Dare to be Blue and Green!

Dared Buggy Birthday

Dual Challenge: prbloom's Blue and Green animals (bugs are animals, too!) and JeanneS's sketch challenge.

Stamps: SU! Bugs and Kisses, Think Happy Thoughts

Ink: Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, Rose Red, Black

Paper: Whisper White, Rose Red, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Cute Pie DP

Accessories: May Arts striped grosgrain, SU! Blue gingham, Mat Pak/Piercing tool, Circle Punches, Clear Button, Mini brads, Dimensionals

Prickly Blue

A fun mini card for the blue/green animal challenge. (link above)

Stamps: SU! Moose You, Flannel

Ink: SU! Blue Bayou, Purely Pomegranate

Paper: SU! Blue Bayou, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White

Accessories: SU! Scallop punch, Wasabi ribbon, Distressing tool, Mini brads, Dimensionals

Soccer and birthday parties took more out of me this weekend than I would care to admit! 4 soccer games (Morgan's team won the tournament, GO ALLIANCE!), and 2 birthday parties and I was just not able to keep up with all the challenges this weekend. Here are a couple of cards I made for 2 of the challenges.

With Stamp Nite coming fast and furious, I am busy prepping for that. I am just not sure how many more Dirty Dare Challenges I will get to this week. But I will be posting the projects for Stamp Nite very soon.

Have a Terrific Tuesday!

What I love about this craft......

Is the ability to make a small gift that matches the card. Recently I made a card (down a couple of posts) using these papers, images, and colors wanted to add a small gift to go with the card. If you haven't made a coaster book, give them a try! They are so easy and pack a lot of POW!

Blank coasters, Bind It All, and Coils are available through Eclectic Paperie, one of my favorite online stores run by 2 of the friendliest crafters on the planet! Daisy and Joy will be sure to help you with your purchase and are available for any questions you might have if you just drop them a line (response is lightening fast!).

This weekend will be a busy one for our family; a soccer tournament for Morgan and a couple of birthday parties for family and friends will be keeping us going most of the weekend.

I'm going to try and do at least one Dirty Dare a day if time allows, until then...

Have a wonderful weekend!

Supplies: Stamps SU! Priceless and Office Accoutrement, Inks: SU! Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip, Paper: Chatterbox, SU! Old Olive, Cameo Coral, Whisper White, Accessories: May Arts dotted sheer ribbon, Bind It All and 1" coil, Olive mini brads, Mat Pak and Piercing tool, Tab punch, Dimensionals

Hi There, Cami Style!

For Cami's Dirty Dare '07 Challenge today - Pink of course!

I had to do this challenge! She dared me! LOL

Images from SU! Vases in Vogue, Fundamental Phrases

Palette Burnt Umber and SU! Regal Rose ink

Card stock by SU! Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Loves Me DP

SU! Stampin' Write Markers, Ticket corner punch, Mini brads,

Mat Pak and Piercing tool, Chocolate ribbon, Scallop blade (Fiskars trimmer), Dimensionals

3 more SCS Dirty Dare '07 cards

Easy Elegance Challenge

Images from SU! Touch of Nature and Many Merry Messages SU!

SU! Soft Sky and Certainly Celery Classic Dye Ink

Soft Sky card stock with a hint of Very Vanilla

Cuttlebug and Swirls embossing folder, Corner rounder for scalloped edge, Distressing tool, Dimensionals and Organdy Ribbon.

Beate's Sketch Challenge

Images from SU! Sweet Shapes and Wonderful Favorites

SU! Regal Rose, Brocade Blue Dye inks

PaperTrey White, SU! card stock Always Artichoke, Brocade Blue, Certainly Celery, SU! Designer Papers

Mat Pak and Piercing tool, Mini brads, Scallop punch, Scallop blade (Fiskars trimmer), Blue grosgrain, Dimensionals

Jen's Clear Only Challenge

Images by PaperTrey

ColorBox Fluid Chalk Rouge, SU! Marigold and Wasabi Classic Ink

Papertrey White card stock, SU! Marigold Morning, Pixie Pink, Wild Wasabi, Pebbles patterned paper

Scallop punch, Circle punches, Wasabi ribbon, Mat Pak and Piercing tool, Ticket corner punch, Dimensionals

It was fun playing this morning! All of these cards were made after breakfast and before lunch. My niece's spent the night last night, so there was a gaggle of kids playing happily together which allowed me to stamp!

