Wishing on a Star

I am seeing stars tonight! Home Free, the winners of the Sing Off, have been performing in Bemidji as a fundraiser for the Bemidji High School's competitive show choirs, Vocalmotive and La Voce Ballo, for the last several years. They had to postpone after they won that amazing competion, but they really wanted to continue to support this program. How cool is that?! Here is a little video of Home Free performing.

Are they amazing, or what?!

 I have been doing a lot of stamping on just white cardstock lately, I am not sure why. It's not a bad thing, just a new thing for me :) I was just daydreaming one day and thought about a card with numbered stars as the focus and this is what came of that daydream.
I was wishing I already had the Morning Post Numbers set, but found the Memorable Moments set instead. It worked just fine! I do want some nice big solid numbers, so the Morning Post Numbers set is on my next order. I only used two stamp sets on this card, I thought it was going to take more. But Perfect Pennants has plenty of great sayings, and a star!

• Stamps: Perfect Pennants, Memorable Moments
• Ink: Wild Wasabi, Wisteria Wonder, Pool party, Calypso Coral, Gold Encore
• Paper: White, Pool Party
• Other: Big Shot with Chalk Talk framelits, Burlap and Natural Chevron ribbons, dimensionals

 Wow, this qualifies as a limited supplies card, don't you think?! It will work well for guys and kids, and it is pretty flat, so it is mailing-friendly too! I really like how the gold ink shows up so well over the stamped stars. I am so glad Stampin' Up! decided to carry the Gold and Silver Encore pads again!

Fine Feathered Silver

Have I mentioned that I love Fine Feathers? Well, I do! It such a versatile set! And feathers are still so popular right now. I had to pull this set out and play with it recently. I actually made two cards that day, but I am only sharing one today :)

I wanted to make something with a hint of print and some soft sponging, but not distressed. Clean sponging? Does that make sense? Well this is what I did!

1. I started with a piece of Whisper White cardstock. I inked up the Dictionary BG stamp unevenly with Smoky Slate ink, stamped off once, then stamped partially onto the white. 
2. After that dried, I then rubbed my embossing buddy all over and stamped a variety of feathers in Versamark and then heat embossed with White embossing powder. 
3. Next came the sponging in Pistachio Pudding and Coastal Cabana. 
4. Then I stamped the smallest feather in Silver all over a ¾" wide piece of Smoky Slate, and the smallest two feathers on the main piece of white.Stamp "hello" in silver on a ¾" wide piece of Pistachio Pudding.
5. Cut a 1" strip of the striped Foil Vellum. Dove tail all three strips. Use corner rounder on the main white panel and a Coastal Cabana card base.
6. Outline the Pistachio, Coastal Cabana, and the white panel with a Signo with gel pen.
7. Adhere the layers as you see them. 
8. Make another white panel to line the card, sponge green and teal in a corner, then stamp some silver feathers over the sponging. Adhere the panel to the inside of your card. 

 What do you think? Does it look to flat? I can't believe I didn't use any dimensionals!!

• Stamps: Fine Feathers, For You, Dictionary
• Ink: Coastal Cabana, Pistachio Pudding, Smoky Slate, Silver Encore, Versamark
• Paper: Coastal Cabana, Whisper White, Pistachio Pudding, Smoky Slate, Silver Foil Vellum
• Other: Signo white gel pen, Embossing Buddy, White embossing powder, Heat Tool, Envelope Punch Board corner rounder, sponges

 Check out this week's deals, there are some really good ones here! I can't live without my Itty Bitty Punch Pack, myself....

Paper Crafters Sampler: Fabulous Florals

It is time for another issue of the Paper Crafters Sampler! Here is what Melanie has to say about this issue:

"Gardens are coming to life.  Budding trees and perennials will soon fill our homes with bursts of color and fragrance.  If your garden hasn’t awakened quite yet, try decorating with a few paper beauties.

The April issue of the Paper Crafter Sampler, “Fabulous Floral”, issue shares an array of ideas for beautifying your home with flowers until your outdoor garden is in full bloom.  All projects in this issue are focused around a floral theme.  You’ll find cheery and feminine crepe paper poppies, pop-up flower box cards and several lovely cards with flowers popping off the front.

This month’s template is a “Strawberry Pot”.  A little table top container for stuffing with faux strawberries or flowers."

This is a little taste of the project I designed for this issue. There several really WOW projects this time around!

No Stems Here

I have been a bit MIA lately, on purpose. As many of you know, I work 12 hour night shifts. I also stay up all night on my days off because this bod of mine does not function well flipping back and forth anymore. I think I wore that switch out over the years ;) So, being a person who does my best work when I just get up, I usually go right up to my stamp room on my days off. Then when I am ready to go do housework and cook and socialize, everybody else is ready for bed! Well, I have been trying to spend that time with my family instead. And then I find myself missing the creative juices when they all go to bed. ARGH! I will adapt, I swear!

