Skipping Stones Design Sketch SSD03 – Stained Glass Butterfly

I was working on a lot of projects this weekend.  I can share two of them with you after Thursday when the recipient gets them. (She reads this blog from time to time so I don’t dare share yet.)  Today I actually wrote our Christmas letter and printed it out and created a digital Christmas photo card to go with them.  I created one last year, too, but never mailed it.. lol… I thought about reusing it and then remembered I think I posted it here on the blog. LOL!  Anyway….

One of my projects was the weekly sketch for Skipping Stones Design’s Tuesday sketches.  I just received a bundle of stamps from Heather in the mail and was delighted that the Healing Wings set was in the package.  I think this is a lovely set with some beautiful sentiments. I especially love the “stained glass” style butterfly.

Here’s the set:

Here’s today’s sketch SSD03 from Skipping Stones Design:

This sketch threw me for a loop. I looked at it and thought, “what on earth am I going to do with that floating triangle?”.  LOL!  So I played around with the sketch and then turned the paper I had printed it out on… voila!  The light bulb went on and I went to town crafting.

 

And here’s my card:

I love the sentiment, “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life” and wanted to highlight it on the card but not have it be the main focal point.  (It’s too tiny anyway.)  I stamped it on some white cs and inked the edges to take off the sharpness of the white edges.  I pulled out Bernie (the Bernina… been trying to think of a nickname for her…) stitched the two rectangular patterned paper pieces to my card base with a basic zig zag stitch for some fun texture. 

Almost every card needs some added bling and sparkle so I added some gems from Kaisercraft to the “floating triangle”.  I think it looks less floating and more anchored now.  The sentiment is popped up on the triangle which is popped up off the card and the focal piece with the butterfly using American Craft foam squares.

Here’s a photo where you can see all the fun little popped up layers.

Here’s a close up of the butterfly.  I stamped with Timber Brown Stazon ink and then colored it in with watercolor pencil , blended with OMS and then covered with Liquid Glass for sparkle and to make the colors more rich and vibrant.

I stamped the image on  a piece of cream cs for some fun shadow detail and then cut a teeeeeny little strip of pop up foam square and mounted the butterfly over the image on the cream cs and bent up the wings a little.  I think it looks like a butterfly that has landed for just a second… :)

Inky Smiles!
Erin

Supplies:

Stamps – Skipping Stones Design Healing Wings
Inks – Stazon Timber Brown
Paper – Basic Grey, Archivers
Miscellaneous – Kaisercraft rhinestones, CTMH Liquid Glass, watercolor pencils, Odorless Mineral Spirits, thread & sewing machine.

Skipping Stones Design Sketch Tuesday SSD02

When Heather sent me this set several weeks ago I laughed and laughed and laughed.  I love the sentiments!  I couldn’t wait to play with the set!  This weekend was the perfect chance, what with our crazy weather and all.  We needed a little warming up around here!

SSD Tropical Birthday

Here’s Kim Teasdale’s Sketch Tuesday SSD02 for Skipping Stones Design:

And here is my take on the sketch.  It’s a simple, yet fun card.

I have a hard time sticking to the rules.. LOL… so I had to make a bigger “little” circle to fit my image.  I also used some brads and a funky ribbon bit to create the “illusion” of the three stripes on the left hand side.    The ribbon was this weird straw like ribbon that I snipped apart and created both the thing on the left and the 3D hula skirt.I snipped apart the ribbon and carefully placed it neatly on top of the skirt (which I colored in with watercolor pencils and OMS) and glued it down with that awesome Zig 2 way glue.  I held it in place with some pliers until it was nice and stuck to the paper.  I stamped a double image of the hula girl on scrap CS and cut out the waistband and glued it on top of the hula skirt.

Here’s what the ribbon looks like when it’s whole:

 
{That’s a sneak peek of another project I just finished that I can’t wait to share… :) }

I had so much fun playing with sunshiney glitter!  The glitter is a custom Erin mix… I mixed red, orange and yellow glitters from Doodlebug until I got just the right sunset-y look.  I cut out a circle with my Nestabilities, cut off the bottom part of the circle, and then ran it thru my Xyron machine.  I carefully peeled off the Xyron backing tape and then generously sprinkled it with glitter and pressed the glitter down into the adhesive.   A few flicks, taps, and general shakes later, I adhered it to the card.

