No Time To Stamp?

This sympathy card uses 2 embossing folders, theCuttlebug and some new cardstock. This card was made with inspiration from today’s Inspiration Challengeat SCS. The work of Don Li-Legerwas showcased, and rather than take any specific piece, I took inspiration from his overall use of square and rectangular shapes, the delicate florals he incorporates in his work, and his often used rusty type tones with a POP of blue that is in a great majority of his pieces. Here’s the my card.

This is a large card, measuring7.75″ x 5.25″. I used one large and one small embossing folder with SU’s retired Soft Sky paper. And for the card base I used a paper new to me.It is a double sided paper (a different color on each side) that is textured quite beautifully. Made by WorldWin, it is called Double Mates. This particular sheet is kind of a soft peach on one side and a rusty/coppery color on the other, called Desert Dune. It is fairly heavy at 90#. I really loved being able to accent my card with the peach color on the outside, then to open the card and have all the peach revealed on the inside. Really, quite a lovely feature. The perimeter ofthe blue panelsare outined witha copper leaf pen. TheWith Sympathy iscopper embossed. Here’s the inside.

This paper has such a rich and lovely texure and I’m hoping you can see it a bit in these photos.

Stamps: SU retired Hope for Comfort

Paper: SU retired Soft Sky. WorldWin Double Mates Desert Dune.

Ink: Versa Mark. SU Basic Brown. Copper Leaf Pen.

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Embossing Folders, Brads, Copper Embossing Powder, Mounting Tape.

Editing: I’m getting requests on where to findthe Double Matespaper — it is available here. Thanks, Mary, for providing that information!

Thanks so much for stopping in again!!! Truly appreciate it!!! It looks like wonderful weather is predictedfor us — hope you have the same on this fall weekend!!!

I was contacted yesterday by Cheryl, a faithful reader of many of our stamping blogs and SCS galleries, and she had a request for prayers and cards for her good friend’s grandson, Andrew. He is 18 years old, joined the Air Force, and while therewas diagnosed with leukemia, and discharged. These areCheryl’s words:

“My friend’s grandson is only 18 years old and shortly after joining the Air Force, he was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia and, subsequently, discharged from the Air Force. Because of the extraordinary costs of his treatment, the family is having a benefit dinner for him to help raise funds. They are taking prize donations and I thought it would be great to get together a huge basket of handmade cards to give as one of the prizes. I want to surprise my friend by including cards made by stampers that she has seen online. If you could help me out, I would greatly appreciate it. I would need to have the card in hand by November 8 (sorry for the short notice but I just found out about the benefit yesterday).”

You may also read more in the Sandusky Register.

Please pray for Andrew and his family, and if you have an extra card around and a spare minute, send it in for the prize basket. And it would be nice if you signed the back of the card and included an envelope so they can quickly put the basket together. This young man joined the military to serve and protect all of us, and sending a card in to be included in a prize basket is such a small thing we can all do in return. You may email Cheryl at ladybugb919@bex.netfor her mailing address. And if you are able to help, remember, the time is NOW, as the date of this event approaches rapidly. Thank you!!!

And about Hope and Peyton, the preemie twin girls I mentioned a week or so ago, I got word that they are doing as well as can be expected. They each lost a couple ounces, but seem to be gaining it back and holding their own. Praise the Lord!!! Please continue in prayer for them as well. Thank you!!!

Today’s Stamp Simply Challenge is one post below.

Keyword ssnotime59 -There is no time limit. You can play this challenge and upload yourproject at Splitcoastand/or your Blog, anytime at all! You (and that means anyone and everyone, blogger or not!)can play as many times as you like!!! The point is to keep it simple, quick and have fun!!! Please link back here.

For todays challenge we are going to Button up for Winter!I don’t know about most of you, but where I live there are a lot of things that need to be done before winter hits, and that’s what we’re doing with our cards today — buttoning up for winter — BUT, it is still fall, not winter, so today’s challenge is to make a fall card and incorporate a button on it — that’s it – oh, I’m seeing lots of cozy, warm, homey cards in my mind, but I can’t WAIT to see how you all interpret this challenge!!! Remember to try to keep it simple, quick and most importantly, HAVE FUN!!! (Oh, and a button can be real, faux, sticker, stamped — whatever, we’re easy!)

