Tuesday, September 30, 2014
A Merry Sketch
This week at The Paper Players Sandy has a great sketch for everyone. I hemmed and hawed about what I wanted to do with it and finally settle on a Christmas card that used the squares to highlight DSP. I did move the sentiment across the panels instead of below, so hopefully that's ok! I just really wanted to use that "merry" sentiment and it didn't look right going across the bottom :) The "merry" was cut out 3 times with the Big Shot and adhered to each other for more dimension, and then I sponged it with Metallic Silver ink for more pop. I then channeled a bit of my daughter, who loves all things sparkly, and added some rhinestones to finish the card off, along with some paper piercing.
Labels:
Christmas,
sketch challenge,
The Paper Players
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Blowing Colors for Friday Mashup
It's time for another Friday Mashup and this week Avery is our lovely hostess. She has a fun technique for us to try....the ink blowing technique. You can watch a video on it HERE. She also wants us to use the following colors: Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry and Basic Black.
The colors spoke fall to me and I started out thinking I was going to create a fall themed card but you can see that it ended up in a totally different direction :) The lines and colors are so bold that it's really easy to let them take center stage. To complete the card I took a stamp from Starburst Sayings, colored it in with markers, stamped it, cut the circle portion by hand and then backed it with a piece of Basic Black cut with the Starburst Framelits. Easy peasy!
Channel your inner child and come by The Friday Mashup and play along with us!
Channel your inner child and come by The Friday Mashup and play along with us!
Stamps: Starburst Sayings
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Basic Black
Accessories: Big Shot, Starburst Framelits, straw, dimensionals
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Getting Fancy for TTS26
It's time for a new challenge at 'Tis The Season and it's all about traditional colors this week...red, green and kraft for a neutral.
For my card I used a set I just got, Visions of Santa. I'm not completely sold on this set, I find the Santa's a bit creepy, but as a lover of moose I finally decided to get it if only for the moose(which my husband thinks is very funky looking but oh well).
I used a sketch that Create With Connie and Mary had a few weeks ago. I really like the strips and how easy this sketch comes together. The papers are from the Trim the Tree DSP paper stack. The moose was colored in with SU Blendabilities.
I hope you'll come by 'Tis The Season and play along with us!
Stamps: Visions of Santa
Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Trim the Tree DSP Paper Stack
Ink: SU Blendabilities: Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Memento Tuxedo Black, Cherry Cobbler
Accessories: Big Shot, Circle Framelits, sponge, dimensionals
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Happy Holidays Penguin
In between watching football (Go Giants!) and picking my oldest up from work I had some time to stamp this afternoon so I set out to make a card for the Lawnscaping challenge, using the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.
Here is another card I made with this little guy. I prefer the one above, but my husband and daughter liked this one with the snowflakes:
The challenge at Lawnscaping is to make a project with critters so I pulled out Winter Penguin. I love penguins and had to have this little guy when I saw him! I kept the card simple by just doing some faux stitching around the card base and letting the cute little penguin and sentiment take center stage. The sketch from Freshly Made is perfect for a CAS card. The penguin is popped up with dimensionals, as is the white panel he is adhered to.
Thanks for stopping by!
Here is another card I made with this little guy. I prefer the one above, but my husband and daughter liked this one with the snowflakes:
Stamps: Winter Penguin (Lawn Fawn)
Paper: Kraft (SU retired), Whisper White (SU), Snow Day Paper Pack (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, Old Olive (all SU)
Accessories: White Gel Pen, Basic Pearls (all SU)
Labels:
Christmas,
Freshly Made Sketches,
Lawn Fawn,
penguins,
sketch challenge
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Hey There! Snapshot
My friend Susan is an amazing photographer based in North Pole Alaska and every year I order one of her beautiful calendars. This year she proposed a trade...some of my cards for one of her calendars. I of course said yes and so this is where this card came in. As soon as I saw the sketch from Cindy L. at Freshly Made Sketches I knew I wanted to use the Snapshot stamp, as it would be perfect for Susan!