The water background is made with the Dots CB Embossing folder and  the texture on the top brown CS was made with the Forest Branches CB Embossing folder.  (It’s kind of hard to see in the photo, but it looks a little like bamboo…)

Every hula girl needs some bling so I added a littler sparkle to the flower in her hair with some Stickles and colored in her skin and make up with some watercolor pencils.  (I still haven’t made it on the uber expensive Copic wagon yet.)

Supplies:
Stamps – SSD Tropical Birthday
Inks – Stazon Black
Papers – Close To My Heart
Accessories – Cuttlebug Machine & Embossing folders (bubbles/dots and forest branches), Doodlebug glitter, Stickles, watercolor pencils, odorless mineral spirits, misc ribbon, adhesives, brads, Nestabilities dies.

May your coconuts never hang lower than your grass skirt and may you have warmth in your homes today as we freeze to death in icy cold Utah.

Inky Smiles!

PS.. Since you’ve made it this far through the post.. and if you’re visiting me today, Tuesday, December 8th, 2009…. here’s a little something special for you!  So hurry over and pick out your favorite stamps!  There’s no better time than now to get 25% off AND free shipping!

Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful….

But the snow is so

delightful?

Uhm… sorta… the jury is still out on that one.

After a LOnG and crazy day in Salt Lake doing this with Mrs Georgia White and her daughter Sue ….

…. this is what I came home to:

Sorry for the blurriness.. it’s difficult to take a decent photo at night while you’re shivering to death.  Brrr.

I could barely get in my driveway….  I had to back up to the curb across the street from my house and get a good “running start/mad dash” because I was in our little Malibu and B had the Tahoe and loverly 4WD.

See the mad dash marks at the top of the photo that Sadie’s in?  That was lil’ ol’ me rolling mah wheels to make it up the driveway….

 
There’s nothing like mad wheel rollin skills and a crazy lady in a Malibu who has to “go” so bad she’s gonna leave the car in the street and run in the house.  I bet I was some sort of crazy sight… lol!

Thankfully Brent got home a couple of hours later and went to work…again…. so hopefully tomorrow morning we can get out of our driveway…. We’re expecting MORE snow overnight sooo…… ay yi yi. 

Here’s my man… hard at work:

I love fluffy snow.

Apparently so does Sadie… for a while.  And then she wusses out with me on the porch.

 
I think the UPS man forgot we had a sidewalk… see those footprints?  They are going right through my flowerbed.  “Tiptoe… thru the tulips…”  That’s ok.  I can forgive him this time… cuz he delivered my much anticipated box of treasures from Sephora…. Have I told you I heart Sephora yet? Oh, that’s a story for another day!

I think I shall head in now where it’s warm and cozy and enjoy a cup of leftover homemade chili and a chunk of hot cornbread!

Inky Smiles!

SSD Sketch SSS02 Sneak Peek

I’m headed in to work today to take a client (Georgia White) up to Salt Lake City so she can set up a Christmas Tree at Primary Children’s Medical Center, tie loads of toys and goodies on it, and watch the kids faces light up.  It’s a tradition.  I‘ve been almost every year for the past 10 years.

We woke up to a white wonderland this morning!   We’ve got 5” of snow down here at home and about 6+” in Orem and who knows what in Salt Lake City…. and we’re expecting a humdinger of a storm tonight and tomorrow morning. Yikes!

So I’m off to Salt Lake City for the day but I thought I would leave you with a sneak peek of the card I will be posting tomorrow for Skipping Stones Design’s Sketch challenge SSS02 tomorrow.

Here’s to a little warm thinking!  See you tomorrow!

Inky Smiles!

