Soft Pencil Wednesday?????

I absolutely can't wait until it is 2010! I have had one of those weeks when nothing seems to go right, and it didn't end with my crafting either. First, I guess that I got thrown off by the holiday this week, and posting for Soft Pencil a day earlier than usual. I colored the image last night, loved what I did, then when I went to put it on a card or anything else, I went completely blank! Every time that I sat down to do something with it today, blank again! Our challenge was to make it sparkle, anything goes! So, when someone turns me loose with a challenge of sparkling, I go nuts. I love anything that sparkles. So, I decided to put everything in my stash that sparkled on my craft table to see what inspired me, and this simple layout is what I came up with:

Please excuse the photo quality today, that was one of the things that I couldn't get right even after photo editing it. Then, if you notice, the photo editing software "gremlins" ate part of my watermark. Just Pitiful! So, Elizabeth over at Soft Pencil Designs.....please forgive me if my design is not up to its usual quality, I promise next week will be better. I have faith!

Ok, what do you think? Too much Sparkle? I just couldn't stop! The two blue panels are sparkle card stock from The Paper Company. The snow falling is Sticky gems from Michael's, along with the snowflake centers. The snow that the cute little critters are standing on is Stampin Up Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, and the White part of the snowman is painted with SU shimmer paint! It s hard to tell from my photo, but the mouse, little boy, and snowman were cut out, and popped up with foam dimensional dots. The rest of the coloring was done with Stampin Up ink refills and blender pens. The snowflake embellishments were made with a Martha Stewart Punch.

Is this the cutest winter image ever? I am thinking that it may get used on a winter scrapbook page as well. Go on over to the Soft Pencil Designs Logo on my side bar, click on it and that will take you to their blog and store. Keep checking back here, the other Design Team members blogs (see sidebar links), and the Soft Pencil Blog, as Elizabeth is working on some new images for all us.

Until next time, stay safe, healthy and happy.......................Blessings, Lisa

Easy Cards with Big Shot Dies

Hello! Wow, what a busy Christmas season that was! I have been tired for days! Of course this dismal, cold cloudy Ohio winter weather doesn't help much. The fact that my daughter is off school until next Monday doesn't help much either. Whoever thinks that having only one child is easy, is seriously wrong. Only children seem to require alooooooooooooooooooooot of attention. If I hear......"I'm bored" one more time this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yet, she just got brand new toys and Nintendo DS games for Christmas. Go figure...

Anyways, you have absolutely no idea how glad that I am to be back to paper crafting and blogging! I am a hopeless addict, I admit it! Today I am showing you some cards that were inspired by a card that I saw on Jana Millen's blog. The particular post can be found by clicking here, and here, and here. You get the point! To check out her other posts, click on her blog header from one of those links that I just provided. The first one below was made with Stampin Up's /Sizzix Bigz die cut called "Beautiful Butterflies". I ran the butterfly through my cuttlebug with my Swiss Dots Embossing folder, then I used my SU 2-way glue pen on the edges so that I could apply some of Stampin Up's pretty glitter. I think I chose one from the Cosmo Glitter Stack in the main catalog. I added some sticky pearls from Michael's and hand drew some antennas, stamped a greeting and voila, all done. The nice thing about that beautiful butterflies die cut, is that there are four different sized and shaped butterflies on it. When I get some cards made with the other shapes, I will post them.

Supplies: Card stock ~ SU Kraft, Bashful Blue; Ink ~ SU Basic Black


The next card is the same layout, but I used a different die-cut. I used The SU/Sizzix Daisies #2 die-cut, and the Buttons #5 Sizzlet die-cut for the flower center. There are three different sizes on the Daisies #2 die, the one on my card is the medium sized flower. I decided these cards would be a great way to use up some of the patterned paper that I have had laying around for years. I have daisy and butterfly craziness all over my craft table. If you do the same, save the cute little circles that get cut out from the center of the daisies, I am going to show you what you can do with those on another day.

Supplies: Card stock ~ SU Kraft, Lavender Lace, Almost Amethyst, Elegant Eggplant, Crushed Curry; Ink ~ SU Basic Black; Stamps ~ Sentiment is from SU Sincere Salutations set The last photo is of my sweet mini dachshund, Brandy. She was sleeping, when I took the photo, I hate waking her. My mother-in-law got her that cute bandanna thing that is on her collar for Christmas at a craft show. She looks so sporty in it that I just had to show it. Sorry I couldn't catch her awake. She is 15 1/2 years old, so she sleeps alot! It was made with material with my college almamater on it...The University of Cincinnati Bearcats! Is she cute sleeping under those blankets or what?

Ok, now that I have bored you to sleep, I shall sign off and go do some more crafting.

Until next time...................................Blessings, Lisa

Soft Pencil Thursday - Mandala

Hello, it is another Soft Pencil Thursday. This is one of my favorite days of the week. This week we were asked to design something other than a card, with one of the Mandala digi stamps. I was assigned to my favorite Mandala digi that Elizabeth has in her store, it is called Eternal Flight. I swear that she must have ESP or something. Thanks Elizabeth, I had a blast coloring it. In fact, I had so much fun, I made two projects with it. I was so glad to have time to do that, so that you all can see their versatility.

