Yum!  Cupcake!  One can never have too many cupcake images, right?  ;)  And this Tina Wenke image is especially cute…they look like they’re having a real fun party!

I finally had a chance to try Jay Jay’s sketch for the new Stampavie challenge. You can see the sketch here and be sure to play along for a chance to win a great prize!

stamps- Tina Wenke Mouse-Bird-Ladybug- Cupcake by Stampavie, words- AmyR Birthday Sentiments; paper- white, Cocoa, Regal Rose, Saffron; ink- Memento Black; accessories- Copics, Oval Nesties, ribbons, Word Window punch, buttons, Primas, Stickles.

Another quickie post again today…

I just wanted to pop in to share a sneak peek of my new set for November…Country Shelf.

This set, along with the others, will be available Monday night at ATS!  Go check out the ATS blog for samples of each and a chance to win them!  And be sure to also check out the new Challenge blog…there’s still time to try for one of the DT spots!

This set includes the shelf, lots of things to sit on it, and some country sayings too.  I hope you like it!

I spotlighted the candle with some oval Nesties to add a little interest.

stamps- Country Shelf and Reason For The Season (holly) by Cookie Crumbs; paper- vanilla, Olive, retired SU! dp; ink- Memento Black; accessories- Copics, Oval and Double Ended Tags Nestabilities, ribbon, brads, Stickles.

Hello!  :0)

I hope you had a great weekend!  I sure did.  On Saturday I attended another fun day of stamping with some of my NY and PA friends.  Fun, fun!  I have a few projects from this gathering that I will share with you this week.  And the sneak peeks for the new ATS sets for November start this week too, so be sure to check the ATS blog each day! 

This card was my shoebox project on Saturday that I prepared for everyone at my table to make.  I used my Ollie and Griselda set, along with the Retiform Grid technique that I haven’t done in a long time.  It was fun to try it out again.  I don’t remember where I first learned this technique, but I learned to make it two different ways…one by drawing in the lines with a marker and the other by sponging without drawing the lines.  I forgot to take some pictures as I was making it, so hopefully I’ll explain it well enough to understand.

First I started with a square of white cardstock.  Then I made a pattern for my grids by cutting a second square into 3 random pieces.  You do not need to make a pattern but I needed to be able to make several cards exactly alike so a pattern was very helpful.  Then I traced the pattern pieces with a Sharpie marker to get the black lines. 

Next I masked off each section, one at a time and stamped the images with black ink.  Then I masked them each again, sponging them with 3 different colors of ink.  It really doesn’t matter if you stamp first or sponge first by doing it this way but if you stamp first, then you have a little more control over where your lighter, highlighted areas are.

The second way I learned to do this technique is to not draw in any lines.  In this way, you must do your sponging first.  Mask off a section and sponge it.  Then move your mask and sponge another section.  Your sections may overlap if you want.  Continue until you fill the cardstock.  Then come back and mask the sections again, this time stamping various coordinating images in each one.  By doing it this way, it is sometimes best to choose only 2 colors of ink that blend well together to avoid the sections looking “muddied” where they overlap. 

I hope I explained it well enough and you give it a try!  It is really a fun technique which is quick and easy when you don’t have time to do a lot of coloring.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

stamps- Ollie and Griselda by Cookie Crumbs; paper- Elegant Eggplant, Not Quite Navy, Olive, Pumpkin, Black, White; ink- Memento Black, SU! Not Quite Navy, Pumpkin, Olive; accessories- Cuttlebug Halloween die and Spiderweb embossing folder, Sharpie marker, Martha Stewart Spiderweb Edge punch, brad, sponges. 

Wow…I can’t believe how time flies.  Yesterday Riley turned one!

In honor of her birthday, and to play along with the monthly DD/DDA challenge over at Splitcoast, I made this card. 

Well, I should say that I kinda screwed up the card!  The challenge this month was set by Jodi (Kharmagirl).  She asked us to paper piece our card.  check.  I got that part right. 

But last night as I was typing up this blog post I realized that I forgot all about the required element…to use fall or Christmas colors.  Ugh!  Do pink, brown and orange qualify?  LOL.  I guess not.  :0(

Oh well…I’ll share my card here anyway.   

When I first saw Christine’s Birthday Bash set, I knew the puppy with a cupcake would be perfect for this occasion…even though Riley could care less!  LOL.  And when I paper pieced the cupcake and party hat, I decided to paper piece the puppy too.  It had to be a pink puppy…because Riley’s favorite stuffed toy (that she even sleeps with) is a pink dog that we call “Pink Puppy”.  Original name, huh?  Pink Puppy lost her eyesight and can’t hear very well since she only has one ear now but she is still well loved. 

Riley must think that cupcake is mighty yummy. 

card deets:

stamps- Pixie Pets Birthday Bash by C.C. Designs; paper- White, Pink Pirhouette, Choc. Chip, Pumpkin, Regal Rose, dp- SU! Sweet Always; ink- Memento Black; accessories- Copic markers, Stickles, felt flowers, brad, ribbon.

Hello!  I’ve been busy this week getting ready for another upcoming gathering, so I haven’t had a chance to post much lately.  Sorry! 

I wanted to pop in today, though, to remind you that it’s time for another challenge at Stampavie!  You can check out the details here.  I hope you can play along and try to win another great prize! 

The new challenge today is to make a Halloween card.  This one is really a challenge since it requires you to think outside the box a bit, but I know you can do it! 

This is what I came up with.  I used the oh-so-cute Helz Cuppleditch Home Sweet Home image.  I love that sweet house and almost hated to make it ummm…not-so-sweet!  LOL.  

