Contrary to popular opinion...

...I have not fallen off the face of the earth. My husband (Lee) had surgery on Thursday and it's been pretty chaotic around here...well, not so much "chaotic" as "abnormal." When I fall of my schedule...watch out!

So, here I am to try and make up some lost time. I'm going to post two cards, both of which I made because of Thursday.

The first is the card I made for Lee when he was in the hospital. All day, during his surgery, I had a wonderful peace from the LORD that He would take care of Lee, and I wanted to convey that in my card.




I opted for a one layer card, which I don't often do. I love other people's one layer cards, but mine always seem to come out looking so sad. However, this time I actually ended up with exactly what I wanted. The base is Very Vanilla. I then stamped the leaf image from Lovely as a Tree and the "Blessed" from Fancy Flexible Phrases (retired) in Basic Brown and used my aquapainter to color the image using Really Rust, Close to Cocoa and Chocolate Chip. Because I don't have the ink pads or reinkers for these colors, I scribbled ink from my markers onto a stamp box and picked up the color with the aquapainter.

At this point it looked rather too plain so I used a piece of scrap card stock as a straight edge and drew the box around the image using my Basic Brown Stampin' Write Journaler. I colored 1/4 inch white grosgrain ribbon with my Really Rust marker and tied it and some linen thread around the card. I added a stamp inside, "Each day of life is a precious gift of God. -Charles H. Spurgeon" from Refuge and Strength.

The second card I wanted to share is the one I made for my friend Naomi-Bell, who sat with me all morning at the hospital and kept me from falling asleep (we had to be at the hospital at 6am and I'm anything but a morning person).



I CASE'd this from Kristina Werner's blog (www.kwernerdesign.com/blog) you can check out the video of the original card here.

The base is Certainly Celery. I stamped the flower on Whisper White using Basic Black ink and colored the image using my Stampin' Write Markers. I punched out the flower using my Scalloped Circle Punch so it would be large enough that you wouldn't be able to see the edge through the opening. I attached the Regal Rose card stock to the Rose Red card stock using a temporary adhesive so I could punch my 1 3/8 inch circle out of both at once. I then detached them and centered the opening of the Regal Rose in my Scalloped Circle punch to create the layered effect. Stamped the "Thank You" and, after permanently adhering the two rose pieces, I tied on my ribbon using a trick I learned at Regionals in September...I'll have to share it as a tutorial sometime. I attached the entire rose section using dimensionals, as I hope you can see from this photo below. I took it without my flash so you can see the shadows, but it definitely changes the colors.

Blessed Card - Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Fancy Flexible Phrases; Card stock: Very Vanilla; Ink: Basic Brown; Accessories: 1/4" white grosgrain ribbon, linen thread; Tools: Stampin' Write Markers (Really Rust, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip)

Thank You Card - Stamps: Time Well Spent, Much Appreciated; Card stock: Certainly Celery, Rose Red, Regal Rose, Whisper White; Ink: Basic Black; Accessories: Stampin' Write Markers (Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Barely Banana, Summer Sun), black gingham ribbon; Tools: scalloped circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, crop-a-dile, dimensionals

Happy Resurrection Day!!

Happy Easter, everyone! Just got home from a day of running around to visit all the family and am using my brief sugar high to post my Easter card...since I know that in about 30 minutes my sugar will drop out and I'll be fast asleep.

I used a piece from the Wild Wasabi Textured Cardstock Special (16 sheets for $3.95, available through April 30) to make a pocket card. I trimmed the sheet to be 11 1/8 x 4 1/4 so that, after folding, it would be 5 1/2 x 4 1/4. The verse on the front is Matthew 28:6 "He is not here; for He is risen, as He said." and was printed in Contempo Caps font using the Stampin' Up! Write Me a Memory journaling CD. I stamped the cross over it in Basic Brown after first stamping off to lighten the image. I used the leaf stamp to accent the edges and the inside verse is from God's Blessings. It says "Sharing with you the miracle of new hope and new life through the glorious gift of Christ the Lord."

I hope you like it.

