Shabby Chic - CASE

Hello!  Here's a card I made, inspired by Nina B Designs here.  I loved her cards - the shabby chic feel was so pretty, and the soft colours and the beautiful stamps.  I didn't have any of the stamps she used, so I had to improvise (and add them to my wish list!).  I used a large flower stamp from Stampin' Up for the background, stamped in Hero Arts Soft Pink.  Then I added solid leafy stamp at the top (Stamping Bella) and the border stamp at the bottom (Papertrey Ink).  These were embossed in Seafoam white before sponging the card with Antique Linen, Vintage Photo and Victorian Velvet.  The ribbon is silk, from my stash and the dotted accents on the border are Orchid liquid pearls.  The main image is matted on kraft, then vanilla, and the card base is a pretty pinky purple from Papertrey Ink, and is stamped with the same flower as the background. Sauron the Scanner squashed the ribbon, but in real life it has a nice lively bounce to it.

Well, I'd better sign off for the evening.  I have to get to bed - I have two very special stampers coming over tomorrow morning for a stamping playdate!  I can't wait.  I've cleaned off my stamp table to make room for visitors and tried to remind myself where everything is.  I have my stamps in all different places, paper in all different places, it's a bit of a crazy system but it's a combination of where things will fit and what things I need to keep separate, etc.  Also, the time I spend looking for stuff helps remind me of what things I have, so I find that helpful.  And enjoyable.  It's not the sort of stamp room that someone super-organized would like.  If you are the kind of person that files your stamp according to the Library of Congress system, then you would be horrified and/or baffled by my system: Stampin' Up boxes in one cupboard, other wood mounts in a drawer cabinet.  Cling stamps hanging by clips, in binders, in Tupperware boxes, in DVD cases, in more Tupperware boxes, in a vintage metal card catalogue.  You get the idea.  The cling stamps are the wild card, but also the most fun to rifle through.

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you get some time to stamp this weekend too.

January Challenge #9

Hello!  I'm a little late posting this, and I did miss a day of the challenge.  What can I say - it was a long day and work and I just bagged out in front of the tv with my knitting.  These things happen.  In fact, under the new terms of the January challenge, these things are permitted at least once during the month of January. 

This card is a one-layer card, featuring the beautiful calligraphy of Quietfire Designs.  The heart is from Stampin' Up and stamped with Soft Blossom shadow ink.  The script is stamped with a Big and Juicy rainbow inkpad, but the "i love you" was coloured over with black marker before I stamped it to make it stand out.  The little hearts are embellished with Pink Taffeta stickles.  (BTW, have you seen the new colours of stickles? They are fantastic - great additions to the line up.)  Lastly, I doodled a border on this card to frame it in a bit.  The card base is a naturals ivory from Stampin' Up.  I am going to enter this card on the Less is More challenge, which this week is a one-layer card using hearts!  Bingo! 

Baby card

Hello!  Here's a card I made recently, but didn't want to post it until I was sure the recipient had seen it first.  I wanted a non-traditional baby card and I had this beautiful quote (Quietfire Designs) in mind.  I used a number of soft shades of Colorbox fluid chalk to brayer on to 130 lb cardstock and heat set with an iron.  I think I used Ice Blue, Creamy Brown, and Dark Moss.  I stamped the image and used Moss embossing powder for emphasis.  Then I die cut with spellbinders to get the image and coordinating mat in ice blue linen.  With that same linen, I made a background panel with a baby theme embossing folder.  The cardstock is a lovely soft moss green, and the accent paper is an espresso brown.  A few soft blue brads thrown in for good measure and I was done! 

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy stamping!

Edited to add:  the embossing folder is from Cuttlebug, and is one of a set of four called Word Collage.

