Gourmet Rubber Stamps Halloween Hop

Happy Halloween everyone! Hope that you've been making the most of the spook season. Just to add another layer on, Gourmet Rubber Stamps is having a fun trick or treat hop, with actual treats up for grabs. Leave comments for each of our team spooks, and you could win* some great stamps. For my blog, I'll be randomly choosing one lucky winner to receive one of the holiday images from the Stick Chick line of Gourmet Rubber Stamps called Girl with Wreath. You'll be seeing more Stick Chicks creations showing up on our blogs, along with Murray's Law, Marsha Mccarthy, Zenspirations, Steampunk, Katie Jane, and Lizzie Anne Designs. You can check them all out HERE.

My post today includes this yummy caramel apple treat wrapped in cello, tied in a plethora of ribbons, twine, buttons, etc. with a fun tag created by paper piecing the caramel apple image from the Lizzie Anne Designs' "Tart & Spice" set for October, along with the tiny little Fall Flavor sentiment. Super simple to create...both the treat and the tag, and a sweet treat to munch.

My second design is a CAS card easily created with the darling owl from the same "Tart & Spice" set. Each owl was stamped in colors to match the fun paper on cork circles (actually they are the cork pads designed to protect furniture and walls!). One owl has glowing rhinestones eyes. The orange strip features the fun sentiment to go with. Gotta love a pun!

 Finally, my third card features a super fun image from the Murray's Law line, "Igor". Gotta love the sentiment that goes along. I colored this wildly with Copics and added a web sticker, glitter brads, and googly eyes (obvious, but had to be done!).

So now is your chance to go "trick or treating"...leave me some love (no tricks, please) and hop around to the rest of our "boo crew":

Taylor

Deb

Joslyn

Meredith

Joy

Kendra

Tricia

Jeni

Rose Ann

Kelli

You have until Wednesday, November 2nd, to hop around. Winners* will be announced on Thursday, November 3rd. Hope it's YOU!

*Winners must live in the continental US. 

Last Call for the CAS Holiday Challenge!

 Here we are at the final week of the Stampendous Saturday October Challenge...creating CAS (clean and simple) holiday cards. This month served a dual purpose...it provided our blog visitors with inspiration to play along, and the team had the chance to get some more holiday cards prepared for sending out in November...or December. My "Cool Yule" cards were created using the new Stampendous Jumbo Cling Holly Stocking. They were simply stamped on 3 Bugs in a Rug "Snow Much Fun" and Echo Park "Snowman" papers using Aquamarine and/or Warm Red ColorBox chalk inks. After cutting them out, I ran them through my Big Shot machine for more texture, and to shorten them up a bit in order to fit on a typical A2 cards size. I hate having to make odd-size envelopes, so keeping the card a "normal" size really helps when it comes time to mail these. My cards were created from Bazzill Dotted Swiss cardstock. I added a band of patterned paper, a simple tag stamped with a sentiment from the Perfectly Clear "Yule Penguins", ribbon, baker's twine, and a button. This card could go as simple as gluing the stocking onto the card and adding a sentiment on the inside, to adding glitter, flock, or the new "Shaved Ice" embellishment from Stampendous. Hope you have been enjoying all the CAS inspiration that the team has dished up this month. You have until November 3rd to link your own creation on the Stampendous Impressions' blog for an opportunity to win the Jumbo Cling Sparkle Joy set. Meanwhile, here's a few more CAS treats for the eyes:

Taylor Usry

Wendy Price

Melinda Gleisner

Wendy Jordan

Suzanne Czosek
Krissy Fossmeyer

Got Leaves?

 Quickie post today featuring one of the Stick Chick images from Gourmet Rubber Stamps. Perfect for the fall, this image was carefully colored with Gelly Roll bright inks on a tent shaped tag. A strip of Falling Leaves patterned paper from Reminisce along the side, a wrap of hemp cord, and an epoxy sentiment from Cloud 9 Design. I had this notion in my head that this would be so cute attached to a new rake or other garden implement for a house-warming gift to new homeowners...provided they live where there are leaf-bearing trees...unlike me. Joshua trees don't require raking. Sigh.
Be sure to check out all the great lines from Gourmet Rubber Stamps including the Stick Chicks, Murray's Law, Marsha McCarthy, and Lizzie Anne Designs.

