Isn't it Purdy?!!

Awww...lookit what my sweet friend Bev (aka Beestamper) bestowed upon my self. What a kind gesture and an honor just to be nominated. I have so many people to thank and the director is telling me to get off the stage so let me just say Thank You. Thank you for the virtual hug Bev, your encouragement does wonders for this tiny stamping mealy bug in the giant stamping universe!! You are a sweety! So the drill is that when you get one of these gold stars, you need to pay it forward. And so, I present to you, my forward-ees -- in no particular order. (And by the way, I know most of these gals already have this award or they have so many they've probably lost track. But to you, I say, may your blog never be big enough to hold all your awards!!!!) So grab the badge girls, and pass it on (if you haven't already)!! 1. Julia (aka Artystamper/Create with me) Julie-oolie-oolia is one of my Doubledog Dare pals and has become quite the mentor and muse to me. I adore her. 2. Beverly (aka Beestamper) Backatcha GF!! My original Doubledog Dare pal -- this is all because of you my friend! I bet it's against the rooles to give the award backwards. Can't be helped. 3. Joan Ervin (aka Joan Ervin/Stamping with a Passion) My first encounter with a Dirty girl. And I must say, everyone needs to meet one of these girls at some point in their life. Her talent is as big as her heart. 4. Michelle (aka SF9erFan/Stop and Stamp the Roses) This girl oozes talent, talent that is being published as we speak (there -- your secret is out!!), and she is so willing to share all that she knows and loves. A true gem. 5. Joanne (aka SleepyinSeattle/Sleepy In Seattle) -- Another Doubledog Dare pal who's art caught my attention in the gallery long before she became a Doubledog Dare pal. She is crazy talented and generous with her comments and support, a friend indeed. 6. Stephane (aka SmilynSteph/Ingenious Inkling) -- SCS Inspiration Queen! How did I get so lucky! I love getting PMs from her when she has to be away for the weekend. Odd that I adore her most when she's gone! I am thrilled to be in your pool of back-ups for the Saturday ICs Steph! Check out what this woman does on her blog!! 7. DawnL (aka Dawn A New Day) Did you know that not only does this girl stamp up a storm (RE: Dawn's clouds), she raises llamas? I'm telling you, there is a stamper out there that owns freakin' llamas!! Is this a great world or what??!! 8. Susan (aka http://wwwone4joydaily.blogspot.com/) -- This woman's blog brings serenity to my frantic world. I love her insightful posts and lovely art. 9. Anne Harman (aka JDMommy/Inking in RED) -- The other Anne. Gotta love those Annes. And I have to say, Anne's work gets better and better with every post -- I'm almost scared to see what she does next!! 10. TBD...thinking...thinking... Sweet Dreams Everyone!

A Challenge for Today, This Week, This Month & Myself

Supplies Used: Small, Medium, Large Daisy punch by Punch Bunch. 1/16", 1/8", 3/4" 1", 1-1/4" SU circle punches, Nestibility Small Scalloped Circle, Cuttlebug Med. Scalloped flower, Cricut and Storybook Cartridge (for the leaves on the green stems), Cropadile, Jumbo Green and White eyeletes, Medium white eyeletes, small white eyeletes, small white flower eyeletes from SU. "Seeing Circles" and "Baroque Motifs" stampsets by SU. Baja Breeze DP, Pacific Point and White CS. (Whew, you should see my craft room!!)

Winter finally came to Texas and I'm home today due to an ice storm! Woo Hooo!! Today's card is for the Tuesday Color Challenge over on SCS, my weekly Doubledog Dare Challenge with my stamping pals, a monthly challenge I do with Joanne (aka SleepinSeattle) where we select a mutually unused technique or tool to make a card, and a personal challenge with myself to use something on every card that I have been hoarding. So, here's the lo down on these challenges: 1. Color Challenge: Use Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, and Garden Green. Check. 2. Doubledog Dare Challenge: Use a back-of-the-card stamp (isn't our host Bev (aka Beestamper) so clever?!! Check. You should try this challenge -- upload to the SCS gallery and use Keyword DDC!! We'd love to see your card!! 3. Monthly Challenge with Joanne: This month's item to use was eyelets, and we had to use a minimum of 7 on our card, and at least one had to be part of the design (vs. just holding down the layers). Check. 4. I "unhoarded" my Big Bite Cropadile and Jumbo Eyelets, and my Cricut. Check. I sure could get used to this stay-at-home thing. Happy Stamping everyone!

