Have a Hoot on Halloween

Gayle suggested that we use this layout for our October Stamp n Chat so this was my take on it.

I used the stitches square die to cut out the openings and embossed the early expresso cardstock with the woodgrain embossing folder (sadly retired- but wood planks would work also beautifully.)

stamped the owls from Have a Hoot stampset set and colored it in water stampin' blends and watercolored the background

It's funny but the branches look like they connect -and they re looking at each other!

These owls are just so super cute!

the label die is the small one from "Hippo Happiness" die set. 

Happy Sheltering Halloween!

I bought some Halloween candy for my staff treats and for the trick or treaters just in case but I don't foresee any kiddie coming by with this pandemic-

Stay Safe everyone! 

Fall Updates

I have a hoard- and I mean a HOARD of cards from years past - some were swaps I made, some fronts only swaps, some were ATC's and not ready for sending out to people but still.....   So I brought them all down from top of my bookshelves with the intention that i will use it to make a full card or something more usable to someone.  So this is an example of such card- the base was solid but the center image was somewhat lackluster so I stamped this jack o' lantern from Everything Essential set from the Fall Winter catalog 2020-2021 and it just brightens the whole card and updates it and now I would be proud to send it out- and I did!

I got a cardfront as a swap that had this pumpkin and the acorn strip which was super cute but it was a bit plain.  I embossed the base mustard cardstock with the Meadow Moments embossing folder along the top ( sorry that it is hard to see) .  I then punched the pumpkin accent with the Rectangular Postage Stamp pumch.   With the large sentiment form Country Home set stamped in black and the acorns and leaves from Beautiful Autumn - with the coordinating punches- which I Love Love Love! it makes embellishing this card and bringing it up a notch super easy. So I took these updated cards and some other cards I've made to my office with a bunch of envelopes and asked my staff  to take the cards with promise to send it to people and they were practically all gone by the end of the day which makes me very happy that these cards will make it home to some happy receiver instead of sitting in a box collecting dust on top of my shelves!

 Taking something old and trying to make it new again with what I have - it is totally fun and great brain exercise!  Try it for yourself.  Hugs, Lynda

 

Mama Elephant /MFT Slimline Cards for my twins

Splitcoast Stampers Challenge for today was for slimline cards and I have been working on cards for my boys so I thought I would share it with you.

This template is from Mama  Elephant Slimline basics die - oh so cute! The stamps are from Bobo Tea and Zodiac Monkey- but the tiny Bobo Tea is from Zodiac Tiger set that I had to get just for that stamp. but it is a cute set anyway and I was born under the Tiger zodiac so I guess it is ok. 

Base card is white 8 1/2x 7 scored down to  81/2 x 3 1/2. THe scallop is with Sahara Sand and I put the soft sky CS behind the openings which were all mounted with dimensionals.  I did but a balloon image and stamped the inside with sentiment from the Happiest of Birthdays set from Stampin' Up.

Kyle loves his pigs so I used the Slim Woodland die from Mama Elephant and colored it with variety of techniques and mounted onto a 8 1/2x 7inch CS folded to 8 1/2x 3 1/2.  Stamped the Farmland background from Hello Bluebird and extended the image with the black markers and colored it in. 

the animals are from MFT The Whole Herd set. the chicken with the balloons are from Party Animals.

They are mounted using dimensionals of course.

These are perfect for adding money because they are nice and long. 

Enjoy!  Lynda

 

Paper Pumpkin June 2020- box of sunshine to give away

I have a whole mess of the paper pumpkin boxes as they are perfect for giving away but it is so plain and I love how the June package had a vibrant color and came with a label we could use to make the box decorative with extra embellishments.  I did add a small flower with a crystal jewel colored with a sof t suede blender marker to add some brownish hue. 

I am going through  my hoard of cards-  and trying to give it away to someone who I hope will use it with some small bits of treats.  This was for my dental hygienist Faye who is moving to Santa Barbara after taking care of me for several decades - I will miss her so much- she really is a gem!

I have plans to make more of these to give away given there are so many people I need to thank - and what better way to clean out your stash than to give it to people who may actually use it?

Enjoy!

Lynda
 

Bojo Indigo Carved wood TLC 808

Technique Challenge at Splitcoast stampers was something I have not tried before called Carved Wood and I thought it was pretty cool - the sample used a stencil to create an embossed image but I thought why not an embossing folder itself? and ti works just great.

I took a piece of whisper white CS about 3 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches, scored it every 3/4 inches to create planks, then embossed it using the Greenery EF.  I took the Misty Moonlight pad to color the raised images. then used a sponge dauber with Soft Suede to color in the planks to create the carved wood look.   I mounted the piece onto a folded A2 Night of Navy cardstock after putting the blue ribbon from Bojo Indigo kit. 

