Blogger Challenge

Here is my card I did for Tami’s challenge. She asked us to make a card using metalics. Right away I knew I had to use my Big Pieces set. Since I am on a roll with the gate card, I decided to make a gate card for this challenge. My card was based in black with copper paper on the gate folds. On top of the gate folds I created a decorative flap by placing various circles on black cardstock. Wanting to add a unique look, I made hinges by covering a piece of paper with Versamark and embossed in gold. The gold paper was trimmed and bent in the centre to create a spine. Brads were inserted where screws would be placed in a real hinge. Hinges were adhered to cardstock with double-sided tape because it needed a strong bond. Circles were adhered to the flap with sticky tabs and with pop up dots.

I created metalic circles by doing the following:

- Embossed with black on black paper, then painted with Pearl-Ex powders
- Stamped with ColorBox metallics
- Embossed with gold powder
- Embossed with gold powder, then painted with Pearl-Ex powder
- Embossed black on copper paper

Options were endless with this versatile set.

This next piece has to be the funniest story out there. It reveals just how crazy us stampers are, as we wait for the new catty to come out. Thanks Barb for the laugh!

UPS Memo

To: Drivers and Security

Date: June 20th , 2007

Subject: Crazy Stampin’Up! Ladies

This time of the year has come around once again. Stampin’Up! is releasing the New Idea Book and Catalog. Please be extremely cautious of Stampin’ Up! demonstrators (SUDs) for the next two weeks.

Watch out for the following:

1. At the distribution centers, please be on the lookout for SUDs. In the past they have been known to cut fences and sneak inside covered with close to cocoa ink in hopes of blending in with the trucks.

2. The ladies have been known to run after your trucks. If they catch you and ask if you have a “package” for them, be careful with your answer. They do not take “no” for an answer. If you do not have it, just say “I will double check in the back” and turn and run as fast as you can to your truck and drive away. Do not turn back and look, just keep going until you are a safe distance away.

3. They have also been know to drive up next to you at a stop light in their mini vans and SUVs and ask if you have a package for them. Turn up your radio and pretend you cannot hear them. Do not let them approach your delivery truck at an intersection. SUDs have been know to stop traffic and throw all your packages off the trucks until they find their new Idea Book and catalog.

How to Deliver the New Idea Book and Catalog

1. Be sure you have fixed your squeaky brakes, If not - park your truck two blocks away so the SUD can not hear you coming.

2. Put in your earplugs and secure your safety glasses.

3. If you see children looking out the window, put your finger up to your lips and say “SHHHH”.. They are on a “lookout” for you and are being paid to “alert” their mothers (SUDs) when they see you coming to the door.

4. Approach the front door and very quietly, set the package down in front of the door (Make sure you place it in FRONT so when she opens the door, the box will be in the way and give you a little more time to escape).

5. Back up as far as you can and reach for the doorbell, (BE READY TO RUN !!!). Ring the doorbell and make a mad dash back to your truck and drive away….DO NOT LOOK BACK !!!

The UPS corporation is informing you of this because in the past years, SUDs have been known to scream at the top of their lungs with excitement and try to tackle you with hugs for delivering their catalogs. After you have been smothered with appreciation for getting them their catalogs on time, watch out for flying packaging material as they will open up the box before you have had a chance to leave, or they have gone inside.

Best of luck to you with this mission, and remember…

Let’s Be Safe Out There!!!!

Blogger Challenge

Isn’t this bunny just the cutest? I love him so much. For Maria’s challenge I had to make a trifold card. This was my first attempt at making a “gate” card, and I quite like it. The image was stamped onto watercolour paper and coloured with the following: Tombow watercolour markers, watercolour pencil crayons (both were blended with brush and water) and regular pencil crayons. Why? Because I don’t have Gamasol for my sparce number of Prismacolour pencil crayons and I only have a package of 8 watercolour pencil crayons. Thank heavens for my painting background; it gave me the knowledge to shade in various portions of the image while maintaining a professional look. I felt this image needed a picnic look and the only red or black checked paper I had on hand was this nine year old scrapbooking paper that is too out-of-date to use in my scrapbooks. To finish off the card I used this ladybug ribbon. Thanks, Maria, for the inspiration.

Nature in my own back yard

I like to start my day with a nice cup of coffee on my deck. It is so peaceful and pretty. It is about the only time I can really relax. (Yikes, when I proofed this I noticed the fence. Man, I really need to get it stained soon — LOL).

I love sunflowers

I love sunflowers (as if you can’t tell — ROFWL). When I saw this Inkadinkado image, it “spoke to me” (learned that saying from my girlfriend - LOL). It said, “go outside of the box”, and so I did. I embossed this image with black, on black paper (as if you couldn’t tell), and painted the image with Pearl-Ex powders. Each of the 20 cards I painted were unique from each other–a bit of pink here, a deeper shade of green there, and I love them all. Each image called for their own colour of matting, depending on the look of the background. After I matted and placed the image onto the card front, I added a Stampendous “Sympathy” sticker, ribbon, and three mosaic tiles rather than the usual brads. Now, if I can just figure out how to add a dragonfly to that sunflower!

Cuppa Love

Mmmm, who doesn’t love the smell of freshly brewed coffee. Mmmm, delicious. I like to start my day with a cup of Columbian roast. My sisters and mom love coffee as much as I do. Coffee is such a social thing. Here in Canada, we all spend our time at Tim Horton’s. Tim Horton’s is now filtrating into the United States. Did you know Tim Horton was a hockey player for Toronto? My grandfather knew Tim Horton, personally, and frequented the first Tim Horton’s coffee shop in Toronto. Neat, eh?

Sarnia just opened a Starbuck’s, and I went there with my girlfriends last week. My new favourite drink at Starbuck’s is a Venti orange frappacino. What is your favourite coffee shop drink?

The Cuppa Love image is a wonderful new stamp from Sunshine Designs. The coffee beans is an unmounted stamp from an unknown source. It is a stamp with only five beans. To make the beans look more plentiful, I stamped several times, overlapping the beans. Images were coloured with Prismacolour pencil crayons. I like to add buckles to my cards and added two on this card. Papers are Magnolia.

So, here’s to you, my reader. Enjoy this cuppa love.