Another "Treasure"

I can't seem to leave this stamp set alone. It's got to be my favorite Stamp of the Month set ever, although I'm relatively certain I've said that before. LOL. This card was inspired by a card I saw on the CTMH artwork board. It was created by Gina Brandstetter. I love the red/blue color combination.

Materials & Tools: White Daisy, Indian Corn Blue, and Cranberry cardstock; Cranberry, Olive, Indian Corn Blue, and Garden Green ink pads; Cranberry, Sunflower, and Olive markers; Treasure Life September SOTM set; Cranberry gingham ribbon; Stampin' Up Horizontal Slot punch; and Sponge dauber.

I got a little cleaning done and designed three club cards last night. I was pretty pleased with myself considering I was completely devoid of ideas when I first sat down at my desk. I think my friends will enjoy the projects albeit the fact that they're going to end up with inky fingers. I'll share them later in the day. For now, I'm off to do some laundry and clean my kitchen. Have a great day! I'll catch you later!

And You Thought . . .

I was going to put this stamp set away for a day or two. Well, that I was before I saw this great card on the 2B Krafty blog. Isn't Janine's card pretty? I was intrigued by the color combination, a couple of colors I don't think I've ever put together before. Now that the card is done, however, I'm wondering if I might not have liked Buttercup with Outdoor Denim more than I like the Moonstruck/Buttercup combination. I guess that's a question I'll have to answer on another day.

Materials & Tools: White Daisy, Moonstruck, and Buttercup cardstock; Moonstruck ink pad; Treasure Life September SOTM; Hero Arts Art Flowers Spring Collection; Moonstruck Bigger Brads; White mini brads; Acrylic discs from Michael's; Cuttlebug w/Swiss Dots embossing folder and Nestabilities Classic Ovals set.

By the time the guys got home from the golf tournament last night, Bjorn and Mathias were both in bed. Thus, they are still here. I'm going to go hop in the shower, and then I think we should make a trip outside for a little fresh air and exploration. I have another card to post later. Until then, enjoy the day!

Just One More . . .

. . . card made with Treasure Life. I couldn't put this stamp set away without making a card using the watercolor technique. I applied color to my stamps with markers. In keeping with the technique, I gave the first one a little shot of water with my fine mist sprayer and then discovered that with this particular stamp set, it worked just as well (or perhaps, better) to just "huff" the wet ink before stamping. For the centers of the yellow flowers, I used the brush end of my Brown Bag marker to "pounce" in a few random dots. Make sense? My sketch is based on Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #28.

Materials & Tools: Colonial White, Pansy Purple, and Indian Corn Blue cardstock; Pansy Purple ink pad; Sunflower, Olive, Indian Corn Blue, Pansy Purple, and Brown Bag markers; Treasure Life September SOTM set; Olive gingham ribbon from reasonableribbon.com; Pewter mini brads; Cuttlebug w/Swiss Dots embossing folder.

Bjorn and Mathias are so sweet this morning, and as they are busy playing with their toys and entertaining themselves, I'm actually getting some housecleaning done. I was able to sneak into my corner, too, and make a card that I'll show you later. I hope you're having a great day, too. Thanks for stopping by!

Harvest Moon

Here's another simple card created with Treasure Life, Close To My Heart's September Stamp of the Month set. To create the background, I used a round sponge to lightly apply Sunflower ink to Colonial White cardstock, making certain that the coverage was even where I planned to place my "moon" stencil - a circle cut from a Post-It note with a 1-1/4 inch punch. After placing my stencil where I wanted it, I applied more ink -Sunflower on the top two-thirds of the card, Autumn Terracotta on the bottom, and then more Sunflower to blend the colors together. I think to say I kind of scrubbed the ink into the paper is an appropriate description of how the ink is applied. One thing you might want to do is keep a baby wipe nearby for wiping off your inky fingers. Once the background looked the way I wanted it to, I stamped my flowers and sentiment with Cocoa ink. Thinking that I needed to add something, I tied a piece of Cocoa chiffon ribbon around the bottom. It didn't do anything more than distract from what on its own is a pretty card, so I removed it.

