Going Pink!

I wanted to let any stamping sisters I may have with Breast Cancer know that I support you and wish you well. For this reason, I have gone pink for the month of October. I send you my wishes, prayers, or congratulations depending on the stage you are in or celebrating recovery from. I have been blessed to not have any family history of breast cancer. My DH cannot say the same. Those of you who battle with this are stronger than I could ever be and I commend you for that.

While at HL the other day shopping for some fabric and ribbon (for Christmas wreaths not stamping...shhhh don't tell the ribbon), I saw a wonderful little stamp of a cause ribbon. Though I don't know anyone personally with breast cancer, I do know LOTS of women who are lucky enough to be married to the wonderful men of our armed services. Being one myself, we are a strong group (as strongly bonded as stampers) who stick by each others side in good and bad. Over the years we change units and maybe towns from one another, but always try to keep in touch. I know several ladies who have deployed or soon to be deployed husbands. So, long story short, I thought I would use my new ribbon stamp to make cards for some of them this month. The yellow ribbon is our symbol of support. We collectively pray for the safe return of our men (and women) who serve our great country. I have been working on past SCS sketch challenges. #94 was the perfect layout for a quick little card of support.

The star in the lower right corner is punched to show the insert where you can write a short message. The one in the upper left corner is on a dimensional. The rest of the card is fairly self explanatory. The second picture shows how the card opens in the middle.

Please consider going pick this month to show support for the women battling breast cancer. Also remember those who wait patiently here while our loved ones do the job they were asked to do.

A quick post

I had a blast yesterday stamping with a few people. I made a few more cards after they left. I made this card the other day. It is for the brother of the Dunn twins. (you can read more about them in early posts from this week) I wanted to make a card for the brother so he didn't feel left out of all the attention.
I used sketch challenge 143 from SCS. I had bought the "By Land" stamp set to use for my son. It is the only boyish set that I really own. I thought the brother might like the big tractor though. I stamped it in Old Olive and then added a little dirt with my Chocolate Chip Marker. The tires were stamped in black, cut out and mounted on the original image.
I hope all of you had fun yesterday making cards. Take care and thanks for checking in.

Stamps: By Land, Making Tracks wheel, Sanded

Paper: Old Olive, Basic Gray, Not Quite Navy

Ink: Old Olive, Basic Black, Chocolate Chip, Not Quite Navy

Accessories: Jumbo Eyelets, dimensionals

Happy World Card Making Day

I hope everyone finds the time to stamp a card today. I have set aside 8 hours to stamp with friends today. We are making 30 cards from 1/2 a Simply Scrappin' Kit and an open crop all afternoon.

I really like the look of the criss-cross cards, so I made another one. The tutorial for this one can be found on SCS in their resources section. Here is a direct link. This time I wanted a Christmas theme. I am contemplating using these cards to send out Christmas pictures in this year.

The stamp set, "Baroque Motifs" is by no means a Traditional Christmas set, but can be when you use the right colors and paper. I stamped the emblem on Naturals Ivory cardstock in Purely Pomegranate and then colored in areas with an Always Artichoke marker. I cut it out and layered in on a piece of Always Artichoke punched with the Scallop Circle. The card band and insert back are River Rock. The motif swirls are also stamped in River Rock on the Naturals Ivory cardstock. The sentiment is from "Holidays & Wishes". Everything goes well with the Holiday Harmony DSP in the Holiday Mini Catalog. I like the elegant classic look to these colors together.

Enjoy your card making day.

Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Holidays & Wishes

Paper: Holiday Harmony DSP, River Rock, Purely Pomegranate, Always Artichoke, Naturals Ivory

Ink: Purely Pomegranate, River Rock, Always Artichoke

Accessories: Scallop Cirle Punch, Round Tab Punch, Purely Pomegranate Dbl Stitched Ribbon, glue dot

"Cutie Pie" Criss-Cross

As promissed from yesterday, here are the cards I made for the Dunn twins. I really encourage you to consider making cards for them. If you need a bonus, Andrea (Crafty Engineering) is offering some great blog candy to one lucky person who sends cards to her. To up the ante, Anita is offering a free stamp set to the person who wins Andrea's candy. The stamp set is "Just Like You" from the curent catalog. A portion of the sales of this stamp set goes to benifit the Ronald McDonald House Charity. Please consider adding this stamp set to your wish list on your next order. Stampin' Up! contributes over $100,000 to the RMDH each year.

Here are the cards I made. I have been wanting to make some of these criss-cross cards. The tutotial for a tall criss-cross card can be found here at Creative Bug.

I started with the "Cutie Pie" DSP. Taking colors from there, I used textured Purely Pomegranate for the card base. Some details that are hard to see in the picture are: the letters are stamped in Purely Pomegranate and then the spaces colored in with So Saffron. There are also Bashful Blue doodles are the edge of the circle with the letters. The letters are from a retired alphabet stamp set. I wanted to use the girls initials on their personal card.

The band around the cards is also from the Cutie Pie collection. One of the sheets has a series of different print stripes. I cut off a couple of them for the bands. I stamped the small swirls from "Priceless" on the insert in So Saffron. I have found that sticky strip is the best thing to hold on the folded tab punch. The brads that I used here are another solution to holding it on well.

Please consider making a card for these girls. This is a wonderful family and you will be helping future families that the Dunn's will be happy to support with their guidance and medical research.

