Dirty Dare - Blue/Green Lizard

Well this is my last one for today and is again for the DD challenges on SCS. This time the challenges covered here are Jeanne's sketch challenge and prbloom's blue/green animals. We were to create a card and the animal had to be blue & green. I decided to use my Lucy's Stamps lizard for the animal and my background was created using my borders & corners (circles) set by Papertrey Ink.

I guess I could also include this in the bright challenge and the pets challenge as I know people keep lizards as pets especially little boys, but as I have done those challenges I will leave it to the two challenges above.

Recipe:
Stamps: Lizard - Lucy's Stamps (Aust); Borders & Corners (Circles) Set - Papertrey Ink; Baroque Motif - SU
Paper: Aqua; Lime; White
Other: Black Ink; Azure Sea - Whispers Ink; Lime Pastel Fluid Chalk; Lime & Aqua Brads; Lime Grosgrain Ribbon

Chocolate Flowers

Well this morning I am not feeling all that inspired, however I still wanted to get some stamping done as there are more challenges today plus I hadn't done the featured stamper challenge yet which I normally do on Sundays. So I decided the best thing to do was to go and do the featured stamper challenge, this week the featured stamper is Lauraly and she has a fantastic gallery! I wanted to play with one of the sets I got yesterday so picked this card. I also decided to combine it with one of today's DD challenges and the one I chose is Shel9999's "distressing challenge", I used my distressing tool to distress all the edges of the card.

I am not 100% happy with this card, I am soooooo wishing I had some of that pretty designer paper Lauraly used but as I don't I had to create my own backgrounds for which I used the cuttlebug tiny bubbles embossing folder and the polka dot background stamp. Oh btw the left petal doesn't look like that in real life, it must be the light reflecting on it .... it actually looks exactly like the other 4.

I used my corner rounder to create my scallop edge along the bottom of the centre panel. I also played with my party punch set and designer label punch I got yesterday.
Changes I made:
* Changed the colors
* Distressed my edges
* Used my tiny bubbles cuttlebug embossing folder for background
* Used my polka dot stamp for background
* Different ribbon
* Party Punch stamp & designer label punch for greeting.

Recipe:
Stamps: Pick A Petal; Polka Dot & Paisley; Party Punch Set - Stampin' Up
Paper: Chocolate Chip & Regal Rose - SU; White
Other: Chocolate Chip SU Ink; Brown Pigment Ink; Clear EP; Corner Rounder Punch; Hole Punch; Distressing Tool; Designer Label Punch; Brown Grosgrain Ribbon

Dirty Dare - Serendipity

Well I am still here stamping trying to get the challenges all done, this is my 3rd card today for the DD challenges. And I have again combined challenges, Rainy's serendipity challenge and Jacksonbelle's Black & Brown challenge where we had to make a card using only those colors.

For this challenge I decided to mount my baroque motifs so I could play with that set, so now there is one less to mount later tonight when I sit to do the rest. I have been wanting this set for sooooo long and it has been torture seeing all the great cards made using it.

Recipe:
Stamps: Baroque Motifs - Stampin' Up
Papers: Chocolate Chip - SU; White; Black
Other: Black Ink; Creamy Brown, Burnt Sienna, Chestnut Roan & Dark Brown Fluid Chalks; Versamark Ink; Clear Ep; Gem Brad.

Born to Shop!

Ok well it is Monday, so it is time for me to post the weekly challenge I do with a group of friends on SCS. The challenge this week was to use Basic Grey Papers with any sketch to create a card.

The sketch I picked for this card is one I found on Stampin Inspirations blog, this site has some fantastic sketches on it. This is the sketch I picked for this card. The Basic Grey paper is one I have been after for ages ever since I saw someone else use it for a card and I was finally able to find it the other week when I went to a scrapbooking store. It is called Recognition and is part of the Scarlet Letter range.

I have done paper piecing for the shopping bags using the same paper as I did for the background and also paper piercing on 3 of the corners of the white card. I also got to use my new photo corner punch on this this morning to finish it off adding the corners to the top left and bottom right panels.

Recipe:
Stamps: Girl - Rubber Romance; Born to Shop - Stamp It (Aust); Crosshatch B/G - Printblocks (Aust)
Papers: Real Red - SU; White; Black; Recognition Scarlett Letter - Basic Grey
Other: Black Ink; Real Red SU Ink; Paper Piercing Mat & Tool; Black Brads; Photo Corner Punch

Dirty Dare - Garden Whimsy

Well I was able to get to play with one of my new stamp sets this afternoon ..... Garden Whimsy. This card is again for the DD challenges and again combines to challenges. The challenges this time round are StamperSharon's sketch challenge & Trudee's inspiration challenge.

The inspiration part of this are the colors I used which I picked out from the inspiration picture Trudee posted to the forum. There were also flowers in the picture so that also why I used flowers for this one (as well as the fact I wanted to play with new rubbah!)

Recipe:
Stamps: Garden Whimsy - Stampin' Up; Weave B/G - Cornish Heritage Farms
Papers: So Saffron; More Mustard; Brocade Blue; Night of Navy - SU; White
Other: Black Ink; Yellow Ochre & French Blue Fluid Chalk; Marvy Marker #96; Mosaic Cuttlebug Embossing Folder; Brads; Spiral Clip; Grosgrain Ribbon

Dirty Dare - Oh EEE PEE!

