smARTworks - Masculine Birthday

Making masculine cards is always difficult for me but I love the challenge. Here is a super easy one. I took this great dotted circle stamp from the Swirly-gigs stamp set from smARTworks. I decided to try some stamping with bleach. I used Night of Navy cardstock and I really like how it turned out. The rest is obvious!! Stamps – Swirly – gigs, extra sentiments (smARTworks); Ink – Chocolate Chip (Stampin’ Up!); Paper – Night of Navy (Stampin’ Up!), trail mix and honey from the Granola collection (Basic Grey); Other – kitchen twine, bleach, paper towel, corner rounder. Thanks for dropping in!! Donelda

Garage Sale bargains!!

Look at what I picked up at a garage sale today....all for just $25.o0 .... love it!!! Have a great weekend! Donelda

smARTworks - Sunflower Hello

And another card using some stamps from the smARTworks Petal Power stamp set! I LOVE LOVE LOVE this particular flower. I love sunflowers!! They are awesome. I used my Copic markers to color them and added some scraps from my scrap bin. A quick and simple card. Stamps – Petal Power (smARTworks), Ink- Brilliance Graphite Black (Tsukineko), Paper – Whisper White (Stampin’ Up!), brown (unknown from my scrap pile), yellow polka dot (Making Memories); Other- alcohol based markers Y13, Y26, YR04, YG03, G17 (Copic), waterbased markers Creamy Caramel (Stampin’ Up), scallop scissors (Provo Craft). Thanks for dropping in today. Leave me a comment and let me know if you like this flower stamp as much as I do. Donelda

smARTworks - Elegant Love

This is one of 2 posts today....make sure you scroll down to see the smARTworks Tea Party Challenge! So this is a card made from the smARTworks stamp set called Petal Power. It is sold in a full page of rubber and there are so many aweosme petals to choose from!! This one particular petal happens to be my favorite of the bunch. But instead of using it to make a flower, I used it to make this great edge. I stamped it in Pure Poppy ink along the edge of a piece of what paper and then added a few additional stripes. I added a few half pearls to each image. I cut along the bottom of the

petals and adhered it to a piece of Pure Poppy cardstock. Finished the card off with a piece of black satin ribbon and a sentiment.

Supplies: Stamps – Petal Power, Birdhouse Trio (sentiment) (smARTworks); Paper – Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink), Whisper White (Stampin’ Up!); Ink – Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink), Brilliance Graphite Black (Tsukineko); Other – black satin ribbon (Papertrey Ink), black marker (Stampin’ Up!), half pearls (Dollarama).

Hope you enjoy!! Thanks for dropping in.

Donelda

smARTworks Tea Party Announcement - Salted Background

Okay so it is my turn to come up with an idea for the next Tea Party challenge. Mmmmm, what to do?? Well, let's really have some fun. I absolutely LOVE the look of salted backgrounds! I've mostly created them with watercolor paint on watercolor paper and then a sprinkle of salt while it dries...but I am curious to see if I can use my new reinkers I just received. Now, you don't have to use an entire background, you could choose to use just a little bit of your salted background in some interesting way. Have fun with it. If you've never made a salted background, HERE is a great tutorial from Splitcoaststampers. I hope you all join us for this one. The smARTworks design team members will all be posting next Wednesday (July 1) and we'd love to see a creation by you. Just create a card or project using a salted background. If you have smARTworks rubber, show it off but if not, use what you have!! Make sure you comment on one of our blogs so we can all admire your work!! See you next week!! Now, where did that box of salt go???? Donelda

CAS20 - Paper Piecing

This is the card I made for the CAS20 challenge over at SCS. It is to use paper piecing on your card.

I actually made 2 - one without ribbon and one with. I can't decide which I like better. I like the plain one for it's simplicity...but the ribbon seems to balance the whole card. Opinions always welcome!! The flower center is gold microbeads. It doesn't really show up very well in these terrible pictures (it is rainy and grey out today) but it gives the card a nice bit of pizzazz in real life.

Supplies: Stamps-Flower Garden (Papertrey Ink); Ink-Chocolate Chip (SU!); Paper- Select White, Sweet Blush Bitty Dots (Papertrey Ink); Other-Sweet Blush twill (Papertrey Ink) 1/8" hole punch, gold microbeads.

