IHP October DT Challenge – Fireworks!

This month our Design Team was treated to a wonderful new product from Tsukineko called Fireworks! It’s a water-based, acid-free and non-toxic shimmer spray that coordinates with the Memento ink pad colors. We’re all using them in our projects today.

I wanted to keep the thoughts of Katie Renz and her valiant battle on the front burner (honestly, it’s nearly impossible to get out of my mind), so I used another one of the digital images that is being sold to raise money for her family. This one is the mermaid that was designed by Marianne Walker. I thought that the Pear Tart Fireworks would be perfect for an underwater kind of background.

I printed the image and sentiment out, and sprayed it with the Fireworks. I did it inside a carton to contain any spray mess from getting all over the place. I printed the image a second time and colored it with my Copic markers, and fussy-cut it to adhere on top of the sprayed image. Unfortunately, I couldn’t, no matter how I tried, get a picture to show how beautifully shimmery this stuff is! You’ll have to use your imagination a bit. Oh, and I also used some Stickles (Icicle) to add some sparkle to the mermaid’s tail and the little stars in the sentiment.

Before I added the Stickles, I cut the piece out with Nestabilities, embossing it with that fabulous new No More Shims Embossing Mat. I glued a layer of green cardstock onto a white card base, and covered it with a piece of printed vellum I had in my stash that was perfect for the watery scene. The image was then popped up on some Dimensional Dots. Once it was all put together, I put the whole thing back in the carton and gave it another shot with the Fireworks to give it just a little bit of subtle shimmer.

Kate will be giving away some Fireworks to a random commenter ON TODAY’S DT POSTS so the more you hop and comment, the more chances you have to win! Winner will be announced on Friday so you have until Thursday 9PM EST to leave those comments!

Here’s the roll call:

Carolyn (you are here)

Deb

Gretchen

Kendra

Loretta

Lori

Lynn

Tracy

Kate

Have a shimmery day!

Swimming for Katie – A Blog Hop & Fundraiser

From October 10-12 some of the best stampers are joining together to support and encourage our friend and fellow stamper, Katie Renz, who is currently battling inoperable gastric cancer. If you're not familiar with her story, Katie’s cancer started just before Christmas last year. This young, beautiful, healthy, vibrant mother of 3 with her infectious smile was suddenly diagnosed with an inoperable cancer, virtually overnight. A few tummy aches and then stage 4 gastric cancer. Her first post about it is here. The idea of “Swimming for Katie” came from her recent post here.

All of the patterned papers here are from the Sweet Owl pad. I pieced the character from one of them and colored the tentacles with a Copic marker and then went over them with a Spica pen to give it a little shimmer. There are some little glitter dots of Stickles on the crown and at the tope of the wand. I cut strips of some of the papers and diagonally covered the card front. The waves are cut with a scalloped Nestabilities die.

This exclusive stamp used in my sample, designed by Becky Oehlers is available as a clear stamp, as well as a digis or a dig and SVG cut file. 100% of the profits go to Katie's fund to help her and her young family. Her husband Kevin and her three young children need our help and support. In addition to the Keep Swimming Octopus, Marianne Walker and True =D Doodle Designs both also donated digis that are for sale.  Direct donations are also being accepted. Information central is HERE. This is a permanent page that will stay active at i {heart} papers with current information and the full 3 day blog hop listing, as well as the donation button. 

Here are all the items available for sale.

Keep Swimming Octopus Peachy Clear stamp $5.50 with free shipping	Keep Swimming Octopus DIGIstamp $3.00 with instant download
Keep Swimming Octopus DIGIstamp with SVG cut file $3.50 with instant download	Keep Swimming Ribbon Fish DIGIstamp and DIGIpapers $5.00 with instant download
Keep Swimming Mermaid DIGIstamp $3.50 with instant download

I hope you will join me in supporting Katie through a purchase or donation. The following is a list of everyone who has projects posted today. I hope you will be inspired by them and moved to purchase or donate. If you would like to send Katie a card, her mailing address is:

Katie Renz
PO Box 5913
Bellingham, WA 98227-5913

Thank you!

