Friday, June 27, 2008

Sparkle!


So yesterday was the last day of school for our kids. It was the last day of elementary school for our first born daughter. (yikes!) I went to the school a little early to drop off the teacher's gifts and I was waiting in their hallway as the bell rang. All these kids came streaming - and SCREAMING ;) out of the classrooms yelling *Yay - school's over!!!*. And it was at that minute that it hit me....wow, my first born is done at this school...this safe wonderful learning and growing environment she's been in since Kindergarten....and oh my goodness I started to BAWL - I mean tears gushing out of my eyes! I didn't even cry when she went to Kindergarten - I was just proud and excited for her...and here I am bawling as she leaves grade 6! I think people must have thought I was crazy. A whole new world ahead. She's such a great kid and I'm excited for all that lies ahead...but it's new territory!

My husband and I work with Junior High students all the time - but it's entirely different when it's YOUR kid!

Anyway...I think I'll give this card to her...to remind her in the year ahead to be herself to be willing to stand out and sparkle!

This card is for the Limited Supply Challenge at SCS today...the challenge was to use brads as your only embellishment...I *heart* brads so this isn't torture for me :)



The lower half of the card base is stamped with Paisley, and the sentiment is stamped in white craft, embossed with the Iridescent Ice (you can't really see but it does sparkle), and then the oval is punched and sponged to get the sparkle to stand out and also for some definition from the main card panel.

Snowflake row is scalloped out with the slit punch and embossed with White Craft and Iridescent Ice EP.

I LOVE these little penguins we've seen both Happy Feet and that March of the Penguins movie I think they are amazing. Plus our daughter did a huge report in elementary on how she'd take a trip to research penguins...so this will fit...anyway I digress...I like the idea of one penguin standing out from the crowd...and I see after the card is all finished that the flower is sort of being suspended in mid-air, pretend it's like VeggieTales and how vegetables pick up anything w/o hands :)....the Caribbean penguin has a sparkly tummy with Crystal Effects and Dazzling Diamonds.

Brad hint...if you're out of black brads or are cheap (I mean economical) like me, just get out your sharpie and color them black and leave them a minute to dry. It's what I did here, and you really can't tell the difference!

Thanks for taking a peek...I'll be back in a few days...I'm feeling crummy with a touch of the flu, the kids are home, and I REALLY need to work on some DD projects for this next month! Thanks for stopping by!

Recipe

Stamps: Wild About You, Paisley Background, Snow Flurries, Warm Words

Ink: Basic Black, Cool Caribbean, White Craft

Paper: Cool Caribbean, Basic Black, Whisper White

Access: Ticket Corner Punch, Slit Punch, Oval Punch, Brads, Sharpie, Rhinestone Brads, Piercing Kit, Dimensionals, Sponge, Dazzling Diamonds, Crystal Effects, Iridescent Ice EP

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Happy Birthday to a Great Chick!

This is so cute it cracks me up...hee hee

This is for today's Ways to Use it Challenge over at Splitcoaststampers - challenge to use Birds of which there are so many great ones out there. One of our middle son's best friends is a girl, and she's great and fun - she keeps up with the boys in hockey and soccer...our son adores her.

I was thinking about the bird sets I have and thought - how about a fun non-easter chick? I wanted a vibrant creation, fun and still girly....but fun enough for a boy to give.

The egg is paper pieced with the fun Bali Breeze papers and popped up...her little beak is also pieced and popped with a teeny glue dot. I mirrored the cracked egg look with the strip of Pumpkin Pie through the center by just trimming out the progressive triangle shapes.

I decided to pierce all over and then highlight with either SW markers in the basic colors or with white gel pen. I added a little marker edging on the layers to give them a little more definition. Gel pen highlight around the HB in the circle, *To A Great Chick* is hand written.

Here's more of a closeup.



