Bye Bye Birdies

I'm working on 2 cards that I hope to upload sometime today. Should have had them done and photographed but cleaning, draining and refilling the hot tub seems to take longer every time I do it. Hmmm... could that be (GASP) age? So in the meantime I'll just fill you in on my Robin Family. This is the final shot taken the day before they all flew away. I feel like a proud Grandma. Hope they come back next year.

Until next time...

A Rose Parade in July

Last Thursday was Stamp Club and for our projects we used the rose from StampinUp's Fifth Avenue Floral and the Manhatten Flower embossing folder.
On this first card, we stamped the rose leaves from A Rose is a Rose with Certainly Celery by stamping off on the base stamp and using the ink full strength on the detail overstamp. The white panel on the left was done by inking up a crimper with Certainly Celery and running the cardstock through, reinking as needed then smoothing out the cardstock. We tied a piece of white satin ribbon towards the top and mounted it to the left side of the Cameo Coral card. We ran a piece of cardstock through the Big Shot with the embossing folder and used the debossed side. We randomly brayered Regal Rose and Summer Sun onto it then cut it and our leaves out and mounted as shown. The final touch was to stamp the sentiment onto a strip of vellum and mounting across the bottom of the card with brads. Quick, simple, yet so elegant! I saw this technique on Patty Bennett's Blog here, back in April but never got around to trying it.

The second card uses a technique I first saw on Patty Bennet's Blog here. I didn't have the Fifth Avenue Floral set at the time so I used Embrace Life to experiment then gave the card away without photographing it first. What a dummy! Any who way... At club we only used 2 colors of reinkers so the results were very subtle. I ended up taking all the parts home because I wanted to stamp some sort of background on the card. I ended up using SU's retired Lace background in Pale Plum. The leaves were cut using a Sizzlets die which I then shaded with my Prismacolor Markers (Green Tea & the Colorless Blender) and I sponged some Mellow Moss onto the sentiment label. Once I got all the parts done to my liking I couldn't remember how the card went together so I just winged it.

Until next time...

Viva La Verve July Week 5

I actually made it through to the 5th and final week of these twisted challenges. The twist for this sketch was "texture" so for me that was embossing.
I started by stamping a sunflower background by Sonlight in Barely Banana on Very Vanilla. I originally stamped it in So Saffron on Barely Banana but then thought that might be overkill so I changed to the Vanilla and Banana. I then inked the edges with Mustard Seed Distress Ink. I cut a piece from Summer Sun, embossed with Cuttlebug's Music folder then inked the edges and raised portions with the Mustard Seed Ink. Used and EKSuccess border punch on the narrow Chocolate Chip strip at the top and embossed the Chocolate Chip piece at the side with the Cuttlebug Dotted Swiss folder then tied with SU's Very Vanilla Taffeta ribbon.
The center flower was cut and embossed from Summer Sun with a Spellbinders die. While still in the die, I stenciled the raised dots in the center with black and the petals with Mustard Seed. After removing it from the die I then pounced some Chocolate Chip in the center. The flower was then mounted to a Very Vanilla circle edged with Always Artichoke.
The sentiment from Verve was stamped and heat embossed on a piece cut from Always Artichoke with a Spellbinders Large Label die. I added 3 pearls around the flower and a small pearl to the dot over the "i" in Life and called it good.

Until next time...

Verve Challenge Week 4

Viva La Verve Sketch With a Twist for Week 4 of July involved using vellum. I LOVE using vellum. I have done many styles of Parchment craft with vellum - Tarjeteria Espanola, Tarjeteria en Pergamino, Brazilian Cartoes Rendados, Pergamano and I teach it hence my user name for Splitcoast Stampers "TarjTeachR". I love the lace look you can achieve by embossing on vellum. After doing this card I have a real itch to get out my parchment tools and do a full blown, traditional Parchment card.

The background, Lavish Lace by SU (1997), was stamped on white in Pixie Pink. The large vellum circle was cut and embossed with Spellbinders Contemporary Hearts Medallion, mounted to a Passion Pink circle then a Chocolate Chip scalloped circle. Stamped the flower from Verve in Pixie Pink on white, cut out and mounted in the center.
The smaller circle was cut with a plain circle die, embossed with the medallion center from the Contemporary Medallions set then the border of diamonds and posies was hand embossed using the diagonal grid from Pergamano. I then pierced 4 holes in between each diamond and posy and cut into crosses. This piece was then mounted to a Close to Cocoa plain circle and a Chocolate Chip scallop circle.
For the rectangular centerpiece I stamped the floral silhouette from Verve in Chocolate Chip on a Passion Pink plain rectangle then mounted it to a Chocolate Chip scallop rectangle.
The sentiment by SU was stamped on white in Pixie Pink, cut with SU's Word Window punch then mounted to a Chocolate Chip piece cut with SU's new Modern Label punch.

