Another Poetic Artistry Sketch

I have a streak going with the Poetic Artistry Sketches. I have completed the last 6 weeks and since it was not my week for the sketch I just couldn't break my streak. That means you will get an extra post this week. Here is Week 26's sketch from PoeticArtistry and the card I made.

Stamps: Loads of Love, Easter Egg (retired), Seasonal Shapes (retired), No Bunny Like You(TAC), Bunny Three Frame (Great Impressions), Easter Eggs (Westwater Enterprises) Paper: White, Green Galore, YoYo Yellow, Orchid Opulence, Tempting Turquoise, Sweet DS (retired) Ink: Basic Black, Chocolate Chip, Green Galore, Orchid Opulence, Pretty in Pink, Tempting Turquoise Accessories: Green Galore - Orchid Opulence - Pretty in Pink - Tempting Turquoise Markers, Sakura Stardust Gel Pen, large oval punch, large yellow brads, sponges, dimensionals

Hope you like this card. I am sorry about the colors but I was working with my editing program trying to get the purple the right shade and I wasn't able to. Have a great day and thanks for looking!

Thursday's Design by Candice

Great job Robbie on the beautiful background (Michelle Zindorf really does some beautiful cards using that method, my favorite is Lite Up Cowboy). I've tried doing this method but have not had much luck, I'll have to give this another try.

I saw this flower on another blog, and thought I would give it a shot. Kudos to the person who came up it, love the dimension it adds to the card.

1. Stamp the Big Flower from Doodle This and cut it out

2. take your bone folder and curl all the petals (on the none stamped side)

3. put a dimensional in the center of the side that is not stamped

4. start adhering the petals to the dimensional

5. stick a brad through the middle, that will help hold the petals is place.

Stamps: Doodle This and Friendship Blooms Paper: Wild Wasabi, Confetti White, and East Coast Prep DSP Ink: Wild Wasabi and Pumpkin Pie Accessories: Wild Wasabi Double-Stitched Ribbon, Fire and Ice Rhinestone Brads, and Photo Corners Punch. ;-)

Wednesday's Design by Robbie on Thursday

I have been wanting to try the brayered background technique for quite some time. MichelleZindorf creates some beautiful background using this method. When I finished the background I was not happy and thought Yuck! I decided to keep going and see how it turned out. After finishing I somewhat liked the final product. I did find out that I did not do the technique correctly. I was supposed to brayer top to bottom and I went side to side. I also don't know if you can use yellow and blue together as you usually get green (I was very careful not to mix the 2 for fear of this). I will continue to play with this technique as I think it makes a fabulous background. I will post some more cards made using this technique so you can see my progress. :) Let me know what you think.

Stamps: Terrific Tulips, Watercolor minis, Scenery Set (all retired), grass stamp from Posh Impressions Paper: White, Garden Green, Green Galore, Night of Navy Ink: Ballet Blue, Brilliant Blue, Barely Banana, Summer Sun, Apricot Appeal, Pumpkin Pie, Green Galore, Garden Green, Glorious Green Accessories:brayer, dimensionals, post-it notes

Let me know what you think. Don't forget to check back and see my progress on this technique. For you teachers out there feel free to grade me! :) I would love to work towards an "A"! Thanks for looking!

Cracked UP!

Here is another project that we did at Grace's home workshop this past Sunday. I just love the eggshell, just stamp your image onto a piece (scrap) of DSP and cut just on the outside of the line. This can be done with any stamp set that is an outline image. Thanks for stopping by. ;-)

Stamps: A Good Egg Paper: Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, White, and Berry Bliss DSP Ink: Chocolate Chip and Pretty in Pink Accessories: Pure Color Pencils, Brads, Grosgrain Ribbon, Distressing Tool, and Clear Stardust Pen.

Color Challenge Monday - Candice

Tami at A Walk on the Mild Side challenged readers to make something using these fabulous pillows as inspiration, I just love the colors of the middle one.

My colors this week are Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip, and Brocade Blue.

