Embellish Life

Sweet Cupcake

  I haven't stamped in a while, here's my first card in months. I was hosting Bunco this past week and needed some door prizes. I went into my stash of cards to come up with some packs. But I wanted a "new" card to add to them. I bought this set when it was on special in October. A very quick card, using SC199 from SplitCoast.

The cupcake was stamped on WW with Close to Cocoa ink. I used Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol to color the image. It was popped up on the double layer, which was also popped up using dimensionals. The sentiment was stamped on WW with CtoC ink. Regal Rose wide grosgrain ribbon and Diamond Stickles finished up the car.

Everyone who got this card in their packet loved it.

Another DTGD Challenge

This is the other challenge I participated in. It was JulieHRR's challenge to have a lot of white space on your card. She stamps so good and makes all her cards very classy. I decided to give this one a try.

I used the new owl set, Q.T. Hooty, from Pink Cat Studio. I saw a card in the SCS Gallery and fell in love with the set. I stamped the image on Whisper White cardstock using Brilliance Graphite Black ink. Copic markers (Love them!) were used to color in the image. The brown ribbon was from the Flirty Ribbon Originals SU came out with in Spring '07. I just love these little owls!!!

Dare to Get Dirty Challenges....

Last week on SCS was their annual Dare to be Dirty challenges, celebrating the ladies who originally posted their cards on the site. Here is my submission for 2 of them - Using cupcakes and Ribbon. The image I received from the SCS WishRak forum a few months ago. It is a Whipper Snapper design. I colored the cupcakes in with Copic markers. The cool carribean was run through the cuttlebug using a folder. Colors I used: Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Lavender Lace, Cool Carribean and Whisper White.

I was very pleased with the result. I just love the ribbon used - it is from American Crafts and it was in my stash.

Celebrating Bella

I'm participating in more of the challenges posted on SCS. I really liked the one posted for last week, so this was my entry. Since I had already begun to color this cute little Cosmobella, I thought she'd be perfect for the challenge. She was colored in with Copics and mounted on textured cardstock. The new SU In Color, Pink Pirouette, has to be my favorite this year. I used it as the card base. While looking through my DP stash, I found some beautiful paper that I thought would look great on the card. I mounted a piece of it onto the textured cardstock, too. Following the sketch, I used pink taffeta ribbon for the "strip" of cardstock that was originally stated for the challenge. The Bella layer is mounted with dimensionals so she will pop up a bit. I stamped Celebrate in Brocade Blue classic ink. The final touch was flat-black mini pearls that I also found in my stash. The end result was this cute Bella celebrating just to celebrate!

My first "Stella"....

This was one of the new stamps I ordered last month from StampingBella. I think Stella is just so sassy in this cupcake version. I used the layout from SCS Sketch Challenge 183, which came out around July 4th. So, I wanted to use patriotic colors, but added the yellow because I didn't have silver or gold cardstock.

The yellow panel was embossed with my CB. On the real red panel, I stamped a star in silver encore ink and then heat embossed. Stella was colored in using Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol. I added silver brads and silver organdy ribbon. The finishing touch was a red stickles cherry on the cupcake.

Crabby Recipe Card

I made a 6 x 6 recipe card for Polly, who is PCSing back to the states this month. The one here is my card that I made as well. The crab and clam were created by stamping on a transparency with black Stazon Ink. Then, using Crystal Effects and Classic Re-inkers I "painted" the images, finishing with a dusting of Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The eyes were colored in with the White Signo Gel Pen. The end result - adorable!

For the rest of the page, the background is Cool Carribean, recipe printed on Whisper White. Sahara Sand ink and cardstock was used for the sand. I attached the transparency using Silver Brads.

A very fun page to do. I plan on teaching the Painting/Transparency technique to the stamp group in the fall. I think they will enjoy it.

Birthday Whimsy for Kayla

I made this quick and easy card for my sister's belated Birthday, which was on Sunday. The layout came from the June 2007 Stampin Sucess, with just a few changes. I used the retired SAB set, Birthday Whimsy, as the focal point image. Stamping Regal Rose on Whisper White cardstock, I mounted onto a piece of Regal Rose cardstock. I stamped "happy birthday" on another small piece of WW, and attached to the Regal Rose square. Using a 2-way glue pen, I sprinkled Dazzling Diamonds glitter on the candles of the cake.

For the main card, Old Olive is the base and Paisleys & Petals were the accent papers. I mounted the birthday cake onto the card using Stampin Dimensionals.

I was very pleased with the end result of the card. I thought about more embellishments, but just couldn't think of anything else without the card looking overly gaudy.

The card is very cute!

Teacher Gifts 2008

With the end of the school year here, I quickly made a few projects to give as gifts for the teachers. I decorated a coffee break tin, pen and notebook for my son's teacher. On these gifts, no stamping was done - I only used the retired Primary Colors Simply Scrappin Kit. The finishing touches were various ribbons, star punch and red stickles. I was extremely happy with the end result and his teacher loved the gift!

Faux Silk Technique

I finally had a chance to work on a few cards this week. I saw the technique that was posted last Wednesday and thought it would be a nice one to work on. I loved Beate's tutorial and card, but didn't want to exactly copy her layout. So, I broke out a new stamp set, Infinite Goodness, one of the new Hostess sets from the SS08 catty.

The Faux Silk technique uses tissue paper to create a textured background or focal image. For this card, I stamped the leaves in Stazon Ink on the white tissue paper, then carefully colored the leaves in with an Aquapainter and Always Artichoke ink. Once the coloring was finished, adhered the tissue paper to a piece of Whisper White Cardstock using a glue stick. Spray adhesive, Mod Podge or any other "wet" glue could also be used. After the piece was dry, I trimmed off the excess tissue paper.

The pears were also created using Faux Silk. The texture of the cardstock pieces is very unique. When I was finished with the Faux Silk pieces, I completed my card.

I had fun working on this one, so I will teach the technique at the ROSC Rubberstamping meeting this month.

Big Fabulous Flower

So, after seeing so many wonderful cards on SCS with this set, I just had to buy it for myself. I am extremely happy I did, as this one is becoming my favorite set (for the moment). Don't we all have a favorite set "for the moment"?

I made my card using Kraft cardstock as the card base, cut to standard 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" size. Other cardstock used was Whisper White and Brocade Blue. The big flower was stamped with Brocade Blue classic ink on Whisper White cardstock 3 times. Then each image was cut using sharp scissors around the petals to make 3 different sized layers. Once cut, the layers were adhered to one another using Stampin' Dimensionals to give it the popped up look. The smallest layered flower was embellished with Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

I stamped Dare to be Fabulous first in Close to Cocoa classic ink on a 3 1/8" x 1 1/16" piece of Whisper White cardstock and then used the Rock n' Roll technique with Brocade Blue around the edges. This gave the image the two-toned look. Very fun!  I used a corner rounder for the 4 corners of the stamped piece. Then layered on a piece of Brocade cardstock, 3 1/4" x 1 1/4" with the corners rounded as well. The Kraft cardstock base was stamped with the Linen BG stamp in Close to Cocoa classic ink.

I used a ribbon slider from the Hodgepodge hardware kit to thread on the Wide Brocade Grosgrain ribbon, which I wrapped around the card base and adhered with Sticky strip. Next, I used Stampin' Dimensionals to layer the flower on top of the ribbon. Then the sentiment was added in the lower right corner.