March 14, 2011

Hi everyone!  I'm sorry my post today isn't craft related, but not to worry I have lots of cards ready to share with you all this week and next.   Today I wanted to introduce to you all, the newest member of our family.  

Meet Bella!  Our new puppy is a Beabull puppy and she is 3 months old. I probably know what you are thinking by now, what is a Beabull, right?  I thought the same thing because I never heard of a Beabull, but she is a mix of a Beagle and an English Bulldog.  Isn't she cute? 

As many of you may already know, I have an older dog (a cocker spaniel, Pebbles) and she is dying. I just couldn't bear the thought of coming home to an empty house in a few days and so when my family and I saw this puppy, we knew she was perfect for us.

Thanks for stopping by!  I'll be back tomorrow with a card I made for my class this past weekend.  Have a great rest of the day!

ETA- Yep, this is a new breed of puppy.  From what I've been told it's a rare breed and the pet store I got her from said that in the 10 years that the store has been open this was only the 2nd Beabull they had.

Contact me today if you would like to place an order or to be added onto my mailing list!

My Stampin' Up! Website- http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/

To place your Stampin' Up! order- http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/default.aspx

My email address- pebbles4@ptd.net

March 7, 2011

Hi everyone!  I hope you all faired well with the storm that hit the east coast last night.  Schools here are closed and the ice is everywhere.  The trees in my neighbor's yard are bent over, the lights were flickering, and we had about 8" of snow on top of it all. 

Well, the bad weather gave me some extra time today to create a few cards for today's CAS (clean & simple) challenge on splitcoast stampers.  This week's challenge is a theme challenge and the theme this week is humor.  My first card, pictured below is an Easter card.

There wasn't much stamping on my Easter card and I think my card is right on the border of being CAS and not being CAS.  As soon as I read today's challenge I had this image in my head of a bunny butt and so this is what I came up with.

Other than the fence, my card was just punching the shapes, putting them together, and applying them to my card.  To create the fence I used my woodgrain background stamp and I stamped the image onto a piece of white card stock and then I quickly added a bit of sponging.  Then all I needed to do was to punch out the fence posts and adhere them to my card.

Next, I made the grass by running a piece of certainly celery card stock through my crimper and then I snipped the edges to create the grass blades.

My bunny came next and that was simply punched white card stock (and pretty in pink for the feet) just assembled together.  I have a list of the punches I used to create my card below.  My next step was to add  the clouds, sun, and my sentiment.

The punches I used on my card were:

---Decorative Label- Fence posts
---Cupcake Punch- Clouds, Cherry part of that punch are the bunny ears and the pink of the bunny feet
---2 Step Bird Punch- wing part of that punch are the bunny feet
---1/2" Circle Punch- bunny head
---1" Circle Punch- bunny butt, sun

Stamps:  Woodgrain Background, Well Scripted
Card Stock: Bashful Blue, White, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink
Ink: Spot Suede
Supplies: SU Scissors, Crimper, Cotton Ball, Stamp-a-ma-jig, see list of punches above
Technique: Sponging, Punch Art

Below is the second card I made for today's challenge.  I have to admit this was totally my husband's idea, but I did made the card, so does that still count?  LOL

The photo above is the front of my card and the photo below is of the inside of my card.  In keeping with today's humor theme, my husband suggested that I make a knock knock joke card.  Eventhough this was my hubby's idea, I thought it would be a cute card to put inside his lunch box tomorrow morning.

I reached for my woodgrain background stamp again and this time I simple inked up the stamp and stamped my card front and then I quickly added a bit of sponging.  I repeated this step again so that I would have another stamped background because I needed to cut 2 squares and 2 rectangles to place on my card front for the door panels- I tried aligning the panels with my first stamped background. 

I used my SU slot punch for the door hinges and I used two brads on my card- one for the door knob and the other one to hang the 'knock knock' sign.  To create my sign I printed out the sentiment, punched it using my circle punch, layered it using my circle punch, and then using a hand held hole punch I punched two holes to thread the twine through.  Once my twine was thread through all I needed to do was to hand my sign onto the door hanger brad.

The rest of the joke on the inside of my card was computer generated as well.  Just in case you can't read it in my photo the inside of my card reads:

Who's there ?

Owl !

Owl Who ?

Owl always love you !

The owl in the lower right side of my card was made using the SU owl punch.  This owl punch is so versatile and it's one of my very favorite punches and it goes perfectly with the woodgrain background stamp!  If you don't already own that punch and background punch, be sure to put them on your wish list!

