fresh & fun

I am sorry I am posting late. Saturday is my lazy day! I layed in bed and read a book until 8 a.m., went for a walk, chatted with neighbors, answered emails, layed outside and read some more and then stamped my card for today. It’s a good day!

Today begins our second Holiday Blitz Tutorial week over on SCS. Make sure to go to the home page every morning to check out the new tutorial. I will try to post a sample here every day, but I must confess, I might chicken out a time or two, hmm…..I mean, I might not have time to make a sample every single day! LOL

Today’s today is written by Lori Craig. She shows how to cut and dry emboss with Nestabilities and the Wizard Die cut machine. Under Variations you will find a file listing sandwich stacks for the other die cut machines.

We added a new gallery listing all the Holiday Blitz galleries (with links to each tutorial) from last year and will add a new gallery every day until next Sunday.

I started out by dry embossing an oval frame into a 3 3/4″ x 5″ piece of Shimmery White cardstock. I cut me an oval mask with one size bigger oval Nestabilities, taped it over my frame with removable adhesive and stamped the Damask Background in Brilliance Graphite Black Ink on the lower 2/3s of the cardstock. I hit the image with my heat gun until it was dry, then sponged Riding Hood Red ink over it.

Next I covered the stamped section and stamped the script from Thank you in Creamy Caramel on the top. I sponged the area with Creamy Caramel as well and paper pierced the edge of the Creamy Caramel area.

The flower from the Thank you set was stamped in the center of my oval frame.

I cut a mask for the flower, covered it up, covered up the stamped areas with my reverse mask and air brushed the inside of the oval with Copic B000.

The flower was colored with Copics (R39, R46, G99, W2). Crackle Accents was applied over the entire oval area and set aside to dry (that’s when I went outside to read. It takes a while for the crackle to appear. I wanted to use this product for quite a while now. This weeks Way to Use it Challenge gave me a good reason to dug it out of my supplies.

The flower was colored with Copics (R39, R46, G99, W2).

 Crackle Accents was applied over the entire oval area and set aside to dry (that’s when I went outside to read. It takes a while for the crackle to appear.

I wanted to use this product for quite a while now. This weeks Way to Use it Challenge gave me a good reason to dug it out of my supplies. The stamped and sponged layer was adhered to a 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of Whisper White cardstock.

I punched two ribbon slots next to my oval and thread black scalloped ribbon through it. A double photo corner was added to the top left. The bigger piece was punched out of Basic Black cardstock, the smaller one out of Riding Hood Red. The red one was sponged with Riding Hood Red, then stamped with Damask in Black Graphite Ink. Three Antique Brass brads finish the corner off.

The sentiment was stamped in Black on a 3/4″ wide strip of Shimmery White cardstock. The left edge was rounded with a 1″ circle punch, the piece was sponged with Creamy Caramel and overstamped with the script from Thank you. The strip was centered on a sponged 1″ Riding Hood Red circle and a black Designer Label punch. The end of the strip was lined up with the end of the white layer. Two 1/4″ black circles were added to the right end of the strip. Those were topped with Antique Brass brads.

I love that Denise always shows the inside of her cards, so I thought I start doing it as well (If I do something special for the card inside). For this inside, I used my oval mask again.

I stamped the Damask background in Creamy Caramel on a 4″ x 5 1/4″ piece of Whisper White cardstock and sponged it first with Creamy Caramel, then with Riding Hood Red.

Have a great evening! Hugs and smiles

I am sorry my posting is so  sporadic. I like to post every morning at 8:30 a.m. I like order. LOL  But life/work is busy right now and I don’t know if I will be able to post everyday and not sure when I get to post when I do have a chance.

Here is the first sample I made for my weekend sketch challenge. I thought I couldn’t show this for a while, but I decided I could after all. Now….most of this is non Stampin’ Up! So if you don’t like anything but SU, look away ( don’t look away…)

The card measurements are just like yesterday’s card.

The card base is a 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ piece of Close to Cocoa cardstock. It was folded in half, the front was stamped with the En Francais background from Stampin’ Up! and the edges were sponged.

The patterned paper is from the BasicGrey Blush paper pack. It was layered on Shimmery White cardstock. The photo corner was punched out of Basic Black cardstock with Stampin’ Up!’s photo corner punch. Martha Stewart self adhesive half pearls were added to the corner.

The 1 1/2″ x 5″ strip of Shimmery White cardstock was punched with Martha Stewart’s Lace Edge Punch. I went to the newly reorganized Michaels here in Destin and couldn’t help myself. That punch is just too pretty! I also had to pick up her 24 different color assortment of glitter. It was just begging to be coming home with me. LOL

The 1″ x 4 1/4″ paper strip is from the Blush collection of BasicGrey again. The bottom edge was paper pierced.  Two May Arts ribbon were tied around the horizontal strips.

The image is one of the new JustRite stamps. It’s from the Classic Circle III Ensemble. I stamped it in black Palette Ink on Shimmery White cardstock and colored it with my Copic Markers (R81, R83 and R85). It was cut out with my circle Nestabilities and layered on a Black scallop circle that was also cut with out with Circle Nestabilities.