Please bear with us as we are all uploading this evening -all samples should be here and up by morning.

Check out Darlene Pavlicks sample here.

Check out Julie Koerberssample here.

Check out Dee Jacksons samplehere.

Check out Jennifer Bucks sample here.

Check out Janine Orchards sample here.

Check out Tammy Hershbergerssample here.

Check out Becky Oehlerssample here.

You can see all Gallery Submissions here.

Are those great samples or what!!!! Thank you girls!!! Much appreciated!!!

Heres myproject for todays challenge:

Kind of different colors for autumn, but I like it! I used the last piece of the One Sheet Wonder I did a month or so ago using First Fruits by Papertrey Ink and a retired SU Spectrum pad called Late November. A pretty simple and straight forward card. I used a little leaf stamp in First Fruits to stamp a background and I used SU’s Aida Cloth for the background on the Eggplant and I sponged all edges. Buttons are sewn on. They are from Wal-Mart. I recently stocked up on Wal-Mart buttons. They have little bags in tons of color schemes and they are really inexpensive. I can usually find colors to match what I need. Works for me!!!

Stamps: First Fruits by Papertrey Ink, Aida Cloth by SU

Paper: SU: Very Vanilla, Pale Plum, Elegant Eggplant

Ink: VersaFine Onyx Black, SU retired Spectrum in Late November, SU retired Marigold Morning, SU Pale Plum and Elegant Eggplant.

Accessories: May Arts Ribbon, Wal-Mart Buttons, Thread, Sponges.

Thanks so much again for stopping in! Hope you can play sometime if you are so inclined. I do have a request for prayers and cards– please check it out. Hope you all have a wonderful fall weekend!!! See you soon!

This is a Christmas card I made using my JustRite Christmas Ensembleand some of the gorgeous Holiday Treasures DP by SU. A simple, classic design with lots of glitz and sparkle to my snowflake center.

I have to tell you that I made this card about a week ago, and I have fussed many times trying to get a picture to do this card justice — and I just can’t, and I’m so sorry about that. This snowflake is probably one of the MOST gorgeous snowflakes I have ever made, with any stamp, EVER. The snowflake itself is totally sparkling with Dazzling Diamonds and the points all have gorgeous green rhinestones on them that are the exact color of the background paper. The way this snowflake sparkles and shimmers and catches the light is truly mesmerizing!!! And I just can NOT capture that for you — but I surely tried!!! There is machine zig zag stitiching on each side of the brown dotted strip that I like — it adds a nice touch!

Here’s a close-up so you can see the detail a little better and try to imagine the sparkle and glitz!!! Also, the brown ink is so dark and rich looking IRL. It washes out somewhat in the photo when I brighten it up so you can see it better!!! Some days you just can’t win — LOL!!! Anyway, I love this card and wanted to share it with you, even though I am majorly disappointed in my photo-taking skills!!!

Stamps: Christmas Ensemble by JustRite

Paper: SU Whisper White, Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Holiday Treasures DP

Ink: SU Basic Brown

Accessories: Petite Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinders. SU Product: Grosgrain Ribbon, Brads, Glue Pen, Dazzling Diamonds. Kaiser Rhinestones. Sewing machine and thread.

Iprepared a short and concise Splitcoaststampers Tutorialon conditioning and cutting your JustRite stamps. All JustRite products can and will stamp this clearly, with complete coverage, with just a bit of conditioning. You may read the tutorial at Splitcoaststampers here, OR you may read the version on my blog here, which is much more wordy — LOL!!! Also, the JustRite Harmony Classic Stamper Ensembles were the focus of a product reviewover at Splitcoaststampers and there are some great reviews if you’d like to see what several women thought and experiencedwhile usingthis product. And for some FUN, Beate did a GREAT triangle box tutorial, also at SCS, using the JustRite Harmony Classic Oval Ensemble II to create a pretty and fun sentiment medallion for her box. Check it out here. I can’t WAIT to make one of these fun boxes!!!

