Funky framed Susans

That reminds me of that song, “Funky cold Medina” by Tone Loc…….

Anyway, I made a card for Jen’s sketch for you to try. She used a Gina K stamp on her example and it inspired me to pull out one of my favorites, my pot of black eyed susans! And I had an idea to use one of the frames from her ‘festive labels’ set. I wanted to make it look like a picture frame, a kind of funky frame. Then I stamped the single black eyed susan onto a tiny oval and matted it on a larger scalloped frame, I really like them. I couldnt fit all 3 onto the card so I have an extra. Im gonna see if I can work it onto a pendant because I would LOVE to wear it!

I decided to use this single word sentiment from My favorite things ‘boho blossoms’ because it fit in the space and I liked the font with the card. Then I colored the 3 antique gold brads a bit with a brown copic to dirty them up a bit.

Tomorrow I should have some soldering done to show you. But first tomorrow ALL my Christmas cards and gifts for out of state are going out in the mail. WOOOOOOHOOOO!!!! It’s 90% DONE!!! I hope your almost done too!

The DEETS:

Stamps: Black eyed susans, festive labels-Gina K   sentiment from ‘boho blossoms’-My favorite things
Ink: Graphite brilliance black, chocolate chip-SU
CS: creamy caramel, chocolate chip-SU  white-Papertrey
Accessories: nesties, copics, dimensionals, sponge, satin ribbon, antique gold brads

Im dreaming of a crustacean Christmas!

Ah, Im in a weird mood today! Im not quite sure why, maybe it was the almost total lack of sleep last night! Oh that would do it wouldnt it?????????

Yesterday my nesties came in the mail which caused me to bust out a dance at the mailbox, the dude next to me must have thought I was crazy…..and I just might be! Yes, and from here on out the “Spellbinders Nestabilities” will be called nesties. I cant be bothered to type that long name and it deserves something cute. I know it sounds a wee bit like something naughty, but I dont care! It’s my blog and Im calling them nesties.

Today I managed to make some cookies for Ava then she decided she wanted to go down and play Yoshi while I stamped. I cant complain with that offer really. I loaded up Laurens guide to using her nesties on her blog and it worked! Thanks Lauren! There’s nothing fancy pants going on today with them. This is oh, my 3rd time using my cuttlebug and my first try with the nesties, Im just glad I didnt break anything!

I went ahead and tackled yesterday’s SCS color challenge and todays sketch challenge. The colors are soft sky, wild wasabi and rose red. Can you feel a Christmas card with those colors? I know I can.

Does this little crabby not make you happy or what? I would giggle if I got it in the mail! I love him. And ric-rac is just the ultimate Christmas ribbon to me. When I was little my Mom had us make ornaments and some of them were adorned with ric-rac, that’s probably why I associate it with Christmas.

Instructions:

1. I started with a piece of wild wasabi CS cut and folded to standard size. Then stamped 2 of the snowflakes in versamark and embossed with white EP.
2. Next I adhered 3 pieces of SU retired “flirty” ric-rac ribbon to the center of the card.
3. Using my 1 3/8 square, I puched 2 squares out of rose red DSP.
4. Then I cut 2 soft sky squares about 1 1/2. I stamped one of the open snowflakes in versamark on the soft sky and embossed it with irridescent ice EP and adhered that to the rose red square.
5. Next I inked up the “sandy claws” part of the sentiment only in stazon black and stamped that onto one of the squares. After cleaning off the stamp I then inked up only “is coming” and stamped that onto the next square. Then with my black marker I had drew the exclamation point and adhered those to the card with dimensionals.
6. Using my rectangle nesties I cut out a piece of watercolor paper. Then stamped the crab in black stazon.
7. I used a mixture of classic ink and markers to watercolor the crab, real red, wild wasabi, black, rose red for the hat and soft sky for the sky around him.
8. Then I used my liquid applique and more irridescent ice EP on the hat and wrist cuffs.
9. I highlighted the hat and parts of the sleigh with stickles for a frosty look.
10. Finally I adhered the crab to the card with dimensionals.

I’m definately going to have to make a few cards with my crabby friend, he’s too cute to just keep to myself!

