Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch Challenge

Hey, it's time again for the fun Saturday Sketch Challenge over at Stamping 411! I am super excited about this week because with a sketch this open, the sky is the limit - you can really do anything! I can't wait to see what all the participants come up with through the week. We have some great players over at the 411 and we'd love for YOU to join us!

Here is my card from the sketch:

Bright, huh? :) I told you in my last post that you'd need sunglasses! But I hope the cheerful colors will help brighten things for you - at least on your computer monitor!

The measurements for this one are really simple:
Card base - Bermuda Bay - 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" folded to make an A2 card - 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".
Layer 1 - Crushed Curry - 4" x 5 1/4"
Layer 2 - Whisper White - 3 3/4" x 5"

I stamped the Medallion stamp with Crushed Curry ink on the Whisper White layer and then added my two pieces of Polka Dot Ribbon - Bermuda Bay and Crushed Curry. The little bow was added with Mini Glue Dots and then I added the Rhinestone Ice Brad to the center of the Medallion. It does go through the top two layers.

Next, I turned my attention to the greeting:

It was stamped with the Well Scripted stamp set in Bermuda Bay ink on a Whisper White scrap. I punched it out with the Wide Oval Punch, sponged on some Bermuda Bay ink and then I stamped in the center for a final accent. The stamp is from Boho Backgrounds and it's inked with Crushed Curry, stamped off twice onto Grid Paper and then just overstamped onto the greeting. I popped this piece up with Stampin' Dimensionals and THAT was THAT!

Love, love, love simple cards with impact and this one fits that order - dontcha think?
Be sure to click over to the Stamping 411 blog to see how the other operators played this sketch and then play along yourself! The directions for uploading your creation are right on the home page of the blog, so whatcha waitin' for - get stampin'!

~~Robin

Blogger's Challenge - Sketch Time!

Finally! I am able to get this project posted! I got it finished this morning, but when I went to take a picture, my camera battery was as dead as a doornail! So after searching high and low for the charging cable, I had to wait for Mark to come home at lunch to locate it for me and then you know, it had to charge ALL afternoon! Sheesh!
Sorry you had to wait all day for it - but hopefully it will make you smile so it will be worth it! :)

Our challenge Mom, Lisa, gave us a sketch to work with this week:

And since I hadn't inked up this adorable Chocolate Bunny stamp yet - you are getting an Easter card! (And yes, the stamp really is called 'Chocolate Bunny'! SU! knows what Mama likes!)

I had a lot of fun with this one, but as much as I wanted to mutiltate him by chomping off his ears -that is the tastiest part - the card was just too "pretty" for that! Wouldn't you agree Diana?! Maybe next time.......

Anyway, I partially embossed the card base with my Perfect Polka Dots folder before layering on the punched Designer Paper, cardstock and ribbon. I had already adhered those elements together and added the brads to just that strip.

The greeting was simply stamped on a piece of Very Vanilla, punched out, sponged and then I added the pink jelly beans. It sure does look like Mr. Bunny is eyeing those jelly beans. I wonder if he's hungry?

Ol' Mr. Bunny himself was stamped on a piece of Very Vanilla that I cut out with my Big Shot and the Circles Die. He is stamped with Chocolate Chip and then the piece was sponged. Now, the ruffly ribbon edge was super easy to do! I just put Sticky Strip all the way around the back of Mr. Bunny and gathered the ribbon in little pleats, sticking it down as I went around the circle. I then added another piece of circle cardstock over the ribbon with Sticky Strip to make sure it stayed in place. The whole thing is attached with Stampin' Dimensionals.

So, he's all ready to go hoppin' into an Easter basket near you! But beware Mr. Bunny - you are probably gonna be a goner! Especially if you come to my house. :)

Thanks for stopping by today and be sure to check out the other Blogger's Challenge players by clicking on the link in my sidebar. They will have some fabulous creations for you to see!

I'll be back later on with tomorrow's Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch Challenge! Bring your sunglasses! :)
~~Robin

Under Construction!

Good morning everyone!

Just popping in here to tell you that I do have a new project coming to show you today, just trying to get some admin stuff done first!

AND, since so many of you have asked for a tutorial on yesterday's Teddy Bear Picnic Basket and Bears, I will be working on that this weekend and posting it next week. It will be a photo tutorial since the video thing escapes me right now - LOL! But I'll make sure you can recreate the project with the instructions, ok?