Just for You

Hello!  Happy Hallowe'en!  We had a nice time out trick-or-treating with the girls.  There weren't a lot of kids out in our neighbourhood, so people were quite generous and gave out handfuls of stuff and were quite pleased to see some cute little girls at the door. Hubby even did a quick jack o'lantern for the front porch.  Some people had some good decorations out, and one house had a ghouly-skeleton with glowing red eyes that waved its arms and moved its mouth and talked about the haunted house.  My five-year-old's eyes were like saucers.  I hope it doesn't give her nightmares!  After the kids were in bed, I wound down with my stamps, and thought I'd do a couple of cards in the same vein to save design time.  I'd seen a card like this at Heather's Stamping Haven, with the various diamonds cut out and popped up, but I couldn't remember exactly how it went.   I started by stamping the image (Stampers Anonymous) on some cream linen card stock using India Ink (Stewart Superior), once on the card itself, and a second and third time on a scrap of the same paper.  Then, I cut out the scrap piece, the full image, and then a couple of diamonds.  I also cut away a couple of diamonds to look through to the base layer.  To add colour, I used a moist paintbrush and lifted colour from Distress Ink pads.  For the top one I used: Pumice Stone, Scattered Straw, Forest Moss and Stormy Sky.  For the bottom one I used:  Antique Linen, Pumice Stone, Victorian Velvet, Seedless Preserves and Gathered Twigs.  I really like those last two special issue colours.  I coloured each layer the same, then assembled usinging dimensional foam tape between the layers.  To finish it off, I highlighted some diamonds with Rock Candy stickles for some non-glittery sparkle.  The sentiment is a stamp from Quietfire Designs.  I wanted to make these cards all-purpose so that seemed like a good choice. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Scrap Sunday 13 - on Monday

Here's a card I made this evening from some scraps. I'm calling it a Scrap Sunday card since today is a holiday (Thanksgiving), so it's still the weekend. I had a piece of green flecked paper that I'd made from some spray I think (guessing lettuce and mushroom Adirondack color wash). I stamped it with this lovely calligraphy stamp from Quietfire Designs and matted it on a scrap of cork, then over a scrap of lovely handmade olive paper, and the card base is a cream coloured linen. Very quick and easy! (If I don't count all the false starts and the dead ends along the way.) I love cards like this that count as "cleaning off the stamp desk". Also, it's my reward for working hard on my holiday to get all the laundry done. Today and yesterday were gorgeous, so I was a laundry dervish, washing and hanging out to dry about 8 loads. All three clotheslines were pressed into service, and nearly all the clothespins. And even better - all the laundry is put away, and I even ironed! Pretty soon my husband is going to say, "Where is Karen? What have you done with her? Unless this imposter can cook, I want my real wife back!"

Happy Thanksgiving! So much to be thankful for.

NSR. It's been a good weekend. Friday started out with a meet and greet at work, with the big head honcho (many, many levels above me). When I met her she knew my project and said kind things about it. That was neat - she has a lot of people working for her, doing a lot of things, so the fact that she knew what I'm doing was kind of neat. And unusual for me since I usually prefer to fly under the radar. Then Friday night we all went to the rector's house for a wine and cheese for the stewardship committee and their families. (Well kiddies got movies and snacks, not wine and cheese). Hubby is chairing the committee so it's a busy fall around here. It was a very nice evening, just a shame that I'm always totally worn out by Friday night. Then Saturday morning was a wonderful stamping class at Heather's Stamping Haven and we made some gorgeous projects with Caran d'Ache crayons. Then home to make pear salad and do some whirlwind cleaning while hubby took the kids to the park for a family fun day with the cousins. Then off to my brother's place for a huge turkey feast, thanks to my sister-in-law. Such a wonderful meal! The kids had a sleepover so the grown ups got to stay up late (i.e., past 8 pm) visiting. Sunday morning was church, hubby was duty warden so gone bright and early to let in the 8 o'clockers, so I got to sleep in and have my coffee in the comfy chair overlooking the woods, reading a good book, enjoying the sunny morning. Didn't have my watch on so enjoyed this solitary scenario for far too long, and rushed pell-mell to church, arriving just in the nick of time. The church looked so lovely with all the Thanksgiving decorations everywhere! In the afternoon we raked some leaves and played outside, then went for a drive to Lanark County and the Mill of Kintail just outside Almonte. There's a museum there in the old mill and some lovely walking trails, which we enjoyed. The kids' favourite part was playing Pooh Sticks on the bridge over the Indian River. Some notable surgeon-sculptor-scholar type person (R. Tait Mackenzie) converted the mill in the 1930s and lived there with his wife, a published poet. Wouldn't that be great? I would love to stumble on a ruined mill in the woods, see the potential, rebuild it fit for habitation and move in the next year. Today was a bit of a quieter day, playing outside in the leaves, picnic outside, bike ride and playground, and Addition Bingo after supper (do we party it up, or what?!). Also a fair bit of bustling and things around the house, inside and out so we can face with a minimum of dread the Sisphean task of getting the family through the week. That brings me to now, and a few minutes for stamping and blogging! Yay!

