World Cardmaking Day 2009

Hi everyone!  Today I'm going to actually TRY to start this blog.  It's been around a while but I've been ignoring it... sometimes it's just too much to learn another thing.  Some of you know what I mean :D.  This past weekend I learned of WORLD CARDMAKING DAY and that there were all kinds of fun challenges and give-aways on Split Coast Stampers so I went searching.  I found 12 challenges and ended up only being able to finish 7... but that was pretty good for me as I'm not the World's fastest stamper!  I'll share them with you today with a description of what the challenge was. 

Since I've been entering these challenges I feel I have really grown as a stamper!  I feel more "capable" of doing what I set out to do.  Does that make any sense???  Okay, let's get started.

The first card I posted was the Verve Challenge.  It was a very creative idea by Michelle... pick a nation's flag and go with those colors... any design... just use the colors.  I picked Guatemala because I wanted to do a card for my granddaughter using light blues and soft greens.  The actual card is a retired SU! color called soft sky and I paired it with wintergreen designer series (also a retired SU! pattern) and old olive card stock.  I ran the small paned through my Cuttlebug using the swiss dots embossing folder.  The image is "Fluffles"... the adorable cat from Stampendous!  I have several Fluffles and just ordered another for Christmas (shhh...!).  I just lightly watercolored the image with SU!'s watercolor wonder crayons, added a sentiment from "Lots of Thoughts", eyelets and a bit of simple avocado colored ribbon and it was done.  

My next submission was for Unity Stamp Company and it was to do a card with a quote.  I decided on this quote in the Miracles Blossom set by Verve... "Where hope grows, miracles blossom".  I ended up with a more Spring than Fall card... that's ok, I'll use it.  I used old olive cardstock for the base of the card, regal rose as the accent around the oval nestability, and the background pink is a regal rose designer series.  These papers are all SU!. 

The inks were a combination... SU! earth elements stampin' spots for the image and Memento Tuxedo Black for the sentiment.  Kind of a sideline here... I've found my SU! black is not 'black' enough for my taste so I went to StazOn black and like it much better.  However, I just found out that StazOn cleaner is not good for photopolymer stamps (it's ok on rubber) so I've started using the Memento Tuxedo Black (probably TMI).  Just thought you'd like to know about the cleaner! 

So anyway, I used my oval nesties to cut out the scalloped edge and the oval and then stamped it with my little flower pot and plant.  I love see-through stamps... for obvious reasons :D... I especially love my VERVE photopolymer clear stamps!  I colored in the image using SU!'s watercolor wonder crayons (earth elements), did a little piercing along the left side, added a ribbon and I was almost done!  I just bought a little button die by Sizzix.  Since I sell (and they go in the mail) I have to be careful about 'bulky' so my customers are able to just put regular postage on their cards when they mail them out... which can be a challenge since I love all the embellishments.  This button die works great for me.  The effect is there but the button isn't.  

As I learn and stretch my capabilities more and more, I am envious of some of the coloring methods out there in SplitCoast land.  I want to try Copics but they are pretty expensive (especially when you have lots of markers)... well, we'll see how good Santa is ;).

The next challenge I entered was by Flourishes Stamp Co. and it was to follow their sketch.  No problem there because the sketch had a wonderfully crooked panel!  Whoo hoo... I have problems with crooked when I want it straight so this was in my comfort zone!  

The base of the card is Really Rust, the designer series is Haiku and the accent color is more mustard - all Stampin' Up!  The adorable little image is Verve's Hello Pumpkin which I love!  The little bear is actually brown although he looks kind of grey in the picture.  I stamped him twice and cut out his body and cap and pieced them on.  The button is from the Sizzix button die, finished it off with a twine bow, and pierced around the rectangle and used my white gel pen to make faux stitching.  The ovals were all cut with my rectangle nesties... they are so handy to have!

This card "Harvest Blessings" was made for the Gina K. challenge and it made me hungry!!!  Use chocolate, vanilla and pumpkin... yum.  The base of the card is chocolate chip, the designer series is Haiku and the panel under the circle is pumpkin.  Using very vanilla cs and my circle nesties I tried a trick I learned on Julee Tillman's blog... http://poeticartistry.blogspot.com/.  When you have run your nestability die through your machine, leave the die on the paper and sponge your color... it gives you a border of base color.  So fun!!!  That's what I did here and I really like that technique! Next I stamped on my wreath from Verve's Harvest Blessings set... I was so super lucky last month when I won the entire September release from Verve!!!  You'd have thought I'd won a multi-million $$$ lottery :D. I then colored it with my markers using the given colors... and before I forget, I also used the VersaMark clear to stamp on some extra boughs to the orange cardstock.  The base of the orange panel is punched using a Martha Steward trellis edge punch.

  

This card did double duty for me.  One of the challenges was to do an ornament card sponsored by Magnolia-licous Stamps and the other was to follow a sketch by Sugar Nellie Stamps. I decided to use my Wintergreen designer paper again since there were so many layers in the Sugar Nellie layout.  I used my oval nesties for both the base of the ornament and the sentiment and sponged the edges... not sure that was the right thing to do as I think it looks dirty now... but oh well, it is what it is, or so they say.  I used my new ornament punch from Stampin' Up and then 'decorated' it with my gel pen and silver stickles by Ranger.  My friend had die cut a lot of snowflakes for me last year so I added that to the lower right.  This card took a while but I do like it.

My final post for today is actually my fave!  It was a two-few too!  I incorporated the challenge by My Favorite Things to use BLING, pink, black and white!  NP.  The other was by Crafty Secrets and it was to make something "pop" on the card... the stars are on dimensionals and really do pop up.  

                        

I used another of my very favorite sets by Verve (can you tell I'm overjoyed with their stamps???).... LOVE THEM!!!!   Anyway, this card looks complicated but is really straight forward.  I used black bitty boxes by Papertrey Ink, pink ds in regal rose, and a white base (Papertrey again... their cardstock is 120# vs SU!'s at 80# so I think it makes a sturdier card base... just my opinion!).  Back to the card... I used my SU! doily (?) edge punch for the panel layers, stamped my wonderful You Rock onto white cs and accented the flourish with a glue pen and dimensional glitter (from Michael's).  I added a blingy crystal to the small star at the end of the flourish but it really doesn't show up in the picture... drat.  The stars were stamped with Memento tuxedo black, cut out, and then I traced around them on black cs so I could get some bordering.  I used the glue pen to scribble on the stars and then dipped them into the glitter.  They are popped up on very big sponge dimensionals... which may have to be swapped out when I mail the card.

I think I'll post this now and come back later with more 'creations' I have in my files that I never posted here.

I just had to "Pop" in an announce this... I just found out this afternoon that this card won a prize with Crafty Secrets... so delighted!!!  Thank you, Crafty Secrets!