For the first project, I altered a composition notebook. I decided that the image would be perfect for that purpose and I made it my prayer journal. This way, I can make notes when I am reading if I don't understand something, or if a particular verse or two stands out more than usual. Plus, I must confess (yes the pun is intended) that I thought that it might inspire me to read the good book more often.

I used Stampin Up markers and ink refills to color/water color the image. Here are the colors that I used: Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, and a combination of Brilliant Blue and Lovely Lilac to create the violet color on the butterflies. The fancy trim on the book binding was made with my new favorite Martha Stewart border punch, called Lattice. The ribbon, which serves as a book mark is retired SU Delphinium Grosgrain. Oh, how I will miss it when I run out of it! The butterfly accents were also made with a Martha Stewart Punch called "Butterfly Trio". I cut out my circles with my Creative Memories cutting system. The tutorial on how to put this whole project together can be found in the resources section of the Splitcoast Stampers website which you can find if you click here. See below for a close up photo of the Mandala.

The second project I made is a decorative element for my dining area that will hang on a shelf made for me by my grandfather. I got the idea to make this when I was browsing the dollar spot at Michael's craft store. I found a package of chipboard type coasters with different designs on them. I thought round....Mandala, gotta see what I can do with it. So, I printed the image out small until I came up with the size that I wanted. Yes, it took several tries. Oh well, it's only ink. I then, cut the image out with one of my Circle Nestibilities Di-cut, colored it with some coordinating colors to match my dining room, then mounted it on a slightly larger circle. Next, I traced the outline of the coaster onto some Bashful Blue CS, and cut it out. I applied all of this together with snail adhesive. The final touch was to punch a hole in the top and add an eyelet with my Crop-a-dile. I love that tool! Then, of course a loop to hang it with and a bow for decoration. The ribbon used by the way is Stampin Up Navy Grosgrain 1/4". The first photo below is a close up of the final project.

This next photo is just to show you what I started out with. The coaster that I altered is obviously on the right.

This final photo is one of the whole shelf that I am hanging the decoration on, it is over on the far right side.

I hope you enjoyed what I showed you today, and I hope you go visit the blogs of the other DT members, as they may have a different Mandala than I did and different projects. I know I can't wait to go browse them! As always, you will find links to their blogs over on my sidebar, and also a link to the Soft Pencil Designs Store.

Before I go, I just want to apologize for only posting one time over the past week. I am so incredibly busy getting ready for Christmas. I will try to post more between now and Christmas.

Until next time........................ Blessings, Lisa

Soft Pencil Thursday

It is Soft Pencil Thursday! I had so much fun coloring this weeks digi image. If you haven't tried them yet, you should! They are inexpensive, you get them delivered to your inbox quickly, and there are so many cute ones out there. Elizabeth, owner of Soft Pencil Designs, has some of the cutest digi images on the web! I have a link to her blog and store over on my sidebar. Go visit her, and have fun. She even has a free image for you to try on her blog. Ok, onward......We were asked to use our favorite Christmas colors with the image of the week, so the photo below is what I came up with.

The image is called: "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". I printed it out kind of big, so I grabbed a fancy envelope that I had in my stash (I got a variety of fancy envelopes in a package at Big Lots Discount Store), and made the card larger than usual to fit in it. I had a couple of extra "Michu & his Christmas Tree" images colored, so I added that to the front of the envelope with some snail adhesive. Michu looks so cute peeking out from behind the tree. I printed the Image out onto some Watercolor Paper, and got to work with my Stampin Up Ink refills, and my blender pens. After I was done with the colored portions of the image, I used a small paint brush, a steady hand and some SU white shimmer paint on the snowy ground around the people, animals and house. Then, I thought, more sparkle. You know how I love sparkle! I used some white/iridescent chunky glitter on the snow only below the peeps and animals. The image, and its mat were cut out with some of my square Nestibilities and Cuttlebug. The sentiment was typed by me in Microsoft Word and printed out. The poinsettia and leaves are Prima, and the finishing touch of the sticky gems are from Michael's. Below is a close up of the shimmer paint and glitter for you to enjoy.



Ok, I was having so much fun water coloring, I made a book marker and thought I would add it to my post today. The image is called "Michu Flies a Kite". I used the usual supplies to color the image. I then mounted it on some Stampin Up Night of Navy card stock, and punched a border around it with an EK Success border punch. The ribbon is from my retired stash of SU ribbon.
I hope you enjoyed today's projects, and will give Soft Pencil Designs a try yourself!

Until next time............Blessings, Lisa

Purple Snowflakes?

I know, that sounds really strange. However, I was feeling inspired by purple the other night. I know, imagine that! Me, and purple? So I put together a couple of cards with Stampin Up's "Serene Snowflakes" stamp set and some purple ink and card stock. The first card is actually a layout from the Clean and Simple blog. The layout number is CAS FTL69. There is a link to their blog on my sidebar, and on their sidebar, is a link to all of their card sketches! I used SU Elegant Eggplant and Lavender Lace ink, and the sentiment is from Stampin Up's "Sincere Salutations" stamp set.

This next card is also a card layout from the Clean and Simple blog. It is layout CAS FTL65. Again I used "Serene Snowflakes", but the greeting is from SU's "Teeny Tiny Wishes" stamp set. Also again I used Elegant Eggplant and Lavender Lace ink and card stock. I punched out the sentiment with Stampin Up's Modern Label Punch, and added some self adhesive purple metal embellishments. Of course the scalloped borders were made with Stampin Up's Scallop Border Punch.

