Country Roads Stamping

Sail Away

Well, on any given day I'd like to do just that - Sail Away!  So this sneak peek of a stamp set used for a card I used for team meeting is called - Sail Away. Affordable and great for a masculine look.

 
This was so simple to put together yet looks nice.  Notice the new designer paper on the left - and the new twisted tine on the right - love this stuff for the nautical look.  This will be one of my favorite sets to use in the new mini.  It will be available on May 1.   That's all for the day!  See you tomorrow.

Easy Easy

Well, today I remembered to post my blog - I didn't suddenly remember !  I'm enjoying the cooler temperatures so much here.  We purchaed a window air conditioner for one of the extra bedrooms for our daughter and her husband but we may not even need it.  Finding an air conditioner here in the east is like finding a needle in a haystack!  Anyway - moving on. 

Here's a super easy card but yet it looks nice - I inked up my vintage wallpaper folder with cajun craze ink - then ran a piece of more mustard cardstock through that folder in the big shot - that inked, as well as embossed the design onto the cardstock - then I stamped the large image from Day of Gratitude - I had actually "rock & rolled" the edges a little to get some early espresso ink around the edges, cut that image out and punched a flower from Boho blossoms and then one of our cool glimmer brads from the new mini.  then I added the strip of Early Espresso and Cherry cobbler, which was punched with the new ribbon punch - which was surprisingly easy to use.  I had avoided purchasing it because I feared it would be difficult to use but it is not. 

With all of that said, the hardest thing on this card was cutting out the large image and let's face it - that certainly wasn't any great strain.  So this one went together fast but has interesting elements to it.  Ofcourse the big plus - the "fall" colors!!!  That's all for today - have a great day! 

A little shadow stamping

Stampin Up! has a monthly magazine called Stampin Success that we, as demonstrators get with lots of ideas and samples in it - in this month's it had a new technique - of sorts anyway - it has several different names which also include "drop down" stamping or blurred vision (which is most appropriate for me) 

Now I'm still perfecting this because I do think to get just the right look - it needs a little practice.  I originally stamped the image of the flowers from Just Believe in pacific Point ink - then I used my aligning tool (had to brush the dust off of it) and restamped the image slight to the right and down in black ink - making it look like a shadow - really - if it doesn't look like a shadow to you, then sort of squint your eyes up real tight!  

The background is done by simply stamping the en francais stamp in Night of navy ink, spritzing the paper with water and then wadding it up - yes, wadding it up - that's not some typo.  Then straighten the paper back out and take the little stamp spots from the distressing kit and lightly 'sweep' across the paper, especially where the creases were made.  It gives it a distressed look and for some of you - it might cause distress just doing this technique because you don't like anything on your card that looks, hmm, messy.  I'm thinking from a personal stand point,  that a distressing kit can cover up a lot of mistakes! 

The colors of cardstock used were night of navy and bashful blue and ofcourse night of navy grosgrain ribbon.  I kept this one pretty monochromatic. 
 

Computer Problems

Well, it does seem if not one thing then another here.  Yesterday with all the storms - the electricty went off and when it came back on - the computer did not.  We've worked and coerced it back to life, however, I am going to be on a mission to look for a new computer today. Joy oh bliss.  Not something I had planned into my day today.  I will do my best to put up my blog posts through this week but if the power goes off again - I'm literally sunk.  So with that said - today's card is a sneak peek at the Holiday mini - we received this stamp set free at convention, as well as the designer paper.

The stamp set is a level 2 hostess set and while this is a very mundane, boring card (I promise I'll do better) I wanted to just play with the set and try it out.  It is called Peaceful Season and I love the swirly writing of the greetings.  I should have left well enough alone and left the folder off of here - but I did want to try it out.  The new paper is called Deck the Halls and it is very very pretty - there are some pieces I'd just like to frame and put up as decorations for Christmas. 

As a demonstrator, we can order early from the minis and I received my order yesterday - unfortunately, I will travel out of town for the week-end and won't get to play a lot with the new toys!  However, I will be heading to Jan Wakeland's Stamp world - so I will get to make a few items there!  Well, I had better get a move on while the computer and the weather is cooperating with me!   

A little Watercolor Trio - from the Heart!

Good Day Friday - whew - the end of another hot week - I'm beginning to think that Utah may seem cool after the heat here. 

Today I tried a different look - I pulled out my Watercolor Trio set and inked it up with marina mist, daffodil delight, and Old olive (flowers and butterflies) and did a little "stamping off" which means I stamped once with full ink and then the next image would be a second stamp with whatever ink was left.

This looks like a line of flowers kind of blowing in the wind - well, if you squint your eyes half shut they do ;)  I used the Vintage wall paper folder, although you can't see much of it - on the pacific point cardstock and then punched out some 1 inch circles to make the scallop edge at the top - simply by overlapping each of them a little.  Then ofcourse large oval and scalloped oval for the From the Heart greeting, which is also a part of this set.  Just a few "novel" ideas for something different to try.  Off to complete swaps for convention and play with new toys that arrived - I must tell you that the owl punch is just too stinkin cute for words!!!!  You'll probably be seeing him on here next week!!!!!  Have a great week-end. 

Printed Petals

Welcome back to another day in the country!  Yesterday I finished up my Tropical Party classes and now trying to get all my fall and winter classes planned and dates picked out!  Always planning something it seems!!!  In the past few days I've taken time to just go to my stamp room and play, which has been a lot of fun - new stamps, new ink and new paper are always fun to use and creativity seems to be near the surface when there are new toys!!!