Stamps: Priceless

Paper: Cutie Pie DSP, Purely Pomegranate Textured, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Bashful Blue

Ink: So Saffron, Purely Pomegranate, Bashful Blue, So Saffron

Accessories: Scallop Circle Punch, 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" circle punches, Round Tab Punch, gold brads, glue dot, spiral punch, sticky strip

Eyelet rings

I made a few cards yesterday. I was moved by the story of the Dunn twin girls with cancer. They are only three months now. I couldn't even imagine going through something like that with my kids. I give the parents and extended family a lot for being able to be so cal, as the babies go through chemo. I found out about them through Andrea's blog. Here is the story of the family and their fight.

I made cards for each of the girls as part of the blog candy for a cause. (Though I don't need candy to fulfill this request for cards. I will show those tomorrow) I thought it would be nice to also make a card for the mom. Honestly, how does she have the strength to watch her babies go through that. I would be a crying heap of a mess.

So here is the card for mom. From reading their story, they are very strong in their faith. I instantly thought of one of the sentiments in the stamp set "Star-Studded Season". For the layout I went with this weeks SCS Sketch Challenge. I wanted to have a shinny star for the mom to follow, so I embossed a gold star onto Naturals White cardstock. I cut it out, layered it on the black cardstock and cut it out again. I used the window image from "Holy Triptych" for the main panel background. The sentiment is also embossed in gold on the naturals white cardstock. A few eyelet rings to add some decoration and a strip of Brocade Backgrounds DSP and I am done.

Stamps: Star-Studded Season, Holy Triptych

Paper: Naturals White, Basic Black, Rose Red, Not Quite Navy, Brocade Background DSP

Ink: Versamark, Basic Black

Accessories: Crop-A-Dile, Basic eyelets, 1/4" circle punch, mini glue dots

Here are the quick and easy steps to making the eyelet rings (they may have another name, but that is what I call them). They help when you want to add a little decoration to your simple embelishment.

Basic Supplies Needed: Crop-A-Dile (CAD), Eyelets, cardstock for rings (basic black used here), and 1/4" circle punch

Step 1: Punch holes using the 1/8" hole of your CAD in the cardstock you wish to be the rings. Also punch same size holes in your project where you want the eyelets to be placed.

Step 2: Using your 1/4" circle punch, line up the CAD hole and make the rings.

Step 3: Place the rings on your eyelets.

Step 4: Set your eyelets on your project with your CAD as usual.

Optional: You can make more rings of different colors by using larger circle punches.

Quick gifts

I have been starting to think about Christmas gifts. What to get for people, what I want if they were to ask, what to get at the last minute for those I didn't think of. There is always one fall back gift that everyone can use and never goes out of style. What is it? Money of course. Nowadays we don't give cash anymore, we give gift cards. Be it from a particular retailer or from a bank to be used anywhere, gift cards are more and more popular each year.

Here are a couple of gift card holders I made yesterday and wanted to share with you. They are both the size of a standard card and can be mailed in a standard card envelope.

The first one is a sort of gate fold card. It opens in the middle to reveal the gift card inside. There is a small area inside to write a quick message and a mat to mount the gift card on. The circle punched in the front lower corner reveals the snowflake on the inside of the card. The pattern paper helps to cover up any gap that might be there after folding the card shut. The gold elastic band slips off the side so you can open the card and is attached under the image panel.

Stamp sets: Merry, Merry

Paper: Real Red, Old Olive, Dashing DSP, Whisper White

Ink: Real Red, White Craft

Accessories: Winter White EP, Gold Elastic cord, 1" & 1 1/4" circle punches, Scallop punch, dimensionals

The second one is a matchbook style card. The left strip is actually a covering for the flap where the front tucks in. I used a small piece of velcro to close it, but you can also place a staple to the left of the brad to keep the flap down. When you open the card, there is a slot made with the word window punch to put the gift card in. I left the rest of the inside area blank to write on. You could stamp a quick message or images inside if you wished.

Stamp sets: Jolliest Time of the Year, All Holidays

Paper: Old Olive, Whisper White, Real Red, River Rock, Dashing DSP

Ink: Basic Black, Real Red, Old Olive, Summer Sun, black marker

Accessories: Red Grosgrain, Double rectangle punch, Fire Square Brad, velcro, word window punch

Aye' Chihuahua!

I have the winner of the blog candy, but first how about a card.

I participated in a MEGA swap hosted by Buckeye Stamper over the last couple of months. I got back some of the most wonderful cards and 6x6 scrapbook pages. These two stood out in my mind after going through them all. In honor of our new little chihuahua puppy I thought I would post them here. They were both done by Pam C. (not sure of her SCS name to link her gallery, sorry-if someone knows please comment as I would love to see her other work)

The only instructions we had were to use a stamp set new to the Idea Book & Catalog. She picked "Yappy Day". I do not have a recipe from her, but have guessed to the best of my ability. She used "Yappy Day", "See You Around" Jumbo wheel and "Speckled" Jumbo wheel. Real Red, Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla and Creamy Caramel Cardstock. The lines around each panel are drawn on.

For her card she used Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Basic Black and Whisper White cardstock. Basic Brown Ink. The colar is made with cardstock and a white signo gel pen. She also colored in several of the spots from "See You Around" with the gel pen. The images and mats were punched with 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" circle punches. The colar is also stamped color on color with the canvas background stamp.

Now for the winners.......yes I said winnerS. I was so happy with the entries and subscription participation I decided to pick two. Using my random generator (by daughter picking out of a hat) the winners are...

Cheryl KVD

and

Marci Wilson

Please email me (kjbmusic@cs.com) with your address so I can send out your candy.

Congrats and thank you to everyone!