A La Card Monkey - Any Occasion and Sketch: Monkey Sketch 80

Hi everyone.  Last week I had the thrill of finding out that my Spooky Cute entry into the  A La Card Monkey Sketch 78 challenge, had won me the honour of being a Monkey Princess and a Guest Designer spot in an upcoming challenge.  That had me swinging through the vines for sure!  Here's my badge of honour.

I was so excited to be chosen as a Guest Designer because the A La Card Monkey Design Team does such an awesome job of presenting amazing sketch challenges that are always fun and easy to do.  Plus these gals are just so darned nice and helpful I feel like they're all friends.  Anyway it was just a great thrill for me and I wanted to share my excitement and good news with you.

Monkey Sketch 80 - Any Occasion + Sketch:
Here's this week's sketch and I'm sure you're going to enjoy it.  In fact, I invite you to play along too.  I know some of you hold back on doing the challenges because you don't have a blog, well don't let that stop you.  For this challenge if you're one of my customer's or demos who doesn't have a blog but would like to join in the fun, simply forward your card to me electronically and I'll post it to my blogsite for everyone to see and comment on.  That will be fun for all of us!!!!

Although the sketch was for "Any Occasion", I chose to do a Christmas card.  I wanted my card to have the feel of an old ski lodge and someone standing looking out at the view, so I chose a stamp set that I could build a scene with.  Because the white cardstock I was stampin on was only 3 x 3 this limited my choice of stamps, but I finally narrowed down my choice to Christmas Lodge or Snow Much Fun, and you guessed it, Snow Much Fun won out.  Let's see if I accomplished this sketch:
:

Isn't this fat little snowman simply irresistible? He's from the Snow Much Fun stamp set and I just couldn't resist having him peaking through the window into the Lodge.  The card base is Cherry Cobbler with a layer of Always Artichoke. I was looking for a wall panel effect with the artichoke layer and I think I achieved that by embossing it with the new Stripes Embossing Folder (123128 pg 218 IB&C) and distressing around the edges with Always Artichoke ink.  I also added a layer of Early Espresso for the window panes and embossed this piece with the Square Lattice Embossing Folder (119976 pg 218 IB&C).   
 

The snowman image was stamped on a 3 x 3 piece of Shimmery White cardstock with Early Espresso and Versa Mark inks and then heat embossed with Clear Embossing Powder. To build the scene I stamped a mask for the snowman on a piece of sticky note paper and then stamped the tree and the snowball overtop of the original snowman.  It worked!   The sketch was coloured with Baja Breeze, Always Artichoke, Pear Pizzazz, Cherry Cobbler, Pacific Point, and Crumb Cake makers.   The snow flakes are from the Serene Snowflakes set (115438 pg. 36 IB&C) and were stamped in Baja Breeze.   To give a little sparkle to the snow scene I used the new Dazzling Details irridescent glitter glue (124117 pg. 41 Holiday Mini) on the snowflakes, snowball and snowman.

Here's a closer look at my Snowman.  Once you've stamped your scene on the 3 x 3 inch piece of cardstock just cut it into 1" strips and then cut those strips into 1" x 1" blocks.  For the window pane effect start by lining up top row making sure each square is lined up and there's equal distance between the blocks.  I glued my blocks down with  Tombow glue to ensure they stayed put.  Once you've got the first row done it's just a case of doing each additional row and using the upper one as a spacing guide. 

The sentiment on my card is from the "Christmas Lodge" stamp set.  I stamped it in Cherry Cobler on a 3/4" by 3" strip of cardstock.  I used the Modern Label punch on each end to add some interest.  The sentiment is layered over top of a strip of the new Cherry Cobbler 3/8 Quilted Satin Ribbon (124105 pg 30 Holiday Mini) and a label punched out in cherry cobbler with the Decorative Label Punch.  The edges were distressed with Cherry Cobbler ink. 


Hope you enjoyed this post. 

World Card Making Day - October 1st, 2011

One of the things I like about the arrival of Fall is the celebration of "World Card Making Day".  I try to participate every year in some way. And guess what, it's only 8 days away!  Before I tell you what I'm up to for this year's event, I thought I'd give you a little bit of history about World Card Making Day, that I found on Paper Crafts magazine blog:  

World Card Making Day hasn't been around that long, it  actually began in 2006 as "National Card Making Day".  Paper Crafts magazine who were the founders of this event did so in an effort to bring card makers together at the beginning of the busiest card-making season of the year.

The first "World Card Making Day"event was held on October 7, 2006.   And, while the initial celebration involved the Paper Crafts magazine audience only, due to the positive response it received and the worldwide popularity of card making, the holiday became known as World Card Making Day from then on. 

Celebrating its sixth year in 2011, World Card Making Day is celebrated annually on the first Saturday in October. It's a day for the card-making community -- hobbyists, retailers, and manufacturers -- to unite and celebrate the connection and creativity that is at the heart of card making."

