More soft thoughts…

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I liked the colors and overall look of yesterday’s card so well that I revisited the same general concept.  I incorporated a sketch challenge from SCS and added Mellow Moss to the Pretty in Pink/Soft Suede combination.  The end result is a card with a similar feeling but a unique look of its own.

I really enjoy the challenge of creating different looks from the same basic supplies.  I like stretching my perspective – it keeps things exciting.

Floral Thoughts_crop

  • Thought and Prayers stamp set, En Francais and Linen (retired) background stamps
  • Pretty in Pink and Sahara Sand Classic Ink
  • Soft Suede, Mellow Moss  and Pretty in Pink Stampin’ Write Markers
  • Soft Suede,  Mellow Moss and Naturals White cardstock and some very old Designer Series Paper
  • Kraft taffeta ribbon (it’s not nearly as yellow-hued in real life)
  • Vintage brads
  • Piercing tool & mat pack (to position brads), Stampin’ Sponges

Thinking of you

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Sometimes you need a card with a soft touch.  I’m sending this to a friend whose mother-in-law passed away this week.  It’s always hard to say goodbye, and when you’re saying goodbye to someone who has had a lot of ups and downs over the past few years, there are a lot of different emotions involved.   We had a chance to talk abut those conflicting feelings this week, but I know she’s still processing and I want her to know I’m thinking of her.

This card turned out the way I saw it in my mind.   I was inspired by THIS CARD by Lyssa at Stampin’ Addicts and used the colors from last week’s Color Challenge at SCS.  When looking at a card makes me feel good I think I’ve gotten it right.

Suede_Tree_thoughts_crop

  • Thought and Prayers stamp set
  • Soft Suede, Pretty in Pink and Pink Pirouette Classic Ink
  • Soft Suede and Pretty in Pink Stampin’ Write Markers
  • Soft Suede,  Pretty in Pink and Naturals White cardstock
  • Pretty in Pink taffeta ribbon
  • Oval scallop and hand-held rectangle punch
  • Piercing tool, mat pack, Stampin’ Sponges, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Happy Hallow-Roo!

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I have had this cut-out Roo sitting on my desk just waiting to be loved for a good 6 weeks.  About two weeks ago I spotted THIS CARD and thought I might have found a use for my Roo.  I’ve never quite made peace with that bear (What?  You didn’t go look at the card?  Go see…) because, well, there’s something about his unibrow that bothers me.  But I love the Roo so the substitution seemed natural.

Halloween_Roo_crop

Happy Hallo-Roo

  • Build-a-Roo, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Pocket Silhouettes, and Holiday Best (hostess) Stamp Sets
  • Soft Suede, Pumpkin Pie and Kiwi Kiss (ret) Classic Ink
  • Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive Stampin’ Write markers
  • Naturals White, Pumpkin Pie, Soft Suede and Kiwi Kiss (ret) card stock
  • Small oval and Slot punches
  • Kiwi Kiss stripe ribbon (ret)
  • Big Shot and SU Backgrounds 1 Texturz plate
  • Stampin’ Sponges, Dimensionals, Aquapainter

First, I apologize (I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry already!) for using Kiwi Kiss.  I couldn’t resist.  It was there on my desk, whimpering about being neglected, and whispering to me that it would be SO perfect.  You could use Old Olive and I’m sure it would be wonderful.  The Kiwi Kiss made me do it.

Second, I have to confess that there was surgery involved.  In fact, I had to cut the Roo in Two.  The pumpkin was too big and I would have had to hide those exuberant arms or those fabulous roo feet.

Third, the pumpkin in the patch is marked from the Trick or Treat stamp in the Holiday Best hostess stamp set.

There.  I think that’s enough commentary.

Happy HalloRoo to you!

Shimmery Dasher

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Are you ready for another Christmas card?  I know it’s early…but I like to get thinking about these things.  I like to simmer a bunch of ideas on the back burner and let the best one come to the surface.

This card uses the awesome Champagne Mist shimmer paint again.  I can’t get enough of this product – there are so many ways to use it.  I inked the Dasher stamp in Old Olive and then used a dauber to add a very light coat of shimmer on the antlers.  I stamped it on the ivory panel, then inked it again but didn’t add the shimmer and stamped it on a second piece of cardstock.  Finally, I used a dauber to add a very light layer of shimmer over the entire image.  This leaves messy edges, so I cut out the Dasher and layered it over the first image.  Finally, I used the Aquapainter with a little more shimmer to give Dasher a shimmery pool to stand in.

