Cornish Heritage Farms One Sheet Wonder Challenge

Whew! I just finished my first One Sheet Wonder project, as part of the last week of the Cornish Heritage Farms Summer Stamp Star Design Challenge. This event has been SO MUCH FUN, and this last week was definitely the most challenging for me, since I'd never made a masterboard before. I will try to get some of my step-by-step photos up over the weekend (since I actually remembered to take them!), but for now, just the cards.....

The CHF stamps I used were Botanical Bliss, Sweet Bee, Ornamental Beauty, and Delicate Wings (Butterfly). My color palette was based on Stampin' Up! inks and cardstocks: Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Soft Sky and Baja Breeze, and Riding Hood Red. I also added in some kraft paper and Anita's taupe ink.

The card on the left uses a journaling block stamp from Orna- mental Beauty, some blossoms from a "big box store" floral sprig, some rhinestones from Kaiser, and a tiny little Hero Arts flower for the center of the red bloom. These Hero Arts "Art Flowers" come in cream and white, but the neat thing is that you can color them with all sorts of media, such as glimmer mists and markers. I used a Copic marker that was similar to the Kiwi Kiss color. The card on the right is a tri-fold card. I stamped the willow image from Sweet Bees onto kraft cardstock, and colored it with Prismacolor pencils. I cut the masterboard paper using a Big Shotz die in my Cuttlebug, then made a sort of office envelope look with a button and twine closure.

For this next pair, I used a long strip of the master- board paper for each one. For the card on the left, I stamped the poppy image from Botanical Bliss and colored it with Copics, then cut it out with my Nestabilities Labels Four. A little ribbon, a sweet little sentiment in the corner, and done. For the card on the right, I painted and distressed a chipboard frame from Maya Road to set off the sentiment (also CHF - forgot to mention that one before). The border around the patterned paper is from Ornamental Beauty, and the ribbon is from Martha Stewart.

Okay, last set of cards.... Here's the deal with the card on the left.... I had an awkward little piece of patterned paper left after I cut out everything, and I just couldn't let it go... so I punched the butterfly shape, then pondered it for a long while. Kinda cutesy, didn't know what to do. Then I decided to make a card that could go to a younger girl (my daughter is 10), so I wanted to make it kinda free and fun, but still in keeping with the set. I used a border punch for the Kiwi Kiss, added three cute little buttons tied with twine, and then got out my slim black marker and made "messy" style lines all around as a border to finish it off. For the card on the right, I got out those big box blooms again, along with those cool Hero Arts flowers that I colored with Copics, and some rhinestones for the centers. The frame around the sentiment is Tim Holtz grungeboard painted red, then green, then distressed. Those wonderful corner stamps are from the Ornamental Beauty set.

Okay, last picture... the box to put it all in, and a few tiny little gift tags to use up some scraps I just couldn't throw in the trash!! The box has the same button toggle type of closure as the tri-fold card above, except that I used the circle poppy stamp from Botanical Bliss for the bottom "button." The tags are pieced together and cut with Nesties. The tiny sentiment is from Botanical Bliss; added some pretty ribbon, and DONE!

Thanks for sticking with me 'til the end of this long post!! You can STILL PLAY in this challenge, so whether you are a One Sheet Wunderkind or have always wanted to try, hop on over to the CHF gallery for some inspiration and see what you can do! Have a wonderful weekend!

Exciting News....

I am over the moon right now! My Home Sweet Home card was chosen as the winner of Cornish Heritage Farms' Summer Stamp Star Design Contest for Week 4! The designers over there are soooo very inspiring (check out the CHF Creative Blog "Farm Fresh" here), as are all of the participants in the challenges. I tell ya, I have learned SO MUCH from participating in these challenges!! Thanks so much to Becky Olsen and the entire design team for a wonderful treat!

You can still enter the fifth and final week of the challenge... head on over HERE, and even if you don't have time to enter, you will get an amazing amount of inspiration from what's there already. And for those of you who are like me, and don't think you would win... TRY IT! Seriously. I have never won any sort of design contest before today. You've just gotta try. My little "Quote of the Day" gadget for today was "Winners never quit and quitters never win." by Vince Lombardi. So true. So let me know if ya enter, okay?

