Back to School

Hello everyone! Today started out just great. It's my Birthday and I don't have to go to work! Then, I was strugling with this card last night and woke up to an epihany on what to do to spiff it up. There's some history that I should share first.

Last month, my sister sent my birthday gift to NY with my daughter. It was a combined gift from the two of them and my Mom. They wanted to take advantage of no shipping and make sure I would have it for my birthday. Daughter wanted me to open it in front of her so she could see my face. Now I wasn't too excited about opening my birthday gift a month early because what would I have to look forward to for the big day? Anyway, I saw the box and knew it was a Slice. I had been trying to win one for months on Danielle's site "Life One Layout at a Time" but was only successful in winning Lin the Bind it All and me some Shimmerz and Spritz. I was very happy with my prize and knew that Linda would love hers. But the Slice always eluded me. Then there it was in front of me and I was psyched! I had never used one before but liked the idea of it.

Then, my Michigan friends Debbie and Denice took me out for a birthday dinner on Thursday and gave me a great new purse. If you know me, you know I am purse picky and this one fit me to a T. Love it! Husband organized these guys to attend a birthday dinner for me at the club on Friday night with spouses and we had another great evening. I got more gifts too; some Moscato di Asti wine and a gift card to Hobby Lobby. Oh my, these guys spoiled me. I couldn't wait to go shopping. They said they wanted to get me Slice stuff but they didn't know what to get. Since it's so new to me I didn't know either. I headed off yesterday morning with gift card in hand and searched the aisles. First, I headed for Spellbinders. I had heard that Hobby Lobby was finally expanding their selection and I wanted to see what was in stock. Of course the new pendants were all sold out so I meandered on. That brought me to the clearance section. I found two Slice cartridges. One was Fall Back to School and the other was Fa La La. Perfect, that should cover the next two seasons.

I wanted to make a card for all my Back to School nieces, nephews and school aged friends. I struggled though. What papers, layout, die cuts should I use? This ended up so much better than where it was headed last night. The apple and "a,b,c" came from the slice. The tag is from the Spellbinders tags 5 and the border punch is the Martha Stewart Cornice edge. The red and white paper is by DCWV and the brown was a scrap from my pile. I didn't have a "back to school" stamp so I had to hand write my sentiment. I used my dauber to add some Memento ink to distress it a bit. I finished it off with some sheer black ribbon from Offray - more from my Mary Maxim super clearance stash.

I hope those of you heading back to school have some great adventures this year. Knowledge is power so study hard!

Love you all. Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Cath

Life deserves a Woo Hoo...

I saw this dress sentiment stamp at the Novi Rubber Stamp convention I went to earlier this month and just had to have it. My friend Sue saw me eyeing it and told me she already had it. She also offered to share it with me so I could make a few impressions - how great is that? I just loved this sentiment. I think it should be our mantra and speaks volumes about not only going outside our comfort zone - but doing so with pleasure and loving life! A few people immediately came to mind as to who I could share it with...some as inspiration, some as birthday sentiments.

Anywhooo, I needed a sketch and headed over to iheart2stamp to see what Jen had for this week's SFYTT (that's sketch for you to try). I always check her out on Saturday but haven't had the time to participate. This week's sketch I thought worked great with my long sentiment panel so I sought out some papers to make this work. I pulled out the K&Company Wild Saffron Designer Paper as well as some K&Company embellishments that I found eons ago and never found the right project for. I thought the colors blended nicely here and also added glitter and bling. What girl doesn't like that combination in a greeting?



Anyway, notice that I changed the sketch up just a little because the original used two designer papers where I have the brown patch and ribbon. It just looked too busy with the big sentiment panel and I felt the ribbon "tied" it together much better.

Here's a peek inside where I used some scraps from the front background paper and my Deckled Rectangle Nestabilites to create a sentiment panel. Since the butterfly showed on the DP I added a dimensional butterfly from the kit and drew on antenae.




Here's a look at the same card in red.



Again, I used K&Company embellishments and Wild Saffron DP. You'll notice here that they are again a perfect match. Can you catch the red paisley in the lower right corner of the DP? It mirrors the embellishment - a red and blue paisley! I finally found a use for these guys Woo Hoo! I used a tag from the embellishment kit here for the inside of the card...



A few blue brads from The Paper Studio brings all the colors together as well as a bump up flower to enhance the flower that came on the tag.

Why don't you try giving this sketch a try yourself and see what you come up with? Then head on over to Jen's blog to see what everyone else has done.