Oh, and I attended a SU workshop this evening — fun, fun!!! And remember the other day whenI asked you all for your favorite Christmas sets that are currently available? Well, Snow Swirled was, overwhelmingly, YOUR favorite set, next Holy Triptychand Scandinavian tied for 2nd,nextwasTo You and Yours, and next Season of Simple Grace and Winter Post were tied. Thank you all so much for your input — MUCH appreciated! It was fun to read your thoughts!

And WHAT did I order? Well, NOT Snow Swirled — I know, I know — and I do agree with you that it IS so beautiful –butI was just in the mood for something a bit different. The set I had in the back of my mind before asking you was Christmas Classics, and only one of you even mentioned it. I fell in love with this set when I saw this card doneby Meg Schumaker (WAXYO). Now isn’t that a rich looking card, still with casual charm? I love it, and so I ordered Christmas Classics. The only other Christmas set I purchased was Scandinavian. That set still gives me the swirls and flourishy markings that I love, but with a little different twist. I also got the wheel to go with it. And both of the sets I ordered have a star that will allow me to use my large star punch, so that is good! I also ordered a few more packs of DP and both sets of the Felt Flurries. I have NEVER had felt before so I’m anxious to try out these pretty snowflakes!!!

Well, I guessthat’s it for today!!! We have a really fun Stamp Simply Challenge lined up for tomorrow, so hope you can stop by and check it out, and also wishing you a great weekend coming up!! Thanks much!!!

Today I have 2 really quick cards using dry embossed sheets created with embossing folders and the Cuttlebug and images from JustRite. Both of these cards are included in a tutorial I wrote for Splitcoaststampers on both conditioning and cutting your JustRite stamps, which can be seen here.

So simple and quick, not a lot of explanation needed. This Imagine is from one of the centers by JustRite in the ensemble with the large oval stamper called Harmony Classic Oval Stamper II Ensemble. Love all the larger words in this set. This Imagine had some flowers on it, but I easily masked them so that only my Imagine stamped. *Imagine* a snowy winter scene. LOL!!! Not much to imagine there as I will be living it shortly!!!! But those of you in warmer climates can *Imagine * it!!! Paper and inkare SU Brocade Blue and ribbon is Offray from Wal-Mart.

Again, not much to say — SO simple. My image is from the largest of the round stampers by JustRite, using the Christmas Ensemble. Here’s the Harmony Classic Circle III, and here’s the Christmas Stamp Ensemblethat works with it. It was cut using my Petite Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinders. Paper and ink are SU Bashful Blue and ribbon is by May Arts.

Remember to check out the Splitcoast Tutorial on both conditioning and cutting your JustRite stamps! Thanks so much for stopping in!! Happy mid-week to you all!!!

Tonight I only have a helpful little tidbit to share — but it’s one FABULOUS tidbit!!! I discovered this a few nights ago on Ellen Hutson’s Blog in the Classroom section. She was showing a project on Brayer Resist, and my eyes were immediately drawn to her sponges in the photo — OH MY GOSH — the bells went off in my head — WHAT AN INCREDIBLY GENIUS IDEA!!! Well, when I read the text, I guess this is an old idea, but I’ve surely never seen it — so just thought maybe some of you may never have seen it either. I’ve been super busy today prepping for classes tomorrow, and I just made up my little handled sponges for the girls touse, so they’re still nice and clean, but I can’t WAIT to try them. No more dirty fingers from sponging!!! Here they are:

Now is that a cool idea, or what!!! It sure impressed me!!! Thank you, Ellen!!! Be sure to check out Ellen’s Brayer Resist tutorial – some of the most gorgeous leaves ever — such a perfect card for this time of year!!! I think I just might need to try this sometime in the next few days!!!