Til next time...

A Waltzingmouse Anniversary

On July 17th, my youngest son and his wife celebrated their 5th Wedding Anniversary. They had both liked my new stamps from Waltzingmouse and they love the color purple so the card sort of made itself. I don't use much designer paper on my cards but I had some of Basic Gray's Wisteria line and took the plunge. This card is very simple and basic so it really doesn't need any explaining but I just thought I'd share.

Buried Alive

I have been buried alive in "stuff" for the last few days. I am finally dejunking under the stairs where I tossed everything after closing down my Dollhouse Miniatures business over 10 years ago. I am nearly done but I still have 2 small table saws, a drill press and router table for the Dremel along with 2 jewelers lathes that need to find new homes. I have a 1/2 inch scale house that is only a quarter finished so I will probably just toss it along with my 1 inch scale fully landscaped gazebo unless we blow it up with fireworks.

I am hoping to upload several projects I have done since my last post as well as the final update on the baby robins before the weekend is out. Today is a major holiday here in Utah so I'm not sure just how caught up I will be by that time but here's hoping.

Until then...

Birthday Wishes - Verve July Week 3

Today I did my Verve Sketch with a Twist for Week 3, the Twist being Score Lines. I also incorporated Color Challenge 214 from Splitcoast Stampers which was to use Bordering Blue, So Saffron, Pink Pirouette and Chocolate Chip. The Sketch included a bow so I thought I would use a paper bow using a template from Hot Off the Press instead of ribbon. All in all I like the simplicity of this card as well as the color combination.

Using the Scor-Pal, I scored diagonal lines on the Pink Pirouette base then embossed the floral vine on the wide Chocolate Chip strips with the Cuttlebug and scored double lines on the narrow piece of Chocolate Chip that will act as my ribbon.

I stamped the background stamp from Verve's Wishful Elegance on the Bordering Blue piece in the same color ink. The sentiment is from the same stamp set and I stamped it in Chocolate Chip. The bow was traced onto Chocolate Chip, cut out and folded then held together with a crystal brad that I colored with yellow alcohol ink.

Hope you like. Til next time...

Another Bird Update

This photo was taken Sunday, just 2 days after the last photo I posted. They sure do grow fast!

Waltzing Mouse

Last week I received 2 stamp sets, Celtic Heritage and Irish Blessings, from Waltzingmouse Stamps in Ireland. Besides being very talented, I find Claire Brennan to be warm, funny and generous and just plain delightful. I finally managed to squeeze in time over the weekend to have a go at these new stamps. I had the whole card designed in my head but just couldn't decide what color to use for the main card itself so I did 2 versions. Now that I see them here, I think I like the white one better.

The decorative ends on the label were made with 2 coordinating corner punches. Punch a corner with each of the 2 punches then neatly trim away from the rest of the cardstock. Trace onto another color of cardstock and cut out slightly smaller. Stack the 2 pieces and Voila... very nice accents to coordinate with the border punch.


Cardstock -SU Bashful Blue, Elegant Eggplant, Lavender Lace, River Rock; Neenah Classic Crest Solar White

Ink - Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ice Blue, Wisteria; SU Mellow Moss

Punches - Martha Stewart border; EK Success Corner punches

Other - Scor-Pal; Spellbinders Labels die, plain squares

Baby Bird Bulletin

Just an update on the Robin and her brood. The eggs hatched and there are 3 babies in the nest but "Baby Huey" is the only one I've been able to photograph. He (or she) is the biggest and has no fear so to take this photo all I had to do was whistle and he popped up looking for food. He certainly won't be winning any beauty contests yet. LOL

Another Verve - July Week 2

I am really loving these Verve stamps. For the second week of July's Viva La Verve Sketch with a Twist, the twist was to use either the Poppin' Pastels or the Burned Batik technique. I went with the Burnt Batik technique although I did it the Technique Junkies way.

Colors used for both paper and ink were SU's Blush Blossom, Certainly Celery and Cameo Coral along with Neenah's Classic Crest Solar White cardstock, Versamark and clear embossing powder from Ranger Ink.

Stamps were from Verve's Floral Symphony and Artful Elegance sets, and the sentiment from SU.
Other supplies used were Cuttlebug's Dotted Swiss embossing folder, circle dies (plain, scallop and inverted scallop) from Spellbinders and SU's word window punch.

Hope you enjoy this card as much as I enjoyed making it.

