Neglected Supplies

My friend Edie threw out a challenge to make a card using supplies that aren't necessarily new but that have never been used. I'm sure we all have plenty of supplies that fit that category - any stamper that says they don't is either lying or in denial! I bought this stamp set from Impression Obsession back in August but had yet to use it. I've also had these buttons for ages but only used them once before, so they needed some love too. I let the buttons dictate the color scheme of my card, and the rest is simple. The cardstock is PTI white, the buttons are from SU, and the colors are Tempting Turquoise, Night Quite Navy, Apricot Appeal, and Certainly Celery. I really need to get some more flesh colored Copics. The only one I have is a rosy flesh tone, but for these ladies I wanted more of a tan tone. So I was forced to use a blender pen and Creamy Caramel ink on their backs. I am terrible at coloring with this technique, so they came out all streaky. Other than that, I like this fun card!

A Challenge...

When I get in uninspired stamping ruts like I have been, I need challenges to give me a starting point. So Rachel issued one - make a card with one image, one patterned paper, one ribbon, and three embellishments. This is what I came up with. The image is technically 3 stamps, as I built it with elements from PTI's Out on a Limb, but it made one image, so I figured it still counts. :-) The patterned paper is from a SU Prints Pack, the ribbon is PTI's Spring Moss dotted satin, and my 3 embellishments are dew drops. The Certainly Celery leaves were traced with a clear spica glitter pen for some sparkle. Can't have a card without it!

Verve Mojo Monday 68

I really ought to try spacing these posts out so I have cards to post when I'm in a stamping drought, but I just didn't want to wait. This one I've got to post by Monday anyway and I don't want to forget!

This is for Verve's Mojo Monday 68 contest. Again, this sketch is NOT a difficult one, but this card took me over an hour and a half to do last night. I think I am the slowest, most unimaginative stamper on the planet sometimes!

I do sort of like how the card turned out in the end, but I'm mad that I misjudged where to stamp the cake slice. I wanted to leave it low enough to fit the candle, but stamped it too low apparently, so it's off center. I didn't realize it until the card was all assembled though and, given that it was already after midnight, I wasn't about to start pulling layers apart!

Supplies
Stamps: Piece of Cake, Polka Dot Basics, Limitless Labels - all from Papertrey Ink
Ink: Aqua Mist, Ocean Tides, Close to Cocoa, Ripe Avocado
Paper: Ripe Avocado, Ocean Tides, Aqua Mist, PTI white, PTI Polka Dot Parade
Other: SU silver hodgepodge hardware and brads, Ocean Tides polka dot satin ribbon, stardust stickles (for candle flame), clear spica glitter pen (for dotting the frosting edges on the cake)

SCS Sketch #210

I used Sketch Challenge 210 on SCS for this card. It's really quite a simple sketch, but it took me the longest time to figure out what stamps and paper to use. But I finally settled on the Snowflake Serenade set from PTI and patterned paper from the Basic Grey Figgy Pudding pack. The cardstock is SU's Sahara Sand and Night of Navy, and the ink and ribbon are SU Night of Navy as well. I used clear gemstones in the centers of the snowflakes and finished the card off with a sentiment from A Muse.

Verve Looking for Love Release Challenge #2

This card was for the second Verve Looking for Love Challenge. I love sketch challenges because I tend to get in a rut otherwise, but they definitely are a challenge for me. This card took me forever to do and really isn't even all that complicated. The color combo - Certainly Celery, Cranberry Crisp, and Cool Caribbean - was pulled from this patterned paper by Paper Salon. I liked how the dots around the Imaginisce cupcake sort of mimicked the polka dots, or at least they did in my mind!

Lots of bling on this card - 16 gemstones in total! And the "frosting" is Stardust stickles. Love that sparkle! The ribbon that finished off the card is from American Crafts and in person is a pretty close match to Cool Caribbean.

Thanks for looking!

Verve Looking for Love Release Challenge #1

I made this card for the first Verve Looking for Love Challenge. It was a color challenge, using Riding Hood Red, Blush Blossom, and Kraft. Not a combo I've used before, but I like it! This is a horrible photo, but I'm actually pretty happy with how the card turned out in real life. And I LOVE Papertrey's new Fresh Snow Palette ink! The coverage is the best I've ever seen and I'm not sure I'll ever use my SU white pigment ink or white Staz-on ever again!

The background and focal image were created with PTI's Beautiful Blooms. The focal image is made up of both the small and large solid flower, layered together with a dimensional. A clear gemstone in the center of the flower finished it off. The strip of Blush Blossom is paper pierced and then layered on Riding Hood red. The sentiment, from PTI's Birthday Basics, is stamped in Close to Cocoa. That's it!

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and a great start to 2009 so far! I have a lot of things I want to change/do differently this year, and more regular stamping/posting to my blog is one of them. I haven't had many creative juices flowing lately, and I've momentarily considered selling
all of my stamping supplies, but I'm not ready to give up yet!

I do have something to share that is the first non-Christmas thing I've stamped in almost 2 months and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially considering I made it around midnight a few nights ago! I started with a card base of Papertrey Ink's Ocean Tides cardstock. I LOVE this color - it might be my favorite one they've released so far! Then I stamped the base with PTI's Polka Dot Basics using Ocean Tides ink. I randomly dotted some of the polka dots with gels pens - some with white and some with silver. The sentiment is stamped with Ocean Tides on PTI white cardstock inside the card and I used SU's word window punch to allow the sentiment to show through. The opening is traced with a silver gel pen to make it pop a little.

