Wonderful Favorites - Curtain Call Crew

Well, today is the day! I have been looking forward to this since the moment I was contacted by Stacey. I am so excited to be a part of the Curtain Call Crew from Stacey's Stamping Stage. Act 20 is a real showstopper! A beautiful inspiration photo and some of my favorite colors!I guess you could call this Clean & Simple. There isn't a whole lot going on here except for this gorgeous rose! The original came from Julie Williams over at Simi Stamper. She has a great tutorial and believe me it's not complicated. I will be making more, for sure.
The other notable element of the card is the stamped background. I used the En Francais background stamp, not with ink, but the Frost White Shimmer Paint. I applied the paint with Sponge Daubers. I worked pretty fast because I wasn't sure about the drying time. I'm pleased with the effect and I am excited to try this again with different stamps.If you're worried about applying paint to your stamps, no worries! Mine washed up with plain water. I even had an old toothbrush standing by, to work it out of the crevices, but it wasn't necessary.

I was so tempted to repeat the ribbon technique I used two cards ago, I love the ruffled ribbon look! I managed to refrain and went with a more simple approach. I don't think I've even done a ribbon this way, so that's three new techniques for me on one card. Gotta love trying new things!

I hope you've enjoyed checking out my addition to the Curtain Call! Please make sure you check out the other Crew members today! And join us! Post a card and use Mr. Linky on Stacey's blog so we can see YOUR creation!

Amy White @ Devlinwhite Designs
Andrea Roose @ Andrea's Scrap - und Stempel-Blog
Iwona Palamountain (Chupa) @ Random Acts of Creativity
Julie Smith @ Paper and Such
Lea Lawson @ Lea's Cupcakes & Sunshine
Marisa Ritzen @ Rosemary Reflections
Melissa Hubert@ My Paper Obsession
Sue Kohler@ My Inner Reflection

Have a great Sunday!

Second Post Today with More Challenges

Time to share another card, my second today! I had to get a birthday card made for my grandmother who is celebrating here 87th birthday this weekend. She is recovering from a hip fracture and has spent the last six weeks in a nursing home healing and getting rehabilitation. She goes home tomorrow, one day before her birthday. I know she's glad to be going home.

So, I took a stab at another two challenges. The first, is Mojo Monday. A wildly popular challenge. The last time I looked there were over 300 participants and the deadline isn't until late Sunday.The next is Arielle's Color Q Challenge. These are some GREAT colors, although the Regal Rose was a little tricky working in. I'm pretty happy with the results.I did use Heartfelt Thanks, Warm Words and Wonderful Favorites to get the job done. Still waiting for my tracking number on my new stuff!Not much going on this weekend. We will visit my grandmother. I plan to go to a tag sale tomorrow (boy, it's going to be cold waiting, if I want to be at the front of line.) Of course I'm hoping to do more stamping or maybe scrapping!

A Berry Christmas Topiary

Good Sunday to all! I have another simple Christmas card to share with you today. It's not my idea, it's a card I saw on the Stampin' Up! demonstrator website. The original inspiration came from Dawn Byers (check out her blog, too!) Thanks Dawn!I really love this set Berry Christmas. It has proven to be very versatile. I haven't had nearly enough time to play with it. I have plenty of ideas I have yet to try. Now that we are down to crunch time, I'm guessing those ideas will be put on the shelf 'til next year. We'll see.

I know it doesn't show up in the photo at all, but I sprayed the entire cardstock base with my Champagne Mist and rubbing alcohol spray. I used about a half a teaspoon of paint and ounce of rubbing alcohol (91% not the lower percentage.) I didn't measure so this is approximate. I put mine in a small 2 oz. spray bottle from the dollar store. If you haven't tried it, it's AMAZING! I completely saturated my card and it a very short time it dries and lays flat! The results are incredible, so give it a try! One little tidbit, though. Give it a shake before you spray, the paint tends to sink to the bottom after a short while.

OK, I do have another thing to share. I was chosen as a featured designer on Our Creative Corner just yesterday! For my Ornament Punch card. I was so tickled! I was so excited! I was just bubbling with happiness! I don't recall what I was saying (out loud) but my husband overheard and wondered what all the commotion was about! So, thanks gals at the OCC for making my day!

Pick A Petal - Cherish

I've been wanting to create a butterfly image with my Pick A Petal for a while now. My plan was to stamp it in gold to make an anniversary card for my in-laws, who will be celebrating 50 years of marriage later this month. I had planned for it to be very elegant, but that didn't happen. So, now I don't know if this will be their card or not. I like it, I just don't know if it fits the occasion. I had fun making it. I went to my "go to" stash, my scraps! I picked out pieces of patterned paper, doing very little cutting, just went with what I had. I think this patchwork placement appeals to the quilter in me. I love mixing the patterns, colors and sizes, just like quilting.

