More is More

Happy Saturday!  I hope you’re having a great weekend and have plenty of time to stamp.  🙂  It’s my turn to host a Challenge for the eclectic Paperie Birthday Party.  Every birthday needs a card and a gift so my challenge is for you to make a Birthday Ensemble – a birthday card and matching tin, box, bag or other container to either be the gift or hold the gift.

I covered a ProvoCraft lunch tin with My Mind’s Eye Confetti Party designer papers and it’s filled with cards for all occassions for my friend’s birthday.  Maya Road chipboard letters were “painted” with Versamagic Dew Drop Chalk ink in Red Magic and embossed with Irridescent Ice embossing powder.  (Holy Cow! All three of those things I just linked are ALL on sale!) The sentiment in black (“A small thing done in great Love is a great thing”) and the olive vine at the bottom are from the upcoming SU Sale-a-bration rub-on set called Love & Happiness.  White flowers from the same rub on set are used at the bottom of the card.  They went on so easily and it is so cool having them in four colors in the one package!

Before covering the top of the tin I went around the edge with a red Copic marker.  The lid was then covered with two pieces of paper and a stack of Primas was used to cover the seam.

The card is a mini tall card 6.5″ x 3.25″ to fit in a SU small open ended envie.  Cardstock used is Prism Blush Red Medium and Frosted Kiwi.  Sentiment is from Paper Trey.  I’m really excited about this bright and happy set.  I’m going to need more of this paper – it’s so FUN!

Talk about FUN…check this out…

You can win a Stampendous prize pail similar to this one (exact contents will vary) just by playing my challenge!  How cool is that?  Check out all the deets here (ETA:  I have the link in now – sorry for the delay) and upload your photo here with keyword EPBE2008by 4pm Pacific on Sunday January 20th.  Joy and Daisy will be drawing a winner from all participants of my challenge and you can enter as many times as you like – each project pair will count as one entry.  Of course you are also welcome to upload your project to your blog or SCS gallery and we’d love for you to help spread the word and invite your friends to play along as well.  In order to be entered into the drawing you must upload to the eP gallery (you have to be logged in – ask me how I know – D’oh!) and you must post a message in the eP Forum on the thread I linked above.  Winner will be announced on that thread.   Taylor’s challenge is also open through Sunday afternoon and there will be a separate winner drawn for that as well.

Also don’t forget that eP is sending a party favor of Primas out with every order placed this weekend.  And also this weekend lots of papers are on sale – here’s the info from the newsletter

• 40% Off – We will be discontinuing carrying these papers.  Final Quantities.
  • Daisy D’s Designs
  • S.E.I.
  • Tinkering Ink
  • Papar Salon
  • Love, Elsie by K.I. Memories
  • Scenic Route
  • K & Company
  • Basic Grey (Figgy Pudding, Fruitcake, Obscure, Recess, Scarlet’s Letter, Lilly Kate Romani, Periphery)
  • Chatterbox

•  20% Off
  • Crate Paper
  • Cosmo Cricket
  • Fancy Pants
  • Basic Grey(Stella Ruby, Perhaps, Phoebe)
  • My Mind’s Eye

Please note:  Quantities are limited and while supplies last.  No rainchecks or backorders will be offered.  Sale prices apply only to selected items.  This offer does not apply to previous orders.  Discounted prices are already reflected in the price of the items.  No coupon is needed.

Happy Shopping and I hope you will have fun with both challenges.  And be sure to check back here tomorrow morning for another Dirty Dozen Alumni project.

Oh and while we’re on the subject of birthdays I want to shout out a big ol’ Happy Birthday to my friend Amy (Propecia on SCS).  Hope you’re having an awesome day Pro!!!!

Taylor is hosting a Cupcake Challenge for eclectic Paperie’s 1st Birthday.  Check it out here and please come play!

I’m so excited to use eP’s exclusive Stampendous set Hey There Cupcake for this card.  If you haven’t ordered it yet, you better run right over there and get it!

Card is 4″ square and base is Pixie Pink.  The rest of the paper is from the Junkitz Salsa Celebration 6×6 Junk Padz  It’s a little hard to see, but I used the Word Window Punch to punch through the whole card front and “happy birthday” from Hey There Cupcake is stamped on the inside of the card.  Dot Sparklers were applied on the scallops around the cupcake image which was embossed with Chocolate Chip craft ink and clear embossing powder.  The cupcake is popped up on double thick foam tape.  There’s a little paper piercing down the left side and for the right side I punched out some circle patterns from the Salsa Celebrations paper and covered them with some EK Success page pebbles so they look almost like Build-a-Brads.

Congratulations Joy and Daisy on your first year!  You know I love you guys!

Be sure to check back here tomorrow morning when I will be hosting a challenge for the ongoing birthday party!  Thanks for stopping by.

Well I managed this evening to create a card in the 8 square inches of space on my stamp table.  I had the idea for this card yesterday when I saw the Sketch Challenge on SCS.  Then this evening I saw the Ways To Use It Challenge was for embossing powder and I realized that stamping the image with Close to Cocoa craft ink and embossing with clear powder would make it even better.

