Monthly Archives: December 2007

Rain or Shine…

Posted on December 5, 2007 | 10 comments

There is definitely not any rain here today. A gorgeous thick blanket of snow covers everything and the evergreens behind our house look like a postcard. Wind is down, sun is out…a perfect winter day.

The design I have to share with you today uses today’s sketch challenge layout paired up with a sneak peek of a My Favorite Things Stamp set….Rain or Shine. A darling umbrella, a MFT classic box scene, some darling sentiments, a pair of boots and some other darling additions….this set is adorable. I have some more samples already planned in my head and I can’t wait to get at them! 🙂

Make sure you join us tonight in the My Favorite Things STamps forum at www.splitcoaststampers.com We’re having a release party from 9-11 pm EST. The new sets will go on sale at 10:30. Enjoy! 🙂

Rain or Shine

Again…another super large card…I’m not quite sure what is going on! LOL I can’t make it smaller…soo…. bear with me here. 😉 This design uses a Soft Sky cardstock base and is layered with Very Vanilla and a darling My Mind’s Eye Tres Jolie print for the panels in the sketch layout.

For my main image, I stamped the umbrella in Regal Rose craft ink and then masked it. The cloud is stamped in Soft Sky dye ink and then the sentiment, in black. The sentiment says….Rain or Shine… (and inside) I’ll be your umbrella. Isn’t that sweet? The image is punched out with my scalloped square Marvy punch and then matted before adhering to the layout. I always love using this striped May Arts ribbon with Soft Sky color combos and a strip is added across the bottom of the design with some buttons adhered to it. Another little scrap is tucked behind the image to create a little tab.

Wishing you a day that shines! 🙂

10 Comments

Posted in Card Designs

A breath of fresh air…

Posted on December 4, 2007 | 26 comments

With all the winter weather here…I needed a little reminder of spring yesterday! With five kids home for the day…it couldn’t be too involved…busy, busy, busy….so I came up with this quick floral design to remind me of spring. We’re still in the grips of a winter storm this morning. School is canceled…again. And the elementary school has a PA Day Friday so….it is going to be quite the week.

Floral Hi

Sorry this card design is a little large! For some strange reason my blog server is having a few issues this morning! Also, I just realized, I can’t add any links…I’ll have to edit them in later. Sorry! As I mentioned…I wanted to create a quick card yesterday and my new Cornish Heritage Farms backgrounder stamps were perfect for doing that. I just love them! I also paired them up with this week’s CPS sketch…I took a few liberties with the main panel but hey! It’s for inspiration right? 😉 To break up the crisp white cardstock, i stamped my new Spanish Script stamp in Olive across the middle of my 4×9″ card base. I always love this size of card…why do I not use it more?!

The main image panel is was stamped with the Wild Rose stamp and then colored in with my Copic markers. To add a touch of texture, I inked up my Scratched Grid backgrounder with Creamy Caramel ink and then stamped over top of my image. A little Hi sentiment from Kim Hughe’s Scripty Words set is tucked at the bottom of the image.

To work in the flourish that is part of the CPS layout, I pulled out my sewing machine for a very free-style type flourish of vine and leaves. On top of that, a velvet brad from Making Memories is set in the middle of a Prima flower.

Hope you enjoy it and have a wonderful day! 🙂 How’s the weather in your neck of the woods? Beginning to look a lot like Christmas yet? 😉

26 Comments

Posted in Card Designs, Challenges, Cornish Heritage Farms

You warm my heart

Posted on December 3, 2007 | 17 comments

You warm my heart…one of three fun soon-to-be released stamp sets from My Favorite Things Stamps. You don’t have long to wait! The sets will be released Wednesday December 5th at 10:30 pm EST and I know you’re going to have a lot of fun with these ones! This You Warm My Heart Set is really darling! I love the little winter scene and the darling stamps that make up the set. I can really use some warming up today! Winter snow squalls and a flash freeze after a very wet evening last night has left us gasping for mercy today! The kids are extremely excited though. 🙂 A two hour bus delay for them…my feeling is they’re going to be home all day if this doesn’t let up soon!

Join us Wednesday evening from 9 – 11 pm EST in the My Favorite Things Stamps Forums on Splitcoaststampers for the December Release “Cocktail Party”. 🙂 Prizes, surprises and lots of fun. If you’ve ever wanted to be a guest designer…you can find out how then too! 🙂

You Warm My Heart

For this design, I pulled my color inspiration for this glittery piece of Making Memories patterned paper. I loved the warm color combo and pulled out the hint of blue to cool things down a little. 🙂 After all…we need something to warm up with this sentiment. After stamping the image and coloring it with my Copic markers, I added a little glitter with a glue pen to tie in with that glittered paper. I wanted to have a little fun with the top hat so I stamped it onto a scrap of Basic Gray cardstock and then cut it out. I love how when added to the snowman’s head, it pops out of the box. 🙂 My Soft Sky cardstock card base is stamped with a darling little snow flurry stamp.

Quick Tip: I love to add a fun border of free-style stitching to my design, especially when using a snow or wave theme. It just adds a touch of waving motion that I associate with falling snow and moving water.

I wanted to add a few stitching touches to embellish the design. A curvy free-style stitching borders the design and zig zag stitching draws your eye to the punched circle layer and button embellishment. I’m loving buttons right now. This one is from My Mind’s Eye and is tied with a piece of Olive Stitched Ribbon. You may have noticed my sentiment tucked in on the vertical. It seemed to fit best into my design there and to “frame it”, I added a little stitching around the layer right up to the sentiment on both sides.

Hope you are staying warm and dry and safe today! Have a wonderful day and start to your week!

