Weekend Sketch Challenge

I finished my card last night for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge 34. It took much longer than I had anticipated! I had an idea in my head that I was having trouble getting to turn out. So for what it is worth, here is my interpretation of her sketch.

I knew that I wanted to layer the large flower from Time Well Spent. I used Stampin' pastels and a blender pen to color it in. I really like how the shading/highlighting turned out! Kind of impressed with myself on that one. So I may try that aspect of the card again sometime. The large flower is in three layers: the inner circle on a dimensional, the main part which I rotated and put on a couple pieces of cardstock (I didn't want the full thickness of a dimensional), and the base which ends up being mostly just the outer Taken with Teal line. The leaves beneath the flower were stamped and colored and then embossed in clear embossing powder to give them a little shine. I randomly stamped a bunch of the other flowers and leaves on Whisper White in all of the colors of my card and then overlaid that with vellum to tone it down just a little. This is where the trouble began. I couldn't decide how I wanted to attach the vellum...so I sewed the edges, but it came out a little too crooked...then I added the eyelets...then I decided that I needed a greeting or something up by the eyelets...then I couldn't decide if I liked it anymore. Oh well! I also think my background stamping behind my large flower might be a little too much...maybe if I would have just stuck with the leaves. Ahh, I can see I need to try this card again now that my brain is a little more refreshed.

I will be busy preparing for my Stamp-A-Stack on Saturday the rest of the week...lots of cardstock to cut! So I apologize in advance for my silence! Have a great week!!!

The Engineering Details
Stamps - Time Well Spent, Happy Everything; Cardstock - Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Taken with Teal, Whisper White, Vellum Cardstock; Ink - Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Taken with Teal, Rose Red, Basic Black, Versamark; Accessories - Black embossing powder, Crystal Clear embossing powder, Ice Rhinestone brad, Silver Eyelets, Moss Gingham Ribbon, sewing machine; Supplies - dimensionals

So Sweet at 9 Months

Thought I would show you a scrapbook page I got done during my last Girls scrapbooking day...only one page done...I usually hope for two, but oh well! We have an overnight scrapbooking weekend coming up, so hopefully I am fully prepared for that and get lots done!

I love these pages, but they are time consuming because of the journaling. I like to take the professional (well JcPenny's) pictures we have taken and include a recap of what he did and such since the last picture...I try (operative word there) to record stuff on a calendar I keep in his room, so putting the recaps together mean I have to look up stuff in the calendar which helps! We did every three months in the first year, every 6 months in the second year, and now we do once a year. So considering, my son will be 3 soon, I am a little behind! Oh well...he seriously is not getting this scrapbook until he is 30 anyway!

For this page, I really loved the background twinkle lights in the the main picture, so I drew my colors from that with some highlights from his sweater. Then since these were taken in December and he was wearing a snowflake sweater, I added the snowflake chipboard pieces as some accents. Love how they turned out! I covered them with White Craft ink and then embossing them with the Iridescent Ice embossing powder...so pretty and sparkly. I threw So Saffron brads and More Mustard eyelets all over for accents. The background stamping actually was a last minute idea , but I love how it coordinated so well with that twinkle backdrop. I pulled out my old retired Little Shapes because the shapes in there have rough edges which I needed to match the backdrop...here I was thining about trying to sell that one! Lastly I printed the journaling part actually in the Handsome Hunter color! I found some crazy people on SCS that actually figured out the RGB values for all of the SU! colors so you can print in them. So handy!

I will hopefully post my Weekend Sketch Challenge card tonight...still have to complete it. Beyond that, I may be kind of quiet this week as my Stamp-A-Stack is this Saturday and I will be busy preparing for that! Have a great Monday!

Edited to Add: I was asked for the link to the spot I found the RGB color codes for printing in SU! colors, so here you go! RGB Color Codes on SCS

The Engineering Details
Stamps - Little Shapes (retired), Quirky Alphabet & Numbers (retired); Cardstock - So Saffron, More Mustard, Going Gray, Handsome Hunter; Ink - Handsome Hunter, So Saffron, More Mustard, Craft White; Accessories - Snowflake Chipboard (SU! retired), So Saffron brads, More Mustard eyelets, Ticket Corner punch, Iridescent Ice embossing powder; Supplies - Crop-a-Dile, Heat Gun

Valentine Gifts

In addition to the Valentine’s Day cards for the kids at my son’s daycare, I wanted to make some little gifts to give to the girls that care for my son…he loves them so much and they are so wonderful to him! I have seen all over in blogging land, the Target $1 mailboxes that are out for Valentine’s Day. So I headed over and picked up a bunch and also hit Jo-Ann’s to find some Valentine’s Day patterned paper.

