My Lockhart flower collection

Yes, I love floral stamps.  Here's a few cards I made recently with flowers from Karen Lockhart Stamps.  She doesn't sell stamps on her website but you can see what she's designed and look up what stores in what states carry her stamps.  I buy mine at my local stamp store (LSS), just 11 miles away! : ) 

 My LSS has a monthly challenge and Linda gives out goodie bags for them.  We have to use at least 3 things from the bag and a stamp from her store on our card as part of the challenge.  The goodie bags usually have about 9 things, a small (3x3?) piece of double sided paper, 2 buttons, 1-2 brads, 1-2 pieces of ribbon or floss/twine and 2-3 dew drops or other little items.  The cards are due the last Friday of the month, then that Saturday, card class participants vote for 2 - $10 card winners and 2 - $5 card winners.   Everyone who participates and doesn't win, gets a free stamp on their discount card (like a punch on a punch card).

This card is for the June - Summer theme challenge, can you tell?  I colored the floral image with Tombow markers to go with the patterned paper piece provided, found a 3rd matching button to use and was barely able to tie the tiny bow in the little piece of twine.  The little greenish butterfly was also part of my goodie pack.  The Summertime stamp (Great Impressions?) was a freebie stamp from her store last year, I thought it fit with the Summer theme, and I can say I used that stamp. :)  Being I'm so late in posting this, I know now that I won one of the $10 gift card prizes with this!  Whoo Hoo!  Already spent.... :)

I made this pink card for my neighbor Lore, on her birthday!  Lore cares for our pooch and comes over to water our 45+ houseplants when we are out of town.  She's not a pink gal but she grows lots of flowers, lots of roses, lilacs, big blue poppies and colorful peonies like in this image!  She also used to crochet so I thought this was a fitting accessory to the card, and despite all the pinkness here, it all matches the flowers!  She didn't complain, in fact, she let me know that she's "still expecting a handmade Christmas card, this pretty card" won't get me outta that!  I have a few months. : )

This card is for the August challenge - Celebrate in celebration of the 5th anniversary or birthday of our LSS!  I colored the image with pencils then used the Sakura Stardust pen to highlight all of the flowers and give it some shimmer.  The Happy Birthday is part of a larger sentiment stamp from Great Impressions.  That patterned paper provided isn't really my style but it's different and a good challenge for me to use it.  Now if I would use all of the other paper in my stash that I'm not really fond of! : )

SSS171 and SNSDC66 Purple Poppies

The Sweet n' Sassy Digi Challenge for Friday is to use Greens & Purples with digital images and here's the  Saturday Sketch.  Not having much time or creative energy to make multiple cards, I combined them again this week!

After looking at images on the computer, I colored the Purple Poppies digi-stamp with pencils. Purple poppies do exist!  Not that it mattered that much but I was curious otherwise all I could think of were purple pansies but I didn't have a digi stamp of pansies!  Back to the card, the purple oval & the heart button are popped up with foam tape.  I typed the "Happy Birthday!" in a Word document using the Curlz font and carefully printed it out (took 2 tries) on the patterned paper, then cut & curved it into a banner.

Stamps: SNSS Poppies digi stamp

Paper: DCWV

Accessories: Prisma pencils, Spellbinders Classic Oval dies, Cuttlebug EF Floral Fantasy, ribbon, Dress It Up silver heart button

SSS170 and SNSDC65 Challenges with Rhubarb Bear

Yes, a Christmas card in August!  I made this card to cover 2 challenges from Sweet n' Sassy Stamps.  The Aug 3rd Friday Digi Challenge SNSDC65 was "Beary Special", to use bear image or elements, and digi stamps.  Below is the Aug 4th Saturday sketch SSS170 that I used.

The image is Rhubarb's Gingerbread Man, one of  Rhubarb the Teddy Bear images available as a stamp and as the digi image I downloaded from Sweet n' Sassy Stamps.  He's colored with Tombow markers with alittle glaze pen touch on his nose & on the cookie's decorations.  The bow is made from white seam binding that I dyed with Ranger TH Distress Ink pads.  I started with Peeled Paint, it was too yellow so I added Pine Needles but that was too dark & bluish.  I dabbed some of it off with a damp paper towel and it didn't look too bad wet, at 12:30 at night under a spotlight, in an otherwise dark room.  But this is the shade I awoke to when it had dried.  Back to the yellowish tinge yet edged with the darker green.  Kinda cool yet not quite the shade I wanted here.  It's looking a bit brighter in the picture above then it looks in real life, I think....  It was fun, and it took a little more than a day of washing my hands to get the green off my skin.  Next time maybe I'll remember to use plastic baggies on my hands or something. : )

