Stamp Happy

Sketches! {by tamara} #59 - A Farewell

Here is your card sketch for week #59 of Sketches! {by tamara}.  This one was certainly fun for me, and I hope you'll find time to play along!  You can check out the Sketches! blog to see the cards by the other design team members, too!

Here's my card...

This card marks my final one as a design team member for Tamara.  It's been a lot of fun, and I am especially fond of sketch challenges, but I decided not to continue with the team for the next round in order to open myself up for some new possibilities.  If there are any of my favorite companies out there that want a new design team member, give me a shout!  :)

I made this card for another one of our employees at the store who is leaving for her first year at college later this week.  She's got really great style so I thought this design would be very well-suited for her! 

Many, many thanks to Tamara for having confidence in my designs and choosing me for her design team back in May!  It's been a lot of fun, and I really appreciate the new stamping/blogging friends I've acquired as a result of being a part of this team!  Good luck to the new team!  I can't wait to see your creations!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

SUPPLIES
Stamps:  Vintage Words (Kitchen Sink Stamps), swirls (Inkadinkado)
Cardstock:  Kiwi Kiss (Stampin' Up!), Mocha Divine (Bazzill), designer paper (Fancy Pants)
Inks:  Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories:  felt flowers, brad (Creative Impressions), Cuttlebug embossing folder (ProvoCraft), ribbon (craft supply).

Sketches by Tamara #58

Here is the sketch for the challenge at the Sketches! by Tamara blog for today!  It's a fun layout, and the designers all had terrific ideas for it!  You can check out all our cards by going directly to the blog.  I hope you'll find time to give it a try today or sometime soon!

I made my card for one of the girls at the store.  Today is her last "official" day of work before she heads off to college.  She's going to stay with us as an employee and plan on working during holiday breaks and hopefully next summer, but for now she's heading off into the big world and I'm going to miss her a lot.  She's a very valuable employee and can really be counted on!

Have a great day!

 

 

Stamps:  The Landing Pad, Pretty Birds (Kim Hughes Collection for Cornish Heritage Farms)
Inks:  Versafine Onyx Black, Versamagic Jumbo Java (Tsukineko)
Cardstock:  Old Olive, Kraft (Stampin' Up!), Quartz, Pomegranate Smoothie (Bazzill), designer paper (My Mind's Eye)
Accessories:  oval Nestabilities (Spellbinders), brad, rick-rack (Creative Impressions).

Sketches by Tamara #56

Another week, and another great sketch challenge from Tamara!

I've loved these Inkadinkado birds ever since I saw them in the catalog, and then started seeing them on some other blogs and had to give in and order them!  What fun they are to color, too!

For the doodling around the edges on the sketch, I chose to do a zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine.  And I've had these chipboard accents from Maya Road forever, so I was determined to make them work for this sketch instead of doing photo corners.  I painted the chipboard with Ranger Distress Crackle Paint in Fired Brick, and then lightly sanded the edges after they were dry to distress.

My "thanksful" sentiment is another stamp from the new Vintage Words set from Kitchen Sink Stamps.  If you're looking for a great sentiment stamp set with words appropriate for cards or scrapbooking, then you really need this set.  It's perfect, and has such a fun and different font!

I hope you have time to give this sketch a try today!  Be sure to leave a link in the comments on Tamara's blog, and leave me one here too or send an email so I can see what you did, too!

Have a good one!

Stamps:  Duet (Inkadinkado), sentiment from Vintage Words (Kitchen Sink Stamps); Cardstock:  Blue Bayou, Soft Sky (Stampin' Up!), red (Archiver's), designer paper (Basic Grey), white (Gary Burlin); Inks:  Adirondack Pitch Black (Ranger), Soft Sky, Blue Bayou (Stampin' Up!), Versamagic Red Brick (Tsukineko), markers (Copic); Accessories:  Distress Crackle Paint (Ranger), chipboard (Maya Road), sewing machine, thread.

Sketches! by Tamara #55

I was cleaning up some folders in My Pictures and realized that I never got around to uploading my card on Thursday for the Sketches by Tamara challenge!  You can check out the sketch and the designs by the other team members here.  This is a great sketch to get you inspired if you don't usually do longer cards!  I hope you'll have time to give it a try!

