PaperFections

Autumn Pumpkin

Since I was in a fall mood with the card below, I decided to watercolor this beautiful pumpkin by Paper Inspirations. Pumpkins are one of my favorite fall images and I adore watercoloring . . . it's very peaceful & calming for me. I used this sketch by CPS. The pumpkin was stamped in Timber Brown StazOn on watercolor paper and colored with Stampin' Up's Aqua Painter and dye reinkers. The edges of this piece were rounded and sponged with cocoa ink and matted with burgundy cardstock. The autumn printed paper was matted with Marvy's Mega Scalloped Square punches of burgundy cardstock, trimmed to fit the 3/4" strip of patterned paper. It is raised on dimensionals and copper hardware trims it, along with a piece of orangey-copper edged brown organdy May Arts ribbon. The background paper is DaisyD's Morroccan Floral and the corners were rounded. It's all layered onto a pumpkin 5.5" x 4.25" card base and the edges sponged with cocoa ink. Supplies: Stamps: Paper Inspirations Pumpkin. Paper: SU Pumpkin & Burgundy Cardstock, DaisyD’s Morroccan Floral, Flair Designs Autumn Words. Ink: StazOn Timber Brown, SU Reinkers: Pumpkin, Rust, Olive, Caramel, Cocoa. Accessories: SU Aqua Painter, Copper Hodgepodge Hardware, Sm... Read more →

Apple Bucket Thanks

I know it's a little early (or late!) to be thinking of fall but I had this watercolored apple bucket sitting on my desk for a few months that I never got around to putting on a card. So I decided to finally do something with it, using Card Positioning System's (CPS) sketch challenge to make a fall-themed card. After watercoloring the image on watercolor paper with Stampin' Up! dye reinkers and an Aqua Painter, I sponged the edges with tea dye Distress Ink. It is matted with real red cardstock and the sentiment stamped on burgundy cardstock. The paisley layer was a tag from DaisyD's Gypsy Paisley collection (yum-O!) that I trimmed the top tag part off and the chocolate tapestry pattern is Hazelnut from the same collection. This layer's corners were clipped with SU's ticket corner punch. Burgundy-red fibers were tied around the card and a copper flower charm hung from them. The card base is real red and measures 4.25" x 5.5". Supplies: Stamps: Stampin’ Up! Give Thanks apple bucket. Paper: SU Real Red & Burgundy Cardstock, Watercolor. DaisyD’s Gypsy Paisley-Hazelnut & Heirloom Tags. Ink: StazOn Black, Ranger Tea Dye Distress Ink. SU Reinkers: Red, Garden Green,... Read more →

Friendly Challenge

Time for another challenge amongst friends: Beate, Jenn, Angel, Lori and myself. This time, Lori sent out some adorable stamped images by Anna Wight for Whipper Snapper Designs . . . this one is Spring Bird: Lori also sent this cute paper by DCWV that has glittery accents all over it! I loved the lavender colors in it (accented with orange shades), so I chose SU's lavender lace as a card base. I chose two of the three patterned papers she sent and cut them into 2" wide strips and used this week's SplitcoastStampers sketch challenge for my layout. It was a familiar layout to me because Roxie (the challenge host) chose a previous card I made as the template! Lori had stamped these birds onto shimmer white cardstock -- one of my favorites to work with when watercoloring (I wish the shimmer showed up in the photo). I used an Aqua Painter to watercolor the bird and her flower with SU's dye reinkers: amethyst, lavender, celery, orange & bordering blue. Then I lightly gave the background a sunny wash of banana reinker (it's really not that blotchy or dark in person, I guess that's the effect on the camera... Read more →

Birthday Ladybug

This card was for my niece's birthday this weekend -- I like how it turned out for a teenager whose favorite color is pink! The card base is 5.5" square and is from a dry embossed set of box cards by DCWV (found at Michael's), with 10 different patterns in it -- these are the Dots. I stamped the tiny flower from PAPERTREYink's Little Lady set all over the background in pearlescent coral and graphite black Brilliance inks by Tsukineko. The focal PAPERTREYink ladybug is also stamped in these colors (on PAPERTREYink's white cardstock) and the coral is so pretty and shimmery! The sentiment is from A Muse -- I thought it went perfectly with these cute ladybugs! The sentiment is naturally curved up like that and the "lady" part is at the end, after "little". I just stamped the "lady" separately and put it on a little tag that is popped up and accented with a pink brad (SU). The focal image is matted with two Marvy Giga Scalloped Square punches of black cardstock layered together to make a rectangle. It is popped up on dimensionals. Pink striped May Arts ribbon (from StarLitStudio) finishes off the card. Read more →