Thanks much for stopping in — hope you are all as excited about this little tidbit as I was — LOL!!! Have a great day!!!

My original card just wasn’t cutting it for me — nothing terribly wrong with it — but it just looked plain, unfinished. This original card was made for a color challenge at SCS a few months backand I uploaded it over there, but never did post it on my blog as I just felt it wasn’t quite *right*. So this evening I decided to try to do something about it. Let me show you the original, the remake, and then I’ll explain what I did.

I just thought it was so plain, something was lacking, maybe the colors were poor choices for this card — here’s the remake I did this evening.

I think it’s a huge improvement — how about you? My remake is large, a full sheet folded in half, so its 8.5 x 5.5. I took my original card and cut the front of the card off — and there you go, an image panel to work with! The only thing I did to that image was to add the black pearls. I think you can see them better here.

Just a little thing, but they added a lot! I then white embossed my sentiment along the bottom of my new card front, scored a partial line a little above my sentiment using my Scor-It. It adds so much IRL, but is barely visible in my photo above — but if you look real closely you can see it. I then adhered my image panel to the card and I was done! A remake that made a dramatic difference (in my opinion anyway), but took only a very short amount of time. I do feel so much better about this card now!!!

Stamps: Cross of Christ by Our Daily Bread, Graceful Wordsby SU

Paper: Cameo Coral, Sahara Sand, Black, White

Ink: VersaFine Onyx Black, Craft White, VersaMark

Accessories: Petite Oval Nestabilities and Tag dieby Spellbinders, Scor-It, White Embossing Powder, Ribbon, Cording, Pearls, Mounting Tape, Cropadile, Eyelet, Ticket Corner Punch

That does it for tonight again! Thanks again so much for taking your time to stop in. I truly do appreciate it!!! Wishing you all awonderful week ahead!

Tonight I needed to make a card for our Pastor — did you know it is Pastor Appreciation month? Well, there’s not much month left, so tonight was the night to make it. I had already colored my image by the time the Featured Stamper Challenge at SCS popped up, so it was with great pleasure I could scan the gallery of an online friend, Kay Kalthoff, a/k/a SpeedyStamper, to find a card that would suit my already colored image, and I certainly found one, right on the first page — how lucky!!! It was a super simple layout with a single image and single sentiment — JUST PERFECT!!! This is Kay’s card that I chose to case. And here’s my card for our Pastor.

I was in a simple white mood tonight! As for the challenge, I stuck with the basic layout but I changed colors, images and the size of the card. Mycard is 5″ high x 5.5″ wide. I used a set I haven’t used yet from Our Daily Bread Designs, called Fruit of the Spirit. I found this fruit bowl quite easy and relaxing to color and I was pleased with how it came out. Once colored, I cut and embossed it using myRectangle Nestabilities by Spellbinders, added my sentiment tothe card front (love the size of this sentiment), popped my image up on foam mounting squares and I was done.

Stamps: Fruit of the Spirit by Our Daily Bread Designs

Paper: PTI White

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories: Rectangle Nestabilities by Spellbinders, foam mounting squares

And before I go I have a question for you all — although I’ve kept a good supplyof SU paper, ink and embellishments, I haven’t purchased any new SU sets for a long time, probably a good 7/8 months. I’d like to get a few new sets for Christmas, and I’m going to a workshop on Wednesday. Just wondering, what areYOUR favorite SUChristmas sets in the current book? You can help me decidewhatto buy!!! THANKS!!!

And thanks so much for stopping in again — I truly appreciate it! We have our Harvest Brunch at church today, so that’ll be fun!!! I’m teaching 2 classes here on Tuesday, so I’ll have to try to get ready for that — and that should be fun, too!!! Hope you all have a relaxing and enjoyable Sunday!!!

I made this card to send to a family who just gave birth to twinpreemie girls. Stacy, Twinshappy, an SCS and blogging friend, wrote and asked for prayers primarly, and cards secondarily, for her friend’s family and these precious babies. The identical twin girls were born a day or two ago at 1# and 3#. Their names areHope and Peyton. Please keep them in your prayers. Thank you.

