Coffee, men and chocolate...

Some things are better rich. (ha-ha!) I CASEd this card from Karrie Snider (posted on splitcoast). The only thing I did different was to use thinner ribbon and no crystal effects on the coffee mugs. Otherwise, just a straight CASE (copy and share everything).

Supplies:
Red Riding Hood, Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Whisper White cs
Sip by Sip stamp set (dormant)
Real Red, Chocolate Chip markers, Baja Breeze ink
Paper piercing tool/mat pack
Red Riding Hood taffeta ribbon
glue dot

Fall Butterflies

Another Philly Inker, Jess, designed this card. It uses the butterfly stamp set that coordinates with the punch plus the Razzleberry lemonade dsp to make a lovely fall card. As with all shoebox swaps, the supplies were all precut, but I do wish I'd had a paper cutter to trim the scallop edge piece a little narrower. Oh well.

Brayers and Texturz plates, oh my!

This card was designed by Gina Thornton using the brayer resist technique with the Big Shot Texturz plates. Basically, you brayer up the plate itself and then stick your cardstock on it, run it through the Big Shot and the result is a dry-embossed card that "resists" the ink on the main panel and mimics heat embossing. It's a pretty neat technique. I love the monochromatic color scheme she choose (and Rich Razzleberry is always a winner in my book...)

Supplies:
Rich Razzleberry, Very Vanilla cs
Rich Razzleberry ink
Kind words stamp set (at least I think that is what it is called)
Perfect details texturz plate
brayer
Rich Razzleberry grosgrain ribbon

MDS Hybrid

Here's a shoebox swap card designed by my upline (and spawner) Tara Gupta-Goldenberg. She made the card front using My Digital Studio and then hybridized it by layering on Dusty Durango, Soft Suede and adding the ribbon. She also had us punch out the sentiment and layer it with a scallop punch and dimensionals for extra pizzazz. I think it's a pretty snazzy card, myself!

Supplies:
My Digital Studio
Very Vanilla, Dusty Durango, Soft Suede cs
Scallop oval punch, large oval punch
Chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon

Shoebox Swaps

Last week our Philadelphia-based PhillyInkers got together in Jenkintown for a shoebox swap--we had a great time! (Thanks, Heather, hosting!) We had mulled apple cider, yummy ginger snaps, plus lots of great cards to make! I'll show you the non-Christmas related ones this week and save the rest for December when things are more in a holiday mood.

This first card was designed by Tiffany and I love the black and white design and the simplicity of it! It kind of reminds me of a tuxedo. I think it would make great thank yous for a bridal shower, or even a wedding!

Supplies:
Whisper White, Basic Black cs
Sincere Salutations stamp set
Basic Black ink
Vintage brads (black and silver)
Organza ribbon
Scallop oval/large oval punch
top note die (also one on the inside for writing)

Announcing Miss Ellen Marie

Some good friends of ours from seminary days recently added a daughter to their family and I had offered to make birth announcements for them. I had originally intended a totally different design, but ended up with this one. I think it is sweet and nicely used up most of my remaining Pink Pirouette (I'm down to scraps now). As a little baby gift, I also made her a little brag book using the splitcoast tutorial plus a card to match the birth announcements.

Supplies:
Whisper White, Pink Pirouette cs, Candy Lane DSP (retired)
Baby Feet stamp (non-SU), Nursery Necessities
5/8" white grosgrain ribbon
scallop oval, large oval, scallop square punches

The brag book has a vellum overlay with the hands and feet on it. I layered that over Pretty in Pink for a nice effect.

Supplies:
Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink, Vellum cs (non-SU)
Clear envelopes (5)
Antique Brass eyelets, crop-a-dile
pink ribbon (non-SU)
Die cut letters in Chocolate Chip (left over from my baby book project from the summer)
Non-SU flower sticker

The matching card--I got the punch pal idea from a fellow PhillyInker swap card from several months ago.