Faux Stitching Card #7

I finally received my comp copy of the Stamper's Sampler Take Ten June/July magazine these cards were featured in . . . turns out they used the opening paragraph I sent them as the whole article! It also turns out the card recipes & instruction are a bit off, so pay closer attention to these instructions! ;) The pink/red Roses in Winter card I showed here was not in the article. Here are the instructions on the last card that IS in the article: Printed papers are from Stampin' Up's Enchante collection and they were layered onto a pale plum card base. A double row of faux stitching "holds" the papers together on the left side, and the right corners were also stitched. Pewter brads anchor the lower left corner. The focal image (SU's Happy Harmony) was stamped by inking the rubber directly with Stampin' Write Markers: perfect & pale plum and sage, then stamping onto vanilla cardstock. The flower centers were highlighted with 2-Way Glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The sentiment was stamped in perfect plum. It is matted with sage cardstock and accented with a Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware swirl clip and eggplant grosgrain ribbon that really does... Read more →

20 Fingers, 20 Toes

We decided our new last day of school/first day of summer ritual needs to be manicures & pedicures, so this is the altered art I got to paint Friday afternoon: Our other ritual is sleeping late . . . ahhhhh! Do you have any rituals to start off the summer? Share them below in the comments! Read more →

Word Window Tab Extension

Dawn wrote to me and asked if I would show a visual on how to extend the length of the Word Window punched piece I used in this card below. So here you, go, Dawn . . . as I said below, you just need to precut your sentiment strip in the height of the Word Window's punch (3/8"). Turn your punch over to the bottom so you can see the shape it punches. Place your sentiment strip into the punch from the top and just clip that right edge. This works well with a number of other punches, too, so try your hand at a lot of different extended shapes! Speaking of punches . . . head on over to Nichole Heady's blog to see the cute things she's creating over the next few days with the Marvy scalloped punches you can start preordering from PAPERTREYink on June 1. I'm sure she'll change your mind on the ones you might *need* just like she did mine! Happy Memorial Day to all my fellow Americans. Read more →

Punchy Little Lady!

When I heard about the AMuseAPalooza contest this week to use punches, I started searching for my stash of A Muse stamps . . . I hadn't seen them since moving back in September! When I found this adorable little princess, I decided to make my youngest daughter's 5th birthday card and be ahead of the game for July. I stamped her in black StazOn on SU's shimmer white cardstock and watercolored her with Stampin' Up's Aqua Painter and dye reinkers: orange, yoyo yellow, pink passion & gray. I punched her out with the Marvy Mega Oval and then matted her with a yoyo yellow Giga Scalloped oval punch. Then I punched holes in the scallops with a paper piercing tool and outlined the holes with Signo White Gel pen. A pink MM crystal brad was added to the top of the oval for some bling (you girls love their bling at ANY age!). She is mounted with dimensionals to the pink passion card base. Patterned paper is Making Memories Maddi Paisley (from Eclectic Paperie) and has all my daughter's favorite colors: yellow, orange & pink! I scalloped the bottom edge of the paper using a small corner rounder punch... Read more →

OSW Ladies

As promised a couple of posts below HERE, I made some more cards with that OSW (one sheet wonder) I stamped using SCS's color challenge this week of olive, celery & eggplant or violet and PAPERTREYink's new Little Lady stamp set. I got four more cards out of it and still have a few strips left over! OSW Card #2: Almost that same layout as the first card in the post below -- horizontal orientation and a large panel (5" x 3.75") of the OSW -- the main image is just a little larger and also stamped with the larger momma ladybug, in olive & eggplant. I used the clear Stardust Gelly Roll pen to give their spots a little sparkle! Eggplant grosgrain (SU) is tied around this panel that's matted with eggplant cardstock and mounted on dimensionals. There's a strip of olive cardstock that I pierced, behind the main image. Card base is eggplant. OSW Card #3: This is also an eggplant card base, turned vertical. I divided the same size OSW panel I used above in half to get two more cards out of it! This is a typical Valerie layout which I use again and again (thanks,... Read more →

Faux Stitching Card #6

Time to change up that straight faux stitching with a little zig-zag! Sorry the colors are looking a little off in this photo -- this card is a perfect plum base and has the swirl from Carte Postale stamped down the left side in perfect plum classic ink. For the quilted piece, I cut squares of four different patterns of designer paper from the Enchante collection and adhered them to a strip of pale plum cardstock. Then I faux zig-zag stitched the strips together by piercing every other hole in the Stampin’ Up paper piercing template and then connecting the holes with perfect plum Stampin’ Write Marker. This strip was adhered about ¾” from the left side of the card. The focal image is the butterfly from A Touch of Nature stamped in Timber Brown StazOn on vanilla cardstock. I wanted a softer look, so I used a blender pen with classic ink pads to color the butterfly with plum & celery. The Fancy Flexible Phrases sentiment was also stamped in Timber Brown StazOn. The corners of this piece were clipped with the Ticket Corner Punch and matted with celery cardstock. The edges of both pieces were sponged with cocoa... Read more →

