Its Diva Coffee Break Design Team Challenge Day!

It’s Wednesday so it is time for another challenge.  Sorry for the lack of blogging the last few days.  Life has been busy here, we had a 6th birthday party for my son over the weekend, I have been painting 27 shoe boxes black for a school party (and I thought it would be so easy, not!), and I have been working on a partner exchange and some swaps.  So I do have some things to show you I just have to wait until they are received before I can post them here.  Anyways, so back to the challenge.  This week it was a sketch.  I ended up taking a really loose interpretation of the sketch.  I had it all set up to go almost exactly as the sketch is laid out in the picture but then I started messing around to get something I liked a little bit better and this is what I ended up with. 

I saw this cute little snowman on someone’s blog recently so I saved a copy of the picture on my computer to case it.  I didn’t bother to write down the name or the blog because the watermark on the picture had the info.  The only problem is that I saved it as a tiny little thumbnail and when I try to make it bigger to read the watermark it gets all blurry.   I think that it is made by someone names Rachelle or Rochelle but that is all that I can get out of it.  So if it is you let me know because I would love to give you the proper credit for this adorable little snowman.  Isn’t he just the cutest!?

Stamps:  Serene Snowflake, Sparkly and Bright

Ink:  Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, Basic Black Marker

Paper: Shimmery White, Whisper White, Real Red, Night of Navy, Only Orange, Basic Black, Pawsitivly Prints DSP

Accessories: Real Red Grosgrain, Dimensionals, White Gel Pen

Tools:  Eyelet Border Punch, Boho Blossoms Punch, 3/4 inch circle Punch, Heart to Heart Punch, Word Window, 1 1/4 Square Punch, Corner Rounder Punch, and Ornament Punch

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Another Pastel Christmas

After making my cards for my stamp a stack, during the same sitting,  I really liked the pastel colored one so I decided to use some of the same colors again.  This is another simple, easy to mass produce for Christmas cards.

Sorry, for the poor lighting again,  I am pre-posting and it is really still Monday here and rainy.  The small snowflakes are stamped in Champagne Shimmer paint.  They are much more subtle in real life.   I also sprayed the background paper with shimmer paint mist again.  Can you tell I love this stuff?!  Here is some of the shimmer on the card.

The peaceful wishes tag is created using the scallop square punch, by punching one square first and then reinserting the square in the punch to cut it into a rectangle.  It just looked better that way with the greeting that way.

Stamps: Serene Snow Flakes

Ink:  Bashful Blue, Lavender Lace

Paper: Shimmery White, Lavender Lace, Bashful Blue

Accessories: Bashful Blue Taffeta Ribbon, Champagne Shimmer Paint, Chit Chat Rub-ons, stampin’ dimensionals

Tools:  Big Shot, Scallop Square Bigz Clear Die, Scallop Square Punch and Corner Rounder Punch

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Pastel Christmas

This is the last card that we did at my Christmas Stamp A Stack.  I really wanted to use the hostess stamp set Patterned Pines, and for some reason it was screaming at me for pastel colors.  (Yes, late at night my stamps do talk!)  I really like the pretty soft card that this made.

Since the trees are all on one stamp I used a marker to color the different trees, you could also use stampin’ spots if that's what you have.   Since I love sparkle so much the white paper is actually shimmery white and the background of the card has been sprayed with a mixture of rubbing alcohol and platinum shimmer paint. 

Stamps: Patterned Pines, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Sage Shadow, Bashful Blue, Lavender Lace

Paper: Sage Shadow, Lavender Lace, Shimmery White

Accessories:  Bashful Blue Grosgrain, Platinum Shimmer Paint

Tools:  Big Shot, Scallop Square Die

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Sparkle

This is another card from my Christmas stamp a stack class.  I love navy blue with a crisp white contrast and the Serene Snowflakes stamp set makes for a beautiful card.   While you cannot tell from this picture, the snowflakes are stamped with white craft ink and the embossed with iridescent ice embossing powder.  The snowflakes sparkle and shimmer and are really pretty.  I also wanted to go slightly non traditional with the saying.

Stamps: Serene Snowflakes, Warm Words

Ink:  Whisper White Craft ink

Paper:  Shimmery White, Night of Navy

Accessories:  Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Sliver Cord, White Organza Ribbon

Tools:  Heat Tool, Embossing Buddy (really a must have for embossing!)

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DCBD Color Challenge #150!

Boy these Diva Coffee Break color challenges have really been that for me, a challenge.  I saw these colors and honestly my first thought was, “Eewww, do I really have to do that?”    I have since changed my mind and I am not so repulsed by the colors, I love the card that I ended up with but it was a toughie getting there.   Here are the colors:

While I love Old Olive and Certainly Celery, I don’t think I have used them together before now, really rust is not a color I tend to use and basic gray is just that, basically gray.  But lookie, lookie  at my fabulous card!

