More is More

Happy Friday!  Time to play another one of Taylor’s fun sketch challenges – TECC35.  You can get all the info on playing as well as how you might become her Featured Stamper by hopping over to her blog Taylored Expressions to take a look at this week’s sketch.

Just a couple of days ago I received an order from Whipper Snapper with Anna Wight’s new set Crazy for Chickens.  Anna’s chickens are among my very favorite of all her illustrations so I just had to order this set as soon as I saw it!  I had fun playing with it in Taylor’s sketch.

I plan to do a computer generated sentiment for the inside that will read “So I guess you’ve been pretty busy, huh?”  Get it?  All those eggs!!  I crack myself up sometimes!

As soon as I got this set I knew I wanted to make a card with this color combo – Barely Banana, Bashful Blue (the colors of my kitchen tile from the ’40’s) along with Riding Hood Red (the color I hope to paint my kitchen walls) and black (what I want as a small accent in the kitchen).

Card base is Barely Banana, layered with RHRed and then a Bashful Blue panel that was stamped tone on tone with Stipple Plaid BG (retired SU).  Images were colored with Copic markers (see picture below for colors used) and the tiny chick at the bottom was paper pieced with Banana cardstock.  The little pearls are by Adorn It (available at eP) and the polka dot organdy was a roll in my stash.  The main image of the hen is popped up on double thick foam tape available at TE.  I love having two different thicknesses of foam tape to use for different things.  The double thick (1/8″) is great when you really want to get extra dimension.  The border around the hen is just a hand-drawn doodle of a line of “x”s and the black layer was trimmed with scallop scissors.

So…let’s see what the rest of the Cupcake Crew has cooked up this week.

and this week’s Featured Stamper is Frances Byrne over at Stamp Owl’s Studio.

And OH MY – did you see what Monika created for the SASI Blog this week?  If not, you MUST run over and take a look!  Fabulous trees Monika!

We have a very busy weekend ahead.  Today we need to clear out the bedroom and buy paint and supplies…taking a break tonight to attend a concert that a friend is performing in.  Then tomorrow we start to paint the bedroom.  It has to be finished by Sunday night because the carpet comes Monday morning.  And THEN….we can finally go get our antique bed from lay-away!  WooHoo!  I still need to find curtains.  The ones I had picked out won’t fit the narrow windows in there so it’s back to the drawing board on that.  I had really hoped to have pretty much everything done by Tuesday.  We have a bad tendency to never get back to a project if we stop at some mid-point.  We painted my stamp room a few years ago, but the doors never did get painted.  Drives me crazy!  And starting in October we usually just get busier and busier until after the holidays.  So wish me luck in seeing this through and getting the room truly completely decorated! 

Hope you have a fun and productive weekend!

Just a quick post to share a fun and simple card I made while playing with my new Scor-It Board.  You can read my review of the Scor-it on the SCS Product Focus Page (click here).

It was a little hard to photograph since the main panel is glossy white cardstock.  When I first started stamping years ago, glossy cardstock was one my favorite things.  I don’t use it all that often anymore, but I almost always have fun with it when I do decide to pull it out.  This card was inspired by the Michael Strong video on the Scor-It website.  I used to always love it when Michael Strong did a demo on the Carol Duvall show, so I was excited to watch his video presentation.  He showed scoring a frame on cardstock painted with acrylic paints and it looked very cool.  I didn’t have time for paints so I decided to see what the effect would be on glossy cardstock and I think it turned out quite striking.

After scoring 2 lines all around my glossy panel I completely masked the outside edges with Eclipse Masking Tape from eclectic Paperie, and then I brayered the center section with Cotton Candy Spectrum ink (retired SU).  Then it was just a matter of stamping the bird and branches from Always and the sentiment from Cute Converse.  I added some teensy tiny square pink rhinestones and matted the panel on black and then a Rose Red base.  Super duper simple!

Time for me to go to work so I gotta run.  Thanks for stopping by!

I hosted a swap recently and I thought it would be fun to include a little challenge in their return packages.  I stamped up some images from the Taylored Expressions SASI set Sweet Celebration and included some swatches of SU Prints Pack dp and asked everyone to make something and upload it to SCS today. I have no idea how many people will play, but here’s my card.  🙂

I think the card is pretty self-explanatory – just a simple, fun, happy card.  This is one of my very favorite SASI images.  I colored the cake plate with a silver Sakura Glitter Gel pen and highlighted the cake and writing with a Sakura Stardust pen.  The cherry is a Kaiser Craft hot pink rhinestone.  I cut out the image with Nestabilities and the orange ribbon is from my stash.

Check out the challenge creations here.  I hope someone plays!  LOL!  Busy week ahead as we prepare to completely redecorate our bedroom (including paint and carpet) this weekend.  We’ll be putting up the chandelier that Curt gave me for my birthday back in February and we’ll get our antique bed from lay-away.  I’ve had a new comforter set for about three years sitting in the package waiting for this make-over.  I need to find curtains and a mirror and some other finishing touches.  I couldn’t be more excited.

Oh and a puppy update – we cancelled the appointment Saturday and didn’t go see them.  We spent more time talking and evaluating.  My dear friend Brenda was  hugely helpful in talking me through the current situation with our birds.  We’ve been having a terrible time with R.B. (our Greenwing Macaw) bitng me over the past year. I haven’t been able to handle him at all in the last several months and it breaks my heart.  We realized that we really need to focus on those issues before we can consider adding a dog to our *flock*.  It made me very sad, but I know it’s the best thing for now and I felt a peace once we decided.  Thanks to those of you who shared with me your experiences with Eskies.  I loved reading about them and hope one day in the future we’ll be able to have one.  Beaker (our Red Front Macaw) is a Mama’s bird all the way and absolutely loves to cuddle with me on the couch.  Lots of people don’t realize just how cuddly some birds can be – beaker is almost like a puppy in that way!