Now go check out all of the other stellar stampers who are participating in today’s round of this amazing collaborative effort:

AJ Otto
Beate
Carolyn Mustopa (you are here!)
Dawn Burnworth
Deb Felts
Gretchen Belknap
Heather Jensen
Jen del Muro
Julie Ranae
Kate - i {heart} papers
Kendra Wietstock
Lisa Johnson
Loretta Lock
Lori Tecler
Lynn Mercurio
Marianne Walker
Michele Gross
Stacy aka Twinshappy
Tracy Schultz
Debbie Olson
Cindy Lawrence
Cindy Haffner 
Julie Koerber
Christine Okken
Tammy Hershberger
Danielle Kennedy
Barbara Anders
Makiko Jones
Ashley N Newell
Shannan Teubner
Taylor Usry
Jen Tapler
Jenn Balcer
Jenny Chesnick
Jess Larsen
Jessica Knutsen
Jimmi Mayo
Joan Bardee
Joan Ervin
Julia Aston
Julie Day
Julie Ebersole

IHP Logo Color Challenge

As part of the IHP Birthday Bash, we’re having a color challenge using the colors of the IHP logo. And such pretty colors they are! We would love it if you would join us in making a project of your own (upload to your blog and link to the Mr. Linky on today’s posting of the IHP blog, upload to the IHP Facebook page or an online gallery with the keyword IHPBB2011). Deadline to enter is Saturday 12pm EST.

Here’s my card. This shows how you can use stamps and paper intended for Christmas on a birthday card:
That cute little smiley package is from the Lawn Fawn set called Pa-rum-pa-pa-pum, and the paper is from the Basic Grey pad Eskimo Kisses. The packages are colored with Copic markers to match the paper and IHP logo (BG01, RV23, G82). I glittered up the packages with some Icicle Stickles and popped the piece up on the patterned paper-covered card base with some of those super-sticky Dimensional Dots. The greeting is from an old Hero Arts greeting set. A very simple but adorable birthday card, and a great way to get extra mileage out of your holiday stuff!

Check out what the rest of the Design Team did, and don’t forget to play along for your chance to win a prize in the random drawing!

• Deb
• Gretchen
• Kendra
• Loretta
• Lori
• Lynn
• Tracy
• Kate

And remember, in celebration of IHP’s 3rd Birthday, use the code 3bday for 20% off everything in the store through 10/7/11. No exceptions or exclusions! And as always, free shipping with your $50US/$150CAN order.

Happy day!

In honor of WCMD

Here are a couple of cards I made for World Card Making Day using goodies that I got from i {heart} papers.

A little back-story about my card making: Long before she started i {heart} papers, Kate was my first real introduction to card making, waaaay back when I contacted her to hold a SU workshop for me. She quickly thereafter became my upline, and now, all these many years later, she is one of my dearest friends and I hold her singly responsible for all the money I’ve spent on papercrafting stuff, as well as for all of the many wonderful friends I’ve made through the craft. She runs a rockin’ good business, and I’m so proud to be even a marginal part of it.

Anyhoo. This first card uses the stamp set Chubby Chums, and paper from the Sweet Owl paper pad. That pad is so full of gorgeous papers with all kinds of glittery and shiny goodness. Love it! As you can see, I did some fussy cutting on this one. After I stamped the image on the patterned paper and colored it with a few Copic markers, I cut out the eyeballs separately and attached them. I popped the image up on a Fleur de Lis Pendant piece. There’s a strip of Fuchsia Faux Suede ribbon behind it.

The next card is great for using up scraps of paper. These papers are all from the Fine & Dandy True Blue pad by My Mind’s Eye, which I don’t see in stock at the moment, but any coordinating papers would do as well. I cut the edges with the Long Classic Rectangles Nestabilities to get the small scalloped shape I wanted. Some punched stars highlight the stars in one of the papers, and they’re blinged up with clear Kaiser Craft rhinestones.

We’ll see if I can get any more card making done today. Stay tuned!

Happy World Card Making Day – IHP Style!

There really is a day just for us – and it’s not just National, it’s for the whole WORLD!

And how awesome is it that this month Kate is also celebrating the 3rd birthday of i{heart}papers, and there’s a whole WEEK of festivities planned. How can you join the celebration?

