Besides my pin, I also receieved a UPS delivery of a big Stampin’ box which included my new catty order.  I couldn’t wait to bust out Humor in High Heels because I’ve had an idea floating around in my head using Anna Wight’s Whipper Snapper set Hocus Pocus.  AND as it turned out my idea worked with today’s Sketch Challenge on SCS!  Cool!

Whether you’re a good witch

or a bad witch,

it’s all about the shoes!

*snort*  My original idea was to just stamp the legs/shoes once, but when I saw the sketch a lightbulb went on to have two sets of legs.  I colored them with Copic markers and then used a clear glaze pen on the shoes.  There’s orange stickles around the eggplant frame.  The dp also came in my SU order today - Ghostly Greetings - it has a lot of fun patterns.  Oh and one more new thing - the black hemp twine.  I love the rough texture and I think it will be great with lots of Halloween projects.  The card turned out a little *busy* I think and if I had it to do over I might try using Kiwi cardstock on the right half rather than the 2nd patterned paper…but we’ll never know. LOL!

Recipe:

stamps: Humor in High Heels, Whipper Snapper Hocus Pocus

paper: Elegant Eggplant, basic Black, white, Ghostly Greetings dp

ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black

other:  orange stickles, decorative scissors, ornage eyelets, black hemp twine, copic markers, clear glaze pen

Thanks for stopping by.  Be sure to join me Friday morning for another one of Taylor’s challenges. Oh and I’ve been asked if I have a complete list of Copic matches to SU colors.  In fact, I do but at the moment it’s just a hand-written list.  I’ll try to work on getting it typed into a chart sometime soon.  I’ll be sure to share here as soon as I do.

Now on to something stamping related.  As soon as I got samples of the new SU In-Colors I sat down to determine the best Copic marker matches.  I’m sure lots of people have posted their opinions on this (although I haven’t read any), but I thought I’d share mine.  Hopefully some of you will find it helpful.

Pacific Point - B06 Peacock Blue

Baja Breeze - BG72 - Ice Ocean

Pink Pirouette - RV00 Water Lily

Kiwi Kiss - YG03 - Yellow Green

Tangerine Tango - YR09 Chinese Orange

Riding Hood Red - R37 Carmine

The only one that’s not a really great match is the Kiwi - Yellow Green.  The rest are super close.  Click on the chart below to view it full size.  You’ll see a scallop circle swatch of the cardstock next to a large swath of marker color and below that you’ll see SU white taffeta ribbon that has been dyed with the marker.

I absolutely LOVE this trick.  The taffeta takes the dye amazingly well, dries very quickly,  and you can have ribbon in any color.  Simply run the ribbon under the broad tip end of the marker held down on some scratch paper.  Couldn’t be easier.  All of the color matches are actually closer in real life than the scan shows.  It’s so hard to get true color on a scan like this.  Scroll down to my previous post and see a card with taffeta ribbon dyed orange - it’s a fabulous match to the Tangerine cardstock.

Of course if you’re *serious* about coloring, you’ll also want additional colors for shading, but hopefully this will give you a good starting point.  There are lots of sources for Copic markers - I get mine at eclectic Paperie.  I prefer the Originals with the fine tip, but not all colors are availabe in Original so I buy Sketch when neccessary - as with the Ice Ocean and Water Lily above.

Thanks for stopping by and happy coloring!

And to make it super simple here are the measurements for a 4 1/4″ square card.  The main image panel is 2 1/2″ square layered onto a 2 5/8″ square.  The diamond panel behind the main image is the same size.  Easy Peasy!

This is a great layout to really showcase a larger single stamp image.  I chose to use Spring Sprigs by Stampendous - available as part of a card kit at TE.

This was such a quick card to put together.  Spring Sprigs was stamped on Neenah Classic White cardstock and colored with Copic markers (click the thumbnail above for a full size photo of the markers used) and highlighted with Diamond Stickles.  The card base is Tangerine Tango and the dp is from the Bella Rose pack.  Old Olive was used for matting.  I applied Diamond Stickles all around the Olive mat on the diamond piece and clear Adorn It Jewels Droplets were used in the corners.  Once the card was put together I felt like it just needed something more (big surprise, huh?), but I didn’t have any ribbon that looked right.  Copic marker to the rescue.  YR09 Chinese Orange is a really great match to Tangerine Tango cardstock, so I dyed some ivory taffeta ribbon and it’s perfect! I’m not an orange person at all, but I really like this card!

