Mystery Class....masculine

For a masculine themed card, we used Sahara Sand CS base. Layer Whisper White, Night of Navy, Real Red CS. The circles peeking out from under the layers are stamped in Sahara Sand ink. Punched the 3 circles out with the 1-1/4 circle punch. We used my favorite new "toy".... Crop-a-dile!!! Makes setting eyelets a breeze! (Note to self...buy more coordinating eyelets ;o) The little red flower was punched using the Boho Blossoms Punch from Stampin Up. Adds just a little "pop" of color.

"Mystery Class" card #2...

This card base is Rose Red and the strip of Designer Series Paper is also Rose Red. I LOVE monochromatic! Stampin' Up! makes that so easy, since so many of the products coordinate. We punched a scallop of Rose Red CS, embossed the floral image with Versamark and clear EP. Whisper White Craft Ink was used for the Happy Birthday greeting. I love this 3 x 6 inch size card. Curious about the technique used to make the floral image "pop?" (Click photo to enlarge) Leave me a comment and I will reply. Thanks for stopping by!

Mystery Stamp set class...

I held a Mystery Stamp Set class yesterday. For $29.95 the ladies got to make 4 cards, using the Big Flowers stamp set. I must admit, this wasn't my favorite set, until I owned it. I advertised the class mentioning we would create feminine, masculine and kids cards. It was a challenge for me, but I wanted them to see the versatility of this set. Included in the class price, was the stamp set. Everyone left with 4 cards and the set, so they can create more cards on their own. For this card, we used River Rock, Groovy Guava and Purely Pomegranate CS and Inks. We punched 3 circles from CS using 1", 1-1/4, 1-3/8 punches. We cut those circles in half and had them peeking out from behind the layered OSW (One Sheet Wonder) Layer. I'll post the rest of the cards soon. Thanks for stopping by!

Sr. Center Projects

Our group today was 15 ladies...a few have not been feeling very well.
If they are reading this....we missed you and hope you are feeling better soon!

I offset the greeting in the punched oval shapes...I kinda like it that way.
We used markers to omit the rest of the greeting from this Sale-a-bration set...FREE next month!

We used the new Stampin' Up Boho set and matching punch today...it just arrived on my doorstep, yesterday...whew!

Colored pencils and a "Splender" help create the "blended" colors of the flowers and leaves.
We used 3 shades of blue colored pencils.

I love the new So Many Scallops set from Stampin' Up! It's FREE with a $50 purchase beginning on Feb. 1st.

I love watercoloring!

I stamped the flower from Embrace Life stamp set, using Black Staz-on ink. I used the Aquapainter to apply the color. I used a "puddle" of marker ink on a plastic surface as my palette. This is such a fast, easy way to color! If you click on the pic, you'll notice I didn't bother to color the the entire image or stay within the lines. I think the result is beautiful. This is how I colored the flower on the 4 x 4 calendar in a previous post. See post from Jan. 5th.

The image on the right was colored with a Blender Pen. I don't like the result on watercolor paper...maybe regular CS would have looked better. I used the flower on the left for the pic below.

Masculine?

I admit it....I have trouble with masculine cards...I have so many flowery feminine sets I LOVE...it's hard for me to create a masculine card. I wanted to use my new Sale-a-bration sets and came up with this simple monochromatic card...and finally used my Crop-a-dile to do the embossed dots! That was fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sale-a-bration sets are DIE CUT!!!!!

Just had to show 2 of the new Sale-a-bration sets I got on Monday...notice, they are DIE CUT! No cutting needed! This is so great for me....sometimes I only get to mount the stamp I need at the moment. Now I can have the entire set ready to stamp with in a matter of minutes. Seriously, it took me longer to get my camera out and take this photos than it did to mount the stamps! Oh, and aren't these sets great! I love how the So Many Scallops set coordinates with the scallop punch. Makes my life a lot easier! Now to create some cards!

Our Little Slice of Heaven!

Click photo to enlarge...

My DH took this pic on Monday! His friend is a pilot (obviously) and took DH to "winterize" our home in OBX, NC. I didn't want to edit the pic, so this is just the way DH took it from the plane. If you click on the pic you will see a larger view. Our house is in the second row from the ocean, 3rd from the left. Our neighbor on the right is in the process of renovations and the "crew" is using our driveway. Hope they aren't using our electricity, too. :o( To me, this is the most peaceful, serene place on the earth. The stars at night are the brightest I've ever seen. It's breathtaking. We love to watch the dolphin swim by...not just once in a while, they visit several times a day! My hubby reminds me it's because we are about 20 miles off the eastern coast of the continental US. It's Heavenly!

Today's Sr. Center Projects...

We used the Big on Christmas stamp set to create this winter card. Some of the ladies used glitter glue on the letters to give the SNOW a little glitz. They all know me too well....I don't use loose glitter with a large group...I had 18 ladies for class today. whew! (in a good way)

My sample looks a little different than the one the ladies completed. They used some stamps from the retired set called A Light Heart.

For the filmstrip card we used the Spiral Punch along the edges of the black CS. The animals are from the Zoofari stamp set...Much Love stamp is not Stampin' Up!

I found these cute silvertone frames in a package of 6 for only $2.00. The "love" from A Light Heart is embossed in silver and the silver organdy ribbon was tied to the frame before being assembled.

3D Shadow Box

This is the last of the 3 projects we made at Pennie's on Saturday. It's a 3D Shadow Box card. You can fold this flat and mail in a standard A2 envelope. (4.25 x 5.5) Very cool! It was a little hard to photograph, so I have 3 images posted, hoping to convey the dimension. You can click on each image to see a larger version. But don't look too close. For me, task lighting is key. The older I get, the more light I need to see detail. It was a little hard for me to see to color and do the faux stitching without my Ott light. My DD will be receiving this for Valentine's Day. I need to make a masculine version for DS...maybe I'll use Crab & Co.

Stamp Set: Happy Heart Day

Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Confetti

Ink: Black Staz-on, Regal Rose

Accessories: Watercolor Crayons and Aquapainter, Signo White Gel Pen, Key Tag Punch, Square Punch, Pink Gingham Ribbon, Black Brad, Dimensionals

View from above, so you can see the dimension...this was actually much easier than it appears. Especially since Pennie had everything cut and scored for us...she is fabulous!

Coaster Calendar...

I've wanted to make one of these coaster calendars for so long. This is the 2nd of 3 projects we made at Pennie's on Saturday. We stamped the flower from Embrace Life onto watercolor paper, colored with Aquapainters and ink. We mixed Crystal Effects and Classic (dye) reinker together and painted a flat-backed pearl from the Pretties Kit for the flower center. This was a fun project and I love the results! Finished size is 4 x 4

Stamp Set: Embrace Life
CS: Ruby Red, River Rock
Accessories: Groovy Guava Double Stitched grosgrain, Ginger Blossoms Designer Series Paper

Isn't this elegant?!!

My fabulous Upline, Pennie McCallum, treated us to a morning of fun! We made this beautiful box. I just love it! Inside this little beauty are 3 truffles...yum! We made 3 "WOW" projects...watch for future posts showing the other projects.

Stamp Set: A Beautiful Thing
Cardstock: Old Olive
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: Scallop Punch, Gold EP, Wide Grosgrain ribbon, Bali Breeze Designer Series Paper

a little birdie...

I made this tag to tie onto a gift for a very special person. The new stamp set is from the Spring Summer Collection of the Stampin' Up! catalog. It's called A Little Birdie Told Me.
This is set is great because it has so many nice sayings to go with it. If you click on the stamp set name (above) you can see all that comes with the set. I stamped the birdie on Whisper White Cardstock. Then I stamped the same birdie image on Rose Red Designer Series Paper (DSP) and cut out only the body of the bird. I layered that on top of the first image, then added a tiny bit of color to the birdie's beak. A piece of Rose Red CS is layered under the Whisper White and all layers were attached to a tag made from Sahara Sand CS. Very quick and easy.

Thanks for stopping by!

My Mom's b'day card...

I made this simple card for my Mom's birthday. I stamped the flower from the Embrace Life stamp set 3 times using black Staz-on ink onto a watercolor panel. After watercoloring with Rose Red and Old Olive ink, I stamped "embrace life" in Basic Black ink. I attached the stamped panel to the front of a folded vellum card. I also stamped a watercolor panel with the greeting and left some room to write my message. The ribbon is non-SU...from my stash...I really miss the SU organdy ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by!

Think ahead to Valentine's Day...

It's hard for me to think about Valentine's Day, since we still have our tree up. Stampin' Up! has made it easier with their current special. Click on the flyer above to see how to get FREE ribbon with the purchase of the Valentine's Day Bundle.

Contact me if you would like to order (US only) so you can create your Valentine and other projects using this great stamp set. Thanks for stopping by....Ellen

My Mom's cards...

My Mom made Christmas cards for the first time. I think she did a great job! She likes things simple...not a lot of layers or fru-fru. Mom and Aunt Ruth attended Stamp Camp this year and had a ball! They stamped several images in multiplies to color on their own. I introduced them to Gamsol "Magic Pencil". It was my Mom's favorite way to give the images some added punch with very little work. Way to go Mom!

I got a new camera for Christmas. It was a gift from my folks. They wanted me to get a little practice using the camera before Christmas, so these are the first pics I took...Mom's cards were really much prettier in real life. I need to read the manual a bit...lol...that's an ongoing joke my Dad and I have ;o)