Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Ribbon & Friend



Stamp - Hero Arts
Ink - Memento
Copics & Spicas
Ah ha - and here you thought the ribbon saga was over!! Nope - I snapped these up as soon as I saw them at Michaels (yesssss, at a 30% discount too!!). Creepella is admiring them a LOT - I've already told her that I'd give her some (if there are left-overs), but really, I'm hoping that she'll forget about them and I'll just oh-so casually put them in my Halloween stash!!!
As soon as I saw that crazy bat, I had to have it (even though it's wood-mounted!!), haven't really decided what I'll be doing with him - but I stamped, colored and cut out 8 of them so there's a party going on somewhere.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Soothing Florals


Stamps, B&T Paper, Cardstock - CTMH
Ink - CTMH & Papertrey Ink
Stickles & Spicas
Paper Flower & gemstone - Hero Arts
Card Sketch - modified Mojo Monday
Really wanted to use this set of papers......it's so soothing and peaceful. I love the stamps too. Pretty quick and easy cards, the papers do most of the work.
I'm enjoying the Mojo Monday sketches although most of them are a bit busy for me. No worries, just do a little modification - make it your own and Ta-Dah.....you've got yourself a cool card design with NO brain strain.........

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Yummmmm - Frosting!!


"Frosting" close up...
Cardbase - Memory Box
Textured CS and B&T paper - CTMH
Punches: Martha Stewart's Drippy Goo Border & Scalloped border; Marvy scalloped oval punch
Stamps - Stampassions & Papertrey Ink
Ink - Memento
Liquid Glass - CTMH
3M Foam Mounting Tape
Getting sick & tired of these "punched" cards?? I'm having so much fun I can't really stop myself - sorry!! And least you think we're nearly done....well, take a deeeep breath and take an extra dose of Patience because ahem, er, ahh, I have a few more M.S. punches up my sleeve.
Loads of fun card to make and IRL, it looks pretty yummy too. I had so much fun making this card, I made 8 of them. I'll be taking in another batch of new cards to sell, so we'll find out if our customers are just as thrilled with these punches as I am..........cross your fingers!!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Bogged Down

Here's part of the mess of "loose" ribbon


A close-up of the the oranges & yellows


A close-up of the purple


A close-up of the blues
A confession...............I was busy stamping and as I was wrapping up the card, I thought, "Hey, a couple of loops of ribbon would look good here....." and that was the last conscious thought I had for the rest of the day. I spent the rest of my weekend "wrapping" ribbon. I guess I'm a bit on the compulsive side in regards to certain aspects in my stamping materials - apparently ribbon is one of them. I had the ribbon mostly separated by color and some of it was wrapped nice & tidy but some of it............wasn't.................it was loose, wild, tangled, creased and I just couldn't take it any more - AAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHhhhhhh.
So this is most of my "loose" ribbon - ribbon that I've purchased mostly by the yard at a couple of LSS and from Michaels too. I have other zip-top bags that hold my A Muse sheer ribbon and stitched ribbon and then there are larger bags that have spooled organza ribbons, holiday ribbons, "textured" ribbon and printed ribbon - let's just say over the years, I've acquired a healthy supply of ribbon. Of course NOW I realize that I'm partial to the skinny ribbon (i.e. A Muse sheer ribbons) - but since I've got a ton of other stuff, I need to get busy using it up.
Now that my loose ribbon has been sorted and tidied up, I can really "see" what I have available so I'm certain I'll be adding ribbon to pretty much every card I make.......aaaahhhh, ribbon frenzy - what a way to go!!

