Category Archives: cards

Unraveling the twine

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RemARKable Holiday 2010 Madness

It’s Day Three of the RemARKable Holiday Madness blog tour and I think it’s about time I started moving through the holidays, don’t you?  I’m still living large with my Attitude of Gratitude, so it makes sense for me to share a couple of thankful-type cards with you.

This card makes me feel really, really happy.  I’m happy with the colors, I’m happy with the fuzzy ends of the hemp twine, I’m happy with that gorgeous brad, and I’m just flat out happy with the way it looks:

Paisley Prints So Many Thanks

  • Paisley Prints and So Many Thanks stamp sets
  • Very Vanilla, Cajun Craze, Chocolate Chip, Peach Parfait and So Saffron card stock
  • Cajun Craze, Chocolate Chip, Peach Parfait and So Saffron Classic ink pads
  • Cajun Craze and Peach Parfait Stampin’ Write markers
  • Big Shot and Lattice Impressions Folder
  • Hemp Twine and Antique brad

I love all these textures!  Of all the different elements in a card I think it’s texture that gives the most interest.  There are so many ways to add dimension and I think I’ve hit a mother lode of them here:  the twine, the multiple colors, the Big Shot texture, the torn edges, and the brad.

Oh, that brad!!  I put a hole in the Very Vanilla panel and tied the twine through the hole and around the card.  Then I had the brilliant idea (if I do say so myself) of putting that brad through the hole, but the ends of the twine looked funny…kind of stiff…and, well, moustachey.  I started to fiddle with them and they began to unravel, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Next Stop on the Holiday Madness Blog Tour

The secret to my mojo

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RemARKable Holiday 2010 Madness

Welcome to Day Two of the RemARKables Holiday Madness Blog Hop.  Are you ready for some more RemARKable fun?

I’ve said it before…Autumn doesn’t happen in the islands the way it does in other places.  Our seasons are more notable for who is around.  We watch the kolea, humpback whales, or that special species know as homo sapiens touristus.  At different times of the year we enjoy mango, lychee, guava or lilikoi from a neighbor’s bush or tree.  But I don’t have a mango or a guava or a humpback stamp, I have pumpkins and autumn leaves:

Paisley Pumpkin 3x3

  • Paisley Prints and Pocket Silhouettes  stamp sets
  • Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Peach Parfait and Cajun Craze card stock
  • Peach Parfait and Cajun Craze Classic ink pads; Old Oliev and Cajun Craze Stampin’ Write markers
  • Bitty Buttons and Bitty punches; Linen thread

I am a big fan of these 3×3 cards.  They’re just the right size for a quickie note and I like designing in miniature too.  This time of year, you just can’t have enough thank you notes around and I like to stock up a few for good measure.  The Bitty Buttons and punches are the perfect accent at this scale and of course no project is complete without a little of that fabulous Linen Thread.  I always have an extra package of that as a backup – if I ran out I might lose my mojo!

Next Stop on the Holiday Madness Blog Tour

And the spiders just laughed

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Welcome to Day One of the RemARKable Stampers Holiday Madness Blog Tour!  Buckle your seat belts and get ready for a wonderful Sleigh Ride through the Holidays…although as you all know, there’s not a whole lotta sleigh riding’ here in the islands!  I’m thrilled to be a part of this blog hop for the next week, and I hope you’ll have a wonderful time riding along with me.

To get started, we’re going to visit the holiday closest at hand.  Halloween in Hawaii is huge.  When our kids were small, we lived in a neighborhood full of families.  Everyone would set their beach chairs out in the driveway and watch the enormous parade of keiki (children) as they walked, skated, scootered or got strollered through the streets.  The really organized people had their grills going, and there were a few houses with really elaborate and impressive decorations.  I was always too busy getting three small children into costumes and fed something, anything, that wasn’t full of sugar before we headed out – carving the pumpkins was just about my limit.  Fortunately, our yard was full of contented spiders willing to do a little decorating for me.,

You know that frantic, arms-flailing, twisting and turning little dance you do when you accidentally walk through a cobweb?   You’re trying to get all the webby bits out of your hair and at the same time you are just PRAYING that the spider was out at Walmart getting supplies for the Webber grill…that’s what I was thinking about:

Sparkling Big Shot Web

  • Teeny Tiny Wishes and Season of Friendship Stamp sets
  • More Mustard, Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry,  and Very Vanilla card stock
  • Basic Black and Rich Razzleberry Classic ink pads
  • Big Shot and Spider Web Textured Impressions folder
  • Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint; Rich Razzleberry Taffeta Ribbon
  • Stampin’ Sponges; Modern Label Punch and Crop-a-dile
  • Googly Eyes (non-SU)

Actually, my spider was sitting in the tree just watching me do the Tarantella and laughing with his little spidery friend.  This new Textured Impressions folder from the Holiday Mini is so vivid you could use it all by itself for a card and it would work beautifully.  I used it with the raised side down because I liked the distance it created, but it is equally awesome when you use it right side up.  You’ll have to try it yourself to find out, but don’t wait too long because these Textured Impressions folders are very popular and you don’t want to be disappointed just before Halloween!  That would be a mean trick and no treat.

