Stampin Queen Sketch Challenge - SQSC 5

This week' sketch challenge from Stampin Queen involves lots of layers, which always makes for a more interesting and sometimes more elegant card.  The challenge for me is deciding how to get the best fit on the card for all those layers.  Here is the SQSC sketch:

The next biggest challenge for me is deciding on the stamp(s) set to use and of course the colour combo.  For my colour combo I took my inspiration from the weather outside......... it's kind of white and gray because we're having cloudy rainy weather.  And, the only colours I see are the beautiful autumn leaves in the background, mostly maple leaves with their gorgeous burgundys and yellows. 

In choosing which stamp set(s) I wanted to use for today's challenge, I needed a "theme".  My card will be for a friend, and so my sentiment had to focus on friendship.  My next decision was what to use for the "focal point".  Since I was gazing at the garden when all these thoughts were coming together, my next choice was easy.............something with flowers.  And there you have it; that's how this card came together:

My theme revolves around "Friendship".  This beautiful little sentiment is from Pocket Silhouettes and is stamped in Bravo Burgundy ink on Whisper White Cardstock.  The sentiment was then punched out using the large oval punch. I cut two pieces of card stock (Bravo Burgundy and Basic Gray) using the decorative layer punch.  To get the extended look I cut the Bravo Burgundy layer in half and then glued it to the back of the Basic Gray layer leaving a gap in the center.  To finish off the sentiment  I've added three small basic pearls for a feminine touch and to tie in with the pearls on the top layer of the card. 

My focal point for the card is from the Friends Never Fade stamp set.  I love this one I think it's timeless.  I stamped the image in Whisper White classic ink on Bravo Burgundy cardstock, added some White Embossing Powder and used my heat gun to set the ink.  The 2" circular stamped layer is mounted on dimensionals to a 2 1/4" circle cut from Basic Gray cardstock.  The third circle is 2 1/2" and is in Whisper White cardstock.

Here's a full view of the card showing the additional layers.  The card base is Basic Grey and I've added an additional 5 1/4" x 4"layer of Basic Grey cardstock that was embossed with the Swiss Dot embossing folder.  Two 2 x2 squares of Whisper White were embossed using the Flower Garden textured embossing folder.  A 2 1/2" x 3" piece of Bravo Burgundy cardstock completes the layers. 

I've added a Whisper White Top Note die cut to the inside of the card that's been embossed using the Flower Garden Texturized Embossing folder die.  This ties the images on the front and inside of the card together. 

One last look at the finished card.  I really like the look of this card and will probably add this sketch to my favourites file. 

Hope you liked this card and would love to have your comments.  The Stampin Queen challenge doesn't close until 9pm tonight EST so join in if you have a chance.  The link is SQSC5.  Happy Stamping!
 

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!  

Top 10 Tools for 2011 - Exciting News!

Stampin' Up! has just announced that Creating Keepsakes Magazine has named Stampin' Up!'s wood- and clear-mount rubber stamps as one of its Top 10 Tools for 2011! Isn't that sooooooo exciting?

While Stampin' Up! has long been recognized in the stamping and crafting industry for producing high-quality rubber stamps and exclusive images in a variety of artistic styles, being recognized by Creating Keepsakes is just another validation that when customers choose Stampin' Up! products, they are choosing the best!

Along with Stampin'Up!s stamp sets being
such high quality is also the "value" that you
get by buying Stampin' Up!  Most big box and craft stores sell other brands of stamps, but at a much higher price than you pay for Stampin' Up!s exclusive lines.  Remember to always divide the number of stamps in the set into the total cost and you will see what an amazing buy they truely are. 

Monday Monster Mash Halloween Count Down Blog Hop - Week Six

It's my most favourite time of the week again, time for the Monday Monster Mash Halloween Countdown (MMMHC ) and it's week six.  That's right week six .........the halfway mark!  I'm ecstatic as I basically have only two Halloween sets to work with right now and I've actually made six cards.  Whoo Hoo! 

So, if you'd like to play along and have been too shy or haven't had time yet or whatever reason, don't worry there's still time to join in.  Hop on over to Shirley Pumpkin's awesome site and see all her wonderful Halloween creations and other projects. Leave her some love while you're there.  Her projects are awesome. 

This week she's combined her MMMHC with the Scaredy Cat Swap that she recently attended over at Terry Blais's place.  What fun!  She's got all the rules for her MMMHC on her fun blog hop, so check them out.  I can't wait to see what you'll make so get card making!

Okay so here's my entry for week six, hope you like it.  I decided since I really like making circle cards to use that format for my entry this week. Circle cards are so easy to make and they are such a fun wow in a class.  They're also awesome to receive.  I've made this one in traditional Halloween colours of Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz, Basic Black and Pumpkin Pie cardstock.  No DSP is used.