Festival of Trees

Every year Primary Children's Medical Center (PCMC) in Salt Lake City holds a Festival of Trees. The purpose of this festival is to raise money for families who have loved ones at PCMC and need help with their medical bills.
From their website:

"For 39 years, the Festival of Trees has been a “Gift of Love” to children at Primary Children's Medical Center. The Festival is organized by a volunteer board of 84 women who enlist time and talents from thousands of individuals, organizations, businesses, and families throughout Utah. Over $24 million has been raised for children in need at Primary Children’s Medical Center through the Festival since 1971, with $1,495,840.74 raised in 2008"

The Grotegut family has a special place in our hearts for PCMC as it is the place where our sweet niece, Kiera Grotegut, passed away as an infant several years ago. This year we were approached by a friend, Andy Monson, (Amaryllis' cousin) who was putting together his third tree to donate to the festival in honor of his sister, Angela Marie Monson Heaton, who was killed in a tragic car accident a few years ago on her way home from work. Angi was a nurse and loved children and scrapbooking.

Stamper Storage made a donation including a customized and finished (painted, stained, sealed) InkStak-Tall Stak Wide and loooooooads of Bind-It-All supplies and a BIA machine. Here's a snap shot of Andy with the tree and all the goodies from various businesses:

It is exciting to be a part of something so special. Thank you, Andy, for letting us experience a little Christmas Joy with you :)

Inky Smiles!

PS - this tree has still not yet sold. If you're interested the price is somewhere around $3900 for the tree and all the delightful goodies.

PPS.. If you would like to donate to Andy’s tree next year please shoot me an email and I will pass your information on to Andy so he can contact you next year when they get ready to start collecting donations again. If they do a scrapbooking tree again next year handmade cards and other paper crafting projects would be welcomed as well as new, unused items in packages.

SSD Sketch SS01 – My Card, Better Late Than Never

This is my take on the Skipping Stones Design Sketch SS01.  I had a lot of fun with this sketch.. it made me think a little and then it was screaming “CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS” at me so I couldn’t resist.  Afterall, it IS that time of year again.

Here’s the Christmas Swirls stamp set:

I wanted to do something a little out of my box and decided to try a somewhat monochromatic look with metallic shimmer cardstock.  I have such a hard time pushing myself to use metallics so I just buckled down and did it anyway.  (Metallics are hard to photograph, even without a flash, so bear with me on the pics.)

I used the star and ball ornament images from SSD’s Christmas Swirls set and embossed them with gold embossing powder.  The stamps are intricately detailed so make sure you wipe your paper with an antistatic powder and use super fine embossing powder. I stamped Peace in gold ink.

The cream oval was embossed with my Cuttlebug & Oval Nestabilities and the ornaments and star were hand cut .   The bottom ornament and the oval piece and star are all popped out with American Crafts foam squares.

After I had it all laid out and nearly all adhered to the card base I decided that it needed a little extra something…..  so, being the “crazy jewelry lady” that I have been lately I pulled out my beading supplies and created a little ornament jewelry to add a little more bling to the card.  I used some inexpensive pearl beads and two tiny little 2mm clear Swarovski crystals for extra sparkle and dangle.

Supplies:
Stamps – Skipping Stones Design’s Christmas Swirls
Papers - DCWV Metallic & Luxury, Gina K base cs, misc cream cs
Inks –Versamark & Colorbox
Tools, etc – SU antistatic wiper thingy, misc jewelry tools, misc craft wire, Cuttlebug, Nestabilities Oval Dies, Ribbon, ATG adhesive, heat gun, CTMH Gold embossing powder.

Don’t forget to come participate in the sketch and take a chance to win some Skipping Stones Design stamps!  See you at SSD!

Inky Smiles!

State of The Studio & Sneak Peek

So I’m in my Studio today finishing up some projects that I started on Wednesday, one being a made to order gift for my aunt to give her friend, another being the final touches on the SSD Sketch SS01 and photographs and another being finishing up the tags that I started at Sue Neal’s Christmas tag box class last night.  I had hoped to get the final touches on my SSD card last night but the class went longer than planned and I got home super late. (Excuses, excuses… but we were having so much fun in Sue’s class!)

Here’s a sneak peek at the SSD Sketch SS01 card:

And here’s the current State of the Studio… I’m all about keeping it real here, lol!

