More Cow Bell

It's Friday...so that means it's time for another Stamp Something Challenge! This weeks theme is stamp something with an animal theme. Digital Delights by Looby Lou is our sponsor this week so I chose one of her cute images from the new Farmyard Collection.

This is a digital image, so I printed it twice...once on Whisper White and again on a piece of Thoroughly Modern designer paper so I could paper piece his spots and legs. The rest of the image I water colored.

Colors: Rose Red & Soft Suede
Accessories: Soft Suede polka-dot grosgrain ribbon, Vintage brads, Photo Corner, Modern Label & Word Window punches, and a little cowbell I had in my stash.

The whole time I was creating this card I kept thinking about the SNL skit "More Cowbell." It cracks me up so I thought I'd add a link here for your enjoyment. Hope you will play along with us this week at Stamp Something.

Autumn Days in August

I sure have been slacking on my blog lately...sorry about that. Have had quite a few things going on around here...but not much in the way of stamping. I needed a masculine birthday card so that got me busy playing with my Autumn Days set.

This is such a nice set for manly cards don't you think? I stamped the sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes on the twill tape instead of using ribbon...it adds nice texture and doesn't look as feminine. To add texture to the card stock, I used my favorite retired jumbo wheel, Rough Around the Edges.

Colors used: Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke & Soft Suede

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Birthday Somethings

It's Friday again...and that means another Stamp Something Challenge! This week you must stamp something with a birthday theme, so I pulled out my new set Fifth Avenue Floral and stamped a feminine birthday card.
I embossed the ruffly cosmos images with White Embossing powder and water colored with my Aqua Painter and re-inkers to match the colors of the Razzleberry Lemonade papers. The "happy birthday" greeting is from the Teeny Tiny Wishes set.

I hope you can play along with us this week at Stamp Something...so get busy and stamp your birthday something. Enjoy your weekend!

Take a Hike

I hope you all have been enjoying your summer...I cannot believe that August is already half over...crazy! This weeks challenge at Stamp Something is to "Stamp Something From Summer Vacation" or with a summer theme. I decided to do a scrapbook page using photos I took last weekend while on vacation up north.
I used some natured inspired stamps from Penguin Pants to create the sign and the strip along the bottom. I inked the images in Soft Suede and stamped on Kraft card stock. For the title, I used my Big Shot and the Serif Essentials Bigz Dies and cut the letters twice - once from Thoroughly Modern DP and again from Mellow Moss to create the shadow. The other words were cut using Lipstick Love Letter Sizzlets. The background paper is Always Artichoke inked with the Rough Around the Edges jumbo wheel (retired) to add nice texture.

The photograph of my page shown here isn't the best...I have a really hard time photographing my pages...but the photos I scrapped were very nice. My favorite being of two fawns hiding in some ferns. If you would like to see them better, look here.

I hope you will play along this week with us and stamp something from your summer vacation. Enjoy you weekend!

Watercolored Blooms

It took me a while, but I finally broke down and got this beautiful floral set. I loved it from the start, but figured I already had lots of floral stamps, so I resisted. After seeing so many beautiful creations and realizing I didn't have a floral set to watercolor...I couldn't resist any longer! I had so much fun water coloring these flowers, so I'm sure you will see me using this set a lot.

I stamped the flowers with VersaMark on Whisper White card stock and embossed with white embossing powder. Then I used my aqua painter and re-inkers to watercolor the flowers and the background.

Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, Oval All
Ink: VersaMark, and various to watercolor
Card stock: Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay, Whisper White
Accessories: Bermuda Bay Polka-dot Grosgrain, Scalloped Oval punch, white embossing powder, heat tool, aqua painter & X-acto knife (to cut slot for ribbon)

Sorry I've been posting so irregularly lately, but I've been busy enjoying the beautiful weather we've been having. Need to take advantage while we've got it, right? Thanks for stopping by to visit. :-)

Enjoying the summer

It's been a while since I posted. I've been on a couple mini vacations during the past two weeks, so I haven't had time to stamp or post. Both trips were up in northern Michigan, but on separate sides of the state. One was an all girl trip that has been an annual event for 14 years now. This year there was 13 of us. Most of us have been friends since high school, so we had a lot of fun. Here's a photo of our group before we left for the day out on Indian River. (That's me... 3rd from the end in the (tempting) turquoise shirt)

This past weekend my hubby and I went up to stay with my cousin and her fiance' at his hunting lodge. It was on 2500 acres...so it was quite secluded, and a lot more low key than the girls weekend. There were a lot of trails to hike on, and we saw a lot of deer. I love this shot I took of twin fawns hiding in the ferns...they were so cute!
And this one of a doe and her fawn.
Today is supposed to be pretty hot again...so I plan to spend at least part of my day downstairs in my studio where it's nice and cool. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have something stamp related to share. Thanks for stopping by!

