No Time To Stamp?

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!! 

 And all who so unselfishly serve to protect our freedoms — THANK YOU!!!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!

I made this card a year ago and it was included in the Fan Club Gallery at SCS.  Here’s the link for more details, which you’ll only be able to access if you are a Fan Club Member.  It’s something you may want to consider — click here for details.  

Now, back to the business at hand:

Keyword ssnotime42 - There is no time limit. You can play this challenge and upload your project at Splitcoast and/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.

The challenge this week is to make a card this is most definitely soft and girly — whatever that means to you!!!  No other rules, simple challenge.  Can’t wait to see what you do and, as always, try to keep it simple.   Most importantly — have fun!!!

Here are some samples:

Check out Julie Koerber’s sample here . 

Check out Dee Jackson’s sample here.

Check out Tammy Hershberger’s sample here. 

Check out Jennifer Buck’s sample here.

Check out Janine Orchard’s sample here.

Check out Becky Oehlers’ sample here.

What a fabulous Stamp Simply Team!!!   Thank you girls!!!  Much appreciated!!!

And here’s my sample:

When I first got my pad of Sultry by Basic Grey, I was just taken aback by this sheet of paper.  I’ve been saving it because I knew I wanted to use it as an entire sheet and that I wanted to create an image that would blend right in with the design of the paper, and this is what I came up with.  And I chose to use this sheet today because to me these colors are just really girly, and pretty!!!  The card is 5.5″ square and the DP covers the entire card front.

My main image is the bleeding heart from Spring  Ephemerals, which is a solid image set. I LOVE the versatility of these solid image stamps.  They can be used to create stunning silhouettes or, as I did here, they can take on all the color you wish.  I inked my stamp with my Color Box Chalk Cat’s Eye pads.  These little pads work great for inking these stamps, and I truly find it relaxing to ink these stamps in this way.  Sorry, but I can’t provide the exact colors for you.  I stamped this image a month or so ago and never wrote down my colors.  After stamping my image, it was cut and embossed with the Classic Rectangle Nestability by Spellbinders, then framed with the Scalloped Rectangle.  My Sheer Apple Green Ribbon is doubled up to give it a bit more color, the brad is from the Sultry Brad pack by Basic Grey (it coordinates perfectly with the paper), and my butterflies are punched with a Martha Stewart punch. They are two layers — cardstock on the bottom and DP on the top.  Love the feminine look of this relatively simple card - -hope you do too!!! 

• Stamps:  Spring Ephemerals by Flourishes
• Paper: White, Pink Passion, Sultry Designer Paper by Basic Grey
• Ink:  ColorBox Chalk Inks (Cats’ Eyes)
• Accessories:  Apple Green Sheer Ribbon, Sultry Glazed Brad, Rectangle Nestabilities, Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch, Mounting Tape

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 we 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.

Thank you all so much for stopping in.  I do so much appreciate it!!! Hope you all have a safe and wonderul holiday weekend!!!  And hope you find some time to make a girly card, too!!!  Have fun!!!

Life has been busy, gee — wish I could control that — but since I can’t always, thought I’d do an Oldies but Goodies post today.  This is a sympathy card I made using the first 2 sets that Flourishes came out with when they opened their doors last July — Cake Decorating 101 and Flourished Words.

I really like the overall feel of this card.  It is a large, 5.5″ square, which has long been my favorite size!  The ferny type of foliage is from a retired SU set called Garden Silhouettes.  The tiny flowers on the foliage are from Cake Decorating 101 (they are cake decorations), and the sentiment panel is made of 4 separate words that I combined from Flourished Words.  LOVE that set of words — they are small, gorgeously scripted and so very, very versatile as you can combine them to suit your needs.  And they just exude elegance — I like that!!!!  And can you see that the little flower centers are colored in with a white gel pen — it just adds that extra POP to those tiny flowers.  Flourishes is now carrying a really great white pen that works beautifully — the Inkksentials Opaque White Pen by Ranger (a really great pen!).  I also used the luscious Chocolate Satin Ribbon by May Arts on this card.  Again, I’d just like to point out, this soft and supple ribbon is the same as the Chocolate and Pomegranate ribbon that SU had out last year, only Flourishes offers it in a wide variety of soft and delicate colors — truly a favorite ribbon of mine - it knots so nicely!!!  Also, I’d like to add that I made this as a masculine sympathy card.  I usually try to avoid ribbon and bows especially (even knots) on masculine cards, but I just thought this rich, chocolate ribbon was appropriate for a masculine sympathy card.  Hope you like it and that it inspires you to look at all your stamps with wide open eyes — a cake decoration as a flower — very logical to me!!!  LOL!!!

