Stampin'B Challenge #60 - Patriotic Card

In honor of Memorial Day, Vicky Gould wanted us to make a patriotic card for this week's Stampin'Bs challenge. I used Flourishes’ Patriotism on Parade and a DCWV Summer Matstack to create my patriotic card.




My card base is Flourishes Classic White and the matted pieces are SU Real Red. I stamped the little parade silhouette twice across a white strip and then cut it in the center so that I would have all the figures on my cross piece. I didn’t have a flag stamp the right size, so I Googled “American Flag” and found one that would work. After printing it out on white cardstock, I stamped the sentiment below it. I added a little star eyelet on the horizontal strip in the middle, and I was done. Thanks, Vicky – great challenge! If you'd like to play along with the Stampin'B's, we'd love to have you join us!

Stamps - Flourishes Patriotism on Parade
Paper - Flourishes Classic White, SU Real Red, DCWV Summer Matstack DP
Ink - SU Night of Navy, Memento Lady Bug marker

MFP Technique Retreat - 3 more cards

Just a short post today to show you a few more of the cards we made at Faith's Stamping Retreat.



The card on the left was made using Lady Bugs and Carnation. Note the Tim Holtz embossing folder used on the brown cardstock. What a great folder! The card on the right was made using Take Time and Father's Day. Check out the charms. Faith has charms to match every stamp set in the store!

These two cards were made using a set that has not been released yet -- Pears and Hollyhock. Be sure to check out the MFP Blog Hop in June to see this set in full. The medallian and laurel leaves are a Tim Holtz Sizzix die.

The cupcake card is colored using pearlescent watercolors -- what a cool look they create. Cupcake Birthday will be released in June also. The images on the card on the right are from Tropical Vacation. I tried a new way (for me) to make the sky on this card. I like the way it turned out.

----------

Glad to share some of our creations from the retreat with you. We had a great time!

MFP Technique Retreat

This past weekend I attended a Technique Retreat sponsored by Mark's Finest Papers at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center in north Florida. Faith Hofrichter (Markie's Mom on SCS) showed us several techniques, and we made a total of 20 cards, using current and not-yet-released Mark's Finest Papers stamps. It was a small class (nine participants), so we were able to get a lot of one-on-one instruction. I've included six of the cards in today's blog. I'll show you some more later in the week.

These two cards were made using Spring Roses. The card on the left also included a crackle stamp from a not-yet released set called Background Fun. The roses were colored using Faber-Castell pencils and odorless mineral spirits.

The main set used on these two cards is Spring and Easter, again using the Faber-Castell pencils and odorless mineral spirits. The background and sentiment on the chick card are from Chicken Scratch, and the sentiment on the lily card is from Pears and Hollyhocks, to be released in June. Notice the little charms -- I love 'em!

Our Side of the Pond is a mix of a couple of funky frogs and a beautiful swan. You can get cards both fun and fancy using this set. The swan card was done with colored pencils; the frog card was done using sponge daubers and Tim Holtz distress inks.
--------------

If you ever get the chance to participate in one of Faith's retreats (she has two each year -- the next one is in October), you will have a great time. All we did for almost two days was stamp -- taking a little time out to eat (Faith's husband, Mark, does the cooking) and sleep.

Stampin'B's sketch challenge

I was hostess for this week's Stampin'B's challenge and decided on a sketch challenge – a horizontal long card with three circles across the center.





For my card I made a sneak peek of a new Mark’s Finest Papers set called Cupcake Birthday, which will be released in June. As you can see, I used NO cupcakes!!! Instead, I chose a slice of birthday cake and a piece of SU retired DSP. The card is pretty self-explanatory – some stamping, some sponging, some pearls and a little bit of Crystal Effects on the cherries. Hope you liked the sketch.

Stamps - Mark's Finest Papers Cupcake Birthday
Ink - Palette Noir Black
Paper - Mark's Finest Papers Ripened Tomato and Snow Storm Smooth; SU retired DSP
Accessories - Copic Markers, Circle Nestabilities, Sponge Daubers, Crystal Effects, Martha Stewart Border Punch, Half Pearls, White Gel Pen

Two Spotlight Challenges

Talk about coincidence -- both the Saturday Speedy's Friends challenge and the Friday SCS Free4All challenge wanted cards made with the spotlight technique.

My card for the Speedy's Friends challenge was made with the brand-new Mark's Finest Papers set called Ladybugs and Carnation. I just discovered that yummy Florida Peach cardstock from Mark's Finest Papers -- and had to order two packages!!!




I stamped the carnation with Palette Noir Black on MFP Snow Storm Smooth and colored it with the palest Copic markers of green (G0000) and yellow (Y0000). I stamped it again and colored it with darker shades, then cut it out with nesties, as well as the orange matted piece. After sponging with Palette Orangerie around the edge of the white cardstock, I added the three sparkly brads and the piece of Basic Grey Ambrosia DP, through which I had woven a narrow piece of ribbon. I matted it with gray.
-----
Stamps - Mark's Finest Papers - Ladybugs and Carnation
Ink - Palette Noir Black and Orangerie
Paper - MFP Florida Peach and Snow Storm Smooth, SU Basic Gray, Basic Grey Ambrosia DP
Accessories - Copic Markers, Circle Nestabililities, MS Border Punch, Brads, Ribbon


When I bought this Thomas Kinkade, I had visions of recreating some beautiful cards I've seen on SCS. WRONG! I could never get the hang of coloring these images. So Friday's Free 4 All gave me an opportunity to use this image on a smaller scale.

I stamped the image onto MFP Snow Storm Smooth with Memento London Fog and trimmed away all the white around the edges. Then I stamped a smaller section and colored it with Copic markers -- sometimes having to guess where the details were. After cutting out the colored portion with a circle Nestabilities die, I matted it with SU River Rock and again with SU Not Quite Navy. I left enough of the card base showing so that I could add the doodles.

-----

Stamps - Thomas Kinkade Foxglove Cottage and PaperTrey Ink Birthday Basics

Ink - Memento London Fog and Tuxedo Black

Paper - SU Not Quite Navy and River Rock, MFP Snow Storm Smooth

Accessories - Copic Markers, Circle Nestabilities, White Gel Pen, Black Marker

Blog Hop - Day 4

Mark's Finest Papers Design Teams are celebrating our NEWEST STAMP RELEASE with a Blog Hop! All four sets are available TODAY! For your chance to win BLOG CANDY, visit and comment on each of the design team members' blogs on May 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th. On Saturday, (May 15th), a winner will be chosen FOR EACH DAY from those participants who visited all the blogs listed for that day! Four different winners, one winner for each day. THAT MEANS IF YOU MISSED A DAY, YOU STILL HAVE ANOTHER CHANCE TO WIN! And, you can go back and comment, as the winners will be chosen Saturday morning!The four Winners will be announced on the Mark's Finest Papers Blog on May 15, 2010. Each winner will receive one Stamp Set that will be released NEXT month.

Again I have created two cards with today’s set – Tropical Vacation.

My first card is rather simple. I stamped the palm tree with Memento Tuxedo Black onto MFP Snow Storm Smooth and then colored it with Copic markers. One of the stamps in the set is made up of five clumps of grass. I masked off three of the clumps and stamped it with Palette Landscape several times below the palm tree then sponged along the bottom with the same color. After making a cloud template with a scallop punch, I sponged the sky with Beaux Arts Blue. The small panel of Breezy Blue cardstock has two stamped images of the bird silhouettes. The card base is Spring Green; the background DP is from Basic Grey Euphoria. I added the ribbon and a small cardstock “button.”

My final card for the Blog Hop is a 5 ½ inch square card of Spring Leaf. The palm frond DP is from the DCWV Photo 2 stack. I used a piece of patterned paper from the MFP Premium Paper Pack – I’ve Got the Blues . . . and Greens on which I stamped the palm front image in several shades of green. After stamping the egret image onto Snow Storm Smooth, I sponged in the background. Other tools I used on this card are the Spellbinders Labels Nine die and an EK Success border punch. I added the gingham ribbon and a fern charm – and I was done!

Be sure to visit the rest of the team to see what they did with this lovely set and comment on each blog. You have one more chance to win one of the stamp sets to be released in June.

Here is the Blog Hop LINE UP:

May Guest Designer- Emily
Nancyruth

Nikki

Lois (that’s me)

Peggy

Vicky

Jeanne

Faith

Vicki
Claudine
Liz
Mark’s Finest Papers

Blog Hop - Day 3 and Stampin'B's Challenge

Today my card serves two purposes – Day Three of the Mark’s Finest Papers’ Blog Hop and the Stampin’B’s DT Blog Challenge.

Mark's Finest Papers Design Teams are celebrating our NEWEST STAMP RELEASE with a Blog Hop! All four sets are available TODAY! For your chance to win BLOG CANDY, visit and comment on each of the design team members' blogs on May 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th. On Saturday, (May 15th), a winner will be chosen FOR EACH DAY from those participants who visited all the blogs listed for that day! Four different winners, one winner for each day. THAT MEANS IF YOU MISSED A DAY, YOU STILL HAVE ANOTHER CHANCE TO WIN! And, you can go back and comment, as the winners will be chosen Saturday morning! The four Winners will be announced on the Mark's Finest Papers Blog on May 15, 2010. Each winner will receive one Stamp Set that will be released NEXT month.

Benzi (Brenda) was the Stampin’B’s challenge hostess today; and, in honor of International No-Diet Day, she asked us to make a card with food or drink on it. It just so happens that the new MFP set Chicken Scratch has food (chicken image and egg on a sentiment).

To make the upper left-hand side of the background, I stamped the chicken wire background stamp onto some MFP Corn Husk card stock. I had to match up the pattern because it didn’t fill up the entire piece of paper. The lower right-hand piece is some DP from the DCWV Photo 2 stack. Then I taped them together and attached them to a piece of MFP Ripened Tomato and ran a piece of ribbon diagonally over the seam. The main image and two sentiments are stamped on MFP Snow Storm Smooth; the chicken image is colored with Copic markers. After mounting everything on the card, I added a piece of red twine and tied in the rooster charm.

After Googling “rooster” on the internet, I tried to color my rooster to match the image I found. I think he’s pretty close. I used Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol, and then sponged around the edge of the panel. The cross piece is again the chicken wire background; the herringbone DP is from Basic Grey’s Nook & Pantry paper pad. The card base and matted pieces are MFP Deepest Mahogany; the two small diamond shapes are Spring Leaf. I added a sparkly charm to the lower one.

Don’t forget -- For another chance to win a free stamp set, be sure to visit the blogs of the rest of the design team and comment on each.

The Blog Hop line-up is:

May Guest Designer- Emily
Nancyruth

Nikki

Lois (that’s me)

Peggy

Vicky

Jeanne

Faith
Vicki
Claudine
Cathleen
Mark’s Finest Papers

Mark's Finest Papers Blog Hop - Day 2

Mark's Finest Papers Design Teams are celebrating our NEWEST STAMP RELEASE with a Blog Hop! All four sets are available TODAY! For your chance to win BLOG CANDY, visit and comment on each of the design team members' blogs on May 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th. On Saturday, (May 15th), a winner will be chosen FOR EACH DAY from those participants who visited all the blogs listed for that day! Four different winners, one winner for each day. THAT MEANS IF YOU MISSED A DAY, YOU STILL HAVE ANOTHER CHANCE TO WIN! And, you can go back and comment, as the winners will be chosen Saturday morning! The four Winners will be announced on the Mark's Finest Papers Blog on May 15, 2010. Each winner will receive one Stamp Set that will be released NEXT month.

Again I have created two cards with today’s set – Ladybugs and Carnation (one for the ladybugs and one for the carnation).

For my first card I decided that one of my favorite Basic Grey Christmas paper packs, Wassail, could be used for something other than Christmas. This is a pretty simple Thank You card, with two strips of DP mounted to a MFP Snow Storm Smooth card base. The ladybug parade is stamped with Palette Noir Black, clear embossed and colored with a red Copic marker. The vine frame is stamped with Palette Cognac, also clear embossed. I find that clear embossing the ink guarantees that there will be no smearing. I colored the leaves with a green Copic marker, and stamped the sentiment with Palette Moulin Rouge.

I saw the layout for my second card on PageMaps. The sketch wasn’t using the spotlight technique, but I thought it would look cool. It’s pretty self-explanatory – stamped in black, colored with Copics, and a few punches. I added some sponging with Palette Cognac. The card base and border punch panel are MFP Spring Leaf.

Be sure to visit the rest of the team to see what they did with this lovely set and comment on each blog. You have a chance to win one of the stamp sets to be released in June.

Here is the Blog Hop LINE UP

May Guest Designer – Emily
Nancyruth
Nikki
Lois (that’s me)

Peggy

Vicky

Jeanne

Faith
Vicki
Liz

Cathleen

Mark’s Finest Papers

Blog Hop - Day 1

Mark's Finest Papers Design Teams are celebrating our NEWEST STAMP RELEASE with a Blog Hop! All four sets are available TODAY! For your chance to win BLOG CANDY, visit and comment on each of the design team members' blogs on May 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th. On Saturday, (May 15th), a winner will be chosen FOR EACH DAY from those participants who visited all the blogs listed for that day! Four different winners, one winner for each day. THAT MEANS IF YOU MISSED A DAY, YOU STILL HAVE ANOTHER CHANCE TO WIN! And, you can go back and comment, as the winners will be chosen Saturday morning! The four Winners will be announced on the Mark's Finest Papers Blog on May 15, 2010. Each winner will receive one Stamp Set that will be released NEXT month.

Overachiever that I am, I have created two cards with today’s set – Whispering Wings

For my first card I used some of the cardstock included in MFP Premium Paper Pack: I’ve Got the Blues . . . and Greens, along with Strawberry Freeze, Pink Freeze Sparkle, and Basic Grey Blush DP. I stamped the smaller water lily with Palette Noir Black and clear embossed it, coloring with Copic markers. The sentiment is Palette Reflection, also clear embossed. After all the stamping and coloring, I chalked in the water using some pearlescent chalk. The smallest dragonfly in the set is stamped, colored, cut out and popped up on a pop-dot.

I love doing round cards every once in a while, so that’s what I did for my second card – using cardstock from MFP Premium Paper Pack: Looks Like Spring. For this card I used the large water lily and the medium dragonfly, again coloring with Copic markers and chalking the background. I added a few pearls for a little accent.

Be sure to visit the rest of the team to see what they did with this lovely set. And remember, you have a chance to win one of the stamp sets to be released in June.

Here is the Blog Hop LINE UP:

May Guest Designer- Emily
Nancyruth

Nikki

Lois (that’s me)

Peggy

Vicky

Jeanne

Faith
Vicki
Mark’s Finest Papers

Speedy the Cat's Friends & Inspiration Challenges

In honor of Week Two of Speedy the Cat's Friends blog challenge (to use corner punches on your card), I decided to do TWO cards. I don't expect this trend will continue, however.


My first card is part of my continuing journey to learn to watercolor. I've decided that I should do at least one card a week using watercoloring, which has not to this point been my color medium of choice.

The rose is watercolored using markers and an aquapen. The background is a wash using Yasutoma pearlescent watercolors. The corners are punched using two different corner punches. The top layer is a Fiskars three-in-one Leaves punch, and the green layer is a Marvy scallop corner punch.

--------

Stamps - Mark's Finest Papers Presents: Speedy the Cat Collection -- Spring Roses, Daffodil and Anise (sentiment)

Paper - MFP Strawberry Freeze, Spring Leaf, Watercolor paper

Ink - Palette Moulin Rouge, Jardin Moss

Accessories - Memento markers, Yasutoma pearlescent watercolors, Corner punches, Ribbon, Half pearl

----------

The second card was my SCS Inspiration Challenge entry. I saw these tea cups and liked the red check pattern. I bought the Great Impressions tea pot/cups stamp at a LSS that I frequent about twice a year. It's an hour's drive away, so I can't get there much more often than that. The rest of the card is pretty self-explanatory. I brought the red check pattern in with the gingham ribbon.

-------

Stamps - Great Impressions tea set, SU Like It a Latte

Paper - MFP Ripened Tomato, Great Grandma's Lightest Pink, Snow Storm Smooth

Ink - Palette Noir Black, L'Amore Red

Accessories - Spica markers, Ribbon, Cuttlebug and Diamonds in the Rough folder, Floral Borders die, Charm, Ticket Corner punch

Stampin'B's Challenge #57 - Foliage

The Stampin'B's DT Challenge this week was to make a card with foliage, flowers, or anything botanical. For my card I used SU Garden Silhouettes and Pocket Silhouettes plus some scrap DP I found in my stash.



I stamped the background foliage in River Rock and Garden Green on Soft Sky. I didn’t want a totally monochromatic card, so I pulled in some Close to Cocoa for the smaller squares and the photo corners. Not sure I like the result, but I was running late with this and didn’t have time to do another one. It is what it is!
---------------
Stamps - SU Garden Silhouettes, Pocket Silhouettes; Hero Arts Little Happy Birthday
Paper - Garden Green, Soft Sky, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla, retired SU DSP
Ink - Garden Green, Soft Sky, Summer Sun
Accessories - Markers, MS border punch, EK Success photo corner punch

MFP Blog Team Challenge

Today is the start of a new card challenge -- from Speedy the Cat's Blog Team. Their first challenge was to make a red, white, and blue card. For my card I chose the Spring and Easter set from Mark's Finest Papers: Speedy the Cat Collection.

The image is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black on MFP Speedy the Cat's Morning Milk cardstock and colored with Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol. After cutting the corners of the panel with a corner rounder punch, I mounted it onto MFP Ripened Tomato. The blue and white DP is from a Summer Matstack from DCWV, also mounted on Ripened Tomato. The card base is Speedy the Cat's Morning Milk.

Saturday is my favorite challenge on SCS -- the Inspiration Challenge. Today's inspiration website is Jazz It Up Home Interiors. I found this print of a red lily and used it as the inspiration for my card -- which qualifies for both the Inspiration Challenge and the Speedy the Cat Blog Team Challenge.

Stamps - Mark's Finest Papers: Speedy the Cat Collection: Spring and Easter

Paper - MFP Speedy the Cat's Morning Milk, Ripened Tomato; DCWV Summer Matstack

Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories - Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol, Corner Rounder, Pop dots