I've used the cute little halloween girl from the "Greeting Card Kids" stamp set as my focal point.  I've coloured her with blender pens on watercolour paper.  She has a little bit of bling added to her great pumpkin with glitter glue and a shiney purple rhinestone on her witchy hat (see tip below). 

The Best Witches (don't say that fast...lol!) sentiment is from "Halloween Hoot" and I've stamped off some little bats from SU's "Wicked Cool" set.  The image is stamped on Pumpkin Pie, and the large oval punch was used to punch out the sentiment.  It's mounted on a scalloped oval punched out in basic black.  A few purple rhinestone complete the sentiment.  This sentiment is popped up on dimensionals so that when the card is opened it has a prop or anchor to hold it open.  The inside of the card is made with layered circles in corresponding card stock and lots of room to leave a message.  

View of the card opened up. I've used basic black ink to distress around the entire scalloped edge of the card to give it some extra detail.

I've used the bat image from "Wicked Cool" to stamp around the scalloped circle.  I stamped it in versa mark, basic black ink and then heat embossed it with clear EP.  I could have used Black embossing powder too.  It gives a kind of shiny look to the background of the card.

I added a bit of green glitter glue around the Pear Pizzazz layer to add some additional sparkle. 

Okay so here's my economizing tip of the week:

Did you know you can colour your own basic rhinestones inexpensively with any permanent alcohol based marker  (Sharpies work well because they let the colour sparkle through).

That's right your can now have red, green, blue rhinestones...........even black to match your favourite coloured cardstocks.  So no more searching for matching bling, just colour your Stampin' Up basic rhinestones yourself!

All you have to do is j=-0[st colour over the rhinestone with your marker pen and voila! instant colour. Go over it until you get the shade you want.  If it's too dark you can take a cute tip swab to lighten the colour by dabbing a bit of rubbing alcolhol (90% or more works well) on a Q-Tip swab and lightly dab it on the basic rhinestone.  You can also use an alcohol blending solution but be careful as both solutions will remove the colour. 

Okay bye everyone.  Happy card making.

Stamping 411 - Saturday Sketch Challenge #220

I decided to play along with the Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch Challenge #220 this week.  If you've never followed this site before make sure you check it out.  The sketches are always beautiful and they offer some measurements to help you along.  Here's this week's sketch:

I chose to do another Halloween Card for this challenge.  The only changes I made to my card are the addition of rhinestones instead of brads and I changed the circular configuration to a rectangle.  Here are some views of my card. 

Man the lighting was poor for this inside view of the card........... my apologies.  The witch and sentiment are stamped in Black Stazon Ink.

Details:

The cardbase is Pumpkin Pie cardstock.  A small piece of "Halloween Fright" DSP (retired) was used for the bottom half of the card front.  Instead of a ribbon I punched out a strip of Concord Crush with the Lacey Border punch, and then wove 1/8" green ribbon through the center.  Layers of Concord Crush DSP and Wisteria comprise the layered rectangle.  The image is stamped in basic black ink on Whisper White cardstock that's been distressed with concord crush ink.  Green glitter was added to the top of the cauldron for a small touch of bling. 

Monday Monster Mash Halloween Count Down Week 5

Hi everyone.  Can you believe that it's Week Five already of Shirley Pumpkin's "Monday Monster Mash Halloween Countdown Week 5"?  Only 7 weeks to go to the big day!!!  Are you getting excited? 

Talk about excited, I sure was!  Shirley notified me at the end of week 4 to say she'd chosen my pumpkin card as her  favourite entry for the week.  I was bowled over let me tell you!  My grin was as wide as the one on these pumpkins funny little faces!  "Thanks Shirley for your vote of confidence, I really appreciated it". 

This was my entry for Week Four. 

I really had to put my thinking cap on for this week's entry.  I wanted to do something a bit different and with my limited Halloween stamp supply I was feeling a bit stumped.   While I was scratching my head and staring at the mess on my worktable I looked at the card I'd completed for Stamping 411's Saturday Sketch Challenge #220.  It was laying upside down and one of the images looked like something else to me.  The glimmer of an idea started to take hold and I grabbed a stamp pad and a stamp and this is what I came up with:

Here's a close up.  Aren't they just the cuteest bullfrogs?  

Okay and here's the stamp image that gave my idea for these little frogs:

It's the witch's cauldron from the retired Stampin' Up! set Halloween Hoot.  And here it is the way I saw it upside down.

The wheels on the cauldron looked like eyes to me and the rope or whatever it is around the middle of the pot looked like a big wide mouth, and the handled looked like a frog's tongue going for a fly or something!  Okay if you can't see it squint or something!  LOL

Details:
The card base is Very Vanilla.  I added a strip of Old Olive to the front of the card (for the slimy pool) and then ran it through the Big Shot using the Web Embossing Folder.  To add some shine to the web I drew on each of the web strands with a Versamark Ink Pen and then sprinkled on clear embossing powder and heat set.  The webs were then sponged in Old Olive ink with a dauber to give it a bit more colour and depth. 

