Thank You!

I wanted to thank each and everyone of you who have sent messages and posted well wishes for me since I’ve been sick.  I have been deeply touched by all of the kindness and concern shown to me.  It has taken a lot longer to spring back from this than I had anticipated.  Mostly, I have struggled with an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion.  Today, however, I am actually feeling a little bit like my old self, so I am pretty sure I’ll finally be stamping sometime this week.  I truly appreciate all of you who stop by regularly to visit my blog.  I am just thrilled to pieces that you find it interesting enough to keep coming back! 🙂  Thank you so much!

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Sick as a Dog!

I wanted to update everyone since I haven’t been on here for several days.  I have been suffering from a severe sinus infection and was finally able to go to the doctor today.  He prescribed lots of medicine and gave me a steroid shot to jump start me on the road to recovery.  Once the nurse administered the shot, she told me I could go ahead and leave.  I proceeded to the checkout counter where everything started to swirl around me and my knees buckled.  I ended up flat out on the floor with the doctor and several of his staff hovering around me, taking my pulse and putting a cold cloth on my head.  How embarrassing!!!  They have now made a note in my file to make sure I sit quietly for a few minutes after getting a shot.  🙂  I am feeling a little better this evening, but please bear with me as I continue on the road to good health.  I am hoping to post stamping stuff by the end of the week!  Thanks for stopping by!

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My First Blogger RAK!

Look what came in my mail today!  My very first blogger RAK!  How beautiful is this?!  Rose Ann Reynolds, whose blog is Paper Delightz , sent this to me!  I love the colors and the trio of flowers tied together with the linen thread.  Thank you so much, Rose Ann!  I love it!

ETA:  I forgot to put a copyright notice for PaperTrey Ink on the card and had to go back and add that.

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I’ve Been Tagged!

I’ve been tagged for the very first time as a blogger by my very sweet and talented friend Alli Fradgley!  I am supposed to list five blogs that I’ve recently discovered.  Here they are:

Pam Speidel

Kathy Winslow

Kirsten Dubosque

Marie McClellan

Bethany Paull

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Hugs and Fishes for Grandma

Last Friday I created a card for the Limited Supply Challenge on Splitcoast–create a card for Grandma from our kids using kid-themed stamps and NO flowers.  I didn’t have the time to create one for my daughter until today.  This card is a complete CASE of a card I did last summer.  I switched the colors to my daughter’s most favorite color–pink, of course!  The Dotted background is embossed with Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder (one of my all-time favorite accessories).  The starfish, fish & crab were stamped in Black StazOn ink on watercolor paper and then watercolored with an Aqua Painter and reinkers.  This card is just a little bit different than my original–for the original card, I watercolored the fish from the Fishy wheel, cut them out and attached them to the card.  For this one, I stamped the fish from the Fishy Friends set so they’re a lot bigger.  It took me just a minute to figure out why the fish were so big!  Since I had already colored and cut them out, I was NOT going to redo them!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

All materials by Stampin’ Up!

Stamps: Dotted, Fishy Friends, Fishy Wheel, Tiny Talk.  Paper: Pixie Pink, Apricot Appeal, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Watercolor, Dots & Dashes Designer Paper.  Ink: Black StazOn, VersaMark, Apricot Appeal, Pixie Pink, Pumpkin Pie.  Accessories: Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, 1/2-inch Circle Punch, Aqua Painter & Reinkers, Paper Snips, Dimensionals, Small Oval Punch, Bold Brights II Eyelet, White Grosgrain Ribbon.

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Bodacious Triangle Fold

I am so very late in posting this today!  I have a 10-10-10 class coming up on Friday that I have been working on all day today, so this little triangle fold card was put on the back burner.  Also adding to the delay was my new watermark.  Doesn’t it look nice?  I discovered Stampin’ Kub’s blog recently where he uploaded an absolutely fabulous watermark tutorial using Adobe Photoshop Elements.  Because I am so computer illiterate, it took me several hours to create it, but if I hadn’t had his tutorial to guide me, my watermark would not exist at all!  His tutorial uses PSE 4.0, yet it still worked just fine for the 5.0 version.  Many, many thanks to Kurtis!

This little card was a snap to put together using Beate’s step-by-step instructions here on Splitcoast.  I followed her tutorial exactly as written and it came together without any trouble.  I used a Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp the flower twice in Really Rust ink, cut it out with Paper Snips and popped it up on a Dimensional.  I doodled around the edges of the white panel with a Chocolate Chip Marker.  Using my sewing machine, I stitched the triangle pieces of Spring Showers Designer Paper using a 1/8-inch seam.  Thank you for visiting my blog today!

ETA:  I apologize that I listed the wrong stamp set in my recipe!  The flower is from Mixed Bouquet and not Bodacious Bouquet.  So sorry for the error!

All materials by Stampin’ Up!

Stamps: Mixed Bouquet, Amazing to Zany.  Paper: Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Barely Banana, Whisper White, Spring Showers Designer Paper.  Ink: Really Rust, Chocolate Chip.  Accessories: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Spring Bouquet Flower Punch, Vintage Brad, Blue Gingham Ribbon, Seaside Ribbon Originals, Dimensional, Sewing Machine & Thread.

