Friday Sketchers 91 Good Friends Listen...

  If you would like to use this sketch, please go here.  This card uses some new dp paper from K&Co, TC Blossomwood, which is gorgeous!  I also purchased some floral embellishments that match to add to the main image.  The main image was sponged with distress inks to soften the whiteness of the cardstock.  The lattice was cut from Vanilla Cream cs and it was also sponged.  The measurements are 4 1/2 x 4 1/2. 

Supplies:
Stamps:  Sweet N Sassy (digi)
Ink:  Tsukienko (Tuxedo Black); Ranger (Scattered Straw, Tea Dye)
Paper:  Papertrey Ink (Select White, Vanilla Cream, Dark Chocolate); K&Co (TC Blossomwood)
Accents:  Spellbinders (lattice, oval dies); K&Co (TC Blossomwood flower)

SC269 Absolutely Fabulous

Had time to play the weekly Splitcoaststampers sketch challenge, SC269. The Bella image has been sitting, uninked, for too long, so decided to make a card that will enclose a letter to a friend in Texas. Can't waste excuses for making cards, right? The image was stamped with Tuxedo Black on Select White paper and colored with Copic markers. The halo is glittered as well as the wings with Martha Stewart products. I really like the Martha Stewart glue pen; it works as well as the Quickie Glue one. The image was also sponged around the edges to take soothe the whiteness of the paper. The Bo Bunny paper was purchased in Gettysburg, PA, at the Scrapbook Forever store; that is one nice paper store! Thank you for taking time to look at the card; hope you receive some inspiration from it. Gigi


Supplies:
Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Mixed Messages); Stamping Bella (angel)
Ink: Tsukineko (Tuxedo Black); Ranger (Tea Dye, Scattered Straw)
Paper: Papertrey Ink (Select White); SU! (Ruby Red, mustard); Bo Bunny (Kitchen Spice Nutmeg)
Accents: Michael's (ribbon, rhinestones); Spellbinders (die cuts); Copic markers; Martha Stewart (chunky and fine glitter); Sweet N Sassy digi stamps (A True Friend)

CPS155 Thanks for Perking Me Up!

Finished the CPS155 challenge this morning with some dp that has been sitting in the stash bin for at least two years! It probably happens to you, too; you buy dp that you plan to use, but don't because it's being hoarded...doesn't make sense, does it? The dp is Creative Imaginations, Debbie Mumm (Coffee). The stickers matching the dp are so cute; in fact, I bought two sets of them and haven't used hardly any of them...why? Suppose I need them for a rainy day? :-) Each of us has a quirky thought or two when it comes to paper craft supplies and mine just happens to be hoarding dp for more than one year :-)

Supplies:

Stamps: Our Craft Lounge (Fueled by Caffeine)

Ink: Tsukineko (Tuxedo Black), Ranger Distress (Tea Dye, Scattered Straw)

Paper: Papertrey Ink (Vanilla Cream, Dark Chocolate), Creative Imginations, Debbie Mumm

Accents: Creative Imginations stickers, Debbie Mumm (Coffee), Spellbinders (die cuts), Papertrey Ink (Enchanted Evening ribbon)

SC268 Welcome Little One

This is a non traditional baby girl card, but since the paper is so stinkin' cute, I wanted to use it for a baby :-) The sketch is from Splitcoaststampers, SC268. The mailman brought some new paper from American Crafts, Dear lizzy.

Supplies:

Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Bitty Baby Blessings, Heart Prints Sentiments)

Ink: Tsukineko (Tuxedo Black), Versamark (clear)

Paper: Papertrey Ink (Select White, Dark Chocolate), Bazzill (blue), American Crafts (Dear lizzy)

Accents: Ranger (Cotton Candy Stickles), Basic Grey (button), floss, rick rack ribbon, Marvy (heart punch)

MFT Wednesday Stamp Club Challenge for 2/10/10

Last week, some new My Favorite Things stamps arrived and I couldn't wait to use them! This particular set is brand spankin' new and is called "Lovin' from the Oven." There is a a WSC challenge posted on the MFT blog. Kim has given several options to use for the challenge and I chose the card layout and am hoping to win a gift certificate to purchase another stamp set I've had my eye on for the last few days :-) The main image was colored with Copic markers and paper pieced using some new dp from Basic Grey, Nook & Pantry, which was also purchased at MFT. I wanted to add a flower to the front of the card, so went with the distressed look, which was misted with water, crinkled, heat-dryed, and edged with distress inks. Thank you for stopping by today and hope you have taken some inspiration from the card, which measures 41/4" x 5 1/2".