Recipe
Stamps: A Good Egg, It's Your Birthday
Ink: Black Stazon, Purely Pomegranate
Paper: Purely Pomegranate, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Bali Breeze DSP
Accessories: Piercer, SW Markers, Dimensionals, Glue Dots, Scallop Punch, Circle Punch, White Gel Pen, Rhinestones (K & C Company)

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

My Splitcoaststampers One Year Anniversary

Yep, that's right, just one year ago TODAY I posted my first card on Splitcoaststampers.com....after 3 years of lurking it was about time, I finally had the courage to jump in ....the journey there is a whole other story for another time. :) But would you look where the past year has taken me? Who would have ever guessed??? I sure wouldn't have! The friendships I have built, the opportunities I have been given and how I have grown on a creative level have been immeasurable for me. So Thank You so much SCS!

So just to celebrate here is a project in the same theme as my very first upload a year ago - Teacher Thank you Gifts. Today is our older 2 kids' last day of school. They've been blessed with wonderful teachers this year again and this set from MFT is just perfect - they deserve a great summer break.

I found these great summery bowls at our grocery/superstore that came in fun colors and they were cheap - like $1.99. I purchased Lindt chocolates, some Frappucino bottles, and a Starbucks gift card for each.

Here's how I got to the final result: I cut this Purely Pomegranate into 4.25 x 11 sections and measured the bottom of the Lindt chocolates to get my scoring line. Two of the 4.25 x 11 sections together give you plenty of room to cover the box in a tented style. I added a section of whisper white cardstock that I striped with my SW markers to mirror the design on the tub and scalloped the edge. A couple of brads and it's all together.

Then you add your main image with a long section of ribbon to wrap in all up. This serves two purposes...one, it's just pretty...and two it will hold your chocolates in!
Here are some other pics of the items enclosed. The frap bottles are just wrapped with cardstock and sticky strip, and the cute tub image is adhered.
The shower head is colored in with a Zig Painty, gives it a cute chrome-ish shimmer.
I really like the matching stripeing on the cards and chocolate boxes. To me those kind of things *make* a project look pulled together.

Here's the Pomegranate selection, too much tissue paper in the view here, but it's all in the Pomegranate bowl. Cute, cute cute!





The lovely green one. I LOVE green. And my daughter claimed it right away for one of her teachers.

And here are all the items displayed in the Cool Caribbean color. The Starbucks gift card will have to go in the card...I would have made something *pretty* to put them in...but honestly I just ran out of time.

Thanks for stopping by today! I have some work to do figuring out this new camera....the Jury is still out for me.

Recipe

Stamps: MFT's Take a Break by Anna Lapoint, SU Kindness Wheel

Cardstock: Whisper White, Old Olive, Purely Pomegranate, Cool Caribbean

Ink: Black Stazon, Old Olive, Purely Pomegranate, Cool Carribean

Accessories: Elizabeth Ribbon, Pomegranate Satin Ribbon, Olive Wide Grossgrain, Dimensionals, Scallop Punch, Circle Punch, Reinkers, SW Markers, Aqua Painter, Silver Brads, Sticky Strip, Corner Rounder Punch, White Gel Pen, Zig Painty Pen

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Toonie Tuesday

Ha ha...if you're Canadian you'll understand this....in Canada we have $2 coins that we call Toonies (we started with a $1 coin that has a Canadian Loon (water bird) on it that we first called a Loonie, later we added the $2 coin - now called the Toonie - I don't know - it's just Canadian logic)...now I'm wondering - should I spell it TWOnie...or Toonie...hmm, have to go look that up to be a good Canadian.

Anyway - Tuesday is my stamping day, it is generally our day off and I get to stamp in the morning...which I love, and my husband is supportive of! Tuesday's are GREAT in my book.

So on Tuesday's I'll be doing two cards for you - very often it will be a pair of Splitcoaststampers Color Challenge cards - because that is my favourite challenge on SCS.

But at times I also want to show you a Stampin' Up! sample of a card - and then also a card using stamps from another company. I truly love Stampin' Up! It has been one of the best most creative paths I've taken as a person....I love the blessing of the friendships I have made, I have loved being a demonstrator, I love teaching people to stamp, I love the stamps, I love the red rubbah!! I love the colors, the coordinating everything....LOVE LOVE LOVE my SU! ...but it's also a big stamping world out there and there may be some other great creative things you might enjoy - that I've enjoyed too.

