Prima paper doll tags

 I just love these paper doll stamps from Prima. I remember playing with paper dolls when I was a child so I think I am enjoying the fact that it is bringing out the kid in me and I don't need an excuse.  A friend let me borrow this stamp and I stamped her on Prima tags and designer paper. I think this stamp is one of my favorites along with one that was just released. The new one has the girl wearing a long dress that can be embellished to look like a wedding dress. Can't wait to get that one.

Take a look below to see the different looks I came up with the one stamp. I lined these tags up on a shelf on my studio for inspiration every time I am in there. They just make me smile. Speaking of my studio, I spent the whole day in there yesterday. It was gloomy and rainy out yesterday and there wasn't anything that needed to be done around the house so it was a good day to create. I bought some of the new Spellbinders and I was in heaven. I will share my creations with you in the next couple of posts. I didn't even get out of my PJs all day yesterday so you know I was in a creativity mode.

To keep the post down I am not going to go into detail what I used on each tag. If there is something that you need information on, just leave a comment I will get back to you.

Looking forward to a day outside. The temps are a bit cooler but the sun is shining and that is all I need. I am however looking forward to fall. I think I sleep better so I am in an overall good mood- most of the time. Hope you all had a wonderful summer so far. Hard to believe it is almost over. Oh well there is nothing we can do to make it last longer, we have to just enjoy it for what it is.

 

~Have fun and enjoy!

For the Bride and Groom

 

This has to be one of most last minute cards I have ever made for an any occasion. I almost committed a stamper's cardinal sin by buying a card rather than making one. I had a wedding reception to go to Friday night and I made this card in 30 minutes. I haven't bought a card in over 10 years. This is how I justify all my spending on stamping supplies. I am always mentioning to my husband how much store bought cards are these days.

 

Thanks to my good friend Carol who let me borrow these two new Spellbinders and part of her idea. The new lattice is a bit different with a fancier edge to it. Hence the name Fancy Lattice. It isn't much of a difference when you look at the die but it sure shows up on a card. The frame is one of Spellbinders 5x7 dies called Elegant Labels 4. I layered the middle die inside the largest one to create the window. The smallest die was used for the image which is actually a tag. I ran a piece of satin black ribbon through it to give some black to the top and bottom of the tag. I had a devil of a time getting all of the pieces out of the frame and I sort of tore some of the delicate pieces in each corner. I wasn't about to toss it out or start over because I didn't have the time. That is where embellishments come in quite handy. I just covered up the mistakes with three glittered half pearls in the corners and added some flowers for a finishing touch. Can you believe that the only bling on this card are the glittered pearls. That is really holding back for me. I did use ivory pearlized card stock which had a shine of it's own. The pearlized papers make such an elegant project. The bride and groom are from the Inkadinkado clear set Wedding/Marriage.

 

Last weekend was the annual Float Down here on the river. There were thousands of people who took to the water including a 92 year old woman. Her first time was last year at 91. There also was a woman who has stage 4 liver cancer and she wanted to be able to cross this off her bucket list. She is deathly afraid of water and she said her grandchildren were at the side cheering her on. Below is a picture of just some of the floaters. They continued coming around the corner for a full 4 hours. The Coast Guard has to close this river to all boat traffic for safety reasons. This means the freighters coming from Lake Huron are even on hold at this time. There are boats from the Coast Guard and Sheriff to help anyone who needs it or anyone who starts to drift over to the Canadian side. That is the Blue Water Bridge in the pictures that connects Port Huron to Sarnia, Canada.

 

 

 

Below is a picture of my husband Gerry and me. My friend Carol has a place on the river and she gets to wake up to beautiful images of this water every morning.

 

 

 

The Fry pan Sisters

~Have fun and enjoy!

 

 



Just for You

It has been awhile hasn't it. I feel like I can finally sit back and enjoy the rest of the summer. It sure has been a busy one with all my trips. My daughter came home from North Carolina and we took a trip up to the cottage in the Upper Peninsula. About as far north as you can get- way up in the Keweenaw Peninsula by Copper Harbor. Some call it God's country.  We all ad a great time and it was nice to spend some time with my dad.

