LSC240

My friend Silvie hosted yesterday's SCS Limited Supplies Challenge, and I finished my card so late that I wanted to wait until this morning to get a picture of it with some decent light. The challenge was to use a Christmas tree on your card, and I thought (especially since we live in Florida) immediately of this cute little sea tree from the set, Sea-son's Greetings from Our Craft Lounge, available at i {heart} papers (having a BIG SALE NOW!). I colored the image with Copics, cut it out using square Nestabilities, and then used a scrap of SEI Hiccups for a bubbly ocean background with a little wavy border of blue at the bottom. It will make a fun little card for one of my Florida friends, or maybe for my Michigan in-laws who might wish for warmer weather! ;)

Happy World Card Making Day! Hope you get to play lots of fun challenges! That's what I'm hoping to do!

BIG Sale!

i {heart} papers is celebrating World Card Making Day 2009 with a

12x12 OPEN STOCK PAPERS BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE!

For every sheet of open stock PAPER (not tags, alphabets, collection packs, pads, etc.) you purchase, you will receive another sheet from the same collection, line or manufacturer completely free. Due to the limitations of our shopping cart, we can't guarantee that you will receive the exact same paper but we will try to send you doubles of everything you order, if we have it in stock at the time we pack your order. Feel free to put requests in the comments box and we will try our hardest to accomodate them!

The free sheets WILL NOT show up in your cart. They will be added on to your order when it gets packed and shipped.

You must enter coupon code: WCMD09 at the time of your order to qualify for the BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE offer.

Remember, US orders ALWAYS receive free shipping with your $40 order!

Enjoy World Card Making Day!

Offer expires midnight EST on Sunday October 4, 2009.

Thanks2Fall

I have fallen in LOVE with what I call hybrid stamping...making images and papers digitally, printing them and constructing the card the conventional way. So fun to play with layers, colors and different sizes to get the look you want! I'm happy to share The Stamps of Life's newest set, Thanks2Fall, with you today on this, the first day of October.

For this card I made lots of digital layers and added stripes of different colors and widths in varying transparencies to make a plaid designer paper. Once I got the paper the way I liked I added another layer for the bats, giving them drop shadows to give the illusion of some dimension. I printed the paper and then used a Copic multiliner to add a few little dots under the points of each bat's wings and above their ears.

The pumpkin was also stamped digitally, with the face added after printing using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. The sentiment starts on the card front and finishes with the word Treat on the inside. To stamp it I first started by inking only 3 dots of the dotted line stamp from Back2Basics, positioning them close to the oval mat, then adding the words in behind them. I kinda wish I'd made that mat black instead, but once you stick things down with Mono multi, you're committed! *sigh* For some reason my camera is having trouble accurately reading these colors...that's retired Groovy Guava card stock and some dotted swiss ribbon that matches almost perfectly.

I'm off to Savannah to meet Silke and Penny and visit the SCAD. Whisper a prayer for us for a fun, safe journey there and back!

My Boo-tiful Friend!

I have enjoyed this week of Halloween stamping so much, especially since I've gotten to play with some non-traditional colors! Here's another Our Craft Lounge Ghostly Greetings card...this one uses the new Basic Grey Eerie designer paper and my new MS web punch. I used a pale lavender Copic marker with an olive yellow for ghostly shadows, and although it isn't a smooth blend, I still love how it looks. Definitely spooky! Here's a close-up...

A little Tim Holtz distress ink toned down the bright card stock and helped everything work together. Here's some more of that yummy silk ribbon, this time in lavender. I think this card is my fav so far!

Two cards today!

Today is Wednesday, which means Color Dare #36...but there's another post below for OCL's Spotlight Set of the Week!

I missed playing Color Dare last week so I really didn't want to miss this one, but with all I've got going on, I had to get up early to play! I'm so glad I did because this card was really a fun one! The colors are Barely Banana, Creamy Caramel and Bermuda Bay. LOVE this cute Unity image from i {heart} papers...the Bermuda Bay made me think of those eggs, and I love how it turned out with a quick flick of ink with the aquapainter on vanilla card stock. I used Mojo sketch #96 for the layout, adding a little texture with the Swiss Dots embossing folder and the large and small circle nesties to mat the image. I am also really getting the mileage out of one of my new favorite tools, the Bow Easy.

Trick or Treat!

Another card for featuring Ghostly Greetings, spotlight set of the week over at the OCL blog. I have been determined to try to make a few clean and simple cards here and there! It's a style that is a real challenge for me, but if I keep at it, I should get better! Practice makes perfect, right?!

