Challenges (Variable)

ColorLab 28

February 9, 2011 Jentimko 10 Comments

What a great set of colors ColorLab has for this week…just in time for your final Valentine’s Day cards!

These are such classic colors for the season but I went a little non-traditional. I didn’t use one of my heart images. Instead, I wanted to play with my new Sweet Summer set. I just love the flowers and all the little stamps that go with them! I saw the Friday Mashup Sketch for this week and knew that was just what I needed to get started.

I stamped my little flower and stem in Basic Black using my Stamp-a-ma-jig to perfectly align the stem. Even though I have the clear mount stamps, the Stamp-a-ma-jig is a great help when you want to stamp something “just so” (it was made for type A people like me!)! I pulled out the Real Red polka dots from my Play Date DSP (your prints from the Brights Paper Pack would be great here too). After I did a basic look at the layout, I colored the flower in Real Red and the stem in Crumb Cake using my blender pen.

Hint: When coloring on Very Vanilla or Whisper White, think like you are placing color with the Blender Pen instead of swirling on the color. If you want to really blend and mix colors, use Watercolor Paper instead.

The sentiment is from Short & Sweet, one of the best sentiment sets ever! I tied my bow and wrapped the ribbon around the DSP layer, popped the image up on dimensionals and done with the front. I didn’t take a picture of it but I used the little butterfly on the inside (colored red also), along with the “happy valentine’s day” sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes. I’ll be making a few more of these and I think they are perfect for teacher Valentine’s from my boys.

So glad you joined me today! I look forward to your creations with these colors and don’t forget to take a look at the other Color Chemists’ projects! See you soon!

Stamps: Sweet Summer (SAB), Short & Sweet, Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper: Play Date DSP, Real Red, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla; Ink: Basic Black, Real Red, Crumb Cake; Accessories: Real Red Wide Grosgrain, Blender Pen, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Dimensionals

SUO Challenge 12 – Stampin’ Around

February 8, 2011 Jentimko 17 Comments

Over at SU Only Challenges this week, we are “Stampin’ Around”!! Yes, we have pulled out our wheels and the variety of ideas is wonderful! Wheels can add dimension to your background or can be the focal image on your project!

I saw the coolest layout last week, designed by the very talented SU demonstrator Mary Fish, over at Mojo Monday. To start, the Very Vintage wheel was rolled on Very Vanilla paper in Soft Suede. I lightly colored some of the flowers in Blushing Bride and cut the curve with my Paper Snips. Vintage Vogue is a set that coordinates beautifully with this wheel so I pulled it out. I inked the flowers in Blushing Bride and the sponged a little Soft Suede on the edges with a Sponge Dauber. After I layed it out, something was missing so out came the Big Shot and my Framed Tulips Embossing Folder. What a difference!! I used my Stampin’ Write Marker in Soft Suede to only ink the “friend” part of the big F stamp and put it on a little banner. Finally, the ribbon needed to be finished. At first I tried just Very Vanilla Satin but it just wasn’t right. So I dyed it! Oh, no…it isn’t hard…really!! Take your piece of ribbon and color it using a Stampin’ Write Marker (Blushing Bride in this case). It will look a bit splotchy. Next take your Aqua Painter and wet the ribbon (a spray bottle would work too). The Aqua Painter will help you move the color around to make it even. Let it dry and you have perfectly coordinated ribbon.

Hint: I found that starting with a base color ribbon the same as my base color paper helped it match better. When you stamp a light ink on Very Vanilla it will take on a slightly different hue than if you stamp on Whisper White. Since I stamped on Vanilla paper for this, I used Vanilla ribbon as a base.

The Basic Pearls were the perfect finishing touch for this Vintage themed card! I love those little jewels and it is amazing how much they add. In fact, I stamped another little flower inside to card and added a pearl there to make the inside feel just as special as the outside.

I’m so glad to see you again and I look forward to seeing what your wheels create for this challenge! See you again soon!

Stamp: Vintage Vogue (117690); Wheel: Very Vintage (117693); Paper: Soft Suede (115318), Very Vanilla (101650); Ink: Soft Suede Classic Pad (115657), Blushing Bride Marker (In-Color Pack 119801); Accessories: Big Shot (113439), Framed Tulips Folder (121809), Very Vanilla Satin (117291), Basic Pearls (119247), Sticky Strip (104294), Aqua Painter (103954), Sponge Daubers (102892)

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First Edition Valentine

February 7, 2011 Jentimko 14 Comments

I got an order last week and I have been playing with my new products!! Oh what fun! Tonight is my 3rd Quarter Hostess Club Meeting and the club ladies will be making this. I can’t wait!! First things first, this card is a CASE from the very talented Debra Burgin over at Heartfelt Inkspirations. I knew I had to make it as soon as I saw it. In the effort to add my own touch, I did change the colors and the sentiment plus added a layer. My colors were inspired by this week’s Stampin’ Celebration piece…a great Valentine’s Day palette!

