Caardvarks Vegetables and Purple Snurple Challenges

Over at the Caardvarks Blog they have monthly and micro challenges - to make cards using a given subject, topic or color. They are a really fun group and you should check it out - they offer prizes to the winner from companies who sponsor them. Here are 3 cards I made for their Fruits and Vegetables March Challenge and a purple card for their Purple Snurple micro challenge (where you have just 2 days to submit a card)to make a card all in purple.


All three vegetable cards are made using the retired set from Stampin Up called Vegetable Garden. I love this set but have hardly used it. That's why challenges are so good for us - they make us get creative and use all the 'stuff' we stock our stamping rooms with just 'in case' we ever might need it!

So this card above is obviously the ear of corn stamp - this is my favorite stamp in the set but it's so big it really takes up the whole card! I used Adirondack Lemonade and Meadow ink colors to stamp it. These inks are juicier than some so you get a really rich deep stamp from it. The green card stock is a Bazzill so it has a texture to it. I punched two holes on the base of the ear and knotted some twine through the holes - I thought this would give the impression of the corn silk.

Stamps: Vegetable Garden & So Many Sayings SU
Paper: Green Bazzill, Papertrey white, yo yo yellow SU
Ink: Lemonade & Lettuce Adirondack
Accessories: oval punch, brad, dimensionals, twine

My next vegetable is the tomatoe (you say tomato)! I think I need something more on this now that I look at it - but I again used the Adirondack ink - this time Watermellon and attached a pretty red felt rick rack along the top. The sentiment is up on dimensionals. Maybe I should have stamped a splatter over the white? What do you think??

Vegetable Garden and So Very - SU
Paper: Real Red, Handsome Hunter, Papertrey White
Ink: Watermellon & Meadow Adirondack
Accessories: circle punches, dimensionals, felt rick rack

And my last vegetable is the pea! I love how this designer paper by K&Co matches the shape so well! I used Meadow and Lettuce Adirondack inks on this card and the sentiment and pea panel are both up on dimensionals. I added three rows of the ribbon and tied a knot around the middle one.

Stamps: vegetable garden & So Many Sayings - SU
Paper: Sage Shadow, Papertrey white, green Bazzill, DP - K & Co Amy Butler
Ink: Meadow and Lettuce Adirondack
Accessories: ribbon - Martha Stewart, 2 oval punches, dimensionals.

And my last card for tonight is my Purple Snurple Take a Deep Breath card! I wanted to keep this clean and simple to appreciate the textures of it. It looks better in real life than in the picture. I used Elegant Eggplant and a lighter purple Card Stock. I stamped the vellum (which I heated with my hot gun lightly to dry it before touching it or it would smear!) and sentiment with Hydrangea ink by Close To My Heart and I used purple dew drops on the sentiment and upper corner. The butterflies are by Papertrey Ink and the sentiment is My Favorite Things.
Stamps: MFT: Namaste, PPI: Butterfly kisses
Paper: Elegant Eggplant, lighter purple, vellum
Ink: Hydrangea: CTMH
Accessories: glue dots, cuttlebug folder, dew drops, curvy paper cutter: Creative Memories

I hope these cards encourage you to eat your vegetables! and to check out the Caardvarks blog and make some cards for their challenges. Thanks for spending some time with me tonight!

It's 60 degrees here at 10:46 PM so I'm happy! I got to wear my spring coat to work today instead of my heavy down one finally. Hope to chat with you again tomorrow night - although there is a new CSI on FINALLY! So hopefully I get my sketch card done before it comes on!

Snips & Snails - Baby Boy Paper Tole Layers Tutorial

Today's challenge over at Split Coast was to use Paper Tole - where you stamp your image several times - cut out the main features and stack them one on top of the other to create depth.

I took pictures of the process as I made my card so that you could see how it was done.


Here is the finished product - where I layered the top of the outfit twice, and the pants once. I then added another layer of the cuffs and pockets .

First, I stamped my image by Lockhart Stamps 3 times on vanilla card stock.
Then I colored in all three images with my Stampin Up Sage Shadow marker.


