Prima Butterflies!

Stamp Simply Challenge Number 120: Create using something new! The new items used here are these pretty Prima Butterflies and Victoria CuttleBug folder!

Prima Flowers are definitely some of my favorite go-to embellishments; so when I saw these Prima Butterflies, I HAD to check them out! I had a bit of difficulty capturing their sheer delicacy in my photo...they are absolutely gorgeous IRL!

Prism Copper Metallic cardstock was used throughout. A Victoria CuttleBug folder was used to create texture.

Do you ever have difficulty transferring what is in your head to paper? Well, that was the case for me this evening! I reworked this card numerous times--the extra layer of gold: gone. Vertical to horizontal, then back to vertical. Birthday sentiment...not any more! I finally decided enough was enough! LOL!!!

Take a look and see what the rest of the Stamp Simply DT has come up with:

Sharon Johnson

Michelle Woerner, December Guest Designer

Jennifer Buck
Janine Orchard
Julie Koerber
AJ Otto
Tammy Hershberger
Barbara Anders
Jenny Gropp

Have a wonderful New Year's Eve and New Year's Day! Happy 2010!

Baby Silas' Baptism

This post is three-fold: provide a sneak peek of Our Daily Bread design's January Release, "Bastism/Confirmation Verses," participate in Splitcoaststampers Sketch Challenge for today, and create a design for my new nephew Silas' upcoming baptism. Here's what I came up with:

Let me tell you about the new release set from Our Daily Bread first. This set contains four Bible verse suitable for baptism and confirmation. It enhances and builds upon the two other new January release sets. I really love the mix of fonts here...it adds such a special touch!


I stamped the Ephesians verse with Versafine Sepia ink, then heat embossed it with Stampin' Up's clear embossing powder. I used a Spellbinder's Petite Oval to die cut the verse, then mounted the oval panel to a die cut Spellbinder's Rectangle cardstock.

The beautiful cardstock is Prism's Champagne Metallic Cardstock, available at Our Daily Bread designs. You can see the subtle gleam and rich appearance in the above picture. I ran the cardstock through both CuttleBug Argyle and Houndstooth folders, then diagonally cut the panels and fit them together.

Here's another picture of the little guy, along with his big sister, Lydia. Silas turns one week old today!

Be certain to check out Our Daily Bread design's new releases, January 1st! There will be a fun blog hop, three prizes available, and SUPER news! You can begin at the ODBD Blog to join in the fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Monogrammed Black Tie

Time to play with Christmas goodies! I wanted to create a quick monogrammed design for my gift thank you cards this year. This design would work for many situations: invitations, personalized note cards, birthday...you get the idea! But most important--ease! You could quickly mass produce this design will little effort!

Look at this gorgeous KaiserCraft decorator paper! It's from the Lilac Avenue 6 X 6" pad. The Lilac Avenue pad has numerous glitter, flocked, foiled, and diecut sheets in it--all in a beautiful lilac and spring green colorway!

I decided to layer up the glimmery top layer with white and black cardstocks...it reminded me of a lovely black tie event with tuxedos and glamorous ball gowns. Simple and quick, but elegant with multiple layers.

My monogram was created using JustRite's Deluxe Square Monogram Kit. The kit contains four pretty frames along with different sized Special Occasions Font. I stamped the actual monogram letters with Versafine Black Onyx ink, then quickly doused it with Stampin' Up Iridescent Ice embossing powder, giving a touch of extra gleam. KaiserCraft's Amethyst mini ink cube was used to color the frame of the monogram...it matches the Lilac Avenue paper just perfectly! A tiny Kaiser rhinestone finishes the monogram panel.

Spellbinder Classic Square Dies were used to cut the monogram panel.

No bow today...I wanted a flat design that is easily mailable!

I wanted to mention that all of the supplies (minus the black and white cardstock) to create this project are currently available at the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store! Be sure to drop by and check Sharon's blog and store out!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

ODBD New Release: Noah's Ark

I'm so excited to show you one of Our Daily Bread design's new January Release sets: "Noah's Ark." The stamp Bible verse (Genesis 8:22), sentiments, and Cecil Frances Alexander quote (All things bright and beautiful...) in this set are so versatile, they can be used for welcome baby or baptism designs! The image is quite whimsical, with pairs of critters awaiting for a sign of dry land.

I relied on bright colors and textures for this design, using the Swirl Cuttlebug folder, and Bazzill textured light blue and nutmeg cardstocks.