That's all for today. Take care, and until next time...............Blessings, Lisa

Soft Pencil Thursday

Hello. Today is Soft Pencil Thursday, which means I have some for you to see that I created with an image from Soft Pencil Designs. Elizabeth sent me one of her images with a calendar attached to it. So, I decided to make myself a self standing desk calendar with it. Since I made it for myself, yes you guessed it, it had to be purple. It has to match my craft room after all!
So, here is it is in all it's purpleness:

The image is called "Thinking of 2010". Since it was a kitty image, I had to make her look like my kitty, Mittens, so I colored her Gray leaving her paws white. I used my Stampin Up markers to color her. I created a sort of mask around the calendar by placing post it notes around it, so that I could sponge some Amethyst ink lightly inside the calendar parameter. I printed out the image two times, so that I could cut out the cloud and sponge it with some Bashful blue ink. I then, ran my basic Black marker around the cloud edges to darken them up a little bit. The cloud bubbles were tapped lightly with the same color marker, they were way to tiny to cut out. For the finishing touches, I added some small purple sticky gems to the kitty's collar, and some Prima Flowers with sticky gem centers. I almost forgot to tell you that I created the absolutely fabulous border around the calendar with one of the new Martha Stewart around the page punches. It is called Lattice, and it is border punch, and a coordinating corner punch. It takes some getting used to, so practice on some scraps of paper first if you buy some.

Now, how does it stand up, you ask? Simple, I placed a card stock kick stand to the back. This is why I use Stampin Up card stock, because it is very thick, heavyweight card stock. I used something called Terrifically Tacky tape, to attach the kick stand. You could also simply stand it on a plate stand as well if you prefer. Another cute idea would be to place it an an altered clipboard. What a great gift idea that would be. Don't forget to check the other Design Team members to see what they came up with this week. There are links to their blogs over on my side bar. Check them out! Also, check out the photo below to see the stand for the calendar.

Until next time........................... Blessings, Lisa

Shelli Gardner from Stampin Up..

is going to be on the Today show on Friday December 4th! I just thought all of you Stampin Up fans would want to know this! I can't wait to see what she is going to talk about!

I will be back soon with a card! Blessings, Lisa

Good News and a Card!

Hello everyone! I have some awesome news, I have been selected to be on a design team for a temporary time period of December 1st- March 1st for Soft Pencil Designs! The owner Elizabeth, sells digital stamps/images and other things on Etsy.com. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Etsy, it is a website similar to ebay, but you can only sell things handmade! Anyways, there are a couple of links to her company blog and then from there to her online etsy store. Just scroll down a bit and look on my sidebar for the links. Digi images are becoming quite popular and are fun to use, as you can copy them into Microsoft Word, and change their size to smaller or larger, and print more than one out at a time. I still love the old fashioned way to stamp, but why limit ourselves to one method or one product!?

Ok, on with the card. I used a free image today that Elizabeth is offering on her blog. It is of her cute little kitty character Michu, and Michu is peeking out from behind a Christmas Tree!

Is that the cutest image or what? You may recognize the background on this card. I used it for some of my own hand cut Christmas trees on a previous post here. I had the base sitting on my craft table, the colored and cut out image you see here was on my table too. My nosey, but very supportive husband came in the room to see what I was creating, and said "Hey, that cute kitty would look great on that card you started". No joke! So, the above card was a creative collaborative effort from Steve and I. That has never happened before, and may never happen again. But, I promised him that I would give him credit. I did all of the hard work though, isn't that the way it usually is with marriage?! LOL! I still love him though!

Ok, I colored the image with my Stampin Up markers, all except the star on the tree top and the white area on Mich's hat. Those two things were colored with some shimmer paint called smooch. You know me and bling, so I had to add some chunky glitter to the snow, some sticky gems to the tree, and the little stars falling from the sky were punched form foil card stock. The sentiment is from Stampin Up's "Teeny Tiny Wishes" stamp set. The rest of the card stock is from Stampin Up.

I hope you enjoyed today's post, go on over to the Soft Pencil Blog and try out a free digi image, and visit me every Thursday for Soft Pencil Designs card day!

Until next time...........Blessings, Lisa

Pinky's Home

is the name of the digital image that I used on today's card. It was a freebie that Elizabeth over at Soft Pencil Designs offered over on Splitcoast Stampers website. By the way, thanks Elizabeth.

I decided to step away from the traditional card fold, and make a gate fold card, which I haven't done in quite awhile. With the help of my handy Scor Pal tool, it is very simple to do. I colored the image with my Stampin Up markers, cut it out and added it to a scalloped square mat that I made with a Spellbinder's Nestibility di-cut. I think you can tell in the photo, that it is attached on the left side of the card, with some foam dimensionals to pop it up just a bit. Some sticky gems from Michael's dress it up a little, and the DSP on both side panels, is from Stampin Up. The border fence at the bottom was made with a Martha Stewart border punch. The card stock used was Stampin Up Whisper White, and Pale Plum. The butterflies at the top were also made with a Martha Stewart punch. I think that sums it up.

