Playing With Something New

I was thinking ahead a little in December and managed to order some of the new things from the new SU Ocassions Mini catalog and now I'm finally getting a chance to play with some of them.

Stampin' Up is now offering clear, unmounted stamps.  They are so easy to use.  I decided to combine some of the Splitcoast challenges this week and this is what I came up with..................

This uses the Challenge colors (Bermuday Bay, Certainly Celery and Hunter Green), the sketch of the week, and something new.  I watercolored the dolls and the flower.  It is very detail work but I find it very relaxing.  I fell in love with this set when I first saw it.  I can't wait to see what other people come up with!

What do you think?  I'd love to see you comment!

I almost forgot - my other inspiration for this is Kelly's Word of the Week - Kolo - a European Folk Dance.  These little dolls remind me of the costume that my mother wore when she was a child and was learning to dance the Polish folk dances. 

INKredible Color Challenge - 6/8

Oh, I haven't done one of these in such a long time! This week's colors were Bordering Blue, Barely Banana, and Garden Green. When I see green in these challenges I usually think plant life.

I used the Itty Bitty Buds Hostess set to stamp the wreath in Garden Green. Then I stamped the Barely Banana flowers and cut them out. Yes, I know..... very tiny indeed. The centers of the flowers are Bordering Blue punch outs from the Crop-a-Dile.

The sentiment comes from Great Friends. Note to self: Next time stamp the sentiment before you glue down the flowers!

There is some scoring on the blue and some added punch dots on the banana, and a white taffeta bow finishes it up. The card itself, is 4 x 4.

I've got to do more of these color challenges!!!!

INKredible Color Challenges 4/27 and 5/4

Last week's challenge colors were Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, and Tangerine Tango. I hadn't inked my Thoughts and Prayers set yet and needed a sympathy card for my friend who unexpectedly lost her brother after a brief illness. Masculine cards are difficult for me. Sympathy cards are difficult for me. Sympathy cards for friends, close friends, are very difficult for me. The colors of the challenge seemed masculine enough and they spoke to me of a tree.

Not to digress but have you ever seen the children's program David the Gnome? The last episode is so touching when David and his wife Lisa both reach the end of their lives - gnomes don't live much past 400 - and after saying good by to all their friends and animals, they travel to this special place (the Mountain of Beyond) and they stand next to each other and they are transformed into trees. I watched this with my kids when they were younger and they didn't get it, but I cried, and I still cry when I think of how beautiful it was. They knew their time had come and they were prepared for it, and they prepared their friends for it. Then they travelled on with such resolve and such love for each other. If only that were the way it could be. I don't know if it would make it easier or not, but on the other hand those gnomes had 400 years. What would we do with 400 years? Sounds cliche but it's times like these, when death comes so suddenly that we are reminded to live our lives to the fullest because of the unpredictability of it. Anyway, I highlighted the episode above - it's kind of grainy, but if you have 20 mins. to spare, check it out.

I love the tree in this set. Actually the next card has a tree also and I love that tree too. The colors for this week's challenge are Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Certainly Celery and Baja Breeze. The stamp set is Branch Out (the sentiment is from Trendy Trees - ach what is it with these trees!!!!) The big Choc. Chip brad is pretty cool, don't you think? Unfortunately, I hadn't used my Very Vanilla ink pad in forever and it was very hard to ink the stamp. When I opened the pad, on the lid was a clear oily liquid which had separated from the color of the ink. I brushed it back onto the pad, but the image did not come out that great. Don't know if I ever got a refill for that one, but you bet it will be on my next order!!!

So, how do you like my tree cards? Tell me what you think, and if you get a chance to view the video above, let me know how it made you feel. I'd love to hear what you have to share.

INKredible Color Challenge 4/21

I have been so bad about the color challenges as of late. I always have good intentions, but somehow I have fallen behind. This week's colors were Basic Gray, Riding Hood Red, and Always Artichoke.

This flower pot card was going to have oval punched tulips in it, but after trying to ink up my leaves and turning not only my thumb green, but three more fingers as well, I opted to get out the Petal Pizzazz set and stamp the flowers and leaves. Believe me, it is much better this way.

The DSP on the flower pot is from the Urban Garden pack. I happen to like gray (the color of my new car!!) but my mother-in-law doesn't, so she'll probably not like this. Oh well, I'm sure my mom will!

Please check out the "Color Girls" in my left column for their projects with these colors. I'm sure you're going to like them all!

Another Two Challenges

Well it would appear that I'm on a roll here. But there's a reason for it. Besides the fact that we had snow today and I wasn't going out, I couldn't go out anyway because my car died on Saturday.

