The Old One Two Punch! Come Join the Fun!

The weekly Double Dare Challenge I do with a few SCS friends was hosted by Charlene this week (LilLuvsStampin) and the instructions were:

1. Use one or more punches
2. Use a background stamp
3. No designer paper allowed
For my project - I made a magnetic bookmark using the colors for the color challenge on Split Coast and following the Double Dare Challenge instrucions.

I used a Martha Stewart punch, a bird shapeabilitie and 2 flower shapeabilities. (hope those count as punches!) I used the Cornish Heritage Farms Pretty Pattern background stamp on the bigger flower and bird and Polka dots background stamp from Papertrey Ink on the smaller flower (that doesn't show up in the photo - sorry!)

I attached two pieces of magnet strip inside so you can close this on the page of a book to mark where you stopped reading. The bookmark has a 5 1/4 x 2 5/8 piece of card stock as it's base - folded in half.The Double Dare girls would like to invite you to join along in our weekly challenges!

Just create a card or project using the Double Dare challenge instructions listed above (not the colors part) and post it in your Split Coast gallery. Please be sure to use the keyword DDC when you post so we can all find your card. There is no time limit to posting.

A new challenge is issued each Tuesday. The 9 Double Dare Challenge Friends on SCS are: Itsapassion (Anne), beestamper (Bev), jdmommy (Anne), artystamper (me - Julia), joan ervin (Joan), sleepyinseattle (Joanne), Francie G. (Fran) LilLuvsStampin (Charlene) and sf9erfa (Michelle).

So come along and join in with us!! we can't wait to see what you create! You can see all the Double Dare Challenge cards on SCS in this gallery here.

Here's a view of the back of my magnetic bookmark. Thanks so much for coming by today!! DH and I are going snowshoeing in VT for a few days - I'll be on line now and then - but not posting - so I'll see you when I get back if I'm not frozen solid!!

Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms: Pretty Patter BG stamp, Polkd Dot Basics: PTI
Paper: Kraft: PTI, Baja Breeze, Night of Navy: SU
Ink: Not Quite Navy: SU, New Canvas: Palette
Accessories: blue brad, nested bird shapeability, nested flower shapeability, martha stewart punch, magnet strip, foam dimensionals, sponge

Hugs & Kisses Box, Blog Candy Winner And Valentine Card Challenge!

The winner of my blog candy was comment #53 and that was:

Dolce Deb's Designs who said...
Congrats what an honor hope you enjoy it. Your challenge card is just beautiful. Thank you for the chance to win some candy. Hope you have a great week and TFS.Debbie/Phx AZ
January 11, 2009 6:47 PM

so Congratulations Deb! - e-mail me with your name and address and I'll get that set right in the mail to you! julia.aston@comcast.net

I'm sorry everyone couldn't win - I know it's just a super fun stamp set. Remember to keep checking Heather's store to see when it's back in stock.

And here is a fun little Origami box that I made today for the Technique Challenge on Split Coast. You can see the directions here.

I was just starting to look around for fun easy Valentine crafts I could make to sell at our church during coffee hours and this cute box sure fits the bill don't you think?!

The directions on Split Coast include an optional cover but I just wanted an open box and then added a layered punched heart instead. I started my box with an 8" x 8" piece of kraft card stock (instead of the 12x12 in the directions). This makes a box about 2 3/4" square. Just perfect for this basket filler and a handful of kisses to fit into!

I stamped the card stock with the dots after making all the origami folds but before folding it up into the box. I attached the Nestability hearts to the inside of the back edge of the box with some tacky tape. I love how this came out!

Stamps: Polka Dot Basics, Sweet Love: PTI
Paper: Kraft: PTI, Real Red: SU
Ink: Onyx Black Versafine, Palette New Canvas
Accessories: heart nestabilities, cuttlebug, foam dimensionals, tacky tape, basket filler, Hershey Kisses

And one last thing before I go make my supper -

You have probably heard on other blogs or Split Coast about a wonderful challenge going on at Patty Adam's blog. She is asking the stamping community to help her gather 1ooo Valentine cards for children in the hospital to receive and also send to others. You can find more details here - just scroll through her blog - the story keeps growing! You need to e-mail her to request her mail address.

The deadline to send the cards to Patty is 02/07/09. I just sent off 20 cards yesterday. It's a wonderful opportunity for us to share our talents with those who need some cheering......

Thank you for coming by tonight!

A Tilda Valentine

Today's featured stamper over on Split Coast was Jaydekay and I chose this pretty Valentine of Judy's to CASE.

I used a different Tilda than she used and different flowers butI did follow her overall design and theme of stamps. The corner piece is punched from a Cuttlebug die.