Have a great week – thanks for stopping by!

It’s Saturday – WooHoo!  And it’s the 20th so it’s time for another SCS Dirty Dozen Alumni Gallery Reunion.  For today’s reunion I challenged the Girls to create a one layer card using the masking technique and the restriction *gasp* was no pink! 

With a Fabriano notecard I started by stamping the frame (Frames with a Flourish by SU) and then masking it.  Next I stamped this comical stack of cupcakes from Sweet Celebration  (Stamp a Sweet Impression available at Taylored Expressions) first on Eclipse making tape twice and cutting it out.  Then I was ready to stamp a whole group of them masking two at a time.  The sentiment was created with Karen Foster Snap stamps.  The rest is just watercoloring with ink and an aquapainter and a little highlighting (code for *mistake covering* – LOL!) with a white gel pen.   Little red Rain Dots are the cherries on top.

I just have to say – I don’t know how I managed before Eclipse tape!  The first time I bought it after hearing so much about it, I thought it was kind of expensive.  But wow – it is soooo much better than using post it notes!  And once I cut out a mask I save it with the stamp set for future use.  I love that stuff!

To see what the rest of the playing DDA came up with check the SCS gallery here.  People will be uploading all day so be sure to check back again tomorrow so you don’t miss anything.

We have an appointment today to go look at a litter of Miniature American Eskimo puppies – pretty much the only dog breed Curt and I both agree on and love.  We both feel torn/conflicted about the idea of a puppy – mostly because of our three birds.  They will always be the priority and we just aren’t sure about balancing time and attention for everyone and how they would react/adjust.  But these puppies are just so darned cute.  They won’t be old enough to take home for a few weeks anyway.  Can’t hurt to just go look, right?  (Mom – I wish you and Dad were home to go with us!)

One of the five puppies –

and here’s the pup’s mom and dad –

On that note of happy cuteness – have a great weekend!

Happy Friday.  It’s been a crazy busy week and I’m not sure the weekend will be any different.  I squeezed in just enough stamp room time to make a card for Taylor’s Friday challenge using my favorite current color combo of Olive, Kiwi and Riding Hood Red with just a shot of black for drama.

The Fall card I posted on the SASI blog last night made me want to use the retired SU set God’s Way again and it seemed perfect for the focal point in this sketch.  I embossed it with Black Brilliance ink and clear ep on Poison Ivory cardstock.  The black flower spray and decorative stripe down the right side are all rub-ons from the Eastern Elegance collection.  The main Kiwi panel is stamped with Linen in Old Olive and I added some piercing in the upper left corner.  The dp panel is Bella Rose.  Finishing touches are Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon, an olive Felt Fusion flower with a pink rhinestone brad and some tiny sticky pink rhinestones.

I hope you’ll play along this weekend.  Click here to go to Taylor’s blog for all the challenge details.  Remember even though it’s the Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge, cupcakes are NOT required!  Let’s see what the rest of the Cupcake Crew has whipped up for us this week:

and this week’s Featured Stamper is Jackie Pedro at The Scalloped Edge.

Be sure to join me tomorrow for this month’s Dirty Dozen Alumni Gallery Reunion!  Thanks for stopping by.

Please check out my post on the Stamp a Sweet Impression Blog.  I’m just tickled with my happy trees!!!  Let me know what you think!  -Jami

I got two new Cuttlebug folders recently – Christmas Ornaments and Snow Dots.  I’ve had them sitting out just waiting for a chance to play.  The Christmas Ornaments seemed pretty enough on its own for a very simple card.  I decided it would be fun to try some non-traditional Christmas colors and I remembered the beautiful Christmass tree we had a couple of years ago all decorated in metallic pink.

A Regal Rose panel was embossed with the Christmas Ornaments folder and then the piece was sprayed very generously with Glimmer Mist and set aside to dry.  It’s hard to see in the photo, but it’s super shimmery in person.  From there I kept it simple with a layer of Old Olive on a Rose Red card base.  An image from Deer Friends was stamped in Olive onto Poison Ivory shimmer cardstock and punched and layered onto Rose Red which was lightly edged with the gold end of my Zig Painty Pen.  That same gold was used to paint in the top of the ornament which was already embossed into the design.  Some wide Olive grosgrain finishes it off.

The next card showcases the Snow Dots folder and I made it super quick this morning for the SCS Color Challenge of Riding Hood Red, Always Artichoke and Basic Gray.  White Shimmer cardstock was embossed with the folder and layered onto Artichoke, then Gray, then onto the RHRed cardbase.  Ribbon is tafetta in Basic Gray and RHRed, plus some non-SU artichoke grosgrain.

There’s no stamping on this card.  I just had to use one of the cute little die cut penguin stickers I had picked up on my last trip to Michael’s.  They are by Recollections and came in a package of four.  Penguin-freak that I am, I just couldn’t pass them up…even if they are just stickers!  Please don’t hate me because I’m a *closet sticker lover*!  bwahahahahaha

There you have it…a couple of very quick and easy Christmas cards.  Sometimes I just *have to* create  something even when I really don’t have time!  The Cuttlebug is great for those quick cards.