Friday, October 28, 2011

Simply Create Challenge no. 55




Good evening stampers. Super busy today as I am getting ready for Thanksgiving. I'll be having family in from out of state, so it will be fun but lots of work. My dd is great at chatting away the day...and night, but of little help on the mundane side...feeding a passel of folk and organizing the day to give them something to do. It will be work, but it will be fun too.

Now for my card. Simply Create is having its 55th challenge. Trish, our leader has asked us to be conventional and use pumpkins. But we have a sponsor, Jellypark, who graciously supplied us with this adorable little boy in a pumpkin costume. Isn't this a fun digi? I am just beginning to try to work with digi stamps. My dd taught me how to use Microsoft to re-size them. I don't think that is the program most people use, but it worked for me. The papers are from DCWV's Autumn Amber Collection, except the base which is SU's riding hood red. I colored with copics. Other items used are an MS border punch, Nestabilities die, bakers twine, button ,gems, and a black felt butterfly which was in a goodie package from a fellow SC Design team member....thanks Janet.

Well, I'm gonna try to get a few T-Day cards done and treat bags made before I abandon all card-making other than Christmas projects.

Happy stamping for the weekend.
Blessings,
Erica
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Monday, October 24, 2011



Happy Monday stampers. It is finally slowly cooling in Arizona. On my busy weekend, my grandson and I planted our very small vegatable garden. I haven't gardened since I moved in with my dd,sil and grands 2 1/2 yrs. ago. This time, I am trying container gardening. We put root veggies in which are appropriate for this time of year, cilantro, and pansies. Did you know you can decorate foods with pansies and actually eat them? I'll let you know if we get enough for a nibble. Gardening can be so fun.
We will see how things develop.

On to my card. This all-white anniversary card was supposed to be much simpler so I could enter it into LIM's challenge, but it got away from me and now it's lots of Nestie layers. There are some embossed polka dots on both the hearts (die cut with the CB. I doubt that the divas will accept this, so it's just for my stash and enjoyment. I high-lighted around the hearts with a Sakura sparkly pen.

So thanks for looking. Gonna work on a Mojo Monday card. I have just the image for it and I can use it for my DT submission at Simply Create.

Blessings,
Erica
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Sunday, October 23, 2011

Less Is More Challenge no. 38


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Good Morning Stampers. I feel like playing with Less Is More, challenge no. 38. It's all about polka dots. As a little girl I had a favorite dress in navy blue with white polka dots that I loved to wear. I cried when I grew out of it. Since then, my polka dots have been more subdued in the form of an occasional blouse. Uh, an entire dress would no longer work on this 60ish frame I inhabit. So what a great way to have fun with polka dots by using them on cards. In fact, I own a BG polka dot stamp, and three embossing folders of various sizes of dots. I sure do love 'em.

This is a top folded A2 card. The beautiful big flower is from Hero Arts, and is called Tall Flower...simple enough huh? I also stamped the flower on a piece of scrap maize cs, and dry embossed with one of the polka dot CB folders. Then I cut the largest blossom and mounted it with pop dots. Hmm, do pop dots count as polka dots? The sentiment is from a Hero Arts clear set called All Occasions. It's my "go to" set when I need an all on one line sentiment. I colored with Copics after stamping the flower in Memento tuxedo black. The sentiment is stamped using an ancient stamp pad from Personal Stamp Exchange in Bubble Gum. Thank goodness I had the sense to buy a refill for it long before I knew I was to be addicted to stamping.

Blessings, Erica

Saturday, October 22, 2011

More Free Paper from Gina K



Well hi stampers. The weekend is half done. My day was fun and busy. After a great family breakfast, I made three cards for you to see...one at a time though. Here, I've put to good use another Gina K freebie dsp. Isn't this pattern interesting? It speaks masculine doesn't it? Once again, I used the SU sentiment from Perfectly Penned. The image is a dollar Michaels Studio G stamp. I spend quite a bit of time in the dollar stamp bin sorting through to get the best ones. I saw this one once, grabbed it and never saw a duplicate again. I just love using it. Not much else to say about this card.

In the afternoon I went to Ikea with my dh. Since I made the difficult choice not to buy an IPad 2, I decided to finish installing...that is, my SIL will be doing that part....the wall cabinets in my craft room. A lack of funds left me with a most unfinished look. I still have to purchase the bottom drawers to go under the counters and it will cost me a small fortune. I thought I had my room well thought out. Alas, the money wasn't as well thought out as the plans.