Twinkling ATC

Here's an ATC I made for the Creative Imaginations Luminarte Raffle described here. Basically, you send in your ATC and cross your fingers.

I recently picked up the newest sets of Twinklings, this ATC uses all the colours from the Autumn Brilliance set: Mystique, Harvest Sol, Spanish Moss, Raspberry Wine, Golden Nugget, and Desert Clay.

I started by stamping the leaf (Fred B. Mullett) in an Adirondack multicolour ink on some 130 lb cardstock, and clear embossing it. (versamark + Adirondack then e.p.) Then painted on patches of the new twinklings, admiring each -these colours are wonderful! Then, ironed away the clear embossing powder and stamped on the tree quote (Quietfire Designs) and embossed it in black. Added some leaves stamped with twinklings, and some crackle effect (Stampendous cube) in black India ink. Added a maple leaf brad from the stash, matted on some black cardstock, and called 'er done.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sympathy Card Revised

My bold move paid off! I like this revised version better than the original here. A minor tweak, but one of the big things we learned in the Intermediate Copic class on the weekend was how to give yourself constructive criticism. Basically, you pretend (a) it's not your card and (b) the person who made it is immune to criticism, in fact revels in it, begs for it, and always wants more. (A and B are usually mutually exclusive, so this is a hard lesson to learn.) My first round of constructive help was to gussy up the card, since I just had the seniment panel and gold bits. No leaves or frame. It just needed a little something else. This is for the church bazaar so I wanted to keep it easy to mail, so that ruled out adding a raspberry bough or similar embellishment (as if! ha!) and of course I couldn't add ribbon to a card to save my life. So fussy little vellum leaves remained an option. Not too bad. The only problem with being your own critic is you don't have all those great ideas for fixing things that other people do. The up side is you're never so mean you can't take it.

Botanical Sympathy Card

Hello!

I stole a bit of stamping time tonight after a long day and it was nice, very nice. I tried out some Fred B. Mullett stamps to make a sympathy card. They are a great background, and conveyed the sort of restful background I was looking for. I used two stamps, Wild Raspberry (the one with multiple leaves) and Lil Salal Leaf, using an old Adirondack multicolour inkpad (Winter Sky). The colours seem to have mostly run together in it, but it does date back to my early days of stamping, so I don't really mind. The colours are still beautiful and a little varied so it doesn't look like just one colour. I embossed the Lil Salal leaf a couple of times on vellum for an accent using Peridot embossing powder. This was the same e.p. I used for the sentiment (by Quietfire Designs). I sponged around the edges with Weathered Wood and Pine Needles. I felt it needed more, so I added a frame and the strip of metallic paper. I have just now ripped off more of the gold paper so it will fit in the frame (do I live on the edge or what!) and it does look better, though I will have to join the frame lines, which will be a risky manoeuvre at best. Wish me luck! (If you hear an anguished groan, you'll know it didn't work.)

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Anniversary!

