Sending Hugs

Hey all and happy Sunday! After making Michelle's birthday card, I wanted to play some more with another Penny Black stamp...because they're just so darn cute!! This one is called Lovin' & Huggin' Ducks and you can get it at Stamper's Dream along with the Prism Intense Orange CS, the JustRite Tiny Words sentiment, and 1-3/16" Wooden JustRite Stamper.

I tied the bow with my Bow Easy. Check out Jerri's video tutorial if you haven't seen it yet.

Here's a close-up so you can see what's up on foam tape.



SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: Penny Black Lovin' & Huggin' Ducks, JustRite Tiny Words
Paper: PTI Select White, Prism Intense Orange, MME Bloom & Grow "Grow" DP
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Copics: W1, W3, YR21, YR04, Y38
Accessories: PTI Summer Sunrise Satin Ribbon, Circle Nestabilities, Labels One Nestabilities, Foam Tape, 1-3/16" JustRite Wooden Stamper
Card Size: 5" Square

Michelle just listed a bunch of SALES in her store too, so be sure to check it out. Our Craft Lounge stamps are now 40% off! All Spellbinders Impressabilities , Labels Four , and Dahlia Nestabilities are on sale for 20% off! A number of items are on sale in the JustRite Stampers category including the newly released Tiny Words & Centers (used on my card today). Other categories have sale items as well, but you can find them ALL if you click on SALES AND SPECIALS .

See ya!

Arranged with Lustre

Oh my, talk about a match made in heaven.....Melanie's Arranged with Flowers set and Silver Lustre CS from Paper Temptress. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the look of the stripes in the paper with the flowers!!

When I opened up my envelope of papers from Paper Temptress, Patricia included a note and said that I HAD to try coloring on the Silver Lustre paper, and that it was amazing. Boy was she right! Not only do the stripes show through the coloring with a really pretty shimmer, but it's like.....watercolor paper for Copics!....the ink moves SOO WELL on it. So, if you get this stuff, I'm passing on the message...try coloring on it! It's FANTASTIC! Can you hear my excitement? I'm seriously excited!

Here's a close-up so you can see how the stripes show through the coloring. Two extra roses (the ones above and below the sentiment) and the sentiment were stamped, cut out, and popped up on foam tape.



Here's the inside where I added some more of the Silver Lustre paper and an extra rose that's also on foam tape:



...and one more bit of exciting news that Patricia said I can share with you....during the entire month of July, the entire Lustre Line will be on sale for 25% off!!! Whoo-hoooo!!!

SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: Gina K Designs Arranged with Love (stamps by Melanie Muenchinger)
Paper: PTI Select White, PTI Black, Laser Silver Lustre from Paper Temptress
Ink: Black Craft
Copics: G24, G28, R11, R22, YR21, YR04, BV000, BV02, BV04
Accessories: PTI Summer Sunrise Satin Ribbon, Clear Embossing Powder, Foam Tape

Have a GREAT day!

Happy Birthday, Michelle!

Guess what? Today is Michelle Rodgers' birthday!!!

Whoooo-hoooooo, Michelle! Happy Birthday, gf! I hope your day is AWESOME! ....you're not working today, are you?? Good Lord, I hope not!...if you are though, I hope they at least go easy on you!

Michelle loves Penny Black stamps so I pulled out my Critter Party clear set and made this card for her. The main image is three layers deep with foam tape. It's stamped once on the circle, a second full image is up on foam tape, and then the hands/gift and the two feet are up on a third layer of foam tape. The layout is Jen del Muro's SFYTT from last Saturday.

Here's a close-up:


I stamped more images from the Penny Black set on the inside:


SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: Penny Black Critter Party Clear Set
Paper: SU Kraft, PTI Lemon Tart, PTI White, Basic Grey Porcelain DP
Ink: Timber Brown Stazon, Memento Cocoa, Versafine Onyx Black
Accessories: Yellow Adhesive Gems, Circle Nestabilities, Labels One Nestabilities, Martha Stewart Doily Border Punch, PTI Lemon Tart Twill, Bow Easy, Foam Tape, Prisma Pencils, Gamsol
Technique: Gamsol Magic
Card Size: 5" Square

...stop by Michelle's blog today and leave her some big ole' happy birthday love!!

We love ya, Michelle!

Gina K Release

I'm back with one more card using Melanie's new Arranged with Love set. I'm tellin' ya, this set is awesome! There's so much you can do with it! This post is going live at 10 p.m. CST, so you know what that means...you can now purchase the set at Gina K Designs!

The sketch is today's Stamp TV Sketch from Cathy. The large floral background on the front of the card was stamped in black craft and heat embossed with clear EP, and I added some Candlelight Shimmerz to the flowers. The sentiment was heat embossed as well. I colored the pearls with a R59 Copic, and the May Arts Ribbon was tied with my Bow Easy. The black labels one nestie and the one with the sentiment are each up on foam tape.