Stamps: Boho Backgrounds Paper: Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, Brocade Blue, and Vanilla Ink: Versa Mark, Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, and Brocade Blue Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder, Sponge Daubers, Sponges, Diamond Dust, Sticky Strip, and Stickles. On the card with the Always Artichoke I used Pearl Glimmer Mist, I like how the colors ran together. Hope you enjoy what I came up with. ;-)

Color Challenge Monday - Robbie

I cannot remember who picked the colors for this week. When I looked at my colors all I could think of was a western flair. With that in mind I grabbed my Wanted set and got busy. I started out using Lauren'sSaturdaySketch. As my card progressed I could not use the other piece on the left she had included. Knowing that I modified it even more by moving the circular piece to the left and adding brads to the right corner. Hope you like it.

Robbie's Card

Stamps: Wanted, Seeing Stars (Verve Visual - star on twill tape) Paper: Sage Shadow, Creamy Carmel, Brocade Blue, Very Vanilla Ink: Sage Shadow, Creamy Carmel, Brocade Blue, Close to Cocoa Accessories: Sage Shadow - Brocade Blue - Creamy Caramel markers, twill tape, pewter brads, scallop punch, cutter kit, crafter's tool kit, sponges, dimensionals.

Taken UP A Notch

Well here it is the card that I said I was going to juice up a bit. I think this looks so much better with the changes. Thank you Grace for hosting the show today, I think it went really well.

Weekends go by so fast, hope everyone had a lovely one. Sloane and I went to the tea room for lunch on Saturday for a girls day out. Her friend Lauren and her mom Heather went with us and the girls had such a good time, they were both really cute.

Hope everyone is ready for Monday. ;-)

Sketch Saturday

I love doing sketches. It is so much fun to take a plan and create a card. I especially like doing the ones from PoeticArtistry. For some reason her sketches really inspire me and are easy to work with. I used her sketch from MojoMondayWeek25 to create my card. I wanted to use the set I won from Verve Visuals as well as a set I bought to go with it. Here is here sketch and my card. Let me know what you think. Make sure you try it and see if you find them so easy to create with.


Stamps: Priceless, Fancy Florals Remixed (Verve Visual), Thoughtful Florals (Verve Visual)
Paper: Very Vanilla, Basic Black, Cameo Coral, Wild Wasabi Ink: Cameo Coral, Wild Wasabi, Craft Very Vanilla Accessories: word window punch, hole punch, corner rounder, Cameo Coral brads, dimensionals, post-it notes

Color Block Card

Well here is one of the cards that I have designed for an upcoming show on Sunday. Now I am going to take this very plane card and juice it up a little at the party. I will post a photo on Sunday of the changes that I made to this card.

Stamps: A Tree for All Seasons and A Beautiful Thing Paper: Purely Pomegranate, Old Olive, White, and DSP Bali Breeze Ink: Basic Black and Old Olive Accessories: Pure color Pencils, Markers, 1 3/8 Circle Punch, Key Tag Punch, Designer Label Punch, and Old Olive Ribbon.

Wednesday's Design by Robbie

I have been doing a lot of sketch challenges lately that I thought you might like a break and see a card I created on my own. I wanted to use a prima flower so I checked my stash and came up with this one. I then needed a centerso I found this little prima flower and added a brad. I then matched my background to the flower. I also wanted to use some patterned paper so I went into my scrap box and picked out 2 pieces that I liked with the background cardstock and the flower. I used my glitter gel pen and dotted the dots on the edge stamp. The little picture shows the sparkle detail as best as I could (sparkle is always hard to photograph). Here is my card.


Stamps: Priceless, Small script Paper: Basic Black, Regal Rose, White, So Saffron DS paper, DCWV summer stack Ink: Regal Rose, Certainly Green Galore Accessories: Prima flowers, orange and pewter brads, oval hodgepodge, Sakura Stardust glitter pen



So what do you think? Thanks for looking!

Candice's Color Challenge

Congratulations to Robbie, she was picked as one of the winners through VerveVisuals for a sketch challenge, check out the link to see her cards. Great job Robbie!!!