A few days ago we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary and this is the card I made for my dear husband. I used naturals ivory card stock and stamped the heart (Stampin' Up!) in red chalk ink (Memories - Tomato Sauce), lightly sponged with brown chalk ink (Colorbox Fluid Chalk - Chestnut Roan) on one edge for depth. I tried out a few different reds but liked this one best. Can't decide whether the gratfiication of finding the perfect red outweighs the shame of having so many reds to choose from...... I heat set the heart in preparation for stamping the main image (Quietfire Designs) in black and heat embossing in black. I really, really love this image. The calligraphy is stunning and I like how the message is hidden. Next, I matted the image on black cardstock, and then popped it up on a naturals ivory card base. Decided it needed something else, so I used my ruler and .03 Micron pen to add the line to frame it on the inside. There are also Platinum stickles filling the hearts in the words "I love you". I can't usually pull off clean and simple, but I think I did it here! I can see doing versions of this card with all sorts of lovely Quietfire Designs quotations over a nice accent stamp......but not this morning! Have to get dressed, get the kids to camp, get to work, get to 5:00 when the weekend starts! Thanks for stopping by.

PS. Veggie update. I got an enormous cauliflower at the farmstand on Tues, seriously, it was bigger than a soccer ball. Anyway, googled grilling recipes and discovered that grilled cauliflower is unbelievably delicious. Kids weren't too keen, but grown ups scarfed it down with relish. (Actually with veggie box feta cheese sprinkled over! haha.) I couldn't recommend it enough. I normally love cauliflower, but this took it to new heights. Basically sliced off a few 1" slabs off the head, keeping the stem part too to hold all together. Rubbed with olive oil, sprinked with coarse salt and pepper and chopped oregano. Grilled till lovely brown (what makes it yummy). We sprinkled with feta as it was on hand, but wouldn't be essential.

Summer Card Camp Week 3

Here's the colour combination for this week's project at Summer Card Camp. I was stuck in Christmas theme cards, but couldn't bring myself to do a Christmas card. It's July!

Speaking of July, we have started getting our veggie box from a local farm (Foster's Farm). We've been enjoying the most delicious fresh vegetables. Tonight was beet greens, sauteed in flavoured butter I had in the freezer thanks to Jamie Oliver. The greens were delicious and I swear you feel healthier just cutting them up, inhaling the antioxidants and enjoying the emerald green leaves and ruby stems.

Back to the card. Here I started with a scrap of off white paper, stamped the quote (Fred Mullett) and embossed it in Bavarian Bronze (metallic brown). I thought I would incorporate the stone and butterfly imagery from this poem and stamped my Stampotique stone (large and small sides) here and there in Lake Mist. I antiqued the edges a bit with distress ink and matted it on some brown card and some medium brown Bazzill. The card base is 3 1/4" x 6 1/2" and stamped with a butterfly and the word Papillon (both Quietfire Designs). I used a bit of fancy Japanese paper for red accent behind. More red elements are the red eyelets (I knew they would eventually find a home on a project!), some crochet cotton and a button. The button was a late-game addition, added on this morning before I went to work. This description makes it sound like the card came together in a hurry and part of some master plan, but really it came together like all the others, trial and error, and hemming and hawing, trying different things. I like how the butterflies came out - stamped in Toffee versafine, and the lovely "papillon" from QF, hand lettered by the owner, Suzanne Cannon. A long time ago I dabbled in calligraphy and have always loved it. As for that poem, well, it came in a lovely parcel of Fred Mullett stamps, as the English translation to the Japanese calligraphy stamp I bought. I presume someone more cultured than me would be able to plumb the depths of that poem, but for me it was the ideal shape for this card, and had the words "stone" and "butterfly". More opportunistic than cultured, granted. Still, maybe one of my readers will enlighten me. In the meantime, I'm pleased with how this turned out even if I don't have the faintest idea who I'd give it to.

Well, off to enjoy an episode or two of Game of Thrones with hubby. Sean Bean....now there's a reason to pay for extended cable!