To finish it off I adhered a tiny prima flower with Crystal Effects to a clear round button and adhered that with dimensionals to the card.

I can’t believe it’s already Friday again! Time is flying by! I couldn’t help myself. I had to use Chocolate chip along with new colors! Adding Chocolate Chip is the only way to make the In Colors better. Oh how I love them. LOL

My card base is a 4 1/4″ x 11″ piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock folded in half.

The edges of the card front were sponged.

Next is a triple layer of paper, starting with a sponged 4 1/8″ x 4 5/8″ piece of Riding Hood Red, followed by a 1/4″ smaller piece of Shimmery White cardstock.

The bottom edge of the Shimmery White cardstock was punched with the Scallop Edge Punch.

The designer paper measures is 3 3/4″ x 4 1/4″ piece of Ski Slope Designer Paper Pack. 5/8″ wide Old Olive Grosgrain Ribbon was tied around all three layers. A double Photo Corner in Shimmery White and Baja Breeze cardstock was added to the top left corner, topped with five Antique Brass Brads. On the left hand side I added two tabs that were punched out of sponged Chocolate Chip cardstock with the small oval punch. 1/4″ Riding Hood Red circles were added and Antique Brass Brads topped them off. I purposely left the top oval tab bigger then the lower one (just in case you were wondering. LOL)

I stamped the skating couple from Winter Post in Black Palette ink on Shimmery White cardstock. After it dried I colored it with my copic markers.They have been sitting here for too long being neglected.
The couple was punched out with the 1 3/4″ circle and layered on a sponged 1 7/8″ Chocolate Chip square. Three white gel pen dots were added to each corner.

I punched out four scallop squares with the new punch from Stampin’ Up! out of Riding Hood Red cardstock and assembled them to one (8 scallop) square. The chocolate square with my circle image were taped on that. Those layers were attached with dimensionals to a 2 3/8″ Shimmery White cardstock.

I actually stamped yesterday. Just for a little bit after cleaning the house and going grocery shopping. It felt good. I think it has been a week. It’s hard for me to get back into a rhytm after getting off track in my stamping.

Anyway…here is my card for today’s inspiration challenge. I went with all those dots and tried to find a background paper matching. This one is from My Mind’s Eye Tres Jolie series.

I actually made a second card to match. I will post more details later. I have to get Rebecca to school first. Its’ good to be back. Thanks for all the well wishes. Unfortunately the darn migraine stayed it’s three day course. I am all better now though.

Like I said, I started out with the patterned paper.

I tried several different stamp sets (swirls from Fancy Pants - I was thinking stamping them directly over) and a girl from She’s all That. Nothing really tickled my fancy. I decided that I needed to use outline stamps, preferably non-Su, since the paper was already contraband.

I still had my basket with Unity Stamps on the table and grabbed the set Giggle Grove. I think the images in that set are too adorable. So I stamped the tree in Brown Palette ink on beige Prism paper, let it dry and then colored them with my Copic Markers (Y13, YG13, BG11 and W1).

Okay…I have to tell you, I LOVE my Copic Markers. Not that I have played nearly enough with them yet, but here is what I like so much. You can go over and over previous colored images and add and blend. Like for example the tree. I started with coloring the entire “leaf balls (hehe…I said balls)” with YG13. It’s a light green. I added more color the lower right hand side of each ball.

Next I took the Blender Pen and removed some color, where I wanted it to be lighter. That’s right. Those blender pens take away color. Then I went over the entire image again with Y13 to add yellow. I did that several times, then added more green to the lower right side again, then the entire image. I added shadow with W1, a warm, light gray underneath the branches. I also used it to make the lower right side of each leaf darker. Can you tell I am having fun adding those layers? Last I added some glitter with my clear spica glitter pen. I like that this pen is truly clear. It only adds glitter.

I worked on the bird the same way. Again the image was stamped in Brown Palette Ink on the same Prism Paper.  It was first colored completely with BG11, a soft blue, . Next I added YG13 on the bottom of the bird’s body, it’s wings and a bit of it’s tail. Then I colored over it again several times in blue to blend both colors together. The beak is colored first with Y13. Next I picked up some R29 color the Y13 tip and added it over the beak to create my orange. The bird was cut out and added to the tree layer with dimensionals.

Okay…enough babbling about the copics. One more thing. Both of my Prima Flowers were colored with copics to make them match the other colors of the card.

The cardstock for the image was cut down to 2 1/8″ x 3 5/8″. I turned the image so it was facing down and scored lines 1/8″ from each edge to get the frame. The scallop background was cut with the long rectangle Nestabilities templates out of brown Prism Paper. That scalloped rectangle was a bit too long. So I cut it apart, cut two scallops off and taped it back together.