October 1 - World Card Making Day! Make a card and upload it to the IHP Facebook wall and show off some products you've gotten from IHP. All entries will be eligible for a Facebook exclusive giveaway! Use code WCMD2011 for 20% off everything in the store. No exceptions or exclusions! And as always, free shipping with your $50US/$150CAN order.

October 2 & 3 - Facebook giveaways. Send your crafty friends to like IHP and have them tell Kate you sent them!

October 4 - secret Facebook happening (won't be announced until that day) with THREE gift certificates being given away.

October 5 - IHP Logo Color Challenge. We would love if you would join us in making a project of your own (upload to your blog and link to the Mr. Linky on the IHP blog, upload to our Facebook page or an online gallery with the keyword IHPBB2011). Deadline to enter is Saturday 12pm EST.

October 6 - more Facebook giveaways!  Send your crafty friends to like IHP and have them tell Kate you sent them!

October 7  - Facebook giveaways and Operation Julie's Smile blog hop.  Hop along for your chance to win a $20 IHP gift certificate or one of the other amazing prizes donated for Julie's fundraiser.

ALL orders placed during the Bash (Oct 1-7) will be entered for your chance to win the grand prize $50 gift certificate drawing on Monday.

Refer a friend who orders at least $25 and have them mention you in their order comments and you each receive an extra entry!

Winners will be announced on Monday, October 10 (evening)

What a way to celebrate!

IHP DT Challenge: Something New

The theme for this month’s i {heart} papers Design Team challenge was pretty loose: all we had to do was use some of NEW stuff that Kate’s been getting in from the Summer CHA buying spree. Not difficult at all, if you ask me!

There are soooo many gorgeous new paper pads that the challenge for me was deciding which to use. I wanted something that would work for a masculine gift, since I’ve been doing so much girlie stuff lately. The colors in the Breeze pad from My Mind’s Eye were so deliciously different from what I’ve been using lately that I couldn’t resist playing with them. And I took full advantage of the fact that in these collections, all the papers are meant to work together. So I used as many as I could at one time in this patchwork-style treat can (paint can from my stash) and matching birthday card.

For the oval panels, I used some of the new Lifestyle Crafts (Quickutz) dies – the Nesting Oval and Nesting Lacy Oval ones. And to give it a more masculine look, I cut the lacy oval shapes from self-adhesive Corkstock. It cuts like a dream and is perfect for something like this!

Oh, here’s a hint when you’re adhering paper to curved surfaces like this paint can: roll the piece of paper over the edge of a table to give it a bit of curve before you stick it on. It makes things much easier! I used my favorite decoupage medium for this job – Royalcoat satin finish.

The image and text for both of these are from an adorable oldie but goodie set that Kate still has in stock – Changito Baker. I just used some scotch tape to omit wording from the stamp when I did the card. Cute Changito is colored with Copic markers.

Make sure you check out the New Items page at IHP. And if you already have some new stuff and want to play along with us, just upload it to the SCS or PCP gallery with the keyword ihp0911.

Now go see what the rest of the fabulous design team did with the new stuff:

• Deb
• Gretchen
• Kendra
• Loretta
• Lori
• Lynn
• Tracy
• Kate

Happy hopping!

Crochet Madness!!!

There probably isn’t a craft I haven’t dabbled in at some point in my life, or at least tried my hand at. Some stuck; some lasted a month or two and faded away. I started crocheting when I was very young, and have picked it up now and again through the years. Recently I was tempted to play with yarn again. Take a look at what I’ve made over the last few weeks and see if you can figure out why…

A snuggly little pink bunting, and

a little sweater set with not one, but two hats. I couldn’t make up my mind.

Yup! My son and daughter-in-law are gonna make me a grandma, and it’s a little girl!!! I’m so excited I could explode! Baby isn’t due the beginning of January, though, so we’ve got a while.

In the meantime, once these were done I started looking at what else I could crochet, and found this entire world of something they call Amigurumi, which is basically little crocheted animals and things. I decided to start with this little Chinese rabbit called Tuzki. He has pipe cleaners in the arms and legs, so he’s sort of posable.

I’ve got lots more patterns downloaded – this is gonna be fun!

Anyhow, lots to get done this weekend that does not involve a crochet hook, so let me get moving!