It's the ****** transmission. Just let me feel a little sorry for myself here - it's my last week home on medical leave and I don't have a car!!! Thank goodness I have good friends who are willing to cart me around and spend time with me. Otherwise, I think I would really be depressed and I've tried very hard these last seven weeks to avoid that.

So on Splitcoast today the Technique Challenge was to make a crimped envelope card holder and a card to go with it. I had flipped ahead to my INKredible color challenge for next week and liked those colors - Perfect Plum, Rose Red, More Mustard, and Old Olive. I also liked playing with the Itty Bitty Buds set so much the other day that I got that out again and went to work on this.

My son's girlfriend's b-day is next week and now I won't be running around last minute for a special card for her.

INKredible Color Challenge 3/2

Real Red, More Mustard, Kiwi Kiss, and Very Vanilla - these were the colors of the challenge this week. I was thinking that there should be flowers and green leaves but I couldn't decide at first which color to use for the flowers.

My Real Red ink tends to stay "open" or wet for a very long time, so after I stamped each flower I used my blending pen and pulled the ink into the shaded section which looks pink. I also used the blender pen on the butterfly, pulling the More Mustard into the unstamped areas and added just a touch of red to the shaded areas. I used my mustard marker to highlight the body of the butterfly.

I recently got the new oval scallop die and used that to frame the flowers. The oval piece is sponged with Kiwi Kiss.

This is a very bright and happy card don't you think? I used SU's God's Beauty Hostess Set.

I'd love to read your comments on this card. It always helps to get feedback. Thanks for visiting and do please come again.

INKredible Color Challenge 2/24

Since I haven't done one of these formally in a while I was determined to get this one done this week. And I do believe that I have the correct colors this time. We were to use Pacific Point, Old Olive, and Tangerine Tango. I also used it for the Limited Supplies Challenge on Splitcoast today: to make your own background paper and create a card with only one stamp set. Embellishments were limited to ribbon and brads.


I thought the Good Friend set would be a good choice for both of these challenges. The set does have a bird and believe it or not, I didn't use it ...... this time!!!!

My card base is Pacific Point and I used all three ink colors on Whisper White to create my own background. It might look like there are more than three colors in the background. There really aren't. I stamped off once to give the effect of a lighter shade of the same ink color.

I cut a square in the background (we weren't allowed to use punches) so I could add the cut out motif and the sentiment both above and in the box. The ribbon is Tangerine Tango.

I have someone in mind for this card who has just had a sudden illness. I'm hoping it will cheer her up.

Today is......

The 100th day at school. And as per my tradition, even though I am not there, I made pizzelles for the staff. My teacher-friend Anthony was nice enough to come and pick them up this morning and put them in the faculty room for the staff to enjoy. I usually make two batches so there will be at least 100 cookies, but I knew I'd be pushing it on my feet to make one batch. Tradition is tradition.

Today is also my son's birthday. Hard to believe that he is 28 already! (BTW, to be fair to my dear darling daughter, her birthday was last month and I gave her one of my special teapot cards.)

There was a demo challenge on Splitcoast yesterday to use this coffee wrapper as inspiration. I used my WOW Flowers stamp set and this week's INKredible color challenge colors for the card - Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Old Olive, and More Mustard. I added just a teeny little bow-tie.

Now I'm off to make more Thank You's.

Valentine Craft Tea

On Sunday afternoon my cousin Barbara had a Valentine Craft Tea for "the cousins". It really was a multi-generational party including some aunts, first cousins, second cousins, mothers, daughters and sisters.

She really knows how to do a party and I'm only sorry that I didn't take more pictures because the house and tables were decorated beautifully for Valentine's Day.

I did manage to capture the food in pictures. The first picture being the "savories". Little bite-size sandwiches and the like that were so delicious!!!


Then there were the desserts. And as you can see, there was no lack for the sweets. She had several "red-themed" teas to choose from or a very nice chocolate raspberry coffee. The ice cubes for cold drinks were even in the shape of hearts.

For the craft she had set aside yet another table that was full of scrapbook paper, cardstock, blank note cards, punches, markers, cutters, stickers, etc. We were let loose after we ate to grab whatever supplies we needed to create one or two Valentine cards.

Here are the cards that I made. (I did bring a couple of stamp sets and some of my heart punches to share.)

This was a little Valentine gift that I brought for everyone. I used the INKredible color combination for the week of 2/3 - Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, and Close to Cocoa. I used the Love You Much stamp set to add the decorative elements to a CD envelope that contained a big chocolate chip cookie (which I bought at Costco).

