Believe... Welcome Back From Summer / NAC #53

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Hey y'all. Happy Tuesday! I hope you had a safe, restful, and happy Labor Day weekend with your family and friends. :) Now normally I would be trying to post the new Digital Downloads for you this morning but I'm very excited to be sharing something new with you instead. I'm on the Nacho Average Design Team and every Tuesday Morning we will have a new challenge for you. It will either be a sketch or a color challenge. My teammates and I will share our takes on the challenge with you and we hope you'll show us what you come up with too! This is my first time being on a Design Team and I'm so excited to be taking this journey with all of you.

Here's my card for this week-

And here's this week's sketch-

Do you ever see a certain type of card and love how it looks but never make it yourself? I have never designed and stamped on newsprint/patterned paper before. I've loved the look on plenty of other's cards, but have just shied away from it personally. I even bought the whole pack of DSP and horror of horrors never stamped on it. But, I figured being with the Nacho's was a chance for me to Challenge myself so Go Big or Go Home and you know what? I really like the effect! It's so subtle.  I inked up part of my background stamp with my Stampin' Write Markers and stamped it directly on my new Modern Medley Print DSP. 

It's hard to see but for just a little something extra, I added a some Dazzling Details to the little hummingbird and scattered around on the flowers.

                          

The sentiment is from Snowflake Soiree and is stamped in Warm Brown Sugar to match the card base. I thought it just went well with the overall feel of the card. I used my paper snips to flag the end. I know a lot of people use their square punch, but I swear, I just can't get it even that way! Old school for me I guess. I sponged the edges with Strawberry Slush and used my bone folder to give it a little dimension. A little Tombow at the end and in the middle was all it took to secure it.

Here's a look at the inside, you know I like pretty insides-

The sentiment here is from Blooming with Kindness. See that sweet little bird at the bottom? He's just left over from the front. Let's not tell him that though. :) I just huffed on the stamp to re-moisten it and stamped it again. I added a little more Dazzling Details and my card was done. I know just who this card is going to and I sure hope they like it! How about you?

Well, that's all I have for you today. I hope you liked my card and I hope it inspired you to play along with us over at Nacho Average Challenges. We can't wait to see what you come up with! I'd love to hear what you think, so if you have questions or comments, don't forget to leave me a message below. 

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to visit my little corner of the world. You are very appreciated! Till Next Time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the Rain.

Be Safe,

Shan

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A Little Hope, A Little Sparkle, and A Little Nacho's (Nacho's Challenge That Is) NAC #36

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Hey y'all. Happy Saturday! I hope you had a great week. Well, it's Saturday again and as usual that means I'm getting the Nacho Average Challenge card in just under the wire. I meant to get it in early this week but I had swaps to make, they'll be up later this coming week, and my mom's birthday card, did you see it, earlier this week? And I had my friend that's a realtor over to look at my house and we had a snow storm, and well you get the picture. LOL!

Well, the good news is I've got a card a card for this week's challenge that I'm so excited to show you, even though it's a color challenge, or maybe I should say especially since it's a color challenge. Many of you know those pose a particular challenge for me.  Here's this week's challenge card-

Card featuring Blooming with Kindness

Here's this week's challenge over at Nacho Average Challenge-

So it's actually a really pretty combination together. I had the whole card together and was really happy with how it looked but then I went back and let Tink have a moment. Not many people know this, but sadly, there hasn't been a lot of sparkle in my life lately. I don't know if you've noticed it in my cards or not, I just did, but even they haven't been sparkling much. :'(   I'm working on it and give me a month or so and hopefully it will be back where it should be. I'm really happy that I went back and added that extra touch-

You can see it a little here. It just glows in person. The flower is Certainly Celery and I tap-danced the Gumball Green marker over it, huffed on it and then stamped it, before cutting it out with my oval framelet and mounting it on dimensionals.

Here's the inside-

I kept it simple, but pretty. The flower is just the second stamping from the front and the sentiment is from the same set. Well, that's all I have for you today. I hope you like it and I hope those fabulous ladies over at NAC like it too. If you like it or have any questions I hope you'll take a moment to leave me a comment in the space below. I love hearing from you and read all of your comments. They really do make my day! If you'd like to +1 or Pin today's card I've put to buttons on my blog for your convenience. Friends and Followers are always welcome too!

Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the world. You are very appreciated! Till Next Time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe-

Shan Pin It

Not What I Planned / NAC #26 / My Challenge # 53

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Hey y'all. I've got a new challenge card for you tonight and as much trouble as it was to get it done, I'm really happy with how it turned out and I hope you will be too.

Do you ever plan on things going one way and even though you start out that way you end up with something else? Yeah, well that seems to happen to me fairly frequently, but boy did it happen in a Major way today. There's one thing I've always tried to be on this blog and that's just honest. I started this blog to make myself step out and try new things to not be a "Scaredy Cat". Because I hope that at least every once in a while I inspire someone who might be starting out or struggling with some of the same confidence and or creative issues I struggle with, I try to keep it real here. As much as I hate to show items that I feel aren't "just right" or "fabulous", I know that all my creations can't be that way. I often struggle with the fact that cards or projects I see on other blogs always seem to be that way, so why can't mine. Are you wondering where I'm going with this? I started today's card with an idea in my head. I could see just how my card was going to be and it was going to be pretty nice. I started it and I was excited by how it was going and then it went down-hill in a major way. Because I'm all about showing you that I'm just a normal stamper like many of you out there, I will show you my "horrible mess" but not at the beginning of my post. I'm afraid if someone was "hopping" through bloglandia and saw it first they might never come back. It will be at the end of this post so I hope you will hang around long enough to see it.

Today's post is from the Fabulous ladies over at Nacho Average Challenge and it's a color challenge. I really try not to dislike color challenges but they really do stump me a lot of the time. After my first idea tanked I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to come up with something acceptable. However I haven't missed one of their challenges yet, so I was determined to rise to the challenge. Here's my card-

Thank You Card featuring
Build A Blossom Stamp Set and Punch and
Blooming with Kindness Stamp Set

What do you think? It's way off from my normal style, even though I couldn't tell you what my normal style is. LOL! I'm still really happy with it though. BTW- do you know how hard it is to type when your studio assistant is on your lap and draped over your hand?

Here's the Color Challenge I was working with tonight-

I used Soft Suede as my card base and also used it to lightly sponge over my embossed frame. I used a dauber instead of a sponge to better control the placement of my color over my Tulip Border. This was created using my Tulip Frame E.F. which I haven't used in way too long. I used a Whisper White piece of c/s for the center panel. The sentiment is from Blooming with Kindness and is also stamped in S.S.

Here's a closer look at my focal point-

This is the first time I've used the Build A Blossom stamp set. It had been on my wish-list for a while and even though I try to use my new stamps as soon as I get them, this one has been sitting for a while. I stamped both of the petal images in Perfect Plum and then used the coordinating punch to punch them out.
***Tip***- When punching these petals out, stamp and punch from L-R since the "Petal" portion of the stamp is on the left hand side of the punch. This will help to minimize your wasted c/s. Although I love that most of the images can be punched with one punch it can also be a very wasteful punch. This is a great punch to use with your c/s scraps. :)

After stamping 5 of the solid petals (on the bottom) and five of the not-so-solid (sorry I didn't know what else to call them) ones I used my Paper Piercer to punch a small hole in the base of each one.  Before I put them together I used my bone-folder to curve the bottom petals down and the top petals up. This really adds a lot of dimension to the flower. I felt like it still needed something so I let Tink have some fun with the top petals before using a mini-brad to hold them all together. I hid the brad under the center piece which I also let Tink play with. This was popped up with a Dimensional. One Dimensional over the "legs" of the brad secures the flower to the center panel. My leaves were stamped in Old Olive and were secured with little pieces of Dimensionals from the sides of the packs.

Here's the inside-

I used another sentiment from the Blooming with Kindness set and because I had to have something pretty for the inside I used a flower from the Everything Eleanor set. I think it coordinates nicely with  the flower from the front. A little love from Tink and my card was done-

So what do you think? I know just who this card is going to and I really hope she likes it! I hope you and the fabulous ladies at NAC like it too.