Flamingo Happy


Cardbase - Memory Box
B&T paper - CTMH
Stamps - Stampin' Up "Tickled Pink" & Hero Arts sentiment (top card)
Inks - Memento & Colorbox chalk inks
Copics & Spicas
Brads - Making Memories
Ribbon - Misc.
Whew - here are the cards where the ribbon selection bogged me down last weekend. Are you laughing?? I am - how lame is it that a measely 4 inches of ribbon selection brought me to a grinding halt??? I scare myself sometimes.
As I started to color the flamingo, I realized whoa - I don't really know what they look like - what color are their legs, their beaks??? Creepella did a quick internet check and I had my answers (they're actually more peachy-color than pink). That internet sure does come in handy at times!!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Princess Pamela's B-Day Card

Full view of card

Close-up of M.S. tombstone punch
CB - Papertrey Ink
CS & textured CS - CTMH
Alpha Stamps - CTMH
Inside sentiment - Art Impressions
Martha Stewart Punches - Icicles border, tombstone & tombstone border
Ink - Memento
Copics & Spicas
Sakura Glaze Pen
Inside sentiment says: "They say you're only young once... How was it?"
While this card may SEEM a bit on the harsh side, Princess Pamela "got it", enjoyed it and appreciated it and what card-maker could ask for more? She's one of my special card-buying customers - one that likes the "edgier" cards.....so of course I had to make an edgey card for her, right??
Not a whole lot of stamping going on.....mostly the M.S. punches do the trick. I used the icicle border punch to make the tall grass and I slipped the single tombstone in between the grass layers/rows. I put a bit of foam tape on the upper portion of the tombstone and then the front row of grass is about 90% popped out. I added just a smidgeon of the glaze pen on the "r.i.p." to highlight the letters (it's very subtle).
I'm still having fun with those M.S. punches, and now Heidi thinks they're kind of cool too - I know, I know.....I'm such the trend-setter!!!




Friday, September 18, 2009

Another Shelf




From the top to bottom photo would be going from left to right on another shelf that's just to the left of my desk. Now while I would much rather have the shelves on my right hand side (as I am right-handed), I'm still pretty thrilled that I can have this indispensable set of shelves within arm's reach. I have 5 shelves (but I think I have enough space for 6), they're as shallow as we could find - 8 inches deep - and 4 feet long (I had to leave room for one of my stamp cabinets that will be attached to the wall). With those cool little mini metal shelves from Ikea, I'm able to pack a LOT of tools into this space and The Best Thing: everything is accessible!! Aside from the MS punches being stored in front of each other (I rotate them as the stamping season demands), pretty much everything else is right out there, ready to use.
While I can do a bang up job of organizing and making things fit, I found that when I packed things too closely together, it was a chore trying to GET to the things to use - so I'm keeping things close but I allow for a "working margin" of space. It's been a great help.
Yes, I know that I have a lot of ink pads (remember, I've been a CTMH consultant for nearly 15 years!!) and believe it or not, I've used all but two of them in my stamping history. Each set of inks has it's own specialty. During the construction of my stamp room, I started to weed through my stamping "stuff" and I actually trimmed down what I needed to keep. The inks on these shelves are my absolute "go-to" inks of choice (in the last tin on this shelf are my stacks of cats eyes chalk inks - hidden gems!!). I remember the first time I time I saw a Kaleidacolor ink pad.........they blew me away. I started my "collection" of Kaleidacolor over 12 years ago - I still love them!!
Side Note: Creepella recorded "300" (yes, she's a little warrior), and I've been watching bits and pieces of it for the last hour or so..............yuck............I don't like "war" movies, no matter what the age, no matter what the history. While I LOVE Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings", I still cringe during the battle at Helmsdeep......again, yuck. It's not that I'm squeamish - on the contrary, a lot of medical "stuff" is completely fascinating to me - it's just battly stuff is just gruesome and sad (yes, even when it's happening in Middle Earth), and there's already enough sadness around, I don't need to watch it on purpose.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Snail Mail