I started with a card base of Rich Razzleberry and then embossed a panel of Whisper White with the Arrows TIEF. My banners are from Sweet Taffy DSP. The papers in this set are perfect for fall, they have nice rich colors. I colored the camera in with Tangerine Tango and Smoky Slate and the sentiment is from Just Sayin'. All I did was color the words with Rich Razzleberry and left off the word bubble around it. The camera is popped up with dimensionals as is the Whisper White panel its mounted on.
Thanks for stopping by!
Stamps: Snapshot, Just Sayin'
Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Sweet Taffy DSP
Ink: Tangerine Tango, Rich Razzleberry, Smoky Slate, Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Big Shot, Arrows TIEF, Round Corner Punch, dimensionals
Labels:
Freshly Made Sketches,
hello,
sketch challenge
Vellum Stitches for Friday Mashup
I'm late with my post for Friday Mashup, bad me! It was a very hectic week and I had no time to stamp and I'm also not one of those wonderful stampers who manages to work ahead so here I am on Saturday with my card :)
Tara has a fantastic challenge for us.....use stitching/faux stitching on your card along with vellum. I love faux stitching so I was really excited to do this.
I grabbed one of the new sets from the Christmas catalog, White Christmas, and I embossed the trees with white embossing powder(SU, which I found in my stash a few days after posting on here that I had none, sigh). I then took vellum and cut it along the lines of the hill on the stamp to create my snowy hillside (for the bottom hill I did the same thing, just reversed the strip to get the hill going in the other direction). The snowman was stamped in Memento Ink and I colored him in with a white gel pen and some metallic green and red pens I have. I used the snowflakes from the set and stamped them in Whisper White and then covered some of them with Dazzling Details to get a little sparkle. The bird in the tree was stamped in Real Red and the sentiment was stamped in Marina Mist.
Now, I was going to do faux stitching. I love the look and besides, I hate actual sewing. I avoid it all costs. When I was in the Navy I paid someone to do any sewing I needed, big or small and throughout the years at home hubby has done any sewing that's been needed. So yeah, I don't like to sew. For some crazy reason I grabbed a needle and hand stitched the borders on the card! I don't know what got into me, maybe the rain we had all week made me a little more loopy than normal, I don't know. I can say that while I like how it all came out, I wont be reproducing this card, at least not with hand stitching :)
Come by The Friday Mashup and see all the great projects from the rest of the design team and then play along with us!
Here's your Mashup Challenge:
- Create a Project using "Vellum".
- Create a Project with "Stitching (Sewing or Faux)".
- or Mash it up! and create a Project with "Vellum and Stitching
Stamps: White Christmas
Paper: Soft Sky, Vellum
Ink: White Craft Ink, Memento Ink, Real Red, Marina Mist
Accessories: White Gel Pen, Green Metallic Pen, Red Metallic Pen, Dazzling Details, DMC Floss, White Embossing Powder, Heat Tool
Labels:
Christmas,
stitching,
Tara,
The Friday Mashup,
vellum
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Feeling Like Fall for Friday Mashup
Happy Friday! I'm so excited for today and this weekend.....my family and I are spending the weekend in Denali National Park. It's the road lottery weekend and a friend of ours gave us her pass. I am hoping to see bears and caribou along with my favorite animal, moose! Of course the fall colors have taken over the area so I'm looking forward to that also.
Speaking of fall, Heidi is our hostess this week at The Friday Mashup and her 7 year old daughter came up with the challenge.....follow the sketch and incorporate leaves into your project! Looks like she is following in her mom's creative footsteps!