The mailboxes are really cute and very easy to cover. I used a 4” x 12” strip of patterned paper to cover the main body of the mailbox and I adhered it using sticky tape. My only tricky part was to punch a hole for the flag…I read before that a ½” circle punch works great for that, but alas I do not have one. So I used a ¼” circle punch and just tried to “make” a ½” circle. Not the prettiest, but I think it worked with out being noticeable. Then just traced the lids of the mailbox onto another sheet of patterned paper and adhered that using Modge Podge…although I think the Tombow Liquid Metal or Multi-purpose Adhesive would work better (but I don’t have any) because the paper could be easily peeled from the lid…just hoping it isn’t handled too much! Then I just decorated the edges of the lids with ribbon again adhered with sticky tape. The little bows were created via inspiration from Nichole Heady’s blog and her instructions here. It makes a nice clean inline bow for a strip of ribbon. I added a little extra decoration with some of the images from the Happy Heart Day stamp set, but I didn’t want to overwhelm the mailbox so I kept it simple.


Then, the best part…I filled it with chocolate and a matching little card. I used the mini note cards from Stampin’ Up! that I realized fit perfectly in the little mailbox. The image in the card is again from the Happy Heart Day set and I paper pieced the heart using the striped paper. Colored the shirt of the mouse and the flower on the heart with Rose red and Chocolate Chip markers. A little Rhinestone sticker (Icons Stickers by Me & My Big Ideas available at Jo-Anns) finished it off! Again kept them simple, but I thought it turned out cute. I hope they like them!

I made a second set with a little bit less girly colors to give to my husband and son. Similar matching card to finish it off...with candy of course!









The Engineering Details
Stamps – Happy Heart Day; Ink – Chocolate Chip, Rose Red Marker, Chocolate Chip Marker; Cardstock – Pink Striped (DCWV From Jo-Anns), Pink Swirl (Sandylion Sticker Designs From Jo-Anns), Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White; Accessories – Scallop circle punch, 1-3/8” circle punch, white ¼” grosgrain ribbon, Target $1 Spot mailbox; Supplies – sticky tape, Modge Podge, scissors

A Sketch Challenge Contest

Verve Visual is having a little sketch challenge to find an honored guest designer! Well, I am finally going to admit publicly (this is considered public, right?) that one goal I set for myself this year was to make a design team, so I had to give this a shot. Now mind you, I have no idea if I am truly “good enough” for a design team, but I am willing to see if I can make anything come of it. Anyway, for the contest and the chance at a guest designer position, you had to create a card(s) using the sketch provided.

When I saw the sketch, I immediately wanted to use the spaceship from the Pun Fun set…don’t know why, but I went with it. I recently got some star brads from Oriental Trading and thought they would be perfect. The Western Sky pattern paper has one sheet that has rows of stars, so I pulled that for the strip behind the main image and used it to pull the colors of the card together. I paper pieced the spaceship from the patterned paper and the other colored cardstock mainly because I don’t have a marker or stamp pad for the Blue Bayou or River Rock yet…but I really, really like how it turned out. Layered that on River Rock and added an Antique Brass jumbo eyelet where the window is on the spaceship…love these jumbo eyelets (I know, where have I been?!...I am a little slow sometimes!). I distressed the Ruby Red behind the main image with scissors…too cheap to buy the actual distressing tool! The patterned paper strip is sponged on the edges…I think it added something, but it may only be noticeable to me. Finally I paper pierced from behind to make my star brads’ tails…like shooting stars or something like that! I added a little bit of Versamark with the Versamarker to the holes to help them show up a little bit better.

So that is my entry into the honored guest designer contest…we shall see! I may come up with another entry too once I complete some other projects.

The Engineering Details
Stamps – Pun Fun, Sanded; Ink – Basic Black, Ruby Red, Versamarker; Cardstock – River Rock, Blue Bayou, Ruby Red, Western Sky DP; Accessories – Antique Brass Star Brads (Oriental Trading), Antique Brass jumbo eyelets; Supplies – sponge, scissors, paper piercer

Weekend Sketch Challenge in the Nick of Time!

I am always running late on getting Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenges done in time...not sure why, but I always am. Almost did not get this one done in time too even though I had the idea in my head as soon as I saw the sketch, but due to my son and husband being sick today, I stayed home to care for everyone and got it done during nap time. It is looking like I may be home again tomorrow...they weren't looking too good as they fell asleep tonight!



