Celebrating my Mojo

HI Stampers!!

Oh, how I needed to stamp this card today.  My little one starting showing her usual sick symptoms this weekend along with a cough that sounded deep.  Yesterday, she woke up with all of that and a runny nose...so I thoguht to myself....well, we are adding, not losing, symptoms....we better get to the pediatrician today.  So.....she was diagnosed with croup.  Hmmm....that seems like a standard diagnosis with little ones that aren't flemghy, in my opinion.  So, maybe she has croup, maybe not but I am doing the medicine regimine anyway.  Long story short, things got worse this morning involving red popcicles and medicine on a too empty stomch.....so when we got things together this afternoon, she wanted to do crafts in my room....so we headed up there!  YAY!!!!!

So I pulled out the mojo monday sketch and got busy!  I have a huge list of things that need stamped or created so it was justified, right????  lol!!  Here is what I came up with today:

I absolutely love the Vintage Vogue stamp set in the occassions mini!!!! Every image is gorgeous!  Now, I know this card isn't mailable....but there are always instances to hand deliver a card, always.  :)

See that flower up close????  It is simply gorgeous!  (humble, uh?)

I also stamped up the inside:

stamps: vintage vogue, they say it's your birthday
card stock: kraft, very vanilla, bordering blue, bella bleu, chocolate chip
ink: sahara sand, bordering blue, chocolate chip, creamy caramel
accessories: 5/8th inch chocolate chip grosgrain, tool kit, scallop circle punch, vintage brad, scallop edge punch, stampin dimensionals

leave me some love.....i sure could use it :)  lol!

I'm Falling For You

HI Stampers!!!

Today is the second day of the RemARKable Holiday Tour!!! Did you enjoy the ride yesterday???

Today, I have a gate fold card that uses the new Autumn Splendor. I think these leaves are absolutely gorgeous!!!!

The card base is dusty durango. I cut it at 5 1/2 x 8 1/2. Along the 8 1/2 side score in at 2 1/8 on both ends. I stamped the entire outside of the card with the 5 petal leaf in dusty durango randomly. I then randomly stamped the acorns in close to cocoa. I sponged all of the edges in close to cocoa to "dirty" it up a bit. :)

For my main image panel I stamped the oak leaf and the maple leaf onto scraps of very vanilla card stock with close to cocoa craft ink and embossed them with clear embossing powder and my heat tool. After they cool for a few seconds, I sponged color all over them. The colors I used were crushed curry, tempting turquoise, dusty durango and close to cocoa. I then cut them out and adhered them to my main image panel that had been stamped with my sentiment from teeny tiny wishes. I matted that onto chocolate chip.

Here is a closer look at those leaves:

Now....here is the important part!!!!! Only put adhesive on HALF of the panel before adhering it to the card front.

Leave me some love here in the comment section and then head right over to Becky's place and see what she cooked up for today.

I'll see you tomorrow for day three of the tour :)

I wanna ROCK!!

HI stampers!!

Well, I think I am recovered from the birthday party and the water problems....i think. So hopefully I will back to normal - without the excess head spinning! lol!!

Last week, we went to my cousin's house for a birthday party for her son. He takes guitar lessons and I knew that he loved to play rock band. He is getting too old for a little kid birthday card....so I thought I would make a shaped card - you know - not your standard rectangle. :)

I emailed his mom and this is how it went:

me: "what color is Zach's guitar?"

her back to me: "red"

and I left it at that.....no back and forth about it....no more questions...lol!

So here is what I came up with:

I drew out a pattern on scrap card stock and traced it on a standard real red card base. I cut it out and then made the white guitar face out of shimmery white card stock. I know absolutely nothing about guitars - but they usually do have little knobby things on the front. I made my little knobby things from punching basic black circles with a 1/2" circle punch. I don't even know how many strings are on his guitar....I dated a bass guitar player in high school and i know it had four strings....but a regular guitar has how many??? So I just went with how many fit on the neck of the guitar, spaced out how I wanted them. That is called "Creative Liberty, " right??? lol! The neck is whisper white matted with creamy caramel. I rounded the one corner with the 3/16" corner rounder. I used my matt pack and paper piercer to place the holes for the strings. I used silver cord for the strings - which is coming out again in the Holiday Mini - whoohoooo!! I anchored the strings on the back with adhesive, but I put silver brads at the bottom of the strings - you know, to look like string holders - hahahaha!!!

