Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge

This is my first true Mojo Monday sketch challenge card. I wanted a relatively simple card for the ladies to make at my stamp camp coming up on Friday, and wanted to use some product I already have without having to order anything else. Julee's sketch fit the bill so I could use the large flower from the Pretties kit. I bought it a while ago from the bulk package SU! demos can order and this card design is a great use for the flower. I added a 1 inch circle of Red Riding Hood card stock topped off with a Kiwi courderoy button to make the flower center. The DSP is all Bella Rose (I'll miss it once it retires!). I was debating on which brads to use, and ended up using the now retired red eyelets as they seemed to match the other colors quite well. The panels are popped up with dimensionals and the flower is popped with a thicker non-SU! foam dot. I hope you like it! I've had a lack of mojo lately and am so happy with the way this turned out. The color didn't reproduce as well as I'd like when I photographed it (too yellow), so I'll have to try it again tomorrow using some sunshine instead of my desk lamp. Thanks once again for stopping by!

DSP Beaded Pens

The bonus project for my stamp camp on Friday is to make a beaded pen. I decided to use some scraps of DSP for this project - Bella Rose and Raspberry Tart - and a Pentel R.S.V.P. pen. Here's how I made them:

1. Cut DSP scrap to 3 1/4 by 1 1/4 inches.
2. Run DSP strip through a Xyron (I used my Create-A-Sticker, model 150 with a permanent cartridge installed, which my dear stamping friend and coworker, Darla, gave me a couple of years ago).
3. Leaving the pen lid on, attach the DSP strip sticker to the pen barrel (start by aligning the short edge of the DSP with the edge of the pen lid). Press down hard to make sure the paper adheres well to the pen barrel.
4. Cut a piece of Terrifically Tacky Tape (from the 6" x 8" sheet variety of TTT) to 3 1/4 by 1 5/16 inches (you could also use Stampin' Up! Sticky Pages for this).
5. Peel away one side of the TTT sheet and place it over the DSP on the pen barrel. I used the leftover backing paper from the Xyron to help stick the TTT sheet well to the DSP.
EDITED TO ADD: I had a few of my earlier pens have the DSP/beading come loose because the TTT or Sticky Pages sheet didn't overlap enough. To solve that for the ones I'd already prepped for a stamp camp, I had everyone take a piece of 1/4 inch wide SU! Sticky Strip and have it overlap the place where the TTT edges met. Then I finished the pen as written below. Pens done this way haven't had that separation problem.
6. Using a heat tool, heat up the TTT adhesive on the pen. This will make the adhesive even more sticky.
7. Roll the heated pen in clear microbeads. I used a small SU! stamp case lid to hold the microbeads as I crushed the beads into the adhesive by rolling over the beads.
8. Lightly rub away any extra beads from your pen, and you are finished!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

A Birthday Invite

This year for her birthday, our daughter wanted to invite a couple of friends to go with her for a horseback ride. I wanted to create a special invitation for the event, but didn't have much time tonight. This is what I came up with. The invite uses Kraft card stock, Parisian Breeze specialty DSP, Chocolate Chip card stock, and Baja Breeze card stock, and Confetti White card stock. The horse is from Wanted, stamped in Chocolate Chip classic ink on the Confetti White. The sentiment is from All-Year-Cheer (II, I think). Striped Baja Breeze ribbon tops it off (although if I did it over again, I'd probably do two ribbons around the brown Parisian piece). On the inside, I printed up the information about the ride in brown ink on Confetti White. I stamped the horse image over the image, stamping off once first. She really liked the invite, and they're ready to be handed out tomorrow! Yay!

Watercolored Roses

Last night I decided to try the 'new' watercoloring technique that Patty Bennett recently posted on her blog, which I believe was demonstrated at a Stampin' Up! regional conference earlier this year. I stamped the rose from Fifth Avenue Floral onto Shimmery White paper using Whisper White Craft ink, then heat embossed using clear embossing powder. I spritzed the image liberally with water, and with an aquapainter, added some color (I used Pretty in Pink and Regal Rose reinkers). Mine didn't work as easily as the one Patty shows in her video tutorial, so when the water/ink was starting to dry, I pulled some of the puddled water/ink from one of the petals with my aquapainter and went back over a few areas of the rose to intensify the color a little. I think the problem was that I didn't get enough of an embossed image so I didn't get the channels as well as I saw on Patty's tutorial. Anyhow, I let it completely dry overnight, and after work tonight, this is what I came up with. I loved the shimmery striped paper Patty used from Taste of Textiles on some of her cards, so I did the same. I didn't want to copy her cards exactly, so I resisted the urge to look at hers while I was designing mine. The card base was stamped with Regal Rose using my all-time favorite, Itty Bitty Backgrounds, a technique I picked up from Kitty Caracciolo. After putting it all together, I'm thinking I should have either sponged Kiwi Kiss onto the leaves, or onto the Kiwi background. I think I'll try that next time around. Anyhow, it gave me a chance to use my oval scallop punch and Whisper White Organza ribbon. The sentiment comes from All Holidays and is stamped in Regal Rose. I think I'll offer this card to my stampers at my next stamp camp. Thanks for stopping by today!