This afternoon has been another story though, lots on our plate from a sports physical, to soccer practice, and tonight, my first college financial seminar (can't start too early for financial tips!).

I hope to play in at least one challenge each day, if I can do more than one, I'll be a happy stamper!

Have a wonderful evening!

Dare to Get Dirty - 07

The folks over at Splitcoast are celebrating an anniversary this week. It's the 3rd anniversary of the Splitcoast Fan Club and this week it's a Dirty Dozen Extravaganza! Called Dirty Dare -07, the daily postings may be found here: Dirty Dare -07 . Each day there are multiple challenges hosted by current and former Dirty Dozen Designers. Some of us were sample makers for said challenges; I made samples for Jami, Paula (prbloom) and Jenn (jbalcer). From sketch challenges to color to simple elegance, and much in between, there is something for everyone.

This card is for Jen's (genie1314) sketch challenge for today. I was able to play tonight after we came home from a gorgeous day at Coronado Beach. I went down with the kids and their friends after Morgan got through with summer school. Now we typically go earlier in the day and come home early afternoon to avoid the traffic. However, doing that we miss my favorite time at the beach, the 4pm hour. There's just something about it, not quite sure what it is, but I just love that time of day down there. Anyway, today we stayed until 5 because we got there after lunch. I was able to enjoy that wonderful hour and only encountered a bit of traffic on the way home.

After getting all cleaned up, the car vacuumed, and food in our bellies, I was able to play. Jen's sketch is a great one, and one I'll be tucking aside for future use. This card is off to a dear friend whose birthday I remembered, but forgot to send her card in time.

Recipe is fairly simple. Card base is SU! Blush Blossom. The stripe and flower patterned paper is double-sided Chatterbox paper. I love using coordinated double-sided papers, the guess work is taken care of just by flipping the paper over. I stamped the butterfly, from the SU! set Priceless, twice in Cameo Coral, and then matted it on Cameo Coral. Pierced their trails with a piercing tool and raised the completed image panel with dimensionals over an Old Olive layer. Stamp the birthday greeting (SU! Think Happy Thoughts) in Old Olive with a Cameo Coral flower and punch out and layer on a Cameo Coral punched circle, a simple brad for the flower center, and it's attached to the image layer with a dimensional. Oops, almost forgot the luscious velvet (May Arts) ribbon! Ribbon is tied in a knot around the card. A bit of accent piercing on the card base and this card will go out in the mail tomorrow with belated birthday wishes.

Take a Dare or two (or three, or....) this week, I Dare ya!

Supplies listed above.

FS24: Oh Baby!

It's Sunday, and that means the Featured Stamper Challenge over at Splitcoaststampers. The object of this challenge is to choose a card from the featured stamper's gallery, CASE it, making at least 2 changes and giving credit to the original designer. This week Beth asked me to fill in as her guest hostess, I was happy to oblige. After all, she is home with baby number 6, a new little girl in the Silaika happy home!

This will be a short post as I am pretty tired this morning. Last night I threw a surprise poker birthday party for Jay, men only. The kids and I left for the evening and by the time I got back home around midnight, posted the FS challenge and read a couple of chapters of the new Harry Potter, it was around 1:30 when I finally turned off the lights.

Riley, our pooch, didn't seem to remember that I was up late, and she was up early wanting to be fed!