On the inside of the card I added a Very Vanilla panel, then stamped another floral background, cut out around the flowers in the lower right-hand corner like I saw on Theresa's awesome sneak peek yesterday, and popped it up on foam tape. I painted some Shimmerz on these flowers too.



Here's a close-up of the shimmer:



SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: GKD Arranged with Love (Stamps by Melanie Muenchinger)
Paper: Bravo Burgundy, Very Vanilla, Basic Black
Ink: Black Craft, Versafine Onyx Black, R59 Copic
Accessories: May Arts Ribbon, Bow Easy, Labels One Nestabilities, Foam Tape, Clear Embossing Powder, Candlelight Shimmerz Paint, Kaiser Craft Pearls

Have a great night!

Life is Good

This might be the longest Sketch Challenge card I've ever worked on, LOL! I started it yesterday for the SCS Sketch, and after many interruptions finally finished it this a.m. The beachy stamps, DP, Prism papers, and the sticker on the inside are all from Taylored Expressions. See the product links in the supply list below.

The main image is up on foam tape. It was stamped in black craft ink and heat embossed with clear EP before being watercolored. Orange glitter was added to the top of cuppie's head, and Platinum stickles were added to the sand and the dots on the castle.

Here's the inside where I used a sticker from the Beach Bum Key Ingredients kit:



SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: SASI Beach Bum
Paper: Beach Bum Key Ingredients (Prism Sunflowers Medium, Prism Classic Purple, Choice Buttercream CS, Cosmo Cricket Snorkel DP), Watercolor Paper
Ink: Black Craft, Cool Caribbean, Creamy Caramel, Tangerine Tango, Blush Blossom, Perfect Plum, Lavender Lace
Accessories: Let the Good Times Roll Sticker from Beach Bum Key Ingredients, Platinum Stickles, Orange Glitter, Clear Dew Drops, Diamond Glaze (to glue down the dew drops), Raffia Ribbon, Foam Tape

Okay, I have to get a move on and get to work. See ya!

Melanie's new set!

I have something exciting to share with you today!! Melanie Muenchinger asked me if I'd be interested in making a sneak peek project with her new set called Arranged with Love (oh my gosh, I was like "heck yeah!") Thanks again, Melanie!!

The set will be available for purchase at Gina K Designs on Thursday, June 25th at 10 p.m. CST. It includes this main floral image with the blank box and there are 10 coordinating greetings to stamp inside the box. Gorgeous!!



I stamped the image on watercolor paper in black craft ink, heat embossed it with clear embossing powder, and then watercolored it with reinkers. The entire main image is up on foam tape.

Here are direct blog links so you can see more amazing projects with this new set: Gina, Carolyn, Cathy, Cindy, Donna, Emily, Erika, Jessica, Kurtis, Lee, Lynn, Theresa, Melanie, Gina K's CenterStage Spotlight designer Carla Suto, Melanie’s Guest Designer this month Selma Stevenson, and Dawn Lusk!

Too fun! Thanks for stopping by today!




SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: Gina K Arranged with Love (stamps by Melanie Muenchinger)
Paper: Metallic Gold, Very Vanilla, Watercolor Paper
Ink: Black Craft, Marigold Morning, Cranberry Crisp, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi
Accessories: Gold Cord, Clear Embossing Powder, Diamond Glaze (to glue down the gold bow), Foam Tape
Technique: Watercoloring with Reinkers, Heat Embossing

Silke's FTTC Sketch

My girl Silke is hosting this week's Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge with a sketch! Yay Silke!

The oval mat behind the topiary is up on foam tape. A lot of the supplies I used on my card can be found at Stamper's Dream. Check the supply list below for product links.

*Edited to Add*
Tonilea asked how I made the bow. I made it with the Bow Easy that I got from Sharon Johnson's store. Here's an AMAZING video tutorial by Jerri Jimenez. I followed her instructions on how to make a double loop bow.

Here's the inside of the card:



SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: Flourishes Siberian Iris
Paper: Prism Birchtone Medium, Cosmo Cricket Everafter DP, Prism Smooth White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics (BG93, W1, W3, YR21, YR24)
Accessories: Seafoam Sheer Ribbon, Labels One Nestabilities, Oval Nestabilities, Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch and 3-in-1 Butterfly Punch, Bow Easy

Hugs,

CAS Ladybug

I'm a little pressed for time today so I totally followed Jackie's lead today and made a card using some CAS challenges. The layout is Fall-To Layout 47 and I did some paper piecing with my ladybug on Prism Blush CS following the CAS 20 challenge on SCS (sorry that I can't link to the challenge, but SCS seems to be down right now).

