Camping in Northern California

Near Eureka in northern California are some of the most beautiful redwoods in the country. Ladybird Johnson Grove, Founders grove, so many places to explore with trees with bases as big as your house that are hundreds if not thousands years old. This is where we go every summer to meet friends and hang. We go to Fern Canyon- where they filmed some parts of Jurassic Park movies as it does look absolutely prehistoric with ferns growing and toppled trees and icy clear mountain water underfoot.

My kids even did a junior ranger tour on 'Who's pooping in the forest?'- I thought with all their talk of poop related things they would love it- we saw Banana slugs, deer and elk patties - fresh mind you! to name a few- but I am not sure they were as into it as they talk it. After seeing deer pellets I am totally off milk duds!

We checked out Agate Beach this time and this is the view from the top where we parked the car - and where the bathroom was- looking down at the beautiful beach - no matter how many times you ask your kids- make sure you go before you go down- there is always that ONE that has to go as soon as you are down there - right?

We also visited a replicated authentic Indian village - complete with a hand carved canoe and a dancing pit which my kids climbed all over.

and the Elk that roam the prairies that are just beautiful- I am teaching my 6 years olds to read- DAN GER and lots of other fun signs for them to read..... DO NOT ENTER... CLIFF EDGE.....BEARS.... TICKS....

I am looking forward to one day my DH saying- "honey, I am taking the boys camping this weekend- what will you do without us? " hmmmmm....

enjoy the outdoors!

Lynda

Pennant Parade Happy Birthday Wishes

I wanted words on the pennant and was trying to figure out how many pennants would look good and horizontal cards max is really five. So words like Happy, Party, thank, uncle, mom- centered or a shorter word with an image like a heart or flower would work too. After I did happy - I looked for the words birthday wishes and my old standby sincere salutations had it. The colors and combination on the bottom were cased from a cute card by Amy O'Neill on stampin connection (for demos only) Base card is Pool party - a new in color with so saffron DSP and Lace ribbon border punched in white CS, tied with tangering ribbon. The pennants were stamped in olive, tangering and saffron and punched using the new Petite pennants builder punch, mounted with dimensionals and accented with crystal jewels in the corners. The little letters are from Calendar Alphabets and Numbers set punched out with 1/2 inch circle punch set off with dimensionals.

Lynda

A Sweet Folded Ribbon total CASE

I was looking to do a card using the texture plate and I ran across a card from Julie Beltramo and I knew I would have to case it. The colors were so pretty. Bridal bliss base with crumbcake layer followed by white CS textured with texture kit #4 (retired)The word friend from the textured paper was punched with word window. The pretty postage stamp was stamped using bridal bliss and same color CS punched using the postage stamp punch and layered using the dimensionals. The stitched polyribbon was stuck on with sticky strip in a random fashion. Super simple and oh so pretty...

Happy Fourth of July!

This was a challenge card that I did for splitcoast few weeks ago for CC328 and SC338. I dreamt about the card and how I wanted to do it and it came out exactly how I envisioned it (that rarely happens though...)

Basecard is crumcake with cherry cobbler layered on top stamped with Open Sea with versamarked. Next the layer of navy cut with circle cutter and the rest cut with the a straight edge and a smaller version in white.

After swishing a embossing buddy over it, I used versamark to heat emboss the patriots (Rubber Monger). I then stamped the flag (Ann-ticipations) with cherry and blocked it to stamp the lady liberty(Stamp in Hand). I used the dauber to add some more navy and crumbcake, distressed the edges to add more old world charm, added a star brad (stampin' Up -retired) to finish it out.

Thank heaven for all the brave men and women out there that make possible our freedom and way of life! possible today!

Lynda

Embedded Embossing

June workshop was all about embossing and this is one of the cards my friends made. The inspiration is from a card I saw by Michele Reynolds on Stampin Connections.

The base is pink pirouette with celery CS layered onto it. The white CS layer has little leaves diecut and glued on as well as flowers made with Boho Blossoms and itty bitty shapes punches. A 1/8 inch hand held punches were used to make the little center circles. Once it looks the way you want the way you want, insert the whole thing into the square lattice embossing folder to emboss all the layers in one fell swoop. The Four frames stamp is stamped in chocolate chip then punched out usng the decorative label punch. Punch 2 more out of the pink CS and cut it as shown previously to creative layers behind the stamped image. Warp a piece of celery satin ribbon and tuck the end under the celery layer before permanently taping down. then mount the frame using dimensionals. Biggest challenge is punching the flowers and not losing the little bitty centers!

Enjoy!

Lynda

Beautiful Wings CAS in Eggplant.

