Another Card Created from the Simon Says Stamp October 2014 Card Kit

For today's card, I started again with the mug.  I stamped it out, added the sentiment, colored the coffee and added some shading.  Then I fussy cut it (gasp, more fussy cutting).  Once that was done, I started with the other orange card base I made from card stock from the kit.  I used the stitched frame from the My Favorite Thing's Blueprints #13 to cut out a piece of vellum and the patterned paper.  I then layered the patterned paper on the card base before attaching the mug to the vellum.  I added glue to the vellum behind the mug and adhered that over the pattern paper.  I added a few dots of glue in the upper left hand corner and hid them behind a few sequins.  A few strategically placed dots of glue at the other corners secured my vellum and completed the card.

Simon Says Stamp October 2014 Card Kit: Inspired by Shari Carroll

Next up, I was inspired to try my hand at Shari Carroll's card made from the card kit.  You can see her fabulous card on her blog here.  I changed up a few things.  For instance, I used the wood coffee cup rather than die cutting one.  I moved the sentiment to the inside of the card.  I used the wrong blue for the hearts (one downside to crafting while camping - limited supplies).  But for the most part, I followed the card.  I cut the orange paper down to just smaller than the width of my card base.  I cut the yellow paper down to just under half of the size of the orange paper. I cut the strip the striped paper and cut a banner end.  Then I layered all the pieces together.  I stamped out the heart twice in Soft Blue Simon Says Stamp ink (the only blue color I had with me) and then fussy cut (yes again with the fussy cutting) the circles (okay I admit I was cursing that I didn't have a punch or die or something to do that).  I stamped the steam in the Khaki ink provided in the kit and fussy cut that too.  Then it was just adding the hearts with pop dots, adding the steam with tape and gluing down the cut and sequins.

For the inside of the card, I simply die cut some white paper with the stitched frame from My Favorite Things Blueprints #13 and stamped on the sentiment with the Khaki ink.

Happy Meow-oween, Take Two

After I finished my card for the Inky Paws Challenge over at Newton's Nook, I just had to start working on an idea that had been percolating while I made my challenge card.  I inked up the Newton's Day Dream stamp but then wiped off the flowers.   I then stamped it on my card stock and then again twice more on two post-it notes so I could have both sky and land masks.  I masked the kitty before I inked up the small pumpkin from Newton's Perfect Pumpkin and stamped it on both sides. I also cut two more masks for the pumpkins.  Once the kitty and pumpkins were stamped and masked, I used Lawn Fawn's Starry Backdrops inked in Versamark and then heat embossed in clear embossing powder to make the starry background.  I used a variety of Distress Inks to sponge on the background starting with Squeezed Lemonade at the horizon, adding Seedless Preserves and finishing in Chipped Sapphire at the top and then blending back down.  I wiped the excess ink off the stars and removed my kitty mask to replace it with the one to let me finish the ground.  I sponged on Shabby Shutters and Mowed Lawn Distress Ink for the ground, leaving me with just white pumpkins and kitty.

My sister's cat Gus, a gorgeous house panther, isn't doing well.  She's pretty sure he has kidney failure and, since he's 16, it's probably a pretty good guess.  She's taken him to the vet for blood work and, when I was working on this, we were waiting for the results.  So I decided that Gus would be my inspiration for this kitty.  Not much technique involved in coloring an all black kitty, but I still had fun with my new Prismacolor colored pencils and gamsol.  The pumpkins were a bit more of a challenge on the coloring scale.  I was going to finish them off with one of the pumpkin faces that come in the Newton's Perfect Pumpkin set, but, of course, I can't for the life of me find it. I had pulled it off to size the stamp for the pumpkin and then set it aside to finish the coloring and now I can't find it.  That happens to me all the time and the stamps eventually turn up stuck the back of another package or the side of my pencil case or whatever.  My bet is that it will turn up just after I finish my last Halloween card of the year....