I know it's now officially summer, but I wanted to play with this OCL Hello Spring set. You can get this set at Our Craft Lounge or at Stamper's Dream. The Girl Friday DP, Prism Blush Red Light CS, May Arts 3/8" Plaid Ribbon, Spellbinders Tag, and Martha Stewart Doily Border are also available at Stamper's Dream.

A second cut-out ladybug, the black scallop circle, and the Spellbinders tag are all up on foam tape. Here's a cl0se-up:



SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: OCL Hello Spring
Paper: PTI White, SU Basic Black, Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday DP, Prism Blush Red Light
Ink: Rose Red (sponging on tag)
Accessories: May Arts 3/8" Checker Ribbon, Spellbinders Tag Trio, Martha Stewart Doily Border Punch, Foam Tape, Circle and Scallop Circle Nestabilities, Bow Easy
Technique: Paper Piecing, Sponging, Dry Embossing

2RB Summer Challenge

Hey all! Today's Banana Split Sunday Challenge is to make a summertime project, so I got out my new June Journaling Spot set from 2 Red Bananas and made this ice cream card.

The ice cream cone and popsicle stamps come with lines in the centers for journaling. Well, I don't do as much scrapbooking as I used to so I decided to cut out the lines from the rubber with my craft knife so I'd have solid images (I kept the lines as one piece of rubber so they can be put back inside the images and stamped if I need them). The orange popsicle is is two layers, once with the popsicle sticks and once with just the creamsicle part. Both are glued to the card with foam tape. The ice cream cones are just glued down flat to the card with adhesive runner tape.

The MME Feeling Groovy DP, Prism Papers, ribbon, and candy dots are all from Taylor's June Key Ingredients Subscription Kit. The white candy dots that come in the kit were colored with my R35 Coral Copic. I added some Waterfall, Orange Peel and Fruit Punch Stickles to the ice cream and popsicle, and then traced over the sentiment with my black Spica glitter pen.

Here's a close-up:



SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: 2RB June Journaling Spot
Paper: SU Kraft, PTI White, Prism Twilight Light, MME Feeling Groovy DP
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, R35 Copic, Black Spica Glitter Pen
Accessories: Candy Dots and Ric Rac Ribbon from June Key Ingredients Subscription Kit, Foam Tape, Waterfall Stickles, Fruit Punch Stickles, Orange Peel Stickles, Circle Nestabilities

Have an awesome Father's Day!! I myself am baking my Dad his favorite raisin cake right now as this post is going live. I'm not really into cooking, but I do like to bake. Oh, the house is gonna smell SOOO good! {smile}

Here's the recipe if you want it. It's one from my Mom-Mom and my Aunt...two of the best bakers I know:

1 lb raisins

2 cups water

1 cup water

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup crisco

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp salt

4 cups flour

1 tbsp baking soda

- Cook 1 lb raisins in 2 cups water or 15 minutes, then add 1 cup cold water and let the raisins cool.

- Cream 2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup crisco together

- Mix 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp cloves, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp salt, 4 cups flour, and 1 tbsp baking soda
- Add liquid from raisins and mix with other ingredients, then stir in the raisins
- Bake at 350 degrees for 45-65 minutes in a greased tube pan or square cake pan (I use a tube pan) until cake pick comes out clean

Note: this is one of those recipes that always seems to come out different, even my Mom-Mom and Aunt say the same thing, so keep a close eye on the cake. If you pull it out right when it's done, it's a really moist (and YUMMY!) cake. My Mom-Mom and Aunt's cakes are usually done between 45-55 minutes. In my oven with my pan, 65 minutes is about right.

June Key Ingredients Subscription Kit

Hi everyone! Want to see June's Key Ingredients Subscription Kit from Taylored Expressions? Here it is! The Prism Papers, DP, Flowers, Ribbon, and Candy Dots are all part of this month's kit. Note: the candy dots that come in the kit are white. I colored them with my Prisma pencils.



For this month's blog hop, Taylor challenged us to make a card or gift for any June event we chose and to create some dimension on the project by any method. We were told to step away from the Copics for this one challenge. Here's what I came up with.

I look forward to June because it's the official start of summer....going to the beach, bright colors, warm temperatures, flowers, etc., so my card is themed around all these things. I LOVE summer! ...yeah, you probably know that already, right? LOL!

My main image was stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink on Taylor's Choice White CS, colored with Prisma Pencils, and blended with Gamsol. I added some orange stickles to the two orange umbrellas and platinum stickles to the sand.

