BC 125 Happy Fall Y'all!

Hey stampers - I'm so glad it's Friday, are you? It's been kind of a yukky week outside here in VA - lots of rain and wind. I've definitely enjoyed my fireplace this week and hubby's hot cocoa!

Today's Blogger's Challenge is to create a fall card and since I'd just designed this for my stamp camps and workshops this month, it seemed the perfect time to share it. You can probably see that it's a pretty basic card, just some sponging, some ribbon and a pop up to add interest.
My card base is Crushed Curry and it's layered with Old Olive and Dusty Durango. I ran the Dusty Durango through my Big Shot with the diamond Texturz plate. It's sponged with a bit of Soft Suede ink as is the Crushed Curry Scallop Punch and the greeting which was also stamped in Soft Suede before I punched it out with the 1 3/8" Circle Punch.

These punches are layered over a piece of Chocolate Chip Double Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon and then I cut out a second stamped acorn which had been colored with Soft Suede and Creamy Caramel Markers. It's popped up on a Stampin' Dimensional to make it stand out.

Thanks for stopping by to look in on me today! I hope you'll leave me a comment to tell me what you think of the card. Be sure to not only check out all the other Blogger's Challenge players in the sidebar on my blog, but come back tomorrow to visit! I have the Stamping 411 Sketch Challenge for you and I've done not one, but two cards! You'll just have to come back and see!

Happy Fall Ya'll!
~~Robin

UDI Inspiration Challenge #69

Hi everyone - I have some exciting news to share with you all!
I've been invited to join the Design Team for Thursday's Inspiration Challenge on the UDI Blog! UDI stands for Utah Divas International and is a yahoo group set up for any Stampin' Up! demo who wants to join, regardless of what country you are a demo in. It's a great resource for sharing stamping and business ideas plus it's a place to share joys and challenges in your life as well. It encompasses the SU! Statement of the Heart beautifully.
UDI also has a public creative blog that is separate from the group and you can find it at this link here. There are different challenges and types of posts each day of the week and there you will see projects from demos in multiple countries - it's a great variety! My designs will be linked there on Thursdays and will always be based on an inspiration piece like the one I've shown you at the top of this post.

When Maria sent me this photo yesterday, I knew immediately what I wanted to do with it so I sat right down at my counter and got to work - what do you think, does it capture the inspiration piece?

I was thrilled with how this card turned out, I just wish you could see it in person, it is so much more elegant up close.
I used a piece of 5 x 5 Glossy White Cardstock because in the photo, there is kind of a clear, glassy reflection that seems to be where the blue tint is coming from.
Laying my Medallion stamp (oh yeah, baby!) on it's block, I took out Bashful Blue, Crushed Curry and Soft Suede ink pads and some sponge daubers. I started in the middle with the Bashful Blue ink and just daubed a swirl pattern on the stamp - kind of like a cinnamon roll looks. Then, I applied the Crushed Curry the same way, just going in between the blue swirls with that color on my dauber. Lastly, I applied Soft Suede in a wheel spoke type pattern to mimic the tree trunks in the photo. I breathed softly on it to remoisten the ink and then laid my cardstock on top of the stamp to transfer the image.
I almost squealed with delight when I saw the result!

Taking my Paper Snips, I trimmed out the Medallion and left a tiny border of white around the outside edge like a die-cut. I then added a Rhinestone Circle Ice Brad to the center with my Paper Piercer and Mat Pack and put Stampin' Dimensionals on the back to adhere it to the card front.

My card base is a piece of Shimmer White cardstock cut for a folded 5 1/4" square card. It's hard to see the shimmer in photos, but it is beautiful paired up with the glossy medallion. I added a layered ribbon band of Soft Suede (flipped to the plain reverse side) and Bashful Blue Taffeta. This wraps all the way around the front flap of the card and shows inside. I hate ribbon that is cut off on the inside or at the edges, it looks so unfinished to me!
Lastly, I stamped the greeting in the lower right corner in Soft Suede ink. It's from the Warm Words stamp set which hasn't seen enough love in the studio lately. I thought this would make a great anniversary card for this season with the mix of fall and pastel colors.