Next Stop on the Holiday Madness Blog Tour

Butterfly Pansies that make your heart sing

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This isa shameless CASE, but I was so impressed with this card that I couldn’t see any good reason to change it.  Dawn Olchefske is the original artist and has even made a video tutorial for those of us who are visual learners.  I received a CASE of her card as a convention swap and couldn’t wait to try it when I got home.  Here are my results:

Butterfly Pansies

  • Sincere Salutations stamp set
  • Very Vanilla Card stock and Shimmer White card stock
  • Elegant Eggplant Classic Ink pad
  • Elegant Eggplant and Daffodil Delight classic ink refills
  • Basic Black Stampin’ Write marker
  • Big Shot, Top Note Bigz die and Elegant Bouquet Imprssions folder
  • Very Vanilla 5/8″ Satin ribbon
  • Gold brads
  • Large Oval and Butterfly punches

My apologies for the quality of the photo – photos are going to be a little hit and miss for a while.  My poor little point-and-shoot has been dropped on its head a few times too many and it’s getting a little wonky, not to mention I have to wrap a rubber band around it to keep the battery door from opening and dropping the battery on the floor.  A new camera is NOT in the budget right now, so we will make do with what we have.

If you find a color combination you love, be sure and let me know.  I played with quite a few and this was my favorite, but I’m sure there are more out there!  Happy punching.

Fuzzy Bats and Spooky Eyes

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My friend Kellie came over to play on Friday and brought a couple of cards to share with me.  I don’t make many Halloween cards so I don’t buy many Halloween stamps, but her cards just about had me putting in an order with my favorite Stampin’ Up! demo (yeah, ha ha, three guesses who that might be!!).

Kellie's Spooky bats

Since I didn’t make this card, I can’t give you all of the details but she did say she used the Wicked Fun Specialty Designer Series papers and the Wicked Cool stamp set.  I REALLY didn’t plan on getting that set!

The Wicked Fun DSP has flocking on it so the bats are fuzzy…I like those fuzzy bats…not that I really like bats or anything, but how can you not love fuzzy bats??  Just tell me that.

Kellie's Spooky Eyes

Don’t you LOVE these eyes?  They’re the wing from the XL Two Step Bird punch!  I like them even better than Googlie Eyes, and I really love googlie eyes.  The spider web is from that dog-gone Wicked Cool stamp set too.  Hmmmph.

Kellie CASE-d these two cards and even brought me the names of the stampers, so if you love these cards, be sure to Google these two talented women and give them a little love too.  The Eyeballs card was inspired by Sandi Maciver and the Fuzzy Bats are courtesy of Deb Currier.

Have a little Halloween fun!

Gratitude: Expressing Appreciation

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Gratitude is a feeling I try to keep at the top of my mind.  I have so much to be grateful for, and I find if I focus on those things I can always see the glass as half full.  It takes so much energy to be grumpy, resentful and negative, but being grateful is life-giving.  I look for the Thanksgiving moment in every situation, no matter how serious it may be.

Gratitude in Paisley

  • Paisley Prints and Define Your Life stamp sets
  • Peach Parfait, Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake and Naturals Ivory card stock
  • Peach Parfait, Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake, River Rock, Always Artichoke and More Mustard Classic ink pads
  • Decorative Label punch
  • Stampin’ Dimensionals and Always Artichoke Seam binding

Have you tried the new 1/2 inch Seam Binding from the Holiday Mini catalog yet?  It is so fun to work with – I’m a seamstress too, and it’s the real deal.  The color is gorgeous but what I really love is that the knot isn’t bulky and I think I might be able to squeak this one past the Fat-Card-Police at the post office.  Now that’s something to be grateful for.

Really? I get all that??

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In case you haven’t noticed (or perhaps have just awakened from a Rip-Van-Winkle-esque 20 year nap) Stampin’ Up! has outstanding enticements for our workshop hostesses.  It seems no matter how carefully I explain our benefits to a new hostess, when it comes time to place her workshop order and I show her what she’s earned her eyes open wide and she says “REALLY???”