Thanks for dropping in!

Donelda

Father's Day and Blog Candy

Happy Father's Day.

Here is the card I sent my dad. It is all made from scrap pieces that were sitting in my scrap bin. I love the Distress Ink background piece and the popsicle stick sentiment.

Kelly is giving away some candy on her blog. Go here to check it out!!

http://klstampinnscrappin.blogspot.com/2009/06/musical-superstar.html

Have a great and special day!

Donelda

More CAS19 - I couldn't stop!

Okay, so on Monday I really enjoyed the Clean and Simple #19 card challenge that you might remember (or check it out HERE). It was based on a card layout that Natasha created ... she's a great CAS (Clean and Simple) stamper!!

In fact, I enjoyed the sketch so much that I just kept creating...again, and again, and again....

I started out with this awesome sunflower card.....

.... then created this sweet pea card.....

...... and finished off with this soft flower card.

You too should try this layout!! It is quick and easy and a great way to make cards at the last minute!!

Supplies: Everything is Papertrey Ink - Stamps: Green Thumb, Paper Tray, Text Boxed, Pond Life.

Thanks for dropping in!

Donelda

smARTworks Tea Party - Sketch

For this Tea Party, it was Dina's turn to decide what the challenge would be. She picked this pretty interesting image as a sketch challenge. She found it on one of those freebie calendars. She's not quite sure why it was on the beautiful scenic calendar but figured it would be a neat sketch for a card. I can't agree more. I actually made 2 cards for this challenge. I wasn't particularly happy with my first attemps (It is always frustrating when what you see in your mind doesn't transpire into the paper at your fingertips) so I just made a second. I'll post both if for no other reason than it took me forever to get the first one made!! I'll start with my second attempt since I think it is a much nicer card. I started out with this wonderful pot of tulips. I think of all the smARTwork images I have, this might just be one of my very favorites!! I colored them in with Copic markers (RV11 Pink, YG03 Yellow Green, and YG95 Pale Olive). I don't have a good Copic brown so I used my Creamy Caramel Stampin' Up! marker to color the pot. Then, I used my Cool Grey 20% Prismacolor marker to add a shadow below the pot. With all that finished, I just had to add a sentiment and finish off the card with some designer paper, a few buttons, and some green hemp cord. Dina was right, a great layout!! My next card was a great idea in my head, but like I said, didn't turn out quite like I was hoping. Maybe I'll give it another shot!! So, this card was inspired by that solid red circle on the sketch. I thought it would be cool if it were a tab card where you pulled a flower or something up to reveal the inside tab where you would write your greeting or message. Then I saw this great growing heart set and thought that would be cute!! So, I started by making the outside pocket, cutting the half circle using my coluzzle. Then, I carefully positioned the heart flower so that only the flower itself would be sticking up. It is, esentially, what you pull to get to the rest of the card. The rest is pretty straight forward. Supplies: A friendly Hello: Stamps: Spring #1, WD-60 (smARTworks); ink - Brilliance Graphite Black (Tsukineko); Paper - Whisper White (Stampin' Up!), 3 sheets of designer paper from Me and My Big Ideas pad sold at Michaels'; Other - White buttons (Hero Arts), Copic Markers, Stampin' uP marker, Prismacolor marker, hemp cord (Fashion Naturals), 1 1/4" and 1/4" circle punches, coluzzle, corner rounder. Heart Flower: Stamps: Plant Love, WD 183 - Great B-day (smARTworks), ink- Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!), Pure Poppy (Papertrey Ink); Paper - red, blue (paper stash), Kraft (Stampin' Up!); Ohter - coluzzle, copic markers, brown marker, white gel pen (Signo). Now off to see what all the other smARTwork Cookies have created. I can't wait to see: Dina, Susan, Donna, Giovana, Trish Did you make a card too?? If you did, just make sure you leave one of us a comment and I'll edit a link to your card on my blog!!! Thanks for joining our tea party! Donelda

