Love these monkeys!!!

OK, don't get too excited just because I'm posting 2 days in a row. I don't expect it to happen too often, unfortunately. I got 2 challenges out of one card this time! The first is Dawn's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge, and the second is Taylor's Cupcake Challenge.

The colors were just so fresh and wonderful that I couldn't wait to use them together, and I thought my new Changito monkeys would be fun to use with it. This set that I just got from Kate at i {heart} papers has the monkeys holding the empty sign, and LOTS of different words to put inside it!

I used my Copics to color the image, and to airbrush the teal flower and the brown brad in the center. Unfortunately, my Memento ink seems to have disappeared under a pile of "stuff" somewhere, so I used Versafine instead, and it didn't hold up to the Copics quite as well.

What I used:
Stamps: Changito Notes
Ink: Versafine black, Copic markers
Paper: PTI White, Certainly Celery, Taken With Teal, Chocolate Chip
Other: Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, flowers, brad

A Special Card for a Special Person

I spent more time on this card than I usually do these days. Partly because I started without a real plan, using a product I never had before, and partly because it needed to be special. It's for someone who's facing a bit of a challenge right now, and who needs a little extra-special love.

I used some new goodies I just got from Kate at i {heart} papers. That beautiful, delicate patterned paper is from the Basic Grey Porcelain pad. And the exquisite curves and piercing are courtesy of the Spellbinders Ric Rac Scalloped Pierceabilities. It was very easy to use, and I used it every which way I could. I cut, embossed and pierced the bottom edge of the card front, and used it as a stencil to sponge some color onto the embossed areas. Then I used the edge of it to cut the patterned paper so it would fit right up against the top edge of the design. The front of the card actually ends at the white scalloped edge, which I sponged a little to define. The patterned paper at the bottom is actually a strip on the bottom of the inside of the card.

I used the Ribbon Tags Trio Nestabilities to cut the sentiment, again using the die as a mask for sponging, and further sponging the edges for a little contrast.

What I used:
Stamps: Damask Designs (PTI)
Ink: Always Artichoke (SU)
Paper: PTI White, Basic Grey Porcelain 6x6 pad, Mellow Moss
Other: Ric Rac Scalloped Pierceabilities, Ribbon Tags Trio, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, New Leaf satin ribbon (PTI), bling

Have a wonderful weekend, and show a little extra love to someone special.

Let them eat cake!

Wow, I've had a very productive weekend — a big change from the sloth-like one I had last week. But then, I knew that the next several weekends would be full of projects and activities, so I was really just resting up (yeah...). This weekend I made a little more than half of the 100 wedding invitations that I'm doing for my daughter's friend. I'll show those to you another time.

But my other project this weekend was this birthday cake for the office. My boss and one of my co-workers have birthdays 2 days apart, so they get to share it. I'm really enjoying my foray into cake decorating, which will culminate in four short weeks with the wedding cake I'm making for my son and soon-to-be daughter-in-law. As a trial recipe run for that cake, this spring-like one is a yellow cake with chocolate hazelnut buttercream filling. It has a light coating of buttercream under the fondant covering. The branches are made of the same chocolate hazelnut filling, just smoothed out with a bit of chocolate syrup, and the flowers are made of gum paste.

Now to go clean up the awful mess in my kitchen. Somehow, no matter how hard I try, I just can't keep ahead of it...

i {heart} papers March Sketch Challenge

This month the i {heart} papers design team was given a sketch challenge by team member Kendra Wietstock. I loved the simplicity of this sketch, although I'm sure it could be gussied up as fancy as you wanted it to be.

I decided to put the focus on the beautiful papers that Kate has in the store now -- these are from the SEI Bridgeport collection. You can see in the picture how some elements of the paper are shiny embossed, and how shimmery the ribbon is.


What I used:
Stamps: Birthday Cupcake
Ink: Palette Noir
Paper: Garden Tour, Bordeaux, Springside (yes, I used the "B" side of this gorgeous paper!)
Other: Nestabilities, Lime Glimmer Ribbon, Eva glazed brads (could also use Bittersweet brads)

Check out Kate and the rest of the design team throughout the day to see their takes on the sketch. And feel free join in the fun yourself! Kendra is running a CONTEST on her blog using this sketch, and she'll be giving away a PRIZE!!!!

Sarah Anderson
Cathleen Torina
Loretta Lock
Amber Kroening
Kendra Wietstock
Lori Tecler
Deb Felts
Tracy Schultz
Meredith Socha
Dee Jackson

French Country Fruit

I was practicing with my Copics this weekend, using these delightful Lockhart stamps, among others. The colors and designs just sort of reminded me of the French Country style that I like so much, so I decided to make a set of three cards using them.

The blue check paper is from the SU! Patterns Pack II, and the red dots are from the Papertrey 2008 Bitty Dots pad.

Here are close-ups of the three cards. They all use a slightly different setup, although they use the exact same supplies.



They are very simple cards, with ribbon and bling conspicuously absent, but they make me happy!

