WSC63 Ghoulfriends

I love this set from MFT - Totally Witchin'. I decided to use Beate's Weekend Sketch #63 to try it out. I turned the sketch upwards and took some license with it, but I like how it turned out. I stamped the main image with black Stazon and colored it with markers. Copics would have been great for this, but I don't have the right colors... I matted the main image with black textured card stock. The base of the card is Basic Gray with a layer of Green Galore on top and a piece from Ghostly Greetings DSP on top of that. The vertical piece is also from Ghostly Greetings DSP with a thin layer of black textured paper on the left side. I stamped the cauldron with black ink, and used basic Gray and Lovely Lilac for the swirly steam. I then colored the cauldron and traced the swirls with a Versa Marker. I embossed the cauldron with clear embossing powder, and used heat and stick powder with purple mica glitter on the swirls. Love that effect! I died a piece of white taffeta ribbon with lovely Lilac ink, paired with with some 1/4" black grosgrain ribbon and tied a knot of 1/8" black and white stitched ribbon to make the bow. The sentiment is stamped on Whisper White in Lovely Lilac, punched with the Key Tag Punch and matted with Lovely Lilac. The black mini library clip accents the sentiment. I am going to make a few more of these for my Ghoulfriends...

Vintage Verve Birds

These wonderful "Black Tie Birdies" were perfect for both this week's Our Creative Corner mid-week challenge and this week's challenge over at Stamp Something. The OCCC challenge is hosted by Julee Tilman of Verve Visual. The challenge is to give your Verve projects a vintage glow with a technique called Vintage Values. For challenge and technique details, click HERE. This week's challenge at Stamp Something is called "Something For the Birds". Make a project using bird images; any types, sizes, shapes, and colors.

The card base is black textured card stock topped with a layer from SU's Ghostly Greetings DSP. On top of that is a layer from SU's Bella Rose DSP. The main image is stamped on white card stock with Black Craft Ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I used markers to color the wings and bows and added a little glitter glue for sparkle. The balloon is cut out and adhered with dimensionals. To achieve the vintage glow, I used Sahara Sand Ink, then Basic Gray, then Classic Black ink applied with a craft sponge. I matted the main image piece with black textured paper. The sentiment is from Verve's Feeling Groovy stamped on white, and matted with Ghostly Greetings DSP and Riding Hood Red cut with square Nestabilities. I added a black mini library clip, and a pink button from SU's Button Bouquet. I threaded the button with a super thin piece of black card stock and adhered with a glue dot. This is the first time I tried this technique. I love the effect.

Love that Verve Birthday Bird!

This is a card for the "October Project Parade" challenge over at the Verve Stamps Blog. This month's challenge is to use Embossing on your project. It can be either wet or dry embossing. . .or both. I love embossing, so I was eager to do this one. I chose to use both wet and dry embossing. I have some Copics that I have played with a little bit, but had not really entered that world yet. Both Pearl Art and the Rutgers University Bookstore near my home had some back in the summer, but not a wide selection. I bought everything in stock in both places and now neither place carries them anymore. Time to order them online! I have ended up with lots of different colors, but need lots of fill-in markers for gradation. Anyway, I was dying to try them, so I thought these images from Verve Visual's "Birthday Surprise" would be perfect. Due to the limited Copic colors that I have, I really struggled with the card stock colors. I don't know that I would have ever come up with this combo were it not for this particular situation, but I really like the way it all turned out!

The base of the card is black textured card stock. I embossed the bird and balloons on Shimmery White with Versa Mark ink and black embossing powder and then colored with Copics. I used Chrystal Effects to add shine and texture, and I used an unlabeled product in my stash that is a clear glaze with glitter on the bird. I used my round/scalloped Nestabilities to cut and mat the bird image in black and Old Olive. I used my Cuttlebug to emboss a layer of "Brocade Blue" which sits on a layer of "Orchid Opulence" (That paper pack was previously unopened for a long time). I used the Ticket Corner Punch on both layers and glued 2 purple rhinestones in each corner on the orchid. The ribbon is Kiwi Kiss Satin. The sentiment is stamped in black ink on white cardstock, cut with rectangle Nestabilities and matted on a black scalloped rectangle. I need lots of birthday cards this month, so I am on my way!

Journey Journal

I found these wonderful spiral notebooks in the clearance section of Staples. They are covered in plain brown paper with fabric binding on the left. The first page on the inside has calendar months from 2007, 2008 and 2009. I had better use them up soon! LOL! They were marked $1.99, but when I got to the register, they rang as $ .50. Needless to say, I bought every one in the bin!

I was inspired by THIS beautiful card on Beate's Blog and CASE'd it for this project.

I covered the front of the journal with Eastern Blooms DSP and sanded the edges. I covered the inside front cover with one piece of Eastern Blooms DSP to pretty it up. Night of Navy 1/4" grosgrain ribbon is adhered with sticky strip to divide the sections on the top.

The main image from Eastern Blooms is stamped with Chocolate Chip ink on a piece of white speckled card stock. The Riding Hood Red flowers are punched with a tiny punch from Creative Memories. I placed blue brads in the center of the flowers. The 2nd layer is Old Olive. The 3rd layer on the top and bottom is Night of Navy punched with the Scalloped Edge Punch.