Stamps:  Woodgrain Background
Card Stock: White, Chocolate Chip, SU DP- for the owl
Ink: Spot Suede
Supplies: Brads, Hole Punch- for brads, Twine, White Gel Pen- for the owl's eyes, 1" & 1 1/4" Circle Punches, Slit Punch
Technique: Sponging, Punch Art

Contact me today if you would like to place an order or to be added onto my mailing list!

My Stampin' Up! Website- http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/

To place your Stampin' Up! order- http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/default.aspx

My email address- pebbles4@ptd.net

March 4, 2011

Happy Friday to you all!  This was a long week for me and I'm glad the weekend is finally here.  For today's card I decided to keep it simple.  I used the new Sale-a-bration stamp set called 'So Happy For You'.

I simply stamped the 'birthday wishes' sentiment and then to help jazz it up a bit I decided to add a row of paper piercing and then to help balance off my paper piercing I added two more rows just along the bottom of my card.

In the upper right hand corner of my sentiment layer I decided to add one stamped flower using daffodil delight ink to match the Stampin' Up! decorative paper that I used.  In the center of the flower I've added one medium size rhinestone jewel.

My decorative paper is from Stampin' Up! and it is the same piece of paper, but I folded over about a 1/4" portion, just to give a little more interest to my card.  I usually place the folded over part along the top of my decorative paper, but this time I was going for something different and I placed it towards the bottom.

Then to complete my card, I added ribbon tied using a knot in the same color that coordinates with my decorative paper.

Stamps: So Happy for You
Card Stock: White, Real Red, SU DP
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight
Supplies: Ribbon, Rhinestones Jewels, SU Mat Pack, Paper Piercing Tool, SU Scissors
Technique: Paper Piercing
 
I wanted to take a moment to thank each and every one of my followers.  It means so much to me to share my work with you all.  If you are not already a follower, please join me and follow my blog- I'd love to have you follow me as well!  Well, that's about it for today, have a great weekend and I'll see you back on Monday with another Clean & Simple card! 

Below is a photo of the stamp set I used to create my card.  You can earn this stamp set during Stampin' Up!'s Sale-a-bration.  For every $50 you spend you will earn one free Sale-A-Bration product of your choice and for every additional $50 you spend you will earn an additional free product. Contact me today if you would like to place an order.

Contact me today if you would like to place an order or to be added onto my mailing list!

My Stampin' Up! Website- http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/

To place your Stampin' Up! order- http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/default.aspx

My email address- pebbles4@ptd.net

March 3, 2011

Hi everyone! Today I decided to challenge myself and use a stamp set that I do not use often enough.  Inspired by Nature is such a popular stamp set and I love all of the cards I've seen made with this set!

I began my card by first coloring the flower stamp using my Stampin' Up! markers and then I stamped it onto my card stock.  Then I stamped my grass using the image on the other side of the stamp (this is a double mounted set).  I first used wild wasabi ink and I inked up the stamp and then stamped off onto a scrap piece of card stock and then onto the bottom portion of my card.  I repeated this step again, this time using chocolate chip ink.

After I was finished with my stamping I decided that my card still needed some color and so I added a bit of sponging along the bottom/ground.  I first began lightly sponging using chocolate chip ink (ever so lightly) and then I went upward using wild wasabi.

To finish off my card I punched the bottom of my chocolate chip card stock using my eyelet border punch, added my ribbon, and finally my happy birthday sentiment. 

I hope you like my card, this is one of my very favorite color combinations!  Thanks for taking the time to stop on by!  Make it a great day!

Stamps:  Inspired by Nature, Well Scripted
Card Stock: White, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Wild Wasabi
Supplies: Ribbon, SU Markers, Eyelet Border Punch, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Sponge
Technique: Sponging, 2 Step Stampin'

Contact me today if you would like to place an order or to be added onto my mailing list!

My Stampin' Up! Website- http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/

To place your Stampin' Up! order- http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/default.aspx

My email address- pebbles4@ptd.net

March 2, 2011

I love the SAB sets this year and Sweet Summer is my favorite!  This is one of the sets that you can earn for free during Sale-a-bration this year.  I have a few more that I earned and I'll be making cards with those in my upcoming posts. 

For today's card it was simple, all I did was to stamp and color.  I used my Stampin' Up! markers and outlined the flower stems using my certainly celery marker.  The flowers are colored using my pretty in pink and rose red markers and just in the center tip of the flowers I added a rhinestone gem and of course the bee is black and yellow.

My sentiment is from the level II Silhouette Sentiments stamp set.  I needed to make another thank you card and this thank you sentiment was the perfect size I needed.

My background is embossed using my Big Shot and Framed Tulips Embossing Folder.  If you don't have this folder yet, you definitely have to order it!  It's become my new favorite folder.

See you tomorrow!

Stamps:  Sweet Summer, Silhouette Sentiments- for the sentiment
Card Stock:  White, Pretty in Pink, SU DP
Ink: Black Stazon
Supplies: Ribbon, Big Shot, Framed Tulips Embossing Folder, SU Markers, Rhinestones Jewels, Stamp-a-ma-jig
Technique: Dry Embossing

Contact me today if you would like to place an order or to be added onto my mailing list!

My Stampin' Up! Website- http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/

To place your Stampin' Up! order- http://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/default.aspx

My email address- pebbles4@ptd.net

March 1, 2011

I'm just now getting a chance to upload my card for last week's splitcoast sketch challenge.  My photo below is of the sketch we were to follow.  This was such a cute sketch and I wanted to make sure to play along.  I could image all sorts of smaller stamps being used for this sketch.

I decided to use one of my new stamp sets.  The set I used is a level II hostess set called Silhouette Sentiments.  I love this set, it's so versatile and just my style.

I began by stamping the flower image using Daffodil Delight ink and then using my stamp-a-ma-jig I lined up the image so that my next stamped black image would be just off to the left side a tiny bit- to sort of give it that shadow effect.  I did this four times and then I punched out my images using my square punch.

My background is embossed using the new texture impressions embossing folder called 'Framed Tulips' found in the current mini catalog.  I love this folder and I'm using it even more than I thought I would!

The rest of my time was spent simply following the sketch and putting my card together.  One thing I did differently than I usually do it that using my eyelet border punch I decided to punch both the top and bottom part of my card stock.  I like how that turned out and I'll have to remember to do that more often.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I have a great rest of the day!  Tomorrow I'm going to use another stamp set that I just recently purchased so be sure to check back again.

Stamps: Silhouette Sentiments
Card Stock: White, Black, Daffodil Delight, SU DP
Ink: Black Stazon, Daffodil Delight
Supplies: Ribbon, Eyelet Border Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, Small Oval Punch, Big Shot, Framed Tulips Embossing Folder, 1 1/4" Square Punch, 1 1/8" Square Punch
Technique: Dry Embossing, Shadow Stamping

February 23, 2011

Good Morning!  I'm posting early today beause I have lots to get done plus my son is home sick from school again today.  This cold is going through my enitre family now, it's that time of year I guess.  Today I wanted to share the thank you card I made for my daughter's birthday party last week.

I wanted to make cards that were quick and easy to make. I rarely make OLC (or one layer cards), but I thought it would be a good opportunity to give it a try.

This is a retired stamp set I purchased last year from the mini catalog. I just love this Watercolor Trio stamp set and I'm secretly hoping that Stampin' Up! will put this set in the new catalog- they probably won't but it's wishful thinking right?

There was no special technique to making these cards, I simply cut my sheet of card stock in half, folded them in half to make my card and then I just stamped the flowers, leaves along the bottom of my card.  The sentiment I stamped towards the top in the center and lastly I stamped the butterfly just above and to the right of my thank you sentiment.

I didn't even use my stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp these cards, I just inked up my stamps and stamped.  Seriously, these cards were so easy to make, I had 22 of them whipped up in just over an hour!

Stamps: Watercolor Trio, Thank You Kindly
Card Stock: White
Ink: Melon Mambo, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Black Stazon

February 22, 2011

Hi everyone!  I often times receive emails asking if I ever do any scrapbooking and sadly I rarely do, not that I don't like to scrapbook, it's just that my free time doesn't allow me to scrapbook.  I make cards more often because it's a quicker project.

Anyway, as I promised yesterday this is the memory board that I made for my daughter's birthday party last week.  I chose pictures from when she was only 6 weeks old all the way up until her most recent picture (the one on the middle) from this school year.

I first layered the poster board with black card stock and then I randomly placed her pictures on the board.  Then I layered them onto Stampin' Up! card stock and then adhered them onto the poster board. 

