Quick Update

I guess it would have helped if I actually posted a picture of the card from yesterday, huh? I'm not sure what happened, but I will have to try to relocate it and repost it. Sorry about that.

I also noticed that the DSP I used in several of my Christmas cards was actually Holiday Lounge and not Merry Moments. So I hopefully have updated all those posts to be correct now.

Here is a card that I did not make, but rather Laurie did. She used the stamp set Paradise and the rock-and-roll technique (which I also used on yesterday's card, which has seem to disappear). I was not given the colors used, but it looks like Dusty Durango and Crushed Curry since those are the colors in the DSP used.

I am studying for an actuarial test in the beginning of November and I'm way behind, so I will not have much time to stamp, but I will still try to update my blog with samples for you.

A Personal Sketch Challenge

***Note: picture has now been posted here.

As a demonstrator, we get a monthly magazine from Stampin' Up! with lots of wonderful ideas. They also include a sketch and some examples made with it. It's been a goal of mine for a while to take those sketches and create cards with them. Here is my first card. The sketch is from either the August or September Stampin' Success, if there's any other demonstrators out there that would like to play along with me. If so, leave a comment with a link back to your creation. This cards uses Forest Friends stamp set and the colors are Soft Suede, Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango and Whisper White.

More Dasher

Here is another Dasher card for you. Colors are Soft Suede and Ruby Red. I also used the impressions folder from the Holiday Mini and Holiday Lounge DSP.

Another Look at Greenhouse Garden

Here is a card that I designed for a swap that I'm participating in using Greenhouse Garden. The colors used are Crushed Curry, Pink Passion, Tempting Turquoise, Night Quite Navy, Melon Mambo, Real Rust and Old Olive.

Christmas Punch Day 4

Last day using Christmas Punch (for now, at least). This features the stamp that goes with the Curly Label. Colors are Rich Razzleberry, Soft Suede, Whisper White.

There are other stamps in this set, I just haven't come up with good samples for them yet, so stay tuned. It is my goal to use all of the stamps from this set this Christmas season.

Christmas Punch Day 3

Today's card features the postage stamp stamp. This could be punched out with either the scalloped sqaure or plain square (which I used here). I also used the circle punch to punch out of the snowflakes from the snowflake stamp (which matches the Boho Blossoms punch). Colors are Real Red, Chocolate Chip, and Soft Suede.

Christmas Punch Day 2

This card uses the stamp that goes with the tag punch, but as you will notice, I didn't use it that way. Colors are Sahara Sand, Taken with Teal, Whisper White, Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango, and Melon Mambo. I also used the Holiday Lounge DSP and Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

Christmas Punch Day 1

The next four days, I will be showing cards using the different stamps from the Christmas Punch Hostess set. Each of the stamps in this set goes with a different punch that Stampin' Up! has. This first card uses the stamp that goes with the large oval. Colors are Melon Mambo, Pixie Pink and Whisper White.

Another Dasher Card

I think this has become one of my favorite new Christmas stamps, and its under $10! Here is a card that I made for the Big Shot challenge, but of course didn't get around to submitting it on time. I used the new flower impressions folder and Four the Holidays stamp set from the Holiday mini and the Clear Circle die from the big catolog. Colors are Old Olive, Whisper White, Ruby Red. Am I giving enough information on the card so you could recreate it if you want to? I'm not giving any detailed information, but if you need it, please leave a comment and I will get it for you.

Laurie's Christmas Card Club Card

Here is the card for September for Laurie's monthly Christmas Card Club. Is uses the stamp Dasher, which is on the Under $10 page in the IBC. Also featured is the new wide striped grosgrain ribbon. The colors used are Chocolate Chip, Old Olive and Very Vanilla.

I also finished up (almost) the cards from July's club and it is pictured below. It is supposed to have Night of Navy grosgrain ribbon long the left hand side, but I didn't have it with me when I made these. The stamp sets used were Christmas Punch and God's Blessing. Colors are Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, and Night of Navy.