Supplies:
Whisper White, Pink Pirouette cs, Pink Pirouette dsp
Sweet Little Sentiments stamps set (retired)
Pink Pirouette ink
Scallop oval, large oval, scallop circle, scallop edge, 1/2" circle punches, Crop-A-Dile

Last Day At the Hop

This is the final installment of my Christmas card hop (at least until the next flurry of holiday stamping grips me!) and features cards based on designs from Kristin Kortonick, Kerin Sylvester, Andrea Walford and lcstampin on splitcoast.


Supplies:
Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Real Red cs, Christmas Cocoa dsp
Real Red Ink
Yuletide, Patterned Pines stamp sets
scallop oval, wide oval punch
non-SU brown satin ribbon




Supplies:
Real Red, Whisper White, Soft Suede cs, Christmas Cocoa dsp
Yuletide, Delightful Decorations stamps
Soft Suede Ink
Silver elastic cord
Ornament, scallop oval, wide oval punches
Soft suede polka dot grosgrain ribbon



Supplies:
Real Red, Old Olive Very Vanilla cs, Merry Moments dsp
Patterned Pines, Warm Words stamps
Old Olive Chocolate Chip ink
Scallop edge punch
sponges
non-SU copper brad
SU vintage (antique brass) brad
Chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon

Supplies:
Very Vanilla, Real Red cs, retired dsp
Delightful Decorations, Four the Holidays stamps
Real Red, Old Olive, Soft Suede Ink
Silver brad
Olive stitched ribbon (non-SU)
Scallop edge punch with piercing in center of scallops

Christmas Card Hop Day 4

Only one more day of the Hop! Today's post features CASEd cards from Jan Tink, Andrea Walford, plus an original using an old sketch challenge from Kerin Sylvester.


So this is pretty much a straight CASE of Jan's card--I just subbed in the scallop edge for the eyelet edge and omitted the extra layer on the sentiment. I really like this card--the photo doesn't really do it justice. It's so simple and yet there are a lot of nice little details to catch the eye. Jan is brilliant about coming up with great designs like that.

Supplies:
Real Red, Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Soft Suede cs, Christmas Cocoa dsp
Delightful Decorations, Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp sets
Real Red, Soft Suede Ink
Modern Label, scallop edge, ornament punches
Vintage (antique brass) brads
silver elastic
real red 1/4" grosgrain ribbon



Both of the above cards are based on cards from Andrea's Tree Trimmings card kit. I didn't have the stamps she used on the second card, so I just cut out the ornaments from the dsp and popped them up on dimensionals. I realized after I had the card all together that I had forgotten the ribbon on the bottom, but I actually like it better without it.

Supplies (both cards):
Very Vanilla, real red, Chocolate chip cs, Merry Moments dsp
Four the Holidays Stamp set
gold brads
scallop edge punch
paper snips
dimensionals
sponge
brown grosgrain ribbon (non-SU)


My one original card in the batch, and I can only claim a bit of originality on it. The basic sketch is from an older sketch challenge from Kerin Sylvester, which you may remember me doing several takes on in early September. This card started out as a CASE of another card of Kerin's, which used the same sketch, but just turned out so different, that I'm calling it my own. The color scheme and basic layout is about all that I retained from Kerin's original card (Number #13 on the list).

Supplies:
Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand cs, Bella Bleu dsp
Not Quite Navy, Soft Suede ink
Sponging
Winter Post stamp set
gold organdy ribbon (non-Su)
corner rounder punch

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming...

to bring you a few non-Christmas cards. In the midst of my Christmas card-making flurry, I did manage to make a few non-Christmas cards. The first is based on a card from Butternut Sage, which uses the ornament punch to make a vase. I love this card--so clean and simple!



Supplies:
Sahara Sand, Night of Navy, Whisper White cs
Pocket Silhouettes, Great Friend stamps
Whisper White Craft Ink, Night of Navy marker
Ornament punch


The second card is a make-n-take from our last downline meeting in Jersey, designed by my upline, Tara Gupta-Goldenberg. We've decided that those of us in Tara's downline should be designated Spawn of Tara, so as spawn, I will bow down at the feet of my master and show you her brilliant idea for using up old dsp scraps.
So the basic idea is that you start out with a dsp scrap (you know those little pieces that accumulate, retire and just sit in your file, moaning with neglect?), clear emboss a solid image on it, and then either sponge or brayer (or both, in this case) with a darker color like chocolate chip. You can also use whisper white and a sponge and get a sort of misty look to it. Layer with white and a neutral and you're finished! So I have no idea which dsp this particular scrap came from, since Tara just brought a handful of them for us to use in our make-n-takes, but I think it might be from last year's Urban Garden.