Well my card is really simple, I needed a no brainer today. My hubby and both kids were home today and let me tell you it has been a really busy day. My color challenge colors were Cameo Coral and Tempting Turquoise and I added in the Chocolate Chip to pull it together. ;-)

Stamps: So Many Scallops Paper: Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip, White, and Petals & Paisleys DSP (retired) Ink: Cameo Coral and Chocolate Chip Accessories: Satin Ribbon, Ticket Corner Punch, and Build a Brad.

Robbie's Color Challenge

I saw the faux shaving cream technique on a blog and remembered I had learned how to do this at convention. I had the colors Tempting Turquoise and Garden Green and I immediately thought of an underwater scene. I created the background by sponging Tempting Turquoise all over the white then going back and sponging Garden Green on top. The small picture is a close up of the wheeled background to show how it looks like bubbles under the water. Here is the card I came up with. Let me know what you think.

Stamps: Various fish, Whimsy wheel Paper: Garden Green, Tempting Turquoise, White Ink: Garden Green, Tempting Turquoise, Basic Black, Silver Accessories: photo corner punch, Whimsy wheel, corrugator, silver brads, dimensionals, sponges.

Sketch Saturday

I can't remember if this weekend is my turn to do a sketch or if it is Robbie's. I just decided to go ahead and do this one from istamp, check out her blog http://stampinat6213.blogspot.com to see her really cute card. She used DSP from Crew Kids Girls Simply Scrappin' Kit. I will definitely be using Crew Kids in Sloane's and Sam's scrapbooks.

So here is the card I came up with for this sketch, I decided to use the retired DSP from the Friends and Flowers Simply Scrappin' Kit, and the current level 3 set Time Well Spent. Friends and Flowers was another one of the Simply Scrappin' Kit's that I had to have, it was one of the level 1 hostess benefits from the 2006-2007 Catalog. ;-)

Green Day

Well since I missed my card for yesterday I am doing Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge for my card today. I went a little green on this one, hope you like what I came up with. Have a wonderful weekend, thanks for stopping by. :-)

Stamp Set: Frolicking Frogs Paper: Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi Prints DSP Ink: Accessories: Large Oval, Small Oval, Brads, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Glitter, and Wild Wasabi Double Sticked Ribbon.

Wednesday's Design by Robbie

What a dreary day! It doesn't help with photographing pictures either. I created this card this morning. I saw one of these on a blog I read and thought it was fun. I went to Splitcoast and found the directions. It didn't look like it would be hard so I decided to give it a try. After I had folded my circles I wanted to see what other people had used in the center of theirs. In searching the gallery I saw this card and wanted to use the same general idea. Once I created my card it was still missing something so I decided to just case her card. Here is my take on her design. If you look you will see there is no stamping involved in this card. Let me know what you think.

Paper: Groovy Guava and Berry Bliss DS Paper, Groovy Guava, White Ink: Close to Cocoa, Groovy Guava Accessories: Photo Corner punch, Circle punch, Spring Bouquet punch, Mini Blossoms Kit (Making Memories) for tiny center flower, white brad, dimensionals, sponge.

In making the dahlia the folding can be challenging but I learned several tricks in putting it together. Hope you like this. I am off to visit my interns. Thanks for looking!

Tuesday's Treat

Candice called me and challenged me to do Mojo Monday week 24 from PoeticArtistry along with her. The sketch looked like it could lend itself to some great cards so I agreed. Here is the sketch and our cards. I had fun doing mine and think it turned out pretty cool. What do you think?

Robbie's Card

It is hard to tell but the center of the flower is stamped with So Saffron and cut out and then the flower in the center is stamped in Pretty in Pink.

Stamps: One of a Kind, Canvas BG (retired) Paper: Chocolate Chip, Mellow Moss, So Saffron, White, Spring Flowers (retired) Ink: Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Pretty in Pink Accessories: Round Tab punch, Chocolate Chip and Mellow Moss brads, Signo white gel pen, dimensionals.

Candice's Card

Stamps: Wanted Paper: Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow, Vanilla, and Outlaw DSP (retired) Ink: Chocolate Chip and Sage Shadow Accessories: Scallop Punch, Circle Punch, Brads, Jumbo Brad, Natural Twine, and Dimensionals.

