More is More

Happy First Day of Spring!  Today it’s time for another Dirty Dozen Gallery Reunion – where one of the girls presents a monthly challenge and this month’s hostess is Joanne Basile.  I haven’t had a chance to play in the last several months, but I had to make sure I made time for this one – The Birds and the Bees!

Challenge Focus:  Lets think spring!

Required Element: Use either a bee or a bird in your project this month

Restricted Element: No border bunches

 You know I’m all about the birdies!  And this was the perfect chance to try out an idea I’ve had floating around in my head for awhile.

I’ve been wanting to create a shaker card using the chick and egg images from the Taylored Expressions set Favorite Peeps along with an SU circle treat cup.  They fit together perfectly! I started out by searching through my patterned paper collection for something that said “Spring” to me.  I came across this paper in the Basic Grey Gypsey 6×6 pad and then matched up my Copic markers from there.  I stamped 2 eggs.  For the first egg I stamped the chick in the inner circle and colored it in.  Then I hand trimmed the eggon the inside line.  For the 2nd egg I punched the center out with a 1 3/4″ circle punch and colored the entire egg.  Then I covered it with Versamark and heat embossed it with Irridescent Ice embossing powder.  It’s super shimmery/sparkly.  I put some multi-colored beads in the cup and sandwiched it between the 2 eggs.  That was then layered onto 2 nesties shapes (circle and curved rectangle).

Cardtock is Prism and the card size is 5.5″ square.  Finishing touches include stickles (lime and fruit punch), KaiserCraft rhinestones, Basic Grey Green at Heart Bloomer, sentiment on a Spellbinders Fancy Tag and some ribbon from my stash.  I ran out of time last night as it got late and the birds needed to go to bed.  Now I’m thinking of all sorts of little details I’d like to add like some cuttlebug texture, stitching and on and on.  You know me…More is More!  LOL!

Click here to see the gallery of all the players this month.  Entries will be uploaded throughout the day today.

I hope you have a great weekend!!!  I have some stamping time planned for today – doesn’t get better than that!  *grin*

I’m a little late in getting this posted this morning because we went to Disneyland with friends yesterday and it was a late night – lots of fun!  It’s time for another Dirty Dozen Gallery Reunion and this month our challenge was issued by Valerie Stangle (11Valerie11) – fellow SoCal Gal.  The Dog Days of Summer – feature a dog using hot Summer colors.  Well you know how dog-obsessed I’ve been latey so no way I could pass this one up.

I was excited to get a chance to play with this Elzybells doggie image.  Isn’t he so cute?!  I colored him with Copic markers and cut him out with my Spellbinders Label 2 die.  Cardstock colors are Dusty Durango, Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo, Soft Suede – it was fun to play with these new SU! In Colors!  Sentiment is from SU! Teeny Tiny Wishes.  I layered several Prima flowers over a white flower from the SU Pretties Kit and attached them all together with a large SU! brad.  Rhinestones are KaiserCraft – can’t live without those things!

You can view all the Dirty Girl submissions to today’s challenge by clicking here.  I can’t wait to see what everyone came up!

Also be sure to hop over to Taylor’s blog to see the new August Key Ingredeients kit released today as well as some incredible samples made ny members of the Baker’s Dozen.  I promise you do not want to miss those.  I was blown away!

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you have a great day!

So, you may recall that almost 2 weeks ago I had a horrible case of food poisoning.  I was half way through making a card for the April DDA Challenge – which I was hosting and which was due 2 days later – when the nausea hit me hard and I could no longer concentrate on what I was doing.  I had been so excited to work on a card incorporating favorites and was so bummed out to leave it sitting there half done.

But then when I was feeling better, I just couldn’t seem to get back to that card.  It has been sitting on my stamp table, just begging to be finished for almost 2 weeks now.  Finally  yesterday and sat down and gave it a few simple finishing touches.

The challenge was to make a Mother’s Day or Father’s Day card incorporating current favorites and as well as long time favorites (techniques, or color combo or stamps or whatever favorites you wanted to showcase.)  This card displays lots of my favorites:

**current favorite cardstock color – Kiwi Kiss – I can hardly make a card without using it

**current favorite dp – Bella Rose – right up my alley.

**long time favorite – *Fall Back on Black* – use black for matting to make images pop!

**long time favorite – roses – always love rose images.  Here I used the SU hostess set Echoes of Kindness. Sentiment is from Taylored Expressions Fresh Flowers.

**long time favorite technique – watercoloring.  I so often use Copic markers now, so it was fun to stamp on watercolor paper and use ink and an aquapainter again.

**long time favorite – sparkle – for a little understated sparkle I used a Spica glitter pen on the flowers.  Unfortunately it doesn’t show up much in the photo.

