A new meaning to Stamp Camp

Hello! I am so glad you stopped by today! I am finally sharing some NEW Stampin' UP items on my card for today!

This spring, we made the decision to upgrade from our ancient pop up camper to a larger pull behind type.  A friend of ours was selling his camper and the price was right, so we now own a not so new 5th wheel.  I love that it has a refrigerator, stove, microwave, and most importantly bathroom!  I am not a 'glamping' (glamour camping) type person, but I am also not a survivalist either!  We took our new to us camper for a test run the last week of June.  We had a great time sitting around the campfire, and made at least one meal a day over the flames.  I'm pretty sure that the light carpet in the camper will never be clean again, but DH has already said his goal is to rip it out and replace it with laminate flooring. Score!

So I'm sure you are wondering what in the world this has to do with stamping right?  Well, I have had my new Stampin' UP goodies sitting here waiting to be used and couldn't seem to find the time and mojo to use them.  So I packed them up and took them camping with me.  I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to make and just brought the bare bones necessities along.  So on Wednesday when it started pouring down rain and everyone retreated into the camper, I pulled out my stamping supplies and got busy!  I'm thinking I may start a new trend... Stamp Camping...

As soon as I saw Perfect Blend in the new catalog, I knew I had to have it!  It is the perfect set for all of us Java Junkies!  In case you were wondering, the sentiment is made to look like this, not an artistic flair on my part!  I colored the cup sleeve with one of the new in color markers, crisp cantaloupe and then decided that it looked too bare.  I had already tried out the new clay and flower mold at home and on a whim tossed the molded flowers in with my supplies.  A little coloring with my markers and I had a coordinating flower that was just the right size for my cup!  If you look closely, you can see a stamp shadow at the top of the very vanilla layer... I really need to trim down this stamp a little, but didn't have my trusty snips along.  So I inked the heck out of the edges to blend in the ink from my 'oops'.  The DSP is retired, but the color and pattern worked so well with this!

I hope you enjoyed my camping card! Maybe next time you'll join me in stamp camping! Just don't forget the bug spray, marshmallows, and coffee!!  Have a wonderful day and happy crafting!

Card Recipe: Paper-very vanilla, soft suede, Comfort Cafe DSP (ret), Stamp Set-Perfect Blend, Ink-soft suede, early espresso (how perfect is this!), crisp canteloupe, baked brown sugar, Accessories-simply pressed clay, buttons and blossoms clay mold

Anything But a Card Challenge 23: Steampunk- On the right track (I hope...)

Hello! I am so glad you stopped in today!  It is week two of challenge 23 at Anything But a Card.  Our theme is Steampunk and I am bravely sharing my journal page today!

I have absolutely no experience in this genre and hope I'm not too far off mark on this one!  I decided to make a page for my quotes journal and thought that a new art style was fitting of the accompanying sentiment.

I think there is more Victorian influence than industrial, but overall I like it.  I was a mess trying to figure out where I wanted to go with this... I kept moving everything around, trying to find the best placement.  I also had a hard time deciding what to add as far as inks.  I really didn't want to go a step too far and hate the result...

I found the train image at a wonderful free site called From Old Books (what an amazing place to completely lose track of time!), and due to my lack of Steampunk supplies, it was a great starting point!  I printed it on very vanilla cardstock and colored it with a combination of copics, watercolor pencils, and metallic markers.  The distressing and aging came from river rock, soft suede, and crumb cake inks.  I added just a touch of copper glitter glue to the wheels. Of course, I had to do a little shopping for coordinating goodies. Don't you just hate that?!  I found the Tim Holtz metal sentiment tag and the decorative ticket on sale so I had to snag them.  The metal/rhinestone flower was spotted at Big Lots of all places.  I added a bit of copper colored Sharpie to the rhinestone to lessen the bling factor.  You may have spotted another of my metal buttons from my stash, and I even managed to make some of my Stampin' UP goodies work for this project.  The crochet ribbon, vintage brad, metal brad, and doily background stamp all seemed to fit my image of Steampunk accessories.

While I was initially a bit worried about this project, it was fun to research and learn about a new to me style.  I really hope to see some of you join us with your versions of Steampunk!

I hope you have a wonderful week and happy crafting!!

Flashback Friday-Scrappy Holidays!

Hello! I'm so glad you stopped by today!  I am doing my very best to keep up with the Christmas card making plan and I have four more cards to share today!  Once again, I used the retired Ski Slope DSP and  the package is looking even more pitiful than before. 

I was so excited as this card came together for three reasons. 1. It used a lot of smaller scraps that I always struggle to use (but yet can't seem to throw away!). 2. It used almost all retired product. and 3. It came together so quickly!

a close up of the design

and all four cards...

I have to admit that it feels pretty good to use up some of my older goodies and add to the growing stack of Christmas cards.

**Revised** I am linking this card up at Merry Monday where they are having an Anything Goes-Christmas challenge all month long!  I've also linked up with Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge, who also has an anything goes as long as it's Christmas challenge for the month of July!

