background adventure

A couple of weeks ago I watched Jennifer McGuire's Ink Layering video and I thought it was such a great idea that I left the page open - I don't remember whether I pinned it or not, I just left it open so I would see it frequently.  Monday Use Your Stuff posted a challenge to create your own background; yesterday Shopping Our Stash posted a challenge to make your own background.  OK, blogiverse, I got the message!

stamp set - Lots of Thanks; ink - Whisper White Craft, Calypso Coral; card stock - Crisp Cantaloupe, Calypso Coral; tools - stencil from Dots & Stripes, sponge daubers, Big Shot with Ovals Collection framelits;

I didn't exactly follow Jennifer's directions, though.  I could have used a stencil from Hearts & Stars but I was still thinking of one more card for the Card Buffets, and I thought no one would want to daub so many little hearts or stars - stripes seemed easier.  So I sponged the white stripes, stamped and cut the sentiment, cleaned the stencil, and finally gave up on the patience bit and used the heat tool to finish drying the ink.  I moved the stencil, sponged the coral stripes, and studied my results.  I didn't think I liked it, so I cleaned the stencil again and tried to talk myself into liking it.  I considered turning the card stock over and sponging many little hearts or stars, but I thought I'd try adding a perpendicular set of coral stripes, first.  Now, I like it; I almost wish I'd used Real Red so it would look like an old-fashioned picnic blanket or Italian restaurant tablecloth.  

Red or coral, I think it's masculine and clean and simple enough to qualify at Cardz 4 Guyz this week.

I may have to try the technique again, with one of the other stencils, just to see if  they would be as tedious as I imagined.

adventure with "one more"

I'll be having friends here for Card Buffet Thursday and Saturday. I have a fall birthday and a fall thanks or Thanksgiving card, a Thinking of You (I think those can be birthday, get well, or sympathy with appropriate inside sentiments), one holiday (Halloween or Christmas or Thanksgiving) and two Christmas cards (which could be general winter cards if the sentiments are changed).  I wanted just "one more" choice but I couldn't decide if we needed one more birthday or one more Christmas?  The "Just Us Girls" Color Challenge is versatile enough for both, and so is For the Birds, one of the new stamp sets in that big box o' stampin' stuff that I opened last week:

stamp set - For the Birds; ink - Island Indigo; Aquapainter; Stampin' Write markers - Pool Party, Soft Suede; card stock - Crumb Cake, Island Indigo, Whisper White; designer series paper - Season of Style; Basic Jewels - rhinestones; Big Shot with Ovals Collection framelits  

 

After it was all glued together, I thought it needed one more "something".  I tried a piece of ribbon, a bow, a button, baker's twine - nothing was working for me.  Then I remembered the challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown - Bling it up! so I got out the rhinestones - bingo! (I so want to say "bling-go" but I will refrain- hah!)

CASEd new color Doily adventure

I decided to try something new, an idea I got from other demonstrators at Stampin' Connection - a card buffet. 

Instead of Stamp-a-Stack this month, I'll be hosting a new catalog open house, where you can see some of the new products, pick up a catalog if you didn't receive one by mail, and make 4 cards for $5, buffet style - you choose which cards and how many!  One of the choices will be this card, which I CASEd from Susan Horr, using the ColourQ palette (adapted slightly so I could use newer colors) with no patterned paper (Shopping Our Stash) other than the stamped design:

stamp sets - Best of Birthdays, Delicate Doilies; ink - Smoky Slate, Island Indigo, Pistachio Pudding, Soft Sky; card stock - Smoky Slate, Island Indigo, Whisper White; punch - 1-3/4" circle

For some reason, my Soft Sky doilies look gray - maybe my camera's white balance is off? 

I love the Celebrate sentiment from Best of Birthdays, as it can be used for other occasions besides birthdays.
 
Stop by Saturday if you're in the area and have time between 10 and 2 - there will also be $1, $5, and $10 Rubber Rummage retired stamps and supplies available (another idea from a fellow demonstrator), and probably refreshments, too!