This is one of my brand new sets – A Light Unto My Path.  I think this set will be great for lots of things – masculine cards, encouragement cards, sympathy cards (with a different sentiment) and more.  Both the main image and the sentiment are embossed and that looks really cool IRL.  In hindsight I wish I had stamped the Cheesecloth Background in Soft Sky or Creamy Caramel instead of Close to Cocoa for a more subtle effect.  It’s hard to see in the photo but I stamped Filigree Background in Chocolate Chip ink on the Close to Cocoa piece at the top.  I colored the stream of light with my Clear Spica Glitter pen for a soft sparkly effect.

I’m planning to send this card to Nate and Tricia (I mentioned Nate’s blog a few days ago https://cfhusband.blogspot.com/).  It turns out Tricia’s sister is a member of SCS and reads my blog (Hi Janet!) – small world, huh?  Please take a few minutes to mail a card of encouragement or a baby card of congratulations.  You can PM Janet (click here) to get the address…I’m not sure they want to publish it.  And please continue to pray for them as well.

Do you receive the eclectic Paperie Newsletter?  If not you need to rush on over there and sign up for it.  eP is celebrating their First Birthday over the next few days!  Congrats to Joy and Daisy!  I can’t believe it’s been a year already.  They’ll be running sales and promotions each day and tomorrow Taylor will be hosting a special challenge on the eP Forum.  And guess what?  I get to host one on Saturday!  I hope you’ll come play.  There will be a drawing for a FUN prize!

I also want to give a huge shout out to my friend Leann Yoho who was recently added to the Hanna Stamps Design Team!  WooHoo Leann – way to go!

I’m planning to be back tomorrow with a card or something for Taylor’s challenge.  Thanks for stopping by.

My new catty order was delivered yesterday while I was at work.  I kinda broke my self-imposed rule of not getting more than 3 or 4 stamp sets at any one time.  You can click on the thumbnail to see the big picture…     Wow!  What was I thinking?  I was thinking “I want that and that and that…and I can use that in my next class…and I’m getting hostess benefits!”  LOL!  Seriously I do have a general rule of not getting a lot of sets at one time because I feel I don’t use and enjoy them as much, but it just didn’t make sense this time to spread them out so here you have it.  🙂  As you can see I started mounting them during American Idol last night, but I have a long way to go!  Perhaps all this new stuff will help get me out of the creative slump I’ve been feeling.

I still have (or I should say I *again* have) a bunch of my stamp room stuff out in the living room.  It was out and then piled back in the stamp room floor for Christmas and then dragged back out again.  This is left over from when my awesome custom cabinet was put in my stamp room creating the need to completely reorganize EVERYTHING.  Of course that happened right as the holiday season started up so that project was never finished.  I have promised Curt that I will have everything out of the living room and put away by the end of January – I really need to get cracking on that!  I know when I get my stuff organized I will feel more like stamping too.  The constant clutter really zaps my creative energy and not being able to find stuff doesn’t help either.

I’m so excited about each set…I hope to have some samples to show you very soon.  Thanks for stopping by.

I was so excited and encouraged by the wonderful response we all got to our Bible Verse Challenge.  If you’d like to join in, we’d love to have you.  In the future we will be posting our verses on the 8th of each month and the Divine Design Challenge has now been posted on Splitcoast (click here) so check it out for all the challenge rules and please plan to post something on the 8th of February with us…or you can post any time really.  We’d love to have a group of women committed to playing every month.  🙂

Here’s a card I made for Beate’s Weekend Sketch Challenge.  I just got this Paper Salon paper (pristine pretty posies and herringbone) from eclectic Paperie and I had to do something with it right away – it’s so yummy!  Oh and it’s on sale too!

The main image is from an SU set from 2000 called Girl Talk (I’m pretty sure that’s what it was called – I recently broke up the set *gasp* and no longer have the label).  I’ve always loved that little shopping bag image – I don’t care how old it is!  The accent stamping is done with A Beautiful Life – brand new.  So I guess this card is *Something Old – Something New*

I also used my Nestabilties dies for the first time since getting them for Christmas.  It was much easier than I thought – I was a little intimidated by trying to get the right *sandwich* with my CuttleBug, but it worked out no problem.

I’d like to recommend a non-stamping blog for you to check out – Confessions of a CF Husband.  You might want to start back a month or so to really understand the story – try here perhaps.  This is a story of hope and courage and faith and mostly of God’s goodness.  It will probably make you cry, but it’s really not a sad story (I learned that from Nate).  You have to read it (and join in prayer) to know what I’m talking about.  And in fact before you go to Nate’s blog, you should read Tricia’s story first – click here.  I hope you’ll be challenged and encouraged.  I know I have been.

Thanks for stopping by.

 I have been blessed throughout my life by tremendous friendships.  Over the past year or so I have become more and more aware of how God has provided friends in my life for specific needs in ways I could have never imagined.  Sometimes in very small ways and sometimes in hugely monumental ways.  Just a few years ago I never could have imagined how He might work through a group of stampers on the internet.  LOL!

