Wednesday Sketch Challenge at SplitCoastStampers

Once again I was able to find a few minutes (more than just a few) to play with the new sketch at SplitCoastStampers. It was a pretty simple and fairly basic layout. There was not a lot of challenge to it other than finding a single stamp to fit in the center. Though I did give the "Lovely as a Tree" set a thought and add some other elements to it but I wanted to play with the Ghouls today!!! LOL

Aren't they just adorable??? The "Tableau of Terror" set is by Stampin' Up! The words on the card were not from the set. I just wanted "Happy Halloween" on the card but couldn't find one to fit in the oval punch area so I went on the computer and typed in the words. I didn't have a creepy font so I had to go online to find one. This one was called "bloody." Fits the wording, doesn't it??? It's amazing all the free fonts out there!!

I colored in the characters with colored pencil and sponged the edges. The decorative paper is by K and Company. I had gotten it last year at Michaels. And it's NOT that I was hoarding it, I wasn't. I only used a few sheets from the pack and Halloween was over!! SO I just kept it with the other decorative papers and figured I'd be using it again and here you have it!!! And guess what? There's still a LOT more paper left!!! I did buy one sheet of Halloween paper this year. I HAD to. I was at Archivers (I had to use my coupon!!!) and I walked in the die cut room. I saw this cute box but you couldn't bring in your own paper. You had to purchase paper at the store and then you can cut anything you want using that paper. Well, that box was just TOO cute to pass up so I walked out of that room and found a cute piece of decorative paper and bought it. I went back in that room and cut out the box. It's still in the bag. I have not had time to play with it but I will this weekend!!

Anyway, back to the card. I used my BigKick and a Halloween die cut that I have had for a few years. I cut out a spider and a bat. The card needed something in that left open area and those few elements seemed to do the trick!!

It was a VERY fun card and easy to do. The coloring took the most time.

Thank you SO much for stopping by today,
Wanda

Snow in September!!!!

I was playing around with the BigKick and the snowflake die cuts. I LOVE them all. Now I can have snow any time I want it!!! LOL

I tried several mediums and found that I like the Fun Foam the best. Oh and while I stopped in The Dollar Tree this weekend to get "ONE" thing (yeah, right!!!) I saw they had packages of fun foam. And being it is a dollar store they were "only" a dollar. The "only a dollar" kills me every time I see something there I think I "might" be able to alter!!! LOL And I did not buy them all. I only bought 2 packages of it!!!

Ok, back to the snowflakes. Aren't they cute??? You can get the Fun Foam in different thicknesses and you can also get it with a sticky back too. Those are wonderful because it can be a bit touchy getting the snowflakes all glued up before the glue dries!! I thought I would make mine into garland. I need to cut out a few more and add them to the garland, I need it just a bit longer. It didn't take long at all to make.

I punched holes in the ends of the snowflakes so I could add the prongs of the brad in each one. The fun brads came from the "Pretties Kit." They were perfect for the garland!! It added just the right bling. You can also add glitter to the fun foam. I chose not to, I wear enough of that stuff on a weekly basis that I thought I'd take some time off from it.

I have some plans for a few of the other die cuts and I'll be sharing my creations with you in between technique sheets!!! SO much to do!! LOL

Thank you every SO much for stopping by,
Wanda

Faux Seersucker Technique Page

Here is the page I came up with for the "Faux Seersucker" technique.

This is a very simple technique to do. I think it took me longer to color in the flowers than it did to actually do the technique!! LOL

Cut your card stock to 5-1/2" by 4-1/4". Stamp your image on the card stock. Insert the long edge of the card stock in your paper crimper. Now insert the shorter end of the card stock in the crimper.

Repeat both ends once more and you have the look of seersucker fabric. Use it as a background layer for your card or cut up and use as a component. Trim your card stock to fit the area you are working in.

Remember it's important to run the card stock through the crimper a total of at least 4 times or you will only get a re-crimped look. Running it through the crimper again causes the paper to not only get the ripple look but because it crimped over a previous ripple it caused it to buckle a bit and that buckle is what gives it the look of seersucker!

I didn't quite understand how it would look like seersucker until I actually did the technique for myself.

It's fun and SUPER easy to do!! Have fun with this one!!!

Thank you SO much for stopping by,
Wanda

Faux Seersucker Card

When I was offering the 20 technique pages as blog candy last week I had asked two questions of those entering. One was to tell me their favorite technique of the ones I posted and the other was to tell me another favorite of theirs I did not have listed. Of all the ones mentioned I knew and have them on my list to make but one. Faux Seersucker!!!