Of course I get all those new stamps today and what is the first thing I use for today's DD challenges ...... new stamps - no! Really old stamps - yes!

It is Monday here in Australia so it isn't going to be as easy today to get all the 8 challenges done plus there is the featured stamper challenge to do as well which I normally do ..... I do have to get housework done sometime! Although as these DD challenges are just a once only thing I also want to get as many done as possible so today I am doing a little housework ..... a challenge ..... some more housework ..... another challenge. We will see how that goes .... so far I am doing ok!

This ATC is for the DD challenges and again combines two challenges. This time the challenges are Bad Sherry's twisted & demented challenge and Taylor's ATC challenge. I have quite a lot of stamps which would be suitable for the twisted & demented challenge which is why I went for old stamps for this challenge and as I want to get as many challenges done as I can I decided to make mine into an ATC. I wasn't sure if I would fit the girl and the dog onto the ATC but it did which I was happy about. I love this little girl but she does look like she would be saying some like "Oh EEEE" about something or other .... this time about the dog .... which I guess you can't blame her in a way ;)

Anyway I did use something new from my stash today ....... my new photo corner punch which I soooo love ...... I can see this being used a lot!

Recipe:
Stamps: Girl - G Rated; Dog - Art Impressions; Clouds - Mostly Animals
Paper: White; Pansy Bazzill; Real Red - SU
Other: Black Ink; Celeste Blue Impress Ink; Tria Markers; Photo Corner Punch - SU; Purple Brad

It feels like Christmas!

Well my stamp order finally arrived at my front door this morning ...... I have been soooo wanting these to arrive but it has taken them a while to get from the US to my place. Not everything here is brand new some are retired sets I have been thinking about buying and as they were cheap I could not pass them up. The rest are either from the last supplement or the new catty!

Normally I would have had these all mounted by now but with all the DD challenges and also it being Monday so I do have to do some housework ;) ........... I am going to leave it till tonight while I am watching TV .... unless of course I need to use something for a challenge then I will do that only for now.

Dirty Dare - Owl Love You!

I very seldom make owl cards because it is me who loves owls not the people who I need to send cards too, however in the past week I have created 3 owls cards. This one is again for the DD chalenges on SCS, and this will be my last card for today! This one again combines 2 challenges, leslierich's "Out of the Box" challenge which means rather then just cut out your image in a square or rectangle shape to cut out so that part of the image is hanging over the side. The other challenge this includes is by Toy and is "Stand by your Man" - to make a card using non-traditional male stamps/backgrounds. There was a small twist as we weren't allowed to use blue or green, which suited me anyway.

This card was created using only 2 colors of card, black and ayres rock but as is has been treated a different way they all look slightly different. I stamped the owl on the top panel, used bleach to color the owl and then cut out around the owl. The middle panel was also created using bleach and finally the bottom panel which was stamped in black using weathered wood background. I also added paper piercing around the edge of the middle panel.

Recipe:
Stamps: Saw Whet Owl - Old Island Stamp Co; Verse - Art Gone Wild; Weathered Wood B/G - Cornish Heritage Farms
Papers: Ayres Rock Outback; Black
Other: Black Ink; Paper Piercing Mat & Tool; Bleach; Aquawash Pen

Dirty Dare - Playing Card Box

One of the challenges for the DD challenges on SCS today was to think *inside* the BOX .... no cards just boxes, bags or containers. Well of course seeing I learnt how to make a playing card last week I thought i would make one of them. While I was searching for some playing cards to create this box I remembered that I had jumbo playing cards so I grabbed some of those to make this one. The box measures approx 10cm square (just under 4 inches). There is no stamping involved in this one!

Dirty Dare - Cracked Monet Flower

My 2nd card for today's DD challenges on SCS, this one again combines 2 challenges. This combines CookieStampers sketch challenge with BadSherry's Monet challenge - this one combines the look of a watercolor stamping with cracked glass.

Looking at the finished card I wish I had used a slightly different shade of marker for the flower before I stamped it on my wet card ..... but it is done now so I am leaving it .... but at least I will know for next time. I used my distressing tool to distress all the edges of the card layers.

Recipe:
Stamps: Flower - Penny Black; Verse (Happy Harmony) - Stampin' Up
Papers: Chocolate Chip, Cranberry Crisp & Old Olive - Stampin' Up; White; Merino Urbane Couture - Basic Grey
Other: Black Ink; Old Paper Distress Ink; Versamark Ink; Marvy Markers # 43; 93; 96; Clear Utee; Brads; Distressing Tool.

Dirty Dare - Fun in the Sun

Ok I am at it again today, doing some of the challenges for the Dare to get dirty challenges on SCS. Today being Saturday in the US (Sunday down under!), there are 8 challenges ..... I can't see me doing 8 but I will see how I go. I have again combined challenges for this card, this time the challenges are Jeanne's Paper Piecing challenge and Jenn's Cheerful color combo challenge.

I decided to do a tent card for this one and the colors I used were pulled from the colors in the striped paper. Of course I had to use an image with tiny pieces for paper piecing didn't I!!!! I must be nuts! Okay so you can all stop agreeing with me LOL!

