Quadruple Challenge Card

Sometimes life gets so busy that I end up combining several challenges into one just to make sure I complete them. Nobody's crackin' the whip -- except for me, LOL! Anyhoo, this card is based on Beate's Weekend sketch, with colors selected based on the SCS Inspiration Challenge (see the photo below with all the upholstery material in it). The curious little bumblebee was added to meet the requirements of Sharon's Stamp Simply challenge of "going buggy". Faux stitching along the edges met the "faux" anything challenge at Stamp Something's weekly challenge blog. Phew! A lot of stuff going on, but I love the end result of sumptuous colors, a pretty bloom and a whimsical little bug.

RECIPE
Stamps: Bloomin' Beautiful
Paper: Ginger Blossom DP, More Mustard, Groovy Guava, Cameo Coral, & Ruby Red cardstock
Ink: Basic Black, More Mustard
Embellishments: 5-Petal Flower Punch, Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, Cuttlebug "Swiss Dots"

Happy Father's Day Card

This card was the result of using Jen del Muro's sketch with two "Ways to Use It" challenges on SCS, combining the use of "inchies" -- one inch square images -- with a masculine theme. Well you can't get much more masculine than Father's Day, right? And inchies were the perfect way to highlight my two boys, the cat and myself, all cute little faces from my "All in the Family" stamp set. I ran the Close to Cocoa panel through my Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots pattern, then echoed the dots around each face with my white Signo pen. The other brown paper is from Berry Bliss designer paper. Soft Sky and Bayou Blue add to the "all boy" feel, and of course my sentiment from "All Holidays" says it all, stamped in Chocolate Chip. Don't mention to my DH that he's wearing a blue & orange tie, the colors of UVA. He'll have a heart attack... ;-)

Here's the sketch if you want to give it a try:

Some SCS Challenge Cards

For my first card, I combined this week's Color Challenge -- Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, and Certainly Celery -- with the Featured Stamper challenge #67 (featuring SCS stamper "dawnsing") in which I CASEd this card by Dawn, changing the stamps, colors, and sentiment:

RECIPE
Paper: Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Watercolor, Ginger Blossom dp
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Creamy Caramel
Tools: Blender Pen, Small Oval Punch, Double Hold Punch
Embellishments: Bashful Blue ribbon, Love & Happiness rub-ons



My second card was created for the SCS Sketch Challenge. I just love my Artfully Asian blossoming branch so much, I used it with both cards. :-)
RECIPE
Paper: Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Watercolor, Ginger Blossom dp
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Creamy Caramel
Tools: Blender Pen, Small Oval Punch, Double Hole Punch
Embellishments: Bashful Blue ribbon, Love & Happiness rub-ons

Disco Mickey Card

A friend and colleague of mine who is moving on to another job loves Mickey Mouse, so I googled and found this cute black & white graphic and printed it out on Whisper White paper. I made a huge card so the entire office could sign it and let the sparkly disco theme take care of the rest. Another black & gold color scheme (Basic Black and More Mustard, to be precise) based on collegiate colors, plus some Brushed Silver paper. I haven't gotten tired of my silver Hodgepodge Hardware from the Occasions catalog, and used my Warm Words for the sentiment. She loved it!!

Stamp Simply Challenge #35

Sharon's challenge on No Time to Stamp last week, which I just got around to finishing up, was to use panels on our project. I made this card for a friend. I am always so glad that I have the "Close as a Memory" stamp set because it's perfect for the difficult occasion of making a sympathy card. I find the font so soothing. Three panels from Le Jardin designer paper are layered on a longer panel of dp, then adhered to my River Rock Long Note. The sentiment, stamped in Bashful Blue, is popped up with a few SU! dimensionals. Vintage brads and some Soft Sky ribbon add delicate touches.

Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge

I made this card to send to Paul Torgerson, whose daughter Karen is a great friend of mine. Paul was president of Virginia Tech for many many years and is now fighting cancer. Karen asked that I send a card not to express sorrow or sympathy, but rather as a source of encouragement as President Torgerson faces the greatest challenge of his life. This is based on Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge, and includes orange and maroon as the collegiate colors of VA Tech's Hokies. I hope it will be a source of strength and encouragement to both him and Karen. GO HOKIES and GO PAUL!!!

