Tour de Freaks Bog Hop!

Woo Hoo! It's that time of month again! Ha ha!

This month, the theme is Christmas. I love Christmas cards and projects and I know the group will have some amazing projects for you to see. You probably came my way via Dawn Olchefske - she's amazing!

My first 2 projects are ornaments that I made using the Big Shot and the Snowflake #2 die. I used several of the dies layered to create the 3D effect. I also used the clear rhinestone brads in the middle and of course the fantastic silver cord.

The next one is a card using Green Galore base, Real Red embossed with the Petals a Plenty embossing folder. The Sleigh Bells ribbon and the Snowflake #2 die again along with the sparkle die with a clear rhinestone brad in the middle.

I forgot to mention that I used the Bride specialty papers all the ornaments - it's just gorgeous!

Well, that's all for me this time. Now you're off to enjoy the creations of the lovely Kimberly Morris. Just click below to go to her blog:

September Tour de Freaks!

Hey all! I hope everyone is getting used to the new school schedule by now.......I'm still having trouble, but we're getting it figured out!

You may have found your way here by way of the lovely Dawn Olchefske. She always has fabulous projects to share!

Our theme this month is Fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving. I love projects with these themes! I just love all the colors that go with them.

My first project is a card using one of my fave sets called "Seasons of Friendship". It has this great tree image, with several little images that you can put with the tree - a little birdie, a flower, leaves and a snowflake. It also has the great saying with it that you see on my card.

My base is Brocade Blue, layered with More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, and then Very Vanilla on top. On the Vanilla piece I brayered More Mustard on the top half and Brocade Blue on the bottom - but first putting a circle that I punched out of printer paper and sticking it on using removable adhesive. I used printer paper because the thinner paper works best so you get a clear shape because the brayer can get the ink right up to the template edge. I stamped the tree image using Chocolate Chip ink and stamping it three times without reinking. That gives you the shadowy images. Then I stamped the leaves using Crushed Curry, More Mustard and Chocolate Chip (I stamped off first when using the chocolate chip so it wouldn't be too dark) I stamped the verse in Chocolate Chip and used 3 of our Antique Brass Vintage brads.

On the Mustard layer, I added a little faux stitching down the side. and finished it off using some of our awesome Chocolate Taffeta ribbon.

For my next project, I made a cute little name place card/treat cup for a Halloween party or just to give to friends! I'm addicted to these little Sweet Treat Cups that are in the new Holiday Mini Catalog. And you get 12 of them for $2.95!! That's a bargain and they are so darn cute and easy to do! You can fill them with just about anything! Okay, probably not liquid! But my project gets pretty darn close to toeing that line!

This is the top of it. I used Pumpkin Pie and I freehanded the web using the white gel pen. The little circle is punched out using our scalloped circle punch. That circle is actually what was punched out of the middle of the image that's on the bottom part that you'll see in the next picture. I used our large oval punch and Elegant Eggplant layered with Pumpkin Pie punched with the small oval punch. I popped up the circle and the ovals with dimensionals and wrote my son's name using the white gel pen again! I love that pen!

Now you can kind of see where that circe came from! I stamped the same image from the Sweet Centers set using the Pumpkin Pie ink and used the 3/4" and 1/2" circe punches to punch out some of the orange images to layer on top of the Eggplant piece. I also used a smaller hole punch to punch out the eyes of the orange image so the purple showed through on them. For some reason, I did not like the orange eyes, nose and mouths!! I'm weird like that! AND, the best part.....I filled the little cup with Oobleck! (Easy! Just mix 1/2 cup corn starch with 1/4 cup water and add food coloring!) That's why I made this one to sit on the cup part, so the oobleck would not be touching the cardstock and make it soggy. The flash made it hard to see the color, so I took another picture to capture that a little better! So cute!

My last project is another Sweet Treat Project! It's a cute card using the sets Animal Crackers and Sweet Centers again. My base is More Mustard layered with the Top Note Die shapes in Really Rust and Very Vanilla. I punched out a scalloped circle punch to use for a template and sponged Bashful Blue while moving it around in different positions. I paper pieced the balloon basket using the Rust and Mustard papers and popped it up with dimensionals. I stamped the squirrel in Chocolate Chip and sponged it using chocolate and mustard inks, cut it out and stuck him in the basket. I had to freehand some little whiskers so you could distinguish the nose/eye! For some reason, it just didn't look right when you couldn't see the whole squirrel - it just looked like little dots! I filled the cup with almonds! It's finished off with the 1/2 twill tape. I really like that stuff, but just don't think to use it very often. It's very easy to work with.

