A Touch of Thanks

This card is for the sketch challenge on SCS today. I used the flower from Touch of Nature (SU) and the sentiment from Sincere Salutations (SU).


The flowers were colored with water color pencils and heat embossed with clear embossing powder after I cut them out. The background was made by stamping the fern from the Touch of Nature set, on glossy card stock with River Rock and heat embossing it with clear. Then I sponged on some other colors.


This was the original flower I was going to use for this card. As you can see, it had a close encounter with my black Stazon ink pad. You might think that I dropped it on the ink pad or vice versa, but no, I actually took my lovely flower and started to rub it on the ink pad, thinking that I had pulled out the Versa Mark pad. I need more sleep.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy Stamping!

Groovy Owl

The color challenge at SCS today is to use Groovy Guava, Sahara Sand and Very Vanilla. I struggled with to get the Sahara Sand to work in my composition, but eventually came up with this card.


The owl is from Penny Black and the tree is from Hero Arts. I colored the owl with Koh-i-noor pencils and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. The tree was stamped with black Stazon and also heat embossed with clear. I sponged over the tree with So Saffron and then with Groovy Guava.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope your day is filled with fun and stamping.

New Challenge Blog!

As many of you know, I am one of the stamping gals from Stamping Links to Love. The rest of the Stamping Gals and I have decided to start posting weekly challenges for those of you who want to play along.

Check out this post for all the details. Our first challenge will be on August 7 and I hope you will play along.

I am not sure how many of you have noticed, but I have been seriously into doing challenges lately.

Here are a few of my favorites...

Allison's Suggestive Sunday - Fun and funky themes and she always sends some goodies to one lucky winner.

Our Creative Corner - Weekly challenges with samples from some pretty famous stampers.

Stamp Something - A different theme each week.

You Know You Rock - Brand new, but the challenge looks awesome. I am hoping I get time to play.

Go ahead and check some of them out if you haven't already and be sure to stop by Stamping Links to Love on August 7 for our first challenge (which I am hostessing!).

Thanks for stopping by.

Stark Little Owl

I made this for one of the Dare to be Dirty challenges at SCS. It forced me way out of my comfort zone, since the challenge was to embrace the white and keep your card very simple.

The owl is a Penny Black stamp (I think) and I colored it with Koh-i-noor colored pencils, blended with OMS. The owl is mounted on a layer of Basic Black and popped up with dimensionals.

I had a bit of a busy weekend and wasn't at my computer much. We saw the new batman movie this weekend and thought it was very good.

We also headed up to Mt. Shasta for an outdoor concert, hoping to escape the smoke for a bit. On a positive note the winds shifted yesterday and we are having a bit of a break from the smoke that should last for a few days. It is a nice thing to breath and see the sun.

I hope you have a terrific day!

Grandma Ran Over a Reindeer...

Allison's Suggestive Sunday challenge this week was to create a funny card. I just love this stamp from You Know You're Old When (GinaK). When ever I see it, I imagine the lady punching the gas and trying to run someone down.

I got the idea that maybe Granny could take revenge on a reindeer because of that song that gets played on the radio every Christmas, "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer. "

I stamped the granny stamp and then drew in a scared deer, with a road between them. I colored the images with Koh-i-noor pencils, blended with OMS. I thought she needed angry eyebrows, so I masked off her eyebrows when I stamped them and then drew some new ones.

I printed the sentiment from my computer. In case you can't read it, it says, "After hearing the song, 'Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer," one too many times, Nana Milly decides to take matters into her own hands..."

I hope you like it, Allison!

Annapurna found a you tube video of the song that inspired this card. Here is the link if you want to view it. Thanks Anna!

Thanks for stopping by today. Have some fun!

Sponging /Watercoloring a Scene

Here is a masculine card I started last night and finished up this morning. I created the background using a combination of sponging and watercoloring, so I snapped off the photos to show you how I did it.

I started with a piece of Very Vanilla paper and sponged it with So Saffron in no real pattern.

Sponged some River Rock.

Sponged some Certainly Celery. At this point, I got the idea to do a waterfall scene, so I added bit more to the upper center area.