This is such a simple way to make something a little special.

I had a great time talking with all the ladies but I did get a little tired out and my mother and I were the first to leave. But true to form, Barb sent us all home with a goody bag and a plate full of leftovers.

INKredible Color Challenge 11/17

One of these things is not the same - or something like that. Can you see the difference?

It started out simple enough - which was what I was trying to do, to show how simply and quickly you can pull a Christmas card together. I made the card on the right and took the picture and started my post about it, but the more I looked at it, the more I thought something was missing, or should be different. So I put everything away for the evening and came back and started again right after work yesterday.

Can you see what I did differently? Well, let me tell you. On the left you will see that the plant has a brown stem instead of a green one. I also accented the leaves and berries a bit with markers and my blender pen.

I took both of them to school today and polled a few people. Believe it or not, it was just about an equal split. But I'm kind of leaning toward the one on the left.

The main image is from the Kindred Spirits stamp set and the sentiment (see, I can put a sentiment on the front!) is from the Heard From the Heart set. Oh, and the colors of the week are Bravo Burgundy, Always Artichoke, and Chocolate Chip. I didn't have any brads in Bravo Burgundy, although now that I'm thinking of it, there probably is a way to make some (we'll save that for another day), so instead, I made some French knots out of 1/4" grosgrain.

Okay, now it's your turn to pick the one you like. Left or right?

INKredible Color Challenge 11/10

This week's colors were limited to two - Creamy Caramel and Bravo Burgundy. I was thinking holidays with these colors and I also was itching to use my new Christmas Cardinal stamp set. This cardinal was stamped with Bravo Burgundy on the Creamy Caramel, giving it a bit of a sepia look. I sponged both colors on the edges of the ovals, more on the large one to give it the look of a real frame. The cutting of the branches was the most time consuming. If you look closely at the berries you will see that I used a marker to highlight the berries to give them more depth. I also edged the leaves with my VersaMarker to keep it from looking so flat.

So, if you're keeping track of what went into this card here is the recipe:

Stamps: A Cardinal Christmas
Paper: Bravo Burgundy, Creamy Caramel
Ink: Bravo Burgundy, Creamy Caramel, VersaMarker
Accessories: Coluzzle, Photo Corner Punch, Mat Pack, Dimensionals, Sponges

Just to let you know that you will be seeing this stamp set again with a more true-to-life cardinal.

And now I'm going to ask a favor. A friend of mine is in the hospital at this moment. She is a pink ribbon friend who is bravely fighting. Please say a prayer that she can get through this crisis. Thank you.

INKredible Color Challenge 11/3

This has got to have been the hardest one so far. The colors this week were Night of Navy, Handsome Hunter and......... wait...........here it comes..........Blush Blossom. I have to admit that Blush Blossom is one of my least favorite colors. It reminds me of a little disagreement I had with my mother.

My daughter was receiving her first communion and I had sewn this beautiful dress for her. My mother happened to work with someone who had a flower arranging business on the side and she asked him to make a little bouquet for my daughter to carry. We talked about it and agreed that it would contain blush pink rose buds and have a blush pink ribbon. When she brought it over the rosebuds were the color of blush blossom, as was the ribbon. This was not what I had envisioned and I guess my reaction was not quite what my mother expected. We talked about it a little later and after I explained my feelings to her we decided just to remove the rosebuds and just have a white bow. I just do not care for that color - sorry.

So to have to use it in this challenge was a real challenge to me. As you can see, there is very little of it.

Here is the recipe:

Stamps: Eastern Blooms, Always in My Thoughts, Sanded

Paper: Handsome Hunter, Night of Navy, Blush Blossom, Whisper White

Ink: Handsome Hunter, Night of Navy, Blush Blossom

Accessories: 1", 1 1/4", 1 3/8" and Round Scallop Punches, 1/4" NN grosgrain

To make the background I inked the Sanded background stamp with each of the darker colors separately and stamped the Whisper White cs rotating the image.

Thanks for looking!

INKredible Color Challenge 10/20

I couldn't wait to use this new stamp set called Scandinavian Season because it brings me back to my painting roots. I love this style of painting called Norwegian Rosemaling. It's based on c and s strokes and stylized flowers. You can see the strokes in both the watercolored star design and the snowflake background that was stamped multiple times.