 Here is a picture I nabbed off of my son's Facebook page from his very recent trip to New York city. No, he did not bring his mother with! But since I would have had to shell out $800 to chaperone this school trip, I chose to stay home. This was a week long bus trip for orchestra, band, and choir. They played in a performed and recorded in a cathedral, and performed in a big Baptist church and the Trump Tower. I think they performed a couple other places too. It was a fantastic trip. And I kid you not, he talked for 5 hours straight about the trip when he got back, lol!
Geoffrey is in orchestra (plays viola) and choir this year. He is also in Vocalmotive, which is our local high school's competitive show choir. I mention this because last year he was in orchestra with the viola, and band with baritone and alto saxophone. He has some musical talent :) And he wants to be a nurse like his parents!

Now, how about a card? I was inspired by the layouts I have seen lately with the tilted layers in one corner of the card and thought I would give it a try. It is a little more challenging than I thought! Mostly because I tried to use smaller pieces of cardstock to create those tilted layers, lol!

• Stamps: Simple Stems, Perfect Pennants
• Ink: Calypso Coral, Pear Pizzazz, Soft Sky, Wisteria Wonder
• Paper: White, Soft Sky Core'dinations
• Other: Signo white gel pen, sewing machine and thread

 I have been drooling over the creations I have seen made with this stamp set. The flowers are so lush and fun! I just had to make a parade of blooms on this card. I sure have been wishing for flowers outside lately :) I tried to use some of the soft pastels that I have neglected lately :)

In case you needed an excuse to do some crafty shopping, here  are this week's deals!

I always love to hear the thoughts of those who stop by to check out what I have been up to. Please don't be shy!

Stamp Review Crew: Oh, Hello Edition

Is it spring yet? I think it might be thinking about being spring here in northern Minnesota. I'll let you know when I don't have 2 feet of snow covering my yard anymore, lol!
The Stamp Review Crew is definitely thinking spring with this round! Oh, Hello  is a stamp set that first appeared in a Spring/Occasions Mini then was carried over into the main catty, for which I was very grateful :) I am stop #16, so if you are following the order of the hop, then you just arrived from Betty Traciak's blog. Didn't she do a great job?! If you get lost along the way at all, just pop over to the main page for the hop here and you can find the right path again, anytime :)

I only came up with one project this time, suffering from procrastinationitis! I was hoping for rainbows and sunshine, so this is what popped into my head. Each line of color is just one inking and repeated stamping. Consider this card was made in 10 minutes, from conception to completion. I know, my stamping is crooked. Sorry folks...

• Stamps: Oh, Hello
• Ink: Island Indigo, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Cherry Cobbler, Gold Encore
• Paper: Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake
• Other: Big Shot with Starburst framelit, Wide Oval punch, Gold Bakers Twine, Signo white gel pen, dimensionals

And the peek inside! I hope you have a bright and sunshiny day! :)

Now it is time to go see Mary Rindal has cooked up for us!

Stamp Review Crew: Open Sea Edition

We at the Stamp Review Crew are featuring a rather masculine set this time, although it could sure be used for anyone who loves the ocean, sailing ships, or travel. We try to feature all kinds of sets in addition to having all kinds of styles in our hops :)
Are you ready for some gnarly nautical ideas? The Stamp Review Crew is here to bring it! If you are following along in order, you just came from Cindy Beach's blog, LOVE her stuff! If you have gotten lost along the way, you can pop over to the Stamp Review Crew blog and find the full blog roll. Check out the past hops while you are there. They are always intact :)

I had a lot of fun with the digital and the clear mount versions of this set. I had gotten a Silhouette Cameo e-cutter for Christmas, and I am still learning what you can do with it. And one of the things you can do is create cut-outs of an image in any size. Don't you just love those little anchors with the DSP showing through?! The Ship and the large anchor were cut out with the Silhouette, then stamped. I used a little bit of Washi tape to secure the cut out, then used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to get the images placed just right. The phrases are from Just Sayin' , I just inked up the sayings with my markers and left the word bubbles uninked.

Inside I added a couple of anchors very simply in the lower right corner. This is definitely an all occasion card!

This card popped into my head as I was typing up this post, and supposed to be getting ready for work. Just hope that I got showered and fed before I had to go start my 12 hour shift in the ER :) You can't see it very well, but there is a panel of vertical embossed stripes on a raised panel. VERY clean and simple, not really my style usually.
ETA: I took some better photos when I got up tonight. I think these show the card better. White on white is hard to catch after dark!

You might be able to see the embossing better from this angle. And of course I stamped a little on the inside too. :)

Now it is time to sail off to Mike Funke's blog and see his take on this gnarly set! I am so excited to see it!

Paper Crafters Sampler: Rejoice

Ready for some Easter inspiration? The team at Paper Crafters Sampler has you covered! Check out the March edition for some fresh ideas :)

Here is just a peek of my project for this edition.