No Time To Stamp?

Just a little chit chat. Boy, it’s quite the job getting this Blog up and running when you are not accustomed to these things — I guess my age is showing — LOL!!!

I wanted to mention the Blogroll on the left sidebar. I will, eventually, have a ton of Bloggers listed and linked. There are so many great Blogs to read on the subject of rubber stamping, it is truly amazing. But, it just takes me time to get this all done. I have two listed now:

1) Leslie Miller, known as leslierich on SCS. She has a fantastic blog — check it out — her card making style captured my heart when I first went to SCS, and it still does!!! Every single thing she does is beautiful — absolutely beautiful!!! Leslie was also the one who took me under her wing when she realized I was struggling with photos — she gave me a lot of good pointers then and she’s back at it again, coaching me here with this Blog. I have photos actually appearing on this Blog, thanks to Leslie!!! And those of you who like to garden, go to her Blog and find her link to her pictures of her gardens — you will be blown away — oh, to wake up in the morning and walk outside to that!!!! What a lucky girl she is!!!! Thank you, Leslie, for all your help and friendship!!!

2) Holly McMillen, known as Toy on SCS. Holly started uploading regularlyto SCS around the same time I did, and I was immediately attracted to her stand-out work! She definitely has a style that is all her own, which many have tried to emulate! A Toy card can be spotted a mile away!!! Holly and I got to be friends in the realm of the challenges and, much to my good fortune, we had the opportunity to serve on the Dirty Dozen Design Team together for about 4 months or so. Holly has a really up-beat attitude and is just a lot of fun! Holly’s Blog went live today, just as mine did!!! Best wishes, Holly!!!

This is another card I did with the new Peace set just out by Flourishes. I just LOVE this set. It has this large Peace/dove image. To give you an idea of the size of this image, the panel it is stamped on is 4 3/4″ x 2 7/8″. This card measures 5 1/2″ x 7 1/2″, and fits into the envelopes made for a 1/2 fold card (1/2 sheet of paper size). I love working with large images as it makes the card making go so quickly!!! Plus, especially for Christmas cards, this size card/envelope is plenty large to stick in those school pictures or family photos we all send at Christmas time, plus the much loved form letter! And I’m not joking — I LOVE to get those letters at Christmas to keep me up to date on the lives of family and friends. There’s a silly little thing we do here at Chrimstas time. My DH always brings in the mail, as I wait, anxiously, for Christmas cards. If it’s a store bought card with no letter or photo, only a signature, he knows I’ll be disappointed. If it has either enclosed, I’m much happier. If it has both enclosed, I’m delighted. If it’s a hand stamped card, I go through the roof — LOL!!! It doesn’t take much to entertain us around here — LOL!!!

OK, back to the card at hand — this was done for a color challenge on SCS — and the colors were Always Arthichoke and Groovy Guava. I love Guava, it just wouldn’t have been my first choice to put on this card, but I worked it in (I LOVE a challenge) and am happy with the results. I used Waxyo’s technique for the heavy ink distressing, using 3 colors of ink — Groovy Guava, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust. It’s fun to do as you watch the piece age in front of your eyes!!! I further distressed with the distressing tool on SU’s Cutter Kit — a great, great little gadget I couldn’t live without!

Check out the panel behind the Peace panel. Know what it is? It is tree wrap — like you use to wrap on the trunks of small trees — found at the hardware store. Quite inexpensive — a huge roll, 3″ wide, just a couple dollars. I love it’s texture — goes so well on these autumn/tree type cards. My pine boughs are actually the Christmas Tree from the set called O Christmas Tree also by Flourishes, just released. Please see post prior to this for more on that fun set! Finished off with accents of brads, swirl clip and hemp. Peace panel is up on mounting tape. That’s it — another card that is fairly quick and easy to produce without too terribly much fussing!!!

Again, the link to Flourishes is not yet in my sidebar, but here it is: www.flourishes.org. Thanks for looking!

This is another Christmas card I made using another newly released set from Flourishes. This set is called O Christmas Tree! And what fun it is. It is similar to their Cake Decorating 101 in that it has the main piece (tree, as opposed to cake) and a ton of decorations to go on it — as well as presents to go under the tree — what fun!!! I did this card in a very simple style — just a garland and star. I’ll leave the decorations and presents for another time! It is stamped with SU Classic inks in Always Artichoke and Chocolate Chip, and then the star, garland and pot are colored with a Sakura Stardust Gelly Roll Pen in a golden/yellow color. Those pens are sparkly and fun, and this was really quick and easy — not a lot of fussing! My favorite type of card — easy — LOL!!!

I used the Holiday Harmony DP from SU as the background (love that paper)! Using DP as a background adds so much to a card, so simply! And, of course, I’m just really stuck on this gorgeous wide satin ribbon that SU has come out with. This piece of Chocolate Chip was from the Theater Ribbon Originals card — just can’t get enough of SU’s new ribbon!!! Add the sentiment panel and that’s it (it’s up on mounting tape) — another fairly quick and easy card for Christmas that has a fairly decent WOW! factor (it’s the ribbon that does it!)!!!

Thanks for looking!!!

This a 5.5 square card I made using a new set by Flourishes, due to be released on Wednesday, 9/05. I just love the large Peace/dove image!!!I used Purely Pomegranate paper, satin ribbon and ink. I am so in love with that color!!! Not to mention the wide, luscious satin that SU now has available it is just the nicest, richest ribbon EVER!!!! I stamped the pomegranate paperin the same color ink with the Christmas tree boughs from a set also being released 9/05, called O Christmas Tree. The pomegranate paper ended up looking like velvet truly it does not sure if you can totally see that in the photo, but I was so pleased with how it came out.

The white used is Shimmer White. The background piece was Cuttlebug embossed with the snowflakes folder, then skimmed over with a Brilliance pad in Platinum Planet it just gives it such a nice, tone on tone, sheen. The Peace panel is raised up with mounting tape. I use the mounting tape made by Duck, in the area of Wal-Mart near the paint. It is on larger roles there than in the office supply section, and a bit cheaper that way! I use a ton of mounting tape!!!

A relatively quick and easy card, dressed up nicely with the satin ribbon, Cuttlebug embossing, a little Brilliance sheen and some edge sponging!!! The large Peace image is wonderful it allows you to make up a card so quickly!!! I will eventually have a link to Flourishes on my sidebar, but it isnt there yet, so for now, heres the link: www.flourishes.org.