Olive Ladies

One of my favorite things to do is combine some challenges from Splitcoaststampers. These are this week's color and sketch challenges . . . all I had to do was pick a stamp set and get stamping! Since I had just received my new PAPERTREYink Little Lady set, I picked that up and went to town. I stamped a whole sheet of white paper -- PAPERTREYink's new 110# weight paper. OMGoodness, this stuff rocks -- it's SOO much heavier & thicker than Stampin' Up's! After the first time I tried making a whole card out of SU's white cardstock, I vowed I would never do it again -- way too flimsy in my opinion. But I can assure you, you'll be seeing a lot more white card bases from me in the future! Here's what the whole sheet looked like, stamped (I forgot to take a photo until I had already started cutting, so please pardon the cutting lines!): For the card above, I used a piece of my stamped background, measuring 5.25" x 4" and adhered it to my old olive card base (5.5" x 4.25"). The sketch called for a 1.25" x 2" strip in the center, so... Read more →

Faux Stitching Card #5

Sorry I'm just getting around to posting the next group of faux stitched cards that appear in the June/July summer issue of Stamper's Sampler Take Ten magazine article on faux stitching (available June 1). If you've missed them to date, they start out HERE in this post. I was flat on my back in bed all day yesterday but feeling more like myself today, thank goodness! This card started with a 5.5" x 4.25" base of sage shadow cardstock, layered with the Fleur-de-lis patterned paper from Stampin' Up's Enchante designer paper. These papers were my favorite to date, I think, with the chocolate and sage muted patterns -- I really hope they appear again the new catalog release in July. Next, I distressed the sage layer around the edges with SU's edge distressing tool (made by Tonic) and tied copper metallic cording around the piece before adhering it with dimensionals to the card base. The focal image is from Carte Postale and I heat embossed it with Classy Copper EP on very vanilla cardstock. Merci is stamped in chocolate chip, then the whole piece was pierced using the Crafter's Tool Kit paper piercing template, pad & tool and then faux... Read more →

Jami's Stampin' Fun Challenge

My friend and fellow Dirty Girl Alumni, Jami, sent a few people packages of some stamped images from one of her favorite retiring Stampin' Up! sets, Stampin Fun For Everyone, and challenged us to create a card or project! Since I don't own this set and I love a challenge, I was in! I used this sketch from CPS . . . here's my card: It is 5.25" square and started with a card base of chocolate chip. Since this 50's stampin' girl (prim & proper in her white gloves!) reminded me somehow of sewing, my mind immediately jumped to BasicGrey's Stella Ruby papers. If you haven't seen them, some of the papers have sewing pattern markings on them (that's one running across the bottom left corner of the coral paper) and the prints themselves remind me of all those pretty floral dresses reminiscent of that era. These images Jami provided came on whisper white paper and separately. After determining my layout, I knew I wanted the sentiment to be with the main image, so I mounted them together onto chocolate chip cardstock, and placed the chocolate chip grosgrain over the seam. I watercolored her with an AquaPainter and dye... Read more →

New Blog Features

I added a few new features to the blog recently that I wanted to tell you about: 1. Technorati -- If you use this for your blog feeds, you can now easily add me to that list. Look for the "Add this blog to my Technorati Favorites" button over on the top left sidebar right under the "Visit My" links. 2. Technorati blog search -- It seems my other search function didn't actually search just my blog but this new search DOES. It's located right across from the link above, on the right sidebar "Search My Blog". 3. Frappr Map -- Located at the very bottom of the right sidebar. Check out where my visitors come from and add yourself. I'd love to see where you all are located! I'll be back later with that card! Read more →

Faux Stitching Card #4

Can you tell I was making these cards in January and had Valentines on my mind?! This faux stitched chipboard heart card was basically a repeat of this card, so I won't bore you with too many of the same details (you can re-read them in that post), with this exception: I stamped the Canvas background on Pretty in Pink cardstock and then adhered the cardstock to the chipboard heart using Anywhere Glue Stick, sanded the edges and then inked them. Here's the supply list: Stamps: Stampin' Up! Loving Hearts (sentiment) & Canvas background. Paper: SU Pretty in Pink cardstock, Heidi Grace Love Blossoms paper. Ink: SU Classic Real Red & Regal Rose, Real Red Stampin' Write Marker, Rose Grosgrain Ribbon. Accessories: SU Chipboard Heart, Buffing Block, Anywhere Glue Stick. Heidi Swapp Flower Jewel & Ranger Liquid Pearls (flower centers). Prima Flowers, Stardust Gelly Roll pen (to color the flower in "you"). If I get something else stamped today (those are my intentions with Jami's challenge card!) I'll post it, if not -- look for the next set of faux stitching cards to start tomorrow! More exciting news I received in the mail yesterday -- my first actual paycheck for... Read more →