In case you forgot, August's cards can be seen here.

A Clear Christmas Card

Here is a card that I made using the acetate paper. The stamp sets I used are from the new Holiday Mine, Delightful Decorations and Serene Snowflakes. I layered the blues and gray on the inside of the card but adhered the ornaments on the outside. I also place a layer of Going Gray on the backside of the inside for a message. Next time I do this, I will only use one layer of Going Gray and adhere it to the back, since the card is clear, it would still show up as a layer when the card is closed. Clear as mud?

Snow Swirled

Here is another Christmas card that I CASED. I must be in the Christmas card making mode. I am also trying to plan a Christmas card SAS, which may also be why. Anywho, this used Snow Swirled and is pretty simple, but I think elegant at the same time. Colors are Whisper White, Bermuda bay, Rich Razzleberry, and Night of Navy.

Ornament Punch

When I purchased this punch, I searched for different ways to use it, to make it more worth the money. Here is an example that I found and CASED. The only stamping was the sentiment, which is from Teeny Tiny Wishes. Other than that I used a variety of circle punches, the word window, modern label punch, scalloped edge punch, and of course the ornament punch. Colors are Whisper White, Bermuda Bay, and Crushed Curry.

Soot Technique

Here are a few cards that Laurie designed for a workshop that she is having tonight with 15 people! She is demonstrating the soot technique. This is a technique that I have not actually tried, but I did watch Laurie make these cards, and it is something that I will have to try in the feature. But basically, you use Glossy White cardstock and wave it over a burning candle, but be careful not to get any wax on the paper or start the paper on fire. The soot from the candle will collect on the paper so it has a layer of gray soot. Then take a dry stamp and stamp it on the sooted cardstock. The rubber from the stamp will pick up the soot and leave its imprint on the paper. You then have to seal the remaining soot with an acrylic sealer. Hope that helps. Here are the cards that Laurie made. The two horizontal cards use Thoughts and Prayers and the vertical one uses Close as a Memory. Finally, for the green card, before she applied the soot, she brayered a layer of green ink onto the Glossy cardstock, which gives it the green background.

Christmas in July and August

I participated in several Christmas in July and Christmas in August swaps. I have shared some of them with you already, but here are a couple more. Both feature sets from the new Holiday Mini catalog. The first one features, once again, Delightful Decorations. Holiday Lounge DSP is also used, along with the new ornament punch, and silver cord.



The next one features the new set Four the Holidays, which is a word set. I used the the snowflake punch and layered Pink Passion and Pretty in Pink cardstock. Finally, the Pretty in Pink cardstock is also stamped with the snowflake trio from Serene Snowflakes.

Halloween Card

I don't own a Halloween stamp set (shocker, I know), but that isn't stopping me from trying to make a Halloween card. Here is my first attempt. I used Season of Friendship and Teeny Tiny Wishes.

Publish Post

Build A Bear Tri-Shuttter Card

Here is another Build A Bear project that I worked on this weekend. I first made the tri-shutter card and decided to add a Build A Bear. The bear is magnetic so the clothes can be changed (though I again ran into polarization problems).  The back panel is also magnetic to store the accessories and extra clothes on it. The DSP is the BAB DSP and stamp is Beary Best Wishes.

It's Unofficial!

I have a blog photographer! This weekend Laurie Lenertz has become the unofficial photographer for my blog. If you haven't noticed, we have been stamping a lot together lately and she's very good at taking pictures and actually uploading them to the computer. It's the uploading to the computer that prevents me from uploading them to my blog. So I've solved that problem, just have her email me the pictures that she takes of the samples that I make and then I can upload them. This weekend we were at a scrapbooking/stamping retreat and I unofficially dubbed her as my blog's photographer. And you can thank her for these two pictures of me modelling a tutu that one of the other women at the retreat made.

Flight of the Butterfly

Here is a quick card that I made using Flight of the Butterfly stamp set and the new butterfly punch. I also used Razzleberry DSP.