Anyway, I love this sketch even though tall cards are a little out of my comfort zone. I also decided to incorporate the SCS Color Challenge color combo too...woohoo double challenge! I have been playing a lot with the Happy Heart Day stamp set (as you will see on my blog) and thought about the butterflies flying around the squares as soon as I saw the sketch. The are stamped in black and then I paper pieced the wings in Baroque Burgundy. The Old Olive background piece was distressed on the edges and torn at the bottom. I added the 5/8" Baroque Burgundy grosgrain ribbon with a knot at the bottom, but decided against adding the tag...just wasn't feeling what I would put on it. The side Pretty in Pink piece was stamped with Baroque Burgundy ink and sponged with the same ink. I didn't have any patterned paper that would work so it was my attempt at making it myself. Thought it turned out pretty good. I like the addition of the Rhinstone brads...although it took a little convincing of myself to part with 3 of them on one card! Not much complicated here, but I am pleased.

The Engineering Details
Stamps - Happy Heart Day; Ink - Baroque Burgundy, Basic Black, Old Olive Marker; Cardstock - Baroque Burgundy, Pretty in Pink, Old Olive, Whisper White; Accessories - Ice Rhinestone Brads, 5/8" Baroque Burgundy grosgrain ribbon; Supplies - sponge, scissors

Valentine Elephant

I freely admit that I went a little bit overboard on this. Looking at the card, you may think how could I call that overboard…simple design, not a lot of layers, a little glitter, but not too much embellishments…but now I tell you that these Valentines are for the other kids in my son’s daycare. So they will be going to children 5 and under. Now you think I went overboard, don’t you? I got a little caught up and was having fun…so oh well!

I love this little Elephant from the Happy Heart Day set. I love elephants in general and this little guy is no exception. Since the Valentines are from my son, I tried not to make it too girly hence the color choice of Ruby Red, Old Olive, and Going Gray. I colored the elephant with watercolor pencils and a blender pen and the flowers/hearts with markers. The scalloped edge at the bottom of the gray is made with the 3/16” Corner Rounder punch…kind of a tedious process for 22 cards, but I persevered to get it done! Then of course the heart that the elephant is holding just screamed for some glitter even though it is from a boy…its Valentine’s Day…how can I deny the little heart glitter?!

I made a few incomplete versions of this card that I am planning on having my son finish for grandparents and Daddy. Once I do that, I will show you his version.

The Engineering Details
Stamps – Happy Heart Day; Ink – Basic Black, Ruby Red Marker, Old Olive Marker; Cardstock – Going Gray, Ruby Red, Very Vanilla, Old Olive; Accessories – 3/16” corner rounder punch, rectangle slot punch, Always Artichoke ¼” grosgrain ribbon, Watercolor pencils, Icicle Stickles; Supplies – blender pen, paper piercer

Baby Update and a New Look

Well I hope you all don’t mind me sharing pictures and such about my life instead of just stuff I have stamped. I love blogs out there that allow you to get to know some of the people beyond their work. So anyway, I wanted to share with you a couple of the latest ultrasound pictures of our baby GIRL! That is right, we found out that Elijah is going to have a baby sister…officially and conclusively! So excited! Anyway I have two pics for you, the first one is the standard ultrasound pic. She (wow that is weird to now be able to reference the baby as she and not it!) seems to always have a hand up by her face or head. In all three ultrasounds now, she has been that way…so sweet! The second is using the 3-D technology! Pretty cool, but maybe a little freaky too. She is pressed up against the uterine wall in the shot and she looks quite gaunt as basically at this point in the pregnancy (20 weeks) she is just skin and bones. The technician said the next ultrasound will give more “adorable” typical baby pictures.




Did you notice the new look to the site? Or are you still looking at that 3-D ultrasound pic…captivating isn’t it? Well, my husband got me Photoshop Elements 6.0 for Christmas and I finally took some time (o.k. a lot of time because I am still figuring this program out!) to create a new bog header! Be nice…it is my first one. It is not the greatest, but I thought it turned out pretty good. So it will be around for awhile…probably until I get a bit more skilled with this program! I have also started adding a watermark to my pics…did you notice? I have been adjusting it here and there, but I am pretty pleased with it. Well that is enough for me. I will be posting some fabulous creations that I did over the weekend soon…I had lots of stamping time (and I am working on revamping my stamping area...stay tuned as that develops!) as my husband and son were out of town! But since they took the camera, I had to wait till they got back to take my pics!