The Next TAWC - B, B & B!

Well, by now you probably know that TAWC stands for Three Amigas Weekly Challenge. My stamping friends Sharon, Joanne, and I have really enjoyed these challenges. They've also helped me to break out of a few ruts and blocks. Block? Creative block...happens to the best of us...especially when we're under pressure. So tomorrow it's my turn to set the challenge. We usually post the challenge to the Three Amigas a day or two in advance so that we can think about it and be prepared. So are you wondering yet what B, B & B stands for? Buttons, Brads and Bows. Our creations for this challenge must contain at least one brad, one button, and some ribbon. I set this challenge because I was sick of looking at all of those lovely buttons that I've bought and haven't use. Do you have buttons that you've been collecting and not using? Are you hoarding brads and ribbons? Well, get them out! :-) I challenge you! I'm laying down the gauntlet...the question is, will you pick it up? I'd love to see what you come up with!

Now, for that really cool scallop ribbon flower...you ask me, "how'd you do that?" Hey, that's a Discovery show! This is a technique that my wonderful AK friend Katey showed me, after attending convention. (I wanna go!) I used my Crop-A-Dile and punched a large hole in the center of the punched scallop circle and the smaller holes on every other scallop. I used my gorgeous new White Organza Ribbon from SU! to weave it in and out from the center to the outside, going around the flower until you're done. A clear rhinestone brad is attached through the center and the scallop is attached to the retired Rose Red DP with two dimensionals.

The stamped image used Watercolor Wonder Crayons. Using my retired Spring Garden stamp set, I colored directly on the stamp with my crayons. After spritzing my watercolor paper with water, I spritzed the stamp with water and then stamped it down a couple of times...repeat...until I had the right effect. The sky was watercolored by picking up some color off the blunt end of the crayon with my aquapainter. This technique works best on watercolor paper, but also works on regular cardstock. The reason why I chose this image was because I was playing the Inspiration Challenge 173 for today on SCS. Today's inspiration was from Glenda Moser's Gallery - she's a stamper on SCS and is also a wonderful painting artist.

My layout is also from SCS - it's the SC119. Sometimes I just need a new layout idea...do you ever feel that way?

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station. I'd love to hear from you. Please try the challenge and post your creation on splitcoaststampers with the keyword TAWC. That way Sharon, Joanne, and I can find your project and leave you a lovely comment.

Blessings,
Julie

Supplies: Spring Garden stamp set (retired). Rose Red, Bashful Blue, Always Artichoke, Watercolor cardstocks. Rose Red DP (retired). Rose Red, Regal Rose, Old Olive, and Always Artichoke Crayons. Sizzix Weave Texture Plate, Scallop Circle Punch, Crop-A-Dile, White Organza Ribbon, Clear Rhinestone Brad, Soft Subtles buttons (retired), Linen Thread.

3-D Punched Cardstock Flowers Tutorial

Here is the tutorial that I promised you. It's a fun way to make beautiful 3-D flowers without spending the money on the fancy stuff.
The first thing you want to do is punch some flowers out of your SU! cardstock (or comparable) with the Trio Flowers Punch from SU! Place a flower on your Foam Mat and press on a petal with the large side of your standard stylus. Go ahead and press hard. If you folowed directions and used SU! cardstock, there's little chance that you'll break through the cardstock.


Continue around the flower, pressing on each petal. This will give you a flower that has all the petals facing in.

Flip the flower over and press in the center with your stylus, hard enough so that the flower "turns inside out" and you have definition between the petals. As long as you're using thick cardstock (SU!) and the larger end of your stylus, you shouldn't have a problem with breaking through the flower.


When you finish, you'll have this lovely flower shape. The best way to adhere them to your card is to use Mini Glue Dots. I like to put a little color or bling on the center of the flowers. If you want color, use a marker or blender pen and then use a white gel pen over that.

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station and thanks for being patient with me for taking an extra day before posting this.