Gonna go snap some photos of the finished card while I’ve still got some good daylight… see you again in a few!

Inky Smiles!

Skipping Stones Design Sketch Tuesday

Hi all!

I’m back from the annual trek to Iowa to spend Thanksgiving with my family. It was quite the crazy trip this year as we had 11 adults, 5 kids under the age of 3, and 2 dogs at dinner this year. I’m surprised Mom’s house did not explode with the amount of crazy energy going on inside last week. LOL!

Tuesdays are Sketch Tuesday at Skipping Stones Design. My fellow “stamp tramps” (what Heather is calling her DT) and I will be sharing with you a sketch each Tuesday. At least once a month we will each hold a drawing for a free stamp set from Skipping Stones Design from those of you who make a card/layout based on a Skipping Stones Design sketch and preferably/hopefully an SSD stamp set.

Today’s sketch is from Kim Teasdale.

I just got the information this evening and have been out of town until very late last night, so here’s Angela Thomas' (I had originally posted that this was Kim's, my apologies to Angela) sample from the Skipping Stones Design blog. Check back on the Skipping Stones Design blog for Kim Teasdale's sketch.

I will be doing some crafting on Wednesday and will share what I come up with on Wednesday!

Please link back in the comments and share what you’ve done with this sketch.

Inky Smiles!

I'm Now a "Stamp Tramp"!

A while back I mentioned that Heather Timmins from Skipping Stones Design asked me to be on her Design Team. Well, now it's official. I am a "Stamp Tramp" (that's what Heather is calling her DT members.) for Skipping Stones Design!

My fellow Stamp Tramps are:

Amanda Gauer-Sewell
Angela Thomas


So what exactly is a Stamp Tramp? Glad you asked... here's the information from the SSD website. Don't worry, it's nothing naughty. Remember, while I am a little spunky and crazy at times, this is a G rated blog I run here.. :)

*Stamp Tramp: N :1a: a saucy girl who will do just about anything for stamps. 1b: one, who was born to stamp, but forced to work.

*Top Ten Signs You Might be a Stamp Tramp:

1. You are actually reading this top ten list.

2. Your husband lets you have all the stamps you can hide.

3. When people talk stamps, you don’t think postage.

4. Your fingers have ink on them right now.

5. You consider stamplifting “a crime of passion”.

6. You spill a little wine* on your cardstock and call it an “OFE” (Opportunity For Embellishment).

7. You leave your MIB (Man In Brown) little sticky notes like “Please hide the box under the bushes.”

8. You like getting dirty. (Think Ink)

9. You’ve mastered your stamp kissing technique.

10. You wash your hands “before” going to the bathroom ‘cause there are some places even Stamp Tramps don’t want glitter.

(* or Crystal Light since I don't drink or whatever your preferred beverage is.)


Do you have what it takes to be a Stamp Tramp? Heather is looking for more fun and spunky stampers to join her teamand a DT call will be going out soon on Splitcoast Stampers. She is also looking for a couple of sketch guest designers. SOOOOOOOOO, if you're interested and have some Stamp Tramp spunk simply visit the Stamp Tramp page and shoot her an email.

Come join us on this adventure and let's STAMP!

Inky Smiles!

A Little More Jewelry

It seems that I’ve got the jewelry bug.  I’m smitten with making handmade jewelry and trinkets.  Over the past week or so I have whipped up a few more necklaces and a bracelet and some charms (which I’m still working on tweaking a little).

Here are some photos of what I’ve been making.

Red & Gold – a gift for my grandmother (who doesn’t have a computer, so it’s safe to post) for Christmas.  I used FOUR strands of beads to braid together for this set.  Grandma likes chunkier necklaces and the four strands really made a huge difference.  I also wrapped the ends a little differently, using crimp beads to finish the ends off. I think it looks more professional.

 

Smokey – for my mom (who doesn’t ever read my blog cuz she’s too lazy and I email her things anyway… <--- her words) for Christmas.  I also need to make a matching bracelet and some earrings but I ran out of silver wire.