I took a piece of stitched circle stamped with sentiment from the same kit in Misty Moonlight 

stamp the vase with midnight Muse, the leaves and flowers in white scraps and stamp the flowers using Melon Mambo and color in the center of flowers with Magenta Madness- i did fussy cut it more so it would be individual and used aqua brush to color the leaves with old olive.

 

mount the flowers and leaves with dimensionals.  added some crystal jewels for some added sparkle. 

Kind of an old fashioned look but I love it.

Enjoy.

 

Boho Indigo Thanks

I saw this in the catalog and just fell in love with this kit.  Love the DSP, love the stampset,  love the colors that remind me of the Japanese Blue Indigo Shibori fabric that we use for quilting and other fabric crafts.

I used the Papertrey cover plate: horizontal strips to diecut a whisper white CS and layered it over the Misty Moonlight base card.  Stamped the sentiment using Misty Moonlight ink and same for the vase and diecut.  Stamped the flowers with Melon Mambo ink then using the aquabrush and Magenta Madness added some extra color around the center to make it pop a bit. I did fussy cut the flowers after diecutting it out.

diecut the leaves with Old Olive CS and layer as shown.  I alway wanted to learn Ikebana.

Mount the flowers and the vase using dimensionals. 

 Enjoy!

Lynda

MFT Farmer Girl/ Hello Bluebird Farmland- splitcoast challenge F4A547

 

This was fun- I love farm and animal images and when I saw this MFT- PI farmer girl I ordered it- then I saw this  Farmland background stamp from Hello Bluebird so I had to have it.  I have barn dies and fence dies but it is a lot of work - this was just so easy- perfect neutral background- just coloring it and put what you want in front of it to create the perfect farmscape.  

This card is for a friend- thus the challenge F4A547.

The stampset did come with Hay there stamp but I used  the sentient from SU Beautiful Autumn in black. 

Used stampin Blends and some Copics to color.

Stamped the imaged, colored it , die cut it out, mounted with dimensionals and a really quickie card to send to a friend.

Blossoms in Bloom Cling Wrap WT805 card

When I want to be distracted from work I have to do I love going to Splitcoast stampers and browse through their challenges.  This week WT805 was to use the Cling wrap technique which I never tried - it looked easy and fun so I tried it and this is the result.

I took a piece of clingwrap and used daffodil delight, flirty flamingo and granny apple pads to dab some colors on it and then spritzed it with water, stuck a piece of whisper white cardstock, smooshed the wrap a bit on top of it and let it dry and voila - a cool background piece of paper. 

I love the streaky patches and the watercolor look.

I diecut the Blossoms in Bloom in Flirty flamingo for the bottom and whisper white on the top.  I did color the leaves a bit and edges with more melon mambo because it washed out on top of the Flirty Flamingo background.  I also added a little yellow to the center of the flowers on top layer.

wrapped a piece of green ribbon from Ornate Garden ribbon pak and stamped the sentiment onto black CS and heat embossed with white EP and mounted it with dimensionals.

I had some crystals from a Paperpumpking project and spread a few around for a little sparkle.

These streaky lines made by the cling wrap is so cool and each piece you make is unique and hard to reproduce and that is the fun of it. 

Enjoy!

 

Prized Peony Birthday

A little Birthday card for a friend-  Basecard is Pink Pirouette- I love this color so I bought several packs when I knew it was going to be retired. Layer a whisper white diecut with Many Medallions die .

Diecut Whisper White and Magenta Madness CS with Tasteful Labels dies for the sentiment and banner. Stamp the sentiment with the words from Prized Peony in Memento Tuxedo black.  I stamped the flower in Magenta Madness and glorious green using little cubes of color and used aqua blender to spread the ink more around in the flower and the old olive Stampin Blends to add more color to the leaves.  Diecut and mount with dimensionasl to pop it up.  I did use the Old Olive stampin blend to add a little border to the label 

 The sequins are self adhesive ones left over from Paper Pumpkin kit 

 

 

All Things Fabulous

My Yahoo stamping group was challenged with a sketch so this is the card I made for it.

Basecard is Daffodil delight. Take a quarter sheet of whisper white and diecut with Papertrey coverplate horizontal diecut to create the stripes.

The rose is from the ALl Things Fabulous set from 2020-2021 catalog.  it is s 3 step stamp- the base is Melon Mambo stamped off with the next layer using Melon Mambo straight.  The top layer is stamped using the new Magenta Madness.   The leaves were stamped using Pear Pizazz and diecut all and layer using the dimensionals. 

The sentiment is from Very Versaille set- partial stamp- that is the beauty of cling stamps- you can cut and use parts of it which is great without destroying the integrity of the whole stamp. 

  clean and simple.  This one I tired lower down and it was fine too.   I just love the color combo.

Enjoy

Lynda