CC97: cocoa plums

The color challenge today was inspired by Stampin Up!'s enchante papers. I had them lying on my stamp table and my new SAB set was there.....and they just went together! So check out the challenge thread here!

My first card was this one...it was made to fit into SU's small open end envelopes. It measures 3.25x6.5. I used a pale plum cardstock as the base. (It would be cut 6.5x6.5 and then folded). I cut a strip of the enchante papers and then a strip of close to cocoa slightly wider. I left one side of the cocoa a little wider than the other and used my paper piercing tool to pierce a line down that edge.

For the main image, I inked up the stamp with my pale plum and sage shadow markers. Then I held it at arm's length and spritzed it with stampin mist. I stamped it on the cardstock then to give it a bit of a watered appearance. Then I stamped the words across the stems. I used a sponge with pale plum to sponge the edges and the Heidi Swapp distressor to distress the white. I layered it on close to cocoa and put it on dimensionals. Tied the narrow organdy and assembled it.

My second was a quick pocket note. I punched a scalloped oval out of enchante papers and then mounted that on SU's cutie pocket notes. (These are available in the current mini catalog and come with matching envies.) Then I stamped the image on vanilla cardstock and punched it out with the mega oval punch. I stamped the greeting, then layered it onto the scalloped oval. I tied some reinker dyed sage grosgrain ribbon along the bottom and secured it with glue dots. Quick and Easy!

That's all for today! I have a shaker card in mind....maybe I'll get some time today to do that! Thank you for the tutorial suggestions, please post one so you can with the post-it note holder!

Two More Samples

I made these for some of my blog readers. The Basic Grey Blush holders were made for the two ladies who participated in my diamond fold book contest. The Skate Shoppe holder was made for the SWEETEST woman who mailed me Target $1 mailboxes. Thank you for being so supportive! I cannot express how much it means to me to hear that people like my work (and my cooking!). Thank you!

Post-It Note Holder Tutorial

So here it is! This is my tutorial on post-it note holders. I learned how from this thread on Splitcoaststampers.com. Please let me know if there is anything that doesn't make sense!

Supplies:
Cardstock
Paper trimmer with scoring blade
Post-it note pad
Embellishments (optional)

Step 1: Cut cardstock to 7 ½ inches long.

Step 2:
Cut cardstock to 3 ½ inches wide.

Step 3:
Score cardstock at 3 ½ inches and again at 4 inches.

Step 4:

Fold cardstock on score line. Then flip it over and fold the other side, both sides should be folded in towards each other.

Step 5:
Put adhesive all around the back of the post-it note pad.

Step 6:
Place post-it pad on cardstock with even border of cardstock all the way around. It should fold together like this once it is in there.

Step 7:
Embellish as you like! I used narrow organdy ribbon, my mega scalloped circle punch, dimensionals, Happy Harmony from SU, and a sentiment from Wordsworth.

And here is the final product! These are really simple, make great gifts, and can be dressed up many ways!

I will be giving this one away to one lucky blog reader. All you have to do is post a comment on this tutorial and tell me what you would like to see me do a tutorial on! Please, let me know what I do (or may what I can learn to do) that you would like to see a step by step tutorial on. I will choose a winner Wednesday, January 17th at 10pm. Your suggestion must be posted before 9pm CST.

Enjoy!

Scrap Pages - here they are!

Okay, here are two of my favorites from last night. OH! And I got 8 pages done, not 7! Not the best speed....but that's ok. It was fun. We're going to a different place on Feb 10th, but this time I'll be the lone paper scrapper with a bunch of digiscrappers around me!

This first page is made from my favorite picture of the boys in a long time. Mamak took this when she did our family photos this year. We have a Christmas Jammie tradition; the boys always get matching Christmas Jammies. This is the first year that Andy *sniff sniff* couldn't have matching ones. He is too big, and had to get them from the boys' section. Anyway, I used black card stock as a base. Then I tore the edges on a piece of Basic Grey (black tie, maybe??). I mounted the photo on a piece of basic grey. I cut strips of black cardstock to go under the photo as an accent. I used a Making Memories white rub on and my white gel pen to title and journal it. That's it! I told you I was a simple scrapper!

This second page uses a picture from Matthew's work Christmas party this year. It was our first experience getting dressed up for a work function outside of a military ball. I used Basic Grey Fruitcake papers along with basic black cardstock. I accented it with basic grey wholy cow rub ons. Again, pretty simple!

I have a few more I'll show you later. The post-it note holder will be up tonight or tomorrow, so keep checking back! Hope you aren't too cold wherever you are.....we have ice on our trees here! We're gonna have some baked potato soup to warm us up!

Design Teams??

So I am not good with the idea of submitting to magazines. I can't take the pressure of waiting and rejection and all. But I was thinking I would love to try my hand at applying for some design teams. Anyone out there know how to do that? Maybe someone can point me in the right direction. Thank you!!