I pulled out my Framed Tulips Embossing Folder and my Big Shot and rolled the frame right onto the base. I then added Whisper White Craft Ink. I did not use a brayer like Debra did (although that would work, of course). Instead I used another technique that I will cover in an upcoming Stampin’ Addicts Birthday Blog Hop (Feb. 25th – Feb. 27th). I cut a section of the First Edition DSP that talks about Cherry Blossoms. Somehow that seemed appropriate with my use of Cherry Cobbler! The Be My Valentine heart was stamped in Cherry Cobbler and cut out (cutting off the banner) and I stamped the “valentine” from my Teeny Tiny Wishes “happy valentine’s day” stamp in Basic Gray on a 1/2″ strip of Very Vanilla and just snipped the corners. Aren’t Stampin’ Write Markers handy??!! The Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding and Victoria Crochet Trim were tied together with dyed thread (again with a marker) and a Basic Gray Button. I used a barely inked flower from Fresh Cuts to add a little color to the First Edition paper.

Thanks to Debra for allowing me to CASE her. Be sure to take a look at her many beautiful creations using the link at the beginning of the post! I’ll be back tomorrow with the latest SU Only Challenge. I hope your day is great!

Stamps: Be My Valentine (122045), Fresh Cuts (111634), Teeny Tiny Wishes (115370); Paper: Cherry Cobbler (119685), Basic Gray (121044), Very Vanilla (101650), First Edition DSP (121878); Ink: Cherry Cobbler Classic Pad (119669), Basic Gray Marker (120966), Whisper White Craft Pad (101731); Accessories: Big Shot (113439), Framed Tulips Folder (121809); Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding (120992), Victoria Crochet Lace (118481), Neutrals Buttons (119743)

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Funky Photo Card

January 31, 2011 Jentimko 2 Comments

As promised, I am back with some more specifics about my photo book from the Blog Hop this weekend. The tutorial I based this on came from the ultra-talented (and totally generous) Sarah Wills. Her blog has tons of ideas and I used her Scallop Square Die Mini Scrapbook Tutorial as the basis for my card. I thought it would be a fun little something to make for my mom since she came to visit this week.

I started with a base of On Board chipboard knowing she would keep this to show to her friends. I cut the chipboard into two 4 1/4″ squares and then cut four pieces of Old Olive card stock to the same size. Using my Anywhere Glue Stick, I attached three of the pieces to the chipboard and left the last one off to allow for ribbon placement. Just like Sarah’s instructions, I cut a piece of Chocolate Chip stock to 3 3/4″ x 11 1/4″ and folded it concertina style. I decorated the two pages on each side using Funky Four and the Play Date DSP that coordinates with it.

Here is the before and after of the front two pages. I created a 2 1/8″ x 3 1/8″ panel for the picture I wanted to put in. I then used the little leaf stamp from Funky Four as further embellishment. I love that the DSP matches this image and simply cut a square for the facing page.

I then moved to the back and designed two more facing pages. Again, I used some of the Play Date paper and a stamp from the set. I initially made a square for the photo but then adjusted once I chose my picture. I used a 1/8″ bigger panel behind it.

I connected these panels to my chipboard covered pieces using Sticky Strip (again, per Sarah’s suggestion). I then decorated the front of the card. All that was left was to attach my ribbon. I lined up where the ribbon should go, attached it to the chipboard using Sticky Strip and then glued down the Old Olive Paper over the ribbon.

I love that this project comes together so quickly and makes such an nice little gift!! Thanks, again, to Sarah for her generosity of ideas.

Those who stamp with me know that I don’t make a lot of “3-D” projects. I tend to be a little too practical, I think. This went a bit outside the box for me so I’m going to enter it into the So Shelli Creative Challenge this month. Shelli Gardner (CEO of Stampin’ Up!) challenged us to go outside our comfort zone. I’m so glad I did!! I think my mom is pretty glad too because she is already talking about showing this to her friends. *smile*

Thanks for stopping back in today. I’ll see you later this week with another ColorLab challenge on Thursday and maybe something before then (if there are no snow days!).