Gigi

Supplies:

Stamps: My Favorite Things (Lovin' from the Oven), Papertrey Ink (Cupcake Collection)

Ink: Tsukineko (Tuxedo Black), Ranger (Scattered Straw, Tea Dye)

Paper: PTI (Vanilla Cream), Basic Grey (Nook & Pantry)

Other: Spellbinders (Flower Creations, Labels 1), MFT (cream lace, twine), SU! (Chocolate ribbon), Copic (markers), Fiskars (lace punch), misc buttons, Provo Craft (embossing tool and folder)

Papertrey Ink's Anniversary Day 13 Contest

If you haven't had an opportunity to check out Papertrey Ink's blog lately, you've missed so much fun. Although my name hasn't been selected to win a fabulous prize PTI has given away this month, I'm still giving it my best shot to win today's contest. Nichole has challenged her readers to create a card using a floral embellishment and an acetate sheet to share with another crafter. The first one I made (this morning) took forever to finish and when I began to post on the blog, I realized, after reading Nichole's blog again, that the card and embellishments were wrong (the cupcake stamps were used and they turned out cute, too :-) So, after lunch I went back to the drawing table and created something that didn't require as much time, but looked good enough to submit for the contest. The flowers were die cut and dry embossed; glitter was applied to vintage cream buttons making up the center. The card is being sent to a very sweet crafty friend; the cupcake one will go to another "sweet" crafty friend. Thank you for stopping by and taking a look today and if you have time, check out PTI's blog and enter your own design to win a nice prize.

Gigi

What I used:

Stamps: None

Ink: None

Paper: Raspberry Fizz Mix, Raspberry Fizz cs, vellum, True Black, Select White (PTI)

Accessories: Raspberry Fizz satin ribbon, vintage cream buttons (PTI), lace border punch (Fiskars), Swiss dots (Cuttlebug), glitter (Martha Stewart), Flower Creations (S4-072) (Spellbinders)

Bitty Baby Blessings Mojo Monday #125

Good snowy morning from Northern Virginia! Yes, we have more snow falling today, but it's stopping by this afternoon. I feel for the evergreen trees having to hold so much snow and then breaking because of the weight on branches. I once bragged to family and friends in Texas that it's wonderful living in this part of the country because the winters are mild compared to the Panhandle of Texas; guess I'll have to make a retraction...ha ha! Seriously this is a wonderful place to live if you enjoy the annual four seasons.

Now on to the sketch: This one seemed a little daunting for me because I don't seem to work well with sketch challenges. I love using Papertrey Ink's Bitty Baby Blessings stamp set (see post below for another image); it's so precious. Fortunately there are new babies in the family and a friend has requested a baby card to give, so I made another one last night. This time the elephant image was stamped, paper pieced, and even has a dimensional-looking ear :-) The Scor-pal was used for the dry embossing effect and a white gel pen dotted the small scallop frame holding the stamped image. Paper piecing is fun and the image is perfect for doing it. The easiest way to adher the paper piece is using a Xyron machine (mine is the 2.5" one and does a great job for super small pieces.) The polka dot paper has been sitting in the stash bin for a couple of years, but works well for what I had in mind when using the sketch. If you use imagination, the image and ribbon actually look like a rattle (or so I think it does :-)

Thank you for taking time to stop and look today; I hope you have received some inspiration to use on a project.

Gigi

Ingredients:

Stamps: Bitty Baby Blessings (Papertrey Ink)

Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Paper: Select White (PTI), turquoise (Bazzill), pink (SU!)

