More is More

Happy Friday!  I am so excited today to be playing along with the uber-talented Flourishes Design Team in a More is More Challenge hosted by Christine Okken.  When Christine asked me to participate I pinched myself and then I jumped at the chance!!  I thought it was so sweet of her to want to include me because I originated the idea of a *More is More Challenge* way back when. Here are the two cards I created featuring the gorgeous Flourishes set From the Garden along with Basic Grey Green at Heart papers.  I think the card on the left is quite pretty, but I really pulled out the stops and played to my heart’s content for the *more* card on the right.  I hope you enjoy.  🙂

For more details and to see what Christine has to share please hop over to the Flourishes Blog.  Christine – thank you so much for inviting me to play.  I had so much fun creating these cards and I’m so honored to stamp along side such an incredible team of designers!

Oh and if you’re wondering about the TESC, we’re taking a sketch break this week as Taylor and several of the Sketch Crew are in Chicago at CHA.  Have a fantastic weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Tessa on alert in our backyard this morning…

What is it Toodles?  What do you see in the avocado tree?

Ummm sweetie, little dogs can’t climb trees, no matter how high you jump!

What on earth is bothering you?  A cat?  No.  A squirrel!

A SQUIRREL????  We don’t have squirrels in Lakewood!  Oh my!  I guess we do NOW!  Tessa leave the squirrel alone! 

Yeah, like that worked…she refused to come in the house, just kept circling the tree and staring up.  I was quite surprised that she was not having a bark-fest.  After many tries I finally got her to come inside so Mr. Squirrel could scamper on his merry way. 

A squirrel sighting is big deal here…I realize many of my friends in other parts of the country are laughing at this city girl right now.  Laugh away!  I’m just taking joy in the little things!  😉

 Happy Monday to you!  🙂

Happy Friday!  It’s time for another Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge – TESC122.  The stamp featured on today’s card has been sitting on my stamp table forever begging to get inked up!  I purchased it at the CHA SuperShow in January and it’s from Denami.  Denami was one of my very first loves when I started stamping years ago.  I have always loved her cute whimsical style.  These birdies just seemed to fit with this sketch, although I will say that I had a plan for balloons where you see butterflies on the sketch but I just couldn’t make them work.  So I kind of feel like I cheated a bit on the idea of the sketch.  The sentiment is from a SU set.

Papers used are October Afternoon Fly a Kite along with the TE June Cardstock Kit which coordinates with this paper collection.  I rounded the corners of the image panel with the Corner Chomper and layered it onto  a panel cut with Big Scallop Rectangle.  That little strip of circles is a piece of Doodlebug Paper Frills I got a really really long time ago.  I colored it with a copic marker.  I added some Tiny Twinkles (stars) and some Stickles (yellow and fruit punch), plus I covered the chicks in Smooch Illuminate Glitter Top Coat.  This card is really sparkly in person!

Now it’s time to see what the rest of the Sketch Crew has cooked up for us:

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a fantastic weekend!

Happy Thursday!  Today I have a card to share that I created for a special friend who’s daughter is experiencing some health issues. The card features Psalm 18:2

The Lord is my rock

and my fortress and my deliverer;

my God, my strength in whom I take refuge.

What wonderful words of truth of comfort!  The verse stamp comes from the TE mini stamp set Care & Comfort.  On the inside of the card I used another sentiment from the same set, “our thoughts, our prayers, and our love are with you.”

The silhouette floral image is from Summer Afternoon by TE and it was stamped with Versamagic Chalk ink in Pink Petunia. All the ink I used on this card was Versamagic and when I went to get the link from eclectic Paperie I noticed that it’s all 35% off, so you might want to check it out! Designer paper is October Afternoon Fly a Kite (cut into that pack for the first time) and I might have mixed in another OA pad – who can keep track? LOL!  I loved the idea of stamping directly onto the graph pattern from Fly a Kite.  I added a couple of Tiny Twinkles to the dragonfly.  Here’s the really funny thing – those 5 buttons…they were just sitting on my stamp table…and had been for awhile.  I guess they got left out at some point when working on another project and never got put away.  I was thinking I wanted just one more embellishment of some sort on the card and I noticed that those buttons were just the right color.  Serendipity.  I just love it when that happens.

I created this card with several SCS Dare to Get Dirty Challenges in mind – Sharon Johnson, Betty Wright, Cindy Haffner and Dawn Burnworth.  I wish I could have played more than I have this week. There are so many fun challenges!  if you’re a Fan Club Member, be sure to check them out and if you’re not you might want to become one and get in on all the FUN!

Thanks for stopping by!

Recipe:

Stamps – TE Care & Comfort, Summer Afternoon

Paper – October Afternoon Fly a Kite, TE June cardstock kit

Ink – Versamgic Chalk ink in Petunia Pink, Sea Breeze, Tea Leaves, Midnight Black

Other – Spellbinders Curved Rectangle Die, EK Success Diamond Lace border punch, Taylor’s Tiny Twinkles, Smooch Illuminate, pink twill, buttons, Corner Chomper

Happy Sunday!  I don’t often blog on Sundays, but today I had the privilege of being a sample maker for my sweet friend Sharon Harnist in her Dare to Get Dirty Challenge.  You can get the deets to play along here (you must be a SCS Fan Club Member).  I had a ton of fun creating this card.  I hope you enjoy it!

