TCPTUES66

This week's TCP Tuesday challenge is hosted by Susan, who challenged us to use one of Alma's newest sets, Happy Camper.

This set is so fun! All the stamps are adorable, so it was hard to choose which ones to use. I finally decided to use the Skunk stamp, like Susan did, because it fit the sketch I wanted to use. The layout is based on the SC236 sketch challenge over at splitcoaststampers. When I am in a card-making rut, the sketch challenges often helps me find a place to start. This time I actually stayed with the sketch.



I had to have the skunk hold a flower. Some flowers stink, so the flower and the sentiment go together nicely.

I used the flower stamp in three places-- I masked the skunk's hand so that the flower could be held; I made the background on the pink layer by randomly stamping the flower all over; and I also stamped the flower below the sentiment.

I like black, white, and pink together, and I had to add a bit of gray to make it feel right.

I made the skunk a girl skunk by coloring her stripe pink.

Stuff used:
Stamps: Skunk, flower, and sentiment all from "Happy Camper" set by The Cat's Pajamas Rubber Stamps
Paper: Stampin' Up Basic Black, Basic Gray, Pretty in Pink; gingham paper by Making Memories; Neenah Classic Crest Solar White
Ink: Versafine Onxy Black, Colorbox Frost White, Prismacolor pencils, Cool Gray 40% Prismacolor marker

Fathers' Day card

I made this card for my dad for Father's Day. Every time I make him a card, I pray that it isn't the last one I make for him. He has not been doing well since December.



I stamped the diamonds in red 4 times, cut them out, and used a Xyron sticker machine so I could stick 2 of the diamonds on the "King for a Day" card over the stamped black diamonds, and use 2 of them as embellishments.

I sponged around the edges of the saffron "card backs" to give them some definition.

Stuff used:
Stamps: Stampin' Up "Card Games", sentiment from long retired "More Great Greetings"
Paper: Stampin' Up Bashful Blue, Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White, So Saffron Palette o' Prints (retired)
Ink: Palette Noir, SU So Saffron, Real Red and So Saffron Markers, Prismacolor pencils
Other: Xyron, sponge dauber, corner rounder punch

TCPTUES53

This week's TCPTUES challenge is hosted by Susan, and it is a color challenge to use Raspberry Pink, Pumpkin Orange, and Sunny Yellow. Yowza!

I don't have any card stock named 'Raspberry', but I remembered that a set of patterned papers I purchased recently had bright pinks, oranges, and yellows, along with other cheerful colors. So, I pulled out a sheet of this bright pink-on-pink floral paper, which is close enough to raspberry for me! I pulled out my Summer Sun and Pumpkin Pie paper from Stampin' Up. My eyes hurt looking at it all. So, I pulled out the subdued Barely Banana cardstock, and decided to use it for the card base. It gave my eyes a place to rest!

The layout of the card is from this week's sketch challenge over at Splitcoaststampers.



Stuff used:
Stamps: The Cat's Pajamas Snail on Flower (Hearts and Flowers set), Life is Good (Spring Fling set)
Paper: Stampin Up Barely Banana, Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie; Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, patterned paper from DCWV The Spring Matstack
Ink: Versafine Onxy Black, Prismacolor Pencils, SU Pink Passion marker

TCPTUES52

This week's TCPTUES challenge is hosted by Toni. It is an inspiration challenge, and we are to be inspired by this colorful picture of pencils.

I was first drawn to the hexagonal layout of the pencils and envisioned a card full of circles laid out honey-comb style. However, while flipping though my TCP stamps, my direction changed. The Western Star stamp is similar in shape the end of a pencil, so I decided to use it. Then, remembering that I still wanted to try this week's Clean and Simple challenge over at Splitcoaststampers, I decided to use the layout from the CAS08 challenge, and plunked Catch 'Em Kitty down into a row of stars.
I used craft paper, because it looks something like wood. I used colors inspired by the pencils in row 4. I used colored pencils, which I could say are also inspired by the inspiration piece, but that isn't really true, since colored pencils are my favorite way to color cards.

T0 complete the card, I pierced holes around the stars (there are dots on the stamped image) then I pierced holes between teh elements to tie them all together. When Ed saw the card, he said I "shot holes" in the card. He totally got the western theme. He deserves a star.



Stuff Used:
Stamps: Western Star, Catch 'Em Kitty, and Much Obliged all from The Cat's Pajamas "It's a Western Thing" clearly swanky set
Paper: craft ("Speckletone" from Paperzone)
Ink:Versafine Onxy Black, Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol

CAS07 two-fer

This week's Clean and Simple challenge over at Splitcoaststampers is to use punches to make a card. I didn't set out to make two cards, but it happened.

I recently broke down and bought some Martha Stewart butterfly punches. They seem to be all the rage. I took a quick peek at the CAS07 gallery before I started my card, and I saw quite a few butterflies, so I decided to use a different punch for my card instead.