Color Challenge Monday

It feels like we just did this yesterday. I can't believe how the days and weeks are flying by. I hope each of you had a chance to play this weekend. How about your Valentine cards? Did you get them finished? Mine are being mailed today.

On one of the blogs I read the author mentioned a swing card. That sounded interesting so I decided to check in out on Splitcoast. The directions did not look hard so I decided to give it a try. In fact I enjoyed making it so much I used the design to make my cards for family and friends this week. Here is my card and a few extra pictures to give you a better idea of what the card does.

Robbie's Card

The card showing how it swings.

One of the sides of the card when it is flat.

The other side of the card when it is flat.

Candice's Card

I enjoy doing color challenge Monday's along with a card sketch, there are a few different Blog's that I visit that do WSC's (weekend sketch challenge's). The sketch I am doing today is Beate’s. Please check out the link to see other beautiful cards using this sketch.

My colors for this Monday are Mellow Moss and Regal Rose. You ask how we get our colors for Monday Color Challenge, "well" Robbie and I will usually sit down together and pick out the colors for the month, so when it comes time for us to make our cards for that Monday Challenge it is truly a challenge. I hope you all have a wonderful week;-)

Stamps: Embrace Life Paper: Mellow Moss, Regal Rose, and Very Vanilla Ink: Versa Mark and Basic Black Accessories: Moss Gingham Ribbon, Rose Brads, Cherished Memories Rub-ons, Metallic Pencils and Watercolor Crayons.

Sketch Saturday

Yesterday I told you I would be doing a new sketch. Here it is. It was a little different for me as it was a square card. I don't normally do square cards because the envelope to mail it costs more money being an odd size. I started with a 4" square and it was too small for the sketch so I switched to a 5" square. This is another one that is not my normal comfort zone but I like how it turned out. I wanted to try some of the in colors since I hadn't used them for a while. It his a good layout but I think I might try adapting the sized to fit an invitation size card. What do you think?

I read on a blog that she does not cut out the antennae on her bugs and butterflies. She stamps the stamp on her paper and on a scrap. She then cuts out the scrap and glues it on top of the image stamped on her card. The stamped image has the antennae so it looks like the one you cut out has them also. You can choose to pop the cut out image or glue it right over the stamped image. I had also stamped the flower on the red circle with an ink pad. You could not see the stamped image so I went over it with my marker so you can see it now.

I used the sketch from PoeticArtistry and made this card. Here is the sketch and my card.

Stamps: Time Well Spent Paper: Very Vanilla, Real Red, River Rock, Wild Wasabi - textured and plain Ink: Real Red, River Rock, Wild Wasabi Accessories: Real Red marker, aqua painter, red gingham ribbon (Michael's), 1" circle punch, sponges, dimensionals

Hope you like it. Thanks for looking!

Friday Surprise

Okay, I don't know where Wednesday went. I turned around and it was gone and I had not made my card. I made it in the evening but the lighting is terrible so I couldn't photograph it. I decided to do it today instead (a surprise entry for you).

I had this idea in my head for a few days to use a strip of 4 x 12 to create a card with a flap that opened at the top (not sure the term used to refer to this type of card). It then occurred to me to use the VerveVisuals sketch challenge to create a card. I really like this sketch for some reason (I promise on Saturday to do a different sketch challenge for you). Here is what I came up with. I took the flap and added a curve to give it some pizzaz. I also use the corner of the square to hold the flap closed. You can see it in the photograph but I stamped the word "Love" in the center of the heart. The little picture shows the card with the flap open. And guess what "No Glitter Again" and no I am not sick!






Stamps: Time Well Spent, Noteworthy (retired) Paper: Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink, White, Berry Bliss DS Ink: Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink Accessories: Pretty in Pink marker, Close to Cocoa brads, ribbon (Michael's), sticky tape, sponge, dimensionals

Let me know what you think. Thanks for looking!

Covered Journal

I found these cute little journals at Michele's for $1. The size of the journal is 8" x 5". We will be making these at one of my upcoming home workshops. The pages of the journals are all lined, each page also has a cute little flower, you can see this on the photo below.