Have a great weekend.

Not yet, but I’m ready!

No, it’s not fall yet, but there’s a definite hint of what’s to come in the air. I have a love-hate relationship with fall. On one hand, the temperatures are milder, there’s a clean crispness in the air, and my birthday falls smack in the middle of it. On the other hand, it means winter is coming; that alone is enough to make me dread the fall.

Anyhow, while I’ve been taking the last couple of weeks away from card making and revisiting my old hobby of crocheting, summer has definitely slipped away (if not officially, then at least atmospherically). It made me want to revisit my favorite autumnal paper pad that I got from i {heart} papers from last year – SEI’s Moonrise. And the gorgeous embellishments (which Kate still has a couple of in stock) that coordinated with the papers just begged to be used with this week’s Clean & Simple FTL #157 layout.

While I was digging through my older stuff, I found this Stampendous set called Happy Everything, which is really a little gem (and which Kate also still has in stock). A little snippet of brown satin ribbon finishes it off.

Will I send this card to someone this fall? I’d like to think so, but my track record thus far is not good when it comes to actually putting cards in the mail. Anybody else out there have that problem?

Happy everything,

Feel Better, Cupcake!

When I saw the sketch for the FTL155 Challenge this week, it reminded me of a made-up bed for some reason. Tonight I sat down to play, and this is what I came up with:

I’ve been loving the Miss Nelly paper by Kaiser Craft (I’ve used it a lot lately – I’ll show you later), and this Doctor’s Orders stamp by Taylored Expressions was perfect for paper-piecing with it.

A few Copic markers, a little ribbon, and it was done!

Here’s the sketch with the link if you’re interested:

 

 

 

 

 

Off to bed now – it’s been a crazy weekend, following a crazy week, and I think tomorrow’s gonna be a little crazy too!

Big girls don’t cry

That’s a lie. Sometimes they do – like when their big girl moves out of state with her husband to start a new phase of their lives together.

My baby girl Laila and her husband Roy are moving down to the Virginia Beach area tomorrow so Roy can start his new job as a doctor (I’m so proud of him) at a hospital down there. Don’t they look wonderful and happy?
Roy’s family invited us out to a barbeque in Long Island yesterday to say farewell them. His mom Dottie cooked up a storm – incredibly delicious food that I ate waaay too much of!

I, of course, had to make a cake. It’s what I do.
That is a LOT of buttercream. Underneath it all is a dark chocolate cake filled with alternating layers of chocolate ganache and kirsch-soaked fresh cherries. I must say that it was very yummy, and very rich.

Roy’s sister Morgan made some beautiful (and very delicious) cupcakes. I confess that I was so full that I only tasted the little ones on the right – yummy little high-hats topped with marshmallow creme under chocolate coating. Well done, Morgan!

Anyhow, as I write this they are probably tossing things willy-nilly into cartons at the last minute before the truck comes at noon to pack up their lives and head down to VA first thing in the morning. And I’m sitting here with tears running down my face because I just realized that I never got a picture of us together yesterday. I know they’ll be back for visits, and I’ll go down there to visit, and it’s not forever, and all that stuff that people say, but still…

IHP DT August Challenge: Beat the Heat!

In many parts of the country, or the western hemisphere for that matter, August is the hottest, stickiest month of the year. This year in particular, we’ve had an especially brutal summer. So our challenge this month was to create a card/project using COOL colors and/or few layers.

I went for the cool colors, but actually ended up with a little more layering than I usually do. Overall, I think I ended up with a pretty cool card!
To begin with, I chose my patterned paper from the Basic Grey 6x6 pad Eskimo Kisses (it doesn’t get much cooler than that!). The branch and bird cage are from the Ashley’s Blooms set by My Cute Stamps. I stamped the cage and the sentiment (from an old Hero Arts set in my stash) in Memento London Fog to keep the cool feeling going. I outlined the branch with my Copic Marker BG11 to give the impression of the sky without coloring the whole thing, and to set off the white of the blossoms. The white lacy strip is some Basic Grey self-adhesive paper ribbon, also from my stash. The bird cage is popped up on Sticky Thumbs dimensional dots for some added depth.

The layout of the card was taken from this week’s Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 130, although I did kinda flip it around a little bit to suit the stamps.

