Simon Says Stamp and Show card

This is a card for the Simon Says Stamp and Show vintage challenge this week.  I  started with a distressed background that had some writing on it.  I then took a Hero Arts Cling (I think it's Antique Brocade) stamp, and stamped in Versamark, then clear embossed.  I then used Tim Holtz Distress Inks to distress the piece. Once that was done, I took an iron and a another piece of blank cardstock, and ironed off the embossing powder. This left the original distressed background peeking through the over distressing.  I took a piece of dictionary, and distressed that ( Worn Lipstick, Dried Marigold and Broken China), and distressed it, and added it to the card front.  I then took SU Chocolate Chip ink and stamped the crown three times and the bird on a branch once ( Both Tim Holtz stamps).  I then mounted the card front onto some dark brown cardstock for the base.

Happy Birthday to a Special Boy

This is a card inspired by Kristina Werner.  A couple of weeks ago, she did a card that had very little stamping on it, it was all punched out circles on a base card stock, with some stripes to fill in the card a bit.  This is my take on it.  I used some Basic Grey Dissidant patterned paper, as well as some other random scraps I had into 3/4 inch circles.  For the card base, I used orange card stock, then added Dried Marigold, Worn Lipstick, Victorian Velvet and Fired Brick distress inks to age the card stock.. for even more interest, I took my Nick Bantock ink in Van Dyke brown, and lightly stamped over the cardstock.. I went randomly, and with the curve in my pad, only the outside lines showed.  I placed and taped my circles all over the card front, spacing them out as evenly as I could.   I then took some scrap orange cardstock, and cut it thinly into two long pieces. I added dash lines to them.  I stamped "Happy Birthday" (Hero Arts) in the Van Dyke brown on cream cardstock.  I also cut a piece of brown paper that I had punched some circles with to add to the bottom.  With the circles in place, I added the stripe on the left side of the card, then the cream cardstock, then the brown paper, then the second orange piece of cardstock.  I finished off by rounding three of the corners.

the insanity of going to university....

Well, sorry that I haven't been posting much art lately, today is the first time in nearly two weeks that I have stamped.... with my "baby" (who's taller than I am) getting ready to go to university, I have been trying to be available more often for the family.  We're still waiting on the student loan though, the government messed up big time, so I'm hoping we'll at least get an approval and amount of the loan before next Friday.... otherwise, it's a decision to risk going across country for university and hope that the loan comes through, or stay at home and take an extra year of high school.  The waiting is driving us all crazy. :P

Anita is having a giveaway on her blog!!! Check out this link HERE  to see how to enter.  Seeing her little girl brought back many great memories of me and my kids when they were little... that seems like a lifetime ago...LOL

More Giveaways!!

I just got back yesterday from being out of town, and wouldn't you know, there's another giveaway on this blog HERE.  Check it out!!  And I hope to get back to creating sometime soon, but right now, I am going to work on  cleaning up my stamping mess!! LOL!!  Mostly things that I've taken to the stamping group that haven't been put back away properly.

Any tips on storage with space deprived people would be appreciated :D

A Real Buggy Birthday Card!!

A good friend of mine is celebrating her 65th birthday today.  She LOVES ladybugs, and the idea for this card popped into my head some time ago.  I took a 6 x 12 inch piece of red cardstock, and folded it in half.  I used a 5  1/2 inch circle to make the body of the ladybug.  I just made sure that I didn't cut it in a way that cut the entire fold away.  I also die cut a 3 1/2 inch black circle for the head.   I started by drawing a line down the middle of the card, then going over it in black Sharpie, to delineate the wings.  I then folded the 3 1/2 inch black circle in half, and attached it to the red body.  Once I figured out which way the 65 would work, I drew the 6 and the 5 lightly in pencil.  I then used a Hero Arts stamp (Antique Engravings insect set) and used the ladybug to "draw" the 65.  I then erased the pencil lines.  I punched out two 1 inch circles in white cardstock for the eyes of the ladybug.  I kept the card quite flat, simply because I couldn't figure out a way to mount a few little ladybugs on the numbers without ruining the shape.

Just a note, the photo  was taken by my friend.

1000 Sheets of Paper Giveaway!!

I can;'t imagine holding 1000 sheets of patterned paper, but that's what Amy has done!! She's used 1000 sheets of patterned paper since starting her  blog, so to celebrate, she's giving away 1000 sheets of 6x6 paper!!!  As you can see, it's quite the stack of paper.  Head over to Amy's blog HERE to see how you can enter to win. 

I can just imagine what would happen if I won... my hubby, I think would KILL me.. he's always complaining about the amount of paper that I have.. LOL.. although if it was free, maybe he would be happy that I wouldn't have to spend money on more paper :D

Really Reasonable Ribbon Giveaway!!

Check out the Really Reasonable Ribbon blog HERE and add your 2 cents worth!! You could win some sweet blog candy!

New Store Grand Opening this weekend!!

