No Time To Stamp?

Making this little 3 x 3 was purely fun tonight!!!  I always love doing 3 x 3’s — they are *sew* quick and the canvas is *sew* tiny — I consider them just a delight to do!!!  And tonight I used this tiny little image from a Crafty Secrets set called Glamour Girls.  Bear in mind when you look at this picture that the entire card is only 3 x 3, to give you some perspective on the size of the main image!!!  And, as you can tell, I chose to dig into my sewing cabinets tonight and use some sewing notions to adorn this lovely, but apparently greedy, lady — LOL!!!  But gee, doesn’t she sound like the lot of us!!!!   Here she is:

She is colored with Copics, cut and embossed with a Rectangle Nestability Die, mounted on a scrap of fabric cut with regular old-fashioned dressmaker pinking shears (kind of unheard of since the advent of the Sergers), and further adorned with buttons, pearls, a safety pin, a common pin, a crystal bead and tulle.  That’s it — digging in my sewing cabinets, pulling out what looked like it might work!  There are 4 tiny images like this in this set.  I’d like to make a coordinating 3 x 3 from each stamp and have a set — what fun!!!  But, only time for 1 tonight!!!  (Oh, and that little smudge by her ear has since been fixed — the glory of the Copic Colorless Blender!!!)  And I do have 2 scored lines across the top, that I easily did on my Scor-It Mini, but they don’t show up in this photo, though they do add a nice touch IRL!!!

Stamps:  Glamour Girls by Crafty Secrets

Paper:  PTI White

Ink:  Brilliance Black, Copics in  E000, R50, R20, R11, B21, 0.

Accessories:  Safety Pin, Common Pin, Buttons, Pearls, Crystal Bead, Pinking Shears, Cropadile, Mounting Tape, Rectangle Nestabilities by Spellbinders, Tulle, Glue Dots, Scor-It Mini, Fabric Scrap.

And, coincidentally (LOL) Joan has this set in her Every Monday Sale today, so if you’d like to see a picture of it and check on what else she has, just stop in at Joan’s Garden for some fun viewing!!!

Thanks so much for stopping in!!!  We are promised nice weather, so keeping my fingers crossed.  Wishing you all a wonderful new week!!!  I’ll be back tomorrow!!!

I’ll be the first to admit that Halloween cards are certainly NOT first on my list of things to do EVER, BUT this adorable little witch has totally captured my heart — isn’t she JUST the cutest little witch EVER!!!  I’ve been admiring her since I first laid eyes on her and I just couldn’t wait to use this set once it arrived!!!  A fun, fun and ever so sweet Halloween set by Crafty Secrets called Halloween Fun.  And the paper I’m using today is in a fun 12 x 12 K & Co. pack from Michaels by Jen Yanok — great papers with vivid colors and some sheets have glitter — a GREAT find for Halloween papers if you like a lot of color!!!!

Once I was stamping today, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play the Featured Stamper Challenge  at SCS, so both of these cards are cased layouts from NikiE.  What a great gallery to choose from!!!  The card above was cased from the layout on this card.  You can see the layout is identical, but everything else is different.  I also was happy to be able to pull out my Copics for these cards today.  Seems like I haven’t colored in weeks, and I’ve actually been missing it — and that is rather comical to those of you who know me and how I’ve stuggled with coloring just forever!  I am feeling really good about my Copics and just LOVE using them!!!  Below are all the colors used on these two projects:

And the card below was a layout cased of this card of Niki’s.  Again, I followed the layout but changed the images, papers, colors, etc.

Another really simple card.  Using my Copics I was able to pick up the intense colors in the designer paper and carry them through to the main image, and I like that!  On this card I first stamped the legs, then the left shoe.  I then masked the left shoe and stamped the right shoe.  Don’t you just LOVE these legs — LOL!!! I do!!!

• Stamps:  Halloween Fun by Crafty Secrets
• Paper:  PTI White, SU Black, Taken with Teal, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, and K & Co. Designer 12 x 12 pad by Jen Yanok
• Ink:  Palette Black, and Copics shown above
• Accessories:  Black Organdy Ribbon, Rectangle and Long Rectangle Nestabilities by Spellbinders, SU Small and Large Oval Punches, SU Brads, Cuttlebug and Embossing Folder, Mounting Squares

And today is Monday and that means Joan has a new sale posted at Joan’s Garden!  And I just have a hunch she MIGHT have this Halloween Fun Crafty Secrets set this week — and I wonder what else — let’s take a look — you can see Joan’s Sale here.  Be sure to scroll down once you get there — I see she’s listed many things this week!

