Day of Gratitude- CC290

CC290 Basic Rose Delight just called for this. I was playing with this idea anyway and the colors were just what I needed. I stamped the medallion from Day of Gratitude on shimmer white CS (although hard to see the shimmer here) used markers to color in the stamp with basic grey, rose red, daffodil, and olive. I cut the corners with a craft knife to have the edges come out of the box.

Embossed the half of the red cardstock with square lattice and stamped the sentiment in Basic grey and then the whole thing mounted on crumbcake CS.

I did add a little tiny rhinestone jewel in the center- you know me- I HAD to! I love sparkly....... even a little tiny bit that only I know is there. It's like wearing really lacy something underneath your regular workday clothes- nobody knows you're wearing it but somehow.... you just feel a little sexier that day- kwim?

Lynda

Sick Owl

Hi, everyone! BLT left me a comment that she wanted a sympathy owl and I had been thinking about it anyway so I thought I would show what I came up with. Yes, I read every comment and really appreciate the love that people have left me- I am addicted to you!

This is also for the CAS86 cookiebacker sketch and CC290 color challenge with basic grey, rose red and daffodil delight as well on splitcoast.

The base card is Basic grey with white layered on top. A put a layer or daffodil with a strip of white on top with gell well sentiment from teeny tiny wishes set.

The inset is made with bashful blue base and the bed is my MS halloween fence punch that I cut out all the bats and doodads to make it look like a bed.

The owl was punched in basic grey textured. I also punched 2 wings from the bird punch and wrapped one of the wings with whisper white I sponged with daffodil to make it look for like gauge. I gave him a black eye by making one of his eyes a different color and cut out a blanket and hotwater bottle out of rose red DSP retired- the blanket, the hot water bottle and the bottle cap was freehand cut. I did prop the arm, the waterbottle with dimensionals. Doesn't the daffodil eye make him look absolutely jaundiced? heh heh- I think I should have given him a pillow now that I am looking at it- I will have to take this apart and add that on- Yes I do stuff like that a lot!

I have more owl creations that I've been working on to show you this coming week. Some of my stamping girlfriends have planned a really fun blog hop and I will be revealing some of my new Holiday owl creations on October 1st in celebration of my new work starting and the blog hop to kick in the holidays- it should be a blast and I hope you join us in on the fun and do some blog hopping!

Lynda

A Big Change in Life

After 17 years working in my private practice I closed my doors this week. I know, I know, you're a doctor you must make gobs of money. right? With the cost of rent, utilities, office supplies, disability insurance, tax on property, premises, add payroll, and benefits- which I had to even suspend earlier this year and payments from insurance declining I had nothing to take home since this January- but I kept working 6 days a week to keep it alive - I had to, to keep it alive- it affected my family life- I was afraid that if I took vacation, I could not make enough to pay all the bills that month- So I decided to close my practice and rent 2 rooms and share overhead with a group of doctors. It was a hard decision not because my office will be smaller or that I will not be the boss, it was because the nine people who have worked with me all these years were all going to lose their jobs. It is really like family. But the practice was bleeding money and I had to stop it before I was so far into debt that I would jeopardize my home. Everyone cried on the last day. My mentor and part time partner, and father figure decided to just retire instead of moving with me.
For me it was so emotional, and he is such a private man, I just could not bring myself up to tell him how I felt, it was like -saying good bye to your Dad for the last time- kind of feeling. I was all choked up and all I could do was talk about the weather and some patients that I was concerned about- as if it was just another ordinary day. I felt like I had let him down that I just could not make this work and because of me he was being forced to retire. How do you put value on love, affection, respect, gratitude?

I still wanted to give him something special that I thought he would enjoy- I made this card to tell him some of the thing I could not bring myself to tell him lest I just totally lose it- He really likes to play golf so I thought it would be appropriate. I took a Bliss blue CS and die cut some clouds from MFT and papertrey. Placed some on dimensional to raise it up. The grass is garden green, punched along the top with the MS grass punch. I stamped Fore you from Stampen*ous clear set called Little things - a real oldie but a goodie- in black to peak behind the grass.

I had gotten some golf shaped pens at the dollar store a while back and it had a picture of a golf bag and the golf ball on the package so I cut it out. I wanted him to be able to use the pens so I did not want to glue it down so I tied it down with hemp twine- I punched 2 little holes into the green cardstock where I wanted to tie it down and put it through the back and tied it before I glued the green piece down sot the front would be nice and tidy. I did the same for the tee that I bought for a whole pack for a buck. I don't play myself so I don't know if these are any good for real playing but it's perfect for me to make cards. Added the golf ball cut out with several dimensionals to raise it to get it to the middle. I hope he likes it.