Stamps: SNSS Rhubarb's Gingerbread Man digi, ODBD - sentiment

Paper: DCWV

Ink: VersaFine-Sepia, TH Distress Ink-Peeled Paint & Pine Needles to dye seam binding, Tombow Markers

Accessories: White Seam Binding, Glaze pens, brads, Spellbinders Oval, CB EF Distressed stripes

Sweet N' Sassy August Release challenges

Hello!  Thought I'd do some catching up on my posts here.  The Sweet n' Sassy Stamps Release party was a couple of weeks ago and I had uploaded these to Splitcoaststampers to get them submitted in time.  Blog land was forgotten for awhile.  But now, company has come & gone, hubby's at work and I'm home fighting a cold, what better thing do I have to do (other than make another challenge card)?  : )

This card was for the Color Combo Challenge - Green, Orange & Yellow.  The plaid paper is from an old set made by DCWV.  I trimmed out the bold pinkish red strip leaving the 3 pieces shown here just the right size to glue down on the embossed green base.  I wanted to play with some of my punches and make a flower using a technique Loll shared here for the center - with several small or mini (depending on size of flower) sun punch outs, cut into center then roll it into a cone shape.  Glue 5-6 of these sunny cones into the center of the flower for desired fullness.  

Stamps: Hero Arts

Paper: DCWV

Ink: VersaFine Sepia

Accessories: Punch Bunch Sunflower, Mini Sun, Mini flower, McGill Tag punch, Stickles, Cuttlebug EF Leafy Branch

This card was for the Sketch challenge.  Hmmmm, nothing to say here.  I like the peachy paper.  Needs something, some would probably put pearls or ribbon on it but I didn't have any that went well with it.

Stamps: SNSS Flower Sentiments digi

Paper: KaiserCraft

Accessories: Sizzix Branch w/Leaves die, Spellbinders Classic Oval & Lacey Oval Dies, MS Doily border bunch

This card is for the CAS challenge - use Kraft on your card and for the Product challenge - use buttons & brads.  Tho, when I was making it late at night, I didn't remember the AND part so it only has a button (and a charm...). : }  I embossed the Kraft paper then rubbed white chalk ink over it to bring out the embossing.  The butterfly charm I picked up at a garage sale of a former scrapbooker and I was able to carefully cut off the ring/charm attachment, looks so much better!

Stamps: Memory Box

Paper: DCWV

Ink: VersaFine Majestic Blue, VersaMagic Cloud White

Accessories: Cuttlebug EF Textile, Button, floss, Butterfly Charm

This card is for the Inspiration challenge - a photo of a white wall with large chevron pattern on it and a couch with lots of pillows & accessories all with colorful chevron (zigzag) patterns on them.  With no zig zag stamps in my stash, my collection of baby ric rac came to mind.  I think I've got one too many rows here, almost ran out of room for the sentiment box.  Kinda different yet fun!

Stamps: Hero Arts

Paper: DCWV

Ink: Memento

Accessories: Wrights Baby Rick Rack, gems, Spellbinders Square dies, Corner Rounder punch

SSS168 Sweet n' Sassy Sketch & SNSDC62 Digi Challenge

In between cleaning projects I was able to make another card this weekend. Still have much cleaning to do, tho not absolutely necessary...(right?!).  My inlaws are coming to visit for a few weeks, we pick them up at the airport tomorrow night.   I picked up hubby at the airport tonight, he went straight to bed after being up almost 30 hrs! So here I am, in the quiet of the night, posting pics of a sketch challenge & digi challenge card I made last night. :)  I had hoped I could make a more Christmas-y card for the Digi Challenge - Christmas creations, but I don't think that's going to happen this week so I'm using this card for both challenges.

Here's my card using the sketch and Sweet Cocoa Mouse digi-stamp from Sweet n' Sassy Stamps.  Sweet n' Sassy Stamps is celebrating Christmas in July with some new pre-releases, a sale ('til July 25), a clear stamp blog hop and a Digi-stamp blog hop.  That put me in the mood to do a winter theme card for the sketch this week!  I had originally cut the image as a square but I didn't like how my coloring of the background was going so I cut her out completely and popped her up here!  Wow, these papers are still kind of overwhelming to me, not my usual style but thought I'd give it a try. The papers are from an old DCWV Winter set.

From this angle you can see that I used Glaze pens on the candy cane (over the marker coloring), a white Souffle pen on the little marshmallows, a StarDust pen on the mug flakes and Glossy Accents on the rim, base & handle of the mug!