Recipe:
Stamps: Beach Bella - Stamping Bella; Sand - Darcies; Sun - Posh; Verse - Impression Obsession
Papers: White; Black; Aqua; Lime; Striped
Other: Black Ink; Summer Sun SU Ink; Blue Ink; Bright Brads; Pink Grosgrain Ribbon

Pink Poodle

This is the final card from me for today, after I have posted this I am going to clean up my desk so I am ready for tomorrows challenges. Not sure how many I will be able to do, but I am hoping to get a couple done at least. This card isn't for the DD challenges but for Beate's weekend sketch challenge which I normally do every weekend. I colored the paw prints that are on the DP pink, they were originally white ..... but pink looked a lot better with this particular card.

Recipe: Stamps: Poodle - Pink Cat Studio; Polka Dots - SU; Weave - Cornish Heritage Farms
Papers: Pink Passion - SU; White; Black; Pink; Black & White Paw Print DP - Penny Black
Other: Black Ink; Word Window Punch; Pink Brads

Dirty Dare - Ahoy Matey

Ahoy there! Another challenge completed for the Dirty Dare's on SCS - this one is for Julia's sketch challenge. I know I used this stamp and these papers last week for Beate's weekend sketch challenge but because I knew that the stamps and papers worked well together it made it easier to create this card.

This is the 3rd card I have made today but the 2nd posted, the other one is for the challenge I do with a group of friends on SCS every Monday and we upload it Mondays ..... I was starting to wonder if I would get it done .... so it is good to have that one crossed off my list too. I still want to do Beate's weekend sketch challenge tonight, just need some inspiration yet.

Recipe:
Stamps: Ahoy Matey & Rough Texture Rollawheel - Stampin' Up
Papers: White; Red; Black; Pirate Stripe & Pirate Bandanna - Sandy Lion
Other: Black Ink; Gold Brads; Word Window Punch; Circle Punches; Paper Piercing Mat & Tool

Dirty Dare - Pink Transparency

Well today there are 4 more great challenges for the Dare to Get Dirty challenges on SCS. Here is my first card, again I combined two of the challenges, this time Cambria's "Pink it Up!" challenge and also Candy William's transparency/acetate challenge. I thought as I have been wanting to make a transparent card for ages this would be a good opportunity to get one done, and of course making it a pink transparency card was an easy thing to do.

While I was looking for some pink card to make this card, I stumbled on some thick acetate which I thought would be perfect to use for the card so cut that down to the size I wanted and then stamp the flourish stamp all over the front of the acetate using white stazon ink. I stamped the little girl on white card and of course colored her in pinks! She is then layered onto the pink passion card and attached to the front of the acetate card. To hide the sticky tape showing from the back of the card I then applied sticky tape to the back of the panel I had just attached to the card but on the inside of the card and then layered my pale pink card over this .... this is most probably the harder part of making the card cause you have to do it kind of back to front so yu can get the border right .... but not impossible. I also cut a piece of pale pink card exactly the same size as the piece I had put over the back of the image and attached this to the other side of the inside of the card (the side you normally have a verse etc) .... to get exact placement, lay it over the top of the layer you did before and close the card .... easy! And then the final pink passion card is attach to the very back of the card.

The happy birthday is stamped using the new Papertrey Ink Borders & Circles (rectangle) set - I used the solid birthday verse first and then stamped over the top with the frame .... I don't have a punch but hey how hard is it to cut out a rectangle! To finish off the card I added the flowers to the top & bottom right hand corners and the ribbon to the folded side.

This was a fun card to create and I must make some more in the near future!

Recipe:
Stamps: Girl - Whipper Snapper; Flourish - Autumn Leaves; Sentiment - Papertrey Ink
Paper: Pink Passion - SU; White; Pink
Other: Black Ink; White Stazon Ink; Pearlescent Coral & Pearlescent Orchid Brilliance Ink; Acetate Sheet; Pink Brads; Pink Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon; Flowers.

So Very Sweet!

Don't you just love strawberries? I know I do anyway and as it is strawberry season here I have been eating them quiet a bit lately ...... yummy! This card is another for the special Dirty Dare Challenges running on SCS this week. This challenge is one hosted by Beate and was a sketch challenge ....... you all know I love sketch challenges and normally do Beate's weekend one.

When I first checked the challenges early this morning I was thinking about combining challenges as there is no way I can get 4 done in a day and keep the house clean as well. Anyway one of the other challenges was only to use clear stamps - my thoughts turned to my Papertrey Ink stamps and as I haven't made a strawberry card I did think that would be fun to make. As it turned out I did the clear stamps challenge early this morning ..... it's in my previous post ...... I also knew I wanted to use a larger sentiment for this card and when thinking what I had the first two I thought about was Happy Everything and So Very ...... then I got to thinking (dangerous sometimes!) ..... strawberries can be so very sweet ....... so that is how this card came to being. This can't count to the clear stamps challenges cause I also used wood mounted stamps.

This card is 13cm (5 1/8") square, I stamped the polka dot background stamp all over the red card in black ink. I used the smaller of the strawberries to make my strawberry panel up the side of the card and layered that to old olive so it showed on the right side only. I used my border & corner (circle) stamp to create the frame on the red card and punched out with my scallop circle punch, and stamped the 2 large strawberries on the white circle. As I had the space up the top of the circle I decided to add the "You're", so it reads "You're so very sweet". I also used my paper piercing mat & tool to create the paper piercing on either side of the word "sweet". To finish it off I used my word window punch to decorate the top right hand corner of the card.