17 Comments

Posted in Card Designs, Holiday

Rhinestone Singles {C’est Bon}

Posted on December 2, 2007 | 23 comments

Bling. Who doesn’t like it?! I love to add a little to my designs. I’m not an over-the-top sparkley kind of girl but a small touch…absolutely! A rhinestone to dot an i, some sparkle in the middle of a flower, to accent a holiday card, use as a faux brad to balance the design…there are lots of ways I love to use it. I’ve tried a lot of different brands of rhinestone stickers. I have many faves for various applications, but I must say, I am completely enthralled with these new Me and My Big Ideas Icon package of Rhinestone Singles. Very sparkley…they are very classic looking and are very good quality for crafting with.

What I like about Me and My Big Idea’s Rhinestone Singles..

High quality shine
variety of sizes
sized perfectly for cardmaking…nothing too huge and the smallest is perfect for those tiny spaces
variety of colors
adhere well to many surfaces…paper, paint, plastic, transparencies
depth – perfect without adding a lot of bulk to your design
neat and tidy packaging stores well
prices – extremely reasonable – works out to approximately $.04 per rhinestone!
easy to purchase colors that you regularly use
with names like Iris, Fern, Freesia, Hibiscus, Dahlia, Poppy…who can resist?

Where to Buy…

Me and My Big Ideas products can be found in many scrapbook supply stores and on the web. I love to buy mine from Jacksonbelle Embellishments.

Snowman Sparkle

For this design, I pulled out some new stamps that were really calling my name. The brand new Broad Stripe backgrounder from Cornish Heritage Farms really reminded me of a candy cane stripe so I inked it up with some Real Red ink and love the clean bold look it creates! I paired it up with this darling Snowman and Cardinal stamp by the same company. Isn’t that cardinal just darling! I knew if would work great with these rhinestone stickers I wanted to highlight today.

After stamping my main image in black ink, I colored him in with my Copic markers and added three of the tiniest rhinestones as the berries for the holly. It is always fun to use the for tiny accents to decorate a stamped design and to draw attention to a little area. As the cardinal is my favorite part of this stamp, it worked perfectly here. After matting my image with Real Red and Whisper White cardstock, I added a couple stitching details. A vertical zig zag stitch runs up the sides of my background panel and straight stitch stitches down my white square layer.

I still wanted to add another accent to this design and was unsure what to do until I saw this little package of clear buttons on my desk by Stampin Up. I chose a large square shaped button because of its surface area and it also worked well with all the bold lines and square shapes of my design. The snowflake is actually the smallest snowflake from the CHF Snowflakes Large stamp…a gorgeous mix of snowflakes that measures 3.5″ x 4.5″. I was actually surprised when I got this stamp…it is larger than I expected and I just love it! After inking that up with Black Stazon ink, I stamped it onto my button and then added 6 tiny Fern colored rhinestones to the dots of the snowflake. I love the sparkle and how it makes a great embellishment. After tying it with some red grosgrain ribbon, I added it to a matted cardstock layer with a glue dot. Voila! Another fun festive Christmas design! 🙂

Have a fabulous day!

23 Comments

Posted in C'est Bon, Card Designs, Cornish Heritage Farms, Holiday

Simply Saturday…Sunny Days…

Posted on December 1, 2007 | 17 comments

Today is Saturday and I always love using a simple design at least once a week. There is a beauty in simplicity at times and as hectic a week as I’ve had…I’d love a little more in my life. For my computer update…my hard drive needed wiped. 🙁 sniff, sniff … lost all kinds of important things.. especially e-mails. So….if you’ve e-mailed over the past few weeks while I’ve been having all these woes and haven’t heard back…PLEASE e-mail me again as they are all lost forever. I think I need some sunny days.

Sunny Days

I made this quick one layer card design with one of the brand new Cornish Heritage Farms backgrounders. Love these stamps and this is one of my faves. The office/lined paper look is so hot right now! I can think of so many ways to use this stamp. I also combined this design with a challenge on the CHF forums today. Have you ever been over there? So much fun stuff to check out and today…a party and release to celebrate. Cool challenges and prizes…you could win one of their cool new backgrounders for yourself. The challenge I took up with this design was masking. Keeping it simple..I stamped the sentiment, masked it and then stamped my Lined Paper backgrounder stamp. I added some quick flowers with the Stems Silhouettes 1 stamp set, stamped in Cool Caribbean and Purely Pomegranate.

For a could quick embellishments… a Maya Road velvet flower set with a pewter eyelet and my Crop-a-dile. To repeat the velvet theme, I tied a scrap of blue May Arts Velvet ribbon through a little Pewter Press Buckle from the We R Memory Keepers Hardware set.

Wishing you a simply wonderful Saturday and lots of sunny days ahead. 🙂

17 Comments

Posted in Card Designs, Cornish Heritage Farms

Party on!

Posted on December 1, 2007 | 2 comments

Do you like stamping? What to party? Do you love backgrounders…today’s post is for you! 🙂 Cornish Heritage Farms is releasing SIXTEEN new backgrounders today. Designed by Lisa Strahl, you’re going to love these new background stamps. They are fabulous to work with and the perfect size for a card front. We’re also celebrating Lisa’s big 3-0 today. Happy birthday Lisa! Make sure you join us at the party today at Cornish Heritage Farms…so much fun, lots of stamping challenges and lots of great giveaways. Its all taking place in the CHF forums…right under the Fun Forums. Stop by, say hi and check it out. 🙂

I now it is a long way to scroll but check out the new backgrounders…gotta love them! I’ve got a few faves…which are yours?!

pAR