Since I'm usually so literal when it comes to sketches I decided to step out my comfort zone a little bit. Normally I would have cut some card stock into a circle, created a frame and then added a leaf. Instead I grabbed the Work of Art set and created a square of sorts using Mossy Meadow, Hello Honey and Blackberry Bliss. I then grabbed the retired set Gently Falling and stamped a leaf 3 times....twice in Tangelo Twist (off set with Baked Brown Sugar) and once in Hello Honey (off set with Mossy Meadow). I secured the 2 Tangelo Twist leaves to my card base and then used dimensionals to pop up my Hello Honey leaf. To finish the card off I added some sequins. A nice and simple fall card!
I hope you'll come by The Friday Mashup and see all the great projects from the rest of the design team, and then play along with us!
Here's your Mashup Challenge:
- Create a project using the "Sketch".
- Create a project with "Leaves".
- or Mash it Up! and create a project with "Leaves using the Sketch".
Stamps: Work of Art, Gentyly Falling (retired)
Paper: Mossy Meadow, Naturals White
Ink: Mossy Meadow, Hello Honey, Blackberry Bliss, Tangelo Twist, Baked Brown Sugar
Accessories: Sequins, dimensionals
Labels:
Autumn,
Heidi,
leaves,
sketch challenge,
The Friday Mashup
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Christmas House for TTS25
It's time for another challenge at 'Tis The Season! This week we have a nice easy sketch, and of course I had to use Holiday Home on it. Its definitely my favorite new set from Stampin' Up!
I created a very simple Christmas scene, with the house and snow all around, the moon in the night sky and Santa flying through the sky. In the winter we often have flurries that fall due to small breezes moving through the trees so my little snowflakes were added with that in mind.
I created a very simple Christmas scene, with the house and snow all around, the moon in the night sky and Santa flying through the sky. In the winter we often have flurries that fall due to small breezes moving through the trees so my little snowflakes were added with that in mind.
I hope you'll come by 'Tis The Season and play along with us! Christmas will be here before you know it :)
Stamps: Holiday Home
Paper: Sofy Sky, Night of Navy, Whisper White
Ink: Night of Navy, White Craft Ink, Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Daffodil Delight, Blendabilities: Bronze and Mocha
Accessories: Big Shot, Lucky Stars TIEF, Scallop Edge Border Punch, Dazzling Diamonds, White Gel Pen, Dimensionals
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Creative Blog Hop
I was honored to be tagged by my friend Cindy Brumbaugh to take part in a Creative Blog Hop! This hop lets folks meet people from all over the crafting community, how fun is that? Please take a moment to go by Cindy's website CindyLeeBeeDesigns to learn a bit about her (and you can also see my bio on her blog post for the hop). On Sept.15th please go visit my friends Holly and Rita, who I tag at the end of this post.
Now, here are the 4 questions that I was asked to answer for the blog hop :)
What am I working on now?
That's easy, its pretty much what I'm always working on....Christmas cards! They are my favorite type of card to make and this time of year I already have orders from friends and family that I start to fulfill. My sister in law's mother passed away recently and she asked me to make a set of Christmas cards that had butterflies on it in honor of her mom so thats my main project right now.
How does my work differ from others in my genre?
I don't really think I do anything that stands out much. I'm not one to use many embellishments. I like to keep things pretty minimal...maybe some candy dots or brads here or there, maybe a thin ribbon to accent things. I also like clean and simple lines and I try and stay away from lots of layers. I love dark colors and therefore the Regals Collection from SU gets a lot of use from me. I try and avoid the use of pink and purples unless I'm making a card for someone I know who specifically loves those colors. I also LOVE sponging. My daughter gets so irritated with me because 99 % of the time I sponge my edges. There is something about an edge that is left unsponged that just drives me crazy, it's like nails on a chalkboard to me! Of course my daughter, who loves glitter and all things sparkly, also feels that I don't use enough sparkle on my cards. Kids these days ;)
Here are a few samples of my work.
Here are a few samples of my work.
Why do I create what I do?
I've always loved crafts and handmade items but I cannot draw, sew, quilt or anything along those lines. I have zero artistic ability! When I discovered stamping I was like wow, I can create something nice that someone will appreciate but yet some of the hard work, like the design of a stamp, has been done for me! I love that Stampin' Up! has matching stamps, papers, colors, etc. For my brain having the coordination makes it so much easier to put things together, especially since I tend to be pretty literal when it comes to challenges and such.