Recipe:
Stamps: So Very & Polka Dots and Paisley - Stampin' Up; Green Thumb & Paper Tray - Papertrey Ink
Paper: Real Red & Old Olive - SU; Black; White
Other: Black Ink; Real Red SU Ink; Lettuce Adirondack Ink; Circle Punch; Scallop Circle Punch; Word Window Punch; Paper Piercing Mat & Tool; Red Brads.

Day 2 Dirty Dare Challenges

Well it is day 2 of the Dirty Dare challenges, I have managed to get the one card made so far, but it combines 2 of the challenges. The challenges used in this card are notimetostamp's easy elegance challenge (to create an elegant card) and genie1314's clear stamps challenge (the stamps we used had to be clear ones not rubber).

To create this card I used white shimmer card for the embossed layer and the lavender layer. I used the textile cuttlebug embossing folder to create the embossed look .... I always associate this embossing folder with elegance!

The scallop oval also uses the shimmer card ..... this is where I used my clear stamps. I used the oval frame from Papertrey's borders & corners (oval) set, the words are from a set of wedding themed words by Impression Obsession which I picked up while I was demoing at a show in March ....... when I got home and saw I had this set, I remember thinking why did I want this .... I have a feeling I meant to get the beach themed words but in my hurry ..... had to go back and demo, I had put this one aside. Anyway it looks like it finally came in handy so I am not complaining ..... actually there are heaps of words that would be useful for cards other than weddings. I even embossed the frame & words with silver ep ..... if I can get out of embossing I normally do!

I used my slit punch to create the scallop panel at the top and added the silver pearlescent brads to each scallop and the bottom corners ..... I guess this also fits yesterdays brad challenge, but I did that yesterday ;)

I am not 100% happy with the color of the ribbon on this one but it is all I had .... if I can find something that matches better I will replace it before using this card. I might give it to my DD, she is always needing Wedding cards.

Recipe:
Stamps: Borders & Corners (oval) - Papertrey Ink; Words - Impression Obsession
Paper: White Shimmer; Lavender Shimmer; White Linen
Other: Versamark Ink; Silver EP; Scallop Oval Punch; Ticket Corner Punch; Slit Punch; Silver Pearlised Brads; Sheer Ribbon; Texture Cuttlebug Embossing Folder.


BTW I won't be posting a Flashback Friday today ..... with all the Dirty Dare Challenges I didn't think we needed it ...... but it will be back next week.

What a Hoot!

Here is my final card for today's Dare to Get Dirty challenges on SCS. This challenge was hosted by SweetMissDaisy and was a "Pet" theme. I was wanting to play a little more with that Oliver & Friends stamp set I got yesterday, I don't really have an owl as a pet ..... but when I mentioned this to someone else she reminded me that Harry Potter did ..... so being a HUGE Harry Potter fan, this ones for Harry!

The owls are stamp onto white card using Chocolate Chip ink and punch out using a square punch, I have also rounded the corners using a corner rounder. I then mounted these onto the vintage frame. I created two lines of paper piercing along the bottom edge of the card. I created my own slider tag for the verse using my slot punch.

Recipe:
Stamps: Owls - Sassafras Lass; Verse - Amazing Creations
Paper: Chocolate Chip & Not Quite Navy - Stampin' Up; White; Floral Crochet Blue - Sandy Lion
Other: Chocolate Chip SU Ink; Brown Grosgrain Ribbon; Vintage Frame Cuttlebug Die; Paper Piercing Mat & Tool; Slot Punch

Dare to Get Dirty - 07

To celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the Splitcoast Stampers Fan Club, the Dirty Dozen are hosting a special week of challenges. Every day they will be posting 4 challenges (8 on Saturday & Sunday), I am already behind today besides the challenges starting at 2 am my time, I also had to do the grocery shopping and fix up some other business while I was out. But once I came back I was able to get a couple of cards made for the challenges.

The first card which really is the 2nd card I made, but I liked it more so it gets to be at the top of this post ;) covers to challenges. It is genie1314 sketch challenge & also texasjodylynn's brads challenge. The yellow square is actually paper so the texture is in the paper not stamped, in case anyone is interested. My Papertrey Ink stamps arrived this morning so I also got to play with the circle borders for this card ..... these are lots of fun! But now I think I might need more punches ;)

This blue card was for StamperSharon's Toile Challenge, it was a toss up whether I made this blue or red and as blue is my favorite color .... well you can see what won! The background on this one is the Cornish Heritage Farm background stamp and while looking through my catty of stamps I own for what to put on the front I came across these little kids fishing so I decided to use that as well. There is actually another little kid on this stamp but I didn't want the panel that long so I cut that one off. I also used my cuttlebug vintage die to create the corners on top of this card. The verse is again from the Papertrey Circle Border set.

There is still one challenge which I haven't done as yet, I am hoping to get it done tonight. That challenge is "Pets", I guess if I really wanted to a mouse could be a pet ..... but as I would never have a mouse as a pet in this house I am not going to do that. If I get it done tonight I will post it here. I have an idea just need to get it made.

