Greetings from Pittsburgh

Greetings from Pittsburgh! We arrived safely at about 1:45 AM Pittsburgh time. Coming into the city was beautiful at night. Scott lives just south of the Monongahela River, on a narrow street. His apartment is in an area that was residential many years ago, but his building was converted into a storage building. Last year it was renovated into an apartment, so everything is new. The ceiling is the old, original, dark exposed wooden beams. There is a large window/door across the north side of the apartment that leads to a big rooftop deck. When I took this picture, I was in the kitchen area of the room. The stairs on the left lead to the deck. His apartment is open and bright. I'm so glad we got to visit.

I decided to post a card that I sent to my sister for her birthday. This card uses the retired SU! set, Toucan of My Love. I love this litlle fishy. I also like the color combo of Green Galore and Taken with Teal. I think it makes a card bright and cheery. The silver bookplate frame is attached with a twisted length of DMC variegated pearl cotton.

I thought this card would be a nice bright addition to a snowy, cold day. It snowed all day here in Pittsburgh; a beautiful, fat-flaked snow. Hope you stay dry and warm. Have a great weekend!

Stamps: Toucan of My Love, Dotted, It's Your Birthday
Ink: Green Galore, Basic Black
Paper: Green Galore, Taken with Teal, WW
Extras: Prismacolor pencils, Winsor and Newton Sansodor Solvent, Square bookplate from Remember when, variegated pearl cotton floss from DMC

Friends

This will have to be a fast post. I am meeting two friends for brunch soon. In fact, they are the recipients of this card. (I did make two; they don't have to share!) I missed our last lunch because I forgot. I'd make a bad socialite! I wanted to let them know how much I value their friendship. I will edit this post with all of the details later. I love Groovy Guava with More Mustard. It's hard to see, but I have some Swarovski crystals on the main image and on the little flowers. I love this card size: 6 5/8" by 3 1/4".

We are off to Pittsburgh today to see our oldest son who is working and living out there, so I won't be posting for a few days. Have a good weekend!

Stamps: Time Well Spent
Ink:Stazon Black Pad, Groovy Guava, River Rock, More Mustard, and Blue Bayou Reinkers
Paper: Groovy Guava, More Mustard, River Rock, Watercolor
Extras: River Rock Double Stitched Ribbon, Spica Yellow Glitter pen, Swarovski Crystals

Kyra's Birthday

I am very pleased with this card. I tried a new technique for watercoloring with markers. Normally I scribble with my marker onto a plastic pallet and pick up the color with a wet brush or aqua painter. I like this method, but I recently saw a video about a way to use the markers on the paper first and then move them around with your wet brush. So I tried it on this card. I stamped the image 6 times in black Stazon. I kept trying until I was satisfied with my fifth and sixth images. I still have a lot to learn, but I was happy with how this turned out. There is also a good tutorial here on this same method.

On to the rest of the card. After I colored the image, I used some Crystal Stickles on the icing, and some Spica yellow glitter pen on the flames of the candles. I think if you click on the photo to get a larger image you can see the Stickles.

Once the Stickles was dry, I punched the cake out with a Giga oval scallop punch. I don't have a larger oval, so I was unable to mat it with another oval. So I was left with using a rectangle. I decided to round the corners to make them softer; more in keeping with the oval shape. I also scalloped the bottom of the blue panel with my corner rounder. When I finished the panel and flipped it over, I noticed these little indentations created by the punch. I decided to use them in the design. I've seen people use a white gel pen to make mini eyelets, so I thought since I already had the centers, I'd make eyelets.

The little tag was free form cut from a larger tag. A little patterned paper, a pink eyelet, and some lovely wide grosgrain ribbon finished off the card.


Kyra will be 9 and I think she will love this card. I hope so, anyway. I hope you've had a great weekend, and have gotten some stamping time in. I may not post for a few days; I am working Monday and Tuesday, and on Tuesday after work I am driving out to DeKalb to volunteer as a massage therapist. The AMTA is organizing volunteers to offer chair massages to the crisis workers that will be on hand for the students returning to NIU. I am glad to be able to help in this small way and am looking forward to the experience. I will let you know how it goes.

Stamps: Just Celebrate and Amazing to Zany, both by SU!
Ink: Stazon Black, Regal Rose , Certainly Celery, and Bashful Blue, markers
Paper: Very Vanilla, Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Bashful Blue SU! CS, Patterned paper form Creating Keepsakes All in One Scrapbooking Kit(Target), watercolor paper.
Extras: Giga scallop punch, Pink eyelet, Regal Rose wide grosgrain ribbon, silver cord, SU! confetti white tag, dimensionals, Crystal Stickles, white gel pen

Spooky Birthday

This is a little out of season, but I wanted to show you this card that I made for my youngest son's birthday last fall. I really like this technique, and this card was inspired by a lovely card by Zindorf.

I knew I had a hit with this card when my son opened it and said, "Oh, cool!"

