I Love You This Much!

For today's Diva Coffee Break Designs Color challenge we are to use Poppy Parade, So Saffron and Baja Breeze in combination. 

I chose to use Build-a-Roo by stamping him on some Greenhouse Garden DSP.  I then grunged him up with an aquapainter and some Early Espresso ink like an old loved stuffed animal, and immediately regretted it.  He looked much nicer before but I'd already "fussy-cut" him so I wasn't about to start over. 

The hearts in his pouch are from the Heart to Heart punch and the larger heart is the Small Heart punch.  The background So Saffron paper is dry embossed with the Texturz Plates Kit #4 and the Big Shot.  YES, I finally found my Silicone Rubber pad that had been lost (fell behind my file cabinet). 

I hope you'll stop by the Diva Blog and check out the other designers and their great samples!  Then be sure to play along and let us know.  You might even be chosen as our weekly "Featured Artist"! 

Thanks for stopping by again today.  I'll be gone all day today on a field trip to see the Ohio State Band with my son's 5th grade band class.  He was thinking of wearing his Michigan jersey so it could be... interesting.  Wish me luck!  :) 

~Kristin

PS- I forgot to mention that our Annual Holiday Stamp-a-Stack last Saturday was a GREAT SUCCESS and so much fun!  We had 24 delightful guests and they did 12 fun projects and we were done in record time (2 hours earlier than last year!)

Dazzling White Christmas

If it has to be cold out it might as well be white outside as well, at least that's my theory! And it works for today's Limited Supplies Challenge as well. Today's challenge is to use only white cardstock and one color ink, plus only white accessories. It was a struggle, let me tell ya, but you're probably getting used to hearing that from me.

Anyway, this turned out way better than I had hoped, so I'm pleased. The main panel is shimmer white cardstock that was sent through my Big Shot not once, not twice but THREE times! Once with the Snowflake Sizzlit, once with the Texturz Plate and once with the Top Note die. I don't think I've ever BS'd the same paper 3 times before. LOL!

I chose the red dots as the background hoping more of them would show up behind the glittery snowflake but it would've had to be off center and tilted to get more to show up so I just left it centered. Speaking of the snowflake, I used the Glitter Window technique for it which is extremely laborous and intensive: place packing tape behind the cut out then sprinkle with glitter. Phew! (did you catch my sarcasm?) If you've been a customer of mine you're probably familiar with this technique. I haven't done it in a while which is why I've been wanting to try it with this snowflake die!

Well, I don't know what's gotten into me but this is the second day in a row to show you glitter on a card and I've got yet another tomorrow! Each time I use it I get bolder and bolder so you won't want to miss tomorrow's card. It is a little bit out of the ordinary for my style too (if I even have a style).

OK, that's enough chatter I'd say. Thanks so much for stopping by. OH WAIT! I almost forgot! Today I found out that I have been selected as one of the three members of the Winter Design Team for the Clean & Simple challenges on Splitcoast! Seriously- they chose me! I'm so excited about it and hope I don't totally hit a mental mojo block come Sunday night.

See ya tomorrow!
~Kristin

SUO Supplies

Stamps: Home for Christmas, Polka Dot background

Colors: Whisper White, Real Red

Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds, Big Shot, Snowflake Sizzlet, Texturz Plates, Top Note die, White organdza ribbon, packing tape

ETA: To answer a question that has been asked, I believe I remember actually stamping after I had run this through the Big Shot several times... my plan was to just cover it if it didn't work. How's that for planning ahead?! LOL!

A Little Early??

OK, so it might be a little early for Valentine's cards... but just like always I started out with one idea and it progressed to this. I wanted to use the new sets I {heart} Hearts as well as the hostess set Holiday Best. A few other things to point out are the sparkly heart- I made this by punching a heart in a scrap of the sticky sheets. Just add it to your project, peel off the label then pour chunky glitter over it. I also used the Movers & Shapers to cut the large heart out then used the punch which is a slightly smaller size and layers perfectly. The smallest heart is from the I {Heart} Heart stamp set.

Can you see the texture on the black layer? I used the Texturz Plate and Big Shot to do that. It adds a neat look in person. Well, it's taken me ALL DAY to get this made and then posted so I'm off to bed now. Hopefully I'll do some stamping tomorrow before the on-line shopping! ;)

Thanks for visiting,
~Kristin

ETA: A much better picture.

SUO Supplies

Stamps: Holiday Best, I {Heart} Hearts

Colors: Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White

Accessories: Real Red Dotted grosgrain, tag corner punch, scallop edge punch, Large heart punch, Heart to Heart punch, Movers & Shapers with Heart die, Big Shot, Textured Plate, Chunky red glitter, Horizontal slot punch, black embroidery floss, crimper, My Way punch

Your Friendship

Sorry I've been a bit irregular with my posting this week- it's been a busy one! Between a sick kid (again!), volunteering at school, Trick-or-Treating and the normal stuff I just haven't done much stamping. We also had our last regular season high school football game last night (my DH coaches) and their team went undefeated in the league! They are ready to head to the playoffs which could extend the season another 5 weeks potentially.

Anyway, on to the card... I used some of my new stuff for the first time including the stamp set Wings of Friendship which is a level 2 hostess set, the Texturz Plates Kit #4 (has the definition of Friend in it) and this beautiful vanilla taffeta ribbon. It is always a thrill to use new goodies for the first time! I am just loving the look of texturing the vanilla cardstock!