When stamping my butterflies, I just couldn't find any of my inks that I felt matched the colors in the designer paper.  So I improvised.  The green butterfly is just stamped with Versamagic Tea Leaves.  The orange one was inked first with Pumpkin Spice, then with Persimmon.  And the pink butterfly was inked first with Brilliance Pearlescent Orchid, then with Versamagic Pink Petunia.  That gave me the look I was going for... vibrant rich colors that aren't always achieved with dye inks!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Stamps:  Fluttering By (Verve Stamps); Cardstock:  Parakeet, Black OP (Bazzill), Pink Passion (Stampin' Up!), white (Gary Burlin), designer paper (Autumn Leaves); Inks:  Versamagic Tea Leaves, Pumpkin Spice, Persimmon, Pink Petunia, Brilliance Pearlescent Orchid, Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko); Accessories:  ribbon slider Nestabilities die (Spellbinders), black dotted organdy (May Arts).

Sketches! and Dirty Challenges

Another day full of stamping has passed, and here are a few cards to show you!  First is my card for this week's Sketches! by Tamara challenge!  You can find the sketch and the other designs from the team at the blog.  You'll see that some of the girls really took the sketch literally with the image that Tamara suggests too, but I struggled with it a little and went in another direction.  I saw Kim Hughes post a really cute card this past week, and she had used the Ranger Crackle Paint on a chipboard frame, so I decided to give it a try since I have yet to find a comfort zone with that Crackle Paint.  NOW I want it in every color!  So anyway, I hope my card provides you with some inspiration, and you have time to give this sketch a try!

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These next 2 cards are ones that I created for the week-long Dare to Get Dirty challenges over on SCS.  This first card was for Lauren's challenge, and gave me a chance to use this yummy orange ribbon I got last weekend from Making Memories!  And I was so pleased to find that I had this orange flower to use on the card, too!  I got that flower, and some others like it in a trade many eons ago.  I really like the flowers but have no idea where they're from.  If you know of a company that carries flowers like that, please let me know so I can stop hoarding them!

And this card was for Jenn's challenge.  She provided a picture of a beautiful cake done with black and white swirls with a huge, chartreuse-green ribbon on it!  It was just gorgeous, and she asked us to just find inspiration from the cake and make a card.  Well, I took it all the way with the inspiration, and created my own cake!  I made the little scalloped edges on the cake by cutting out a long scalloped rectangle with my Nestabilities!  I don't know if you'll be able to tell from this second pictures, but I painted the scallops with a little bit of Shimmerz for some sparkle!

These last 2 cards use stamps from Kitchen Sink Stamps.  Don't forget there's a sale going on in the Kitchen through tomorrow!  Get 15% off your order by using the coupon code HOT when you checkout!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sketches! by Tamara card - Stamps:  flowers and sentiment (Pink Cat Studio); Cardstock:  Ruby Red, Naturals Ivory (Stampin' Up!), Ivy (Bazzill); Inks:  Adirondack Pitch Black (Ranger), Always Artichoke (Stampin' Up!), markers (Copic); Accessories:  chipboard frame made with Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Scattered Straw Distress Crackle Paint (Ranger), ribbon (Stampin' Up!)

Orange card - Stamps:  Thanks with Style (Kitchen Sink Stamps); Cardstock:  Cantaloupe, Festive (Bazzill), designer paper (Paper Salon); Ink:  Colorbox Scarlet pigment ink (Clearsnap); Accessories:  clear embossing powder (Ranger), ribbon (Making Memories), flower, brad (craft supply).

Cake card - Stamps:  Whole Family (Kitchen Sink Stamps); Cardstock:  black, white (unknown), designer paper (Magenta); Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko); Accessories:  Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Angel Wings sparkle paint (Shimmerz), Cuttlebug embossing folder (ProvoCraft), ribbon (Offray).

Sketches! by Tamara #52

Here's my card for this week's Sketches! by Tamara challenge!  This one was giving me a tiny fit at first, trying to come up with an idea but once I pulled out this Papertrey Ink stamp set everything fell into place!

The official sketch, and samples from the other design team members can be seen by clicking on the blog link above!  I hope you'll have time to play along! 

If you didn't get to it yesterday, why not combine this sketch with the Color Throwdown challenge?  It was so exciting to see how many of you participated yesterday (Darlene and Anita, my BSFF's.... thank you SO MUCH!)

Have a super, fantabulous day everyone!  Thanks for stopping by!

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Stamps:  Green Thumb (Papertrey Ink); Cardstock:  Green Tea, Patina, Piglet (Bazzill), white (Gary Burlin), designer paper (My Mind's Eye); Inks:  Colorbox Scarlet pigment (Clearsnap), Versamagic Turquoise Gem, Tea Leaves, Pink Petunia (Tsukineko); Accessories:  ribbon (Offray), long scalloped rectangle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), sewing machine, pink thread.

Happy 4th!