Sweet n' Sassy Stamps July Release Challenges

This sentiment made me smile :)  I do enjoy flowers, and flower stamps!  The Forget-me-not is the Alaska state flower.

Sweet n' Sassy Stamps was having a July stamp release party with challenges posted on Splitcoast this past week.  Of their 6 Challenges, I made 4 cards to cover 5 of them, and whew! that's alot of cards from me in one, very long night!  I had no more creative mojo to make a 5th or 6th card by the 11am AK time (3pm EST) deadline to get them uploaded (which ended up being almost a 2 hour task in itself this morning!)!  It didn't help that taking decent pictures of these cards at night was no easy task..  I retook the pics with natural lighting (later) today to post here.  Some came out better here but it's too late to exchange the images posted to the challenges.

Even though stamps from Sweet n' Sassy Stamps weren't required to participate in their challenges, I had fun choosing some digi-stamps to buy from their website; just download, play with sizing & print out!  

This card is for Challenge 4 - Use dies with patterned paper and Challenge 5 - Inspirational photo. I took inspiration from the floral blanket and pastel colors of the lanterns that were in their picture.  Flowers from a second image were popped up here and the butterfly is conveniently covering a small tape paper tear (from sloppily taping the die in place). : )

Stamps: Sweet n' Sassy Stamps-Forget-me-not digi, Blue Morpho Butterfly digi, Flower Sentiments digi

Paper: DCWV (yellow), Memory Box (green polka dot)  

Other: Tombow Markers, Stickles, Spellbinders Oval, Lacey Oval, Square; Cuttlebug EF

A card for Challenge 2 - Colors was not simple for me.  The required colors were Old Olive (Olive), Calypso Coral (Deep Coral) & Baja Breeze (Dusty Blue).  My original idea of Dusty Blue wasn't the same as theirs, but I think this is close here.  It's glittery paper so hard to photograph anyway, it does look better in real life!  My old, Old Olive paper looks like it's fading away but it matches the pattern paper.  I used Old Olive ink to stamp a pattern on it and distressed the edges using the blade of my scissors (NOT safe!).  That tiny butterfly is the limit of smallness for me to cut out & pop up!  Can you tell how much fun I had playing with the sizing of that one butterfly image?!  

Here's more of the shimmer angle :)

Stamps: Sweet n' Sassy Stamps- Blue Morpho Butterfly digi, Flower Sentiments digi

Paper: DCWV, SU   Ink: Stampin'Up, Tombow Marker  

Other: Spellbinders Labels 4; Martha Stewart border punch, ribbon

This is for Challenge 3 - Sketch.  So many options with papers that I just had to pick one (and get it done!). I like the little punched flowers with Cinnamon Stickles centers to resemble the paper pattern.  I just could not find the right brad or bling, till I went thru my old punches!  The papers & colors just spoke "garden" to me when I was looking for something to pair with that sentiment.  The sentiments on these 3 cards are part of the Flower Sentiments digi-stamp, hence the similar theme. :)  Hmmm, I forgot a butterfly on this one.

Stamps: Sweet n' Sassy Stamps- Flower Sentiments digi

Paper: DCWV   Ink: Memento-Cantalope (sponging) 

Other: Mini Flower Punch (?), Scallop Scissors, Stickles, Spellbinders Square

This is Challenge 6 - Butterflies!  Another butterfly, well the same image just a few sizes larger!  Actually, this card is just under 4"x4" and not quite square (some odd size I came up with very early this morning, based on the amount of patterned paper I liked) so the butterfly isn't huge, relatively speaking... Anyway. The sentiment here is a stamp from Memory Box (yes, a non-SnSS product). 

Stamps: Sweet n' Sassy Stamps-Blue Morpho Butterfly digi, Memory Box-Hello

Paper: DCWV (reddish), Memory Box (green polka dot)   Ink: Memento Black, Tombow Markers

Other: Martha Stewart border punch, ribbon, Sakura Stardust pen

This was fun!  Makes me want to stamp more, just no more late, late nighters if I can help it!  Speaking of which...Good Night!

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad

I'm late, I'm late ... for a very important date!  What is that from, Alice in Wonderland?  I don't know why that line comes to me often, partly because I'm usually running late for something, most often in the card making department.  So, I wanted a quick card to send off in the mail for my folks Anniversary, despite it being a month ago, but figured I'd send it with the Mother's Day card (previous post), also a month late... Good Grief, it's almost Father's Day! : } Ok, something quick & easy...