Some Fun packaging ideas from Tami

At our last get together Tami had shown us some great packaging ideas I want to share with you.

This is the mini brown paper bag form the mini, decorated with the new fabric, diecut with the new big shot die and tied with the ribbons from the mini,

This is the tag, diecut twice, embossed with the spider web folder and decorated with the new DSP and stamps from the mini and a bling added on the bird. It fits a larger snack size candy bar

I thought this was really darling trick- borderpunch the piece of paper before you run it through the milk carton die to make half a milkcarton into a tiny treat holder. Just make sure you put the paper to line up with the bottom half of the die.... Used a piece of fabric diecut with the scallop square die to make a cute liner to match!

This is the Halloween matchbox using the new DSP and stampsets.

and the candy wrapper die using the sets from the new holiday mini, tinsel tie, and champagne glass glitter and new brad.

What fun ideas!

Try some of them out as the holidays will be here before you know it!

Start your projects early so you will have time to make the special treats and really enjoy the process.

Lynda

My Motto in Life

There are so many things that bog us down- work, demands of family, keeping a clean house, marriage, grocery shopping, laundry- the everyday mundane activities sometimes take away your ability to enjoy what it is that you are doing- I actually love the smell of fresh laundry, cookies in the oven, roses in bloom, sound of my kids laughing or my husband snoring. It tells me that all is well with the world- I tell my patients that nobody ever says on their deathbed- I wished I worked more or kept a cleaner house- it's always about spending more time with people you love, having done things that you would not have if you knew you did not have any more life time to do it. So take a breath today- look around you- take a minute to really enjoy your life- as simple or as complicated as it may be. You are here for a purpose. Take time to Enjoy the simple things.

I saw this Housemouse stamp in the stash that Makani was going to sell off and I had to have it for myself. I want to be like that mouse even if I tend to be the one under the umbrella.

The image is stamped in black memento and colored in with Cop*cs.

Added some tiny rhinestone jewels to make it look like water glistening. Layered the whole thing on turquoise and poppy. I punched the dotted scallop border ribbon and cut it longways into 2 to split it above and below the sentiment to create a subtle scallop border. the sentiment was written by hand using the 0.5 copic liner in black, and added some larger bling to the corners as well and voila! not too difficult a card- hardest part is trying to figure out what umbrella colors I wanted to use.....

Lynda

Bells and Boughs

Using the same cardbase as yesterday's post i made this using the new belles and boughs set from SU mini.

First I stenciled the ridinghood red piece with DS Vintage frames stencil- really cool with the dauber with same colors- then pierced the unstenciled side with the paper piercing tool.

After I rub the cardstock with the embossing buddy, I stamped the sentiment in versamark and sprinkled gold embossing powder then heated it.

Using the same technique, I stamped the poinsettia image onto vanilla and then went to town watercoloring it using the blender pen and the classic ink pads using the same colors again with different concentration of color loaded on the blender pen to give a bit of varigated color, and did the same for the old olive pad to make the leaves and the pines.

I added an old SU gold elastic cord to add a little sparkle and another easy card using the same window idea.

You can create the same look by stamping the same image on a piece of card stock and just layering it on top of the ridinghood red piece- no window needed.
I thought of stamping another piece of paper with the poinsettia and cutting it out to do a tole picture thing but was too lazy to do it- I like things simple.

Try stenciling a border- it is so easy, adds so much and I just LOVE it!
Thanks for visiting!
Lynda

A Good find and good bye to Cornish heritage farms

There was a used stamp sale at one of the local stamp shops and I had to chance to run over and pick up some deals- this one may not have been the best deal but I liked it- a pack of 50 envelopes and 25 folded kraft cards and and a pack of 50 pieces of coordinated window layer in riding hood red for $8 - not cheap but not a bad price to pay- I liked the clean cut windows I certainly would not have been able to cut as neatly on my own.

I had several ideas in mind- this one is one using the Cornish heritage farm stamp Ball jar flowers


that I have had forever and it just fit that window perfectly. (Sadly they are going out of business and none of these are available now so I don't think SU can complain that I am promoting other company's business at least for these guys. They used to make fantastic back ground stamps, Thomas Kinkade and some limited edition GM and elvis stamps that were pretty cool)

I need to make some cards for some a gift package I am making and this would be just perfect for that I thought. I rand the window piece with the square lattice embossing folder. Took another piece of vanilla cardstock and stamped the image in black
and colored it in using the blender pen using the lid of the classic pad watercolor technique with daffodil, pink pirouette, rich regal, old olive, celery and baja and bashful blue to make the water color look.

I colored the water with B32 Copic and R01 pinke for the subtle pink background then added a layer of crystal effects to make the jar shiny like glass.
I layered the vanilla CS behind the window and cut out some of the details and put it over the window to make the image more 3 D.