 

Pearly Pearls on Silver:  For yours truly because I looooove the pearls and silver wire.  I love how the silver wire has a brassy hue to it and coordinates nicely with the pearls.  I wore this to the symphony last Saturday night (Bravo Broadway) and to the Charity Ball we attended on Friday night. 

The pearls are my favorite of the bunch, but I also think I might make a red set for me.  I have a TON of red beads left. 

I purchased all of the supplies for these projects at various stores, Michaels, Roberts, and WalMart (red beads).  Handmade jewelry can be super cheap to make when you use coupons from each store.  I love it!

Well, I’m off to pack.  We’re headed to see my parents for Thanksgiving.  I hope to have some fun photos to blog when I get back.

~ Inky Smiles!

PS… don’t forget to link back on the Leftovers post for your chance to win something fun!

Leftovers

We’re coming up on one of the holidays that seems to have the BEST leftovers…  stuffing, turkey (or HAM in my case), mashed potatoes, rolls, and PIE… 

Often in papercrafting and scrapbooking we have TONS of leftovers.  Remember that Christmas album that you only used 75% of the entire kit to make?  Or that super cool Basic Grey pad that you used most of and have bits and pieces left, but the paper is so darn cute and you just love it and can’t throw it away… and Erin doesn’t currently have a Scrap My Scraps project going on….

Welll, my dear blog reading friends…. you must see this clip from Studio 5 (Salt Lake City)…

I am SOOOOO making some of those flowers!!!!  Fa-byoooooo-lush, dahling!

Thank you Sue Neal for inspiring me and helping refuel my mojo!

So here’s a challenge:  Pull out your scraps and make a project!!  It can be a card/set of cards/scrapbook page/altered object/

And since it’s really starting to feel like Christmas…..

Reward: Post it on your blog and then LINK BACK HERE in the comments section.  I will put all of the names in a hat and randomly draw a name on MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30th.  You have just under two weeks to come up with something fun!  I have some fun ideas for a prize… and Maya Road is coming to mind….Hrmmmm…..whatever could it be?

~ Inky Smiles!

It’s Beginning to Feel A Lot Like Christmas

This year the “holiday” season has really snuck up on me and caught me off guard.  I am soo not ready!   Last night Brent and I went to the Payson Charity Ball/Holiday Ball – it’s a ball that gives Christmas to families in our area who would normally not have a Christmas.   The decorations were absolutely fabulous and festive and really got the wheels turning in my mind to get ready for Christmas!   Brent and I danced our feet off and had a blast!

This morning I woke up to a light blanket of snow on the ground at our house…  It was only about a half inch or so, but still.. it was white and covered everything.  We were supposed to put Christmas lights up on the house, but that didn’t happen because of the snow and the looming black clouds…   Brent and I ran some errands and did some grocery shopping up north of our town today.  I checked out some cool Christmas decorations at Rod Works and some fun Christmas schtuff at WalMart and was really starting to get ready to want to have Christmas up and going at our house.   When we got home this afternoon we had about 2 – 2.5 inches on the driveway and lawn.   Ay yi yi!

Anyway… remember I said in my last post that I met someone cool at the necklace class?  Well….  I was sitting there crocheting my never ending string of wire and picking up beads in the stitches and I told Brent’s aunt that I was totally bummed that I had missed Sue Neal’s (if you’re a Papercrafts reader you will recognize her name and fabulous artwork ‘cuz she’s all over the place in there) card class the month before.  WELL…. Tammy informed me that Sue is a REGULAR teacher for the Roberts stores and that she had another class coming up.  Made a mental note to check out the class bulletin boards and continued crocheting.  About ten minutes later guess who walked into the classroom?  Yup, you guessed it, Sue Neal.  HOW COOL IS THAT?  So we got to chatting and she showed us the poster for her next papercrafting class:

Guess where I will be on December 1st from 6-8 pm? LOL!  I am soooo super excited!  If any of you in the area want to go, shoot me an email and let me know and we can make it a girls night out! :)

~Inky Smiles!

Crocheted Jewelry

In my efforts to get back into crafting again (now that I am feeling better and HUMAN) I have decided to take a few classes here and there as I find interesting ones at the local craft stores.

