Thursday, September 30, 2010

Fall card

From a previous post I mentioned a new range of Halloween cardstock/paper at my friends store here in Norman. I really liked the paper that had Chandeliers on it and used it in a card. This paper is from the same line and I had an ah ha moment when I saw it also.

The basic card is 5x5 inches and is made from Basic Black cardstock. The sentiment and stamped images are from Stampin Up! Just Believe stamp set. I used basic black on the sentiment and old olive ink on the floral design inside the card. I burnished the cardstock inside and out with Tim Holtz distress ink Old Parchment. I stamped the floral design on a paper dolie and mounted it on the cardstock. The next layer was a punched border by EK Success in Basic Black. The flowers and the half pearls are from my stash. Sentiment is popped up with Stampin Up! dimensionals.



The inside of the card is stamped on Whisper White with Old Olive ink. I loved the touch of contrast the red flower gave the card.



I just love this sentiment. Just Believe can be used in a variety of ways from Christmas, to religious, to various motivational cards.

Halloween card


I made a visit to Whole Lotta Scrap last week and Leslie had a new shipment of Halloween papers in. I saw a sheet that had a chandelier on it and immediately an idea for this card sprang into my head.

I used Basic Black as the card foundation and topped it with the paper from Leslie's. The glitter cardstock was also from there. I cut out a chandelier using the Home Decor Cricut cartridge and popped it up over the image on the chandelier paper. The sentiment is from the Wicked Cool stamp set from Stampin Up! stamped on Whisper White and then punched out with the curley label punch. The ribbon is punched out of Basic Black card stock using the dotted scallop ribbon punch.








The inside of the card is stamped using three other stamps from the Wicked Cool stamp set. The sentiment, the hat and boots were stamped using Basic Black on Whisper White and embellished using Pumpkin Pie and some orange beads from my stash.









I really like this little witch! She is not in the least bit scarey. Here is a closeup of the witch! You need to look close at her cape!


The cape is actually 2 bat pieces punched out of the Basic Black using the bat punch that is new this catalog.

Day of Graditude

I promised to follow the last post with a post on cards that I made the weekend following the Stampin Up! Regional meeting. I love this new set and have made 10-12 different projects with it so far.

The first card I made with the Day of Gratitude stamp set was a 5x5 card made with SU Cajun Craze, Old Olive, More Mustard, and Rich Razzleberry. I stamped the image on Whisper White cardstock by sponging color on the stamp and then I cut it out matted it on Cajun Craze and popped it up with SU dimensionals. The leaves are glued to the Old Olive mat that was first stamped with Cajun Craze and Old Olive leaves and then was run through the Big Shot in the Square Lattice embossing folder. The punched ribbon was created using the Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch out of Cajun Craze. The sentiment is stamped in Cajun Craze.




I really liked the look of the Cajun Craze card but thought that I would like to make it in a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4in card using the Rich Razzleberry as the base color. I think it turned out really nice!



Can't leave the insides of the cards blank so both were done in a similar design!



I think they both turned out nice...

Stampin Up! Regionals-- Ft. Worth TX September 10th



It has been a few weeks since I have posted anything and I apologize but we have been rather busy around here doing some house and kitchen renovation. I will have a separate blog on that when we are closer to finishing up the work there.

Heather and I made a trip to Texas the beginning of this month to participate in the Stampin Up! Regional at the Ft. Worth Convention center. I didn't take very many pictures and actually forgot to even take my good camera with me so everything I have is not of great quality.

This first picture is of Stampin Up! Co founder and CEO Shelli Gardner who attends every meeting and convention that SU puts on. I really enjoyed hearing her speak and look forward to attending more meetings where she will be there. Shelli has managed to raise a family and build a business and has a great story to tell.



Stampin Up! provided us with lots of useful business information and provided us with 6 different designs of make and takes using a stamp set they gave us! The is an example of the make and takes on the left and one of the speakers gave us a talk on how to up sell to the Hispanic market by making a few changes to colors and styles... those examples are on the right.

The Day of Gratitude set has all sorts of uses and is very versatile for fall and Christmas cards and scrapbooks. I think that it would be useful for different 3D craft items with a northern European flair. I will be posting some cards that I made using the set in the next post.

Stampin Up! shared a new set that will be coming out in the next mini catalog and it is awesome especially if you like chocolate. I am so looking forward to getting this stamp set!! It was made available to Demos and their recruits that were recruited after the regional meeting. Luckily...or not so luckily... I recruited 3 new demos to my downline group and there will possibly be a forth sign up this weekend. If I haven't talked to you recently you probably don't know that I have decided to start working the SU business.


