Mojo Monday #40 (on Tuesday)

I am just going to accept that I will be a day (or two, or three!) off for a while now! But at least I got some stamping done! Soon I'll have to post some highlights from our busy day yesterday!

Confession: I do not LOVE this card. I think its ok, I do like the elements, just not so much together. O well! It follows Julee's sketch and that's what it was supposed to do.

So! the details... I have a Regal Rose card base. I never use that color, but now that I have the marker and the ink spot, I should! Its a nice shade of pink! Then a layer of So Saffron card stock. On that I layered the four squares of Certainly Celery Prints paper. (Yes Julee, that was a pain!) I used both dotty patterns to keep it a little more clean... or at least that was the intention. LOL! I stamped the big flower from Time Well Spent in Basic Black ink on Whisper White card stock and colored it with the Rose and Saffron markers. I punched out the little spokes that make up the petals for the big Saffron circle piece to show thru. I cut that big circle with the Making Memories circle cutter I showed in an earlier post. I also added a Celery brad to the center of the flower. The smaller circle was punched with the 1 1/4 inch circle punch. the flower was stamped in Basic Black ink on So Saffron card stock, and then I highlighted it with my Versamarker. I added another Celery brad there, and ran the edges of the circle across my Regal Rose ink spot. For the stripey elements near the bottom, I have the Celery ribbon from the Fairy Tale Ribbon Originals set working as the scallop piece. I have a strip of Whisper White card stock layered with a strip of Regal Rose card stock! Then I stamped the greeting in Regal Rose ink. That was a lot of details...! Or maybe just a lot of rambling. I better go make dinner now, enjoy your evening!

*Edited to add: If you are not on my email list, be sure and check my list on the side with Stampin' Up!'s specials and my events.

Another Saturday on Monday...!

Which means this comes from Jen's Saturday Sketch and isn't getting posted til Monday!

A square card is not so easy for me because I'm very accustomed to the rectangle format. Plus, since I don't have any Bella stamps (even tho I really like some of them!) I picked my newest favorite set again, Fresh Cuts! Sooo I had to go with a bigger card rather than a smaller. Or maybe that's just what I thought. At any rate, this is a 6x6 square card. I stamped Thank You because there's no way I could write enough to fill this card on any other topic! LOL!

The colors came from my plan for my workshop Friday, using this set. I have an Apricot Appeal base, then a layer of Blue Bayou. I did some piercing in the top corner to add interest. I have a square of Wild Wasabi in the bottom corner. I pierced that too, but I felt it needed more. I used my Versamarker and a ruler to add a few stripes! That was a fun idea but got tedious quickly. But I know that's just me. LOL! For the main focal point I stamped the big flowery image with Wild Wasabi ink, on Whisper White card stock, and layered that onto Apricot Appeal, and I did a little piercing on that too. I have some Whisper White grosgrain for the little side-strip and cut out two more of these adorable flowers. They are stamped in Apricot ink onto White, and stuck on with Dimensionals. Big 'n purty!

Same page, done differently...

This time its my turn to own this photograph! Yep, it's pretty similar to the page for his book...must like that look!
The little title pieces are something I picked up in a scrapbook store when he was tiny, before I ever heard of Stampin' Up! (I think the brand is Scrapbook Interiors.) Another one of those things I've waited for the "perfect picture" to use... One day, when I have a little more time, I'll do the facing page, which will use up the rest of these titles. Obviously the main one says "all about my son". Here's a close up... The other two say "how I would describe him" and "what makes me proud of him". I tied Natural Hemp on the big one, shown above, and 'attached' the smaller two with linen thread. The base for the page is Old Olive card stock. The photo is matted on Very Vanilla and then Kraft card stocks. I added a row of Very Vanilla and Close to Cocoa buttons, and journaled with my Always Artichoke marker.

A Challenge Two-fer!