I started out making the card with the row of flowers. Instead of using the punched-out shapes and attaching them to a card, I decided to remove the shapes from the paper. I punched a row of flowers from the strip of Pale Plum paper, then glued the strip to a wider piece of Perfect Plum paper. I punched out 5 small circles and glued them in the center of each flower. I was going to orient this card the 90 degrees, so that the flower row was on the bottom of the card, but I decided to flip it and put a vertical greeting down the side of the card. I find myself always using the same basic layout over and over, and I needed to break out of the rut!



As I was tidying up and putting the paper scraps away, I decided to save the punched-out flowers. They are perfectly good flowers! There is also no time like the present, so instead of storing them all, I used three of them to make another Clean and Simple card. I tried to use all 5 of them, but the card looked too cluttered with 5.



Stuff used:
Stamps: Stampin' Up: Thank You Blocks, vertical thank you from Rubbernecker
Paper: SU Naturals White, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant
Ink: SU Perfect Plum, Colorbox Frost White
Other: retired flower punch from Stampin' Up, 1/4 circle punch, SU Vanilla embossing powder

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The corned beef is in the crockpot, and it is starting to smell pretty good! I will add the cabbage soon and make soda bread later. I will probably end up eating this special dinner by myself tonight, since Ed has to work late, as usual, and he cannot slip out early since he had to leave early yesterday to see his dentist. His employer will probably provide dinner for him tonight. So, Ed will most likely eat at work, then come home and eat again. He always seems to find room in his tummy if I bake something from scratch.

Anyway, on to today's card. Karrie challenged us to use any Irish stamps from The Cat's Pajamas for this week's TCPTUES50 challenge. I don't have any Irish TCP stamps, but I do have the Cauldron from TCP, and with a little alchemy (colored pencils and glitter), a cauldron o' bubbles can become a pot o' gold!



I put Stickles (glitter glue) on the faux brads too. The sentiment and shamrock are the only St. Patrick's Day stamps I have!

The ribbon frame was a technique I learned over on Splitcoaststampers, and it is this week's TLC212 challenge. Woot! It has been ages since I have done a Technique Lover's Challenge!

Stuff used:
Stamps: Cauldron from The Cat's Pajamas, sentiment from SU More Great Greetings, Shamrock from SU Bitty Bolds
Paper: SU Certainly Celery, Garden Green, Handsome Hunter, Summer Sun
Ink: Palette Jardin Moss, Versamark, Prismacolor pencil and Gamsol
Other: satin ribbon from Jo Ann, Diamond Stickles, 3/16" circle punch

CAS06

The Clean and Simple challenge over at Splitcoatstampers this week is an inspiration challenge, based on anything we find to inspire us on the Robeez web site. Robeez are baby shoes. I chose these shoes. Kitties always inspire me.

I have too many cat stamps to count, but I didn't have any cartoonish ones which would work. So, I chose this little cat stamp. I had the layout of the card in mind, so I wanted to use a cat stamp that had a flat bottom so it could sit on the border.

I picked up on the colors of the shoes, and the pink cats being outlined with brown. The stitched ball of yarn on the shoes prompted me to use faux stitching on my card.



Stuff used:
Stamps: Cat from Purrs and Pants, Sentiment from Spring Fling set by The Cat's Pajamas
Paper: Stampin' Up Pink Pirouette and Chocolate Chip
Ink: SU Chocolate Chip, pink colored pencil
Accessories: McGill flower punch (I bought the punch ages ago to make miniature flowers)

Skating Poochie

I returned to work today, and confirmed that Tim helped Randy cover for me. So, he deserves a card too. (Even if he did do a couple of odd things which puzzled me. His heart is in the right place, and that scores points with me!)



Since slipping on ice is what caused me to miss work, I thought that Skating Poochie was appropriate.

I used Stamp-a-ma-jig to align Poochie. The sweater was colored with a Prismacolor pencil and Gamsol. I scored two lines at the bottom of card to add some texture. This is a card for a man, so I saw no need for other embellishments. I guess I have been having fun with One Layer Cards.
This card took me less than 10 minutes to create, but that is because I had already created the card in my mind earlier in the day.

Stamps: Wonderful Words from Stampin' Up, Skating Poochie from The Cat's Pajamas
Paper: Papertrey white
Ink: Palette Noir, Prismacolor pencil

SC219

I took another day off from work. Since stamping doesn't hurt my knee, I made a card. I chose to participate in this week's Sketch challenge over at Splitcoaststampers. I will hang onto this card until May, when I will mail it to my nephew for his birthday.



My nephew works and plays with computers. I wanted the card to have a masculine feel, so I used industrial-styled backgrounds. I used gold ink on the circuit board layer. The screws holding the cake layer in place are faux. I made them look like Robertson screws. **( see note below) Needing something else, I stamped a 25 (the age he will be on his next birthday) on a gold oval, and added faux rivets. It reminds me of a serial number plate.

The cake was colored with Prismacolor pencils, dipped in Odorless Mineral Spirits. The cake layer is popped up on dimensional foam dots.

Stuff used:
Stamps: Big Cake, 2, and 5 from You Say It's Your Birthday by The Cat's Pajamas; Circuit Board and Diamond Plate Backgrounders by Cornish Heritage Farms
Paper: Stampin' Up Bordering Blue, Garden Green, Not Quite Navy; Curious Metallics Ice Gold
Ink: Bordering Blue,Versafine Onyx Black, Jet Black Stazon, Encore metallic Gold, Prismacolor Pencils
Other: small square punch, 1/4 circle punch, 3/16 circle punch, oval punch, Dimensionals

** note regarding Robertson screws. If I had a way to make a hexagon, I would have made Allen screws. I have a star-shaped punch, but it is a 5-rayed star, not a 6-rayed star, so I could not make a Torx screw. Nerds, and those who love nerds, will understand all this. Oh, and I did have to use Google to figure out what the square-shaped tip is called. I had a different name for them when I saw they were used to hang some closet shelves that I was hoping to remove. I think we used pliers to remove those screws!

CAS05

Over at Splitcoaststampers, the new weekly Clean and Simple challenge has become an official challenge! Now that I can find these challenges, I think I will participate from time to time. The challenge posted this week is CAS05, and it is to use blue and green (and any neutral) to make a card. Here is mine:



I plan to give it to a co-worker who volunteered to fill in for me today. I slipped on ice at work yesterday so I decided to stay home with an injured knee today. My coworker likes Ginkgo trees, therefore he likes Ginkgo leaves. This Ginkgo Leaf stamp is one that I ordered and received a few days ago.

Stuff used:
Stamps: Ginkgo Leaf from Penny Black, sentiment from SU's Warmest Regards
Paper: Stampin' Up Naturals White
Ink: SU Garden Green and Bashful Blue
Techniques: One Layer Card, Masking, Sponging

TCPTUES36

Ready, Set, Snow!

I am ready for snow, since our travelling is done for the year. We went over many rivers and through many woods to spend Thanksgiving with Ed's mom and the rest of his family. I was Internet-less for a week! What I missed most about having no 'Net was not being able to do the TCP challenge last week.

This week's TCP challenge is hosted by Jen. She challenged us to draw inspiration from this picture of cookies. Yum!

Here is my card:



The layout was based on this week's sketch challenge at Splitcoaststampers.

The cookies looked embossed to me. So, I embossed my background with the Snowflakes Cuttlebug folder, then inked up a brayer with White pigment ink and ran it over the raised design. I next heat-embossed the images with white embossing powder. I sponged around the snowflakes with caramel ink, and sponged around the edges to give them that "lightly brown around the edges" look that homemade cookies have. The Penguin panel is popped up on foam dots. To mirror the 'sets of 3' pattern (three words, three pengins, three panels), to add a bit more blue to the card, and to add some balance, I added 3 brads. The brads are faux.

Stamps: The Cat's Pajamas: Candyland Christmas
Paper: Stampin' Up: Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Not Quite Navy; Neenah Classic Crest Solar White
Ink: Colorbox Frost White, Palette Noir, Creamy Caramel, Prismacolor Pencils, Cold Stone Prismacolor marker
Other stuff: Snowflakes Cuttlebug embossing folder,White Embossing Powder, 3/16" punch, Crystal Effects, dimensionals

TCPTUES32

This week's TCP Tuesday challenge an inspiration challenge hosted by Jen. We were to be inspired by this image:



Poor, poor poochie! I wonder if my cats are thankful that I resist the urge to dress them, and dress dolls instead. (Look at older posts to see another picture of my doll Tommy, and his sister Katie.)

This challenge was fun. It was a good excuse to get out my new set, Arrgh, Piratey. I was inspired by the pirate theme, the stripes, the braids, and I used the color of the dog for my card base.





I used Gold Stickles glitter glue on the coins, and a silver marker on the swords to add a bit of bling. The boy was stamped twice, in black and again in red, so that I could paper-piece his shirt to make the stripes red. I used SplitCoastStampers' sketch challenge SC200 for the layout of the card. The stripes were made of thin strips of paper, and the 'braid' is made of yarn and hemp.

The part that took the longest time to do was the sentiment. I had picked out the sentiment, laid it down carefully on top of the stamps' carrier sheet, and shortly afterwards it disappeared. I was almost in tears after looking for it for an hour. When DH came home, he helped me look. I finally calmed down enough to look other places, and I found found it stuck to a laminated piece of cardstock that I had apparently laid down on the stamp before I picked it up and put away.

Supplies used:
Stamps: All from The Cat's Pajamas: Arrgh! Piratey clear set, but all stamps are available in rubber: Skull & Swords, Pirate Booty, Errol, Swashbucklin' Day, Small Compass (background on red layer)
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Classic Cream and Solar White, Stampin' UP Real Red and Basic Black
Ink: Palette Noir and L'Amour Red, Stampin Up Real Red , Prismacolor pencils, Cold stone prismacolor marker, silver marker
Other: Gold Stickles, black yarn, hemp twine