Serenity Now!

My girlfriend, Maria, just signed us up for a beginner's yoga class. She paid the fee and I owe her the money. Well, I HAD to order this MFT set, Serenity Now, to make a card to send the check in! I have looked at this set a number of times and resisted buying it because I always thought "when would I use it?" Well today I needed it and here is the card. I combined this with today's Featured Stamper challenge, who is Niki Estes (NikiE). I browsed through her fabulous gallery and blog and looked for layouts that would accommodate my image. This is the card I chose to case. I wanted to showcase the new Basic Grey Eva dp and really liked the green and purple of this one. I used PTI's Spring Moss and Plum Pudding cardstock and the Plum Pudding stitched ribbon. I matched the copic markers as closely as I could to the papers. Her top looks blue in the picture, but it's really more purple like the ribbon. This is the inside and the rest is pretty self-explanatory. Thanks for stopping by!

Recipe

Stamps: Serenity Now (MFT)

Paper: Spring Moss and Plum Pudding (PTI), Whisper White (SU), Eva dp (Basic Grey)

Ink: Adirondack black, Plum Pudding, copic markers

Accessories: Plum Pudding stitched ribbon, Prima flowers, bling, slot punch, dimensionals, glue dots

Flight of the Butterfly

What a cute set of stamps this new SU Flight of the Butterfly is! There are several overlays for the butterfly and three "trails" of words to use. I used all SU products on this one today for the Sketch Challenge. This layout is so simple, yet it's a little "edgy" because the main panel is lined up against the right edge. I should have taken the picture more straight on rather than on an angle so you could see it better. This took only about 30 minutes for me to do (which is a record)! I think the most difficult thing was lining up the butterfly and words properly (with a SAMJ) so I had enough room to place the ribbon and the slide. The dp is Bella Rose and the red checked dp was stamped with the small butterfly in Riding Hood Red. I love stamping on dp. To me it's such an unexpected thing to do...why stamp on paper that already has a print on it? Because it's there, right? The polka dot paper is brown, but it looks black here. The main panel is on dimensionals because I love them (!) and the butterfly has stickles on it for sparkle because I love when cards sparkle! Well, that's it for today. Tomorrow is my first day back at school...no kids, just a district first day. Hopefully I'll be able to get into my room to unpack 25+ boxes and decorate my room before Wednesday! There was major construction done on our building and we had to COMPLETELY empty out our rooms. Now I have to put it all back plus get it ready for the kiddos! Wish me luck and thanks for stopping by!
Recipe
Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly
Paper: Riding hood red, white, Bella Rose dp
Ink: Riding hood red, pink pirouette
Accessories: Riding hood red taffeta ribbon, ribbon slide, stamp-a-ma-jig, stickles, dimensionals

Celebrate Today

I needed a Christening card today and so I decided to use today's Featured Stamper challenge for my inspiration. Today's featured stamper is Kokirose. She has a great gallery...so many cards! I had several I wanted to use, however I settled on this one. The oval fit my christening dress image perfectly. When I went for my Nestabilities, I realized (for about the 100th time) that I don't have the ovals! I have everything but the ovals! So I couldn't scallop my largest oval. I had to use the coluzzle for cutting both ovals. What a difference the scallops make! It would have looked so much prettier. I used the textile cb folder on the pink pirouette and the brown oval. Kokirose's card had jewels on it, but I changed mine to pearls to give it a more vintage feel like the dress. The dp is Bella Rose, and I wished I would have used something that would have shown up better. It seems to be washed out against the pink pirouette. The ribbon is from SU's retired Theatre and the image is also from a retired SU set, Buggies and Booties. I added the flowers and sentiment. I also used the Spica clear glitter pen on the dress and a little on the pink flower. It's shimmery IRL. I don't have an appropriate sentiment for a christening to put inside, so I'll have to generate one on the computer and print it out. Thanks for looking and stop by again!
Recipe
Stamps: Buggies and Booties, Mixed Messages (PTI)
Paper: Close to cocoa, pink pirouette, PTI white, Bella Rose dp
Ink: Close to cocoa
Accessories: Textile cb folder, coluzzle, SU Theatre ribbon, pearls, scallop border punch, 3/4" and 1' circle punches, prima flowers, Spica clear glitter pen, dimensionals, sponge dauber

