Author: stampcatwg

Continuing in my quest to complete TONS of challenges this week…today's card is for the fab-you-lus Shabby Tea Room Blog! This blog really brings out the shabby chic girl in me. My card for this challenge is also a custom card order for a gal at work. The super cute picture is of her and her sister when they were little. I scanned it into the computer and then printed it out on PTI cardstock. This is a fun way to personalize your cards.

Click here for the Shabby Tea Room Blog! This week's image is beatiful roses. I knew just exactly what paper to use. I had recently gotten some new My Mind's Eye paper that is super old fashioned and extra glittery. The glitter is the old fashioned kind, too. YUUUMMMMYYY.

Here is my card:

Here is the pretty inspiration image. I could have done 10 cards based on this image! I was thinking chandeliers, dresses, white Melissa Frances doo dads, egads. LOVE IT.

I'm not sure why it isn't photographing correctly…the pink paper is a very pretty shade of salmon/pink/rose. It's coming out darker that it is in person. The rose is from Prima flowers. It's so beautiful and the perfect match to the paper.

The sentiment was printed on the computer. I do that a lot. I am sort of a font junkie too. I think I have over 500 fonts on my laptop. That way I can always find the right one!

Stop and smell the roses!

Whew…there are so many great challenges out there this week! I have been trying to make a card every night and staying up way too late in the process. I am a tired stamper. One more day and then it's the weekend. I think I'll make it. I just couldn't resist any of the challenges! Tonight's card is for Stacey's Stamping Stage – Curtain Call #43.Check out her blog here!

Isn't this color combination gorgeous??? I love love love Kiwi Kiss! Especially the textured cardstock…I cannot believe they did away with that color! Okay, I digressed. This is so lovely…

Here is my finished card!

Colored the sweet coffee cup image with my Copics! Shaded around the edge with some light blue ink. The pretty flower is just a doo dad I had hanging around and it matched perfectly.

My supplies: Stampin Up coffee set, Copic Markers, sentiment from Hero Arts, Nestabilities and cardstock from Stampin' Up and Bazzill.

Hi friends in blog land! Cherry-o! Yes, I know it's supposed to be Cheerio…but my card today has cherries! It's my latest entry into Taylored Expression Blog. As you are well aware…I LOVE her challenges! I hope you are all having a good week. I'm really busy at work and trying to steal some crafty time too. 

The sketchy sketch:

I love those cute cherries!!!

Yesterday at lunch I went for a walk around town and bought a magazine and took some pictures. I loved these brightly colored pretty flags hanging outside blowing in the breeze. This photo was my color inspiration for today's card!

Wow! What a fantabulous day today was! Teadub came to visit and we took a colored pencil techniques class from Dave Brethauer – the owner of Memory Box stamps! The class was at Paper Garden and it was a really good time. Saw lots of friends and generally had a perfect time. After class Teadub and I went for Thai food and coconut ice cream….yeah baby! I have lots and lots to share today so hang in there with me…

 
These are some of Dave's samples from all of his classes. He is a master of colored pencils and watercoloring. He has published card and coloring technique books that I have loved for years. His style is clean and crisp and vivid – really great! He is a very patient teacher. When he comes back to Sac-town next time I really recommend his classes!

These are my finished projects from class today!

If you can believe it this little red birdie is actually colored with ochre, brown, cream, light brown…and then red! We learned how to layer color upon color to give it depth and pop!

I wanted to make Dave, Teadub and Steph some Memory Box cards to hand out today at class. I got out ALL my Memory Box stash to be inspired…Do you think I like birds?? Heehee. Aren't the images great?

Here are my finished cards for today:

 
I first started by stamping the alphabet image over and over again on cream cardstock to make my own background paper. Haven't used the old stamp-a-majig in a LONG time! It's perfect…don't know why I don't use it more often.

I stamped the bird image using my tiny ink spots right onto the alphabet background. Then I cute the oval out with my nestabilities…

And, of course, the inside!

I hope you have enjoyed my post and I hope you're inspired. I haven't used my colored pencils in a long time and I was re-energized to get them out! Get out some old supplies and see what happens…

Hi peeps! Dang, just got in under the deadline this week forTaylored Expressions #123 Challenge! Again, I love the sketch Taylor dreamed up. I had colored this image earlier in the week and voila! It came together tonight. Please send some blog love my way and let me know what you think!