Upon looking at it I figured it out and Vickie D. emailed me with her instructions. They were pretty much like the ones I had written up for the technique book! And today I had time to give it a try. I thought I'd play with the pinks today!!! I used Pretty in Pink and Pink Pirouette. I did use Regal Rose to color in the flowers on the "Fast Flowers" I wheeled on the white card stock. The flower pot and words are from the "Fun and Fast Notes" set.

I also played with the new "Top Note Bigz Die." It was fun layering it because the die is also perforated so once you get it cut out you just take your snips and cut along the perforated line. Then you cut out another one for the layer. SO easy and SO fun!!! Thank you Sue for letting me watch over your die cut while you were away for the weekend!!! You just never know what these things do in your workroom while you are gone!! It's best to let someone tend to them for you!! LOL

I cut out a few more projects to play with too and I will be ordering one of my own!!!

It's such a soft looking card.

Tomorrow I will post the instructions and the technique page!!!

This item was made using Stampin' Up! products. To view more items made using Stampin' Up! products click here.

Thank you SO much for stopping by,
Wanda

Faux Wood Technique Page

Here is the first card in "Round Two" of my technique pages. I really do like this technique. It's VERY easy to do and it gives a card such a wonderful unique look to it.

The instructions on the page are as follows:

Take your light colored piece of card stock. Here I used More Mustard. Now take the Vanilla craft pad and slide it over the card stock going from top to bottom. Take the Chocolate Chip ink pad and drag it lightly over the Vanilla inked area. You do want to tilt the pad at a 30 to 45 degree angle. If you lean towards one side more you can get a line to form like a board. Turn the piece of card stock around and repeat the dragging. You can add as much or as little lines as you want. You can use a marker to draw in nail holes too. It looks great with or without them. I'll add this page to the next big Blog Candy give away. Hoping again to have another 20 pages to give away!!

Thank you SO much for stopping by,
Wanda

It Sure Looks Like Wood Tutorial!

The card I posted yesterday was made using the Faux Wood technique. I have seen this done other ways but this one is the quickest and easiest one I've seen yet. Thank you Sue for showing us this on Sunday!!! She's SO good to us!!

To do this technique I used the Very Vanilla Craft pad and Chocolate Chip ink pad and More Mustard card stock.



I covered my card stock with Very Vanilla by sliding the pad across the paper and don't leave any card stock uncovered.

Then take the Chocolate Chip ink pad and drag it across the card stock while it is still wet. Hold the ink pad at a 30 to 45 degree angle. If you tilt the ink pad a bit you will be able to catch the corner of the ink pad on the card stock and this will create the lines. You can practice on a piece of copier paper with the Chocolate Chip pad to get the hang of it. It's really not hard at all and believe it or not, I got such cool lines the very first time I did it!!!

In one of the other Faux Wood techniques I'd seen they had you draw on lines and draw on the nail holes. I think it looks great without them.

Be sure to let the card stock dry before handling it. You can use your embossing tool to speed up the drying time.

Pretty simple, wasn't it??? And SO much fun too!
I will be making a technique page using this very design and it will be added to "Round Two" of technique pages!!!

I was asked if the Vanilla Craft ink gets on the Chocolate Chip pad. Yes, it does but just wipe the Chocolate Chip pad on some copier paper when you are done and it comes off.

Thank you SO much for stopping by and have a fun and safe holiday weekend!!

Wanda

I Have Been Awarded!!!

I have received this award from Carrie at Snoopy's Homemade Fun and from Amy at Zoelife Creations.

I want to thank you two for the award.

In the spirit of paying it forward, I now get to nominate my favorite blogs!
Here are the rules:
1. Pick 5 of your favorite blogs (that's hard there are tons!)
2. Winners can put the logo on their blog.
3. Link the person who gave your award to your blog.
4. Name the 5 that you are giving the award to with their links.
5. Leave a message on their blogs so that they know they've won!

The blogs I have chosen are:
1 - Cheryl at Cheryl Stamps and Scraps
2- Leslie at Continuing to Create
3- Vivian at Florida Stamping with Vivian
4- Lynnette at My Stamping Addiction
5- Laura at LuLu's Corner

WOW! It Looks Like Wood!!!

Just a quick post here. I couldn't leave you with just the Blog Candy Winner post today. I want to share a card with you that I made on Sunday at our DIVA Day event. Sue is SO good to us, she pampers us the whole time we are there.