Hope you are enjoying the rest of your weekend.

Thanks for looking!

Cath


Card Details:

Stamp: "Woo Hoo" Dress by Paula Best
Ink: Sentiment: Memento Tuxedo Black and Water Color pencils, Close to Cocoa to distress with dauber
Paper: K&Company Wild Saffron DP, Bazzil plain cardstock
Accessories: Offray ribbon, K&Company flower embellishments, Nestabilities long rectangle and scalloped rectangle dies, dimensionals, Aqua Pen, corner punch

It's a Bikababebella...

So excited, I just got some new Stamping Bellas delivered and I just had to ink them up. The first one I tried is Bikababebella and I think she is just too cute. I colored her up with Copics using a few tips I picked up at the Rubber stamp convention. I always started with the lightest color and then highlighted with a darker color, then came back to blend with the lighter color. The ladies showed me to color dark and then push color out with a lighter color. It worked! I've admired so many artists for their ability to bring depth to their colored images and I'm trying to develope mine.

On to the card, after coloring my image on Neenah Columbia Crest Solar White paper, I used my Nestabilites rectangles to cut her out. The DP is Basic Grey Urban Prairie. The colored card stock is Bazzil. The border punch is from Fiskars and the wired ribbon is from Offray. My sentiment is also from Stamping Bella.

I think Bella looks ready to take on the world in her own free spirited way! Wish I was confident enough to comandeer a bike on my own. For now, I'm content to let my DH block a good wind and I get to enjoy the ride. Speaking of which, it's finally cooled down a bit here and we're hoping to take our bike out tomorrow. I'm still hoping to get some card time in - I have a few more Bellas to play with.

Hope you all enjoy your weekend and I'll be back before you know it.

Love Ya,
Cath

Wedding Wishes

Ok, I made this card this past weekend. The DH needed a card for a co-worker so I set out to make him one. I wanted to try a monotone color scheme to keep the look simple yet elegant. I also added lots of shimmery paper to dress it up but it doesn't show very well in the picture. If you click on the image you can enlarge it and see the detail better.

Now onto the details, I started with Neenah Columbia Crest Solar White cardstock, added a silver metallic layer and a layer of shimmery DP from DCWV called The Luxury Stack. I backed this layer with another piece of white cardstock that I imprinted with the Martha Stewart Embossing Scallop punch and then wrapped it with an ivory satin ribbon bow. The image panel was layered with the Nestabilities Classic large and small ovals and raised using dimensionals. The sentiment is from the SU! Wonderful Words set. I finished this off with four silver Dew Drops. Not so hard, right?

Here's a peak at the inside...



I started with the DCWV DP and then added my sentiment panel using a wooden stamp from My Sentiments Exactly. I likely picked this up from Hobby Lobby when they had a 50% off stamp sale. I topped this panel off with Kaiser mini pearls. Not alot of coloring or stamping but I think this would be a great on hand card so I quickly made another. That's almost a rule I follow - while the paper is all out and I have a sample to quickly measure, I make another.

I have some interesting stamps to share with you soon. I picked them up at the Heirloom Rubber Stamp Convention in Novi, MI a few weeks ago. I had never been to a stamp convention but I'll tell you that it was fun to do make and takes, see new techniques and buy paper crafting supplies on sale and in front of you. I like to touch and see the products and try them and this was a great opportunity to do so. Novi is about 1 1/2 hours from me so it wasn't a bad drive. Actually it was just a little further than my old commute to Southfield. I actually cringed while I drove through 696 especially since 4 lanes were reduced to 1. I cringed thinking what that morning commute would be like today. I'm so thankful that I'm not doing that any longer.

One of my newest additions to the craft room was a stash of Flower Soft. I tried it out at the Impression Obsession booth and loved the way it gave life to the flowers on my image. I can't wait to start creating using this fun product.

So...be on the lookout for some new projects coming soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cath

Blog Candy of your dreams...

Hey everyone, I know that it appears that I have been MIA but it's summer so I've been having fun with some things other than stamping. My crafting is done mostly on weekends and if I travel, visit art fairs, a rubber stamp convention, or garden, then that time is diminished. I have a few projects to share so sit tight.

First I want to let you know about some awesome blog candy I have stumbled across...how would you like $150 to spend at the vendor of your choice? If that sounds appealing to you then visit this blog and leave a comment to be entered to win. The contest ends on the 28th of August so you have some time yet to participate.

Good Luck!

Cath