I saw this paper in a mini pad made by Simple Stories - Generations theme, that I had picked up at my LSS awhile back.  A single sheet of paper with these rectangles of images & words that seemed so appropriate for my parents!  Can't get any simpler than that, tho I did have to cut off a row of 2 to make this card size.  

I didn't want to over embellish it or cover up any of the design but it needed something!  How about 3 rows of Jewelry cord on Scor-tape and a 4-loop bow, made with the help of a Bow-Easy, tied onto the center where the cords cross.  Hmmm, almost like a package!  I didn't wrap the cord around the paper because of the bulk but left them raw at the edges of the print paper, kind of different and nice & flat!  I used one of JustRite's Mini Sentiments to stamp Happy Anniversary in the lower right image, (how convenient to have that blank space) and added 2 punched hearts in the upper right area.

Since I used a full sheet of solid green from a small 5x6 pad as the mat, I didn't want to dig around to find a sheet big enough to use or to cut as the base so the mat became the base for the front flap of the card.  The back flap of the card has a 3/4" overlap glued to the inside of the front flap.  I then used coordinating paper to cover-up that overlap to dress it up a bit.  

To take up some of the blank space on the inside, I used the Twirled Heard die from Memory Box.  There was an extra full heart left in the length of the chain, just right to glue on the left.   Yikes, who forgets to take a picture before signing the card!  Sorry about the little wedge scrap pieces in the pic to cover up the writing. I was just so happy to have it done so I could mail it, sometime soon...! : )

Stamps: ODBD - Love 1Cor 13, JustRite - Mini Sentiment - Happy Anniversary (outside, Stampendous - Happy Anniversary (inside)

Paper: Simple Stories - Generations, DCWV

Ink: TH Distress, VersaFine (love verse)

Other: Memory Box-Twirled Hearts die, Fiskars-Heart punch,  Hemp Jewelry Cord (JoAnns), Scor-tape 1/8", Bow-Easy

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!  Thanks for being mine! : )

Taking a drive

The end of May and there's still quite a bit of snow in some places, like towards Valdez.  Hubby & I took a ride with the pooch for a few days to check out some trails down that direction.

Didn't get very far down this trail till we hit this.  We made it thru some of the snow just fine but it started to get deeper and for longer distances, time to turnaround.

Funny, we drove down this hill just fine earlier.  Amazing what a little warmth in a couple of hours will do to frozen clay, ugh!  Time to get the winch out.  Maybe the car at the bottom should have clued us in when we drove by it the first time...and the pile of steel cable a little further up the hill.

After that how about some (mostly) paved trail!  This old highway is a bit grown over and falling apart in some areas, but still pretty smooth.

When we stopped to camp, Sissy stood watch with her nose & ears constantly working, something must be close by...

Later, after much barking, and us scanning the trees and mountain side, we saw him headed up & away from us at a good lope.  Scott & Sissy walked down the road and found his prints where he had come out of the trees, maybe 50 yards from camp, before running back in and up the mountain away from our yapper. : )

 No smelly cooking in bear country, dehydrated meals it is, tho Sissy thinks they still smell good to her. 

Yeah, she's spoiled, and loves to clean out the bags when we're done eating, if we let her.

Can't.quite.get.to the bottom.... 

Scott did finally cut the side open for Miss Short Snout with egg on her face. :)

Not much snow on this side.

Had to slow down for this guy, who wasn't in a hurry...ho hum.  Sissy wanted to be let out of the truck to help it along, ha! We didn't even want to think about what that encounter could have been like. 

Well we didn't make it all the way to Valdez this weekend but now we have trails in mind to go back to in a month or so when there's less snow!

Mom's Day cards!

Happy Mother's Day Mom!  Sorry, they're a week late, actually they'll be later by the time they get in the mail.... :}

These are a couple of the Great Impressions monthly stamps from last month and I used the image layout of the roses and script from one of their sample cards.  Stamp the roses on cardstock and on scrap, cut out scrap image closely, adhere to image on the cardstock and over-stamp with script stamp until height (length) desired.  The script is stamped 3 times on both of these cards.

  

The script reads, " God created the rose in the likeness of a woman.  The rose represents beauty.  The stem represents strength. Petals are soft as her delicate skin. The fragrance is pure and so sweet.  Leaves represent arms outstretched, always giving.  Each time you look at this rose remember ... God made you special. "  I thought these stamps were beautiful and appropriate for a Mom's day card!  

To dress up the inside a bit, the roses are stamped 2nd generation to lighten the gray a bit.