So today I'm showing you a card made with Printed Petals, found on page 106 of the New Catalog - this is a stamp set we received as a gift on the cruise earlier this Spring.  I've used this on several cards and my favorite is the large flower which you can see below:

Wow - this will wake you up and get your heart pumping!  Here's a twist on Red, white and blue!  I used Real Red, Tempting Turquoise and of course whisper white - the Hello is from the stamp set Hello Again - page 110 in the catalog - I used the 3/4 inch circle punch for the center of the flower and the 1 inch and 1 1/4 for the hello and ofcourse the scalloped edge punch for the edging - I love the little flowers stamped randomly to make it look like a designer paper on the white strip.  This is definitely not a card that you could lose in a pile of cards - it would stand out! 

Well, that's enough for today - still have a lot of swaps to finish and stamp camp to prepare for.  I can't believe that convention is mere days away - How in the world did this time fly by so quickly - can't wait to see old friends and make some new ones.  I will hopefully have posts all ready for when I'm gone and will add to those while I'm in Salt Lake City. Here's hoping it all gets done! Have a great one!

RemARKable Sneak Peek Blog Tour Day 1

Welcome to the Remarkable Sneak Peek Blog Tour - I'm sure you will enjoy the tour and get lots of ideas to use with the new product from the catalog.  To begin with - the very first thing I wanted to post was using something I saw and immediately loved.

Oh man, I can hear you now - What?  This is boring, where is the new product?  Blah blah, blah - well, this is a cabinet - see the little door knobs?  Notice the wood grain? (That's from #4 Texturz Plate)  It's what is inside that counts . . . .

Now see, the inside is definitely better!  This is our new jumbo wheel - Baby Tees - I love this wheel - how cute is this?  I actually ran a piece of wire through the coat hangers - then added the "drawers" and notice on the right hand side - I took our paper piercing tool and made little holes too give the look of peg board and I colored the little "tees" with certainly celery, daffodil delight, pumpkin pie and pacific point markers.I used the Happy New Baby from the Family Phrases stamp set. Well, this is great to have this card - but what if you have a small gift - or "cheap" gift and you want to dress it up a bit?  How about an empty band-aid container?

I used the Greenhouse Gala paper to wrap around the tin - then ran the wheel and colored the little tees again - I added cajun craze and crumbcake markers to these - then cut out one of the tees as a tag and added our ribbon for a little more pop.  This would be great to put some little socks in or a gift card and then mom could use this as a storage container for small items later.  That's all for day one - thanks for coming by and now click below to move on to the next stop on the tour!   

Happy Monday!

Off to another week - I do think that because of the really nasty weather we had this year - that I am enjoying the spring weather a lot more this year.  Maybe appreciating the weather would be a better phrase.  It is just wonderful to see the sun out - lilacs are starting to bud. I have a picture but keep forgetting to load it on the computer - it is what I see every day as I look out my kitchen window - must share that with all of you. 

Today's card is a sneak peek of one of the stamp sets in the new mini that will come out on May 1.

Isn't this a fun set?  I'm no ice cream fan - but I love the images.  I embossed the cones, as well as the ice cream scooops so there is a little glare - sorry about that - the new embossing folder - man, it is great - it is the blue cardstock, however, it almost looks like designer paper it makes such a great design.  Then the pink paper is designer paper - retired - but I thought it paired great with the ice cream! 

Well, must get moving - working on a scrapbook page for my scrappers that meet this week - have the pages almost completely designed but must finish them up - have a great first day of the week!!! 

Flowers Awash Again

Well, back again with Flowers Awash - such a light, Springy stamp set and we have been challenged to use it by Stampin Up, as well as the Remarkables - so I'm going to work with it for several cards until I get one I really really like - this might be one of those.  The colors are bright, Yo Yo Yellow, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink , even bashful blue- all spring like colors.

Once again, I used the butterfly embosslit - out of vellum - then I used my markers to color the backside of the butterflies - so they show up a little more.  I used the Hugs pieces from the Occasions mini for the main white piece and just stamped the flowers as if they were a group of flowers growing together.  Also used the finial press folder, but only used it on half of the card.

All in all, I like this one - I actually like the look of it better in person.  That's all for today.     

 

Middle of the week

Whew - cannot believe it is already WEdnesday - this week is absolutely flying by.  Christmas is going to be on the doorstep way before I am ready for it!!!  The next three days I have classes or meetings in the morning and classes in the evening - so I worked like crazy yesterday getting everything cut and ready and baked one more batch of cookies.  Must wrap the husband's gifts and get those delivered so that all the ladies are happy come Christmas morning. 

I have another card I want to share with you from RAD - I do have a couple more Christmas items but I will get them up before the week is up - Today's cards uses a new stamp set that will be one of the stamp sets you can earn during Sell a bration, which begins in January. 

This was one of the first cards I made using the clear stamps and I had a small problem - pushed too hard on a couple of the stamps - not necessary with these clear stamps - a nice easy touch works fine - these little roofs were easy as pie to place properly on the houses using the clear stamps - I did not expect to like these little buggers but they are great.  The clouds are also a new dsp and   Check out that background!!!!  Whoopee - it is the dotted swiss folder and Stampin Up carries this now - love it love it.  These will all be available in just a few weeks. 

Several more things to share with you - must get some pictures loaded on here again - had a few computer problems today and had to do some replacement of equipment so was busy doing that instead of loading pictures.  So many things to do and not enough hours in the day!!!  Off to finish prepping for the events this week - have a great day and thanks for popping in!!!