Using My New Elzybells!

This week's Use It Challenge is to use a new technique, a virgin stamp, and new papers. I was the lucky winner recently of some Elzybells stamps from Charlene at Willow and Paisley and decided it was time to ink her up. She is so adorable, I LOVE this set! Go check out Charlene's blog, too - her cards and projects are gorgeous :)

For the elements of the challenge, I used the Pierced Spotlight technique from the Feb/March 2009 Technique Junkie Newsletter. I got the heart shape from a die cut in my stash. I colored the spotlighted part with Prismacolor pencils and blended them with OMS. The papers I used are from a Target dollar spot pack of dp from around Valentine's Day. The virgin stamp was the Elzybells image and sentiment. For the ribbon treatment, I cut a length of silver satin and crimped it with the pink brads from my stash. It's a tiny bit crooked, but I like the detail of it. The scalloped rectangle layer was cut with Nesties in the Cuttlebug.

Well, DS is off on his first solo play date and I have to get him soon. I hope he was well behaved. The little girl whose house he is at loves to play with cars and even has a few race tracks, so I'm sure it will be a success! Too bad it's raining and they won't be able to go outside. His recreation camp ended today and the next two weeks we'll have full days to occupy before school starts. Yikes! First grade, here he comes...

I hope you are all enjoying the summer and aren't too hot or too rainy in your area! Thanks for looking!

Floral Birthday

My favorite type of card is a birthday card, I think.
Maybe that's just because those are what I make most often... This month is especially full of birthdays - 6 I think. I'd better get busy!!

Patterned paper from Close to My Heart Cocoa Cafe collection. Purple scraps, and brown scraps from my ever-growing pile! Image is stamped in Basic Black ink on white cs, colored with pencils and blended. Mounted on the reverse of the striped paper, which is a great distressed turquoise-y color. I made some photo corners in purple and in the stripe to counter the panels. Simple, like all my cards seem to be these days.

Got my box of goodies from Frugalities today. Can't wait to play later. Ran around all morning on this one day off this week and am going to relax for a bit before diving into stamping. Still have to go to the grocery store, but think I can procrastinate on that till tomorrow after work... Just have to go pick some eggplant and tomatoes from the garden and we're set for a late-summer veg pasta! Will I enjoy cooking anymore when our new kitchen in installed??? I doubt it.

Thanks for looking!

My First Bella!

I wrote a few entries back that I received some Bella images from Cindy. Here is my first creation with the Prezzibella. My "little" cousin turned 21 on Friday. Gosh, that makes me feel old!

The patterned paper is Paper Heart, Baby Pink Scrolls. I think I should have used more of it, since it doesn't show very well under the panels. Next time...

I had some of this cool-caribbean like scrap from a scrap pack and used that, layered with pink on top and then with the Bella image and the sentiments, which are free-handed with Classic Alphabet (SU!). The ink is Cool Caribbean and the base is also sponged with CC. Bella is stamped in black, then colored with pencils and blended. The ribbon is SU! grosgrain. Oh, and I pierced the lower right corner. I feel like the scale is off on this card, and will try again. I love the Bella, though!

Now, I have some time to play with my new stuff - did anyone else take advantage of the images for sale at Hambo? Check it out before they're gone! And AC Moore has card stock this week on sale - 7 for $1.00 in 8.5 x11 size; 5 for $1.00 in 12 x12! The basic colors (white, gloss white, craft) were just about gone when I got there this afternoon, but I'm sure they'll restock all week! My husband and son were with me, so I had to show restraint. It's a good thing for the wallet, though :)

Hope you had a great weekend! Thanks for looking!

Monday again already?

Where oh where has the weekend gone? Granted I worked Saturday, but yesterday went by much too quickly!

My DS is sick with cold/allergies and asthma flare-up, so we had a quiet day at home yesterday. Well, quiet if you blocked out all the whining! That means I got to play for a bit in my stamping space. He likes to "be busy" with me and will color while I stamp for short amounts of time...

This card is actually from a couple months ago. Here are the details: black background, pale blue patterned paper (not sure from which company - can update when I get home and look). Black torn panel tied over with pale blue organdy ribbon from Michael's. The stamp is Anita's and has been in my collection forever, but I love the simple flower. It is stamped on 3 white panels and colored in with chalks. I hope you can click on the photo to get a closer image, because it really is a pretty card. I haven't given it away yet because I'm waiting for just the right occasion...

This week, my plan is to spend a little time each evening in my stamping space. This will have to be after I deal with the bounty of our garden, though! Tomatoes and zucchini and eggplant have taken over the kitchen counters and must be cooked, canned and frozen as we can't possibly eat them all. It's that time of year when our neighbors see us coming with zucchini and run inside and lock their doors!

Have a Happy Monday and thanks for looking :)

My Current Favorite

What a week! My DH was traveling for most of it, so I barely had time for myself after taking care of DS and the housework. Yesterday after work I finally sat down and puttered around with some stuff.


I just recently purchased the Delight In Life stamp set. I was eyeing it on Ebay for a while, then finally pounced and got it, with no regrets. Now the goal is to NOT reach for it since it's been used so many times since I got it...

However, my good friend's birthday was last week and I wanted to give her a really pretty card. A girly-girl card if you will (though I think I need to get some Bellas for true girly-girl stamping!). This was also an opportunity to use this Chatterbox Ribbon Stripe pp.

The background is half the Chatterbox paper, half plain pink paper. The DIL flowers are stamped in Pretty in Pink on white cs. I masked the flowers to give them more dimension. The swirls are stamped in Old Olive, stamped off one time to soften the color. The sentiment is also stamped off once in Old Olive. This white panel is mounted on pink, then brown. Ribbons are white 5/8" and pink 3/8" grosgrain. The pink is SU, the white is from a craft store.

Across the bottom, I stamped the small flower from DIL onto pink scraps, using Close to Cocoa ink. The flowers were then cut out and mounted with foam dots to give them more pop. Let me know what you think - I love to hear other opinions and see through other people's eyes!

This card just makes me smile and I hope it did the same for my friend on her birthday. My neighbor will be getting a card using this set in a few weeks and I will post that another time. Meanwhile, thanks for looking!