Luckily my accupuncture yesterday helped my ankle and wrist a LOT! Im still a little sore today, but what are you going to do? I fell down the stairs.

Oh, and on a totally seperate but SUPER fun note, Sean and I are going to Disneyland! For sure this time! Every time we try to go I get pregnant and your not really supposed to go while your pregnant. SO…..since we want to have another baby we decided to plan a trip around wanting another baby, if that makes sense. Our trip is sometime in March which is when we wanted to start trying for another baby. Yippee! And it’s only us, no kids.

And I cant believe that it’s November 7th and I havent made the official it’s 18 days to my birthday yet! I usually start on November first and countdown the shopping days left. This year I’m turning 30. I dont feel weird about it, I guess I started to feel adult when I had kids, so 30 doesnt mean much to me. That and Im still younger than my husband and my sister! I’ll always be younger than my sister…….that’s fun!

Ok, enough rambling. Time to go get Audrey and play with the kidlets.

The DEETS:

Stamps: crab and sentiment-Gina K designs, Snow flurries -SU
Ink: stazon black, wild wasabi, soft sky, real red, rose red, versamark-SU
CS: wild wasabi, rose red DSP, soft sky, watercolor paper-SU
Accessories: white EP, irridescent ice EP, dimensionals, square punch, rectangle nesties, retired “flirty” ric-rac ribbon, stickles, liquid applique. 

Gina K news!

If you havent read about all the great news on Gina’s website then go read it now! I LOVE Gina’s stamps, they are so cute and fun! And now Gina’s making things even better! New packaging, selling in sets with even LOWER prices! Gina’s a smart cookie, she see’s what the customers are buying and she delivers! Plus she’ll have new sets to earn every month!

A bright, cheery quick card!

The limited supply challenge on SCS was to make a quick and elegant card. The rules were simple:

1 flower stamp
1 swirl stamp
1 sentiment
DP
ribbon

So for me swirl means using the swirl in “Priceless”, then I picked the DP which had flowers that looked like the flowers in this Gina K stamp, and then for the sentiment I decided to pull out my “Sweet thing” set and use one of the stamps from that. I think it’s an overlooked stamp set, it’s really inexpensive and has great fonts and makes fun little extra’s on your cards.

I watercolored the main image on watercolor paper with SU markers and an aquapainter with stazon black ink.  I stamped the swirl directly onto the DP then sponged the DP both in positively pink ink. And that fun ribbon was a little extra in one of my Gina K orders. Isnt she the best?!

Whenever I see this stamp from Gina K, it makes me think of the bright gerbera daisies you see in the summer. I’m always drawn to the super bright pink and orange ones, so I really like how painting this image in those colors.

Have a great Friday and I should be back tomorrow with something extra special! I’m starting some resin tonight for a fun project! And hopefully there will be a little tutorial to go with it. I’m just finishing all the details in my head right now and soon I’ll run to Michaels to get the rest of my supplies.

Happy crafting everyone!

The DEETS:

STamps: Flower-Gina K, priceless and sweet thing-SU
Ink: Positively pink, stazon black-SU
CS: Barely banana, apricot appeal-SU, DP from stash, watercolor paper
Accessories: oval coluzzle, sponge, corner rounder punch, dimensionals, ribbon from stash

A stamp set that’s all heart!

Over the last week I’ve been making cards with Gina K’s stamp set “Love you to pieces” and it was all leading up to this………..A FREE UNMOUNTED SET!!!!!

For whatever reason, autism is a cause that is dear to me. I dont know anyone personally who is autistic, but as a mother it’s a cause I want to support. And I was so thrilled when I saw that Gina K had a set that donated so generously to the autism speaks organization.

I basically want this stamp set to be a virus in the stamping community! I want everybody to want it and use it and help spread awareness of this epidemic. I know for me, once I got the stamp set trimmed the ideas started flowing and I was even more happy with how versatile this set is.

Again here is a reminder of some of the statistics:

And what is the giveaway you ask? It’s an unmounted set of “Love you to pieces” it is red rubber with a backing of cling cushion ready to use with acryllic blocks. And for some extra fun to spark your creativity there is a handful of prima flowers in various pinks and greens and 3 different pink ribbons.