Here is a fun card we made using the "Faux Wood" technique. I will show you step by step how to do this technique tomorrow and I will also be making a new technique page for this one!! I would like to fill my blog with all the techniques you could possibly look for!!! There's a LOT of techniques out there. I may have to buy another album to store mine in!!! But that's a GOOD thing!!!

This item was made using Stampin' Up! products. To view more items made using Stampin' Up! products click here.

Thanks SO much for stopping by,
Wanda

Blog Candy Winner!!!

I know you've been waiting all week to find out who the lucky winner of the Technique Pages Blog Candy is. Well, the wait is over!!

All of the techniques you listed that you'd like to see were actually on my list except for the faux searsucker technique that Susan mentioned. I've never heard of that one before. Could someone enlighten me on this technique?

And now onto the lucky winner of the Blog Candy. Drum roll please..........

And the winner is JIB and here her comment:

I've never done it but I love the Polished Stone. The technique I'd like to see is what ever technique they used to do the train card in the new SU catty. I LOVE that card. So if you could tell me what it is I'd be grateful.Wow 500,000+. I have 51 and I think 3/4 of those are me. LOL

Please email me with your snail mail address and I will get the pages out in the mail to you on Wednesday. With the holiday being Monday that means that Tuesday will be a very busy day at the post office so I will wait until Wednesday to go to the post office.

Thank you all for entering. For those of you interested, I do have extra pages and I will be selling them in my store next week.

Have a Stamp Happy Day!
Wanda

Wednesday Sketch Challenge at SplitCoastStampers

Here I was getting ready to start a new collection of technique pages and I realized it was Wednesday. I had nothing going on this afternoon so I went on SplitCoastStampers and thougth I'd check out the Sketch Challenge for today. And if I liked it I would play. "If" I liked it. LOL How funny is that? I like them all. It's called a challenge and the more you don't like it the more you NEED to do it! But I always seem to like them, except for the totally square ones. That's just too much of a challenge for me. I don't venture out of the box too much when it comes to those. I have made square cards but I prefer to make "regular" size ones!.

For today's challenge I thought I would make a Hallowen card. I know it's still August and Halloween is a little over 2 months away. SO I guess it's close enough time wise to make the card a Halloween one! I LOVE Halloween "stuff." Cards, window decor, wall decor, costumes, the music and the scary movies too!! But only if I watch them at home, NEVER in the theater!! I'm too much of a chicken!!! LOL

I was at Joann's today and they had Halloween stuff out. I even found some dollar Halloween clear stamps there. And of course I had to pick up some!! They even had a cute Thanksgiving one for a dollar too. And yes, I had to buy that one too! I didn't find what I was looking for there so I had to go over to Michael's (just across the highway from Joann's)and I didn't find what I wanted there either. UGH!!! But I did see that they have Christmas stuff already on the shelves!!! Can you believe that??? Now that's just a little bit too early for me and no, I didn't buy anything Christmas there!!

Ok, onto the Sketch Challenge for today. The stamp is from Penny Black. Isn't it cute??? It's a pretty big tone too. 4-1/4 x 2-1/2". I am going to be selling it after the holiday weekend. I'm hoping to get at a lot of my stamps that are just sitting around here and get them in my store.

Back to the card. I used the new Stampin' Up! decorative paper "Ghostly Greetings." I LOVE all the sheets of paper in the back and both sides too!!! Sometimes you run across one that you don't like one side or the other. Well, NOT in this pack!!! Gotta LOVE that!!

I added a few bat and ghost brads that I had and I found the pumpkin and witch hat ribbon I had sitting on the shelf!! Cards are SO easy to make when you use decorative paper!!! There's a LOT less to clean up too!!! LOL

I'll be drawing for the Technique Pages Blog Candy tomorrow.

Thanks SO much for stopping by,
Wanda

Oh What A Night!!

I'm SO excited!!! I'm actually pre-posting this a few hours early. I am at a Stamp Share! My upline's upline's sideline is holding a Stamp Share and I was invited to attend. I'm SO excited about it. It's the very first time I've attended this one and I am SO looking forward to it. I know I'm going to be SO keyed up when I get home!!! But that's ok because SplitCoast will be releasing their Wednesday Sketch Challenge around midnight so I will have something to entertain me!!!