CB - Papertrey Ink
Panel card - A Muse
Stamps - Snail & mini-present - A Muse; Clouds - Rubbersoul & Memory Box; Alphabet - CTMH
Inks - Memento
Copics & Spicas
Stickles
Liquid Glass - CTMH
Flower - Prima Marketing, Inc.
Smooth Gemstone - Hero Arts
B&T - BasicGrey "Gypsy"
Inside sentiment: "...happy belated birthday"
YIKES looking at the supply list for this card, it's rather frightful because the card itself looks so simple!! Hmmm, just lots of parts to this simple little card!! Of course when this snail first came out, I just HAD to have it and now, I've FINALLY used it!!! I love how the mini-presents are mini enough to be stacked on the snail's shell. I was VERY busy with my Spicas and I did a whole lot of shading on the shell and then proceeded to goo it up with Stickles so alas, all that shading work is lost (but I think it makes me FEEL good knowing it's there...ahem....).
I pretty much finished the cards (I made 8 of them)....and decided they needed a bit of an "ICK" factor, so I grabbed my bottle of Liquid Glass (aka dimensional glaze) and applied a snail trail. Probably too much for some of my card customers but I seem to cater to customers with a more "open" idea of humor - yes, I think that says it all quite nicely, don't you???
In a wild HP tangent............you know, the whole "at a snail's pace" thing?? I'm waiting oh-so patiently for Gail to finish "Deathly Hallows"...........I don't want to talk/email her until I know she's finally finished. Do you know very difficult it's been to NOT say anything??? I tell you if Patience is truly a Virtue - I'm filled to the rim with virtue.............................

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

2-Cup Day...

CB & CS - CTMH
Stamps - Stampendous
Inks - Memento & Tim Holtz Distress Ink (spiced marmalade, fired brick & peeled paint)
Copics
Uniball Silver Gel Pen
Mini brads - CTMH
Fiskars Large Deckle Scissors

Found the Fluffles stamp and the sentiment separately (but in the same shopping trip to Stamper's Corner - Heidi and I are a deadly duo when we go shopping together!!). Could it be more perfect? The sentiment was actually with Stampendous' little monkey character (I don't like him so I can't remember what he's called.....but it's something like Chichito, Lito, aahhh - something like that!!). There's a whole clear set of him in a pirate theme and it nearly kills me every time I see it - WHY hasn't Stampendous come out with a clear set of Fluffles the Pirate??? AAaarrggggggg - I'm gnashing my teeth in pure frustration......

I'm trying go get the feel of those distressing inks from Tim Holtz.....I've seen some amazing things done with them and I really want to get accomplished with the techniques. I tell you though, there's going to have to be a LOT of practice before I can be as accomplished as some!! But as I tell Creepella time and again, practice is really what makes you best - in whatever it is that makes excellence your goal.

I did the the "drag" method, semi-dragging and swiping the distressing pads across the cardstock directly. I used Memento Dew Drop pads to ink up the alarm clock & cup one color while inking up Fluffles in another color. Used a sponge dauber to apply the ink to the edges of the Fluffles panel and to the sentiment panel. And apparently since I live and breathe for foam mounting tape - I popped out the sentiment panel to add bit of dimension and I added the mini brads for bit of interest (and because I love those mini brads.......and here's a fascinating discovery - Michaels' is now carrying these little jewels - oh joy & rapture!!!)

And finally, I'm posting this Fluffles card after the "Oh Rats!" card so that there's some closure to the whole Rodent theme of yesterday......I hope it helps.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Oh Rats!!

CB - Memory Box
CS - CTMH
Stamps - Alphabet - CTMH; Cupcake - Hero Arts
Martha Stewart Punches (Mouse border, small mouse & large mouse)
Ink - Memento
Copics
Stickles

The inside sentiment says: "Sorry I missed your Birthday"

I think the card is funny - that's why I made it. However now that I'm actually LOOKING at it, I'm wondering how many people will get creeped out due to the whole rodent-theme. For me, it's just a play on words AND a great way to utilize 3 (count them - 1, 2, 3) MS punches!! Even with the whole rodent theme, I'm kind of ok with rats.......in summer school one year, Gail, Jon and I had a rat (Harley, and she was lovely) that we trained (we were in a very interesting-although-some-would-consider-geeky summer school program - we were considered "gifted".....hmmm......gifted with what I'm not certain, but I know we had fun that summer!!). So I have a soft spot for rats.....as is obvious when I think back on my first "serious" boyfriend .......OOOPS - that's a whole other RODENT story!!!