After stamping the ark with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto white cardstock, I used multiple Copic markers to color the design. I used a light blue color to add speckles around the design (almost impossible to see here, sorry!) to make a more interesting sky IRL.


I used a Spellbinder Large Deckled Rectangle to die cut the image panel...I love the jagged edge for a more casual design!


Multiple rainbow colored cardstock strips were taped together to create the background.


Red twill ribbon and extra large eyelets add accents to the finished design.

Noah's Ark, along with two other sets, will be available at Our Daily Bread January 1st! Be sure to check out the ODBD Blog Jan. 1st for a great blog hop, as well as other EXCITING news!


Also on January 1:PRIZES FOR THREE FORTUNATE BLOG HOP WINNERS! Kelley has generously offered to give away not one, not two, but THREE PRIZES ! So three winners will be chosen, and they can each choose one set of their choice!

Thanks so much for stopping by to take a peek! Have a wonderful week!


Stamp set: ODBD Noah's Ark
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: PaperTrey ink white and colors, SU colors, Bazzill textured Nutmeg and Light Blue
Extras: Spellbinders Large Deckled Rectangle die, SU large eyelets, PTI red twill, dimensional tape, Crop-o-dile

Snowflake in Blue

Crisp and clean...just like the snow falling right now outside of my window!

My design today features Our Daily Bread design's beautiful snowflake from December release, "Peace & Joy." What a lovely snowflake to emboss! I stamped the flake onto a linen vellum with Versamark ink. I then heat embossed it with PearLuster Sapphire embossing powder from Michael's. A Kaiser gemstone adds a touch of glimmer.

Look closely: you can see the texture from the linen vellum, as well as the beautiful blue embossing. A Spellbinder Small Octagon die frames the image, mounted with dimensional tape.

A pretty damask background paper, layered with more of the vellum, as well as a sheer ribbon finishes this design!

Stamp used: Our Daily Bread designs Peace & Joy
Ink: Versamark, PearLustre ep
Papers: Stampin' Up retired dp and Buckaroo Blue cardstocks, PaperTrey Ink Linen Vellum
Extras: Spellbinder Octagon, Kaiser rhinestone, SU corner punch, unknown white sheer ribbon

I wanted to share a picture of my new nephew, Silas John, with his mom--my sister Linda:

Silas was born December 23rd, and is a very precious Christmas gift for our entire family!

Thanks so much for stopping by on this beautiful, snowy Sunday! I hope that you enjoy your day!

Christmas Eve Thank You

Happy Christmas Eve! Having just returned from Christmas Eve church service, I had yet to design my Stamp Simply challenge card. Thankfully, the Stamp Simply challenge was to create a CAS thank you, and it came together quite quickly. My idea of a CAS is to chose a beautiful piece of decorator paper, layered up with a gorgeous Prima flower and luxurious silk ribbon.

My design today features a Bible verse from Our Daily Bread design's "His Gift." I stamped the verse with Versafine Black Onyx ink onto PaperTrey Ink white cardstock. A Spellbinder Long Rectangle die was used to create the sentiment panel.

The floral decorator paper is SEI "Juliette, Sweet Perfume" from Our Daily Bread designs. The Juliet Collection Berry Prima is also from ODBD.

Look at this rich and elegant ribbon--It's May Art's Rose Silk from the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store. The rose color goes so very beautifully with the gray tones in the dp. A tab and border of ribbon adds a touch of clean and simple elegance.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Stamp Simply DT designs:

Sharon

Janine Orchard
Jennifer Buck
Julie Koerber

AJ Otto

Tammy Hershberger

Barbara Anders

Jenny Gropp

Barb Schram
and Michelle Woerner, December's Guest Designer!

My wish for you is to have a blessed and Merry Christmas...filled with family and God's love! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Bright and Cheerful Fifth Grade Christmas Card

Here is a quick, bright and cheerful Christmas card easy enough for students to recreate. I put this design together for our elementary school's fifth grade class (only 7 students!--I work at a small country school!) and they completed the design in about an hour.

The fifth grade teacher had some leftover scrap booking paper from her daughter's stash that she wanted to be used for the project...thus the bright, non-traditional colors! The students had a brief lesson on chosing papers to match, and were very excited to begin!

I used Stampin' Up's Delightful Decorations stamp set and Delightful Decorations punch, as well as an assortment of Stampin' Up inks, brads, and metallic cord to dress up the layers of dp.

The "Merry Christmas" sentiment is from Our Daily Bread design's "Christmas Verses" stamped with Versafine Black Onyx ink.

