Neutrals and Gingham

My goodness, I have had a busy week! With all the organizing of the Stamp Review Crew, work, and getting some much needed de-cluttering of a couple of rooms done, I have barely had time to even think about stamping! My son and his wife came over last night and we had a good time talking and laughing. And today we went looking at new living room furniture. Ummm, maybe we'll wait a little longer!

I was glad to find a couple of challenges that inspired me right off the bat this evening though! This is an interesting color challenge from Nacho Average Challenges. I wouldn't usually use browns and black together!

The Friday Mashup challenge this week was to use gingham, or kraft, or both! It tied right in with the other challenge!

That gingham was made using Basic Black Core'dinations paper, embossing it in both directions with the Stripes embossing folder, then sanding it. It turned out just as I envisioned it! Yes, I used the same image combination earlier this week, but I think it deserved repeating ;) I did discover that I need to get a new Basic Black ink pad though. I have the old style pad (dried out) and the new style ink. They are not compatible! Stazon to the rescue!

• Stamps: Lots of Thanks, Harvest of Thanks, Everything Eleanor
• Ink: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Jet Black Stazon
• Paper: Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Basic Black Core'dinations, Whisper White
• Other: Big Shot with Apothecary Accents and Ovals framelits and Stripes embossing folder, sanding block, 1" Swuare punch, Naturals ribbon, dimensionals, sewing machine and thread

And look Ma! No white gel pen! Oh, wait. I used it on the inside...

I really am addicted to that white gel pen ;) The inside is not naked either. I stamped part way off the card stock with the "many thanks" image in the lower right corner.

All right. I need to head to bed. We are cooking our Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. Too many shift workers in our family to get together on Thursday. The ham and turkey breast are int he fridge, and the veggies are all waiting for me in the morning. I plan on getting some more stamping done tomorrow afternoon. I need to get a few projects done, including the ones for the hop on December 2nd! Don't forget to come and check it out :)

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A New Adventure: The Stamp Review Crew

Are you ready to start a new adventure with me, and several very talented stampers out there? I have had an idea brewing for several months now. And I thought surely that someone far more talented and recognized that I would have started it long before I decided to take the plunge. Well, I decided to go ahead with my idea and see if I could find anyone else who thought it was worth a try!

What is this idea? It is to have a regularly scheduled blog hop that features a single stamp set each time. Yes, several people, all stamping (or using the MDS version) with the same stamp set, and sharing those projects in a blog hop. And I found several people who are joining me in this adventure :)

I also set up a blog as the landing zone for the hop, Stamp Review Crew and you will be able to visit this site to go check out past hops. You can check out the list of talent on the blog. Eventually I would like to add a challenge component to it and let everyone else add their links for even more inspiration!

When will the first hop be, you may ask? We will be hopping on the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month, starting on December 2, 2013! I'm excited! How about all of you?!

Ruffles and Flowers

It is well past time I do something with flowers! Boy howdy, I do a lot of masculine stuff. It's not even like I set out to do masculine stuff, it just comes out! But I do like girly stuff too, and here is an example. No challenges used this time, but that's ok. Not every post has to have a challenge attached :)

November is a month of reflection on the blessings in my life, and this helps make a very dreary, gray, and colder month seem a little better. Just because fall has passed and we are starting to get snow and below freezing weather, it doesn't mean the sun can't shine on the other side of those clouds. I am going to send this card to someone who has brightened my day. I hope you all take the time to thank someone in your life this week, in whatever way seems right :)

I did a little bit more watercoloring in 3 colors on the top panel. It is so easy to do this with watercolor paper, your Aqua-painter, and some ink squeezed onto the lid of your ink pad. I think it took me about 3 minutes to do that piece, including drying it with the heat tool! The big stamped shape is from Everything Eleanor, and I have thought about combining it with this image for a long time. Glad I finally got around to it! I stamped the "many thanks" image twice, once in Summer Starfuit, then again in Tangerine Tango, then die-cut both and trimmed out the"thanks" before gluing it to the Summer Starfruit image.

• Stamps: Harvest of Thanks, Everything Eleanor
• Ink: Calypso Coral, Summer Starfruit, Tangerine Tango
• Paper: White, Calypso Coral, Summer Starfruit,Crumb Cake, Watercolor
• Other: Big Shot with Apothecary Accents and Ovals framelits, Itty Bitty Shapes punches, Baked Brown Sugar Stretch Ruffle ribbon, Rhinestones Basic Jewels, Signo white gel pen, sewing machine and thread, dimensionals

Don't forget to come back in a couple of days when I will have a big announcement for you all! You won't want to miss it.

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Golden Leaves

There is just something so lovely about blue and gold. I love this combo! This was an "I need my mojo back"card. I was trying to get a few projects out for all of you while thinking about putting together a big project in my head! More about that later this week.

Here is the challenge I used for this card. How could I resist an excuse to use leaves! I love to play with leaves, stamped and the real things :) The Paper Players are always good for a helping hand to get your stamping going :)

First I tried just stamping the leaves in Gold Encore ink, but it did not want to dry on the vellum, even with my heat gun. So I took out the gold embossing powder and then, voila! I had my lovely leaves. However, while playing with the design of this card, I put a piece of Washi tape over one edge. When I pulled the tape up, it pulled some of the embossing off, so fair warning!

• Stamps:Magnificent Maple, Truly Grateful
• Ink: Soft Sky, Baked Brown Sugar, Gold Encore 
• Paper: Baked Brown Sugar, Soft Sky, Vellum
• Other: Gold embossing powder, Heat Tool, Signo white gel pen, sewing machine and thread.

More stamping inside. I just can't leave it alone! 

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