This is a layout lifted from Jen Sannes from simpleandsincere.com. I have been cleaning up my stamping room- it always gets my mojo going- sometimes when I have too much stuff, it gets overloaded and you need to reboot to get you going again. Since there was a lot of Elegant Eggplant CS on my table, I decided to just use it as a base, stamped the sentiment from Short & Sweet with versamark and embossed with white embossing powder. Diecut the white CS using scallop rectangle and cut a saffron piece slightly bigger. A piece of Pear Pizazz Stitched poly ribbon was laid on the bottom. Saffron piece was mounted with dimensional. The butterflies were diecut in pear, pacific and melon mambo- If you make 3 cards, you can rotate the colors - save the extras for another project. Mounted them with the Multipurpose liquid glue just in the center so you can lift the wings later and added a little pearl to add a little interest.

Pretty simple and easy- just the way I like 'em!

Lynda

Beautiful Wings embossed 3 ways- heat, folder and embosslit die.

I wanted to do a make and take using the Beautiful wings but it can get a little backlogged if each person has to diecut the butterflies in several different colors. So I just wanted to use just one color and since it was an embossing workshop thought it would be fun to incorporate heat embossing with the sentiment heat embossed with white EP onto Elegant eggplant CS and Old Olive CS embossed using the Elegant Lines EF and the Beautiful Wings Embosslits diecut the butterflies in white- showing 3 different embossing techniques- Easy to demo and do as make and takes. I did add some pearls before I took the picture - for some bling- I had the class use Smooch Illuminate Top coat to add some sparkle which was pretty in a very subtle way.

The sentiment was - yet again- sincere salutations.
Make sure you swipe the cardstock with the embossing buddy before you stamp it with versamark pad to avoid any stray powder sticking- it's a must in any heat embosser's supply list.

Lynda

Embossed Reverse Highlighted Window

A technique with no name- hmmm.

It's a embossed window but with the reverse of the highlighting technique- gotta love it!- Did take a little thinking to figure out what to do though.

This combines 2 challenges from SCS TLC331 and CC329 for suede, mambo and crumbcake.

The base is soft suede with a layer of melon mambo embossed with Elegant lines EF.

Then another layer of soft suede in a oval, then a crumbcake oval, stamped with suede using Just Believe stampset and then whole thing was embossed using the Square lattice EF.

I cut another oval slightly larger than the opening in vanilla - and although I usually just "eyeball" stamp, I did take out my stamp positioner to amek sure I got the right position for the images I wanted to use in the vanilla oval- used wasabi, then wiped the flower parts with the blender pen and then reinked it with the melon marker, added a little bit of highlights with soft suede on the leaves- then huffed and puffed and stamped the image. The whole window is raised using dimensionals.

The ribbon is crumbcake seambinding that I gathered by pulling just on the middle thread of the ribbon. Added the sentiment punched out with curly label - the layer is done with 2 curly labels punched soft suede pieces cut in half and spread out in both directions to add a bit of color behind the sentiment. Enjoy! Lynda

Double embossed Notably Ornate CASE

The stampin success magazine had a double embossed card whose colors I loved so I CASE'd it for my embossing workshop. The base card was pear pizazz with a razzleberry layer. The top layer was vanilla stamped using River Rock with the Notably Ornate stampset. the bottom was Newprint DSP that was double embossed. Using the Vintage Wallpaper EF, ink the SU logo printed side( on the inside) with versamark the emboss it using the big shot. Use black embossing powder and heat emboss it. I wrapped the pear pizazz stitched poly ribbon - put it through a hole and spread it out and taped it to minimize bulk. the flower is Fancy flower punched out 3 times with razzleberry, wet it well then crumple it. The center is the Boho blossom in black and the smallest paper daisies pierced and held with a black brad.

Most of this came out of not having the exact stuff they used to make their sample. But I guess that's where creativity and resourcefulness comes into play. I think some of my best work comes from just not having the stuff I thought I wanted and trying something different and have it work out - some times for the better- or at least I think so.

There are no mistakes in crafting- just creative opportunities!

Lynda

Fabulous Florets embossed two ways

This is a card we made for class last month using Fabulous florets in a out of the box and masking technique. Stamp the flowers in poppy color onto the white CS. Stamp again on elipse paper or post-it note and cut it out. Use the masks to cover the flowers and stamp the leaves in pear pizazz. Cut a rectangle going around the flowers to create the out of the box effect. Emboss a piece of pear pizazz using square lattice EF. Emboss a poppy CS using the flower garden EF. Stamp the sentiment in poppy onto the Beyond the Garden DSP as shown. Mount it as shown and it was a reasonably easy card that demonstrated a lot of different techniques that someone can take away from the workshop.

Lynda