HE is risen indeed!

Wishing you and yours a glorious and blessed Easter!

~~Robin

A Few Hawaii Pics - At Last!

Good morning everyone! I have finally had time to start editing my Hawaii photos, but for some reason, Blogger will only let me upload 5 at a time. Don't know what's up with that, but I'll do several posts over the next week with pics for you. I got some great ones!

The first shot is of the sunset from our balcony on the evening we arrived. What a stunning way to begin our trip.


The next photo is of the inside of our room, you can see the view we had through the sliding door. What a blessing to wake up to that each day.














This next photo is taken from where Mark and I ate Breakfast each morning. There were pairs of chairs and small tables set at intervals along the waterfront so we took our breakfast out there everyday and just relaxed and enjoyed our meal. It was really heavenly!

From my chair at breakfast when I looked straight up. Wouldn't it be nice to have that canopy over my head every day?

And one of my favorite pics of all, my wonderful hubby Mark enjoying his hammock by the water. Doesn't he look relaxed?

Have a wonderful Saturday everyone!

~~Robin

Blogger's Challenge #94 - Any Technique

Good morning stampers! I hope you are having a great day where you are - it is very quiet around my house today, Emma is at her Grandma's house until tomorrow night and since Mark is at work, I have the house to myself. Never would have thought it during spring break! But that means that I can do some playing in the studio, I mean 'design work for future classes'. Yeah, that sounds better since I'm supposed to be working which doesn't sound fun at all!

Today's Blogger's Challenge was to use any technique to create a project. Well, I had a lot of great techniques I wanted to use, but just couldn't get the mojo going in the direction it needed. So, I'm posting one of my recent swap cards from the Occasions Mini swap I was in because it uses the Color Spritzer tool. I LOVE this tool and don't use it nearly often enough. I don't know if you would consider this a technique, but the Color Spritzer does have a bit of a learning curve to it and I think it takes a bit of technique to get just the right spritz amount from the marker in the tool. So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it! LOL!

My card started with a Whisper White card base and it's layered with Chocolate Chip cardstock. For the next layers, I used two papers from the new Walk in the Park Designer Series Paper in the Occasions Mini Catalog. The ribbon band is Chocolate Chip Wide Grosgrain and is simply adhered to the cardstock with SNAIL adhesive.

For my focal point image, I turned to the new 'Wagon Full of Fun' stamp set, which I HAD to have because of that great cupcake image in it! This time I used this simple flower in a pot and it just screamed Black Eyed Susan to me. We used to travel up to the Blue Ridge Mountains a lot when I was a little girl and would camp out. Those beautiful flowers grew everywhere on the hillsides in huge patches and I just loved seeing their pretty faces as we drove or bicycled by them. They just made me happy, what can I say? Anyway, I stuck to the traditional colors and used Basic Brown to stamp the image on Whisper White and my Stampin' Write Markers to color it in. So Saffron, Close to Cocoa and Old Olive are on the flower and I used Really Rust for the pot to make it a traditional terra cotta color.

To create the spritzed background, I inserted my Close to Cocoa marker into the Color Spritzer tool, brush side down. I gently squeezed the bulb on the tool and just added a fine mist of color over the whole image. It's important to remember to always cap your marker, don't leave it open in this tool. Forcing air through the marker tip causes it to dry out much quicker than normal which is one of the reasons some people don't always have good results with it.

This layer is mounted on to Really Rust cardstock and I added a So Saffron brad from the Rich Regals grouping. It's popped up on Stampin' Dimensionals and adhered to the card front. Lastly, I used the 'friends' stamp from the Garden Greetings stamp set, stamping in Basic Brown in the lower right corner.

It's a pretty simple card really, but sometimes the simple things are the best things! I hope it makes you smile when you look at it!

Be sure to check out all the other Blogger's Challenge players this week by clicking on the link in my sidebar. I know they will have some amazing things to show you!

I'll be posting again over the weekend, so be sure to check back, ok?

Have a blessed Good Friday as you remember the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

By His wounds we are healed.

Stamped blessings,

Robin

Butterflies Again!