Portable Photo Studio

I am SOOO excited about my latest acquisition!!! This is at the top of my Favorite Things list! It's my new Portable Photo Studio from Think Geek! The photo to the left shows what all comes in the kit. It all fits snuggly inside that black bag there inside the tent. This is such a good deal, I am so pleased!! It comes with a photo tent plenty big enough for photographing cards or any paper craft projects, two lights to allow you to balance out the lighting, a tiny tripod, and a handy dandy carrying case. All for the very low price of $49.99! I have to tell you, I played with this thing all day today and it really makes it so easy to take a good picture. No experience necessary...in fact, it's the ideal set up if you don't have any experience!! If you've ever struggled with capturing sparkle, true colors, angles, etc., on your cards, then you will appreciate this kit. It's a no brainer, a GREAT tool!! I can't say enough about it! Totally worth every penny! Here's the setup when photographing a card. The two lights sit outside of the tent on either side. They actually sit further back IRL, but I wanted you to be able to see them in this picture so you could get an idea of how the setup works.The tent diffuses the light and the background stays very bright white. It's such a nice effect. Here's the setup to capture a card with sparkle. I aim one of the lights directly into the tent, onto the card so it reflects the glitter. And here's the photos -- what you see: OK, 'nuff said. But if you have any questions, let me know!! Sweet dreams everyone!

Using My Stuff!

OK, so that's it. Starting now I am going to make a genuine effort to USE MY STUFF for gawdsake!! Geeze Louise I have so much cool stuff and I never use it. But not any more, nope, new leaf, new year's resolution...no hoarding, no excuses. I'm pulling out everything. And I am going to start using every bit of it!! So, Firstly (hmmm, spell checker didn't even try to prevent that word, is "firstly" a real word??), one of the things I really wanted to get around to doing was make some cards with the goodies that were bestowed upon me last year as a RAK from Michelle aka SF9erFan (see this post) and the Blog Candy I won from Julia aka Artystamper (see this post). Here's what I came up with: The pink card is made with the go-jus DP, Bella stamp, and ribbon that Julia sent me. That is my first and one and only Bella stamp I own and I love the little sentiment that came with it that says "I admire your drive" because that is exactly the conversation I had with Julia just this week. She is the busiest stamper I know...always pumping out the most brilliant creations. The green card is made with the most unique goodies ever from Michelle! The fab ribbon is quite thick and added so much interest to the layout here. The flower and brad are actually twill fabric! I love them!! And the background DP came like that, with the stamping on it, the distressing, just wonderful! The only thing I stamped on here was the "hello" sentiment at the bottom right. Cool stuff, huh?? I have the greatest pals!! Nextly... I have my Doubledog Dare card for this week: Michelle (the very same Michelle mentioned above), was our host for this week. She dared us to case a card from the outgoing Spring/Summer SU Catty. We needed to change at least a couple of things on it. So, I found a cute little sample at the top of 120. This worked out quite well as I have had a set of the SU Scalloped notes forever and had not even opened the pack (see first paragraph of today's blog). My changes for the card are the CS color, I used the Baja Breeze ones with Baja Breeze ink and the sample in the catty uses the Soft Sky ones (pg. 167 in the catty) with Soft Sky Ink. I used the same stamp set "Baroke Motifs" but changed the ribbon and colors of the medallion. The photo above is showing pg. 167 with the SU sample.

Peony Inspiration - Lang Calendars

Supplies Used -- Paper: Basic Grey Perifery, a scrap plaid piece, SU Black and Old Olive. Ink: SU Old Olive and Pixie Pink; Versafine Raspberry. Stamps: SU Pretty Peonies. Embellishments: Basic Grey Glazed Brads.

Hello All, Here's my card to kick off the weekend! I'm usually way past the IC by this time on Saturday morning (I like to stay up late and do them Friday night) but it just didn't happen last night and this morning we had to meet up with friends for awhile. So, I'm hoping the rest of the day is spent stamping and uploading!! Love the IC choices this week!! Check out the SCS post for it here. I chose the "Aston Peony" Planner Calendar for my inspiration piece. I pretty much cased the design as it was but added some dimension by popping the larger leaves and adding 3 Basic Grey Glazed Brads. Also added a popped dimensional petal to the center of the flower because I (gasp) flubbed it up and that is really a band aid in disguise!! Thanks for checking it out everyone!

Mosaic Tile Technique

Supplies used -- Cardstock: Black Bazzil, SU Confetti Creme. Ink: Versamark. Stamps: SU Autumn Leaf Prints. Accessories: Ribbon, charm.

I am happy to say that I am home today (thanks Martin!) and playing mindlessly in my craft room. I had a sketch in mind this weekend and didn't get to do it, but lo and behold, I checked out the Technique Challenge over on SCS today and I'm sure they posted it just for me!! (See, here's my sketch...I really did have one! Is it even close??!) I used a leaf from a wallpaper print (no I haven't put away my wallpaper books yet!!) for the mosaic piece and followed the instructions for the technique over on SCS. The embossing powder is by Stampmania in "Rust Tapestry" and"Pearlescent Green". Both of which have a shinny luster to them but of course I could not capture in my photo. Since the focal image leaf was so big, I pulled out the trusty, always useful, SU Autumn Leaf Prints set to balance out the design. I stamped two of the leaves using Versamark and the same embossing powders and layered and popped the oak-y looking leaf (uh, may not be an oak leaf, don't quote me). Hung a cute "Inspire" charm with some ribbon I won from Julia's (aka Artystampers) blog and it was done! I like all the texture to this. Sure is fun to be home on a Monday! Have a great day!

2008 RAKs Slideshow!!

RAKs from 2008 that I received are posted here!!

I have been way too slow to post these, I was actually trying to figure out how to do a slideshow for my blog, but I give up!! (I did figure out how to create a signature for my posts though!!) I didn't want to put this off any longer. So I am finally posting via PhotoBucket. (I will be adding a few more that I still need to photograph.) I hope you'll take a minute to check them out -- just click on the link above. I love them all and I am so proud of my collection from my favorite stampers! All of them are so sweet, lovely, and cherished. Thanks so much for remembering me in 2008, friends!! Sweet dreams everyone,

Grid Technique

Supplies used -- Paper: SU Soft Sky, Black, White. Ink: Blue Bayou. Stamps: SU Floral (base card), See Ds Bold Carnations and Silhouettes. Embellishments and tools used: Silver HP Hardware from SU, Blue Bayou Double-stiched ribbon from SU, misc. charm from Michaels, Labels from Spellbinders, EK Success Butterfly punch, Scorepal.

This is my case of the gorgeous Imagine Card created by this week's Featured Stamper Lori Craig, aka stamp_momma. Her SCS gallery is overflowing with beautiful cards, I was inspired by all of them! Her "Imagine Card" in particular got my attention because of the Grid Technique that she used and the gorgeous subtle colors. I didn't do a very good job recreating the subtleness of the images (which I think is the best part of her card!), but I did like the grid look that you get when you've scored the card every 1/2 inch both horizontally and vertically. I used my Scorepal to make the scores perfectly spaced. It's all about the tools, right girls?!! LOL! I kept the sketch, the technique, and the color combo, and I changed the following:

• 1. Different Nesties (her card uses the Scallops, I used the Labels) 2. Different butterfly (she used MS, I used EKSuccess) 3. Different hardware (she used WeRMemory Keepers, I used SU) 4. Different ribbon (she used Making Memories, I used SU) 5. I used a charm instead of a tag (she made a tag from Nesties, my charm is from Mike's) 6. Different stamps (she used CHF, I used See Ds and SU) 7. No paper piercing
Different but the same??? . . .Or not... Thanks for checking this out. Sweet dreams everyone! Anne

Saturday IC - The Coolest Shelf!

Supplies Used: Ink -- Glorious Green. Paper: SU Green Galore, White. Embellishments: Ribbon by Dots and Dashes (from Mike's) and Acrylic Sentiment (unknown). Tools: Flower Punch Tool kit, Cuttle bug, Punch Bunch "Begonia Petal Punch", SU "Looks Like Spring" punch.

The Inspiration Challenge over on SCS today is featuring PB Teen (Pottery Barn Teen). I found so much I want to buy there...but I finally zeroed in on this fantastic shelf for my inspiration piece! I LOVE this thing! I just think it is so cool, the way it looks like a shadow box or window and yet the "portrait" can change everyday if you wanted, just by changing out what you put on your shelf! I showed it to DH and he promises he'll make me some. So I'm telling everyone about his promise so I can hold him to it!! Anyhow...the card...the card...So I focused on the poppies sitting on the shelf...because ... I wanted to use more of my new flower punches!! Hee hee...!! I started by punching petals out of Regal Rose and Pretty in Pink cardstock using this humong-o (I don't know how to spell that) Begonia Petals Punch from Punch Bunch. Next I punched several different smaller flowers out of Summer Sun to use as the centers of the flowers. I wasn't really sure how I was going to make the centers (you'll notice they're all different!) so I just tried them all. I did a little sponging with some brown chalk ink on the edges of all the yellow centers. Next I "stirred" the petals (a legit term in flower shaping girls!!) with my nifty flower punch crafting tool (see yesterday's post) to get the paper fibers to break down a little and the edges to curl. Assembled 5 of the petals together by attaching them with Zip Dry glue to the Summer Sun centers. Used a fine felt tip pen to add some black dots to the centers (after all, they are supposed to be poppies!). Next I used a Glorious Green marker to ink up just the stem part of one of the flowers from the new SU Echos of Kindness Hostess Set (which is really a lovely set BTW) and stamped it onto a panel of Green Galore. Used my Cuttlebug Textile Embossing Folder to emboss a white panel so there'd be some texture to the "frame" and finally, I finished it off with a little teeny acrylic sentiment and dotted ribbon. So, what do you think?? Thanks for checking in all! Sweet Dreams! Anne

Punched Flower Tree -- A Doubledog Dare for YOU!!

Supplies used: Ink -- Mica Glass Metalic Effects, Versafine Black, Blue Bayou. Paper -- White, Cool Caribean, Black. Stamps -- Hero Arts "Trees, Birds & Messages" Clear Design; SU "Wonderful Favorites" and "En Francais". Accessories -- Mini Hydrangia punch, Small and Large Oval punch, Scrapworks Waxy Flax, Flower Punching Kit.

Our Doubledog Dare challenge this week was hosted by Charlene aka LilLuvsStampin! She dared us to make a card using punches, at least one background stamp, and NO DP!! Before I start on the deets of my card, I wanted to let you know the Doubledog Dares are now open to ANYONE!! We would LOVE to see your interpretation of our challenges!! Whenever you see any of the cards posted, the challenge info will be in the recipe of the card. Feel free to jump in and make a card for the Doubledog Dare Gallery. There's no time limit, just be sure to use "DDC" as one of your keywords so we can check out your work! This week's Doubledog Dare would be a GREAT one to start with!! Common and join us -- we don't bite!! The Doubledog Dare girls are: Julia aka Artystamper; Michelle aka SF9erfan; Joan Ervin; Charlene aka LilLuvsStampin; Bev aka Beestamper; Anne Harmon aka JDMommy; Joanne aka SleepyinSeattle; Francie G. ; and me! {smile} First, the background of this card is actually a leftover scrap from some experimenting I was doing with my new "Mica Glow Metallic Effects Ink" that I got from Judikins last weekend. It comes in re-inker bottles and you can paint directly to your stamps with them, or drip multiple colors of them onto a non-pourus surface and use your brayer to pick up the ink and transfer it to CS to make cool-i-oo-lio backgrounds like this one. The colors here are Rose Gold, Honeydew, Teal and Gold. They're very very shimmery IRL, but of course I couldn't capture that in the photo. But they are so pretty!! Next, I stamped the tree from the Hero Arts "Trees, Birds and Messages" Clear Design stamp set using Versafine Black ink. To meet the No-DP-and-use-a-background-stamp requirements, I stamped some scrap Summer Sun textured paper and Cool Caribbean CS in some darker shades of inks with the En Francais BG stamp. Then to meet the Use-at-least-one-punch requirement, I punched several Mini Hydrangeas from them and ran a marker along their edges to define the petals a bit. Next, I shaped them using my cool new stylus pen from my Punched Flowers kit by Punch Bunch. The kit is so awesome!! It comes with a "pen" that has a "claw" head, sort of, that allows you to change out tools to different sizes of stylus ends, or piercing needles or exacto knife blades. Very handy dandy. This may be one of my "Favorite Things" for 2009 this year! Anyhow, I "sewed" my little flowers onto the tree by first poking a hole through the centers of the flowers, all the way through the main panel using the cool pen tool -- changed out to a piercer head -- and threading some Pumpkin Spice Waxy Flax from Scrapworks through them. The Waxy Flax stays stiff enough so you don't need to use a needle to thread it through the little holes. I knotted the exposed end, pulled it through and taped the other end of the wax string down on the back side so it laid flat. Next, I made an oval sentiment tag by punching two ovals with the SU small and large Oval punches and stamped "Friend" from the SU "Wonderful Favorites" set onto the white oval. I sponged the edge a bit, added one more punched flower to it, and then layered the completed tag onto the main panel. The main panel is layered onto a black and then a Cool Caribbean CS layer. Here's pics of the tools I used -- these are all new goodies from the rubberstamp show I attended last weekend: First pic: Large acrylic mount with a handle (soooo nice for even-pressure stamping!), the Mini Hydrangea punch, bottles of Mica Gloss Metallic Ink. Second pic: Close-up of the awesome Punch Bunch Flower-Punch kit that I got from the Stamping Fools booth. It has a claw-tool with a rubber grip, 5 different sizes of stylus', a flower shaper (the white tool in the middle of the kit), 3 different piercing heads (one is round, one is square and one is triangle), a pair of tweezers, and a tube of 3 different exacto knife blades. It's all the tools you need to make your life easier when making punched paper flowers. (I'll be posting more on those later..!!) I so enjoyed making this one!!! Hope you like it! Sweet Dreams everyone! Anne

Tuesday Double Dog Dare Card

Supplies used: Paper - purple velum CS from Marcos Papers, Always Artichoke, Elegant Eggplant, Pale Plum, white, black. Ink - Lovely Lilac, Always Artichoke. Stamps - SU Echos of Kindness. Punches - Butterfly by EK Success, Small Flower by Marvy, SU Scallop and circle punches. Embellishments and Tools - Nestabilities Labels, Dazzling Diamonds, Sukua White Gel pen, Faux rhinestone.

Here's my Double Dog Dare card for this week!! All done and just in time for the new one coming up tomorrow! This week, Francie G. dared us all to make a card with any colors we wanted. But, we had to choose one of those colors and include three shades of it on our card. Pretty clever, eh? I chose purple for my color. I enjoyed working on this although until this past weekend, my mojo was stuck (doesn't that sound gross?) and I just couldn't come up with anything. Then I went to the rubberstamp show and got all kinds of ideas! Now here I am up late in the middle of the week blogging and posting because I stamped all evening!! Thanks for checking it out all! Sweet dreams! Anne

A Sweet Card

Supplies used -- Stamps: SU Sweet and Sassy, SU All Holidays. Paper: White, black, Marcos Paper Red, SU Patterns Pack DP. Ink: Versafine Black. Tools: Copics, Square Nestibilities, Sukura Gel Pen, SU Large and Small Ovals, black striped ribbon from Hobby Lobby.