This giveaway is open to EVERYBODY, in any country! To enter, simply leave a reply to this post, one entry per person please and tell me what you will plan to do with the set if you win. Maybe you’ll use it to make cards for families of children who have autism and give them to an organization, maybe you’ll use them for Valentine’s cards or maybe you’ll make anniversary cards. The give away is open til next Tuesday, October 9, 2007 until 11:59 pm PST. I will draw a winner using random.org on Wednesday October 10.

I hope you are all excited to win the set and use it. And if you dont win then I hope you are inspired to help support the autism speaks org. and purchase it yourself!

Good luck!

Connect soon

Here is another card using the “Love you to pieces” set by Gina K. And it’s also the last countdown to my special blog candy which will be unveiled tomorrow! How exciting!!!!

And here are a few more statistics for you about Autism:

I had seen the tutorial for the emerging colors technique by Beate and had been waiting to try it out. Mine of course is not nearly as lovely as her’s but it was fun to try it out! I also happened to be influenced by her colors, LOL! I got done and realized it looked earily similar.

Instructions:

1. Starting with a piece of chocolate chip CS cut and folded to standard size.
2. Next I cut a piece of white CS to 4 x 3 and stamped the smallest puzzle pieces in groovy guava and soft sky. Then I stamped two hearts in versamark clear and added clear EP to them and heat set it.
3. Then I sponged cameo coral onto the card and wipe the excess off the hearts.
4. I then took the medium size puzzle pieces and stamped them in purely pom, then used my corner rounder punch on the top right and bottom left corner.
5. After that I cut a piece of soft sky CS to 4 1/4 x 3 1/4 and rounded the same corners.
6. Then I cut a piece of groovy guava Cs to 4 1/2 x 3 1/2 and rounded the corners again, and adhered all the layers together.
7. Next I stamped the large puzzle pieces once in soft sky on soft sky CS and then groovy guava on groovy guava CS and cut them out.
8. Then I stamped the sentiment in purely pom on white CS and cut out around it and then distressed it.
9. I assembled the puzzle pieces and the sentiment onto the layers and then used my paper piercer to add holes on the puzzle pieces and place my rhinestone brads.
10. Finally I adhered the whole thing to the card base with dimensionals.

The DEETS:

Stamps: Love you to pieces-Gina K
CS: chocolate chip, groovy guava, soft sky, purely pom, white-Su
Ink: groovy guava, soft sky, purely pom, cameo coral-SU
Accessories: corner rounder punch, distresser tool, paper piercer, ice rhinestone brads, clear rhinestone brad from pretties kit, dimensionals, sponge, clear ep

A favorite flower

About 6 months ago I bought Ava some playing cards that had a flower for each letter of the alphabet. She quickly learned all of them, 26 varieties of flowers. And not just memorizing them by the card but recognizing them in the outdoors. I also bought them in large size and have them hanging on a wall in her room from a twill thread with mini clothes-pins. You can see them here, they are 8×10 and so much fun.

One of her favorite flowers to recognize is black eyed susans, and it was a lovely surprise when I found these planted around my gym, ProClub in Bellevue. Every Tues, Thurs and Saturday when I drive in and out I get to see them. They are wilting now but some are still hanging on. So when Gina K released her fall/Holiday collection and I saw the pot of black eyed susans I knew I would have to get it.

Instructions:

1. Starting with a piece of soft sky CS, I paper pierced the top right and bottom left corner by piercing only the every other line of holes.
2. Next I cut a piece of shimmery white CS to 2.5 x 3 and stamped the black eyed susans in brown stazon. Then colored them in with my SU markers in summer sun, more mustard, old olive, cameo coral and pumpkin pie.
3. Using my aqua painter and reinkers in soft sky and close to cocoa I painted a light sky around the flowers and grounded the pot.
4. I then cut a piece of summer sun CS to 2 3/4 x 3 1/4 and used the ticket corner punch on all four corners as well as the corners of the image. I then distressed the summer sun CS.
5. Next I took a piece of chocolate chip CS and cut it at 3 x 3.5 and distressed the edges. Then I mounted all of the pieces together then adhered them to the card with dimensionals.
6. Finally I took the sentiment and stamped it in chocolate chip ink under the image.