Easter adventures

I was preparing for Stamp-a-Stack and went web-surfing through challenge blogs looking for a spring color palette.  I thought I was looking for something with Calypso Coral, but I think the suggestion at Color Throwdown worked even better:

stamp set - Delightful Dozen; ink - Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie, Pink Pirouette; card stock - Certainly Celery, Pink Pirouette, Pumpkin Pie, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla; punches - Bird Builder, Extra-Large Oval; Big Shot with Framed Tulips textured embossing folder and Apothecary Accents framelit; Stampin' Sponges

Then I thought it was time to try a bit of watercoloring, but since my skills in that area are still beginner-level, I wanted a small, simple image, which then needed a frame (as suggested at  Less is More) to make it stand out:

stamp set - Everybunny; ink - Crumb Cake, Gumball Green, Pool Party, PrimrosePetals, Raspberry Ripple, Summer Starfruit; Stampin' Write marker - Raspberry Ripple; card stock - Watercolor, Raspberry Ripple, Naturals Ivory; designer series paper - Print Poetry; Big Shot with Ovals Collection and Window Collection framelits; AquaPainter

These cards will be repeated at Stamp-a-Stack Saturday March 23, as well.  The tulips card can be made as a birthday or Mother's Day card if you don't need many Easter cards.  There are two other designs, so we'll be making eight cards for only $10.

unsuccessful adventure

How do you define success?  I can't always, but when a card makes me think "meh", that is unsuccessful.  When I was creating cards for the blog hop I was also planning to use those cards for Stamp-a-Stack that same weekend, so I wanted to use the die cut element from the first card on a second card.  If I hadn't come down with the flu, we would have made this card:

stamp set - Best of Birthdays; ink - Cherry Cobbler; Stampin' Write marker - Pink Pirouette; card stock - Midnight Muse, Pink Pirouette; designer series paper - Storytime; Big Shot with Labels Collection and Ovals Collection framelits and Perfect Polka Dots textured embossing folder; Stampin' Dimensionals

I was still thinking "meh" when I saw the call for a birthday card for him using the sketch at Seize the Birthday, and that Storytime Label seemed like just the right element, so now the card looks like this:

stamp set - Best of Birthdays; ink - Midnight Muse; card stock - Midnight Muse, Very Vanilla; designer series paper - First Edition, Storytime; punch - Extra-Large Oval; Big Shot with Labels Collection framelits: Stampin' Dimensionals

I like it a lot better (even though I missed the posting deadline at Seize the Birthday), and we'll probably make both cards later this month at Stamp-a-Stack if I can stay healthy.  Since it's fairly masculine and clean and simple, it qualifies at Addicted to CAS.  And don't worry, I saved those pink bits for another card, and possibly another post.

Since I was all flush with success snatched from the jaws of defeat (as it were), I decided it was time to try doubling up on Christmas card challenges.  The lovely Jingle Belles are looking for stickers for Stick-y & Sweet and Lesley is asking for one my favorite color combinations at Merry Monday.  Always Artichoke with Cherry Cobbler brings to my mind the retired designer series paper Deck the Halls first, and it always seems to "want" the retired Christmas Collage stamp.  I also had to dig through my box of "free to a good home" non-Stampin' Up!® paper crafting supplies to find a sticker - it's the little greeting on the Brushed Gold Modern Label:

stamp set - Christmas Collage (retired); ink - Always Artichoke; card stock - Always Artichoke textured (retired), Brushed Gold, Cherry Cobbler, River Rock; designer series paper - Deck the Halls; punch - 1-3/4" circle, Modern Label; Big Shot with Labels Collection framelit; Stampin' Dimensionals, unknown sticker

The original iteration, on a River Rock base, had me thinking "meh" but I kept working with it.  I had the Brushed Gold cut in the Label framelit shape, but it blended into the River Rock background, so I outlined it with my Cherry Cobbler marker, but that wasn't quite enough.  I thought about using Dazzling Details for the outline, but I wasn't sure the "bling" would coordinate with the otherwise vintage style. I cut a Cherry Cobbler framelit shape and considered using it as a shadow style mat, showing at the bottom and one side; I considered splitting it in half so it would mat above and below; finally I just punched the Modern Label shape out of the Brushed Gold.  Better, but still a little "meh", and then I smeared the inside sentiment - badly.  My first thought was to mat a sentiment to cover the blunder, but instead I decided to cut the front off and mat it onto a new base.  I flipped over the smeared back, re-stamped and trimmed it with the Label framelit for the interior:

stamp sets - Bells & Boughs, Scenic Season (retired); ink - Always Artichoke, River Rock; card stock - Always Artichoke, River Rock; Big Shot with Labels Collection framelit

You can see the outline of the unused portion of the framelit where it was under the sentiment piece. I won't try to convince you that I knew it would do that and planned it that way, but I like it as an "echo" of the full shape on the front.  Although it's not likely to be my favorite card this year, I like it a lot better than the first version, so it's not unsuccessful.