The bullfrogs were stamped in Old Olive ink. I glued on some wiggley eyes for fun with Crystal Effects.  The Lily Pads were punched out of Old Olive cardstock with a 1 3/8" circle punch.  They were stamped with  the bubble stamp from the Halloween Hoot set and the edges were distressed with Old Olive ink.

I hope you enjoyed this card today and come back next week for Week Six.  If you're interested in playing along with the the blog hop, check out Shirley's website for the rules.  They are simple and fun and there's still time to get in on this great weekly event. 

Happy Anniversary Heather and Ken

My beautiful sister Heather and her wonderful husband Ken were married 7 years ago today in a fabulous outdoor wedding.   I was ao happy and excited to be my sister's maid of honour, and we had such a fun time leading up to the wedding.  When the big day arrived everything was perfect just as they'd planned. For obvious reasons I didn't want to post this card earlier but I've been just busting at the seams to share these cards with you and now that their special day is here and the original's off in the mail it's okay.  I'm dedicating this post to them..........Happy Anniversay Heather and Ken, hope you're having fun today!

The idea for this card stemmed from my prep work in assembling a four card  "All Occasion Card Class" featuring butterflies and clean and simple designs that even a beginning cardmaker could easily do. Since I really like working with monochromatic designs and tone on tone neutrals (white or very vanilla) my colour choice for these cards was simple.  For my secondary colours I chose various shades of blues and purples to coordinate with the Butterfly Pansy technique I would be demonstrating.

While making my mock up card, I was attracted to one made by Trudy Sjolander featured in the September 2011 CardMaker Magazine.  Trudy used natural cardstocks for her base and layers and minimal stamping and die cuts for the rest of her fabulous card. That fit in nicely with my concept of "clean and simple (CAS)" and from that moment I could envision how my card would look.

So without further ado here's the card I designed for my All Occasion Card class which is running on September 15th.  The card base and top layer of the card are in Brocade Blue. I've texturized the top layer with the new Snow Burst Embossing Folder in the Holiday Mini (it's not just for Christmas Cards as you can plainly see!).  A layer of Whisper White is nestled below that.  A little later on in this post I'll share a tip on how to conserve your paper stocks when you're layering, but first I want to show you the inside of the card and take a closer look at the butterflies. 

The inside of the card, features the Top Note Die stamped in Brocade Blue with the "Congratulations" sentiment from Stampin' Ups! Spring Occasions Mini catalogue. This hostess set called "Something to Celebrate" included nine sentiments covering every occasion and was so worthwhile earning! The butterfly and flowers are also from a treasured retired set called "Of the Earth". As you've probably noticed, I just can't seem to put this set away. 

Inside view of the card

The butterfly is double punched from Shimmery White Cardstock and mounted with dimensionals.  A small bow in Whisper White Taffeta ribbon was added to the center of the butterfly using Crystal Effects to mount it. 

This view shows the butterfly layers

Although it's hard to see from the picture, Shimmery White cardstock was used for these butterflies die cut using the Beautiful Wings Sizzix Embosslits Die.  Basic Pearls are the only adornment.

And finally here's the Anniversary Card I made. For Heather and Ken's card I decided to use the colours and texturizing that Trudy had incorporated into her design.  Don't you just love the look of this card too?

Inside view of the card.  The sentiment "Happy Anniversary" is from the "Something to Celebrate" hostess set previously mentioned.  The Butterfly and Flower stamp verse are from the "Of the Earth Set".  All are stamped in Crumb Cake ink to match the cardstock base and layer. 

I've only used one Butterfly die cut topped with the Whisper White Taffeta bow on this card.  Don't you just love that little bow?  They are so fun to make.  If you want a lesson on how to make them check out Diana Gibbs lovely tutorial ............that's where I learned to make them.  They are fun and easy to do!

Basic Pearls are used to add detail to the butterflies.  The small butterflies are adhered to the cardstock using Crystal Effects.  The larger butterfly is mounted on two dimensionals to give some depth. 

Okay so here's my tip I promised to share with you on conserving paper.  For my card I used the negative die cut from the Top Note die as my Whisper White layer.  Yup........... you got it!  The actual Top Note layer was used for the inside of the card and because I centered my 5 1/4" by 4" piece of cardstock over the die before running it through my Big Shot I'm able to use the leftover cardstock for the outer layer. 

This is the negative cut from the Top Note mounted to the front of my card.  I've applied double sided adhesive strip around the frame to secure the next layer. 

This is showing the negative strip before I glued it to the card front and applied the Texture Embossed layer.  Once all the layers are in place no one will even guess that the Whisper White layer isn't a full layer of cardstock. 

Okay well this was a rather lengthy post today but I hope you've enjoyed it.  I still have room for anyone interested in attending my "All Occasion Card Class" on September 15th, so let me know if you're interested in attending.    Have a great day!