Get Sharpening!!

With pencil crayons that is!! The Ways to Use it challenge on SCS today is to use your pencil crayons. Any type, any manner. I decided to break out my Prismacolor pencils and finally use them. I've had them for quite awhile, but have not used them until today. I actually had to sharpen them before I could use them!!

On the Inky Antics turtle I used gamsol to help blend my colors. But I must say I need much more practice with this!! The colors just don't seem to blend very well for me.

The colors for the card came from the ribbon I used and just grew from there. I am currently working on another card using this ribbon, and this is the leftover piece. My base card is Not Quite Navy, layered with Old Olive and Whisper White, which has been stamped in Pretty in Pink in Linen and then spritzed with NQN and Old Olive markers. I then used my tag corner punch on the WW corner panel. Pewter brads finish off this piece.

The circles were punched using the Mary giga and super circles, along with the mega scallop punch. I used my distresser on the NQN circle and then punched with the 1/8" handheld punch around the scallop layer. I used my gel pen on the Pretty in Pink scallop for the dots.

The ribbon was my biggest challenge mostly due to the width, but I just loved the colors and how the ribbon matched SU! colors so well. I took a clear round button, punched a 1" circle from the Petals & Paisley dp (Old Olive side) and used Mono clear liquid glue to adhere. I then used a piece of Linen thread to pinch the ribbon together and help adhere the button to the ribbon. I brought a piece of linen thread up through the button holes which hooks to the thread piece underneath. I like how it turned out and the added texture it provides to the card!

The turtle image is raised up on thick foam squares and I also added small dimensionals under the button to help stabilize it. I added the sentiment in NQN ink, and I'm done!!

I kept this pretty simple because I am supposed to be working on samples for an upcoming Shoebox type event I am part of. We design the cards for the attendees and tomorrow night we will choose what cards to do. There are 6 of putting this event together and this is our second one. We also have a crop day held on the next day. Lot of work, but it's also lots of fun!! So I need to get more samples done as I only have one completed so far!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Happy Stamping!!!

~~~Ann~~~

A Two-for-One card!!!

Well, I haven't stamped in a few of days for a couple of reasons. One, I spent Monday with two of my good friends having lunch and shopping!! And next to stamping, shopping is my next favorite thing to do!! And secondly, I have been working on mailing some cards out to people who needed to receive some happy mail!!

I had every intention of stamping yesterday for the color challenge, but like many things in life, plans went awry!! So I was determined to stamp today with the sketch challenge and I combined the two to create the card you see.

When I saw the sketch Roxie chose for this week, I immediately knew I wanted to use Sweet Shapes. This sketch just seemed to call for it and I haven't used it in a while. The color combo which Emily chose for Tuesday was Purely Pomegranate, Pretty in Pink and Old Olive.

Again, I am still "distresser" obsessed and I used it on at least one layer of each panel. And since I wanted each panel to speak for itself, I did a slightly different look for each.

On the top panel I only rounded to corners and distressed the Pretty in Pink panel. The middle panel was stamped with a collage effect and the Old Olive panel was distressed. And just today I received my new scallop punch, and needed to make sure it was working ok!!, so I punched one in Old Olive and Pretty in Pink. The Purely Pomegranate circle is distressed on here. I used a medium Pink fire rhinestone brad in the middle of the flower. All panels are up on dimensionals.

I used the white and pink taffeta and Purely Pomegranate stitched ribbon on here. The hello oval is covering up my fist hello since I didn't like how it was showing up on the Shimmery White alone. So I stamped it in Purely Pomegranate, over stamped the swirl in Old Olive, after stamping off once, and punched out with the small oval.

This came together very quickly and easily. I really like how this turned out.

Thanks for stopping by! And don't forget you can reach each challenge forum on SCS by clicking on the link in side bar for the specific challenge you want.

Happy Stamping!!

~~~Ann~~~

Featured Stamper 8/26

The Featured Stamper today on SCS is Cammie!!! She has an amazing gallery and wonderful creations to gain inspiration from. Check out the FS by clicking on the link in the side bar on the right.

For this card I chose colors right off the In Color combo that SU! put out for this years colors. I would not have thought Real Red would go with the rest of these colors, but I was pleasantly surprised.

