Every Day is a Gift

A wonderful sentiment and one we should remember every day! I attempted to watercolor my image today for the Try a New Technique Challenge at Split Coast - to emboss and then watercolor on your card. You can see some tutorials on watercoloring if you click above.

I embossed my plants in detail black embossing powder on watercolor paper. For those who may not know - detail embossing powder gives a clear clean definition to whatever you are embossing - regular embossing powder can give a thicker line - so if you have fine detail on your stamp - you want to use detail embossing powder. If you click on my card - you will see it enlarged and can see the detail better.

Next I colored the plants with Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils and then used my aqua painter (waterbrush) to blend the colors. I haven't done much watercoloring so I'm not very good at the technique. I was happy to try it though and next time I'll be a little better at it (maybe!) Practice makes perfect - right?!

The panel is up on dimensionals as well as the sentiment ovals. I added 3 brads to the top left to balance the sentiment on the bottom right. The potted plants are by Northwoods Rubber Stamps and the sentiment is PapertreyInk - from the Out on a Limb set.

I thought I was going to stamp early tonight - Kent is up at camp helping his sibblings open it for the season so I had no dinner making obligations - but I got involved in paying some bills and balancing the checkbook and other such putterings - so here I am posting at 11 pm again! 5:15 am comes early - so I'm going to scoot off to bed as soon as I sign off here.

I appreciate your checking in today! See you tomorrow - hopefully at an earlier time!!

Today's thought from Poor Richard's Almanac by Ben Franklin: "Nothing dries sooner than a tear."

Stamps: Plants: Northwoods Rubber Stamps, Sentiment: PapertreyInk - Out on a Limb
Paper: Really Rust, Basic Black, Very Vanilla: SU, Watercolor paper, DP: Sandy Lion - Fall
Ink: Onyx Black Versafine, Versamark Watermark Pad
Accessories: hot gun, dimensionals, black detail EP, oval punches, brads, aqua painter, prismacolor watercolor pencils

Promises of God

Hi, everyone! Hope all the Mother's had a nice Mother's Day and that you got to relax a little today! We had the DH's family over as well as my son and his fiance and everyone brought something towards the dinner so it was easy peasy.

My card today is for the Featured Stamper challenge on Split Coast. I chose this card of Jennifer's (Lovetostamp6) to CASE (copy and selectively edit). Here is the card I made.

I needed some encouragement cards and thought these colors would work well for this type of card. When you case you have to change at least 2 things from the original card - I changed the stamped sentiment to this nice verse from Verses Rubber Stamps but used the same layout and colors and I used punched stars instead of the birds. I don't have the long Nestability rectangles (yet!) so I punched 2 scalloped squares with my Marvy punch and put them together - I've seen this done before on SCS but never tried it myself - it works really well! I put my ribbon over the connecting point of the squares so it doesn't show.

Cutting it a little short tonight - I really want to try and get to bed early for once! but I may make a little stop in my stamping room first!! Thanks so much for sharing some time with me!

Today's thought from Poor Richard's Almanac: "He that's content hath enough. He that complains hath too much."

Stamps: Verses Rubber Stamps
Paper: Soft Sky, Basic Black DP: Soft Sky - SU, White: PaperTreyInk
Ink: Onyx Black Versafine
Accessories: Stitched Ribbon: PTI Aqua Mist, nestability Stars, star punch, scalloped square punch

Catching the Sun, Doing it Over and Tulips for the Table

I have so many projects to share with you tonight! I've had a busy weekend - but in between I've been stamping (of course!) to get the SCS challenges done.

First, just let me tell you that we saw The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde last night at the Lyric Stage in Boston. It is a really funny play written in 1895. Then today we went to the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, MA and had a guided tour of an exhibition called "Remember Me" - where there are everyday articles from the last 100 years donated by families that also include the stories of where they came from and who owned them attached. So lots of culture for me these two days!

Now on to the projects! This card was made for today's Inspiration Challenge which was guest hosted by my friend on SCS, Anne. She gave us this picture of a Sun Catcher to be our inspiration. You can see it below - but you can see it better here.

And here is the card I made based on the Sun Catcher.

I stamped my flowers and leaves on a piece of acetate with white Stazon Ink and then colored them from behind with alcohol inks. I thought this would simulate the transparency of the suncatcher. I found a great tutorial on this process by Sherrie Siemens on the Cornish Heritage Farms web site. I may add a sentiment to it later or may just use it as a general note card.
Stamps: leaf, Natural Beauty - SU, Flower: Stampendous
Paper: PTI White, bordering blue, acetate
Ink: Stazon White - Ranger Alcohol Inks - Cranberry, lettuce, wild plum, stonewashed, alcohol blending solution
Accessories: liquid applique, cuttlebug Folder Distressed stripes, vellum glue dots, aqua brush
Techniques: alcohol inks

This next card was made for a Double Dare Weekly Challenge I do with a group of friends on SCS.