Paper Pieced Something

I just love the way paper piecing adds such nice detail to stamped images, so I was delighted to see that our challenge this week at Stamp Something is to use the paper piecing technique. I haven't used my Blooming Beautiful set in a while and I figured the vase would be perfect for some paper piecing.

I used a nice sketch from Mojo Monday and some of my favorite new papers...Thoroughly Modern to create this card. I also used: Rich Razzleberry & Soft Suede card stock, Rich Razzleberry Polka-dot Grosgrain, Nestabilities Scalloped Circle die, Coluzzle & Dew Drops.

I'm heading up North for some fun in the sun with a group of friends for the weekend. Enjoy your weekend...and take some time to join us at Stamp Something.

From the Crypt Pocket Card

I've been dying...no pun intended...to play with my new Halloween stuff! This year will be our 20th annual Halloween party, so I know I want to do something really special for the invites. Was thinking maybe a pocket card...here's my first attempt.

Here's another pic with the card removed from the pocket.
I used both the Graveyard Gala and From the Crypt stamp sets along with the spooktacular Cast-a-Spell papers. All images were stamped in VersaMark and then embossed with Black Embossing powder.

Thanks for stopping by...

Celebrate! Birthday Album

I want to start my post today by saying thank you to everyone who took the Catty Cruise over the weekend and anchored here to explore. I appreciate all the kind comments and emails you left for me... I enjoyed reading them all and I'm so happy that you liked what you saw! I'd also like to welcome all the new readers who have subscribed to my blog, I hope you stop by often. The whole crew of the Catty Cruise shared some wonderful projects, so if you haven't taken the cruise...you still can!

The other day I showed you the cover of a book I was making for my Aunt to hold photos from her surprise birthday party, and said I would share some of the inside pages when I was finished. Below is photo of cover and here is link to my original post telling what I used to create it.

I also said that I hoped to have it completed before Saturday so I could give it to her over the weekend...I'm happy to say that I got it all done...and she absolutely LOVED it! Here are a few of the inside pages.

I used the Circle Circus set to stamp many of the background pages and to create some embellishments. Colors used: Riding Hood Red, Pumpkin Pie & More Mustard

See how nicely the retired Haiku paper works with the Circle Circus set? I wish it was still current...or that they made those patterns available in other colors. Oh well...at least I had some left for this project.

I also used the Party Hearty & Birthday Whimsey sets on many of the pages. On the pages that I used the Birthday Whimsy set I used the Whimsy jumbo wheel for the background pages and some striped DP that I had on hand that matched the colors I used.
My Aunt hosts almost all of our family parties each year and it was so nice to see her surprised at this special party that my cousin had for her. She got to enjoy everybody and not do any of the work...she LOVED it, yet felt a little lost at the same time. I'm so happy that she loved the album I created for her.

Have a wonderful day!

Come Sail Away on the Catty Cruise - Peace Within

Thanks for dropping anchor to visit my blog today! I hope you are enjoying your tour on the Catty Cruise! In case you washed ashore here unexpectedly, the Catty Cruise is a blog tour featuring 12 talented bloggers sharing projects highlighting their favorite Stampin' Up! products from the newly released Idea Book & Catalog... or Catty for short. If you are taking the full tour, then you sailed in from Linda McClain's blog LMac's Catered Crop. Don't you love the beautiful projects she created with the Cottage Wall papers and the new Butterfly punch?

If you popped in here without knowing about the cruise, I hope you'll join us. Just sail along to the next port with the link provided at the bottom of my post and continue on until you wind up back here...that way you will have visited everyone. If you get lost at sea, then just go on back to our Home Port . Just don't go anywhere until you've see my creations...

I am sharing a few projects I created using one of my favorite new stamp sets called Peace Within. I love to watercolor and I love cats and nature, so I was delighted to see this set in the new catalog. My first project shows how to transform a plain little frame from the Target Dollar Spot into a cute little piece of art, just by using some pretty paper and a few accessories. Kinda like MacGyver...only with stamps and embellishments. hehehe
I love all the patterns in the Razzleberry Lemonade Designer paper pack, but I managed to narrow it down to my favorite two and that's what I used here. I stamped my image onto watercolor paper using Black Stazon and used my aqua painter and classic inks to watercolor. See the pillow that the kitty is napping on? That was stamped onto patterned paper, cut out and then adhered into place. I think the paper piecing technique adds such nice detail to any project.

