Little Pink Miss Muffet

The Weekend Color Challenge for Clear Dollar Stamps this weekend was to use PINK in honor of breast cancer awareness month. I had started coloring Miss Muffet with shades of pink, so I decided I'd use her as my central image. Isn't she the cutest? She was created by Shawne for Clear Dollar Stamps. I just finished her & can't take a picture because the camera battery is being charged. I scanned it, so it's not the best image. I'll try to take a real picture tomorrow.

Thanks for coming by!

ETA: I put a real picture of Miss Muffet here! Also, the layout uses the Card Positioning System layout for week 138.

Fall Swap Cards at Last!

I joined the fall swap between the "PSF's" and the "TDS" on SCS. Confused? These are different groups on Splitcoast Stampers. The PSF's are "Pretend Stamping Friends" and TDS are my dear Traveling Dork Sisters. I thought I'd have time to finish these with time to spare. I started them in September. EARLY September! Then life happened & here I am finishing them up. You'll notice they all (or almost all) have different buttons on them. I had the cutest set of Jesse James Dress It Up buttons & decided to use those. I ended up with some with greens & purple buttons that just did NOT match, so I used the cute leaves I had on 2 of the cards.

For the Layout, I used the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge this week HERE.

I loved how my dork sister Karen Lynn added texture to the wedge pieces on her card HERE. I decided my wedges would replicate the tail feathers.

Details:
Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps Eat More Ham
Inks: Memento Rich Cocoa & Black, Distress Walnut Stain and Orange Marmalade
Accessories: Dress it up buttons, stickles, copics & prismacolor markers, nesties, cb folders
Paper: Textured brown, golden brown, white, red, orange, yellow

Thanks for looking!

My Final CDS Guest Designer Cards

Where has the month gone? I thought I'd have so much time to make these wonderful cards for CDS and here it is the end of the month! Yikes!

I LOVED being a Guest Designer for Clear Dollar Stamps. It has been a joy and honor to design cards for this wonderful stamp company and the wonderful ladies who work for CDS as owner, stamp designer, or card designer. They are a special group of gals & I'm glad that just because my Guest Designer time is up doesn't mean the friendships are. If you haven't been to Christi's blog to see her Guest Designer cards this month, go check them out HERE.

My first card is a "Double Pocket" card using "The Grind."

ALL CDSTAMPS USED:The Grind
CS and PAPERS:Medium blue textured, white
INK:Memento Black, Chalk Ink warm Red
MARKERS (if any):none
EMBELLISHMENTS and TOOLS:Martha Stewart Edge Punch, Scor-Tape, circle punches, ribbon
COLORING MEDIUM (if any):none
SPECIAL TECHNIQUES (if any):none

The dork story: When you plan to make an item like this, it is good to follow directions. If not, you might end up forgetting scor-tape on the lower edges and your "gift" will fall through the bottom. Just sayin'. I wanted to make this sooner with different colors, but it just didn't come together the way I liked. So, I went back to the box of Cappucino Coolers and thought red & blue would be good to use. You might notice that the stamp is a cup of Latte---HOT with steam. The little packet I put in the pocket is for ICED Cappucino. Yeah, the dork thing. I also didn't realize how fat the pack of cooler mix was. I think I will have to actually buy a gift card at some point & give it to someone instead of the cooler mix. I decided not to use a card base for a note. Instead, in the back pocket, I took a piece of white cardstock & cut it to note size. Then I punched the edge with my Martha Stewart edge punch. I didn't like the bare white look, so I then punched some red paper out with the edge punch & added that to the top of the white paper. These dp's are all from my friend Kathy. Isn't she great?!! Oh, I forgot to list Nestabilities on my tools section. Well, I used a rectangle nestability die but cut it & slid the pieces together to make them fit the image. I loved that my ribbon from my stash matched so well.

My next, and final, CDS Guest Designer card uses the stamp set I A-Door you.

ALL CDSTAMPS USED:I A-Door You
CS and PAPERS:Green, Brilliant Blue
INK:Memento Black
MARKERS (if any):copics B24,B39,G09,YG09,R27,R29,Y15,Y26
EMBELLISHMENTS and TOOLS:Designer paper, Spring Flower punch, heart paper clip, ribbon, scor-tape
COLORING MEDIUM (if any):none
SPECIAL TECHNIQUES (if any):none

This is also for the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge. Not much to tell about this one, but I want to learn to shade better with Copics! I suppose with a limited supply it's not as easy as actually having colors that are closer together. I still enjoy using them!

