Ruby Wedding

My friend Sandra needed a Ruby Wedding card for her in-laws and asked me to come up with something. I decided to use SU Rose Red ink as it went with the 'Ruby theme' and a love heart of course!!! This card is my 3rd attempt the first one ended up in the bin (trash for Americans!) and the 2nd one wasn't 'special' enough and then I came up with this idea ... I made up the sentiment on the computer and printed it on vellum, then just laid the vellum strip over the image. So simple and quite weddingy! I just added a few pearls at the corners and I think I've cracked it. Now I just hope Sandra likes it!!!

Recipe:

Stamps : Anna Griffin (B/G), SU Gentler Times

Cardstock : PTI antique ivory, SU Rose Red, Basic Black, Vellum

Ink : Rose Red

Accessories : 1/2 Pearls, computer (for the sentiment)

HOOT

Just a quick post, Sarah just had a tooth pulled out so she wants to go to Dairy Queen for an ice cream!!! I guess she's NOT as grown up as I thought!!!

I also wanted to say hi to my French Auntie {{hello Auntie Brigitte}} ... she and uncle Colin are staying with my parents this week ... they all go 'way back' to when they were all newly married and Auntie Brigitte actually rescued me from the beach one night after I escaped from my parents' home and wandered onto the beach at the bottom of our road. In fact, that's how they met! I think I was about 2 years old .... can you imagine? Mum, you'd be arrested if that happened today!!!! LOL.


There are a series of challenges this week for the Fan Club over on SCS. One of the challenges was to make a masculine card. I decided to use my new Wise Owl set from PTI. HE IS SO GORGEOUS ~ I LOVE HIM. I paper-pieced him and popped him up on dimensionals over the bough from Out on a Limb (also from PTI). So simple, I love it!


Recipe

Stamps : PTI Wise Owl, Out on a Limb
Cardstock : PTI Ivory, SU Chocolate Chip and Au Chocolat DP
Ink : Palette Burnt Umber, Noir and Spring Moss
Accessories : 1/2" circle punch (eyes), dimensionals, Tombow mono adhesive

Colour Challenge and a New PTI Set

I got my new Papertrey Ink goodies yesterday! Love this Quilter's Sampler set (find it here). So I decided to use it along with today's colour challenge on SCS. The colours to use were River Rock, Very Vanilla and Soft Sky.

I started by cutting tiny 3/4" squares of vellum (the blocks fit the 3/4" punch perfectly so that's on my next order!). I then carefully stamped my chosen blocks onto the square (if you have the punch, stamp first, then punch!) with Palette Burnt Umber ink ... once the ink was dry, I flipped the squares over and coloured the blocks. I don't have the reinkers for these colours, so I pressed the lid down onto the ink pad and opened it up. By doing this, you can pick up the ink with your blender pen and colour accordingly. Once all 9 squares were coloured, I stuck the vellum down onto a piece of vanilla c/s and trimmed. I used a special vellum adhesive so it didn't show.

The Finished 'quilt' measures 2 1/4" square so I just matted it with a piece of soft sky and river rock and mounted the whole thing on dimensionals onto a 4 1/4" Vanilla base card. The base was stamped with some spots from PTI's Polka Dot Basics (love that set!). Then I added a sentiment with a brad onto the corner of the quilt and a length of River Rock ribbon. It's simple and pretty (in my opinion) and I'll be creating many more quilts ... probably after my 3/4" punch arrives though!

Recipe:

Stamps : PTI polka dot basics, quilter's sampler

C/S : Very Vanilla, Soft Sky, River Rock

Ink : Palette Burnt Umber

Accessories : River Rock Ribbon, Brad, C/Bug die cut label

Stampin' Up Retired Accessory List

Today Stampin' Up published the retiring accessories from the Spring/Summer 2008 Catalogue. To see the list, click here.

If you see any products you've been meaning to get, let me know and I'll put an order in for you.

Designer Paper and a Box

I found this brown-paper covered box at Target this week for $2.99 in the giftwrap section and decided to alter it with the new Stampin' Up DP called Bella Rose. I started off by measuring around the box and trimming the paper. I adhered the first layer of Riding Hood Red to the main body of the box using Red Sticky Strip. I then cut a 2nd layer of the DP just 1/8" narrower and layered it on top of the RH Red. I then covered the edge of the lid with RH Red and a 2nd design from the Paper Pack.

The lid was covered with a 6" circle (cut with my Fiskars circle cutter) of Kiwi Kiss and layered with the 3rd design from the DP. The centre was made using Nestablities and I stamped my name using the Sans Serif alphabet set.

I didn't want to 'over do' the decorations so I just tied some SU Old Olive grosgrain around the box and glued some primas onto the the lid.

I've fallen for this new Designer Paper and want to decorate my whole house with it!!! A bit too expensive though unfortunately (or fortunately, according to my husband!).

Recipe:

Cardstock : Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, Bella Rose DP

Ink : Kiwi Kiss

Accessories : Target Gift Box, Sticky Strip, Grosgrain Ribbon, Primas, Nestabilities

Tea Bag Holder

I wanted to let you see my version of the Tea Bag Holder card. It's very quick and easy and makes a great card/gift for someone who might need cheering up!