To get all the details on the challenge visit Taylor’s blog by clicking here.

And now it’s time to see what the rest of the Cupcake Crew has cooked up:

Ana Wohlfahrt: Ink A Stamp

Stephanie Hargis: Steph’s Stampin’ Stuff

Vicki Chrisman: This Art that makes me Happy

Monika Davis: M.A.D. Stamper

Lynn Mercurio: Stamperosity

Mary Jo Albright: Beauty Lies Within

Sherrie Siemens: Card Creme

and this week’s Featured Stamper Lynn Put at The Queen’s Scene.

I’m hoping to get some serious stampin’ time today.  I have some fun new toys to play with - you’ll hear all about those later.  I want to play with them before my Stampin’ Up! New Catty order arrives.  I’m so spoiled to usually get orders within just s few days - this new catty time is always hard as the pick line gets so backed up.  I hope the order ships soon!

Thanks for stopping by!     

Denise, Luann, me and Lisa.  These are all women from my church and I’m so enjoying building friendships with them.  We’ve only been at this church for a little over a year and I’ve been so blessed to meet these gals along with several others.  Sometimes it’s hard to take time out to do things like spend an entire afternoon at Tea, but friendships are really so important and the only way to build them and/or maintain them is to spend time developing them.  We had such a wonderful afternoon and I look forward to spending lots more time with these gals in the future - even if it’s just a sandwich at Subway!

Luann brought boas for everyone - how fun is that?

I just want to encourage each of you to call or e-mail a friend or a group of friends and schedule some time together - at tea, or stamping, or out for coffee or whatever.  If you don’t initiate it, who will?

My day yesterday made me think of the old Girl Scout song…I know it’s corny, but at the same time I’m seeing how true it is…

Make new friends

But keep the old

One is silver

And the other’s gold!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.  Join me tomorrow for the Friday TECC!

Focus:  Birthdays

Required: Numbers

Restricted:  No use of the word “birthday” on the front of the card

Well I was in some weird funk last night and couldn’t think of anything and didn’t feel like stamping so I was going to skip out on this month….but this morning I got up in a better frame of mind and got right to it!

As you might guess, this is for a little girl’s 10th birthday.  The Elzybells image was stamped on Neenah Select white cardstock with memento Tuxedo black ink and colored with Copics.  I added polka dots to her dress with a white gel pen.  She was cut out with rectangle nesties.  The big “10″ is done with my JustRite stamper (avaialable at Taylored Expressions) in Pink Passion ink and cut out with a Coluzzle.  The Gable Green panel was stamped with the Dots & Daisies BG in white craft and heat embossed with white embossing powder. That was layered onto a pink passion panel and then I trimmed the pink panel with scallop scissors - not perfect, but close enough.   The ribbon is something I had in my stash (from Costco I think). The final sparkly finishing touch is the group of 3 Kaiser Craft hot pink flower rhinestones from eclectic Paperie.

JustRite is having a contest for some cool prizes and you can enter as many times as you like.  Find all the details by clicking here.

To view what all the Dirty Girls came up with for this challenge click here.

My recipe:

stamps: Dots & Daisies, JustRite Stamper, Elzybells

paper:  Pink passion, Gable Green, Nennah Classic White

ink:  Pink Passion, Craft White, Memento Tuxedo Black

other:  white ep, Copic markers, Coluzzle, ribbon, nestabilities, Kaiser Craft rhinestones, scallop scissors.

Thanks for stopping by.  I’ll be back later or perhaps tomorrow to share some tea photos. 

 This was a pure just for the fun of it More is More card.     I think my favorite images from both Spooky Expressions and Hocus Pocus (by Anna Wight for Whipper Snapper) are the two tiny ghosts in the Expressions set.  I’m not sure why, but they are just so little and cute!