Recipes:

Say Cheese:
Stamps: Farm Friends & Let's go for a walk - My Favorite Things; Circle Border - Papertrey Ink
Papers: Old Olive - SU; White; Black; Create & Spirit (Color Me Silly) - Basic Grey
Other: Black Ink; Dark Moss & Olive Pastel Fluid Chalk; Black & Yellow Brads; Circle Punches

Blue Toile:
Stamps: Floral Background - Cornish Heritage Farms; Kids Fishing - Ornamentum; Verse - Papertrey Ink
Paper: Ballet Blue - SU; White
Other: Ballet Blue SU Ink; Blue Brads; Vintage Cuttlebug Die; Circle Punches

Woof to You!

As you know I wasn't 100% happy with my previous tent topper card I made this afternoon for today's sketch challenge on SCS..... so I decided to make another. I like this one better, I don't hate the other one, but any excuse to do a little bit more stamping!

For this one I made the topper part a lot shorter, most of my previous toppers have all been tall so it made a nice change to make a shorter one. The ribbon on this one was originally white with the black paw prints, but I didn't want white and I wanted to use the paw print ribbon so I colored it red with my trias. I think in this case woof must mean "take time to smell the flowers!" ...... seeing that is what the dog is doing, LOL.

Recipe:
Stamps: Dog - Whipper Snapper; Woof - MissyB Designs
Paper: White, Red, Black, Rainbow Stripe - Provo Craft
Other: Black Ink; Corner Rounder; Square Punch; White Paw print Grosgrain Ribbon; Vintage Cuttlebug Die; Black & Red Eyelets.

Blogger Rak from Kristine

I received this card today in the mail from Kristine Reynolds as a thank you for some images she requested. Thanks Kristine!

Look Whoooo's Here!

As I received this owl set in the mail this afternoon just moments before Roxie posted the sketch challenge on SCS, I just had to use it for the challenge. The sketch today was to create a tent card, I have made a number of these before - they are a fun card to make. Now that I have made this card I am not 100% sure I like it, but it is made now so there is no going back. I have pulled it apart enough!

The owl, branch & clouds are all part of a fun owl set by Sassafras Lass. I don't often make owl cards as it is me who likes owls not my friends but when someone emailed me to tell me about this set I just had to try and find it. Owls seem to be "in vogue" in the stamping world at present as I have discovered some other fun owl stamps that I need that I discovered on someone else's blog.

Recipe:
Stamps: Oliver & Friends - Sassifras Lass; Whoooo - Amazing Creations
Paper: Creamy Caramel, Garden Green & Not Quite Navy - SU; White
Other: Black Ink; French Pastel Fluid Chalk; Chocolate Chip SU Ink; Green Brads; D'Vine Swirl Cuttlebug Embossing Folder

Magic Just For You!

It has been some years since I have made a magic card, so when I discovered that was what this weeks "learn a new technique" over at SCS was I just had to make one. Rather than use my old pattern for this card I decided to follow Beate's tutorial on SCS - it is created a little differently to what I would normally have done it - but both ways work fine. Sorry about the top photo, unfortunately no matter what I try the light is casting shadows through the acetate onto the white card when I attempt to take a photo.

For my magic card I decided to use my carpenter stamps I purchased a while ago from High Hope Rubber Stamps, as my DH's background is carpentry I just had to have them! The wooden background is stamped onto Creamy Caramel card using dark brown fluid chalk. I also used tiny screw brads in the bottom right hand corner for the card and also on the 'just for you' sign. The pull tab at the top of the card is made using the tab punch.

Magic cards are fun as when the card is closed the main image is just in black and then when you open it up it magically appears in color. You can also add extra elements to your card is you want to. For my inside I masked the boy and stamped my shadow to help ground him and then I made a reverse mask of the shadow and stamped some wood grain in the shadow to help keep with the theme of the card.

Recipe:
Stamps: Wood b/g, boy, box of nails - High Hopes Stamps; Sign - Lucy's Stamps; Woodgrain cute - Stampendous
Papers: Creamy Caramel, Pumpkin Pie - SU; White
Other: Black Ink; Dark Brown Fluid Chalk; Creamy Caramel SU ink; Acetate; Tab Punch; Fiskars oval template & cutter; screw brads; brown eyelet.

Just a Note!

It's Monday which means it is time for me to post my cards I created for a special challenge I do with a few friends on SCS. For this weeks challenge, we were all sent the two background papers and images of the drum & just a note verse from the Stampin' Up set Jazzed Up. I actually own this set so I am looking forward to seeing what the other 7 members of our group come up with for this challenge. As I own the set I was also able to use an additional stamp from the set which is the music note down the bottom.

The layout of this card is based on the sketch Beate used for her weekend sketch challenge last week. When I was playing with the drum piece I thought it would work well on this layout so went with it. I used the spots & dots cuttlebug embossing folder to add texture to the background paper of the base card and to help highlight the texture I then sponged over some ink.

Looking at the design now, I can also see how this card would have fitted into this weeks "Ways to Use it" challenges which was about corners - this piece has most of it's corners covered, but I actually created this card on Monday or Tuesday of last week way before that challenge was posted!

This card above is only a 3 x 3 card, originally I was planning on using this square verse on my main card for this challenge but I decided to go with a circle instead for that card as I liked the ideas have having different shapes for each of the pieces used on it. That left this verse with nothing to do and it sat on my desk for sometime, until I decided to create a small 3 x 3 card out of it - I figure it will be good to use to send off to someone when I need to post a cheque or include something for them.