Tag Tuesday Challenge - Metallics

A crazy little tag for Kard Krazy's Tag Tuesday challenge this week, where the theme is "metallics." I've had a package of copper in my stash for ages, and I've been wanting to try embossing it in the Cuttlebug. This little project was perfect for experimenting. The main image is from Crafty Secrets' Bird Notes set. I distessed the copper a bit with some alcohol inks, and added some sheet music as a fringe. The paper is from My Mind's Eye. Thanks for looking!

The Birds and the Bees ATCs

Our local ATC club is meeting this week, and our theme was "Idioms." I have lots of bird and bee stamps, hence my idea for my cards. I realized after I had finished that one of my stamps that I used is in itself another idiom, "You make my heart sing!" So it's a two-for-one, I guess, LOL!!

I used German scrap for the main bird image. The stamps sets I used were Sweet Bee from Cornish Heritage Farms' The Rummage Bin, Bird Notes (Medium) from Crafty Secrets, and Bloomin' Beautiful from Stampin' Up. I colored in the images using Copics and a white Souffle pen (for the pussy willows and the bees' wings). The background paper is from Basic Grey's Porcelain collection, and the card base is SU!'s Kiwi Kiss. This project was so much fun!! I highly recommend this theme for all of you who have a regular swap club... you can find sites with tons of idioms just by Googling 'idioms.'

Thanks for looking and have a great day!!

Winter Wonderland Week 9 - Christmas Tree Decorations

Here's my little paper ornament for Winter Wonderland's challenge this week, which is Christmas Tree Decorations. (Sorry for the bad pic, since the ornament is mostly white, I had a hard time coming up with a good way to photograph it.) I am woefully behind on these challenges (I've missed three!) but hopefully now that the summer is winding down for us, I'll get back in the groove.

I used a little Victorian clip art angel as the focal point, and added some platinum Stickles around the edge. The "wings" are some vintage velvet leaves that I got on Etsy (Paper Tales). I added a little crepe paper, some dangling snowflakes, a Grungeboard star with pewter Distress Crackle paint, and a Peace sticker. Very quick and easy, and very fun. Thanks to all the ladies over in Wonderland for another fabulous challenge!!

Home Sweet Home - Cornish Heritage Farms Make A Scene Challenge

This is my very first attempt at making a scene-style card. It's my entry for the Cornish Heritage Farms Summer Stamp Star Design Challenge, which for this week is "Make A Scene." I tell ya, my Stamp-a-ma-jig has been resting quietly in a drawer since I bought it about a year ago.... until today that is, when I gave it quite the workout!!! For those of you who have never built a scene with multiple stamps, here's my biggest tip: Gather up the stamps you are interested in using in your scene, and stamp them each onto a piece of acetate using StazOn, aligning them with your Stamp-a-ma-jig. Then you can use your acetate images to play around with the arrangement of your scene. It sort of lets you know ahead of time what works, what looks too busy, etc. When you are ready to put ink to cardstock, start lining up your foreground images using your acetate images and your Stamp-a-ma-jig. Carefully remove the piece of acetate, and line up your stamp. When you are ready to do the images that are further in the background, make a mask for each of your foreground images and adhere them to your cardstock scene using removable adhesive. Sorry I don't have photos of each step, but I was learning as I went along!! Anyway, it's a fun technique (and a little time-consuming until you get the hang of it :)).

For this scene I used two Cornish Heritage Farms stamp sets: The Homestead (from the Scene It! line) and Sweet Bee (from The Rummage Bin line). My Sweet Bee set was actually blog candy that I won from Julia Stainton's blog, so I was very psyched to use it for the challenge! :) I colored the images with Copics and Prismacolor markers. Other embellishments include Hero Arts flowers, Stampin' Up! Hodgepodge Hardware, Martha Stewart ribbon, and Making Memories brads. All paper is from My Mind's Eye.

Thanks for looking - hope you're having a great weekend!! (You may want to check out Cornish Heritage Farms' last Summer Stamp Star Design Challenge, which is One Sheet Wonder.)

