April IHP Design Team Challenge

Each month a member of the i {heart} papers design team hosts a challenge. This month it was Cathleen who came up with the challenge, and her theme was Going Askew. We were to make something with the image put on crooked. Makes sense, since Cathleen's blog is called Crooked Card Creations!

I thought I knew what I was going to do already, but as luck would have it, this week's Mojo Monday sketch challenge had a skewed image on it, so I decided to take advantage of the double-play! And I realized I needed to make a birthday card for my son-in-law, so I stepped out of my comfort zone and went looking for papers/colors to make a masculine card. I guess that made it a triple-challenge! I only inked the cake itself on this, since I didn't want the pedestal it was sitting on for this purpose.

What I used:
Stamps: Birthday Cakes (Impression Obsession) (just realized Kate is out of these - termporarily, I hope!)
Ink: Palette Noir, Copic markers
Paper: Marrakech (Basic Grey), Baja Breeze, Pacific Point, Summer Sun, Ruby Red (SU!), Papertrey white
Other: Scalloped border and star punches (SU!)

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

And now I'm going to go to sleep before I throw my @#^%@!&#^!%# computer out the window for getting bogged down with some background nonsense, making this post take 10 times longer to put together than necessary!

Chicken Love: The Cake

Strange name for a post, yes? Well to give you a little background, my son Yusuf is now the very happy husband of a very gifted children's book illustrator who goes by the nickname of Chicken Girl. They got married in a private ceremony this past Wednesday on a beach in St. Thomas, and had the reception here in NY yesterday. Jannie, my new daughter-in-law, nicknamed him Math Boy, as he was working for his PhD in Mathematics when they met, although he has since completed it (my son the doctor!).

Anyway, Chicken Girl and Math Boy met almost exactly 5 years ago on the corner of Houston and Mulberry Streets, and on their third anniversary of meeting, she created this illustration as an anniversary card for him. When we were discussing the details for the reception nearly a year ago, she said that the only thing that she really wanted was a chicken cake. Although I had not done any cake decorating in many, many years, and even then just a bit of dabbling, I offered to take on the challenge. I decided to use her own artwork, which I found on her blog, as inspiration for the cake. And so began several months of studying and practicing fondant cake decorating, all self-directed, using books, TV shows, the web, and a terrific DVD. This is the result:

Here's a better look at the chickens. I think if you click on it you can see it bigger:
These are pictures I took while it was still in my apartment, and not very good ones at that. When we set it up at the restaurant, I put some Belgian chocolate seashells on the sand to make it look, well, more beach-y. Here's a picture of them cutting the cake:

I had a lot of fun making this, but the very best part of it was seeing Jannie's face when she saw it for the first time yesterday. She agreed from the start to let me surprise her. She had absolutely no idea what I was doing, except that it involved chickens, and her trust in me touched my heart. I am indeed a very blessed and happy mother, and mother-in-law!

Lovin' the Sweet Pea!

And as you might have noticed, I'm lovin' my Copic markers, too. These Sweet Pea stamps from Pink Cat Studios are so much fun to color, and they are so darned cute!

It was impossible to get a picture good enough to show how glimmery this is. I used my Candle Light Shimmerz over the flower petals, the wings, and the star on the wand. It gives it such a lovely glow. I also put a dab of Glossy Accents on the ladybug.

For once, I picked a piece of patterned paper before I started coloring. Do you know how many images I have sitting around, already colored, and I can't find a piece of paper to match?!!! Oh, and I used my Copics with the airbrush to make a matching flower, too.

What I used:
Stamps: Sweet Pea (plate 2)
Ink: Memento Black, Copic markers
Paper: Papertrey white, Ripe Avocado, Summer Sunrise, and Polka Dot Parade
Other: Nestabilities, Ranger Glossy Accents, Shimmerz, Prima flower, bling (of course!)

Still alive!

Sorry for being MIA for the past several days. Almost every minute of my spare time has been taken up by preparing components for my son's wedding cake. The event is next Saturday, and even though I have 3 days off beforehand, it's a HUGE undertaking and I want to get as much prepared in advance as I can. And of course leave time for the inevitable screw-ups. I promise I'll share pictures next Sunday. But be prepared -- this is not your mother's wedding cake!

I have about half a dozen cards in various states of completion, but nothing to show you right now. If I can get enough prep work done today, maybe I'll be able to finish one of the cards later.

Hope you're enjoying a wonderful holiday, whichever one you're celebrating!

Passover Treats

I try to make a little treat every holiday for the people I work with. For Passover this year I decided to use the fabulous Top Note Treat Box that so many people have been showing, and for which Angie Tieman has a terrific tutorial on her blog.

I used SU! Night of Navy for the box, and some gorgeous K & Company paper that I got from Kate at i {heart} papers. It's from the collection pad called Blue Awning. (ALERT: she has 1 left and it's on sale!)

I also used my Mazel Tov set from Papertrey Ink. I love having something that covers every Jewish occasion that might arise. Comes in handy when you're Jewish and work for a Jewish-run school!

I filled the boxes with treats that seem only to be found around this time of year. They're chocolate-covered marshmallow twists, and 2 of them fit in the box beautifully! Because they are unwrapped, I lined the boxes with a piece of freezer paper, shiny side up.

Hi there!

Wow, making this card was like being in labor for 6 hours. That's how long it actually took me to figure out what I was doing and get it done! You know when you have "kind of a concept" but have no idea how you're going to do with it? Different kind of pain, but pain nonetheless.

I have a BUNCH of stuff from i [heart] papers that I haven't gotten around to using yet (go figure). Anyhow, I knew I wanted to use this bright and happy It's Raining paper set from Piggy Tales, and I knew that I wanted to use this Froggy stamp with it. The rest just kind of evolved.

Now the cool thing about this paper collection is that it comes with all kinds of coordinating "stuff." Rub-ons, letter stickers, and these very cool frames they call "barn doors." There are 2 sheets of them, in all the various colors and patterns used in the papers, and different shapes and sizes. So at first glance, this card doesn't look like much. But when you open the secret door (which I raised up on foam dimensionals), WOW!

I used lots of techniques with the froggy. He's colored with Copic markers, and then dotted with the colorless blender to give him the textured spots. I also went to town with my Sakura Glaze pens. All those yellow dots and his smile are glossy. So is the leaf he's sitting on. I added some Glossy Accents on his eyes, which are punched out and glued on top of the image for a little dimension. I masked the leaf so froggy could sit on it, and then I masked the whole thing so I could airbrush it while it was stll nestled in its Nestability after cutting and embossing the circle. The top portion is airbrushed with blue, and the bottom with aqua. I then used that colorless blender to make a few ripples in the water, and went over them with my Spica glitter pen. Oh yeah, momma went to town with this little froggy!

What I used:
Stamps: Froggy (Hero Arts), Mega Mixed Messages (PTI), Garden of Life (PTI)
Ink: Memento black, PTI Lemon Tart, Copic markers
Paper: It's Raining, It's Pouring (Piggy Tales), Yoyo Yellow, Cool Caribbean, Brilliant Blue, Glorious Green (SU!)
Other: Nestabilities, SU! circle punches, Prima flowers, SU! mini brads

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

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.