Stamp Fever Store is having it's grand opening in a new location this weekend!!! And on Nancy's blog HERE, you can win a $35 dollar gift certificate for Hero Arts goodies!!   Neat, eh?  If  you have the time, check it out!

.. And Yet More Distress......

Yet another Keeping in Touch card for the Hero Arts August challenge  For this card, I used Kraft cardstock as the base.  I stamped in white with the SU retired stamp, Victorian Lace, which covered the card front.  While that was drying, I stamped the butterfly (Quietfire Designs) in Broken China distress ink on some patterned paper, and cut out.  Once the white ink was dry, I over stamped the card front with Worn Lipstick Distress ink for the flowers ( Hero Arts Watercolor Petals).  I added the sentiment, also Hero Arts, in Victorian Velvet.  The card needed just a hint more colour, so I edged the whole card front in Victorian Velvet.  I foam mounted the butterfly to the card.  I thought of adding more, but felt it would just detract from the subtle background.

Distress, Distress and More Distress

Well, I actually got some creating done this week... with all the commotion going on, that's a good thing.  This particular card is for a friend of mine, who somehow had the weirdest basic Grey paper.. it's from the Dissidant line, and is called Obscure.  I say weird, only because my friend is in her 70s and that type of paper would never hit her shopping cart... where she got it from, I don't know.  Anyways, my friend had no clue of what to do with the paper.  I took one look at it and had something very similar to this card in my head right away.  I tried to explain it to her, but she just gave me the paper.  I promised her I'd have a card for her by next Tuesday (that's when our stamping group meets again). 

What I did with this card is to cut a 1 3/4  x 12 inch strip from the Obscure paper.  I also cut a 1 3/4 x 21 inch strip from a Magenta paper.  I cut  four pieces of the Obscure into 1 3/4 inch squares, and 5 of the Magenta paper into 1 3/4 inch squares.  With the Magenta squares, I crumpled them, then used Fired Brick Distress Ink on the mountains of the paper.  I then ironed them flat.  For the base cardstock, I took a 6 x 12 inch piece of bright orange cardstock...... for those of you who know me, orange is NOT my favourite colour.  I much prefer a pale peachy colour for my oranges. So what does a girl do when the orange is too bright to match the patterned paper? Distress it!!  I went over the whole 6 x 6 front of the card with Old Paper, Dried Marigold, Worn Lipstick, and Fired Brick Distress inks.  The Fried Brick was just around the edges.  I spaced out the squares so that they would be evenly spaced, and placed them somewhat randomly.  After taping the squares down,  I then took a script stamp, inked it in Broken China Distress Ink, and stamped  over the squares.  I then took the last of the 1 3/4 inch strip of Obscure paper, and stamped two Hero Arts butterflies on it ( from Antique Engravings) in black Versafine ink.  I also stamped and cut out the littlest butterfly from the Antiques Engravings set on the scrap of Magenta paper. I then Stickled  the circles and bodies of the butterfly with Star Dust Stickles.  While that was drying, I took the last of the Magenta paper, and stamped the sentiment (Hero Arts) on the Magenta paper.  I tried to just leave it as it was on the card, but it got lost, so I made a slightly larger frame to put the sentiment on. I just used some text weight paper, as I didn't want cardstock to weigh the paper down.  Once the butterflies were dry, I mounted them on the card, using foam tape.  The smallest butterfly is on a brad, which is attaching the gold flower from Imaginiscence to the cardstock. 


I am really pleased with this card.  I am so far ahead on  birthday cards and such that it was nice to take my time and get the card just right.  I don't think my friend is going to recognize her patterned paper on this card!! Although you can see a skull, face and lips from the paper on the card.

Lucy is having a GIVEAWAY!!!

Check out Lucy's blog HERE to see the giveaway.  It's very generous of her!!

  Off to finish baking the chocolate chip oatmeal cookies with my kid... We're having some time together, without my hubby.

Cupcakes and Card Patterns

OK, here's another card I got done yesterday, while the hubby and the kid were away.  This card follows Card Pattern 76 and it also features cupcakes, which is the challenge for Crazy 4 Challenges this week.  I used a 4 1/4 inch square card of cream cardstock.  To that, I added some striped patterned paper, and also added a solid pink edge, done in a Martha Stewart punch.  The "brads" are three tiny cupcakes from a punch I've had for quite awhile.  The two bigger cupcakes are my first attempt at paper piecing.  I stamped the cupcake image 4 times, twice on light pink scrap card stock, once in the stripe patterned paper, once in the dark purple that I used for the cupcake "brads".  I started by colouring the pink cupcake bottoms brown, then carefully cut out the tops in the purple and the stripes.  I taped them to the pink cupcakes. the silver scalloped circle is from the inside of a cookie bag.  the sentiment is stamped in black on cream cardstock, and the stamp is from Hero Arts.  The cupcake stamp is from Inkadinkado.


Oops!!! I just realized I photographed this BEFORE I added the red Stickles to the cherries.... I will do so and update the photo when I can.

