Exciting News

I've got some great news to share today.  I've been asked to join the Blog Team for CardMaker magazine for the next six months.  I've looked at CardMaker for many years and on several occasions thought, "Gee, I can do that."  So I started to submit cards for publication.  It took a while, but I finally was published last year, which was very exciting to say the least.  And when they asked me to join their blog team, I was over the moon!  If you don't yet follow the blog, you should.  You can get it delivered to your e-mail just by signing up here.

On another note, I thought I'd share a couple of cards I made for challenges over on Splitcoaststampers this weekend.  Friday's Free 4 All challenge was a true "free for all."  All we had to do was upload a card we were working on at the moment.  I was trying to catch up on a couple of other challenges and made this one, using some new stamps that I had just purchased from Our Daily Bread Designs.

I love stamps and dies that coordinate with each other, and this is a perfect example of that.

My second card uses my new favorite Stampin' Up set, Four Feathers.

This was for the Inspiration Challenge on Saturday.  As it turns out, this card also has stamps and dies that coordinate.  I didn't realize at the time, but the color palettes of both cards are very similar.

Yesterday's Featured Stamper, Torico, has a really fun gallery.  As I was looking through it, I actually found two cards I liked and tried a little experiment to see if I could CASE both of them into one card.  Here are links to her two cards:  Let It Snow and 'Tis the Season.  Here's my card:

Card #1
Stamps:  ODBD Shine On
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Bamboo Leaves, Bahama Blue
Paper:  Recollections Heavyweight White
Accessories:  ODBD Sparkling Stars dies, Enamel Dot stickers, Foam pop dots

Card #2
Stamps:  SU Four Feathers, Sincere Salutations
Ink:  SU Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore; Versafine Deep Lagoon
Paper:  SU Green Galore, retired DSP
Accessories:  Feathers Framelits dies, Brad, clear embossing powder

Card #3
Stamps:  MFP Stamp Shop Crisp Winter
Ink:  Ranger Distress Tumbled Glass, Tattered Rose, Dried Marigold, Scattered Straw; Versafine Onyx Black
Paper:  Recollections Heavyweight White, Black
Accessories:  Heidi Swapp birch trees stencil, Sponge applicators

CCEE1501 - Bird

Happy New Year!  Vicky Gould is starting off 2015 as the hostess of the CCEE Stampers and has asked us to have a bird on our cards today.  I love cardinal images, so I used one for my simple note card.

I hope you can join the rest of the CCEE Stampers blog team for some of our challenges in the coming year.  Here's what the rest of the team did with Vicky's challenge.

Stamps:  Rubber Stampede Cardinal, Stampendous Just a Note

Paper:  Recollections 110 lb. white

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories:  Copic markers, Note brad, Foam pop dots

Sketch Challenge 521 - SCS

This was my final week as a sample maker for the Sketch Challenge over on Splitcoaststampers.    Allison had given us a daunting task with this sketch:

My card started out as basically a Clean and Simple design, but morphed into something a bit more "busy."

I sponged the rays with Ranger Distress Scattered Straw ink and planned just to add the sun/moon panel and the sentiment, which definitely would have been CAS.  However, I smudged a bit of ink onto the sunrays; and, after all the time it took to do that sponging, I was not about to throw it away.  So I cut a small flourish and adhered it strategically to cover the smudge.  Then I had to add the Enamel Dot stickers to balance out the flourish.   No longer CAS!

I enjoyed my stint as part of the Sketch Challenge team.  It was supposed to be a three-month gig, but it extended to five months -- and I had a grand time.   Thanks, Janette, for asking me.

Stamps:  MFP Stamp Shop Sun and Moon
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Ranger Distress Scattered Straw
Paper:  MFP Stamp Shop Dark Night Navy, Snow Storm Smooth
Accessories:  Copic markers, Ranger Sponge applicator, Cheery Lynn Fanciful Flourish (small), Recollections Enamel Dot Stickers

SCS Sketch Challenge

I have one more week as a sample maker for the Splitcoaststampers Sketch Challenge.  Today's sketch was pretty simple -- a circle inside a square.  I had bought a set of Spellbinders arrows (called Shoot) about a month or so ago, and I thought I could make an archery target out of the circle element and use one of the arrows.  I stamped the "Happy Birthday" on my card, but computer-generated the "You Hit the Mark" sentiment at the bottom.

It's Christmas Eve, so I will with you all a Merry Christmas!

Stamps:  MFP Stamp Shop - Out of Time
Paper:  MFP Stamp Shop - Deep Scarlet, Snow Storm Smooth, Black Linen, Bang Up Blue, Sun
Ink:  Memento Rhubarb Stalk
Accessories:  various Circle nesties, Spellbinders Shoot die

SCS Inspiration Challenge

It's been a while since I've posted any Splitcoaststampers challenge cards, but I decided I should start doing that.  As the Inspiration Challenge is my favorite one of the week, I started there.  Today's inspiration site is a Pinterest board with all sorts of packaging from all over the world.  I chose this particular photo to use as my inspiration.  

I thought the photos on the juice containers looked just like flowers, and the orange juice one reminded me of a chrysanthemum stamp from MFP Stamp Shop.

Stamps:  MFP Stamp Shop Chrysanthemum, Lots of Words
Ink:  Memento Espresso Truffle, Ranger Distress Tea Dye
Paper:  MFP Old World Gold, Sun, Natuaral
Accessories:  Copic markers, Brads, Sponge applicators

CCEE1450 Starring Santa

This is the last CCEE Stampers challenge for 2014, and we were asked to make a card starring Santa.  I'm not sure my card is "starring" Santa, but there is a Santa on it.  My neighbor had asked me to make her a card to give to her brother.  She wanted a particular type of card -- a pop-up box card, and it needed to contain several specific elements:  a poinsettia, the Three Wise Men, and Santa kneeling at the manger.  After much thought, I remembered my SU set called Holy Triptych, which I thought had the right type of images for the "pop up" elements.  I did not have a stamp of a kneeling Santa, so I Googled it and found many images.  I printed off one, cut it out, and glued it to one of the folding down panels.  There actually is a poinsettia on the card, but it's hidden behind the kneeling Santa panel.

Please go over to the CCEE Stampers blog and see all of the Santa cards created by the rest of the team.  

CCEE1449 - Christmas Tic Tac Toe

Lynn gave us a quite a choice for this week's CCEE Stampers challenge.  We're playing Christmas Tic-Tac-Toe.  As I am somewhat computer challenged, I was not able to reproduce Lynn's entire Tic-Tac-Toe image.  I will, however, tell you what I have included on my card -- it was down the center column of her game:

Snow, Embossing, Glitter.

Here's my card:

I don't know if I was cheating or not, but I used Stickles (glitter glue) in place of the glitter portion of the column.   I embossed the house images before cutting them out with the dies and made the snow by using masking fluid before I sponged in the sky.

Be sure to check out the CCEE Stampers blog to see what the rest of the team did with Lynn's Tic-Tac-Toe game.