CCEE Monday-Spotlighting

Hello everyone! It is Monday and time for another CCEE Challenge. This week is our CNFS challenge (Catchy Name Featured Stamper) ... we pick someone who has a catchy user name over on SCS and then we create our card around that stamper's name and send off our cards to them.This week it was Tosh's turn to select the person whose name we were going to use and she selected Michelle aka JustPaintingAround. Tosh told us that Michelle has a spotlighting style that she loved, so for our card we had to use the spotlighting technique.

Of course I was a doorbell about this challenge and couldn't figure out the spotlighting style they were referring to (I have now learned that it is Michelle's way of framing certain parts of an image!) It is awesome.

So, I created a simplistic card spotlighting the bird. All stamps are from Gina K Designs. The trees and sentiment are from Tree Silhouettes and the bird is from Home Tweet Home (illustrated by Rupa Shevde). The shimmery cardstock (Poison Ivory Curious Iridescent) is from CutCardstock.com. (Did you notice the shimmer that comes through the ink on the trees?--lovely!)

You can check out all the other amazing cards by the CCEE team HERE. Hope you will play along!

Thanks for stopping by!

Elegant Cross and Gettin Dirty

I needed another sympathy card for a dear friend. I was missing my mojo for most of the week so this took me too long to make. I received a package with some GORGEOUS Mica Metallic Cardstock from PaperTemptress on Friday and I knew what I wanted to do! ETA: This cardstock is in the store! You can find it here!
I used Mica Metallic cardstock in amber, gold and cappachino. (sigh! ) You cannot see all the flecks of shimmer on this in the photo, but in real life--this just glistens.

I embossed the cross image (Elegant Cross from Rubber Stampede) on the Amber and then added some jewels and metal adhesive dots. I embossed the background stamp in gold on the cappachino and then matted the cross on scalloped oval nestabilities.


<--Here is another view of the card lying down. Materials used: Stamps-Elegant Cross (Rubber Stampede); K-Ren BG 23 (Stampa Rosa Inc); gold embossing powder; Versamark; Heat tool; Cardstock-Mica Metallic Cardstock-Amber, gold, Capachino (The PaperTemptress); Mark Richards Metal adhesive dots; Wedding jewels (The Paper Company); Spellbinders Oval Nestabilities; Spellbinders Decorative Photo corners.

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Today is the 15th---and you know what that means....the new Dirty Dozen gallery is revealed on Splitcoaststampers. You can check out the gallery here if you are a fan club member. If you aren't a fan club member---what are you waiting for????


<--Here is a sneak peek of one of my creations in this months gallery! (Stamp credit-Gina K Designs)

HUGE Congratulations to the newest dirty girls---Cindy Motherway and Deborah Saaranen!!!



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Thanks and LOVE...

....from the bottom of my heart for all the comments and emails...I am so touched. I have been on the other side (the one who has to choose a dt) quite a few times and I know it is a VERY difficult process. Just because I wasn't selected, doesn't mean that they think I am bad...just not what they were looking for. I know that. I merely wanted to share because I know there were tons of people who were disappointed as well, and quite frankly, sometimes it does help to know there are others of us out there. It is part of this life---just keep getting back on that horse!

Hope you all have a great weekend and a happy Valentine's Day! Here is a fun Valentine I created with some Basic Grey paper and buttons I got from Eclectic Paperie. I love that store--they have tons of fun stamps and goodies--- and Joy and Daisy are the sweetest people. Eclectic Paperie was also a sponsor of my Alzheimers Heart to Heart Card drive! THANKS SO MUCH JOY AND DAISY!

I used my Scor-Pal to add the grid pattern on the brown mat. I sponged the cardstock with Riding Hood Red ink (SU!).

Have a wonderful day!



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*R*E*J*E*C*T*I*O*N

....no likey!
A hard topic to talk about and an even harder thing to accept. It took me a few days to decide to post about this....but I decided to because when I first started this blog I promised to post both good news and bad news.

On Monday, I found out that I did not make the finals for the Spellbinders Design team. It was a bit of a blow to my mojo but I think I have recovered now (lol!) The funny thing is that I was not going to apply, but two friends and I decided at CHA that we would give it a go....which means that we had exactly four days when we returned to get all of the application stuff together. YIPES!

I wanted to share this with you so that everyone who thinks I NEVER get rejected from anything knows that OH YES I DID! Everyone gets rejections. *Most* people only post about the good news so you don't know about the teams they don't make. If you submit to publications, you will find that rejection is more common than acceptance. (Somehow publication rejection seems easier to swallow though!)
It has been a long while since I have applied to be on a team...so I took it hard the first day but I truly think everything happens for a reason! As a sweet friend said..."something better will come along."

....And I know it will!

On the flip side, I know a few of the people who did make the first cut and I am so thrilled for them! Huge Congrats, Ladies!

*The pictures on this post were my submission pieces.

Thanks for stopping by!

Something Else to Dream About.....

Fun announcement---Yipppeeeee!!!! Stamper's Dream will now be carrying Flourishes stamps.....AND to help celebrate---the Stamper's Dream Design team is showcasing the newest Flourishes release on our blogs this week.

Today, a few of us are posting with this awesome new set called: Strut Your Stuff! I just adore the fun look of all the sentiments in this set and I have never owned a peacock stamp before---so I was lovin' this!