The color scheme started with a scrap of My Mind's Eye designer paper. I colored with Copics, then used my brand new Nestabilities ribbon tags trio to cut and emboss the image. I also used the rest of my orange silk ribbon from yesterday's card...I'm gonna have to go shopping at i {heart} papers to get some more because I just love it! Kate adds something new to the store just about every day, so my list is always growing! There's still time to get some stamps, paper and ribbon for a few more Halloween cards! Can't believe that October is almost here!

Thanks for visiting! Hope you'll come again soon!

Boo to You!

Have you ever played the game where you leave your gift on the doormat, ring the doorbell and then run like crazy so you don't get caught? We've been playing it for Halloween in our neighborhood for the past few years, and I thought it would be fun to have a pretty little Boo Bag this go-round! I used "Lucky Me" Orange Crush from the Abbey Road collection from i {heart} papers along with some BoBunny Delilah Here's 2 U and Delilah stripe from the LSS. I love mixing and matching prints and it is even more fun when they're NOT a pre-fab match! ;)

This is another one of the adorable images from Ghostly Greetings. (I actually colored two to go with this paper...this one is not as girlie pink as the other. That one will have to have a big pink silk bow!) The sentiment is also from the set and is just perfect for this project. I colored the image with Copic markers, cut it out with an oval nestabilities die, framed it with the Abbey Road paper and embellished it with a few dark purple Kaiser pearls which match the dark purple paper that for some reason appears black in the photo. All of the papers were inked with Tim Holtz distress ink in tea dye. The orange silk ribbon was tied with the Bow Easy (LOVE that tool!)

This layout is this month's Our Craft Lounge sketch turned on its side...and I hope you like it! I had a lot of fun making it and sharing it with you! I'm putting Pinky's Scor-Pal to good use!

OCL Spotlight Set of the Week!

Each week on the OCL blog our designers take turns showing their creations using the *Spotlight Set of the Week* and this week, I'll be sharing some of mine using a fun set for Halloween, Ghostly Greetings!

This was an image that I colored with my Copic markers while we were on the plane on our way to Michigan...I adore working with these bright, fun colors! I finally put the card together Friday night when my young friend Keri and I went for a night of stamping at the LSS. I used some scraps of paper from an earlier Halloween card along with a new purchase of flocked swirlie stars. I really liked the look of the wider purple grosgrain ribbon, but the glimmer ribbon looked so pretty with that sparkly striped paper that I decided to layer it on top...the cool Queen and Company felt flowers finished off the visual triangle with a bright pop of color!

Stay tuned...I'll be posting more cards using this set over the next several days! Just in time for Halloween!

Banana Split Sunday!

This week's Banana Split Sunday challenge is to make a bag, box or wrapping paper. Perfect timing for me, because this week we're having our annual Fall Brunch for our women's Bible study and I always like to take a little prize or two for the winners of the games we play. This tall thin bag will be just perfect for a journal or small devotional book.

I especially enjoyed this particular challenge because my friend Pinky got a new Scor-Pal and gave me her old one! Oh My Goodness! What a difference this tool made! Pinky, I have been enjoying my new toy just for scoring card folds, but it made this project so easy and fun! Thank you and {{hugs}} for your generosity! I love it! You're such a sweetheart!

Love this Pink Paislee "Fetching" paper too! The leafy design just draws me toward simplicity and a minimalist style. Today I chose to leave my gift bag ultra simple, highlighting the leaves with dew drops, inking the edges with distress ink, and making an oval tag with the sentiment Peace, Love and Happiness from the August/September journaling set. I also stamped a small single layer butterfly from the same set to add to the sheer ribbon that holds the flap of the bag closed. I used a couple of Copic markers to tint the inner design ever so slightly.

I hope my Bible study ladies will think that this is a lovely and elegant gift. Sometimes they really make me smile because they enjoy the wrappings as much as the gift itself! They are such a gift to me! Just like my friend Pinky!

Visit the Banana Blog to find some inspiration, and then play along with us in this fun challenge! The winner will win a Pink Paislee goodie bag chosen by 2RB. Fun stuff!

S.O.S. for LSC

I had so much fun playing with my digi-stamps yesterday that when today's challenge was posted, I decided to do another! Today's LSC was a fun S.O.S. challenge posted by my friend Judy, and I combined it with Clean and Simple's Fall-To Layout #60. Here's my formula:

S--Simple style again, using the Stamps of Life's set Back to Basics
O--O's everywhere! In the flower centers, the row of dots, the scalloped edge
S--Scissors, Spica/Signo and Sparkle! I used the scissors to cut out a flower to layer on the black Queen and Co felt flower, then added a pretty orange jewel to the center. I sparkled each of the flowers in the digi-paper I made with a black Spica, then topped that with a white Signo dot which added a tiny bit of texture and really brightened everything up. The sentiments outside and in are the only traditionally stamped elements.

I have several friends who don't celebrate Halloween, so this will be a perfect card to send!