To make the card, cut a piece of cardstock 10" x 3 1/4". Score along the long edge at 3 1/4", 3 1/2" and 6 3/4". Use your bone folder to crease along the score lines. From the photo you can work out which is the back piece of the card, cut this at a diagonal to make a flap to hold your tea bag and fold it back towards the centre of the card. I used Tombow multi adhesive on the corner to hold it in place. Pop in a tea bag (mine's very posh, Fortnum & Mason!). Decorate as you wish and pass along to a friend, they're guaranteed to love it!

My tea bag holder today is using SU's new 'In Colours' which will be available in the new Fall/Winter Catalog due out on 11th August. They're great! The card base is Riding Hood Red, layered with Kiwi Kiss, Bella Rose DP (the plaid) and the tea pot is stamped on Pink Pirouette. It's a very simple card but I like it! The buzzy bees on the teapot had their wings coloured with a Sakura Stardust Gel Pen for some shimmer and the teapot itself was watercoloured using the same In-Colours.

A Sketch from Splitcoast

Here's today's card made from a sketch over on SCS. Today's challenge is called SC185. I made a card called Shabby Lemons! I started with a standard sized card and rubbed Tim Holz Distress Ink in 'Old Paper' all over the base to give it that shabby feel. Then I stamped the Lemon from Sun Ripened II in Palette Burnt Umber ink onto PTI Ivory cardstock. I coloured the image with Copics and mounted it onto Close to Cocoa C/S after distressing with Old Paper Ink. The larger rectangle was stamped with the watercolour joy wheel in Barely banana and distressed with the Old Paper ink, again it was mounted on Close to Cocoa. The strip is 1" wide and is barely banana run through the cuttlebug with the Swiss Dot holder. I added jumbo brads at each end and glued it all together.

CC175 One of a Kind

Not sure what's wrong today ... just didn't 'feel' this card as I was making it up. Sometimes that just happens though! Today's splitcoast challenge is a colour challenge to use Wild Wasabi (I love green, but NOT that green!) So Saffron and Almost Amethyst.

I decided to use 'One of a Kind' because it's been neglected lately! I started off with a 5.5" x 4.25" base and layered up Wild Wasabi, So Saffron and then a scalloped edged Almost Amethyst. The stamped layer uses Almost Amethyst ink ... the flowers on the background had their centres bradded for a little more interest and I added the For You sentiment using my SU oval punches. I feel a bit 'ho hum' about this one but thought I'd share it anyway! If inspiration comes to me during the day I'll try again!

Grid Technique

This card was made using the Grid Technique. There's a super tutorial by Beate Johns over on SCS here

I made an Ivory base at the standard size, layered up a piece of mellow moss with my gridded piece. The grid was made using my scor-pal at 1/2" intervals and then 'shabby' stamped with my Floral B/G stamp. Then, in order to cover up a mistake in the scoring, I made a 2"x 1.5" image using the same card colours and the bird from Carte Postale and the sentiment from Fresh Cuts ... love how you can cover up mistakes REALLY easily!!! The placement of the image left the other side of the card glaringly bare so I added 2 strips of SU ribbon. I really like how it turned out ... and it was EASY!

Special Note: Mum, if you're showing this to Auntie Moira ~ give her a hug from me!!!

OK, so now I ought to explain that special note! When I was a little girl we lived over the road from the Fletchers. I LOVED THEM! They let their kids stay up later than me and they didn't fuss over dirty clothes and scraped knees (sorry mum, it's true!) ... anyway, just to make us all feel very old, that was 40+ years ago!!! Today the Fletchers (Auntie Moira and Uncle Dave) are visiting my mum and dad in Suffolk ~ so I had to send a special message!

Recipe:
Stamps : Floral, Carte Postale, Fresh Cuts (all SU)
Card Stock : Very Vanilla, Mellow Moss
Ink : River Rock
Accessories : Su ribbon, Mellow Moss Taffeta, River Rock Stitched

Man-Wits

So if you went to Hunmanby Hall in the early 1980's you'd know who Man-Wits was! Hi Mandy {{waving}}. I posted a few weeks ago about the AMAZING story of my old BFF from school in Yorkshire England. Well, last night she came over for a bbq with her husband and 2 girls. What a fun evening we had!!! The girls are so sweet and LOVED my stamping studio in the basement so I promised them I'd make them a notebook each. Here they are!

I used 2 notebooks I found at Michael's in the Dollar Spot and made the layered fronts using SU DP and CS. The alphabet stamps are a retired set called Doodle Alphabet, stamped onto vanilla cs and punched out with a circle. The flowers are die cut from Textured Paper. The girls told me their favourite colours so hopefully they'll like these. I'll post them tomorrow Mandy!