You can see the details of the out of the box technique here.

I added a piece of ribbon but it looked too plain- so I tied a linen thread around the right side bottom to add a little simple interest and taped it around the back to make this simple card- it really was a 10 minute card- it only took overnight for the crystal effects to dry though!

I have some more with this idea to show you so check back tomorrow!

Lynda

CAS card

I try to make a thank you for my loyal friends and stamping clients for their orders but it has to be simple and easy to do given how many I have to make. This is a case from Twila Davis' card where she used 4 circles -2 regal rose in 1 3/8" and 2 chocolate on white- one of which was layered with a 1 1/4" white circle with an image stamped on it.

I played around and tried 1 " cicles which I liked in alterating colors and the sentiment from tiny tags punch out with the small oval punch from the new mini. The base is pink pirouette, and the circles are chocolate chip and baja blue. The faux stitching is from an old stampset from CTMH that I stamped with SU Craft white. I heat embossed it with white EP and it seemed more realistic- ddn't think of this until most of the cards were made.....oh well.

I thought about texturing the base card or scoring some lines to make the circles more prominent but I really had to resist my urges - ultimately I really wanted the card to be a real clean and simple card.

This is a really good layout for 3 color scheme and any sizes of circles ore even squares!

Try it out!

Lynda

Darling RAK from Sachi

Sachi showed my a darling card last we met and I went nuts over it. It is just so ME! I loved the colors, the silouette , the little bling in the belt- what's not to like?

Seeing how I went nuts over it, she dropped me off this sample for me- is she not sweet?

I loved this. she said the pink paper is from M*chaels.













The card is white folded over like this.

The belt is a velvet ribbonwraooed around the front face of the card as shown with the bling bling belt!

The flower is punched with a velvet center. so very Vogue! A pair of sunglasses and she is ready to paint the town pink!

Thank you Sachi!

I LOVE it!

Lynda

Expanding my stamping zone

I have a certain stamping style- some colors and layouts are just more COMFORTABLE to me than others- I want to break out of it many times but I find that it just feels not ME- like my chest is all somehow pressured! So I find that some of the stamping challenges I follow MAKE me do just that- break out of my comfort zone-even if I don't want to. I think it is a good thing- as Martha would say- in the long run - to try new things, colors, mediums, and see what happens. sometimes I learn thiings I didn't expect that I might be able to apply to my comfort zone stamping. You never know if you don't try! (like the green eggs and ham)

I used the SCS F4A29 sketch for this card and used the CC288 Blushing Artichoke, Mist for the colors -rather victorian I thought. TLC 290 was lace sponging so I had to give it a try except the only lace I had was from the lace trim which did not translate well into sponging- the open area was too small to give a good impression of lace so I improvised and used the tattered angel glimmer mist stencil that looked lacy and sponged it on artichoke CS and ran the whole thing through PTI's woodgrain plate to add some texture and I loved the added dimension.

I then took a Marina Mist CS and used sticky tape to run the victorian lace ribbon in an accordion fashion. I don't know why my pictures came back sideways but you can see what I mean. Tied a loop and put a SU antique brad through the center and put it through the hole I made in the marina CS using the crop a dile.

I did not have a outline flower I wanted from SU so I used Larkspur from PTI which again has that victorian vintage look. Watercolored it using the lid of the classic ink pads, marina mist and artichoke using a blender pen- it always give more translucent watercolor look than just using a straight marker to color it in. Used spellbinders long ovals to cut it out and layer it using next size for the artichoke CS.

It still did not look finished and I contemplated putting a sentiment around the oval frame on the left but it looked busy. I wanted to reiterate the cream color that I was using so I chose creamy pearl jewels to accent to finish and I thought it looked reasonably finished. Again, victorian, vintage and shabby chic is something I love to look at and admire people for doing it but I know is not my forte but hey I gave it a good college try- I don't think it looks too bad but I will leave it up to you to judge.

Lynda

Marisa's Candy wrapper treat

At my last demo get together Marisa (check out her blog here http://bellaconfetti.blogspot.com/ )had us make these cute little candy wrapper boxes and I was strapping my brain to come up with a candy wrapper for a make and take and thought perfect! She use the Halloween Hoot set which I do not have yet so I had to improvise for my workshop and this is what we did.

Took the razzleberry CS and diecut it with the new candy wrapper die (another LOVE IT- think Miss Piggy saying this in high falsetto- moment!)
then stamped the spider web and Spooky from the Wicked Cool set in black to add some interest to the box, assembled the box then wrapped 1 1/2x 6inch Wicked Fun DSP around the center.

