Sunday, May 4, 2008

Weekend Inspiration


Well, it's far too soon to say that my mojo has returned, but I was inspired to few stamped items this weekend.


My good friend Kim "Nutsymuhl" was selected to be the Featured Stamper on Splitcoast this weekend! This is a huge honor, and she is totally deserving of it. You can check out her amazing gallery, here. The Featured Stamper Challenge is to CASE a card made by the FS. Here is the card I chose to CASE.

My card uses my favorite DP, which I have been saving for just the right moment, and also a piece of Kraft ribbon that Kim sent me last week. I thought it was only fitting to use it on her FS card. I had to dye my mini brads with Brilliance Cosmic Copper ink to match the copper CS.







Stamps: In Full Bloom
Paper: Kraft, SU Copper, PTI white, Cloud 9 Design's Sparkle Daisy Patch
Ink: Ranger's Walnut Ink, Copic Sketch Markers, Brilliance Cosmic Copper
Accessories: Kraft ribbon, mini brads



This is a padfolio I made for Penny, the Team Mom of my son's baseball team. These are incredibly easy to make. The creator of this pattern is Julie Ebersole. You can check out her awesome blog, here.







Stamps: Brushstroke Alphabet
Paper: SU Designer Series Paper in Soft Sky, PTI's white,Berry Sorbet, and Pink Patterns
Ink: Palette Noir Hybrid
Accessories: Berry Sorbet ribbon, Cuttlebug flower die cuts, CM circle punch

















I've been wanting to use this great stamp from American Art Stamps for a long time. Isn't it a cute image?

















Stamps: American Art Stamps (Dog Walker), Studio G (sentiment)
Paper: Summer Sun, Not Quite Navy, PTI white
Ink: Palette Noir Hybrid, Copic Sketch Markers

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

I LOVE MY COPICS!!!!!!!

My good friend Kim (Nutsymuhl) lives near a Dick Blick store, so I commissioned her to buy me some new Copic Sketch Markers (on sale! :-)). I received them this week, and let me tell ya...I'm in LOVE!!! Feast your eyes on these babies!





Thanks to Sharon Harnist for giving me the idea to store my Copics in a QuicKutz storage system, and for providing the Copic Marker Color Chart. You can see more from Sharon Harnist on her blog, PaperFections. Here's a link to the QuicKutz storage system.


Thank You, Coach Joe!

I made this card as a thank you for my son's Little League coach. I used Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge 33 for my layout.



Stamps: Inkadinkado (baseball), Autumn Leaf Prints (sentiment)
Paper: Kraft, PTI White, Bazzille textured red CS
Ink: Palette Burnt Umber
Accessories: Creative Memories and Nestabilities square punches, Cuttlebug tag die cut
Techniques: mini brads, twine, eyelet



Do You Live on Creative Way?

My company decided to name each of the offices in the outpatient clinic where I work. They assigned each office a "street name", and decided mine should be called Creative Way. When I saw the plain beige plaque with the black block print letters, I knew it simply would not do!! I took the plaque home, and this is what I came up with. The edging is made with Soft Sky punches from an ordinary hole punch.

Stamps: Brushstroke Alphabet
Paper: Stampin' Up DSP in Soft Sky, PTI Pink Patterns DSP
Ink: Palette Noir Hybrid
Accessories: wooden plaque, Soft Sky double-stitched ribbon (along edge), WIcker White acrylic paint, PTI Berry Sorbet ribbon, circle chipboard, hole punch



Wednesday, April 23, 2008

I'm Blaming it on the Mojo!

It's finally happened. I've completely lost my mojo! I haven't stamped a darned thing this week, despite the fact that I've had plenty of time to do so. I've also completely neglecting my blog, so in an effort to get back on track I am posting some of the cards I've made over the last three weeks. The materials used in making these cards can be found in my Splitcoast Gallery (see link on right). If anyone out there knows where my mojo is, please let me know!




















Monday, April 7, 2008

Virtual Stamping Weekend

VSN was so much fun! This month's theme was Project Runway. Challenges were posted every hour and we had 45-minutes to make our creations. VSN always pushes me far outside of my comfort zone, and this one had me trying some new techniques such as cracked glass and faux stitching. The time-limit creates a wonderful adrenaline rush which I love! For details on any of these cards, please see my Splitcoast Stampers gallery (link on right).



This card was a for a sketch challenge. My fav!











This "Boy Toy" card was for a challenge to
"create a monochromatic blue card". I used one of Frances' (Stamp Owl) sketches for my layout.













"Cheers" is the card I made for a limited supplies challenge. We were allowed to use one stamp, two colors of CS (plus a neutral), two types of embellishments (I used eyelets and a mini brad), and a tool (I used my word window punch).






























For this challenge, we were supposed to create a card using layers of flowers. I paper pieced my window and created flowers with a Cuttlebug flower die cut.











This challenge was to use a buckle on your card.





























This was the most challinging of all for me, using the "Cracked Glass" technique. This technique requires that you apply several layers of UTEE, freeze the image, cracki it, and smear ink into the cracks to make them more vivid. As you can see, I need to work a little more on this technique!










The challenge here was to use plaid on a card.




















This was my first attempt at "Faux Stitching".














This challenge was to make a Genie Bag. I decided to make my bag into a card, instead. (Yeah, I cheated)



















For the "Masculine Card" challenge, I decided to use my Flourishes shirt & tie, which is paper pieced. The pocked is pieced as well.






This card was especially fun to make. The challenge was to make a card using only red and one neutral color. I used Cranberry Crisp here, and the flower is watercolored with an Aquapainter. I used an old Mojo Monday sketch for my layout.





























I named this card "Wild Thang". The challenge was to use an animal print on your card.














This card was made for a challenge to use a "sketch-type" stamp on your card. Right away I saw an opportunity to use my Papertrey Ink "Pink Patterns" DP. I chose to use the Blooming with Happiness dress because of the Project Runway theme.
















I think this is the card I am least happy with. It was an ispiration challenge, and the inspiration was a wild and crazy runway dress that had a black and rainbow pattern on it.