YES!!

REALLY!!

I recently was a hostess myself and enjoyed the same benefits as any other Stampin’ Up! hostess, and earned a level two hostess set.  (Read all about benefits on page 9 of the Idea Book and Catalog, and if you don’t have a catalog, call me).

Bright Apple Blossoms

  • Apple Blossom Level II Hostess Exclusive Stamp set
  • Rich Razzleberry, Tempting Turquoise and Pear Pizazz Classic ink pads
  • Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry and Tempting Turquoise card stock
  • Play Date Designer series paper
  • 1 1/4 inch and scallop circle punches; scallop border punch
  • Brights Designer button collection; white crochet thread (non-SU)

I don’t know what’s gotten into me lately, but I have had a thing for really bright and bold color combinations.  Our Color Renovation has really shaken up the way I look at our colors….in the past I seldom considered Tempting Turquoise, but lately it’s practically a neutral for me!    To tell the truth, if you look into my closet you’ll see that color quite a bit, so the surprise should be that it’s taken me this long to embrace it in paper.

Perkin’ up

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Do they even make percolators anymore?  I remember one sitting on my grandmother’s kitchen counter, and I think every church I’ve ever been to has at least one of the ginormous 30 or 60 cup monsters, but there isn’t one in my house.  We have lots of coffee-making devices:  two regular drip brew coffee makers, one 6 cup and one travel french press, and an espresso machine (two if you count the little silver stove-top one like they use in Europe).   This one is so charming that I’m willing to overlook the fact that it’s obsolete:

A little note to perk you up

  • Morning Cup stamp set
  • Very Vanilla, More Mustard, Rich Razzleberry and Early Espresso (ha!) card stock
  • Early Espresso Classic ink pad
  • Blender pen and Stampin’ Pastels

I started out just fiddling around with the Stampin’ Pastels….it’s been a very long time since I’ve had them out of the drawer.  I liked the slightly uneven nature of the color even though I suspect it’s really Operator Error.  Don’t laugh, but this actually looks much better in person…from about 3 feet away.    I had such fun I tried it again:

Perk Up full card

  • Morning Cup stamp set
  • Very Vanilla, More Mustard, Rich Razzleberry and Early Espresso (ha!) card stock
  • Early Espresso Classic ink pad
  • Blender pen and Stampin’ Pastels
  • Big Shot and Elegant Lines Textured Embossing Folder
  • Victoria 5/8 inch crochet trim

I’m not ready to go back to percolator coffee, but I’m pretty fond of this little pot.

Starting the day out right

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While the Morning Cup set was on my desk I put together a quick 3×3 notecard:

My Coffee Means Everything to Me

  • Morning Cup and Always stamp sets
  • Whisper White and Early Espresso card stock
  • Play Date Designer Series Paper
  • Early Espresso Classic ink pad
  • Blender Pen and Stampin’ Pastels
  • Real Red 1/8 inch ribbon
  • 1 1/4, 1 3/8 inch and scallop circle punches

This sentiment from the Always stamp set struck me as the perfect complement to this image.  That first cup in the morning is what makes my day come to life.  We have an espresso machine and my dear husband makes me a cappucino every morning.  It’s one of the many ways he spoils me, and so in a way this card is all about him, too.

My morning cuppa

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If you know me, you know I love coffee.  I’m a teeny tiny bit of a coffee snob – can’t drink just anything.  If the coffee is weak I’ll pass.  I brew what I refer to as “Manly Coffee”, and if it’s too strong for you, there’s the hot water!

I need that first cup to make any sense in the morning, especially if I have to be up early.  I love the smell, I love the taste, and I admit it, I love the oomph from my morning cuppa.  My daughters used to give me a bad time about my coffee addiciton, but college life silenced that.  The oldest tried to deny she was addicted – I think her exact words were “I’m not addicted, I’m just dependent” – but I’m under no such illusions.  I need my coffee.

Give me my caffeine

  • Morning Cup stamp set
  • Pear Pizazz, Marina Mist, Very Vanilla, and (OF COURSE) Early Espresso card stock
  • Early Espresso Classic ink pad
  • Blender pens and Stampin’ Pastels
  • Pretty in Pink 1/4″ grosgrain ribbon
  • Big Shot and Perfect Polka Dot Impressions folder

I made a serendipitous discovery:  Many of our retired Stampin’ Pastel colors can pass for some of our new Color Renovation colors.  The pastel chalk colors are soft and you can layer them to the depth of color that you want.