Sunday, January 30, 2011

Penguin Applause


Darn it - I forgot to pop the envelope under the card when I took this photo......alas the card is gone (yipppee - I actually sent a card!!). I stamped a corner flourish in the red ink and inked up some "dots" in black....it tied in very well with the card. The "spotlight" was sponged in 2 shades of yellow (CTMH's Sunny Yellow and Sunflower).

I can almost hear the penguins' applause with this card (they were Thank You cards) - I love it when a card idea translates exactly how I see it in my head onto paper.....sigh......I'm a happy stamper!

  • Stamps: CTMH/alphabet
  • Paper: B&T paper and black CS/CTMH
  • Inks: Memento and CTMH
  • Misc: Oval punch; Penguins & scalloped border punches/Martha Stewart; Stickles; Sponge

Thursday, January 27, 2011

I.C. - Julie's Popping Flower






I felt like such a dork as I was browsing through a stamping magazine that had folding techniques.....and I came across this lovely folded flower by my stamping hero, Julie Ebersole. Why the feeling of dorkiness you might ask? Welllllll - I had taken a class by said hero where she actually taught us the folded flower herself!!! I fished out the card (oh yes, you bet I keep every single card I make in certain classes) and "remembered" how to make the folds and Ta-Dah.......made this card.
  • Stamps: CTMH, PTI & Hero Arts
  • Paper: B&T/CTMH; Orange Stardream
  • Inks: Memento & Colorbox Chalk Inks
  • Misc: Large flower punch/Marvy; Butterfly border punch & small butterfly punch/Martha Stewart

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

I.C. Starz Card



This is nearly dead-on a card I saw in a Paper Craft Magazine.....I used the same PTI set but I selected a different star design and added the loopy border punch on the lime green band of CS on the front of the card and sponged the top portion to make the white cardbase pop just a little. Since you rarely see the sentiment inside (or the inside of the card at all in most magazines), the loopy border above the sentiment is my own extra touch - it brings the party INSIDE the card AND I'm trying to use every scrap of B&T paper so that it's not wasted NOR is it saved....
  • Stamps: PTI & Hero Arts
  • Paper: B&T paper and colored CS from a pad of 8X8 on clearance at Target about 3 years ago
  • Inks: Memento & Fluid Chalk ink
  • Misc: Martha Stewart border punch; Stampin' Up Word Window punch; small star brad/Making Memories

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Thinking of U!


Just want to let someone know you're thinking about THEM - tell'em!! Repeated stamping for the "thinking of you" background and the giant "u" kinda screams at you, don't you think?? Inked (and swiped) the "u" and the exclamation point and stamped them on textured stamps and THEN stamped them on CS. After a quick trim and a bit o' ribbon - I was happy with the effect.
Stamps - CTMH
Ink - Memento
Misc - A Muse/sheer ribbon; Marvy/oval punch

Thursday, January 20, 2011

I.C. - Floating Flowers



Yep, another I.C. card - it's pretty exciting because I'm actually stamping again!! Ok technically, not so much stamping on this card......but at least cards are getting made!!
Love using those Martha Stewart punches over and over and over again - I know I'm getting my money's worth and it lowers the cost of the punches each time they get used (I can rationalize just about anything stamp-related!!).
I think this card was from a Paper Crafts magazine (sorry, I didn't make note of the issue).
  • Stamps: PTI, Printworks and CTMH
  • Ink: Memento
  • Paper: CB/Memory Box; punched hydrangea CS/Stardream
  • Misc: Stickles

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Introducing "I.C." cards...


Not sure if my 3 blog readers have noticed, but it's been kind of quiet on the ol' Blog Front in the last few months. I could yammer on about being busy - but come on....pretty much EVERYONE is busy and I probably have an "average" busy-ness level of life. Sooooo it comes down to how lame a person is - or how I like to look at things.....what a person CHOOSES to do. As a stamper, I did hit a major "stampers block" and combined with a few other things, creating cards just wasn't a very high priority.
Never fear, I wasn't just lounging around eating bon-bons (although that sounds like fun)....I was pretty busy. I made several gifts for Christmas: 18 scarves (crochet); 3 pairs of earrings; and a couple of ornaments. Creepella, Heidi and I spent a few days on a "Girls Only" Vacation - loads of fun!! I worked on several stitched projects (I'm nearly finished with one....I'll post it when I'm done). Work continues to be a nightmare and I spend inordinate amounts of time there trying to shovel through the mountains of work that threaten to avalanche. By the time I get home, any hope of getting the creative juices flowing is pretty hopeless...sigh... When I don't zonk out, I'm usually doing something that doesn't require much effort (crochet or stitching) - that way I'm doing something creative (aka therapeutic) but I'm pretty much planted on the couch.
But finally, during time off after Christmas, I had a stern talk with myself and asked, "What the.....????" I have way too much $$$ invested into stamping - I need to hoist myself up off of the couch and back into the stamp room and start STAMPING. Which I tried to do - however I did little to no stamping.....I dinked around.....and dinked and dinked.......and then I finally realized I was in an official Stamping Funk - no ideas, nothing was inspiring me - zippoooooo. In desperation, my eyes flew around the stamp room - grasping at ANYTHING that would give some pathetic thread of inspiration......and my eye did spy........a stack of stamping magazines!! And so I selected 5 of them, got a pencil and pad of Post-It notes and 2 different types of tabs and looked at each page and pondered. By the time I was finished, I had MANY tabs and Post-It notes in each magazine.
I've wrestled with the idea of "copying" cards......nearly hanging my head in shame - but Creepella put a clever spin on things - she reminded me that I get the magazines because I enjoy looking at other cards and stampers get inspired from one another so I'm not really "copying" cards......they're "inspiring" me - and so they'll now be known as I.C. (Inspired Cards). I'm hoping to get my act together enough so that I'll also include the magazine or blog listing for each I.C. card.
This card was inspired by one that I saw on a blog.....but I think instead of the letters in the circle tabs there were hearts and the sentiment said something about "love".
Hoping to get back into the Stamping Saddle on a regular basis - we shall see.......
  • Stamps: "Birthday"/PTI; "HAPPY" (alpha set)/CTMH
  • CS: Colored CS/CTMH
  • Inks: CTMH & Memento
  • Misc: Ribbon/A Muse; Circle punches & corner rounder; Spica pen (Black)

Monday, January 17, 2011

Good News Penguin





This is a little 4-bar card........small but packs a punch, right? Had stamped, colored and cut out the penguins eons ago - they were just hanging around waiting for me to DO something with them! And so finally, here they are.....

  • Stamps - Memory Box Penguin; "ahhh-nouncing!"/A Muse; "you did it!"/PTI; CTMH for everything remaining
  • Inks - Memento
  • Copics & Spicas
  • Paper - Red circle-punched CS/Stardream; Cardbase and B&T for mini-envelope/CTMH;
  • Misc - Marvy circle punch; mini-envelope punch; corner rounder