To finish off my panel, I wanted to do something a little simple.  I bought the Simon Says Stamp Frames dies because I love the frame it cuts out.  I saw so many ways it would be useful and I thought it would be perfect for this. So first I cut the panel down using the largest stitched die from My Favorite Thing's Blueprints #13 set and then centered up the Simon Says Stamp Frame Die over my panel and die cut it.  I then die cut a white piece with the same frame.  Then it was just a matter of piecing them all back together on my card base.  Once I had it together, I added my sentiment from the Newton's Perfect Pumpkin set and washed the sky in Wink of Stella. 

After the card was done, I was left with a starry frame that was perfect to frame Chewie!  Of course, she would sit still so I could get an in-focus picture.  This was the best I could get...

You Are Sew Special to Me

For today's card, I used another image from the now (sadly) sold out Stamptember set from Tim Holtz.  This card came together so fast once I saw sketch 155 for Freshly Made Sketches.  I had the Miss Caroline 6x6 paper pad from My Mind's Eye sitting on my desk and these two designs from it just called out to be used to together.  I used the frame from My Favorite Things Blueprints #13 to cut out both sheets and then cut down the floral print to layer over the other.  I little Sky Lawn Trimmings finished off the seam.  I then cut my image out with the pennant shape from Lawn Fawn's Stitched Party Banners and finished it off with some of the same Lawn Trimmings and adhered it with pop dots.  Perfect!

Have a Moo-tiful Birthday!

I love that hockey season is back in full swing:  last night the home opener and tonight the first game at home in my easy chair watching on the big screen.  Yes, this is the life.

The only big dilemma in my life right now is whether to drive to Seattle on Thursday night to take Sandy Allnock's class on coloring funny people at Impress.  I so want to go, but it's a long trip and I'm a bit of a introvert.  I have a hard time sometimes convincing myself to go do new things even when I know I will enjoy it.  So in the next couple of days, I have to make up my mind.

In the meantime, I've finished up with the last of the Birthday Farm Animals stamp set she designed for Simon Says Stamp.  I've had so much fun coloring these cuties.  Today's card came together pretty quickly too.  There's a flag shaped die in the My Favorite Things Blueprints #13 that I had been looking at and thought would be perfect for the cow stamp, so I had already cut it out the other day.  Then it was just a matter of picking only two of the fun patterns in the Sunny Side 6x6 paper pad from Pebbles to build my card.  I added some baker's twine I found in my stash, a little Wink of Stella to the banner, and the now almost required Pretty Pink Posh sequins and Glossy Accents. 

Got Cupcake? I Do and Lots of Upcoming Birthdays...

For some reason the end of September and beginning of October bring a lot of birthdays to my world.  Not much cake because many of those birthdays are for people too far to celebrate with in person, but then that's probably a good thing.  I certainly don't need cake, okay, well my waistline doesn't need cake.   So on Sunday, I spent some time in my craft room, watching movies and coloring the images from the Simon Says Stamp Birthday Farm Animals set.  (Can I just take a minute to say that Jennifer Lawrence is pretty darn amazing?  I watched American Hustle for the first time and was stunned about how well she played the part which is so different than Hunger Games, which I've watched probably a dozen times this year alone - it's a great background movie for crafting).

Anyhow, so once I had colored all my images, I wasn't sure what to do with them.  I was flipping through my dies and saw the polaroid die from Amy Tan's set and knew exactly what I was going to do.  I pulled out my largest stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things' Blueprints #13 to cut out the background from the dotted paper from the 6x6 Sunny Side pad from Pebbles for my background.  Then I cut out the polaroid from white paper and made the frame for my goat image.  I stamped the sentiment from the set, added a little pink card stock behind the heart and finished it off with some Glossy Accents on the heart, the flame and the goat's eyes, some Pretty Pink Posh sequins and a little Marvy Liquid Applique on the cupcake (note to self:  put the applique on first and heat set it before the Glossy Accents). 

A Beautiful Wedding

After the memorial on Saturday, the hubby and I attended my boss', although I really consider him a friend, wedding.  This one has been a long time coming and I was delighted to attend (even though I'm really not a fan of social events and get really anxious about them).  It was an Episcopalian ceremony.  I've never attended one and it was quite beautiful (although the incense was a little much for my head).  It was an amazing sight to see him so happy and so in love. 