The sketch image:

Layers of Pink, blue and green to match the image:

My Copic color palette for the card:

For denim I always use B21 and B23 and then crosshatch with my colorless blender to make it look faded. For metal I used cool greys. For the face I used E00 and then some pink for the cheeks. The t-shirt and wellies are R21 and R20 together. Two shades of green for the grass blades. The image is a Pure Innocence Girl from My Favorite Things stamps…and the sentiment is from Denami stamps!

Some pretty ribbon and a Martha Stewart flower…

And here is my trusty stamp room sidekick. Now I ask you…is this a stamping table…or a cat massage table? I think Buddy has the right idea…stretch out…relax…it's almost Friday! Have a great weekend everybody!

Seriously, I can't stand it… I am IN LOVE with the Papertrey Ink cloud dies and cream felt. ACK. I am posting two cards today made with the little beauties, and I could probably have made ten more cards without even thinking about it. The felt is unbelievably high quality and I cut the dies with my Cuttlebug machine and they come out perfect every time. Click here to go to the PTI website to see the dies. The clouds match the little stamps in the Up Up and Away stamp set. Seriously…no seriously…I cannot stand it.

Card #1 was made with a pretty rainbow bling I had tucked away in the bling drawer. It came like that…no I did not put alllll those blings into a rainbow! I used my Nestabilities to cut a white circle and then a royal blue scallop circle. Keeping it simple and bright.

Some of the clouds are mounted onto foam tape to pop them off the page. The yellow paper is by Bazzill for Doodlebug Designs. Has a nice texture.

The sentiment is also from Papertrey Ink…isn't it perfect?

Card #2 was made with this cute little mouse stamp from Stampin' Up. A-DORABLE. I used shades of blue and blue violet and again kept the layout simple. A pretty border at the bottom and my favorite checked paper keep it cheery.

This sentiment is from the same Papertrey Ink stamp set…

Today is my friend Teadub's birthday! I made her some goodies and sent them her way earlier in the week…but now I can post them! Now…Ms. Teadub is allll about pink! So her card and prezzies needed to be pink and girlie and sparkly.

Here is the matching card and gift tin:

I decorated the tin with patterned paper and then some rub-ons and some stamped letters. Oh…and don't forget the bling! Pink and brown is the way to go. Before and after… One of my favorite projects for prezzies is to take these short Pepperidge Farm tins and decorate them specifically for the person. (Oh and it doesn't hurt that I have to eat the treats first!). They can hold a gift card, a little jewelry prezzy, some candy, or STAMPS!

Here is the card. I tried a new technique with the cut out. I used my Creative Memories oval cutter after putting the layers of patterned paper together. Then I used my oval punches to make a center piece and hooked it all up with ribbon!

Some cute little pink cupcakes in the background…

I am trying to use some different color combinations in my cards and I found this pretty patterned paper from Crate Paper in my stash to use for inspiration. I love doing the challenges for Taylored Expressions and this card is my entry for Challenge #122. Hey…I used orange…and purple…and brown! Hahaha…and take note…no polka dots!

The sketch image is below. I tried to use different items for the accents, but ended up using butterflies because it looked the best and stayed true to the sketch.

The butterfly punch is one of my favorites from, where else, Martha Stewart. I used some gingham ribbon and tied a lavender button on with some twine. One of my favorite tricks with the butterflies is to glue down the center only and pop the wings off the page.

I just love making these butterflies pop up off the page!

Saturday! Glorious Saturday! Hi everybody…hope you are having a wonderful weekend. I've been holed up in the craft room all day with Mr. Buddy. We're watching Mad Men Season 3 on DVD getting ready for the Season 4 premiere tomorrow night! That Don Draper is dreamy…and a total cad! Does anyone else remember the office party with the tractor? Just sayin' - brilliant television!  

I finally got my craft on this week! Yay! The first card I made today is my entry for the Shabby Tea Room Blog Challenge #19. It's been too long since I entered their challenge. Glad to be back! The theme for this week is "From the Garden" using Red, White, Yellow and Green colors. I got the idea instanty to use the PTI Friendship Jar set with the pretty daisies…fresh from the garden. Hope you likey.

All the stamps are from Papertrey Ink…love that company, don't you? Lots of cutting on this one…the label, the top flower, the scallop red lining on the jar, the bee…

I really wanted the flowers to look like white daisies but it seemed strange to leave them all white. I used my lightest yellow Copics to barely color the petals. I put some prisma glitter in the centers. I used a MS edge puncher and the red paper is also from PTI.