Beary Best Friends and Beary Best Wishes

Here is a sample that I created using Beary Best Friends and Beary Best Wishes from the Holiday Mini as part of the Build-a-Bear partnership. Also featured is the BAB DSP.

Featured on the Stampin' From Our Hearts Blog

The event that Laurie and I held on August 9 for the Stampin' For Our Hearts Organization is now featured on their blog. You can check out the post here, along with additional pictures that did not make it on my blog.

More Lovely Flower Bunch Samples

Remember when I was looking for Lovely Flower Bunch samples for a swap that I was participating in here? Well the following samples are what I ended up swapping out, let me know what you think.

Old LNS Challenge and Circle Circus

Here is a card that I made for a LNS Challenge but not got around to submitting it. The challenge is probably a good month old now and was using Pink and Black. This was my idea, though it was never submitted. I used Circle Circus, Basic Black, and Mambo Melon.

Another LNS Challenge!

This week the challenge is to use the big shot. And for once I'm on top of things and have two entries, and it's only Monday. I am going to share one of them with you today and you'll have to stay tuned for the other later this week.

Lately, there have been different variations of pumpkin baskets using the pillow box die showing up. You can see the one the tutorial that I followed here. I also thought it would be nice to have a basket for different occasions. But first here is my version of the pumpkin basket.



Here is the turkey that I came up with for Thanksgiving. The feathers are attached to the back of the basket, though you really can't tell from the angle of this picture.



And my favorite so far, one for Christmas.



As, you can see, a cat thought the cotton would be fun to play with for a bit before I took the picture (you know who you are -- Felix!).

I would like to make one for every holiday, but was coming up short for some of them. Some of the other ideas that I have is a Leprechaun for St. Patrick's Day and Uncle Sam for the Fourth of July. Some others for Halloween I thought of were a spider and Frankenstein. Also, a pilgrim for Thanksgiving. If you have any other ideas or have made some of these yourself, I would love to hear from you!

LNS Challenge

Here is my entry for this week's challenge. It's been a while that I have participated AND posted my entry (yes, there have been weeks where I've participated, but didn't post it in time). Anyways, here is my take on the fold out boxes that have been around. I don't know what they are really called, but it's where four boxes fold up into one big box. I used the itty bitty boxes from the sizzix die for my boxes, instead of folding the boxes. The DSP is from the Lovely Flowers Bundle. I need to work on the dimensions of the outer box and lid though. One idea I had for this was to cover the outer box with some holiday DSP and use each box to hold different gift tags. The pictures are pretty bad and I will try to update later this week, but I wanted to make sure that I actually submitted this challenge, so I cheated and took the picture with my camera phone.

Greenhouse Garden

This is one of those stamps sets that I first skipped over when I saw it in the new catalog. But I saw so many awesome examples with it, that I knew I had to try it. So here is my first attempted. This was made for an in-color swap and I managed to use all 6 of them. The saying is from Stem Sayings.

Serene Snowflakes

Here is another wow swap that I made using Serene Snowflakes from the Holiday Mini. I also used the Night and Day DSP from the mini. Finally, the accessories were black brads, white organza ribbon and white half pearls from the Pretties kit.

I'm Featured on Sherrill's Blog!

I have been selected by Sherrill Graff from the Late Night Stampers to be in the “Artist Spotlight”. I am quite honored that she chose to do this. Please take a moment and check out Sherrill's blog and then feel free to return back to mine and leave a comment!

Seeing Stars

I'm back from vacation and ready to start blogging on a more regular basis again. You've heard that before, haven't you? Anyways, vacation was great, other than the speeding ticket that I got after being in town for like 5 minutes. Did you know the speed limit in Steamboat Springs, CO is 25 mph? I learned that the hard way.

Anyhoo, on to stamping. Here is card that uses Seeing Stars, Mambo Melon, Rich Razzleberry and Whisper White. I made this for a mega swap and had to make 50 of them! I also used the two star punches. On the final one, I also used a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes (which is not shown here).