Oh....and I got 7 pages done last night, I wish I had gotten more though. But I was slow to get started, I think because it has been SO long! Mamak says she wants to go a few more times before she leaves me, so hopefully that will help me get more caught up.

I'll take a few pictures on some of favorite pages from last night. Since we're in the middle of the Icy Blast here in TX (insert huge eye roll here), most things are cancelled today. Maybe I'll use my time wisely and get some stuff done! We'll see how that works out!

I am gonna crop today!

I can't believe it! I haven't cropped in so so long. I hadn't even gotten prints made of my digi pics since April!!!

Anyway, mamak and I are going to Recollections for a crop today. We'll head out sometime early this afternoon and it's over at midnight - I don't know if we'll stay the whole time though. I am going to be paper cropping and she is bringing her laptop. I get twice the space to spread out though.....heehee! We might look kinda dorky with her and her laptop to digiscrap, but it's really about spending time together anyway.

I can only scrapbook outside of my home. Is that weird?!?! If I am here, I would rather make a card or whatever. Scrapbooking is a labor of love for me. My husband really likes that I do it, and I like the end result, but I don't necessarily enjoy doing it. I have a 3-ring binder with layout sketches. Some I have found on the Internet various places and some that mamak has made for me. This has made it so much easier for me....and I like my pages a lot more too!

I just take whatever pictures I want to use on a page....flip through the sketches in my binder and pick one....then I go from there and choose papers and embellishments. It means that some of my pages are just variations on the same layout, but I don't care! I am not an original, innovative scrapper by any means. I just want to be able to get some pages done, like the end result, and have a book for posterity. With the binder, I can do mostly pages I end up liking and they are quicker to make. So I get more done.

Since I only scrapbook outside my home, I do not stamp in my books either. It's just too much to haul ink and stamps as well as all my scrap stuff. So I rely mainly on rub-on letters (mostly from Making Memories) for my titles. It may not be that fancy, but it works for me!

Right now, I have 3 scrapbooks I am working on. One is the ongoing book of the boys. I don't really have any time frames on those, just when one is full - I start another. I have an 8x8 book that is of Matthew and I. Anytime we do things without the kids it goes in there.....it's not very big, lol! And lastly, I have a book of me. This was mamak's idea and I think it is by far my favorite book to work on - and not for the reasons you'd think! Since I am the only female in this house, this is the only book where I can let all the femininity flow. It has lots of primas and floral papers! I really enjoy getting to use all the girly things in my book.

Anyway, perhaps I will share a few of my favorite pages from today when I get back. They won't be stamping related.....and they probably aren't that great, but I'll share a few if you want to see them!

Sketch Challenge 106

So I got a little carried away with the sketch challenge this week. I made 3 cards today with it. It was a perfect sketch to easily incorporate some patterned paper (which I have a hard time with). And I had tons of scraps of pretty papers from all the frames I have done. What a perfect way to use some of them up!

First I did this elegant Easy Elegance card. Like I said, if this set is out on my table (which it still was from this weekend) then I use it. I just can't stop. I should put it away. Anyway, I stamped the flower multiple times using a blender pen dipped in cranberry crisp reinker and a mellow moss marker to ink it up. I sponged creamy caramel around the edges and put the sentiment on in chocolate chip. I used Basic Grey Blush paper leftover from mamak's journal. I tied chocolate chip ribbon onto a pewter swirl clip and stamped paisley on the cranberry cardstock using versamark. I love background stamps, but I almost always use them with versamark. I like them to be the background, not the focus.

Then I decided to do a more whimsical card with a little sparkle. So I got a scrap of Basic Grey Gypsy paper leftover from a frame and used the Simply Said stamp set. I don't think I've used any of the other florals from that set aside from this one. I just love it. And, both the Gypsy paper and this stamp, scream for glitter. So I used my 2 way glue pen and traced the flowers on the paper and glittered those. Then I glittered the flowers on the stamped image as well. I punched the ticket corner punch and put some of the cute colored brads in the corners. I still have tons of ribbon that I dyed with reinkers a few months ago, so I had some cool caribbean to match it. Both of these cards used sentiments from A Muse, I love their sentiment stamps!

Well....I didn't intend to do another, but there were 10 minutes left of Grey's Anatomy so I threw a quick one together. This uses another scrap of Basic Grey's Blush paper. And my other favorite, cool caribbean. Jackie G got me the Wishing You the Best Ronald McDonald SU set as part of my Secret Sister gift so I had to break that out for this one. I stamped it in cool caribbean and then colored the flower in with a pretty in pink marker. Then layered it on a chocolate chip circle and popped it up on dimensionals. Super quick card, but I think it's pretty cute.

So that's my sketch challenge day!