What I used:
Stamps: Lockhart cherries, strawberries, apples
Ink: Memento black, Copic markers
Paper: PTI white, SU! Yoyo Yellow, DP mentioned above
Other: Fiskars border punch, Nestabilities Labels II

Mojo Bunnies

A bunch of my daughter's friends are having babies soon, so she asked me for a few cards. After all, what good is having a mom who makes cards if you can't call on her for a few now and then? So I decided, once again, to use Julee's Mojo Monday sketch as inspiration for a couple of them.

My go-to stamp of choice for baby cards is this adorable bunny from a retired Stampin' Up set, A New Little Someone. I also used various SU designer papers for these. That cute lacy strip going up the middle is cut from a sheet of various lace strips called Petticoat (s.e.i.) that I got from Kate and i {heart} papers. The bunnies are colored with Copic markers, and the accents are painted with Candle Light Shimmerz. The ribbon on top is from Papertrey Ink.

Non-stamping Sneak Peek

Today, just to be a tease, I'm giving you a sneaky peek at a very important project I have in the works. You won't see any more about it until after April 18th, though. That's right, Chickengirl, it's only 7 weeks away, and I've got some practicing to do!

Papertrey February Blog Hop

It's time again for the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop. This month's theme was anything to do with Spring. Like most of you in this hemisphere, I just can't wait for winter to be over. To me, Spring is epitomized by the budding of new leaves and blossoms on the trees, and that was what inspired this card. I love the soft colors. And yes, I did use pink and brown again, but I did throw in some green this time!

For further inspiration, I used Julee's Mojo Monday sketch. Definitely more layers that I am accustomed to using, but totally delightful. And if some of the layers look just slightly askew to you, let's blame it on the angle of the camera, shall we?

I hope this card invokes the promise of Spring for all of you!

What I used:
Stamps: PTI Out on a Limb
Ink: Burnt Umber, Sweet Blush, Spring Moss
Paper: PTI White, Sweet Blush, Spring Moss, Dark Chocolate, various PTI DP
Other: Fiskars Threading Water border punch, SU circle punches, pink rhinestones

{heart} your heart

Hope you don't mind a little time-out from stamping talk to hear a little about my personal life and a bit of a public service announcement!

As most of you probably know, February is National Heart Month, a time to raise awareness about heart disease, which remains the leading cause of death for American men and women. And as most of you probably do not know, I was recently diagnosed with high blood pressure and high cholesterol. So I am now under a doctor's care, after too many years of my own laissez-faire health management and a few years with no medical insurance, and I am determined to do everything in my control to live a long and healthy life. I know there are a lot of women out there (and men, too) who put off dealing with high blood pressure and cholesterol, since there are usually no symptoms associated with it. So I want to encourage all of you to take the time to {heart} your heart!

To that end, I am now on medication to control my blood pressure, and have changed my eating habits to lose weight and try to bring my cholesterol levels under control. In fact, in the last 6-1/2 weeks I have lost 20 lbs! And today I underwent a Nuclear Stress Test to determine whether my heart is healthy enough for me to sweat to the oldies with Richard Simmons. There was really nothing to it, but I had worked myself up to such a state of anxiety that my blood pressure went so sky-high that they almost had to cancel the test! After a half-dose of a mild sedative, they finally got me down to a manageable level and proceeded with it. Turns out the hardest part of the whole thing was figuring out how to stay on the treadmill, since I had actually NEVER been on one before and kept almost falling off the back of it; my doctor had to keep his hand on my back to keep me in one place! And let me assure you, no matter how scary the "nuclear" part of it sounds, it's a piece of cake! (Edited to add: Actually, the hardest part of the whole thing was cutting out caffeine for 2 days before the test!)

I'll get the final results back shortly, but I'm not worried. From all accounts it seemed to go fine. My life is really, really good — filled with blessings and happiness. And all of you out in blog-land are part of that. So take care of yourselves! Go get your blood pressure checked and do whatever you need to do to make sure we can share our love of all things stamping for a long, long time.

Oh no! More pink and brown!

I just can't seem to get away from it. I like it, really. It just seems that I use it too often. Anyhow, this week i {heart} papers is the sponsor of the sketch challenge on the CardPatterns blog. And as sponsor, Kate is giving away an awesome bundle of goodies to the winner of the challenge.

I had a really hard time with this sketch, but I did end up with a card I like. But as Kate says, "that's why they call it a challenge!"

What I used: (mostly available at i {heart} papers!)
Stamps: Birthday Cupcakes (Inkadinkado)
Ink: Palette Burnt Umber, Copics
Paper: PTI white, Basic Grey Bittersweet collection
Other: Ranger Glossy Accents, Stickles, white tafetta ribbon, bling

Can Spring Be Far Behind?

There's something about butterflies that just lift my spirits! We've had a string of bright, sunny (but still kinda cold) days, and you can almost believe that winter will be behind us soon. So when I decided to do Julee's Mojo Monday Sketch this week, I really wanted to use butterflies in a bright, springtime-y way.