So what do you think of my rockin' guitar?

A Wallet for Father's Day

HI All! I am so sorry I haven't posted much lately.....I can't get my act together!!! I have been scrapping...I will have to get that photographed and posted for you - hopefully I will provide you with some scrappin' mojo. :)

I made this wallet last night for Father's Day. I haven't decided who will get this....my hubby, my dad, my step father.....who knows!?!!? Depends on what my final gift will be for them. :) i modeled it after my husbands wallet....I love the flap out part. I will put a picture of my little one in there maybe or a gift card. And of course, there is a money slot....gotta have a place to put your money!! I did leave the inside solid card stock so I could easily write on it.

Here is the front:

look at all that faux stitching.....that was fun!!!

Here it is open the first time:

Here it is open all of the way....see the place for the picture? So darling!! It actually opens from the fold to slip a picture up in it....just like a real wallet :)

Here is a closer look at the texture.

Can you see it in the picture? It feels like brushed leather, suede, or even a felt type of fabric. And the entire wallet is made from close to cocoa card stock...cool, huh? I like it. I used the white gel pen for the stitching after piercing it with the mat pack and piercer. That is the only way I can keep my holes lined up - what a great tool!!! The Happy Father's Day sentiment is from All Holidays.

Wanna know how I did the texture????

Do ya????

I can't hear you..........

OK.....OK.......

I took a piece of close to cocoa card stock and rubbed it against the edge of my desk in all different ways to break down the fibers in the card stock. I carefully peeled a corner apart and started to pull it apart. I then adhered it to the clse to cocoa card stock that actually made up the wallet. The card stock pulled apart is too thin to use on it's own for a project like this.

Would you have guessed that??

What do you think????

I have planted a pot of posies!!!!

Now if you know me personally......you know I did NOT plant real posies in dirt....I would not be able to keep them alive....and if you are familiar with the color wheel....I have a "red thumb." (red is the complete opposite of green on the wheel.....it would neutralize it to brown....hence dead plant! LOL!!!!) But.....I did plant a pot of paper posies! Wanna see them???

Aren't they gorgeous!??!?!!? If I may say so myself? I can't go into extreme detail of each flower...but I will list the dies that I used in the big shot then I'm sure the light bulb will go off for all of you :)

flower, daisies #2, flower layers, Stampin' Up little leaves sizzlet, Stampin' Up! birds & blooms sizzlet

The flower centers use various accessories from kraft corduroy buttons, baja breeze corduroy buttons, latte buttons and button bouquet. The buttons are stitched through all the layers of flowers with linen thread.

One more thing about die cut flowers, well...die cut lots of things....

If you are afraid to wrinkle up your paper or card stock a little bit....YOU ARE MISSING THE BOAT HERE!!!! Imagine how flat this would have been if I were afraid of a little manipulation of card stock?!?!??!?!

I embossed the pot (except the rim) with the Stampin' up! backgrounds #1 texturz plates and then sponged over it and all edges of the pot to highlight it's dimension. It is so hard to capture that on camera....but trust me, it's there :) I punched the edge of the pot rim with my scalloped edge punch....still lovin' it!

My tag was inked with a close to cocoa stampin write marker, omitting the flourishes on the stamp from all holidays. I then stamped the flower branch from friends 24-7 in close to cocoa over it that had been stamped off several times. It tied around the bow with linen thread. Did you get a glance of that bow????? I love this ribbon!!! It is satin baja breeze ribbon from the valet ribbon originals. It is pure heaven to work with....way to go Stampin' Up! :)

Oh yeah...I forgot to tell you all of the card stock that was involved here.. :) close to cocoa, very vanilla, baja breeze, old olive, parisian breeze specialty

Here is a shot of the card open.....I left it blank, I want to be able to write a personalized message here.

I really love this card...if you do too, please leave me some love - I am a comment junkie :)

Simply Said....A Clover????