Recipe:
Stamps: Jazzed Up - Stampin' Up
Paper: Miss Molly, Lil Suzie - Cosmo Cricket; Always Artichoke; Vanilla - Stampin' Up; Maroon.
Other: Black Ink; Tea Dye Distress Ink; Brads; Circle Punches; Burgundy Grosgrain Ribbon; Spots & Dots Cuttlebug Embossing Folder; Prima Flower

It's Finished!

I did it, I did it!!!!! I finally got to the last page of the new Harry Potter book. I don't think I got to bed until about 2.3oam this morning, but it was well worth it. I am not going to give any secrets away as I know there are lots out there still reading it. I can't wait till my daughter finishes reading it too so we can talk about it a little.

Annie Get Your Stamps!

It's my daughters turn to read the Harry Potter book we are sharing, so while I can't read it I decided to check out the featured stamper challenge on SCS. This week the honor goes to Ana Wohlfahrt aka Annieht, here is the card I decided to CASE.

We also found out to day that the normal hostess of the featured stamper - Beth gave birth to a baby girl on Thursday, so I decided to create a baby card for her using this weeks featured stamper challenge.

Here are my changes:

1. Changed the colors.
2. Changed the image used.
3. Used my tab punch to create the tab at the top of the card.
4. Different colored ribbons

Recipe:
Stamps: Baby Firsts - Stampin' Up; Karen Foster Snap Stamps
Paper: White, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Pretty In Pink - SU; DP
Other: Black Ink; Rouge Fluid Chalk; Pink Brad; Tab Punch; Grosgrain Ribbon

Ahoy it's Beate's Sketch Time!

I have taken my nose out of our Harry Potter book long enough for me to get my sketch challenge card made for Beate's weekend sketch. I am over half way through so far so if I don't finish it late tonight - I definitely will tomorrow - the housework can wait!

I recently found these background papers at a couple of scrapbook stores, the striped one I purchased a few weeks back and then while out with a friend on Tuesday I found the spotted one so decided to get that too. I knew one day I would want to use it with my 'ahoy matey' set. When I saw the sketch for this week on Beate's blog I knew I had to play with it. I had to turn the sketch on it's side so that I could use the pirate on this card.

On the blue piece of card at the bottom left - I stamped the "x trail" onto the card using black ink and then used my cuttlebug spots & dots embossing folder to embossing the card, I also sponged the edges with black ink.

The shadow the pirate is standing on was stamped using weathered wood distress ink - I stamped off once on scrap paper before stamping on my card.

Recipe:
Stamps: Ahoy Matey - Stampin' Up
Papers: Real Red - Stampin' Up; Black; White; Pirate Stripes & Pirate Bandana DP - Sandylion
Other: Black Ink; Weathered Wood Distress Ink; Creative Memories Oval Cutter; Spots & Dots Cuttlebug Embossing Folder; Word Window Punch; Brass Brads.

Marathon Happenings & other things

Well today was Marathon day and I got up bright and early even in this cold weather so I could get there early. I wanted to have time to check out everything before my make & take at 9am.

As you can tell by the photo up the top I was very good and didn't buy tooo much. To the person I emailed the other day about Inky Antics - sorry I now have two more stamps LOL - I nearly bought more but I ended up changing my mind. The friends thing is a board book, not sure when I will get round to making it, but I liked the idea so I got one. And how could an owl collector like myself resist the little owl paintbox for only 20c in the 2nd hand section

I hadn't planned to make any of the make & takes but as I didn't have to rush off after all as my sister changed the day of her birthday lunch I decided to have a go at making one of these cute boxes made out of playing cards. This was such a fun thing to do and soooo different. A great way of using up all those old playing cards we have lying around - and I only just threw some out the other week when I was doing a clean up too - arghhhhh!
Here are a couple more views of the box I made. There is no stamping involved in this but I guess you could if you wanted somehow.
And of course don't forget today is the day the final book of Harry Potter came out. While I was at the marathon my daughter picked up our copy of the book - we preordered ours from Borders which meant we also got this cute little owl with ours - we knew we could have got it a few dollars cheaper at other places but when you are an owl lover - the couple of extra $$ was well worth it! My daughter and I will be taking turns of reading it throughout the weekend, I have already read about 100 pages and once the book is back in my hands later tonight I will get a lot more read!!!!!!!!

Rockin' Blogger

Caz over at A Stamping Chirping Corner and Melissa at Melissa's Moments both tagged my blog for the Rockin' Girl Blogger award. Thanks Caz & Melissa this is a great honor! So now I am supposed to tag 5 other bloggers and give them this award too. That is always the hard part because I have sooooo many blogs that I visit on a daily basis.

Okay this time round I am tagging:

Kelly at Diaries of a Stamper

Allison at Card Metaphors

Anna at Sassy & Sweet Notes

Michelle at Thoughts of a Cardmaking Scrapbooker

Wanda at My Creative Corner

Boy was that hard to do, as I said above I have sooooo many site I love to visit daily! Many of these are under blog I visit on the right hand side of my blog - and they all deserve this award!

Flashback Friday - Bee Paper Hedgehog Trifold

Today's flashback is this cute little hedgehog trifold card that combines the use of bee paper. The tree in the centre of the card was created using the bee paper. This product has a couple of different names, one is bee paper and there is another similar product which gives you the same effect called honeycomb paper. This can be a fun product to use in combination with your stamped projects.

