Saturday, July 31, 2010

Heard You're Sick as a Dog



Happy Saturday! It's time for the weekly Diva Sketch Challenge. You probably arrived here from Alisa's blog. If at any time a link is missing, you can head over to the UDI blog to find the next person on the blog hop. This week's sketch is a pocket card.



This set is one I earned for free during Sale-a-bration, and I was so glad it did not retire at the end of June. I love this little dog!



Here is a list of supplies used:
Stamps: Wellness Wishes
Paper: Very Vanilla, Love Letter DSP
Ink: Black Staz-on
Accessories: Black 1 1/4" striped grosgrain, 1 1/4", 1 3/8" and 1 3/4" circle punches
Markers: Riding Hood Red, Cherry Cobbler and Soft Suede

Here you can see the inside of the pocket. Since I used the Love Letter DSP to make it, you see the pattern on the reverse side. Pretty cool, huh?



This is my first post since coming back from the Stampin' Up Convention. What a fabulous time I had! Over the next couple of weeks, I will be sharing some of the cards I swapped and received while I was there.

Shortly before I left for convention, Stampin' Up had the following post.

"Wear your Simply Adorned charms and chains during convention for a chance to be one of three daily winners! To enter the contest, simply visit the Demonstrator Resource Center and find a Stampin' Up! employee wearing a button that says, "Show me your Simply Adorned." The employee will take a photo of your Simply Adorned creation and then place it on an inspiration board located behind the Product Café.

Three winners will be selected each day by a panel of judges in the following categories:

* Most creative
* Best use of new Stampin' Up! colors
* Overall cutest"

I had ordered the necklace and charms as soon as they were available, intending to make a grandmother necklace. That never happened, and the morning before I left for convention, I got up early and made this. I used the Tote-ally Tess set, stamping and coloring her little accessories and paper piecing Tess. The back side of the charms feature the Love Letter DSP.



I stopped at the booth on Thursday to have a photo taken, and when I went back on Friday morning, I saw that my necklace had been selected as most creative! I received this lovely stamp set as my prize.



Needless to say, I was on "Cloud Nine" the whole day.

Now, on to Becky's blog to see what she did with this week's sketch. (Hi, Becky! I can't wait to see you on vacation!)

Blessings,
Barbara

Saturday, July 24, 2010

I'm at the Stampin' Up! Convention!

With all of my preparation for convention, I didn't have time to post this week. Please stop back because I will be posting my swaps from convention. Hop on over to Becky's blog to see what she did with the Diva sketch this week.

Blessings,
Barbara

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Weekly Diva Challenge

Welcome to another UDI sketch challenge.

Here is the sketch by our talented designer, Carol.


Here is my card for the sketch challenge this week.



I took a piece of Soft Suede (I'm in love with this color!) and ran it through the Big Shot with the Square Lattice embossing folder. I layered that with a strip of Pear Pizzazz and the new Pear Pizzazz 1/2" stitched poly ribbon. The Studio Sketches image is stamped on Very Vanilla and layered on Early Espresso. I'm very pleased with the end result. I hope you like it! Studio Sketches is such a beautiful set. It can stand on its on without any coloring because of the wonderful details.

And here is a detail of one of my favorite techniques. I call it "smooshing." I take my ink pad and turn it upside down on top of the paper and just slide or "smoosh" it around. It gives such an interesting texture, almost like suede. I always do tone on tone, so I used Pear Pizzazz ink on Pear Pizzazz paper.




Now on to Becky's blog to see what she did with this week's sketch.

Blessings,
Barbara

Saturday, July 10, 2010

It's a girl!

Here are some of the things I've made in preparation for my daughter Laura's baby shower. This will be a quick post with details to follow. The first is a diaper cake made with 50 newborn diapers. The second is the favor boxes that the guests will take home.


Saturday, July 3, 2010

Weekly Diva Challenge

Time for another Diva Sketch Challenge, and I thought this one was a doozy! When I first saw it, I didn't know what I was going to do, but I'm pleased with the results. And I must compliment Carol for coming up with these creative sketches. They certainly are not run-of-the-mill! Here's the sketch:



I turned it on its side, and here's the card.


I had such a good time playing with new products! I had been working on making some bookmarks and all of the materials I used for that project were on my stamping table. It's amazing where we find our inspiration sometimes, isn't it?

Here are the supplies I used:
Paper: Greenhouse Gala DSP, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Baja Breeze
Stamp set: Friends Never Fade
Ink and markers: Baja Breeze, Early Espresso
Accessories: Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, Stampin' dimensionals

I stamped the image in Baja Breeze on the square. Then I colored the image with markers and cut it out, popping it up with dimensionals. I thought it needed more punch, so I stamped the image again in brown and cut out just the flower center.


Here's a peek at the main image, with three layers (the center square, the flower and the flower center) popped up.
I was working on this late afternoon into early evening and by the time I went to take a photo, I had to use a flash, which completely washed out the colors. So I headed out onto the front porch to catch the natural light that was left and just overrode the flash. I was much happier with my pictures!

On to Becky's blog to see what she did with the sketch.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Blessings,
Barbara