I'm so glad you came to visit me today and I sure hope you like the card! I'll have a new inspiration challenge post here for you every Thursday, so be sure to come back and play along with me! We'd love for you to play along with the UDI team! Just go to the UDI Blog and leave a comment with a link to your blog post or upload to a public gallery. If you use a public gallery, be sure to use the keyword DivaIC69.

To Honor Our Veterans......

It seems such a small, insignificant act, this putting ink to paper. A feeble effort to use my art form to show appreciation for the tremendous sacrifice our nations veterans have made across the history of our country.
These men and women gave up the comfort and safety of home in order to stand in harms way for us time and time again. It's because of their courage and service and selflessness that I am now able to live in this freedom that is far too often taken for granted.

I love being an American.
I love everything this country stands for and thanks to our veterans, at this point in our history, I can still cherish the freedoms they paid such a high price to preserve for us all.
The Veterans Administration website defines this holiday - Veterans Day - as "A celebration to honor America's veterans for their patriotism, love of country and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good."
Take some time to celebrate our veterans today. Share the history of this day with your kids and grandkids. Visit a memorial or veterans cemetary and experience their sacrifice firsthand. I can promise you it's an experience you will not forget.

To our veterans I simply say......

God Bless you and God Bless America!
~~Robin

Card Supply List:
All Supplies current SU!
Stamps: Courage, Ribbon of Hope, For All You Do, Thank You Kindly, Hero Jumbo Wheel
Inks: Versamark, White Craft, Black Craft, Black Staz-On
Cardstock: Kraft, Brushed Gold, Basic Black, Real Red
Accessories: Heat Tool, Clear EP, Black EP, Real Red 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon, Night of Navy 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Curly Label Punch, Movers and Shapers Big Shot Die

Mr. and Mrs. Santa Bear!

Hi there my stamping friends! Welcome to Tuesday!
I don't know about you all, but Build-A-Bear is EXTREMELY popular in my house these days! My daughter has rediscovered her bears and other animals from that well known store and she was delighted when Stampin' Up! partnered with them to create their exclusive line of stamps, designer papers and Big Shot Dies.

This little project was inspired by a fellow demo, Christie Daughtry. I just loved her idea which was all the bear pieces in a pouch for an assemble it yourself bear couple. For mine, I went ahead and assembled the bears and put magnets on the back of them. I thought they would make cute little gifts for our neighbors with kids this Christmas. We always do a little something, usually baked goods, but this year, I can have these already assembled and ready to give. AND keep all my Christmas cookies to myself! hahaha - there is a method to my madness after all!

The plastic sleeve is actually a 6 x 6 page protector with the edge trimmed off. It is adhered with Sticky Strip to a piece of 6 1/4" x 8 1/2" Real Red cardstock. I've scored it at 6 1/4" on the 8 1/2" side to create the flap. The flap was decorated with a piece of Garden Green cardstock which I stamped with the ornament wheel from the Holiday Mini. (Ok, it's early, I can't remember the name of it right now, but it's the one that matches that ornament set. You KNOW which one I mean!) Anyway, it's tied with some of the Real Red Polka Dot Grosgrain ribbon and I stamped it with a greeting from one of the Build-A-Bear stamp sets.
The flap has a velcro dot attached to secure it to the plastic sleeve.
Inside the plastic sleeve, I put a piece of Merry Moments Designer Series Paper (remembered THAT name - ha!) to make it festive.

This last view shows you the magnet on the back - it's the rectangle piece on Mr. Santa's body. I actually took business card magnets and cut them in quarters which made the perfect size for the bears.
The black circle on the back of his head is a 1" Circle Punch out of Basic Black cardstock which shows through the front of his head to make his eyes, nose and mouth. So much easier than piecing all those tiny things individually!
Now I have to mention Mrs. Santa's shoes.....my downline did this project at our meeting in September and they all commented that her shoes looked very "earthy-crunchy". Well, apparently I used the wrong shoes for her very fashionable outfit, there are some cute little slip ons available on the die. Who knew? But hey, Mrs. Santa is probably an umptogenarian by now, so I think she deserves some comfy shoes, don't you?

