I'm Loving Priceless!

Last night, I attended a class at my up-up-upline Sandi's house. This month's stamp set was Priceless. I love it, and it has a TON of stamps in it. (OK, 11 but that's a lot!) The cards we made were great. The card in the upper left is Naturals Ivory, Blue Bayou and Close to Cocoa. Great color combo, and the Tres Chic bg is fantastic. The card in the upper right is Basic Black and Groovy Guava. It uses the jumbo wheel that goes with Priceless. The bottom card is Whisper White and Soft Sky. It's hard to see in the photo, but we used the Priceless classy brass template on the white piece. I love how she had us punch out the flower with the 5-petal punch; I would have never thought of that!
It was so fun to just hang out with my friends and stamp!

Z-Fold Card in My Favorite Color Combo!

Beate's weekend sketch challenge this week is a Z-fold card. Basically, the card front is scored in the center and folded back on itself. I've been wanting to make one of these since I saw it in the Technique Junkies newsletter, but I hadn't gotten around to it yet. (If you aren't a subscriber, you are missing out! Check out Pat Huntoon's website: http://www.patstamps.com for more info.)
I decided to combine the sketch challenge with this week's Color Combo Challenge: Basic Gray, Purely Pomegranate and Soft Sky. What's not to love about that?
I sponged Soft Sky ink onto Shimmery White cardstock. I stamped the image from Stem Silhouettes in Basic Gray and used a dauber to add the Purely Pomegranate to each flower. (I got that idea from the always awesome JanTInk.) I attached the hardware to the Soft Sky paper before adhering it to the card base to hide the prongs of the brad.
Tomorrow night, I have another class at my upline Sandi's house. We are using Priceless. Look for the projects later in the week!
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Stem Silhouettes; Paper: Shimmery White, Soft Sky, Basic Gray, Purely Pomegranate, Charbon, Soft Sky Prints; Ink: Soft Sky, Basic Gray, Purely Pomegranate; Accessories: sponge, dauber, ticket corner punch, Aged Copper Hodgepodge Hardware

Awesome Rockin' Concert!

Last night, we went to a fantastic concert here in Duluth. Thousand Foot Krutch, BarlowGirl and TobyMac played at the DECC. It was in the arena where they usually hold hockey games. All of the floor area was standing only. There were about 4000 people there, which was one of their biggest shows.Linda, Sean, Daniel (hiding behind Sean!), Linda and Joe

Thousand Foot Krutch. I couldn't get a good photo of them, unfortunately. They were hard-rocking!

BarlowGirl. They are sisters and play their own instruments. For this particular song, the drummer is out singing. The sister on the right plays both guitar and keyboard, often in the same song!

TobyMac had an awesome stage set-up. At one point, a ceiling tile fell down onto the stage!

Toby is second from the left. All of the band members are so talented! They dance as well as sing, and some of them rap. It was full out for an hour and a half. Toby is my age, and I loved when they did a medley of songs from the 70s: Play That Funky Music White Boy, LeFreak, That's The Way. I felt like I was back in junior high!

This is a great shot of the stage and crowd. During the encore, the lights spelled out Jesus Freak.

One Layer Card

The Ways to Use It challenge on SCS yesterday was masking. I decided to do a one layer card using reverse masking. I am not a one-layer-kind of gal! Anyway, reverse masking is where you have an open area in the middle instead of a regular mask where you cover up one specific item. Luckily, I already had a piece of cardstock that I had cut an oval out of the center using the Coluzzle. I used Confetti White cardstock for my base, and I decided to use Sahara Sand, Always Artichoke and Bravo Burgundy for my color combo so I could use my new Always Artichoke ribbon. My plan was to tie the ribbon around the card up against the fold. However, I forgot to center my oval on the cardfront, so when I sponged in the ink, the oval was to the left of center. To fix that, I cut a little of the right side off and used the corner rounder (with the guard off) to make the scalloped edge. I stamped the image from Stem Silhouettes in all 3 colors, using the stamp twice for each color without reinking. The Sahara Sand image looks like a shadow!
Since I couldn't tie the ribbon at the fold, I had a hard time deciding what to do with it. I finally just made a small bow and adhered it at the base of the oval with a mini glue dot.
The one unfixable mistake was the sponging along the side of the card. I wanted to emphasize the fact that the right edge was scalloped, but I had to sponge too much to fill in all of the scalloped area.
Overall, though, I'm happy with the card! If you make a one layer card, post a link here so I can check it out!
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Stem Silhouettes, Fundamental Phrases; Paper: Confetti White; Ink: Sahara Sand, Always Artichoke, Bravo Burgundy; Accessories: sponge, Always Artichoke narrow grosgrain, Coluzzle, retired corner rounder punch