Supplies:
Sahara Sand, Whisper White cs, Urban Garden (?) dsp, retired
Upsy Daisy stamp set
Versamark, Whisper White craft, Chocolate chip
Brayer, sponges
Whisper White grosgrain ribbon
Eyelet edge punch, corner rounder punch

Christmas Card Hop Day 3

Another day, another set of Christmas cards! Today's cards were CASEd from cinredsfan on splitcoast, Andrea Walford, demo extraordinare, and Melissa Riker, aka The Saucy Stamper.

The original version of this card featured old olive taffeta ribbon from the Mistletoe ribbon originals (love it, but don't have it...) and used the stamp set Berry Merry for the ribbon down to the ornament. I just used my real red marker to hand-draw it on instead.

Supplies:
Whisper White cs, Christmas Cocoa dsp
Real Red ink, marker
Delightful decorations stamp set
Ornament punch
Old Olive grosgrain ribbon


Supplies:
Real Red, Old Olive, Whisper White cs, Merry moments dsp
Baroque Motifs, Delightful Decorations, Four the Holidays stamps
Real Red, Old Olive, Basic black ink
Sponge wedge
Dazzling diamonds/two-way glue pen
1" circle punch, ornament punch, scallop edge punch
5/8" red grosgrain ribbon
gold brad
white thread
Melissa Riker's original version of this card featured Old Olive, but I thought Kiwi Kiss would look just as nice with the Cottage Wall dsp (for a Christmas card, who'd have thunk?) and it did! I also used a Signo gold gel pen to draw on the ties for the ornaments rather than using elastic cord as Melissa did. I love the clean lines of the design!

Supplies:
Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss cs, Cottage Wall dsp
Delightful Decorations, Four the Holidays stamps
Kiwi Kiss ink
Signo gold gel pen

Christmas card hop day 2

Good morning! Thus begins day 2 of my Christmas card hop, featuring CASEs of three cards from Jan Tink, nitestamper and unforgettablestamping on splitcoast.

This card is CASEd from splitcoast (unforgettable stamping):



Supplies:
Chocolate Chip, Whisper White cs, Merry moments dsp
Chocolate chip, Real Red Ink, real red marker
Four the Holidays, Patterned Pines (snowflake stamp) Delightful Decorations stamp set
Ornament punch
5/8" Polka dot red ribbon (non-SU)

This card is based on a card and technique developed by Jan Tink. It is called gel pen resist, and although I didn't exactly follow her technique to the letter, but I still like the look of it--kind of reminds me of black magic in a way.

Supplies:
Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla cs, Bella Bleu dsp
Winter Post, Four the Holidays stamp sets
White Craft ink (for sponging and sentiment), Not Quite Navy
White Gel pen
1/2" circle punch (to create faux flower under pearl)
half-back pearl
kraft taffeta ribbon
Ticket corner punch

This last card is based on a card from Chat, aka nitestamper. The only change I made was to use a stamp on the edges instead of dry embossing (since I continue to lack a Big Shot...). Still, I think the effect is similiar.

Supplies:
Real Red, Soft Suede, Whisper White cs, Christmas Cocoa dsp
Baroque Motifs, Four the Holidays, Patterned Pines stamp sets
Whisper White craft ink, Soft Suede classic ink, real red marker
Silver eyelet and Crop-A-Dile
Ornament punch
Soft Suede polka dot grosgrain ribbon
Scallop edge punch

Roses are Red...

and this card is anything but blue! Kerin Sylvester made a card like this a few weeks ago and I liked all the pink, even though I don't normally do all pink cards. I happened to have a little scrap of rose red stitched ribbon (although I made a stupid cutting mistake when putting the card together and so my ribbon is stretched verrrry tight, but oh well) and decided to give this card a go. I didn't have enough ribbon to make Kerin's cute little faux bow, but it works with out it, I think! I used Andrea Walford's faux stitching technique on the buttons.

Supplies:
Whisper White, Rose Red cs, Sweet Always dsp (retired)
Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set
Rose Red marker
Filagree brad
thread
Sherbet buttons (pretty in pink)
glue dots

The Christmas card hop

I'll warn you right now that the next week or so of posts are about Christmas cards--my lovely box of Christmas supplies arrived last week and I've been CASEing like a mad woman! With all the brain cells in my head firmly planted in my uterus at the moment, I'm a little low on creativity, so I'm not ashamed to use other people's great ideas! I'll be showing you several cards per day so as not to fatigue you with Christmas too far in advance.

On a different note, I find myself a little disturbed to find that my clothes are getting tight already! I'm not ready to get out my maternity clothes yet (they are mostly too big) but I don't like feeling like everything is falling down all the time. Good grief, this doesn't bode well for the coming trimester--I was hoping not to gain as much weight this time. Oh well. I guess there's only so much you can do about it.

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled program.

This one is based on a card by Jan Tink:

Supplies:
Handsome Hunter, Always Artichoke, Real Red, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip cs, Merry Moments dsp
Patterned Pines, Warm Words stamp set
Handsome Hunter, Always Artichoke, Real Red markers, Soft Suede ink (for sponging and sentiment)
Gold brad
Designer label, modern label punch
3/8" twine ribbon (used markers to make design)
Sponge
This one is based on a splitcoast card by ***tara***:

Supplies:
Soft Suede, Sahara Sand, Whisper White
Patterned Pines, Four the Holidays
Soft Suede ink
Soft Suede polka dot ribbon
This is a card from another splitcoast stamper:

Supplies:
Red Riding Hood, Baja Breeze, Whisper White cs, retired dsp
Patterned Pines, Four the Holidays stamp set
Red Riding Hood ink
Red Riding Hood taffeta
Dimensionals

Mojo Monday 105 in Bella Bleu

This card is based on Kerin Sylvester's card, which in turn used a Mojo Monday sketch from 2 or 3 weeks ago. I loved the way Kerin used the Bella Bleu dsp on the card and the Of the Earth hostess set. Lacking the set, however, I improvised with Pocket Silhouettes instead. The card is going to my sister-in-law for her birthday this week.

Supplies: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Not Quite Navy cs, Bella Bleu dsp
Pocket Silhouettes, Hugs and Wishes (inside sentiment) stamp sets
Bordering blue marker, not quite navy ink
White gel pen, paper piercing tool/template
1" circle punch, wide oval punch
5/8" chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon

This is the Mojo Monday sketch on which Kerin's card (and in turn mine) is based:

Thoughts and Prayers Take 2

Since I had all this purple sitting out, plus the Thoughts and Prayers set, I decided to have a go at another card from the SU! website, this one from Theresa Burns (pictured below). Hers is in Chocolate Chip; I decided to use Perfect Plum since I was out of Chocolate Chip dsp. The color is a little off on the photo, but the card base is elegant eggplant and the dsp is framed in perfect
plum.

Supplies for my card: Elegant eggplant, perfect plum, perfect plum dsp, very vanilla
Elegant eggplant, perfect plum, always artichoke, pale plum markers
perfect plum ribbon
pewter brad
wide and large oval punches

Theresa's card

Thoughts and Prayers Take 1

This is another card I found when browsing the demonstrator gallery on the Stampin' Up! website and liked a LOT. Laurie Ludwig was the creator of the original (pictured below). I'm a fan of purple and green together (hello, cottage wall dsp!) and just had to give it a go. Plus it gave me a chance to play with my markers. I should add that this ENTIRE card was done with markers, even the sponging! I just markered up the sponge dauber, sponged once on a scrap and then dab, dab dab. Easy.

