Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi all! Sorry I haven't posted for a while. Life has been insanely busy, and I haven't stamped in about 2 weeks! I'm hoping to get a little breathing space soon. It sounds crazy, but I might get more stamping done when I'm traveling in December.
Hope you all have a blessed and Happy Thanksgiving!

Not my usual Christmas card

This card combines this week's demonstratable card challenge (create a Christmas card that's not your usual style) and this month's WICKED color combination (Pear Pizzazz, Rich Razzleberry and Tempting Turquoise). I was inspired to do this by my friend Sarah who mentioned using the color combo for Christmas cards. It's definitely not my usual style, but I like it!
Stamps: Contempo Christmas
Paper: Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Hostess Level 1 DSP
Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Rich Razzleberry, Temping Turquoise
Accessories: ticket corner punch, Rich Razzleberry satin ribbon
Happy Stamping!

Punch Art Poinsettia

This card is a CASE of a card I saw on Dawn Olchefske's blog.  It's a poinsettia made from the bird punch!  The main parts of the flower and leaves are the bird's body, and the top part of the flower is made from the wings.  The centers are punched with the retired 1/4" circle punch.  I don't think I did a great job on spacing the petals, but I love this flower!

For the sentiment, I got the idea of lengthening the decorative label punch from LeeAnn Greff's blog.  Her measurements didn't work for me though; I had to make mine smaller (unless of course I wrote down her measurements wrong).  The white part is 1 1/4" wide, and the Cherry Cobbler piece is 1 3/8"  You turn the punch upside down and slide one end of your cardstock into the punch from the center so that you only punch one end.  She had a great tip to stamp your image after the first punch so you know exactly where to punch the other end.  Her other great tip is to punch one end of the red piece then adhere the white piece to it before punching the other end.

P.S.  I had this scheduled to post yesterday, and it didn't for some reason.  Sorry for the delay!

Supplies: Stamps: Contempo Christmas; Paper: Shimmery White, Daffodil Delight, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green; Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green; Accessories: bird punch, decorative label punch, 1/4" circle punch, sponge, cherry cobbler seam binding Happy stamping!

Shimmery Resist Take Two

I decided to try the shimmery resist technique one more time using a more solid image.  I have found that both times I've done this technique, the embossed image is a little spotty.  So this time, I colored over the embossed image with a versamarker and embossed again.  My coloring wasn't perfect, but I like the results much better this time!

Supplies: Stamps: Inspired by Nature, Filled with Love; Ink: Chocolate Chip craft and classic, Certainly Celery, versamarker; Paper: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Greenhouse Gala DSP; Accessories: clear EP, chocolate chip satin ribbon (retired), scallop edge punch

Happy stamping!

Shimmery resist

This week's demonstratable card is to use shimmery resist.  For this technique, you stamp and emboss an image onto colored cardstock.  Then you apply shimmer paint over the embossed image and then wipe the excess off the embossing.  You can also stamp with the shimmer paint.  It's hard to tell that I did that on my focal image, but you can see it at the end of my sentiment.

My card is 8 X 5 1/4 Very Vanilla scored at 4" then adhered to a 4 1/4 X 5 1/2 piece of Cherry Cobbler.  This is a great way to use a white or vanilla cardbase but still add some stability to it.

Supplies: Stamps: Filled with Love, Heard from the Heart; Paper: Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Jolly Holiday DSP; Ink: Cherry Cobbler (regular and craft); Accessories: champagne shimmer paint, ticket corner punch, cherry cobbler seam binding

Happy stamping!

Sock Monkey's Back!

This week, I'm using a previous card I made as a sketch.  The color combo came from Diva Coffee Break Designs: Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze and Marina Mist.  I immediately thought these would be great for sock monkey, and Rhonda had embossed a bunch of cardstock for me including Cajun Craze!  Whoohoo!  I stamped him on watercolor paper so I could try to color him well.  I'm not much of a watercolorer (is that a word??), but I think I got a little shading on there anyway.

Supplies: Stamps: Sock Monkey, Woodgrain, Perfect Punches; Paper: watercolor, very vanilla, Marina Mist, Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake; Ink: black StazOn, crumb cake, cajun craze, marina mist; Accessories: square lattice embossing folder, large oval punch, aquapainter, Marina Mist narrow taffeta ribbon Happy stamping!



Faux Linen

This week's demonstratable card challenge is faux linen.  I love the soft look of this!  I paired it with a WICKED challenge to make a non-Halloween card using Halloween colors (gray, green, purple, orange).  I added yellow.

I used Flores Suaves as my main set (from Celebrando Creatividad--the Spanish catalog).  I stamped the background in Basic Gray onto glossy cardstock then sanded in both directions.  Next, I sponged on So Saffron and sanded again.  The tulips are stamped in Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Concord Crush and Pear Pizzazz.  I used an aqua painter to blend the colors in the tulips a bit then sanded lightly again once the flowers were dry.

Supplies: Stamps: Flores Suaves, Vintage Vogue, Sanded; Paper: glossy white, Basic Gray, So Saffron; Ink: Basic Gray, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz; Accessories: antique brad, Pear Pizzazz ribbon, sanding block, spongeHappy stamping!