And the Winner is...

Happy news from the Haunty Halloween Hop last Saturday...the winner on my blog is...

Allison!

Please contact Cyndi Bundy with your snail mail addy, and your fun Stampendous background stamp will be on it's way! Congrats!

Dreamweaver Stencils' Sketch #11-With a "Cool" Technique

This week the Dream Team is playing with a sketch created by Kim as seen at left. Since I have been coming down with some type of lovely flu, I decided to keep my version really simple. The three back panels were run through the Big Shot, with the Snowflakes Background and the Snowsplatter, doing the ink transfer technique of spritzing the ink on the stencil, placing the cardstock panel on top, followed by the embossing mat and two platens. I created a "witches brew" of ink to spritz...mixing the brand new, fabulous, Color Solutions alcohol inks from Dreamweaver Stencils, with some of the Thinner solution, and some of the Iridescent Memories Mists inks in one of those handy-dandy Mini Misters from Ranger. The combo created a beautiful, shimmery, aqua color...love, love, love. I used some glitter paper for the back panel as well as the mat around the focal point square...the Crystal Snowflake. For this, I embossed it in the machine, and then spray-stenciled the snowflake. I added a sweet sentiment from Lizzie Anne Designs (Gourmet Rubber Stamps) from their new "Season's Greetings" set, and some baker's twine and aqua rhinestones. I'm curious to see what the rest of the team has created this week with Kim's sketch, as well as Kim, herself! Come on...let's go take a look. Have some fun yourself, and link it to the Mr. Linky on the Dream It Up! blog. Feeling particularly creative? Get ready for some big news regarding a new design team call for Dreamweaver Stencils!

A Gourmet Rubber Stamps New Release!

 Time can make suckers of us all. I just spent the weekend at a Copic Retreat taught by Jenn Dove of Doveart Studios. Had a fabulous time. Thought that I had taken care of all blog and design responsibilities before I left on Friday, except somehow I managed to forget the new release date for the Gourmet Rubber Stamps images. It was switched to the 25th of every month now, and I totally forgot to create something and have my blog ready. So here it is ten minutes to midnight on the 24th and I'm scrambling to write my post, and finished this card in record time for me. Fortunately, the Gourmet Rubber Stamps Lizzie Anne Designs' line lends itself well to CAS so that's just what I did. I stamped and embossed this darling curly tree in Winter Wonderland White on both the bottom panel of MME paper as well as the a scrap of contrasting paper. Popped up the one on top of the other, added this super cute yet traditional sentiment in red ink, some pompom trim, a sparkle pompom and tinsel bow on top, and some very tiny rhinestone stickers near the sentiment. Whew! I think I just made it in time! Of course, all of their designs are so much fun, that coming up with a design plan is never a problem. The problem is deciding which cute image to use first! As you can see here, the latest Diner's Club Set, "Season's Greetings", has a wonderful variety to choose from. Check out the rest of the design teams' creations as listed at the right, as well as the Gourmet Rubber Stamps blog! Be sure to come back to see what I come up with next using the GRS images. You can get your own by purchasing HERE or by joining the Gourmet Rubber Stamps Diner's Club HERE.

Feeling Confused?

If you are here for the Stampendous Saturday post featuring the latest CAS holiday fun then scroll through the Haunty Halloween Hop post. Don't be scared...Mwahahahahaa.

Caught in My Web! Haunty Halloween Hop

Welcome to the Blog Hop Friends first ever Haunty Halloween Hop! If you've arrived here from the spectacularly spooky Cyndi's blog, you are in the right place...and I've caught you in my web! If you got here by happy accident, head back to Cyndi's blog and start from the beginning. Webs seem to be the theme I am running with for this post. Three projects which all feature webs. This is the only time of the year when spiders are fun!