My original idea was to use the large butterfly from Garden Whimsy, but he was just a tad too big for the the space I needed him to fit. So I went with the smaller one and I think it looks just fine. I stamped the butterfly in Real Red and used my Chocolate Chip marker to highlight certain spots and stamped on Confetti White. I used Crystal Effects over the entire image to bring even more focus onto it.

My Whimsy jumbo wheel was rolled in Soft Sky ink and used on the Confetti White panel and then rolled in Real Red and onto the red strip. I used my distressor tool on the edges of the Confetti White and Blue Bayou panels.

I used my piercer along the Choc. Chip panel edges and my white gel pen on the choc. chip scallop circle. I then used DTP on the white and blue bayou edges.

The scallop circle is up on thick foam squares and the butterfly is up on foam squares as well. I used a circle of the Soft Sky dp on the scallop circle to highlight the butterfly even more.


Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out Cammie's gallery on SCS!!

Happy Stamping,

~~~Ann~~~

Inspiration Challenge 8/25

Hello Stampers!!

Each Saturday Karen posts a picture of some item, such as a bedspread, piece of clothing, dinnerware or artwork, to inspire us to creat beautiful cards! This week the inspiration was a piece of artwork and can be found in the IC forum. The link is on the right. I also used Beate's Friday sketch to make my card. I love this layout!! But I really like to use circles in my cards. You can check out Beate's blog by clicking on her link in the side bar.

While this card looks like a lot of work, it came together remarkably quickly. But when you already have a sketch prepared for you it makes thinks much easier!! For me the part I like the best, I think!, is the BG. The BG was done using the Doodle jumbo wheel which I first wheeled in Sage Shadow and then went over different parts with Real Red, More Mustard and Old Olive markers.

The flowers are from Close As A Memory and colored with the same markers and stamped onto VV. Again, because I cannot stand the glare off the VV, I stamped Linen in Barely Banana on first. After I stamped the flowers I outlined them with the Ruby Red marker for more definition. The flowers on the circles were lightly stamped off first then onto the VV.

And since I seem to be obsessed with distressing, I distressed the gold, Soft Sky and Real Red center panel and oval. Paper piercing is done on the red center strip and soft sky main image panel. The main image is up on thick foam squares and the oval sentiment panel is on foam tape. I used the Soft Sky double stiched ribbon and a piece of Mustard gg. The sentiment came from Vases in Vogue, Level 3 hostess set.


Again, I love how this turned out and I have a very special person in mind to send this too! She really needs to have some "Happy Mail" flooding her mailbox and I hope this gives her a bit of sunshine.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!!

~~~Ann~~~

Limited Supplies 8/24

Hello All!!




Fridays are the Limited Supplies Challenge (LSC) on SCS. The forum thread can be found in side bar on the right. The theme for this week was Oldies but Goodies. We were to use 1 or 2 stamp sets which have not seen ink in a looong time, and old sketch challenge, an old color combo and 1 -2 embellishments. The embellies were to be items that tend to get hoarded!! Since I seem to have my sleep cycle all backwards, I was up really late Thursday and actually made 2 cards for this challenge. My first I wasn't completely satisfied with, but it has grown on me.

This card was made using Blossoms Abound, Floral BG, Warm Words and Canvas. None of these sets have seen ink in quite some time!! The Floral BG was stamped with Pretty in Pink and then speckled lightly with Always Artichoke, CC #65. The sketch I chose was SC#48, and you were to use ovals in any manner you chose. I used my Fiskars oval templates for the main image panel and the oval from the Aged Copper HPH. To reduce the glare of the WW, I very lightly stamped Sahara Sand on both oval pieces and then stamped the main images. The rest of the HPH is all Aged Copper, and I do tend to hoard this! Not sure why because I can't sell this to my customers if I don't demo it's uses!!

Distressing was done on the Bravo Burgundy and WW panels and then DTP to the WW panel with Burgundy. Once I had the sentiment panel on, I needed something in the upper right corner but couldn't decide on what. So I went with a second ribbon treatment and a small piece of burgundy gg to tie all the colors in together.

Now I do use ribbon quite a bit, but I have been hoarding this new WW taffeta and it's gorgeous!! The Floral BG panel is up on dimensionals, the main oval image is also up on dimensionals and the oval HPH is up on thick foam squares.

My second card came together much quicker and I was much happier with the end result when I finished.