Recently one of those internet-stamper friends, Lori Craig, invited me along with a few other girls to participate in a monthly challenge with her.  We will each choose a verse from the Bible and stamp some sort of verse reference card with it.  Each person chooses her own size and method of keeping or displaying their cards – could be a rolodex-type file, a small photo album, a recipe box, etc.  And of course each person chooses a verse that is speaking to her at that time.  The verse can be stamped, printed, handwritten or whatever.  I’m so happy to participate in this challenge.

We’d like to invite you to join in this monthly challenge with us.  Feel free to start at any time and upload to your blog and/or SCS gallery.  When uploading to SCS please use Keyword BVC08 and be sure to fill in all the details as well as giving a link to your blog post if you have one.

I’ll be keeping my cards in a Provo Craft Mini Top Loading Tin, but I haven’t decorated it yet so that will be for a future month.  Based on the size of the tin, my card is 5″ x 3 5/8″ leaving room for the tab at the top to fit inside the closed tin.  I made it into a full side folding card so there is a place for journaling on the inside.

The verse I chose is Jeremiah 29:11-13

¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.

This verse speaks volumes and I’m certain many pastors have preached long sermons about those few lines, but for me the essence  of what I’m reading is God promising that He is fully trustworthy…not just worthy of our faith, but of our trust.  Faith is the easy part for me – I know God is real. I know Jesus died for me and rose again.  I know where I will spend eternity without doubt. And for those things I am endlessly grateful, but trusting Him for every day life is much more difficult for me and so this verse speaks deeply to me.  I can fully trust Him for my life on earth and He is always there when we seek Him.

 The stamping details:

Card base is Pretty in Pink stamped with French Flair in Rose Red.  The verse is printed on the computer on Vellum cardstock.  The frame is River Rock run through my Cuttlebug with the Textile Texture embossing folder and then inked with Versamagic Chalk ink in Pixie Dust.  The bird from Carte Postale was stamped on River Rock and cut out and adhered.  The rose from See With the Heart was stamped also stamped on River Rock and watercolored and cut out and adhered.  The rose petals were highlighted with a Spica Glitter pen and then painted with Crystal Effects.  As I see the photo I realize that the River Rock looks Celery, but it’s NOT.  Sorry I just couldn’t get good lighting even with my Ott Lite for this one.  And IRL both the bird and the rose are Rose Red without so much contrast between them.

Please visit the blogs of the other ladies in this challenge:

Lori Craig  – Make a Difference

Angel Wilde – Angelosity

Nancy Morgan – Paper Smiles

Taylor VanBruggen – Taylored Expressions

I can’t wait to see what they’ve done and what verses they have chosen!  If you decide to join us in the challenge please post a comment here with a link to your card and please feel free to invite others to join in as well.  Thanks for stopping by.

We posted all the deets for StampMania over at SCS about 5 days ago and we already have 60 people registered with payment and a bunch more checks on the way!  WooHoo!!!  If you’d like to see what all the fuss is about click here.  This is our 5th SM event (well actually 6th if we count the *Mini* we held as well) and we expect it to sell out.  It’s so hard to believe that in the Fall of 2004 we started with just 10 or 11 people getting together for a little shoebox swap and we expect to register approximately 140 people this year with space for 90 of those to join us for dinner.  This is a SCS community event and any stamper is welcome to join us as long as you register a screen name at SCS (which is free and very easy – simply click here and then click on “become a member” on the left hand side of the SCS home page.).  It started as just a SoCal event, but has grown into an event people travel from all over the country and even Canada to attend.  Don’t hesitate – sign up now!

After three full days of laying around doing a bunch of nothing…feeling stir crazy but not up to anything but a couple of loads of laundry…this evening I finally felt if I didn’t create something I was going to explode!  Do you ever feel that way?  I decided to sit down at my stamp table and just try to do something simple.  LOL!  As you know, I don’t *do* simple very well so that sounded much easier than it was.  But I came up with this…

OK, stamping just doesn’t get more basic than this.  I used two of the new Paper Trey Ink sets I got for Christmas (Beautiful Blooms and for the sentiment Spiral Bouquet) with Versamagic Chalk inks on a Fabriano Mediovalis notecard.  The flower centers are Adorn it droplets in pink and gold and I added some glitz with a Spica glitter pen (doesn’t show up in the photo of course).  A little grosgrain ribbon finishes off the card.  Phew!  At least I made something!  I was getting a little worried there.

I’m so proud of my friend Carol who is in my stamp club!  She actually took all the pieces from her One Sheet Wonder Friday night and made 7 cards over the weekend with them.  Check out her blog here and leave her a little comment.  I never finish stuff when I take pieces home like that!

Good news eclectic Paperie is open and shipping again after a much needed and well deserved vacation!  Be sure to go check them out!  I think I’m going to need some of that new Basic Grey Two Scoops collection.

I sure hope I can sleep tonight.  I coughed and coughed most of the night last night despite taking medicine.  Wishing you sweet dreams and thanks for stopping by!