MCE-Christmas in July

It's that time again!!! MCE (Monthly Card Exchange)

This time the theme was my all time favorite theme.......CHRISTMAS. Oh do I love that time of year. Last year I did 130 Christmas cards...my family and friends are now spoiled....I have been told...I am NOT to send them a store bought card or they will be insulted. Guess I better get

busy or I will be burning the midnight oil getting them done. Half the year has already gone by.

Well, on to my card. Some of you remember this post "Glitter, Tissues and Glue Oh My". I used the same technique on this background as I used on the flowers except I stamped all kinds of snowflakes with Staz-On on the Acetate.

I matted it onto a piece of cardstock and then matted it onto the white background. Merry Christmas stamp came from a set of stamps called "From Our Home Set" which is the cutest Mouse stamp set. I matted again onto darker cardstock and punch a snowflake out of the corner. The snowmen image I used is from the set called "Let it Snow". I stamped and colored it with Dick's markers, trimmed around it and set it on top of the acetate. The ribbon bow was ribbon I bought at Michaels. I am very bow challenged but am getting better!

Remember how we give a card and we get a card back? Well take a look at the gorgous MCE (below) that was given to me!! The photo just does not do it justice. It was stamped, heat embossed, colored and I just love it so much.

Kim...thank you!!!

(you can visit Kim at her blog here)

STOP and smell the coffee....well actually Latte

I have been wanting this set for a long time and finally broke down and bought it. It reminds me of waking up in the morning and smelling freshly brewed coffee or walking into a coffee shop. The smell of Lattes and coffee fill the air.

This set is called "Smell the Coffee" and I used two images from that set. I used Dick markers to color them with and for the foam in the cups I used White Tulip Puffy Dimensional Paint and before it dried I sprinkle a tiny amount of brown embossing powder to make it look like sprinkles of cinnamon.

After laying, I used the technique called "Faux Stitching" and if you knew me...you would say it looked like my real stitching which I cannot get straight if my life depended on it! lol But I like the way it came out.

The bigger cup was stamped, colored, cut out and then layered with liquid glass. After it dried, I popped it up with Sticky Doos to give it more dimension.

I stamped the words in brown which made it too hard to read...if I get daring someday...I will restamp over it with black.............if I get daring!

Men's Favorite-Toilet and Fishing!

....all that is missing is the remote control!!!! I fell in love with this stamp "Ye Ole Fishin' Hole" as soon as I saw it! I think it is a perfect image for guy card....two favorite spots they love to be.... the toilet or fishing by a pond....lol. It may look scary to color but it actually was very easy. I stamped the image with Momento and used a SU die cut to cut the shape. I used Blick markers to color the image with. The background was made from Cuttlebug Embossing Folder "Tiny Mosaic Texture". The corners came from a scrap that I had where I had glued mesh down on top. I just used a corner punch and punched out two corners from the scrap. The ribbon came from a package my boss got. (They have learned where I work-to give me all ribbon scraps and chipboard lol.) One of my brothers has a birthday in Aug.........I am saving this card for him.

Flutter By Wednesday

Make sure to scroll down...there are two post for today!

Every Wednesday Danni's Dreams has a challenge called Flutter By Wednesday. If you have a fairy stamp or a butterfly...you should jump on over and join in! You have to make a card using a butterfly or fairy and every week they add a little twist. This week you have to use brown and pink along with your fairy or butterfly image.

The fairy image was RAK'd to me and it is a fairy by The Greeting Farm. Her name is Fairy Chloe. I colored her with Dick Blick markers and I think she came out cute! I stamped a swirl and used my eyelet with interchangeable heads to punch out the different size holes. I matted it on brown paper so the brown showed through the holes. Ribbon was something I picked up from Micheal's long ago.

The sentiment is from the clear stamp set- Anytime Sentiments. I love this set...it has such a variety!

Sketch Challenges

There is a sketch challenge at a scrapbook group I belong to so I made this card to go with it. I stamped my Ocean Butterfly rubber stamp with Memento Black Dye Ink which if perfect if you are going to use alcohol free markers like Dick Blick. I used Dick Blick markers to color the butterfly and filled in bubble areas with stickles to make the image more fun. I needed something for the corner and remembered I had a Sizziz Sanddollar that I bought and used maybe once many eons ago! I blew the dust off , cut out a sanddollar and used a sand colored marker to color the edge and the middle. The flower image came from Hot off the Press which I stamped it in versamark ink onto of Stamping Up cardstock.

BREAKING NEWS!!!

My sister and I have been working on opening a rubber stamping store Stamping Palace online for years....actually I think it was months....I dunno.....just felt like years LOL! But it feels good to shout.... OUR STORE IS OPEN...www.stampingpalace.com! We are still stocking the shelves with additional rubber stamps and craft supplies but we would love you to go on in and look around! We have samples of cards on the products pages and will eventually have a gallery as well. Don't forget to look at the Tips page. As we collect more we will keep adding so keep checking back. You never know...you may discover something you never knew! We hope you are as excited as we are...because the fun has just started.

Image Contest

This card is one I made for contest in a Scrapbook and Card Yahoo Group that I belong to. We all received two stamped images of a hedgehog (one is in case you make a mistake or want to layer an image). After you made a card out of the image, you had to send a scanned copy back to the group member and she set up a poll of all the cards. She did not include any names on who did what. We had to vote for our favorite one and my card won!! I believe this image of the hedgehog is a Penny Black rubber stamp. I colored it using Black Markers which are similar to Prisma Makers. I used both stamped images to layer my hedgehog and paper towels, sponge & blue ink to make my clouds. The flowers and leaves have Liquid Glass on them to make them 3-D with a little bit of sparkle in the middle. White background is the Dots CB Folder and along the bottom is another border CB folder. After embossing, I took the blue ink pad and wiped it across the flower border. I had extra pieces left over from the second stamped image so I colored one of the flowers, cut it out and glued it down on the inside of the card.

Butterfly Butterfly

Yesterday I made a few butterflys and used them on a couple cards. The Butterflys were sponged with two colors and then clear embossed. Stamped butterflies are from Martha Stewart.

MCE-July 4th Outhouse

UPDATED!! It is MCE time (Monthly Card Exchange). This time you had to use red/white/blue or a 4th of July card. I used both. I love this image of the Patriot Outhouse with the door painted as a flag. The Patriotic Outhouse has a star for the window so I used a Star Bling cover it it.

This card is a card that I received back and it was made by Darlene. I am so impressed with the way Darlene thinks "outside the box"!!! I always put my main image on the outside and when you open the card, my handwritten and stamped words are on the inside left. Darlene put the main image on the inside left and wrote on the right!!! I love this card. Thank you so much Darlene!!

Oh by the way.....the images are now clickable to open the photo larger. I am so happy it is back! It was really annoying before lol.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

Here is my father-in-law's card that I made at a Stamping Up Stamp Camp. It is all Stamping Up products right down to the ribbon. To make the clouds, I used a piece of paper towel that I ripped.

To all fathers...I hope you have a wonderful "par-fect" day!!!

Thanks for "Owl" you did

This is a card I made for someone who was leaving the office. She was such a huge help to all of us and we will miss her a great deal! She likes owls so this stamp worked out great for her!

Leafing Dress Tutorial

This techinque makes some very interesting results! Here is what you need for materials

*Acetate-1 piece

*Staz On Ink pad

*Adhesive or Xyron

*Gold leaf Sheet (or any other color will work)

*Rubber Stamp smaller then your sheet of gold leaf

1. Stamp your image your Acetate.

2.Trim your image right up to the outside line.

3. Cover with adhesive or Run your image through your Xyron-making sure the glue is on the opposite side of the image.

4. Take one Gold Leaf Sheet and layer it carefully over the adhesive, making sure the image is

totally covered. If you accidently rip it...no problem... take another piece and place it over the hole. Press down gently

Now flip your image over and VOILA! Your done! Ready to use on your card. You can see what I did with my image here

Materials

*Impression Obession Dress stamp from Life of Happiness Set

*Clear Embossing Powder

*Stamping Up Flower Punch

*Marthat Stewart Branch Punch

Leafing Dress

I really wanted to show you this card and when I lost everything, I was so upset because I had sent it off to someone already. Thank goodness I found an old email where I had sent a photo of it to someone! Do you remember this Card? This is the same stamp just a different look! Be on the lookout for a tutorial on how I made the dress tomorrow.

Too Many Glitches

Sorry I have been away for so long! My computer died and my husband had to work on it. I was able to salvage many of my files beforehand onto DVD's. Now it is up and running and I went to get my info and Cards off the DVD's and guess what? The DVD now has a glitch!!! All my work...GONE....

Bare with me while I sob in the corner and get myself under control....

Glitter, tissue and glue..Oh My!

Here is a very easy but messy technique that produces beautiful results! Materials that you need are Acetate 2 or 3 Re-inkers Tissue paper Diamond Glaze or similar glue Optional but recommended-Disposable Gloves Stamp of your choice Staz-on Glitter 1. (Optional) Stamp your image on your acetate and make sure it is dry before you move to the next step. If you want to stamp your image later...skip to step 2. This is a technique you can do to an entire sheet of acetate or on a piece to do one card. If your going to get messy...you might want to do an entire sheet and have extra for another card(s). 2. Flip your image over and put small globes of glue on the back all over the back and spread the glue around until the back is covered. 3. Drop drops of re-inkers on top of the glue. I would not use no more then 2 or 3 colors. You will notice as you drop the ink it will begin to spread out. Putting the drops too close together may or may not produce a color that you want. 4. This is where the gloves come in handy!!! Take your finger and spread the ink around to either cover the entire back or only in areas that you want color. If you are using more than one color, be careful not to make the colors look muddy. You do not have to color the entire back with color. 5. Sprinkle glitter- covering the entire back or in sections that you want- knock anything loose. I chose to cover the entire back. 6. Layer a piece of tissue paper on top and pat down making sure all the tissue becomes "wet" with the glittery colored glue. You want to make sure you press down to get all the bubbles out. 7. Here is the hardest part........WAITING! You have to make sure you let it dry before you use the image on your card or if you skipped step 1...you have to make sure it is dry before you turn it over to stamp your image. I made this card for a friend who was a bit under the weather. I choose to cut my image out and mount it on a card. This image is from Impression Obsession-Iris & Tulip Set.

RAK Image

ARRRRRRRR The Biggest Loser's LAST Show is on!!! I will miss that show so much!!! So I am posting a quick card that I made. The image was RAK'd to me and I had some fun with it. I think this little lady is so cute! I 3-D'd her glasses and her floaty. I used a stamp for the palm trees that is very old. I have no idea where it came from. The clouds were made using paper towel as a template. All the ink is from Stamping Up. I made this for a girlfriend for her birthday. I think she will get a kick out if!!

This is the outside of the card. There is a window so you get a peak of the inside of the card This is the inside of the card.

Image Rak

Can you see the Fairy fluttering by the roses? Her name is Mini Lark from Susana's Custom Art & Card Design and I think she is perfect for living amongst the flowers! She is colored with markers, painted with Shimmerz and popped up with dimensionals. If you click on the card to open up larger, you can see how much she shimmerz. The RAK'd Rose image was also colored with Stamping Up markers and pink stickles was layered on top. I used the Stamping Up punch to cut the green corner and glued tiny green bling to it to dress it up a bit. It was a very quick card but perfect for any occasion!

Image Rak

Here is a quick card I made from an image that was RAK'd to me. I think it came out fun and cute. The background paper is all one piece. The circle area was embossed with my Cuttlebug and one of the Cuttlebug Frills embossing borders. I used diamond stickler around the border of the Margarita glass. Image was colored with markers similar to Copic.

Faux Leather Additonal Cards

This is just a quick post. I wanted to show you a couple of cards I did awhile ago using the same Faux Leather Technique. Apparently, I like the color blue as these cards were not done at the same time!!

National Scrapbooking Day (NSD)

Every year on the first Saturday in May, Scrapbookers have their own holiday. It is National Scrapbooking Day. I did a bit of research to see when it first begin. National Scrapbook Day was started in 1994 by Creative Memories, the very well-known scrapbooking company. Scrappers from all over the world celebrate their passion on this day scrapbooking with friends, at crops or alone. Also, I noticed there are many companies celebrating this day with some great sales! Why do I Scrapbook? I have invested a lot of money and time in my memories...I want to remember every moment...scrapbooking allows the story behind my photos to be told....every memorable detail to be included. Future generations will not be clueless. Physically I won't always be here...but with my albums, I will. How did I begin? I give that credit to my baby sister Brenda... I got a phone call one day begging me to go to a "scrapbook" party that afternoon...I had no idea what a "scrapbook" party was and it did not sound interesting at all. Brenda said "I just need one more body or she will not do it!!"...I finally could not resist her. (Little did I know she used the same line on a few others!). I told her "I will go but I am not buying anything!"...as she hung up I heard her say "it will cost you $10 but you get a pair of scissors...". Grrrrrrr....I knew it would cost me in the long run...but I had no idea....it was just the beginning... I have been scrapbooking now since early 1990 and card making since 2005. I have an eclectic style when I scrapbook. Always looking for something new. Exploring new techniques. I hope all you Scrappers did not let the day go without creating one or two layouts. I scrapped alone but I did join in with a couple of yahoo groups and worked on some challenges. Here are some pages that I scrapped today.

I hope you enjoyed this year's National Scrapbooking Day!