For the Not Quite Navy base of the card I used a background stamp called Sanded. I think it gives it a rustic look. Then I stamped the Creamy Caramel piece with the snowflake stamp in Not Quite Navy solidly and also stamped off once, and then added Creamy Caramel snowflakes. That piece and the layer behind it were sponged on the edges with ink in the same color as the card.

I cheated just a little here with the star image, stamping it in Brown. Then I used NQN and CC to color it with my aquapainter. I added a vanilla taffeta bow to match the vanilla background of the star. I am really pleased with the way this came out. What do you think? Is it worthy of a Christmas Card?

Teapot Tuesday Challenge 15 - INKredible Color Challenge 10/7

Well, I knew it would happen sooner or later. I knew that one week I would be able to combine the two challenges that I do. This week's color combo was to use pink - any pink, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The teapot that Cindy chose for this week's teapot challenge lent itself to that pink theme very well.

I love the 3-D roses on the teapot and saucer. Don't you? Believe it or not, I do not have a "true rose" stamp. The closest one that I could come up with is the flower from the Bella's Bloom set which I stamped in Pretty in Pink on watercolor paper. I used my aquapainter to highlight the edges of the petals in Regal Rose.I think I went a little overboard with the background flowers. They are from the other Bella set. And......... I don't have any really good rose leaf stamps (that's one thing that I would like to see more of with the SU flower stamp sets - leaves that go with the flowers!) so I used some 5/8" Old Olive grosgrain as the leaves. This card has all SU product in it's ingredients.

Check out Cindy's glob for her take on the teapot and please check out the Color Girls in the left sidebar for their take on the color challenge this week.

On a side note - I went for my yearly Mammogram today. I hope that every woman reading this has done the same this year. I went to a Basket Bingo last year with over 150 women present. We were asked to stand if you knew someone who had been treated for breast cancer. There was no one in that room that remained in their seat. And not enough of us were able to sit down when asked if we knew anyone who had lost their battle with breast cancer. We need to change that. Go get squished!

INKredible Color Challenge 9-29

The date of the challenge may say the 29th but I'm posting on the 30th and it has been a beautiful and eventful day for a number of reasons:

1. No work - School Holiday - no rain - beautiful weather
2. Saw not one, not two, not three, but four bluebirds this morning in the garden.
3. Had breakfast and did some shopping with Rachel - she will be leaving tomorrow after school to start her new job in DE.
4. Got to go to two craft stores today.
5. Saved a chipmunk from certain death-by-bird-netting.
6. Chris moved back home - new nickname for him "Boomerang"
7. Got text message from Sunshine (ex-girl friend) thanking us for letting her be a part of our family for a little while

Tonight, after everyone is asleep I will be sitting down and writing my daughter a letter that will be part of that card above. It is her Time to Bloom. Where are my tissues!

Recipe:
Stamps: Organic Grace, Bellas Bloom
Paper: Rose Red, So Saffron, Orchid Opulence, Basic Black, Confetti White
Ink: Rose Red , So Saffron, Orchid Opulence, Basic Black, VersaMark
Accessories: Aquapainter, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" square punches, Styled Silver Hardware, Med. Oval Punch, Round Fire Brad, 1/4" Rose Red grosgrain

INKredible Color Challenge 9-22

Well, for the last several, no few, well all right, all the color challenges so far I've done a card. It was time to try for something else. And, may I say, just in time to celebrate my Mother's birthday. This box/bag pattern was featured in the Demo Forum on Splitcoast for last Friday's 3-D challenge. Here is a link to Lauren Meader's blog with the tutorial. She came up with this pattern because she, as I do not yet have a Big Shot (shhhh, don't tell HWNSNBP, but it's bound to happen soon) and cannot make the cute little baskets with the SU exclusive die YET! (Please let the grammar gods forgive me for that sentence!)

We were to use Apricot Appeal, Bashful Blue, and Pumpkin Pie in our project this week. I decided to get out yet another new stamp set - Kindred Spirits along with the butterfly from Dreams du Jour, and the sentiment on the tag from Always in My Thoughts. I bent the rules a little and added just a smidge of Chocolate Chip for the stems of the flower spray.

I had to show you a close up of the tag and the ribbon. This is what happens to grosgrain ribbon when you pull it apart. You just don't pull willy nilly, there is a method to it. Here's how I did it. I cut two inch pieces of 1/4" grosgrain (apricot, blue, and pumpkin) and I tied them together in the center with a length of gold metallic stretch cord. Then carefully, with my snips, cut the vertical edge off one side of the ribbon towards the center - one piece at a time. Then you can pull the threads away from each other until you just have the other vertical piece with all the excess horizontal threads which you will cut off and discard. There are about 12 pieces of ribbon in this puff. Let me say here that this does take a little time to do, so keep that in mind.