And if you haven’t done so already, please remember to vote for this week’s JustRite Stampin’ Champion – there are some fabulous entries once again.  Vote soon — time is running out — you may see the entires and vote here.

Thanks so much for stopping in today.  I know it’s a long weekend and many of you are out and about — hope you are all having a wonderful weekend before the fall weather takes over.  This is about our hottest weekend for the entire summer!!!  Thanks much — see you all soon!!!

I’ve had the pleasure of running into Joan Fricker twice in the last month, and seeing as she is from Indiana and I’m from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula well, that’s pretty amazing!  On our second visit we had much more time to sit and talk, and I learned so many fun things about Joan. 

Joan has a long history in sales that I found quite fascinating.  She’s done a lot of what I would consider *fun* things along the way, requiring hard work and dedication, leading up to where she is today — just having fun in Blogland, creating, posting, making friends, and still — selling!!!  Yes, Joan has an Every Monday Sale on her blog — low key, easy to manage and, most importantly, a project she considers fun!!!   More details on her Every Monday Sale will follow, but first, a bit about Joan.

• Joan’s first job was at age 5, selling potholders door to door
• As a school girl Joan worked in her parents grocery store attached to their home in Teegarden, IN
• After marrying at age 17 and adopting a daughter, Joan sold Avon for 7 years
• After DH’s motorcycle accident Joan needed more income, so she began selling toys for a season, which was her start in the party plan business
• Joan’s love for interior decorating led her to a company called HODA (similar to Home Interiors), where she managed 30 women for about 14 years, always placing in the Top 10 in sales (#1 in sales 1 year!).  Joan had found her niche!  Interior decorating was her love!
• Joan purchased a Decorating Den Franchise and became a full fledged interior decorator selling draperies, furniture, wallpaper, carpeting and accessories.  Within 2 years Joan was ranked #2 in the state of Indiana.  Her 80 hour work weeks were fun, but extremely stressful.
• 6 months after purchasing her Decorating Den Franchise, Joan’s husband was diagnosed with cancer and passed on 18 months later.  Joan continued working, but the joy was gone.  She sold her business by the time it was 4 years old.
• Still needing an income, Joan started selling jewelry for a party plan company, shortly becoming manager with 30 girls under her.  Joan did this job merely for an income, not for love of the job.
• After a few years, a new man enters Joan’s life, they were married, and he asked her to quit the jewlery job and be home evenings, much to Joan’s delight!
• Joan and DH now become involved in a company selling natural products and together they developed an organization of over 200 people.
• Joan became tired of trying to keep 200 people motivated and felt she needed a hobby.  She started making soap, and soon decided she needed to sell some of it to support her habit (sound familiar — LOL!)
• In short order, Joan had 11 employees in her soap business and had accounts across the nation as well as internationally.  Candles and other toiletries were added to her line.  After 9 years of again 80+ hour work weeks, the fun was gone.  Once again, it was time to sell her business and take control of her life.
• Joan is loving the stress-free days of her retirement.  She enjoys canning, flower gardening and making cement leaves.  The cement leaves are AMAZING – check them out here.  She also started scrapbooking, fell in love with digital scrapping and spent time learning Adobe Photoshop.  Then enters card making, rubber stamps, etc. — and I think you can all get the picture after this point — LOL!!!

No matter how busy Joan stays, her love of selling just won’t quit!  She loves going to trades shows (thus her CHA trip) and searching out new and exciting things.  Joan has an adorable little shop at her home (pictured above) and this fall she plans to develop that into a small local business where card makers can gather, create, share and enjoy those simple pleasures that are inherent with this hobby.  And given Joan’s history, I just have a hunch her latest venture will be a smashing success!!!

Joan is slowly, but surely, stocking her little store, and in the meantime she runs a fun and simple Every Monday Sale on her blog.  She only lists a handful of items each Monday, ships them out promptly, and then she’s done — until next Monday!

So, what lines does Joan carry?  Well, some really GREAT lines that we all know and love.  Joan currently has:

• Crafty Secrets Stamps
• Inkadinkado Stamps
• Cricut Cartridges
• Cuttlebug Embossing Folders
• Spellbinders
• May Arts Ribbon

Joan will soon be receiving:

• Hanna Stamps
• Art Impression Stamps
• JustRite Stampers
• Scor-It
• Scor-Pal
• Crystal Elements
• Glue Glider

So, if you’d like, stop in to see Joan and check out what she’s got for sale today.  Her prices are certainly very reasonable and her shipping beyond compare!  You just never know what you might find at Joan’s Garden.  Keep scrolling down once you get there as items are all listed separately.