I needed a sentiment that would fit inside a circle and I know I wanted to use the witches shoe from the same Wicked Cool set so I was searching for a sentiment and came across the perfect sentiment on Batty for yOu set-" trick or treat, smell my feet".

I already clingmounted my sets in the past so it was no big deal to use the craft knife to separate the words from the image. Now I have more uses from the same set!

I inked the shoes using pumpkin pie and crushed concord markers onto whisper white then stamped the words in black, punched it out with 1 3/8 inch circle punch then layered it onto a celery CS punched with the scallop circle punch, mounted the whole thing with dimensionals. Using the CS as the base, the candy wrapper is sturdy enough to hold in the candy without any tie at all so you can twist and untwist to get the candy out.

I am just loving this die!

This is the final project! Thanks Marisa for the inspiration!

Lynda

Builder Wheel with a punched border

Someone asked me to demonstrate a card using the stampin wheel and I thought it would be fun to show the builder wheels. This a really easy card that has a lot of drama. Take the base real red cardstock and embosse it with the polka dot embossing folder. Take a piece of whisper white CS. Take the builder wheel, add the candles and stripe builder with a gap in between. I have one triple cartridge that has pumpkin, melon mambo and celery in it (I thought long and hard on this one- these are sort of pricey and I wanted to make sure that it was a combo I would use a lot). I added the red satin ribbon in the center.

I wanted to have a celery border to repeat the color on the wheel but was using the dotted ribbon punch I wanted to use on another card at the workshop. So (neccesity being mother of inventions) I used the same punch as the accent piece, cut it as shown and adhered it behind the wheeled white piece to make the accent on the top border- FUN! Use the same decorative label to punch out a piece of pumpkin pie CS. Used the sentiment from the On your birthday set to stamp it in real red onto whisper white, punched it out with the scallop oval punch, added a few rhinestone jewels and Voila, another easy peasy card. You could make a whole mess of these using different color base cardstock and ribbon to match- I think it would look good with chocolate chip, pacific blue, concord grape, to name a few.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Lynda

What a week!
I hadn't had a moment's time to stamp with just goings on of everyday life and Friday I have had it- there was an incident that tip me over the edge and I came home all boiling over mad - I knew I had to enter the Zen stamping Zone- does it ever work! I was thinking about this layout and that layout and soon, I felt so much more peaceful. How can you be mad when you are creating something so cute?

The challenge on splitcoast for Friday Free for all:
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/free-all-f45/f4a29-circles-rectangles-09-10-10-a-t505497.html was this layout so I changed up the card I designed for my workshop and you know what? I think I may like it even better!

The base card is Pumpkin Pie which I stamped the bats from Wicked Cool set at the top.

The center image is from Greeting Card Kids stamped in stazon black onto shimmer paper (although hard to see here- takes color better than whisper white for watercolor or Cop*c type applications) then colored in with concord, pumpkin pie and various greens using blender pen with the ink lids. I punched it out with the new 2 1/2 inch circle punch then used the number 2 scallop bigshot die to cut a large scallop in Crumbcake.

I used the 2 way glue pen to add the champagne glass glitter around the edges. A layer of Crushed Concord, embossed with the spider web folder - the coolest!- followed by a piece of whisper white that I wheeled the Stripe builder wheel in celery twice, added Raven 1/2 inch lace trim in the middle.

The center image was layered using dimensionals to make it pop then added few bats punched out with the new bat punch that I added using the stcky stip but just along the core leaving the wings to flap up and down.


This is the deatil on the bats, glitter and the ribbon.












This is the detail on the spider web.

This is the original card that I had people make at my workshop - same idea but turned around and added a strip of dotted scalloped ribbon punched in celery which I thought was darling as well.

Enjoy!

Lynda

Candy wrapper die - four fingers is the key!

This is a little CASE I took from the SU catalogue. I liked the candy wrap die but had some trouble figuring out how to work it but now I have it down.

The most important thing is that you have to have good fold lines to make it easy and I reinforce it by pre folding it before I tape it together.

Once I crease everything and tape the box, then grab the end as shown, using 4 fingers in each of the corners (I lifted my index finger so you could see the other fingers)

Then TWIST it like a faucet handle in one direction.

It should at least look like this. It keeps closed secure even without a tie!. You could even flatten it out completely.

I had used the die to emboss the spider web on one of my first projects using this die and it was a complete failure because the embossed lines kep getting screwed up with the fold lines. So, if you emboss, maybe only emboss the center panel may make it possible- better yet, take another piece of CS, emboss IT then wrap it around the candy box. DSP works well but I think regular CS works best for this project.

This is the final project using the witch from the fangtastic set. I took a pumpkin pie CS diecut it, then stamped the images in black, stamped another image onto white and cut it out to make this sweet little treat.

Enjoy!

Lynda