Christmas Card Challenge

Stephanie from Sparkles' Weekly Christmas Card Challenges asked me to be hostess this month for their challenges.  I am so happy to be their guest designer.

Their site is wonderful for inspiring you every week to keep making those Christmas cards. By the end of the year, you will be stress-free in the Christmas card department.  It is fun to look back over the year's collection and see all the different ones you have made.

This week there is a sketch challenge.  I love sketch challenges!  Here is the sketch and my card:

Materials used are stampin’ up! Unless noted

Stamps: welcome christmas, tiny tags

Paper: certainly celery, jolly holiday dsp, whisper white, old olive

Ink: old olive, cherry cobbler

Accessories: glitter brads, glimmer paper, dimensionals

Punches: ticket corner, medium jewelry tag, 1/4" circle

Techniques: basic stamping

Sketch Challenge & Prize

Basic Brayer DVD option
$20.00 (shipping included)

I am the hostess this week for the sketch challenge at Paper Craft Planet, and I have a prize for you this week.  I kept the sketch simple, so it will be easy to play along.  Prize?  Did I say PRIZE?  Yes, I did!  Since I used a brayer to create my image, I decided to give away one free Basic Brayer DVD ($20 value) to one lucky participant.  Once you created your card, go to the Paper Craft Planet blog and add your card to the Linkz Widget.

Don’t worry; if you don’t win you can always purchase my Basic Brayer 101 class on Paper Craft Planet for only $15.00.  Starting today, I am offering a Basic Brayer DVD option.  You can buy a DVD with all three brayer videos for only $20.00 shipping included.

Here is our sketch for this week:

Materials used are stampin’ up! Unless noted

Stamps: nature silhouettes, tiny tags, baroque motifs

Paper: crumb cake, night of navy, old olive, whisper white

Ink: marina mist, not quite navy, night of navy, old olive, dark green (other), early expresso, basic black

Accessories: white gel pen, black cord, post it notes

Punches: medium jewelry tag, 1 3/4" circle, dotted scallop ribbon border

Techniques: brayer

Skate 4U

Since I had an extra Extreme Skateboard image from my tutorial, I decided to make another card.  I made this one, so I could give it for any occasion.  I love how I angled this image.

Materials used are stampin’ up! Unless noted

Stamps: extreme skateboard, so happy for you, tiny tags

Paper: pacific blue, pear pizzazz, black, celebrations, glossy cardstock

Ink: black staz-on, pacific blue, basic black

Accessories: corduroy real red brads (retired), pear pizzazz stitched-poly ribbon, black cord (other)

Punches: medium jewelry tag

Techniques: pouncing brayer

HB

Today, the boys have a snow day....YAY!  It has snowed at least eight inches and it looks so pretty outside.  We were ready for enough snow to go sledding.  We are wondering if there will be school tomorrow, since it is supposed to snow all day and all night.  The boys are crossing their fingers.  There are four days built into their school schedules where they don't have to make up the days.  They like to use all of them, of course.

I finally finished the birthday card for my dad.  I was hoping you would be able to see the glitter on the chipboard.  I used the silver smooch spritz....LOVE IT!

close-up

Materials used are stampin’ up! Unless noted

Stamps: tiny tags, sanded

Paper: pear pizzazz, pacific point, celebrations dsp, real red

Ink: pacific point marker

Accessories: silver smooch spritz, silver cord, top note big shot die, corduroy pacific point buttons (retired), on board alphabet soup chipboard, real red 5/8" grosgrain ribbon (retired)

Punches: medium jewelry tag

Halloween Easel

This is the first easel card I have made.  I love these cards!  I always thought they looked hard to make.  Oh, I was wrong.  This card measures 4 1/4 x 4 1/4.  This card will go perfectly with the Halloween treat box I made for the last LIVE Ustream class.  Join me this Wednesday, September 29th at 9 p.m. CST to see how I made this.  If you make the treat box for someone special, you could add this card for that extra special treat.

Materials used are stampin’ up! Unless noted

Stamps: house of haunts, tiny tags

Paper: wicked fun dsp, old olive, cajun craze, black, rich razzleberry

Ink: black, black marker

Accessories: black button (other), 1/2" lace trim

Punches: bat (other), scallop edge border, decorative label

Techniques: easel card

Happy Birthday HUBBY!