My first project features a large variety of Stampendous products...the Cling Graveyard image embossed on Thermo Acetate with Midnight Black Embossing Powder, the Velvet White Phuzzy Phantoms Class A' Peels, Jumbo Bats, and the Scary Spiders Class A' Peels.  I love creating these lanterns using the Stampendous pails, so simple and so fun, especially since they are far safer with the use of flameless tea lites. What a great invention! I think my fave part of this lantern, is draping the web sticker from the handle down to the edge of the pail. I wiped talcum powder over the back after it was in place to remove the excess stickiness.

My second project is a card that I created for the Stampendous July 2011 Holiday catalog, and was so much fun to create. Like creating a creepy doll house! Lol. I paper-pieced the new Perfectly Clear Damask Chair, wallpapered the walls and carpeted the floors with fun papers from Graphic 45 and Best Creation. Then I decorated my haunted parlor with images from the new Perfectly Clear Chandelier and Charm Collection sets. An oval piece of mirror cardstock "reflects" the gorgeously creepy chandelier. To perfect the haunted look, I added more of those great webs from the Class A' Peels Scary Spiders once again.

 

My final creepy creation features the Dreamweaver Stencils Spider Web paste-embossed in Matte Black Paste on the Parakeet Bazzill card and this fun little dancing ghostie from the 70's! This image was also paste embossed, but in Glossy White, and sprinkled liberally with Sea Green, Tiger Lily, Violet, and Multi Crystal Glitters from Stampendous. Love the chunky orange rick rack from Creative Impressions for some extra pizazz and the glowing green rhinestone "eyes" of my creepy companion.

 I guess now I have to release you from my web, and allow you to go on to your next stop on the trick or treat trail...Suzi. Be sure to leave some treats (or tricks) in the comment sections as you go, as there are some fabulous prizes available from some wonderful sponsors, including Stampendous and Dreamweaver Stencils! Check out the list.

Stampendous! 

 ( 5 winners... 1 Halloween bg cling stamp each winner..Crowscape, Graveyard, Beware Gate, Castle Gate, Pumpkin Fence)

Karber Digital Designs

2 digis to one winner

Skipping Stones Design

Halloweenie set

Smeared Ink 

 (5 single digis...1 each to 5 winners? or 5 to 1 winner?)

Strange Skin

1 set of choice (except Zombies)

Jens Digi Stamp

(5 images to one winner)

Simply Betty Stamps

($10 Gift Certificate)

La-La Land Crafts 

($10 Gift Certificate)

Dreamweavers Stencils: 

(3 prizes: each is 4 holiday stencils, 2 brushes, with 3 technique sheets each)

Slightly Clean and Simple Holiday Card

 It's a busy blogging day today, but I wanted to make sure to post another CAS holiday card for the October Stampendous challenge. This card is very simple to create, but not precisely "clean"! I had to add a few embellies! I used the newly released Stampendous Jumbo Cling Peace Dove. The image and sentiment were stamped and then embossed in Winter Wonderland EP (white with a bit of sparkle). The dove was stamped and embossed again on red cardstock, cut out and adhered to the card slightly offset. The wings were raised slightly, a few Class A' Peel Dot Sparklers in green were added for bling, and a sprig of Creative Impressions leaves trim was added. Though I realize you probably have a lot of hopping to do today, be sure to take the time to visit the other team members who are posting for the challenge once again:

Taylor

Wendy Jordan

Cyndi

Wendy Price

Don't forget that if you play along and link your own CAS creation to the linky on the Stampendous Impressions blog, you have the opportunity of winning the new Cling Sparkle Joy set of stamps!

I'm Nuts and Bolts About My Son!