The ovals are cut with Nestabilities. The white oval is stamped and sponged around the edges in Night of Navy with "journey" from Define Your Life. I cut 2 of the same sized from Riding Hood Red and Night of Navy cardstock and placed the white oval slightly right of center on the red oval. I used a Night of navy marker to add dots around the edges of the red oval. The blue oval is placed to the left of the red one. I attached a Hodgepodge Hardware piece to make it look like it's holding it all together.

I attached some Sticky Strip on the front where the Riding Hood Red Striped Grosgrain Ribbon is placed and tied a knot. Voila! A journal for a new journey.

OCCC Bling on the BLING!

This is my creation for this past week's OCC Challnge which was to "Bling on the Bling"! I am a little low on bling-y things at the moment, so I used Hologram Highlights on my peonies to make them sparkley, and I used some red rhinestones in the coner and clear Dew Drops on the bottom right. If you enlarge the picture, you can see the sparkle much better. Here is the recipe -
Stamps: Pretty Peonies, Verve ~ Black Tie Birdies for the sentiment.
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Bella Rose DSP, Ivory.
Ink: Riding Hood Red, Cameo Coral, Old Olive, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip.
Accessories: Hologram Highlights, Scallop Edge & Photo Corner Punches, Chocolate Chip 5/8" Grosgrain & Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon, Hodgepodge Hardware, Dimensionals, Dew Drops, Red Rhinestones.

Happy Anniversary Sweetheart

Today is the anniversary of my marriage to Joe, 19 years ago. The day today was much like it was then... beautiful, clear, crisp, fall day. I made this card for the occasion. It's a combination of the SU Love Owl-ways set with the Verve's "Feeling Groovy" set. Inside, I used another stamp from this set that says "We've got a groovy kind of love". Truth be told, these reflect songs that were NEW when we were growing up (really dating myself), and I love them. Very appropriate for this particular occasion on many levels. I also made this card for the OCC Chipboard challenge on 9/20/08. Happy anniversary Joe... the best is yet to be!

Take a Deep Breath, Dee...

I made this for my friend Dee who is a bit over stressed these days - just like me, and probably you... Maybe I will make a bunch of these and send them to everyone I know... LOL. I love the colors I chose for this... Very calming, don't you think?

The main image is from MFT~Serenity Now! stamped with Black Stazon. I used paper piecing for clothes and mat. I colored the background with a copic marker. The image is framed in Chocolate Chip. The base of the card is Groovy Guava. The next layer is Chocolate Chip with the corners punched with the Ticket Corner Punch. I glued amber rhinestones in the corners. The Chocolate Chip layer is topped with Sage Shadow which is run through the Cuttlebug. The solid horizontal layer is Really Rust. I used the Word Window Punch to cut out the window in the bottom. I punched it twice horizontally to get it to be long enough for the sentiment. Then I stamped the sentiment in Chocolate Chip ink on white and glued it to the back to the Sage Shadow layer.

I used square punches to make the diamond shaped piece on the left. I layered it and topped with a Build-a-Brad and some brown stitched ribbon from Michael's.

There... I feel calmer already!

My maiden voyage into the blogging world...

Well, I have finally taken the plunge and started a blog to journal my passion for stamping and paper crafting. I have dabbled in the stamping world just a little over a number of years. My passion for this craft though, was really ignited by my friend Lucian, artiste extraordinaire, SU demo and all around wonderful person. Since I started going to her workshops, my interest spiraled into a stamping frenzy! I found SCS and began to explore the blog world. One thing lead to the other, and now I am a full blown stamping addict.

Many thanks to all the amazing artists, bloggers and SCS gallery posters for all of your inspiration and encouragement. So here goes...

I have found that the best way to improve as a stamping artist is to do challenges. My schedule is very tight, and I can't stamp every day. I usually treat myself to the weekly OCCC. I have to get to that one later, but this week I decided to do Beate's Weekend Sketch as well. Beate is an amazing inspiration - a well known fact in this world. This is my take on this week's sketch WSC60.

The base of the card is black. I used SU Ghostly Greetings DSP for the next layer, and put it through the Cuttlebug with the spider web embossing folder. I stamped the witch hat image from SU's Eat, Drink and Be Scary in black craft ink on white paper and embossed it with clear embossing powder. I used a sponge dauber and Pumpkin Pie ink and rubbed it over the hat image and added a bow made with black stitched grosgrain ribbon from Michaels.

The green horizontal and white vertical panels are also Ghostly Greetings DSP. The vertical panel is bordered with Basic Gray and pumpkin pie cut with a Nestabilities long rectangle die. The "Halloween" panel is stamped on white card stock with Blank ink, bordered with Pumpkin Pie and then black cut with a Nestabilities rectangle die. I used the 5-Petal Flower punch layered with orange and green Accents and Elements and finished it off with a Build-A-Brad with the spider image from Eat, Drink and Be Scary.

Hoping to post another card later... see you next time.