**long time favorite – sketch challenges.  This was Lori’s sketch challenge WSC77 and Lori is one of my favorite people so that also worked into the challenge.  *grin*  I have always loved stamping with sketch challenges and color challenges and feel they have done more to stretch and improve my stamping over the years than anything else I have done.

So there you have it.  Finished at last!  You can see the other, more timely, entries for this challenge by clicking here.  Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you are having a great day!

-Jami

This month’s DDA Gallery Reunion is being hosted by Holly.  Her challenge to us was to take a card from the very first page of our SCS gallery and CASE it making 3 subtle changes to improve it.  I started my gallery on SCS in July of 2004 with 17 uploads of things I had made over the past year.  So I had to go back and look at my stamping from 5 years ago!  Wow!  I chose this card which I was ever so proud of at the time.  I had designed it for my very first shoebox swap with a small group of SU Demo friends.

Um…..yeah…what can I say?  The angel was stamped onto a metal edged vellum tag and colored on the back with SU markers.  This was back in the day when we didn’t use designer paper on our cards.  Colors here were Pretty in Pink, Barely Banana and the long-since-retired Marvelous Magenta.  I decided to take the challenge fairly literally and keep the card as close to the origonal as possible without being embarrassed.

The colors aren’t great in this photo – sorry about that – I’m in a hurry and just can’t mess with the photo any more at the moment.  Look – I still have this 2003 SU set!  I used Pink Pirouette and So Saffron with a little bit of Purely Pomegranate.  The name of the SU dp escapes me at the moment but I think it’s retired.  Bling is all from Taylored Expressions. Image was stamped on shimmer white and colored with Copics.  The buttons match much better IRL – I promise!

So what do you think?  Better?  LOL!

To see all the entries for this challenge click here.

I’ve got to run. I got to go for tea with a girlfriend today and we got a last minute invite to join a group at Club 33 at Disneyland tonight fro dinner.  Club 33 is an exclusive members only and this might be our only chance to ever go.  So we’re off!  Have a great weekend.

-Jami

Phew I made it!  Definitely not feeling well today – cold or mild flu or something, but I got my DDA card done!  Heck – I’m the hostess and I’ve had the idea all week – I couldn’t NOT play!

This month’s DDA Gallery Reunion is Know When to Fold’em!

Challenge Focus: Cards/Poker/Games/Gambling/Luck – anything loosely related – just tell us how it relates.

Required Element: A card made with other than a standard fold

Restricted Element: No buttons.

I’ve been dying to ink up this little Lucky Cuppie from A Year of Sweets 1 and I paired him with a sentiment from A Year of Sweet Sentiments both from Taylored Expressions.  The dp is Basic Gray Two Scoops and I thought it would be fun to paper piece the rainbow in polka dots rather than color it in.  The image was stamped onto Confetti White cs and watercolored.  Plus I used a black glaze pen and a gold Zig Painty Pen.  It was cut and embossed with a Labels 2 nestie.  This is a hinge fold card – I love making these.  The big green crystals are Kaiser Craft and have been in my stash for awhile.  Cardstock is Certainly Celery and Taken with Teal.

You should be able to find all the cards for this challenge by going to the SCS gallery and typing in Keyword: DCKW209  , but I know there was a problem with this earlier today.

If you are looking for my TECC sample just scroll down one post.  Thanks for stopping by.  I’m off to lie down for a bit.

-Jami

Today’s the day for the October Dirty Dozen Alumni Gallery Reunion Challenge!  Our hostess for this month is my good friend Emily (WaterPixie).

 Challenge Focus: Create a Halloween card or treat holder.

Required Element: Googlie Eyes! We want to see those eyes jiggle!

Restricted Element: No pumpkins!

 To see what everyone created you can click here.  

I honestly can’t remember the last time I used googlie eyes and now I’ve used them on 2 posts in a row – weird, huh?  As soon as I saw the challenge I knew I’d be reaching for one of Anna Wight’s Whipper Snapper Halloween sets.  They already have *googlie eyes* of sorts drawn on – so they’re perfect!

I stamped the ghost on white cardstock and colored around him with a yellow and then gray Copic marker.  The stars are from the SASI set Frightful Night.  After the card was all put together I covered the ghost with Frosted Lace Stickles – he’s soooo super sparkly!

Cardstock colors are Basic Gray, Kiwi, Pumpkin Pie and the dp is SU.  I dug out my trusty old-school Fiskar’s decorative scissors to create the jagged borders – scallops just didn’t seem *scary* enough.  LOL!

This was a fun challenge!  Thanks for hosting Emily!

I have a post over on the SASI blog today too…lots of candy treats.  Click here to check it out and if you have time leave me a comment over there.  While you’re there don’t forget to enter in the SASI Sweet Treats give-away!  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!