I think I will always associate these flowers with Ava. And when she saw this stamp she gasped then said “Those are beautiful black eyed susans Momma!”, and that was just the stamp without color! Wait til she wakes up and see’s it colored in, LOL! Sigh, Im a lucky Momma.

The DEETS:

Stamps: black eyed susans and sentiment by Gina K
Ink: stazon brown, soft sky and close to cocoa reinkers-Su
CS: soft sky, summer sun, chocolate chip, shimmery white-SU
Accessories: dimenionals, SU markers, aqua painter, distresser, paper piercer, ticket corner punch-SU

Big heart and little pieces

After my last card made with “Love you to pieces” I knew I wanted to use it again soon. Im not usually a heart’s images gal, but the heart in this set makes me smile!

I told you there would be a lot of Gina K around here! LOL!! The extra LARGE heart eyelets are from a scrapbooking kit I bought off QVC (dont laugh, I love QVC!) about 4 years ago.

These yummy colors totally remind me of those neopolitan candies that have a strawberry, chocolate and coconut layer! I LOVED those as a kid.

Instructions:

1. Starting with a piece of close to cocoa CS cut and folded to standard size.
2. I then cut a piece of purely pom to 4 x 5 and sponged the edges in purely pom ink.
3. Then I cut a piece of vanilla CS at 3 3/4 x 4 3/4. I stamped the small puzzle pieces first in prety in pink then again in close to cocoa. Then I used the ticket corner punch and adhered it to the purely pom.
4. Next I used my trusty cropadile to set my extra large heart eyelets!
5. Then I wrapped a piece of purely pom double stitched ribbon around the layers and adhered it. Then I tied three knots, two in the purely pom and 1 in pretty in pink grosgrain ribbon.
6. With my giga scallop oval punch and pretty in pink CS I punched out a scallop oval, then used my paper piercer in all of the scallops, and sponged pretty in pink  then cocoa in k around the edge.
7. After that I used my oval coluzzle to cut out a cocoa oval and sponged the edges in cocoa ink and adhered it to the scallop oval with a dimensional.
8. I stamped the heart in purely pom ink, on purely pom CS and cut it out then adhered it to the layered oval with a dimensional. Then adhered the whole thing to the card with dimensionals.
9. Finally, I stamped the sentiment in purely pom ink onto vanilla CS, and sponged the edges in cocoa ink then adhered it with dimensionals.

I have the fun and exciting task of painting the living room this weekend, with my husbands help of course! We are also adding a mantel to our fireplace. Because of that, Im not sure that I will have any time to make a card over the next two days……………..so it may be quiet!

Please be on the lookout for my special candy next week! And have a wonderful weekend if I dont get a chance to post!

The DEETS:

Stamps: Love you to pieces-Gina K
CS: close to cocoa, purely pom, pretty in pink, very vanilla-SU
Ink: purely pom, close to cocoa, pretty in pink-SU
Accessories: purely pom double stitched ribbon, pink grosgrain ribbon, giga oval scallop, oval coluzzle, paper piercer, sponges, dimensionals, LARGE heart brads.

Poultry in motion……..away from the table!

At our house, for Thanksgiving dinner we eat tofurky, and some years we’ve had lasagna. So when I saw this cute little turkey stamp from Gina K I knew I wanted to use it for some fun cards. And then the sentiment really got me! He’s running away from the table, and he’s safe at my house!

Instructions:

1. Starting with a piece of close to cocoa CS that is cut and folded to standard size, I sponged the edges in chocolate chip ink for extra depth.
2. Next I cut a piece of more mustard CS to 4×5 and used my tag corner punch. Then I stamped the three leaf images from SU’s retired ‘autumn whimsy’ set in more mustard, close to cocoa and ruby red. Then sponged the edges in more mustard then again in close to cocoa ink.
3. Then I stamped the turkey in stazon brown ink onto vanilla CS.
4. To color the turkey I used my EE WWC and my aquapainter. I started with summer sun in the middle of all the feathers, then added more mustard, then used really rust on the tips. Then I went back in with ruby red. Then I brought some close to cocoa through. Then I took some heavier chocolate chip and “slashed” some feathers with the brush. For the face I used cocoa, waddle is ruby red, underbelly is summer sun and beak is more mustard and pumpkin pie.
5. I took my black marker and made a ground for the turkey then used my old olive WWC and aquapainter to paint in the grass.
6. I cut out around the turkey then used the corner rounder on the edges, layered him on ruby red and cut out then used the corner rounder again. Then adhered these two layers to the card base with dimensionals.
7. Then I punched out 3 pieces of ruby red CS with my word window punch and adhered them on the right side in a staggered stack. I kinda hoped they seemed like feathers.
8. Finally I stamped the sentiment in cocoa ink on vanilla CS, sponged it in cocoa ink, layered it onto cocoa CS and then adhered all of that with dimensionals.

This is such a fun fall card, and I was really pleased with how the coloring on my little Thomasina turkey turned out.

The DEETS:

Stamps: Turkey and sentiment from Gina K, autumn whimsy-SU
CS: close to cocoa, ruby red, more mustard, vanilla-SU
Ink: cocoa, chocolate chip, ruby red, more mustard-SU
Accessories: EE WWC, aquapainters, tag corner punch, corner rounder punch, word window punch, sponges, dimensionals, black marker.

Art that I HEART!

Tonight I decided to check off one of the ideas on my list by inking up my new Gina K’s set “Love you to pieces!”. I HEART this set! And with every purchase $7 is donated to autism speaks, whether you buy it wood mounted or unmounted. I have to say that when I saw this set for the first time it literally took my breath away. It is the most incredible representation of autism in images. The puzzle pieces were just amazing.

Before I go onto my card, I thought I would share a few facts about autism.

• A new case of autism is diagnosed nearly every 20 minutes
• In 1990 1 in 10,000 children were diagnosed with autism. Today 1 in 150 are diagnosed
• 1 in 94 boys are diagnosed with autism
• Autism receives less than 5% of the research funding of many less prevalent childhood diseases

There is a lot to learn about autism and a lot to share, and you’ll be seeing this set a lot over the next week. I hope you will enjoy the cards I make with it and learning more about autism if you arent already aware of the epidemic.

Instructions:

1. Starting with a piece of creamy caramel CS that is cut and folded to standard size, I sponged the edges in creamy caramel ink.
2. Next I cut a piece of certainly celery CS to 4×5.
3. Then I took a piece of pretty in pink CS and cut it to 3 3/4 x 4 3/4, used my ticket corner punch and then sponged the edges in rose red ink.
4. I then took a piece of certainly celery DSP and cut it to 3 1/4 x 4 1/4, used the ticket corner punch and the sponged the edges in celery ink. I adhered the 3 layers together then used my trusty cropadile to adhere 4 rose red eyelets.
5. Next I wrapped a piece of pink “flirty” ribbon around all 3 papers, then a piece of celery grosgrain ribbon over the “flirty” ribbon. Then I used dimensionals to adhere it to the card base.
6. Then I punched an oval scallop out of rose red CS and doodled around the edges with my white signo gel pen.
7. Using my oval coluzzle I cut a piece of pretty in pink CS to fit the oval scallop. Then I sponged the edges in rose red ink.
8. For the hearts I stamped them in rose red ink on rose red CS and cut them out. I pressed one onto my versamark pad, added heat and stick and hit it with the heat gun. Then I added some glitter and then hit it again with the heat gun.
9. I used snail adhesive to adhere the pink oval to the scallop oval. Then I used dimensionals to adhere the hearts to the layered ovals, and dimensionals to adhere the whole thing to the card.
10. Finally I stamped the sentiment in rose red on the bottom right corner on the celery DSP.

Stay tuned for more cards, more Gina K designs and of course the CANDY, CANDY, CANDY!!!!!

The DEETS:

Stamps: Love you to pieces-Gina K
Ink: rose red, creamy caramel, certainly celery, versamark-SU
CS: creamy caramel, pretty in pink, rose red, certainly celery, certainly celery DSP-SU
Accessories: heat and stick, glitter, giga scallop punch, oval coluzzle, dimensionals, “flirty” ribbon, certainly celery grosgrain ribbon.-SU