March Stamp Club #3

This card was stolen directly from the Sale-a-Bration mini-catalog. The only thing I changed was the accessory. I used a flower instead of buttons. {Be Kind}
Stamps: Botanical Blooms
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Versamark
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Barely Banana, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White
Accessories: white embossing powder, paper piercing tool and template, flower fusion two, yellow brad

March Stamp Club #2

Here's another super simple, monochromatic card. The butterflies are cut out and folded upwards so it looks dimensional. I rolled up a glue dot to place along the body and adhere to the card front. The big butterfly is stamped on the card base and then covered with a cut out butterfly. To make this card even faster, you could just stamp all the butterflies directly on the card base. In order to get the two-tone effect using one ink color, I stamped off the image onto scrap paper first, then onto my cardstock to get the lighter shade. I just stamped regularly to get the darker shade.{Butterflies}
Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly
Ink: Baja Breeze
Paper: PTI white
Accessories: striped Baja Breeze ribbon

March Stamp Club #1

We made this card for March stamp club. I actually made it for Lauren's Saturday Sketch, but I never got it posted. Speaking of Lauren's Saturday Sketch, I had to bow out of being on the design team. I just wasn't getting cards made for the posts, and I didn't feel it was right for me to continue as a design team member. She's changed up the Saturday Sketches to have other challenges too. I'm enjoying following what she and the gals are doing each week.

I didn't get any of the new cute Stampin' Up! Easter sets from the Occasions Mini-Catalog, so I had to scrounge a bit. I used Loads of Love and its Accessories sets to make this card. The images are colored with watercolor pencils and a blender pen. I was reminded of why I never use the watercolor pencils. I never like the way the images turn out. Maybe it's just me and my bad technique, but I don't feel as though it looks as watercolored as when I just use the classic ink pads. The purple piece is embossed using the dots texture plate and Big Shot. The black trim is made using the eyelet trim punch.
{Easter Wishes}
Stamps: Load of Love, Loads of Love Accessories
Ink: Basic Black
Paper: PTI White, Pretty in Pink, Lovely Lilac, Whisper White, Basic Black
Accessories: Coluzzle circle templates, eyelet trim punch, watercolor pencils, blender pen, texturz plate, big shot

February Stamp Club

These are the cards we made back in February for stamp club. So, if anyone from club is reading this and you were absent, now you can finally put the stamped pieces together! Yay!

{Loads of Love}

Stamps: Loads of Love, Priceless

Ink: Basic Black, Pretty in Pink

Paper: Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Basic Black

Accessories: SU! markers real red, basic black, going gray, pretty in pink, regal rose, and close to cocoa, silver brads, stickles, circle punches (1 1/4 and 1 3/8)

The image is colored with markers with stickles on the hearts. Here's a hint...Wait for the markers to dry a bit before adding the stickles. Otherwise the markers will bleed. Guess how I know this??? Not only have I done it before, but I also forgot to tell the stamp club members that before we made this card. Theirs bled. Oops!

{Valentine Fish}

Stamps: Holidays and Wishes, retired heart wheel

Ink: Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze

Paper: Basic Black, Naturals White, Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze

Accessories: red tafetta ribon, punches: scalloped edge, 1 3/4 circle, five-petal, 1/4 circle, boho blossoms, heart to heart (at the time I made the card, I didn't have this punch so I had to hand cut it)

I cased this card from an issue of Stampin' Success. One of my club members just happened to have googly eyes in her car. How convenient is that? Girl scout mom. So that club added adorable googly eyes to the fish instead of the punched and colored ones. Increases the cuteness factor by 110%.
{Monochromatic Thanks}

Stamps: Heartfelt Thanks

Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Old Olive

Paper: Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss

Accessories: Kiwi Kiss striped ribbon

The more solid images were stamped multiple times...maybe three...to get the different shades. The outline stamp was stamped full-strength over each blossom. I used Old Olive ink to stamp the Thanks, but we found out it didn't really matter if you used that or Kiwi Kiss. The greeting turned out pretty much the same each time. Thanks is popped up on dimensionals. This is a quick, simple card you can create in less than 10 minutes in any color scheme. Gotta have a few of those in your tool box for times when you need a quick card.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll leave you with one last image. Kate started smiling almost three weeks ago, and it's happening more and more these days. Keith (DH) is very good at getting smiles out of her. We took this picture last weekend when she was six and a half weeks.

I'm a Mommy!

Remember me? Some of you have probably forgotten that you used to even read my blog. I have been quite absent from the stamping and blogging world...obviously. But, I'm back! I've promised my club members that I'm going to post the cards from our stamp clubs these past few months. I'm getting on it this weekend, girls! My goal is to upload those cards and schedule a couple of weeks worth of posts.

First though, I thought I should start out with the most important business...our sweet Kate. Katherine Elisabeth was born on April 7. It's hard to believe that she's seven weeks old already. How time flies! We are blessed, happy, and utterly sleep deprived!

These are some pictures we had taken of her when she was just 11 days old. Those of you on our email list have already seen these. I'll make an effort to post some more recent photos soon.

Isn't she adorable? Okay, maybe I'm a bit biased though. I just love her! Sigh.

Valentine's Day Saturday Sketch

Happy Valentine's Day!

Do you have special plans with your sweetie? We are going to afternoon tea together. Yes, he will actually do this with me, AND he'll enjoy it! I'm so LUCKY! I told my hubby that I didn't want a gift (preparing to be poor...relatively speaking), I just wanted an organized garage. We have so much junk (read: he keeps so much junk that just piles up), and we (he) never seems to go through it or at least doesn't make much of a dent. He did put together some Costco shelves a few weeks back, and today we threweverything into a box and onto a shelf. At some point, we (mostly he) will actually have to go through the boxes, but in the meantime, it feels much more organized. I have several other organizing tasks on my to do list. All this is leading up to clearing out a bunch of stuff from the baby room so that we actually can put together the nursery. Is this what they call "nesting" perhaps? Well, onto today's sketch...

For this card, I used Karen Lockhart's beautiful rosebud cupcake stamp. I colored the image with my Copics, ran a glaze gel pen over the rosebuds, and also added a few stickles. You can't really see the glaze or stickles in this photo though. The sentiment and little hearts are from a Stampendous clear stamp Cupcake set. Belatedly, I realized that I won't be giving this valentine to my cupcake. It's really just too girly to make a good valentine for a boy! Oh well!
{For You Cupcake recipe}
Stamps: Karen Lockhart rosebud cupcake, Stampendous
Ink: Palette Noir
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Whiper White, some random double-sided pattern paper from my stash
Accessories: paper flowers, Build-a-Brad, Marvy square scallop punch

Be sure to check out the other designs for today's sketch:
Lauren Meader
Tamara Harder
Maria Levine
Dawn Easton
Kirsten Dubosque
Kristy Vernon
MacKenzie Bruckler
Alicia Weiman
Kendra

Thanks for stopping by!

January Stamp Club Card #3

A whole week of regular blog posting. Can you even believe it??? This card is made with one of my all time favorite SU! stamp sets, Always. The hearts are stamped in craft ink and clear embossed. The background is stamped tone on tone with Pink Pirouette. {Always recipe}
Stamps: Always
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie craft, Regal Rose craft
Paper: Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, and Sweet Always DSP
Accessories: chocolate chip grograin ribbon, clear embossing powder

January Stamp Club Card #2

I love this little latte image. Going for coffee is one of my all time favorite activities...not that I drink coffee, I don't. I just love hanging out in coffee places. This quick, simple card can easily be turned into a gift card holder for a coffee gift card. I love the patterned paper on this one. It comes from the Fall/Winter catalog level three hostess set with the Seasonal Icons stamp set. {Love You a Latte}
Stamps: Pun Fun, Seasonal Icons
Ink: Basic Black, Pink Pirouette
Paper: PTI White, Whisper White, Pink Pirouette, DSP from Seasonal Icons hostess bundle
Accessories: blender pen

January Stamp Club Card #1

Remember how I said I was sick of winter? I wasn't kidding. All of my January club cards were Valentine's Day cards, starting with this little guy. Isn't he cute? Since I wasn't quite with it enough to order any new Stampin' Up! stuff over the holidays (and still haven't yet), I had to make due with my current stash. Okay, it's not like I'm lacking in the stamp department, but new stuff is just so much fun. This elephant is from last year's Valentine Bundle set called Happy Heart Day. I used markers to color in the grass, stems, hearts and ear, then used a blender pen and gray ink to color in the elephant. Stickles on the hearts makes for a little sparkle. {Unforgettable Friend recipe}
Stamps: Happy Heart Day
Ink: Basic Black, Going Gray
Paper: PTI white, Real Red, Basic Black
Accessories: black gingham ribbon, black brad, stickles, blender pen, markers in Garden Green, Real Red, and Pretty in Pink

Saturday Sketch

Happy Saturday! I'm delighted to say I managed to do the Saturday Sketch this week. I really miss stamping these days. It's rare that I find time to do any. I have to say those pregnancy hormones have destroyed most of my creative juices! I even cheated with this card. The main image is an old one from the set Meet Me at the Cafe by My Favorite Things. I've had the main panel stamped, colored, and even mounted on the olive cardstock for probably a year now. The awning is stamped on a scrap of patterned paper, cut out, and mounted over the main image with dimensionals. The coloring is done with my SU! markers (before I had my Copics). Even if I cheated, it felt good to get something put together last night. It was just about the only time I've been vertical this week. I've been home sick with a terrible cold since Tuesday afternoon. I don't remember the last time I had such a bad cold. Did me in, I tell ya! I'm still recovering. Hope you all are faring better against the germs!

{Bon Amie recipe}

Stamps: Meet Me at the Cafe by MFT

Ink: Palette Noir

Paper: Pink Pirouette, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Basic Black, patterned paper ?

Accessories: gold brads, kiwi buttons, 1" and 1 1/8" circle punches, nestabilities, SU! markers

Check out what the other girls did with Lauren's sketch this week:

Lauren Meader

Tamara Harder

Maria Levine

Dawn Easton

Kirsten Dubosque

Kristy Vernon

MacKenzie Bruckler

Alicia Weiman
Kendra

I actually felt good enough today that I've photographed my January Stamp Club cards from a few weeks back and have set up posts for this week. Yay!

Now, I have to get busy with February's cards. I just realized that I have clubs again starting later this week! I love having all the gals over, but where does the time go? I can't even fathom how I was doing this and card classes and working in my real life before pregancy!!!! Will my mojo ever come back????

December Stamp Club Cards

These are the cards we made last month at December's stamp club. Looking at them now...I'm so sick of winter weather. Usually we make a token snowman or snowflake card in January, but I did all Valentine cards for January's club. Couldn't stand to make anymore winter cards.{Christmas Trio recipe}
Stamps: Big on Christmas
Ink: Basic Black
Paper: PTI white, whisper white
Accessories: SU! markers, stickles, 5/8" grograin ribbon in real red, brocade blue, and certainly celery

{Holiday Wishes recipe}
Stamps: Just Celebrate
Ink: Basic Black, Baja Breeze
Paper: PTI white, basic black
Accessories: Snow Flurries, paper piercer, blender pen, designer brad, pumpkin pie marker

Look What I Found!

Happy New Year! As I was going through my photos, I discovered my November Stamp Club cards, which I apparently never posted. I also have my December Club cards that I need to post too. So, here are the cards we made at our November club.

This first is actually a gift card holder. I found very good directions on Dawn Olchefske's blog. I can't find the direct link now, but you can email me (kkgasper@comcast.net) if you want the directions. I have them in a Word document. {Santa Gift Card Holder recipe}

Stamps: Deer Friends, Polka Dot

Ink: Riding Hood Red, Whisper White Craft

Paper: Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, Basic Black, Kiwi Kiss

Accessories: circle punches, scallop circle punch

This Thanksgiving type card is a case of Sharon Johnson. I would link you to the original card, hers was way cuter, but apparently Splitcoast has changed their format slightly. When I print out cards I want to case, I simply include the stamper's name. If I case their card, I go to the gallery for the particular stamp set and search for their name. I guess I can't search that way any longer.

I like this card because it's a pocket card. This one uses a 5.5" x 8.5" piece of cardstock, which is then scored and folded to create the pocket. If you change the dimensions on this card, you can create a smaller version that would also make a cute gift card holder.

{Thankful Thoughts recipe}
Stamps: Thankful Thoughts
Ink: Basic Black, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango
Paper: Tangerine Tango, Old Olive, Whisper White
Accessories: black brads, aqua painter, round tab punch, Classic inks for watercoloring

I cased this next card from Jenn Diercks. I like this one because it's simple and easy to mass produce. Think Christmas cards for next year. Jenn's card had some paper piercing, and I thought another way to dress it up would be to add some glitter.
{Merry Christmas recipe}
Stamps: Lovely As A Tree, All Holidays
Ink: Always Artichoke, Bravo Burgandy
Paper: Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke
Accessories: 5/8" burgandy ribbon

I will make my best effort to get back on track with blogging here in the new year! :-)

It's a Girl!

I know it's been a couple of weeks since I've done a Saturday Sketch, or posted anything for that matter. It's amazing how time just gets away from me (and probably you too). Isn't this week's sketch a fun one? This is Saturday Sketch 15, and you can play along and upload to Splitcoaststampers using keyword mytimess15.


Several of you have asked if we found out the gender of the baby. Our ultrasound showed that it's a girl! We haven't named her yet (and we figure we better come up with a boy name too, just in case she turns out to be a he). So, in her honor...
{It's a Girl! recipe}
Stamps: Fun & Fast Notes, Polka Dot Background, Nursery Necessities (sentiment)
Ink: Pirouette Pink, Going Gray, White Craft, Basic Black
Paper: Pirouette Pink, Going Gray, Whisper White, Bella Rose DSP
Accessories: scalloped edge punch, pink taffeta ribbon, 2" circle punch


Visit the other girls to see their take on this week's Saturday Sketch.
Lauren Meader
Tamara Harder
Maria Levine
Dawn Easton
Kirsten Dubosque
Kristy Vernon
MacKenzie Bruckler
Alicia Weiman

Holiday Card Class #5

Sorry I didn't get this one up earlier this week. It's been a busy one! I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your family and friends. We still have company. I've snuck down to the computer to quickly post this last card from my Holiday Card Class in October. Enjoy! {Wishing You Cheer recipe}
Stamps: Wishing You Cheer
Ink: Basic Black, White Craft
Paper: Brocade Blue, Real Red, Whisper White
Accessories: stickles, markers in real red, certainly celery, yoyo yellow, brocade blue, basic black, and only orange

Holiday Card Class #4

This card is also stolen from Splitcoaststampers (I told you I needed a lot of help for this class). I think a black Christmas card is kind of unusual, but this one was so striking. I think this one would be extra special with some sparkle on the poinsettias. Of course, in our mass production class, we bypassed that option, but it would be a great way to dress it up a little.{Merry Christmas recipe}
Stamps: Season of Joy
Ink: Basic Black, Real Red
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Dashing DSP
Accessories: scalloped-edge punch, black brad

Holiday Card Class #3

Another card stolen directly from Splitcoaststampers. Okay, maybe this one's my favorite...I think the original card had ribbon on it, which I didn't do for the sake of trying to keep the cards fairly flat for mailing. I love this color combination and the little penguin image from Punch Pals. And don't you love the Top Note created with the Big Shot??? I used Bashful Blue craft ink to ink the edges of the sentiment flag. {Happy Holidays recipe}
Stamps: Punch Pals, Many Merry Messages
Ink: White Craft, Basic Black, Bashful Blue, Bashful Blue Craft
Paper: PTI White, Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Basic Gray
Accessories: Top Note die cut, Big Shot machine, Marvy scallop punch, circle punch, 3/4" square punch, markers in Basic Gray, Bashful Blue, and Pumpkin Pie

Holiday Card Class #2

I think this card is my favorite from the Holiday Card Class. I saw several versions of this card on Splitcoast, so it's CASED from many people. I used a the 1/8" punch for the reindeer's nose. Since people were mass producing for the class, I left it at that, but I think it would be super cute to add a little more dimension and shine with some Crystal Effects. {Merry & Bright recipe}
Stamps: Merry & Bright
Ink: Basic Black
Paper: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Riding Hood Red, Riding Hood Red DSP
Accessories: 1/8" hand-held punch, creamy caramel marker

Holiday Card Class #1

Stolen from a design I saw on Splitcoast (as were several of the designs for this class), this card uses the snowflake from Punch Pals and the tree from Merry & Bright. The tree is stamped on very vanilla, and then stamped again on certainly celery, cut out and mounted with a dimensional. The sentiment is from Many Merry Messages. {Merry Christmas recipe}
Stamps: PunchPals, Merry & Bright, Many Merry Messages
Ink: Basic Black, Certainly Celery
Paper: PTI Vintage Cream, Very Vanilla, Basic Black, Certainly Celery
Accessories: none (gasp!), unless you count dimensionals

Still hoping to round up a card from Saturday's sketch. Until then, I have some more holiday cards from the class to post this week.

Late Saturday Sketch

Hi friends! I actually did Lauren's Saturday Sketch on Sunday, but I haven't had time to photograph and post it. When I first saw this sketch, I was thinking snowflakes, but I ended up with something completely different, a fall card.

I watercolored the images using SU! Classic Inks and an aqua painter (water brush). The little leaves are Sizzix die cuts. To create the texture, I used a stylus to make the "veins" on the leaves.


{Thankful Thoughts recipe}
Stamps: Thoroughly Thankful
Ink: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard, Tangerine Tango, So Saffron, Close to Cocoa, Old Olive
Paper: PTI White, Basic Black, Whisper White
Accessories: Sizzix leaf die cuts, stylus, aqua painters

I did a Holiday Card Class a couple of weeks ago and need to post those cards still. Plus, I have this month's stamp club to post. I will try to spend some time this weekend scheduling some posts because it seems I just get get to it during the week!

Thank you for all the well wishes and inquiries about how I'm doing these days. I'm feeling much better. Still constantly tired, but at least not so utterly exhausted I can't function. Half-way is quickly approaching. We'll be 20 weeks along in just over a week. We have an ultrasound scheduled for the day before Thanksgiving. If little one cooperates, we hope to find out the gender.

Saturday Sketch

Time for another Saturday Sketch. I used an old stamp set from Pink Cat Studio. First time it's seen ink though. The snowflakes are punched with a Paper Shapers punch. The silver glitter one is actually a silver glitter paper by Die Cuts With A View, and the patterned paper is by Memory Box. QT Owl is colored with Copics. Makes me almost ready for winter... {Warm Hoooliday Wishes recipe}
Stamps: QT Owl by Pink Cat Studios
Ink: Palette Noir
Paper: PTI White, Whisper White, Almost Amethyst, Night of Navy, Basic Gray, Memory Box, Die Cuts With A View
Accessories: Paper Shapers snowflake punch, silver brad, gray taffeta ribbon, circle punch, Coluzzle

Here are the other takes on Lauren's sketch:
Lauren Meader
Tamara Harder
Maria Levine
Dawn Easton
Kirsten Dubosque
Kristy Vernon
MacKenzie Bruckler
Alicia Weiman

One of my stamp club members just started her own blog. You can see Susan's first design at Lil' Bit of Ink.