Monday Night Madness

As promised, I'm back to show you some of the fun things that Sabrina and I worked with on Monday night. We had a fantastic day of shopping, creating and yes, cleaning! My studio is on it's way to becoming functional - I think. Here's some of the cards that we made:

This card was created using some wonderful paper from my dsp stash and the cute antique bicycle is from the $1 bin at Michaels! Sentiment is from a fun new set from SU called Perfectly Penned.

This card was created using one of my SU clear blocks and some Versamark. I embossed it with some wonderful antique brass embossing powder that we picked up on our last crafty jaunt at a shop in Littleton, CO called Stamping to See You (this is also what I used on the antique bicycle). I added some gold cording and a sentiment and viola! The inspiration for this card came from HERE - Kath is always astounding! Sentiment is from the Happiest Birthday Wishes hostess set from the new SU catalog.




Sabrina found this beautiful butterfly in the $1 bin at Joann's and it is fast becoming one of my favorite butterfly stamps. It's embossed it with some that antique brass embossing powder, colored with Copic markers and the dsp is some fun new paper I picked up on our downline field trip to Estes Park at Chery's wonderful store called Rocky Mountain Memories as well as some fun Bo Bunny paper that we picked up at Archivers. The embossed butterflies on the bottom card are also some fun stamps that I picked up on our visit to Estes Park.

I have a stamp camp this weekend, the first in a long time and I am looking forward to seeing all the smiling faces of the stampers as they create their works of art.

DH is at the winter marina waiting for the rain to stop long enough to have Belmira hauled out of the water. Then begins the winterizing and then ... home at last!

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Team Coordinator:
Sentimental Sundays
Kaboodle Doodles

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Multiple Challenges

I have challenge projects for Sentimental Sundays, Heart Song Inspirations and Kaboodle Doodles to share with you today.

Sentimental Sundays



Heart Song Inspirations


Kaboodle Doodles

I've also got some great projects that I worked on with my bff Sabrina, but I'll save those for tomorrow. We had a fabulous day yesterday with outings to some of our local craft stores, lunch at Applebees and then an evening of crafting. Sabrina is also a whiz at getting me motivated to getting some cleanup done in the old craft studio. We got lots of things put away and organized and I'm working on a plan to get a lot more done before dh gets home in a couple of weeks. Sailing season is done and he and Belmira are docked at the winter boat yard up the river in Dighton, MA. He's got some things to finish and get winterized before they pull her out of the water for the season and then there's the whole shrink wrapping adventure too. I'm hoping he is home before the end of September though!

My Kaboodle Doodles card for this week's challenge features one of the new sentiments from a "sheep" set that will be available later this week. I have lots of cute sheep images and I wanted some coordinating sentiments. They are fun and I think you will like them. I'm also starting to repost some of the old sentiment sets and hope to have lots of new ones to add soon.

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Team Coordinator:
Sentimental Sundays
Kaboodle Doodles

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Variations on a Theme

Well, you all saw my first cards using this element HERE and I just can't seem to let it go - it's too much fun! I've designed several more cards that started out with pretty much a direct case from Angela McKay (North Shore Stamper) but using a slightly different color combo and dsp (but from the same pack). Somehow she managed to make it look really great so I just had to give it a try. I wasn't happy at all with my first attempt:


Somehow stamping on Very Vanilla with Pool Party and More Mustard just didn't cut it for me. It altered the color too much and I didn't think it looked very good. My second attempt uses the same dsp that Angela used, but I used Whisper White for my card base and for the stamped elements and I added the additional 5 petal - flower from the Island Floral Bigz Die. On both of these cards I punched the centers and painted them with Champagne Mist to give them a shimmery appearance. While I like it, it just wasn't the POP that I wanted to achieve.


My next attempt is with a different color combo, an embossed large flower, different dsp and the addition of a brad. I think I am finally a happy camper!


The lacey edges were created using the new ribbon punch from SU and cutting it in half and adhering it to the edges of the colored cardstock strip.

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Team Coordinator:
Sentimental Sundays
Kaboodle Doodles

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Catching Up?

Maybe, maybe not ... I feel like I have been in catch-up mode since I got back on the 6th and I'm not even close to getting there yet. Here are two cards for blogs I design for that should have been posted on Sunday, but ... at any rate here they are:

My very first entry for Heart Song Inspirations:

I know that I am just going to love working on this challenge blog - Leah Cornelius is such a talented designer and the gals in this group are simply wonderful! Please be sure to stop over and check out all the great projects by this talented design team and be sure to enter this challenge for your chance to win an image from Heart Song Designs (there are so many, many wonderful images to choose from)!

Sentimental Sundays (using an image from
this week's sponsor - Heart Song Designs):

I debated adding stamping or designer paper on this project, but the image was so great I decided to let it take center stage! Wouldn't this be a great teacher appreciation project?