I also used the Fall-to-Layout #65 from the Clean & Simple challenge blog for the sketch. The color combo I just came up with myself. It is Rich Razzleberry, Apricot Appeal, Old Olive and a tiny touch of Pumpkin Pie on the bird's wing and chest. Speaking of the bird, in order to follow the sketch I first stamped the entire image including the bird, then trimmed it to a long narrow piece. Then restamped the bird and cut it out to pop up with dimensionals so it kind of stands off the card.

I hope you like it and am happy that you stopped by today! Have a great Saturday!
~Kristin

SUO Supplies

Stamps: Wings of Friendship

Colors: Very Vanilla, Rich Razzleberry, Apricot Appeal, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie.

Accessories: Stampin' Up! Markers, Scallop Edve punch, Vanilla Taffeta ribbon, Big Shot, Texturz Plates #4

Grateful for you

OK, how's this for a fallish card?? I've used a sketch from Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge #38 as well as a challenge to make something focusing on being grateful for something. Now I can't find the challenge anywhere. Figures!

Anyway, the vase for the flowers was made with the large oval punch and then placing it in the Ornament punch to notch the top. I then ran it through the Big Shot with a texturz plate and sponged some ink on to accentuate the texture. I stamped the stems from Autumn Days then decided I needed some real stems so I walked around my house until I found some dried flowers and just snapped off a few pieces. They are glued in and add a neat dimension in person!

Stamped and cut out a few flowers, tied them on a corduroy button with some linen thread and called it done.

TFL! Hope you like it, and if you know which challenge I was trying to complete let me know. There are just too many out there to keep track of! Here's a closeup of the dimensional dried flowers in the vase.

See ya again soon!

~Kristin

SUO Supplies
Stamps: Small Script (an oldie that I JUST mounted today), Autumn Days

Colors: Soft Suede, Dusty Durango, More Mustard

Accessories: Big Shot, Texturz Plate, sponge, corner rounder, large oval punch, Ornamanet punch, corduroy button, linen thread

Let's Celebrate Purple!

I've been thinking for a long time that Stampin' Up! was lacking in DSP with purple in it... I like purple. Well, this special on our Designer Series Papers this month (Buy three get one FREE) got me looking more closely to see what other papers I need... and I found this: Tea Party. I hadn't noticed it before- maybe too pastel for me as a whole, but each sheet individually is just lovely and of course they coordinate perfectly! I just needed to open my mind a bit and I am glad I did! Almost Amethyst has long been one of my favorite of the 48 colors so of course I had to use those patterns first!

This sketch is from yesterday's Mojo Monday challenge which I didn't have time to get around to.

Did you notice the texture on the card base? That is using the Texturz Plates and the Big Shot. I like how this pattern coordinates with the paper somewhat.

Well, thanks for hanging with me even though I've been gone a while. This time of year is tough to stay indoors stamping when the sunshine and yardwork are calling! In case you're wondering, the gymnastics recital went very well- I was such a proud mom and very impressed! I thought my daughter would have serious stage fright and maybe even refuse to perform, but she seemed relaxed and to enjoy herself. And my son's baseball team has finally been able to play their first and second games and won both. He is pitching some this year which makes mom a nervous wreck- but he seems to handle it well. I guess they are both growing up *sigh*.

Have a lovely, sunshine-filled day!

~Kristin

PS- You may have noticed my "Shop Now" logo is missing from my sidebar. That is because I regretfully had to cancel my SU website. No worries, that doesn't mean you can't order through me, it just means that I will do the work for you. To place an order please contact me via email (which I'll put over there now instead). Thanks for your understanding!

SUO Supplies

Stamps: On Your Birthday

Paper: Almost Amethyst, Whisper White, Textured Certainly Celery, Tea Party DSP

Accessories: Scallop square punch, eyelet border punch, certainly celery grosgrain, square punch, circle cutter, Texturz Plates, Big Shot, Almost Amethyst marker

Butterfly Birthday

This isn't for a sketch challenge, color challenge, inspriation challenge or any other type of challenge believe it or not. I just felt like stamping last night after the kiddos were in bed and this just happened. Once again I started with the Color Coach, actually closed my eyes, and spun! It landed on Always Artichoke- a favorite anyway!- which included Brilliant Blue (another of my favorites), Rose Red, Elegant Eggplant and Bravo Burgundy. Well, I thought I'd get one of those other colors in at the last minute, then didn't and I'm OK with that! I used two neutrals, kraft and vanilla instead.

I felt like messing around with my Texturz Plates and the Big Shot so I kind of went there next, chose the plate I wanted, and let that help me decide my stamp set. I actually used two different Texturz Plates- one on the blue and one on the Kraft. I intended to highlight the texture with either piercing or a gel pen then decided that would be overkill once the card was done. That's one of those things that could ruin a perfectly fine card, you KWIM??

So thanks for stopping by! I'm off to play today's MOJO Monday sketch, which I always look forward to. Why don't you play along with me?!

Have a great day!
~Kristin

oops, forgot to add my supplies list:

SUO Supplies

Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly

Cardstock: Always Artichoke, Brilliant Blue, Very Vanilla, Kraft

Ink: Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue, Always Artichoke

Accessories: Scallop edge punch, circle punches, Brilliant Blue brads, Texturz Plates, Big Shot