PAPERLICIOUS

Teen Graduation: Male

My nephew's graduation invitation is in gray and cranberry, so I wanted a card that would coordinate with those colors. I've been looking around for a true Ocean Spray Cranberry cardstock and ink and think I've found it -- Blush Red Dark Prism paper and Adirondack Cranberry ink.  A perfect match! 

I decided to let the sentiment from Motivational Centers from Cornish Heritage Farms take center stage and make a straightforward design for a teenage boy.   You can't see it in the photo, but I stamped the background image on the white cardstock with Versamark before stamping the sentiment.

Other supplies:  Stampin Up! Baroque Background stamp; silver brads; Basic Gray cardstock; Basic Gray ink on the envelope liner; and ticket corner punch; Versamark ink; Papertrey Ink Stampers Select White cardstock.

I am supposed to be participating in the Cartelicious challenge that my stamping buddies are posting Monday.  I couldn't do it, but please be sure to check out Sue, Melissa and Rose Ann's blogs. 

If you'd like to read more about my life, continue. Otherwise, happy stamping!

Peace

Little by little, I'm adding to my Christmas 2008 card collection.  I probably should speed up the stamping, but I find it hard to get in the Christmas spirit when it is 75 degrees and a brilliant blue sky!

For this card, I decided to pull out one of my Thomas Kinkade Christmas stamps.  I haven't had a lot of luck coloring in these very detailed stamps, but I think using chalks may be the way to go for me. 

  Chalks seem to provide just enough color without having to master the skill needed to use colored pencils.  The image is a bit more colorful than this picture shows. 

Supplies:  Silent Night Vignette and Pretty Pattern Backgrounder stamps by Cornish Heritage Farms; Peace sentiment from Verve Visual Wonderful Wishes Remixed set; Stampin Up Real Red, White and Basic Black cardstocks, Versafine Onyx ink; Stampin Up Real Red ribbon and marker, white organdy ribbon; Barely Banana marker' Martha Stewart tag punch and Stampin Up chalks and circle punch.

Anniversary Love

This card is a typical average stamper card.  I used aproximately $400 worth of supplies to make it -  stamp, paper, ink, punch, brads, nestabilities, wizard, Japanese screw punch, adhesive, scissors, brayer, ribbon, markers, paper cutter.  I think that's it. 

Do you really want the details????  Or is it enough to just admire my handiwork?

Asela's Row of Trees

I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating -- a few weeks ago Asela Hopkins, stamp designer for Cornish Heritage Farms, sent me her entire collection of "tree" stamps.  Is that amazing or what!!??  These are particularly beautiful for masculine cards. 

Truth be told, I was a bit intimidated by these gorgeous, but strong images.  So I've been fooling around with them ever since and finally have a second card to share.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

I inked up a small leaf image from the With Gratitude Stampin Up set with Versamark and stamped it onto to some plain white thin glossy paper.  I let that sit a bit and then sponged it all over with a Desert Heat Kaleidacolor ink pad, concentrating the darker colors on the bottom.  I stamped Row of Trees  twice with Versafine Onyx ink, overlapping the image in the center and embossed with clear embossing powder.  Thank You sentiment is from Stampin Up's Level Two hostess set Spring Solitude.  (This set comes with a wheel stamp, and I think I threw out the wheel by mistake!  Ouch.)

A huge thank you to Asela!!  If you are checking out her trees, don't forget to look at her adorable Easter stamps!

Carte-licious

Sue Berker, Melissa Kaufman, Rose Ann Reynolds, and I decided a while back to share images and challenge one another to create cards with that image.  We call our little challenge Carte-licious!

This time it was my turn to select the image and I chose Daisy in a Jar by Cornish Heritage Farms.  The stamp is one of the many CHF sells that is designed by Asela Hopkins. 

I stamped the image with Memories Black ink onto white cardstock and let it sit for a bit.  I colored it with Stampin Up Markers and a blender pen. I use the blender pen to pick up some color from the marker and then gently applied.  If you rub, the paper will pill, so a light touch is essential with this technique.  The flowers are Apricot and Pumpkin and have a little sparkle in the centers courtesy of a Sakura pen. 

Such a strong image needed a good background and I played around with a bunch of papers from SU's print palette in Apricot, but nothing was working. So, I used the Apricot marker to ink up the flowers from the main image and made my own background by repeatedly inking and stamping. (Note to CHF:  please make a background with Asela's daises -- I love the way it came out!). 