Anyway, my card is based on Ana's card here: Savvy Pom Poms

I changed the colors, stamp sets, and made it into a baby card for Beth and her wee one. I kept the general feel of the layout the same.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Supplies: Stamps: SU! Wild About You, Michaels $1 sentiment, Ink: SU! Marigold Morning, Palette Noir Black, Paper: Papertrey White, SU! Marigold Morning, Green Galore, Rose Red, Pebble patterned paper, Accessories: Cuttlebug and Swirls embossing folder, Flower brads, Mat Pak and piercing tool, May Arts striped ribbon, Fiskars scallop blade, Dimensionals

Junkitz, Bellies, Ink and One Hour

Before

After one hour!

I've wanted to use these wonderful colorful papers from Junkitz since I got them about a month or so ago.....but you know the excuse, how can we cut our beautiful papers up and use them????

Well, turns out rather easily! LOL

Brett finishes up a month of swim lessons tomorrow and his instructor, Barb, is not only a fantastic instructor, but has been our swim friend since Morgan was 5 years old. Last year she appreciated the cards I made for her, so I know that she'll appreciate these as well.

Procrastinating seems to be the summer mantra around here, these need to be done by tomorrow, and we have ortho and soccer this afternoon. So quick and easy, all wrapped up in a clear box (PapertreyInk) and these are ready to go!

Using the Salsa Celebration line of Junkitz papers, which are double-sided, and white cardstock for the base you can begin your cards. Keep the layouts simple for ease of assembly. Add a few wonderful ribbons, brads, and a bit of ink on the sentiment edges and you can whip out lots of cards very quickly. While I am only giving her 8 cards and envies, there are many more of the sentiments that are leftover which I'll use on additional cards.

Junkitz Salsa line found here, Joy and Daisy will be happy to sell you some!

Have a happy day!

Supplies: Ink: Palette Noir Black, Paper; Junkitz Salsa Celebration, Papertrey white, Accessories: Assorted ribbons, mini brads, dimensionals

Celebrate, Target style!

While shopping at Target today for a few odds and ends, I ended up in the card department. I like to browse there to see what the card manufacturers are using on their cards. Of course, I always check out the absurd pricing! Anyway, short on time, and procrastinating this year, I was actually contemplating purchasing a card for Jay (his birthday is tomorrow), and a card something like this caught my eye.

Very simplistic, very much along the lines of what appeals to his design tastes. Anyway, flipped that card over and had sticker shock. Decided to be stealthly and take a pic with my camera phone for inspiration at home.

Apparently I don't know how it works as when I got home there was nothing there! No picture, nothing. I'm sure my kids would be rolling on the floor if they knew this, so let's keep that our little secret! LOL

Anyway, from what I remember, it was a textured block, off to the side, with a small tag. The Target one said "husband" well, to me *celebrate" was more appropriate for the occasion. I also gave it some texture with the Linen background stamp, distressed vanilla layer, and hemp. It needed one more thing, a simple flourish to the rescue. Carte Postale has a very nice, masculine looking flourish that was perfect.

Happy Birthday, honey!

Supplies: Stamps: SU! Linen, Fundamental Phrases, and Carte Postale, Inks: River Rock, Cranberry Crisp, Paper: River Rock, Very Vanilla, Basic Black, Accessories: Cuttlebug and Textile embossing folder, Word Window punch, Silver brad, Hemp twine, Distressing tool, Dimensionals

Designed by Brett and Morgan

I love that my kids love to stamp! Tomorrow is their dad's birthday and I thought I would share the cards they made for him. When we were gift shopping ( Wii Tiger Woods game, PGA golf shirt, Tommy Bahama shirt, and some Tommy Bahama cologne) I asked if they wanted to buy *gasp* a card or make one. Without hesitation they wanted to make cards.