Hello everyone! I had such a great day yesterday with Emma. We did fun, girl stuff that included shopping and eating cupcakes from Cupcake Heaven in Haymarket. Yumm! While we were shopping, I saw a skirt that had this gorgeous deep orange panel around the bottom layer and it inspired me to come home and create this card. I rarely use the orange color palette and I have a whole pack of Tangerine Tango cardstock that is calling my name!



I started with the new "For a Friend" stamp set from the Occasions Mini Catalog and stamped the butterfly image in Apricot Appeal on Whisper White cardstock. I sponged the edges with Tangerine Tango ink after trimming it out with my Paper Snips. The large butterfly was die cut with my Big Shot and the Beautiful Butterflies die that is exclusive to Stampin' Up! I used a piece of Walk in the Park Designer Series Paper in So Saffron also from the Occasions Mini. It too was sponged lightly with Tangerine Tango. I used my Bone Folder to curl the edges of both butterflies and then used Mini Glue Dots to add the antenna between the two layers. The antenna are actually flower centers from the Pretties Kit. I've never used them for anything else, so this seemed like the time!



I set the layered butterflies aside and created the card base from Apricot Appeal cardstock. The next layer is Tangerine Tango layered with Whisper White that was also sponged with Tangerine Tango ink. I used the leafy stem from "For a Friend" to create the bottom images, stamped in Kiwi Kiss ink. The ribbons are layered with Mini Glue Dots. I used some of that cool Tangerine rik-rak from the Pigtails ribbon pack and laid it on top of the Kiwi Kiss Striped Grosgrain. These ribbons are wrapped around the Tangerine layer and secured with SNAIL. It was kind of bulky, so I popped up the whole Tangerine layer on Dimensionals and mounted it to the card front.



Lastly, I stamped the greeting, also from the "For a Friend" stamp set in Kiwi Kiss ink and then mounted my butterfly to the card front with Stampin' Dimensionals.



This card just makes me smile and reminds me that even though it doesn't feel like Spring outside, warmer days are coming! I love these colors together and can definitely see myself using them this way again.



Well, it's off to another busy day. I have to update my team yahoo group, send a client e-mail with an April Special offer and we have Big Shots Club tonight! Oh, yes, and I have to make my Blogger's Challenge project for tomorrow! Whew! Better get busy!

Have a wonderful day and take time to stamp!

~~Robin

Better Late Than Never - Blogger's Challenge #93!

Isn't this a great sketch? Yeah, I think so too! This was the Blogger's Challenge for last Friday - to take this sketch and create a card with it. Well, sounds simple enough, right? Apparently not
for me because I created a card based on a sketch that is coming up NEXT month. (I blame it on jet lag) They were both in the file, I just didn't read the right week number!



Anyway, its bugged me all weekend that I did the wrong sketch, so I sat down yesterday to finally create this card and I really like how it turned out! I did end up changing the layout a wee bit, mainly because my focal image was larger than I had originally anticipated.


The card starts with a Chocolate Chip card base folded to make a 3" x 6" card. I layered it with a piece of Kiwi Kiss cardstock and a piece of Whisper White. I sponged the white with some Kiwi Kiss ink on the edges. The pink circle is a piece of Pink Pirouette cardstock cut with my Big Shot Machine and my Circles Die.



The ribbon I used here was actually my inspiration for the card along with the stamp I used. When we were in Hawaii, we had a chance to spin a prize wheel everyday and one day I won a package of this ribbon called "Pigtails". It has 5 yards of this cute, cute Kiwi Kiss polka dot pattern and 5 yards of some adorable Tangerine Tango Rik-Rak (can't wait to use that!) For this card, I just layered a piece over the front and wrapped it around all the layers, adhering it with SNAIL on the back of the Kiwi piece. The birthday greeting is from the ultra-versatile "On Your Birthday" stamp set - another must own - and is stamped in Chocolate Chip ink.



I have been dying to use this cute cupcake image from the "Wagon Full of Fun" stamp set ever since I saw it in the new Occasions Mini Catalog. It's stamped here in Black Staz-On ink on Whisper White cardstock. I punched it out with the 1 3/4" Circle Punch and then stamped the flame again on a scrap, trimming it out with my Paper Snips.