The background was created first with a brayer and a spectrum inkpad.  Then I colored the house in shades of gray.  The heart window on the door was turned into a pumpkin decoration and the topiary trees were cut off, leaving only the pots which I turned into tombstones! 

The diecuts are from the Cuttlebug Halloween die and the words are from my Ollie and Griselda set.  

Here’s a closeup of the image that was altered. 

I hope you have a great start to your week….thanks for stopping by!

stamps- Helz Cuppleditch Home Sweet Home by Stampavie, Ollie and Griselda by Cookie Crumbs; paper- white, black, Pumpkin, dp- K&Company; ink- Memento Black, Kaleidacolor Blue Breeze; accessories- Copic markers, Martha Stewart Spider Web punch, Cuttlebug Halloween die, Stickles, brayer, Oval Nestabilities.

Have you seen anything sweeter?  I love this girl!

This is Christine’s newest Swiss Pixie…Birgitta!  She is so cute with her sunflower.  I pulled out some fall papers from the DCWV Indian Summer pack and used the plaid pattern to also paper piece her dress.  There’s a new challenge blog that my friend Lisa is a member of called “Just Us Girls” and their new challenge is paper piecing…check it out!

This is a long card…not the usual A2 size card.  I started with a  6 1/4 x 7 piece of cardstock and folded it to a 6 1/4 x 3 1/2 inch card.  It will fit into a regular letter size envelope. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

stamps- Swiss Pixie Birgitta by C.C. Designs; paper- White, Choc. Chip, DCWV Indian Summer; ink- Memento Black; accessories- EK Success Falling Leaves and Dotted Waves punches, SU! Oval punch, gel pen, pearl stickers.

TGIF!  :0)

I am late posting this today but I finally had a chance to sit down and share my card for the ATS review of my new set…Reason For The Season.  We are also reviewing the Pond Life set today…you can see the great samples for both sets on the ATS blog.  I hope to play with the pond cuties soon. 

Here’s the deets and I’ll be back tomorrow with another fun project.

stamps- Reason For The Season by Cookie Crumbs; paper- Olive, white, red, dp- Be Merry Sweet Sprinkles by My Mind’s Eye; ink- SU! Olive, Memento Black; accessories- Copics, sponge, Circle/Pinking Circles and Mega Curved Rectangle Nestabilities, Stickles.

Hi all!  I hope your week is going well.  The leaves are turning fall colors and the air is getting cooler….I love this time of year!

Tonight I thought I’d share the rest of a gift I made.  This altered stationary set was made to give with my altered jewelry box I posted on Monday.  I thought the dotted dp on the jewelry box went well with the gorgeous paper this set was already covered in.  I found this stationary set a few months ago in a Burlington Coat Factory store.  I loved it but knew it would be even prettier altered! 

Each piece in this set had an image of a black dress on it.  So I stamped the same Sarah Kay Spring Is Back image several times and covered up all those dresses.  Here’s the set all together in the box.

A close up of the box front…

Here I changed the image and added some Primas, ribbon, and pearls.  The Primas weren’t an exact color match, so I touched them up with a bit of color from my Copic marker.

Inside there is a set of 6 notecards.  The main image was covered up and I added some ribbon bows…easy peasy!  Then I also stamped the image on the envelopes to coordinate.

The set also included a journal and notepad.  I only added the image, ribbon and some pearls to the small notepad.  On the larger journal I also placed a sentiment and attached a ribbon with charms to mark the page.

I hope this brings a smile to the recipient! 

stamps- Sarah Kay Spring Is Back by Stampavie, sentiment- SU! Friends 24-7; paper- Shimmery White, White, Black; ink- Memento Black, SU! Pretty in Pink; accessories- Stationary set, ribbon, Primas, Copics, Pearl Stickers, Scor-Tape, charms.

As promised, I have a new card to share today…with a new set!

Today we are previewing my new set at All That Scraps called Reason For The Season.  This set, along with the other new releases, will be available on Monday at 10 pm. 

I chose to use the “joy” image and the star.  I was going to also add one of the sentiments, but I later decided to save that for the inside. 

Be sure to check out the other samples on the ATS blog and enter for a chance to win this set. 

stamps- Reason For The Season by Cookie Crumbs; paper- White, Black, Basic Grey Figgy Pudding; ink- Memento Black, SU! Baja Breeze; accessories- Mega Curved Rectangle Nestabilities, Copic markers, Burgundy Stickles.

Oh, what a weekend it was.  Let’s just say that I don’t understand why people choose to drink and drive!  grrr.  Can we fast forward to Monday?  LOL. 

I didn’t get very much done this weekend….I just don’t have the energy or mojo when I’m stressed.  But tonight I took a much needed stamping break and made this card.  I thought this image would be perfect for an Autumn Anniversary!

I didn’t use the entire image….I only colored the main part and cut it out.  You can see the whole stamp here. 

This card started out by using up some scraps I had lying around.  The Guava frame, black layer and dp leaves were all scraps leftover from previous projects.  I really need to clean out scraps again and just throw some things away! 

The leaves are from the EK Success Falling Leaves border punch.  It was also used on the white layer underneath the main image.

I hope this week goes better!  And I hope you have a good week too!  Be sure to check out the samples at ATS this week…the sneaks for the October sets start on Tuesday! 

stamps- Tina Wenke Mice Couple on Leaf by Stampavie, AmyR Love Sentiments; paper- Guava, Saffron, Black, White, scraps of dp; ink- Memento Black; accessories- Labels 3 Nestabilities, EK Success Falling Leaves border punch, Copics, gel pen, Stickles.