Next, I cut out 2 of my images, separating the top and bottom of the outfit. You can see my small detail scissors that I used. I highly recommend getting small scissors for cutting out small items. It is much easier to cut around the small angles and pieces with them. Note: When I was done - I decided to add a top layer of pockets - so I stamped my outfit another time on a piece of vanilla cs and colored it in and cut out the pockets.

Here you can see that I cut the cuffs off one pair of pants and put the dimensional foam pieces on the back of two tops, one pair of pants and one set of cuffs. I didn't use the other piece of pants. Then I removed the backings on the dimensionals (I use Stampin Up Dimensionals - I find them to be the best) and attached them over the first stamping.

You can see all my layers here on this side view. This is when I decided it would look better to add another layer of pockets.

Here it is finished - with all the layers of designer paper and card stock. I punched the corners of the image and panel with my corner punch. I also doodled the edges of the image as well as the card, added the ribbon and heated it with my hot gun to curl it.
The instructions for the challenge said that this is easy - it just requires patience and good cutting skills - and they were right. But the outcome is well worth the effort - don't you think? I love the look of this dimensional card and I'm sure that I'll try it with other images. And each time I try it - I'll get better at cutting out the small pieces!

Thanks so much for coming by to see my card - have a great night and see you tomorrow!
Stamps: Lockhart Stamps

Inks: Pitch Black Adirondack

Paper: Sage Shadow, Very Vanilla - SU, DP: Autumn Leaves All Occasion Pack
Supplies: small scissors, black Prismacolor Marker, Sage Shadow SU marker, dimensionals, corner rounder, ribbon: Martha Stewart, hot gun

Two Cards to Share - Sympathy and Paper Pieced Father's Day

I have two cards to share with you tonight - my card for the Split Coast Featured Stamper challenge and a Father's Day card using the technique of paper piecing that was a challenge on Sharon's No Time to Stamp blog on Friday.

First up is my sympathy card which is a Case (copy and share with everyone) of a card made by Laura (Scrapnextras on SCS). You can see her card here. She has a wonderful gallery on Split coast and a wonderful blog that you should check out!

When you copy a featured stamper you are supposed to change at least 2 things on your card. I used different stamps and a different edge punch and I used all soft sky instead of adding white CS. I used twill instead of ribbon and did alternating black and white dots for doodling. I put some Diamond Glaze over the blossoms to add a little shine but I don't think you can see it in the photo.

I put a sympathy sentiment inside my card - but this could also be a card for saying you are sorry for hurting someone's feelings or for having a disagreement with someone.

Stamps: Artfully Asian, So Many Sayings: SU
Paper: Soft Sky, Basic Grey SU
Ink: Pitch Black Adirondack
Accessories: white gel pen, Prismacolor markers: tea green, black, cerulean blue, Martha Stewart punch and twill, Diamond Glaze - Judikens, dimensionals
Techniques: doodling

My second card was made for Sharon's Friday challenge on her blog - No Time to Stamp. The challenge was to use paper piecing on your card. The tie on this cute dog is paper pieced. I stamped the dog image on the vanilla card stock. Then I stamped it again on a piece of blue designer paper (same as the background panel). Then I cut out just the tie piece from the stamping on the blue and attached it over the tie stamped on the vanilla. I colored in my dog with my Prismacolor markers. The dog and sentiment are up on dimensionals. The card is small - 4.5 x 4.5 size. I put it in a regular size envelope when I mail it though so it only costs the regular first class postage rate. If you put it in a small envelope it costs more because it is off-size.

This is such a great techique - you should try it if you haven't already. It works really great on the Chef stamp by Stampin Up - and on all the headless figures (!) of My Favorite Things stamps - and the Hanna's dresses, etc, etc!

Look on the right hand column of my blog under "Look Here to Find" and scroll down to Paper Piecing if you click on it - you'll see my other sample of this technique.

I want to thank you for stopping by - come back tomorrow and see what else I've been working on!