I have some "variations on a theme" cards to show you today as well. It's time for our monthly downline meeting and I have struggled with designing my swap. I am in love with the two 5-petal punches that SU has right now and really wanted to use them again. I will probably use one of these for this month's Sassy Chic stamp camp in Longmont on September 10 too! Be sure to stop back later and check those out and give me some feedback on which ones you like best!

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Team Coordinator:
Sentimental Sundays
Kaboodle Doodles

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Those Xmas Cards I promised ....

Here are those sample cards that I made for my playtime workshop last weekend:




There are so many fun things in the new catalog and the upcoming Holiday Mini - it's going to be a fun holiday season this year for sure!

Belmira and DH both weathered Irene just fine. I spent way too many hours glued to the Weather Channel this weekend and I'm behind on just about everything, but I wanted to see for myself what was happening.

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

Design Team Coordinator:
Sentimental Sundays
Kaboodle Doodles

Design Team Member:
Heart Song Inspirations

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

A few cards ....

After a bit of a battle with a sinus infection, I think I'm back on top of it and wanted to post a couple of those new catalog samples that I made up for last weekend's playdate.

The first is a card inspired by THIS card from Chat (Me, My Stamps and I):

The second card was inspired by THIS card by LeAnne (WEE inklings):


Tomorrow I'll share with you some of the other samples - my first Christmas cards of the season!

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Team Coordinator:
Sentimental Sundays
Kaboodle Doodles

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

3 x 3 Card Box Project

Hi everyone! I wanted to make a sample of what can be done with a single stamp set (in this case it was the adorable Easy Events set), a die (Scallop Envelope die), some embossing folder strips and lots of scraps and bits from the scrap bins).

I started out with this:

and added these:

and ended up with this:

The inspiration for this project came from Mindy at Bada-Bing! Paper-Crafting - if you have not ever visited her blog you really should. Great energy and creativity there that is sure to inspire you!

Here's a little slideshow that shows each of the cards in this cute box.

Are you interested in a tutorial on making this adorable box? If so, leave me a comment and maybe I'll put one together and post it. I have lots more samples that I made from sets in the new catalog that I will be posting all this week so be sure to come back and visit and check them out.

I also have some things to share from my fall "wish list" of potential projects that I am hoping to tackle before Christmas. You guys are going to be my conscience - my motivation - to make sure that I get these things done! Hint: they don't involve paper at all!

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Team Coordinator:
Sentimental Sundays
Kaboodle Doodles

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Sentimental Sundays Challenge #69

This week's challenge on Sentimental Sundays is to create a birthday project! Our own Cheryl has a birthday today (why don't you pop by her blog and send her some birthday love)! Here's my project:



This card was so much fun to make. I ended up using the design in different colors for Saturday's stamping play date. I love the combination of Cherry Cobbler and Calypso Coral - intense isn't it?'

Here's a better picture of Saturday's project using the same design but different colors:



Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Team Coordinator:
Sentimental Sundays
Kaboodle Doodles

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Kaboodle Doodles - Challenge #81

Good morning everyone. Slowly but surely I am starting to get back into the swing of being a landlubber once again. I have lots to share this week and will start off with today's Kaboodle Doodles challenge. This week we are challenging everyone to use ribbon on their projects. Our sponsor this week is Karber Digital Images and the winner will receive their choice of 3 images.


Here is my card using one of the cute images from Karber Digital Images:


I have pix to share of some projects I created using new toys from the SU Idea Book & Catalog as well as the new Holiday Mini. We had a wonderful time on Saturday playing with some of the new rubber from the IBC and a big thank you to all the gals who came and played with me. I really needed something to help me get re-focused after my month away.

I will also be joining the wonderfully talented gals on the Heart Song Inspirations design team and am really looking forward to working with these gals and creating with Leah's gorgeous designs!


Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Team Coordinator:
Sentimental Sundays
Kaboodle Doodles

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Playing with some new rubber!

Well, slowly but surely my mojo is easing it's way back into my life. My stay on Belmira with dh was much too short and I have had a bit of a time getting back into the routines of a house that doesn't float. I know that he will be back soon, but ...

At any rate, there's lots of new rubber in the house! SU's new Idea Book and Catalog and a new Holiday Mini both brought some cool new stuff. I've been playing a bit with some of it and would like to share a couple of projects today and probably a couple more tomorrow.

I'm loving all the flowers in the new catalog:



Here's my swap for this month's downline meeting. It was a small group but we sure did have a nice time at the Stone Cup coffee house in Lyons, CO. If you are ever in Lyons you really should stop in and sample some of their delicious food! Great food and a a wonderful, relaxed environment.


I'm having some gals over on Saturday for a little play time. Nothing serious, just fun! I think we might make a couple of these projects that I'm showing you today and tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Team Coordinator:
Sentimental Sundays
Kaboodle Doodles

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

home again ...