I thought it would be funny, you know "Oh Rats!!!" (I missed your b-day) and then literally have a bunch of rats running around......oh well, some of my friends are as sick as me.....they'll appreciate it!!

Hmmm, the card is pretty straight-forward, the trickiest thing....I double-punched the tails in a couple of pink CS to lend a feeling of authenticity for my two star rodents. I dabbled with the idea of putting a google eye on the larger rat, but that would have made it too cartoony - not a feel that I was going for on this card. I also considered taking a few "bites" out of the cupcake but I knew that would pretty much send everyone over the edge, so I refrained.........

Monday, September 14, 2009

Favorite Peeps

CB - Memory Box
B&T papers - CTMH
Stamps - A Muse
Ink - Memento
Copics & Spicas
Flower Brad - Making Memories

In one of Julie's AMAP classes, we used these chicks and this sentiment - one of the chicks had the mini party hat over her head (it was a b-day card).....making that reminded me how much I like these 2 stamps and I hadn't used them since Easter, 2007!! So I hunted them down, dusted them off and decided to make a non-Easter Friendship card. Just sort of a thinking of you to send to a friend type of card - everyone likes "fun mail"!!!

Wanted the colors to be bright and fun but the B&T print had to be on the smallish side since the stamps themselves are so small. The blue flower brad was the perfect accent (IRL the blue is spot-on to the blue in the B&T paper). I made the middle chicken kind of wacky with crazy feather-hair using my Orange & Peach Spicas, I also went a bit darker when I colored her with Copics. I used the fine bullet-tip of the Rich Cocoa Memento Marker and created a bit of "scratch" for the chicks to peck at.......they'd be bored otherwise!!

Hey, you know how I said I'd be sharing a few photos of my "stamping place"??? Well, I've taken a few more and I'll be posting them later. I know that I'm interested in seeing what my fellow-stampers spaces are like and what tools they use (and sometimes why), so I hope these side trips are semi-interesting and a little bit helpful!!!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

The Perfect Blend

CB - Memory Box
CS - CTMH
Stamps - My Favorite Things
Inks - Memento & Papertrey Ink
Copics & Spicas
Cuttlebug Embossing Folder
A Muse Ribbon
Sakura Glaze Pen

During the last Rubber Stamp Convention, there was a booth that sold a LOT of MFT stamps. I'd been eyeing their website for a while, really liked a lot of their images and was basically sitting on the fence as to WHEN to buy. I had noticed that my LSS had started to carry a very small selection of their stamps but YIKES - the price mark-up compared to the website was too scary!!! So I actually cooled my spending jets and saved my cashola in the hopes that there would be some convention "deals". Boy oh boy was a I glad that I did!! Everything that I purchased at the convention (with the exception of Magenta) was at a "deal". So I guess as much as it pains me, sometimes it actually DOES pay to wait..............sigh................

Well, it's been a few months since the Rubber Stamp Convention and I've FINALLY used one of the MFT sets!! I still like the whole pink & brown combo (even though it's probably so last year in the stamping "fashion" scene), so I thought it would work well for this set. I love those Cuttlebug embossing folders - they're so quick and easy to use and they are quite affordable and I love the variety available. Stamper's Corner carries a nice selection of the embossing folders...I just picked up the "Diamond Plate" folder, I think it'll make really great Manly Male cards (and sheesh, I have problems with coming up with ideas for them!!).....I'm pretty thrilled!!

This was a quick and easy card, there were only 5 Copic colors used and only 1 Spica!! I think all of the matting took the longest. Oh, I did have to fight a lot with the ribbon (I'm cheap so I really don't want to waste any more than I have too!!!).