Spring-A-Bration blog hop adventure

Spring + Sale-A-Bration = Spring-A-Bration

My llama friends and I are hopping again, it's so much fun!  This month we'd like to show you products from the new Spring catalog and some of the things you can earn free from our Sale-A-Bration flyer - your choice of free item(s) with every $50 ordered!  Check out links above (Stampin' Up! blog) or to the right (Adventures blog). You've probably hopped here from Debbie's blog, but if not you can go back, or to the next blog - Marsha's - and on through all the blogs in our hop until you get to Debbie's.  And by the way, isn't her blog perfectly named?  Clever and Cute - everything she posts (including those adorable grandbabies) is clever and cute!  There are buttons at the end of this post with links to Debbie and Marsha and to the Llama Home page.

The stamp set I used below is from the big catalog, I put off buying it until I got a special demonstrator discount because I thought it was somewhat limited in application.  While I was putting the labels on the stamps I finally realized that each of the large sentiments have a coordinating smaller sentiment that works well for the inside of the cards - that makes it seem much more useful for me and I'm really happy I splurged:

stamp set - From My Heart; ink - Midnight Muse; card stock - Naturals Ivory; designer series paper - StoryTime; tools - Big Shot with Apothecary Accents Framelits, Paper-Piercing Tool, Stampin' Pierce Mat, Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack

The Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack is one of the items you can get free during Sale-A-Bration - three unique 6"x6" templates with piercing patterns that coordinate with punches, Edgelits, and Framelits - an easy way to add pizzazz to a simple design.  Some people find coloring or hand-cutting soothing; I find piercing soothing.

The next card features my favorite new embossing folder and the new Core'dinations sandable card stock in fabulous Pool Party, both available from the Spring catalog:

stamp set - Perfectly Penned; ink - Riding Hood Red; card stock - So Saffron, Riding Hood Red, Pool Party, Pool Party Core'dinations; designer series paper - Storytime; tools - Big Shot with Honeycomb textured impressions embossing folder, Stampin' Sanding System; accessories - 1/8" mini brads silver, Stampin' Dimensionals

My last card was an adventure all of its own, a story for another day.  I found this card by Mary Fish that I really wanted to recreate and the newest Fab Friday color challenge that I really loved, so I made this:

stamp set - Vintage Verses (SAB); card stock - Naturals White, Baja Breeze, Perfect Plum, Wild Wasabi; punches - Petite Curly Label (SAB),Bitty Butterfly, Scallop Trim border; Stampin' Dimensionals, Stamping Sponges

I love punches as much as I love embossing folders, and I really love the coordination Stampin' Up!® is so good at, so the Bitty Butterfly (coordinates beautifully with the Elegant Butterfly punch) in the Spring catalog and the Petite Curly Label (coordinates perfectly with Curly Label punch) in the Sale-A-Bration flyer were on my very first order with that fabulous Honeycomb folder.  If you want other Sale-A-Bration freebies and don't plan to spend $50 as many times as there are free items, don't despair - the Petite Curly Label punch will be available for purchase after Sale-A-Bration - a first!  But don't wait too long, either, or you'll be missing out on the fun.

For more fun right now, click Next to hop forward to Marsha's blog, or Previous to hop backward to Debbie's blog:

 

If you've lost your way, click home to find the Llama Blog Hop Home page:

more Stampin' Up!® Convention 2012 adventures

This was my most favorite Make and Take from convention, and I actually finished it completely during the first, alternate session on Wednesday afternoon:

stamp set- You're Amazing; ink: Early Espresso, Midnight Muse, More Mustard, Primrose Petals; card stock - Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Midnight Muse, More Mustard, Primrose Petals, Very Vanilla; punches - Ticket Duo, 1/16" Circle, Itty Bitty Shapes; Big Shot™ with Apothecary Accents Framelits™; Paper Piercing Tool with Stampin' Pierce Mat and Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack; Linen Thread, Basic Pearls, Stampin' Dimensionals®, Glue Dots®, paper snips, needle

Aren't those little tickets awesome?  Stringing them on the linen thread was almost therapeutic after my frustration with the flower on a stick...