The students did an excellent job! I'm certain that whomever receives one will be very pleased!

I hope that your week of Christmas preparations is going well! Thanks for stopping by!

Silver Snowflake Tag

This week's Stamp Simply challenge (ssnotime118) is to create a Clean and Simple design featuring snow. Well, snow I know! We get an enormous amount of snow in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan! In any case, there was plenty of inspiration available for this challenge! I decided to create a silvery snowflake tag for a special Christmas gift.

My starting point was heat embossing Our Daily Bread design's "Peace & Joy" snowflake onto white cardstock. I used Versafine Black Onyx ink, along with Stampin' Up's detail Silver Embossing Powder. The Versafine is great for embossing...even in black--the silver embossing powder covers the dark ink very well. A silver bead dresses up the center of the snowflake.

I used some beautiful silver metallic cardstock from Our Daily Bread designs. My trusty Cuttlebug, along with a snowflake embossing folder, added texture to my tag's primary background layer.

Silver beaded trim borders the tag's base, and is also used for the tag's loop.

Be certain to check out the rest of the Stamp Simply DT designs:

Sharon
Janine Orchard

Jennifer Buck

Julie Koerber
AJ Otto
Tammy Hershberger
Barbara Anders
Jenny Gropp
Barb Schram

and Michelle Woerner, December's Guest Designer!

Have a marvelous weekend, and be sure to link your CAS Snowy design to Mr. Linky at Sharon's blog!

Flower Soft Candy Globe

Here's a quick and easy project featuring the Flower Soft Project Book & Papercraft CD ROM. This hanging candy snow globe is filled with wrapped caramels, ready to hang on someone's doorknob or coat peg. This is a perfect teacher gift, one that your child would enjoy helping out to create!

There is no stamping on this project. The background paper and snowman are downloads to be printed from Flower Soft's new CD. There are many different character frames to chose from, as well as multiple background paper designs available (in fact, 25 designs in 4 colorways!).

Polar White Flower Soft was used to provide fluff and flake to the snowman.

Prismatics Papaya Puree Pack, from Our Daily Bread designs, was used for the rich, textured background. What a gorgeous, deep color! This is the first Prismatics paper that I used...if you have not used it before, let me tell you a bit about it! One side has a subtle texture, almost an orange peel effect--the other side smooth. The Prismatic Packs from ODBD come in 12 X 12" sheets in three saturations: dark, medium, and light. There are also suggestions of accent colors right on the pack, ready to help out with mixing it up a bit! So fun! I can see more of this paper in my future!

A computer renerated sentiment, Stampin' Up punched hanging tabs, American Crafts Elements brads, twine, and a Basic Grey button tie this one up.

I hope that you enjoyed this sweet treat design! Have a great remainder to your week!

Barkley Says "Happy Birthday!"

Stamp Simply Challenge: Alter a Store Bought Card. I actually used a portion of a thank you card that I had received from my good friend Kathie--this cute little flocked dachshund image! Thank you Kathie!

Altering or recycling store bought cards can be fun! I just grabbed some funky Luxe Sugar Cookie dp that I had in my stash...covering a long chocolate chip base completely. So very easy!

I stamped the birthday sentiment from PaperTrey Ink (Birthday Basics) with Versafine Sepia ink onto PaperTrey Ink's heavy white cardstock. A Spellbinder Tag Trio die was used to cut the tag.

I used a bright pink Copic marker to dye some May Art Cream twine, then fashioned it into a little leash bow.

I'm eager to see what the other Stamp Simply DT members have come up with! Why don't you take a look as well!

Sharon

Janine Orchard

AJ Otto

Tammy Hershberger

Barbara Anders

Jenny Gropp

Barb Schram
and Michelle Woerner, December's Guest Designer!

If you plan on playing along with us, please link your creation back to Sharon's blog so that we may enjoy it!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a wonderful weekend!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNIFER!!!

Christmas Carols

I'm home for a snow day today...we are getting socked with more snow. A good portion comes complements of Lake Superior. We are close to the lake, along being higher elevated, so we receive huge amounts of winter snows. One +plus+, I get to play with stamps (forget housecleaning!)

Today's Way to Use It Challenge over at Splitcoaststampers calls for the use of Christmas carols. I decided to use some decorator paper that features some of my favorite Christmas carols. I also wanted to tie in Our Daily Bread design's gorgeous new poinsettia image from "His Gift," one of the new December releases available now.

The last time that I used this image, I used the cracked glass technique. It fit the vintage feel so perfectly, I decided to use the cracked glass technique once again. It is a very easy and quick way to add a special touch to your design!