Happy Birthday to you.  Happy Birthday to you.  Happy Birthday, Dear Hubby!  Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday, Seth!  I Love You!

Yes, today (August 19th) is my wonderful husband's birthday.  He always teases me about being older than him.  In between my birthday in May and his in August, he says I am two years older than him.  Well, today....it is just one year older.  I always tell him...."You married an older and WISER woman!"  Hee hee!

Last night, I created a card just for him using the On Board Alphabet Soup chipboard by Stampin' Up!  I love to work with chipboard and JoAnne asked that I demonstrate how to use it at her workshop this month.  Here is just one of the ways to play with chipboard...cover it with designer series paper.  I used the retired paper Thoroughly Modern.

There is one of my favorite impressions folder...Lattice Square.  I inked it again with crumb cake ink to make the texture POP.  

Materials used are stampin’ up! Unless noted

Stamps: tiny tags

Paper: crumb cake, chocolate chip, thoroughly modern dsp (retired)

Ink: crumb cake

Accessories: brown grosgrain ribbon (other), hemp twine, build-a-brad, On the board alphabet soup, itty bitty buttons

Punches: 1/2" circle punch, medium Jewelry tag, itty bitty shapes punch pac

Techniques: covering chipboard

Today, I found out I need a camcorder converter for the camcorder I bought in order to stream on the internet.  I ordered it from Amazon today.  I found what I needed and almost bought it from Best Buy online, because I have store credit there.  They sell it for $100.00!  Ouch!  I decided to do more research and found it at B&H Photo for $80.00; however, they were out of stock.  Yeah!  They are $20.00 cheaper than Best Buy.  I continued on and decided to check Amazon.  I like to buy from that site.  Guess how much the same exact brand new converter is at Amazon........$10.00.  At first I thought...NO WAY!  I check it out and it is the same thing.  I paid $6.00 shipping and it is on its way.  Once I get it, I can set up for Ustream.tv.  Then HOPEFULLY go live!

I think I am going to either create the bleach stamping card here or the iridescent ice card here.

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Christmas Challenge - Guest DT

We had a FUN week!  My mom, nieces and nephews went home yesterday and we miss them already.  It was so nice to see them and play every day while they were here.

Today, I am honored to be a guest designer for Sparkle's Christmas Challenge.  I need to get back to playing along with her challenges every week.  Maybe this is the nudge I need to get organized in order to play along every week.  For this weeks challenge, we have a color combo for you.  The combo is deep red, black and cream/vanilla.  Here is a sneak peak of my card.  Please visit Sparkle's Christmas Challenge site to see what I created for this challenge:

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless noted:

Stamps: Tiny Tags, Simple Snowflake, All Holidays, Holiday Line Up

Paper: Black, Colonial White (other), Jolly Holiday Designer Series Paper

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Black

Accessories - Black embossing powder, Iridescent Ice embossing powder, Cherry Cobbler marker, Black grosgrain ribbon, Black button, waxy flax (other), Black bigger brads, dimensionals

Punches - Medium Jewelry Tag, Extra Large Oval, Snowflake Extra Large, Ticket Corner 

Bleached Trees

Oh, I have been wanting to show my club the bleaching technique for a while.  I always love the cards I see where the stampers using bleach as their ink.  I am so happy with how this turned out.  In addition, I have been wanting to create a card using the scallop circle for a flower, so I combined both for this card.

Lovely as a Tree is such a versatile set.  If you don't have it, you need to get it.  I had fun putting this color combo together.  Why?  I used the My Create, Ink Color Lab.  It allows you to choose colors from Stampin' Up! and it gives you choices on color combos.  Of course, you can see why I like this one.  Brown, blue and orange is my favorite color combo (my blog design) and I was happy to see it was one of the choices the lab listed.  I will put a link to this Color Lab on my sidebar, so you can visit any time and use it.  