This is Brett's card to his dad. After telling me what he wanted: red (dad's favorite color), shorter side with a sentiment (like he did for a card for me earlier this year with direction from Morgan), and golf stamps. I did all the paper cutting, but he was the director! We found some scrap patterned paper in the bin that matched what he picked out. After I cut the card stock, he stamped and colored the golfer with SU! markers. A little sponging with Bashful Blue to make the sky and ticket corners complete the image layer. Brett "Cuttlebugged" (he loves to CB!) the tag, punched the hole in the image, and set the eyelet for his Dad tag, all by himself! He put the image at an angle with dimensionals. I did help with adhesive on the inside of the card, and the matting of the image. And guess what? He has learned the trick behind a straight sentiment - the SAMJ (I'm so proud! LOL)

Morgan finished her card while I was posting about Brett's. She did the entire card on her own, just asking for a few opinions from me. She picked Wild About You, and Flannel, 2 of my favorite stamp sets! I love how she used the tag corner punch in conjunction with the ticket corner punch, I need to tuck that idea into my memory!

Dad will be so pleased when he opens their handmade birthday cards!

Resisting Flowers

Sorry I've been absent from here for a few days, I've been buried knee deep in Legos, Bionicles, and school papers. I *Clean-Sweeped* my youngest son's room. Took ALL of his belongings out into the garage, laid them out on a big paint drop cloth and have been sorting. Who knew a 9 year old boy could collect so many things and keep them in his tiny room!

Anyway, this card is the second project for tomorrow night. Layout and color selection are from the new SU! catalog, however, there are many modifications so I am not going to call it a case.

This particular flower image is THE reason I wanted this set, Garden Silhouettes, a hostess set from the newest SU! catalog. I get many sets for THAT one image I have to have, not sure it balances out the cost savings overall, but I do know I get my use out of images that I just love.

So this card is fairly straight forward, the image is stamped with Craft White onto River Rock card stock. While the ink is still wet, I applied clear embossing powder and heated the image until the powder melted. Then just applied Brocade Blue ink with a dauber around the image. The ink resists where the embossing has been applied. The edges distressed and image is matted on a small distressed vanilla layer, then add a couple of brads in the upper left. Finished panel is matted on a Mellow Moss card base with a Brocade Blue accent piece. Tied off with a moss grosgrain, and this sentiment less card is very versatile for many occasions.

Have a beautiful day!
Off to the garage I go, there are many Legos to sort through, my goal for today!

All supplies are SU! and listed above.

One down, one to go....

Stamp Nite projects, that is. This will be one of the upcoming projects for Friday night. A patterned paper coaster book. Inside are blank white pages that I cut down to 3 3/4 square to fit into the 4 x 4 finished book. Coasters are covered with K & Co Girl Scouts paper, available at eclectic paperie. Such a beautiful paper, even though my girl scout days are long over. Images from Office Accoutrement (SU!) are stamped in Celery and Chocolate, a tag out of the new Soft Sky paper (SU!), and the book is bound with the Bind It All. I used the 5/8" coil on this one and it easily closes with 50 sheets of paper inside. Heavily inspired by Cami , I just love the way she stamps!

Today's plan is to come up with card project, although I am getting off to a slow start. Morgan had a fun teen movie night here last night, and this chaperone was up rather late.

Happy 07-07-07!!

Supplies: Stamps: SU! Office Accoutrement, Inks: SU! Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip, Paper:K & Co Girl Scouts, SU! Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Soft Sky, Accessories:Bind It All, Celery mini brads, Celery grosgrain, Distressing tool, Dimensionals

Scor-Pal and The Joy-Fold Booklet

Remember the Joy-Fold card? I created this booklet based on that concept and it can be seen on the Scor Pal website. You can find the tutorial: click here.

The Scor-Pal is a wonderful tool for scoring card stock! It's so easy to use, lightweight, and makes for a professional finished look to your project. You can find the Scor-Pal here:
Scor-Pal

Happy Birthday U.S.A.

From my card archives, a card appropriate for today, July 4th, Independence Day! This card was a category winner in a Stampin' Up demonstrator contest last year that was for 4th of July invites. Although in the magazine they didn't show case the pull out tab, which is the fun and interactive part of the card. Add a few stars, big letters, patriotic colors and this card is a fun way to host a party on Independence Day.