Little Paper Shop Masculine Birthday

A little birthday card for my hubby. His birthday request was for cymbals to go with our Rockband drum set, so that inspired me to go with the "Rock Star" stamp set from The Little Paper Shop (the guitar, the U Rock sentiment, and the little border of notes). I stamped a music score in the background (Stampendous) and added a little badness with a skull from Inkadinkado. I then distressed the entire image and colored it with Copics. I stamped the guitar again on the card background. All patterned papers are from My Mind's Eye, and the inks are from Stampin' Up! (Riding Hood Red), Colorbox, and Ranger Distress.
Hope you have a wonderful, musical Saturday! :)

Cornish Heritage Farms Resist Challenge

A card I made for the Cornish Heritage Farms Summer Stamp Star Design Challenge, which for this week is to use a resist technique. I used clear emboss resist for the two background papers and the background of the main image.

For the bottom patterned paper, I randomly stamped SU's Soft Sky blue and Memories Mango pumpkin-colored inks on a white background, then clear embossed an image from CHF's Ornamental Beauty stamp set. I then went back over the paper with Versafine Vintage Sepia ink using a brayer. For the top patterned paper, I clear embossed another image from Ornamental Beauty, then smudged on the Mango ink. For the main panel, I first masked off the area where the image would go. Then I clear-embossed a text background, brayered Soft Sky ink over that, then stamped CHF's Tree Swallows Silhouette image in the area that was not embossed. (I had tried it with the entire panel embossed, but it was too busy - couldn't really appreciate the bird image.)

Other supplies include SU Baja Breeze, Very Vanilla, Whisper White, and Chocolate Chip cardstock, clear embossing powder, Prima Flowers, Martha Stewart and Anna Griffin ribbons, Making Memories alphabet stickers, and buttons and twine from my stash.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Quick and Easy Big Boy Birthday Invites

These are the invitations I made for my son's 8th birthday party, which is being held at one of those places with giant inflatables to bounce in, and lots of big screen TVs with Wiis. Okay, I know what you're thinking.... why in the world would anyone do handmade cards for 8-year-old boys, who are very probably going to be the least appreciative recipients of anything artsy/scrappy? Well, I'll tell you my excuse(s)....1) the only invites available from the inflatables place were the kind you print out on a sheet of A2 paper (phfewie! these daggone things were u.g.l.y.!!) AND 2) they cost next to no time or money (no embellishments except for staples from a regular old desk stapler).

Anyway, the skateboarder image (and "Air") are from I Brake for Stamps, the guitar is from the Little Paper Shop, and the bingo numbers in the corner are from the Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous line at Michaels. A little stamping, a little ripping and tearing, a little distressing, and I was almost done. I computer-generated the "You're Invited" using a free font I found online (called S'Awesome), printed it out on regular letter paper, stapled it on, and DONE!! So it really won't matter that much that it goes into the trash almost immediately. As a card-maker, I just couldn't bear to send out a printed-out sheet of paper with ugly graphics... so I still have my pride :) Thanks for looking and have a great day!

SCS Inspiration Challenge - Chasing Fireflies

The Inspiration Challenge over at SCS was the children's clothing and accessories catalogue Chasing Fireflies. For my inspiration I chose this photo, because I just loved the rich colors in this outfit, and the fun combination of flowers and stripes. I used Scrappy Cat stamps for the flower images, which I cut out and pieced, and added buttons and twine from my stash as the centers. I free-hand cut the stems and some of the leaves (the leaves on the right are from a MacGill punch). I layered it all on a background cut with Nestabilities Labels One dies. I added striped paper from Basic Grey, layered with Kiwi Kiss (SU) and cut with Fiskar's threading water punch. The ribbon is from Martha Stewart, and the pearls are from Kaiser. Just a quick, cheery little card, for a birthday perhaps. (I haven't added a sentiment inside yet - may need a quick thank you some day!) TFL!

