Happy Friday!  It’s rainy here today with a nip in the air – a perfect day to spend indoors stamping.  I haven’t done a Splitcoaststampers Challenge in what seems like weeks.  Actually it probably has been weeks with my traveling and all.  I’ve checked in on them every day this week, but the mojo has failed me.

All week long, the challenges have been in honor and celebration of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  They have gone PINK!  Since this is a cause near and dear to me, I couldn’t let another day go by without participating.

I think this is the first time that I have combined more than two challenges into one card.  Today, I’ve combined four: the Color Challenge to use Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss and Chocolate Chip; the Sketch Challenge; the Ways to Use it Challenge to use just one word; and today’s Limited Supply Challenge to use leaves.

A few months ago I went to Cincinnati Stampaway with some friends, and bought a few of the new Studio 490 sets.  I met the designer, Wendy Vecchi, at Winter CHA and was in total awe of her designs.  I was so excited at Summer CHA to see that she had released sets incorporating her unique style with chipboard and grunge board.  Today I finally broke them in and put a little ink on them!

Let’s start with the Grunge Board leaves and flowers first.  I stamped the images on the Grunge Board, cut them out, and then inked the leaves with Kiwi Kiss and the flowers with Worn Lipstick.  An idea-ology Hitch Fastener holds the petals of the flower together.  The background papers started as white.  To give them color, I swiped both Pink Pirouette and Worn Lipstick on my Ranger Craft Sheet, misted the ink with water and laid my paper in the ink to pick up the color.  Using a craft iron, I ironed over the paper to dry it.  This process was continued to keep adding layers of color to the white paper.  The sentiment, dream, was part of a phrase that I masked, inking only the one word to stamp on the third panel.

• Stamps: Studio 490 Dreams of Art, Flower Art and Ticket to Art from Stampers Anonymous
• Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; SU Chocolate Chip
• Ink: Ranger Archival Coffee, Worn Lipstick and Vintage Photo Distress; SU Pink Pirouette and Kiwi Kiss
• Accessories: Tim Holt idea-ology Plain Grunge Board and Hitch Fastener; Ranger Mini Mister, Gold Perfect Pearls and Inkssential Ink Blending Tool; Tonic Tim Holtz Distressing Tool; Clover Craft Iron; Tsukineko Sponge Dauber; Venture Foam Tape; Ribbon

Have a little fun today and stamp trying something new!

Happy Friday!  I have some exciting (well I think it is exciting) new today.  Yesterday Rubbernecker started a company blog!  Can you see me jumping up and down?  I’ve heard from so many of you inquiring about the Rubbernecker Blog Challenges and if we were going to start them again.  Well, yes we are!  Only now they will be hosted on the RN Blog.  Not only will you be able to find the challenges there, but it will also be the place for tutorials, techniques, product info, our show schedule, and chats with the Design Team.  Please stop by Rubbernecker Stamps - Company Blog and say hi!

Because I worked all day yesterday on the blog and other matters, I didn’t have time to stamp.  I started down to the studio this morning when my phone rang.  Kate was having car problems – MOM to the RESCUE!  See, they still need us even when they think they don’t!

I was intrigued by the Limited Supply Challenge on Splitcoast today, and needed to play along.  The object of today’s challenge to create a card using a technique with only paper, ink and stamps.  I took that to mean no acrylic paint, embossing powders, fancy sprays, etc. - just ink!  To make things even more interesting, while having my daily blog fix this morning, I saw Beate’s weekend sketch challenge.  I’ve never played along in Beate’s challenges and today just decided I needed a little fun.

Anyhoo, here’s my card today.

I decided to make the larger panel in Beate’s sketch the image panel, even though Beate used designer paper in this area and she also made the small panel her image.  Brilliant actually!  To make the background, I took out my Ranger craft sheet and down the center I swiped three ink colors directly from the pad, Mustard Seed, Broken China and Fired Brick.  I then misted the ink swipes with water until beads started to form on the craft sheet.   Taking my piece of white paper, I laid the paper down in the middle of the ink and picked it right back up.  I then dried the paper with a heat tool.  This step was repeated until I had picked up most of the ink from the craft sheet.  It is important however to the paper dry between adding layers.  This adds interest to the background.  By the way, the sentiment panel was created the same way.  After creating the background, the images were stamped and more color was added to the edges using a blending tool.  For more interest I distressed the edges, and then stitched the panel to the actual card base.

• Stamps: Sentiment and Tim Holtz Nature’s Discovery by Stampers Anonymous from Rubbernecker Stamp Company
• Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; Scrapperdashery Love is Patient; SU Barely Banana
• Ink: Ranger Tim Holtz Mustard Seed, Broken China, Fired Brick and Dusty Concord Distress, Archival Jet Black and Coffee
• Accessories: Ranger Craft Sheet, Mini Mister, Inkssentials Blending Tool; Venture Foam Tape; Sewing Machine; Tonic Tim Holtz Distress Tool; Ribbon

Have a great day!

With all the hustle and bustle recently I haven’t stayed on top of what’s going on around me. I know I’m a few days late, but there are some exciting challenges going on over a Splitcoaststampers. It’s Dare to Get Dirty 2008! Dirty Dozen Designers, both past and present, have some exciting challenges planned this week for all the Fan Club Members. You can find more deets here!

Because of my travel schedule, I didn’t host or make samples for any of the challenges, however I am getting to play along. Today’s challenges are hosted by Lauren Meader and Jenn Balcer.

This is the card I made for Lauren’s challenge.

I started with Neenah Classic Crest Solar White paper and misted different colors of Shimmer Mist containing Gold Perfect Pearls on the paper. The cornucopia and sentiment were stamped in Vintage Photo Distress Ink and then embossed with Queen’s Gold Embossing Powder. The image panel was then cut out with Spellbinders Oval Nestabilities and layered on one cut with the scalloped edge.

• Stamps: Give Thanks from Our Daily Bread Designs
• Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; Prism Bronze and Bronze Ore Metallic Paper
• Ink: Ranger Tim Holtz Vintage Photo, Scattered Straw, Dried Marigold and Embossing Distress
• Accessories: Ranger Mini Mister, Gold Perfect Pearls, and Queen’s Gold Embossing Power; Tsukineko Sponge Dauber; Ribbon

My second card today is for Jenn’s challenge.

I used the emboss resist technique in making the background for this card. The flourishes were stamped in Snow Cap pigment ink and then embossed with UTEE. After the images where dry, I used an ink blending tool and worked Black Soot Distress Ink over the paper. Once I had the desired black, I wiped the excess ink from the embossed images. Oh I should say that this is the new Tim Holtz set that we received during our Ranger class at CHA!

• Stamps: Tim Holtz Nature’s Discovery from Stampers Anonymous
• Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White and SU Basic Black
• Ink: Ranger Snow Cap Pigment, Archival Jet Black and Tim Holtz Black Soot Distress
• Accessories: Ranger Clear UTEE and Ink Blending Tool; Ribbon; Mounting Tape

I guess that’s it for me today. I’m still somewhat tired from the trip and I so feel a nap coming on!