I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far. I’ve been fairly lazy myself today. It took me forever to walk down to the studio and stamp a little. Mallory came home last night, and there just seems to be a lot going on in the house. Tomorrow I will be having the family over for a barbecue. My sister’s excuse for coming to my home, was that I grill better than she does. My mother used to always do something for every holiday, but now it seems that if Carrie or I don’t plan it, it doesn’t happen. So we did the morning phone call thing and planned the menu. Now I’ve got to dust and clean the bathrooms — household cleaning. Doesn’t she know that I would rather be creative than clean?

Talking about being creative, not too long ago I mentioned that I had been missing some fun in my stamping. Well, I have to say that over the last two weeks I’ve had more fun trying new techniques and just letting the mojo flow. I myself feel that I’ve done some of my most creative work recently. (No heckling from the peanut gallery.)

What I have for you today is a card I made for the Inspiration Challenge on Splitcoaststampers. We were given pictures of hotel rooms from the Hotel Fox in Copenhagen, Denmark, as our inspiration piece. This is the room that I chose.

This is the card that I made.

I used a variation of the Faux Bleach Technique that I used earlier in the week. I stamped the flourish and a butterfly in VersaMark and heat set. The floral silhouette was then stamped in VersaMark but was embossed with clear EP. I sprayed the image panel with a Broken China/Pearl distressed pearlized spray, and then placed the image between two pieces of copier paper and ironed. As you can see from this close-up, embossed area when ironed takes on the color of the background paper. However, the images stamped in VersaMark and not embossed, picked up a faint color from the distressed pearlized spray.

The background panel was stamped with the flourish, embossed with clear EP, and then ironed (the faux bleach part of the technique).

• Stamps: SU Baroque Motifs and Happiness Always; Wildflower Silhouette from Just for Fun Rubber Stamps
• Paper: SU Whisper White and Basic Black
• Ink: Tsukineko VersaMark; Ranger Archival Jet Black and Broken China Distress
• Accessories: Spellbinders Plain and Scalloped Circle Nestabilities; Ranger Mini Mister, Pearl Perfect Pearls, Super Fine Detail Clear EP, Craft Sheet; Brads; Ribbon; Iron

I hope you all have a great weekend, and if you are doing family things – have a great time!

Happy Monday! I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. I stayed in all weekend, cleaned in the studio, stamped a little, watched the Bristol race and then the Closing Ceremonies for the Olympics. As much as I enjoyed watching the Olympics, I was very glad to have them over. I was so engrossed with them, which was the only thing I watched all day long. The only thing I’m sad about is that the USA Taekwondo Team won medals and we didn’t get to see them action. Bummer since I do enjoy watching a good sparring match!

I have a couple of projects I’ve been working on this weekend, but I’m not going to show you today. Nope! One is for the Twisted and Demented Challenge I’m going to post on Wednesday (remember yesterday my hint was socks). Today your hint is swinging! The second project I hope to have for you tomorrow - I have to sneak laundry in sometime.

Today’s card is for the Try a New Technique Challenge on Splitcoast, Faux Dry Embossing. Such a fun technique and some of the cards I’ve seen, actually look like they’ve been embossed. I don’t know if I’m too happy with my card, I picked the cardstock and ribbon colors based on the Designer Paper I decided to use. See what I mean:

I used another new silhouette image I got at Stampaway from Just for Fun Rubber Stamps. The image panel is SU Soft Sky, which I stamped the image in white pigment first and then in Soft Sky again. The card base was stamped with the flourish from a Tim Holtz set in the same way, but I didn’t worry about lining it up like I did the main image. I picked a piece of Memory Box Aerial paper to use and wanted to bring out the yellow and orange in the birds. Thus, the reason for the orange ribbon and the yellow cardstock.

• Stamps: Floral Script Collage from Just for Fun Rubber Stamps; Birthday Sentiment and Tim Holtz Anthology by Stampers Anonymous from Rubbernecker Stamp Company
• Paper: Memory Box Aerial; SU Soft Sky and Baja Breeze; Prism Sunflower Medium
• Ink: SU Soft Sky and Baja Breeze; Ranger Adirondack Snow Cap Pigment and Archival Jet Black
• Accessories: SU Photo Corner, Circle and Scallop Punch; Brads; AC Ribbon; Ranger Inkssentials White Opaque Pen

Well, I suppose I should go start some laundry and try to get some household chores done. Hope you have a great day!

Well hello there! I hope you’ve all had a great weekend so far and are staying cool. It’s a little warm here in my part of the Ohio Valley - I believe they said it was 85 degrees at midnight last night. Makes it a little hard to breathe when you are outside, and these darn little shitz of mine insist on going for walks at the hottest part of the day! Oh well, the life of a grandmother - anything to make the babies happy (and no accidents on the rug too)!