I began by stamping the image onto watercolor paper using Verafine Black Onyx ink. The Versafine ink shows every detail so very clear and precise! I used Lyra Watercolor crayons to watercolor the image, letting it dry completely. Cracked glass came next...you can find Beate Johns' tutorial here.

Just look at this gorgeous swirl of pearls (Zva Creative from ODBD)! I took one of my tan colored Copic markers and added a bit of color for distressing. A vintage mother of pearl button from my mother's button box joins the swirl to add a creamy gleam. A border of Wright's Flat Cluney lace, purchased from Walmart, completes the vintage appeal.

Layers of K & Company Madelaine dp, Flair Designs Christmas Carol dp, and black cardstock set the base of this design.

Thanks so much for stopping by...stay warm!

Stamp Simply Gift Tags

This week's Stamp Simply Challenge is to create gift tags!

In the spirit of stamping simply, I present to you a quick and easy, yet special design...

made so because of the recipient's monogram.

The papers used here are Stampin' Up's retired Riding Hood Red and textured,

layered with a shot of black to make the rich color *POP*!

A small sized monogram is the focal point here: JustRite's 1 3/16's wood stamper set with three Damask borders and Times New Roman font from the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store makes for a special, personalized snowflake center. The felt snowflake is also retired Stampin' Up,

but can be substituted with any of the gorgeous snowflake die cuts available now.

A touch of texture is added with CuttleBug's Winter Borders,
and a corner hanging tab finishes this gift tag for a special friend.

Check out the other Stamp Simply DT designs:

Sharon
Janine Orchard
AJ Otto
Tammy Hershberger
Julie Koerber
Barbara Anders
Jenny Gropp
Barb Schram
Jennifer Buck

and welcome to Michelle Woerner, new guest designer!

Have a great weekend!

It's a Flower Soft Christmas!

This is my second post for December 1st; please be sure to check out

the post beneath this as well!

Our Flower Soft project for December called for Anything Christmas! I chose to make a snowglobe shaker Christmas card. The new Snow Globes from Flower Soft are so very fun to play with! There are endless possibilities...I can't wait to color up some Summer bouquets and mount them behind the globe, sans the snow of course!

I began by stamping my PSX Holly Berries stamp onto PaperTrey Ink white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, then colored it with multiple Copic markers.

I used the second largest Petite Oval to cut the opening for the globe, added Polar White Flower Soft (sorry, kind of hard to see in these photos...), and mounted the globe behind KaiserCraft "Dear Santa" decorator papers.

Walmart ribbon, SU gold cord, and a Foof-a-La-La-La button add extra glimmer and gleam.

The Flower Soft design team are enjoying a Christmas blog hop! Please head to the FS blog to begin! Here are the ladies participating:

Sharon Johnson
Jennifer Buck
Jeanne Streiff
Deb Saaranen
Barb Schram
AJ Otto

I hope that you enjoyed today's projects! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Our Daily Bread design's December Release Day

Good morning! I would like to introduce you to one of Our Daily Bread design's newest sets, "Peace & Joy," released TODAY! "Peace & Joy" features two different sized snowflakes, as well as two Christmas sentiments and the Bible verse, John 1:17, "Every good and perfect gift is from above."

If you have come here from Grace's blog, you are following the blog hop list! If you would like to start at the very beginning of the hop, be sure to use THIS LINK to Our Daily Bread design's Blog!

K & Company "Black & Ivory" decorator paper was used in this design, along with Stampin' Up's Basic Black and Confetti Cream cardstocks.

I stamped the snowflake image with Versafine Black Onyx ink, then heat embossed it with Stampin' Up's Black Detail embossing powder. Spellbinder Square dies were used to cut the image panel, and a Kaiser Black Jet rhinestone was added to the center for a bit of glimmer. A May Art bow wraps this design up!

Like last month, we are going to have a message with hidden words on our blogs. My word is "in." Please collect our names and the words we have, which will form a special message. Then return to the ODBD blog and post a comment that they have commented on every blog and collected the secret message, and then email Grace (nywening@yahoo.com) with the answers.

For this Release Blog Hop, Kelley has generously offered to give TWO lucky winners their choice of one free set! Winners will be chosen by Random from the correct emails that Grace receives by Dec.2, 8PM EST.

Also, keep your eyes open for new monthly challenges beginning in January!

Now make sure that you head to Angella C's blog!

Be sure to check back later today, I will have another December 1st posting!