Stamp: Funky Four (113738), Say It Simply (122324); Play Date DSP (117168), Old Olive (100702), Chocolate Chip (102128), Whisper White (100730); Ink: Real Red Marker (100052), Tempting Turquoise (100058), Chocolate Chip (100071), Old Olive (100079); Accessories: Real Red Wide Grosgrain (109052), On Board Sheets (114320)

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ColorLab 26

January 26, 2011 Jentimko 12 Comments

You are going to love, and I mean LOVE, using today’s ColorLab Challenge colors. They are seriously beautiful together!

The Perfect Plum and Basic Gray pair so nicely and I loved adding a pop of Bashful Blue. I found another great sketch courtesy of the Operators over at Stampin’ 411 and got to work. Something about this color scheme compelled me to pull out my Every Moment set. I just knew the flower and the butterfly would be fantastic on this challenge.

I started with a base of watercolor paper for my image and stamped the flower and butterfly in Black Stazon Ink. Using my lightest color first, I colored my butterfly with Bashful Blue and then the flower with Perfect Plum. I have Stampin’ Write markers in these colors so I used the technique of coloring a bit on a clear block and pulling the color from there with my Blender Pen. I added Basic Gray to the flower center and stem, and then to the butterfly. With the little left on my Blender Pen, I shaded a little around the images with Basic Gray. I used the sentiment from Say It Simply (again!)…it really is a great little set!

For the rest of the card, I rolled out a frame on Perfect Plum with my Big Shot and the Framed Tulips Embossing Folder. I did use some retired Basic Gray Taffeta ribbon and scrunched it using the thread pulling technique. All you have to do is rough up the end a bit and pick a center thread to pull. I did the same on the tails of the bow. The bow is held together with an Antique Brad. The team over at Pals Paper Arts have a Bow challenge this week…how fun! Of course, I love a bow so I am thrilled to join in.

I hope you love playing with these colors this week! I can’t wait to see your beautiful creations! I’ll be back tomorrow for the Stampin’ Addicts Sale-a-bration Blog Hop. I’ll be showing you projects with the SAB choice Funky Four. Thanks for stopping in today!

Stamps: Every Moment (120522-C), Say It Simply (122324); Paper: Watercolor (105019), Basic Gray (121044), Perfect Plum (101889), Bashful Blue (105120); Ink: Perfect Plum (100035), Bashful Blue (105111), Basic Gray (120966); Accessories: Big Shot (113439), Framed Tulips Folder (121809), Antique Brads (117273), Blender Pen (102845), Basic Gray Taffeta (retired)

All products are Stampin’ Up!

SUOC11 – Cherry Espresso Valentine

January 25, 2011 Jentimko 5 Comments

Today’s challenge over at SUO Challenges is Valentine’s Day cards. Appropriately enough, I am kicking off Sale-a-bration with a card class that includes a Valentine’s Day card. I can’t wait to make this card with my classes this week!

I started with two of my favorite colors and a new stamp set from the Occasions Mini called Be My Valentine. I inked the entire stamp in Cherry Cobbler and stamped it on Very Vanilla paper. Then I cleaned off the red and inked up the word banner in Early Espresso and stamped it again. As a helpful hint, stamp your reds first and set them aside to dry. Something about red inks take longer to dry, especially on Stampin’ Up’s ultra-smooth card stocks (like Vanilla and Whisper White). I took my smaller Espresso piece and ran it through my Big Shot using the Square Lattice Embossing Folder and then did the ribbon scrunching technique on top of a line of Sticky Strip. Once that layer was completed, I went back to the Cherry heart and cut it out leaving a little border and cutting the banner from the edges. The Espresso banner was cut next to layer on top of the Cherry heart. A couple of helpful hints:

1. With any broad flat stamps, it is helpful to take a sanding block to the surface (gently, of course). I sand in all directions and then clean it off with Stampin’ Mist on my Stampin’ Scrub. This gets rid of the “too smooth” finish on the stamp and helps ink adhere better (yes, I noticed AFTER the card was done that I needed to do this…it is fixed now!).

2. After the banner is cut, take a Stampin’ Write marker and ink the edges of the paper to finish the look. If you work from behind the image, you reduce the chance of a mistake.

The banner was attached to the heart and the heart was popped up on Dimensionals, as was the inner panel. Finally, I added some Basic Pearls to the flowers on the heart to add a little elegance.

I can’t wait to see your Valentine entries into the challenge. Don’t forget to go see the amazing work of the whole design team! I’ll be back Thursday with another ColorLab challenge and on Friday with Stampin’ Addicts Sale-a-bration Blog Hop!

Birthday Party and a Blog Candy Winner!

January 17, 2011 Jentimko 19 Comments

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who left comments last week for my blog-iverary!! I am so thrilled that you have joined me on this creative journey and it was so nice hearing from you. Right to the blog candy winner. Using Random.org, here are the results:

True Random Number Generator Min:

Max:

Result: 3

Jen Conrad, that means you are the winner. I will e-mail you to get your mailing information and if you don’t hear from me today, please contact me.

It seems that I’m not the only one with a reason to celebrate. Stampin’ Celebration has madeover their blog and are throwing a bit of a party! Here is their inspiration challenge for this week:

I also saw that the Operators over at Stampin’ 411 have a sketch challenge this week and it is a great one. It includes tearing on the base layer. Always a great way to add quick texture to a project!

While I love the balloons, I also noticed the little pennants on the table of the inspiration piece. I decided to pull out my Brights Patterns Designer Series Paper Pack and my Party Hearty stamp set to see what happened.

The little hats turned into pennants! Oh, I love this stamp set for the variety of cards it makes! The words are from a retired A La Carte set called Birthday Wish. These little sets really are super for specific stamp needs! I colored a piece of thread with my Daffodil Delight Stampin’ Write Marker so I could “hang” the pennants. I really love the torn Melon Mambo piece with the pop of Daffodil Delight torn above it.

Thanks again to all my followers! I’m looking forward to another fun year of stampin’ and blogging! I’ll be back tomorrow to tell you about my new blog header and some fun with MDS.

Stamps: Party Hearty (111532), Birthday Wishes (retired); Paper: Brights DSP Pack (117155), Melon Mambo, Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight (Brights Card Stock 119706), Whisper White (100730); Ink: Brights Stampin’ Write Markers (119701); Accessories: Brights Designer Buttons (119744), Glue Dots (103683), Dimensionals (104430), Non-SU Thread

All products are Stampin’ Up unless otherwise indicated.

SUOC 10 – Hello Baby

January 11, 2011 Jentimko 10 Comments

Our challenge over at SUO Challenges today is to create baby cards (or anything related to babies like baptisms, showers, etc.). Talk about great timing! A sweet friend of mine just had her first baby and I knew just what I wanted to make for her. One of the greatest things I got when my oldest was born was a set of cards for him. I had no idea then how many thank-you cards I would need for all the fantastic support I would receive. I just knew that the new mommy would appreciate some cards for her little one. Ever since she found out she was pregnant, the baby has been called their little monkey and the nursury is full of wonderful monkey themed items. Naturally, the monkey from Fox & Friends was required for this project! Here is the total set and then I’ll follow up with individual shots and specifics:

I made a box with five thank-you notes and a coordinating gift card. The box template was created by me to accomodate the 4 1/4″ x 4 1/4″ cards and their envelopes (details on the box will follow tomorrow). I made two styles of gift cards, one with an Early Espresso base and one with an Old Olive, that are very similar. Finally I wanted a more personalized gift card for little Logan.

Logan’s nursery is decorated in green and brown so I used a design from the Play Date DSP as a starting point. I really wanted to put the baby’s name on the card but didn’t have an alphabet set that was the right size. Hmmm…what to do?? My Digital Studio (MDS) to the rescue!! You may recognize the letters as the ABC Alphabet Lower. The beautiful thing with MDS is that I can re-size things and that is just what I did here by shrinking the letters a little. I printed it out on Whisper White card stock and then cut it to the layer size I wanted. Of course the colors coordinate perfectly since MDS uses just the right color codes. The rest of the card was really quick with a stamp of the monkey in Early Espresso and a little piercing with my piercing tool. I tied on a little bit of Early Espresso Satin Ribbon to finish.

You can get a better look at the front of the box here and the two styles of cards. I really just flipped the card stock colors and tied the buttons on opposite sides. This makes the cards stack a little nicer in the box. The sentiment is from Say It Simply (Occasions Mini) and seems to be just the right word set for everything I am making lately.

Here is the box with all the cards in place and the gift card. I did stamp the envelopes too just to complete the package.

I hope that she loves this little set. Mommy is one of my stampers who moved away and I want her to know how happy we are for her and her husband! I hope that you can play along with this challenge (remember that you have two weeks to play). Don’t forget to stop over at the SUO Challenges site to see the other amazing projects! Thanks for stopping in today. Please join me again tomorrow for the box tutorial and a blogiversary celebration!

