Play Date Cafe Challenge

Happy Halloween!  Well, happy that it's Halloween, sad that it's almost over.  When I went into my craft room earlier, I cleared all of the Halloween stamps, papers, & stickers off of my table.  I even moved all of my Halloween stamps to the back of the shelf until next year.  So, I guess it's time to move on to some Winter/Christmas projects! 

The card that I made today is for the Play Date Cafe Challenge .  Here is the picture they posted this week...

Looks yummy, doesn't it?  I sure thought so.  In fact, I might have to hunt down a yummy coffee treat later today, thanks to this picture!

Here is the card that I made for the challenge...

I LOVE these colors together!  I used a snowflake punch that I bought a couple of years ago.  It is by The Paper Studio.  So glad to finally put it to use.  I used some of the Tim Holtz Walnut Stain distress ink around the snowflake and the edges of the Kraft.  I used the same ink to stamp the sentiment at the bottom.  The scalloped border (Martha Stewart) is punched from cream cardstock and I trimmed the top of it with a thin blue ribbon.   

The top layer of Kraft is popped up on some dimensional dots, which looks really cool!  It is kind of hard to see that in the picture from straight on, so here is one from an angle.

Time to go now and get ready for tonights Trick-or-Treating.  Happy Halloween, everyone!

Michelle

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CAS-ual Fridays #26

I decided to start doing some of the CAS-ual Fridays challenges after seeing a couple of them on other blogs. Since I tend to have trouble with the CAS look, this will be good for me!  Here is this weeks sketch:

And here is my card....

I have to admit that I had a hard time wrapping my brain around this one.  While I was putting it together, I just kept thinking about how naked it looks to me.  It's all that white space!  My mind says to fill it up with something.  But, I just forced myself to leave it and it is growing on me.  Going to try to do next week's challenge when it goes up.  Maybe the more I do the better I will feel about them. 

Happy Friday!

Michelle

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WOYWW and a Martha Stewart Scoring Board Project

While hitting some blogs last week, I came across an initialism that puzzled me - WOYWW. Thanks to the magical powers of Google I was quickly able to find out that it stands for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. Thank you, Google. The idea is just to post a picture on your blog of your stamping/crafting workdesk and let everyone see what level of shambles it is currently in. Fun, right? So, here is what mine looked like this morning.

It's really not all that bad!  Of course, I suppose the beer bottle sitting there at 9:30 AM might be potentially embarassing if I didn't let you know that I was just too lazy when I left the craft room last night to pick up after myself.  Ah well, maybe I will just leave it now and let it be a conversation piece. 

Anywho, once I made a clearing, I got busy and made a little gift box with my snazzy, new, Martha Stewart Scoring Board.  Oh, yes.  I am loving that thing.  Snatched one up at Michael's (before I was mad at them), when they had them on sale.  $12 isn't too bad, and I am finding it to be well worth the money. 

This first picture is the top of the box.  The box is 6" x 6" x 3" and is made using two 12" x12" pieces of cardstock.  I used some Glitter Christmas cardstock from DCWV.  I just followed the guide for this box size that comes with the Score Board.

I decorated the top with this little snowman.  He is from an old TAC set, but you can use any Snowman or Christmas image.  Stamped in black, colored him using Prismacolor Pencils, cut him out and stuck him to the scalloped circle with some dimensional dots.  The scalloped circle die is from Nestabilities, which I also popped up with some dimensional dots. 

Now I have to get to some real work.  If only laundry was as fun as stamping.  Ha!

Happy Stamping,

Michelle

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Again with the Nestabilities!

These little cards are quite addicting! The hubby is planning on taking some Halloween treats into work for some of his co-workers, so it is giving me plenty of opportunity to make these little gift cards. Again, the finished size on this guy is about 3" x 3" . I am using the biggest label die in the Nestabilities Labels 1 set.

The image I used is an oldie from TAC and I colored it using my Prismacolors.  The ribbon is one I picked up at Michael's.  Still mad at Michael's, by the way, just in case you are keeping track.  Popped the image up on some dimensional dots just to make it 'pop' a bit.

I did some looking around, because I know that this image in particular is one from Mabelle R O.  She used to do a lot of stamp designs for TAC and she had some really cute images/sets.  I always loved her stuff.  Well, TAC has closed shop, but Mabelle is still going!  I was very happy to find her with a quick Google search and see that she is still designing.  She has a store set up where she has digi and rubber images available.  You can check her out at Whimsy and Stars Studio .

Happy Stamping,

Michelle

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Nestabilities Label Dies Make Awesome Cards!

Alright, so this time I used the Nestabilities Labels Die to make a card base. I am lovin' it! For this card I used the largest die in the pack to make my card base. I am just using the regular size labels - NOT the Grand Nestabilities.  The finished card size is about 3" x 3".