Paper Clip Bookmark

This is the time of year that I start to think about gifts. I love giving little homemade gifts such as this bookmark. Of course, this wouldn't be the ONLY gift unless the person is on the naughty list! LOL
This bookmark is made from a jumbo paper clip. I got a package of 15 at Walmart for 97 cents. For this particular bookmark, I used 2 pieces of chipboard. They held together and to the paper clip with a pop-up glue dot. (Think of it as a sandwich: chipboard, glue dot, paper clip smashed into the glue dot, chipboard.) The flower piece is covered with Almost Amethyst craft ink. The circle is covered with So Saffron Prints designer paper then has a flower center from Pick A Petal stamped on top. I also sanded the edges of the paper to make it fit the circle and then inked the edges with So Saffron ink. A Certainly Celery button with linen thread tied through it is attached with a mini glue dot. A piece of Certainly Celery narrow grosgrain add a decorative touch and mimics leaves.
These are fun and easy to make! Just make sure your chipboard is not too big. Otherwise, it won't fit into a book! You could also substitute punched piece, such as the scallop circle, for the chipboard.

My Second Favorite Color Combo

I am loving this color combo of Soft Sky and Blue Bayou! It is second only to Basic Gray and Purely Pomegranate (see the Spotlighting card a couple of posts down). I CASEd this card from another SU demonsrator; SU posted it on their website. I added the clear button to the center of the flower. It's hard to see in the picture, but IRL it adds a nice dimension. One of the things I love about this card is the stamping on the patterned paper. Why don't I ever think to do that??
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Pick A Petal, Hugs and Wishes; Paper: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, Soft Sky Prints Designer Paper; Ink: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou; Accessories: Soft Sky double-stitched ribbon, clear buttons, Bella fiber

Weekend Sketch Challenge Revisited

After I finished my spotlighting card and posted it last night, I realized that I didn't follow the sketch! (*blushing and smacking forehead*) The horizontal piece is not supposed to go all the way across the card base. So I decided to give it another try and actually FOLLOW the sketch this time.
I started with the idea that I wanted to use the chocolate chip satin ribbon as a mat. And I wanted to use guava. The scraptitude color combo website isn't working, so I pulled up my 2007-8 Color Combo chart from Stampin' Up. (If you don't have this chart, send me an e-mail, and I will e-mail you a copy.) I found a combo with Groovy Guava, Wild Wasabi, So Saffron and Close to Cocoa. I substituted Chocolate Chip for the cocoa.

I stamped the flower from Looks Like Spring twice onto So Saffron cardstock, once each in Groovy Guava and Chocolate Chip. I cut them both out (this is really easy if you use paper snips) and used the CropADile to put a jumbo eyelet in the center. Helpful tip: The CropADile works best if you actually follow the directions that come with it! Then I put a rhinestone brad in the center of the eyelet. I did not come up with this idea myself; I've seen it lately on SCS. Whoever thought of it is a genius!

For the horizontal piece, I used the argyle stamps from Looks Like Spring. I used the Stampamajig to line them up. I cut the satin ribbon in half and adhered it to the top and bottom of the cardstock. When I tied the Wild Wasabi ribbon around the horizontal piece, I made sure it was loose enough that the satin ribbon would stay flat. I put a little adhesive under the Wild Wasabi ribbon so it would lay flat also.

I don't like this card as much as the spotlighting card. It looked better in my head! But I did follow the sketch this time.

Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Looks Like Spring, True Friend, Canvas; Paper: Confetti White, So Saffron, Groovy Guava, Wild Wasabi; Ink: Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip, Wild Wasabi; Accessories: paper snips, CropADile, pewter jumbo eyelets, Ice circle rhinestone brads, mini glue dots, Chocolate Chip satin ribbon, Wild Wasabi double-stitched ribbon, ticket corner punch