Blessings,
Julie

Mojo Monday Sketch, TAWC Martha Stewart Cover Again and Frayed Ribbon Tutorial

First of all, I love this sketch, so I just had to try it. It's from Julee Tilman's sketch blog. Isnt' it a fun one? So I combined it with all the other inspirations coming at me today!
I love this cover of the magazine so much that I just had to have another chance to play with it. This time around, the branch and little flowers were my inspiration. Then I read that today's color challenge on SCS is Pretty in Pink, Kiwi Kiss, and Baja Breeze. My brain says to me, "Hey! I think that's a great combo for our branch and flowers card!" Then I find out that my friend Barb, a sparkle sister and fellow demo, became a grandmother for the first time today to a bouncing baby girl. Yippee! So now this becomes a Mojo79, TAWC, CC211, baby girl card. I just love it when everything comes together like that.
I stamped the branch and flowers from Eastern Blooms. I punched flowers out of Pretty in Pink and Pink Pirouette with my SU! Trio Flower punch. No, that's not your imagination. They do appear to be 3-D. Stay tuned tomorrow for the tutorial on this. The flowers are mounted with mini glue dots. The centers were colored with Baja Breeze ink and a blender pen, then a bit of white gel pen over that to mute it a bit. The greeting was embossed with white EP and then stamped again for the shadow with Pretty in Pink. I used the Eyelet Border Punch for the edge of the bottom piece of Regal Rose Designer Paper, which comes in a Hostess Level 1 Designer Paper Pack. (BTW, that's a GREAT reason to host a workshop before the end of June.) The button is a piece of Pretty in Pink cardstock, run through the Big Shot with the Buttons #5 Sizzlit. I tied a bit of white crochet thread through it.

Are you asking yourself yet, "Where did she get that awesome frayed ribbon?" I made it. Yep, you read that right!
Cut along the long edge of your grosgrain ribbon. After cutting the whole edge off, pull away the fibers that you want to get rid of.
Now, flip over that ribbon and repeat on the other side. This photo shows you how little you cut away from the edge. For the piece that's on the branch, after following these two steps, I tied it in the center with a knot and then pulled the vertical fibers off to create a totally frayed look. If you're feeling creative, you can keep your long fibers from step 1, tie them in the center and use them as an accent on a project. I'd love to see what you can do with this. If you try this technique, please email me or leave a comment here with the link to your photo.

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station! Remember, come back tomorrow to learn how do add dimension to your punched cardstock flowers.

Blessings,
Julie

Clean and Simple Challenge

There's a Monday challenge on splitcoaststampers for Clean and Simple cards. (CAS) Today's challenge was to use punches. The trick is to only have a couple of layers at the most and not to over-embellish or a lot of work in the coloring of the image. I used my Blender Pens to pick up ink from the lids of my In Colors so that I could color on the stamp before stamping it down. The white is the background and stamped with the Oval All stamp set from the upcoming Occasions Mini Catalog, the next layer was stamped with the same stamp set and then the center was punched out of it. The Kiwi layer just has a scalloped oval punch (also from the Occasions Mini Catalog) and the edges are punched with the corner rounder. The balloons in the background are stamped in Pacific Point. The balloon is from Crazy for Cupcakes. So, there's my simple card. Want to play along? Just post your punched CAS card on SCS with CAS07 in the keyword.
Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station! And don't forget to play along with our TAWC Inspiration Challenge this week.
Blessings,
Julie