• Stamps:  Retired SU Garden Silhouettes, Cake Decorating 101 and Flourished Words by Flourishes
• Paper:  Blue Bayou, Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla all by SU
• Ink:  Black Stazon, same colors as paper, White Gel Pen
• Accessories:  Satin Ribbon, Ticket Corner Punch, Mounting Tape

Wishing you all a Happy Mother’s Day, whether you are a mother or mother-figure, tomorrow is a day to celebrate all women!!!  Happy Mother’s Day everyone!!!  Wishing you a wonderful day!!!

I’m just checking in to make sure you all know I haven’t deserted you — even though I haven’t had as much as usual to upload in the last few weeks.  It has been super busy getting ready for the show that I am doing, along with Jan Marie, for Flourishes this weekend in Sayner, WI — the Sayner Spring  Stampede – here we come!!!

I have prepped well over 200 cards, bagged them into kits, supervised the making of Flourishes very first on-the-road display (made by my son, Ben), made display boards for cards, sewn skirting and tablecloths, etc., etc., etc.  Jan Marie arrives here tomorrow (Thursday), we take off for Wisconsin on Friday morning, set up Friday afternoon, teach a class to 48 on Friday night, and the show is all day Saturday.  Then we head back here on Saturday night.  Needless to say, I think we will be tired by then!!!  Gee, I’m tired already and we haven’t even started.  We’ll try to get some pictures to share with you next week!

So, in light of all that, I’m doing an Oldies but Goodies post tonight.  This card was done about a year ago and it uses all SU product, but it still has that bit of simple elegance and the flourishy design that I so love!  Here it is:

All details of this card can be viewed on my SCS upload back in May, 2007.   The interesting detail here is all the piercing - I LOVE to pierce, and just didn’t feel like stopping — LOL!!!

For those of you who liked the SU Pomegranate and Chocolate ribbon that came out for a while the end of last  year — are you aware that this exact ribbon is made by May Arts and is available in a number of colors from Flourishes.  You can check it out here.  I LOVE this ribbon and I use it often in many different colors!!!  Just thought you might like to know!  And I see a Champagne color that I haven’t tried yet — hmmmm, we’ll have to do something about that!!!

Thanks so much for stopping in — and the Stamp Simply Challenge is still scheduled for Friday morning, as usual.  I’ll try to get a sample made, but if not, I am so thankful for my 6 fabulous team members providing samples each week — thank you girls!!!  And I won’t give you too many hints, other than to say that this is one of the ultra simple, anyone can do it, challenges!!!!  Talk to you soon!

Today did not go as planned, so I have nothing new to post; however, since I’m on this 10 minute card kick, thought I’d share a 10 Minute Oldie.  I can honestly say that I LOVE this card - it is SO super simple — I loved it the day I made it back in December, 2006 and I still love it as much today.  And, quite honestly, I thought I had shared this card here already, but in checking I can’t find it, so I sure hope I’m not doing a repeat!!!  Here it is:

I made this for a small 6 or 8 person local swap in December 2006, and that was back when SU still had the black organdy — LOL!!!  SOOOO glad I have since found the sheer black ribbon made by May Arts (available at Flourishes) – it is so much softer than this organdy was.  Like I’ve said before, I could put my sheer black ribbon on EVERY card I make — I truly do have to try to control myself — LOL!!

Anyway, you can read more about this card on my original SCS upload.

Thanks so much for stopping in again!  I am trying to come up with more 10 minute samples — it just didn’t work out today — tomorrow’s another day!!!  Also, remember our Friday Stamp Simply Challenge — it’s another super easy one!!!

