Dear Friend {CD97}

Hello friends!  Oh, I think you're really gonna like the colors Riley chose this week at The Color Dare--I sure did!

CD 97

Marina Mist

Night of Navy

River Rock

 And here is what I made for you:

It all started with the Marina Mist striped wide grosgrain ribbon...oh how I love this ribbon!  I'm slowly collecting it in all the available colors and it is so lovely.  Here, I ran a straight stitch with my sewing machine down one edge and pulled on the strings to gather the center together.  I punched a 1 3/8" circle of Marina Mist, covered it completely in sticky strip and pressed the gathered center onto the sticky circle.

To attach the center button, I used my paper piercing tool to poke two holes in the sticky circle and threaded the large button (from my stash) on and tied it at the back.  On top I used large glue dots to layer on a Night of Navy button tied with some linen thread.  Next using the two-step XL Bird punch, I popped out some Night of Navy branches and attached them to the back of the flower.  I used this week's Stamping 411 sketch for my layout and got to work arranging my panels.

The bottom layer was embossed with one of my favorite embossing folders of all time--Vintage Wallpaper.  The top layer is taken from the Neutrals Designer Series Paper stack in River Rock and matted in Marina Mist. 

I dusted off an oldie but goodie--All Holidays--for the perfect sentiment in Night of Navy.  I loved this color combination and I hope you do too--can't wait to see what you come up with!  Check out the inspiration from the rest of the design team and then share it with us over on The Color Dare blog.

• Riley - our leader
• Glenda - Papers, Scissors and Rocks
• Heather - Princess Scrapper Stamper
• Joan - JJ Creations
• Marisa - Rosemary Reflections
• Melissa - My Paper Obsession

supplies:

stamps: all holidays

ink: night of navy

paper: river rock, marina mist, night of navy CS; DSP neutrals stack

xtras: marina mist wide 1 1/4" striped grosgrain ribbon; vintage wallpaper embossing folder; 2-step xl bird punch; night of navy button; linen thread; button from my stash

Happy Holidays 2010

Happy Holidays to all my blogging friends, everywhere.  I am grateful for each of you who stop by and especially thankful for those who leave a little comment love.  Your support and encouragement keep me going!

I wish all of you a Happy Holiday season and peace, love and happiness today and all the year through!  See you in 2011!

Wicked Fun: PPA{60}

I had a lot of fun creating these wicked cards for this week's Halloween challenge at Pals Paper Arts.  It was so much fun that I actually made two cards.  The above card is a very literal interpretation of the challenge picture and I'm not sure anyone else would "get" it without seeing the inspiration image.  So the second card is a bit more traditional of a Halloween "look".

I just had to feature the contrast of the light and dark witches and since I've been on a bit of a Lattice die binge lately, see here and here, I had the idea to try it here.  I placed a piece of basic black cardstock next a piece of whisper white and with plain 'ole Scotch tape attached them together and placed it on my Lattice die making sure that the seam was aligned in the center of the die so that when I ran it through the Big Shot I got a black and white image!  

I stamped the hat from Wicked Cool in Versamark and then Basic Black ink, sprinkled it with black stampin' emboss powder and heat set.  This gave me a clean, crisp black witch hat.  We just know that these two witches are up to no good so this sentiment from Favorite Thoughts (retired) was just perfect.

 I had to dress up the inside too with a sentiment from All Holidays, some retired DSP and those fabulous boots from Wicked Cool.  I used my Basic Black and Pumpkin Pie stampin' write markers to color my stamp and highlight those striped stockings.  I just love these boots--in fact, I had some just like them in high school.  My dad hated them and I used to sneak out of the house wearing some perfectly acceptable alternative with these bad girls in my bag and then switch when I got into my friends car!!  Tee, hee!  Did you notice one of our kitties in the background?  How perfect is that?!  I swear I didn't position her there.  She just likes to follow me around the yard!

The second card has a more traditional Halloween look and features the Wicked Fun specialty designer paper, those Wicked Cool boots again and the addition of black raven lace and black jewels!

I was temped to use the Spider Web embossing folder AGAIN but decided to branch out for a more baroque and elegant look with the Vintage Waller paper embossing folder.  I think it works nicely with the lace, don't you?  To make my raven lace ruffle, I ran some SNAIL adhesive around the edge of the circle and just scrunched the lace up on the back side moving around the circle as I went. On the inside I repeated the same DSP with Old Olive cardstock and some Rich Razzleberry bats.