StampMom Workshop at the Adult Care Center

This morning I held a workshop for 10 adults at the Adult Care Center teaching them how to stamp cards, and it was such a joyful start to my day -- they were delighted with their projects, full of creative ideas of how to put their own personal touches on them, and so pleased with the final results. I'm continually amazed at how art can perk up the elderly and mentally challenged in a way that gets them engaged and happy with their ability to make handcrafted cards.

That really is the best part of stamping -- sharing it with others. If you have a group you'd like me to work with, send me an e-mail. Stamping can be a great experience for young and old, whether as a therapeutic activity or just a fun get-together (what a way to relax with your bridesmaids before the Big Day, or to make a heartfelt Father's Day card for Dad and Grandpa with your children!).

Here are a few more pics of my workshop:

Farewell to a Colleague

One of my co-workers is leaving to do her student teaching as a final step toward becoming a middle-school teacher. She's been juggling coursework for her licensure with her job for several years and is finally reaching the "finish line", and she's also a competitive runner, so I came up with this card for all of us in the office to sign. I found a graphic for a jogger and printed it out onto Very Vanilla cardstock. My Serene Sunflower and Define Your Life ("journey") stamps form the other images. The sunflower is a key symbol of the college where she works, as are the black & gold colors, so it makes a fitting frame. I used my Cuttlebug to emboss Swiss Dots over the background panel, and echoed the dots by piercing the paper beneath the main panel. More Mustard is sponged heavily around the edges of my jogger and I popped some Vintage brads in the upper corners after nicking the paper with my Corner Tag punch.

Thanks for looking!

Sketch Challenge Card

This is a bon voyage card for my parents, who will soon be leaving the U.S. on a whirlwind international choir tour -- so excited for them! Take lots of pictures, Mom! :-)

I used the SCS sketch challenge for the week, with a retired hostess stamp set ("Provencal") and some yummy Berry Bliss designer paper, layered up with the Purely Pomegranate-colored paper from the Holiday Harmony paper set. The image is stamped in Close to Cocoa, and the sentiment from the "Embrace Life" stamp set is stamped in Purely Pomegranate. Some slinky Chocolate Chip satin ribbon wraps around it all. I sponged a little Close to Cocoa all around my base of Whisper White card stock. I used a Felt Fusion flower and layered some paper flowers punched with my Boho Flower punch on top, secured with a vintage brad. My Word Window punch made short work of rounding out the words and I used another Word Window punch of Purely Pomegranate behind it to give it some depth.

Here's the sketch for you to try:

Not-So-Babyish Baby Card

This card is for a colleague who just had her first baby Tuesday morning -- it's a boy!! I remember when I had my firstborn, I felt like my world had gone from black & white to technicolor, and that's the feeling I was going for with this card. I used Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration (see below) as a jumping off point. I found instructions for using my Scalloped Circle Punch to make this funky little turquoise flower (layered on top of my Occasions catalog's Die-Cut Blooms and attached with a rhinestone brad) at Chat Wszelaki's blog, Me, My Stamps & I.
I don't know why my Tempting Turquoise doesn't look really turquoise, but it *is* on the card, trust me. ;-)

Always Bloom

"Define Your Life" is a gorgeous stamp set, definitely an investment but worth every penny in my estimation -- SU! has done all the wordsmithing with definitions that are applicable to so many card-giving and scrapbooking occasions -- all I have to do is pick out the perfect sentiment. Here, I combined it with the Bloomin' Beautiful flower, once again colored with my new Sakura jelly glaze pens. The sentiment was stamped in Always Artichoke on Barely Banana, layered onto Always Artichoke and Groovy Guava cardstock. The flowered background paper is from the Porcelain Prints designer paper set. Some classic Very Vanilla ribbon wraps the card. This one is for my hubby who took care of everything (and everyone!) last week while I was a bit under the weather. What a guy!!

Do you steal paper from other people's cards???

I received a nice commercially-made thank you note from a friend recently and found myself cutting it all apart to re-use the paper since I liked the components so much. I used my Blooming Beautiful flower (in the mini catalog) and photo corner punches, plus some Bashful Blue ribbon to jazz it up. After I stamped my flower on watercolor paper, I colored it with a Sakura jelly glaze pen which really gave it a 3-D gloss. Cool effect.