This will be an Oldies but Goodies post today — which I did not plan on doing, but I have a little story to tell which involves this card, so here we go –

We all love surprises now, don’t we?  Well, I got an email from a good SCS friend yesterday, congratulating me on my card on the first page of the current issue of CardMaker (May 2008).  Well, that was certainly a surprise as I didn’t think I had submitted any cards to that magazine.  So, the investigation begins — LOL!!!  I still haven’t seen the magazine, only a scan of it, but yes, my card is definitely there, page 1 on the inside cover, as big as life, the only card on the page.  Come to find out it is an ad for Prism Paper — gee, I felt totally honored!!!  And they staged it all so nice — a great photo!!!  That was a card I made about a year ago using all Prismatics Papers and SU’s Doodle This set.  Prism actually had my card as I sent it to them, thanking them for their gorgeous line of paper.  Little did I know it would surface a year later in a magazine ad!  I am honored that they liked it enough to use it!!!   THANK YOU PRISM!!!   And the moral of this story — once you mail out a card, you NEVER know where it’s going to end up — LOL!!!! 

Here’s my SCS upload of that card — which surely looks like a sorry photo compared to the one Prism took, but here it is:

All the details on this card can be seen on my SCS upload.

And just a brief word about the Prism paper — the paper I have is 12 x 12 Prismatics.  It is smooth on one side and textured on the other — look closely at my photo above and you can see the texture (both in the card and in the paper used as a backdrop).  I LOVE that texture — I’ve used it often and especially love it when doing 3-D items like purses, totes, bags, etc.  I has such a nice leathery appearance when used in that fashion, especially with a little bit of sponging — it looks so leather-like — love it!!!  I also really love their line of colors — especially the soft pastel shades they have — they are just so soft and luscious.  I can ALWAYS find just the right shade in my Prismatics drawer.  I also love the rich, deep browns they have — just some of my favorites — but they have just a ton of colors, so there is something to please everyone!!!   Here’s the link to Prism Papers if you’d like to check them out yourself.   Now I believe their site is a wholesale site and you may have to do a Google Search to find a retailer for the Prism Papers.

That’s it for now — I’m still struggling to keep my head above water in my stamp room cleaning project.  The new counter/cabinet is installed, I got the painting done that I needed to — now just to deal with the mess — slow and steady, wins the race — or so they say — LOL!!! Thanks much for stopping in!!! Hope you all have a great week!!!

This is an Oldies But Goodies post today — had to fall back on some old favorites of mine.  There has been no progress in my stamp room and I am getting unexpected out of state visitors today, so my stamp room and stamping projects have to wait.  We woke up on Easter morning to many inches of fresh snow.  It looks nothing like spring here, and I am SO ready for spring, warmer temps and flowers, so thought I’d share some flowers here today.

I made this card in June, 2007.  Details can be seen on my SCS post here.

Gee, didn’t realize I had chosen a photo with the same ribbon — LOL — I must like that ribbon!!! This photo is a lot darker.  The first photo shows a more true color of the ribbon.  Maybe someday I’ll get this photo business figured out — LOL!!!  This card was made in April, 2007.  Details of this card can be seen on my SCS upload here.

This is a card I did for a May, 2007 wedding with an Apple Blossom theme.  This card is in the Fan Club Gallery at SCS, so those of you who are Fan Club Members may view the details here.

If you are not a Fan Club Member at SCS, you may want to consider it!  The gallery opens on the 15th of each  month, jam-packed with knock-your-socks-off ideas.  It is certainly money well spent.  Think of it like subscribing to a magazine — the only difference is, when you subscribe to THIS magazine (the Fan Club Gallery), you have instant access to many years worth of magazines, right at your fingertips — they are always there for your viewing pleasure!!!  You may find out more about Fan Club Membership here.

Thanks for looking!!!  Hope to have something new soon!!! Hope you all had a Blessed Easter and a wonderful week ahead.