Zebra Wishes

This is one of the stamp sets I got at the StampScrapArtTour today (see my previous post below). It's by a company called Darcie's. It's really a cute set with several cling vinyl stamps already die cut. I fell in love with this "peaking zebra". I must say, however, that it took me A LONG TIME to do this zebra! I first tried copic markers (my favorite coloring medium lately), but I wasn't getting good results with blending and shading. I realized that my blender pen is dry! I need new refill it! So then I went to the prismacolor pencils and the blender pencil. That was a mess! All the shavings were going everywhere and it just didn't look good at all. That went into the trash. Then I used the prismacolor pencils again, but this time I used gamasol and a blending stump....much better results! This is really the first time I'm using gamasol and the blender stumps. It blends the colors so nicely! I do have to practice though. I had a difficult time blending the cheeks in properly. I guess it's ok for a first try. I accented the zebra with the clear Spica glitter pen. I used the distressed stripes cb folder on the black, but it wouldn't photograph well. The pink base of this card is 8 3/4" long and scored at 5 1/2". This is what the inside looks like. The zebra frame, happy birthday sentiment, and the three hearts are all single stamps in the set. The other sentiment is from SU's new Heard from the Heart. (I realized that I took this picture before I added the prima flowers to the card! Whoops!) I'm giving this card to a three-year old for her birthday tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

Recipe

Stamps: Peaking Zebra (Darcie's), Heard from the Heart (SU)

Paper: Black, Pink Pirouette, PTI white

Ink: Pink Pirouette, Adirondack black

Accessories: Distressed stripes cb folder, prismacolor pencils, gamasol, blending stumps, Spica clear gliter pen, prima flowers, bling, dimensionals

Like a Kid in a Candy Store!

That's how I felt today! I went to the StampScrapArtTour in Hamburg, NY today (it also runs tomorrow) with my SCS friend, Cheryl Rowley. We met there when it opened at 10:00 and left at 4:00! When we went in, there didn't appear to be many vendors (only 20), but boy, were we pleasantly surprised! Almost every stand we visited had our heads spinning with creative stamps, designs, and techniques! I mentioned to Cheryl at one point that this must be what CHA is like on a much smaller scale...I can't even imagine being at CHA! Anyway, I came home, stretched my legs, rubbed my feet, ate, took a nap (LOL!) and then looked at my loot! I decided to share that with you here: Is this crazy or what? Cheryl and I kept on saying "we have good jobs" as a way of justifying our purchases! There were a lot of companies who were selling unmounted "naked" rubber stamps, so we were buying some of those to ease the pain in the wallet! At one booth we saw the new Basic Grey paper (Eva and Ambrosia) and Cheryl said that this booth sort of looked like our own LSS, Buffalo Stamps & Stuff, and sure enough it was! We told the owner that and she commented that she didn't think she had a "style", but she does! I think I spent the most $$$ there! We are so fortunate to have a great store like hers in our area. She is always on the cutting edge of the stamping industry and I love frequenting her store. In fact, she has lined up Karen Lockhart for two classes in October...I am already in the book for that one! Her husband was there promoting his "moose" stamps...the Hanna Riley moose stamps. He really likes those!

I've taken the opportunity to list some of the vendors I purchased from today below.

Buffalo Stamps & Stuff - A great store if you are ever in the area!
Seaside Stampin' Ink
Sweet Impressions Stamps
Stamp Camp
Just For Fun - Cool stamps for creating "postage-like" designs.
Art Gone Wild - This place had stamps on blocks that "rock"...they are curved on the rubber side. Really cool!
Rubber Cottage
Darcie's Country Folk - Great images mounted on cling vinyl, die-cut and in clear DVD containers (bought 3 sets!). Their paper was different...sized 12 x 18. They look like placemats (you can see them in my picture under the stamps)!
Lost Coast Designs - Unmounted border stamps for $2!