Edit August 12th : I managed to get another photo of the card, this time with  the glitter  on it, but my camera isn't behaving, and all the photos were a touch blurry.... I am not sure why, so I left the original up... below is the finished card:

Mojo 150 and 4 Patterned Papers

Good morning!! I am sneaking in a post here just before church.  I wanted to do the Mojo 150 challenge, so I did.  I also wanted to use Kristina Werner's challenge of using 4 different patterned papers on a project, which I also managed to do.   I used Pink Pirouette cardstock (SU) for the base.  I then used some discontinued SU patterned paper that I've been hoarding for a few years.  The colour combo is Pink Pirouette ( before it was a colour), Close to Cocoa and Purely Pomegranate.   I used the brown with circles in rows as the layer over the base, and a pink flowered layer over that.  I used a Martha Stewart punch for decorating the bottom.    The third layer (under the image) is pink stripes and white circles on brown.  The top layer of paper is a solid pink, which I stamped a Hero Arts flower (Antique Engravings) on it in Purely Pomegranate.  I added some white sheer ribbon, and two brown pearls, and I distressed a white oval with Pink Pirouette ink, then edged it in Purely Pomegranate. I stamped the Hello  (Hero Arts) in Purely Pomegranate.  To keep the card fairly flat, everything was just taped down except for the  oval, which is on foam tape.  To finish off the card, I used faux stitching around the brown layers with a white gel pen.

Going Dotty.....

This is another card I did today.  I got to use a Tim Holtz embossing folder (DOTS) and sanded the patterned paper so that some of the pattern came off the raised dots.  I then ran Chocolate Chip ink lightly over the whole thing, not worrying whether or not I got all the dots.  I love this distressed look. I took a flower stamp from Hero Arts Antique Engravings (the floral set) and stamped it three times, once in Victorian Velvet Distress Ink, and twice in Worn Lipstick Distress Ink.  I took an extra piece of the dotted paper, and put it on the bottom of the cream piece with the stamping on it, and added a Hero Arts sentiment in Chocolate Chip ink (SU).  All of this was on a  cream base cardstock

Dots Challenge

This is the card I did today for the DOTS challenge on Simon Says Stamp.  I used some dotted patterned paper that I've had for ages, and layered them a bit to cover the dark brown cardstock.  I then used a Studio G dotted butterfly stamp and stamped it three times on the back side of the patterned paper.  I taped the bodies down only, and lifted the wings.. the middle  butterfly is mounted on foam tape.  I used a Hero Arts sentiment from Anytime Messages  in the top right corner.  I did round the far right corners for interest.

Visitor pictures!!

OK, I told you about the deer that showed up yesterday.. well the same pair showed up again last night, and my kid took some pictures of it and put it on her blog.  Rather than me trying to get the photos from her, I'm just going to link to her blog HERE.  It's amazing that they keep coming back.  I suppose it's because it's not as smoky here as it is higher up.  At different points of the day, you can't see the mountains around us, the smoke is so thick.

Have a great Monday!

August Christmas Card Challenge!!

Well,  today has been great... not only did I get to spend time with the family, a buck and his doe were in the back "yard" of our apartment building..... eating whatever they could.  There was some thunder, which unfortunately spooked them and they ran off.  It's such a blessing to me to see wildlife like that.... you certainly don't see as much of it in the big cities, and in the big cities, they don't tolerate any wildlife there, unless it's in a zoo.  Here, the deer were left alone, and hopefully they got back into the forest.

Now, on to the challenge for Christmas cards in August.. this month, your challenge is to use TAGS on your cards.  I don't care what size or colour the tags are, just as long as there's at least one tag on your Christmas cards.. here is my sample...

I used cream based cardstock, and distressed it with Old Paper and Tattered Rose inks.  I then put some embossed cardstock on the cream, leaving a 1/4 border. I also rounded two corners of the embossed cardstock and the base cardstock.  I took some Shipping tags, and distressed them in Tattered Rose, Old Paper, Worn Lipstick and Fired Brick inks.  With Versafine Onyx Black ink, I stamped a Tim Holtz Santa Claus on the tag.  I added some black and red fibre to the top of the tag, and mounted the tags on an angle to the embossed cardstock.

Helping Hudson!!!

HERE is a link to see a fundraising effort for a little boy who needs a child's walker.  I read the story HERE, and I thought I'd pass it on to all of you.  There are also Australian SU prizes to be won, so feel free to check the blogs out.

Thank you!!

A Giveaway!!!

Good afternoon!  I am trying to survive the smoke that's filled the valley here...  I don't know how my hubby and kid manage, they're asthmatic.  Oh well, it's supposed to rain the next few days, so if that happens, maybe the air will clear a bit.

On to the giveaway!! Jenny at her blog...wee Memories... is having a giveaway for hitting 300 followers!!!  It's a Hero Arts stamp set, but I don't recall seeing which set it is.   Go check it out!

I hope everyone who has a long weekend this weekend enjoys themselves.  As for me, I am working on a design for an advent ATC swap I'm in.  I am pretty sure I have what I want, I just need to test it to see if I like the finished product, not just like what's in my head.

  Have a great weekend!