I was stumped on how to make the butterfly body for some time. In the end I went with two gold headed pins from my quilting pin cushion! I threaded one pin with my beads then just put the second pin through the other end. I added it to the card with Tombow glue. It should hold! The shell buttons on the bottom corner are covering a goof in my sewing! I guess I'm a little rusty!

I hope you are enjoying this three day weekend! It's going to be pretty quiet around my house. I'm hoping for some more stamping!

3 Goodies Today!

Here are some more cards I was suppose to post a few days ago! Sorry about that! I got sidetracked by the Color Challenge and then I had a few busy days. Yesterday I went to the local community college and took several classes for their winter gardening fair. It was a fun day and I learned a couple new things, so it was a day well spent. These cards are also from Taylor's challenge last week. I just love challenges, I wish I could do more. They always stretch my creativity and that's a good thing! Sometimes I find myself doing similar layouts or color combinations but challenges make you think outside your box!
A couple notes about these cards. The top one I tried a little cheating technique. I stamped my flowers from Bloomin' Beautiful with Stazon on Soft Sky Paper. Then I watercolored the centers of the flowers with Baja Breeze. This cut down on my coloring. I had planned on cutting the flowers away from the pot and doing that separately but I got a little lazy! So, if you look close, you'll see lots of brushstrokes on the pot!

The second card is pretty self explanatory. The one thing I did is to stamp the Pocket Silhouettes image with Versamark on Soft Sky, the embossed with clear embossing powder. Then, sponged over with Pacific Point. The sentiment is a rub-on. It's a nice look, I think.

This last card didn't required too much stamping, obviously! I used some scrap designer papers and punches do the work for me! I used my Five Petal Punch, Scallop Punch and the 1 1/4" Square. The stamp is from the retired Sealed With A Kiss.

If you get a chance head over to Tori's blog....she's giving away some blog candy! Quite a bit of goodies! Yum!

Season of Friendship

Today card is was inspired by a fellow stamper, Michelle, over at Stamp and Smile (click on the highlighted Stamp and Smile to see the card on her blog.) I did use a cuttlebug embossing folder in my Big Shot and puffy paint on the branches, but all the other elements are Stampin' Up! The cardstocks are Whisper White, Bashful Blue and Real Red. I highlight the tops of the embossed snowflakes with a little white craft ink. The other inks are Chocolate Chip and Real Red. I love the simplicity of of this stamp set Season of Friendship. I think it will prove to be very versatile. I also used Warm Words for the sentiment. If you like this set, you need to get it now because it's retiring! What a better time, too. The extra 10% off along with the other great offers Stampin' Up! has right now, don't wait!

My First Christmas Card of the Year

How about that, we go right from Halloween to Christmas. This is a version of a card I made last year using the linen technique. The paper has a texture. Click on the image to get a good look. After stamping you cover the entire surface with glue stick, then top it off with crumpled tissue paper. Save those scraps! I used the Snowflake Spot and Snow Flurries (both retired.) The sentiment is from Warm Words (dormant, but still available.) It's hard to see but I also used Aida on the Not Quite Navy card base. After I stamped, glued and tissued my cardstock I ran it through the Big Shot Top Note Die. As long as there is glue along the edges it should hold. Normally, you would turn the raw edges to the back and secure it behind. The Big Shot does a good job, though. I simple, quick card. Thanks for stopping today!

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Now that I've talked with my mom and know that they got it, I can go ahead and post their card. Today is their 42nd anniversary! Love you Mom & Dad! I had a lot of fun with this one. I had cut the tag shape out probably two months ago, not knowing what it would be. When it was time to start their card I thought this would work well. I think I used a personal record of 6 different stamp sets on this card! But I like the idea of creating my own sentiments with combinations from other sets. The paper is a retired one, Spring Flowers. I'll have to use this layout again. I really like it!

Kristina's Color Inspiration #6

I love this this color combination. I really tried to keep it clean and simple. I know how much Kristina loves clean, simple lines. I tend to go overboard!!! I used silver ink and the Sanded background stamp on Sahara Sand, for my base. Then, layered the Bloomin' Beautiful poppy onto layers of So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie. I used the Speckled roller and silver ink behind the poppy. The sentiment comes from Warm Words. It was really hard not looking at everyone else's creations on Kristina's site. I wanted to wait until I was done with my card, so I wouldn't be influenced by the work of anyone else. Now it's my next stop!!! Gotta check 'em out!!!