Stamps: Fox & Friends, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Short & Sweet (inside card); Paper: Play Date DSP, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Whisper White; Ink: Early Espresso, Old Olive; Accessories: Early Espresso Satin Ribbon, Old Olive Wide Grosgrain Ribbon, Designer Buttons (Brights and Neutrals), Mat Pack, Paper Piercing Tool, Glue Dots, Sticky Strip, My Digital Studio

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Fabulous Wishes

January 5, 2011 Jentimko 13 Comments

Today I was inspired by all kinds of challenges and actually managed to group three of them together! You may notice that I have been using a lot of hostess sets with my cards and today is no different. This is to remind you of how many amazing sets are available FREE! Oh, I love free! With Sale-a-bration right around the corner and the new Occasions Mini already available, now is a great time to become a hostess.

I am sending out the last of my thank-you cards today (so far, so good on the resolution!) and now want to get ahead on some upcoming birthdays. Perfect timing since Stampin’ Royalty is celebrating their birthday with a birthday card challenge. Arielle is their new Goddess so I thought it fitting to use her ColourQ Challenge #66:

Beautiful colors, aren’t they?? Finally, I used the Splitcoaststampers Sketch Challenge 314 for my layout.

I don’t have any Soft Sky so I substituted with Baja Breeze. I think it has the same feel to it. I used the Framed Tulips Embossing Folder again but created a rectangle using a similar method as Sharon Field did at Created By You. My rectangle is 2 1/2″ x 4 1/8″. I simply used the short side of the folder instead of the long one. My flowers are one of the two-step stamps from Fast & Fabulous (hostess level 2). I started by inking with So Saffron and Daffodil Delight and then added Baja Breeze (these were all Stampin’ Write markers). I took a sponge dauber to the stamp to soften any edges to the colors. The outline was stamped in Basic Black. A little “flag” was created by snipping a rectangle and tucking the still square end under a black button (Neutrals Designer Buttons). I colored my thread with the Baja Breeze marker. The image panel is popped up on dimensionals and another dimensional tucked under the raised section of the flag. The beautiful paper is from the main catalog’s Greenhouse Gala DSP.

I’ll be back tomorrow with another beautiful color combination from the ColorLab Color Challenge. Thanks for stopping in…see you soon!

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes, Fast & Fabulous; Paper: Daffodil Delight, Basic Black, Greenhouse Gala DSP, Whisper White; Ink: So Saffron, Daffodil Delight, Baja Breeze, Basic Black; Accessories: Neutrals Designer Buttons, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Sponge Dauber, Dimensionals, Thread (non-SU)

All products Stampin’ Up unless otherwise indicated.

Say it with Style!

January 3, 2011 Jentimko 18 Comments

Happy New Year and welcome to my new followers! I was so motivated by the weekend’s Stampin’ Addicts Occasions Mini Blog Hop and couldn’t wait to get stamping this week. My first job this year to show you how to make the square frame from my hop cards. While I would love to take credit for the idea, Sharon Field over at Created By You is the originator of the technique I used. I had been playing around with ways to do this but she figured it out first! I simply modified her instructions to make the square. Since many people are visual learners, I have taken pictures of what I did.

Start with a 4 1/8″ x 4 1/8″ square and line it up so that you have equal spacing on three sides. Roll it through the Big Shot and it will look like this:

Next, take the card stock and slide it down so that the bottom lines up with the bottom design of the folder. You should be able to feel the design slide into the “grooves” and it will match up with the folder (except the unembossed bottom, of course).

It will look like this from the other side and you can check your placement.

As Sharon specifies, start to roll it through your Big Shot but only a little bit. Estimate how much roll it takes to emboss only the bottom design (she says about 3/4 of a turn). Then back the design out. And here is the final square. The pressure of the Big Shot flattens the previous design and forms the corners nicely!

My card from the Blog Hop was given away as a card set for Christmas so I “had” to create a new one, of course.

I inked up part of the image from the Elements of Style stamp and then colored it in with Pink Pirouette, Rose Red and Basic Gray. The sentiment is from the new set Say It Simply. I brought in an Antique Brad because it went so well with the gray. The ribbon, I must confess, is retired Basic Gray Taffeta. Given that I have a ribbon “collecting” (okay, hoarding) problem, I am trying to use up some of my retired items. To save you some time, the Basic Gray piece of the inner square is 3″ x 3″.

This is also for the Creative Crew Catalog Focus Challenge over at Splitcoaststampers. It is a challenge to use new items from the Mini. Check out the link to see more fabulous projects from the Creative Crew.

Thanks for stopping in today. I wish you a safe and happy new year filled with loads of creativity!

Stamps: Say It Simply, Elements of Style; Paper: Basic Gray, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White; Ink: Basic Black, Pink Pirouette, Rose Red, Basic Gray; Accessories: Big Shot, Framed Tulips Embossing Folder, Antique Brads, Basic Gray Taffeta (retired), Blender Pen, Dimensionals

All products are Stampin’ Up!

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