CAS 19 - Berry Clean and Simple

A quick post for a quick card. This was done for the CAS19 challenge over at SCS. A great sketch!! All products are from Papertrey Ink. Stamp set is Green Thumb....still one of their best!! Thanks for dropping in! Don't forget that Wed. is our smARTworks tea party!! Come and join us for the fun!! Donelda

Loonie Stamper's Challenge #44 - Sympathy Trio and Baby Boat

This week's Loonie Stamper Challenge uses some great soft colors together. I started out with a bit of a cheat (as I used each color seperately) because I needed some Sympathy cards and I figured that these colors would be perfectly for what I wanted to do. But I felt badly for cheating so badly...so I pulled all the colors together to create a baby card, also perfect colors for that!!

So, here are my Sympathy cards. I really like the simple layout. I also like the swirls on the colored cardstock, a nice subtle touch. If you have not used Papertrey Ink's satin ribbon....you just have to know how wonderful this ribbon is to tie!! A delight!! See that sentiment. Of all the sympathy sentiments I have (quite a few I discovered), this one is the one I keep coming back to again and again!! It is from the Birds of a Feather stamp set sold by Papertrey Ink. And look at that....some tearing on my card, a technique I think can add a lot of texture and interest to a card but I rarely think to incorporate

it!!

And here is the second card I created using all of the colors together.

I really like the twill and button embellishment that I added to go with the baby boat theme! I can't help but feel like this card is not finished...I think it needs something under the aqua water...maybe a strip of yellow?? A strip of black?? a piece of Lavender Moon ribbon?? What do you think?? I think I will play around with it a bit and see what I like best.

Now, off to see what the Loonie ladies have created with this color combo:

Jewels, Maria, WEndy, Char, Dee, Regan

Supplies:

Sympathy Trio: Stamps-Lift up our Hands (Our Daily Bread), Flourishes v.2 (Autumn Leaves), Birds of a Feather (Papertrey Ink); Ink - Brilliance Graphic Black, Versamark (Tsukinmo), Lavender Moon, Aqua Mist, Lemon Tart (Papertrey Ink) Close to Cocoa (Stampin' Up!); Paper - Whisper White (Stampin' Up!), Lemon Tart, Aqua Mist, Lavender Moon, Lavender Moon Bitty Dots (all Papertrey Ink); Other - Aqua Mist, Lavender Moon, and Lemon Tart satin ribbon (Papertrey Ink), Aqua Mist twill (Papertrey Ink), white button (Hero Arts), purple floss (DCM), paint brush (I brushed the color onto the boat), small scallop scissors (Provo Craft), sponge, dimensionals.

Thanks for dropping in!!

Donelda

smARTworks - Aqua Squares

As many of you might know, I'm addicted to inchies. Well, I sometimes find myself wondering how many different ways I can use 1" squares on my cards. For this card, I took the little pieces from the smARTworks Petal Power set all over a piece of white cardstock with Aqua Mist ink. Then, I cut the sheet into 1" squares, sponged the edges with more Aqua ink and reassembled but in a random placement. I love the look!! The rest of the card is fairly straight forward. I do love this color combo.....what do you think??? Stamps - Petal Power, Great B-day (smARTworks), Ink – Aqua Mist (Papertrey Ink), Brilliance Graphite Black (Tsukineko); Paper – Whisper White (Stampin’ Up!), Aqua Mist (Papertrey Ink), Remember the Moments designer paper (Dream Street Papers); Other - Labels One die (Spellbinders), black brads (Making Memories large, Stampin’ Up! Small), flowers (Prisma), sponge, 1” square punch (Marvy), dimensionals. Thanks for dropping in. Donelda

smARTworks Tea Party #20 - Sketch

So Dina picked this ever so interesting visual as inspiration for a sketch. She found it, strangly, on a calendar amongst a beautiful picture of a bonsai tree. It is possibly related to the eye clinic as the calendar was one of those freebies from there....go figure. (ETA - I think it might be a large letter M as the eye clinic is Murni Optical... just a thought).

Regardless, I agree, it is a very interesting sketch layout for a card. I hope you will all join us next Wed. when the Design Team members show off what they did with it! And we'd love to have you play along too!!