Thursday, Friday and Saturday were the "actual" days of convention, when we attended General Sessions and class presentations.  I learned so much!

Donna Griffith introduced demonstrators Meg Wheeler, Dawn Griffith and Laura Milligan, who presented "I Am...Savvy" projects using fabric, ribbon, and kits (both card and scrapbook); of course now I have to buy more supplies {grin}!

Pam Morgan gave us tips on taking advantage of performance bonuses in "I Am...Making Money".

Shannon West (and her "sidekick" Brian Pilling) informed us of how beneficial smiles are and had us dancing in the aisles to show that "I Am...Having Fun" is the #1 ingredient to maximize workshop possibilities.

Emily Montoya taught me some texting acronyms I didn't know before (Y! = typical man) and really inspired me to do more with social media to improve my efforts at "I Am...Reaching Out" to the emerging demographic of GenY.  Emily and "Kate" made me feel better about preferring text messaging to telephone conversations - bonus!

Sandra Manwill, Natalia Danko and Teresa Giordano totally rocked Hispanic Night, an extra event held in the evening. It was full of awesome projects as well as ideas for connecting with customers from Hispanic backgrounds.  They had some of the best give-aways, too, and I came home with the new heat tool - WooHoo!

I hadn't seen Bonnie Thurber before, but I'm pretty sure she's my favorite Stampin' Up!® employee - she's so funny, and she's my generation!  She introduced demonstrators Ronda Wade and Tami White who told us their "recipes" for "I Am...Doing Business 'My Way'", which are methods any of us can adapt for our own success.

Carrie Cudney related a "Gone Fishing" story to illustrate the need to look in new places and try new things in order to find new customers; now I can show everyone that "I Am...Open for Business".

There were also stamping demonstrations (with give-aways), lunches (with give-aways), shopping at Memento Mall (with give-aways), and awards.  Oh my!  I'm already putting away $1s and $5s for next year - won't you plan on joining us?

online learning adventure, day 2 part 2

I only made one card today, and it's one of the collage stamp lessons from Day 2.  I've been watching the videos each day and reading the material, I just can't put into practice everything I've learned at such a quick pace. Since I'll always have access to the materials, that's OK.  And since I really, really like today's card, I'm OK with being two days behind, too:

stamp sets - Postage Due, Petite Pairs; ink - River Rock, Versamark; card stock - River Rock, Brushed Gold, Window Sheet; punch - Postage Stamp; Big Shot with Beautiful Wings embosslit; Gold Stampin' Emboss powder, Stampin' Dimensionals, stamping sponge

I chose to make it in gold (really - the River Rock card stock is gold in real life even though my photo doesn't have quite the right lighting), thinking there was enough white space in the design to qualify for this week's color challenge at Less is More, but I'm not really sure it isn't a touch too detailed.

Nonetheless, I'm pretty pleased with the three completely different cards I've made from one collage-style stamp set.  I only convinced myself to buy it because I knew the Stretch Your Stamps classes would cover collage stamps (ok, and because I love the bicycle); I've never been comfortable with the style before.

online learning adventure, day 2

Yes, I'm still behind - I don't think anyone is surprised.  The good thing is that I have 20 days to post my projects and permanent access to all the class files!  While everyone else was learning techniques to get more use from alphabet stamps today, I was working with my new collage stamp.  I tried watercolor resist:

stamp sets - Postage Due, Netting; ink - Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Versamark; card stock -  Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie, watercolor paper, white vellum; designer series paper - Twitterpated; punch - Postage Stamp; embossing powder - clear and white; Stampin' Dimensionals, stamping sponge

The color palette is new this week at Color Throwdown for their 200th Challenge Celebration, and the layout is the newest sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

Then I tried ironed-off embossing and masked color blocking:

stamp sets - Postage Due, Itty Bitty Banners; ink - Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, Pacific Point, Night of Navy, Versamark; card stock - Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, Whisper White; Big Shot with Labels Collection and Bitty Banners framelits; embossing powder - clear; Stampin' Dimensionals, stamping sponges

I did this one in monochrome for this week's challenge at Card a Day, a blog I just discovered, and chose blues for the challenge at Addicted to Stamps Challenge Blog, which I just found last week.