Well....I have had this card pondering in my little head for a few days. I wanted to make a St. Patrick's Day card using a stamp set intended for other purposes. What better color to use for St Patty's day???? Wild Wasabi, of course!



Well...after the obvious greens in the Bold Bright family...but you know me....I needed accessories-ribbon and glitter-that would match perfectly. I'm a little OCD like that. That is what drew me to Stampin' Up!'s product line in the very beginning....the fact that everything matches perfectly....without mistake. You know what I mean. You buy a red sweater...just try to match that red exactly somewhere else with an accessory. Virtually impossible! Even a color as simple as black....buy a black shirt, black pants, black socks and black accessories in different places....I would almost guarantee you the blacks would not match perfectly. Maybe to some....that's not a big deal...but to me...when it is something I am making or designing....it has to match perfectly! I really digressed today, huh? Well...enough of my rambling!



Here is my card today:

Got you wondering where my stamps come from yet?

Well.....here is another picture......

The shamrock was created using the heart stamp from Simply Said and the stem is from Heartfelt Thanks. Did you guess it right? My sentiment is from the Three for You Punch Box. I don't have a dedicated Happy St. Patrick's Day stamp so I thought this one was perfect.

Notice the bling factor of this baby?????? I used my 2 way gel pen to outline the clover leaves and stem and sprinkled with my beloved cosmo glitter in celery. I gotta tell you....I LOVE THIS GLITTER!!!!!!!! It is as smooth as Dazzling Diamonds but colored! Does it get any better than that???? I don't think so! :)

Did I hear someone ask if my card opened like a typical card?

Maybe a side fold?

Maybe a top fold, if I am feeling frisky?

Well check this out!

I know....it isn't like I invented electricity....but The card itself is flat, un-openable. (is that a word???) The main image panel is actually the card! I thought it was kind of cute! Gives the recipient something to think about, right?

A possible invite.....

At my cook book stamp camp last Friday some of the girls and I got to talking about wedding shower invitations. I suggested maybe a pocket card...well....my wheels started to spin and while watching the Super Bowl last night this came to me! (Go Giants!!! Don't get me wrong...we are true Steeler fans around here but I wanted to see New York win last night!) I got up at five this morning to get it out of my head. Sometimes when I get an idea floating around in there it just wants out! This was the case with this card. Maybe to all of you it isn't really what you would have in mind but I wanted to see it executed on paper, so to speak. I asked what the wedding colors were and a swatch of fabric was presented....Groovy Guava to a T! I don't think there would have been a better match. I asked about accent colors....chocolate chip! Girls....could this be any more "up my alley?" I love chocolate chip! It goes with everything! (in my opinion....hehehe!)

So here is what I "banged" out this morning for all of you:

For mass producing, 5/8 inch chocolate chip grosgraine ribbon would be perfect but low and behold....I went to my ribbon stash and to my disappointment....I didn't have enough of that to even do this card. I told you before I luv the chip....I will have to order some on my next order, if that is all I order. (yeah, right!) lol!

I don't know if you can really get a feel for the glitter on this card but in real life it sparkles with just enough bling to satisfy a girl's need for dazzling diamonds!

Here is the insert pulled out. I stamped off the groovy guava swirl on the bottom to lighten it a tad. You could do any number of things with this insert. You could hand write the information on the insert or computer generate it with the Write Me a Memory Journaling Font CD, Vol.2. Anyone of you that have been to any of my "invite" parties knows how I hate to hand write all that information...so for me, hands down, it would be the Journaling CD.

Leave me a comment below to let me know what you think of this pocket creation. Will another came to me today???? If it does...You'll be the first to know!

recipe:

stamps: Baroque Motifs, Big Bold Birthday (small heart), Sincere Salutations

ink: groovy guava, blush blosson, chocolate chip, versamark

card stock: groovy guava, blush blossom, very vanilla, chocolate chip

accessories: theater originals ribbon, heat and stick powder, dazzling diamonds, heat tool, stamp a ma jig

Back to Christmas Joy...Season of Joy that is!

This card was fun fun fun to do! it was a very simple fold but can create quite a presentation!