The finishing touch is the silk daisy from the Pretties Kit. I used my Rich Razzleberry re-inker and my aqua painter to add color to the petals. The center is a White Jumbo Grommet with Razzleberry Lemonade center. Rich Razzleberry Polka-dot grosgrain ribbon was attached to the hangers and it is ready to hang. Here's a closer look...
Here's another way to use this same image and papers but achieve an entirely different look with the spotlighting technique.
I stamped my image onto Whisper White card stock and using the 1-3/4 inch circle punch, I punched out the part of the image I wanted to spotlight. Then I stamped the image a second time onto a piece of Razzleberry Lemonade DP. After water coloring the image on the punched out circle, I carefully adhered it over the top of my full image.

Ink: Black Stazon & various Classic Inks for water coloring
Card stock: Whisper White, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Razzleberry Lemonade DP
Accessories: Mat Pack, White Gel pen, Pumpkin Pie Grosgrain ribbon & Dew Drops

My last project uses the other beautiful image from the Peace Within set along with paper from the Thoroughly Modern Designer paper pack.
I stamped my image and water colored the same as described for my first project. I added a sentiment from the Teeny Tiny Wishes set inked in Soft Suede. I matted the image onto Soft Suede card stock and then layered it onto a Top Note cut from the DP. My card base is Kraft card stock which I ran though the Big Shot using the new Perfect Details Texturz Plate. I used the Eyelet Border Punch along the bottom and added some Soft Suede Polka-dot Grosgrain ribbon to finish my card.

I hope you enjoyed your visit...now it's time to sail on to our next port...iSTAMP to see the super talented Nancy Riley's amazing creations using the Level 3 Hostess Set The More the Merrier along with Sunny Days Simply Scrappin' Kit.

Razzleberry Wings

This has been a busy week! Cannot believe that it's already Friday and time for the Stamp Something challenge. This weeks theme is Winged Things. So if your image has wings...be it a butterfly, bug, or fairy...it qualifies. So go Stamp Something!

I just love, love, love the Razzleberry Lemonade papers...the patterns, colors and even the name is just delicious! I paired it up here with the Great Friend set. I was happy to see this set from the Occasions catalog make it into the new catalog. I inked the butterfly in Melon Mambo and rolled it into the Rich Razzleberry.

Stamps: Great Friend, Wonderful Favorites
Ink:Razzleberry & Melon Mambo
Cardstock:Razzleberry Lemonade, Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo & Crushed Curry
Accessories: Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die, Modern Label & Eyelet Border punches, Matchbox Die (for the label), Mat pack, Adhesive backed rhinestones

Thanks for stopping by to visit me today! Make sure to hop aboard tomorrow...we'll be embarking on the Catty Cruise!

Birthday Albums

I've been pretty busy stamping but you wouldn't know it by my blog posts! LOL A few of the projects I cannot show you yet...they are for the upcoming Catty Cruise. Make sure to check back here on Saturday to see the cruise projects I have been working on...plus fantastic projects by the rest of the crew.

A couple other projects that have been keeping me busy are two birthday albums I've been working on. One is complete, but the other one is still a work in progress, which needs to be finished by Saturday. Both are gifts for family who hit milestone birthdays this year. Here is the cover of the book I am still working on for my Aunt.
I used the Circle Circus set for many of the inside pages so I used some retired Haiku paper for the cover. I LOVED that paper...I sure wish they made it available in another color scheme because it coordinates so nicely with the Circle Circus set. Oh well... at least I have a little bit left in my stash. I also used some new specialty paper called The Write Stuff. The Ruby Red polka-dot paper and the scalloped die cut is from that pack. I can't wait to create some fun scrapbook pages with some of the other die cuts from that pack!

I used Long Board Chip Board for the cover and then my new toy...the Bind It All to punch the holes for the binding. The silk flower is from the Pretties Kit and the center is one of the large White Grommets. I'll share some of the inside pages when I'm all finished.

The other book I created was for my Mom to give to a close family friend. Since this one was for a guy, and I only had a couple of days to complete the whole book, it is much simpler. Here's the cover:

I didn't use very many stamps, mostly an adhesive card stock sticker set called Older & Wiser from the Paper Loft. You can see here that I used one of my favorite wheels - Rough Around the Edges, to add some texture to the cover. Here's a view of the inside:
Thanks for stopping by today!