So now for my FAIL. There's a new stamp set in our Sale-A-Bration Catalog that I just had to have. It has a Ferris Wheel on it and my idea was to water-color the background in the Old Olive for the grass and shades of Perfect Plum for an evening sky. I'm not the best at water-coloring which is why you don't see that much of it here on my blog. But I have to say I was happy with how it turned out. I inked up my Ferris Wheel in Versa-Mark and Soft Suede (I wanted to clear emboss it so it would stand out a little more since it's a softer color than say Early Espresso). Great idea, not so great results- Please be warned ahead of time that it's pretty awful-

Epic Fail! But see, the background looked nice. I tried it again with just the stamp-

I think it was the fact that I was stamping on the Water-Color Paper. because I got a much crisper image on my grid paper. Oh well, all things being what they are, at least I tried something new and you can see that we all have our cards that don't turn out right even if we rarely see them out in bloglandia.

And because I couldn't let those awful pics be the last thing you remember about my blog here's another picture of my studio assistant Duecey, being a blanket assistant too as I was working on Tooey's baby blanket-

My sweet boy!

Well, that's all I have for you today. I hope you liked it and I hope it inspires you to try something new today...even if it doesn't work out. you know the motto of this blog is to "Just Try". If you liked today's card or have questions about it I hope you'll take a moment to leave me a comet below. I love hearing from you and your comments really do make my day. If you'd like to +1 or Pin it (the good card not the fail, please) I've put those buttons on my blog for your convenience. Friends and Followers are always welcome too! :)

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the world. you are very appreciated! Till Next Time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the Rain. 

Be Safe,
Shan

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End of the Week Technique # 55 Quilting with Diagonal Score Plate

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Hey y'all. Happy Monday! I hope your week is starting off fabulously and that you had a great weekend! I had this planned for last night, but I finished up too late. I've already got at least 2 items planned for this week. :) I'm still trying to figure out my time-management in order to get back to my 5 days/week posting. I really appreciate all of you for hanging in with me during this transition! Hugs to you all!!!!

Here's last week's End of the Week Technique, I hope you like it-

Quilted Card

I love the effect I got with this technique, almost like those quilted purses that so many of us would love to have. I used one of my new favorite colors, Midnight Muse, as the base. It's a one -layer card that is anything but simple. :) Hey April, Lookie! One Layer!!! Lol!

After making the quilted design with my Simply Scored Diagonal Plate I added Midnight use ink using the Direct to Paper technique. Here's a closer view-

Quilted Card featuring Direct to Paper Technique

You can see the variations in color that were obtained by using this technique. I lightly rubbed the ink pad directly onto the c/s (hence the name). This was the first time I had tried this technique and I have to say it is definitely Technique Driven. It took me two cards and 5 sides of paper to get it to where I was halfway happy. The trick, I think, is to lightly touch the paper and to not have any noticeable "start & stop" areas

I'm not quite sure that either of the techniques used on today's cards are really good techniques for someone as OCD as I am, especially the D-to-P. But, at least I tried them. You can try them and see how they work for you.

After my ink had dried I used the smallest pearls in our pack and applied them one at a time to the overlapping areas. My daughter said "You're Nuts!" I'm not sure she was too off on that one. :)

Here's the inside-

Inside of Card featuring
Blooming with Kindness set

Both the sentiment and image are from the same set, Blooming with Kindness. The floral image is also now available as a single stamp. I love the font used for the sentiments. It's so elegant.

Here's a close-up of the flower-

I inked my stamp first with Baja Breeze. To get the two-toned effect I used the Rock-n-Roll technique and rolled the edges of the stamp in Midnight Muse. Next, I took my Midnight Muse Stampin Write Marker and tapped the color randomly onto the center of the stamp. I used my Blender Pen to remove the color from the stem and used my Wild Wasabi Marker to color it in. I think this technique gives such a pretty effect. What do you think?

So for today's technique it's pretty easy (mostly). Here's what you'll need- Cardstock in the color of your choice, Simply Scored with the Diagonal Plate and color to add if desired. Sorry no pictures for this one. It's pretty self explanatory.

Here's what you'll do- Using your Simply Scored Tool with the Diagonal Plate score at your desired interval. I chose every inch. Once you've covered your c/s turn it 1/4 turn and score again. That's all. Easy-Peasy. Just make sure to hold your c/s securely so it doesn't move and make sure to be firm with your stylus so it doesn't jump the track on you. That happened to me a couple of times. I have to say the card looked pretty good just with the embossing. However if you want to step it up a notch add some color either by D-to-P or by sponging the color on. It will really make the embossed lines stand out even more. If you want to be really over the top, go ahead and add some embellishments too. It's your card, why not? Make it fab!

