Stamp Happy

Stamp Simply #88 - Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue!

It's Friday and it's time again for Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply challenge!  This being Memorial Day Weekend, patriotic colors come to mind, so let’s create today using red, white and blue; HOWEVER, you do NOT have to use the traditional flag shades of these colors - you may use ANY variation of these colors you like, as long as your creation contains some shade of red, white and blue.  That’s easy enough!!!  Hope you have fun!!! 

I chose to make this card using one of the newer releases from Digital Stamp Oasis called Flying High!  Sammy the Squirrel thinks he's the Red Baron, as he soars above the clouds!  My card actually isn't stamped simply at all!  In fact, I didn't use a single stamp!  The image and sentiment are both digital!  There are a few blogs I read that are not stamping related.  One of them is The Geswein Family.  If you've been around SCS for as many years as I have, you may remember someone named MamaKimberly?  Well, Kim and her husband and their two cutie-patootie girls now live in China, and I just love to read of the adventures on their family blog.  While reading a few days ago, I discovered that Kimberly has some fonts that she created and they're available for free!  So I downloaded this one called Joyful Juliana, and used it for the sentiment on my card.  To check them out, go to her blog, scroll down the right side and look for the heading My Free Fonts.

This card will also fit perfectly with the rest of the Supernova's creations in the May Birthday Album at Paper Craft Planet!  Be sure to check out the album sometime, especially if you need some birthday card inspiration!

Check out Sharon's fantastic sample, and these samples from the rest of the Stamp Simply team for inspiration!

Julie Koerber
Jennifer Buck
Janine Orchard
Becky Oehlers
AJ Otto
Deb Saaranen

Barbara Anders, May Guest Designer

Give this challenge a try, if you have time!  And don't forget, the awesome challenges leading to fabulous prize giveaways begin on Monday, May 25th at the Stampin' Out Alzheimers website!  Be sure to get your stamp area cleaned up and ready to go!  The Kitchen Sink Stamps Crew is hosting a challenge, and I'll also be hosting a color challenge, so be sure to get your minimal donation made in order to join the site, and get hooked up so you're ready to go!  We're so thrilled to see the donations already rolling in even before the challenges start and hope that we'll surpass the $2500 goal to donate to the Alzheimer's Association!

Thanks for stopping by!  I appreciate your comments so much!  TGIF!

Stamps:  Flying High digital image (Digital Stamp Oasis), sentiment (Joyful Juliana font courtesy of Kimberly Geswein)
Cardstock:  navy (unknown), Maraschino (Bazzill), white (Neenah Classic Crest Solar White), designer paper (Scenic Route)
Inks:  markers (Copic)
Accessories:  Nestabilities (Spellbinders), brads (Stampin' Up!).

Stamp Simply #63 - Giving Thanks

Greetings, and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!  In honor of the holiday yesterday, the Stamp Simply challenge for today is to give thanks.

Around our table yesterday, we remembered to give thanks for the servicemen and women who are serving our country in all capacities and appreciate the freedom we have because of them.  So I thought it appropriate to express my thanks with a card for today's challenge as well.  I will send this to a young man from our church who is currently deployed.

Check out all the details, as well as a fantastic creation from Sharon Johnson on her blog, and don't forget about Stamp Simply Celebrates! coming up, too!

The Stamp Simply team has some wonderful samples for you, too!

Julie Koerber
Dee Jackson
Jennifer Buck
Janine Orchard
Becky Oehlers
AJ Otto
Cathy Tidwell, guest designer

Stay tuned!  Later today I have a card to show you for day one celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas at Papercraft Planet!

Have a great day!

 

 

Stamps:  Hometown Pride/Thomas Kinkade (Cornish Heritage Farms), sentiment (unknown)
Cardstock:  Riding Hood Red, Night of Navy, Sahara Sand (Stampin' Up!), designer paper (Scenic Route)
Inks:  Night of Navy (Stampin' Up!), Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)
Accessories:  Nestabilities (Spellbinders), ribbon (craft supply).

The Style Shop

I have a class at the store this week that was planned about 2 months ago.  I knew what stamp sets I wanted to use, and had them all ordered or in stock.  Last week would have been my normal time to begin working on the card designs for the class, but being sick with that stinkin' cold brought everything in my life to a screaming halt.  So on Sunday I knew I needed to sit down and get serious about coming up with these card designs!  Then Hurricane Ike showed up, and the lights went out!  So yesterday was crunch time, and I needed help!  So I headed over to Splitcoast to look for some inspiration, and found this adorable design by Linsey Rickett!  I loved her idea with the little scored/scalloped awning, so I took the inspiration and ran with it!