I colored the cupcake wrapper with Close to Cocoa and Pretty in Pink Stampin' Write Markers and the flame was colored with Summer Sun and More Mustard. It was attached to the circle punch out with a bit of 2 Way Glue Pen. For the icing on the cupcake, I stamped the image one more time onto a piece of Tea Party Designer Series Paper. The pink polka dots were just perfect for this! It too was trimmed out with my Paper Snips and adhered with some SNAIL to the image. Lastly, I sponged some Kiwi Kiss ink around the edge of the circle. The image is popped up on Stampin' Dimensionals and mounted to the front of the card.



So there you have it - my Blogger's Challenge complete finally! Now I better get busy for the challenge that's due on THIS Friday! LOL! In the meantime, be sure to check out all the other Blogger's Challenge Players by using the link in my sidebar. I know they will have some other great ideas to inspire you with this layout.



Emma is on Spring Break this week, so we are going out today to have some Mommy - Daughter time. The sun is trying to come out here, so we are going to find a way to get out and enjoy it! Here's wishing you some sunshine today too!

~~Robin

Butterflies are Beautiful!

Hi everyone! I'm baaack! And boy it feels good to be back in the studio with no jet lag, no sickness and itching to stamp!

Thanks so much for being patient with me as I got back to normal last week. Our trip to Hawaii was simply put, amazing, and was just what Mark and I needed. But, re-entry was pretty crazy. I came home sick, Emma was sick, we had our final rehearsals for the church Easter Drama and then the 3 performances over the weekend AND Emma got sick again! Whew! Can I just go back to Hawaii? Please?! No? Oh well, I'll just have to post some pictures here this week so you can share my memories.

The card today is actually one of two swap cards that I made with items from the new Occasions Mini Catalog. The swap was due in the mail on Friday, but I didn't get them finished until yesterday and since I was late, I had to make two cards for each player. I'll show you that one later this week.

I took my color scheme from the new Walk in the Park Designer Series Paper. The cardbase is So Saffron, layered with Kiwi Kiss which has been dry embossed with my Texturz Plates in my Big Shot machine. I love these subtle backgrounds! The next layer is actually a piece of the Walk in the Park paper which I ran all the way through my NEW Scalloped Oval Punch and created the scalloped edge.

Layered on top of this is Whisper White and So Saffron which has been stamped with the swirl from Baroque Motifs (a classic stamp set! If you don't own this one, you NEED it! Trust me!) I stamped in Whisper White craft ink and heat embossed with my Heat Tool and White Embossing Powder. The ribbon on the left is the So Saffron Twill from the current Idea Book and Catalog. It's actually the first time I've used that ribbon, but it won't be my last. I love it's width and feel.

For the Butterfly, I went back to my Big Shot Machine and cut these with more Walk in the Park paper ( actually the reverse of the piece I used at the bottom) and my Stampin' Up! Exclusive Beautiful Butterflies die. I sponged the edges with Baja Breeze ink and curled the wings with my Bone Folder. It's mounted on Stampin' Dimensionals and placed on the white stamped 'vine'.

Lastly, the sentiment is stamped with the NEW Only Oval stamp set in Basic Black ink. It's punched out with the Large Oval Punch, sponged with Kiwi Kiss ink and layered on a piece of Baja Breeze cardstock which was punched out with the NEW Scalloped Oval Punch. It too is mounted on dimensionals.

So, if you are in this swap, you've now seen card #1 - hope you like it! They all went out in the mail today!

Until tomorrow~~

Robin

I'm Home! Really, I am!

Hey everyone! Just popping in here to let you know that I did NOT stay in Hawaii (though I was sorely tempted to!)

We made it home last Saturday night, but between jet lag, illness, church drama rehearsals and a really awesome opportunity that I had last night (I'll fill you in later), I just haven't been in the studio much this week. I did stamp a bit yesterday because I have a swap due TODAY, but that is all I could muster the strength for. Thank goodness my Easter Projects class is already done and ready to go for tomorrow morning!

Next week is spring break here, so I know I'll be a bit more relaxed around the house and will have lots to post for you. Hawaii pics, new stamped projects and some other fun stuff. Don't give up on me, just wish me back to normal!

See you soon!
~~Robin