Supplies for my card: Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Elegant Eggplant, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla cs
Thoughts and Prayers stamp set
Perfect plum, pale plum, always artichoke, elegant eggplant markers
Scallop edge punch, paper piercing tool, template, sponge dauber, large and wide oval punches
Pale plum 1/4" satin ribbon (recycled from a package I received from an etsy seller)

Laurie's Card

Color Challenge #8

Diana Gibbs is hosting a weekly color challenge and this week's challenge was to use Green Galore, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise and Apricot Appeal. Not colors I usually reach for! But I saw this card on splitcoast and thought I'd like to give my new markers a spin. I switched out the pumpkin pie for Apricot appeal and the old olive for green galore. I think it turned out pretty stinkin' cute!

Supplies:
Kraft, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Apricot Appeal, Green Galore, Whisper White cs
Basic Black ink, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Apricot Appeal, Green Galore markers
Corner rounder punch
Red ribbon (non-SU)
Filagree brad

Together Forever and The Stamp Doc

I found Melissa Stout's blog by accident a while back and immediately put her in my google reader. She has great ideas! I especially loved this one, which used the Together Forever stamp set, which I bought for a customer project, but haven't used much otherwise. I changed the colors to suit what I had supply-wise, and used heat embossing instead of dry, but I like the end result! Melissa's card used very vanilla and soft suede and the very vanilla was dry embossed using the Big Shot.


This photo shows the heat embossing a little better.

Supplies:
Red Riding Hood, Very Vanilla cs
Together Forever Stamp set
Versamark, Red Riding Hood Ink
Red Riding Hood taffeta ribbon
heat gun, clear emboss powder

Dry embossing, old school

A while back, I was browsing the Nursery Necessities gallery on splitcoast and found the card below by Sherri L. Barron (please send me the link if you are reading this, Sherri!); please don't ask me to find it again in the massive gallery that is that stamp set. I thought it was a cute card, saved it for a future CASE and finally got around to it in the last little while. Her card features dry-embossing using the Big Shot plus the perfect details embossing folder (love it!).

Lacking Big Shot and embossing folder, I decided to have a go at dry embossing using my trusty scoring blade and Crop-A-Dile. It worked, but I wish the Crop-A-Dile had a longer reach--I could only do dimples in two rows before I couldn't reach in any further. Oh well; the sailboat covers that up. I also sponged the dry embossed panel to make the embossing stand out more and ended up attaching it as a panel to the base, rather than using it as the base.

I think Sherri's used wood sheets on the belly of the boat; I just stamped an extra one and cut it out, popped it up on dimensionals and Bob's your uncle! Easy-peasy and stinkin' cute.

Supplies:
Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Apricot appeal, Whisper White cs, Bashful blue dsp
Bashful blue, certainly celery, apricot appeal markers, bashful blue, chocolate chip ink

Nursery necessities stamp set
antique brass brads
modern label punch
paper piercing tool, piercing template

Blowin' in the Wind

This is a card that I CASEd from Jacqueline Van Sickle. Her card appeared on the Stampin' Up! demonstrator gallery, so I can't link to it, but the photo is below. I just subbed in rich razzleberry ribbon and kiwi kiss for soft suede and old olive, respectively.

I did wonder briefly what I was going to do with a get well card, as I find I don't have a great need to have those on hand, but my goddaughter e-mailed a few days ago to say that her husband was having minor back surgery this week, so I think I'll send it on to him!

Here's Jacqueline's card:
Here's mine:

Supplies:
Soft Suede, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White cs
Inspired by Nature, Teeny Tiny Wishes stamps
Kiwi Kiss ink
Rich Razzleberry polka dot grosgrain ribbon (flipped over)
Antique brass brads
Modern label, horizontal slot, and wide oval punches
white gel pen (on cattails)
dimensionals

CASEin, CASEin', CASEin'

So our internet/phone provider service crashed on Sunday night and we were without service for several days at home, which meant I didn't get any work done online, but I did have a bunch of time to focus on working through the backlog of CASEs I've been meaning to get to. I also made some improvements to my homemade light box, so the photos should be better from now on!