TAWC Inspiration Challenge

Hello there! Sorry for the pause in blogging. Life's been a little crazy busy, so I haven't had much time for stamping. This week it's Joanne's turn to set the Three Amigas Weekly Challenge. She chose this Martha magazine cover. You can choose anything in this photo to inspire your picture. I chose the colors. I think I'll make another card tomorrow that uses another inspiration that I received from this. Please play along and either post here with a link or on Splitcoaststampers with TAWC in the key word.
This card uses the NEW Manhattan Flower folder from Stampin Up! I used a piece of vellum cardstock for this piece. (Vellum cardstock is thicker than regular vellum, and much easier to work with IMHO.) After running it through the Big Shot, I cut along the top edge of the roses and then used my sponge daubers to apply Regal Rose behind both flowers and then a bit of Rose Red on some of the areas for shading. The vellum is adhered to the white cardstock with SNAIL hiding behind the inked areas. I really like the look of it! The sentiment is a new one, found in the upcoming Spring Mini Catalog. It's called Oval All. I colored it in with Rose Red, Regal Rose, Always Artichoke and Old Olive markers on Whisper White cardstock. After stamping it, I punched it out with my large oval punch. The scalloped oval behind it was made with my Oval All stamp set and the new scalloped oval punch from the mini catalog. After stamping and punching it out, I used my white gel pen inside the dots for a fun effect. The oval is popped up on dimensionals. See that beautiful ribbon on the bottom? That's the new white organza from Stampin' Up! It's absolutely gorgeous. Very soft and easy to work with.
Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station. I'll try to post again tomorrow!
Blessings,
Julie

TAWC Demented Cards

Hey there, fellow stampers! This is Sharon's week to set the challenge for the three amigas. She's a little demented, uh...I mean...she chose for us to make demented cards. (Sharon, you know I love you, right? :-D) I had the hardest time coming up with anything. Demented can mean sick or funny, so I chose the funny...that is, if you can call this funny. Underneath the square, the "no" is actually "now" on the stamp. I masked it with scotch tape before stamping, so that it would say no, then wrote in the words next to it with my Basic Black Stampin' Journaler. The gal in the chair is from Classy and Fabulous, the remote control is the vase in the Scene from a Garden stamp set from the new Mini Catalog coming out on April 1st. I just did a bit of writing on the vase so that it would look like a remote. The mug of beer is from Cheers To You. The checklist is also from a set from the upcoming Mini Catalog; the name of the set is And Many Mower. A very good set for masculine cards; it even includes a mower. :-D So there's my demented card. What do you think? Is it sassy/funny enough? Please feel free to play along. If you post on SCS, use TAWC in the key words. If posting to another site, please include the link in a comment here. I'd love to see what you can come up with!

Sharon's Demented Card

Joanne's Demented Card

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station!

Blessings,
Julie

Sale-A-Bration Is Almost Over

One of my favorite times of the year ~ Sale-A-Bration ~ is almost over. I love the fun things that we get to make with the special Sale-A-Bration items. This card is one that we made at a workshop on Friday night. Now aren't those papers fun? They are from the Delicate Dots Designer Papers in the SAB catalog. The stamps are Botanical Blooms from the SAB catalog. To make this card, I stamped the outline images in Basic Black, then stamped the bolder images with VersaMark. I used my sponge daubers to pick up chalks from my Stampin' Pastels and daubed on the VersaMark. This technique is known as Poppin' Pastels, because the VersaMark makes the chalk stick and brightens the chalk. You can see a very faint blue look in the background. That's the look of chalk directly to the cardstock without benefit fo the VersaMark. We finished the card off with lots of layers of DP (designer paper) and Celery Twill Ribbon from the Ribbon Bundle in the SAB catalog. I really love how a very simple card to stamp turns out so beautifully with those gorgeous papers and ribbons. Simple and fun! Want to try the Poppin' Pastels technique or a card with this layout? I'd love to see what you make. Drop me a line.
Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station.
Blessings,
Julie

Thinking of You

Unfor- tunately, a friend of mine exper- ienced a loss this past week. So this is the card that I made for her. I wanted to try out my new Cutter Bee Circle Scissors from SU! and thought that this would be a good opportunity. I colored the flowers from Close as a Memory with Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie, and Always Artichoke markers. Then I stamped it not once, not twice, but three times to get the shadowed effect. I cut out a think circle of Pumpkin Pie to draw the eyes to the bouquet.
The back- ground Rose Red was run through the Big Shot with a SU Back- grounds I Texturz Plate. I used the Eyelet Border Punch on all three card layers and the sentiment. I also used the Corner Rounder Punch and sponge on the sentiment piece. A Mini Glue Dot is holding the Riding Hood Red Taffeta ribbon in place. I'm hoping that this card brings comfort to my friend.