Major Mojo - Verve July Week 1

I have been having such a great time playing with all my new stamps I haven't taken the time to post anything here to share. My bad! One of my recent purchases were several sets from Verve. I discovered that Verve posts a weekly "Sketch with a Twist" on Splitcoast Stampers. This first card was my initial design for the 1st week of July's sketch. The twist was to use distressing.
The colors are SU's Mellow Moss, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla and Bashful Blue. The Chocolate Chip panel was embossed with a Quickutz Embossing folder, punched with a Fiskars Embossing Border Punch then highlighted with Brilliance Galaxy Gold. The Very Vanilla panel, the ribbon slide label and the Fleur de Lis were cut and embossed with Spellbinders dies.

While I liked this card, I thought I could take it up a notch so I cut the ribbon slide label from Chocolate Chip, embossed the sentiment in gold and used a gold organdy ribbon. I also tucked the Fleur de Lis behind the upper right corner of the Very Vanilla panel.Tomorrow I will be posting the card I made using the Sketch with a Twist for the 2nd week of July.

Until then...

Wonderful Day

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. So far, July has been really busy. Besides the usual "stuff" Wednesday was the heart specialist with my father-in-law and then the pharmacy, Thursday was heading south to the dentist for me in the morning then heading north in the afternoon with my husband for him to donate platelets not to mention battling a horrendous rainstorm all the way home from Ogden. We had a cook out on Friday and got to watch the fireworks. Our town always does them on July 3rd so they don't compete with the next town over. We had a rather good view from our front yard. Saturday was spent up at our son's trying to track down an electrical problem and helping our daughter-in-law with her craft room then home and watching the next town's fireworks from the backyard. Today... blessed peace. It was truly a day of rest!
Sometime during this crazy week, I received my very first order of Verve stamps. Love their designs and their customer service. Somehow I managed to order 2 sets of Floral Symphony instead of one of them and one Grateful Elegance but Verve is doing an exchange. I love it when correcting my mistakes is so easy.

This afternoon I got to open up my new stamps and play. This card was made with Verve's Wishful Elegance and Miracles Blossom. SU inks were Blue Bayou, Wild Wasabi and Sahara Sand on SU River Rock, Soft Sky and Sahara Sand cardstock. Ribbon is from SU, sentiment is Printworks and the die cuts were done with Spellbinders plain and scalloped octagons. I am really looking forward to using the other sets I ordered as well as Verve's Anniversary Blog Hop on August 1st.

Garden Update

It amazes me how much the gardens have changed in what seems like such a short time. The Serenity Garden has gone from Spring to Summer mode. The vegetable garden is growing strong and needs 2 more trellises. My husband designed and built the first one for my Butternut Squash. Isn't it wonderful? He plans on making 2 more before the cucumbers get much bigger. And my poor Robin is sitting on the nest looking so bored. She won't be bored much longer though.

Where have I been?!?

Recently I went a little crazy... OK, crazier than usual... and placed my first order with Papertrey Ink. I am now the proud owner of 13 of their stamp sets. I told you I went crazy! But where have I been that I am just now getting into Papertrey Ink? Their stamps are fabulous and I had such a blast yesterday playing with their Vintage Picnic, Vintage Picnic Sentiments and Guide Lines. I need to practice a bit to get used to lining them up right and I need to get used to wearing this brace on my hand but, all in all, I am just tickled with this card.


First I tried the Wrinkle Free Distress Technique on Curious Iridescent Cryogen White 89# Cover. It is the same as SU's Shimmery White. My first 3 attempts were way too dark. Sherry Cheever I am not! I used Worn Lipstick, Dusty Concord and Shabby Shutters Distress Ink and finally put a strip of the Shappy Shutters along the center of my non-stick sheet with just a square of the Worn Lipstick and Dusty Concord on each side of the strip. I then switched to SU's Regal Rose, Certainly Celery and Lavender Lace to stamp the background design with Guide Lines. I could stamp with that set all day! The combinations are endless.

I stamped the picnic basket and flowers with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink onto another piece of the same cardstock and colored with my Prismacolor markers - Violet Mist, Parma Violet, Avacado, Light Olive, Pink and Magenta. Cut the basket out with a Spellbinders circle die, cut and embossed a Certainly Celery frame using the same circle die and an inverted scallop circle inside and mounted it all to a Rose Red piece cut with a Spellbinders Labels 3 die.

Next came the Certainly Celery strip edged with a Martha Stewart Border Punch, mounted to a wider strip of Rose Red, wrapped with ribbon and tied in a bow. This was mounted to the left side of my background and then the basket piece was centered in the remaining area and the sentiment stamped underneath in black.