Valentine Card - Queen of Hearts

Here's the card I made for my sweetie on Valentine's Day and I thought I would post it to enter the Quietfire Designs Queen of Hearts challenge too. I used my Quietfire Designs butterfly stamp from the Papillon sheet and stamped it repeatedly with two colours of versamagic ink (Oasis Green and Aegean Blue) and silver encore ink. Then I heat set it with a dry iron, whomped with my anti-static bag and stamped the valentine sentiment (Paper Inspirations). I also stamped one red butterfly with some red Palette ink (Moulin Rouge). There is a little heart at the end, from an A Muse sheet of crystal stickers, which I coloured red with a copic. There got to be some smudging from the iron (I didn't use a piece of paper between the iron and the project - bad girl! Lesson learned the hard way there) so I had to stamp some background, so I used a mosaic tile stamp (Judikins) and some light distress ink. The panel is matted on some red metallic paper and a sage shadow card base. I don't know if this is too feminine or too Christmassy for DH. Oh well, that's what I get for leaving it till the last minute - no time for do-overs! On the plus side, I realize how much I like this layout - very quick and easy. I could see it working for lots of purposes, with lots of options for changing up the colour scheme. Paper Inspirations has a bunch of sentiment stamps like this too for many occasions (but I only have this one - so far!). Still, any vertical message would do, I would think.

Thanks for stopping by!

Gothic Arch #1 Butterflies

This was the first Inkurable Stampers Gothic Arch Challenge theme - Butterflies. I joined the challenge several themes in, and have been working my way back. Now I'm caught up in that direction, and will resume at #13, Christmas, but that will be another post.

For this arch, I took some watercolour paper and sprayed it with Butterscotch and Lettuce Adirondack sprays, heat setting and spraying to get the intensity I wanted. (I used some water too, to move the colour around.) Then, I stamped the sprig (Stampin' Up) in India Ink and 'painted' the flowers with bleach. The word stamp Papillon (Quietfire Designs) is stamped in Wild Honey. THe other word stamp is a Tim Holtz - Stampers Anonymous image. The butterflies are punched out of a glossy black scrap that I had been experimenting with a Hero Arts stamp and some mica gloss. That experiment didn't work, but they look nice punched out here. Lastly, I doodled a border around the edge with a fine point pen. Quick and easy! I am really enjoying those spray colour washes. They are fun to do. I did another one, that I'll be using for one of the other arches. I'm going to binge out on arches tonight since work is about to get totally crazy. I want to stockpile some good stamping vibes before I go under. It's going to be emergency stamping rations only for the foreseeable future. It's a vicious circle though, since the crazier it gets at work, the more stamping I need as antidote, but the less time I have for stamping but the more I need it. So, raise your ink pad to toast an evening of stamping. How many arches can I get done?

Thanks for stopping by!

Trying something a little different

I've been a big fan of Godelieve Tijskens for a long time and really enjoy her blog, Stamping Mathilda. I wouldn't presume to stamp like her, but I would say this card is definitely inspired by her style. I don't think I'm there - what I like about hers is the open space and interesting colours. I think I've over worked this one. Still, I like the overall effect and it will be going in The Stash.

The sentiment is from Quietfire Designs, and I really love their calligraphy stamps. And it's a Canadian company! The flower is Darkroom Door. The dots are sequin waste - fun! The card base is River Rock, run through a Tim Holtz woodgrain folder and inked up with some frayed burlap and crushed olive. The focal panel is from a sheet of watercolour that I blobbed and spattered and swirled with Ecoline one rainy afternoon. I cut it to ATC size, stamped it with the flower in Aged Mahogany and Crushed Olive and then embossed the sentiment. Some nice gingham ribbon and a button, and I'm done! I have more of that Ecoline paper so I might have another go at something like this. I got the Ecoline from Quietfire Designs for my birthday last year, and sneaked in a few more colours this year. It's fun stuff and I have a great time playing "artist" and flinging paint around in my furnace room.

Thanks for stopping by!