I went more clean & simple with this one. I punched the fence with my Martha Stewart Spooky Fence punch. Cut a smaller label for my main image, which I stamped with Black ink, then darkened up the paper a bit with a stencil brush and some black ink. Mounted it to the front of the card with some dimensional dots.

I used a smaller size label for the inside as well.  Stamped 'Happy Halloween' and the little black cat with some black ink.  Darkened up the edges the same way I did on the front.  

These little cards are a lot of fun to make!  It is neat playing with the different shapes and getting something other than the typical square and rectangle cards.  Now I just need to find some envelopes!

Happy Stamping,

Michelle

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Ghostly Greetings and a Little Rant About Michael's

Is it really Sunday already?  This weekend has zipped right by.  Got to spend a little time in the craft room today and I played a little more with using the Nestabilities to make card bases.  Here is what I made...

So this one has more of a straight edge at the top than the first one I did.  The purple circle was cut using a regular Nestabilities circle.  Stamped the circle with a bat and spider stamp with black ink - don't know the name of the company they are from.  Any small halloween images will work, so just use whatever you have.  The ghost and "Happy Halloween" stamps are from a couple of older TAC sets.  I punched the green layer with my new 'Drippy Goo' punch from Martha Stewart. 

I am really diggin' these round cards!  It's something different from the norm and it is super easy to do with the Nestabilities dies.

OK...now about Michael's.  Been talking with several people over on SCS about how Michael's is so slow about getting any new merchandise out.  I'm ready for Christmas crafts, as are most of us, and they don't have anything out yet.  Not to mention, they don't have any current products.  Lame!  Who is doing their ordering?  Some of the stamps are the same that they have had for years.  I could go on and on about what they don't have...but I won't.

To top it off, today I went in, armed with a '25% off your total purchase including sale items' coupon.  GREAT, right?  Turns out, not so much.  Get to the register, hand the cashier my coupon and she says it isn't good until 4 o'clock.  What the &#!* is up with that?  Ugh.  What a scam.

Seriously don't even want to go there at this point.  Might as well spend the extra money going to the LSS, or order online and pay shipping.  So frustrating...I will just stop now.

Happy stamping!

Michelle

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Getting a Jump-Start on the Weekend!

It's FRIDAY!!! *applause*  It has been a long and somewhat torturous week, so I figured I would start my weekend fun a little early.  I have been playing with my Nestabilities more and more and ended up making this roly-poly  Halloween card. 

I cut the card base using a Nestabilities Scalloped Circle.  Just let the scallop overlap the fold a little bit to create the card.  Going to play with this a little more to see if I can position the scallops to allow the card to stand up straight.  Not a biggie that it tilts to the side a bit.  It's round.  It rolls, right?  BUT!  I will avoid that in the future if I can. 

The cat stamp is from an old Stampin' Up set.  Colored it in using my Prismacolor Pencils.    Used my snazzy new Martha Stewart spider web punch, which I adore and have to use as much as possible before Halloween is over.  The sentiment stamp is a Studio G stamp that I picked up at Michael's for a buck - can't beat that!

Now.  Bring on the weekend!

Thanks for stopping by,

Michelle

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Halloween Treats

Watched a demo on making these little milk cartons and decided to make some for Halloween treats! 

I had intended to stamp something to decorate the cartons with, but ended up not stamping on them at all.  The papers that I made them with were just too cute to be covered up too much by anything else. 

On the first one, I used a dimensional sticker at the top to add a little bit to it. 

On the second one, I cut out the "Trick or Treat" bubble from another piece of cardstock in the pack and mounted it on a couple of pop dots. 

These are going to be awesome for giving out little Halloween goodies.  And let me tell you, they are so fun to make, that I just want to make MORE! 

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Recipe Card Challenge

Such a fun challenge!  Not only are we seeing different recipe cards, but also getting some yummy looking recipes.  This is the first time I have ever made a recipe card.  While it isn't the most practical way for me to actually keep recipes, it is a really fun way to give someone a recipe. 

I cut the hills from some green cardstock, punched the fence out of brown cardstock, and the chicken is stamped, then colored with Prismacolor pencils.  Super simple, but what a fun way to present a recipe.  This would be great for the holidays if you like to give out homemade goodies and include the recipe! 

Take care & happy stamping,

Michelle

Not Your Typical Jack-o-Lantern

Back with another Stamptoberfest challenge card.  This challenge is called Stamp a Jack-o-Lantern.  I know it sounds easy, since we all probably have jack-o-lanterns somewhere in our stamp collections.  But, the idea for this was to take a stamp that is NOT intended to be a jack-o-lantern and turn it into one.

After some rummaging, I came across an old All Night Media stamp set that I bought several years ago.  It has a snowglobe stamp and then a few different stamps that you can use to fill your snowglobe - very christmas/wintery type stuff.    The snowglobe looked perfect to me!