Back later!
~~Robin

PS. Thank you SO much for your overwhelming response to that project - I loved making it and am so glad you LOVED it too! :)

UDI Inspiration Challenge #83

When I first opened the inspiration photo file from our challenge Mom, Maria, the children's song "Teddy Bear Picnic" started running through my head. And I wanted to run screaming out of the room! :) You see, when Emma was a baby, we had one of those musical red/black/white toys strung across her stroller to 'entertain' her while she sat waiting patiently for us to finish whatever we were doing. Well, the center toy was a teddy bear head and when she pressed the nose, it played that song. Let's just say that she pressed that button a lot!
Well, she's still pressing our buttons, but we love her anyway! And, I didn't run from the song or the photo this week and REALLY had fun creating my project!

Here is the inspiration photo:

And here is my interpretation of it:

It was so cool to see this idea in my head really come together - as I got closer to finishing, I was doing the happy dance that it was all coming together! :)

I started with the basket because if I couldn't get that to work, then I knew I'd need to punt! It's created with two pieces of 8 1/2" x 11" Creamy Caramel cardstock plus three strips cut from a 12" x 12" piece. I did weave this flat, but I'm already planning to try another one but round this time. I used to sell baskets for another company (13 years!) and I tried to create this one similar to what I remember the weavers doing at that company. The top bands and handle are secured with Silver Brads.

The Daisies were all cut with my Big Shot and the Daisies Die. I just layered all three pieces and used my Bone Folder to curl the tips. The Summer Sun Corduroy Brad completes the center.

I used Garden Green strips of cardstock for the flower stems 1" wide and folded to 1/2" for strength. I used Sticky Strip for all the adhesive on this project.

I've always had a thing for jointed teddy bears - there is quite the collection of Boyd's Bears in my home - so I thought it would be fun to take our wonderful Build-A-Bear Big Shot dies and see if I could make them work as jointed bears.
I used Close to Cocoa cardstock and sponged all the pieces with the same ink color.
More Silver Brads and some Real Red Gingham Ribbon with a little black cardstock behind the faces completed them. It was actually pretty easy to create these! Hey, I actually "built-a-bear"! :)

For the finishing touch, I cut a piece of 8 1/2" x 8 1/2" Whisper White cardstock and using a template made of cardstock, sponged Real Red ink on it to make the picnic cloth.
So, no stamping on this project at all, but tons of fun! Start to finish, it took me about 3 hours, but now that I know what I'm doing, it would be a lot faster to recreate.

I'd love to know what you think of this little project - and be sure to check out the other inspiration projects over at the UDI Blog. I know they will be fabulous!
Have a great day everyone!
~~Robin

The Green Challenge......

So, lately I've had a bit of a conversation going on with a certain group of my demo friends about the color Glorious Green. The general consensus has been that we despise this color and either have never used it or have a very tough time using it. Personally, I love green, but just not this one. Now, I have used it before for classes and camps and on those occasions, my clients there have loved it for those projects. Two in particular come to mind - a shamrock card using the heart punch for the leaves and a fun Christmas card with a snowman and red striped grosgrain ribbon.
When I was designing cards for my classes yesterday, I decided to make myself use Glorious Green on a project that wasn't seasonal just to prove that it CAN be done! Ha! It is very hard to be creative with a color or product that doesn't personally appeal to me, but since I need to stretch myself from time to time to be a better stamper this was a great challenge for me to tackle.

So, after much debate about co-ordinating colors, here is my card:

What do you think? Does it hurt your eyes? :)
Since Glorious Green is such a BRIGHT color, I decided to go FUN with it and pulled out my Circle Circus stamp set. And I love purple with green so it was easy to pull out those colors, (I used Lovely Lilac and Orchid Opulence) but the hang up was the 2nd green shade. I finally settled on Certainly Celery because I thought it would tone down the bright green somewhat.

The card itself was pretty simple to put together. I used Glorious Green for the folded cardbase and layered it with Lovely Lilac and Whisper White that had been embossed with my Big Shot and the Perfect Polka Dots folder.

The stamped panel is on Whisper White and I used my stamps from largest to smallest, beginning with the lightest color first to give more of a balance of color and not be too heavy with the brightest green - my nemesis! That panel was then layered on another piece of Glorious Green to frame it. The greeting is from the Sale-A-Bration stamp set Vintage Labels and is stamped in Lovely Lilac on white. I used a simple label frame from the Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware to showcase it.