Sample One: SU Enjoy Summer Moments

Today the color challenge over at SCS is Wild Wasabi, Taken with Teal and White. Last spring when they previewed the 2008 In Colors I was less than impressed. I thought they were ...blah....but that's the problem not seeing them in person...in person when you can touch them...mix them...hold them close to your heart...(sigh...I heart paper)....it's a whole other story...and I'll be SO sad to see all of them go in August. Well for the last few color challenges at SCS, Emily's doing '08 In Color combos.

I'm doing a workshop tonight making a card with this set...so I pulled it out for the color challenge too. I dreamt up this layout before I fell asleep last night (come on - you do that too don't you???), and drew it on some scrap paper before I fell asleep. Whisper White layer has the dotted stamped circles in TWT and WW, the teal layers have the little flower stamped, highlighted w/ gel pen and pierced with the Punches Plus template (fun little tool). Main panel is embossed on WW prints, sponged and a little popped up flower for accent. A little piercing and ribbon and you're done! It has such a fun summery feel to me. And summer in Alberta has just arrived and I'm thrilled.

Recipe
Stamps: Enjoy Every Moment
Ink: Wild Wasabi, Taken with Teal, White Craft
Paper: Taken with Teal, Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Wasabi Prints

Access: piercer, dimensionals, corner rounder punch, dimensionals, Wild Wasabi Ribbon, Flirty Ribbon (retired), White gel pen.


Sample Two: A Bloomin' Break from My Favorite Things (well in Canada it would be FavoUrite - but our spelling's another story).


I received some new MFT sets yesterday - my first ever! So fun! This is a new design from Anna LaPoint called MFT Presents. What I like about this design is that cute claw foot tub. I looked a the stripes in the sidewall of the tub and saw how the colors would fit in stripes. I changed the width of the stripe with my Taken with Teal Stampin' Write Marker, colored the other section in with Wasabi reinkers and left the other section white. I stamped another tub, colored and cut the flowers out and added on top for dimension.

To mirror the same striped design of the tub, I cut strips of white and TWT paper and adhered onto the Wasabi layer. And added a touch of lines with the gel pen on the other small Wasabi layer.

A little ribbon and Rhinestone brads, some piercing on a vertical line...you're done! I love it's crisp feel.


Recipe
Stamps: Take a Break from My Favorite Things by Anna LaPoint
Paper: Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Taken with Teal,
Ink: Black Stazon
Accessories: Taken with Teal Stampin' Write Marker, dimensionals, White gel pen, Wasabi DS Ribbon, White grosgrain ribbon, Rhinestone Brads, Piercer, Ticket Corner Punch

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Welcome!

Here is my new creative home! I've graduated to my own little stamping blog :-) and I'm so happy you've joined me! It's taken me a long time decide on whether I wanted to tackle a stamping blog or not...especially since there are so many wonderful blogs out there. But I decided it's just another step in my creative process, so it's a bit of a graduation to that next step for me....very quickly my time on the Dirty Dozen team at Splitcoast will be done and I need a new creative challenge!

So, grab a coffee (or a Coca Cola if you're anything like me (yum!) and join me on my creative journey, I look forward to getting to know you!
I created these graduation cards a few weeks ago for some of our students. Each card has their individual high school colors on it and uses the retired SU Tassel Time graduation set. The mortor boards are stamped on Whisper White and colored then the monogrammed layer is done with Headline Alphabet on cardstock vellum and piercing is added for accent. Diplomas are lightly colored with Stampin' Write markers and popped up. Feel free to click on the pics to get a closer view.
Recipe
Stamps: Tassel Time, Headline Alphabet
Ink: Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, Brilliant Blue, Black Stazon
Paper: Cardstock Vellum, Whisper White, Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, Bashful Blue Prints,
Accessories: Silver Brads, Ticket Corner Punch, Piercer, SW Markers, Dimensionals, White Taffeta Ribbon, Basic Black Grosgrain Ribbon, Jersey Shore DSP