My nephew is home visiting from San Diego where he is stationed in the US Navy. I am so proud of him, so I will be back to blogging after the weekend is over.

Until next time...................Blessings, Lisa

Soft Pencil Designs on Some Cards

Well, I am having an absolute blast coloring and placing my Soft Pencil Designs digi images on cards. There is a link to Soft Pencil's blog and store on my side bar; just scroll down a bit and you will see it.


The first card is from a digi image called "Home Sweet Home". The kitty's name is Michu, and isn't she adorable. If you have been following my blog for very long, you know that I am a huge animal lover. Maybe this is why I fell in love with Soft Pencil images, or maybe because they are just so cute. Anyways, I colored the image with my Stampin Up markers, mounted it onto some SU card stock, and then some SU DSP, and the sentiment is from the SU set "Teeny Tiny Wishes". The final touch was a couple of tiny Prima flowers with some Faux Silver Pearls from Michael's.

Card stock Colors: SU - Whisper White, Pale Plum, Rich Razzleberry, DSP is SU Basic Gray from Pattern Pack II.

The next two cards have the image called "Good Friends" on them, I used the same layout, just a different color scheme. Again on this card, the image was colored with Stampin Up markers; but this time I used my Spellbinder's Nestibilities Rectangles to cut out the image, popped it up with some foam dimensionals, added some DSP, a Prima Flower, an SU brad, and a few sticky gems. The sentiment is again from SU's "Teeny Tiny Wishes" stamp set.

Card stock colors: SU Bashful Blue, Taken With Teal, Rich Razzleberry, Pale Plum, GP White, and DSP is SU "Flock Together".

Well, I that is all that I have for today. I will have a few more tomorrow with some more Soft Pencil digi images.

Until next time...................Blessings, Lisa

Simple Cards with Merry Details Sizzlet

Hello. So sorry for my long absence! I have some super quick and easy cards to show you using one of the Sizzlet di-cuts from Stampin Up's current Mini catalog, called Merry Details. Merry Details have 4 cute mini shapes on it, two Christmas Trees, one Snowflake, and a cute little dove with a swirly tail. I took some paper scraps that I literally had laying around on my craft table, and cut a bunch of the little trees, and punched some 1" circles to mount them on. Here is a photo of four different cards that I made with them:
The colors that I used here were all from Stampin Up........Garden Green, Real Red. The DSP used is from one of the patterns pack and is Ruby Red, and Certainly Celery. The sentiment is from Stampin Up's "Teeny Tiny Wishes" stamp set.

Come back and visit my blog tomorrow and the rest of the week, I have some cards in the works using some digital images from an awesome artist named Elizabeth from Soft Pencil Designs. She creates the cutest images.

Oh, and Happy Birthday To Me today! My fabulous husband and daughter are taking me out to dinner tonight! Yay!!!!!

Until next time................................Blessings, Lisa

Thanksgiving cards

Hello. I decided to make a couple more Thanksgiving cards before it was too late to get them mailed out. I hope you like them.


The first card uses a stamp from Just Rite Stamp Co. I got it in a set that I won as blog candy over on Becca Feeken's blog. I must admit, their stamps are fun to use, but a little too expensive for me at the present time. I was very fortunate to win this set, it has something for almost every holiday we celebrate here in the USA. I punched the image out with a circle punch, then mounted it on some SU card stock that I cut with one of my Scalloped Circle Nestibilities. It is popped up with a foam dimensional and colored with Stampin Up Markers. The card base is Stampin Up's Certainly Celery, and the DSP is Really Rust from SU's 6x6 Patterns Pack III. The Orange Rectangular gems are from my stash and are made by EK Success. There is also a sentiment inside that simply says, "Happy Thanksgiving" which is from Stampin UP's Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set.

The second card has a digital image and sentiment from Whimsie Doodles digital stamp Co. Melyssa who designs and owns Whimsie Doodles (see my side bar)is such a great artist, her images are so adorable. I colored this chubby turkey with Stampin Up markers, cut it out, then decided that I would rather have it on a rectangle (what a waste of time cutting it out). The yellow strip at the bottom is Stampin Up's Crushed Curry cs, and is stamped with SU's Woodgrain Background stamp with Crushed Curry ink. The three rectangles of DSP are also Really Rust and come from SU Pattern Pack III. I cut out the sentiment and brushed it many times on the Crushed Curry ink pad to get that look that you see. The final touch was of course some bling which was in my stash and from Michael's. I love bling!

If you need a Thanksgiving stamp, I highly recommend the turkey image in the current Stampin Up Mini Catalog. Scroll down and you will see a card that I made with it.

Until next time..................Blessings, Lisa

Of The Earth

is the stamp set that I used for today's post and it is from Stampin Up. I posted previously with the square bird stamp from that set which you can see here. Here are a couple of cards using the other two images and the sentiment from that set.

I had a negative oval image leftover from my blue bird card from 2 posts ago (scroll down to see it), and so I thought I would try something that I saw on Sandi MacIver's blog which you can find over on my favorite blogs list on the sidebar. I held down the negative oval, and sponged some ink all over inside it. Then, stamped my images in the center of the sponged oval with black ink. It is fun, easy, quick to do and looks very pretty. I hope you enjoyed it and take a look over on Sandi's blog, she is so creative.