Okay - I'll admit it ... I'm home and am not extremely happy about it. My month on Belmira was as it was last year - totally delightful in spite of the obvious problems with weather, etc. I will recount some of the highlights in future posts - promise. For now though, here are some of the projects that were featured on both Kaboodle Doodles and Sentimental Sundays while I was away:

Kaboodle Doodles:

Challenge #76

Challenge #77

Challenge #78

Challenge #79

Sentimental Sundays:

Challenge #65

Challenge #66

I didn't really have a reliable enough connection to post regularly, but truth be told, I really just needed a break. Forgive me?

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Team Coordinator:
Sentimental Sundays
Kaboodle Doodles

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

I have not drowned - just having too much fun!!!!

I have not drowned and dh has not thrown me overboard (yet). I am just having way too much fun though and will catch up with everyone when I get back. It's hard to believe, but I will be back in Colorado one week from today.

Check out dh's blog today for an update on what we've been up to:

http://apbelmira.blogspot.com

His post should be going up sometime today. For those of you that are my friends on facebook, there's a couple of great shots from yesterday's adventures on my page. The weather has been, well ... the weather and so we have not done as much sailing as we would have liked, but I'm not exactly sure that would be humanly possible anyway!

Lots of great ideas for fun things to do in the craft studio with paper, sewing machine and looms as well as lots of fun projects spinning in my head for the pottery studio. Hopefully, I will be able to keep the momentum going when I get home.

On a last note, here's one of my favorite pictures from this trip so far:



This is Alabama, the white Black Dog Ship from Marthas Vineyard. Isn't she lovely? There is a black version that is more of a square rigger but I was not able to get any good pictures of her.

See you soon!

~chris

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Team Coordinator:
Sentimental Sundays
Kaboodle Doodles

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Greetings from Buzzards Bay

I'm not sure how well this is going to work, but I am going to give it a try. We arrived at the boat yesterday and were aboard and settled in before the squall hit. It was wonderful to watch the power in the clouds as the front moved towards us. It rained and there was thunder and lightning - and lots and lots of wind! Very exciting for my first night aboard in about a year. I love the new mooring - the marina is clean and accessible. There are separate shower facilities for guys and gals even! We are right off Buzzards Bay which will make access to open water quick and easy. We managed to get completely soaked coming back to the boat this morning after doing some grocery shopping - crossing the marina in our dinghy in 15-20 knot winds with waves splashing over the bow - exciting, scary and very, very wet. I'll have some pix soon.

In the meantime, let me catch up on some of the challenges at Sentimental Sundays and Kaboodle Doodles. Our challenge on Sentimental Sundays was to use unconventional stamping techniques or materials. I have wanted to play with old dress pattern paper for a while and this challenge presented me with the perfect opportunity. I cut flowers from the pattern material using a Tim Holtz flower die and then sponged the flowers with distress inks. Then I stamped the flowers with a Tim Holtz stamp using distress inks. Here's the result:


The Kaboodle Doodles challenge this week was to use your scissors! I cut around the flower and then cut the image using a nestie. Here's my project:


Well, I will apologize in advance to all my bloggy buddies that I usually leave comments for - our internet connection is a bit dodgy and I'm not sure how many of you I will get to visit over the next couple of weeks, but I'll do my best!

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Team Coordinator:
Sentimental Sundays
Kaboodle Doodles

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Kaboodle Doodles - a bit late ....

Well, the Kaboodle Doodles challenge posted on Monday and I did actually have my card done in time, just didn't get it posted here. So anyway, here it is:


Had fun with this one (I always enjoy playing with Stef's images) and be sure to check out the creations from the other dt members. Big announcement on next week's challenge post - some new blood is joining the team!

Tonight I'm going to take some pix and share with you a deep dark secret .... so stay tuned!

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Team Coordinator:
Sentimental Sundays
Kaboodle Doodles

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.

Sentimental Sundays - Anything Goes!

Well it's time for another Sentimental Sundays challenge and this week - Anything Goes! I think my passion for butterflies is widely known - my stamp campers give me grief if my project doesn't have one these days! I decided to just play with some pieces and parts that were laying on my work desk and this is what I came up with:


The large butterfly is from the Spellbinders set that Sabrina and I went to Colorado Springs to pick up. It's decorated with a butterfly from Whimsy Stamps and also with some Viva Pearl Pens. The sentiment is from an incentive set from SU, the little butterflies are from the SU Beautiful Wings sizzlit die and the strip of butterflies is a punch from MS. I embossed the real red panel with an old embossing folder that came with a set of Asian themed folders.

On a personal note: A huge, huge thank you for all your encouraging comments, emails and phone calls. I am fine - just a bit muddled at the moment. Too many thoughts and I'm not able to put them all in order just yet. I will though - no worries! My month on Belmira is coming at just the right time. Thanks everyone!!!!

Thanks for visiting!

chris

Design Team Coordinator:
Sentimental Sundays
Kaboodle Doodles

If you have any questions about the techniques or materials used in the work displayed on this blog, feel free to use the email link on the left and I will gladly answer your questions.