I stayed very busy today playing with lots of new stamping stuff!! Not all of the experimenting ended up as a card that I liked enough to post, but I did have fun playing with everything! I made this card with no new stuff!! Wouldn't you know it?! Anyhow, it's for some friends of ours that surprised my DH and me with an Anniversary celebration. They invited us to spend a couple of days with them up at their lake house in Grandbury, TX, for New Years, so we thought it would be a fun way to spend our anniversary (we have been married 20 years this past New Year's Eve!). Turns out we were not alone with our hosts and at one point during the evening presents appeared and confetti poppers were going off and suddenly we were all celebrating our anniversary! It was really sweet and fun and we had a great time. This card is a Thank You for our friends for being so thoughtful and gracious to us. I stamped the strawberry from SU Sweet and Sassy set 5 times, colored them with copics, and then cut them out. Adhered them to 2 layers of Nestibilities scalloped squares, then a black panel, then a DP layer, and finally stamped the sentiment and punched it out with oval punches. The black panel has three faux red rhinestones (funny that I think I have to describe them as "faux" just in case you might think I'm handing out real ones --LOL!!), and then dotted all the seeds on the strawberries with Sukura Yellow Glaze pen to add a little texture to them. IRL the strawberries now have a bumpy texture, that's my favorite part of this card!! Thanks for checking in! Sweet dreams! Anne

Punched Gerber Daisy

Supplies Used: Cuttlebug folders, punches, SU black checked ribbon, SU Fire and Ice rhinestone brad, SU small and large oval punches, black and white CS. Sentiment is unmounted - unknown.

I spent most of the day at a local Rubberstamp Show (Wooo Hooo) on Saturday and had the best time! Not only did I find way too many goodies to bring home, but it was my delight and pleasure to meet two SCSers -- Joan Ervin and Bev (TexasGrammy) -- there, in person! It's so fun to meet up after being virtual pals for so long! I saw Joan in the crowd and knew it was her before she even introduced herself, what fun!! My only regret is that my camera battery died on me so I have no pictures!! Whaaaa!!! But Bev got a few and I hope to see those posted over on Joan's blog. Both gals are so sweet and great to hang out with!! As a bonus, Joan's husband George even drove us around to have lunch down the street at Le Madelines. Thanks George!! While at the stamp show, I just happened to pick up some new flower punches so I was very excited to hang out at today's Featured Stamper, JayDeKay's gallery. She has a talent for crafting gorgeous flowers with die cuts and such!! So boy, did I get inspiration from her!! I chose this card from her gallery and pretty much cased it straight out. All the punches came from "Stamping Fools" at www.stampingfools.com. I used the small and med. daisy punches that they carry and a large fern punch. The larger outer petals of the daisy were die cut from a Sizzix Sizlet die. I added another panel of texture and used a sentiment instead of the little bee she used. Hope you enjoy! Hugs, Anne

Trader Joes Cookie Challenge!

Supplies used: CS: White, Bazzil Brown, Marcos Paper Red, SU Choc Chip. Stamps: Unity Stamp Company. Embellishments: Cricut Storybook cartridge, Fiskars border punch, SU rub ons, white gel pen, faux rhinestone from Michaels.

This card is for my Doubledog Dare Challenge that I do each week (or I'm supposed to do each week!!) and I just don't know where the time went. [I'm really sorry I'm late girls!! Bad Anne!! ] But I was determined that no matter what I was gonna get this one done tonight!! Joanne (aka SleepyinSeattle) posted this picture of yummy looking Trader Joe "Candy Cane Joe-Joe's" cookies packaging for our challenge. I'm not looking...I'm trying to diet. So with one eye open, I made this card for the challenge. I loved the color combo and the candy cane stripes reminded me of a great striped background stamp I got many eons ago from Unity Stamp Company. I love that stamp, I don't know why I haven't used it before. I also decided to give my too-long unloved Cricket Storybook Cartridge another run and cut the flourish-y red and brown flowers out with it. (It's wonderful to have so many options at your finger tips!!) I punched the brown bottom panel with a Fiskars border punch and added some white dots as a highlight. The sentiment is a SU rub on. Thanks for checking it out! Sweet dreams everyone! Anne

Cake Card!

There's a fun cake challenge over on SCS this morning! Be sure to check it out here. The inspiration pieces are cakes from the Cake Nouveau website. I jumped in and made a card inspired by the "Great Gatsby" cake from the website. My card really is more creme colored (to match the cake) than my photo reveals (Note to self, must get tips on photographing cards...). Supplies used: SU circle punches, half back pearls from SU Pretties Kit, 5/8" grosgrain chocolate chip ribbon Paper: Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, and Very Vanilla cs. Stamps: SU Beautiful Borders (for the sentiment).