I started this card off my placing the two little individual ghosts on the same acrylic block and stamping them repeatedly on the eggplant panel with white craft ink.  Then I heat embossed them with white embossing powder.  Next came the really fun part.  I painted each little ghost with a 50/50 solution of bleach and water using a small fine tip watercolor brush.  It was so fun to watch them change color!  Once the panel was completely dry I added “BOO!” all over in black craft ink and heat embossed with irridescent ice ep.  It’s hard to see the black against the eggplant in the photo.

Next I stamped the big ghostie in black ink on shimmery white cardstock and watercolored around him - first with Barely Banana ink to give him a glow and then with Eggplant ink to coordinate with the background panel.  He was then cut into an oval shape using my Coluzzle - being careful not to cut off his hands or tail (do ghosts have tails?).  I layered him onto a black oval and distressed the edges then onto an eggplant oval that had been brushed with the bleach solution to match the little ghosts.  I did a little doodling on that last oval and added some Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

I wanted to layer the eggplant panel on a white panel, but before I did I decided to add a glitter border. This was done by wrapping Scotch double stick tape around all the edges of the white panel and then covering it with Dazzling Diamonds.  This looks very cool in person!  I snipped the corners of the eggplant panel with the ticket corner punch and added some balck faux button brads.  A wide black gingham ribbon was wrapped around for some whimsy and then white taffeta ribbon was wrapped over that.  Before adding the taffeta I stamped the sentiment on it using classic eggplant ink.  It ran just a bit and I liked that look for Halloween.  The big ghost oval was adhered with foam tape and the whole layered panel was then attached to the black card base.  The final finishing touch was the “be scary” sentiment punched with the Word Window Punch and the addition of a little purple Adorn It jewel.

Recipe:

stamps:  Anna Wight for Whipper Snapper - Spooky Expressions and Hocus Pocus

cardstock:  Basic Black, White, Shimmery White, Eggplant

ink:  white craft, black craft, black Memento, Classic Eggplant

other:  coluzzle, word window punch, small circle punch, Adorn It jewels, Making memories balck button brads, ticket corner punch, white ep, irridescent ice ep, wide black gingham ribbon, white taffeta ribbon, bleach, dazzling diamonds glitter

Yep - More is More - especially when it comes to stampin’ FUN!  Thanks for stopping by.  I’m off to work.  Hope you have a great day!

I have to say that I’m really not *into* Halloween and can count on one hand the number of Halloween cards I have ever stamped, but I have been having so much fun playing with these sets.  I mean how can you not smile when you look at those big cheesy grins?

The first two images I was drawn to were the grinning cat and silly ghost.  I’ll share my ghost card later, but here’s my goofy cat Trick-or-Treating as a witch.  He was stamped on shimmer white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored with Copics.  Simply stamp the hat first and mask it, then use a stamp-a-majig to position and stamp the cat.  He’s layered onto Prism Classic Purple cardstock and SU Tangerine Tango.  The Tangerine panel was stamped with small images from the Spooky Expressions set for the look of designer paper.  The sentiment was heat embossed with white craft ink and white powder and then hand cut.  The little finishing touches are several Kaiser Craft black rhinestones along with drops of Crystal Effects on the eyes.

Thanks again to Anna for the opportunity to be a Featured Designer this month.  This kind of purely fun stamping makes me feel like a kid again!  And now to check out what the rest of the team has brewed up! 

Carol Halvorson
Happiness Blooms

Leslie Miller
Running with Scissors

Pam Hooten
Iris Garden

Trudee Sauer
Follow Your Bliss

Remember - Anna’s sets are red rubber on cling foam.  Each set comes as one sheet of rubber in a CD storage case with an index insert.  You just need to trim them and stick onto an acrylic block to stamp.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Hope you have a great week!

The first card is an example of Faux Seersucker and it’s for my friends Leann and Bunny (using Garden Whimsy and a crimper).  The idea came from this card on SCS by pidgesmom.  Once I started playing with this technique I just couldn’t stop.  I made three cards in quick succession and here’s the one I chose for class.