The image is House Mouse and I've only used him twice now!!! Isn't he just the cutest?? My sentiment came from Everyday Flexible Phrases which I also haven't used in a while. Again, I used more Aged Copper HPH to demo the uses to my customers. My customers look at it in the catalog, but they aren't sure what to do with all of it. So with these two cards, and with others I've done, I can keep with me at workshops and show just how to use some of the items.

I used CC#41 and SC05 for this card. The dp is textured and from K&Co. The small strip on the center panel is So Saffron dp. My ribbon choices are Burgundy gg and the new Very Vanilla taffeta. I brought the layered ribbon up through the double swirl clip and then tied together. More distressing on the So Saffron piece and the middle center panel. House Mouse is stamped in Timber Brown staz on and watercolored with my WWC. Paper piercing done around the Saffron edge and in the four corners of the scalloped square.

I hope these give you some ideas for using items you may tend hoard!! Don't hoard them!! Use them to create beautiful and unique creations!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!!

~~~Ann~~~

Ways to Use It - Thursday 8/23

Good Afternoon everyone!!



For the Ways to Use It challenge today on SCS the challenge was to create a Halloween card! I have 4 already completed to send out to people, but one more wont hurt!! And, besides I received a delivery today from Mr. Brown and he brought me my neutrals textured cardstock!!! So I took my new Basic Grey and used that as my card base, and went from there. My patterned paper is from K&I Memories I found on clearance at one of my LSS. The colors are great for Halloween, but I've used this for non-Halloween cards as well. The rest of my supplies are all SU!, except for scallop square. I used the withch from Booglie Eyes, stamped in Black Staz-on and watercolored with my WCC. I love using those and I don't use them enough!! Once she was colored I used crystal effects to glue the googlie eyes on and then layered her on the Perfect Plum scallop square and then onto the Marigold Morning square, which I distressed with my cutter kit tool. The edges of the black strip are also distressed.


I used my Party Punch hostess set for the Happy Halloween stamp and then punched out with my Round Tab punch. What withch doesn't have a cat for her sidekick??


Too add a little bit of texture to my card I frayed two pieces of grosgrain; Elegant Eggplant and Pumpkin Pie. This is very easy to do. If you check out the New Techniques link on the side, you'll find a week that shows how this is done. This is a vertical cut/top fold style card.



Thanks for stopping by and get working on those Halloween cards!!!




Happy Stamping!!




Ann

Sketch Challenge Wednesday 8/22

Hello Stampers!!

Today is the sketch challenge on SCS! Roxie posted an awesome sketch for us, that I must say was a bit challenging for me!! I like straight forward measurements like, 1 1/2", 2" and so on!! This sketch called for odd measurements like, 2 1/8"!! Now we don't have to do the exact measurements, but for me it's easier.

On my card I chose to use SU!'s new Apple Cider dp, and since I have a workshop this weekend, I thought it would be nice to show my customers some ways to use the dp. This set of dp is awesome and offers a ton of possibilities. I used 3 different sides of the paper on here. The first is on the larger BG panel, and other two are on the smaller squares. The squares are actually one sheet of the Apple Cider dp, front & back. This also allowed me to bring in a small touch of another color, Wild Wasabi, to break up the Really Rust, Close to Cocoa, River Rock combo. I must also be on a distressing kick lately too, since I distressed almost all of the panels and then did DTP on some to add highlights. The little hedgehog is stamped on watercolor paper in Timber Brown staz-on and then watercolored with my Watercolor Wonder Crayons (WCC). I then went around the body and snipped away some spots to mimic the spikey hair. The Really Rust panel is up on dimensionals, the diamond panel is up on foam tape and the hedgehog is up with another dimensional.

I hope this gives you some inspiration to break out your dp and find ways to show as many sides as you can. I also have listed links on the side bar to each of the daily challenges on SCS for you to check out for yourself.

Happy Stamping and Thanks for stopping by!!

Ann

Color Challenge Tuesday 8/21

Hello All!!


Yesterday was the weekly color challenge on SCS. This week's colors are Soft Sky, Groovy Guava and a neutral. I used Whisper White on my card. Emily does a fantabulous job on coming up with some very interesting color combos for us! Some come together very easily and some are a bit more challenging, but they all make me think, and work, outside my comfort zone. And that really is what all the challenges on SCS are about.