Olive Shimmer Dasher

  • Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive, Basic Black and Very Vanilla Cardstock
  • Old Olive and Encore Gold ink, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint
  • Dasher and All Holidays stamp sets
  • Old Olive 1 1/4″ grosgrain stripe ribbon
  • Aquapainter, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Banana

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Did I mention that Crystal makes an absolutely divine banana cake?  Some of you who were at our class on Saturday obviously think so, because I’ve had multiple requests for the recipe.  Without further ado…

Crystal’s Best Ever Chocolate Chip Banana Cake

  • 1 box yellow cake mix
  • 1 box instant banana cream pudding
  • 3/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup mashed bananas (3 – 4 bananas)
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Grease a 9 x 13 pan.  Combine all ingredients and pour into pan.  Bake 35 to 40 minutes.

This recipe got me thinking about chocolate and bananas, which is a very dangerous thing for me to be doing.  To remove myself from the kitchen, I headed for the Chocolate Chip and Barely Banana cardstock and ink.  (Yes, I know, it’s a very cheesy connection.)  Of course, with all this food on the mind I immediately pulled down my Crazy for Cupcakes stamps.  However, this was NOT a “before you know it the card was done” kind of creation.  I did a lot of fussing and fiddling which does not show in the final product, but the one thing that does show is my Amazing Discovery for Today:

Chocolate Chip with Champagne Mist Shimmer paint

Chocolate Chip with Champagne Mist Shimmer paint

Can you see the shimmer?  It’s hard, I know, but imagine a gorgeous bronzed look with a little sparkle.  This is equal parts Chocolate Chip Classic ink refill and Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint.  When I mixed it together I couldn’t believe my eyes.  I used my Aquapainter to brush it on.  Of course, I couldn’t leave well enough alone – I seldom can – so I tried the same combination using Barely Banana Classic ink refill.  You be the judge:

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Banana cupcakes

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Banana cupcakes

  • Very Vanilla, Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip and Naturals Ivory cardstock
  • Retired Designer Series Paper
  • Chocolate Chip, Cameo Coral, Barely Banana, and Sahara Sand Classic ink
  • Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint
  • Texture Jumbo Stampin’ Wheel (run through the Sahara Sand ink pad)
  • Versamark ink, Clear Embossing Powder and Heat Tool
  • Chocolate Chip Stampin’ Write Marker
  • Big Shot and Stampin’ Up! Backgrounds I Texturz Plate
  • Double rectangle punch and Chocolate Chip Taffeta ribbon

My faithful but not very sophisticated little point-and-push does not do justice to these colors.  You will have to use your imagination to appreciate how glorious this is!

Somehow, the entire thing reminds me of an ice cream parlor.  This is not the best thing for someone who needs to stay out of the kitchen and away from the chocolate chips and bananas (oh, all right, it’s just the chocolate chips.  we knew that.)  Hope you enjoyed the card.  I’m going for a long walk!

Gratitude

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How easily the words “Thank you” roll off our lips.  We say thanks so easily for so many small things…a kind gesture, a small gift, a thoughtful compliment.

Gratitude implies something more.  It implies we’ve thought about what was given or done for us, turned it over in our minds and acknowledged that extra effort was put into the gift.  It feels more Thankful, not just thanks.

This card was inspired by a couple of challenges at Splitcoast.  One of them was to use the color red, and after a couple of false starts, everything fell into place.   I’m grateful.

Gratitude

Gratitude

  • Naturals White, Real Red, Chocolate Chip and Sahara Sand card stock
  • Real Red and Chocolate Chip Classic Ink
  • Real Red Stampin’ Write Marker, Paper piercing mat (used with marker)
  • Versamark ink, Clear Detail Embossing Powder, Heat Tool
  • Button Latte assortment, Red Hemp twine (retired, sadly)
  • Petals a Plenty Embossing Folder, Big Shot

Stamping with friends is double the goodness

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Christmas Cards with In Color Style

Christmas Cards with In Color Style

Yesterday was my annual Christmas card list with my wonderful upline, Crystal.  It’s really fun to run a class with her – she has great ideas and her view of the world matches mine pretty well – a good mix of “just right” versus “whatevah”.  She also makes an absolutely divine banana cake (you can’t go wrong when you put chocolate chips in banana cake) and between that and a pot of Peet’s coffee we were guaranteed a great day.   Add great stamping friends and some pretty fine cards (well, hers were fine as could be) and it added up to a perfect day.