I felt that it needed something in the bottom corner so I added the bee. Notice that I popped up several parts of the card with foam tape to add dimension. I couldn't live without foam tape! I may later add a sentiment on the very bottom also. But for now I just liked it as is.

Today's card is my entry for Taylored Expressions Challenge #121! I haven't entered Taylor's challenge in a couple of weeks and it's fun to play along again. There's still time…why don't you make a card and enter too? After making this card, I realized I need to stop with the yellow and the polka dots! Hmmmm. What will be my next obsession? Anyhoo…here is my card! You best be appreciatin' all the cutting involved in this one! hahaha. This is a great layout. The finished card is 6 inches square.

The sketch image from Taylor:

Supplies – October Afternoon stamps, Copic Markers, Dotted Swiss paper from Bazzill, Amuse cloud paper, Creative Memories circle cutter, and blossom nestabilities…

Chirp Chirp!

Hello chicadees! Oy, it's still roasting here in Sac-town and I'm in the craft room trying to stay cool…

The DH just went up to Target to get the Season 3 Mad Men DVD set so we can get ready for Season 4 which starts next weekend. He got the LAST copy!!! Thanks honey!!! He said he only had to hurt one person! Just kidding! If you have never watched that show, I highly recommend it. I would start from season 1 and watch the whole thing. It's my favorite show – like a wonderful, beautiful movie each week. So well made, I can hardly believe it's television. Sunday nights on AMC. Check it out.

The card I'm posting today was inspired by Julie's Amuse flowers class we took last week at Paper Garden. I made a round card inspired by one of her cards and used the new marigold stamp I bought – which we used on another card in class. I kept it sweet and simple, too. Hope you likey.

I used my large scallop die from Stampin' Up in my Cuttlebug to make the card bases. One tip Julie gave us is to score the back circle instead of the front one – so your card front is a solid circle. I punched two small holes on the side for the bright yellow riboon.

This marigold stamp is very versatile…you can stamp it in any color and it makes a nice crisp image. I used Adirondack Ink in Sunshine Yellow. The "Thank You" is a Stampin' Up image.

Notice the tiny clear rhinestones in the center of the flowers?

This is the inside of the card. The bee is from PTI and the saying is from Paper Source.

Pretty little Thank You's all ready to go!

A friend at work hired me to make some cards for her recently. One card for a little girl turning one and the other card for a little boy turning two. I don't often do cards for the wee ones! I don't really have a lot of images or paper to fit this scenario. I thought I would share my ideas in case anyone else has this dilemma. I am pleased with how the cards turned out and hope you like them too.

What is sweeter than this pink and white checked paper? I made some banners and stamped her name on them. Added some little daisies and a big number ONE!

A really great color combination for boys is blue and orange. Since these are complementary colors on the color wheel, they look great together. To me they imply fun and activity. I can't explain it but I think in color that way. I used Basic Grey paper and letter stickers for this card.

The boy image is from an October Afternoon clear stamp set. I colored him in with my Copic markers to match the paper exactly. I used a small TWO from the letter stickers to put on his t-shirt. I got some new nesties and used them too!

Hi y'all! Whew…just had me some fun this weekend! It went by in a flash…maybe the fastest weekend on record. Lemme tell ya about it! Julie Ebersole, Amuse teacher extraordinaire, came to our local stamp store, Paper Garden, this weekend to teach classes! I have followed her blog for a long time and love her style and her cards and photographs. I was really excited to get to meet her in person and make some great projects. My friend Teadub, also a big fan, came to stay the weekend at my house and take a class with me. I was also very excited that my friend Shauna was in class! We made some new friends along the way too – Erna and Joy and Renee (shout out to ya gals!)

Julie is just as lovely and fun in person as I imagined and also very funny! The cards we made – five in all – we just so cute. We made this one card using some supah cool five inch wide ribbon she found! We stamped on the ribbon for a very soft effect. Also made some poofy paper flowers. The whole class had a flower theme. Great time!

 
Later on Saturday we did some power shopping at Paper Garden. Love the Copic Marker display to take pictures! Sunday allllll day we stamped in my studio and had grilled cheese sammiches. MMMM. I tried to accurately document the tornado that occurred in the studio with TWO crazy crafty girls!! You can see Mr. Buddy in the background. He LOVES Teadub! They are new BFF's.