CAS18 - Summer color challenge

Time for another Clean and Simple Challenge over at Splitcoaststampers (see link below right on my side bar). This time it was called "A Fun Summer Color Challenge" where we were to use "pinks/corals, kraft, & one other coordinating color of your choice". Now, is it just me or do these colors feel more like fall??!! Call me crazy!!! Anyway, I decided to make a little window for my first card. It was actually inspired by my son who was doing a little stamping with me today. He created the layout and I really liked it!! I rotated it 90 degrees to the left!

And once I got started I figured I'd might as well create another card with the colors while they were out. So, I was searching through my scrap bin when I came across the swirl on a piece of Cameo Coral cardstock. That swirl is actually made with light moulding paste with some brown paint added to it. Then, it was applied into the Stampin' Up embossing template called Finest Flourishes. Perfect for this challenge. I added a thin chocolate mat and a few stamped "faux ribbons" and a finished card.

And, finally, I wanted to share this little gem. My son asked what it meant to be 'clean and simple' so I expained it to him. He wanted to play along and this is what he created!! Awesome :-)

Supplies: Stamps: Birthday Basics (Papertrey Ink), Year Round Fun 2 (Stampin' Up!, retired), Basic Lowercase Letters (Hero Arts), Remember (Papertrey Ink), Faux Ribbon (Papertrey Ink); Cardstock-Kraft, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Cameo Coral (SU!); Ink - Chocolate Chip, Cameo Coral, Cranberry Crisp, Close to Cocoa (SU!); Other - 1" square punch (Marvy), butterfly punch (Martha Stewart), light modeling paste (Liquitex), brown acrylic paint, spatula, brass template (SU!), Cameo Coral marker (SU!), watercolor brush.

Have a great day!!

Donelda

Butterfly Background

I thought of this background in the middle of the night ... had to try to remember it and then created it the next morning!! Sheesh!! LOL I took these 2 butterflies that come in the smARTworks Cookie Plate set and, using double sided tape, attached them to an acrylic block beside each other (that is how I use my unmounted stamps - double sided tape). Then, I stamped them repeatedly onto white cardstock using blue ink. For each stamp, I rotated the image so the wings would "fit together". The focal image is created by coloring onto a silhouette image using my markers, misting with water, and then stamping onto white cardstock. I then cut and embossed this out using an oval nestability making sure to leave some room along one side for the sentiment. I added the sentiment by curving it (it is from a PTI clear set which means I could curve it on my block to match the shape of the oval - love that) and some dots. I attached this with dimensionals. A little ribbon and some scallop edge and the card was complete.

Question for you.... a friend of mine was irritated by this card because the sentiment was sideways, she kept wanting to turn the card vertical. What do you guys think?? Are you good with sentiments that are on the card sideways, like this? Or do you prefer your sentiments to run horizontally??

Thanks for dropping in! Donelda

Loonie Stamper's Challenge #43 - Birdy Hello Friend

So it was Wendy's turn to pick the Loonie Stamper's Challenge colors and she picked a tough one for me. I know that Grey and Yellow are very common these days in the fashion industry!! But the addition of pink really threw me. My first attempt...well, let's just say you won't see it as it ended. I did take it apart and you will likely see bits and pieces of it in various projects in the future. In fact, I used the card base in the project I did post here.

I love the Birds of a Feather set from Papertrey Ink so I pulled it out to stamp this cute little bird. I also love the sentiments in the set. The combination of fonts is awesome. I decided that I should pull out some of my decrative scissorsand use them for a change. As you can see, I added a tiny bit of the pink under the button here. It perplexed me to find a way to add it into the color scheme in a way that made sense. Not sure if it works here but it's in there.

Well, I have to go see what all the Loonie Gals did with this color combination (no, I don't look first, it influences me too much and I can't think of my own ideas.... ):

Wendy, Maria, Dee, Jewels, Regan, Char

Supplies: Stamps-Birds of a Feather, Background Basics Retro (Papertrey Ink); Ink - Lemon Tart (Papertrey Ink); Versamark, Brilliance Graphite Black (Tsukineko); Paper-Baisic Grey (Stampin' Up!), Select White, Hibiscus Burst, Lemon Tart Bitty Dots (Papertrey Ink); Other - Grey ribbon (Michael's), button, white floss (DMC), decorative scissors (Provo Craft), dimensionals.

Thanks for dropping in!

Donelda

Bleached Leaf

Hi everyone. First of all today is my son's birthday. I can't believe he is 10 - a preteen!! Wow!! He is the greatest kid ever and I just love him more and more each day!! Okay, on to the card. Here is a great technique for you!! This was a lot of fun. I took this great leaf image, stamped it on the green cardstock and then drew a light box around the inside of the image with a pencil. Then, I used a paint brush and brushed on thick bleach (the stuff you get in the hand held tube). I left it for a while and then drew around the box with a thick black marker!! While this was a stinky technique, it was fun and I like the results!! I'll have to consider what other images I have that would leand to this technique. Supplies: Stamps-Beyond Basic Borders (Papertrey Ink); Cardstock - Basic Black (Stampin' Up!), New Leaf (Papertrey Ink); Ink - Brilliance Graphite Black (Tsukineko); Other - bleach (Clorax), paint brush, wide twill (Stampin' Up!), black brads (Stampin' Up!). Thanks for dropping in. Donelda

smARTworks Tea Party - No White

So this time it was Trish who gave us a challenge for the 19th smARTworks Tea Party. And what a challenge it was...for me at least!! She limited us and would not let us use white!! Is she kidding, I mean, I use white all the time on my cards!! But I was determined to give it a go!! In the end, I like my Clean and Simple card. I started out with a card base of Kraft cardstock. Then I repeatedly stamped some leaves from the Petal Power stamp set along the bottom using Chocolate Chip ink. Next, I decided to add some color by using my Copic markers. Well, YG03 Yellow Green, to be precise. I colored over one end of the leaves to create some shading....I like!! Next, I punched out the butterfly with a Martha Stewart punch and colored it in with the same marker. I added the dots with more chocolate ink and a dot taken from the same stamp set. I finished off the card with a simple sentiment and a dotted line where the butterfly has been fluttering!! So now maybe I'm convinced that you can actually make a card without using white...as long as you can use some Kraft cardstock!!

Now you have to go see the other smARTwork Cookies to see what they have created!

Susan, Dina, Trish, Donna, Giovana

And make sure you add a comment with a link if you have played along! I can't wait to see what you have created!!

Thanks for dropping in for tea!!

Donelda

CAS17 Challenge - Towel Inspiration

I love the new Clean and Simple (CAS) challenge over at Splitcoaststampers. I find myself gravitating toward that style a lot. Especially when my creative juices have dried up....CAS seems to be the only thing that is possible for me. So, I checked the thread and the CAS #17 challenge that Jen had up was an inspiration challenge. She gave us THIS LINK from Land's End with towels and totes. I saw the solid blue striped towel and had to go with it!! The card was simple, and is actually a SCRAP card as well!! I used 1" strips of blue in 3 different shades found in my blue scraps bag. I also pulled that fishy out of my image scrap bin. I had stamped and colored a bunch of them a long time ago (see, this is why I never throw anything away). To color him, I had actually dry brushed some blue and purple watercolor paint (remember you can

click on the image to see it larger) onto white cardstock. I added this great sentiment from an add-on set to the Pond Life stamp set from Papertrey Ink and popped that little swimmer up on dimensionals. This was an increadibly easy card to make and used a ton of scraps. I can see this same card made in different colors with different images and sentiments!! Wow, what a great way to use up some of my many pieces of scrap! Supplies: Stamps - Fishy Friends (Stampin' Up!), Pond Life Sentiments (Papertrey Ink); Ink-Versamark, Basic Black (SU!), Paper - 3 shades of blue (one is definately Night of Navy and I think the middle color might be Buckaroo Blue but I am unsure of the lightest shade), White; Other - watercolor paints, paint brush, white embossing powder, dimensionals. Thanks for dropping in! Don't forget about the smARTworks tea party coming up on Wednesday. We were challenged to create a card without using white!! Come and play with us!! Donelda

Loonie Stamper's Challenge #42 - Father's Day Plaid

It is time for another Loonie Stamper's Challenge and it was Maria's turn to pick the challenge. She picked a great one...to use plaid on our cards!! I love plaid.

Since I lost my hard drive, it has really sapped my creative mojo and I haven't been doing much crafting these days. So, I sat at my craft table for some time, trying to get some plaid inspiration. I decided to look through my "scrap" bin and found some pre-punched circles that happened to have some great plaid on them!! The plaid is from the Chocolate Remix desinger paper from Papertrey Ink. Perfect!!

The card is a Clean and Simple card (easy to create when

trying to get your mojo back!!) with little need for explainations!! I plan to send it off to my dad in the next few days.

Supplies: Stamps-Father Knows Best (Papertrey Ink); Ink-Chocolate Chip (Stampin' Up!); Paper-Dark Chocolate, Vintage Cream, Chocolate Remix (Papertrey Ink); Other-1 1/4" circle punch.

So now, off to the Loonie Stampers to see what their plaid creations are:

Dee, Maria, Wendy, Jewels, Regan, and Char

Thanks so much for dropping in!! Have you made a father's day card yet???

Donelda

smARTworks - Swirly Pink

Here is a card using some of the swirls from the new-ish Swirly Gigs stamp set by smARTworks. When I first laid my hands on this set, I knew I'd be making a card like this!! It is pretty straight forward, just ink and cardstock, an oval scallop, and a bit of ribbon plus a few half pearls! Stamps- Swirly-gigs (smARTworks); Ink - Brilliance Graphite Black (Tsukineko), Sweet Blush (Papertrey Ink); Paper – Whisper White (Stampin’ Up!), Sweet Blush (Papertrey Ink); Other- scallop oval nestability (Spellbinders), white satin ribbon (Papertrey Ink), half pearls pink and white (Dollarama), dimensionals. Thanks for dropping by. I am continuing to figure out my new computer and reload all my favorite blogs and sights, which is why I've not been doing much blogging. Hopefully it will improve. Thanks for your understanding and patience! Donelda

smARTworks Tea Party Announcement - Colorful Card

Well, it is Trish's time to host the next smARTworks Tea Party! Even though she is moving and all, she still set a great challenge. Unfortunately, I'm very late at posting the announcement!! However, here it is....better late than never!! Trish challenged us to ...."Create a card without using white" .... what, are you kidding me!! Doesn't she know that I am a bit addicted to using white on my cards!! Well, this will really be a challenge. We will be uploading on June 6th. Remember, you too can play along with this challenge and you don't have to use smARTwork stamps if you don't have any! Just create your colorful card and leave a link with a comment on any Design Team member's blog!! I can't wait to see what you create!!

Black, Grey + One - challenge from Basic Grey

I am forever making cards that meet challenges but I never seem to get them uploaded to actaully enter the challenge!! Here is a card that fits that category. A few weeks ago, the Basic Grey blog had a challenge to use Black, Grey and One (meaning to use the colors black and grey plus one other color). I decided to use this strip of butterflies from their Abrosia line. It is called Winsome and contains lots of different colored butterflies, but I strategically cut the black and grey ones out to use. The other color is red...or maybe the cream...I guess it is a bit of a cheat!!

I also added an oval of grey paper from Stampin' Up! cut and embossed using my oval Nestabilities. Finally, I stamped a sentiment from Quilters Sampler by Papertrey Ink. The little swirl under the sentiment is from Faux Ribbon (also from Papertrey Ink). One tiny gem to add a bit of bling!! Thanks for dropping in!!! Donelda

Blue Flowers

When Susan from smARTworks designed this stamp, she had imagined those flowers being blue. Well, every single design team member colored the flowers pink when it was the stamp for our April Cookie Challenge.

I decided to create the image in blue for Susan. I wanted to see what these flowers would look like in blue...and I like them.

They were colored with Copic markers. Then, I added strips of blue ribbon around the edge cutting the ribbon at angles for the corners. The sentiment is from Beautiful Blooms from Papertrey Ink!!

Still working on rebuilding my computer again!! Be this a lesson to me and everyone else out there....Back up your stuff!!!

Thanks for dropping in!

Donelda