One last thing, if you look closely............ very closely.................. at the tissue paper, you will see that I stamped butterflies on the tissue.

INKredible Color Challenge 9/15

Bella's Bloom provided the flowers and Bella's Blossom provided the sentiment. And I threw in a little Sprinkles for the background. I also did a little Faux Tiling on that background layer and added faux brads in the corner.

The colors used this week were Always Artichoke, Creamy Caramel, and Regal Rose. I stamped the flower images on Whisper White and then used the key tag punch. The problem I see now is that they remind me of something - I won't say what, but Rachel agreed with me. So I definitely won't be using this as a sympathy card. What do you think?

I had some scraps left so I decided to make a bookmark. I used the same flower from the Bella's Bloom set and punched it out with the new Jumbo Oval Punch. Then I used the coluzzle oval template to get the Regal Rose layer. I Faux Tiled the Artichoke background on this too.

Each school year I try to come up with something to put in the staff mailboxes for their birthdays and I think I'm going to do bookmarks this year. Our first birthday will be coming up this week so I will be prepared for that. You can't see too well from the picture, but the corners were punched with the corner rounder punch. I didn't want it to be lumpy so I didn't add any ribbon (this time). I might add some at the top in the future.

This will work well for the female staff - now I have to come up with something for the males.

I spent the afternoon Saturday at my Upline Debbie's house playing with the new Big Shot. We did some cute little projects which I'll post later this week. I know you're going to love seeing them!

INKredible Color Challenge 9/8

Note to self: do not take photographs with a manilla folder background. Ugh. What it does to the colors.......

The colors for the INKredible Color Challenge this week were: Green Galore, Brilliant Blue, Ballet Blue, and Tempting Turquoise. I know I've already used Snow Swirled in a challenge, but it was just sitting there, tempting me, so I went for it.

This is a free standing pop up card, and if you click here you'll find a very good tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers.

There were five punches used on this - the Key Tag punch, the 1/2", 1 1/4", and 1 3/8" circle punches, and the corner rounder punch. The ornaments on the tree are popped up with dimensionals. When making this card, you have to keep in mind how dimensional you want the pop up part to be as it has to fit through the slit that you will be cutting. I would have liked to pop the tree off the background, but my slit was two narrow for two popped layers.

I really wish you could see this one in person because the colors are so much more captivating in real life. Will this be my (our) Christmas card this year? Hmmmm, maybe........

INKredible Color Challenge 9/1

There are three new stamp sets used for this card and one old wheel. I needed a sympathy card and I'm not quite sure that these colors are the best choice, but I do like how it came out.

The colors for this week are Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, and Pumpkin Pie. I did add Very Vanilla cs but I think that it's okay to add a neutral color when doing the challenges.

The card base is Choc. Chip, and the Pumpkin Pie Background is stamped in Pumpkin Pie with the Watercolor Vine wheel.

The openings are punched out with the 1 3/8" square punch on the PP layer and with the 1 1/4" punch on the OO layer. The message from Always in My Thoughts and florals from Pocket Silhouettes are stamped onto Very Vanilla with Choc. Chip ink. The butterfly comes from the Dreams du Jour set.

The ribbon is 5/8" OO grosgrain.

I would use this layout again in other color combinations. There is a bit of measuring involved in lining up the openings but it's not that hard.

The card is meant for the family of the interim principal we had this summer. His mother-in-law passed away peacefully last Wednesday at the age of 89.

INKredible Color Challenge 8/25 (oops!)

Better late than never - so the saying goes. Actually, I think I could have done a little better with the sentiment. Stamping on the ribbon with regular ink maybe was not the right choice because it did bleed a little making it a little hard to decipher. I think had I used Stazon it would have been much better. Oh well, we live and we learn. (Enough of the cliches now!!!)

The colors for this past week were Brocade Blue, Bravo Burgundy and Night of Navy. I just got the Snow Swirled set and was itching to use it. There is a beautiful tree in this set and once I get a little caught up, I'm going to try these colors again with a silver-embossed tree. I think that will be quite nice also.

The scalloped square is actually 4 scalloped squares put together to make a larger square. The snowflake circle is punched out with the new 1 3/4" circle punch. Both the square and the circle are popped up on dimensionals to add some interest. I used a round ice brad for the center of the main snowflake.

I know there are other entries for this week from Stasia, Colleen, and Kelly. Please check them out also. Great job ladies!!!