That's all I have for you today. I hope you liked it and I hope to see you back here soon. I can't wait to show you what I've been working on. If you liked today's card or have questions I hope you'll take a moment to leave me message below. I love hearing from you and read all of your comments, and they really do make my day! If you'd like to +1 or Pin today's card, I've put those buttons on my boo for your convenience. Friends and Followers are always welcome too! :)

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the world. You are very appreciated! Till Next Time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,
Shan

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Everything Eleanor For 2 Challenges / NAC #16 / TSSC #242

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Hey y'all. I hope you're having a great week. Just one more day till the weekend. Woo-Hoo! I'm sitting in the Dr's office, waiting to find out what we're doing about my poor sad feet. They're still hurting and here's something I never thought I'd say... I miss running! AUGH!

You know I have no love for Color Challenges but I do have Mad Love for the Nachos, not the food (ok, you got me, I have mad love for those too) but the team and their challenges. Nacho Average Challenge is a great site and they have challenges every week, alternating between sketch & color. Well, this week it's a color challenge and I thought it wouldn't be too hard for me.

I was Wrong!

Since I haven't missed one of their challenges yet, I wasn't going to be deterred. Here's what I came up with-

Thank You card featuring
Everything Eleanor

I'm not sure what I think about my results on this card. My daughter really liked it and said she thought the flower looked like a brooch. You'll have to let me know what you think.

Here's what I was working with-

I had a couple ideas of what I wanted to do with the colors but not how I wanted to do it so I went in search of a sketch to help me out. I found this one over at Mary Jo's site Techno Stamper-

I stuck pretty close to it.  I think my problem is it's just hard for me to do a C&S type card and even though this card has multiple layers it still has lots of open space. I don't know about you but I find my self feeling the need to just add more. AUGH! I started with a base of Bravo Burgundy (standard size). This is actually a really pretty color but I think the only other time I've used it was with another NAC color challenge. I think I need to use it more. :)  Next came my Sahara Sand (another underused color) layer and a Very Vanilla layer stamped with my En Francais Background Stamp in Sahara Sand. I love the combination of these two colors. 

You know how I said I just have to add more? Well I felt like I didn't have enough Garden Green which is why the center panels have it layered with S.S and V.V. layers. I stamped the flourishes in Garden Green on V.V. c/s and get ready for it...I stamped it without the use of my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. I know, it's hard to believe but I did it not once but twice. Yea me! The panel/medallion image was stamped in Sahara Sand and cut out by hand and adhered with Dimensionals. Because the panels were so high I used 2 stacked Dimensionals on the sides and 1 Dimensional at the Top and Bottom so the medallion is adhered evenly. Here's a closer image of the focal point-

See the flower. I stamped it in Bravo Burgundy twice and then fussy-cut it out. See the multiple colors on the flower? Are you thinking that I didn't stick to the color challenge when I colored the flower? I did. It's all done in shades of Bravo Burgundy Classic Ink and my Blender Pens. I really love the ability to get all the various shades from one color. I layered them with a Dimensional and let Tink add a little love and it was done. After I had completed the flowers I felt it needed just a little something extra so I went back and used my Bone Folder to curl the edges just slightly for even more dimension.

Here's a look at the inside-

Inside of Thank You Card featuring
Everything Eleanor and Blooming with Kindness Stamp Sets

Both the flower and the sentiment are stamped in B.B. The sentiment is from the Blooming with Kindness set and I love the font. Isn't it elegant and pretty? I let Tink add just a touch of Glitz to finish off the inside. I have to say I like the C&S inside of my card more than the outside.

So what do you think? I'd really love to know what you think of today's card. Is it too much? Well I hope you liked it and I hope the two D.T.'s like it too. 

Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to stop by my little corner of the world. You are very appreciated! Till Next Time-

Remember- Life is often more about the storms than the peace they seek to overwhelm. It's not about Waiting for the storms to pass, but Learning to Dance in the rain.

Please also Remember that October is National Domestic Violence Month-

Love Does NOT Hurt!

Be Safe,

Shan

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