Have a fun Tuesday -
and to all my US Marine Corps friends - Happy Birthday and Semper Fi!
Thank you for your service to us!

Blessings,
~~Robin

Beautiful Bermuda Pines

Good Monday morning stamping friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We had some gorgeous Fall weather here in Northern Virginia - it was 72 degrees yesterday! It hardly seems like the time for me to be showing you this wintry looking Christmas Card - but the season will be upon us soon enough and I know you are looking for some simple, but beautiful ideas!

This card is actually cased from a swap that I received at Founder's Circle this year. The beautiful original was stamped by Brenda Keenan and can be seen here. I was so happy to be at Founder's again this year, it's a fabulous honor, but also, I came home with so many great swaps and ideas. It was like plug and play getting ready for my classes that I had when I returned!
As you can see from the photo of her card, I didn't change much, but just simplified it a bit for my Christmas in September Card class. We made 10 cards that day and quick and easy was the order of the day. Plus, I don't own the punch she used for the snowflake, so I just eliminated it and moved the stamped trees over a bit. I added the star to each tree with Silver Encore ink and shifted the knot in the ribbon up a smidge. The hills are drawn on with the 2 Way Glue Pen and then covered with Dazzling Diamonds Glitter.

I love the contemporary feel of this card, it's simple and elegant all at the same time. You don't need a ton of supplies to make it either which makes it nice for creating a cost effective card this year. I've included the supply list for you below - everything is Stampin' Up!, of course!
Have a wonderful Monday - I'm in for a busy, but fun day. I'll be at the Tall Oaks Community Center in Lake Ridge this evening doing a stamp camp. If you want to come, send me an e-mail today - I'm still cutting supplies, so I can include some for you if you want!
Stamped blessings,
~~Robin

Supply List:
Stamps: Patterned Pines, Many Merry Messages
Inks: Bermuda Bay, Silver Encore
Cardstock: Bermuda Bay, Whisper White
Accesories: 2 Way Glue Pen, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Whisper White Organza Ribbon

Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch Challenge #SSC124

Howdy stampers! It's that time again - Stamping 411's Saturday Sketch Challenge! Just look at this fabulous sketch - it's super easy to work with - won't you play along with us this week? We love to see your creations! You know, if you didn't play along last week you missed out on some Blog Candy! Yep, you missed it! But you never know when we'll do random Blog Candy again, so go get busy and start stamping! :)

Now is the time for me to admit that I've been hoarding this gorgeous velvet flocked paper from the Christmas Cocoa Designer Series Pack. So to get over my momentary hoarding disease I cut a big piece of it to layer on the WHOLE card front of this project! Aren't you proud of me? Baby steps, right?!
The card starts with a folded base of Whisper White cardstock in the standard card size of 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". The designer paper layer is cut at 4" x 5 1/4". If you look really close, you can see some sparkle on the velvet flocking. I took my Versamark ink pad and rubbed it over the flocking areas and then heat embossed it with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. It's so sparkly in real life!

Next, I took a piece of Whisper White cardstock and ran it through the Big Shot with one of the SU! texture folders whose name escapes me now, and then I cut two strips for that layer on the sketch. They are mounted with Stampin' Dimensionals to the card front.
The next layer is another piece of Christmas Cocoa DSP (be still my heart!) that I used to mat the main image which is also stamped on Whisper White cardstock.

As you can see, I used Dasher - isn't he a great stamp?! And this time, I stamped him in Chocolate Chip Craft ink and heat embossed him with more Iridescent Ice embossing powder. Once I mounted him on the dsp, I added a Rhinestone Fire Square Brad for accent and the whole piece was mounted on the card front with Stampin' Dimensionals.

The final touch for the front was the greeting which I stamped from Teeny Tiny Wishes onto more Whisper White and shaped into a banner and mounted it with dimensional pieces. I love this look for the greeting!

The inside was stamped as well using Real Red ink and the greeting from Snow Swirled. For the little design, I inked up Dasher's antlers and just added it to the lower left corner. Easy-peasy!

That's it for this week! Now that you've checked out the details of my project, be sure to check out the other operators cards too! They are some rockin' stampers and I'm sure they have a card that will inspire you!
Then get out your stamps and get stampin'! Don't forget to upload your creation to the Stamping 411 blog before Thursday morning - you might just get picked for the showcase!
Have a great weekend - I'll see you on Monday!
~~Robin

Blogger's Challenge #124 - Technique Project

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love how this card turned out! This week, we were supposed to choose a stamping technique and do our project around it. Well, I'm not normally much of a frou-frou technique stamper. I'm more of a "Git 'er done" type stamper. BUT, one of my all time favorite techniques is Cracked Glass and I knew that it would work beautifully with the silverware image from the "Compliments to the Chef" stamp set.

That stamp set is one of my favorites from the SU! catalog, but I really didn't have a good reason to buy it other than I just liked it so much. It's not one that I'd normally use for a class so the budget restraints dictated that it not be added to the collection ahead of stuff I need all the time like cardstock and SNAIL! LOL! Can you relate?
Well, I said as much in passing to my bff Tiffany when we were at convention and wouldn't you know it, she went and bought it for me as part of a congrats gift for being named to Advisory Board! Now, don't you think that made my day - made me cry too, but that's beside the point!
(Tiffany, you ROCK! But you already knew that!)

Anyway, for this card, I first heat embossed the silverware stamp with Silver Encore ink and Silver Embossing Powder. I wanted to make sure the image didn't get diluted too much with the layers of embossing that would be on top of it.
Next, I inked up the entire piece of cardstock with Versamark ink and covered it with Glassy Glaze Embossing Powder. It's a very chunky, thick embossing powder that leaves a thicker coating over the image. After heat embossing that layer, I let it cool a minute and then added more Versamark ink and more Glassy Glaze powder. I then heat embossed it again. These steps were repeated a total of 4 times and then I put the piece in the freezer for about 15 minutes. I then took it out and immediately bent the piece several times in different directions, causing the glaze to crack like broken glass. You have to do this quickly or it gets too warm to crack.

Next, I sponged Soft Suede and Rich Razzleberry ink on top of the piece working the ink into the cracks. The excess was then rubbed off with a piece of paper towel.

The background was also kind of techniquey. I inked up my Bella Toile background stamp with Creamy Caramel ink and stamped off one time. Then I used a sponge dauber to add some Rich Razzleberry ink to the stamp. Next, I laid my piece of Very Vanilla cardstock on the stamp and transferred the multi-colored image by rubbing over the cardstock with my hand. I usually lay a piece of Grid Paper over it too so my fingers don't get inky.

So, lots of sponging with Soft Suede, lots of distressing with my Bone Folder, some Orchard Ribbon Originals later and you have the almost finished project.
Here is a close up of the Cracked Glass layer and the greeting that I handcut out of another piece of Very Vanilla after stamping the background image again with the residual ink. I added the greeting from Teeny Tiny Wishes with Soft Suede ink on top of it and sponged the edges. It's popped up on a Stampin' Dimensional to make it stand out a bit.

After all that work on the outside, I couldn't leave the inside blank now could I? So, I took another piece of Very Vanilla cardstock and placed a post it note on it. Then I again used the residual ink on the background stamp and created this insert with a blank place to write a message. It was sponged as well.

I'm so glad you've stopped by to see me today! I'd love to hear your thoughts about this card, so leave me a comment if you have a second or two!
Be sure to check out all the other Blogger's Challenge players and their cool technique cards by clicking on the link in my sidebar - I'm sure they will inspire you. And don't forget to come back tomorrow to see my Stamping 411 card - it's a doozy!
Have a happy Friday everyone!
~~Robin

All Supplies SU!