The reception was nice.  It was a beautiful night outside.  I tried the pear cider (delicious) and chatted with some co-workers.  Kids ran around playing with a basket of balls that David brought out for them.  It was such a beautiful night and the best part was seeing David so very happy.  I can't think of a more deserving person.

I decided to make a card for him (he very specifically said no gifts).  I thought about doing something whimsical, but then changed my mind for something more formal.  I don't have many traditional wedding stamps, but I did find this delightful silhouette in an Inkadinkado wedding set.  I used some Verafine Onyx Black ink and heat embossed it with some clear embossing powder.  I used a dies from my new My Favorite Things Blueprints #13 set for the flag.  I embossed the vellum with a Victorian folder from Cuttlebug and then used the large stitched die from the Blueprints set to cut it down to size.  I stamped the sentiment on the card base using a stamp from the Simply Sentimental set from Newton's Nook.  Then it was a matter of laying it together, added a little Lawn Trimmings in Silver Sparkle to finish it off. 

Heartfelt Sympathy and a Celebration of a Gifted Photographer

Yesterday was an interesting day.  I attended both a memorial celebration and wedding on the same day (and, thankfully, in that order).  I was just going to pull a sympathy card from my stash, but yesterday  morning I woke up early and because I had an idea about the cornucopia stamp from Lawn Fawn's Harvest Season that was percolating. So I had to wander down to my craft room to develop the idea. I stamped in Memento Onyx Black ink and used my colored pencils for it.  I don't have many and they are just a cheap set I picked up from Michaels a while ago, but they have been good enough to some simple coloring and blend okay with gamsol.  I know I could do better if I had better quality pencils so the other day I did order a huge set of colored pencils that should be here later this week.  Yes, I know, it's crazy that I ordered colored pencils when I'm taking the copic class at onlinecardclasses.com later this month and I'm sure I will be order markers I need to fill in the gaps of what I have.  But I've wanted this set of pencils for over year now and haven't ordered them.  After a bit of a rough couple of days, I thought some retail therapy might help.  So I expect you'll see a lot of coloring in my future both in pencil and in copics.  Good thing I find coloring therapeutic too!

Anyhow, back to this card, after I finished coloring the cornucopia, I added a sentiment from the new Simply Sentimental set from Newton's Nook Designs (love the script on this one) and added random leaves using the leaves from the Harvest Season set and three colors of Simon Says Stamp ink (Leaf Green, Burnt Orange and the new Goldenlocks).  I finished off the card by cutting the panel out with the Simon Says Stamp Frame Die, cutting a second one in black and then cutting the whole background using the stitched frame from my new dies from My Favorite Things, Blueprints #13. 

The memorial was for my intern who passed away suddenly a couple weeks ago at only age 44!  Way too young, especially when I saw his teenage sons at the service and intensely realized what a huge gap it would be leaving in their lives.  It was actually quite a beautiful memorial service and they showcased many of his pictures, as he was a gifted photographer.  During his interview, his photography hobby came up and he shared with me this picture he took for a designer.  I found it on Google and am sharing it here (at the service, his friend encouraged us to share his pictures):

It's such an amazing shot.  I assumed he used a lot of Photoshop on it, but his friend explained that Jeff came to him asking how to use Photoshop and the friend was amazed that the photos hadn't already been through Photoshop (that's how gifted Jeff was at capturing the shot). 

I remember one day shortly before the state fair, Jeff showed me four photos on his phone asking me which one he should enter.  There were four amazing shots and it was so hard to choose between them (the fourth was one similar to the first picture below, but there was a man and his dog in the shot - I looked all over for it because it was one of my favorites, but I couldn't find it):
 

This next one is the one I actually choose, maybe because I love tulips so much.  He entered it and won (the same weekend he died):

 

At the memorial service, they showed many other shots that were equally stunning.  I encourage you to go check them out.  You can find them here:  http://500px.com/Masterlender.  But I'll leave you today with some that were a few of my favorite examples of the beauty that is this great world of ours that Jeff eye's was able to capture to share with the world: