Acetate cards

I finished these card samples on Thursday for an acetate PlayDate I'm having this weekend. I would've posted them yesterday but yesterday decided to go pearshaped on me. At any rate, here they are. They turned out better than I had hoped, and a couple are good fun to play with. I'm always a sucker for interactive cards!

#1 White StaZon on acetate

OK. So I used some illegal Vintage Violet on this one - It was the right dark bluey purple colour for a winter night sky. I used the Seasonal Whimsy stamp set from Stampin' Up! and the acetate is from Staples. The main imaged was versamarked, dunked into Irridescent Ice embossing powder, and heat embossed. This was attached to the front of the card on the outside. The white snowflake was stamped in StaZon on the front of the card as well. The strip of Vintage Violet paper runs through the centre of the card on the inside back. Who knew it was so tricky to photograph acetate!?

#2 Crystal Effects on acetate

Again, this didn't photograph as well as I would've like, but it'll have to do. I used the retired Hostess set Blooming with Happiness from Stampin' Up! for the umbrella and the sentiment. The umbrella was stamped first in black StaZon, and the flowers are coloured in Pale Plum and Perfect Plum. The umbrella was cut out and attached to the front of the card. I put tear-drop-shaped dots of crystal effects on the front of the card to simulate rain drops. Inside the card I stamped the sentiment on a piece of Pale Plum that I cut out with the loaner oval scalloped Nestabilities. I'll be sad to return those.

#3 Zoofari shaker cardI think this one turned out pretty cute! The card base is Gable Green and the scallop is Tempting Turquoise. I stamped the zebra in black StaZon on Whisper White and coloured it in using inkpads and blender pens. I used some pop-dot strips that I bought at the 'rama to create some distance between the acetate oval and the zebra and to seal the edge all the way around the oval so nothing could escape. I filled the space (before sealing it up) with turquoise seed beads, clear microbeads, and a dash of Martha blue glitter. I think I maybe put in a bit too much - the zebra is in danger of being buried alive - but it's passable. On the scallop I punched 1/16" holes in each scallop and tarted it up a bit with some white gel pen. The ribbon is some retired celery organza ribbon and the sentiment is from Holidays and Wishes from Stampin' Up!

#4 Tree Magic Card

This one you needed to see in action. It's a magic card, and by far my favourite, although there are some slight modifications I'd make to it next time (most notably I'd colour the background tree with watercolours or ink rather than chalk which keeps smudging). I swiped the design for this one from a SplitCoastStampers tutorial by Beate. I used Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, and Very Vanilla papers, some brown StaZon for the tree overlay, and my Stampin' Pastels to colour the background tree.

I think we're going to have a fun PlayDate!

Verdant thank you's

I needed to thank a friend for some timely aid, and decided to make her a little gift box of Thank You cards (the thank you that keeps on giving!) Originally the plan was to make 5 cards all the same, but - as anyone who has ever witnessed me struggle with a card swap can attest - I have a very hard time settling on a design I'm happy with. So instead, she got 5 different cards!

I used the Level 1 hostess set "A Little Bit of Happiness" and did a lot of colouring. I used Old Olive paper with a bit of Chocolate Chip and Certainly Celery as accents. I knew I wanted something earthy (she has a garden design business on the side) and had recently made a decent card out of that suprising colour combo for my first sketch challenge.

The image was stamped in black Stazon and coloured using ink pads and blender pens. The background is the retired Linen stamp (oh, how I miss it!) with Wonderful Words saying Thank you in Chocolate Chip. I even used a bit of my new polytwill ribbon. It's so nice to tie!

Thanks for looking...

Easter page

I spent the Easter weekend at the m-i-l's ski condo at Mt. Tremblant. I had some downtime in the evenings and was able to get some work done on my Easter 2007 scrapbooking page finally.
I'm happy with how it turned out. A friend loaned me her Nestabilities (*swoon*) since mine still haven't arrived, so I went a little nutty with the ovals. Paper colours are Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Almost Amethyst, and Bashful Blue. I used some pink 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, some retired organza ribbon, some ribbon sliders from the Occasions mini catalog, and some slab paper for the backround. The little chickie is from the Stampin' Up! set "A Good Egg" and the flower punch is EK Success.

March Sketch Challenge Submissions

Thanks to everyone who participated in the March Sketch Challenge. I received another bumper crop of beautiful cards!

Check out my card for this challenge.

Let there be light...

I wasn't able to get a picture of the gaping (and VERY dusty) hole in my outer wall, because they went and put a window into it! Here's a picture of my spiffy new window though. I am SOOooooOOoooo pleased with it, because this area of the house is normally so dark. Don't be put off by the red with black polkadots; I haven't had a stylectomy. It's just the tuck-tape they put around the window. They went a little nuts. Tuck-tape is crazy sticky... I wonder if I could use it on my cards somehow. Hmmmm [scheme scheme].

I know I haven't posted anything having anything to do with cards in a while. Sorry! I did get a bunch of submissions for the March card challenge, which I'll share here. Hopefully I'll get around to it tomorrow in and amongst working and packing for the trip to Mt. Tremblant.

Carpet, stone, and tiles

Maybe I should've called this blog "Corrie's basement" because I'm posting about that more than I am my cards! Oh, well. Soon enough it'll be over and I'll be fixated on my paper again.

Today they're sawing a big hole in my stairwell to accommodate a 2x5' window. I also have carpet, tile, stone, and cork samples to choose. Here's what I think I've settled on:

The stone will be for the fireplace surround. It's a neutral grey with a bit of a pinkish beige accent. The carpet matches the darker beige stones. The tiles are for our custom shower: Mosaic border, 12x12 wall tile, and the pseudo-herringbone for the floor. Spiffy!