Thanks for sharing this month of Guest Designs with me! Have a Blessed Day!

CDS Weekend Color Challenge 9/27

EDITED TO ADD: I am a dork. This was NOT for the MMSC challenge. My card for THAT challenge is HERE. This was for the Crazy for Challenges Challenge HERE.




Quick post to put my CDS weekend color challenge card up. The challenge is found HERE.

This is also for the Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge and the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge! Phew, a 3-fer!

CDS Challenge was to use Apricot Appeal, Close to Cocoa, Sage Shadow & optional white/vanilla and Really Rust. I had no sage shadow paper, so I debossed a mint paper and used Sage Shadow ink on the Cuttlebug folder, then rubbed more Sage Shadow on it. The stamps are CDS Peony and Christian Sympathy.

The SSICC was to make a "praying for you" or "thinking of you" card.

The MMSC used this sketch:
I still have Mom's sewing machine, so added some fancy stitching! Sewing on cloth is SO much easier & more forgiving!

Thanks for coming to see my stuff!

In a Pickle?

This is my 2nd sample for Clear Dollar Stamps' set I A-Door You. It's also for the Clear Dollar Stamps Weekend Color Challenge HERE and for the Midnight Madness Sketch HERE.

The card details:
ALL CDSTAMPS USED: I A-Door You
CS and PAPERS: Textured Brown, Tempting Turquoise, white
INK: Archival Brown
MARKERS (if any): Tempting Turquoise, Gable Green
EMBELLISHMENTS and TOOLS:Markers, DP, prima flowers, brads, hole punch, paper glaze, Creative Memory Oval cutting system, Nestabilities Scalloped Oval
COLORING MEDIUM (if any): none
SPECIAL TECHNIQUES (if any):none

The story:
This one doesn't have much of a story. I have been wanting to make something with the MMSC sketch, but just didn't get to it last week. When I saw the colors for the CDS Weekend Challenge I thought about using The Grind set, but then I saw this little stamp & thought, "Pickles---GREEN! YES!" I put Paper Glaze on the pickles to look like glass jars (I added a flash picture here so you could see the glaze on the jars). Then I put a second coat on & it dried foggy. I had stamped a 2nd set of pickles to use as a base, and I was going to pop-up the other ones on top. So, I put Paper Glaze on the 2nd set, and used it as my top set! LOL!

Hope you're not in a pickle this week!

A "Charming" Tea Set

Here is my 3rd sample of the Clear Dollar Stamp set Tea-rrific.

This is a paperless project! Here are the details:
ALL CDSTAMPS USED: Tea-rrific
CS and PAPERS: None
INK: Stazon Black
MARKERS (if any): Sharpies
EMBELLISHMENTS and TOOLS: Magic Stretch cord, beads, jump rings, Shrinky-Dink plastic sheets, Toaster Oven, circle punches
COLORING MEDIUM (if any): None
SPECIAL TECHNIQUES (if any): Shrinking plastic in the oven

I asked my daughter to model this for me. I could not get a clear shot of the bracelet on her, but here is the necklace:

This is a VERY different kind of project. I wanted to try this to see how it would work. When I saw the tea set my mind thought of two things: Queens of England and Little Girls. Since I am far more acquainted with the latter, I thought a charm bracelet would be adorable with this tea set. The only way to get such small pieces would be to use Shrinky Dink plastic. Of course, I looked "everywhere" I could to find my pack of plastic, to no avail. I finally went to Hobby Lobby to get some more, and of course later I found my pack of plastic! LOL!

If you've never tried this, it is really a fun project. I stamped with Stazon on one side of the plastic sheet, then colored on the back. If you've never tried coloring with Sharpies over Stazon, you may not know that the solvent in the permanent markers will disolve the stazon. You'll end up erasing your outline. The markers will also do this to other permanent markers, so it's not as easy as coloring with other markers on paper. The other thing to keep in mind is that the color will intensify as it heats. I should have taken a picture of the plastic before heating it.

The plastic shrinks REALLY fast. In less than a minute it was almost completely shrunk. I could not get my pieces to flatten completely, so they have a bit of a curve to them. The package says they shrink to 1/3 of their original size. I think it may be more than that. Here is a picture of the teapot shrunk next to a full-size stamped teapot.