Let me tell you how I made it. First, I stamped the trees and bat in Versamark on Apricot Appeal and embossed them in black. Then I stamped the moon in versamark and embossed in clear. The next step is the cool part. I brayered over the entire panel using a Late November Spectrum Pad, wiping the excess ink off of the moon when I was finished. I sponged in Old Olive for the ground.

This technique is called emboss resist, and it can produce some very dramatic results. I hope you don't mind this rather abrupt change of seasons. but I really like this card, and since I wasn't blogging when I made it, I thought it would make a good post for today. I worked today, then went to my niece's house to get my haircut. Then my hubby and I went out to dinner with my sister and her husband. So that didn't leave much time for stamping. I hope you get some stamping in this weekend. Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Lovely As A Tree, Sincere Salutations, Canvas, Going Batty Wheel, Simple Shapes

Paper: Apricot Appeal, Pumpkin Pie, Not Quite Navy, Elegant Eggplant, Basic Black

Ink: Versamark, Late November Spectrum, Old Olive

Accessories: Clear and Black EP, Black Brads

Blooming Gum Covers

Here is our last project for Enrichment Club. Today was our final class. The girls all thanked me and said that they had a good time. I did too.

Today we made these gum covers. These were sized for Dentyne Ice, or any blister pack gum made by Cadbury. If you have a different brand of gum you may have to adjust the measurements. The Groovy Guava is cut to 5-3/4" by 4". Score along the 4 inch edge at 1-3/4", 2", 4-1/2", and 4-3/4". Fold along those score lines well, and then put just a quarter inch of adhesive along the 4 inch edge and adhere the cover together. The seam is on the back, not at the side like the covers that come with the gum. Use a 3/4" circle punch to clip a little thumb notch.

To color in our blossoms and pot, we used reinkers and a blender pen. We used an orange Spica glitter pen on the centers of the flowers. I tried to catch the glitter in the close up, but it's pretty hard to capture in a photo. You'll just have to take my word; it's purty!

I will miss coming to Enrichment club; the girls are so eager to try new things and they get so excited over all
of the projects. It's so much fun to teach such enthusiastic students!

Stamps: Fun Filled by SU
Ink: Basic Black pad, Groovy Guava and River Rock reinkers
Paper: Groovy Guava, River Rock, Whisper White
Extras: SU River Rock double stitched ribbon, 3/4" circle punch, blender pen, Orange Spica glitter pen..

Color Challenge

I was working on a design for the girls in Enrichment club tomorrow, and I was trying to think of a color combo I could use. Although I know that Junior High girls love pink and purple, we've been doing so much for Valentine's Day, that I didn't want to repeat those same color combos. I was planning on making these cute Post It Note holders that I found on Emily's blog. I was on SCS and saw that the color challenge for this week is Orchid Opulence, Pumpkin Pie and Certainly Celery. So I used it for our Post It Note holders. I think it came out very cute! I don't think I ever would have put these colors together, or even thought that they would look good together, but they do. Nothing like an SCS challenge to stretch your creativity.
The scallop flower is from the SaleABration set, So Many Scallops. The center of the flower says "your so sweet", but it is really very versatile, because you can always cover the wording and use another image to suit your needs, as I did here.
The pumpkin CS is cut to 7 1/2" by 3 1/2" and scored at 3 1/2" and 4". If you would like to see a tutorial on how to make these, you can see the one on Emily's blog here.
Thanks for coming to visit!

Stamps: So Many Scallops, Define Your Life, Bold Alphabet, Fresh Fillers, all by SU!
Ink: Orchid Opulence, Basic Black, Versamark
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Orchid Opulence, Certainly Celery, Whisper White
Extras: Scallop, 1", and 3/4" punches, Lt. Orchid grosgrain, dimensionals, The Paper Studio gemstones, Post It Notes.

Trio of Thanks

When I need a quick little gift, I like to pull out my Fabriano Mediovalis note cards. They are made of a wonderful paper that is ideal to use for water color and are the perfect size for a thank you or quick note. I stamp 3 notes and envelopes and tie them together in a little bundle with a coordinating ribbon, and voila! I have a nice little gift for someone. These three notes I have made over and over again because I love them so much. And they are very easy. The flower is from Petal Prints and the sentiment is from Everyday Flexible phrases, both by SU.
I water colored the flowers in Pixie Pink, Opulent Orchid and Bashful Blue. I added a little bit of Crystal Stickles to the flower centers. The little dot to the left of the sentiment is a Swarovski crystal. It adds a classy bit of bling! I used the same colors on the envelopes, and also added the Stickles. The envelopes are made from the same lovely paper and take the water colors beautifully. I think these notes are a great example of how something very simple can be very effective. Sometimes we get so caught up in layers, ribbon, metal,etc.(all of which I love) that we forget that simple can work too.
Hope you have a nice warm day. It's very cold here today; 4 degrees this morning, but it is beautifully sunny! Thanks for visiting.
Stamps: Everyday Flexible Phrases, Petal Prints
Ink: Pixie Pink, Opulent Orchid, Bashful Blue, Stazon Black
Paper: Fabriano Mediovalis Notecards
Extras: Crystal Stickles, Swarovski crystals by Darice