InkspiredTreasures.com

Blogger’s and DCBD108 Challenges

Today’s card fulfills a couple challenges!  One is the Blogger’s Challenge from last Friday with the theme of Celebration.  I was taking a much needed rest from my studio after Christmas, but finally made it down to work on this card yesterday.  It also is appropriate for today’s DCBD108 Challenge of a New Year’s celebration card!

Remember I told you about my Starts bin?  Those items I’ve started, but they didn’t end up on the card I was working on?  Well, this card is put together entirely from my Starts bin!  The Base card of Chocolate Chip is layered with Baja Breeze Prints Designer Paper and I used the Ticket Corner Punch.  From another project was the Holiday Treasures polka dot Designer Paper layered on Old Olive cardstock.   The house I inked in Versamark and then Chocolate Chip and stamped on Whisper White.  It was embossed with Clear Embossing Powder.  I then laid a mask half way across the image and used my sponge dauber to add Baja Breeze color to the "sky" area and left the "ground" white for snow.  This was layered onto Old Olive.  I stamped "Let’s Celebrate" from On Your Birthday stamp set and punched it with the 1 1/4 circle punch, then a layered 1 3/8 Chocolate Chip circle punch.  I popped up the house layer with dimensionals and added a couple silver mini brads in the upper left corner. 

I think it makes a nice New Year’s card…but I’ll probably use it for one of the January birthdays.

I’m in the middle of cleaning up my studio, making swaps for the latest Control Freaks swap, and getting my Leadership swaps done!  I desperately need to clean up a little more in my studio.  I hope to finish up the stamping portion of my swaps today and then sit and watch the football games tomorrow and put them all together.  Tonight we are going to dinner with friends and then coming back to the house to play cards.

Check out the rest of the Diva Coffee Break Designers:

Chris Austin
Dannie Graves
Dee Tollaksen
Heidi Michel
Julie Semones
Kristin Moore
Selene Kempton
Lisa Freeman

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Love You Much – Control Freaks swap

Here is the card that I made for the Control Freaks swap…a great bunch of gals with MEGA talent are in this swap group.  It is always like Christmas getting a swap package back in the mail.

I started with a base of Riding Hood Red.  I stamped the trio of hearts with Riding Hood Red on the Pink Pirouette layer, then adhered that to Chocolate Chip before placing it on the base layer.  I inked LOVE in Versamark, then Riding Hood Red and stamped on Very Vanilla, then embossed with clear embossing powder (a great way to get embossing powder in ALL colors!)  I colored the word LOVE with a blender pen and my Pink Pirouette reinker.  This I layered on Chocolate Chip, too.  I also placed a pink mini brad in the center of the flower and colored the leaf and stem with Certainly Celery marker.

The stripe is from Candy Lane Designer Paper…part of the Love You Much Bundle special going on right now.  Love this designer package because it has LOTS of stripe patterns…my favorites!  I did make some Pink Pirouette Faux Diamond Dust paper and punched out two of the small hearts from it and placed them with mini glue dots in the upper left corner of the LOVE layer.  Finally, I wrapped some of the Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon around the designer paper layer.

I made a couple extras of this card to give my Mom & Dad and hubby’s Mom & Dad for Valentine’s Day!  I’m sure they will love it and it certainly feels good to be done with that already!

Today I plan in working in my studio all day!  Yeah!  I had needed a break from creating gifts, classes and projects before Christmas, so it felt good to just relax.  But now I’m anxious to start creating again…can’t stay away too long.

And…don’t forget!  Email me to order your Love You Much bundle with this cute stamp set, Candy Lane Designer Paper and Heart to Heart punch at 20% off!  ($41.48 plus tax and shipping), plus save $10 off my Love You Much Stamp Camp on January 25 when you preorder this Bundle for me!

Bonus WINNER and Love You Much

Oh my gosh…I totally spaced out on announcing the random drawing winner of the Bonus Window Dressing and Level 1 stamp set on December 23.  (Criteria was placing an $40 order or more between December 9 and 23).  I hope you understand that it was the craziness of getting ready for Christmas that caused me to forget! 

And…the winners are…

LEVEL 3 – WINDOW DRESSING – POLLY K.

LEVEL 1 CHOICE SET – LYNN F.

Congratulations, ladies!  I’ll be seeing both of you soon at classes, so I’ll give them to you then!  Thank you for your support of my business.

Here is a card I made with the Love You Much stamp set and Candy Lane Designer Paper during a challenge with Mary.  It was also an early prototype for my Control Freaks swap…although I did change that a little.  I’ll be posting that soon.

I started with the Riding Hood Red base card and added a layer of Chocolate Chip with Pink Pirouette stamped with the trio of hearts stamp in Pink Pirouette (kind of hard to see on this photo).  Then I inked LOVE with Versamark and then Riding Hood Red and embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I added a pink mini brad in the center of the flower, and colored the letters with a blender pen and Pink Pirouette reinker.   I adhered it to another Chocolate Chip Layer.  The Love Birds were stamped in Basic Brown on Very Vanilla and colored with the Riding Hood Red reinker and blender pen. Then punched with the 1 3/8 circle and a punched Riding Hood Red scallop circle behind it (pierced with the piercing tool!)  I added a strip of the Candy Lane Designer Paper (I love this stripe!)  Oh, I added a folded over piece of Pink Pirouette stripe ribbon under the LOVE layer in the upper left corner for a little added interest.

So, this card features 2 of the 3 items in the Love You Much Bundle (the stamp set and the designer paper)…the third is a Heart to Heart punch trio.  You save 20% by ordering this bundle by January 31st.  BUT, you can save another $10 off my January 25th Love You Much Stamp Camp when you purchase this bundle with your Stamp Camp reservation by January 15!  Don’t delay!

Sympathy card – Watercolor resist

It always seems like we have a sad period during the holidays.  We found out that our best friends lost their cousin to a freak farm accident right before the holidays.  Very sad.  She had only become a grandmother a couple weeks earlier, she was 48 years old.

But I made up this card to send to the family using the Technique Junkies Watercolor Resist technique again.  Love it because it is so quick and easy to make, but gives a really WOW presentation!

The background is embossed with the Pretty Petals background stamp (it is on the Dormant List right now, so you can still purchase it!)  With Heartfelt Sympathy is from Close as a Memory stamp set.  The base card is Perfect Plum, with Mellow Moss behind the White Simmer paper.  I also added two mini gold brads along the left side of the greeting.

I’m going to try to set up some posts to appear during the week.  I received a new laptop for Christmas, but I’m having trouble connecting the new wireless router to run my laptop and desktop at the same time.  Right now, I’m unplugging it to run one or the other.  Pain.  I haven’t decided if my laptop will become my dominant computer, or if I will remain with the desktop.  Decisions…decisions. 

Have a great week!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

This was my Christmas Card this year!  Enjoy!

(Heavily inspired by Kimberly Van Diepen…thanks!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Brocade Basics – Watercolor Resist

This is a technique from the latest issue of Technique Junkies Newsletter called Watercolor Resist.  I used the stamp set, Brocade Basics…one of the sets that will be retiring.  Bummer  because it is a great one to use with technique backgrounds.  Since this technique is in the Newsletter, I can’t tell you how it is done…however, if you are attending my Technique Classes, we will be doing this technique next time!    Doesn’t it give you a pretty background?  And it isn’t hard at all! 

It is hard to read, but the tag says Season’s Greetings from the To You and Yours stamp set…I love the little greetings in there! 

I’m finishing up some last minute details preparing dinner for 12 tomorrow…there always is that "one more thing" for me.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

60th Birthday Card

My husband’s boss turned 60 this weekend, so I made a card for him.  Yes, I used some non-Stampin’ Up! items that I have in my stash. 

First I used the Happy Birthday embossing folder in my Big Shot with Whisper White cardstock.  I layered that on a base card of Basic Black.  Then I used my Just Rite Stamper and spelled out the words, Happy Birthday Bob and the numbers 60.  I punched it with the 1 3/4 circle, then my 2" circle and a large Giga Scallop Circle.  It is popped up with dimensionals on the front.

Inside I wanted to put 60 candles.  So I used the trio of candles from the retired stamp set, Tags & More.  I knew I couldn’t get all 60 candles on the inside left panel alone, so I cut a Whisper White panel 5 1/4 x 8 1/4 and folded it in half.  Then I stamped both sides (actually 3 sides) of it and adhered that to the inside left side.  I hope the picture shows it better than I can describe it.  I also added a 4 x 5 1/4 panel to the inside right side with the extra 6 candles I needed and the greeting.  Each of the candles were stamped with Basic Black and I used a Summer Sun marker to color the flames.  Pretty simple, but I like how it turned out.  His boss said…wow…that is a lot of candles!  lol! 

Well, I hope you are ready for the holidays.  I need to make tags, finish the bows on my packages, and make up a couple gifts yet.  I think I’ll be able to get most of it done today. 

Happy Holidays!

Love You Much Promotion!

I know…you are still thinking Christmas, but I wanted to make sure you were aware of a special opportunity coming up.  For one day (December 23), you can combine this Valentine Bundle special with the Free Shipping special, saving 20% off the bundle and 10% off shipping! The bundle is available until January 31, but the Free Shipping ends on December 23…  I’ll be placing the order on Tuesday at 11:00 PM, so make sure to contact me with your order before that time!

Email me to take advantage of this one-day event with TWO specials!  We’ll be using this bundle to make some cute projects in January…so don’t miss out!  I’ll be sharing several things I’ve made on my Blog, too!

Christmas Tag Swap

Every year for at least the past six years, I’ve been involved in an alphabet Christmas Tag Swap with an online group, Creative Stamping Friends.  28 people choose a letter to design their tag around, plus a cover and back that lists the names of those who participated.  The theme of the tag must match the letter…in my case I did I for Ice Skating…a winter theme.  We make 28 of the same tag and send it to the Hostess.  It is fun to look back thru the years and see the different people who have participated and the designs on the tags.  Part of the requirement is that the letter appear on the front of the tag somewhere to identify the alphabet. I take all my tags and hang them together on a huge binder ring to display them and keep them all together. 

This year I used the stamp set, Winter Post and Baja Breeze as my base tag.  I stamped the snowflake with Baja Breeze in the background.  The skaters are stamped with Basic Brown ink.  I added some snow drifts at the top and bottom of the tag and used some Tombow Multipurpose glue and Dazzling Diamonds on the icicles (Martha Stewart Goo Punch) and along the top of the snow drift.  The snowflake is an retired Stampin’ Up! punch with a white mini brad in the center.  The I is from Lovely Letters (yes…I realized AFTER I was ALL done that I stamped the letter upside down!  Did you notice?)  I added some Soft Sky stitched ribbon I had left from the In-Colors last year.  I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out!

I did a bunch of my wrapping today…will try to finish up the bows and wrapping tomorrow (just my DH’s left to wrap and he was home all day).  Still have some stamping gifts to make up along with my tags for packages.  Hopefully it will all get done!  I really could use another week to prepare!

Blogger’s Challenge 78 – Non-traditional Christmas colors

I’m glad I finally was able to work on this card.  A patriotic Red/White/Blue card was one of the ideas I had floating in my head from when I first bought this Snow Swirled set several months ago.  I just never sat down to work on it.  This week’s Bloggers’ Challenge was to create a Christmas card with non-traditonal colors…I think red/white/blue are pretty non-traditional…at least in my mind. 

It ended up being VERY simple.  I used Real Red Craft Ink and Brilliant Blue Craft ink on Whisper White, then clear embossed over those colors.  I used silver embossing powder for the "white" tree and cut it out, then popped it up with dimensionals over the red and blue ones.  "Sending you Holiday Peace" came from To You and Yours stamp set.  I punched it with the small oval and then layered it on Real Red.  The small stars were punched from Brushed Gold cardstock.  I layered the Whisper White on Brilliant Blue and then on Real Red base card.  Simple.  I tried adding ribbon and other embellishment, but it really took away from the feel of the card.  So…I’m letting it stand by itself and the message it portrays.

I’m headed out of town for the day, so won’t get a chance to check out the rest of the Bloggers’ creations until late evening.  I’m sure everyone will do an awesome job, like usual.

It is crunch time this weekend, as I’m sure it is for everyone else is, too.  My son and his girlfriend come into town on Tuesday evening for the holidays, I’m excited to see them.   I still have all my wrapping and baking to do, plus prepare for Christmas dinner.  I’m sure it will all get done…lol!