Two 'fer" the price of one, that is. I combined Beate's Sketch with kwerner's color challenge! And even tho I would not ever think to put all of these colors together on one project, I am very happy with the result! Not to mention how super excited I am about this new stamp set, Fresh Cuts! Its a sneak peek for the new catalog, coming in August! Demonstrators got to order the set and coordinating note cards in May and YOU can order it in June! (I know, I know, Beate used the same set...!) So for this card, I used Not Quite Navy for the base. I have a chunk of Bashful Blue card stock across the middle, where I stamped the leafy image in Old Olive ink and the greeting with Not Quite Navy ink. Then some Old Olive 3/8 inch grosgrain ribbon running across the center of it all. Over the ribbon is a piece of Whisper White card stock which I stamped in So Saffron ink and sponged the edges in it too. I matted it on a piece of Old Olive card stock. And here's another sample using this awesome set! Its just so pretty, so elegant and SO easy to use! What's not to love?! Plus, if you come to my workshop on June 6th, you'll get to play with this set and the new cards! AND if you host a $400 workshop during the month of June you get them both for FREE. On this card I was using the Splitcoaststampers color challenge for this week. This combo is not a challenge for me, I love these colors together! Oh but I added the Rose Red...that was not part of the original plan. I have a Sage Shadow base, a mat of Chocolate Chip card stock beneath the Very Vanilla piece. I have my lovely Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon going across the center here. I stamped the leafy stamp in Sage Shadow and the words in Chocolate Chip. I love this font too! Then I stamped the little flower with Rose Red ink and cut them out. They're up on Dimensionals. This card is similar to the first, but lacking the top rectangle. But I like both cards! Hooray for new stamps!

A Stamp Simply card!

Yep, I thought I'd go simple today. haha! Of course I'm kidding. Don't I end most of my project summaries with "super simple!" YES I DO! But this particular inspiration is actually TITLED "Stamp Simply". So I am.

This was supposed to be "Black & White & 1" other color. My favorite POP color is red so that's what I picked! And here it is!

Whisper White card base, Basic Black rectangle topped with Whisper White rectangle. Whisper White grosgrain ribbon topped with Real Red heart! Can't be more simple than that. Not to mention fast! Love it, love it!

How things go...

I don't know how it is in your house, but around here the office has always been the 'catch-all' room. Anything that doesn't have a home? put it in the office! Anything confiscated from kids? put it in the office! Anything that needs sorted thru or filed? put it in the office! That means, that in the reorganizing of the office, I'm sort of piling things up in other rooms. This is not a good cycle! So yesterday I utilized the tiny bookshelf that WAS in here holding stamp stuff and now its in our living room holding kids books. That meant there was more room on the main bookcase for um, the books we got for Christmas... Now they're not piled in our bedroom anymore! That worked nicely! I'm not sure if I'm making progress or just making more work, but I am in the middle of several projects along those lines. The other big thing keeping me busy is this:

My mom is involved in this foreign exchange group and one of the things they do together in their first week is a scrapbook page. Last year she and I worked on them together but this year she is just soooo busy I decided to take it on myself. So I am prepping 125 of these pages and 125 of another design. Prepping means I do all the stamping, cutting, punching and stick all the pieces in a sheet protector. The kids will assemble them however they want, but my samples will be displayed as a guide. I'm not exactly sure when I have to have this done, but really soon! So this is taking up my time too.

For anyone interested, this page is done with a Real Red base, a strip of Whisper White for the title. Circles are punched from Whisper White and Brilliant Blue. I also used the Small Star punch on some of them. I have the retired Letterpress ABC set for the title (stamped in Brilliant Blue), the retired Land That I Love for the Statue of Liberty (stamped in Sage Shadow), and the Red stars come from In The Stars from the mini catalog. I used the Classic Stars Jumbo Wheel across the bottom, and about half the pages have that in Red ink and the other half have Brilliant Blue ink. That's the only difference. Then three Silver Brads and a strip of Real Red striped grosgrain ribbon. Very simple page, easy to alter and plenty of room to use whatever photos strike them.

Another Mojo Monday!

Woohoo! This was a fun card to make! It comes from Julee's Mojo Monday sketch. I thought a patterned background would be fun for the card front piece and a dotty print could be cute and not over-powering. What goes with dots? Baby themes! This one turned into a boy card. A Bashful Blue base, the dotty print from the Cutie Pie designer paper, a So Saffron rectangle, a Certainly Celery 1 3/8 inch circle, a square of Whisper White matted on Bashful Blue with a Bashful Blue elephant and a Celery greeting. I also added coordinating Brads to each layer and a piece of White Grosgrain ribbon across the center.

By the way, Burt loved his card. He thought it was a really neat and unique design. I love it when I impress him with my stamp art!

Be Inspired Challenge #15!

After a nice, long Memorial Day weekend I was very happy to be back to stamping! Which means I was also excited to play with Beate's inspiration piece! I needed a nice, masculine card since its also my husband's birthday. (Love you Honey! We got to go on a date too! A nice quiet lunch to ourselves and a very late movie- Prince Caspian!) Anyway...the card...I took the masculine-looking colors and created something TOTALLY different for me! Wow!