Punched Negative Card, SU! Style

I discovered a new challenge today, the Stampin' Up! Makeover Monday challenge on Andrea Walford's website. The idea is to take a card design that you really like that uses non-SU! materials and to give it an SU! makeover. Great idea! So I sleuthed around and found this cool card made by Maria and converted it. I really liked the technique of punching out and adding paper *behind* a punch.

First I punched my 5-Petal Flower Punch through my Groovy Guava base and adhered some Ginger Blossom DP behind it. I stamped little starbursts from the Baroque Motifs stamp set all over in Ruby Red and Cameo Coral, and added dots of Ruby Red around each punched out flower. I adhered a tiny half-pearl from the Pretties Kit to the center of each large flower, and dabbed a bit of Crystal Effects in the center of each small starburst. For my sentiment, I used a rub-on from Eastern Elegance, then added the blossom stamp from "Embrace Life" in Black Staz-On onto watercolor paper and colored it with my blender pen and Ruby Red & Cameo Coral. A bit of River Rock double-stitched ribbon winds around the bottom and voila! A complete SU! makeover. I likee a lot!!! :-)

Great Swap Gals sketch

When I saw what Nancy Riley at iStamp had done with the Great Swaps Gals sketch, I was smitten with the large flower image she created. I'd been wanting to use my new Die-cut Blooms from the Occasions mini catalog and thought they'd look great with the Bali Breeze designer paper. A cute silver brad from the Hodgepodge Hardware set (also in the mini catalog) pulls them all together. The sentiment is from the beautiful "Always" stamp set. I used my Scallop Circle punch to create the medallion in Taken with Teal that highlights my image, and the center little flower is popped up with an SU! dimensional. Across the middle of the card is some of the new Poly Twill 1/4" ribbon in Old Olive, tucked through the silver ribbon slide (also in the Hodgepodge Hardware kit) that is sized perfectly to go with it.

Here's the sketch for you to play with:

Bloomin' Congratulations Sketch Challenge

This long and super skinny card is for a friend who just got a promotion -- I love the definition stamp that comes with "Bloomin' Beautiful" in the Occasions catalog. The last part defines "bloom" as "a period of maximum development and reaching possibilities." The applications are endless -- graduation, acceptance into college, promotions, retirement... LoVe It!!!

The layout is based on Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge, and I used pink and green (Gable Green Wild Wasabi, Regal Rose and Pretty in Pink, to be exact) to fit Sharon's stamp simply challenge. The congrats is also from the Occasions catalog, in the set called "Phrases for a Friend". It's hard to tell in the photo but I Versamarked the leaf pattern from "Carte Postale" all over the Gable Green base, then sponged over it with Wild Wasabi and Regal Rose. Take a crack at the sketch if you've a mind to:

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May 6 is National Teacher Day!

So I made this card for my son's kindergarten teacher using Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration combination of Soft Sky, Very Vanilla, Close to Cocoa, and Chocolate Chip. These are the new Carousel Notes available in SU!'s mini Occasions Catalog, which I'm thrilled to say has been extended another month through June 30. These notes are so unique, large enough to really play around with, and they come in Groovy Guava, Soft Sky, and Wild Wasabi, with yummy Chocolate Chip envelopes.

I used my Free Wheelin' Special "It's Beautiful" wheel, inked up with Versamark, to add the delicate tone-on-tone background pattern on the Soft Sky. I printed out the sentiment from my computer onto Very Vanilla cardstock and layered it -- the whimsical doodles I did with my Chocolate Chip Marker to frame the edges I learned from Bethann Silaika on her freckled fun blog. The stamps are "Bloomin' Beautiful" from the Occasions catalog, stamped with Black Staz-On onto watercolor paper and watercolored with my Watercolor Pencils and Blender Pens. A little snippet of Soft Sky ribbon wraps around the vase, which was colored in Close to Cocoa. I think Mrs. Zuniga will really like this! :-)

Here Kristina's inspiration if you want to use it as a jumping off point yourself: