You raise me up

Have you ever been up in a hot air balloon? I went straight up in one once, but didn't actually go for a ride. It was very noisy, but fun. I think it would be fun to really go for a ride. When we go to visit our son, down in Del Mar, CA, there are lots of hot air balloons out every day. We love to watch them.

This card was made with another stamp from the StampTV Eclectic Summer Kit and the verse is from the Eclectic Summer Verses. This all comes in the fantastic new kit just released - everything is there to make lots of beautiful cards. To give you lots of ideas, be sure to check out Gina's tutorial over on StampTV. You receive two stamp sets, sheets of red, white, and blue cardstock, designer paper, ribbons, brads and a storage case to keep everything in. There is also a free digital paper download on StampTV that works well with these stamps. Get your free download here: http://stamptv.ning.com/page/freebies-2

To make this card, I first stamped the hot air balloon on a piece of white cardstock then cut it out with the petite oval nestabilities. I used a piece of the navy blue cardstock for the scalloped background. The sky was first sponged using a large sponge dauber and Bashful Blue ink. I then stamped one of the trees from Gina's "Tree Silhouettes" on the left side and added some grass to the bottom of the frame.




To create the hot air balloon, I stamped it twice -- once on the red/white stripped digi paper and once on the navy with stars digi paper. I did this different than Gina did on her tutorial on StampTV. I cut out the entire balloon part from both pieces. I then cut out the four strips of blue and glued them to the red strip. (You can see I'm working on that Tan Teflon Craft Sheet I talked about in my blog on Monday.) I then stamped the top portion of the balloon, just to get the red band that goes across the top, and cut it out then glued it to the balloon. I then pieced all that onto the hot air balloon stamped on the oval frame. A brown marker was used to color the bottom of the balloon frame and the basket.

For the card background, a piece of white cardstock was embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder then layered on a piece of the red cardstock. A piece of ribbon from the kit was attached to the bottom and the verse attached on it with dimensional glue dots. Red rhinestones were added for a little sparkle.

Our family is going up to Canada early in the morning to spend the weekend, so I will not have any posts until next Monday. Have a fun weekend.

You're Quite a Catch!

This card is made with another image from GinaK's Showtime Stamp Kit "Eclectic Summer". I used the Spectrum Creole Spice ink pad to stamp the sea horse on white cardstock. I cut it out with the long rectangle Nestabilities. Before taking it out, I sponged Pacific Breeze and Night of Navy ink around the edges. The back frame is a piece of shiny gold cardstock. The background was created using blue alcohol inks and a gold metallic pen. This technique is called "Polished Stone". "You're quite a Catch!" is from the Eclectic Summer Sayings set, also in the Stamp Kit. A petite oval Nestie was used for the scalloped frame. A gold shell button and brads were added to complete the picture.

Hope you have had time to go to GinaK's store to check out all the new stamps!

Beautiful Day

This has been a beautiful day for me. I had my last eye checkup since my surgery and everything has healed well -- hooray!!! I had had a few complications but it is all great now! I got to order my new glasses so soon I will be able to see much better up close. My vision is now 20/20 in both eyes for distance. I hated having my eye appointment today because I knew my new GinaK stamps would be arriving. I ordered all the new sets and have been so excited to receive them. These are all fabulous sets -- I didn't know where to begin but you guessed it -- the first one I stamped was a FLOWER! I have to admit though, it was a tough decision as to where to start. If you haven't seen these new sets, check them out here: http://www.shop.ginakdesigns.com/category.sc?categoryId=16.

This flower is from the new Showtime Stamp Kit, "Eclectic Summer". I love every stamp in this kit. The verse is also from that kit in the Eclectic Summer Sayings. I think this is such a beautiful verse and so excited to have it in my collection now. The flowers were colored with colored pencils and OMS. The center of the flower was colored by using a small sponge dauber and Barely Banana ink. The dauber is exactly the size of this center so I just swirled it around in the center. So quick and easy. The cardstock used is Pink Pirouette and Basic Black. The pink was embossed with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder and the black border was made using a Martha Stewart Punch. The Labels Four Nestability die was used for the frame. Before removing it I sponged on Certainly Celery around the edges. The designer paper is from the Porcelain Paper pad by Basic Grey. The white flat back pearls, by Kaiser, were purchased from Joan's Gardens. The ribbon was a scrap from my ribbon box.

Now I'm off to cut out the rest of my new stamps!

First Blog Award

I received my first blog award today from Sue (Tillymint) who is a StampTV friend with a fabulous blog (go check it out http://a-consuming-passion.blogspot.com/ ).
The rules for this award are...
*comment on this blog
*cut and paste the award logo and use it on your own blog
*nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude
*link to your nominees within your blog post
*comment on their blogs to let them know they received the award
*link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation

I nominate the following fabulous blogs. They are all members of StampTV.

Geri http://geriscards.blogspot.com/

Tina http://tinastampsup.blogspot.com/

Jessica http://iembellish.blogspot.com/

Sharri http://istamp4u.blogspot.com/

Brenda http://stamp-it-up.blogspot.com/

Melanie http://melaniemuenchinger.blogspot.com/

Pam http://paperandribbonsandstampsohmy.blogspot.com/

Wild Ride

The Color Challenge this week on StampTV is to use Red and Blue without making it patriotic. For this card I used the elephant from "Whatever Floats Your Boat" available from GinaK Designs. He was colored with colored pencils and OMS. The stripe on the ball and the pad on his back were paper pieced with a piece of the new Stars and Strips digi paper from StampTV. The same paper was used for the larger frame. A piece of the blue stripped digi paper was used on the bottom portion. These papers are a free download listed under "Freebies" on the StampTV Home page. There are 10 different designs. The Real Red cardstock was embossed with the Cuttlebug Hounds tooth folder. A Martha Stewart border punch was used for the Red border. Petite Oval Nestabilities was used for both the frames. The white frame under the elephant was sponged with Barely Banana before removing it from the die. A little star button was added to finish it off.

Center Stage Spotlight Design Team

Wow, has this been an exciting day. Gina, from StampTV, selected 6 members to serve as her Center Stage Spotlight Design Team for June. CONGRATULATIONS to Pam, Carla, Carolina, Melisa and Jennie and guess who else was on that list -- I was!!!! How exciting this is. See the cards selected here: http://stamptv.ning.com/photo/photo/listFeatured.

I love being a member of StampTV. It is a great community of very talented ladies. I want to thank Gina for this great honor. There is so much going on at StampTV you must check it out. Gina has lots of really fabulous tutorials, showing lots of techniques in detail on how to make beautiful cards. Check it out here: http://stamptv.ning.com/. Be sure to check out that long list of tutorials on the right side of the page. I am sure you will want to check out the beautiful card gallery and the daily challenges. This is a great way to win free stamps! It is a random drawing for any set of GinaK stamps valued up to $24.95, so everyone has an equal chance. You just have to submit a card.

Well I'm off to celebrate this great honor.

Butterfly

In my blog post below I embossed this butterfly on my Teflon craft sheet so this is the card I made with it. This butterfly set is called "Take Flight" from GinaK Designs. You notice in that picture below there are two butterflies. I seldom stamp just one image. While I am at it, I usually stamp many and have them ready for the next time I want to come up with a new card using that design.

This butterfly was black embossed then Peerless watercolors used. Blues and purples were mixed. The Designer paper is from Basic Grey Wisteria paper pad. Long Rectangle Nestabilities were used to cut the frame for the butterfly and Petite Oval Nestabilities used for the verse. The two cardstock colors used under the butterfly are Basic Gray and Sarah Sand. The colors are picked up from the designer paper. The color of the Kaiser pearls is "Latte" and can be purchased from Joan Fricker at Joan's Gardens.

Hope you will read the post below and leave me a comment.

A PRODUCT I LOVE HAVING IN MY CRAFTROOM

I have not made any tutorials yet but thought I would start something new on my blog reviewing some of the things I feel are important to me in my stamp room. As you know, I have just started my blog, so I am still in the learning process on how to take pictures and get them on my blog the way I want. I'm hoping this is going to be informative information to you. I am starting with something I have not seen talked about on blogs. The product I am going to talk about today is a "Non-Stick" (Teflon) Craft Sheet. I believe it was originally designed by Suze Weinberg (a fabulous instructor/designer/author who now works with Ranger Industries) to be used with a "Melting Pot". I took a class from Suze many years ago and she was using this sheet. I purchased it at that class and have always kept in on my craft table. I would like to tell you about some of the things I use it for.