I started by playing with this tool:

Anyone know what it is? I sure don't! Something from Making Memories, obviously. My friend was cleaning out her craft room and has never had any luck using this so she gave it to me to try. Not having any idea how its supposed to work, it was kind of a pain! But! I have a circle cutter now! I thought I'd go with these oval cards I saw here ...but that didn't quite work. I got a huge circle from my Blue Bayou card stock! So, I cut the circle in half...(ish...) and got this. I mounted it on a piece of More Mustard card stock. I added a rectangle of Soft Sky thinking for the greeting and the writing...but then it would show oddly... So I stamped this on the inside:

and wrote my own message on the inside of the Bayou half circle! Then I added the Close to Cocoa tab from my super cool Round Tab Punch, and attached it with Silver Brads. The front of the Bayou piece I stamped weirdly with the bottom of one of the Boho Background stamps. The "love you" on the Cocoa comes from the stamp set Sweet Thing. All the ink is Basic Black. Happy Birthday Burt!

A Sketch Challenge!

Here is my take on Jen's Saturday Sketch. (I did it Saturday but thought I'd spread my posts around!) This one was a lot of fun for me and I used some more designer paper! hooray! (that means room for more you know...!)

I used a Certainly Celery card stock base, then Cutie Pie paper for the bottom strip and top corner. The circles are flowers from the Pick A Petal set, and I stamped them in So Saffron ink. I stuck Rose Red buttons in the center and touched the edges of the circles in the Rose Red ink. The greeting comes from Time Well Spent and I stamped that in Celery and colored the flowers with my So Saffron marker. I also mounted the greeting onto Rose Red card stock. So there you have it! Have a fabulous Memorial Day!

Springtime!

...from a couple years ago! But that's ok because I got one more page done! I just love these pictures of my girly. I did the page for her book when the pictures were taken, but just got the page for my book done this weekend, so here it is.
Lauren used this old Sarah designer paper recently and I remembered I've hoarded it! I thought it would work really well with these photos! So that was my starting point. The colors in the paper are Certainly Celery, Whisper White, So Saffron and some darkish blue...I went with the retired Buckaroo Blue. My title is stamped in Buckaroo Blue with the Taffy Alphabet. I added three Celery brads and then two ribbons- Celery from the Fairy Tale ribbon originals set, and then White grosgrain layered on top of that! Fun and springy!
Then, remember this page I just did for my son? I figured out my journaling and wanted to share! You may have noticed I finally got to change up my music! The first track listed is one of my favorite songs- When You Come Back Down by Nickelcreek. I got the Nickelcreek self titled CD for my son's first Christmas. The first time I heard this song I immediately thought of the relationship between a parent and child. I'm not convinced that's the perspective the song is coming from, but it works!!! I used to look for the perfect picture so I could put the words to this song on a page for his book but never quite found it. Well, this CD is my "its been a bad day and I need to relax" music and its been living in my car for the last few weeks. (Turns out my boy has a new favorite song on this CD too!) But having done this page, I thought the song fit. I just typed it up and added it to his page. Its night so I can't get a good shot without a bad glare on the photo, so here is the way I added the lyrics, (sorry its dark!) and a close up of the way I emphasized certain lines. If you are a mother, you'll understand.

Weekend Sketch #49

Did I tell you I love this stamp set? And get check out how perfectly it works with Beate's sketch! Yeay!

So, I did another Chocolate Chip base but this time its cut to a square. 4 1/4 x 4 1/2 to be exact! Then a card front using Groovy Guava. I stamped the flowers and greeting in Ruby Red. I stamped the medallion image in Chocolate Chip ink on Ruby Red card stock and punched it with my Scallop punch. I stuck a silver brad in the center of that and 4 brads in the corners. Then I have a strip of Chocolate Chip Taffeta ribbon! I love how this one turned out!

New Stamps!

I know, I know, "old hat" stamps to many of you, but I really wanted these as soon as I saw them in the catalog and there's always too many other things I NEED so these keep sitting on the back burner. I always have them on my list to "get next month" and it never happens. Well I got it! My very own Boho Backgrounds set! Hooray for me! And yes, I love them as much as I thought I would. This is what I did last night -

Super simple, as usual. Chocolate Chip base, Pumpkin Pie front. I couldn't come up with any colors that were what I wanted besides shades of green and that would be too Halloween-y for me, so this is all I used! Chocolate Chip ink and Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon! Ta-da!

This one I think is vaguely inspired by this card. I loved what she had done with the set (making me want it more!) and when I sat down to stamp this is what I had in my head to create. Since I knew she'd done something similar, I thought I'd better give her a nod! LOL! I just did two panels of black ink on white card stock, matted with black card stock. Then my lovely red striped grosgrain ribbon was added for a touch of POP. Love it!