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Below The Bottom Shelf

Ok, I'm really NOT a spokeswoman for Ikea.....I just happen to have a few organizing items that they carry. This towel rack was actually going to be used as a towel rack but it was too long for the space and then we lost the receipt and then lost the rack itself in The Pit that's the garage......once we found it, Chef Bo-Bo Head put it up under the bottom shelf so that it was in easy reach and quite a few of the punches fit just perfectly!! Again, I put the punches that I use very frequently on the "rack of honor".....hee, hee, hee!!! Can you see the 2 Fiskars paper cutters lurking underneath? Although I have a nice heavy-duty paper cutter on my desk, I usually have "stuff" on top of it. I grab one of the Fiskars cutters - they're quick & easy (and readily available).

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The Bottom Shelf





This is the bottom shelf of the shelves that are just to the left of my desk (yes, within arms reach). These are the items that I pretty much use on every card that I make. My Memento Inks are used in everything I do since I color with my Copics about 99% of the time. I have all of the Memento colors in the little Dew Drop size - depending on the stamp, I can "color" with those pointy tips. I've stored my Stickles upside down to avoid air bubbles AND to get every last drop of sparkle!! I love those little metal mini-shelves (again, another Ikea find) and as you can tell, I have a lot of adhesive items (variety is the spice of life!!). I have a good selection of brads and eyelets (I mostly use brads because I'm lazy and I don't want to drag out my Silent Setter). Love those buckets from Target too (found periodically in the Dollar Bins). And of course the remotes are right there along with the phone (when I might need to make an emergency stamping call???).

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

My Copics




A couple of people have asked about my stamp room. Unfortunately, it, in its entirety is nowhere near ready for an unveiling. I do have bits & pieces that I can share....so every once in a while, I'll pop in a few quick photos of my most favorite room in our home!!!
My Copics are housed in cutlery containers, yes, like you see at restaurants. I got mine at Ikea (VERY good price)....all three styles of Copics fit quite nicely (I like to see the tops of the pens). I've done a little pyramid display to show how I've sorted them by color....the first photo shows how they sit on my desk normally (yes, literally within arms reach). The Copics lying flat are the ones I used for Dee's card....I liked it well enough to make a few more to sell. I'm slowly investing in Copic Refills, currently they're in my oh-so cool orange bucket (from A Muse), and yes, it too sits on my desk along with my big paper cutter, 2 lamps, my acrylic blocks, a stack of scrap paper, 2 pencil/pen holders, a small bucket (it holds my glue sticks, Liquid Glass, stamp cleaner, 2 bottles of tacky glue, a water spritzer, a mini flash-light a few other things that have fallen below my line of sight), 5 small punches (that I use a LOT), a few of my "signature" stamps for the backs of my cards, a couple of photos of my family, a snap-ware container that holds some stamps. My desk is a battle tank. It's pretty large, EXTREMELY heavy, is nearly all metal (so it rattles and shakes when I'm getting into drawers). But it was a steal...............I purchased it at a local utility "garage sale" about 10 years ago - it's the best $25.00 I've ever spent!!!

Birthday Sprinkles


Close up of the loopy border punch all blinged out!
Stamps - Cat's Pajamas
Cardbase - Papertrey Ink
Ink - Memento
Copics & Spicas
Stickles
Ribbon - A Muse
Loopy Border Punch - Martha Stewart
Stampin' Up Punch
I'm pretty darned thrilled with the loopy border punch...I don't have the loopy corner punch - YET, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get it (AND at 40% off with a coupon). I'm set as far as the M.S. halloween punches go.....I've gotten the ones I want (yes, all of them with the 40% off coupons). I've been admiring them on my shelves (and making Creepella admire them too).
This card is for Dee....she likes cats with attitude and Sprinkles is definitely THAT!! I used 3 clear stamps, did a bit of masking and ta-dah.....the card was created. I really like Papertrey Ink cardstock - it's nice and sturdy, doesn't warp or buckle when you layer cardstock on top of it AND your horizontally folded cards will keep standing (a big deal in my book - I hate it when cards start to slide & slink open).