Before I begin, I would like to show you a picture of my workspace where I actually stamp. There is nothing fancy here but I like to have things organized and close to hand. I am very fortunate to have a large stamp room where I can teach workshops. I have an "L" shaped workspace - one for stamping and one to my left where I use my Big Shot/Cuttlebug and use my large paper cutter. I have developed a great system for myself to store my Nestabilities and my Cuttlebug embossing folders that are kept next to my Big Shot. I will review that in another post.

At this table I have my ink pads, markers, glue dots, some embellishments, some precut card stock for card base, embossing powders/glitters, and heat gun. I use a large Newspaper Print pad on my table and tear off sheets as they get very messy. In this picture I had to close the blinds in order to take the picture but they are usually pulled up to give me plenty of natural light.

One of the other items I keep on my work pad is a Non-stick (Teflon) sheet. This helps keep my work area much cleaner. When I use embossing powders or glitters, any spills can easily be put back in their container. I have a special way to store my embossing powders and glitter that I will cover in another post. The sheet is very thin so bends easily to return powders to their containers. If any remains on the sheet, it easily brushes off into the container. Also, I always lay my cardstock on the Teflon sheet when using my heat tool.



Pouring embossing powder back in container.




Another use for this sheet is to blend watercolors on it. I love to use Peerless Watercolors and can pick up the color and blend it on this sheet before adding to my image. You can use this when you are using reinkers to color. Cleanup is easy since it is non-stick. I just use a baby wipe or you can even clean up with a cloth.

Peerless watercolors. Butterflies embossed and ready to color.




Mixing colors on non stick craft sheet. (I have 2 - one tan, one white.)



Many times I use sponge daubers to color images that I have cut out. I can sponge off the design when working on this sheet and not have a messy work area when I'm done. Also, this little sheet has been a lifesaver when I am using a lot of glue or adhesives. Many times I have ended up with glue on everything if working on paper. If working on this sheet, you just wipe it off as it gets messy and you know you will not be getting glue on anything else.

Flower that is being sponged.


I have two of these sheets and find them a valuable item in my stamp room. If you are interested in purchasing this product, Joan Fricker from Joan's Gardens carries them.

HERE IS THE DESCRIPTION FROM JOAN'S SITE: This Teflon Craft mat is reusable over and over and over again. Absolutely NOTHING sticks to it! Nothing! The paper thin Teflon material withstands high temperatures from your glue gun, melting pot, wax, etc. Nothing penetrates or distorts its smooth, glass-like finish. Clean up is fast and easy, ready to use again and again. Acrylic paints and inks wipe clean even if dried to the surface. Fabulous and superior product for protecting your work surfaces. 9x12 $8.99 plus shipping.

For more info or to order this product, contact Joan here: http://www.atjoansgardens.com/

I hope this info is helpful to you. I would love to have you leave me a comment about this post.

Next Monday I will show you how I store my Nestabilities and embossing folders.

Thanks for stopping by. Now guess I better go make a card with that butterfly I just embossed.

Love You

I have this cute little ATC from my previous post and didn't want to waste it. There is another challenge from Gina's new stamp release on SCS posted by Melissa. There are three challenges and they are open until tomorrow evening. Check this one out here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14200459#post14200459.

This challenge is to celebrate children in our lives. You are to make a card for a child and tell them you love them. I have 6 grandchildren and they all have birthdays coming up so this was a great card for me to make for one of them. I am using the ATC from my previous post and added it to some pretty embossed paper I purchased at an art store several years ago. This paper came in a large roll in the store and you had them cut off the amount you want. I thought it matched this little ATC very well. I added some (retired) ribbon from SU. What a quick and easy card and I am sure one of my grandchildren will love it.

(After I posted this, I notice in the picture, the crystal effects doesn't look smooth. I took the picture before it was dry but it does not look that bad on the card.)

ATC

During GinaK's new release party the other night on SCS, three challenges were posted. I love to participate in these challenges because you have a chance to win any GinaK stamp set valued up to $24.95. What a great way to add to your stamp collection.