Well, that's it! I should get off and start putting this stuff away and start making something with them! I just wanted to also say "Hi" to my friends Kathy, Linda, and Liz that I saw there today. Anne and Judith, I looked for you but I think my eyes were focused on too many other things (LOL!). Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my virtual tour today!

Upsy Daisy

I had been thinking about this color combinaton and this stamp all afternoon while I was out. I was wearing a shirt today with these colors and that was my inspiration...Pacific Point, black, and white. I also used this for another Featured Stamper challenge (see my Tilda card below this one for my first FS challenge today). As I was pulling this card together, I checked out Jessie's gallery again and chose this card to case. I had to change it a bit to fit my image. I don't know if you can see it, but the black band on the right is crimped...yes, crimped! (Click on the pic to get a better view of it.) Remember that tool that's gathering dust in the bottom of your drawer (at least that's where I found mine!)? Well, that's one of the things I liked about her card...the chance to use something I hadn't used in a while that gives the card texture. I started by embossing this stamp from SU's new Upsy Daisy in black ep. It was just screaming to be embossed in black! I paired it with the new Pacific Point dp and black and Pacific Point cardstock. The crystal brad in the center of the flowers is from SU's ice circles rhinestone brads and is a very good match for Pacific Point! Here's the inside of the card. I left it blank so I can use it for any occasion, however I did stamp one of the stamps from Pocket Silhouettes in the corner because it looked like it went with the image on the front. Thanks for stopping by and please take a look at my first Tilda in the previous post!

Recipe

Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Pocket Silhouettes

Paper: Pacific point, black, PTI white, pacific point dp

Ink: Versamark, black

Accessories: Nestabilities, ribbon, prima flowers, ice circles rhinestone brads (SU), black ep, crimper, scallop border punch, dimensionals

My First Tilda and a Great Featured Stamper!

I was so excited today when I saw the featured stamper...Jesse, aka knightrone! She has a fabulous gallery and I read her blog religiously! I love her style and she always has great layouts and always uses great embellishments! I chose this card to case today because I loved the layout, of course! I was equally excited today to make my first Tilda card. These are made by a company called Magnolia. I got three of these from Cheryl Rowley because she duplicated her purchases and sold them to me. (From the look of her gallery, I think she has ALL of them...LOL!) She also gave me some hints about coloring their faces...E00 for the base, E02 for the shading, and R20 for the cheeks (these are copic marker numbers...thanks so much, Cheryl, for the tip). I chose this Tilda stamp because I'm going to visit my Aunt Vi in the nursing home today and I thought I'd take some flowers to her, so this image was perfect! I started with the dp, which is SU's new Parisian Summer! I love that the new catalog gives you the colors it coordinates with, which was bravo burgundy, so saffron, pink pirouette, and sahara sand. I omitted the sahara sand, but used the other colors. I put glitter on her wings, bow, shirt, socks and shoes and the flower centers as well. I kept pretty much to Jesse's layout, except I put the prima flowers in the corner instead of the hodgepodge hardware and ribbon she used. The sentiment on the inside was perfect for Aunt Vi because she has touched so many with her kindness throughout the years. Congratulations to Jesse and I hope you stop by her gallery or blog to get some inspiration of your own! Thanks for stopping by!

Recipe

Stamps: Tilda with Flowers, All Holidays (front sentiment), For Father (inside sentiment), Glorious Gift (flower)

Paper: Bravo Burgundy, So Saffron, Pink Pirouette, Vanilla, Parisian Summer

Ink: Adirondack Black, Pink Pirouette, copic markers

Accessories: Nestabilities, swiss dot cb folder, brads, small and large oval punches, scallop border punch, glitter, dimensionals, ribbon