Skipping Stones BLOG HOP & Sketch SSD06

Welcome to the first blog hop of 2010 from Skipping Stones Design!! I am so glad you’ve made it to my blog! If you've just happened upon my blog, you can CLICK HERE to start from the beginning at Skipping Stones Design.

You should have arrived here from KIM TEASDALE’S blog.

Along the way, the Skipping Stones Design Team (aka the Stamp Tramps) will have blog candy for you to enter.

As an added bonus, there will also be at several new & unreleased stamp sets hidden along the hop, but we’re not telling you where so be sure to leave some love as you hop!!!

Make sure you leave comments on every post so you have a greater chance to win!! The winners will be announced on Friday January 8th at Skipping Stones Design.

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And because Heather from Skipping Stones Design is SO DANG AWESOME you can save 25% off your ENTIRE purchase Jan 5 & 6th at Skipping Stones Design.
Use code 25off at checkout.

So if (yah right if, you KNOW you will) fall in LUUUUUUUURVE with one of Heather’s SUPER COOL STAMP sets, scurry on back to Skipping Stones Design {at the end of your hopping, of course} and satisfy your inner stamp tramp who’s aching for some new stamps!

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And now back to our regularly scheduled HOP…..

We have a fabulous sketch artist for January, Amy Scheffer, of Picked Paper Designs and today we will be using her sketch SSD06.

Here’s the sketch:

I had two little devils (or angels) sitting on my shoulders arguing with me over the merits of starting the new year fresh and actually obeying some rules.

This time I pretty much followed the rules. However, after several moments of debate, an “a-ha” moment, and manipulation of my card pieces I decided to do this:

And then my sentiment didn’t fit so I made a minor adjustment…. you’ll see in a moment… keep on reading.

I used the stamp set, Healing Wings, from Skipping Stones Design.

Have I mentioned how much I {HEART} this set? It is fabulous and fantastic and I just LURVE it. LURVE, LURVE, LURVE…. and LURVE some more. {I did something with the side view butterfly on another project I will post later this month, too!}

It’s an amazing set.

Ok, Ok… here’s the card. I’m giddy about it… It was such a FUN, FUN card to make and totally out of my usual box.

There’s a little bit o’ everything on this card. (Except rhinestones or other bling… How did I let that happen??) Distressing, stitching, crocheting, ink, luuuuurve. Other than rotate the sketch, the only little thing I did differently was to also rotate the front image/sentiment so that it would fit better with the rest of the design. The little angels on my shoulders came to an agreement and the naughty one wasn’t so naughty this time. hehe!

I even pulled out Bernie (my fabulous Bernina Activa 240) and did some good old fashioned stitching on it. Note to self: when stitching on a card, don’t use quilting thread, though it be pretty it doesn’t work so well in the machine. It’s meant for hand stitching. Poor Bernie.

The butterfly is made with a transparency and Bic Sharpie markers. I love how the sun shines through the wings and glows on the card. (See first picture.) The adorable little crocheted flowers were a gift from the fabulous and lovely Jeanne Tomshack. I seriously need to commission and beg her to make some more for me. I’m running out!

The border was cut with a Martha Stewart border punch and the circle was cut with a scalloped circle Nestabilities die.

There is some serious layering going on with this card. I had to use (had to.. hahaha… LOVED to do it) some American Crafts foam tabs to pop out the horizontal strip of paper because there was so much underneath it and with the added bulk of stitching, nothing was laying quite flat. Darn. I {heart} AC foam tabs. :) The butterfly is popped out on a piece of “accordian’d” transparency sheet so it appears to be floating over the flowers.

The card is pretty heavy. It’s a good thing that I had some Gina K base weight cardstock on hand. Love the stuff! It’s good and heavy cardstock. :)

{For another card using this set click HERE.}

THANK YOU for hopping by. I hope you enjoyed your stop here at my little ol’ blog. Be sure to stop by again this FRIDAY (January 8th) to find out if I have some candy to award to someone. *grin*

Your next hop is the lovely Bev Rousch’s blog - http://bevithia.blogspot.com

~Inky Smiles!

The Good Schtuff:
Stamps - Skipping Stones Design’s Healing Wings
Papers – Basic Grey Lemonade
Inks – CTMH Chocolate, StazOn Jet Black
Miscellaneous – Fabulous flowers by Jeanne Tomshack, transparency paper, Nestabilities dies, Martha Stewart border punch, quilting thread, Bernie the Bernina, AC Foam squares.