm also bummed about It's Your Birthday. Overall, I think they made good choices though.

Watercolor Banded Brayer

Last night, I was playing around with my brayer. Each month, Stampin' Up has contests we can enter to win free stamp sets. I don't enter very often because I'm not good at coming up with projects that fit their categories. One of the July categories is to use a brayer, so I decided to give it a try.
I decided to combine two techniques: Watercolor Wash and Banded Brayer. Watercolor Wash is the featured technique on SCS this week. You basically wash color onto wet watercolor paper and use it as a background. Banded Brayer is a technique that Britta Ward demonstrated a couple of years ago. You use Stampin' Spots to ink up your brayer, similar to a Spectrum pad. What I did was wet a piece of watercolor paper, let it sit a minute and then brayer the color onto it. Then I wet the paper again and brayered some more without reinking to blend the color more. Then I let it dry overnight.
I stamped images from Doodle This with Black StazOn and added white gel pen accents. I put a turquoise button in the center of the small flower and a lavender rhinestone brad in the center of the big flower. I punched photo corners from Shimmery White cardstock and mounted them onto a Gable Green card base; then I mounted the watercolor paper using Stampin' Dimensionals.
Supplies: Stamps: Doodle This; Paper: watercolor paper, Shimmery White, Gable Green; Ink: black StazOn, Pink Passion, Lovely Lilac, Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore; Accessories: photo corner punch, white gel pen, Fresh Favorites buttons, Ice Circle rhinestone brads
P.S. This is not the card I'm sending in to SU. I used the same technique for a totally different look that I'm hoping is a winner!

Here are the winners!

The blog candy drawing is done. Thanks to all who left comments! Due to duplicate posts, there were 49 entries.
Here are your random numbers:32 21 8 33 17
Timestamp: 2008-06-14 01:36:28 UTC
So the winners are:
# 8: Mary Jo said...
Wow, 20,000 hits. Congrats!!! Love your blog, you inspire me with your creativity. I really hope to see some birds and owls in the catalog. Keep going and many more hits to come.
# 17: misse336 said...
I'm hoping for some type of bling (rhinestones, pearls, etc) and/or the ability to buy their stamps unmounted (for less money) since I'm running out of storage space.
# 21: Annelies said...
I would love some great backgroundstamps I could use on my christmascards!Greetings from Belgium, Annelies
# 32: Lori said...
Congrats on all your hits! I would like to see more punches, wheels, and christmas sets. Thanks for the chance to win...And I love your blog!
# 33: Cindy said...
ITs all new and exciting to me. Only paper crafting since March and I love every new stamp, tool, product I come across!
Congratulations to all of you! Please e-mail me your snail address so I can send your winnings.

20,000 hits + one year of blogging = BLOG CANDY!

My hit counter tells me I've just gone over 20,000 hits. Wow! And June 28 will be my blogaversary as Lorien calls it. I think those 2 things call for some blog candy! Since it's two big events at once, I'm giving away not one, two, three or even four but FIVE things.
**Just one more day to enter for the blog candy. Please post your comment by 7PM Central time Friday.**

Two people will each win half of the level one Prints hostess set. These colors are only available in the hostess set. They are Bashful Blue, Wild Wasabi, Apricot Appeal, Real Red and Pretty in Pink.
One person will win 50 pieces of chipboard.
One person will win the retired level one hostess set Small Script, and one person will win the retired daisy punch.

How do you win? Leave me a comment of course! Tell me what you are hoping to see in the SU Fall/Winter Idea Book & Catalog coming your way on August 11. Please number your comment (current # of comments plus one) and one comment per person. The drawing will close on Friday, June 13 at 7PM Central Time.

I will try to leave this post at the top until then, so please scroll down for more recent posts.

Happy stamping!

Simple Thanks

I needed thank you cards for Daniel to send for all of the generous gifts he has received for graduation. I will need about 25, so it has to be something I can make a lot of! His school colors are red and gray. This is the card I came up with. The background is Tres Chic, and the sentiment is from Sincere Salutations. My favorite punch, the ticket corner, adds interest without adding too much work.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Sincere Salutations, Tres Chic; Paper: Whisper White, Basic Gray, Real Red; Ink: Basic Gray; Accessories: Ticket corner punch
Happy stamping!