Recipe - Stamps: Refuge and Strength, God's Blessings; Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Basic Brown, Wild Wasabi textured; Ink: Basic Brown; Ribbon: Chocolate Chip Taffeta; Tools: Crop-a-dile.

Finally...some stamped stuff!!

Ok, so I told Abby (comment on yesterday's post) that these cards would be my first upload. At the time I thought that would be on SplitCoastStampers.com. However, now that I'm a blogger I should probably include pics of stuff I've stamped...since this IS a stamping blog. So, *tada* here is something stamped...

Abby and I created these cards a couple of weeks ago when we were pretending to teach ourselves how to do soot stamping. The main images were one piece, which we cut after it was decorated. We were also just getting to know her new brayer, so once we'd practiced doing straight soot stamping, we added the brayer as well as some embossing and paper towels.

Ok, I'm getting ahead of myself.
Soot Stamping, in it's simplest form, involves glossy card stock, a candle that smokes a lot, stamp(s) of your choice and versamark. You hold the card stock, glossy side down, over the candle so it can collect soot. We held the candle on it's side to enhance the smokiness (is that a word??). Then you stamp the card stock with versamark, cleaning the rubber between stampings, to remove the soot and create the image. Then you're supposed to seal it with a spray.

Well, we didn't have the spray to seal it, so once it was all decorated, we just wiped it off with paper towels. The soot stayed where the versamark was. So, we decided to try embossing first. Liked that even better and it snowballed from there. If I remember correctly...this is how you can recreate (all stamps are from the Baroque Motifs stamp set all on glossy card stock):

Stamp the flower/medallion stamp randomly
Emboss the vine stamp in white (emboss resist)
Brayer unevenly several times with brocade blue ink and wipe well with a paper towel (versamark resist)
Stamp flower/medallion again with versamark
Soot the card stock over the candle flame (be sure to not get too close to the flame and cover the whole piece with a lot of soot)
Wipe paper towel over card stock until all the soot is removed
The areas where you stamped with versamark just before sooting will gather the soot and show dark. The brocade blue ink, after all of this, matches bordering blue almost perfectly.

And there you have it...my first cards shared online.

Recipe - Stamps: Brocade Motifs; card stock: Basic Black, Bordering Blue, Glossy White; ink: Brocade Blue, versamark; other: White embossing powder, brayer with rubber attachment, 1/4" black grosgrain ribbon.

P.S. We created the focal point together and cut it up...the card on the left is mine and the right, Abby's.

And so it begins...

So, apparently I'm joining the world of blogging. I was never very good at keeping a diary, but, then again, I never expected anyone to read it...not that I expect much more here. Of course, the potential audience of the blog is generally larger than that of the childhood diary...unless you somehow become famous and forget to burn it....anyway...can you tell I have ADD?? haha

I've been a blogger-wanna-be for some time now. You see, I'm one of those blog stalkers your mother warned you about. I read and browse and share my opinion...with no one!! I'm a backseat blogger...one who would rather read and critique, than be read and critiqued. But, I've finally decided to take the plunge, throw caution to the wind and just do it.

Ok, ok, enough cliches. How about a little about me. Seems apropo, being that this IS my first ever blog entry...

I've been a stamper since elementary school...a good twenty-*mumble* years ago. I can still remember sitting with my gradeschool best friend, Liz, stamping all over a page and basically going, "that was cool...now what?" Thinking back, we weren't exactly creative. We would sit together during recess (oh, yeah, I was quite the athlete, lol) and crochet squares...rip them out...and crochet them again. We loved the craftiness but had no clue what to do with it.

Since that time I've moved from one craft to another. Through highschool and college I was the "crochet chick" and loved ones knew that if it could be made with yarn, they'd probably get one for Christmas. I tried several times...quite unsuccessfully...to learn knitting from several people. Each time I would try for a day, get horribly uneven stitches and give up (I'm a perfectionist, too, by the way). Then one day, I bought a book and it all clicked...I was a knitter...Until February 2007 when I discovered Stampin' Up! I attended my first stamp-a-stack and 3 months later joined the Stampin' Up! family as a new demonstrator.

Long story short...remember that girl I would stamp and crochet with in grade school? She's now my upline. Hi, Liz!!