I recently got this gorgeous Webster's Pages paper from Kate at i {heart} papers (p.s. - it's on sale!), and the bright, cheery colors and the butterflies just called out to me. It paired beautifully with this Stampendous Butterfly Beauties set. And of course, it just wouldn't be complete without some bling!



What I used:
Stamps: Butterfly Beauties, PTI Out on a Limb
Ink: PTI Ocean Tides, Palette Claret
Paper: Webster's Pages Cream, PTI White, SU Apricot Appeal, Baja Blue
Other: Random ribbon from Michael's, bling , SU Circle Punch

IHP February Challenge (and a sale!)

This month Kate, of i {heart} papers fame, challenged us, her devoted and talented design team, to use holiday paper or stamps in another way. I admit, I struggled over this, since the only holiday paper I had consisted of snowmen and trees. And then inspiration hit — I could get PUNNY with it! So I kinda decided on a concept, a Valentine's Day card, and then thought to myself, "Self, where are we gonna get a sentiment stamp that works for this?" And like a bolt of lightning, it struck me: use the JustRite stamper — you can make any sentiment you want!!!

Now I have to say, this card tickles the heck out of me. Not only did I manage to think outside of the proverbial box, but I stepped, no leaped, out of my comfort zone. If you've seen much of my stamping, you will know that my style doesn't lean toward shabby or distressed. But because of the nature of the paper design (OK, and because I kinda smeared the white ink when I was trying to highlight the embossed buttons) I went and dragged that white ink pad around the edges of everything. Instant shabby. I'd like to think it adds to the snow concept. But perhaps I flatter myself too much...

Go check out what Kate and the rest of the design team did with this challenge:

Sarah Anderson
Cathleen Torina
Loretta Lock
Amber Kroening
Kendra Wietstock
Lori Tecler
Deb Felts
Tracy Schultz
Meredith Socha
Dee Jackson

Oh yeah, about the sale: In addition to her usual free shipping with orders over $40, Kate already has lots of things reduced in her store, but i {heart} papers is running some banner ads on Splitcoast Stampers, and to celebrate she's offering an additional 10% off on everything in the store — the code is in the banner ad, so go check it out!

What I used:
Stamps: JustRite stamps (Small Letters and Times New Roman arranged on round wood block)
Ink: Palette Noir and New Canvas,
Paper: Jolly Little Snowmen, SU Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Not Quite Navy, PTI Raspberry Fizz
Other: Cuttlebug strip embossing folder, Nestabilities hearts

Inventor of the Year? Moi?!!!

And what is that contraption, anyway?

Do you remember the pic of the stacks of printed and cut wedding invitation pieces that I showed you the other day? The ones for my cousin? Well, the construction of them was looking to be truly fearsome, as they required a degree of precision and consistency of a scope beyond anything I've ever done before. And having to make 120 of them in a short period of time was scaring the heck out of me! So I cut down a piece of foam-core board, and created a template/frame to make the job much simpler, and foolproof!

Wanna see what the finished product will look like? (My apologies to any family members who might be reading this who will now not be surprised when they get theirs in the mail.)

The ribbon is looped at the top, runs through the center of each panel, between the layers. And the bottom one, the RSVP, is attached in such a way that it can just be slid off the ribbon and mailed back in the envelope. Oh, and what you can't see is that on the back of the middle piece is another pink panel for Transportation.

Now, this is only a mock-up, for measuring purposes. I used text-weight paper for this one, whereas the real ones will use all 80# cardstock. But can you just imagine having to put together 120 of these — centering the ribbon, getting the loop and the distance between each piece consistent — without something like my little contraption? I am (perhaps inordinately) proud of myself for this one!

And so, my dear friends, you know what I'll be doing this holiday weekend...

PTI Sketch Contest

PaperTrey Ink is celebrating their 2nd anniversary, and they're having all kinds of cool contests! Today's contest looked especially fun, and I had a little time to play, so I decided to go for it. Nichole hid a sketch in a connect-the-dots puzzle, to celebrate a new line of ribbons she's coming out with. I decided to turn the sketch upside down for my card.

What I used:
Stamps: PTI Green Thumb
Ink: PTI Plum Pudding & Lavender Moon, Versamark
Paper: PTI White, Plum Pudding, Guide Lines DP
Other: Martha punch, silver embossing powder, SU flower punch, PTI Plum Pudding ribbon, White Liquid Pearls

Whew!!!

OK, just in case you were wondering why I've had pink and brown on the brain lately, here's why...

I'm making the invitations for my cousin's wedding, and these are her colors. I did the Save the Dates a couple of months ago, so these colors have been stuck in my head for a while!

Today was spent printing and cutting cardstock for 120 invitations. And these are not just any invitations...wait until you see the finished product! I guess this is what's going to be keeping me busy for the next week or so, but I'll keep trying to squeeze in some other (non-pink&brown) stuff!