Sorry everyone, I'm running a few hours behind today!  Too many plates being juggled over my head, I guess!  Hope you're having a great day!

Here is the Sketches! by Tamara card sketch for this week!  You can see more details about the challenge, and the cards from the other design team members here.

And here's my card...

Sorry to be brief today, but I have to keep running!

Stamps:  Playful Stars, Ready 4 Any Holiday (Kitchen Sink Stamps); Cardstock:  red, navy blue (Hollo's), cream (The Paper Cut), designer paper (Scenic Route); Ink:  Versamagic Night Sky (Tsukineko), Colorbox Chianti pigment (Clearsnap); Accessories:  twill ribbon (Creative Impressions), slot punch, distressing tool (Stampin' Up!) star brad (craft supply).

Sketch Challenge for today!

I'm super-late today, but here's my card for sketch #50 at Sketches! by Tamara.  I have these narrow envelopes and so I made a card to fit them since this sketch looked long and lean to me!  My card measure 6 1/4" x 3 1/2".  It's also a super-simple design, as I didn't get a head start on my card for this week, and was really needing to get to bed last night!  There are a lot of details I could have added to this, but I just kept it clean and simple!  I hope you'll give this sketch a try, too!

Stamps:  Inspired Verses (Stampendous); Cardstock:  Pretty in Pink, Cranberry Crisp (Stampin' Up!), designer paper (Imaginisce); Ink:  Cranberry Crisp, Old Olive (Stampin' Up!); Accessories:  ribbon (craft supply).

My Readers are Somebirdy Special!

It's Thursday, so time once again for a Sketches! by Tamara blog challenge!  (Click on the link to see cards by the other design team members.)  Here's the sketch for today.  I really liked the scalloped outside border on this one, but the only thing I have to use for something like that is my Nestabilities, which aren't big enough to border the edge of an A2 card.  Yes, I could use my corner rounder, but I didn't want to do that because the corners never come out even.  Yes, I could have used mini-scalloped scisorrs, but I didn't want a tiny scallop and again... the corner thing.  So I improvised and made the center focal image have the scalloped border!  I'm not sure what the actual size of an ATC is but maybe I made my very first one without realizing it?

I just picked up this Dutch Girl paper from Cosmo Cricket last week at Hobby Lobby.  It was on clearance!  What???  How can anything Cosmo Cricket end up on clearance?  I love this stuff!  Doesn't everyone?  I used the papers for the branch, the bird, the flowered background and the red background.  I LOVE designer paper that has a sold color on one side so you've got something to coordinate if you don't have any cardstock that comes close.  And I do not do much stamping on aceate, but it occurred to me that it would be perfect for this challenge, and I love how it turned out!  I think these CHF/Kim Hughes stamps are a great combo with the Dutch Girl paper, too... both are great whimsical designs!

 

 

 

 

 

Today happens to be my Blogaversary!  It was one year ago today that I started blogging back on this old blog!  And all of you, my readers are Somebirdy Special to me!  At midnight tonight I will choose one random winner from all comments left on this post to receive this card, and..... I HAVE SWISS DOTS CUTTLEBUG FOLDERS!!!  I'll send you one of those, too!  I also have Floral Fantasy, Perfectly Paisley, Distressed Stripes, and Birds and Swirls, so if you already have Swiss Dots you can pick one of the other folders!  Good luck!  And THANK YOU!!!

Stamps:  Pretty Bird (Kim Hughes collection from Cornishe Heritage Farms); Cardstock:  River Rock (Stampin' Up!), Maraschino (Bazzill), designer paper (Dutch Girl by Cosmo Cricket); Inks:  Versafine Onyx Black, Staz-On Jet Black (Tsukineko); Accessories:  twill ribbon (Creative Impressions), scalloped rectangle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), slot punch, Ruby Red brads (Stampin' Up!), acetate (Hero Arts).

Sketches! by Tamara #47... better late than never!

OK, as promised here is my card for today's Sketches! by Tamara design!

Over at the Cornish Heritage Farms forum there is a Kim Hughes Blitz going on this week, so I used the Limited Supply Challenge for today to make this card.  Check out the other challenges if you have time (and are lucky enough to have some of Kim's stamp sets!)

Stay tuned for one more post today... BLOG CANDY!

Stamps:  URA Hoot, The Landing Pad (Kim Hughes Collection for Cornish Heritage Farms); Cardstock:  Parakeet, Fiesta (Bazzill), Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!); Inks:  Adirondack Pitch Black (Ranger), Versamark, Versamagic Jumbo Java (Tsukineko), markers (Copic); Accessories:  twill tape, buttons, jute (Stampin' Up!)