I also added another Whisper White panel to the inside stamped in the same way as the cover piece.

The ribbon and brad accent was my final challenge as I really wanted something darker in that area - again for balance. So, I went with a layered ribbon of lighter colors - Whisper White Taffeta and Certainly Celery Narrow Grosgrain and then added the flower brad to it.
I mixed up a little Lovely Lilac reinker with Crystal Effects and painted it in the brad to make the flower stand out. I was very happy with the way that turned out - it's been a while since I used that technique!

Now it's time for your input - I would love to hear what you REALLY think about this card! I can share with you that everyone who came to class yesterday loved it and they were happy to use the bright, fun colors. So, leave me a comment and tell me your opinion and tell me also what color you struggle to use well. We all have one I think!

On a side note, did you guys catch the Men's Ice Skating at the Olympics last night?! Wow! Evan Lysacek gave the performance of his life! And proved that you don't need a Quad jump to skate an amazing program! He is currently in 2nd place with the Long Free Skate still to come. WooHoo - Go USA! Go Evan!
Yeah, I'm an Olympics junkie, just bear with me, ok?
~~Robin

Vintage Blue Friends

I have a pair of Levi's blue jeans that are so old, they almost pre-date my daughter. But those jeans are like a great friend, comfy, worn in the right places and they feel so good when they hug me I just can't bring myself to part with them even though they are a bit ragged around the hem. They've been with me in good times: I had them on the first time I walked through the Riverton offices at Stampin' Up! - I'd just gotten off the plane - and I was wearing them the next year when I checked in and found out that I'd earned Founder's Circle for the first time. And they've been with me in sad times: I was wearing them when we visited Ground Zero in NYC after 9/11. Yep, just like a great friend - always there.

The card I'm sharing with you all today is one we are doing in Just Cards today and tonight, and it reminds me of those jeans. But, I won't be wearing it - I promise!

I used a little new, a little old for this one. The stamps are Vintage Vogue and the Very Vintage Wheel from the Mini Catalog and the cardstock is Kraft, Bordering Blue and Naturals White. Soft Suede ink and Bordering Blue paired up beautifully - I love this combo - and a bit of Soft Suede Polka Dot ribbon for a touch of whimsy!
As you can see, I sponged all the edges, even on the flower. It just looked too 'clean' without the sponging.

The flower accent is just two flowers stamped with Bordering Blue on more Naturals White cardstock and I curled up the edges with my Bone Folder. They were adhered together with a Clear Rhinestone Brad and it's popped up with a Stampin' Dimensional.
There you go, sweet and simple!
Sometimes that's just all you need!
~~Robin

And Pink is for Friendship!

Hello again Stampin' friends! Did you have a nice Valentine's Day? I hope that you got to spend it with someone you love AND that you got to eat Chocolate (if that's your thing - and if not, why not?!). I got to spend the weekend with Mark and Emma in Hershey, PA and YES!, we ate lots of Chocolate! And I brought home a bag full from the Chocolate World store! I should be stocked for months, well.....weeks, ummm, yeah, days? Whatever! :)
We were there for Emma's last synchro competition of this season and it was super exciting and wonderful - I have great news to share - and a few tears too - but that's for another post, I'm still working on the pictures!

For now, here is a very special, one-of-a-kind card for one of my very best bff's in the whole world! I took a photo of it before I sent it off in the mail last week and hopefully, she will have gotten it before she reads this and sees it!

I was having fun with the rose image from Bloomin' Beautiful and did this one that looks pink. I actually used my Watercolor Wonder crayons Real Red color, but it didn't turn out red, so I decided to go with it and see what would come out! I paired it with Pretty in Pink and Old Olive and I love how fresh this combination looks! I am so ready for warm weather! ;)

There is nothing fancy or super challenging on this card, so I'll just leave you the supply list below and if you have any questions, just send me an e-mail, ok?
I'll be back tomorrow with another project to share and I hope to have my post done about the skating competition in Hershey too!
Stamped blessings,
~~Robin

Supplies (all SU!):
Stamps: Bloomin' Beautful, Simple Friendship
Inks: Black Staz On, Old Olive, Pretty in Pink
Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Old Olive, Whisper White
Accessories: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aqua Painter, Pretty in Pink Satin Ribbon, Soft Subtles Brads, Mini Glue Dots, Stampin' Dimensionals, Big Shot and Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder