A (past) Splitcoast Stampers Challenge

I have been perusing the SCS challenges and, if only I had more time, would love to try them all out. But as life would have it I have to cherry-pick which ones I take a whirl at and I have found so far that my favourite category of challenges is the Try a New Technique one. The first challenge I decided to try was the Embossed Shimmer one as it looked pretty funky.

I had just received my most recent SU! order and had the Snowflake 1 Sizzix die to play with so I thought I would go for a Christmasy theme. For the background I went with Pacific Point and Baja Breeze re-inkers and I tried them with Pearl White acrylic paint. (Side note: While the acrylic paint did work out alright, Lumiere produces a FAR more superior finish.) I blobbed some colour onto an acrylic projector sheet (from Staples) and set it aside to dry. After it had completely dried I ran it through the Cuttlebug with the Snowflakes embossing folder.

For the snowflake I took a scrap piece of chipboard and glued some Whisper White cardstock to it before running it through with the die.

For the sentiment I used the Christmas stamp from the Cute & Curly set, inked it in Pacific Point, wiped the ink off of the sentiment and then used a blender pen dipped in some Baja Breeze ink to colour in the words. Punch it out with the matching Curly Label punch and you have a quick and cute label.

When looking back on this card what I think I should have added was a little Heat & Stick powder to the snowflake and some Dazzling Diamonds for a little extra shimmer.

In the second view you can see the texture a little better. You can also see the ink on my hands still!

Enjoy and have a great day!

Stamps: Cute & Curly

Ink: Baja Breeze Classic Pad and Re-inker, Pacific Point Classic Pad and Re-inker

Paper: Baja Breeze CS, Whisper White CS

Tools: Snowflake 1 sizzix, curly label punch, stipple brush, Snow Flakes cuttlebug folder, Big Shot or cuttlebug

Accessories: chipboard, acetate, blender pen, pearl white acrylic paint

A treat box thank you

I recently wanted to make a special little thank you and wasn't sure what to do. Then I happened across a cute little box by Jody Morrow (aka texasjodylynn) and I knew it would be perfect!

I used the oh-so-yummy colour combo of Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point & Chocolate Chip... I remember a time when I was not too pleased with the new in-colours and now I am hooked!

I used this basic template to cut out the box and then stamped it with Wow Flowers and Versamark ink before assembling the box. TIP: Use the word window punch to make a snappy little handle.

Next I made my embellishment by layering a pacific point scalloped circle with a Kiwi Kiss 1 3/8" circle and a 1 1/4" circle of whisper white. To create the two coloured sentiment I used a Chocolate Chip marker and a Kiwi Kiss Classic Stampin' Pad with a blender pen. (Easier than it sounds!)

The side view picture is VERY blurry, but I went with the pic anyway because I was very frustrated with my camera at that point, (and I'm sure my camera was frustrated with me!)

Hope you enjoy!

Stamps: Wow Flowers Ink: Versamark, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Marker Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, Whisper White Tools: Scallop punch, 1 1/4" punch, 1 3/8" punch, word window punch, blender pen

Halloween Diaper Fold Pouch

This was my first attempt at the Diaper Fold Pouch which can be found on SCS here. I was having some fun with these too cool items from Imaginisce's Hallowhimsy line. LOVE IT!

I started with the Hallowhimsy paper and followed the tutorial for a Diaper Fold Pouch. I then punched out some dripping goo from Old Olive cardstock using the Martha Stewart Goo punch and attatched it as a border. I then attatched a brad, (again from the Hallowhimsy collection,) to a 1 1/4" Basic Black and mounted it on a old olive circle followed by a basic black scallop circle. I wanted some black jumbo eyelets but only had pewter... TIP: I achieved the black eyelet look by sponging on some Jet Black StazOn and letting it dry for a minute. I then looped some 1/4" grosgrain ribbon through. For the matching tag I reverse masked the black line with a sponge dabber and then stamped some Skulls on with Versamark for a background. I stamped the skull again in Basic Black and attached another eyelet and ribbon. TIP: For super easy and quiet setting of brads use the Crop-A-Dile, a must have for anyone who uses eyelets. It changed my scrapping life. =)

Stamps: Imaginisce Snag'ems Skull

Ink: Basic Black, Versamark, Jet Black StazOn

Paper: Basic Black, Old Olive, Imaginisce Hallowhimsy Paper

Tools: Crop-A-Dile, Scallop Punch, 1 3/8" punch, 1 1/4" punch, Martha Stewart Goo punch

Accessories: Jumbo Eyelets, Basic Black 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, Imaginisce Hallowhimsy Epoxy brads

We have a winner!

Woohoo! By random drawing our winner is comment 2 made by Roberta! Please send me an e-mail with your address at aldervalleygiftco@msn.com and I will get your goodies out. Thank you to everyone who particiapted and thank you for checking out my random ramblings! ;)

My First Attempt at Watercolouring with Markers

I have to tell you, one of my FAVOURITE products from Stampin' Up! is the Stampin' Write marker. There is just so much you can do with it! So when I saw watercolouring with markers and an aqua painter I was very tempted, however I was a little afraid. I'm no painter by any means. But eventually (last weekend) I decided to suck it up and give it a go and here's what I came up with.

It's not my favourite card I've made, but I must say it turned out better than the disaster I had envision priot to starting! So, for anyone not sure how to watercolour with markers here you go...

Start with an open image and stamp it on Watercolour paper with Basic Black Classic Ink Pad, (this black is waterproof - very important!) Next, colour around the edges of the image that would naturally have a shadow - or, as I did, guess! After you have coloured your edges with your marker, take an Aqua Painter filled with water and start to pull the colour from the edges to colour in the rest of the image. Voila! Art! If you make an oops you can take your aqua painter, (make sure there is no colour left on it by running it over some paper towel,) and brush at it gently to remove the colour.

For the rest of my card I went a little crazy with the layering as you can see. A little busy for my liking but I'll live! Also, you will see another great thing about Stampin' Write markers - the ability to colour in your stamps so you have multiple colours on them. Simply colour with your markers directly onto your stamps, huff on it (ie. breath heavily on it to re-moisten the ink) and stamp. Hope you enjoyed!

Stamps: Embrace Life, All Hollidays Paper: Old Olive CS, Ruby Red CS, Bali Breeze DP (discontinued), watercolour paper Ink: Basic Black Classic Stampin Pad, Old Olive & Ruby Red Stampin' Write Markers Tools: Scalloped Edge punch, Craft & Rubber Scissors (only THE BEST scissors I have ever used), dimensionals Accessories: Double sided ribbon from the disc. Theatre Ribbon pack (similar to the new Kiwi Kiss/Very Vanilla Double sided satin ribbon), Yellow Dew Drops (non SU!)

Blog Candy is Here!

It's blog candy time! I have a few different things for this giveaway... There are two Heidi Swapp masks, (for anyone not familiar with this you place it on your card, box, notebook - anything you would like to decorate - and paint/ink etc. over it stencil style. Very cool.) We have a few CTMH chipboard sliders, a CTMH stamp set, (called Dainty,) and - from my FAVOURITE company - a Stampin' Up! Stampin' Write marker in Old Olive.

So the important question - how do you win? Leave me a comment and a link to your blog/website and go out and spread the word. Leave a post on your own blog telling people to head over here and enter. Don't have a blog? Then tell your friends! Make sure to leave your name and web address (if applicable) in your comment and check back Monday morning for the winner. (If you are one of those people - like me - who forgets to check back to see if you've won then you can sign up for my blog e-mailer and you will get an e-mail with the post naming the winner. You'll find the e-mail sign up on the top left corner of my blog under the blog archive.)

I will be drawing by random number. Good luck!

It seems so small in comparison...

I love blog surfin' and am seeing some fabulous blogs hitting the 100,000 hit mark. It pales in comparison but I have passed the 100 mark and I am so happy! (Considering I didn't know if anyone would even visit my blog I am flying high to hit this number!) So, I have to do what any good blogger would - give away Blog Candy!!!!! I have to pull some together so watch in the next day or two for a post with a chance to win....

Hallowwen on the mind (Part 2)

As promised, here's the follow up to my last post. This project was for an ABAC (anything but a card,) so I decided to try out a KitKat wrapper. I think the hardest part of making these cute little guys was not eating the KitKat! ;) Seriously though, what an easy way to make a treat super special!

For this you need a 6x6 piece of design paper, (if you start with a 12x12 you can make 4 wrapped chocolate bars.) Place your paper face down, (so you are not looking at the design you want for your outside,) and put double sided tape around all four edges. Place your KitKat in the middle and begin as though you are wrapping a present. Stick down the backside and then seal the edges. Crimp your edges with a paper crimper, (this makes it look neat but it also ensures a good seal,) and then decorate the outside as desired. For my bars I wrapped a 2" band of Basic Black cardstock around the bar and then scalloped both sides of a Tangerine Tango band of cardstock and added this on. TIP: When using the Scalloped Edge punch make sure you have enough paper before you scallop it. For a 1 3/4" band I started with 2 1/4" paper. The scallop punch takes off more paper than you might expect...

Next I used some of the left over Halloween circles from my last project, (using the Boo to You Cuttlebug folder and white craft ink,) which were already mounted on a tangerine tango circle and a basic black scalloped circle, added some dimensionals to the back and viola! A quick and easy project!

Supplies:
Paper: Basic Black Cardstock, Tangerine Tango cardstock, mystery Boo designer paper
ink: Whisper White Craft Ink
Tools: Scalloped edge punch, scalloped circle punch, 1 3/8" ciecle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, paper crimper, Boo to You Cuttlebug embossing folder, Cuttlebug or Big Shot

Halloween on the mind...

Well, the halloween candy is on the shelves at the grocery store and Michaels has there Lemax Halloween village up so I guess I should start on my Halloween projects.

I am in a swap on SCS where the theme is Halloween. I bought a cute new Inkadinkadoo stamp just for this swap and then I lost my mind and forgot to use it! I ended up using my oh-so-cute new cuttlebug folder called Boo-to-You.

The first of my two projects to share is a treat topper for a candy bag. I went down to my LSS and found the halloween paper to be VERY limited. (There is a great scrap store about an hour from me that has awesome halloween paper but that's for another project!) I found some paper that was black & white and simply said BOO all over it. My plan for these two swap items were to use the DP as a background and so this worked out all right. (Can you tell I'm trying to justify this lame-o DP?) =) Anyways, I printed off the work BOO on my computer using a font from scrapnfonts.com and punched them out with my 1/2" circle punch. I then mounted them on a 3/4" circle of Tangerine Tango CS. It's hard to see but I gave these letters a little extra pop with some Crystal Effects.

Also hard to see is the paper behind the candies, but this black CS has been run through my cuttlebug with the Boo to You embossing folder. A little easier to see is the individually punched out circles from the same embossing folder on the front. These were run through on Basic Black CS and then I gently brushed my Whisper White craft ink pad over the raised areas. They were then punched out with a 1 1/4" circle and mounted on a 1 3/8" tangerine tango circle, which was mounted on a black CS scalloped circle.

Hope you enjoyed this goulish treat and check back for part 2 soon.

Stamps: Holy crow none! Ink: Whisper White Craft Ink Paper: Basic Black CS, Tangerine Tango CS, Boo DP Tools: Cuttlebug, Boo to You embossing folder, 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" circle punch, scallop punch, stapler, crystal effects