I’ve been approached this morning from a reader about doing some twisted and demented cards! Now how fun is that . . . Nancy said she had an idea, I LOVED it, and when I asked her how she wanted to proceed, she said she had no idea and thought she would start with the “Queen of Twisted and Demented,” her Royal Badness. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! So after giving it some thought and emailing back and forth, I’ve decided that some T&D every so often would be fun. Here’s what I’m gonna do . . . . (drum roll)

Once a month I’m going to post a Twisted and Demented Challenge right here on my blog! I’ll come up with a keyword for you to use in your online galleries, and then ask that you post a link back here on my blog. Who knows, there might be some fun Tawdry Treats tossed around too! Start telling all the Twisted and Demented Sisters to get ready . . . the first challenge will be coming at you on Wednesday this week! Here’s a little hint — it has to do with socks! Anyone want to take a guess? This was Nancy’s idea and we are going to run with it!

I have been organizing my unmounted stamps for the last few days. Shelly decided that she couldn’t help me with that - bummer! Because of the chaos and mess this has caused in the studio, I didn’t get to stamp yesterday. In the mood for a little fun and carefree stamping this morning, I headed over to SCS to see who the Featured Stamper was today. Scrolling through kokirose’s gallery, I saw a card that I absolutely loved the colors of, the layout – well just everything about it! I had to play.

So, here’s my card for today’s Featured Stamper Challenge, cased from this card of kokirose. Of course, I changed the stamps, and the colors of cardstock, but I kept the same basic sketch.

The first thing I did, was swipe some Distress Pads on my craft sheet, misted it with water, and swiped a piece of white cardstock through it. I added more color by blending in the different inks from the edges of paper. After my color was down, I misted it again with water and then ironed it with an old steam iron I have started to use in my crafting. Of course, I did turn off the steam – don’t use steam! After it was dry, I scored 1″ squares using my new Scor-Pal (woo hoo gotta love this tool) and then stamped my images. French Script was first, the ferns second and then the silhouette. After all the stamping was done, I gave the entire panel a light misting of Scattered Straw Reinker/Gold Perfect Pearls/Water mixture (“pearlized-distress” mist).

• Stamps: Fern and Wildflower Silhouette from Just for Fun Rubber Stamps; SU French Script and Warmest Regards
• Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; SU Basic Black and More Mustard
• Ink: Ranger Tim Holtz Scattered Straw, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo Distress; Ranger Archival Jet Black
• Accessories: Ranger Mini Mister, Gold Perfect Pearls, Inkssentials Ink Blending Tool; Circle and Photo Corner Punches; Scor-Pal; Venture Foam Mounting Tape; Making Memories Brads; Ribbon

I can hardly believe that it’s Wednesday already. I guess my week is getting the better of me. I never did make it into the studio yesterday – heck I never even turned on the lights. I had an appointment yesterday morning and I was so close to Archivers that my car literally drove right there. I went looking for Ranger Perfect Pearls, and much to my chagrin they didn’t have any - neither does Hobby Lobby. I suppose the self-gratification of having other colors of Perfect Pearls will have to wait. HOWever, I was able to pick up some paper and plain grunge – WOO HOO!

What I have for you today, is a card made with some new stamps that I picked up at the Cincy Stampaway. I had met the owners of Just for Fun in Orlando earlier this year, and had a few minutes to talk to Deb while in Cincy. I was so taken with the silhouettes in their booth that I couldn’t resist walking away with a few in my bag.

I made this card for today’s SCS Sketch Challenge and used some of the new Deja Views paper I picked up at Archivers yesterday.

The image was colored with markers, misted with water and then stamped on Neenah white. The image was then cut out with a circle Nestability and the edges were sponged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The layered panels for the image were also cut out with plain and scallop Nestabilities. The background paper was cut to size and then sewn to another panel.

• Stamps: Queen Anne’s Lace from Just for Fun Rubber Stamps
• Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; SU Bordering Blue, Not Quite Navy and More Mustard; Deja Views Fresh Print Cherry
• Ink: SU Bordering Blue, More Mustard, Old Olive and Ruby Red; Ranger Vintage Photo Distress Ink
• Accessories: SU Stampin’ Write Markers; Tsukineko Sponge Dauber; Ranger Mini Mister; Spellbinders Plain and Scalloped Circle Nestabilities; Sewing Machine; Ribbon; Making Memories Brads; Clip

I’m heading back down to the studio to get some things caught up. I hope you have a great day!