Once I had the pictures where I wanted them I started punching out some flowers and owls.  I know it's hard to see in my photo (if you click on my photo it will enlarge), but some of the flowers are actually two layers.  The 5 petal flowers are two punched flowers layered and held together using a brad.

The extra large fancy punched flowers are layered with a circle center and a button.  All of the owls are sitting on a branch I punched using my 2 step bird punch.  The owls turned out cute because I used my white gel pen to make the owl's eyes appear like they are looking at several of the pictures.  I used the same SU DP for the flowers as well as on the owls.

Her memory board turned cute and towards the end of the party the kids started to settle down and they took the board over to a table and they started looking at the photos and talking about when my daughter was little.

Tomorrow I am going to post the thank you cards I made for my daughter, which reminds me she has to get those in the mail.  Those cards were one layer cards and I wanted them to be quick and easy and they were!  See you tomorrow!

Stamps: None
Card Stock: Black, White, Pretty in Pink, Pixie Pink, Going Grey, Certainly Celery, SU DP
Ink: None
Supplies: Owl Punch, White Gel Pen, 2 Way Glue Pen, 5 Petal Flower Punch, Fancy Flower Extra Large Punch, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Buttons, Glue Dots

February 21, 2011

Hi everyone!  I'm sitting here looking out the window in my kitchen and I can't believe all of the snow we got over night.  Just yesterday I was able to see the grass because a lot of it had melted and now today I spent the morning shoveling again...UGH! 

Anyway, I guess that makes for a great stamping day, right?  And so today I'm going to share wth you the birthday invitation I made for my daughter's surprise birthday party.  I wasn't able to post it until her party was over because she sometimes reads my blog.  She had a great time at her party and she was so surprised!

This is a picture of the front of her invitations.  I sponged the background using a scallop circle punch out and a sponge with bashful blue ink.  Then I stamped the tree image, but I stamped it sideways coming along the bottom of the card.  Next, I stamped the leaves using old olive and certainly celery ink.  I didn't even use my stamp-a-ma-jig for this, I just stamped away.  Then I stamped the flowers using pretty in pink ink and that completed my tree image.

The owl was really easy to make.  I simply punched out the pieces and glued them together.  I saved some time by not punching out an additional white layer for the owl's eyes and I just used my white gel pen.

The sentiment was computer generated and I simply punched them out and layered it onto a green scalloped layer.  The photo below shows the inside of her invitations.

I was so tired of stamping trees and so for the inside of her cards I decided to just sit the owl on a tree branch.  The branch was punched out using my Stampin' Up! 2 step bird punch.  The owl was again, punched out and simply glued together.  The owls were the same on the front and on the inside of her invitations.  Again, I sponged the background using a punched out scallop circle and my sponges.

Just in case you can't read the inside of the card is reads:

There's a birthday party and you're invited to show

But don't tell Danielle, because she doesn't know

So if you can make it, here's a word to the wise

Make sure to come early 'cause it's a surprise'

Please join us for Danielle (last name) party on (day of week)
(date of party) at (time of party)

(location and address of restaurant
and RSVP information)

Stamps: Season of Friendship
Card Stock: White, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, SU DP
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Bashful Blue
Supplies: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Owl Punch, White Gel Pen, 2 Way Glue Pen, Scalloped Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, 2 Step Bird Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Sponge
Technique: Sponging, 2 Step Stampin'

Below are a few pictures from my daughter's party. I know some of my friends have been waiting for me to post a few pictures!  The first picture is of her walking into her party as everyone yelled 'surprise' and the second picture is of my daughter at the table eating with her friends.

I also made a memory board for her party.  I have several pictures from all the years when my daughter was growing up.  It's so hard to believe that she's 16 years old already!  Where did the time go?  Anyway, her memory board is on the cake table (in the back ground) and I will share that with you all tomorrow.  It turned our really cute and I again used that super cute owl punch. 

Well, I'd better get going because I have lots to do today!  Make it a great day!  See you tomorrow!

February 18, 2011

Hi everyone!  Whew!  What a week I have been having.  I tried to get these posted earlier, but I didn't have a chance until just now.  I wanted to share with you the cards I made for my class this past Saturday. 

I'll post the details below each photo.  Sorry that some of the pictures aren't that great, but I don't have these cards anymore to retake the pictures.  I hope you like my cards and thanks for stopping by!

This card is similar to one I made last week, but I just loved the idea of having the hearts coming out of the envelopes so I decided to tweak that card so that it would be easier for my class and this is what I came up with.