As soon as I saw the SU stamp set Favorite Thoughts I knew I had to have it!  It’s a set of 4 fun sentiments and this one says “Don’t treat me any differently than you would a queen!”  LOL!  How great is that?  Then when I saw the Maya Road crowns chipboard I knew it was a match made in heaven!  LOL!  The crown was inked with Real Red Craft ink and then covered in TE Fire Engine Red Glitter with the addition of Taylor’s Tiny Twinkles (Crystal).  I used 3 different embossing folders on the white layers.  The border punch is Arbor – doesn’t it look royal?  The nesties frame was die cut with Labels Nine (using 2 sizes at the same time) from Real Red cardstock and then covered in Versamark and heat embossed with clear ep.  The sentiment was stamped in Real red Craft ink and also heat embossed with clear ep.  It was then die cut with Spellbinders double ended tags and layered onto a Spellbinders fancy tag.  The final touch is red silk ribbon bow attached with mini glue dots.

You might also notice my new watermark.  🙂  When we got a new computer a few months ago I lost my generic watermark and my SU watermark in the transition.  It’s been driving me crazy and I’ve been meaning to look into getting a new one for a long time.  I decided to check out what my friend Karen Giron had to offer.  Wow – she has a great selection at only $2 each and she got back to me really quickly.  I purchased 2 for now (the elegant one you see above and also a more *cute* one.)  I plan to get more soon.  I highly recommend checking her out of you are in need of a watermark!

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a wonderful Sunday!

Happy Saturday!  Yesterday I experienced a little bit of stamping serendipity and I wanted to share.  I was catching up on my Google Reader and saw this post by Laurie Schmidlin (LOVE everything she does!) I took special note of how to used nesties to make tag shapes.  I thought it was brilliant and and knew I wanted to try it sometime soon.  About 10 minutes later, the Rocket Scientist told me that he planned to leave a little early for his guitar lesson so he could stop and pick up a bottle of wine as gift for his guitar teacher.  I asked why he didn’t tell me sooner so I could make a card to go with it…or at least a tag or something…afterall that’s what I do!  He said he could run get the wine and come back if I really wanted to make something – I would have about 45 minutes.  AND IT HIT ME…this was the perfect opportunity to make a tag using Laurie’s tip!  And not only that, but I have the perfect stamp set for a thank you to a guitar teacher – You’re my Hero by TE!  So I took the challenge and went to work!

I used Wild Wasabi and Bermuda Bay ink along with Brilliance Pealescent Chocolate ink on Kraft cardstock.   I had been given the directive to not go overboard since this was a *guy to guy no-big-deal* thank you gift, so I tried to keep it really simple. The bottom corners were rounded with my Corner Chomper and I distressed all the edges with a distressing tool and some of the chocolate ink.  The guitar was stamped on Kraft, cut out and popped up on foam tape.

Here’s a closer view.

You can’t really tell in the photo, but the pearlescent chocolate ink gives just a little special touch of shimmer.

And here’s how I created the top shape following Laurie’s tip.

 I looked through all my Nesties and chose to use Labels One.  I slipped my cardstock through the top and taped it down with Scotch removable tape before running it through my Big Shot.  I did end up with a faint embossed impression of the bottom of the die on my tag, so in the future I think I would insert a scrap of cardstock there to avoid that.

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Here’s how it looked after being die cut.  I used a circle punch to create an opening for the neck of the bottle and I scored a fold with my Scor-Pal.  Then I stamped before cutting to the length that worked well with my images.  Super simple and super quick.

I’m so happy to pass on this tip!  I hope it helps one of you as much as it helped me.  Thanks Laurie for sharing the easy how-to!  I look forward to making more tags in the future!

Dare to Get Dirty got started this morning over at SCS.  If you’re a Fan Club member you’ll have 4 or 5 challenges to choose from each day for a week.  If you choose to do them ALL  you’ll be in a drawing for a prize package.  It’s not quite as hard as it sounds since you can combine challenges as much as you’d like.  Check out the DTGD Challenge Forum here.  I’ll be back tomorrow with a sample for one of the challenges.

I’m off to finish up the ice cream pies I’m putting together for a BBQ we’re going to tonight.  I had intended to bake a dessert, but it’s just too darned HOT to bake!  Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Friday!  The Rocket Scientist has every other Friday off now (more efficient use of resources/personell at the Rocket Factory), so this is a long weekend for us.  I love this schedule!  Of course Friday means it’s time for the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge – TESC121.

For today’s card I challenged myself to create a card in 15 minutes using mostly supplies already out on my desk.  I set the timer on my phone and when the alarm went off…I…ummmm….set it for another 15 minutes.  And when it went off again…I….ummmmmm….turned it off and decided it was pointless!  I am unable to make a card in 15 minutes – even with a sketch and Project Pantry supplies all in hand.  The weird thing is that after 50 minutes spent on this card, it still looks like a 15 minute card!  Oh brother!  I love this stamp set and the kit I used…I just need to NOT be in a hurry when I’m stamping!

Stamp set is TE In the Park.  Cardstock, paper, scalloped border sticker are all from the Summertime Project Pantry.  Tree is colored with copics and I added some Flower Soft for fun texture.  Bike was colored with Spica Glitter pens and Sakura glaze pens.  The glitter and glaze pens are just perfect for the thin lines of the bike image and who wouldn’t want a sparkly bike?!  LOL!  Circles were cut with nesties.

Now let’s see what the rest of the Sketch Crew has in store:

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great weekend!  Be sure to check out the Dare to Get Dirty Challenges on SCS starting early tomorrow morning!