Materials & Tools: Colonial White and Cocoa cardstock; Cocoa, Sunflower, and Autumn Terracotta cardstock; Treasure Life September SOTM set; Post-It notes; 1-1/4 inch circle punch.

It was a long day. Fridays usually are in the summertime. A lot of people aren't around For every five email messages I send on a Friday, I get two or three "Out of Office" messages back. Lucky ducks. Either they work on salary or have managed their vacation time better than I have this year. As for the weekend, I don't know how much stamping I'll get done.

The little boys are here tonight and will be spending the whole day with me tomorrow while Daddy and Grandpa are at the golf course. The company my sons and I work for sponsors an annual golf social. This is Cameron's third year as its organizer. There are about 250 participants, so he's had a busy week. I promised Bjorn and Mathias we'd make cupcakes tomorrow. I suppose after we make them, we'll have to eat them!

For whatever reason, I'm really tired tonight. Going to bed early so that I have lots of energy tomorrow might be a good idea. I hope you have a good weekend, and like always, thanks for stopping by. While I may not have the opportunity to do any power stamping, I'll probably come up with something. I'll catch you then!

Treasure Life

Well, here it is . . . Treasure Life . . . September's Stamp of the Month set. Silhouette stamps! I was/am so thrilled. It's a beautiful set - a great combination of both large and small flowers and sentiments.

My card designs are all simple, partially because I was so anxious to try them all that I wasn't willing to fuss around too much. I used Petal textured cardstock for this first card. I love that this paper reverses to a lighter shade. You'll note I bent a few stems. Having the ability to "adjust" them is one of the features of acrylic stamps that I love.

Materials & Tools: White Daisy cardstock; Petal textured cardstock; Paper Garden paper packet; Petal ink pad; Treasure Life September SOTM set.

The stamp I used for my second card is a big tall one that I stamped over and over with second generation ink. Isn't this a nice sentiment? I love that it's tall!

Materials & Tools: Colonial white and Olive cardstock; Boom-Di-Ada paper packet; Olive ink pad; Treasure Life September SOTM set; Gold mini brads; Stampin' Up Word Window punch.

I thought my third card front was going to end up in the trash. Originally, I sponged layers of Baby Pink, Hollyhock, and Hydrangea ink on glossy cardstock. Once I was satisfied with the background, I stamped on my flowers and my sentiment. It was pretty. Then, while twisting the lid around on the Hydrangea pad to close it, the darned thing slipped out of my hand and land right smack dab in the middle of my stamped design. With a big purple blob looking up at me, I didn't have anything to lose, so I rubbed Hydrangea ink over the whole thing and then grabbed a tissue to wipe away the excess. What I ended up with was a background that was prettier than the original, and I probably couldn't duplicate it if I tried all day. It's probably kind of foolish for me to say that I like it when things turn out that way! I laughed out loud when I saw the glossy cardstock on Close To My Heart's list of retiring products. What I have is probably 10 years old, and sure enough, when I finally get around to learning how to use it, they discontinue it. I guess I'll have to stock up!

Materials & Tools: White Daisy and Black cardstock: Glossy white cardstock; Baby Pink, Hollyhock, and Hydrangea (heavy on this one!) ink pads; Treasure Life September SOTM set.

I have a couple more techniques I want to try with this set, so I'll probably have at least a couple more to show you within the next couple of days. My workday started out a little rocky this morning, but things quickly resolved themselves, so the day, as a whole, was OK. Besides, I took a very long lunch break and went out with a friend from the newspaper where I worked. We had a great time. She still bowls with the team I used to bowl with in the league I'm going to be bowling in again, which means I'll get to see her a lot more often - a good thing. I hope you've had a good day, too. Later . . .