I made the envelopes by taking a square piece of dp and folding in the three corners- I used glue dots to hold the envelope together.

Stamps:  I (Heart) Hearts, Holiday & Wishes
Card Stock: White, Pretty in Pink, Real Red, SU Dp
Ink: Real Red, Black Stazon
Supplies: Ribbon, Dimensionals, Heart Clip, Scalloped Border Punch, Paper Crimper, Heart to Heart Punch, Glue Dots
Technique: Paper Crimping

I really like how this card turned out and it was perfect for my class because it wasn't too advanced.  This is such a cute layout too, I like using this layout when I have different dp that coordinates so well.

Stamps: Love You Much
Card Stock: White, Pretty in Pink, Real Red, SU Dp
Ink: Black Stazon
Supplies: Ribbon, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Real Red SU Marker, Scissors
Technique: Paper Piecing

This was the one card in my class that everyone seemed to like the best!  They complimented that they really liked this color combo for Valentine's Day and I like it too because it's not the traditional red, pink, and white Valentine's colors that we always seem to use.

This card was a little more involved because I added two rows of paper piercing along the bottom portion of my white card stock and I added some dd glitter on the stamped heart that we colored and cut out. 

Stamps: Love You Much, Well Scripted
Card Stock: White, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, SU Dp
Ink: Real Red, Black Stazon
Supplies: Ribbon, Dimensionals, Scalloped Eyelet Border Punch, SU Markers, DD Glitter, 2 Way Glue Pen, SU Mat Pack, Paper Piercing Tool
Technique: Paper Piercing

For this card I got the idea to use this background stamp from a card I saw in the splitcoast gallery.  I liked that this card seemed to be more of a masculine card for Valentine's Day and the ladies attending my card class did as well. 

The 'Be My Valentine' sentiment of the main image was stamped twice.  Once using real red ink and again using black ink and then the black portion was cut out and pieced/placed over top of the main image.

Stamps:  Be My Valentine, French Script
Card Stock: White, Black, Real Red
Ink: Real Red, Black Stazon
Supplies: Ribbon, Dimensionals, Scissors
Technique: Paper Piecing

February 12, 2011

Hi everyone!  I wanted to update a post before the weekend and explain where I've been.  Well, I wasn't able to post this because my daughter might have read my blog, but for the past two weeks I have been planning a surprise 'sweet 16' birthday party for my daughter and last night was her party.  She had no idea and she was so surprised!  I'll post a picture once I download them onto my computer.

I'm also preparing cards for my Valentine's Day card class tomorrow and I will be posting pictures of those as well next week.  Have a great weekend!!!

February 2, 2011

Hi everyone!  As I sat here today at looking outside all I could think of was the snow storm that we were in the midst of.  The ice is the worst part and thank goodness it's almost over.  While I was looking outside I happened to see a cardinal sitting on a tree branch.  I also saw animal tracks through my back yard going into my neighbor's yard, I think they were rabbit tracks and so that was the inspiration for today's card.

I started my card by first stamping the tree image and then I proceeded to stamp the snowflakes.  Some of my snowflakes are stamped lighter by inking up my snowflake stamp and then stamping off onto a scrap piece of paper and then stamping the snowflake image onto the tree.  Next, I added the red bird (be sure to use your stamp-a-ma-jig to help align the images better).

To create my snow along the bottom I simply took a scrap piece of card stock and I tore it along the edges.  Then I went along the edges using my 2 way glue pen and I lightly dusted on some dazzling diamonds glitter.  I did that for both layers of snow and then once they dried I adhered them to my card.

I stamped the deer and bunny images onto another piece of card stock and then I cut them out and placed them on my card using a dimensional behind their heads and their feet are tucked down behind the snow.

I punched the top part of my chocolate chip card stock layer using my scallop trim border punch and finally I decided my card still needed a little something and so I decided to add a small bow in the upper right corner.

Well, that's about it for today.  I hope you liked my card, it was hard to get a nicer photograph, but it's really glittery in person.  Stay warm and be safe in this ice storm!  See you tomorrow!

Stamps: Season of Friendship, Forest Friends
Card Stock: White, Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Going Gray, Real Red, Close to Cocoa, Bashful Blue
Supplies: Ribbon, Dimensionals, 2 Way Glue Pen, DD Glitter, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Chocolate Chip SU marker- for the bird's eye
Technique: Paper Tearing, 2 Step Stampin'