This challenge was posted by Cathy http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14201684#post14201684 and you have to make an ATC. I don't normally make such small cards but thought I'd participate. This little Giraffe from Rupa's "Whatever Floats Your Boat" set was perfect. This set can be purchased from GinaK Designs. I did this different from the other cards I have made using this set. I first stamped the image on Bashful Blue cardstock then a second time on Barely Banana. I cut out the window on blue, and the Giraffe on the yellow. The sky was sponged in the background to create clouds and Crystal Effects was applied to the window so it looks like glass. I forgot to mention I first went around the window frame with a marker to color it. Colored pencils and OMS were used to color the spots and the mane on the giraffe then a chalk pencil was used to add a little more color definition to the face.

I couldn't find a Nestability that was the perfect size for the ATC so I just cut out a piece of Really Rust card stock to 2.5 x 3.5 then cut a Very Vanilla piece to 1/8 inch smaller. The Vanilla piece was embossed with the Tiny Bubbles Cuttlebug folder. A petite circle nestie was used for the verse. The Prima flower was added and a small self adhesive Kaiser pearl was added to the center then smaller pearls added to each corner to finish it off. I'm afraid I am going to be using lots of pearls and rhinestones because I purchased one of every color from Joan's Gardens. I love adding a little bit of bling to my cards!

Peach Flowers

This card was completed for another Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge. The flowers are from "A Year of Flowers" available from GinaK Designs. The flowers were watercolored using SU Groovy Guava . I used the aqua brush and reinker in the lid of the stamp pad. A piece of designer paper was used from my scrap box and I don't know manufacturer. Long rectangle and square Nestabilities were used to cut the frames. After mounting everything using dimensionals, black micro beads were added to the centers of the flowers to give a realistic look. I also cut between each of the petals of the flowers to give more dimension. I just purchased a lot of different colors of flat back pearls from Joan Fricker at "Joan's Garden". She has a wide variety of colors. These peach colored pearls match perfectly. The little gold charm is something from my stash and I also added a flat back pearl to the center to coordinate with the rest on the card.

Have a fun weekend.

Hey There Cowboy

Theresa Momber posted a SCS challenge, Make It Masculine, during the GinaK party last night. This card is made using Theresa's "Out West" set available from GinaK Designs.

The frame was cut out using two sizes of the Label 2 Nestabilities. The larger frame was cut first then temporarily attached to a piece of Basic Black cardstock. The smaller nesties was then centered and cut. The cactus was stamped (using a retired SU stamp) and then grass, sun and sky were sponged using sponge daubers. The horse was black embossed then watercolored with Peerless watercolors. The hardware is from the retired SU Hodgepodge kit. A piece of black twine was used for the lasso.

Another Lighthouse

I am loving this set. Up until now, I have not had many stamps to make masculine cards with. This is another card made with "Guiding Light" from GinaK Designs. I wanted to try something different this time. I wanted it to feel like you are seeing the lighthouse from the ocean, rather than looking out at the ocean. I used a piece of Gina's Digi background paper with some of the nautical netting she now carries. It goes so perfect with this set. The lighthouse was black embossed then watercolored with Peerless Watercolors. You can purchase them from GinaK here: http://www.shop.ginakdesigns.com/category.sc?categoryId=50 I love these watercolors because they come on a thin sheet and you can punch out a small square of each color and mount them on a piece of heavy cardstock. All your colors are right in front of you and it makes it so easy to choose colors to blend. You just use the Niji Waterbrush to pick up color.

After coloring the lighthouse, it was masked off and the background was stamped then sponged. The mountains are from a retired SU set. Long rectangle Nestabilities were used to create the frames. Each layer is on dimensionals. The anchor was colored with a Copic Glitter pen. To get the netting and sailor's knot to stick to the background, I ran it through a sticker machine. Three bronze brads were added under the scene.

Blooming with Love

This card is made with one of the stamps from SU "Fifth Avenue Floral". The butterfly is from SU "A Touch of Nature". The flower and the butterfly were clear embossed then watercolored using Peerless Watercolors purchased from GinaK Designs. I used a mixture of purple, lavender and blues. I believe the bottom piece of designer paper is from SU but I do not know where I got the top piece - I was using up scraps. Nestabilities long rectangles were used to cut the Bashful Blue and Lavender Lace Frames. The lavender lace border was punched with a Martha Stewart punch. The ribbon was from SU and the pearls are from Kaiser. The Cuttlebug, Love Language, embossing folder was used on one of the rectangles.