Added a bit of Not Quite Navy, very lightly to the waterfall, still sponging.

Now I sponged some blue to the waterfall and above it to be the sky.

Sponged in some Chocolate Chip to be cliffs on either side of the waterfall and some to the foreground.

Here I added some Certainly Celery again to the foreground and some darker green in small dabs.

At this point I wanted more detail, so I switched from sponging to picking up color from a craft marker, with my aqua brush.

I added some blue streaks to the waterfall and made a small pool of water at the base.

Still using the aqua brush, I added some more green to the foreground and to the tops of the cliffs to serve as trees.

More bits of greens, as well as some yellow and reds in spots to simulate foliage.

Next I stamped a grouping of trees from Lovely as a Tree (Stampin' Up) in Chocolate Chip and embossed it with clear embossing powder.

I only wanted a portion of this stamp, so I covered the portion I didn't want with tape before inking it and then removed the tape before I stamped it.

Sponged some Chocolate Chip ink around the edges.

Added a bit more detail with the aqua brush, by painting some faint brown lines on the cliffs to act at tree trunks, some brown to the sides of the cliffs to define them a bit from the waterfall, and added some blue to the pool for a bit more depth.


I mounted the scene on a layer of Basic Black and then a layer of Chocolate Chip. The card base is Close to Cocoa that I sponged the edges of with Chocolate Chip ink.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you have a fantastic day!

Peary Happy Birthday

This card is for today's sketch challenge at SCS. I messed up the proportions a bit, but I guess it is close enough. The panel behind the pear is glossy card stock, colored with baby wipes and re-inkers and sponged.

The pear is from All Natural and the branches are from Touch of Nature. I colored both with Koh-i-noor pencils and OMS. Then I cut them out and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder.

Stamps - All Natural (pear), Touch of Nature (branch), Birthday Whimsy (sentiment), Baroque Motifs (background), all from Stampin' Up.
Paper - Creamy Caramel, Rose Red, So Saffron, Basic Black, glossy white
Ink - So Saffron, Chocolate Chip, More Mustard, black Stazon.

Have a great day!

A Nifty Nest

I made this card for the color challenge at SCS and for the challenge set by the ladies at Our Creative Corner this week. The colors I had to use were River Rock, Very Vanilla and Soft Sky and the technique from the OCC challenge was to use dry embossing.


The flower is from Touch of Nature (SU) and the Owl is from Owl Always Love You (Gina K Designs). The flower was colored with water color pencils and the owl was colored with Koh-i-noor pencils and OMS. The stamped portion of the flower is embossed and the entire owl image is heat embossed with clear.

There is a piece of vellum that was dry embossed with my Cuttlebug and Swiss Dots folder. It is mounted on a piece of Very Vanilla paper.

Have a happy day and thanks for stopping by.

Embrace Life Challenge Card

Today's challenge at SCS was a tough one. The challenge was to combine three past challenges in one, the baby wipe technique, a color challenge (creamy caramel and bravo burgundy) and a sketch.

I didn't have any Bravo Burgundy, but I did have a pretty good non' SU burgundy. It looks brown in the photo, but it really is burgundy.

For the baby wipe technique, I put a few drops of River Rock ink (Stampin' Up)and Butterscotch (Adirondack) ink on a folded baby wipe and then rubbed that on a piece of vellum. I ran the vellum through my Cuttlebug, using the Swiss Dots folder.

The flowers are from Embrace Life (Stampin' Up). I colored them with water color pencils and heat embossed them with clear.

Thanks for visiting and have a terrific day!

A Few Awards

I received this "I'm a Rockin' Blogger" award from Allison. Thanks, Allison, I feel so honored that you felt I deserved it!



These next two awards are both from Anna. Wowza, Anna, thank you so much! You really made my day.

Owl on the Outhouse

This card was made for a couple challenges, a sketch challenge by Asela Hopkins and the inspiration challenge at SCS today.

The inspiration piece was a gorgeous picture of an outhouse with a rooster perched on it. I decided to recreate it by drawing an outhouse and placing an owl over it.

I colored the owl and outhouse with Koh-i-noor pencils and blended with OMS. I heat embossed the owl with clear embossing powder and raised it up with pop dots.