Charlene gave us the challenge this week.

1. We had to pick a card that we thought after we posted it : what was I thinking?!!!

2. Change 2 or more things:I added a framing layer, changed colors and added butterflies.

3. Keep the basic sketch of the first card.

4. Use one color you rarely useI used Stazon Azure - first time I've used this Ink Pad and have had it for maybe a year??!!

My biggest 'whoops' on my first card, which is shown below, was stamping the background right on the card - I think it looks better and is a sturdier card if you stamp on a panel and then mount that onto the card.

Which one do you like better??

Stamps: Tree backgrounder: Cornish Heritage Farms, Sentiment: Wordsworth
Paper: Soft Sky, Basic Black
Ink: Stazon Azure, so saffron
Accessories: distresser, sponge, butterfly punch: Martha Stewart, dimensionals

And now my final project for today - the Origami flower place cards I've been promising to show you for the past few days!

Aren't these just the cutest things?? I made them for our dinner table for Mother's Day. They are origami tulips, leaves and stand. I got the pattern from a book called 'Minigami' by Gay Merrill Gross published by Firefly Books. I purchased mine at Borders Books and you can also find it on line at places like Amazon.com. They work up in a flash.

The stand has a little slot in the back where the stems just slip right in. I computer generated the names, punched them with the large oval punch and attached them to the front of the stand. I think these will look really pretty at everyone's place on the table tomorrow!

Thanks for checking in with me today - I made 10,000 hits today! and I am so very grateful to everyone for having interest in my 'stuff' here!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there - I hope you have a wonderful day with your families!

Today's Quote from Poor Richard's Almanac by Ben Franklin: "Well done is better than well said."

Stamps: none
Paper: Origami red, blue, purple, green, PTI White, unknown blue
Ink: none
Accessories: glue dots
Techniques: origami

The Strength of a Verse

I participate in a monthly challenge called Divine Design 2008 Bible Verse Challenge where every month we create a card or project with a Bible Verse on it - the intention being that we will memorize these verses to broaden our knowledge and appreciation of the strength we can gain from such an exercise.


This is the project I created for May. On Split Coast we are often asked to send out a card to someone who could use a boost and more often than not - the person is suffering from cancer. It is so hard to know how to comfort that person in a card. I felt this verse would do just that.


This also qualifies for today's Ways to Use It Challenge - to use chipboard on a card/project. I used 2 coasters and my nestabilities to create this pretty frame that I covered with Basic Grey Archaic DP. You use your corner punch on the DP so it fits on the chipboard and sponge the edges to match the DP. The cuttlebug will cut through this THIN coaster (you can't use med or thick as that will not cut). It takes a couple of passes through the machine but it works well.


I found a wonderful tutorial for making this frame here on Amy Rysavy's blog.


I stamped over the computer generated verse with the vine stamp from Basic Grey Figgy Pudding Winterland clear set. I inked the stamp - off stamped it on a piece of paper - then stamped over the sentiment so that the ink was light and didn't obscure the verse. There is a kickstand piece on the back so that it stands up or you could put a magnet on the back to attach it to your fridge or file cabinet. I cut a 2.5 inch square inside the large Scalloped square so I had enough room for the verse.

Here you see the kickstand on the back - which is made from the square piece that was left when you cut the frame. You trim the sides and then score one end and attach it to the back as shown. I used Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive to attach the papers, the sentiment and the kickstand. The buttons are attached using glue dots.

Here is a side view showing the kickstand.

You can see my other Bible Verse Cards on this post.

Thanks for coming by to see my offering today. Tomorrow night we're going to see a play so I won't be back here until Saturday - hopefully I'll be posting my origami flower place cards - wait till you see how cute they are!

Todays thought from Poor Richard's Almanac by Ben Franklin: "All would live long, but none would be old."
Stamps: Vine: Basic Grey Figgy Pudding Winterland clear stamps, courage: Rubber Soul - a day at the zoo
Paper: Basic Grey Archaic
Ink: Onyx Black versafine, garden green CTMH, Old Olive
Accessories: sponge, nestability squares, buttons, twine, twill, glue dots, score pal, twill, exacto knife, corner rounder, Scotch Quick Dry adhesive

Snailing By on a Sketch

So it's Wednesday and that means Sketch Challenge time over at Split Coast! I love the sketch challenges each week. Having a sketch usually makes it easier to create a card - you first choose a stamp you have that fits a panel on the sketch and then make your card. There are lots of blogs where you can find weekly sketch challenges such as Beate's Blog, Taylor's Blog, and Card Positioning Systems, just to name a few...

