Brushstrokes by Penny Black

So here we go, back to mixing up my stamps and papers etc. When most people think of Penny Black stamps they think of Mimi and the Hedgies (hedgehogs) and all of the cute character stamps. I first found PB from the brushstroke flowers! I saw a beautiful calendar made with them and had to make it (btw never did though, tried but mine wasn't quite good enough). I ordered the stamps and then realized I had a cute little clear stamp set from the same company when I saw the logo! Anyway this is one of those stamps and I saw a card made with it that is clean and simple and gave it a go (ie. this is a case). The background is Hero Arts Envelope pattern bg stamp. I like it, might make another one actually! Hope you like it too :)

Last Stampin Up Survivor Card

Last card from the Survivor Stampin Up series. I made this card in a whole different color scheme a while back and just really like how easy yet pretty this card is. I used the new purple color from SU (can't remember what it is and too lazy to look it up lol) but the green is pear pizzazz :) The stamp set and punches are SU of course. Thus concludes my series. Now back to mixing all my stamps together! Hope you enjoyed or got inspired by at least one of them!

CASEd Card

I have to say CASE and CAS are confusing. CASE is copy and share everything and CAS is clean and simple. This is a CASE of a card that just "hit me right". When looking for clean and simple (CAS) ideas I always find things I like but when I make them I am not so sure. It is hard to pull of one of these cards. I really liked the line around the edge, I thought it was just the right touch. The colors are calypso coral and old olive - all SU of course (still on the swap).

Bird Punch Again

This is using the same bird punch along with the stamp set that goes with it. I think it gives it a nice touch. Same colors with the addition of early espresso (I think that is the "new" brown). I did use Spellbinders dies but the rest is SU. Thanks for looking!

Flap Fold Card

This card is a fun one to make, I love this bird punch almost as much as the owl! Once again this is for the Survivor pool and all products are from Stampin Up. The colors are old olive and baja breeze. It's pretty simple so not much to say other than I really like this card! I think this could qualify as clean and simple. Does designer paper disqualify it for that I wonder? Thanks for stopping by!

Masculine Card

So I decided to show the masculine card next. This one is not quite clean and simple, is it now? It is one of the other of my favorites of this group of cards though. Except the words, this is all one stamp set (Stampin Up). I stamped the background with the ledger stamp in the set, it is smaller so I had to stamp 4 times to fill the paper but it lines up super easy and lends itself to repeated stamping. The compass images are stamped and punched with a circle punch, the ship once again stamped in night of navy on white card stock and then everything was distress sponged on the edges with crumb cake ink. I did add some crumb cake on more areas to give it an old look. The twine just seemed to be the right thing to use with the nautical theme.

I don't know if you can tell and now that I mention it you will be able to tell but I got a new paper trimmer and am having a heck of a time getting straight edges with it! I had to re-cut and fuss with the background piece and it still isn't straight but I did what I could and adhered it. I don't know if I am going to like this trimmer! It's just that the arm type cutter is too big for me to use at the table with me and I don't want to get up and down 50 times to use it (Ok I exaggerate a tad) and this is a rolling blade type trimmer and it just goes curvy or at an angle as it goes down. I try really hard to hold my hand steady and use the same amount of pressure but it still messes up. If I could return it I would but Archivers told me once I open it I can't return it. I am now starting at the bottom and going up to cut the paper and it seems to be better, I have my fingers crossed I will get the hang of it. I don't want to waste the money! OK enough blabbering :) Only a few more to go in this series, thanks for looking!

Owl Punch Card

Here is my owl card! Of course I had to do one for this group. When making 10 cards together I had to make them more or less clean and simple (CAS). The less coloring the better so this owl fits right in. I believe it is purely pomegranate card stock and pretty in pink. The image panel is mounted on dimensionals and the pink is embossed with a polka dots embossing folder. So next shall I post the masculine card or one of the flower cards? We'll see!

Next Card

This card looks better in person, it is one of my other favorites of the group! Baja breeze again along with old olive and a card base of crumb cake formerly known as kraft card stock. There are three layers of ovals for the image. the designer paper is from a new set I just love called Everyday Enchantment. It has that grungy sort of look so I sponged the edges of the image panel and the tag with crumb cake to match. I think I will share the owl card next. You know how I feel about that owl punch!

Butterflies Card

I have often seen cards with butterflies lined up and thought I would give it a try. The good thing about this stamp set is it has the antennae stamp seperate so I could line those up with a ruler and then put my stamped and punched butterflies on. The stamp set is butterfly prints by Stampin Up of course (for these Survivor cards...) and they have a punch to match. The colors are calypso coral, lucky limeade and pool party. got to love those names! The ribbon is also SU as well as the pearls. Four down and six to go!

Next Card for the Group

This is one of my favorites of this group of Survivor cards. I used Baja Breeze and Calypso Coral colors to match the SU designer paper. The layout is a card I have done before which is a case of a catty card. I really love the use of negative space or white space, just enough color to balance. The ribbon is Stampin Up also as well as all the stamps and edge punch. I have to use all SU on these cards and sometimes it's hard to remember who makes what!