I'll post pictures of the big hole in my wall shortly.

Oh, and I got promoted! I'm now a stampin' up Consultant.

This is so cool!

A good pal, Nicole, found this terrific site that lists the RGB colour values for Stampin' Up! colours!

"RG-What?" You ask?

RGB colours are used by computer programs (Word, Photoshop, etc) to identify the amount of Red, Green, and Blue that goes into any one colour.

**GEEK ALERT**
RGB colour values are numerical values used to represent over 3 million unique colours on your computer. Each RGB value is specified as a number between 0 and 255. I could really get geeky here and explain bits, bites, counting in binary and the signficance of each numerical value, but that's just crazy.

Why do you care what the RGB values are for SU! colours? Well, if you want to print something (text, a border, etc) and have it match your paper perfectly, all you need to know is how to set the RGB value for the colour in your software program. Voila!

I'm planning to use this to do some layout trials before I actually start cutting into my paper to see whether my designs look good.

Enjoy!
SU! RGB colour values

March Sketch Challenge

Here is my card sample for the March Sketch Challenge.

I used the stamp sets:

- "A Beautiful Thing"

- "Holiday Blitz"

- "All In A Row"

The card base is 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" River Rock cardstock. I used a layer of Ruby Red (1/4" smaller than the River rock) and pierce the right corners.

I layered a 2" x 5" floral paper (Ginger Blossom)that has a small bit of River Rock on the left that I stamped with the 4 flowers from A Beautiful thing in Ruby Red, and heat embossed the flower centres with gold embossing powder.

I next layered a 2" x 3.5" Groovy Guava paper (Ginger Blossom) that I had stamped the edges using All In a Row and Ruby Red ink.

The Sentiment is mounted on 1.25" River rock that has been pierced around the edges. The sentiment is stamped in Ruby Red on very vanilla, and the edges were dragged in Ruby Red.

The flower (A Beautiful thing) was stamped in Real Red on Very Vanilla and trimmed. The filigree centre was stamped in versamark over the flower and heat embossed using gold detail embossing powder. The sentiment and the flower are both popped using 1/16" pop dots.

I hope you like it!

Houston: We have walls!

Today is Day 2 of the basement reno. I would've posted yesterday but work went NUTS. As always.

Yesterday the basement guys added the bottom layer of insulation, and have framed most of the interior and perimeter walls.

Here's my craft room:

And the loo:

And the view down to the fireplace:

Inauspicious beginnings

Today was supposed to be Day 1 of our basement renovations, but because of the winter storm that hit the area, the window guy bailed out, Home Depot wouldn't deliver the supplies and most of the construction guys couldn't make it here. It's a bit of a let down, but it's only a one-day delay. I think I'll survive.

I plan to chronicle the changes here. Here are some photos of Day -1:

My craft room!

Where the bathroom will be

The rec room/fireplace area

Sketch Challenge

It's time for the March sketch challenge! Although this is the second challenge, this is the first on here on el Blog.

I challenge you to make a card using this layout:

The card challenge is intended to be an exercise in creativity that will stimulate and challenge you while giving you a fun excuse to make a card. No card police will show up at your door if you colour outside of the lines.

I had a lot of questions last time about what's "legal" in the challenge, so I'll try to set some ground rules before we get started this time.

1. Please follow the spirit of the layout (appropriately shaped pieces in roughly the same sizes/spots). It doesn't have to be perfect, but don't deviate wildly.
2. You can embellish as you see fit. Add layers. Add mats. Add brads or ribbon. The sketch is just your starting point.
3. Send me a photo of your finished card. I don't want the card - just the photo.
4. Please list the Stampin' Up! products you use (yes, you can use contraband products from the M store, but isn't the Stampin' Up! stuff nicer?)
5. All photo submissions are due on March 18.

Why bother? Well, you get some practice. You get a nice layout for free. You get to see a bunch of different samples using that layout to give you some new ideas. And you get an excuse to make more cards (because we all need another excuse).

Start cutting! I can't wait to see what you come up with.

-Corrie

addendum: Here are the finished submissions.

A Brave New World

Welcome!

This is my first ever blog post. I'm hoping this space will be my creative outlet, and keep me productive. I have a nasty habit of lapsing into long periods of inactivity when life gets too hectic.

I've recently been dabbling in scrapbooking, in addition to my love of card making.

To that end here is a pair of 8x8 scrapbooking pages that I made this weekend:

Sorry for the cruddy scan quality, but I have a cruddy-quality scanner. For some reason it throws shadows on recessed areas of the page.

I used paper from an Old World 8x8 paper slab (Michael's) for the background, Ruby Red, Close to Cocoa, Sahara Sand, and Very Vanilla for the paper. I created the corner vines with a Cuttlebug die and the photo corners with the SU! photo corner punch. The corners were then pierced with my SU! piercing tool. Some expired In-Colour ribbon (Cranberry Crisp) with some 1/4" satin ribbon from Michael's and some 1/4" taupe grosgrain from SU! to finish it off. Stamps used include Fundamental Phrases (FAMILY, FOREVER), Be Happy (Smile), and Autumn Apparitions (Happy Hallowe'en). The circle stamp was from a set I picked up at the Scrapbook Emporium. It's called "conversation dots" I think, but I don't recall who made it. With the exception of the Cuttlebug vines, the punches are all SU! punches.

Enjoy!
Corrie

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