We didn’t have any glitter but we did have the fabulous new Shimmer Paints from Stampin’ Up!  If you have Glitter Issues in your house the way I’ve got them in my house the Shimmer Paints are an excellent solution.  Plenty of sparkle that stays where you put it!  If you can stand another Christmas card, this week I’ll post one with the Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint that will convince you of the exalted status of Shimmer Paint.  I love a little sparkle, but my wonderful husband doesn’t appreciate finding glitter embedded in the finish of the kitchen table, or even worse, on his cycling shorts.  Glitter on the cycling shorts is absolute blasphemy.  We have to be very, very careful with glitter in my house.

  • Rich Razzleberry, Bermuda Breeze, and Whisper White card stock
  • Rich Razzleberry, Bermuda Breeze, and Old Olive Classic Ink
  • White Craft Ink
  • Delightful Decorations and All Holidays stamp sets
  • Old Olive narrow grosgrain ribbon
  • Ornament and Scallop Edge Punches
  • Clear Rhinestone Brads and 1/16″ circle punch
  • Stampin’ Dimensionals

Thanks for stopping by.

Cutting paper for the Big Shot

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I had a MAJOR a-ha! moment last night.  I was cutting out a long decorative sizzlet strip for a swap and I needed positive and negative images.  A bunch of my strips kept cutting in half – the image at the very end was cut off just a smidge and the negative image was split.

Big Shot with Decorative Sizzlet

I finally went in and measured a piece of 12 x 12 cardstock.  Whoa!  One side was just short of 12 x 12 and one side was just long of 12 x 12.  I am talking about a hair – literally – but it was enough to make all the difference in my sizzlet strip.

I didn’t do a scientific analysis here.  It was late and I just wanted to finish my cranking so I cut the strips I needed from the hair-long side instead of the hair-short side and finished.  But next time I’m using those long strips you better believe I’ll pay attention.

Gimme a break…

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Doesn’t seem like that long ago when September and early October were all about costumes.  There were a number of years when the costume had to come from Disney du jour.  There were sessions with the tape measure, trips to the fabric store, and hours spent behind the sewing machine.  As the kids got older, their costumes needed to reflect their growing maturity and the home-made Disney costumes became a thing of the past.   Sweet memories.

The Pocahontas Days

The Pocahontas Ensembles

Now the sweets come from packages.  My kids’ candy never looked this good!  It’s simple, though I’m not sure I would have done this for 3 classes of 25 kids!

Gimme a break...Gimme a break...

Gimme a break...Gimme a break...

Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat Bar!

Break me off a piece of that Kit Kat Bar!

  • Basic Black, Whisper White, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie card stock
  • Basic Black, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie classic ink
  • Holiday Best Level One Hostess and Itty Bitty Backgrounds Stamps
  • Black Gingham ribbon

Trick or treat!!

One thing leads to another…

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These crazy bees!  There’s something a little psycho about them.  They’re sort of, I dunno, too happy.  Especially for creatures who exist to work, work, work.  All the same, they crack me up and I have made a LOT of cards using this stamp set.  These bees started out as components of the Thursday Sketch Challenge at Stampin’ Addicts but by the time I added all the layers (including over-the-top scallops) these bees were too fat to go side-by-side on a card.  I pushed them to the side of my stamping space to languish in the heap of  “stuff to make something out of”.  The muse was feeling generous, though, and before I finished for the night, the bees had been given a home.

Get Well Bees

Get Well Bees

  • Just Buzzin’ By and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp sets
  • Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Crushed Curry and Old Olive cardstock
  • Chocolate Chip Classic ink and Colored Pencils (just like the ones you had in grade school
  • Big Shot, SU Little Leaves Sizzlet, and SU Perfect Details Texturz Plate
  • Old Olive Ribbon from Elementary Ribbon Originals
  • Small and Large oval , 1 1/4″, 1 3/8″ and scallop circle punches
  • Stampin’ Sponge

Have you noticed that almost every card I make uses the Teeny Tiny Wishes (115370, $36.95) stamp set?  I know, I know, it’s an expensive set.  But seriously, it covers almost everything.  An excellent value.  Don’t say I didn’t tell you.

There’s one thing that bugs me (get it, bugs me???) about this card.  The bees are facing the wrong direction.  The two on the bottom have their backs to each other and need to be switched.  However, I used Tombo Multi Purpose Adhesive (my absolute all time favorite) and if you know Tombo, you know I’m gonna tear this card to smithereens if I try to switch these two.  But it bugs me all the same.

I guess I’ll just have to get over it.