For the dimension, the image was stamped three times.....once on the deckled rectangle panel, all three umbrellas were cut from the second one and popped up on foam tape over the base, and then I cut a third orange umbrella (just the one on the left) and popped that up on another layer of foam tape. The large orange flower is also up on foam tape. Here's a close-up so you can see the dimension and stickles:



SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: Great Impressions F367, Taylored Expressions Beach Bum (sentiment)
Paper: June Key Ingredients Subscription Kit (Prism Papaya Puree Medium, Prism Twilight Light, Choice Snow White, MME Feeling Groovy DP)
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
Accessories: June Key Ingredients Subscription Kit (Ribbon, Flowers and Candy Dots), Foam Tape, Platinum and Orange Stickles, Spellbinders Deckled Rectangles, Gamsol, Prisma Pencils
Technique: Gamsol Magic

Okay, be sure to check these blogs for more projects with this month's KI kit:

Taylor VanBruggen
Sankari Wegman
Dawn Easton
Laurie Schmidlin
Jen del Muro
Karen Motz

Also, the Taylored Expressions Moving Sale is on and it'll run through the 26th (or while supplies last). You can check out all the details HERE on Taylor's blog post.

Thanks for stopping by!

What's the Dirt?

Here's another Pat the Bad Dog card....I can't help myself, this image of him making a mess of the yard just cracks me up. Of course, it's not so funny when OUR dog does it in our woods. Hmph!!

Stamps are from Our Craft Lounge. The Prism Papaya CS and Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday DP is from Stamper's Dream. Don't forget, Michelle is offering 25% off the OCL sets that she currently has in stock in the SD store.

The layout is this week's SCS Sketch.

SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: OCL Pat the Bad Dog
Paper: SU Very Vanilla, PTI Dark Chocolate, Prism Papaya Medium, Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday DP
Ink: Memento Cocoa, Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics (Y38, YR04, YR24, E25, E27, 0, E42, E43, W1, W7, YG67, YG95, BG10, BG93, BG96)
Accessories: Spellbinders Curved Mega Rectangle Nestabilities, SU Hodgepode Hardware, Orange Grosgrain Ribbon

That's it for today, short and sweet!

Faith Bookmark

Want to see the bookmark I made for my daughter? Check it out on the Stamp a Sweet Impression Blog.

On a personal note, I'm also BACK from vacation! I know, you probably didn't even know we've been away because I've had posts scheduled (did you know I'm a total *scheduler* when it comes to blog posting?? Even when I am home, I'm a scheduler.) every day that we've been gone. I don't like to post ahead of time that we're going to be on vacation...there's just something that holds me back from publicly announcing that we're away from home. Anyway, I'm just going through my emails and comments now, and getting caught up. I see I have a few questions too. If you left me a question, I'll get back to you as soon as I can, okay?

We had a great time on vacation! We were camping at Knoebels Campground and Amusement Park. Other than having a total mountain of laundry to do, it's GREAT to be home!!

Talk to you soon!

Precious Bundles Boy

I'm back with a baby boy card, again using stamps from the new Precious Bundles set from 2 Red Bananas. This set will be available for purchase tomorrow, June 17th!

The lemon scalloped circle is up on foam tape, so is the large lemon panel on the base. The main image and sentiment were both stamped in black craft ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. The image is watercolored with reinkers and a damp paint brush.

Here's the inside of the card where I stamped more stars from the set:



SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: 2RB Precious Bundles
Paper: SU Kraft, PTI Lemon Tart, Watercolor Paper, Basic Grey Porcelain DP
Ink: Black Craft, Buckaroo Blue, Soft Sky, So Saffron, Blush Blossom
Accessories: PTI Lemon Tart Twill Ribbon, PTI Lemon Tart Button, Blue Thread, Clear Embossing Powder, Circle and Scallop Circle Nestabilities, Foam Tape
Technique: Heat Embossing, Watercoloring

Precious Bundles Girl

Here's a sneak peek card featuring stamps from an adorable new set from 2 Red Bananas, illustrated by my fabulously talented blogging friend, Jami Bova. It's called Precious Bundles and it'll be released this Wednesday, June 17th!



Both nestie panels are up on separate layers of foam tape. The bow was tied with my Bow Easy that I bought from Sharon Johnson's store....a must have for a bow-challenged girl like me. {smile}

*Edited to Add*
Some of you emailed me about the embossed buttons. It's a Cuttlebug embossing folder called "Just My Type," which is a set of five borders. Just a quick note about this set and the way it comes up in Google searches...sometimes it shows this border as the actual row of buttons and sometimes it looks like a row of plain dots. The one I got is a row of buttons...I'm not sure why it shows up as plain dots in some pictures. Hope that helps!

I added some of Taylor's Tiny Twinkles to the wheels and baby carriage. Here's a close-up:



SUPPLY LIST ~
Stamps: 2RB Precious Bundles
Paper: PTI Select White, PTI Sweet Blush
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
Accessories: PTI Sweet Blush Ribbon, Bow Easy, Glue Dots, Embossing Folder, Taylor's Tiny Twinkles, Diamond Glaze (to glue down the twinkles), Foam Tape, Prisma Pencils, Gamsol
Technique: Gamsol Magic

I'll post a baby boy card tomorrow. See you then!