 

I know my customers at class tonight are just going to love this!  They're also going to think it's difficult, but it really isn't!  I love it when they're surprised by how easy a card is to complete!

For the awning, I simply cut my piece of designer paper 1 1/2" wide, then scalloped the edge by cutting with a long scalloped rectangle Nestabilities.  Then I scored 1/2" from the straight edge.  I glued it to the top just slightly, then attached 4 brads every 1/2".

 

I can't wait for class tonight!  Linsey, if you're reading this, thanks for the inspiration!

Happy stamping!

 

 

 

Stamps:  Retro Boutique (Rupe Shevde design for Gina K Designs)
Cardstock:  Berrylicious, Parakeet (Bazzill), white (Gary Burlin), designer paper (Scenic Route)
Inks:  Palette Noir hybrid ink (Stewart Superior), Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko), markers (Copic)
Accessories:  long, scalloped rectangle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), scoring tool (Scor-Pal), white brads (Gary Burlin).

New Release from Pink Cat Studio

Today is the day!  You can pick up your own set of the Christmas Kitty stamp set from Pink Cat Studio!  While you're there, shop around and pick up a few other of Melissa's cute stamp sets!  As long as you're buying Christmas stamps, you might as well treat yourself to a little early Christmas present, right!?

Pink Cat is acting as one of Santa's helpers this Christmas, and is checking the list to see if you've been naughty or nice!  I used a combination of inks and watercolor crayons to color my image on watercolor paper, and added this tag coming out of the bag!  Pink Cat even has a little bling added to her collar for the occasion! My row of buttons across the bottom was a last minute add-on.  I don't use my buttons often enough so I thought I'd embellish with a little row of white buttons... they made me think of piles of snow!

So head on over to the Pink Cat store to pick up your set of Christmas Kitty stamps! 

Happy stamping, and have a great day!

 

Stamps:  Christmas Kitty (Pink Cat Studio)
Cardstock:  red, watercolor (Hollo's), Parakeet (Bazzill), Night of Navy (Stampin' Up!), designer paper (Scenic Route)
Inks:  Jet Black Staz-On (Tsukineko), Colorbox Scarlet pigment (Clearsnap)
Accessories:  Nestabilities tag die (Spellbinders), gems (Hero Arts), buttons (craft supply).

Color Throwdown #10

It's week #10 of the Color Throwdown challenge, and in recognition of the 7th aniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, the colors for this week are red, white and blue.  I hope you'll find time to participate!  You can check out samples from the team on the Color Throwdown blog, or click the links below for their blogs. 

Cathy Indelicato

LeAnne Pugliese

Kisa Peters

Broni Holcombe

Tracy Durcan

For my card, I decided to use this eagle and "freedom" stamp designed by Kim Hughes at Cornish Heritage Farms.  I actually won these stamps from Kim on her blog some time ago, and had never had a chance to use them so this was a perfect opportunity.  I also used the weekly sketch from Card Positioning Systems for my layout.

Remember, if you participate in the challenge, please be sure to leave a comment with a direct link to your card on the CTD blog so we can check out your creations!  And if you upload to an online gallery, please use CTD10 in your keywords.

Looking forward to your creations!  Thanks for stopping by!

 

Stamps:  Proud Eagle, Freedom (Kim Hughes design for Cornish Heritage Farms)
Cardstock:  Riding Hood Red, Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!), designer paper (Scenic Route)
Inks:  Adirondack Pitch Black (Ranger), Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko), markers (Copic)
Accessories:  Nestabilities (Spellbinders), ribbon (craft supply).

Stamp Simply #50 - Julie is HOT!

The Stamp Simply challenge this week is one you're going to love!  Here are the details, taken directly from Sharon's blog...

"In celebration of my Blog’s soon to be 1st Anniversary, and the 1st Anniversary of this challenge the week following, we are doing something a bit different, and fun, for the next 6 weeks.  Our next 6 challenges will be centered around each of the Stamp Simply Team members.  And this week we are highlighting Julie Koerber who is Out to Impress – and VERY impressive she is — and even more than impressive,  JULIE IS HOT!!!  And that’s the name of this week’s challenge. 

Yes, JULIE IS HOT, HOT, HOT!!!  RED HOT!!!  When I think of Julie’s work, I immediately think of red, a color she uses often, and oh so well!!!  I also think of large, spacious layouts, crisp and striking color combinations, minimal but absolutely perfect layering, and exquisitely beautiful and perfectly placed embellishements, never overdone!

Today’s challenge is two-pronged:

1. Make a card with the primary color being red (you can add any other colors you like).

2. Use Julie’s style as inspiration for your work.  You need not CASE her, just let her beautiful and classy style inspire you.  Julie has made a new card for us, and she has also chosen 5 of her previous cards to showcase as inspriation pieces that will convey her style, and you can see them here."