The strip across the top is PTI's Ripe Avocado cardstock and I used the SU scallop border punch along the bottom. The patterned paper is from PTI's Polka Dot Parade collection. The card is finished off with a silver glittered snowflake. It's actually an ornament that I found in a pack of 10 at Michael's. I didn't realize they were ornaments when I bought them - my mind instantly went to using them as sparkly card embellishments! I cut the string off the ornament and used my Crop-o-dile to punch a hole through the center. A rhinestone brad from Making Memories finished it off and then I used Crystal Effects to adhere my embellishment to the card.

More cookies and cards

This weekend I baked almost 12 dozen cookies and I'm exhausted! I was really in the mood to bake this year and try out some new recipes. But I cannot possibly eat so many cookies on my own, so I decided to make up cookie bags for the people in my department at work. I ordered the small window coffee bags from Papertrey and used the Papertrey set Holiday Treats to decorate the bags with SU Night of Navy and Close to Cocoa ink. Each one has 4 butter toffee cookies, 4 peanut butter blossoms, 3 bon bon cookies, and 2 iced gingerbread people - one boy and one girl.

I've got two more Christmas cards to share - one that's more elegant and one that's just fun. They're both clean and simple designs, which seems to be the only style I can come up with lately! The first card uses PTI white as the base. The image is from A Muse and is colored with a silver sakura gel pen and SU markers. The sentiment is from the PTI set Take a Bough. I used Marvy punches for the circle and scallop circle and a white gel pen to dot the scallops. Clear gemstones act as headlights and the stitched ribbon "road" is PTI Pure Poppy.

On the second card I also used PTI white for the base and image piece, SU Brushed Silver for the strip, and PTI Pure Poppy for the border. The image is from a Basic Grey clear set I bought last year and is stamped in Encore silver ink. The berries on the wreath were dotted with a red sakura gel pen and I used a paper piercing tool to create a border for the image. The sentiment is from Lizzie Anne Designs and was stamped in PTI Pure Poppy.

This will likely be my last post until after Christmas as I spend the next few days finishing up holiday preparations and then spending time with family and friends. I hope you all have a safe, warm, and very Merry Christmas!

Believe

I love the Believe set from Papertrey Ink. I never scooped it up last year when it first came out, but this year I just couldn't resist and have really enjoyed playing with it! This Santa is especially fun, because you can paper piece it (kind of a pain to do, but really cute!) or color it as I did on the second card. And the set comes with all kinds of things for him to hold - the star and heart you see here, plus lots more!

Both of these cards use PTI white cardstock, Palette Noir ink, Encore gold ink, PTI gold ribbon, and liquid applique for the trim on Santa's outfit.

I used paper from last year's BasicGrey Figgy Pudding line for Santa's robe on the first card and SU's Real Red marker to color the second card. I used my R02 (Flesh) Copic for the faces and a gold paint pen to fill in the heart on card #2. I think that's it!

Cards and Some Cookies

I am typically not a gold person. I wear only silver jewelry, have different silvery tones (chrome, nickel) for lamps, curtain rods, hardware, etc. in my house. Even my car is silver! But there's something about Christmas that makes gold seem to work so well and I really love how both of these cards turned out.

For the first card, I used the ornament cuttlebug folder on SU's brushed gold cardstock and flipped it over so that the front of the card was debossed rather than embossed. That was mounted on PTI Pure Poppy cardstock, as was the sentiment panel. The sentiment is from Lizzie Anne Designs and is stamped in Pure Poppy ink. I used gold stickles to trace around the white sentiment panel, and finished off the card with Pure Poppy twill. Quick, easy, and I think pretty elegant.


For this 4.25" x 4.25" card, I used SU brushed gold as the base. I then created poinsettias (my favorite holiday motiff!) using white shimmery flowers from the bridal section of Michael's. I just pressed them onto my SU Real Red ink pad and, while they were laying on the ink pad, added a few drops of reinker to really saturate the flowers and get a deeper red. I put two flowers together with a gold brad in the center and adhered them with mini glue dots to the card base. The sentiment here is again from Lizzie Anne Designs, stamped with Palette Noir.

And finally I thought I'd show you the peanut butter blossoms for which I made the dough over the weekend. Try to look past my less than desirable photography skills, poor lighting, and reflective chrome plate! The Recipe Girl herself saw on my blog the other day that I was going to make these cookies and suggested that I roll them in red and green sugar rather than regular white granulated sugar for a more festive look. Duh! I don't know why I didn't think of that myself! But then I guess that's why she's called The Recipe Girl and I'm just The Girl Who Likes to Drool Over Her Recipes! The colored sugars do make for a more festive holiday cookie, and I swear they actually are red and green, not radioactive pink and green!

I still have so much to do in the next few days. I went from being totally relaxed because my family is not really exchanging much in the way of gifts this year to kicking myself for being so relaxed and leaving my homemade projects to the last minute. I have two scrapbooks that I need to finish that I'm making as gifts for friends of mine who went to Disney World with me in April (I've only had 8 months to work on them!!), some Christmas cards to finish and mail out, a mini scrapbook to make for another friend of mine, stocking stuffers for my mom, 4 more kinds of Christmas cookies, and gift packaging for all the cookies! And yet the motivation doesn't seem to be with me. Instead of being productive tonight, I sat on my couch, admired my Christmas tree, and ate peanut butter blossoms while I watched the new Muppet Christmas special. Then I watched the 2008 White House Christmas special. And now I'm sitting here typing about all I have to do instead of doing it! Will I never learn?!

Hope you're all being a lot more productive than I am!