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station. Hope you enjoyed this project idea.

Blessings,
Julie

This Week's Three Amigas Challenge...Card and Scrapbooking

It was my turn this week to set the challenge. After talking with my upline Sharon about where we want to go with our blogs, I decided on this challenge: to make a card and then a scrapbook page with some of the same elements. Needing a card for Heidi, my last hostess, I made this card and matching Thank You tags. My inspiration was designer paper that we had about a year ago. I was really missing the chocolate and vanilla combo. Sweet and simple. Then it occurred to me that I could slightly recreate this paper by running my vanilla cardstock through the damask SU texture plate and then sponge across the raised pattern with my ink. Yahoo! For the tag and greeting, I first stamped "Thank You" in Chocolate Chip and then put the cardstock through the Big Shot with the texture plate. You have to stamp the greeting first, before putting the texture on, otherwise you will get an inconsistent image on your stamping. The card was finished off with the new Eyelet Border Punch.
So how do you use the same ideas on a scrapbook page? Well, the top and bottom of the texture plate match up. I textured my strips of vanilla on the first 7" and then put the last 4" on at the bottom, exactly where I had placed the first 7". This is easiest if you use the side edge of the texture plate for a placement guide. There is a small seam across at the 7" mark, but I covered it up with the photo frame. I used my embosslit Simple Flower from SU! for the flowers. I sponged ink gently across the vanilla flowers and sanded the raised areas off of the chocolate flowers. (You can do this when you use Designer Paper with a white core for your embosslit.) I used the Swirls Scribbles sizzlit for vanilla and chocolate swirls for accents.
The last part of the challenge was to use an accessory that is new to the catalog and an accessory that is old to the current catalog. For my new accessory, I used the texture plate and the embosslit. For the old accessory, I used the half pearls from my Pretties Kit. I love the way the pearls finish off the flowers. Just a touch for elegance.

Sharon's TAWC

Supplies: Elegant Thank You stamp. Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla cardstocks. Chocolate Chip and Close to Cocoa classic ink. Bella Rose Designer Paper. Big Shot, SU Backgrounds 1 Texturz plates, Simple Flower Embosslit, Swirls Scribbles Sizzlit, Wide Oval Punch, Coluzzle, Eyelet Border Punch, 5/8" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain, Pretties Kit.

Well, I guess that's all for now. Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station. I'd love to hear from you.

Blessings,
Julie

Hostess Thanks

Here's a card that I made for last week's hostess. I sent this card plus some tags for the bags. I don't usually send the tags, but was really in the mood to do this. I tried my best to make a perfect triangle with the eyelet border punch. I think this came out pretty good for my first attempt. The Fifth Avenue Flowers are stamped in Lavender Lace and Almost Amethyst (I love that combo!) and the thank you has the rose stamped in Amethyst behind the Lavender words. I used a bit of my retired narrow organdy to finish this off. The tags that were inside matched the color and stamp theme. Very fun to make!
Supplies: Fifth Avenue Florals and Beautiful Borders stamp sets. Whisper White, Almost Amethyst, and Lavender Lace cardstocks. Eyelet Border Punch, Oval and Large Oval Punches.
Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station.
Blessings,
Julie