 

So there you have it, and I hope you have time to join in this week and participate in the challenge!  If you upload to SCS, be sure to use the keywords ssnotime50.

For my card, I chose this card of Julie's as inspiration, and I added the red with this yummy Scenic Route paper!  (Although I guess I don't follow directions very well as red really didn't end up being my primary color!  Please don't call the challenge police on me, Sharon!)  Here's my card...

I remember when I first saw Julie's card, I just loved that little dress!  However, I must have been in a hurry and didn't take the time to look and see where it was from.  Then, lo and behold my good friend Anita mentioned getting this stamp set from Gina K Designs for the store called Retro Boutique.  I ordered it, it arrived and to my surprise, there was the dress!  So I just had to use it for this "Julie is HOT" challenge!

 

Congratulations Julie, and thanks for providing such wonderful inspiration with your creations!

To see how the other Stamp Simply team members were inspired by Julie's style, check out their blogs (as well as a new sample from Her Hotness, Julie!)

Julie Koerber

Dee Jackson

Jennifer Buck

Janine Orchard

Happy stamping, and thank you for stopping by!

 

 

 

 

 

SUPPLIES
Stamps:  Retro Boutique (Rupe Shevde design for Gina K Designs), swirled background (Art Impressions)
Cardstock:  Hillary, Green Tea, Maraschino (Bazzill), white (Stampin' Up!), designer paper (Scenic Route)
Inks:  Versafine Onyx Black, Brilliance Rocket Red, Versamark (Tsukineko)
Accessories:  Nestabilities (Spellbinders), half-back pearls (Hero Arts), ribbon (craft supply), sewing machine, thread.

Quadruple Whammy! Christmas in July

My card for today is a quadruple challenge whammy!  This combines the weekly Blogger's Challenge that I'm a part (and have been very lazy about getting done for several weeks now!) to make a Christmas card.  Today's Stamp Simply challenge is also to make a Christmas card!  And the Dare to Get Dirty '08 challenges are still going on over on Splitcoast, Hollly aka Toy sponsored the Dirty challenge on Thursday with a sketch layout that I used here, and Sharon aka The Stamp Simply Queen sponsored the other Dirty challenge to... what else?  Stamp Simply!  Wham, wham, wham, wham!  All four challenges in one card!  Ta-dah!

I pulled out my most favorite Christmas set from Kitchen Sink Stamps for this card... Playful Christmas!  If you like this set too, you still have time to get it and all the other great sets that Maria has designed on SALE!  Through the end of today, July 25th you can get 15% off your order!  Just a way to make the Dog Days of Summer a little more bearable!  Remember to enter the coupon code HOT when you checkout!

Recently I've been looking over the selection of papers that I have at the store and realizing that it's all very stale!  In Emeril-speak... it needs to be kicked up a notch!  So I did a little ordering the other day and today got a shipment of papers from Cosmo Cricket, Fancy Pants, Basic Grey (finally! the new Euphoria papers!) and Scenic Route!  Since one piece of the Scenic Route paper was this great green, red and white stripe, I decided it was perfect for a Christmas card... especially a Christmas in July card since the colors are so crisp!

Now, before I forget in all my babbling your Stamp Simply challenge for today is to create a Christmas card!  If it's something simple, you can make several and get a jump-start on your holiday tasks!  If you upload to SCS, remember to use the keywords ssnotime45.  Check out more details and Sharon's absolutely GORGEOUS sample on her blog (and send her some lovin'... she's been sick since returning home from CHA!)

And check out the wonderful holiday samples from the other team members here...

Dee

Jennifer

Becky

Janine

Julie

I am doing an in-store demonstration today on Copic markers, and I'm a nervous wreck!  I'm just positive that anything that can go wrong will!  I'm sure there will be a ton of questions I won't know the answers to, everything I try to color will bleed on the paper or the black ink will smear!  And all my customers will decide that I'm certifiably nuts!  I can use all the positive vibes I can get pointed toward Smithville, Ohio today around 3:00 p.m!  Thanks!

Happy stamping!

 

 

Stamps:  Playful Christmas (Kitchen Sink Stamps); Cardstock:  red, green (Bazzill), white (Gary Burlin), designer paper (Scenic Route); Inks:  Versamagic Green Tea, Spanish Olive, Silver Encore (Tsukineko), Old Olive (Stampin' Up!); Accessories:  oval Nestabilities (Spellbinders), snowflake brad (Making Memories), clear EP (Ranger), white ribbon (craft supply).