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.

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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

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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.

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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!
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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