Both the 4 1/4″ x 11″ light blue card base as well as the 3 7/8″ x 4 1/8″ piece of chocolate are Prism cardstock. The photo corners were punched out of matching Prism cardstock as well. The layered photo corners were topped of with three celery brads.

The horizontal layer is the backside of the dotted paper. It measures 1 5/8″ x 4″ and it paper pierced on top and bottom. May Arts ribbon is wrapped around it.

With my big birthday order from Eclectic Paperie, Joy sent me some stamped images.

One of them is this adorable Changito image.

I used it to practise with my Copic Markers. It just sat on my table with the monkeys teasing me everytime I saw them.

So I finished them off with Crate Paper, a sentiment from the Stampin’ Up! set Smarty Pants and my new long rectangle templates from Nestabilities.

Here is another sample for this weekend’s sketch challenge.

This time I turned the layout and used the sketch horizontally.

I made the card when I made the card shown on Friday and used the same cardstock, ribbon and paper.

The image is from The Saltbox Studio and it is colored with Copic Markers.  I am having fun playing with those.

Unfortunately my air can ran out while spraying the outside, so I sponged around the basket with Bashful Blue and added some specks with the Color Spritzer tool. I already ordered more air cans and preordered a compressor. The Air Brush System for the Copic Markers is the coolest thing. I LOVE playing with it (obviously since I already ran out of air). Even my 13 year old, deep voice talking, 6′ 2″ tall son Austin thought it was AWESOME. Mom got some cool tools! Once I am hooked up with air again, I will take some pictures and show you just how cool it is.

Here is a closeup of my coloring.

I used E55 and E57 for the basket, YG000 and Y13 for the pears, R14 and E55 for the red apples, Y14, YG03 for the green apples and YG13 and YG99 for the leaves.

The fun thing about coloring with the copics is that you can layer, layer and layer more colors on top of each other to blend them together.

Rick left this morning. It is very hard to let him go again. Rebecca was crying so hard, broke my heart. Luckily Austin invited a friend over and all three of mine plus the friend are playing the Wii now, being distracted.

I know we are lucky that he came home for a little while after only 3 month and will be able to come back for another two weeks in August. Many other families aren’t that fortunate.

I distracted myself with new Saltbox Studio stamps and my Copics while watching a movie.

Anything not to think. It will be better in a few days and we will adjust to being without him again.

I stamped the images with Black Palette ink on White cardstock.

I colored it the images with birds with Y17 and Y19 markers, the leaves with YG13 and YG23, the nest with E55 and E57 and the branch with E47.

The eggs were first colored with E00, then I brushed White Liquid Pearls over it.

Next I stamped all images again on Eclipse tape, masked them and used my new Air Brush tool kit to add the light blue sky with B32.

I cut and dry embossed the image with the largest rectangle Nestabilities and layered it on a Chocolate Chip scallop rectangle cut with Nestabilities as well.

The card base is a 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock folded in half. The designer paper is from Crafty Secrets Radiant paper pack. I used the ticket corner punch on each of the corners and tied 5/8″ chocolate grosgrain ribbon and baby blue ribbon Ellen had send me (with my last order) around the paper.

The sentiment was stamped in Black Palette Ink on Shimmery White cardstock, layered first on Bashful Blue, then on a Basic Black scallop circle that was cut with Nestabilities.

The flower was a white Prima flower I colored with first R29 to match the flower of the right bird, then with R59 to add shading. I added a black brad in it’s center.

I will give it to Rebecca with a picture of her and Rick inside. It’s the perfect sentiment and she will love those adorable little birds.

Usually I use today’s sketch just with a sentiment in the lower box.

But since I broke down and ordered Copic Sketch Markers for my birthday, I wanted to use them badly. I first used the flowers from Spring Solitude again, but because I had stamped them on a circle, they didn’t quite look right.

So I got my girl from She’s all That out and stamped her in Brown Palette Ink on a Whisper White Oval piece.

The oval was cut and dry embossed with my oval Nestabilities.

As you can see from the color of the sentiment, it didn’t come out quite as dark as I wanted.

So I went over the image with my E47 Dark Brown Copic. (I hadn’t had much time to play with them yet. but I can’t wait!!! ) Next I traced around her with B000 Pale Aqua. I went over it again with the same color for a little bit darker look. This color is super light. 

I added sparkle to the candle light and her pearls with the Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust pen.

The oval was layered on a Purely Pomegranate scallop oval cut with Nestabilities.

I added a small flower from the Pretties Kit to top right of the oval. First I colored the inner part with E47, then went over the entire flower with R39 Garnet Copic Marker. Stardust Stickle was added in the center and a half pearl from the Pretties kit was adhered with a bit of Crystal Effect.

My card base is a 4 1/4″ x 8 1/2″ piece of Soft Sky Cardstock folded in half.

I dry embossed the card front with my Texture Texture Cuttlebug Folder.

The Chocolate Chip strip measures 1 1/2″ x 4 1/4″.

Scallops were added with the corner rounder and holes were punched with the 1/16″ handheld hole punch.

Purely Pomegranate satin ribbon finishes the card off.