I hope you have a marvelous weekend and happy crafting!

Card Recipe: Paper-riding hood red, scraps of whisper white, Ski Slope DSP (ret), Stamp- non SU from my stash, Ink-kiwi kiss (ret), Accessories- brads, photo corner punch

Christmas in July, sorta...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...NOT!  I am nowhere near ready to celebrate, but last year, I started my Christmas cards early and was so glad to have them finished before December 24th!  So I decided to do this again this year.  There's nothing better to put you in the Christmas spirit than a muggy summer day!  I also continued last year's trend of using up some of my older papers.  I used a very retired Ski Slope.  Sketch #83 from Operation Write Home gave me a perfect starting point for using lots of patterned paper.

I figured while I was digging through and trimming my scraps, I would go ahead and make four cards.

During one of my cleaning sprees, I found a box of Christmas cards I had saved from different classes and stamp a stacks I attended.  I took pictures of my favorite designs and added them to my stash.  Between these and my four new cards, I have a pretty good start on my Christmas cards.  Now I just need to keep making them! Wish me luck!

I hope you have a wonderful day and find some time to be crafty!

Card Recipe: Paper-chocolate chip, whisper white, baja breeze, Ski Slope DSP (ret), Stamp Set-That's the Ticket, Ink-kiwi kiss (ret), Accessories-ticket duo punch, 1 3/4" circle punch

Anything But a Card Challenge 23-Steampunk?!

It's time for a new challenge at Anything But a Card.  Challenge #23 is Steampunk. 

I just want to go on record that I knew absolutely nothing about this genre!!  I have seen Steampunk art and always thought it looked pretty cool, but didn't ever explore any aspect of it.  The closest I've come to experiencing it was watching Monty Python...  So I did a lot of research, googled steampunk, searched pinterest for art inspiration, and visited blogs of friends who seemed to have a pretty good grasp on this.  It was actually quite interesting and a lot of fun.  It is also WAY out of my comfort zone.  Good thing I have another week to put the finishing touches on my creation!  Fortunately, the other members of the design team seem to have a better understanding of Steampunk and have shared some fabulous inspiration on the challenge site.

In my research, I came across this beauty!  It's a Steampunk wine bottle opening and pouring device...  If you click on the image, you can watch a video of this wonderful contraption in operation!

Now this is a Steampunk piece I can truly appreciate!!

I hope you will join us in this challenge, even if you're a newbie like me!

Flashback Friday-See what a little cleaning can do?

Hi! Welcome to another Flashback Friday! I hope all of my fellow Americans survived their Independence Day's activities without any injuries!  Our holiday was pretty low key.  My nephew came home for a visit and we all had a wonderful time together.

I have been using my time off this summer to try to do some much needed cleaning and organizing.    No big surprise that one of the first areas I tackled was my crafting space!  Since then, I have moved on to other areas of the house (not nearly as much fun, but easier to purge clothing that is the wrong size, than old beloved stamps!), but I keep coming across things that pull me back to my crafting space!  For example, my dryer was becoming the catch all area for outgrown clothes, so I finally bagged them up so they would be ready for donating to our local charity thrift store.  During this cleaning, I found a few homeless buttons and figured that I would never find the matching clothes, or they were probably long gone.  So I gave them a new home in my buttons container where I found the bag of buttons I bought a long time ago at an antiques and collectables store.  This led to a complete side track from cleaning!

My first card actually features one of these buttons.  They are metal and a little shabby looking and I absolutely loved them.  I used a faux mosaic tile technique for the focal point and added the button as an accent.  Along with my old button, I also pulled out some retired Tea Party DSP for this card.

As I was working on the first card, I moved a ziplock bag of thin strips of paper that were scraps from Easter cards.  I decided I really needed to either use them or pitch them and then I remembered the cute Easter bear digi I colored a looooong time ago.  This image is so old that when I went back to the person's site to link up to it, her site was gone...  So Caroline, I tried to give you credit but I'm not sure where you are now!

I glued all of the skinny strips of paper onto a rectangle of copy paper and then trimmed the edges to make them even.  Then I glued that to the base and glued the teddy to the front.  I realize that little bag of scraps didn't make a big dent in my stash, but I am glad that I finally found a use for all of the colorful scraps!

Well, DD#1 and I have a date to watch the Warehouse 13 marathon, so until next time, happy crafting!!

Wanna play Doctor??

OK... Get your mind out of the gutter!  This is a PG blog! :)

I was going through my supply of cards and while I had plenty of 'get well' cards, I also like to have some that are a little humorous to send some laughter with the wishes.  Night Nurse Nina definitely fits in the fun category.  I found her at Dr. Digi's, yet another purchase I made thanks to the enabling of my dear friend, Lisa M...  If you enjoy funny and slightly warped images, you will love this place!

I used copics to color the lovely Nina, and created the background with pastels.  Notable Alphabet worked perfectly for adding the sentiment on the first one.

and I changed things up just a little on the second one with Teeny Tiny Wishes.