I used the Newsprint designer series paper for the flower.  I have seen these flowers while blogging and haven't made one until now.  I am addicted, so you will probably be seeing more of them.  I have been using my Tiny Tags and Medium Jewelry Punch too.  It is nice when you don't have a lot of room for a sentiment.  

Materials used are stampin’ up! Unless noted

Stamps: lovely as a tree, tiny tags, sanded

Paper: chocolate, pacific point, cajun craze, black, newsprint DSP

Ink: early expresso

Accessories: black grosgrain ribbon, natural hemp, bleach (clorox), dimensionals, blue bigger brad (other)

Punches: scallop circle, medium jewelry tag

Techniques: bleaching

My mom will be here today, so I won't be blogging much.  I created a lot yesterday, so I am ready for my clubs.  I even started making Christmas cards for my Christmas card class this fall.  I hope you have a great week!

Inspired By Nature

Oh, My!  I created this week...YAY!  We have been enjoying these hot, summer days by the pool, so I haven't had much time to create.  Today, is going to be a scorcher, so I decided I better get busy this morning creating my card for the sketch challenge I am hosting this Saturday at Paper Craft Planet.

I have had this set, Inspired By Nature on my wish list for a while and decided it was time to buy.  I see so many pretty cards made with this set.  I love the silhouette.  I stamped my main image in Night of Navy craft ink and embossed it with iridescent ice embossing powder.  This "stuff" is the bomb!

See the background?  I used the square lattice embossing folder, but I turned it up a notch.  I inked it up with crumb cake ink before I ran it through the Big Shot.  Love that technique!

Materials used are stampin’ up! Unless noted

Stamps: inspired by nature, tiny tags, cute by the inch

Paper: crumb cake, cherry cobbler, night of navy, buttercup

Ink: night of navy craft, cherry cobbler, night of navy

Accessories: 3/8" twill, hemp twine, square lattice embossing folder

Punches: 1" square, 1 1/4" square, scallop square, jewelry tag medium

Techniques: embossing

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I am working on a layout for Tanner's stitches; however, I can't remember the title I thought of for it.  I am stuck on a title now.  Can you think of a good one?

Color Challenge #88

This is the second week I have participated in the color challenges at Color Throwdown.  This week is challenge #88 and the colors are Tangerine Tango, So Saffron and Basic Gray.  Well, I don't have any Tangerine Tango, so I just used orange.  I did use the other colors.  I have to admit this one was a hard one.  I knew I wanted to use the set, A Flower for All Seasons again, because the sunflowers are perfect for the orange and yellow.

I used my aqua brush and ink pads to color my image that was stamped in Jet Black Staz On ink on Whisper White cardstock.

I wanted to use orange ribbon and I only had some from my stash that had some brown in it.  I decided the little bit of brown would be okay.  This is not one of my favorite cards, but at least I am challenging myself to use colors I would not use.  Hee hee!

Materials used are stampin’ up! Unless noted

Stamps: A flower for all seasons, oval all, tiny tags

Paper: basic gray cardstock, whisper white cardstock, Orange (other), so saffron cardstock, yellow pattern paper (other)

Ink: so saffron, orange (other), real red, really rust, tempting turquoise, old olive

Accessories: white string, filigree designer brads, ribbon (other), dimensionals, petals-a-plenty impressions folder

Punches: scallop oval, wide oval, medium jewelry tag, 1 3/8" square

Techniques: watercoloring with aqua painter & ink pads

Happy Days

I took a break from working on my blog and made a card this evening.  Our theme at Paper Craft Planet is spring and I am definitely in the mood for spring.  It is supposed to be in the 50s this coming week and I hope the sun shines every day.  The stamps I used for this one are retired Stampin' Up sets except one.  Here they are just in case you have them in your stash:  Many Happy Returns (retire), Touch of Nature (retired), Tiny Tags (currently in the occassions mini catalog).  Oh, I almost forgot I used my new mini tag punch from SU.  You know I love my punches.

I watercolored the flower.  I don't use that technique enough.  It is easy and fun to color with my inks pads and a waterbrush.  Have you tried it lately?

I hope to unveil my new blog design this week.  I have a few things left to do and then Emily, The Blog Fairy, can upload my new design.  Oh, I am so excited!  

Have fun creating!

Kim