My first card features the beautiful peacock and the fun sentiment "Strut Your Stuff":

For my second card, I wanted to showcase another sentiment in the set which reads "live life in Color." How great is that? So....I went with some color on this one:

In addition to TONS of fabulous stamp lines, you can also find beautiful May Arts ribbon (like I used in the cards above) and pearl adhesive stickers at Stamper's Dream Store! The new Flourishes releases will be available at Stamper's Dream at 9 p.m. EST on Friday (Feb 13th)!

Check out these awesome blogs to see more Peacock fun:

Charmaine Ikach

Kimberly Crawford

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Blog STAR!

I had fun playing with the new Digital Girl set from My Favorite Things today! What a fun set and I just love all the sentiments that go with it....
Materials used: Stamps-Digi Girl (My Favorite Things); Cardstock/ribbon - Papertrey Ink.; punches-oval, label, circle, slit punch (SU!); Build a brad (SU!); Memento tuxedo black ink; Copic markers; flower (Prima); paper piercing tool and mat pack (SU!).

Thanks for stopping by!

KRAFTY CCEE Tag

Hello everyone! Happy Monday (again!) Time again for another CCEE challenge. This week Tosh was in charge and her challenge was a color challenge. We had to use PINK, KRAFT, and WHITE. Ugh! This was very challenging for me.

I decided to create a fun Spring tag that would be cute attached to a white gift bag for a birthday, Mother's Day or Easter.
The white cardstock is Pure Luxury and the Kraft is from Stampin' UP!. I used a piece of designer paper from Cosmo Cricket for the pink. The main image is from Gina K's Baskets of Happiness. I stamped the image twice-once on the circle and once on white cardstock that I cut out and colored with Prismacolor Pencils and Copic markers.

The bottom design is from the Martha Stewart Lace Punch. I added some Sakura Stardust pen over the flower blossoms so they sparkle. The Kraft panel behind the main image is embossed using the Cuttlebug flowers folder. I used my Spellbinders circles and scalloped circle dies to frame the main image.

Check out the fabulous creations the rest of the CCEE group created HERE. Hope you will play along!

Thanks for stopping by!

Easy Peasy Faux Copper Tutorial

Enough people wanted to see how I made the embellishments on THIS scrapbook page so I created a simple tutorial. You will not believe how easy it is to make something look like faux copper. I purchased this die set (Timeless Heritage by Spellbinders) a month or two ago. I LOVE all the dies in the set and I knew that I would use it over and over again.

I played around with them a bit and ended up creating something that actually looks like faux copper. The embellishments LOOK real (but cost A TON LESS and weigh A LOT less too!)

Here is what you will need:

Dies (I used Timeless Heritage by Spellbinders)
Wizard (to cut and emboss)
Gold cardstock (I used Gold Leaf by CutCardStock.com)
Copic Marker- E29-Burnt Umber (You can use other browns and they will just make the copper appear brighter or darker but I liked the results with this one the best.)
Stampin' Up Classic Chocolate Chip marker


Cut and emboss die:

Remove the cardstock from the die and color the entire piece using the Burnt Umber marker:

Then, place the die cut back into the die and use the Chocolate Chip marker to go over the embossed areas (Basically, you are coloring all the areas that are cut out of the dies.)

Remove image from die again and whola!--a copper key. I added a little eyelet and piece of hemp just for fun. (I have a hard time just leaving anything alone!)

The key looks real. I think the KEY to this is using the gold cardstock rather than just using a copper cardstock. The Copic markers covers the gold but the gold still shines through a bit and gives this the appearance of metal. It is very cool.

These embellishements are perfect for scrapbook pages, fun tags, cards, etc. Think of all the money (and postage) you can save if you create more of your own embellishments!

If you give this a try, I would love to see it. Drop me a link and I will be sure to check it out!

Have a wonderful day! Thanks for stopping by!

Sympathy for a Friend

As most of you may know, Gina K's father passed away last weekend. You can read about it HERE.

Although most people find it difficult to express themselves through words when there is a death--I think that cardmakers have a wonderful gift to show that person that they are thinking of them and that they are loved...

I created this card for Gina using her beautiful set called He is Risen. The sentiment is from Framed Flowers:

I kept the design pretty simple, as I do on most sympathy cards. I really wanted the cross to be the prominent message.

Here is a close up of the card. You can see the pearl accents a bit better at this angle.

The designer paper is from the Paper Studio. I used Gina K's pure Luxury for the mat and the card base. The gorgeous gold cardstock is from CutCardStock.com. They have an amazing variety of the most luxurious cardstock. (I seriously have some beautiful croygen white that I am gonna have to make myself use--it is that beautiful! Check out the curious metallic cardstock-OMW!) The beautiful ribbon is from May Arts--you can find a huge selection of May Arts at Stamper's Dream store.

Materials used: Stamps-He is Risen, Framed Flowers (Gina K Designs); Gold embossing powder; Versamark; Heat tool; Cardstock- white (Pure Luxury-Gina K Designs), dp (The Paper Studio); gold leaf (CutCardStock.com); adhesive pearls (K & Company); ribbon -May Arts; Lace corner punch (Fiskars); Scotch foam tape.

Hugs and Love to you Gina....

Thanks for stopping by!

Bling 'Bet Blog Candy Winner!

Hi everyone! Random.Cara picked number 173 as the lucky winner of the new Bling 'Bet from My Favorite Things!

Congratulations to Diane who said "Very, very cute! I would love to make one of these tags, as you did! TFS!" Diane, please email me your address so I can have this sent to you.

Thanks for stopping by!