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Bugs and Kisses for Grandma

The Limited Supply Challenge on Splitcoast today is to create a Mother’s Day card for Grandma from our kids.  The BIG catch was that we could not use flowers at all (*gasp*)!  I almost decided not to participate, but once I got going on this card, I had so much fun putting it together!  The layout was inspired by a sample in one of Stampin’ Up!’s old catalogs.  This will be my eleven-year-old son’s card to his Grandma.  His favorite color is green, so that made it easy to select the Bugs & Kisses stamp set.  The bugs were all colored with markers first.  It took several attempts to get the right color combinations on each bug that looked pleasing to me.  Then the order of the bugs had me obsessing for awhile because I would have  preferred the pill bug in the center with the snail on top (the three bugs would be facing right, left, right), but the colors seemed to flow better with the order that appears on the card.  Weird, I know, but you have to go with what looks good to you, right?  This would have been a nice monochromatic card, but I just had to add the little ant in Ruby Red to provide just a little pop of color.  (Please click on the photo to see a better picture.)  Thank you for stopping by today!

All materials by Stampin’ Up!

Stamps: Bugs and Kisses, Canvas.  Paper: Confetti White, Handsome Hunter, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Whisper White.  Ink: Handsome Hunter, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Ruby Red.  Accessories: Sponge, Green Hemp, 1/16-inch Circle Punch, Dimensionals, Paper Snips.

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Petal Prints Friend

The Ways to Use It Challenge on Splitcoast today calls for using markers.  I must confess that I rarely use my markers anymore, now that I’ve discovered watercoloring.  But using markers this afternoon was like returning to an old friend.  I used markers three different ways on this card.  To create the flowers, I colored directly on the stamp with Pretty in Pink, Barely Banana and Certainly Celery markers.  I then went back and highlighted the stamp with Regal Rose, So Saffron and Always Artichoke.  A great tip I learned about coloring on stamps with markers is that if you use more than one color on a stamp, start with the lightest color first (this prevents muddying lighter colored markers).  The second way I used markers was with the Color Spritzer Tool.  Using this clever little gadget, I created a splattered background with a Certainly Celery marker.  Finally, the third way I used markers was with the VersaMarker.  I highlighted the flower petals with the VersaMarker, sprinkled Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder on the ink and then heat set it.  As always, you can see a better picture of my card if you click on the photo.  Thanks for visiting!

All materials by Stampin’ Up!

Stamps: Petal Prints, Amazing to Zany, Linen, By Definition (retired).  Paper: Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Always Artichoke, Whisper White.  Ink: Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Barely Banana, So Saffron, VersaMarker, White Craft.  Accessories: Sponge, Color Spritzer Tool, Round Tab Punch, Gold Brads, Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, White Narrow Organdy Ribbon.

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Flowers for a Friend

Wednesdays are busy for me so I’m a little late in posting this.  I attend a weekly Bible study on Wednesday mornings and then shortly after that my kids get home from school.  The layout for this card is for this week’s Sketch Challenge on Splitcoast.  It’s based on a wonderful card done by Leslie Miller.  If you haven’t checked out her blog, you need to!  Not only does she create phenomenal  pieces of stamped artwork, but she’s incredibly sweet and helpful, too!  Please click on her link under my Blog Roll entitled Running With Scissors…

The white background piece on this card was created by inking up the French Script background stamp in Sahara Sand, stamping off once on scrap paper and then stamping on Whisper White.  The blue flowers and green leaves were stamped off once before stamping on the white panel.  Sahara Sand ink was sponged along the edges.  The oval piece was created with the CM oval cutting system and the blue scalloped piece was created with a Marvy Uchida Mega Scalloped Oval Punch.  I think everything else on the card is pretty straightforward.  Please click on the photo for a better view.  Thanks for taking a look!

All other materials by Stampin’ Up!

Stamps: Flowers for a Friend, Linen, French Script, It’s Your Birthday.  Paper: Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Sahara Sand.  Ink: Sahara Sand, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke.  Accessories: Sponge, Dimensionals, Celery Grosgrain Ribbon, Bashful Blue Brads, Linen Thread.

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Artfully Asian Birthday

I have spent at least an hour this afternoon trying to get a good photo of this card!  My camera does not photograph dark colors well at all, so I apologize that a lot of the details of the card have been lost.  It really does look so much better in person!  (To see some of the finer details, please try clicking on the photo.)  I made this card for today’s Color Challenge over on Splitcoast.  The colors to use were Real Red, Sage Shadow and Basic Black.  As soon as I read the list of colors, I immediately pictured an Asian-themed card in my head.  You can’t see in the photo, but the card base was stamped in Real Red Craft ink with the Floral background stamp.  I stamped the floral sprig with Black StazOn ink on Whisper White cardstock and watercolored it using an Aqua Painter & Reinkers.  I then used a Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp over this image in VersaMark ink and embossed with Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder.  The leaves on the black panel were stamped with VersaMark ink and embossed with Clear Embossing Powder.  I’ll be sending this to my mother-in-law for her birthday.  Thanks so much for visiting my blog today!

All materials by Stampin’ Up!

Stamps: Artfully Asian, Floral, Fancy Flexible Phrases, Circle of Friendship .  Paper: Whisper White, Sage Shadow, Real Red, Basic Black.  Ink: Black StazOn, Real Red Craft & Classic, Sage Shadow, VersaMark.  Accessories: Aqua Painter & Reinkers, Black Vintage Brads, Black Grosgrain Ribbon, Dimensionals, Clear Embossing Powder, Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Stamp-a-ma-jig.

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