One of my favorite gal pals recently adopted two brand new tiny baby Scotty Dog Puppies!!! I have seen some pictures and lemme tell ya…they are uber cute! Well…I'm never one to miss an opportunity to make a card so I decided to make "new baby" cards for her.  My friend shares my love of all things vintagey and preppy so I had the idea pop into my head to use kind of an old rose shade of pink for one card. The perfect stamp set from Pink Persimmon. Ugh, I seriously can't stand it.

Well…I made this girlie card ahead of time and set it aside to save for when the new girl baby came home…then I got an email saying that she went to pick her up and ended up with a girl and a boy! I had to quickly go and make a second card! Hahaha. I can't wait to meet the new kids!

With this super cool stamp set you can stamp your doggy and then either color in the sweater or use one of the patterns provided. Also, you can use the tiny bow stamp to make the bow match in the same color. I found some of this herringbone paper in my stash and it was PERFECT! I added a tiny pink rhinestone for just a touch of bling.

And here is the boy card! I used the same herringbone print…in baby blue of course. I then put on a tiny blue rhinestone for the bow. I did not have blue herringbone paper (sad face) so I used some aged vanilla paper to keep the same vintage feel.

This weekend my bestie Teadub is coming to our house for the weekend!! WOOT WOOT! We are taking a class from Julie Ebersole (of Amuse fame) at my friend Stephanie's Stamp Store (Paper Garden) and then attending a party at the store later Saturday night. Sunday we are planning to stamp the day away. I'm so excited! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  

Today's card is my entry for the Taylored Expressions #119 Challenge. Check out Taylor's blog by clicking here. I was having a hard time coming up with an idea for this card. I tried all kinds of colored papers and different stamp sets. Then…as I was eating my recent favorite snack…it came to me! I used the fun color scheme inspired by the Coconut M&M's package! The colors are bright kelly green, chocolate brown, white and a pop of hot pink! Perfect.

I tried coloring in all the images but I thought it looked better leaving the images in the panels simple and just coloring the main coconut image. Below is a picture of some of my supplies! The cute Hawaiian set is an old set from CTMH.

The sketch image:

The coconut was colored in with my Copic markers and then I put some ultra fine glitter on the accents. I used my Marvy punches to add the hot pink scallop around the image.

MMMMMMMMM. You can find inspiration anywhere!

Happy 4th of July!!! Hope you are having a nice holiday weekend and enjoying time with friends and family today. I got in some stamping time this morning – before we get ready to head over to my brother in law's house for fireworks later! I made a card using PTI's new sets "Friendship Jar" and 'Friendship Jar Additions." Really cute stuff!

The jar, label, paintbrushes, and cover are all separate clear stamps. I cut out the label and the cover to add some dimension. I colored in the paintbrushes using colors of the rainbow in bright primary shades. Used my Copics…of course.

The ribbon is also from PTI – Poppy is the color. Here are my Copic colors. I didn't do shading since I wanted the color to look rich and bright. I did a little shading on the label with two shades of yellow. I used the lightest blue green color around the edge of the jar to make it look like glass.

I added diamond glaze to the paint to make it look like wet paint! I colored the bristles with warm grey and the handles with cool grey. You could do so much with this set! I can't wait to make stuff in different color schemes.

Hey everyone! I'm kinda short on stamping time this week. We are trying to refinance our house and do all that comes with that…paperwork, appraisal, etc. It is a long process, but one that will hopefully work out and be a good thing in the long run. Send some good vibes our way.

Since stamping time is at a premium, I combined two challenges in one! A color challenge from the gals over at Shabby Tea Room and a sketch layout from Taylored Expressions. The colors are bright and happy: Lime green, hot pink and aqua blue Love those colors… and I always love a sketch from Taylor.

Check out Shabby Tea Room Challenge #16 by clicking here. AND Check out Taylored Expressions Challenge #118 by clicking here.

I used this super fun paper collection from K & Company called Citronella. It has all the bright, juicy colors called for in the challenge and has fruits and drinks and all kinds of yumminess! The drink is a big sticker! The limes and strawberry on the right were cut out from the patterned paper. I used hot pink bazzill paper and some white paper for my layers. The polka dot ribbon is from PTI – chartreuse.