I opted for the little plastic beads for a couple of reasons. First, this is for little girls, and typically little girls love the shiny bright plastic beads. Second, I could not find my box of good beads. LOL! They are no doubt in a box in the craft room, but hiding from me.

As I mentioned, I planned to make a bracelet. I thought the teapot was too big for a bracelet, so I decided to make a necklace to go with the bracelet. Another option would be to make clip on earrings for a little girl.

When you use Shrinky Dink plastic and want to color it in, you really need a nice outline stamp. Clear Dollar Stamps has a LOT of great outline stamps and many are small, which is perfect for a project like this. My younger daughter has stamped the Patchpal Giraffe on the plastic & is going to shrink it when I can help her. That will be so cute!

I have to share my "disaster" story with you. Okay, dork story if truth be told. I finished the bracelet, then beaded the necklace. I was oh, so carefully tying the magic stretch cord when one end dropped. Almost all the beads fell off! It was rather laughable, but also frustrating. In the grand scheme of things, it was NOTHING, but it makes for a good dork story for my dork sisters.

Thanks for coming by. Have a charming day!

The Pretty Pink Grind

This is my 2nd sample of "The Grind" stamp set by Clear Dollar Stamps. It's also for this week's Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge.

The Card Details:
ALL CDSTAMPS USED: The Grind
CS and PAPERS: Light Pink Textured, Brown Textured, white
INK: Memento Tuxedo Black, Distress Ink Walnut Stain
MARKERS (if any):Copic light pink RV10 , Prismacolor Dark Brown, Light Tan and warm grey 20%
EMBELLISHMENTS and TOOLS: Sewing Machine, Scalloped circle Nestability die, Cuttlebug tag punch, ribbon, Prima flowers, stick on pearls, sponge dauber, Basic Grey Bittersweet DP
COLORING MEDIUM (if any): none
SPECIAL TECHNIQUES (if any): sewing on card

The Card Story:
This card did not start out to be this style. In fact, it wasn't even going to really be a card. Alas, things change! This week's sample for the Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge was a sketch challenge. I decided this would be really cute to stamp and put that pile of coffee beans in the corner. The verse for the week was Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Interestingly, this was also the life verse that my nephew & his wife chose for their sweet daughter's baby dedication last Sunday, the same day this challenge was posted. My nephew became an ordained pastor that day, as well.

This verse is one of my all time favorites. I thought the stamp set was perfect because the grind of life can get us down. We can become so focused on this world and all the trouble we see that we forget that God does have plans for us to prosper us and not to harm us, to give us hope and a future. For some that might mean financial prosperity, but for all of us it is a promise of spiritual prosperity, of hope, and of knowing, no matter what this life brings us, He does know our future. One day there will be no more sorrow or tears, or grind, for those who know Jesus as Savior.

Back to the card, I used the Grinder, "Tired of the Grind?", the 3 beans and the pile of beans from this set, stamped in Memento Ink & colored with Prismacolor and Copic markers. This was my 2nd image to stamp & color. I've borrowed my mom's sewing machine (see THIS post for my first post about making quilted bags) with a million stitches. Well, nearly a million! I tried a fancy one on my first image & totally botched it, so I had to start over. I also stitched on this card first with a light pink. It was such a close match you couldn't even see the thread, so I did it again with brown. I added some Primas for the detail in the sketch and topped those with stick on pearls.

The dork in me did something really dumb while sewing today. I got my middle finger stuck under the presser foot & the needle came down on my nail. It only hurts a little where the nail fell off on the quick. I've got to keep a band aid on it so it doesn't try to tear more. THAT would hurt! So, fair warning: if you sew, keep your hands AWAY from the needle. You'd think I'd just started sewing, but I started before I was 10! Hopefully tomorrow will be less eventful of a sewing day! LOL!

I must add that the guest designer for the Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge is Gina K. of Gina K. Designs. I love Gina's stamps & I love all of Gina's writings. She's so personable & is such an encouraging lady. She's full of grace. A link to her store is in the sidebar.

Thanks for coming by today!

This Martha Stewart ribbon has been hanging out in

Cocoa-nut and Photo practice

Are you seeing double? Good! LOL! There are 2 pictures here. This is my first sample of "The Grind" as Guest Designer for Clear Dollar Stamps.

