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.

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.

Halloween PenPal Swap

This is the card I made for the monthly PenPal Swap I am in on SCS. I just love these little guys from the stamp set, Booglie Eyes. For my card, I dug into my stash of DP and found this great Halloween Night paper from last year. I paired it up with Pumpkin Pie and Basic Black cardstock. The images were colored in using Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. The black jumbo eyelets came with my new Crop-a-Dile that I bought at Joann.com for a great price. Now every project I work on, I want to use eyelets. The CAD so rocks!! For the inside of the card, I used the Jumbo Outline Alphabet, stamped "h h" in PPie ink on PPie cardstock. Then using the Everyday Flexible Phrases set, I stamped "happy Halloween" with black ink, inside the two h's. The ladies all loved my card.

Criss Cross Card Project

In October, I taught this card to a stamping class - Criss Cross Card. My sample used Kraft, So Saffron, and Whisper White cardstock. The designer paper was some that I received in a swap on the SCS Wish Rak. I followed the tutorial by Beate Johns that is on SCS in the resources/projects section. Journaling Fun stamp set was used to make the lines and the Spiral Punch for the side of the white cardstock to make the notebook paper. The apple image is from Crayon Fun stamp set, which I watercolored with classic ink and aquapainter. To give the card a final look, I used the Tag Punch to make a tag out of Kraft cardstock, attached to the insert with eyelets and wrote "A+" on the tab, to give the card that school touch.

I completed my first Challenge!

Last week's sketch challenge on SCS was one I thought about doing. I finally got around to completing it and this is the result. I used some textured cardstock for the base, that I received from the Wish RAK last month. I love the steam image from the set "Like It a Latte" and thought the D'vine Swirls embossing folder would work well with it. The browns were slightly off color, but still complimented one another. The ribbon is from American Crafts that I picked up the Arts & Crafts center on base. It's expensive - 85 cents a yard, but I really liked the color combo and pattern. I think it works well with this card. I added some stickles to the steam to give it a little sparkle.

I've neglected the gallery today...

Since having this brainstorm of starting a blog, I didn't look through the gallery enough today. And I don't even think I read the posts in the forums. I did do a seach on blogs there.