I hope you've enjoyed my Wicked fun Halloween cards.  There's still some time, until noon Tuesday 9/21, to enter your Halloween cards over at the PPA.  Thanks for stopping by today...cheers!

Card #1 supplies:

stamps: wicked cool; favorite thoughts

ink: versamark; basic black; jet black stazon

paper: basic black, old olive, pumpkin pie & whisper white CS

xtras: lattice die; 1 3/8" circle punch; glimmer brads; raven lace; basic black & pumpkin pie stampin' write markers

Card #2

stamps: wicked cool

ink: rich razzleberry; basic black

paper: cajun crze, rich razzleberry, old olive, whisper white & basic black CS; wicked fun

xtras: 1 3/4", 1 3/8" & 2 1/2" circle punches; black jewels; vintage wallpaper embossing folder

Awash with Crushed Melon

Here's a little birthday card for a friend...her favorite flowers from the Awash with Flowers set are these tiny little ones featured here. So sweet, aren't they?! The stems are inked in chocolate chip with melon mambo & crushed curry flowers. I just love how this two-step stamp set comes together for a watercolor effect that I could never achieve on my own. Each stamp is a separate piece so you can really individualize it! Isn't it cute how the little leaves fit into that small leaf outline? The leaves are stamped in old olive so I used some of the yummy old olive satin ribbon for a little pop of color.

I finally bought the medium jewelry tag punch and the coordinating Tiny Tags stamp set--so cute! I've been coveting them for awhile but only took the plunge after seeing them in person. Don't know why I wait so long sometimes--do you do that too?! They are just a couple of the many items from the spring mini catalog that have carried over and are still available to order. Look at that cute little dotted frame stamped in crushed curry with a melon mambo 'hello'--you have to have it!

It's difficult to see in this picture but I also jazzed up the flowers a little bit with my clear stardust jelly roll pen from Sakura. Adds just the perfect amount of subtle dazzle!

And lastly, continuing my trend of finishing the inside of the card...I repeated the same flowers from the front as well as two sentiments from the versatile All Holidays set. Again, I used my Stampin' Write markers to ink up separate sections of the 'friend' sentiment. This is a great technique that adds interest and pulls all the colors from the design together.

Thank you to all those who visit my blog and especially those that leave a comment. I so appreciate your time and love hearing from you! I hope you have a great weekend.
Cheers!

supplies:
stamps: all holidays; awash with flowers; tiny tags
ink: melon mambo, old olive, chocolate chip, crushed curry
paper: kraft, chocolate chip & whisper white cardstock; razzleberry lemonade dsp; hugs notes
xtras: old olive satin ribbon; linen thread; medium jewelry tag punch; stardust jelly roll pen

A color Q sketch 4U

Two new-to-me challenges this week. I've been following the Color Q challenge but just never been able to meet the deadlines! Arielle always has fantastic colors and this week, with Color Q #32, I had to play along so I could pay homage to one of my favorite SU colors, ever--Kiwi Kiss! I sure wish it was returning with Baja Breeze but alas... Anyway, this week's Color Q called for Kiwi Kiss, Groovy Guava (love), Basic Black, Very Vanilla and Kraft (love, love). Here we go:

I really love the way this turned out using another all-time favorite, Upsy Daisy for the focal image. I inked it once in Groovy Guava, stamped off, inked again and stamped full strength slightly off from the first. This way it looks like a field of daisies! And, for this great sketch at 2S4Y, Two Sketches For You #52, I really wanted to try and make a paper ruffle border.



I used the same technique as for the distressed flower found in this post but applied the distressing to three strips of kiwi kiss trimmed with the scallop border punch. I am pleased with the results. It's not often that what I have in my head comes out exactly as I wanted on paper--tee, hee!


Several friends have birthdays this month, so the inside of this card was finished off with a birthday wish. I inked the sentiment from Great Friend in kiwi kiss and then went over just the word 'friend' with my basic black stampin' write marker before stamping it on my paper. The HB sentiment is part of a larger stamp from All Holidays and, again, I just inked the HB part with my black marker. I hope you like it. Thanks to the fantastic inspiration found at the Color Q and 2S4Y--be sure to check them out! Thanks so much for stopping by!

supplies:
stamps: great friend, upsy daisy, all holidays
ink: groovy guava, kiwi kiss, basic black
paper: kraft, very vanilla, kiwi kiss, basic black cardstock, retired dsp (can't remember name!)
xtras: scallop border punch, beautiful wings embosslit, color spritzer, basic black stampin' write marker, SAMJ, clear rhinestone brad, black grosgrain ribbon (non SU)