Later today we are headed to our neighbors for good eats, swimming, and then to watch the fireworks. The fireworks display is easily seen from our neighborhood as they shoot them off in the lot behind the kids school which is about 3/4 mile away from our neighborhood. It sure beats sitting in traffic or finding a place to sit!

Have a safe, enjoyable and Happy 4th!

All supplies are SU!

Forest Chapel with Cracked Glass

This is another one of the cards I designed for the unveiling of for the new Thomas Kinkade gallery over at Cornish Heritage Farms. While the majority of the cards I have made with these beautiful stamps are monochromatic, I decided to color this particular image. After coloring this image with Prismacolor pencils, which was stamped onto vanilla card stock with brown ink, I generously applied 3 layers of Glassy Glaze, froze it, and cracked it. It is so beautiful is real life. The glaze mutes the colors in such a way that it unites them beautifully. The coloring on this sample took about 15 minutes for those of you who think that it might take hours to do so. Also, I found that applying the color very lightly, in lazy circles, was the ticket, then laying down additional color if necessary. The celery layer was stamped tone on tone with the Rice Paper Backgrounder, also by Cornish Heritage Farms. The sentiment, also by Thomas Kinkade, was stamped onto the vanilla using the Stamp a Majig. A bit of double ribbon, brads, and the beautiful cracked glass makes for a very simple, elegant card.

Supplies: Stamps: Forest Chapel Vignette, Blessed are Those, Rice Paper Backgrounder, Inks: StazOn Timber Brown, Certainly Celery, Paper: Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Accessories: Mini brads, Organdy Ribbon, Grosgrain Ribbon, Glassy Glaze, Heat tool, Dimensionals

Chipboard + Shipping Tags = Perpetual Birthday Book

I love using shipping tags, although I have neglected them for a while. When I saw the chipboard tags, way back last year, that are available through SU! on one of their chipboard assortment packs, I just knew that I would make something fun with them, someday.

This is a project I made when I was a display stamper for the SU! Houston Regionals, however, I held it back at the last minute. I decided I liked it too much for it to be gone forever!

My Stamp Nite gals made one of these last month, it was quite fun to see what papers and ribbons they picked out of the assortment that I had spread out to use. For the template for all those extra books (after all you only get 2 of them on the SU! assortment), I used the negative image that is left after punching out the original tag. I just traced them onto chipboard pieces that I purchase from my local scrapbook store, cut them with my trusty exacto, and viola, lots of blank chipboard tags!

Basic directions: Cover chipboard tags in patterned paper, sand edges. Stamp a metal edge tag using your choice of image - I choose "happy" here because this book will be to help me remember all the happy days in my life: birthdays, anniversaries, etc. Add a layer or two of coordinating cardstock on which to mount your tag. Stamp 12 shipping tags with the library image from Stamp of Authenticity, a Stamp A Majig is most helpful for this part as there is little room for error on placement of the image. Stamp the month at the top of each tag. Using the tag as a template, mark where to punch holes in the chipboard. Punch using a Crop A Dile, sandwich the tags, and thread a loose leaf binder clip through all chipboard and the tags. Stamp "DAYS to" and "remember" on scraps of white cardstock, punch out with the small SU! oval punch, add a couple of eyelets, and tie onto the circle clip with cording. Decorate the circle clip with ribbons, and you have a fun way to remember all those special days throughout the year.

Happy Days!

Supplies: Stamps: Happy Thoughts, Expressive Flex Phrase, Rough Edges Alpha, Inks: Black, Papers; Paisley by Chatterbox, Dotted by SU!, Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip, Pixie Pink, Old Olive, Whisper white, Accessories: Metal Edge Tags, 2 hole punch, Assorted ribbons, Distressing tool, Cording, Crop A Dile, Dimensionals, Loose leaf binder clip, Eyelets, Oval punch