And being a huge fan of beautiful vintage images,  I’d like to leave you today with some creations made using Crafty Secrets images.

I made this card in May 2007 for the Fan Club Gallery at SCS.  It is  5.5″ square and uses Bird Notes by Crafty Secrets.  If you are are a Fan Club Member, you may view all details here.  If not, you may want to consider joining.  You can read all about the Fan Club here.

This card was also made in May, 2007 for the Fan Club Gallery at SCS. This card is very large at 8.5 x 5.5, and it uses both Stickers and  Cotton Scraps by Crafty Secrets.  And, yes, that is a real cookie cutter hanging there and a doily that I cut and added seam binding to in order to create a mini apron!!!  Again, details may be seen in the Fan Club Gallery here.

Thanks so much for stopping in today and getting to know Joan a bit better!!!  I truly enjoyed preparing this article and sharing these fun facts about Joan with you!!!  Hope you are all off to a wonderful and fun-filled week ahead.

This is a card I did for today’s Color Challenge at SCS — YoYo Yellow (oh my!), Going Gray and Basic Gray.  It is also for the Sketch Challenge the girls are running on the Crafty Secrets Member Comany Forum at SCS.  The sketch was tall and thin - I like that!!!  Here’s my double challenge card:

I have NEVER used YoYo Yellow before — good thing I had a few sheets in a multi pack of paper — LOL!!!  And honestly, paired with these grays, it really isn’t too bad!!!  Actually, I rather like this card!!!  I went down to stamp and pulled together some things left on my table from the last couple day’s projects — the Cotton Scraps by Crafty Secrets were still out, so I chose a flower image with yellow, and my wide black gingham ribbon was out from yesterday’s little 3 cards and box project.  I quickly sewed my Cotton Scrap onto a base of Basic Gray cardstock –again, 3 times around in my meandering stitch, added a corsage pin and ribbon and mounted it on a YoYo Yellow frame.  That was then mounted on a Basic Gray panel which was corner punched on the bottom with a favorite punch of mine — Ornamental Brackets by Anna Griffin.  I put a yellow piece behind so the pretty punched design would show up well.  My sentiment is from Card Sentiments by Crafty Secrets, circle punched, then mounted with a Pop Dot onto a Designer Label Punched piece.  Wrapped more gingham around this panel, adhered to Going Gray card, and done!!!  I do like the color combo and may actually use it again — it has lots of POP, and I like that!!!

This card will fit in a standard business sized envelope.   It measures 4″ x 7 3/4″.  A standard business sized envelope will hold a card up to 4″ x about 9 1/4″ .

• Stamps:  Card Sentiments by Crafty Secrets; Floral background by SU
• Paper.  SU: Basic Gray, Going Gray, YoYo Yellow
• Ink:  Going Gray by SU; Versa Fine Onyx Black
• Accessories:  Cotton Scraps by Crafty Secrets, Ribbon, Distressing Tool, Designer Label Punch, 1 1/4 and 1 3/8″ Round Punches, Anna Griffin Ornamental Bracket Punch, Sponge, Corsage Pin.

I have many plans for uploads this week — wish me luck finding time — a tutorial on an accordion spine book with inside pockets, some Flourishes pretties, some SU workshop cards, and I’ve been tagged a few times so I’ll try to get to that as well, plus my usual Friday Stamp Simply Challenge!!!  Thanks for taking a peek!!!  See you soon!!!

I noticed that a Sketch Challenge was issued on the Crafty Secrets Member Company forum, so seeing as I just LOVE their Cotton Scraps, thought I’d give it a try.  Also, I am continually in need of, and out of, both sympathy cards and thank you notes, so once I found the scrap I was in the mood to use tonight, I figured it would make into a nice sympathy card.  Here it is:

Now, for anyone who may not know, Cotton Scraps (by Crafty Secrets) are fabulous things!!! They come in sheets, about the size of a sheet of printer paper, filled with fabulously gorgeous images and they are — of course - cotton!!!  Real cotton — kind of a twill type fabric — unreal!!!  I fell in love with these things the first time I saw them — I will never tire of these beauties.  They have a backing on them which you peel off after you’ve cut them out.  They are not self stick - you must either sew them on (fun, fun!) or you may adhere them with your choice of adhesive.  You can also pull threads to fray the edges if you like, or you can cut them with pinking shears.  I LOVE the look of real stitches on the Cotton Scraps, so mine are usually sewn on.