This is an upclose of the 'chocolate' stamp!



Heather and I enjoyed the meeting and stayed over another night to do some shopping down in Dallas and to visit a few of our favorite haunts. IKEA topped the list for both of us and we spent some time shopping there.

Yummy Swedish meatballs!




We stopped at Gainesville Outlet Mall both coming and going to Ft. Worth. One of the highlights was a trip to the Mall at Arlington where they have indoor hockey and a carousel that is awesome!



Isn't the carousel pretty...I loved the lion.


All in all it was a great trip and we had a lot of fun.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Araneus

I have a new house guest that is making herself very at home on the front porch! I must say that this is one of smartest spiders that we have had the good fortune to grace our gardens over the years. This spiders web kept getting knocked down until she wised up and built it on the glass door totally and now the web stays intact but if she feels threatened she runs under the cornice board and hides out.



In this picture you can see the web on the door. The spider is out of focus and over exposed but... I like the webs. Heather and I have been going in and out the garage door so that we don't disturb her web. I am leaving the porch light on at night so she should be good and fat by late fall!



I was going to take photos of the Argiope on the patio but the wind was too high and it was just way too blurry. Maybe tomorrow!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Another Tag

It is a big surprise I know that I am posting twice in one day but I have been busy crafting the past couple of days and wanted to share.

Last week I was involved in a tag challenge and liked doing it so much that I decided to try again!

This tag is made using mostly Tim Holtz products. The paper is a floral print in the Lost and Found paper pad. I cut it and the chip board to make the tag on the Accucut at my friends store here in Norman. Leslie just got in a bunch of new dies and I decided to give this one a try. I think that the tag shape is a little long cause I had trouble getting all the elements to match up.




The sentiment is from a Stampers Anon set of Tim Holtz that has been my sig line for a number of years. I find it works well for me and I was happy to see it out in his line. The sentiment is stamped in the Distress black embossing powder. I am not yet good with it and tend to over cook it and have bleed overs on non-stamped spots.



The ink is Ranger Distress ink, Philosophy tag, memo pin, mini clip, and grunge board flourish are Tim Holtz label. Prima Flowers finish it off.

Joans Garden Challenge #12

I decided to try and do another challenge this week and almost forgot to post it! Not good. I seem to be more forgetful here of late!

The challenge this week was to make a card or project this week and use the following:

Striped paper
Pearls or Brads
Piercing
Stamped Fall Image; preferably (but not required) a JustRite Stamp (I didn't have one!)



The card is made from mostly Stampin Up! products. The card stock base is More Mustard, Striped layer is from Graphic 45 Domestic Goddess, the scalloped oval is an Old Olive striped print from the 6x6 Welcome Neighbor paper pad.





Pumpkin pie is the scalloped oval under the stamped image from Stampin Up! Harvest Home stamp set.
Die cuts from Stampin Up! scalloped oval by Sizzix. Corner punch by Stampin Up! Autumn leaves chunky glitter, flowers were given to me, half pearls in center from Stampin Up! pretties set. Gradient Jewels by Creative Charms.








I am not very good with coloring...never have been but I have fun attempting to do it. The image was stamped with Stampin Up! Basic Black, colored with Stampin Up! Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, and Certianly Celery Stampin Write Markers.



Once again I had a lot of fun and I am looking forward to more challenges in the future!

Halloween card for Teresa

This is another post that somehow got into the edit column. I am sure it is user error and not the programs fault!!!

Getting ready from Halloween I decided to make my baby grandaughter a card for the holiday. Since Teresa is only 18 months old I didn't want to make her a scary card so I went cute instead.

This is a new set of stamps from Stampin Up! that is called The Greeting Card Kids. It has 4 rubber stamps that have images portraying kids doing things relating to going to school, Halloween, Christmas, and Valentines.

The card is 6"x6" using Whisper White (WW) card stock for the base then a piece of Halloween paper left in my scrap basket from last year with the corners rounded using SU rounder. The frame is a a die from Spellbinders cut from WW and distressed with Elegant Eggplant (EE). I used the Martha Stewart bat edge punch for the bottom border in EE. The image is inked in Pumpkin Pie, Elegant Eggplant, and Old Olive. Ribbon from the stash, dark purple bling, and Prima roses complete the image.



Here is a close up of the girl! Isn't she cute! As I have said before I am not the best at colorng because I get in such a hurry I get out of the lines but I really enjoy making and coloring my cards!



Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!