Now on to today's card. I used SU Indigo Island and So Saffron card stock. The background was embossed with the Damask folder from Darice. I used Martha Stewart's Deco Fan edge and corner punch to create the yellow square. The blue square is from Spellbinders' Decorative Labels One. The label sentiment is from the SU set Just for You and I punched it out with the matching Artisan Label punch. I used Indigo Island ink for the label. Don't you just love the lace. I have used it on several cards and I picked it up at Hobby Lobby. You can see more detail in the photo below.

 

 

It looks like this is going to be a beautiful weekend and the flower gardens are calling my name again. They haven't seen much of me either. Has anyone else noticed how big the bumble bees are this year and how many there are of them. My phlox has come alive with how many bees are on them. I don't mind them as long as there is a window between them and me. I am glad they are at least sharing the flowers with the humming birds. Now those I could watch for hours- window or no window. Well I've got to go if I am going to get anything accomplished this afternoon. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

 

~Have fun and enjoy!

Seeds of Kindness

 

I actually decided to come back from San Antonio, I just haven't found the time to post. I flew home last Saturday and then we had to head back to the airport on Wednesday to pick up my daughter who flew in from Raleigh, NC. The weather in Texas was hot but a nice hot, not that humid sticky hot. It was in the triple digits but we were either in air conditioning or the pool. We did manage to see the Alamo and do the River Walk which was a bit warm but very much worth the walk. The resort I stayed at was awesome and I think the highlight was the bathroom in my room. It was very elegant and it even had a rain shower in it. The tub was extra long. Long enough that the towels were at the back end of the shower on a shelf and they didn't even get wet. Now that is the way I wish I could vacation all the time. Every time I turned around they were feeding us. Needless to say I am going to have to do some extra walking.

 

Today's card has very little stamping. The designer paper is from Michaels and the black doily is a pre-cut from Wilton for cupcakes. The white doily is a pre-cut from Martha Stewart. I punched out the leaves with a Martha Stewart Frond punch and the flowers are by Prima. The sentiment and circle design is from the JustRite set Seeds of Kindness. It is an older set so I don't know if it is still available. I put down a strip of black satin ribbon and than layered a piece of lace trim on top. The lace just got lost in the designer paper without the dark color behind it. A few pewter pearls for some bling and the card was finished. Very quick once I had the design in my head yet very elegant. Isn't that how it goes. Sometimes it takes us longer to come up with the design than to actually put the card together.

 

 

 

 

 

I plan on spending some quality fun time with my daughter this week and the boys will be home next weekend so we can all be together. It is pure joy how well they get along now that they are all grown. Just glad those teenage years are behind us.

~Have fun and enjoy!

 

 

A resisted doily

 

Today I have a different kind of doily and it's not a paper one. This card is using the "resist" technique. For those of you who aren't familiar with this technique it is created by resisting the ink. Sorry to bore the ones who know what this is but I am going to explain the process. After all my intention with my blog when I started it was to inspire and help those who are not as familiar with stamping.  I stamped SU Hello Doily with Versamark onto glossy card stock. Then I poured clear embossing powder over the image and went to town with my heat gun. You will now see a glossy image on the glossy card stock- does that make sense? If it doesn't it will in a minute. Next I used the following SU inks and with a sponge I just started rubbing on the color- Marina Mist, Bermuda Bay, Vintage Violet and Indigo Island. It is important to keep rubbing until the colors are blended well. Now the doily pops right out and it looks like it was done with white ink or white embossing powder when in fact it is just the white glossy card stock showing through. Magic, right!

 

 

 

 

I used Spellbinders Decorative Labels Twenty Two and then I layered Labels One on top with a sentiment from the Justrite set Signs of Life. The design around the sentiment is from the same set. It has several different circle designs and sentiments that can be interchanged. Speaking of Spellbinders, have you seen the sneak peaks this week on their blog. The one nice thing is these new dies are add-ons meaning they will wok with other dies to enhance the ones we already own. Check them out and get ready with a pen and paper to make your wish list (a big piece of paper).