OK, now as to this card specifically, I sewed my Cotton Scrap onto a base of  yellow cardstock cut slightly larger than the scrap.  I used these kind of roaming stitches and went around 3 times.  I knew I wanted to have wavy ribbon tails (my favorite kind) so I thought these wavy stitches would go well.  I then frayed my edges up to the stitching, distressed the yellow cardstock, and mounted this onto a sheet of gray cardstock, which was eventually adhered to the card with mounting tape.  I used some pretty paper from a 6 x 12 pad from Crafty Secrets, Heartwarming Vintage Collection, Pastel Pad, to border the right side of the card.  I then did a very thin piping strip of Going Gray and then a strip of green which was punched with the pretty Martha Stewart Scallop Punch.  The sentiment is stamped right on the base cardstock.  The velvet bow is adhered with Mini Glue Dots, and I also use glue dots to keep my ribbon tails in the shape I like.  There is a glue dot under each place it touches the card.  I know some may not care to fuss with ribbon that much — but it’s my passion — LOL!!!

The yellow and green cardstock used are from the Prismatics line by Prism Paper.  The gray is SU, ribbon is May Arts.  That about sums it up!!!  If you have any Cotton Scraps at home that you’ve been hoarding, pull them out and give them a try — play the challenge — it’s an easy and fun sketch!!!

• Stamps:  Card Sentiments by Crafty Secrets
• Paper:  Prism:  Sunflower Light and Spring Willow Medium; SU:  Basic Gray;  Crafty Secrets:  Pastel Pad in the Heartwarming Vintage Collection
• Ink:  Versa Fine Onyx  Black
• Accessories:  Cotton Scraps by Crafty Secrets, Velvet Ribbon, Martha Stewart Lace Punch, Sewing Machine and Thread, Distressing Tool on Cutter Kit, Mounting Tape, Mini  Glue Dots.

And speaking of challenges, Flourishes is planning a contest on their Member Company Forum which will begin on February 1.  Check it out here!!!  Pull out your Cake Decorating 101 sets and be ready to play, or order them if you need to!!!  There’s plenty of time as the contest will run all of February!!!

 Thanks again for stopping in!!!  Have a great Sunday everyone!!!

These are two gift card holders I made quickly for 2 of our God children.  The golf themed gift card holder is for a 17-year old boy who is an avid golfer, and the spunky girl is for an 11-year old girl (who isn’t spunky - LOL!!!)  Not too many details as I’m super busy, but wanted to post these anyway.  This is the same basic gift card holder I have been doing for years — 1/2 sheet, scored at 2 and 6.  It was a challenge at SCS a year or so ago.

These papers make the project — don’t you just love them!!!

• Stamps:  None
• Paper:  Very Vanilla, Basic Black, Earthy Pad by Crafty Secrets, Wacky and Wonderful Vintage Images by Crafty Secrets
• Ink:  Creamy Caramel to sponge
• Accessories:  3″ circle punch, Jumbo Eyelets and Cropadile, Light Box and home made template, Mounting Tape, Red Sticky Tape, Self-adhesive Velcro Dot

• Stamps:  Alexa’s Set by Missy B Designs
• Paper:  DP by Making Memories, Whisper White, Garden Green, Certainly Celery
• Ink:  Black Stazon, various SU markers to color
• Accessories:  Corner Rounder, Ticket Corner Punch, Ribbon, Mounting Tape, Red Sticky Tape, Self-adhesive Velcro Dot

That’s it — got to run!!!  Busy, busy — I know you all are too!!!  Thanks for taking the time to take a peek!!!

Challenge #11 - Keyword ssnotime11 - There is no time limit. You can play this challenge and upload your project at Splitcoast and/or your Blog, anytime at all!  You can play as many times as you like!!!  The point is to keep it simple, quick and have fun!!!  Please link back here.

Today’s challenge is actually  more than stickers - it is to USE ANY PRE-PRINTED IMAGE as your main image.    You can NOT stamp your main image, though you may stamp backgrounds and/or sentiments if you wish.  Here are some things that would be great items to use as  your main image, but anything pre-printed goes:

Stickers, cut-outs from booklets made for that purpose, Cotton Scraps, any type of fabric, pictures cut from magazines or old books, parts taken from store-bought cards, rub-ons, chipboard type stickers — basically, any image you can just stick on without stamping — all in the spirit of creating a quick card!