I had pulled out the 4 colors of cardstock and ink pads and stared at them for a while (probably for a half hour) before I even had the inkling of an idea.  I took the liberty of adding in Vanilla to to color scheme and when I added the Vanilla I had to check and make sure that I had Really Rust and not Pumpkin Pie.  That is when I decided to make a pumpkin and the card fell into place.  This is a 3x6 card to fit in an open ended envelope.  I love, love, love the new shimmer paint.  I used the shimmer paint/ alcohol mix on the pumpkin.  Here is a close up that gives you about 1/4 of the real life shimmer of the pumpkin.  I hope you all enjoy the card as much as I do!  Remember to check out the Diva’s entries on the Diva Coffee Break Designs blog and play along, I cannot wait to see what you come up with!
Stamps:  Baroque Motifs, Holiday Best (Hostess)
Ink:  Basic Gray, Really Rust ink pad and marker, Old Olive ink pad and marker
Paper: Basic Gray, Really Rust, Certainly Celery, Old Olive and Very Vanilla
Accessories:  Stampin’ Dimensionals, Old Olive grosgrain ribbon, Champagne Shimmer paint, blender pen (to remove ink from stamp to color leaves different color)
Tools: Wide Oval Punch, Small Oval Punch (to make the pumpkin stem), Scallop Edge Punch, SpongePin It Now!

Easy Peasy Christmas Card

This was the first card that we did at my stamp a stack last Wednesday.  It was a fun class where we made 3 different cards and then some tags for Christmas gifts.   As I was walking the ladies out the door, the power went out (from the storm that we had been having).  I am so glad that it waited until we were all done stamping and they had gathered up their things.  Anyways, here is the first card that we made together.

Now of course with the rainy day light you cannot see the shimmer paint spray that gives the card it’s true beauty.  I took several drops of champagne mist shimmer paint and added it to a spray of rubbing alcohol and sprayed the ornament and the whisper white layer. 

Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Delightful Decorations

Ink:  Glorious Green, Real Red

Paper: Glorious Green, Real Red, Whisper White

Accessories:  Dimensionals, Champagne Shimmer paint, rubbing alcohol, Gold Cord

Tools: Ornament Punch

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So easy a 7 1/2 year old can do it

Seriously the new My Digital Studio program from Stampin’ Up! is that easy.  As part of the certification program for demonstrators we are required to make a card and print it through their print vendor.  As I was working on my project I was interrupted and came back to the computer to find my daughter playing around with my card.  She didn't really know what she was doing but I figured I would let her explore her creativity and play around with it.  I sat behind her and directed her to the areas to find the changes that she wanted to make.  And she pretty much made a card all on her own, and a cute one at that.  I had already pulled out the kraft paper and the navy ribbon onto the screen and she took over from there.   I just had to print out her card too so show off her great work.  I was really happy with the quality of card that we received back from the printer and it even came with its own envelope as an added bonus!

 

Sorry for the lighting issues, it is raining yet again.  (But I did take a hint from Andrea Walford to use colored papers to help get better colors in your pictures and there was a big difference from the ones that I did with the usual white papers as compared to this one.)

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DCBD #149

It is Wednesday and time for another Diva Coffee Break Design sketch.  This weeks sketch was pretty easy. 

I started working on this challenge a little more than a week ago and have made several different cards with it.  But as this has been a busy week with a lot of things happening (including having at least one member of the house sick for the last 2 weeks) I sent all of the cards but one with out taking a picture. 

This one is really simple, but I just love that flower so it was my favorite one of the bunch.  Again I did a light mist of water to give it a softer look.  Don't forget to check out the other diva’s cards here and to play along with us and link your card! 

Stamps: Inspired By Nature

Ink:  Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulence, Old Olive

Paper:   Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulence, Old Olive, Shimmery White, Cottage Wall Dsp

Accessories:  Mistletoe Ribbon (Old Olive Taffeta), Dimensionals

Tools: Scallop Edge Punch

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Pirate Party Invites

My son decided that he wanted to have a pirate themed birthday party this year.  Unfortunately he did not decide this until the last minute other wise I would have ordered the wonderful Pirate Party kit from Stampin’ Up!  So we had to make our own.  Luckily I had purchased the Pirate time stamp set when the catalog was released, at my son’s request, so we could still go with the Pirate theme on the invites.  He really liked the invites in the kit so we made our own similar version of it. 