Well.....I hope you enjoyed my projects today! Please come back again to visit! But now you're in for a real treat when you visit the fabulous Kimberly Morris! She is very talented and continues to knock my socks off with each project! Just click below to see:

Tour de Freaks - Tour #3!!!

This has been so fun to do and I feel so honored to be a part of this amazingly talented group of women!! Don't forget to check back on the 20th of every month to take a new tour! You may just be joining us from the lovely Julie Dinn's blog, kreativejewels, isn't she wonderful??!!

Well, let's get started!

My first project is one that we learned at our Regional and I just love it! It's a little card holder that holds 3 little note cards and 3 envelopes. Perfect for gifts and easy enough to make several at a time! I used our Razzleberry Lemonade Designer Paper and the Flight of the Butterfly stamp set. I also used our Wide Oval Punch, our Large Oval Punch, our eyelet border punch and the Swirly die with our Big Shot. This project features our new In Colors for this catalog! Aren't they fabulous!

On the front of my project, I used Melon Mambo, Crused Curry, and Rich Razzleberry. I also used the Rich Razzleberry Polka Dot Grograin Ribbon. I layered the Curry oval on the Melon oval, layered a couple of butterly images and put them together. The sentiment is from the Fresh Cuts stamp set - I just love that font!

This is the note holder open with the cards on the right and envelopes on the left.

One this note card, the base is Crushed Curry. I added a little of the Razzleberry Lemonade Designer Paper (just a one inch strip) on the bottom of the inside so you could see it underneath the eyelet border.

This one I used Soft Suede.

And this one is Bermuda Bay - arent' these great names! By the way, don't you just love my papertowels behind the cards?? It's quilted!! ha ha!

My next project also uses the In Colors sponged on using a template that I made by punching out circles and laying it on top of the card. I just inked up the small flower on the Inspired by Nature set to stamp on the front. The ribbon is a great technique just using glue dots to gather the ribbon to make it ruffly! You should be able to click on the picture to enlarge it to see the detail of it a little better. It adds a really fun touch!

The base of this card is Basic Black, then layered with Crushed Curry, and then Whisper White on top. I used the Rich Razzleberry ink for the middle circle and Crushed Curry for the other two. The one on the right, I just added a little more ink to make it darker in color. The ribbon is the Rich Razzleberry Polka Dot Grograin Ribbon again. The sentiment is from the Trendy Trees set.

Next on the tour, you'll be visiting the one and only Connie Babbert! Just click below to see her wonderful works of art! And don't forget to check back next month! Thanks for stopping by!

Blogger's Challenge - Sketch

This week was a fun sketch! That simply means that you are given a "sketch" of a layout of a card and you create it according the sketch. I personally love these challenges because it kind of gives you a starting place, especially if you're lacking in your mojo! LOL! Here's the sketch:

And here's my card that I made:

I used my new favorite product from our new catalog - the Sunny Day Simply Scrappin' Kit. I absolutely love the colors, the images and the papers in this kit. You simply HAVE to have it!! I started out with a white base, and added the top background layer, which is a paper from the kit. Then I decided to add the Big Shot Die "Swirly" in a couple of different colors. After I cut them out in the Pumpkin and the Pink Passion, I decided to try to piece the different colors together for the next layer! It turned out really cute, I thought! Then I added another little piece of the Pink Swirly and trimmed it off at both ends after finding the perfect place for it on the card. The flower images and the cute little birdie tag on the top are some of the cardstock stickers from the kit. The sentiment is from the Best Wishes and More set. I sponged a little of the turquoise chalk around the tag to add a little shading. I was pretty darn pleased with how it turned out!

Can't believe that summer is coming to an end already. Time for school shopping, school open houses, locker check outs, schedule pick ups, and more. Oh my.......here we go again!

July Tour de Freaks Blog Tour Starts Now!

Wow! Time for another Control Freaks Blog Hop already! I'm super excited to share my projects and for you to visit all the other "Freaky" blogs to see their amazing projects as well! If you came from Jan Tinklenberg's blog, you're on the right track! On the blog tour this month we are featuring NEW stamp sets from the new catalog.