Start with a regular side fold card base and cut off a bit of the front panel. I didn't measure it...i just cut what i thought would fit the tree image on the right hand side...so adapt this to any stamp set you are using. I then folded back 1 inch of the card front. Here it is Old Olive, by the way...forgot to mention that! sorry :( Then take a piece of Dashing Patterned Paper (that you bought on sale this month.....) and cut it to fit the left hand side of the card front.

Sorry this post is vague with the directions but all of the measurements depend on which stamp set you will use on the back panel......

Now for some fun stuff!

Take your 1/8"Circle Handheld Punch and punch a hole past your the flap of the card front (on the Dashing Paper...). I then tied bows through those holes around that folded flap with Red Gingham Ribbon. How cute is that?????

For the card inside:

I cut a piece of Real Red card stock to 4x5 1/4. I stamped the sentiment "Merry Christmas" from the Season of Joy stamp set in Real Red in the bottom right hand corner. The tree was stamped in Old Olive onto Very Vanilla and simply cut it out. I also stamped the star with "hand stamped" under it from Season of Joy in More Mustard and cut out the star portion. I adhered both to the card inert with SNAIL adhesive. I then took that insert and adhered it to the inside of the card with SNAIL also.

That's it!

If you don't have the Season of Joy stamp set and would like to get it...this is the last few days to order it. November 30th is the last day to order from the Winter Mini Catalog.

They say its your birthday!

I made this card for a weekend sketch challenge 25 on Beate's blog. The challenge was to make a z fold card with a rectangle panel on the front.

The card base is Chocolate Chip scored at 2 3/4 and 5 1/2 . The inside panel is from the So Saffron Designer Series Prints and the right panel is from the Rose Red Designer Series Prints. Both panels were punched with the ticket corner punch and stamped on the edges with the argyle stamp in All in a Row. (two of my faves, as you all know :) )

The main panel is stamped with a sentiment from It's Your Birthday in Chocolate Chip on Very Vanilla. That was matted on So Saffron and then Chocolate Chip.

I stamped the flower image from a Level 2 Hostess stamp set, In the Spotlight, in Rose Red and twice in Almost Amethyst. I punched those out with the Five Petal Punch...which fits it perfectly. By the way, all of the stamps in this set are designed to coordinate with our punches...how awesome! I used the 1/16" Hand Held Punch to punch the centers of the flowers and then placed brads in the centers...easy peasy!

I also sponged all of the edges, inside and out, in Chocolate Chip.

Here is a view from above the card to give you a better idea of the fold:

Until later....

Happy Stampin'!!!

Simply Said... a buckle card!

If you like neat card folds like this you will want to join my Stamper's Hostess Club! Make sure to ask me how!

Now for the makings of this card:
I started with a Basic Black card base measuring 5 1/2 x 7 scored at 4 1/4. I then placed a piece of scratch paper inside the card and wheeled the Kindness Jumbo Wheel inked in Whisper White Craft ink and laid that aside to dry. If you are impatient for the craft ink to dry because it takes some time, you can dry it with your heat gun. The inside of the card was 4 x 5 1/4 in Regal Rose stamped with two of the flower images in the Simply Said stamp set in Regal Rose and Basic Black Classic inks. To make the buckle hole on your card front, slide the Word Window punch in as far as it will go and punch that out. The buckle is a piece of Regal Rose cut 1 5/8 x 5 1/2 and stamped with another flower from Simply Said in Basic Black. I colored in the flower centers with the White Gel Pen. If you have been to any of my classes or workshops, you know I love that pen! Slide your "belt" through the buckle hole to adhere it to the inside card back to make sure it lines up with the hole. Adhere the inside of the card with the "belt" attached. I added ribbon to the side of the buckle hole by sliding the Rectangle Hand Held Punch in as far as it would go on the spine of the card and punching a hole. I then tied Black Gingham ribbon in a simple knot and then tied Pink Gingham ribbon in a simple knot over that to create a two colored knot. Stamp and mat you main image as desired. I used the row of flowers from Simply Said in Basic Black and colored in the flowers with the fine tip of the Regal Rose Stampin' Write Marker.

And there you have it....A Buckle Card.
If you create one of these cards, I would love to see it!