Last night I went to Roberts craft for a fun jewelry class. We learned to make necklaces by crocheting wire and interweaving beads. It was so much fun! And… it was relatively easy. If you can crochet a single stitch chain from here to eternity you can crochet a necklace. :)

My husband’s aunt and cousin were there with me and it was loads of fun seeing how different everyone’s necklaces turned out. Tammy (aunt) did a necklace for one of her coworkers using a mix of smokey beads. It turned out gorgeous and I picked up the bead collection this evening to make one for someone for Christmas. Raette used a variety of “sea themed” beads and made a really fun big and chunky necklace. She works at a place called “Pirate Island” so it is perfect for her!

I chose a variety of shades and shapes of blue beads, silver findings, Swarovski crystals and silver 26 gauge wire. I don’t like how the 26 guage wire was a little difficult to work with, but loved the 26 gauge sterling silver wire that Tammy used, so I picked some of that up tonight, too.

Here’s my necklace:

I am down in my guest bathroom trying to snap a photo of the necklace while it’s on my neck. Not an easy task. Brent is still at work (it’s 7:30pm) and not around to help… and I’m too lazy to find my tripod. (Please ignore the fact that I have no eyes on… I think I rubbed them off during my INSANE day today at work. LOL!)

Zoomed in on a better mirror picture. That one bead on the right is a pain in the bootay. I had to twist the wire to get it to lay back properly after this photo.

The full necklace. I extended the chain so that it would fit better on my and lay where I wanted it to lay on my neck.

A close up of the bead and wire work.

This morning before I went to work I made a quick little ring to go with the necklace. I need to redo it because I twisted a couple of the end wires too much and they snapped at work and kept stabbing me in the finger while I typed. OUCH!

The basic idea of the necklace is making 3 strands of beaded, crocheted wire and then braiding them together.

If you can

* braid hair
* crochet a single chain from here to eternity
* choose 45-50 misc beads (I worked in extra beads)

You can create one of these! SO get to it!

Last night I Googled “crocheted necklaces” and found a GREAT video showing exactly how to make these. So, rather than re-do a whole tutorial, here’s a video courtesy of Auntie’s Beads for you:

Inky Smiles!

PS... and I met someone SUPER COOL at the Robert's store during my class...

Happy Veteran’s Day!

(My dad, Daniel Stieler, Army, Vietnam, living)

Today I am grateful for ALL those who have served and still serve in the various military branches of our GREAT country, especially my grandfather (Marines) and my father (Army). Without the service of these amazing veterans we would not have the wonderful freedoms that we have today.

God bless America & Happy Veteran's Day!

Never Leave You Hanging…

Today I have spent hours sorting out photos on my computer so that I can get ready to back up my entire computer to my EHD and then do some serious digital scrapbooking.

As I was sorting out photos I realized that I posted this sneak peak ages ago:

But I never got around to sharing the full card. Well, the full card went to my girlfriend, Judy, for her birthday a week or so ago.

Here’s the full card:

The inside reads:

“Bras are like friends, the good ones never leave you hanging.”

(Supplies used on my card are from various manufacturers: Rhinestones from Kaisercraft, CTMH Inks & paper, Archivers Paper, misc ribbon, MS Border Punch, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Quickutz Labels 1 die, Stampin' Up colored pencils & OMS, and stamps from Skipping Stones Design.)

I love this Funny Bras Volume 1 set from Skipping Stones Design. It’s absolutely cheeky and fabulous! AND… she has a second bra set available for purchase, too!

Here’s another fun card that my friend, Tammy, made one night while we were making cards at my place.

(Supplies are all CTMH from my CTMH days, except for the Bazzill pink ric rack.)

So hurry over and pick up your bra set from Skipping Stones Design! You know you’re going to love it!

Inky Smiles!

BONUS since you kept reading this far:

SALE Now through Sat Night Nov.14th Only: Buy 3 Pick One FREE Here's how it works... Buy any three stamp sets and pay for them. When you pay there will be an option to leave a note... In that section name the 4th stamp set that you would like for free, and it will be included in your order!

Go to www.skippingstonesdesign.com to place your order!