Warm Wooly Wallhanging

Yes, it would seem I am existing in a totally different season LOL!! But there's a reason, REALLY.... it's Cornish Heritage Farms' Summer Stamp Star Design Challenge Week 2, and the challenge is paper piecing.
My only CHF stamps that lend themselves to paper piecing also lend themselves to wintery projects :). The Warm Wooly Mitten Co. sign stamp really drove this project. Anyway, lots of different stamps and patterned papers went into this one. The CHF stamps I used were Primitive Sheep, Winter Vintage Signage, and The Homestead set (for the "Farm Fresh" and the tiny sheep). I paper pieced and popped up the sheep, mittens, trees, and snow layer. The panels are all distressed with Ranger's Distress Inks in Antique Linen and Brown Corduroy for an "old wood sign" kind of effect. The papers are from Chatterbox, K and Co., and Basic Grey (Wassail - LOVE that line!). I put a couple of huge eyelets in the top in order to hang it from the hanger (a craft store purchase from a trip to PA). The non-stamped wordage is all computer-generated, and yes, I meant to spell "shear" that way. :)

Hope you're having a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by!

Winter Wonderland Week 6 - Christmas Past

Oh dear, late again... this one coming in just under the wire! We've had a busy week in our household (my kids started school this week - we're on a year-round schedule), so haven't had much time to craft. This week's Winter Wonderland Challenge is "Christmas Past." This was such a great theme, I was once again very indecisive - so many possibilities! I wanted to capture the anticipation of Santa flying through the air on a sparkling, snowy Christmas night... definitely one of my favorite memories from Christmas past! I finally decided to go with a scan of this lovely image from a Victorian Trade Card I purchased a few months ago. I used some Tim Holtz grungeboard swirls (painted with Distress crackle paint in Pewter) and Wish ticket, and some Little Yellow Bicycle snowflakes. The base is some PSX paper (don't laugh!), and the surround is crepe paper with Platinum Stickles (the best color they make, IMHO!). Thanks for looking!

SCS Featured Stamper Challenge

Sunday's Featured Stamper challenge over at SCS was to emulate Sandra, a.k.a. "B-gin-r". I chose this card from her gallery. The topiary image is from The Little Paper Shop. For her card, Sandra embossed her image in white, then applied distress inks to add color, with the embossing acting as a resist. I wanted to use chalks to add color (not sure why I had that idea....) Anyway, after much trial and much error, I learned that the best way to approach this design was to rub a few different colors of green chalk on a white panel, THEN stamp the image in VersaMark and emboss with white embossing powder. My other unsuccessful attempts were to emboss with clear and white embossing powder first, thinking that the embossing would act as a resist for the chalk. Not so, at least not in my hands!! Anyway, the rest is pretty simple. The patterned paper is by Anna Griffin, and the cardstock is SU's Soft Sky, Kiwi Kiss, and Always Artichoke. The sentiment is from Hero Arts. Bling and ribbon are from my stash. Really, this would have been a 10-minute card if I'd done it right the first time, LOL!! Ah well, live and learn. Have a great Monday, everyone!

Winter Wonderland Challenge Week 5 - Christmas Crackers!

This one is coming in just under the wire LOL! The Week 5 challenge over at Winter Wonderland is Christmas Crackers. I don't know why, but I was totally indecisive about what to do (too many possibilities, I guess). So I finally just had to cut the scrap and do one :) This cracker uses a sheet of white crepe paper as its base. The image is from Inkadinkado, and the embellies are: poinsettias from Making Memories, rhinestones from Hero Arts, patterned papers from Basic Grey, and ribbon from A.C.Moore. Pretty simple, really. Don't know why it took so long to figure out! Well, that was sort of an odd post for Independence Day! Although maybe not too much of a stretch... firecrackers, Christmas crackers... *groan*! Have a happy 4th!

Cornish Heritage Farms Homestead

A card I made for the Cornish Heritage Farms Summer Stamp Star Design Challenge. This week's theme is "Color It!" You can see the details of the contest by following the link, but the most important one is.... if you participate for all 5 weeks, you get a coupon for 25% off CHF's shop! I wanted to make this stamp from "The Homestead" set look like one of the old stone farmhouses that are scattered across eastern and central Pennsylvania. They were made from the stones that were plowed up when the farmers were tilling their fields, and were often added on to throughout the years. Anyway, I used lots of Copic markers to try to get the effect. The patterned papers are from Basic Grey, the ribbon from JoAnne's, one button (green) from Papertrey Ink and one from my stash. The sentiment is from the same CHF set. Have a great day (and a belated Happy Canada Day to our northern friends)!