My projects are using the fabulous new set called "Wings of Friendship". I love this set with the new Designer Series Paper "Razzleberry Lemonade". I made a little gift set that features several different projects. Take a look:

Isn't it cute?! Here's a closer look at the individual projects (with a little better lighting!). The first one is a Post It Note holder. I used the Razzleberry Lemonade papers and the sentiment stamp that reads "Your friendship means the world to me". I also used a little of the Razzleberry Polka Dot ribbon. I used a hair band for the closure. I put it underneath the ribbon, so when you open it, the band stays attached to the cover so it won't get lost! In the picture, you can really see my dimensionals I used to attach the sentiment (which is on vellum, by the way!), but it's really not that noticeable in real life. Just the lighting of the camera, I guess.

Here's a picture of it open:

Next is the matching pen! I used some of our Sticky Strip red line tape, which is the bomb for sticking paper, glitter, beads, ribbon, kids up on the walls.......just kidding about that last one! But it's pretty sticky, it would probably work if you wanted to try it! ha ha! I just wrapped the Sticky Strip around the pen and cut a piece of the DSP to fit and rolled it around. And there is some of that awesome Razzleberry Ribbon again!

This is a mini magazine holder shaped box to hold some little 3 x 3 gift cards. I used the Crushed Curry cardstock, stamped some of the other images with the Curry ink to give it a tone on tone look. To jazz it up a little, I stamped the bird and the flower images on vellum with the Razzleberry ink, cut them out and adhered them using dimensionals. I used a strip of the DSP and ribbon around the bottom. Here's a 360 of the box: (just ignore the little back pieces of the dimensionals that are static stuck to the bottome! I don't know how I didn't notice that while taking the pics!)

Here are the cute little 3 x 3 cards that are inside the box. I used most of the patterns of the Razzleberry Lemonade DSP on them with the sentiment again. Our Wide Oval punch and Large Oval Punch work so great with many of our sets! These are all of the new In Colors! Minus the Rich Razzleberry - it's the color of the ribbon I've used on it. The colors are - Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay, Soft Suede, Dusty Durango, and Crushed Curry. Don't they sound as yummy as they look?!

Well, that's all my projects! I hope you enjoyed them! The next stop on the tour is going to be at the home of the projects of one creative lady - so hop on over and check out what the lovely Dawn Olschefske has for you!

Have a great tour!

Blogger's Challenge - CASE

This week, the challenge was to CASE ("Copy And Steal Everything") a fellow Blogger's Challenge member. EVERYONE is so talented, it's hard to choose one! But I kept coming back to this card, made by none other than my BFF Lisa Martz:


I love the layers and the different shapes....it's just a fun card! Here's my CASE:


My CASE was the sketch, or the layout of the card. I obviously changed the colors and the images to make it my own. I used some of the new In Colors that I absolutely love this time! My base is Rich Razzleberry, and the next layer is a piece of the textured Melon Mambo and a piece of the Razzleberry Lemonade Designer Series Paper (LOVE THIS!). The next layer up is another piece of the Razzleberry Lemonade paper in a different color/pattern. I used images from the stamp set Blooming With Love. I replaced Lisa's beautiful coloring on her card with paper piecing on mine! I'm not a very good colorer! I'm working on it though! The pot is another one of the new In Colors called Dusty Durango - it makes a great terra cotta pot! The flowers are cut out and layered on also, that's how I got them to overlap the pot. I JUST got the eyelet border punch -- can you believe that?! I've survived this long without it! It's very fun and I'll be using it a lot now that I have it! I stamped the watering can on the Melon Mambo piece with the VersaMark pad. That part was an after-thought -- it may have made the card a little bottom heavy.......now that I think about it, there's nothing wrong with bottom-heavy! ha ha! Bottom heavy is beautiful! I think this may have opened a new door for me -- I think this is the first project I've done with NO ribbon in a long time!

Well, that's it for today. Gotta go clean some more and cut paper for my open house tomorrow. (Anyone that is local is welcome to come! Email me if you need info.)

Thanks for stopping by!

Deal of the week!

For July, Stampin' Up! is announcing a new Deal of the Week every Monday! Isn't that cool! This week the Deal is the Big Shot Doctor's Bag for only $49.95!! It's normally $69.95 -- now that's a deal! It's perfect for carrying the Big Shot around or for storing it. It could be used to carry other things as well - perfect, and oh so stylish, for a crop night!

I just love cute bags, and this one is no exception!! How cute is that?! Just contact me via email or through the comment section of this post to take advantage of this great deal -- but remember, it's for this week only!

If you would also like info on the Big Shot machine, just let me know! It's a toy that I rarely stamp without now that I have it!

I hope everyone is having a great start to their week, and I'll be back with a project real soon!