The first one is a baby card from Carrie Gaskin, aka The Artistic Avenger, who has so many great ideas! I didn't change a thing except to manually cut out the brown strips under the scallop circles because I don't have a Big Shot (yet). :)

Supplies:
Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip, Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, Whisper White cs
Nursery Necessities and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamps
Chocolate Chip Ink
Scallop circle, 1 3/8" circle, 1 1/4" circle, 1" circle punches
Chocolate chip button (button latte set)
thread

Snow Falling on Cedars Holiday Greetings card (set of 10)

The last card I made at my mom's used the dormant set "Branch Out", which I really like. It has a lot of little accessories and you can make any number of different types of cards using the set. I've seen the tree stamp used in a lot of interesting ways lately, especially on Halloween and fall-themed cards.

In any case, I was looking to make a very simple holiday card set and came up with this card, which I like very much.

Supplies:

Cardstock: Very Vanilla
Ink: Red Riding Hood, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue
Stamps: Branch Out, Sincere Salutations

Circle Circus Birthday Wishes

One of the stamp sets my mom just got in her stamp club was Circle Circus, which I've had my eye on since summer, but keep waffling about whether to get it. It's a nice set, but there are just so many stamp sets I have on my wish list, it is hard to narrow it down! In any case, I'm still on the fence about the set (even though it was fun to play with and I've seen LOTS of really cool things to do with it). For anyone who happens to read this post and just adores this set, post a link to your favorite examples in the comments section!

Anyway, here is the card I came up with. It is a little hard to see in the photo, but the brown punched out circle behind the sentiment is stamped in chocolate chip with the largest scallop circle from the set and punched out with the 1 1/4" circle punch for a little extra detail.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, generic deep red, chocolate chip
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Red Riding Hood, Bashful Blue
Stamps: Circle Circus, Sincere Salutations
Ribbon: 1/4" chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon
Punches: 1 1/4" circle and large oval punch

Fifth Ave. Floral Thanks

Last week I went to visit my parents and had a morning where I played with my mother's stamp supplies. I came up with a few cards and realized that having a large ink and paper selection is really a nice thing--I'm going to have to expand her collection, I think! Christmas is coming, baby. My mom does have a lot of nice stamps, however, including a few that I don't have yet, so it was fun to play around with them a bit.

Here's a thank you card I came up with using Fifth Ave Floral. I would have liked some Red Riding Hood cardstock for the base, but alas, So Saffron was what was to hand, so the card turned out much more subtle than I would normally make. I think it is okay for all that.

Supplies:
Cardstock: So Saffron, Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla
Ink: Red Riding Hood, Sahara Sand, So Saffron
Stamps: Fifth Ave. Floral, Sincere Salutations
Accessories: Dimensionals (generic--made me grateful for the SU! ones!) and generic yellow brads, large oval punch

Drumroll please...

...for the lovely Michelle Zindorf card! Michelle taught us some basic sponging techniques and masking with post-its to create this extremely cool card. I love it!

Whisper White, Basic Black, Almost Amythest cs
Basic Black, Night of Navy, Almost Amythest ink
Lovely As a Tree, Wandering Words stamp set
Stampin' Sponges (cut into wedges)
Sponging and Masking technique
Silver Brads, paper piercing tool

Wishing you the Beary Best

I must confess, I'm not a huge fan of the Build-A-Bear stuff that is in the current Mini-catalog. It's cute and all, but I don't know what I would use it for at this point. Maybe if I start doing more kids' party invitations or something. I do like the stamp sets for it, though.

This card is also from Fall Fest and was a chance to work with the Build-A-Bear dies that are part of the new partnership between SU! and Build-A-Bear. It's cute stuff and there's a lot you can do with it, but I think I'll be waiting a while before making an investment. It was kind of fun to put the card together.

Supplies:
Whisper White, Creamy Caramel, Basic Black, Mellow Moss, Real Red cs, Pawsitively Prints dsp
Beary Nice Wishes stamp set
Build-A-Bear Die: Beary Girl and Beary Essentials
Basic Black Ink