Stamp Review Crew: Chalk Talk Edition

Hello again! Are you having a great time hopping along?! We sure hope so :)

If this is the first time you have stumbled on to a Stamp Review Crew blog hop, then let me summarize who we are and what we do. We are a group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators who want to show you how much you can do with one stamp set. We will feature one stamp set with each blog hop, and each stop on the hop will show you a different idea using that set!

 I am stop #4 on this hop, and if you are following the hop from the beginning, then you arrived here from Adriana's blog. Did you love her ideas? I know I did :) She is a pretty awesome stamper!

If you get lost at any point, you can always click back over to the Stamp Review Crew site to see the full blog roll.

 I've been seeing a lot of ideas with Chalk Talk lately, and I have to confess, I don't own these stamps! I bought the digital download version, and found that I was able to size them for the framelits very easily, which is sooo cool!

I got a little help from this sketch from Retro Sketches. I love challenges, they are such great tools for inspiration :)

I was aiming for a wedding card, and I think this could work. For a trendy, modern-rustic theme. I used Silver Encore ink for the Hardwood. I used some long sticky notes, which I have had in my stash of Drug Rep freebies from my days of working in the clinic. I thought you might find them amusing ;) They are the perfect length for sponging a starburst effect on the cardfront!

Isn't this hilarious! OK, enough of the sidetracking :)

Now, it's time to go check out Debra Burgin's blog and her fantastic use of Chalk Talk!

 

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Sweet and Spicy!

No challenges were used on this card. Unless the challenge I gave myself... to use the newest photopolymer stamp sets from Stampin' Up! along with something from the Occasions Mini :)  I have been a little low on the creative juices lately sadly. I hope to get them flowing again soon!

I wish I could say my family has kept me busy with a bunch of fun things lately, however it is just the usual busy everyday stuff going on. We really don't leave our house unoccupied much in the coldest parts of the year as we heat with wood. The house gets mighty cold if someone isn't around to load the woodstove! But hey! We made it above 0° as a high temp last week, and for more than one day!!

Just long enough for my blinkers and windshield wipers to thaw out. Yes. My blinkers froze. I would turn them on and there was no blinking happening! No, I was not low on "blinker fluid", as some smart-ass paramedic joked ;) It was the strangest thing! A little frightening too. I did not want to drive in town until they started working again. I even called the mechanic and he had never heard of that happening before. Keep in mind, this is the brand-spanking new car I bought in May. (I love my new car :) It has remote-start and heated leather seats!) I just hope it doesn't happen again!

OK, enough rambling! I bet you want to see this little ole' card!

I was originally trying for a picture frame look with the marker lines, but clearly I did not line them up properly with the corners of the main image :) So I decided to keep adding more marker lines until it looked like rays of sunlight.
I also wanted to use to layers of the Hardwood image, overlapping was the plan. But they are flipped! I think it worked out better this way. One of the Hardwood images is stamped in Summer Starfruit and the other is stamped in Gold Encore ink. It looks so much better in real life than it does in this picture. LOVE it!
I colored in the letters with a blender pen. I pulled the color combo from the Soho Subway DSP colors. But I did not use the DSP :)

• Stamps: Hardwood, Countless Sayings 1, Countless Sayings 2
• Ink: Summer Starfruit, Island Indigo, Baked Brown Sugar, Crisp Cantaloupe, Soft Sky, Gold Encore, Stazon Jet Black
• Paper: White, Summer Starfruit, Soft Sky
• Other: Blender Pen, ruler, sewing machine and thread

What?! I didn't use the Bog Shot? OR a white gel pen?! Something must be wrong with me! ;)

 I think I should have made the "me" image a darker color and the ampersand an lighter color. But such is life!

What do you think of the Hardwood stamping? Love it, hate it...take it or leave it! Share your thoughts!

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Paper Crafters Sampler: Venetian Valentine

Time to release the 5th year of the Paper Crafters Sampler.  We start the first issue by preparing for the upcoming holiday, Valentine's Day.  We've made a few changes this time around by avoiding the most common color associated with Valentine's Day, red.

Inside the January issue, Venetian Valentine, you'll find soft and subdued colors, fancy flourishes, embossed surfaces and splashes of gold.  Tres le femme! The template of the month is the Fliptop Heart Trinket Box.

Here is a peek at the project I created for this issue of the Paper Crafters Sampler.

 

Straight To My Heart

For me, Valentine's Day has been much more about kids than it has been about romantic love. When we are children, we make Valentines for all of our classmates. As mothers, we help our children make those Valentines.  My hubby and I kinda jumped straight into parenthood, so we never developed a tradition for this holiday. Now, nearly all of my kids are adults. My 17 year old son doesn't need my help with Valentines anymore. And I am really glad I don't have to provide valentines for his class of over 300 kids :) So I think it is time for my hubby and I to start making some new traditions for ourselves. My focus for Valentines cards will most likely reflect that this year, as I will be thinking more about what I would like to give to someone who I have loved for most of my life.

This lovely color challenge from Pals Paper Arts was a great starting point for this card.

I got to use one of the new Valentines set from Stampin' Up! that is available through January 27, 2014. I bought it in December but didn't have a chance to use it until now. My boys, including the hubby, are in an archery league, so arrows seem doubly appropriate for us!

• Stamps: Love You More, Hardwood
• Ink: Soft Sky, Real Red, Basic Gray
• Paper: Whisper White, Soft Sky, Real Red Core'dinations, Silver Glimmer and Foil
• Other: Big Shot with Hearts framelits, Circle Card and Label Card thinlits, and Arrows embossing folder, Paper Piercer, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Rhinestones Basic Jewels, Signo white gel pen, dimensionals, sewing machine and thread

 I added a few bits of the arrow image to the inside to round out the design. I am not sure if this is the one for my hubby this year yet, or not. It may go in the box at work for people to buy :)

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