Knowing I was going to do a card for baby girls, pink was the obvious choice. I checked out the Inspiration Challenge at SCS, and the inspiration photos were of girls bedrooms decorated in pinks and other colors. For my inspiration I chose the 3rd photo that has more yellow in the room decor. I went with Pink Pirouette, Barely Banana andretired Mint Melody. Here’s my card, with double hearts for Hope and Peyton.

I’ll mail this card on Monday and hope it brings some comfort or momentary pleasure to the family. It was rather hard to decide what the sentiment should say. Congratulations or other typical new baby sentiments just didn’t seem quite right, so I settled on a heartfelt *Keeping you close in thought and prayer.* I am also very lacking in baby stamps, especially baby girl stamps, but I thought these adorable hearts from Simply Said would work, and I think they did. They were cut, embossed and matted using my Heart Nestabilities, layered on a frame made with Oval Nestabilities. The Oval Nesties also cut and embossed my sentiment. The bottom lacey border was done with a Martha Stewart Lace Punch, then I ran a single line of embossing just above the lace border. It was easily done with my Scor-It. Added a few pearls, buttons and ribbon and that finished it off.

Stamps: Simply Said and retired Hope for Comfort

Paper: Whisper White, Pink Pirouette, Barely Banana and retired Mint Melody

Ink: Black Stazon, Markers

Accessories: Pink Taffeta, Ticket Corner Punch, Martha Stewart Lace Punch, Scor-It, Cuttlebug, Swiss Dots Folder, Heart Nestabilities and Petite Oval Nestabilities by Spellbinders, Buttons, Pearls

Thank you so much for stopping in again today. I do so appreciate it!!! Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!!!

Keyword ssnotime58 -There is no time limit. You can play this challenge and upload yourproject at Splitcoastand/or your Blog, anytime at all! You (and that means anyone and everyone, blogger or not!)can play as many times as you like!!! The point is to keep it simple, quick and have fun!!! Please link back here.

For todays challenge we are going to MAKE IT FLAT! Here’s the deal:

Today’s challenge will please all the US Postal Workers — LOL!!! Today we are making our cards FLAT. That’s all — no other requirements. Now, when I say FLAT, I DO NOT mean it has to be a 1-layer card, as it doesn’t. We CAN use layers of paper, even light weight ribbon, but the end result of our card must be so flat that there is NO QUESTION when we look at it that it’ll go for 1 stamp only. When inserted in an envelope it should have NO noticeable lumps, bumps or humps. OK? That’s it — create away. Personally, I can’t WAIT to see all your FLAT ideas!!! Perfect for Christmas cards when we do mass mailings!!! Have fun!!!

Please bear with us as we are all uploading this evening -all samples should be here and up by morning.

Check out Darlene Pavlicks sample here.

Check out Julie Koerberssample here.

Check out Dee Jacksons samplehere.

Check out Jennifer Bucks sample here.

Check out Janine Orchards sample here.

Check out Tammy Hershbergerssample here.

Check out Becky Oehlerssample here.

You can see all Gallery Submissions here.

Are those great samples or what!!!! Thank you girls!!! Much appreciated!!!

Heres myproject for todays challenge:

Love this very easy to reproduce Christmas card using all SU products, except for my Nesties. Now I know my ribbon looks *lumpy* here, but really, it isn’t. It is the SU Taffeta ribbon, which is very light weight, and it goes perfectly flat against the card when put in the envelope. I just have it puffed up and looking a bit nicer here for the photo. This is definitely a 1 stamp card!!!

Stamps: Punches 3

Paper: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Holiday Treasures DP

Ink: Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip Marker

Accessories: Pink Taffeta, Scallop Square Punch, Corner Rounder, Petite Oval Nestabilities, Cropadile

Thank you all so much for stopping in — hope some of you have time to come up with some flat cards for this holiday mailing season - I’d LOVE to see them!!! Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!!! We have the threat of snow — let’s hope not!!!