"Gratitude" is from Papertreyink's Beautiful Blooms and was originally stamped in black directly onto the white cardstock. Hmm, the image smudged so I needed a quick fix with the word window punch!  The gray outline on part of the image is a Warm Gray Copic Marker.  Oh, and the little embellishment is a Mellow Moss Dew Drop.  Once I adhered it over the apricot ribbon, the green turned to apricot!  So, I colored the dew drop with an Olive (G99) Copic Marker, and edged the apricot ribbon as well as it was fading into the background.   

I can't wait to see what Sue, Melissa, and Rose Ann created with this stamp! 

Cobblestone Bridge Thanks

This quote sums up perfectly how I feel about so many of you.

“Something that has always puzzled me all my life is why, when I am in special need of help, the good deed is usually done by someone on whom I have no claim.”  William Feather

I'm not sure what was going on in William Feather's life, but sounds like he experienced "the kindness of strangers" also.

You guys rock. 

Dana (*danavee*) on Splitcoast offered to send me some empty SU boxes and to scan labels for the SU Text & Texture set (it comes double mounted and I was whining about that in an earlier post).  So, I get the box and it is jam packed with oodles of awesome stuff!  I mean Martha Stewart cards (3 sets!), Fabriano cards, an entire set of chipboard letters, tins, etc. etc. etc.  Isn't that amazing? 

Since so many of you are so sweet, I decided to make a ton of thank you cards today.  I made a grand total of ONE! 

However, I stamped out 14 images of this Thomas Kinkade Cobblestone Bridge from Cornish Heritage Farms.  To get an even image, I brayered Stampin Up's Night of Navy Classic Ink onto the stamp -- without brayering, I was getting annoying lines on the image.  The rest of the card needs no explanation, other than it was fun to stamp again.

I have tried to color in these images and have had limited success.  By "limited" I mean, my husband said it wasn't bad, but it wasn't nearly as nice as just going monochromatic. However, I haven't given up.  Whenever I produce something that I'm proud of, I'll post it and then celebrate! 

 

Stampin During the Game

Well, I couldn't just sit there and watch the greatest football game ever, so during the first half of last night's game, I watercolored #52 Mushroom Lane Tree Trunk from Cornish Heritage Farms.  (By the second half I was too excited to do anything except bite my nails!)  CHF has an entire series of these quirky, but fun, stamps and this is my first try at them.  I love these images! 

I used Confetti paper from Stampin Up as I had heard that it took water pretty well.  I'm sorry to say that mine buckled quite a bit.  Of course, I used a lot of layers here and that may be the reason.  In any event, even though I ran the image through the Xyron, it still isn't totally flat.  Next time, I'll use watercolor paper for this image. 

My color palette was limited by the fact that I was using my Lyra Watercolor Pencils (portable) and I'm missing 3 or 4 of the set of 10 colors!  I know there "in there" somewhere!  I added some Ballet Blue marker to the card to brighten it up a bit and have it coordinate with the Ballet Blue cardstock layer. 

The sentiment is also from CHF and covers a lot of card-giving occasions!  Enjoy your day.

Just Because....For a Soldier

A friend asked me to send a card to her brother, who is serving in Iraq.  So, I needed simple.  Suitable for a guy, quick to make, and easy to get through the mail. 

If you look closely, you'll see that I used the new Cornish Heritage Farms Large Polka Dot Backgrounder with Versamark on the Green card (Memory Box).  The patterned paper is from My Mind's Eye and I stamped it with SU's Text & Texture with Garden Green Craft ink and embossed with clear powder. I added a strip of So Saffron cardstock on the bottom -- it just cried out for something else.

I would have loved to add some ribbon above the strip and something to right of the saying, but it was more important to finish the card then finish it perfectly! 

Asela's Date Palm Tree

Asela Hopkins designed a series of beautiful stamps that are "just trees."  Just gorgeous trees! 

Cornish Heritage Farms has them for sale here.

About a week ago Asela just sent me the whole bunch!  She is so sweet!

This card is made with her Date Palm Tree and CHF's Pretty Patterned Backgrounder. 

Cornish sent me this background stamp by mistake and omitted 2 that I had ordered.  One email and poof, this stamp was mine and the others are on the way.  I LOVE companies that respect their customers and recognize that stamper/consumers have many, many companies from which to choose.  They have earned my loyalty time and time again!

Keep reading if you want to hear some non stamping stuff...

Winner of Hop A Thon Contest Announced

I'm so happy to tell you that Asela Hopkins notified me today that Jacqueline Jones, from Card Castle blog fame, has won first prize in the Hop a Thon contest!! Congrats Jackie!!!  Jackie, you need to email me for the gift certificate to Cornish Heritage Farms and email Asela for some Asela treats! 

It was a pleasure to work with Asela on this contest.  She is so talented.  But, even more, she is so nice.  You have to love her!