It’s soooooo easy!  We stamped the images from Garden Whimsy in Pacific Point, Regal Rose and Kiwi Kiss and then the stamped panel was run through the crimper once and turned a quarter turn and run through again for a waffled seersucker effect.  Everyone also stamped either 2 or 3 extra Rose ladybugs on a scrap of white and cut them out and popped them up on dimensionals and then covered them with Crystal Effects.  The 5/8″ Regal Rose grosgrain is the perfect finishing touch.  We also stamped a white panel for inside the card.  Everyone chose a sentiment from Sincere Salutations to stamp in Pacific Point and accented it with the Rose and Kiwi ladybugs to give the card a really nice completed look.

I was telling the girls last night that this card reminds me of a favorite dress I had when I was about 9 or 10 years old.  It was white seersucker with little embroidered flowers on it.  I was taking ballroom dance lessons and I remember that summer wearing that dress to a party at the dance studio and feeling like I was all that!   *grin*

This next card was my favorite of the evening - it’s so me!

This card is so simple (and yet elegant) that I don’t think it needs much explanation, but here goes…

The base is Old Olive layered with Riding Hood Red and Bella Rose designer paper.  The two prints are opposite sides of the same sheet, so I just cut pieces 5″ x 4″ and then cut the 4″  into two pices at 2.25″ - the smaller piece was then flipped over and punched with the scallop edge punch.  Everyone chose a letter from Lovely Letters (I’m so excited to finally have this set!) and inked it with Kiwi Kiss and added Olive marker to the leaves before stamping on Shimmery White cs.  Then the stamp-a-majig was used to place the frame from Frames with a Flourish stamped in Riding Hood Red.  (I found it much easier to stamp the letter first and then add the frame as opposed to the other way around.) That piece was hand trimmed and layered onto Old Olive and adhered with dimensionals over the 5/8″ Olive grosgrain ribbon.

Wouldn’t this card be great as a set to give as a gift?  And they could be mass produced quite easily.

I hope you are enjoying your Saturday and that you’ll take a little time to stamp!  I need to put away everything from last night and then I plan to plop down at my stamp table for a little play time.  Thanks for stopping by.

P.S. my retired stamps for sale list is still active - just scroll down a bit.  I also have one set for trade at the very end of the list - anyone want Heartfelt Thanks?  I’m offering a good deal!

As you know, I’ve been sorting and cleaning out my stamps and clearing out lots of my old sets.  One of my original favorite styles when I started stamping was bold images and I have a few I just can’t let go of despite the fact that I rarely use them anymore.  This card seemed perfect to utilize some of them

I had combined two coordinating sets in one box so I’m not certain, but I think this set was called Framed Fun.  To continue the retro look I used some long time retired SU one-sided designer paper.  I still love the Pink Passion/Pumpkin Pie combo.  The images were stamped on Whisper White cardstock and purposely punched (1 1/4″ circle) off center and then layered onto 1 3/8″ pumpkin pie circles.

The sentiment from Dreams du Jour was stamped in Black Craft ink on vellum and heat embossed with irridescent ice embossing powder.  Some grosgrain ribbon and random rhinestones (pink, orange, clear from Kaiser Craft, K&Co. and Taylor’s Tiny Twinkles) finish off this 5 1/4″ square card.

Time for some blog hopping to see what the rest of the Cupcake Crew has cooked up:

Ana Wohlfahrt: Ink A Stamp
Stephanie Hargis: Steph’s Stampin’ Stuff
Vicki Chrisman: This Art that makes me Happy
Monika Davis: M.A.D. Stamper
Lynn Mercurio: Stamperosity
Mary Jo Albright: Beauty Lies Within
Sherrie Siemens: Card Creme

 Tonight is my monthly Stampin’ Up! Class and the Kick Off of a new round for my Hostess Club.  Lots to do today to get ready for the fun evering ahead!  Thanks for stopping by. Hope you are inspired to get out some old stamps and see what you can do with them.

PS scroll down 2 posts to see my retired stuff for sale

This is a just a simple fun little genie bag (using a small white lunch sack from Smart’n'Final as the base). The background piece is Floral stamped in eggplant on white. Cutting out the butterflies is a little time consumimg, but overall this is easy-peasy!

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the Cupcake Friday sketch challenge. And also be sure to scroll down one post to see what I’m selling. Have a great day!