This card was easy to create, first up I folded the length of my card into 4 sections, I did the folding first so that I knew exactly where to stamp each hedgehog because I wanted one to be in each section. I also cut along the top of the card to look like a cloud. The hedgehogs were then stamped and masked so I could add the grass and clouds to the card. The clouds were created using a cloud stencil. The trunk of the tree can either be created using brown card or drawn in. A half tree shape was then cut out of the bee paper and attached to the centre of the card.
Recipe: Stamps: Hedgehogs & verse - Penny Black; Dragonflys - Artee
Paper: White
Other: Black Ink; Green Ink; Blue Ink; Cloud Stencil; Bee Paper

Weekend Happenings

This weekend will be a pretty busy weekend for me. First up I have to attend the Stamping, Scrapbooking & Papercrafts Marathon which is an annual event to raise money for a worth cause. The event is organised by Southside Stampers Inc and this year the money raised from this event will go to Australian Leukodystrophy Support Group to help purchase wheelchairs for children.

There will be make & takes throughout the day, lots of opportunities to buy new stamps and other products from the various retailers, 2nd hand stamps and lots more! If you live in the Brisbane area why not come along for part or all of the day. For more info visit Marathon Mania.




Saturday is also the day Harry Potter fans throughout the world can pick up the 7th and final book in this series. Last Friday night I went to see the latest movie which I enjoyed. The book is available in Australia at 9.01am (a much more convenient time then some countries). I won't be able to pick up our copy of the book as I have other commitments with the marathon, fortunately my daughter will be picking it up for us and when I get home I guess there won't be much stamping being done until that book is read. It doesn't take me long to get it read - in the past I have been able to read it in a weekend, and that is even sharing the book with my daughter. I am hoping I can do the same this time round - so if you don't hear from me you know why. But I do hope to pop in and post something for you to see during the weekend.



To any other Harry Potter fans out there - happy reading!

A Boy & His Frog!

I have finally managed to finish off the card I was making today. This one is a prototype for some cards I plan to make for a swap I do every month. The theme for this particular swap is "Frogs" and the person who hosts this swap - loves frogs so hopefully she will like this card.

The boy is stamped onto white card, masked and then the oval shadow (which is a piece of fun foam cut using a sizzix die) was stamped to 'ground' the boy. For the green portion of this card I first used my flannel plaid background stamp and dark moss fluid chalk to create the background and then I stamp my cattails across the bottom of the card, decreasing the amount of cattail showing as I stamped it across the card. I then colored this with my markers. The mustard strip is stamped using amber clay ink & my burlap background stamp. I then attached this to black card.

Recipe:
Stamps: Boy & Cattails - High Hopes Stamps; Flannel Plaid - Stampin' Up; Burlap - Cornish Heritage Farms
Papers: Always Artichoke; More Mustard; Pumpkin Pie - SU; Black; White
Other: Black Ink; Amber Clay & Dark Moss Fluid Chalk; Olive Brad; Glitter

Thanks a Latte!

Well I managed to get my card made for this week's sketch challenge, I don't need to feel guilty anymore for putting the other two in which I had made sometime last year. As the other two cards hadn't been uploaded to the web so far, I wanted to share them with everyone as it is another idea for that particular sketch and I know we all like ideas, but I wouldn't have been happy with myself it I hadn't made a new one too.

Normally on Wednesdays I have been lucky that my daughter cooks dinner while I am making my sketch card if I haven't already made the card - as the sketch challenge comes out in the afternoon my time. But for a little while she will be working late so comes home too late to be able to do that so I will have to cook on Wednesdays - I have gotten used to not cooking that day - lucky today it was take away!

Anyway on to the card! For this one I also combined it with the color challenge on SCS this week which is using "Not Quite Navy; Bordering Blue; Mellow Moss & Always Artichoke (the last being optional). I stamped the lattice background using Dark Moss Fluid Chalk onto the Mellow Moss card and these were layered to the bordering blue & not quite navy cards.

I liked the idea of add the cuttlebug vintage border to each of my strips for something different so that was die cut from Not Quite Navy card. I strips were made using bordering blue & always artichoke card - I used my burlap background & weathered wood distress ink to decorate the strips of card. The white squares were made using a punch easier then cutting out by hand being that size. The brads are two different sizes - I debated whether to include the larger navy colored brad but I liked it better then the other blues I had which were the same size as the green ones - and I didn't mind the look in the end so I left it as is.

Recipe:
Stamps: Hot Stuff - My Favorite Things; Burlap & Lattice Backgrounds - Cornish Heritage Farms
Paper: Not Quite Navy; Bordering Blue; Mellow Moss; Always Artichoke & White - Stampin' Up
Other: Black Ink; Weathered Wood Distress Ink; Dark Moss Fluid Chalk; Vintage Cuttlebug Die; Brads - Making Memories


Questions Answered about my Cheers ATC:

Katherine asked "Did you stamp the polka dots on the embossed background, or is it paper?"

I stamped the polka dots from Polka Dots & Paisley onto my card and then used my cuttlebug embossing folder to embossing the card.

Deb from BC asked "I might have missed this info, but is it an 8 for 8 or 6 for 6 swap? "

The atc's are for a swap I participate in monthly for an ATC group I belong to. It is an 8 for 8 swap, so I make 9 so I have one of my own and it fills the plastic protector pages you can buy.