When I got home I went through all of my scraps of Designer Series Paper and card stock, and I put this together, "how cute and easy". I pulled out four colors of ribbon and tied them on to the spiral binding. On the inside of the book I taped a piece of card stock to cover the pieces of designer series paper that were wrapped over to the inside of the journal.

Girls, If you have not tried it yet you will love it. This sticky tape is great it holds like a champ, you will never have to worry about your projects coming apart.

Thanks for stopping by and giving us a look. I hope you all enjoy your day!!!

Color Challenge Monday

I decided to use the Verve Visuals sketch again. I really like playing with the layers. This one is outside my normal card colors. I wanted to choose colors we have not used very often. It was a challenge but I think my card turned out okay. And guess what, no glitter pen this time. What do you think?

Stamps: Unfrogrettable, Looks Like Spring, Seeing Spots Paper: Apricot Appeal, Barely Banana, Close to Cocoa, White Ink: Stax-on Timber Brown, Apricot Appeal, Barely Banana, Close to Cocoa Accessories: Word Window punch, Looks Like Spring punch, Dragonfly and gold brad, Apricot Appeal - Barely Banana - Close to Cocoa - Old Olive markers, dimensionals, aqua painter.

Candice's Creation

My colors this week are Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard, and Chocolate Chip. I am doing a challenge from Beate’s WSC-33 you can see her card here along with some others.

I am so confused as to what is going on with the stamp set ONE OF A KIND right now we are unable to order this stamp set and it does not give us a date when they will resume the sale of this product (bummer I love this set). If any other demos out there know what is going on I would love to hear from you. For those of you (4) who ordered this stamp set I am sorry for the delay but I will watch this very closely.

As for my workshop on Friday and my hostess show on Sunday my busy weekend went really well. Thank you Donna for hosting this workshop, it went really well.

Stamps: One of a Kind Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, and Vanilla Ink: Pumpkin Pie and Versa Mark Accessories: Jumbo Brad, 1/2" Circle Punch, Crop-A-Dile, Chocolate Brads, Water Color Wonder, Blender Pen, and Pumpkin Grosgrain Ribbon.

Sketch Saturday

VerveVisuals is looking for guest designers. They have a sketch up for you to use. I saw the sketch and modified it for a ATC card swap I am in. I loved the card so much I decided to use the sketch for today's card. Here is the sketch and my card. I just love how glittery they are as well as how cute it is. Hope you like it!

Stamps: Sweet Shapes Paper: Basic Black, Pretty in Pink, White, Pink Vellum Ink: Basic Black, Pretty in Pink Accessories: Signo white gel pen, Sakura stardust gel pen, Jidikins Balck Diamond embossing glitter, Pretty in Pink brads, pink organdy ribbon (JoAnn's), dimensionals, sticky tape.

This is so sparkly IRL. Let me know what you think. I hope I have luck with the ATC swap. Have a great weekend! Thanks for looking!

Sale-A-Bration

Runs from February 1 - March 17, 2008.

Easy way to earn free product:

Customers: For every $50 purchase, customers will receive a free Sale-A-Bration product.

Hostesses: In addition to our regular hostess benefits, hostesses will receive a free Sale-A-Bration stamp set for workshops that reach $300 or more.

Recruits: Anyone who joins as a demonstrator during Sale-A-Bration can choose any stamp set, a value of up to $47.95, from the current catalog.

As you can see Sale-A-Bration is a good time for our customers, a great time for our hostesses, and a fabulous time for new recruits.

If you're interested in purchasing, hosting or becoming a demonstrator please contact one of us.

If you would like to see the stamps that will be offered during Sale-A-Bration here's the

online catalog.

Scrappy Happy

Well I have been cutting for the last couple of days getting ready for a few upcoming shows Friday, Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday, you can imagine what my Scrap pile is looking like, it is getting HUGE!!! So this card was done with, you guessed it, all of those scraps. I really need to get my scraps organized by color family, right now they are in one BIG basket, and that is just not working. Well back to coming up with ideas, cutting and getting ready for tonight, I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Stamps: One of a Kind and Canvas Paper: Sage Shadow, Sahara Sand, White, and Wintergreen DSP Ink: Chocolate Chip Accessories: Brown Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon and Brads.

Thanks for looking!