I also signed up to participate in the card swap. The theme is to make a card using a new set from the Fall-Winter 2008 catalog. My order won't be here until later this week so I am using a couple of sets from the pre-order. I only bought two sets, the "Wow Flowers" and "Heard from the Heart." I was pondering borrowing something from Sue (my fabulous upline) but I decided to challenge myself and use what I have. What a novel idea!!!! Using what I have!!! A totally new concept!!! LOL

I used the Baroque Motif set (not new) for my background. I stamped the images on glossy card stock using black StazOn. I sponged in Pacific Point, Baja Breeze and Garden Green. I was going to use the Kiwi Kiss but it was just too light. I layered it on Pacific Point. I just LOVE that color. I bet is one I'll be buying at least one pack every time I place an order!! I punched a bunch of Pacific Point and Garden Green 1-1/4" circles. The happy birthday circle came from the Wow Flowers set and the tiny flowers inside were made using the Trio Flower punch.

LOTS of taping went on here!! SO here you have it, my card front for the swap tonight

I'll tell you all about the Stamp Share in my next post!

This item was made using current Stampin' Up! products. To view more items made using Stampin' Up! products click here.

Thanks SO much for stopping by!
Wanda

It's Blog Candy Time!!!

Ok, here it is. What you have been waiting for when my blog reached 500,000 points!!! The ever coveted Technique Pages. There are 20, count them, 20 pages here!!!! Well. don't actually count them I forgot to add the Faux Cloisonne to the pile but it will be included in the Blog Candy!!To view them individually (including the Faux Cloisonne!) you just need to click here. I am putting 2 pages in a sleeve so you will receive 10 filled sleeves!!

To be entered in the random drawing here is what you do. You need to answer two questions. First tell me which one of these 20 techniques is among your favorites and then tell me a technique not listed here that you like. I will draw a name and enter it in on Thursday's post. Being it's the holiday weekend coming up I will wait a few days longer for the reply back from the winner. I myself may be heading out of town!

Please leave your comment on this post only. Do NOT include any email addresses, spammers like that and I only contact by email when I receive an email via my email address. And only enter once. Duplicate entries will be deleted. I do moderate the comments that come in to my blog and I know how easy it is to enter comments more than once because it didn't seem like the first one went through. I just pick one of those and post it and the other is rejected. Never a problem when you do that. I've done it myself!!

I thank you all for visiting my blog and making this exciting event happen for me!! I will be making more technique pages and posting them here. And who knows I may use then in another Blog Candy giveaway. I have some other fun mile markers coming up. It looks like I'm nearing another "Chatty Cathy" Blog Candy time. That's less than 20 posts away!!!!

I wish you all luck on the drawing!!

And I thank you ever SO much for stopping by,
Wanda

Rock 'n Roll is Here to Stay!!!

Here is the final technique page before the Blog Candy will be offered. But it's NOT the final technique page I will be making. There are a LOT more to be posted in the months to come!!! Every technique (old or new) that I run across I will be eventually making a page with it.

The Rock 'n Roll technique is a very fun and easy technique to do. There is not a whole lot to it either. I find it easier to work with round stamps but other stamps will work as long as you can catch the edges on the ink pad.

Ink your rubber stamp with the lighter color of ink.

Take the rubber stamp and roll the edges in the darker color of ink. If using a flower stamp, the tips of the petals will be where the darker color will be applied by rolling the stamp on the ink pad.

Accent the stamped image with a contrasting color for the layering.

See, I told you it was a very simple technique but it sure does add a lot to the image, doesn't it?

Tomorrow I will be updating the slider on the right side bar of the blog so you can see all of the pages or you can click here to see them too. And on that post you may leave a comment/answer a question - not sure yet what I'm going to do for you to be entered in the drawing for the Technique Pages blog candy!

SO stay tuned!!

This item was made using current Stampin' Up! products. To view more items made using Stampin' Up! products click here.

Thanks every SO much for stopping by,
Wanda

Reverse Masking Technique Page

I have two more technique pages I want to add to the book before I offer it as blog candy in celebration of my blog reaching 500,000 hits!!! This is a very fun technique. Reverse Masking is very simple to do and adds a very fun look to your projects.

Ink up your larger stamp and stamp the image on a piece of card stock. You will also want to stamp the image onto copier paper. Cut away the image on the copier paper. Make sure the background stays nice and neat. You are not keeping the image, you are keeping the background which is now your mask.

Now lay our mask over the image. The image you stamp should appear in the center of your mask.

Now ink up your print stamp with a contrasting color if ink. Stamp the prints all over the larger image. Remove the mask and see how fun the image now looks!

I find that darker prints on lighter backgrounds has a much better look to it. But for me that is a personal preference.

Come back on Monday for the blog candy post! To see the other technique pages that will be included with this one click here..

This item was made using current Stampin' Up! products. To view more items made using Stampin' Up! products click here.

Thank you SO much for stopping by!
Wanda