Supplies Used: Ink ~ SU Crushed Curry, Regal Rose, Memento Tuxedo Black
Card stock ~ SU Whisper White

Until Next time............Blessings, Lisa

Prayer for Soldiers

Please take a moment and say a prayer for those wounded, killed, their loved ones and yes the mentally ill man who shot them at Fort Hood Army base in Texas!

God Bless the USA!

Blue Birds

Hello. I have been so busy, and I have a feeling life is not going to slow down until after the holidays. I did manage to make a card to share with you. I have been playing around with some of my digital images, and here is what I made with a new digi image from McMahon Five Designs.

Aren't these two birdies adorable? I couldn't resist them. I printed them out on Canson 90lb Watercolor paper, and colored them with my Stampin Up Markers. I usually use 140lb watercolor paper like what Stampin Up sells, but I was afraid that it was too thick to go through my inkjet printer, so I am saving the heavier stuff for use with regular stamps. I cut the image out with some Large Oval Nestibilities, mounted on a Scalloped Oval Nestibility. The card base is Bashful Blue, the DSP is from one of the Stampin Up Hostess 6x6 DSP pads, the blue sticky gems are from Michael's, the flower is from Prima, and the sentiment is from the Stampin Up Hostess Level II stamp set called "Kind and Caring Thoughts". I also sponged around the edges of the image oval with Bashful Blue ink. It looks more prominent in person. I have a little icon over on the right side of my blog for McMahon Five, if you want to see this image and others, just place your cursor over it and click, and it will take you to their store.

Until next time............... Blessings, Lisa

Petals a Plenty

embossing folder in the Stampin Up Holiday Mini Catalog is what I used to make the Christmas ornament on my card today:

I have had this idea in my head for several weeks now, and finally had time to put it down on card stock. I am quite sure that someone over on Splitcoast Stampers already had the same idea, it is not a complicated one. I ran a piece of Stampin Up Real Red card stock through my Cuttlebug machine with the Stampin Up "Petals a Plenty" embossing folder, then punched out circles of it with a 1-1/4" circle punch. If you put 1/4 of a piece from a sheet of 8-1/2"X11" card stock through with your embossing folder, you can easily punch out 6 of these cute x-mas balls, and make six Christmas cards in a flash. I chose to paint the raised dots on each circle with some of the Shimmer paint from the holiday mini catalog, but they look great plain as well. The bow was made with some gold ribbon by American Crafts. Please Stampin Up bring back the metallic ribbon! I miss it so! Gotta check my stash and see if I have any hiding somewhere.

Anyways, I need to run, we have Trick or Treaters coming to beg for candy at 6pm tonight. I hope you enjoyed my quick, clean and simple card. Oh, the sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set. Phew! Until next time...............Blessings, Lisa

Fall Cards

Hello. Here I am finally on a late Tuesday afternoon. I went stamping at my Stampin Up Leader's house today. She made a couple of my designs, and I made a couple of her designs. We had fun. So I thought I would share with you what I stamped. I have to give her credit, these cards were designed by Terri. She doesn't blog or post on Splitcoast, so I can't post a link for her. Sorry. There will be other times that I can share her stuff with you though. Anyhoo....The first card is made with the single turkey stamp from the Stampin Up Holiday Mini Catty, called "Gobble Gobble". I have got to get this little guy, he is quite an adorable turkey.
The card base is Naturals Ivory card stock, the layer on top of that is More Mustard, stamped with More Mustard and one of the stamps from the "Autumn Splendor" stamp set. The next layer is Really Rust with with a bit of SU DSP (I forget which one). The turkey was colored with a Soft Suede marker then his feathers were colored with various markers using the "thumping technique. We then cut out the turkey and mounted him on some Chocolate Chip card stock punched with the Scalloped Circle punch. His sentiment was punched out with the Small Oval punch; and I brushed the edges of the oval with a sponge and Chocolate Chip ink.

The second card above was stamped randomly with the SU stamp set called "Autumn Splendor" with More Mustard, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, & Really Rust inks. The card stock used was Really Rust, Naturals Ivory, and Very Vanilla. The sentiment is from the stamp set "Heard from the Heart", and the corner punch is one of the retired Stampin Up punches.

That about sums it up for today. I am in the mood to make Christmas cards, so expect that theme next time. Until then.......... Blessings, Lisa

I have been sick, sorry

Hello. I just wanted to let you all know that I am still around. I have been sick for more than a week, but I think I am on the road to recovery now. First I had the 24 hr. yucky flu a week ago Saturday. Monday and Tuesday my daughter had a fever, so I caught that from her. Then I went right into a bad sinus attack, love all of that drainage, pain and pressure in the face, clogged up nose, no sleep, no appetite. But, boy did I have an appetite come back to me on Sunday, and I slept a loooooooooong time overnight through Monday morning. My hubby had Monday off work, and let me sleep in while he got my daughter off to school. Is he sweet or what? I am going over to my friend's house to stamp with her tomorrow (Tuesday), so I promise to post something when I return in the afternoon. I have missed stamping, blogging and boring all of you with my useless stories. Until then.....................Blessings, Lisa

Fall Ornament Punch Vase

Happy Sunday evening. I was asked by a friend to make a Fall version of my Stampin Up Ornament Punch Vase from a previous post (click here). So, I thought that I would go ahead and post it on here. Stampin Up has a beautiful stamp set new to their current main Catalog called "Autumn Days". I thought of the "Pussy willow" stamp when I was asked to make this.