I'm hoping that when these are delivered, they will bring a smile to someone's face.  I also hope that they won't be facing a needle like the one Nurse Nina is clutching... Makes me shiver just thinking about it!

I hope you have a wonderful day and remember, paper crafting each day keeps Night Nurse Nina away! And for all of my American friends and visitors, Happy (early) Independence Day!!!

Card Recipes: Paper-basic gray, basic black, tempting turquoise, real red, whisper white, Ink-copics, black stazon, Stamp Sets- digi images from Dr Digi, Notable Alphabet, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Punches-modern label, word window, 3/4" circle, Accessories- whisper white grosgrain ribbon(ret),  pastels

Anything But a Card Challenge 22-Get Messy!

Well, hello! I am so glad you stopped by to visit!  Our challenge at ABAC is to Get Messy!  There are some amazing inspiriations at the challenge site, so be sure to visit them too!

I decided to go with an altered piece and while it doesn't look overly 'messy', the process was pretty gluey, inky, and messy!  I bought the little unfinished wood birdhouse at Goodwill a few months ago and decided to paint it.  I wanted an aged look, so after the paint was dry, I added crackle and ink to make it all grungy.

The brown trim around the roofs was salvaged from a shopping bag, and I colored some molded sculpy pieces I had left over from a previous crafting experiment.  Unfortunately, the ink wanted to stick to my fingers more than the clay and ended up all smudged.  I added a little crackle to these too and decided it added to the whole shabby chic thing... work with me here...

While you can't really tell from my pics, the roof has a piece of First Edition DSP under the light layer of paint and crackle.

I hope you enjoyed my messy little project, and I would love it if you would join us this week with your version of messy!!!

Have a wonderful week and happy crafting!

Project recipe: unfinished wood birdhouse (Goodwill), fawn acrylic paint, Picket Fence distress crackle, repurposed shopping bag handles, sculpey clay pieces, First Edition DSP, Ink & Markers-soft suede, midnight muse, river rock, crumb cake

Slow Down, you're not as young as you used to be...

Hello! I don't have a flashback for you today, but I do have a fun little card!  

We have been trying out our 'new to us' camper this week at one of the local campgrounds.  We took a little break to come home to do laundry and buy more food for the weekend.  The girls are having friends join us tonight, so I'm sure we'll need more snacks!! I decided to check in and realized I didn't have a post set for today (and that I forgot to do my ABAC week 1 post... sorry...), so I'm sharing a card that I made for my nephew, Eric.  He attended college with help of a track scholarship, and now has a coaching position at a college in Wisconsin.  Now that he's approaching his 30's (gasp!), we tease him a lot about the fact that he doesn't run quite as fast and jump as high as he used to, so when I saw this cute guy at Doctor Digi's (Thanks, Lisa M!!), I had to buy him!!

The sentiment is from a stamp I found in the bargain bin at Michael's.  It has a snail carrying a gift on it's shell, but I chose to only color the sentiment. Thought it went quite well with Mr. Dunderton jogging along!

Well, that's it for me today! I'm off to Wal-Mart to get more supplies and then back into the semi-wilderness of the campground!  Be sure to stop by Anything But a Card challenges and check out our challenge, Getting Messy! I'll be sharing my project on Sunday, if Blogger cooperates...

Have a wonderful weekend, and happy crafting!!

Card Recipe: Paper-real red, basic black, whisper white, Ink-copics, black Stazon, Stamp- digital image by Dr Digi, sentiment from bargain bin at Michael's, Accessories-pastels

Another Stamp Club Card-With Sympathy

Hello! So glad you stopped in today! As you are reading this, I am doing my happy dance! Yesterday was the last ballgame of the season! I really do enjoy watching my girls play softball, but the further into summer the games go, the hotter and more humid it gets... and for some reason, the league board rejected my idea of icy cold tubs to soak in, instead of the hot and often sticky bleachers that currently serve as seating. Complete lack of vision if you ask me! ;)  So now I only have to go out in the nasty sticky air if it's something really urgent!  But enough of that, you came here to see something crafty!

This is the second card I created for my stamp club meeting.  I try to change things up a bit and allow for personal interest when I can.  For example, my card is a sympathy card because I often need one when I don't have time or mojo to create.  But by using the Loving Thoughts stamp set, the ladies can turn this into a birthday, anniversary, thank you, or thinking of you card, simply by changing the sentiment.  This is why I LOVE coordinating stamp sets! No guessing whether the font will fit in the space or if it will match the style of the stamped image...

I'm also enjoying the versatility of the DSP.  I picked Gingham Garden because I love the bright cheery country patterns, but as you can see, they can easily be converted to a different style with the right stamp! I am also so happy that pear pizzazz and island indigo have made a comeback into the new catalog! Love these colors!!

Well, that's it for me!  Thanks so much for stopping by and happy crafting!

Card Recipe: Paper-Island Indigo, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Gingham Garden DSP, Ink-basic gray, island indigo, pear pizzazz, daffodil delight, Stamp Sets-Apothecary Art, Loving Thoughts, Accessories-Labels framelits, Big Shot