Faux Tooled Leather

I first saw this fabulous technique on Beth Fox's blog. She saw it on Michelle Zindorf's blog. I loved the effect but wanted to simplify it a little and use all SU product.

This is my final card so you can see the full effect. For this card I started with a 3 1/2" square and used the smaller swirl from Priceless. I know the copper cardstock is retired, but it was just too perfect for this project! While I wouldn't do this for a workshop, I did it with Rhonda, Pauline and my mom for our shoebox swap, and they all just loved it!
For the tutorial photos, I used a 4" square of Creamy Caramel cardstock and the large swirl from Priceless. The first thing I did was make a dot in the center of the square with my Versamarker. (You could really use anything if you are going to put something in the center like I did.)
I used my Stampamajig to stamp the swirl 4 times in Versamark then I embossed with clear EP.
I brayered Basic Brown ink over the square in both directions. The first layer will look uneven, but the second layer in the other direction will help even out the color. You could also use Chocolate Chip. Let it dry for a few minutes and then wipe the excess ink off the embossed areas.
Next I stamped the berry branch from Always in Chocolate Chip between the swirls. Wipe away the excess ink again.
Next, I stamped Sanded background in Basic Brown. Again, wipe away the excess ink.

The last step (not shown) is to sponge Basic Black around the edges. I used a dabbing motion rather than my usual swirling motion for a more mottled effect. And again wipe away the excess ink from the embossed images. Then I roughed up the edges with the Cutter Kit.

For my medallion, I chose an image from Baroque Motifs. I stamped it with Chocolate Chip craft ink onto Creamy Caramel cs and embossed with clear EP. I sponged Creamy Caramel ink over the whole thing so the color would match the background better. I cut it out and adhered it to a Really Rust scallop circle. I attached the medallion to the background with a copper brad and used a Really Rust mat. The sentiment is from Sincere Salutations.

Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Priceless, Sincere Salutations, Sanded; Paper: copper (retired), Creamy Caramel, Really Rust; Ink: Versamark, Basic Brown, Chocolate Chip (classic and craft), Basic Black; Accessories: clear EP, Versamarker, copper brads, scallop circle punch, sponge, heat gun, Stampamajig, cutter kit

Happy stamping!

Saturday Challenge # 18--It's All in the Technique

This week's challenge is to try a new technique or revisit an old one. The technique I've used here is Poppin' Pastels. I can't remember the last time I did this one! I was inspired by JanTInk, who did this technique with this stamp a while back. The layout is this week's sketch challenge from Beate.
For those of you who've never done Poppin' Pastels (or have forgotten it), you stamp the image in Versamark then color it with chalks. The chalk sticks to the Versamark but not anywhere else.
If you play along, please link your card here so I can admire it! Use ISC18 as a keyword in the SCS gallery.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Always; Paper: Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky Prints, Bali Breeze DSP; Ink: Versamark, Chocolate Chip; Accessories: Corner rounder punch, Chocolate Chip polytwill ribbon, Stampin' Pastels
Check back in the next couple of days for a tutorial for an AWESOME technique that you may not have seen yet. Also, I am coming up on 20,000 hits and it's almost a year that I've been blogging, so I'm thinking some blog candy is required...
Happy stamping!

Daniel's a graduate!

Last night, Daniel graduated from high school. Whoohoo!! There were 315 graduates in his class.
Mark, Daniel and me
Grandma Shirley, Daniel and Grandpa Larry (Mark's parents)
Granny Pat and Daniel (my mom)

Rhonda's latest project

Is this card gorgeous or what? Rhonda is SO talented.
Here's a close-up of the chipboard star. Here's what Rhonda did: First, she inked up the star with Black Staz-on. Then she stamped Tres Chic in Silver. She suggested laying the stamp rubber side up to ink and stamp so you can choose which word is centered on the star. Next came a coat of Versamark followed by Hologram Highlights EP. It's even more gorgeous in person. Thanks for sharing, Rhonda!
Happy stamping!

P.S. Today my darling son graduates from high school!! I'll post pics tomorrow.