Bookmark

I I made this bookmark to send to a little girl who lost the tip of one of her fingers. Her grandmother is Betty Benton and is a friend I met through StampTV.

This is a bookmark that will fit over the page. The long Nesties rectangles were used to cut two green scalloped frames. The giraffe is from Melanie's "Just So Hippy" available from GinaK Designs. She is stamped with Black Memento ink and colored with Koh-i-noor Pencils and OMS then cut out. The grass and leaves were stamped then the sky and ground was sponged on. The giraffe was then attached. The SU slot punch was used to create the slot for the ribbon. This was then attached to the front scalloped piece. I used some paint sample cards and a Martha Stewart punch for the butterflies. I used colors that matched the giraffe. The back piece was scored down on the fourth scallop with the ScorPal and attached to the front piece with ScoreTape. There is a piece at the top and one down by the scoreline.

Red Flowers

I am waiting to leave for an appointment, so to pass time starting making a card. This card is made with a flower from Melanie's "A Year of Flowers". I don't use this flower stamp much because I don't know what kind of flower it is. I guess with stamping we can do about anything we want with a stamp, even if it isn't the correct color. I wanted to make a red/black/white card so that is why these flowers are red. Since I don't know the flower, I also didn't know what type of leaf it has so I stamped the poinsettia from that set and colored it green. I then cut it apart and layered it under the flowers. I black embossed the flowers on Real Red cardstock. The leaves were colored with markers. The top background was embossed with the Floral Screen Cuttlebug embossing folder. The bottom was embossed with a Cuttlebug border. I used some red rhinestone stickers by Stampendous in the center of each circle and added one to each corner on the top. The black border was made with a Martha Stewart punch.

With Love

On StampTV, Jessica posted a Sketch Challenge and this is the card I made to participate. I used Gina's "Elegant Flowers" from the Floral Frenzy Kit. I almost always use pinks or purples and so decided to use yellow/orange since there are many yellow iris in bloom right now. I used watercolor pencils and OMS to color. The designer paper is from SU. All the embossing was done using Cuttlebug embossing folders. The embossed piece behind the iris is green but is showing up almost black in the photo. You can check out this challenge here: http://stamptv.ning.com/forum/topics/sketch-challenge-stvsc13. Everyone has a chance to win in a random drawing for any stamp set valued up to $24.95. There are new challenges posted Monday - Friday. You do not have to use a stamp set from GinaK Designs, but if you do, you get two chances to win. These are all fun Challenges, so be sure and check them out.

Wow! I won the Midnight Madness Masterpiece Award

Phyllis Long has been one of my biggest fans on my SCS gallery. She always leaves me the sweetest comments. She started asking me to join in on the Midnight Madness Challenges so one day I decided to do it. Until I had joined StampTV, I never participated in any challenge. Well this morning I woke up to a "Congratulations" on my win so I had to go to check it out. I want to thank everyone who voted for my card. It is always so much fun to know others enjoy your work. You can check out the Midnight Madness Challenge here: http://priscillastyles.blogspot.com/

Thanks Phyllis for being such a big fan! Congratulations to you for winning the "Seasoned Socialite" Award.

Roses

Before I get started planting all my new flowers, I wanted to get a card made to post today. I decided to make another card for the Midnight Madness Challenge.

I used the roses from Melanie's "A Year of Flowers" from GinaK Designs. The flowers were colored with colored pencils and OMS. The background paper is from SU. I used the long rectangle nesties for the frame then ran it through the Cuttlebug Dotted Swiss embossing folder. The black embossed strips are designer paper from SU run through a Cuttlebug embossing border folder. The "fern" type leaves were made with a Martha Stewart Punch.

Hope you have a fun day.

Herb Garden

Today I spent my time going to different garden nurseries looking for flowers, herbs and vegetables. I came home with a van full of things I will need to plant tomorrow.

I decided to post a card today with herbs. The inspiration for this card came from Kitty Caracciolo. Kitty has done so many beautiful watercolor cards. This stamp is from a retired SU set called Sweet Herbs. It was stamped with Memento black ink on watercolor paper then watercolored. The background was sponged with So Saffron and Certainly Celery. The design and verse are mounted on So Saffron Cardstock. I used my Petite Oval Nestabilities for the salutation. The base of the card is Very Vanilla.