So what are you planning to do for World Card Making Day?
I'd love to hear your comments and plans.  Here's some suggestions I came up with if you're not sure how to participate:

• make up some cards for the military still in Afganistan
• make up some cards and donate to a Seniors or Nursing Home Facility, they can always use cards.
• send a card to someone you've been thinking of but haven't been in touch with for a while
• take a card class held by your local Stampin' Up! Demonstrator or attend a card class at a local papercrafting outlet
• hold or join in a card swap and exchange your wonderful creations
• participate in challenges on Paper Crafts Magazine site for World Card Making Day Prizes click here for link.  You could win $1000 in paper crafting prizes!!!! 

Whatever plans you make for World Card Making Day plan to enjoy the day and above all have fun!

My World Card Making Day Plans are:
I'm planning on making Christmas Cards for my 89 year old mother to send out to her special family and close friends.  Because mom is visually impaired and a bit shakey in the hand writing department, she's no longer able to do this yearly task, without being totally frustrated. 

To help mom stay connected with her friends and loved ones during the holiday season, I'll be making 20 cards .........probably 5 each of 4 designs for her to send.  Some will be gift cards too, so she can do her Christmas presents at the same time.

While I'm at it, I'll  also print off mailing labels and attach the stamps to the matching envelopes so they're ready to go.  Then, one raining afternoon during the next month or so I'll sit down with my mom and we'll listen to her favourite Charlotte Church Christmas tape and sip hot chocolate and I'll help her write her special notes in the cards. After the cards are finished she can just sit back and relax until December 1st, when they can be mailed.  I'm working on a clean and simple (CAS) design that can be duplicated and that she'll love, so come back and see what I've made on World Card Making Day - October 1st, 2011.

HAPPY WORLD CARD MAKING DAY!  

Monkey 72 - Christmas Sketch

When I saw this week's A La Card Monkey Sketch # 72 I just loved it.  Simple yet really classy!   I loved the plaid used for the background of the sketch and having just received my Frostwood Lodge DSP ( #124002) paper in my recent order I had to use plaid too.  As I don't want to miss this week's challenge, I'm not including a lot of details just pictures that I hope you'll enjoy.  The recipe is below.

My background paper is one of the beautiful plaids from the Frostwood Lodge Designer Series Paper.  I ran it through the new Snow Burst Textured Impressions Embossing Folder to give it some more texture.  This kind of reminded me of the old flannel pyjamas we got as kids.   

I absolutely love every stamp in the new Christmas Lodge (#123767W or #123769) stamp set on page 29 of the new Holiday Mini catalogue.  This set has that old fashioned Christmas feeling to it and I anticipate using it a lot for this season's bevy of cards.  There are two fabulous sentiments included in this set and the Merry Christmas one I've used is stamped in Garden Green on Whisper White cardstock and then mounted on Red Riding Hood cardstock. 

Don't you just love this old Lodge?  I've stamped it in Garden Green on Whisper White cardstock and mounted it on Riding Hood Red.  A little border of Brushed Gold cardstock trims the bottom and a 1/8" garden green colour of satin ribbon is on top (non-SU). 

For the inside of my card I used the second sentiment from this stamp set stamped in Riding Hood Red.  To continue the old world feel I used a full strip of the flannel DSP and edged it with the scallop border punch. 

Today is the start, in my opinion, of the best season of the year.  That’s right!  September 1^st, marks the official release of the "2011 Holiday Mini Catalogue".  Everyone who's ordered from me this year should have received their mini by now.  If you haven't or if you're a brand new customer who needs one, please contact me so you don't miss out.  This 2011 Holiday Mini Catalogue is available from today until January 3rd.

Check out the fun new stamps, paper, fabric and embellishments for Fall, Halloween, Christmas, and even Valentine's Day.  All these great new products will make your card, scrapbooking, home decor and event creations come together beautifully. 

In addition to all the above new products, I’m happy to tell you about an all new Stampin’ Up! Product that you’re going to love.  This Simply Scored tool that lets you “take the chore out of scoring!

 

This exclusive scoring tool has been developed specifically for Stampin' Up!.  The Simply Scored ‘s base fits paper or card stock up to 12" x 12" and features score tracks every 1/8".  No more guess work!  It also features two easy-to-read rulers with inch markings down to 1/8" along the top and left side for perfect scoring. There's even a standard left-to-right ruler, a zero center ruler, a set of three markers and a stylus.  And another great feature is that the bottom of the Simply Scored tool is a non-marking base with non-skid feet so it stays securely on your work space.  And, a little bird told me there's more features to be added to this Simply Scored tool in the future.

So what are you waiting for.  If you haven't already flipped to the new PDF version of the catalogue or looked through your printed version, don't miss out.  Start now.  Simply click here.  And, remember my online shop is available 24/7.  Have fun!!!