I was so happy to use one of my Tilda's by Magnolia Stamps. I bought about 8 of them quite a while ago and have only used one of them so far. So I'm following one of my New Year's Resolutions - to use the stuff that I have! The sentiment is from the Sweet Love set by Papertrey Ink.

I cut out hearts from a designer paper and popped them up over the stamped flowers to make it more Valentine-ish! I colored Tilda with Koh I Noor pencils and gamsol.

Thanks so much for coming by!

Remember to check out my blog candy on Saturdays post- you have until Monday night to post a comment there for a chance to win!

Stamps: Tilda: Magnolia, Sentiment: Sweet Love: PTI
Paper: Ruby Red, Basic Black: SU, White PTI, DP: My Minds Eye:Irresistable - Candy Stripe and Flowers for you

Ink: onyx black versafine
Accessories: corner die Provo Craft, Cuttlebug, glue pen, silver spica pen, foam dimensionals, Koh I Noor Colour pencils, gamsol

Exciting News and Some Blog Candy!

I'm so very excited today! A couple of weeks ago Jennifer Meyer (Lovetostamp6 on Splitcoast) pm'd me and asked if I would like to be a guest designer on Our Creative Corner some Saturday in January. Well - let me think......... I didn't have to think at all really!! - I said YES with a little tremor running through my body! Yikes - what pressure to make something worthy! So today it was a color challenge - to make a card using just two shades of blue and a neutral color. I used Buckaroo blue from Stampin up and then some designer papers with a lighter blue on it - I guess it's like Baja Breeze with white as my neutral. I inked up my pretty angel from the Calling All Angels set from H&M Stamp Co. I clear embossed her to prevent the colors from bleeding when I colored her with Copics and Prismacolor markers. I cut her out and layered her over a stamping of the angel using foam dimensionals.

I used my rectangle nestabilities and a lacy punch from Martha Stewart. The sentiment was punched with the larger oval punch from Stampin Up and layered onto a Design Label (SU) punched piece of card stock using foam dimensionals.

I tied 3 pretty ribbons together and stuck a heart pin through it that I had added some simple beads to. And finally - I put some silver Spica pen on her wings and halo to give a little shimmer, which doesn't really show up in the pic unfortunately.

I hope you stop by and check out the challenges at Our Creative Corner - they have a different one every Saturday morning to inspire you. You can also see their logo on my side bar with a link to their site!

In honor of the honor bestowed on me today - I'm offering this wonderful "My Favorite Valentine" set from H&M Stamps as blog candy. I made this card using the dragon from this set and this card using the owl. (Note: this set sold out during the H&M Super Garage sale this past week - Heather has re-ordered it so it should be in her store soon! But I have a set that I'll send out to the winner right away!)

All you have to do is leave me a comment on this post. I'll pick the winner by random number.org and post it on Monday so be sure to check back!

Thanks so much for coming by - please let me know what you think of my challenge card today!

Stamps: Calling All Angels: H&M Stamps

Paper: White: PTI, Buckaroo Blue and Ski Alpine DP: SU, Argyle DP: 7 Gypsies Portobella

Ink: Onyx Black Versafine, Buckaroo Blue: SU

Accessories: foam dimensionals, glue dot, heart pin: Fashion Sense, lacey punch: Martha Stewart, rectangle Nestabilities, clear embossing powder, hot gun, sponge, white and blue rick rack, blue gingham ribbon: Michaels, Dazzling Diamonds: SU, oval punch & Desing Label punch: SU, Prismacolor markers, Copics

A Valentine's Day Massacre

Well - not a real massacre - just a massacre of a 5 pound box of candy as per below!

A fun Limited supplies challenge today on Split Coast - to use hearts and red!

My card also covers the Double Dare Challenge I do each week with some SCS friends. Fran (Francie G) was hostess this week and her challenge was to use any color or as many colors as you choose. Then pick one of those colors and use three different shades of that color! I used Real Red, Berry Sorbet and Blush Blossom for my shades of red.

I cut the hearts with my Nestabilities and punched the little white hearts. The dew drops are red and my lovely lady has hearts on her dress! I stamped her on the Berry Sorbet heart with black ink, then I stamped her again on Blush Blossom card stock - colored her in with Copics - cut her out and popped her up over the stamping on the heart. She comes with the sentiment next to her on the stamp. This is a large 5x5 card and I used a corner rounder on all 4 corners. The smoochie, smoochie is a clear sticker.

I can really identify with this lady's sentiment - can you???!!!

You can see the other 3 shades of color challenge cards here.

Please plan to drop by again Saturday morning - I have some exciting news to share with you as well as some blog candy!!