Today’s challenge was inspired by SmilynStef.  She participated in a challenge from 2 weeks back, and the moment I saw her card I had a light bulb moment — it was the PERFECT challenge for this week!!!  She had used a sticker as her main image and her card was GORGEOUS!!!  You can check it out at SCS here or on her Blog here.  Thank you, Stef, for this great idea and gorgeous sample!!!

Remember when you upload to use the keyword above, followed by a comma.  Please come back here to post (as a comment) that you’ve played, and provide a link so I can check out your card right away. You can find all cards uploaded for this challenge by clicking Gallery Submissions Here.

Some wanting to play said they have never uploaded before.  If that’s you and you need help uploading,  just go to my Challenge No. 1 here.

Here’s my sample.  I used an image from a sheet of Cotton Scraps by Crafty Secrets.  I just LOVE the Cotton Scraps.  I was lucky enough to have a friend recently give me a few sheets — thanks much, JoAnn (sarahzoe)!!!  These Cotton Scraps are also available through Sweet Miss Daisy’s store, Sassy and Sweet Crafts.

I chose to go the easy route and did NO stamping on this card!!!  Now that’s a switch!!!  My Cotton Scrap was sewn onto a piece of blue cardstock cut just a tad bit larger than the cotton.  My sewing machine NEVER gives me problems but, of course, tonight it did — skipping stitches like crazy — probably needs a new needle — but I didn’t stress over it too much as I was going for a somewhat vintage look on the scrap anyway, so that’s just how it goes sometimes!!!  The Cotton Scrap panel is on mounting tape.  Everything else is just simply layered.  The striped panel is actually a card from Michael’s that I cut in 1/2 to use.  I wanted to use my Pretties Kit, but the stick pin in it was actually a bit too large for this image, so I resorted to my corsage pins from Michaels (in the bridal section).  They are a good inch short and a bit daintier, which worked better here.  I did use the pearl and spacer on it from the Pretties Kit, as well as the stopper on the bottom. The 1/2 pearls are also from the Pretties Kit, adhered with Crystal Effects.

• Stamps:  None
• Paper:  Bashful Blue, Very Vanilla, Card front from The Paper Company (Michaels)
• Ink:  None
• Accessories:  Cotton Scraps (Family), Blue Taffeta, Corsage Pin (Michaels), Pretties Kit, Crystal Effects, Distressing Tool on Cutter Kit, Mounting Tape, Mini Glue Dots, Dimensionals, Sewing Machine and Thread.

Hope you get a chance to play — this is another fun one!!!  And once again, thanks so much for stopping in!!!

This is a little 4.25″ square card using a set I love by Crafty Secrets, called Bird Notes.  This set, as well as other Crafty Secrets products, is available at Sassy and Sweet Crafts.  All other products used on this card, unless otherwise noted, are by SU!.

In honor of World Card Making Day (Sat., Oct 6), I am holding classes this week “Just for Fun”.  Rather than using all SU product that I typically use at a class, we will be using stamps by Crafty Secrets, Gina K, and Flourishes.  This is the Crafty Secrets card my class attendees will be making!!!  I hope they like it — it was a fun one to make!!!  I love this smaller, square format — fun!!!

The main image (love that bird!) is stamped in Black Stazon on watercolor paper (head masked to stamp the crown)  and watercolored with an aquapainter and reinkers, then the edges are distressed with the distressing tool on the cutter kit (a favorite tool of mine).   His belly area has a little white craft rubbed on with a Q-tip.  His little crown is  highlighted in gold with a Sakura Gelly Roll Pen.  The frame around the sentiment is copper embossed, and the brads are copper as well.  Main image is on mounting tape and the sentiment is on pop dots.  That about covers it!

• Stamps:  Bird Notes by Crafty Secrets
• Paper:  Really Rust, Groovy Guava, Soft Sky, Whisper White, Watercolor, Fall Flowers DP
• Ink:  Black Stazon, White Craft, Versa Mark.  Reinkers in Groovy Guava, Soft Sky and Sahara Sand.  Sakura Gelly Roll Pen in a yellow-ish gold.
• Accessories:  Aquapainter, 5/8″ Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon, Groovy Guava Double Stitched Ribbon, Copper EP, Vintage Brads, Crafter’s Tool Kit, Distressing Tool on Cutter Kit, Pop Dots, Mini Glue Dots, Mounting Tape

Measurements:

• Card:  4.25″ square
• Lower DP:  4 x 1.5
• Upper DP:  4 x 2.5
• Watercolor Panel:  2.25 square