When I was a little girl in the 70's (oops just shared my age), my grandmother had a Pussy willow tree in her back yard. She used to cut some of them off and put them into a vase inside her house. I had the very big job of holding the ones that she cut while she was cutting more. I so loved those fuzzy soft little things, they felt like kitten fur. So here is the card I have been chatting about:

I used Stampin Up Soft Suede to stamp all of the Pussy willow branches. I stamped some of them two times before re-inking the stamp, so that some would look lighter. I stamped the Butterfly from the "Charming" stamp set with yellow, then didn't like it, so I colored over the yellow with my Soft Suede marker. The design on the vase is the same as it was on my previous post also from the stamp set "Charming", and the sentiment is from the stamp set "Teeny Tiny Wishes". The card base itself is Very Vanilla card stock, and the vase is Bravo Burgundy card stock. I think that covers it. For instructions on how I made that chubby vase please click on the link above for my previous post. Thanks for visiting my blog, and have a blessed Sunday evening. Lisa

Fall Trendy Trees

Well, my daughter has a soccer game on Saturday, so I am here posting tonight. Saturdays always get away from me to quickly during soccer seasons. I had said in my last post that I would have a Fall card to show you over the weekend, so here it is.

Ha! Fooled you! Only kidding. The above photo was the card sketch over on Splitcoast stampers this week. The actual card is pictured below:

I haven't used my Stampin Up "Trendy Trees" stamp set in awhile, so I decided to dust it off and stamp. Are these the cutest stinkin trees ever or what! Love this set. This card sketch was super easy to put together too. The 2009-2010 in-colors are great for fall cards too. My card base is Crushed Curry, then Dusty Durango, then Bermuda Bay, and of course the trees are mounted on Soft Suede and stamped on Whisper White. The inks are the coordinating colors of course. I used two square punches: 1-1/4" and 1-3/8"; and the Word Window punch. The sentiment is also from the Trendy Trees stamp set. That sums it up; short and sweet. I hope you enjoy! Blessings, Lisa

Quick Christmas Tree Cards

I know, it is only October, and I am on a Christmas card kick. I seem to be particularly inspired by Christmas already. I have a couple of Fall cards to share with you over the weekend. So, here is my own handmade designed by me Christmas trees on cards.

What I did first was to take the snowflake background stamp from Stampin Up's "Serene Snowflakes" stamp set, and their White Craft ink, and stamped all over an entire piece of Garden Green 8-1/2X11 sheet of card stock. Then I cut it into sheets about 8-1/2" x 2-1/2", then at the end I had a large section that was approximately 8-1/2"x 3-1/2". The larger section is the one that I cut to make the first card you are seeing with one large tree on it. I just kept cutting these strips until I had a bunch of tree shapes. This idea makes some quick mass card production when you have waited til the last minute to make your Christmas cards.Now, the tree base is was made with my Word Window punch, and cut in half. So you can get two tree bases from one punch. The star at the top was made with my Stampin Up Star punch (the smaller one). Then my last touch was to add some bling with my favorite embellishment...sticky gems. You could just as easily use a red marker to add accents, a very small circle punch and red card stock, or even some Red Smooch, or Red Liquid Pearls (if they make that). The sentiment is from Stampin Up's "Teeny tiny Wishes" stamp set.

The next photo is my version made with the smaller strips that I cut. This one is my favorite of the two, but takes a little bit longer to make. This time, however, the SU star punch was too big, so I am used a mini star punch that I got a long time ago in some one's dollar bin. I am sure Michael's has them. I used the tiniest sticky gems on this one too. The tree bases on this one were made with my Stampin Up Small slot punch. The glitter used on the snowy hills is Dazzling Diamonds from Stampin Up. I think some chunky glitter would look better, but I don't have any of that yet, so I improvised.

I tried something new with my Picasa photo editing software today.......soft focus feature. I like this! The top photo didn't hold onto it's changes though, there is a little gremlin inside my Picasa I think. Oh well, it was free, what can we expect. I am not an expert on photo editing yet though, so if any of you have been working with Picasa or Photoshop for awhile and have any tips for me, please by all means leave me a comment. If I missed something or didn't explain it completely, please feel free to leave me a comment that I can respond to.

Until next time.......Blessings, Lisa

Christmas Stocking Card

I used another digi image from McMahon Five Designs for my card today. I am getting so hooked on digi images lately. No worries, I still love the rubber stuff too. There are so many awesome things out there in the crafting world to fall in love with, too many I think. Anyhoo... here is my card:



The first thing that I did was to color my digi image with Stampin Up markers, then I found out that I printed the image to large for my Nestibilities (oops). So, I cut the image out then cut my Rectangle and Scalloped Rectangle out with my cuttlebug, then adhered my image to the rectangle. I actually thought it looked interesting to have the image hang over the edges of the rectangle a wee bit. Sometimes, what we think are mistakes, turn out interesting instead of yucky. I used some of that new Smooch shimmer paint on the candy canes to add a little extra interest. If you look at the close up photo below, you can see it better. It is of course on of those things that looks better in person than it does in a photo. All card stock is Stampin Up, the designer paper is also Stampin Up form one of the 6X6 DSP hostess packs, gotta love those things. Then I added some Mark Richards embellishments called metal nail heads that are self stick like the sparkle gems and faux pearls that I so love to use on cards. They were on clearance, so I am giving them a try. Me likey! How about you?