A little coloring and cutting later and I had myself a Jack-o-Lantern!  I colored him in with my Prismacolor pencils and then stamped his face in black. 

The tree stamp is an old PSX favorite of mine - I really hope this stamp lives forever in my collection.  The bats are stamped.  After I cut them out I added some black Stickles to make them look a little more interesting. 

Emma decided the other night that she wanted to get in on the challenge action too and she chose this same challenge.  Here is her card.

She came up with the idea of using the circular sentiment stamp as the body of her jack-o-lantern.  I love the way hers turned out!  And she couldn't have been happier knowing that she was getting to play along with the "big kids". 

Thanks for stopping by,

Michelle

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One Stamp, Two Ways

Lots of stamping this weekend, makes me happy!  The hubby is working extra long hours this weekend, which doesn't make me happy, but it has left me with plenty of time to spend in the craft room.  It has made Emma quite happy too.  Now if I could just teach her to fold her cards in half, just right...maybe I wouldn't have to be stopping what I am working on every five minutes, lol! 

So these two cards that I am sharing today are the result of yet another 2Peas Challenge.  The challenge was to make two different cards, using one image that you color using two different mediums or techniques.  This is a great challenge for me, since I usually shy away from anything with a lot of coloring.

On this first card, I used my Prismacolor Pencils to color the stocking. I use their blending pencil to blend mine.  Kept it really simple, just matted the image and added the sentiment on one of the little Nestabilities Labels.

On this second card I used chalks to do the coloring on the stocking.  Just because of the nature of the challenge, I intentionally tried to go with a completely different color palette.  It proved to be very challenging for me, since I tend to struggle with lighter colors like this.  Just not my thing, usually.  Once it finally started coming together, I loved it!   

Here are the two cards side-by-side.

I am really happy with how both cards turned out.  This is something that I am going to have to play with again.  It's cool seeing them next to each other.  The same stamp, yet the end results are so different from each other.

Now I am off to play with another challenge!

Take care & happy stamping,

Michelle

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Naughty Or Nice?

Sat down at my table last night with the intentions of working on something for the All About Coloring challenge over on 2Peas.  While going through my stamps I came across one that says "So...have you been naughty or nice?".  Well, that sparked an idea for the Christmas/Halloween Combo challenge, I got totally sidetracked and ended up with another combo card!

I used Cuttlebug embossing folders to make the web and snowflake papers.  The rest is all stamped.  Another simple and clean layout, which I am really liking.

Now, if I can get my mind off this whole combo idea, I will move on to a different challenge!

Take care and happy stamping,

Michelle

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Getting Started On Christmas

I guess it is that time, isn't it?  I know that a lot of people get their Christmas cards done months before the holiday season, but I am not one of those people.

1.  I don't think I could ever be that ahead of the game.
2.  I like to wait until Fall, when I start to really get into that holiday mood.

With Halloween just around the corner, the Christmas bug is definitely starting to hit me. 

The background is stamped and embossed on Kraft cardstock.  I stippled some of the Tim Holtz Walnut Stain distress ink around the edges of the background and the christmas tree.  I used the same ink to stamp the "Merry Christmas" image. 

While making this card, I was reminded of exactly how HORRIBLE I am at tying bows!  Yikes!  I ended up pulling out my Bow Easy thing-a-majig, which I bought years ago just to help me with this bow.  Even that dealt me a fit.  Maybe I can find good bow tying guides on You Tube.  Anything might help, right?

Take care and happy stamping,

Michelle

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Christmas/Halloween Challenge

One of the challenges for Stamptoberfest is to do a card combining Christmas and Halloween images.  As much as I enjoy both holidays, I had to make something!

The 'Joy' stamp that I used has a round Christmas ornament in place of the 'o', so I turned it into a pumpkin ornament instead.  I used one of my new Martha Stewart border punches for the scalloped border.  Boy, am I loving these punches!  I am going to have a really hard time resisting buying more of them.

Take care and happy stamping,

Michelle

Stamptoberfest Challenges

Stamptoberfest started over on 2Peas October 1st and there are tons of challenges posted!  After a very busy weekend, I finally found some time to stamp this morning.  Who woulda thunk it...free time on a Monday?  Oh well, I will take whatever I can get!

I made this card for two different challenges.  One is cards for kids, the other is a challenge to use at least three different patterned papers.

Clearly, with a cute little bunny like that, this card would work well for kids.  The stamp is actually one of Emma's that I borrowed.  It came in a set that I got her from Michael's for her birthday last year.  The papers are from an old Basic Grey pack that I have had in my paper stash for a couple of years.  It's probably vintage by now!

I have a whole list of challenges written down that will keep me busy stamping for at least the next week.  Fun, fun, fun!  Check it out, if you get the chance.

Take care & happy stamping,

Michelle