Stamps: Dog- Penny Black, Dad - My Sentiments Exactly
Paper: Black, Very vanilla, Ballet Blue, SU DP
Ink: Pitch Black Adirondack
Accessories: Prismacolor markers, dimensionals
Techniques: paper piecing

Art Imitates Life - Pear Tiles Tutorial

Happy Saturday everyone! I didn't get to stamp last night because DH and I went to see a play called Three Tall Women by Edward Albee. Have you seen it?? It's about a woman at the end of life remembering all the parts of her life - and the 3 women in the play each represent a stage - youth, middle age and elderly. It was really interesting!

So - today I was raring to go on the Inspiration Challenge on Split Coast. Today we were to find something in our home that inspired us to make a card.

I chose this tile table above as inspiration. I got it at Michaels on sale last year and use it inside to put plants on and out on my deck in the summer for drinks or food when we are sitting out there.

It was fun trying to make this card look just like the tile. I took pictures of each step in the process for you to see how I put this together.

First I stamped my pear on the left on a piece of Very Vanilla Card Stock. I used markers to color right on the stamp so it could be multicolored. Then I stamped it on a piece of paper and cut it out. This cut out is my mask to tape over the stamped pear on the left so when I stamp the second pear it looks like it's behind the first pear. I use Scotts Double sided removable tape to attach the mask so it comes off easily without damaging my stamping.

Then I stamped my second pear (coloring it with markers and not coloring the leaf ) on the right over the mask. I also stamped my branch 3 times connecting the ends a little so it looks like one long branch. I colored in my branch and it's leaves.

Next I moved the mask to cover the second pear and stamped the leaves and flowers. Again - the leaves will look like they are behind the pears. You can move the mask back and forth as you decide where you want to stamp your leaves.

Next I removed the mask and stamped a few leaves over the pears.

Then I cut up my image in a random pattern. Be sure you lay the cut out pieces back down in order as you cut them or you may have trouble figuring out where they go!! I laid my pieces on a Sahara Sand background piece to space them out evenly. Next I attached the pieces to the background attaching each corner first to try and make it spaced as evenly as possible as I attached everything.

I realized that the pears looked too light on my stamping and were sort of overcome by the dark leaves - so I colored in the centers with my marker and then blended it a little with my aqua painter. The final step is to attach the panel to the black card. This card is 6 x 6 so rather large!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that you try it out - I'd love to see what you do with this! Link back your card if you create something!! Have a great rest of your Saturday - see you tomorrow!

Stamps: Pear- Rubber Stampede, Splatter - Hampton Arts, Branch - Stamps by Judith

Leaf - Blossoms Abound Stampin Up, Flower - Bodacious Bouquet Stampin Up.

Inks: Meadow & Lettuce by Adirondacks

Paper: Black, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla: Stampin Up

Supplies: SU Earthtone Markers, Scotts Removable double sided tape, aqua painter

Misty Sympathy - Riding off to Arizona & How to Make Clouds

Hope everyone is having a good day today! We are supposed to be getting some rain but so far it's just cloudy and there is talk of a little snow coming in the next few days - hopefully north and west of here!!

I have two cards to share with you today - the one above is for today's Split Coast Challenge to 'Just Spray It' - to use some sort of spray (water, glimmer mist, airbrush, hairspray - whatever!) on your card.

My second card which will be further down here - is the retirement card I made for my sister to give to her brother-in-law. Finally finished it after talking about it here for 2 days!

For my challenge card - I inked my stamps with Vintage Photo Distress Ink by Ranger and then misted the stamps with water in a spray bottle lightly before stamping them (took several tries to get it not too wet!!!) I used the Paisley background stamp, stamping it on white Papertrey Card Stock and a hydrangea stamp from Anna Griffin that I stamped on watercolor paper. I colored in a few of the petals with my Stampin Up marker just for a little color accent. I pierced several edges - put ribbon around the Brown Bazzill panel and distressed the watercolor edges. The sentiment words are by Papertrey from the Paper Tray set.

I also show the inside where I attached a Very Vanilla cardstock piece and stamped the sentiment on it. That stamp is by Verses Rubber Stamps

Misting a stamp with water is a fun technique - it can give you many different looks depending on how much you mist.

Stamps: Hydrangea: Anna Griffin, Sentiment: Papertrey Ink - Paper Tray, Paisley BG - SU
Paper: Bazzill Brown, Papertreyink White, water color paper
Ink: Vintage Photo Distress Ink - Ranger
Accessories: Distresser, water spray bottle, dimensionals, paper piercer, pad & grid, SU marker, brown satin Ribbon
Techniques: paper piercing, misting

My sister asked me to make a card for her brother-in-law as he is retiring in May. She said he likes car racing and they are moving to Arizona (from MA) after they retire. So this is what I came up with.

I got the Arizona post card image from a book with a CD of images called 'Old Time Travel Posters and Luggage Labels' from Dover Publications They also sell them at Barnes & Noble and Borders Books.

First I made clouds in the sky using a home made template that I cut using scalloped scissors and sponged along the edges with soft sky. I've included a picture below showing my template and sample clouds. I learned this from Mothermark (Cindy) on Split Coast.

I made the road with a piece of black card stock that I cut with my curvy paper cutter from Creative Memories and added the 'lines' with punches from the horizontal slot punch from Stampin Up.

The cartoon race car is a clip art from Word. I stamped a little grass below the 'street'. All the cut outs are up on dimensionals. Inside you can see that I stamped clouds all over. The racing flags are a sticker from a set I picked up at Michaels. The sentiments are listed in the supplies list below.

I think Dave will get a kick out of this card - don't you??!

Stamps: sentiment: Papertrey Ink - Paper Tray, grass - Sutter Enterprises Inside Sentiments: Happy Retirement - American Art Stamp, Always take the scenic route - Inky Antics, and Dave was stamped with Karen Fisher alphabet Snap Stamps.
Paper: Soft Sky, Black, White, Really rust, so saffron
Ink: Soft Sky: Su, Pitch Black & Meadow Adirondack
Accessories: slot punch, clip art, Dover clip art, circle punches, gingham ribbon, curvy paper cutter - Creative Memories, cloud template - home made, racing sticker: Michaels, dimensionals
Techniques: sponging

Here is how I make my clouds. I made a template with a piece of cardstock that I just cut in different curves with my scalloped edge decorative scissors. You hold the template starting at the base of where you want the sky - and just sponge sections just a little over the edges - then keep moving the template from left to right and then move up intil you have your full sky. I find that Soft Sky Ink is a perfect color for clouds. Give it a try - they really come out neat!

Thanks for stopping in tonight - I'd love if you'd leave a comment for me about what you think of my cards - have a wonderful night!

Kent and I are going to a play tomorrow night - so I probably won't be posting again until Saturday - so see you then!

Cat Tail's a la Zindorf

You may have noticed that I wasn't here yesterday??? I was dutifully sitting at my diningroom table pulling my hair out doing my taxes. I 'think' I'm done with the Federal but still need to do the State one and then review the Federal one more time. The forms are so absolutely rediculous aren't they??? - they drive me crazy. There has to be a more straightforward way for these to be done!

So - by hook or by crook - I was going to stamp today. And today is the Sketch challenge over on Split Coast which I always do.

Another thing I have been wanting to do is try out one of the terrific tutorials Michelle Zindorf does on her blog. She is a wonderful artist and shows how she creates her beautiful cards - step by step - so we all can recreate them ourselves !

Since the stamped panel on this sketch is only 1.5 inches wide I knew I would only be making a small sample of Michelles technique so it was less intimidating than trying to fill the whole panel on my first attempt!

Here is Michelle's tutorial for her Sunset Wheat card. I used my cat tails stamp from Stamps by Judith which I stamped using river rock and versamark inks and embossed in clear embossing powder. Then I sponged all the colors on according to Michelle's directions. I sponged rather than brayering as I cannot seem to get good coverage over embossing the way she does with her brayering. I masked for the moon and overstamped the wheat in black ink at the end. See her tutorial for full instructions on all these techniques.

I stamped a portion of the Cheesecloth backgrounder stamp by Cornish Heritage Farms on the back panel using Espresso ink by Adirondack. The sentiment and circle are by Verve Visual. The cat tails panel is up on dimensionals.

I am pleased with how my first attempt came out - I can't wait to have some more time to try out another of her tutorials on a full size card!

Thanks so much for dropping by - for those of you following such things - I have almost finished the retirement card for my sister's brother-in-law that I mentioned on Monday but I'm not totally happy with it yet - I'll post it as soon as I am!

I'm afraid I have to drag myself back to the diningroom table to attack the State Taxes - wish I could stay here longer!>>>>......

Stamps: cat tail - Stamps by Judith, Cheesecloth - Cornish Heritage Farms, Circle & Sentiment - Verve Visual Wonderful Wishes
Paper: River Rock, Really Rust, Black, PapertreyInk White
Ink: River Rock, Really Rust, More Mustard, Cranberry Crisp, Apricot Appeal, Pumpkin Pie, Versamark Embossing ink
Accessories: sponges, crop a dial, eyelets, dimensionals, clear EP
Techniques: embossing, sponging

What a Pear - Flap Fold Anniversary Card

Well - I went to Jury Duty this morning and I'm happy to say they didn't need any jurors today so we were dismissed a little after 12 noon. The only trial up today chose to let the judge decide the case. Phew!! I believe in doing my civic duty and certainly would have served if empanelled - but I'm just as happy that they didn't need me!

So of course I went shopping at AC Moore and got some nice pieces of designer paper - one of which I used on this card today - it's by K & Company - Amy Butler.

What a great Try a New Technique challenge they had on SCS today - a Flap Fold card - I have been wanting to try one of these. Guest hostess JoLynn found this tutorial by Rose Ann Reynolds on the Scor-pal site.

I made mine an anniversary card - I used my Coluzzle circle and knife to cut the curved top edge and the flap is kept closed with a Magnetic snap Closure by Basic Grey that I purchased on line at Eclectic Paperie. I stamped the pear twice with embossing clear ink and covered it with Denim Embossing Powder from Adirondack. I colored them with my Prismacolor markers. Then I cut one with a nestability circle and cut out the other. I had to stamp an extra leaf to have one going to the left. I put one pear up on dimensionals as well as the sentiment. I sponged the edges of the flap, the circles and the sentiment with Buckaroo Blue ink.

On the inside pictures you can see where I put one piece of the magnetic closure on the top flap - I attached it with a glue dot - the other piece is underneath the verse panel. You add the panel to cover the magnet. You also can see that I stamped the pear over the verse to add a little interest. I used my Soft Sand Shadow ink by Memories so you could still read the words.

I'm also submitting this card to the Caardvarks Homegrown challenge - to use fruit or vegetables on your card. See that challenge here.

Well - I'm off to cook supper for my starving husband who just finished up painting our bedroom walls and ceiling - he really is a handy-man! I love the smell of fresh paint and it's fun to have a room done over - almost like you are in a new house! Now I have to decorate to go with the new color (Marlboro Blue).

I also have to design a card my sister wants for her brother-in law who is retiring - he loves race car driving and is moving to Arizona so I have to incorporate those two things into the card! Fun Challenge!

Thanks for dropping in today - keep your eyes peeled for my retirement card - it may get posted tonight or maybe not until tomorrow! I still have to do my taxes too! (can you tell I'm avoiding that!!??)



Stamps: Pear: Rubber Stampede, Sentiment: Karen Foster Snap Stamps, verse: Verses Rubber Stamps
Paper: River Rock, Buckaroo Blue, Very Vanilla, DP: K&Co Amy Butler
Ink: Buckaroo Blue, Pitch Black Adirondack , Soft Sand Shadow - Memories
Accessories: Coluzzle Circle Cutting System, tag punch, oval punch, brad, Scor-pal, denim EP Adirondack, Hot Gun, paper piercer, sponge, magnetic snap closure - Basic Grey, glue dots, dimensionals, prismacolor markers
Techniques: sponging, coluzzle, embossing