Speaking of Clearance or Deals in general........Stampin Up has brought back their "Deals of the Week" for this month. This week they are offering some Sizzix di-cuts at a reduced cost. Check it out on their customer page, and if you order online, please choose me as your demonstrator.

Until next time...................Blessings, Lisa

Happy Halloween

Hello. I decided to take another break from Christmas cards and go with a Halloween card. I used the owl stamp from Stampin Up's stamp set called "Halloween Frights", and the sentiment is from "Teeny Tiny Wishes". I also decided to go Clean and Simple. So, here is what I came up with:

The owl is stamped with Stampin Up's White Craft ink, on Elegant Eggplant, Really Rust, Old Olive, and Chocolate Chip card stock, then punched out with a 1-1/4" square punch, then mounted on a square piece of Basic Black card stock.

The sentiment is on Elegant Eggplant, and punched out with the Word Window punch, then mounted on some Basic Black punched out with the new Modern Label punch. Some orange sticky gems from Hero Arts tops it off.

Quick post for me today. I hope you enjoy. Blessings, Lisa

Punched Doxie

If you have been following my blog for very long, then you probably know that I have a very super sweet Miniature Dachshund dog. Her name is Brandy, she is 15 years old and still feisty. We have kept up on her regular maintenance, fed her good stuff, and just all around taken good care of her. She sleeps alot more than she used to, lost some of her teeth and piddles on the floor sometimes (yuck), but other than that still has a great zest for life, and loves giving wet kisses. I have been waiting very patiently for someone over on Splitcoast stampers to come up with a doxie punch art thingy, as there are so many cute punch art thingies over there, but nope, no-one has yet. So I put my little brain to work and started punching out some shapes with my Stampin Up punches, arranging them on a piece of scrap card stock to see what might work together. The photo below is what I came up with:

Ok, I am back, and I adjusted the Doxie body to be a bit more slim. I am challenging myself here to use only Stampin Up paper punches, as most of my punches are from Stampin Up. The legs look a little long, but this can be easily adjusted by cutting off a little bit, or simply attach them more underneath the body further. Below is a chart that shows what punched pieces are used to put together this ultra cute doggie. The doxie head is one of the hearts from the Heart to Heart punch, and so is the ear. The doxie legs were made with the Horizontal Slot punch. The body and tail were both made with the Small Oval punch. The white lines are where I cut them, the pieces with the X's can be thrown away.

Here is a close-up photo of how I cut the doxie body. The small oval was too chubby, so, I put it back into the punch, moved it around with my xacto knife until I had it where I wanted it (as shown in the photo below), then punched it.

Now, for the tail, the discarded doxie body piece was too wide for the tail, so to make the tail, punch out a small oval. Then place the negative space back into the punch, line it up as I have shown in the photo. Make sure it is real skinny at one end (left side of photo), and slightly skinny at the other end (right side of photo), then punch.

The photo below is my real Dachshund, Brandy. She is my sweetheart!

I hope you enjoyed my punch art, I so rarely do this. If you have any questions, leave me a comment that I can respond to.

Until next time...............Blessings, Lisa

Ornament Suspension Card

Sorry for my absence, I have been a tad bit under the weather for the past few days. Some extra sleep has been helping tremendously though.


I decided to post a technique that I have never posted before and that is a suspension card or rather in my case a double suspension card. Here it is:
I stamped one of the ornament stamps from the Delightful Decorations stamp set from the Stampin Up Holiday Mini Catalog. I stamped it two times with Rose Red ink, then punched it out with the coordinating ornament paper punch. Then, I punched a circle out of the center of both ornaments at the same time so that the circles line up afterwards. This was easier because I applied a very small amount of removable adhesive to the ornaments and placed them back to back before trying to punch the circles out of them. Next, I stamped one of the smaller stamps of the same set with Certainly Celery ink two times, and I hand cut those out because I couldn't find the correct size circle punch (I have got to organize my punch collection). Next, I applied some permanent adhesive (terrifically tacky tape works best) to all of the backs of the pieces that I wanted to suspend on the string. I used some retired gold cord from Stampin Up for mine, the Tutorial over on the Splitcoast Stampers Website, suggests dental floss. Click here for a link to their tutorial. Next, I laid my gold cord to the back center of one of each of my items to be suspended, then carefully lined up the other pieces on top of those. Then I laid this across the front card base which I had already punched a larger circle into. The final step was to place a piece of designer paper; I used some Retired SU Certainly Celery patterned paper here. As a final touch, I took one of the circles that I had punched out of the ornament center, cut it into fourths, and applied each one to each of the four corners on the front of the card for en extra embellishment. I added an enlarged photo of the card below to show you the suspended items better.