We did these cards in a post card style format, it is just a quarter sheet of cardstock, not the typical 1/2 sheet folded in half.  This is the card before we put all of the details on it.  All of the writing went in the more mustard space overlapping the sword.  The skull was embossed with whisper white embossing powder and the bandana was embossed with clear.   The sword was stamped using the new Champagne Shimmer paint.  It was really hard to get a picture of but here is a close up that shows a little of the shimmer.  It is so sparkly and (I would say pretty but my son would not like his cards called pretty) bling-y in real life, perfect pirate loot! Stamps: Pirate Time

Ink: More Mustard, Basic Black, Versamark

Paper: Real Red, Whisper White, Basic Black, More Mustard, Tempting Turquoise, Sahara Sand

Accessories:  Champagne Shimmer Paint, Clear and Whisper White embossing powders, dimensionals

Tools:  Heat Tool

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Simple Sketch

I don't have a lot of time to spend every day looking at blogs so I subscribe to a few of my favorites though feedblitz so that I get their posts sent directly to my email.  Over the last few months I have just been deleting them unread because I have not had the time to even look at those few but there was one I received just a few days ago that I actually took a second to look at and one card stuck in my head.  It was this card by Silke Ledlow, I really like her clean and simple stamping, it is stunning!  Anyways here are two cards that I created from the card that she did during my middle of the night stamp session.

Stamps:  Smarty Pants, Holiday Best Hostess Set

Ink:  Basic Black; Old Olive,Pumpkin Pie and Perfect Plum markers

Paper: Cast a Spell DSP, Whisper White, Old Olive,  Pumpkin Pie, Perfect Plum

Accessories:  vintage Brads, Stampin Dimensionals

Tools:  Paper Piercer, Mat Pack

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3-d ornament punch

My husband has been out of town so while I was laying in bed late one night wide awake I hopped up and decided to get some 2 am stamping done.  I actually cranked out quite a few items.  The first was an ornament with the ornament punch.  Last year there were tons of samples of ornaments with the scalloped circle punch and I kept meaning to do one but the holiday season came and went and I never got one made.  This year I was determined to get one done.  Well since I lost my craft room I have had to revert to storing my punches in one of those over the door shoe holders, unfortunately mine is not clear.  I reached in for what was supposed to be my scallop circle punch and went to go sit down and punch some out of the Christmas dsp.  Well I accidentally grabbed the Ornament punch, but I thought it would work the same.   And guess what, it did!  Here is the 3-d ornament.

It was really simple to do.  I just punched out 8 shapes and folded them in half and glue them all together.  Before gluing the first and last one together I stuck the ribbon in the middle.  Here is a shot from more of an angle so you can get a better idea of the 3-d ishness . 

This can be done with any object that is symmetrical along the vertical axis.  Pretty much if it is the same when you fold it in half it should work.

Paper:  Merry Moments DSP

Accessories: Very Vanilla grosgrain

Tools: Ornament Punch

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DCBD #148

I am sorry for the lack of blogging lately.  Last week we worked on potty training my 2 year old and then she got sick, and has so lovingly shared it will all of the rest of us.  Luckily for my DH he has been out of town since Friday and was so super busy before that , he has not come down with it.  (knock on wood)  Anyways it is time for another DCBD challenge.  This week it is a color challenge.

I was pretty excited about this color challenge.  I have been on a Kraft kick lately so I was excited to be able to use it in this challenge.  Also, I do not think that I have ever used Dusty Durango so it was going to stretch me into using it.  I don't know why I had not used it yet, it really is a pretty color.

I knew I wanted to do something “fallish” but to my dismay all of my fall themed stamp sets are retired, so I decided to use inspired by nature.  This card pretty much put itself together.   For the flower image I colored the image with markers and then gave it a light mist with a spray bottle of water.  I just wanted a subtle watercolor look to it so I did the “Untamed Heart” spray.  (For those of you who have not seen the movie (and have but don't remember) in the beginning when Caroline is getting ready she put her perfume on by spraying it in the air and ducking under it.)  So I sprayed my water up in the air and then moved my stamp underneath to catch the light mist as it fell.  On the Garden Green layer I stamped the grassy image to give it texture.  This really is a simple card but I love the way it turned out. 

Stamps:  Inspired by Nature

Ink:  Garden Green, Dusty Durango, Crushed Curry

Paper:  Kraft, Garden Green, Dusty Durango, Crushed Curry, Very Vanilla

Accessories:  Crushed Curry Polka Dot Ribbon (on backwards), stampin dimensionals

Tools:  Big Shot, Top Note Die

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More of those Watercolor Roses!

Sorry just another quick post, so much to do and so little time.  This is a card that I was asked to make  over the weekend for a lady at our church.  I had made several extra wet water color roses the last time I made some, so I pulled them out and threw together a quick card.

This card is actually a 5x7 card since it was being passed around for the ladies at church to all sign and add their wishes to.

Stamps:  Fifth Avenue Floral, Upsy Daisy

Ink:  Regal Rose, Rose Red, Barely Banana

Paper:  Shimmery White, Whisper White, Mellow Moss, Regal Rose, Versamark

Accessories:  Mellow Moss grosgrain,  Whisper White Embossing Powder, Stampin Dimensionals

Tools:  Big Shot, Little Leaves Sizzlit, SU! Perfect Details Embossing Plate, Heat Tool, Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch

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