Well, I didn’t get to any projects during the evening, so I’ll take this opportunity to post an Oldie, but first I’d like to provide a couple links, just in case you’ve missed these:

• My friend, Susan Roberts (rainy at SCS), recently started blogging!  What a treat for all of us — I have always loved her work — and she is offering some Blog Candy — so pop on over to Rainy Day Creations to sign up!
• More Blog Candy is being offered by Leslie Miller (leslierich at SCS) at Running with Scissors. Gosh, I can’t believe what she is giving away — so if you haven’t signed up yet, you still have time!!!

Hope you win something!!!

OK, now on to my Oldie.  This is a very large piece of chipboard that I made into a nostalgic/vintage/Victorian type wall hanging, along with a card and envelope to coordinate.  Here it is:

I love doing this type of thing!!!!  I did this last April and this was actually donated to some SCS function somewhere, so someone won it as a door prize or in a drawing.  I do want to point out that what appear to be vintage photos are actually rubber stamped images — don’t they look realistic?  All details and the list of supplies can be seen on my SCS upload.

Well, I’m off and running — I have a daytime and an evening class today — we’re doing the seashell Cuttlebug set I posted a few days back.  And I’ll try to squeeze a little project in between classes!!! Thanks so much for stopping in!!!  Have a great day!!!

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This evening I am taking the liberty to post a couple of Oldies but Goodies from my SCS gallery.  It seems like you kind of enjoyed the guy card I did a few days ago with a piece of blue jeans on the card — well, these 2 cards were done quite some time ago, and rather than the jeans, I used the tag that came on them.  I ALWAYS save tags that are interesting and fun — never know when you’ll need them!

This card was called A Levi Guy and you can easily pick out the Levi tag, complete with string.  You can read all the details/supplies for this card by checking my SCS upload.

And here’s another called Levi Tag II.  Again, the Levi tag is clearly the focal point.  All details can be viewed on my SCS upload.

Now, DON’T go throwing away your tags — look what great cards they make!!!  LOL!! But seriously, these type of cards make up so quickly - they really do!!!

Thanks so much for stopping in again — appreciate it!!!  My next uploads will be with Flourishes images — and some nice new ones, too!!!!  Can’t wait!!!

Hi everyone.  I know it probably appears that I’m slacking here, but  I’m not - honest!!!  I’ve been working on a set of 5 coordinated items that I can’t share right now.  They were requested by a magazine, so let’s hope they put them in.  If and when that happens, you’ll be the first to know and see — LOL.  Plus I’ve got swap cards to do today, and our fearless swap leader doesn’t want us posting those until they have been received by all, so that’ll be coming in a week or two.

So, since I have nothing new to show you, I had an idea (always have ideas - LOL!!!)  My mind is still on the Cuttlebug, so I’ve pulled up two of my oldest and most popular Cuttlebugged cards for you to see today. But, even better than that, you won’t believe what I found in the galleries at SCS yesterday — it was like hitting the jackpot!!!  You all know Michelle Zindorf?  Current Dirty Girl at SCS, Queen of the Brayer — well, she’s been holding out on us — she is also Queen of the Cuttlebug.  Look at this beauty I spotted in her gallery done back in September, 2007.  Isn’t it fabulous!!!  That is what I wanted to try to do for you today and post, but just couldn’t find the time.  So, WHY DON’T YOU GIRLS do some cards like this, post them to your Blogs or SCS, and link them back here.  Then I can check them all out and have a ton of good ideas when I finally get to it — does that sound like fun???  I think so!!!  Also, be sure to drop in on Michelle’s card and let her know if you liked it/cased it.  We’ll consider this a mini, mid-week challenge!!!

This is a card I did back in April, 2007.  I taught classes doing this card.  Super simple and quick.  I used a corsage pin from Michaels as it was before I had the Pretties Kit, but wouldn’t a pin from the Pretties Kit look wonderful in there?  You can check out the supplies on the SCS upload here.

This card was done in January, 2007 for an SCS challenge.  Love all the texture the Cuttlebugging lends!!!  You can read the deatils/supplies on my SCS upload here.

OK, that’s it — thanks much for being patient with me when I have nothing to share — appreciate that!!!  Now, go ahead and try a Cuttlebug card like Michelle’s linked above — I’m so anxious to see what you can do!!!  I’ll have my regular Stamp Simply Challenge posted tomorrow morning!!!  Thanks for stopping in!!!