Masculine TAWC For This Week

Joanne is the hostess this week for the Three Amigas. Our chal- lenge from her is to make a mas- culine card with browns and blues. I combined the challenge with the sketch challenge for today at SCS to kill two birds with one stone...except that I was stamping at 1 am and I forgot one of the layers of the sketch! Ouch! And so, out of desperation due to my computer woes, I'm posting it anyway! The colors here aren't very true, even after I adjusted them, due to taking the pic at 1:30 am and having to use a flash.
I stamped the mugs on the background Cocoa cardstock, sent it through the Big Shot with my SU! texturz plate, then sponged some color lightly across the texture to highlight the raised diamond pattern. After stampin the mug and words on the Whisper White, I colored the mug with my Mustard SU marker, sponged the edges of the cardstock with Brocade Blue, paper pierced the edges, then connected the dots with the fine side of my Cocoa SU marker to give it the faux sewing look. The brads are from the retired Vintage Brads set. I kind of miss that copper look in the new Vintage Brads. I think it works well here.
Supplies: Cheers To You stamp set. Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Brocade Blue, Whisper White cardstocks. Bella Rose DP. Paper piercer & template, SU markers, Vintage Brads, SU texturz plate, Big Shot, Sponge.
Once again, thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station. I wish you many hours of enjoyable stamping.
Blessings,
Julie
p.s. here's a teaser. Next week, easy scrapbooking for the scrapbooking challenged stampers...

Hurray! A Way Around the Missing Computer File!

Yippee! I found a way around the missing file that recognizes my camera in the e: drive. grrrr! Technology is so wonderful and it's also a pain because it's taken over my life! Anyone else ever feel that way??
We had a birthday party for my nephew Nick on Sunday afternoon. He wanted money because he's saving up for a special iPod. Yes, he's 12 and wants his music+. So, wanting to create a special way to package his cash, I decided to hit the templates available to demonstrators on the Stampin' Up! website. I found this adorable take-out box template that I just HAD to make! Isn't it fun? It looks a bit uneven in the photo, but it really wasn't IRL. I added the wire on top for the carrier, but it wasn't a heavy enough gauge to hold up with the snickers inside covering the cash. And I'm not going to tell you how much cash was inside. Bwahahahaha! (Yes, I've been playing too many Wii/Gamecube games with Bowzer laughing.) The card was made using a layout from the last Idea Book & Catalog (Fall/Winter 2008), pg. 209, adjusted to an A2 (4 1/4" x 5 1/2") size. I'm thinking that I really love this Hit the Road stamp set! The sentiment was stamped on glossy white, punched out with the scallop circle punch and then punched again with the scallop circle punch to make that cute burst of dust from the back of the jeep. After punching it out, I sponged Close to Cocoa around the saying and dragged the edges on the ink pad. Does it look dirty enough? LOL! I also added some dust puffs with the cloud from the Putt Putt stamp set. Everything was colored in with SU! markers, except for the sky. I watercolored that with my aquapainter and my Tempting Turquoise ink. The circles are cut with my Coluzzle, since my new circle cutter from SU! isn't in yet. The background diamond pattern is from the SU! exclusive texture plates. If there was ever a reason to buy the Big Shot, the Texture Platz are definitely a HUGE plus!!! Feel free to browse the catalog by clicking on the picture in the right column.
Supplies: Hit the Road & Putt Putt stamp sets. Only Orance, Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore, Whisper White, Glossy White cardstocks. Rainbow Sherbet Designer Series Paper. Coluzzle, SU! texturz plates, aquapainter, markers, scallop circle punch.

So, does anyone know how one would be able to restore a file to read the camera off of the e: drive? Let me know if you do....

Thanks for stopping by the Stamping Station once again. I'm so thankful for all of you who are so faithfully checking in.

Blessings,
Julie

Technical Difficulties

Please stand by....we are experiencing technical difficulties.

Remember that from TV years gone by? Well, it's true over here. For now, I can't upload my pics off of the camera to the computer. We're working on solving that problem. I have two really cute cards to share with you. Hopefully we'll be able to figure out what the problem is this afternoon. Until then...

Blessings,
Julie