Stamps: Great Impressions

Ink: Memento-Images, TH Distress-sponging; Prism Colored Pencils

Paper: K&Company-green x-pattern (red roses), Kaisercraft-green & pink pattern paper framing the image (pink roses)

Other: Red rose card-Martha Stewart large leafy border punch; Pink card-Memory Box-Catalina Wreath die (pink card, wreath cut in 2 and draped over top half, kinda gives it a heart shape look), Blue Moon-heart trinket, JoAnns-ribbon 

ODBDSLC106 No Designer Paper

Our Daily Bread Designs Shining Light Challenge for this past week was to make a card without designer paper.  It was to encourage us to make our own backgrounds using stamps, embossing or just plain paper.

Here's my card.  I really like their background stamps and had several butterfly and flower images from one of my favorite sets from ODBD, Don't Worry, already stamped just waiting to be used on something.  It's simple and peaceful to me, not busy or bright, but calming.  I love walking through our woods with the dog and finding flowers blooming here and there with butterflies fluttering in the sunlight shining through the branches.  It's still a little early yet for all of that here in AK, but I believe Spring is finally upon us in our area! 


Stamps: ODBD Wood Background, Grow in Grace-verse, Don't Worry!-flower & butterfly
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, TH Distress Ink Antique Linen, Tombow Markers, Sakura Stardust pen

JustRite Friday Color Challenge #071 - "Perfect Pastels"

Whoo Hoo!  I actually made a card, in one day, for a challenge and in time for the challenge.  Whew, it's been ... well, Christmas since I made a card!  Darn it!  I can't believe it's already the 1st of MAY.  Good Grief, time flies!  Anyway, here's my card, to get me motivated to make more, soon, I hope :)  


This card is for the JustRite Friday Color Challenge #071 - using Yellow, Pink & Peach.  The colors in the picture are a little brighter than in real life.  The wonky rectangle and the sentiment background is a pale yellow and the lace under the bright ribbon is a pale pink.  I used a Sakura Stardust pen on the dots on the patterned paper and on the bow in the image to help give it a shimmer, tho you can't see it here.  


JustRite Stampers is having a sale on many of their original stamp sets, including the 2 I used on this card.


Off to clean up my mess and do some chores, it's been fun!  Thanks for looking!


Stamps: JustRite - Seeds of Kindness (sentiment), Beautiful Blossoms (image)
Ink: Memento Rose Bud, Tombo markers
Paper: K&Company, DCWV
Spellbinders - Classic Scallop Ovals, Big Scallop Circles, Wonky Rectangle
Ribbon & Lace - May Arts

Christmas Cards

With my (yet again) late start I decided to try mass producing cards this season and chose to use some stamps and holiday ribbon that have been laying around unused for several years. 


I started with several full sheets of white paper and stamped snowflakes all over them, up to 3 times before re-inking the stamp.  Stamped & embossed the script, then measured and cut around each script to size.  The ribbon is glued onto white paper (cut to the width of the ribbon) to help stabilize it and to help the white on the ribbon  POP.  Attaching the ribbon directly to the blue background subdued the white too much for me. 

Even then, I had to have some diversity...notice the shade of blue paper changes and the amount of embossing sparkle between these 2?  

Some of the early ones (before really getting into the production line of doing these) the embossing powder stuck to a few of the snowflake images too, giving even more variety to the batch.  I can't decide which I like better.  : )


Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Memento blue, Versamark & Fine Gold Embossing powder
Ribbon - JoAnns


When that ribbon ran out I grabbed another holiday roll.  These big spools take up space and it's nice to see them put to some good use (I have no idea what I was thinking when I bought them a few years ago)! : )  It was fun trying different papers behind this ribbon and seeing the effect the colors had.  I settled on using the same Kraft cardstock I used for the card base.  I thought it showed the browns & gold in the ribbon nicely.

I knew I didn't have enough of the stripe paper to make many and after trying several other patterns (but no likey) I remembered I had a holiday embossing folder that might just work!

Since I embossed thin designer paper, the pattern showed some white edges & mini tears.  I rubbed Gold Brilliance ink over the surface (direct to paper) giving it a gold antiquing & shimmer for the finished look of my background. 

Ahh, yet another version!  I really have a hard time making more than a few of any one design or color.  It helps that I don't have enough of any one color or paper to use up the ribbon, so some variation is needed. : )


Stamp: Stampin'Up
Ink: Versamark & Fine Gold Embossing powder; Brilliance Gold
Other: Holly Ribbons Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Ribbon-JoAnns, Spellbinders Labels 4


Wow, this was fun and I used up some ribbon!  I was able to make about 20 cards per roll of ribbon here, that took care of a big chunk of my Christmas card list!  


Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and has a Happy & Healthy New Year!