If you’d like to play along with our challenge, we’d love to see what you do! Just upload your creation to the SCS or PCP gallery with the keyword “ihp0811” so we can find it.

Now go hop around and see what Kate and the rest of the IHP Design Team came up with for this chilly challenge:

• Deb
• Gretchen
• Kendra
• Loretta
• Lori
• Lynn
• Tracy
• Kate

Stay cool!

I love pink

Really, I do.

Stamps: Little Loveosaurus (MFT)
Ink: Memento Black, Copic R81 (for airbrushing)
Paper: A Fair Day (S.E.I.)
Other: Big Scalloped Ovals Nestabilities, Sweet Blush satin ribbon (PTI), self-adhesive pearls (airbrushed R81), Shabby Pink Smooch (TE)

Unity Hop-Along

Hi! Today the IHP DT is Hip Hopping along with the Unity Design Team. So be sure to check all their blogs for fabulous projects showcasing Unity! In celebration of this little hop, ALL full-sized Unity kits at IHP are $12 or less! But, there is VERY limited inventory and these past kits will not be restocked, so don’t wait or you might miss your chance to get them at this fabulous price.

Here’s my card:
It uses the Unity Itty Bitty set By a Thread, and paper from the Stella Rose Hazel 6x6 pad. I used one of the Copic markers that I colored one of the thread spools with to dye the white ribbon the same color, and added a little faux stitching with a white opaque pen. The patterned paper and the focal circle are cut with Nestabilities.

I don’t usually do any “dressing up” on the inside, but this time I did.
Go check out what the rest of the IHP DT did with their Unity stamps:

Kate
Tracy
Kendra
Lori
Deb
Lynn
Gretchen
Loretta

Happy hopping, and happy SHOPPING!

Two days in a row!

Here’s another card I made recently with some goodies I got at CHA a couple of weeks ago. It has sort of a rustic feel to it, which is pretty much outside my comfort zone.

The nice people at the Scor-Pal booth were kind enough to give me a Scor-Bug tool when I mentioned that I’d been wanting to try one. That was the launching point for this card, which uses a kraft panel edged with the little bugger.

At the Simple Stories booth, they had some samples of paper from the Days of Summer collection out for the taking. It was a piece that had circles of different patterns from the collection, so I punched some butterflies out of a few of them, and a circle out of another. I trimmed it with some adhesive paper lace from Basic Grey, and stamped it with one of my favorite stamps from Papertrey’s Signature Greetings set. The butterflies are blinged up a bit with rhinestones. Had to add some bling somewhere!

It’s a beautiful day, and I’m gonna head out for a long walk, ‘cause I think it’s supposed to rain later.

Let’s play catch-up

I’ve been stamping a lot, but not blogging a lot. Need to do something about that, since I do enjoy sharing my creations (even if the inspiration for them is often liberally borrowed from others). No excuse except for laziness, I suppose, and the fact that I don’t feel very chatty. So I decided that the answer, at least for the time being, is to set out to just post pictures of the stuff, and not put pressure on myself to be witty or verbose, and just see what develops.

There were a lot of friends’ birthdays in July and I realized I never posted pictures of the cards. Sadly, not all of these friends actually got cards. Blame it on Facebook.

So let’s start the game of catch-up with a couple of the cards that actually got made and mailed.

This was for my wonderful friend Kate (owner of i {heart} papers). Paper is from the For the Record collection kit, stamps are Technique Tuesday’s Stamping in Circles, and I used one of the Spellbinders fancy tags set for the scrolled medallion piece. I loved how it coordinated so well with the paper and stamp design! I colored in the white space on the circle thingie with a Copic marker to make it match the paper better. What I forgot is that Kate is not fond of red. Sorry!

Next up was my friend Jackie’s birthday. Jackie loves purple. This I remember because I do too. I used a stamp from the Stained Glass set by Flourishes, and paper from the Memory Box Enchanted 6x6 pack. I had fun with my Copic markers with this one. I even remembered to take a picture of which ones I used. Hmm, I see that I missed a couple. Sorry!

OK, I think I’ve used up my word quota for this post. Hopefully there will be more later. Words, I mean. And posts.

Later,