The layer behind the outhouse is Very Vanilla sponged with Certainly Celery and dry embossed with my Cuttlebug and Swiss Dots embossing folder. There is a layer of Basic Black behind that and the card base is Wild Wasabi, sponged with Chocolate Chip.

If you have Botanical Dreams (or any Gina K stamps), you could win Asela's next stamp set by participating in this challenge.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you have a great weekend!

Happy crafting!

From the Garden

I made this card for the Limited Supply Challenge at SCS today. The challenge was to fold your card so that it opens in a different way than normal.

Here it is open. The stamp is called From the Garden (Stampin' Up). I colored it with Koh-i-noor pencils and blended with OMS. Then I cut it out and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. I mounted it on black card stock and then cut around it again.

The next layer is Very Vanilla, which I dry embossed with a Cuttlebug folder called Stylized Flowers and sponged with So Saffron and just a tiny bit of Chocolate Chip.


Have a great day!

Rosemary the Giraffe

The challenge today at SCS was to use a kitchen spice on your card. I really struggled with inspiration for this one, but eventually noticed the rosemary that I thought looked like grass.

I water colored and sponged the background and then used Lovely at a Tree (Stampin' Up) to create a distant forest. I inked the multi tree stamp with Chocolate Chip and then stamped off once before stamping it on my background.

In the foreground, I glued on some dried rosemary leaves in small clusters. Then I shaded around them a bit with water color.

The giraffe is from Just So Hippy (Gina K) and I colored it with Koh-i-noor pencils, blended with OMS. I heat embossed it with clear embossing powder and raised it up with pop dots.

The other layers are Basic Black, More Mustard (sponged with Pumpkin Pie) and Close to Cocoa (sponged with Chocolate Chip).

Wonderful Embrace

Here is my take on today's sketch challenge at SCS. I also used colors from a Verve challenge found on the Verve forum at SCS. I don't have any Verve stamps, but I love these colors, so I joined in, anyway.

The flower is from Embrace Life and the sentiment is from Warm Words, both Stampin' Up. The top layer was created by sponging a piece of white card stock and then gluing crinkled tissue paper over it. Then I sponged over that with and added some Pearl Ex powder for some sparkle.

Ink - So Saffron, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Pumpkin Pie, Black Stazon.

Paper - Whisper White, Old Olive, Basic Black, Close to Cocoa

Another Busy Card

Yikes, I've gone embellishment crazy again. I don't know what happened to my "sparse is more" philosophy, but it seems to be gone for the moment. I made this card using the colors from today's challenge at SCS and the sketch from Poetic Artisty's Mojo Monday.

The stamp set is Owl Always Love You from Gina K designs. I stamped the image twice and colored them with water color pencils and an aqua pen. I cut out the owl and foliage from one of the images and layered them using pop dots. I also heat embossed the images with clear embossing powder.

The papers are Wild Wasabi, So Saffron, Almost Amethyst, Basic Black and Whisper White (all Stampin' Up). The inks are So Saffron, Lovely Lilac, and Certainly Celery from Stampin' Up and Black Stazon.

The two flowers are from my precious stash that I received from Joanne. She has agreat tutorial on how to make them yourself, using nestabilities, but you could always use your scallop punch if you don't have scallop circle nesties.

Have a great day!

Sponged Grid Background Technique

This is the card I made for today's Try a New Technique challenge at Split Coast Stampers. The challenge today was to score a grid on paper. I decided to adjust it a bit and do a sponged grid.

Start by making evenly spaced marks on a piece of scrap paper. In this case, they were 1/2 inch apart. Then place the card stock at whatever angle you want the lines to be.

Using another scrap of paper, line it up with the marks you created and sponge ink over the edge. Then move the paper to the next marks and sponge again. Continue until the card stock is covered.

Rotate the card stock by 90 degrees and repeat the same process.

Here is the finished look.


For this card, I used Touch of Nature (Stampin' Up) stamps, Whisper White, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip and Basic Black card stock, and More Mustard, Ballet Blue inks.

The images are colored using Koh-i-noor pencils with OMS, then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

I hope your day is great!