Some cards for you

I have had friends here all day stamping so have not had a chance to do the sketch challenge yet for this week, however when I checked out what the layout was I discovered it was one I had used to create these two cards here that I created last year. So I thought I would share them here. I will still try and get a new card made using this sketch but will do so later one when I get some time.

The first one is an oriental design using the colors red, white & black - I love these colors together. It was a fairly easy design to do.
The second one above is created using the spirelli technique - the yellow spirelli pices are actually dies from Spellbinders the creator of the wizard die cutting machine - which is the die cutter I use most of the time. I have used both size spirelli pieces and layered them - the top spirelli piece has the cord wrapped around it before attach to the bottom piece. The background was created using various stamps and fluid chalk inks.

Recipe:
Oriental Card:
Stamps: Origami Crane - unknown; Background - Stamp Out Cute
Paper: Red, Black, White
Other: Black Ink; Red Eyelets

Spirelli Card:
Stamps: The Cats Pajama's; various others - unknown
Papers: Pale Violet; White; Yellow
Other: Black Ink; Wisteria Ink; Warm Violet Fluid Chalk, Spirelli Die - Spellbinders

Tapestry Technique

This weeks Try a New Technique challenge on SCS is the Tapestry Technique. I didn't have a change to do it today as I was out with a friend but I was able to have a bit of a play with this technique tonight. My first card I created was inspired by a rak card I received by Jimmi Mayo, I couldn't find her card in her gallery so I have included it below. I loved everything about this card including the colors, the way she had the flowers along the bottom of the card etc. When I went to look at the gallery again tonight I also saw this card by Tosh aka Stamps4funinCA, I had seen it earlier so maybe this also influenced my card. Just in case I am crediting them both.

It may be hard to see in the photo, but after I colored my card with pigment ink, I then stamped my flower randomly over my card using white pigment ink. I then stamped the black flowers along the edge of the card. The whole card was then covered with clear embossing powder & heat set. The top panel is done in the same way as the first however I omitted stamping the flower in white for this piece.

The card above is the one created by Jimmi Mayo that I received a while back and as I said above helped inspire my first card.
For this card I used my flourish stamps by Autumn Leaves, after coloring the card I then stamped one of the flourish images over the card using the white ink, and then I picked a second flourish stamp and stamped all over in black, again covering with clear ep and heat setting.

If you look closely at the verse (maybe clicking to get a large photo), you may see that I also stamped a flower using white ink before stamping the verse and covering with the ep again. The larger of the two flowers was originally white, I used my tria pens to color it.

Recipes:
Harmony Flowers
Stamps: Happy Harmony - Stampin' Up
Paper: White; Black; Turquoise XL card
Other: White pigment ink; black pigment ink; various blue & jade pigment inks; clear ep; black brads; black grosgrain ribbon.

Love Generously
Stamps: Flourish - Autumn Leaves; Verse - Penny Black; Flower - Paper Inspirations
Paper: White, Black & Hot Pink XL card
Other: Black Pigment Ink; White Pigment Ink; Peony; Lavendar & Green Pigment ink; Flowers; black brad. Ticket corner punch - SU

ATC - Cheers

Here are some ATC's I made for a swap I am in, the theme for the swap was "Ribbon" we had to include ribbon somehow on our ATC. This is what I came up with. I wanted to stamp something on a scallop shape so I ended up going with this girl and my scallop oval punch, I even had room to add the word - Cheers!

The background is created by first stamping my polka dot stamp all over the pink card using rouge fluid chalk and then using my spots & dots cuttlebug embossing folder to create the texture. Of course I then added my ribbon to the card. I enjoyed making this one.

Recipe:
Stamps: Girl - Inky Antics; Cheers - Stamping Bella; Polka Dots - SU
Paper: White; Pink and Fuchsia
Other: Black Ink; Rouge Fluid Chalk; Oval Scallop Punch; Pink Grosgrain Ribbon; Spots & Dots Cuttlebug Embossing Folder

Have a Cheerful Day!

A group of friends & I have started doing a weekly challenge. This week the challenge was to create a birthday card that would appeal to a cheerleader. As I had a cheerleader stamp I decided I would use that to create my card/s.

For the first card I stamped my cheerleader onto the white card, masked the cheerleader and stamped the oval shadow. I then used my snap stamps to stamp "cheers" all away around three sides of the card. I have used my weave background to create the background on the pink card. More snap stamps for the verse on the long panel down the bottom and finished the card off with the 3 brads down the side of the card.

This second card I stamped the cheerleader, masked her and stamped the oval shadow and layered her onto red and yellow card. I also used my ticket corner punch to decorated the corners of all the layers.

I created my background to this card using my rice paper background stamp by Cornish Heritage Farms and the stripes down the bottom by Cats Pajamas - these were both stamped in red. I used circle punches to create my circles down the side and again my snap stamps for the verse - gotta love those snap stamps!

Recipe:
Stamps: Cheerleader - Eureka Stamps; Stripe B/G - The Cat's Pajamas; Weave & Ricepaper B/G's - Cornish Heritage Farms; words - Karen Foster Snap Stamps
Paper: White; Pink; Maroon & Burgundy;/ White; Red & Yellow
Other: Black Ink; Red Ink; Olive Pastel Fluid Chalks; Circle Punches; Grosgrain Ribbon; Ticket Corner Punch, brads.