See that cute face at the top? That's my baby. Tomorrow he will be 24 years old. Where did that time go? So much love. So much laughter. So many bandaged knees and elbows. Chicken pox and scarlet fever at the same time. First steps, first girlfriend, first job. Little Mr. Fixit is now Big Mr. Fixit. He's gone from using his Fisher-Price tool belt to "fix" his bike, to an official tool belt working for the Dept. of Water & Power, and "tuning up" his and everyone else's cars. Can you tell that I'm proud of him? Yep. I am. He's not perfect. He can be a real smart-@$$, but he also is the first to say "Love you, Mom" at the end of every phone call, and hug me tight whenever I see him. I still miss that mischievous little boy, but I soooo love the man he's become.
This post today features the card I created for his birthday tomorrow. He's always been proud of my papercrafting abilities, so of course, I had to make him a card. I think Mr. Fixit will love the nuts & bolts aspect of this Robot Friends image from Stampendous as well as the embossed Gears from Dreamweaver Stencils on the bottom panel. Gotta love the "screw" brad fasteners as well. Yeah, maybe the look is slightly childish, but that's okay...as you can tell from the picture at the bottom, sometimes so is he.

Quoth the Raven, "Dream Some More"! (Apologies to Edgar Allan Poe)

 For this week's Dream Schemes free theme and feeling in the Halloween mood, I chose to post this slightly creepy raven which I did months ago for the spring release. Actually, this raven/crow is part of THIS stencil design, where he is perched on a weather vane, but for the Halloween version, I masked off that portion of the stencil. My raven was paste-embossed in Matte Black and liberally coated with Ultra-Fine Black Glitter from Stampendous. Two Damask Velvet Leaf Class A' Peel stickers were added for texture, and as a repetitive decoration mimicking the background paper. The sentiment was also paste-embossed using an expression from the Bird Words stencils. Bird-themed designs are so hot right now, and this grouping of words/expressions/sentiments are perfect to work with the look. Dreamweaver Stencils has several stencil designs with various sentiments to choose from on one stencil. Comfort Combo, Birthday Words, Thank You and Rain Words are a few of these. All that is necessary is to mask off the areas that you don't choose to use. More bang for your buck which is always a good thing. Be sure to visit the rest of the team blogs to see what the free theme this week has inspired them to do, as well as the Dream It Up! blog for Lynell's take this week. What are you inspired to create this week? Show us! Link your creation to the Mr. Linky on the Dream It Up! blog. Speaking of blogs and the team, Dreamweaver Stencils will very shortly be putting out a call for new design team members. Have you got what it takes to be a part of the Dream Team? The call will be posted on the Dreamweaver Stencils' blog, the team members blog, as well as various online papercrafting sites. If you are interested in receiving info as soon as it is finalized, please leave your email addy in the comment section on my blog or the Dream It Up! blog.

Stampendous Sneak Peek Plus HYCCT1104

Here's another quick post featuring another card created with newly released images from Stampendous, and about to be winged away to the UT MD Anderson clinic in Texas as part of Split Coast Stampers' "Hope You Can Cling To" challenge. This specific challenge was to use paper and ink only. Definitely not easily achieved by yours truly, but I have fond of the end result on this one. I think I'll make a batch of these, and change up the sentiment inside the frame, and the colored squares on the side to suit various occasions. Definitely a CAS type of card. The Stampendous Perfectly Clear "Amore Frame" is gorgeous when stamped. Even on a flat surface it gives the impression of depth and texture. Want to play along with these challenges this month, and possibly have the opportunity to win some fabulous prizes? HERE is the info on the Split Coast Stampers' website.

HYCCT1116-Pink Ribbon With a Stampendous Peek

 Quickie post today featuring a card I created for the latest Stampendous online catalog. I love working with a pink and brown combo, especially with a vintage look. The Cling Lone Bird is such a sweet image and was simply stamped in brown on the patterned paper twice. The wing of the second was cut out and popped up. I used images from the Perfectly Clear Rose Branch Border around the edges, and the border was stamped on a strip, deckle edged, and run through the Corrugator to mimic a ruffled lace. The double banded satin ribbon from May Arts is one of my faves (and sadly, I am now out of it. Sniff.), and added the perfect finishing touch. Since this card was the perfect match for the Split Coast Stampers' "Hope You Can Cling To" challenge to add pink ribbon to your card (how simple is that?), I am entering it in the challenge, as well as sending it with several cards this month to the UT MD Anderson clinic for breast cancer patients. Each birthday is a significant win for them, a victory that we can only imagine. I hope whoever receives this card will have a very special day, and many birthdays to come. Want to play along with this challenge? Click HERE for more info.