Stamps: American Art Stamp - Emerson Box of Candis
Paper: white, Berry Sorbet: PTI, Real Red, Blush Blossom: SU
Ink: Onyx Black Versafine
Accessories: Copics: R20, R29, Y15, foam dimensionals, glue dots, neart nestabilities,little heart punch, EK success siticker (Smoochie)

Blog Candy Winner and His Holy Name Challenge

Hi everyone ! Sorry I'm so late in posting but I had my monthly hair maintenance trim and color and it took forever!

First, I'm happy to announce the winner of my blog candy - and that winner is #7:

Jami {sgtStamper} said...
Soooo cute - love the colorful animals!! I went to the sale, added stuff to my cart and got sidetracked by kids.... then when I came back, the sets I wanted were sold out. Figures.hugs, Jami
January 7, 2009 6:23 PM

So Jami - let me know if you want the School Fun Percy

or the Percy builds Frosty. - and I'll mail it out to you right away! E-mail me with your choice and your address to julia.aston@comcast.net

They are both really cute stamps from H&M Stamp Co - you can see cards I made with them here and here.

And now I want to share with you a year long challenge that I am so excited to be participating in over on Split Coast.

It is called His Holy Name and you can see all the details here on Split Coast. It is run by Patter (identicaltriplets) on SCS and this is her description of the challenge:

"For 2009, we will be focusing on the Names of God. Every other week, I will post a name of our precious Lord along with a small devotion. You then will find a key scripture or a promise associated with that name and create a scrapbook page, card, ATC, Rolodex card or whatever you feel like creating."

She posts the challenge both on the Split Coast challenge thread and on her blog every other Sunday by 5 pm.

The name of God she gave us for our first challenge was "Holy". I am going to be making 6x6 scrapbook pages and I will be putting them in protective sleeves and hanging them on a wooden rack (that DH is making for me even as we speak!) that I can keep on my desk at work or on a table at home so I can flip through them and reflect on the different passages I chose for each name of God as the year goes on.

Here is my first page for the name HOLY: I chose Hebrews 12:14 as my verse: Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy: without holiness no one will see the Lord.

My NIV (New International Version) Bible has a Concordance in the back of it that list words (such as Holy) and lists all the verses where that word is used - so that is how I will locate and choose the verses for the challenges. I looked through all the Holy references until I found one that 'spoke' to me. I thought this one particularly timely given the conflicts going on in the world right now.

And please notice my very own watermark on the bottom left corner! I FINALLY figured out how to make one on my Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 thanks to this wonderful tutorial by Kurtis that I actually found quite some time ago but never had the time to focus on until yesterday. I am just so excited by this little thing!

I hope you will look into the "His Holy Name" challenge - maybe it's something you'd like to do this year also?

Thank you so much for coming by!

Stamps: Scrolly & star - PTI Silent Night, Words and stem: PTI Rustic Branches, globe: MFT back to school, Lesson 1: Karen Foster Snap Stamps
Paper: white PTI, Night of Navy: SU, DP - narratives by Karen Russell Coral notebook
Ink: onyx black versafine
Accessories: crystal stickers, oval punch, designer label punch, copic B29, Avery mailing label, computer generated Bible verse: 3hourtour font and CK fraternity font

Edit: I just found out that Heather at H&M Stamps has re-ordered the following stamp sets - so if you were looking for those during the sale - she should have them in her store sometime soon.

Cats Meow

Lil Behind

Sweetly Stamped

My Favorite Valentine

Comfy Valentine

Old English

Christmas is a Good time for Cookies

Strong Love

Here is my card for today's sketch challenge on Split Coast. I'm afraid I cut this happy couple in half to accomodate the sketch! That's really using my artistic license isn't it!! "Sorry Officer - I had to do it for the sketch today........ - I have my artistic license right here in the glove box....."I tied the ribbon in the middle to kind of take your mind off the fact that they were cut in half and ALSO shifted to the right!! I colored my image with Koh-I-Noor color pencils and gamsol and added pearls to her little neck (to make up for cutting her in half perhaps!) The image and sentiment panels are up on foam dimensionals. The stamp set is Our Love from H&M Stamps


I just checked Heather's site and it looks like Our Love is no longer listed - so it must be all sold out - if you haven't gone over there already and want to get some great deals on stamps check it out before midnight tonight because that's when her blowout sale is over. She still has a lot of cute sets left so check it out!

Thanks so much for coming by today - be sure to add a comment on this blog entry to have a chance at winning a Percy stamp from H&M I'll post the winner Thursday night!

Stamps: Our Love: H&M Stamps
Paper: vintage cream, white: PTI, Bazzill blue and brown, DP: Rusty Pickle Chocolate Bunnies
Ink: onyx black versafine
Accessories: gingham ribbon: PTI, Koh-I-Noor colored pencils, gamsol, crystal sticker pearls, foam dimensionals, oval punch