I hope to be working with alphabet stamps tomorrow, but there's still collage squares, the floating focal point, and multiple embossing from Day 2 as well as the pigment powders and paint resist that I probably won't get to at all...

Oh, before I forget, I made this clever little number last night using Julie Davison's tutorial, which I found on Pinterest, and then discovered that the challenge this week at Shopping Our Stash is for an extra fold or pleats:

stamp sets - Curly Cute, Happy Grad (retired); ink - Real Red; card stock - Real Red, Whisper White, Basic Black, Window Sheet; Crystal Effects, white Bakers Twine, Simply Scored Scoring Tool and Diagonal Plate, 5/16" white brad (retired)

I'd like you to know that taking time from my Stretch Your Stamps "homework" to make this card is one reason I'm behind, but then I'd probably have to admit that Carly's open house was Saturday, and I should have mailed a card to her last week, so let's just not go there.  At least I'm only one day behind now, instead of half a week ;\

 

online learning adventure, day 1 part 2

Yes, today was day 2 (we learned different ways to use collage stamps), but I wasn't finished with day 1...

I thought I'd try using my new background stamp (it arrived today!) as a stamped element on this Just Us Girls sketch. 

Then I got the idea to also use the background stamp as the background, so it turned out to be more like a spotlight or highlight:

stamp sets - Itty Bitty Banners, Pleasant Poppies; ink - Tangerine Tango; card stock - Whisper White, Tangerine Tango, Lucky Limeade; designer series paper - Floral District; punches - 1-1/4" circle, 1-3/8" circle;  Big Shot with Bitty Banners and Apothecary Accents framelits; Stampin' Dimensionals

Collage stamps, and collage style, are not anything I'm comfortable with, but I had some unwarranted self-confidence that I could learn something *and apply it* in time to make a vintage style card (another style I'm not comfortable with) for Jingle Belles before tomorrow.  Yeah, probably not.  So, here's the card I made last week and put off posting (huh - looks like the JUGS sketch infiltrated my subconscious):

stamp set: Pines & Poinsettias (retired?! how did I miss that?!); ink: Early Espresso; Stampin' Write markers - Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke; card stock - Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke; designer series paper - Deck the Halls (retired); punch - Decorative Label; Victoria 5/8" crochet trim, Simply Scored, Stampin' Dimensionals  

So, I'll go back to Online Card Classes Stretch Your Stamps to review today's two videos, seven techniques, nine-page .pdf document, seven samples and six links to additional inspiration and see what I can do with my new collage stamp (it arrived yesterday!).  Meanwhile, you should probably click right over to Online Card Classes and sign up - I don't know where you'll find a better deal!

online learning adventure

I signed up for Online Card Classes Stretch Your Stamps - today was day 1, for background-type stamps.  I watched two videos, learned five different techniques, was inspired by five different card samples and eight links to more ideas - WOW!  What a great value for the price, and there are still 9 more days!  One of the techniques was a pieced background, which I tried here, using colors from the Paper Players and a sketch from Stamping 411:

stamp sets - One in a Million and Hello, Doily; ink - Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight; card stock - Naturals White, Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight; punch - Full Heart; Stampin' Dimensionals

Since I stamped the Hello, Doily image three times (once in each color), I really made three cards (one of which I mounted upside down, but we could say I meant to do that for a little variety - see how the curve of the sentiment follows the curve of the background design?):

stamp sets - Curly Cute (on left), Perfectly Penned (on right) and Hello, Doily; ink - Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight; card stock - Naturals White, Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight; punch - Full Heart; Stampin' Dimensionals

I had so much fun, and I still want to try a DIY inkpad, double stamping, and stamped elements with background stamps. This is my first online learning adventure for stamping/card making, but it won't be my last.