 

Winner winner chicken dinner. The card in my last post was entered into a challenge and I won a background stamp from Justrite as a random drawing. I usually don't have the time to enter these challenges but over the 4th of July weekend I had the house to myself and I spent a good amount of time in my studio. I chose a lace background and as soon as I get it I will post a card with it. In fact it would be a gorgeous stamp for this technique.

I am flying to San Antonio on Monday for work. Being a Michigan girl I am not looking forward to the heat. Right now they are having a cold spell in the low 80's as their high. It came a week too early for my liking. Anyway the seminar is at a 5 star resort with several restaurants within the compound and several pools and waterfalls. I think I might be able to handle it and I am sure the conference rooms will be well air conditioned. From the reviews, this place caters to your every whim. Looking forward to a week of luxury. If I don't get a chance to post something new for next week you'll know why.

~have fun and enjoy (I know I will)!

 

A doily challenge

 I didn't plan on posting again so soon but I did this card for a JustRite challenge and I needed to link my submission back to my blog. The challenge required a doily to be incorporated. I used a silver cupcake doily and then I cut out the sentiment with Labels Eighteen. The sentiment is from the JustRite set Hugs to You. I embossed the background with a 5x7 CuttleBug folder by Anna Griffin called Rosa. The flowers are from one of the dollar stores and the leaves were punched out with a MS punch called Frond.

I must say today was one of those perfect days. I have the house to myself and you all know how much I enjoy that. I sat out on the deck with my coffee and the newspaper and a couple of candles to start the day. Then I got into the garden and did some trimming of my rose bushes and I still had a few flowers that had to be put in the flower beds to add a bit of color here and there. All of that before noon. Then I spent some time on one of my favorite sites- Pinterest. Absolutely addicted. I came across a pin on how to clean your washer so I got up and headed to the laundry room. A cycle of hot bleach water followed by a cycle of hot vinegar water and I now have a sparkling clean washer. I can hardly wait to do the laundry now- not! I can hardly wait to see what tomorrow brings.

 

~Have fun and enjoy

Paper doll

I didn't think this would be my kind of stamping but it was rather fun. It is called paper piecing and these Prima doll stamps designed by Julie Nutting are perfect for it. I couldn't fine a name for this stamp. I will just call her "Sally". I stamped the doll onto pink paper so I wouldn't have to color her skin. I have seen her body stamped onto word/text paper which gives a whole different look. Next I stamped her onto the paisley paper for her dress and then cut it out. I then stamped her one more time onto green paper for her pockets and headband. I did add some glossy accents to her shoes to make them look like patent leather but it isn't showing up in the picture. The border is from Spellbinders and the ribbon is from SU.

I wasn't that crazy about her not having a face so I drew some eyelashes and gave her some rosey cheeks. OMG- I just noticed that I forgot to color her bangs. I colored the rest of her hair with a Copic marker E37. Luckily I haven't sent this card out yet so I can go back and finish her bangs. Sometimes I wonder how I make it through the day.

 

 

This weekend I want to try a few more of these cards. I only have this one stamp but the nice thing is you can get her to look so different just by the different paper you use. I guess there are several samples on Pinterest so I will have to take a peak. I've heard they even put leggings on her which is a very cute idea.

Found some super buys on Sizzix this morning. I only went there because I received an email of their big sale and wanted to see what was new. Every die and embossing folder that came out before 2013 is 75% off with the code from their site. I can't wait for that package to arrive. I picked out several of Tim Holtz's dies, a few embossing folders and a few other odds and ends that I couldn't live without. It took a long time for the order to process (25 minutes and it says not to hit the back button). After waiting an unreasonably amount of time I ended the process and re-entered only to get two confirmation emails that my "orders" were confirmed. Great! I better make a phone call tomorrow because I don't need two of everything I ordered.

~Have fun and enjoy