Accessories: Ribbon, white gel pen, scallop die (Spellbinders), Scor-Pal, minature half pearls (for inside sentiment) (

CPS 153 and Papertrey Ink's Bitty Baby Blessings

My week was blessed with three new babies in our family; a set of twins, Peyton and Dylan, and Elizabeth. They were all born in near Kansas City, Missouri and their fathers are brothers, my nephews, Greg and Richard. The twins arrived early, but they're healthy and doing well. I made the card for Elizabeth the other day and when I saw the CPS challenge this morning, it works out perfectly as well as using Papertrey's Bitty Baby Blessings. You also have a chance to win some Papertrey products that are being released this month! The paper has been in stash for a long time, so am not sure of the name, but it was purchased at Michael's. The circle was cut, after adhering card stock to some lightweight cardboard to give some dimension. The "buggy" was paper pieced and Stickles were used on the handle and on the wheels for some bling.

Normally I don't comment on products, but today is an exception. The velvet stickers from Making Memories were purchased from Michael's last week and the adhesive doesn't stick very well; I had to press down numerous times to get a decent picture taken of the card and it was a little frustrating. Looking on the back of the package, the date listed is 2006, so it's possible that this package is outdated and that's the reason the stickers aren't staying in place. I don't want to add anymore glue in fear that it will leave a residue.

Thank you for stopping by and taking a look today. We have a beautiful day in Northern Virginia, after two days of gloom and a lot of snowfall; it set a record according to the weather reports. The blessing is that I was able to play in the craft "studio" for two days without having to get out and about. Sweet hubby and I made a quick trip to buy a few groceries on Friday morning before the snow began to accumulate, so we were set for the weekend.

Have a wonderful week and thank you for stopping by to take a look; I hope you leave with some inspiration, whether it's checking out what you can win over at the CPS blog, buying a cute stamp set from Papertrey Ink, or using colors you see on the card.

Gigi

Stamps: Bitty Baby Blessings (Papertrey Ink)

Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Paper: Select White (PTI), pink (SU!), dp (unknown source)

Accessories: Cotton Candy Stickles (Ranger), ribbon, heart punch (Martha Stewart), Velvet Sayings stickers (Making Memories), circle and scallop dies (Spellbinders), Copic marker

Mojo Monday 124 Life's Possibilities

Lately the sketch challenges have been neglected and I can't give a reason except to say that I've worked on quite a few Valentine cards (see previous post) and didn't use any sketch challenges. Today, since the snow continues to fall in Northern Virginia, and sweet hubby and I don't want to get stranded outdoors in our car, I found a Mojo Monday sketch challenge to use. The card is a very masculine one and these are so difficult for me to make because I love flowers, ribbons, and a lot of bling. Tim Holtz was the inspiration since the stamps have his name registered and the ink is distress ink.

When hubby saw the finished card, he said it makes him think of time running out. We're hoping to get the most out of our life before time runs out, such as taking spur of the moment day trips, which we did on Thursday to NYC. We happened to choose the day before the snow began to fall on the mid-Atlantic area and enjoyed a wonderful time together. Are any of you into Korean food? We stopped at a restaurant called Hanbat and enjoyed a yummy lunch. My daughter and I found this place last year and were impressed with the food and the lunch prices. During lunch, a patron is given several bowls of different appetizers to sample before the main course is brought to the table. We sampled foods that we had never tried and there wasn't really anything left to return to the kitchen we finished....ha ha! We stopped in the huge Toys 'R Us store and had our picture taken together in front of the ferris wheel; I think we were the oldest couple there, but we had a great time checking out the newest toys on the market. We took a cab to Times Square and walked around window shopping until it was nearly time to head home. As we were walking to Macy's, on 5th and Broadway, I found a wonderful trim shop that nearly took my breath away; it's called M&J's Trimming and has wall to wall mouth watering trims, ribbons, etc. that you can use for sewing or crafting projects. I brought home some Swarovski half beads and a few yards of vintage lace to use on cards. The half beads should be larger for floral centers, but what I have will do until my next trip to NYC; I promise to look around the store longer because there was a lot missed.

Thank you for stopping by and hopefully you have taken some inspiration from the card or the sketch.

Gigi

Stamps: Tim Holtz Visual Artistry Collection Life's Possibilities (Stampers Anonymous)

Ink: Walnut Stain (Ranger)

Paper: Brown (Bazzill), Vintage Cream (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories: EB (Cuttlebug), twine (Papertrey Ink), sanding block, buttons, circle die (Spellbinders)