So here is the sketch for today - kind of different with the two half circles behind the center panel.

And here is the card that I created based on this sketch.

I cuttlebugged my Very Vanilla panel with the Swiss Dots folder. Then I cut my scalloped circle with my nestabilitiy die and cut it in half. I colored the cute snail image by Whipper Snapper Designs with Prismacolor markers and mounted the panel on Certainly Celery and Pretty in Pink (all from Stampin Up) with dimensionals.

You can see the the panels popped up a little better on this close up side view.

I cut the sentiment panels with my new Shapeabilities from Spellbinders. The sentiment is from the Simple Little Things set by PapertreyInk that I got free for ordering at least 11 sets from them in 2007 - what a deal huh?! It's a great set of phrases and pretty circle designs. And finally, I added the flower with flower brad attaching it with a glue dot to be sure it would stay on.

I appreciate your coming by today - hope you can find an inspiring sketch to make a card too!

Today's thought from Poor Richard's Almanac by Ben Franklin: "People who are wrapped up in themselves make small packages."

Stamps: Snail: WhipperSnapperDesigns, sentiment: PTI Simple Little Things,
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Very Vanilla, Certainly Celery, DP: Basic Grey Sultry
Ink: Onyx Black Versafine
Accessories: Shapeabilities, nestabilities, Prismacolor markers: black, tea green terra cotta, clay rose, French grey, mulberry, cuttlebug Swiss Dots, dimensionals, flower, flower brad

An Early Father and Blogging with A Purpose Award

Hi everyone! I've been working on some cards that I'm going to bring to a local shop - hopefully to sell (!) Some of those I'm bringing are these Father's Day cards. I'm sure you've seen these fun origami shirts before - this year I added some cute ties from Hero Arts to mine. You can see instructions for the shirt as well as some fun variations in the Try a New Technique forum on Split Coast here.

The Dad and dots stamp is from the new Verve Visual Set called Father Figure. I also used a cuttlebug folder on the panal. The cardstock is Kraft.

The Father definition stamp is by Paper Inspirations and I used another Cuttlebug panel on the Caramel card base for this set of cards. The panels are Naturals Ivory, Certainly Celery and Basic Black. The Hero Arts ties come in a set of 3 and each one has a different pattern on it. I just stamped them in black on colored card stock and matched each one up to the dp that I used for the shirts. I think these little shirts are just so cute!

I just found out today that Deb gave me this very nice award.

Thanks to all of you for the comments that you leave here that always lift my spirits and the inspiration that you provide each and every day!

I'm passing this award onto:

LeAnne and Beverly

Please check out their inspiring blogs and leave them a comment on something you like there!

Now I have to go finish some origami flower place name cards that I'll be using on my table for Mother's Day Sunday. I'll post them as soon as I finish them so check back soon!!

Thought for the day from Poor Richard's Almanac by Ben Franklin: "What you would seem to be, be really."

Have a great night - thanks for stopping by!

An Interesting Martini

Ok, so probably not the best card to be uploading on a Sunday (!!) Doesn't this blue martini look yummy!?!

My martini card was made for the Featured Stamper challenge on SCS today. And today's Featured Stamper is Nutsymuhl (Kim) - check out her gallery for some great inspiration! I chose this fun card to case (copy and selectively edit). I changed the drink to a martini, changed the orientation of the card because my martini glass stamp was so large (!) used a different sentiment and an additional Cuttlebug folder.

All these fun martini theme stamps are from Rubbernecker.

I've been loving martini's made with colored flavorings lately like appletini's, mangotini's and cool blue raspberrytini's - this soft sky colored one reminds me of the raspberry martini! Yum!

I cut out the cherry and popped it up on dimensionals and added Stickles for a little shimmer.

Well - it's back to work tomorrow - hope you had a fun-filled weekend! It sure goes by too fast doesn't it!?! Thanks so much for coming by.

Today's thought from Poor Richard's Almanac by Ben Franklin: "A little House well fill'd, a little Field well till'd, and a little Wife well will'd, are great riches."

Stamps: Rubbernecker
Paper: White: PTI, basic black, soft sky, purely pomegranate
Ink: Black onyx Versafine, soft sky
Accessories: Prismacolor markers: walnut, mulberry, french grey, dimensionals, stickles: cherry ice, crystal ice, cuttlebug folders, dotted grosgrain: Flourishes