Card Details:
ALL CDSTAMPS USED: The Grind, Candy Sticks, Chocoholic
CS and PAPERS:Brilliant Blue, Bliss Blue, Red Textured, white
INK:Memento Tuxedo Black, Brilliant Blue, Distress Faded Blue Jeans
MARKERS (if any):Copics R29, R27, B32, B24
EMBELLISHMENTS and TOOLS:Martha Stewart branch punch, button, ribbon, Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 3, pop dots, Stickles Frosted white

The Story:
A couple of months ago I decided, on a whim, to see if SU's Like it a Latte was selling on ebay. I decided the money was more needed than that stamp set & sold it. I had another mug stamp from the store that would "suffice." Still, I really liked that whipped cream & steam look. Can you imagine my happiness when I saw that Clear Dollar Stamps came out with THIS set? Right away, I had to make hot cocoa with it. You see, I am not a coffee drinker. I'm also not a tea drinker (2 of the 3 sets I chose for my Guest Designer spot are things I don't do IRL! ha, ha!). Chocolate, however, runs through my body like blood. At least that's what my friend Stephanie told me once. She also believes I have an obsession with a certain combination: Chocolate and Mint. She's definitely right about that! What she DOESN'T know is that I've always wanted to go to Switzerland. Yes, there is a point here. Hang on.

See the cups of hot cocoa with the little sweetheart design on them? The blue, the red, the hot cocoa theme? Doesn't it just SCREAM, "Swiss Miss!" to you? NO??? Well, it did to me. The more I worked on the card, the more I wanted that minty-snowy-Swiss Chalet in the Alps look. Maybe I'm the only one who believes such a look exists, but now I have proof. My card is the original Minty-Snowy-Swiss Chalet in the Alps look. The candy sticks are sold as a separate little set that has one single stick the a grouping of three (which would also make darling straws to use in the tall cup from this set for a milk shake! OH, yeah, I can see that one coming! YUM! The words are from the set that I am SURE was created for me: Chocoholic. 'nuff said.

Now about that photography. I'd like your input. The top picture uses a flash. The bottom one does not. I did have to lighten it up some, which always seems to distort the picture some. The bottom one, with no flash, seems to have more accurate colors, but the clarity of the top one is better. Which do you prefer?

Thanks for traveling to Switzerland with me. It's as close as I'll likely ever get!

Peach Tea

The info:
ALL CDSTAMPS USED: Tea-rrific
CS and PAPERS: Blush Blossom, Peach, watercolor paper
INK: Encore Gold pigment ink
MARKERS (if any):Dye based markers for watercoloring
EMBELLISHMENTS and TOOLS: aquabrush, oval punches, Nestabilities Scalloped Ovals Large, ribbon, pearls, button, dp
SPECIAL TECHNIQUES (if any):watercolor using dye based markers

The details:
I did get to finish another card! It's one I'd had in my mind for over a week but needed to find the right paper for it. When we were at my mother-in-law's for Labor Day she gave me a lot of her sewing accents that she was no longer using. She loves the color peach and had the lacy ribbon and the ribbon with the little edging in her "stash." I also found the pearls on strings there. The button was on my craft table waiting to be used. I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to do with the stamps and these embellishments, but needed to find the right paper.

Did you know peach is not a popular color? I actually had some peach cardstock, even in different shades, but had to find the ones that matched the dp, once I found the dp! I had ONE paper in my entire stock of background papers that was a peachy tone, but it was actually more coral than peach. I looked at Hobby Lobby and found NO peach paper at all. I finally found ONE single solitary peach paper at Jo Ann's. I think it is a lovely pattern! It has the entire alphabet, but I cut it out with the Q and V sections. Why? Because this tea service looks like something elegant that would be used by the Queen in Victorian times. Queen Victoria herself might have been served with such pieces! At least in my mind, she was!

I embossed the images with gold, as a tea service might have rims and outlines of gold. I used dye based markers to watercolor the images. I masked different pieces so it would look as if they were actually on a platter or table waiting to be used. The sugar cubes were an afterthought, so I stamped those separately, then masked to add a plate beneath them. I cut them out and attached them in front of the pitcher and cups.

I took this picture with no flash (I had to hold it very still to avoid blurring it). I like the way the colors look just like they do in real life. I typically cannot take pictures that show the colors accurately, so I was excited. It isn't quite as clear as a flash picture, but more natural. I need to figure out how to get both clear and natural. I also need to figure out how to make a soft edge around pictures.

Thanks for stopping by for a cup of tea!