Well, I hope you liked it, and go check out the tutorial on Splitcoast, they added more photos that I did. Until next time................Blessings, Lisa

Poinsettia from McMahon Five

I was going for that "OOOoooo" kind of reaction while I was putting this card together. So, if I didn't achieve it, please don't tell me. Haha. This is a digital image from McMahon Five Designs designed by Sue McMahon herself. I have a link to her store on my side bar. Sue has not only great Digi images (some are free), but she also sells other products at her store as well. Right now, she has some Pearl embellishments that are absolutely gorgeous, and offers them lower than some of the chain stores such as Archiver's. Ok on with what I did on the card.
First I colored two of the same image with my Stampin Up markers, Garden Green and Real Red are used here. Then I colored the swirls with Stampin Up's new Shimmer paint. My next step was to cut one of the images flower petals, but left them attached to the center of the flower. Next I got out my different sizes and thicknesses of foam dimensionals and applied them under the petals, to create a dimensional look. This can be seen better in the close-up photo below. Oh, but I couldn't stop there, no, no, no.......I decided to add some Gold Micro beads to the flower center with some liquid glue. I shall warn you that these things are awesome, but messy. The final touches were the faux red pearls in each corner, and the white satin bow with red pearl brad (Recollections from Michael's). Just a wee bit more embellished than the cards on my previous post, don't ya think?

Oh, a tip on the digi images if you have never used them, but want to try them. I have found that printing them out on Georgia Pacific card stock from Wal mart is best for coloring purposes so that your computer ink doesn't smear. Tip No.2 is that I first copy/paste them into Microsoft Word, click on the image, then I can adjust the size to whatever I want before printing. If you have any questions, please leave me a comment that I can reply to.

Until Next time.......................Blessings, Lisa

Ornament Punch Ideas

Hello. Well, I promised you some more ideas for the ornament punch that is in the new Stampin Up Holiday Mini Catalog. Here they are:

On this first one I stamped one of the snowflakes from the Stampin Up Holiday Mini Catty called "Serene Snowflakes", then while holding my ornament punch upside down, centered the snowflake and punched it out. The snowflake by the way, was stamped with the new Platinum shimmer paint that is also in the holiday mini. I found it easiest to paint the stamp with the shimmer paint with a paint brush, then stamp. Boy does that stuff shimmer! I highly recommend it. The scallop is also from Stampin Up/Sizzix Bigz die-cut called "Large Scallop Circle". The tree branch is from the stamp set "Bird on a Branch", and the sentiment is from the stamp set "Teeny Tiny Wishes". The ornament is popped up just a little bit with an SU Stampin Dimensional. The card stock used was Stampin Up Whisper White and Night of Navy.

The next card was super fun, and super easy. I punched out 3 ornament punches from Night of Navy card stock. Then, with a paint brush, I brushed some Champagne Mist (Gold) Shimmer paint on them completely covering them. I set them aside for a few minutes to let them dry. While that was going on, I ran my SU/Sizzix Sizzlet from the Holiday Mini Catty called "Merry Details" through my cuttlebug with some Whisper White card stock. Next, I simply attached them to the ornaments and assembled them onto a card base. The lines for the ornaments to hang from were obviously hand drawn with my black marker. Clean & Simple, and finished in about 10 minutes, if that! Don't ever be afraid to hand draw on your cards, it adds a special uniqueness to them. Oh, notice the shimmer from the paint on the ornaments. It looks really cool in person on that dark card stock. It looks equally nice on Handsome Hunter, and Bravo Burgundy, which are the only other two colors that I have tried this with so far.
Well, that is it for today. Until next time............. Blessings, Lisa

Christmas Ornaments

Hello. I struggled with ideas today with the stamp set that I wanted to use. Remember the ornament punch from Stampin Up that I used as a vase on a previous post? Well, Stampin Up sells a coordinating stamp set to go with that punch called "Delightful Decorations". It is featured in their current Holiday Mini catalog. I used two of the stamps in it for today's card. As I said, I was struggling for an idea for the card layout, so I borrowed one from my friend Lydia Fiedler over at UnderstandBlue. Click HERE to see her card. So, here is my card:

I decided to step out of my comfort zone and use a couple of non-traditional Christmas colors, and I was glad that I did. The lighter colored ornament is Stampin Up's Regal Rose, the other ornament is Rose Red. The sentiment is stamped with Rose Red ink on Whisper White card stock and punched out with a Stampin Up Word Window Punch, and layered on a piece of Rose Red card stock punched out with Stampin Up's Modern Label Punch. Ah, my second favorite thing after "bling" is my paper punches. I managed to work 3 of them into this card; which is not my personal best, but not too bad either. The string for the ornaments is the retired silver cord from SU; however the current elastic cord that is featured in the Holiday Mini Catty would work just as well. The middle panel is SU Garden Green card stock and is popped up just a little bit with some thin foam dimensionals from SU.

I have a couple of other cards in the works using the Ornament punch with other non-coordinating stamp sets (gotta show you again how to get the most out of your products), and a couple of requests that I am working on...so keep checking back for new projects.

I have to thank Donna, over at Butternut Sage Designs blog for referring her readers over to my blog after she found my Ornament Punch Vase card post from last week. Go check out her blog, she makes some awesome cards! Donna, my readers have doubled since you did that! YES!!!! Even if you don't leave a comment, each visit that I see on my counter inspires me to keep crafting and blogging. However, I won't deny the fact that I absolutely love getting comments, they make me smile!!!!!!!

Until next time...............Blessings, Lisa