Summer Theme

Today, the splitcoast challenge is to make a summer themed card. Easy for me! I love this image from My Favorite Things called 'By the Seashore'. I decided to keep it very simple (Friday is the 'limited supply' challenge so you have to keep everything to a minimum). The parameters were to keep it summer themed, 3 layers or less, limited embellishments and NO patterned paper. Here's what I did:

Card base is PTI's White, 4 1/4" square. Then I stamped my background in Cool Caribbean with PTI's Polka Dot Basics. The image was stamped on PTI White and was layered with Cool Caribbean using the Nestabilities Circle Dies. My Lady was stamped with palette Burnt Umber ink and coloured with Copic Markers. I wanted her to have a patterned hat, but no DP allowed for this challenge so I stamped some more PTI dots onto Barely Banana and cut it out and popped it on her head! The finishing touch is a Cuttlebug tag with the sentiment stamped on it. I pulled the edges across my Cool Caribbean ink pad for some definition and attached it to the card with a pretty BoBunny brad.

This one's going to my sister. She lives in Jersey, Channel Islands which is a BEAUTIFUL island where we used to spend our summers as children. She's lucky enough to live up on the top of some cliffs in St Ouen with a view of the ocean ... probably a 100% opposite of the Metro Detroit Suburbs (LOL)!!! Anyway, I miss you Big Sis so this is coming to you!

'Mini' Challenge

I participated in today's WT challenge over on splitcoast ~ we were to use anything 'mini' ... literally anything! So I decided to make a mini clipboard. I covered a 4" square coaster with Spring Fling DP, added the SU pink grosgrain ribbon across the join, added primas and the word 'notes' made with Defining Alphabet and SU markers. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeasy!

The clip is magnetic and was found at IKEA, they came 4 in a pack all in lovely 'soft subtles' colours.

The Featured Stamper challenge on Splitcoast Stampers gives a great opportunity to look at other people's work and to CASE it (Copy and Share Everything). Today's FS is from Australia and she's called Teneale Williams. Her SCS gallery is pretty small, but it's packed full of wonderful cards, take a look ~ here.

I chose a sketch of Teneale's card (Wild Paisley from October '07). I kept the layout the same but made more layers and used a different stamp set for the main image. I did paper-piece the wheel barrow just as Teneale paper pieced her elephant.


Recipe:

Stamps : SU Blooming With Love, Sentiment from PTI
Cardstock : Barely Banana, Spring Fling DP, WW, Close to Cocoa
Ink : Close to Cocoa
Accessories : Corner Rounder to make scallops, Chocolate Taffeta Ribbon, Dimensionals, SU Markers, Lt Gray Copic Sketch Marker

Kind Thoughts Sketch

A blog I visit daily is that of Jen Del Muro and can be found at http://www.iheart2stamp.com/ . Jen gives us a sketch to play with each w/end and calls it SFYTT (Something For You to Try) so today I decided to have a go. I needed a card to send off and I wanted it to be soft and elegant so here's the result:

I made the card the regular 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" and layered up Close to Cocoa with Afternoon Tea DSP. The 3 small squares were made using SU's 1 3/8" and 1 1/4" square punches. I did some decorative sewing around the edge and stamped the sentiment using 'Kind Thoughts'. All other images are from 'Together Forever' which is the same set used in the previous post. A bit of distressing with a sponge and a few panels popped up on dimensionals and voila!

Recipe
Stamp Sets : Kind Thoughts, Together Forever
Cardstock : Groovy Guava, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla, Afternoon Tea DSP
Ink : Close to Cocoa, Frayed Burlap Distress Ink
Accessories : Sponge, Sewing Machine, SU square punches, Dimensionals

Scored Background & Wedding

Apologies for my lack of posting recently ... on Friday our computer was taken away to have a larger hard-drive installed. The job should only have taken 24 hrs but unfortunately, when they started to work on it, they found out that the windows operating system was corrupted. So the result was 5 days without a computer ~ yikes! Amazing how lost one feels without it! The funny thing was, that when Joel (our IT guru) came over to hook it all back up I joked about our nasty old printer and said 'gosh, I wish it could have an accident or something' .... so as if to tempt fate, the following day I decided to print out some paperwork and lo-and-behold the printer wouldn't work! Too funny ... actually not funny because on top of the computer repair bill, I then had to find another wad of cash for the new printer. However, now the computer is working wonderfully and the new printer/copier/scanner is FANTASTIC ... just wish I'd built that into this month's budget!

So, onto today's card. The WT (Ways to Use It) challenge over on splitcoast today is to use scoring lines on a card. I decided to take the opportunity to try to make a wedding card for my cousin, Kate. She gets married in September but I want the card to be perfect so this is prototype #1. There will be more to follow!

I used the standard 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" card base in PTI's new Ivory. I then layered the background with Chocolate Chip and River Rock. The River Rock piece was 4"x5 1/4" and I used my Scor-Pal to make a diamond grid of score lines. The photo doesn't really do this technique justice, it looks a little uneven but IRL it looks much better. The centre square is 3" with layers of River Rock and Choc Chip behind it. Again, I scored around the central image with the Scor-Pal. I used 'Together Forever' as the stamp set and the initials are from the 'ambassador' set at PTI. A few pearls at the corners and all done. Quite a simple card but I like it!