Gingersnap Creations Color Challenge

I *love* the color combination for the newest color challenge over at Gingersnap Creations: Turquoise, Blue, and Purple.  I chose to take the colors all soft and vintagey for my card, to go with my vintage image.  I also wanted to keep with the Gal Pal theme, so I chose this lovely retro lady writing a letter to a distant friend, with a sentiment that goes along quite nicely, I think. :)  The papers are ancient - from my stash - some My Mind's Eye, I believe.  I added a bit of crinkled seam binding and a little pin that I crafted from a pearl bead and rhinestone rondelle.  The panels are cut with Spellbinder's Nestabilities.  The images are both from Viva Las VegaStamps - "Lady Writing" and "The Heart Knows No".

Be sure to check out all of the fabulous creations of the DT members over at Gingersnap Creations.  I hope you'll play along... there is blog candy to be had this month! ;)    

Mojo Monday Week 89

Is it possible to fall in love with a stamp set? Seriously, to actually CRAVE using a particular set of stamps? Because when I saw these stamps, my heart melted! I just had to adopt (um, buy) these cute little bugs! :) Anyway, this is my card for the Mojo Monday sketch this week. This adorable bug stamp set is by Basic Grey, released as part of their Wisteria Collection. I did the card in Stampin' Up's Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, and Tangarine Tango colors, which happens to be the color challenge over at SCS. I colored the little buggies with Copics to match the paper, then added a little Dazzling Diamonds and cut them out with my Nestabilities Labels One die. The patterns in the stripe and the bottom paper were made with the stamp set. The top patterned paper is from SU's Urban Garden collection. I added some leaf ribbon from Papertrey Ink, a blossom from a spray (Michael's), and some Hero Arts bling. The stitching in the circle is actually a Hero Arts faux-stitch stamp (50% off at Archiver's!). I had so much fun with this sketch, the color combo, and my new pets ... er, I mean, stamps! Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

Easter Damask

Hello and welcome to my first-ever blog post! Today I turned to Jodi's color challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers for inspiration, which was to use Stampin' Up!'s Pretty in Pink, Kiwi Kiss, and Baja Breeze. I was in the mood for Easter, so here's what I came up with:




















I didn't actually have Pretty in Pink, so I had to use Pink Pirouette instead, but I think it keeps the spirit of the challenge! The image is an adorable label stamp from Cat's Life Press - their images just make me smile! I also used some Hero Arts bling, a felt flower that I cut using my Cuttlebug, some Martha Stewart Ribbon, Fiskar's Threading Water border punch, and some Jolee's leaves that I stamped with Kiwi Kiss.

The damask background was made using an altered $1 stamp from Michael's. Have you noticed how NICE these $1 stamps are getting? LOL! Anyway, if you'd like to try it, here' what I did.

First, I removed the rubber from the wooden mount (hubby was kind enough to be my model for the first shot). I then used sharp scissors to cut the design into three separate parts. I did this to make it easier to use two colors, opening up more pattern possibilities.

I stuck the separated rubber images onto a 50-cent acrylic block from JoAnn's; the center medallion went on one side, and the two little scrolly thingies went on the other side of the block, to make switching colors easier. Note that to start out, I aligned the scrollies on the back to be pretty close to where they were in the original design, just on the reverse side of the block. This will make the first placement of this design easier (bear with me, you'll see what I mean in a minute ;). ) There was enough stickiness left on the back of the cling mount so that I didn't have to add anything more to make them stick, and they easily come off. Eventually I may have to use some non-permanent adhesive.

Next, it was time to stamp. I started by stamping the larger center image in Baja Breeze.

I flipped the acrylic block over, and inked up the scrollies with Kiwi Kiss. You can use the position of the center medallion on the reverse side to see how to line up the Kiwi scrolls. After you stamp the first set of scrolls, remove ONE of them, since from now on, you'll only stamp it singly.

Keep on stamping the image in ROUGHLY a straight line (don't stress - imperfections give it more appeal!!) When you get to the second line of images, off-set them, so that the blue center medallion lines up directly underneath the green scrolly.

Just keep going until you fill up as large of an area as you'd like. This technique has endless possibilities. Hopefully, I'll have another example using this same stamp tomorrow!!

Thanks so much for staying with me 'til the end of this very long first post LOL!! I hope you enjoyed it.