First Try - Brayered Roses

I just love the brayered roses that Patty Bennett has featured lately on her blog, so tonight I made a little time tonight to give it a try. Although I'm not happy with the overall look of the card, I do love the look of the roses!! Soooooo easy!! I'll have to put aside some more time to play later this week with these fun flowers! Have a great rest of your week!

More Scrapbook Pages!

It felt so good to sit down Saturday night and scrapbook that I made some more time on Sunday to do more! The album I'm working on features the Delicate Dots DSP that I got FREE during SU!'s Sale-A-Bration back in February & March. I downloaded a few pages of layouts from PageMaps, one of my favorite sites for scrapbooking inspiration. One layout was based on a September 2008 PageMap, the other based on a January 2009 PageMap. If you need some inspiration, check out their PDF archives - three years worth of ideas! I'll apologize now for the poor color balance of my pictures. Someday I'll learn to photograph my creations during the day when the lighting is better! :) Thanks again for visiting my blog today.

National Scrapbooking Day

In honor of National Scrapbooking Day, which each year falls on the first Saturday of May, I decided to start an album I wanted to make using the Delicate Dots paper that I got for FREE during Stampin' Up!'s Sale-A-Bration event. I managed to get a two-page layout finished Saturday night before it got too late to do much more. I'm so slow when it comes to any paper crafting I do. It takes me a while to put the colors together, to design the layout, to finally get it put all together. So far, I'm pretty happy with my start on the album. Now to find some pictures to put on the pages so I can do the title! I'll have to try photographing these again tomorrow - they came out a bit too over exposed for my liking, but I wanted to have something to share with you this weekend, so here they are! Thanks for stopping by and have a great week.

The Masculine Swap Card is FINALLY done...

Boy oh boy, has this been a tough month trying to put together my masculine card swap for our team meeting tomorrow!! This is what I finally ended up with. The stamp sets I used were Nature Silhouettes, which I got for FREE with my Sale-A-Bration rewards (yippee!) and Sanded, which I finally decided to get after many times first putting it on, then taking it off, my ordering list. The sentiment is from Fresh Cuts. I used Jet Black Staz-On ink on Glossy White card stock. The wolf card was brayered using the Blue Frost retired SU! Kaleidacolor spectrum pad. I got daring on the buck card, using the same colors as the Blue Frost pad (Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, and Brilliant Blue), but this time brayering on each color individually. I am a frequent visitor to Michelle Zindorg's blog, and after reading her FAQs on how she creates her brayered materpieces, I thought I'd try it. I was pretty pleased with the results. The moon was sponged with Summer Sun ink while using a mask. The hard part is making sure you don't get the yellow on your fingers, then touch the blue! I did that on my first attempt... oops! Other card stock used was Basic Black, Brilliant Blue and Summer Sun. Four silver brads accent the card. This is a timely swap for me, as my Dad's birthday is on Monday and we're going out to celebrate after my team meeting on Sunday. Shhh... don't tell him, but the buck version of the card is his!! Thanks for visiting, and I hope all is well with you and yours!

Masculine Pocket Silhouettes?

I'm still struggling with my masculine card swap coming up on Sunday. I loved the design of this card - it's Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge #33, from back in February 2008. My original card for this challenge is here. I thought I might try it again as a more masculine card. I'm still not sold that it's masculine enough - what do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts. I have GOT to get this swap finished so I can get ready for my stamp camp on Friday. Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope it's not as hot where you are as it has been here - we're hovering in the upper 90's after being in the 60's just last week. I'm not ready for it to be so hot yet!

Sunflower Flower Pot Card

I had a few minutes today to do something fun, so I grabbed my scallop circle punch and 3/4 inch circle punch to make some sunflowers for a flower pot card. I loved Patty Bennett's sunflowers from her convention swap last year (see them here). I didn't like the 1 inch circle that she used (I wanted to see more petal), so I used my 3/4 inch circle punch for my flower centers. For card stock flowers, I used Summer Sun, and Bella Rose for the flower centers. The leaves were made using Kiwi Kiss card stock and a paper crimper (see Patty's post, here, on how to make them). The flower pot is in Really Rust, sponged with Really Rust. To hold the card together, I used striped Kiwi ribbon. The sentiment inside is from the retired All Year Cheer set. I think I like this card even better than the Petal Pizzazz one I posted a week or so ago (especially because I didn't have to cut anything by hand!). I'm going to give my stampers on Friday the option on their flower card - stamped or punched. Until next time, have a wonderful rest of your weekend!