New Apothecary Art Stamps and Dies

I am making 10 cards for my Survivor card pool I was in and I won this season! So I get 18 cards for winning the sole survivor and then a few more for some of the others that came in close. I had 6 survivors picked in all this season and it was the best I have ever done. Just lucky choices really :) So since this is an all Stampin Up group I pulled out my SU stamps and tools (I almost always use SU card stock) and got to it. The first two cards here are using the Apothecary Art stamp set and die set. I wanted to make the flip fold card (in red) and that inspired me to make the yellow card as a folded die cut card. The mat die for the large stamp in the set is so big it almost takes up a whole 4.25 x 5.5 card so my idea was to simply attach it to a piece of card stock as a backing and make it a card. Does that make sense? Another words the die cut opens, not the rectangular piece. I put a piece of designer paper on the yellow card stock for decoration. Cool idea?! I like it :) I think this could sell for SU demos workshops.

Penny Black Stamp - Good Friends Card

These pictures were taken with my iPhone. I am still experimenting with getting the lighting right for my cards. These are actually as good as my regular camera and one is actually white for the white card stock background! Which is better the warmer picture or the one with the whiter background? Anyway this is one of my favorite stamps although I haven't used it yet! One card making blogger asked what our new years "craft" resolution was and I decided to ink up and make cards out of every stamp I haven't used yet. I don't have that many but I do have some and I just don't feel right about having not used them yet. Interestingly enough most people said organize their stuff. I do that about every week! It gets into chaos real quick with me :)

I used water color to color the image. It's my favorite method, cant you tell?! I used markers on the Penny Black stamp a few posts ago but its just to heavy and dark to me when I use them. I know lots of people love their Copics but well hey I love my watercolors. I used Spellbinders dies and a Stampin Up edge punch. Those cute bigger brads are Stampin Up too, aren't they perfect for this?! I used Stickles (my second favorite thing to use) on all of the hearts. It just makes it so pretty! The paper is Twitterpated by SU, love this set as you can tell. Here is a close-up to see the sparkle.

Beach Sand Framed Gift

I saw one like this a while back and just loved it! My BFF's daughter collects sand from all the different beaches they go to so I immediately thought of her. I special ordered the vial because at the time I couldn't find them anywhere and filled it with sand that she shared with me from one of her trips. The shells are stamped onto creamy caramel card stock then embossed with white e.p. and cut out. The blue mat and the coral are both spellbinders dies. The frame is a plain frame from either AC Moore or Michael's that I painted blue then white washed. Right now I am dreaming of the beach and Summer :)

I really like this stamp and thought it was perfect for the tag: "My heart is at home by the sea".

Online Class

Did you notice the new image to the right? Move More, Eat Well. It is an online class - I have never taken one before! I embarked upon the task of losing 70 pounds two years ago and did a good job of losing it. That was my first goal with another 10 pounds to go in the back of my mind. Technically I was good at the top part of my weight range because that gives me a BMI of less than 25. However I wanted to be in the middle of my weight range to look a little better in a bathing suit since I am in one for 4 months of the year. I have only been at the bottom of my weight range when I was much younger and actually was very ill and didnt know it and that is why I managed to be so thin! That is another conversation I will spare you :) Anyway I "know it all" when it comes to eating, food, diet and exercise. I have lost 50 pounds or more at least 6 times, worked for weight watchers for several years and I read articles every single day about all of the above. I can say this much, yoyo dieting does make it tricky to lose weight. That is why I want to break the cycle, stay fit and eat well. I have done that for the most part but I am finding a few pounds creeping back on so I must stop it now. The funny thing is I saw this on another blog, looked into it and because it is scrapbooking related decided it would be a good way to keep this front and center in my life this year. I watched her video and other than smoking (never have) we have the same story becoming a runner and all! So I ordered my notebook and page protectors, printed out the first steps and am really looking forward to this adventure. All except the measuring part :) (She did say this was optional!) The picture of the shoes is the first thing she had us do - take a picture of our exercise shoes. Why 4? Well three are the shoes I have worn out running and the other are my Zumba shoes so that's what I wanted in my notebook. I might share a bit of it here and there but for the most part, back to card making. Thanks for reading my little story! May you Move More and Eat Well this year.

Thank you Cards and Calendar

Happy New Year! 2012, oh yeah! The years just tootle on by LOL! I changed my blog feed to only show the first part of the post because when I post several cards it makes a large email to people and if they get several feeds it's annoying. On the other hand some people only look at the feed and don't come to my blog to see the rest. So I'm not sure which way is best. Anyway here are the remaining cards and calendar I promised. These are once again cased or inspired from cards Ive seen, when I am in a hurry or want to make several cards I find it best to do this because creating my own design from start to finish takes me 3+ hours for one card! The owl calendar was just so darn cute I had to make them for myself and friends. I love the owl punch from Stampin Up and have used it many times with no plans of stopping! I have made a calendar of some kind every year now for 4 or 5 years so it's become a tradition.