Growing up sending handwritten letters is also a big reason why I make cards. We moved from MA to CO when I was 12 and I used to send letters to my grandparents and others back east all the time. As I grew older and entered different phases of my life letters and cards continued to play a big part in my life. I left home for the military when I was 17 and then married my husband, who was also military, when I was 20 and I never lived near my family in CO again. Cards helped me feel close to them and just let me say hi whenever I wanted, especially since I started stamping long before we had the internet and Facebook so readily available!
How does my Creative Process work?
I really wish I was one of those stampers who can sit down and create a card in 30 mins or less but alas I am not. I get an idea in my head and I toss it around for a while. Layouts are the hardest part for me so I keep a close eye on sketch challenges, as a good sketch is the first thing that will kick my brain into gear. I spend a lot of time looking out of my windows for inspiration. Living in Alaska I feel lucky to be surrounded by such beauty and my favorite animal, the moose, has inspired many a card for me. I love nature and a lot of my cards tend to be inspired by something I've seen or done in the outdoors.
I used to scoff at Pinterest but let me tell you, that site has become my best friend for sketches and card designs. I havent directly CASE'd anyone yet but I'll see a card that will spark an interest in certain colors or stamps and I'll sit down at my desk and see where it takes me.
I'm not very good at digital stamping or scrapping because I need to have my stuff out on the table in front of me to really get a good feel for what I want to do. I have to look at the colors next to each other, I have to stare at the DSP and turn it over in my hand, my brain needs to make the visual connection to all the pieces. Needless to say my desk usually looks like a bomb has gone off! I try and keep it neat but um yeah, doesnt work out so well for me!
Now that you've learned about me I'd like to introduce you to 2 friends of mine!
I've known Holly for close to 10 yrs now. We met in WA state, 2 Navy wives living a street apart. Holly introduced me to Stampin' Up! and I dont think she realized what a monster she created LOL I loved going to her stamping classes and learning all kinds of new things and even though we havent lived near each other for many years now she still inspires me through her blog Hollybeary Creations and the various challenge blogs she has started or takes part in!
Hi my name is Holly Endress.. Some of you may know me from the Friday Mashup & my blog Hollybeary Creations. I’ve been a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator for 11 years and stamping for about 26years. I love all things art and paper crafting! I’m a huge fan of Lisa’s as well , we are fellow retired Navy Wives and have been friends for about 9 years. You could say I’m her enabler..lol I love to work with all brands of stamps and different types of mediums. I was an art major in High School and College so it’s always been my passion. I’m looking forward to getting to know some of you better and making new Stamping / Blogging friends!
I got to know Rita when she was a design team member on The Friday Mashup. In many areas Rita and I are opposites but you know what they say, opposites attract :) I love Rita's stamping style and getting to know her as a friend has been a joy. Her awesome blog, where she also shows off her adorable little girl, has inspired me on many occasions!
Hello! I'm Rita and live in the way too hot state of Texas. I've been here for twelve years, but I still can't eat the hot salsa or tolerate the heat. My amazing husband, Jason, keeps me here and I feel blessed to have him. He's our chef and a total hands-on dad. I started scrapbooking back in 2004 and only intended to make a wedding scrapbook and then be done. Ten years later and I wouldn't give up my stamps for anything. I don't scrapbook much these days, but I love cardmaking and try to stamp and mail out as many as I can each week. Having an active two year old makes that tough sometimes, but I'm already teaching her to tap, tap, tap, stamp! It won't be too long before we are creating together and I can't wait! Thank you, Lisa, for selecting me to be featured today. Lisa became a friend through our love of stamping and I enjoy her work and her humor so much.
Make sure you go by Holly and Rita's blogs on Sept.15th to learn more about them, and to see who they have tagged!