On my card above I initially started to work on different layout, but for some reason I just wasn't able to make it work with these colors. I needed another, darker color, to offset the different layers. So as I was playing around with the images I had already cut, I came up with this layout. I really do like how this turned out. I used my Soft Sky and Groovy Guava designer paper that is delicious!! Oh, and did I mention the double stitched ribbon?? You have got to get some if you haven't already!! The stamp sets I used here are Oh, So Lovely and So Many Sayings. Both of these are Level 1 hostess sets. So Many sayings is a very versatile set and the word window punch works with each of the sayings in a single line. On my card I used the key tab punch to get both lines. I also used my cutter kit distressor tool and piercing tool. Direct To Paper (DTP) was used on most of the layers. The flower image panel is up on double thick foam squares and the sentiment is on dimensionals. The card is a vertical cut/top fold style.

I'm sending this off to special person from SCS for all the hard she does!! Hope she likes it!

I'm working on the Wednesday sketch challenge now and will post that as soon as I finish.


Happy Stamping and Thanks for stopping by!!!

Ann

Featured Stamper on SCS!! 8/19

Hello all! This week's Featured stamper on SCS is Mwholers AKA Melissa! She has an amazing gallery of delightfully created simple cards that pack the WOW factor! Be sure to check out the FS challenge here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=233427

The idea is to case a card from the FS and change at least 2 details to make your own card. On my card I changed the colors, stamps, location of the sentiment, paper and size. I also did some distressing to the Old Olive panel and oval. In Melissa's card she used Big Blossom from SAB, but I used Pick A Petal in order to show my customers. I also added black brads, which I placed with my Crop-A-Dile! Love that tool. Now that I don't have to pound and bang to place eyelets I have been using them alot more!

Tomorrow is the Try a New Technique challenge on SCS, and I will attempt to try whatever Beth posts. But if it's not up my alley I will find something to post with a different technique used!

Until then, Happy Stamping!!

~~Ann~~

Discussion with Self!!

So I went to Denver last month for the SU! Annual Convention and the theme this year is Dream Big!! Not just dream, but dream those dreams that really are what you want to do! So I had a little discussion with myself trying to figure out what do I really want to do? My profession, or what actually pays the bills, is a Registered Nurse. In May 2006, I graduated from Michigan State University with my Master's degree in Nursing Education. I wanted this degree for a number of years and worked extremely hard to attain my goal. But you ask, what does this have to with dreaming big and stamping?

Well let me tell you!! Once I came back from convention I made some personal and professional choices which will impact my professional future and my stamping future. Due to a difficult working situation and issues I am not allowed to discuss, I am no longer employed at my recent job. Sounds like the end of the world huh? Not really. For one I have a very strong faith in my Lord that He will guide me through this and help to discover where I truly belong. What I really want to do is TEACH!! Nursing classes, actually, at the college/university level. I have been sending out resumes and applications and now I wait to see if I get called.

The second decision is to focus more intently on my SU! business and expand! I have now have one downline and another ready to sign!! I was recently promoted to supervisor and I really want to go to Hawaii in 2009! Really, really bad!! What I would like to do is teach nursing classes as an adjunct instructor and focus more on my business. This sounds like the best of both worlds to me. I pray this is the direction in which the Lord wants me to go in.

And the third, and final decision, is to go forward with my divorce. This is something which has been brewing for many months and just did not want to deal with it. Now I have decided I must deal with it. But those details I will not bore you with, and I will not publish, the sordid details.

Here are a couple of pics of convention. The one to the right is my friend/sideline, Marlene & I. We had a blast. I am so excited about next year as it will be SU!'s 20th Anniversary!!

The pic on the left is, from L - R; me; Mary, my upline; Marlene; and Brandi, a friend/sideline.

And the next pic is of me next to one of my cards!! I sent this card into SU! last year for one of the monthly WOW! art contests, and sadly I didn't win, but it did make it onto the convention board!! Boy was I shocked when I saw my card up there on the board!

So, after all is said and done, I have thoroughly chastised myself regarding the upkeep of my blog. I many great cards I have created and not posted for all to see. But you can check out my SCS gallery, link on the right side toolbar, and take a look for yourself. And since tomorrow is Sunday, that means Featured Stamper day!! I love this challenge. Along with the Sketch Challenge each Wednesday, these two are my favorite. So I will be posting my card CASE sometime tomorrow.

And thank you to the ladies who have left me comments regarding my cards. They are very much appreciated and helped to get me in gear!

Happy Stamping until next time!

Ann