Ah well, I shall stamp away the weekend and be comforted.

Blessings,
Erica
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Thursday, October 20, 2011

Free Paper from Gina K


Hi Stampers. How is the end of the week treating you? I had a run-around day and it ended with me doing my best not to buy myself an IPad 2. I just happen to have some $$$ burning a hole in my pocket.

I subscribe to Susan's blog, Simplicity. She links to a blog called Miss Minimalist. I ordered Miss M's (aka, Francine Jay) book, the joy of less...yup, even the title is less as it uses lower case letters for the title. I'm head over heels devouring this book. I want to begin to live a minimalist life in every sense of the term. I need to begin somewhere. Why not with electronics. I already own an Iphone 4 (bless your life Steve Jobs). Apple provides upgrades every month or so. I absolutely love this piece of technology, still marveling at its very existence. I am asking myself, isn't this enough? Miss M writes about duplicates. Isn't an IPad a duplicate of an IPhone? No, not in every sense of the word, but surely near enough. So this will be my first big personal battle in learning to be a minimalist. I will be writing about this subject periodically here.

My card today is minimalist, more commonly known as clean and simple. Gina K is offering a lovely set of four black and white designer papers. You gotta have these. I am not a big fan of digi papers. I want to see my paper in person and feel it. But I thought I'd give these freebies a try. Love 'em and if you check Stamp TV, there is a video on how to "alter" them with color for an entirely different look. See my righthand sidebar for a link to Stamp TV. I'll be showing you how I used each design to make a card. The other items used include Nestibilities dies...same die for two mats with the position reversed...good idea, huh? That is a very ancient stamp of the world globes. My sentiment is from CTMH, stamped in Palette Noir Black...decided to give the Memento tuxedo black a break since no coloring was done on the image. Card base is standard A2. Get ready for another minimalist card tomorrow.

Blessings,
Erica
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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Betcha Can't Guess what this is for real!



Hi Stampers. I have a friend who is quite the artist and absolutely enamoured of all things Halloween. It was her turn to host our monthly stamping get-together for October, and along with her co-hort, they put on quite a show. The theme was food and the menu was indeed ghoulish. Here is the "brain-food." This was sooo authentic-looking, that one of our group couldn't even eat it. Actually, the recipe called for Jello, cream cheese, shredded carrots and a bit of food coloring. And a mold was used for the uhh, fun shape.

Do you serve Halloween foods....other than the traditional stuff?

Blessings,
Erica
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Monday, October 17, 2011

No Witty Title, Just Him


Hi Stampers. Sometimes witty titles don't come forth from this tired brain. But I did have sufficient energy to make this card. It started out as my Design Team member entry to the Simply Create challenge going on here.  I didn't think it measured up to my standards and I made different one which was lovely, but,I missed the team deadline. So now my cards will be entered with all the entries. This is a ready-made card base from a Paper Studio box of cards. You can see the inside is white. These cards can't be beat if you're in a super hurry. I added CB die cut corners and Nestie frame dies. The MS butterfly is punched 3 x, glued together and mounted so that it 'pops' off the card. The sentiment and flowers are part of an older set from Our Daily Bread Designs. They design some of the most beautiful verses and accompanying images. I colored with Copics.

Hope your week is starting out beautifully for you.

Blessings,
Erica
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Friday, October 14, 2011

Simply Create Challenge #54, Shades of Black

Good Evening Stampers. I worked on this card for a long time....too long unfortunately, and I didn't get it up for our challenge this week. Our fearless leader made some changes to our submission calendar meant to help the design team and I put them on the back burner and, well, the best laid plans of (wo)man! But it doesn't mean my blog readers can't have a looksie. I must say photographing black and white is agonizing. I can see why I totally need to purchase and learn all about, a light tent. It is not on my wish list, BUT, if I'm gonna show-off my cards, maybe I'd better find a way, because justice is not being served in this photo.

So, my card base is 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 Gina K Gina K Designs. heavy weight cs. It is matted with a black cs 5 x 5 piece on which I did diagonal scoring with my Martha Stewart scoreboard. Then I used my new Cheery Lynn Designs doily die in SU gray cs and exotic butterfly die on a scrap of white using my CB to cut it out. Circle diecuts were made with Nestabilities. The sentiment from Gina Ks Fanciful Tags is punched using a partial portion of an EK Success label punch, a little trick I learned on-line. The border on scrap white is Cuttlebugs' Fancy borders. I've added a gray satin bow made with my Bow Easy, a stickpin from CTMH, (already made up for you) and pearls from my stash. The crochet white flower and the center antique brad are from SU.

This card belongs in the fussy card category, but it was worth it, I think.

Have a Happy Weekend. Don't forget to check-out Less Is More early tomorrow for another challenge.

Blessings, Erica
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Monday, October 10, 2011

A Trio of Christmas cards


Hi Stampers, I've been putting off making Christmas cards. It's not like I don't have plenty of material to use. It's more like if I wait until November, like I did last year, they won't get made. As I grow older...mature, I have fewer people to send to. Most of my friends are still alive, but have chosen to send out those rather one size fits all newsletters telling me all about what every grand-child is up to, the cruises they went on, etc., I'm not gonna lie and tell you I like this sort of communication. Quite the contrary. I'd much rather receive a beautiful card simply wishing me a Merry Christmas and/or A Happy New Year. Yep, that's really all I want. And if I do want more, I'll call them after  the holidays...just being honest here.
So, I kept to my word of what I wanted and I made a trio that fit the bill. I kept them simple. I do not enjoy making the same card repeatedly, so though the sketch can be the same, little else is.
I was inspired by new stuff I ordered from Gina K. First time I've given her company a go and I'm happy with my stuff. They ran a special for World Card Making Day last week. Instead of contributing a card, I was happily bargain hunting on-line.
Two of the three cards use dsp from a BasicGrey "Jovial" 6x6 pad, (available at Gina K.) The stamps are from Gina K's Fanciful Tags. You get three borders that fit the Nestibilities Fancy Tag Dies and  oodles of sentiments. Can one ever have enough sentiments?..you need different fonts and sizes and directions, etc., which reminds me, if you haven't heard, Joanna Munster just posted about her brand new store with stamps galore. She has a design team search open too. Might just give that a try myself. I love her work. Check out her store and leave some good wishes.

Hope you have a great week. Get those holiday cards going.

Blessings,
Erica

Monday, October 3, 2011

2nd Submission to Simply Create


Hi Stampers and Happy Monday. Here's the second box I made while in my boxy mood. This is another template I have had for some time and there's a video tute Top Note Box tutorial, on YouTube for it . I've had the ribbed felt flowers forever and the tiny maple leaf punch and the Nesties dies I used are not new. Note, I subbed my Nesties for the SU Top Note Sizzix die. I wanted a smaller top and bottom. And the Nestie has various shapes with just the one I wanted. The paper is SU. I used Crystal.Effects on the leaf, but it is missing that 'something', so it kinda' just is. I have to work on that. I punched a sort of 'opening' with an oval punch.
This is the same scripture I used on the weekend from Dee's here .
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Saturday, October 1, 2011

More Than six Months


Hi Stampers...I have been totally wrapped up in a busy weekend and my project is up for  Simply Create, but I haven't posted the accompanying post. I'm very sorry about that.
So, over there  where life is a lot more simpler than it is in my neck of the woods, we can use anything we have that you have had for more than six months. I've been stamping for 7 or so years, and I hardly ever throw anything away and rarely give anything away either.

I am in a boxy mood. I'm trying several different sorts of packaging so I can figure out what's best to give away some small goodies in for the T-Day holidays. This is fom a template that was a freebie on Lauren Meader's  My Time, My Creations, My Stampendence blog.  Lauren is one busy woman. In addition to many family responsibilities, she designs templates and dsp every single month specializing in packaging.  I love her stuff and am a frequent buyer. This cute little crayon-style box was one of her first. I don't know if it's still available. All of the items used on the box, with the exception of the scripture, are quite a bit older than six months...some retired. The scripture is from Dee here. Yet another designer who is kind enough to share her talent. Her forte is a scripture each Tuesday free to her readers. See, you don't always need dollars to hone your stamping skills.

Off to continue my busy week. I was given some fresh organic beets and I found a salad recipe in the Food Network October magazine...this is one of the few food-related magazines that's less than $5.00, on the newstand. Love the price and the magazine. Have a great weekend.

Blessings,
Erica