Labels:
Creative Blog Hop,
Holly,
Rita
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Beauty of the Season Sketch Resist
It's Friday again, where did the week go? It's been a stressful week in my house full of dr appts for my oldest son and myself so I love every opportunity that comes along to help me relax and The Friday Mashup does just that!
Sara is our hostess this week and she has a great sketch for us, plus she wants us to give the technique 'emboss resist' a try. I've never done that before (not that I could remember anyway!) so I sat down to give it a whirl!
I don't have any white embossing powder so I used some other powder that I've had for years and years. It's not SU and the label was faded so I cant even tell you where I got it from. It did the trick though! I stamped the bird image from the Christmas set Beauty of the Season on Naturals White card stock with Versamark and then heat embossed it. I then grabbed my sponges and sponged Night of Navy and Island Indigo over and around the embossed image. After I got the area covered I used my aquapainter to blend the inks together. I had an image of a bird sitting in the snow on a tree branch at night...I'm not sure if that's what the final image conveys but that's what I was going for! After I was done with the aquapainter I gave the embossed image a final swipe with some tissue to make sure no ink was left on it and called it good!
Sara is our hostess this week and she has a great sketch for us, plus she wants us to give the technique 'emboss resist' a try. I've never done that before (not that I could remember anyway!) so I sat down to give it a whirl!
I don't have any white embossing powder so I used some other powder that I've had for years and years. It's not SU and the label was faded so I cant even tell you where I got it from. It did the trick though! I stamped the bird image from the Christmas set Beauty of the Season on Naturals White card stock with Versamark and then heat embossed it. I then grabbed my sponges and sponged Night of Navy and Island Indigo over and around the embossed image. After I got the area covered I used my aquapainter to blend the inks together. I had an image of a bird sitting in the snow on a tree branch at night...I'm not sure if that's what the final image conveys but that's what I was going for! After I was done with the aquapainter I gave the embossed image a final swipe with some tissue to make sure no ink was left on it and called it good!
I hope you'll come by The Friday Mashup and see all the great projects from the rest of the design team, and then play along with us!
Here's your mashup challenge:
- Create a project using the sketch
- Create a project using the 'emboss resist' technique
- Or Mash it up and create a project using the sketch and the emboss resist technique!
Stamps: Beauty of the Season
Paper: Early Espresso, Naturals White, Festival of Prints DSP (retired)
Ink: Versamark, Night of Navy, Island Indigo
Accessories: Big Shot, Ovals Collection Framelits, Very Vanilla Candy Dots, Cherry Cobbler Ribbon (retired), Embossing Powder, Heat Tool
Birthday Wishes in Yellow
After a busy week I finally had some time to sit and stamp so I played along with the current challenges over at The Paper Players and Freshly Made Sketches. It's a lovely rainy fall day in southcentral Alaska (yep, fall is here already!) so a perfect time to sit and relax.
The Paper Players has a Tic Tac Toe challenge, I always enjoy those! I decided to go with the " birthday/yellow/patterned paper" column as I love the color yellow and am always in need of birthday cards!
My card base is Daffodil Delight and I did some faux stitching around it in Basic Black. I then layered some yellow paper from Sweet Taffy DSP on a strip of Basic Black. Vivid Vases was stamped on Whisper White but I left the sentiment that is underneath the image off and instead stamped a sentiment from the retired hostess set Happiest Birthday Wishes. The image was colored with SU Blendabilities.
A pretty simple card that takes no time at all! It actually took me longer than it should have because I kept jumping on FB and going into the living room to bug my son :)
Make sure you head by both blogs to check out the challenges! The Paper Players Tic Tac Toe challenge ends at noon on Fri PST.
Stamps: Vivid Vases, Happiest Birthday Wishes (retired Hostess set)
Paper: Daffodil Delight, Basic Black, Whisper White, Sweet Taffy DSP
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Basic Black, SU Blendabilities in various colors
Accessories: Paper Piercer, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Dimensionals
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