Be Faithful in the Little things

Hello, thanks for stopping by.  Today's post is a response to a Challenge posted on Lisa Somerville's blog for a Blog Hop ( you hop like a little green frog from blog to blog enjoying the cards made in answer to the challenge along the way).  And if you're a spirited little blog frog who really feels like having fun, you create your own card and enter the challenge with us! (using the link below the cards in the blog)
The challenge is to make a card using the technique or media listed in a straight line of the Tic Tac Toe board.

For my design, I used the line starting in the lower bottom left corner, middle lower space and right lower corner.  So my card is made with:  Buttons, Die Cut Punches and Ribbon/Seam Binding.

The sentiment for today's card is from one of my favorite Stamp Companies which has just celebrated their third anniversary, Our Daily Bread Designs.  The sentiment is embossed with Color Riser Embossing powder.  The pink, purple, turquoise and sunflower hues were created with Pan Pastels on white card stock,  The die cuts for the sentiment are Nestabilities label 10 and the matching stamps for the die cuts are from Waltzing Mouse and are called Vintage Labels 10.   The turquoise label is embossed with Craft Essentials Embossing Powder.  Waltzing Mouse is (for me) a newly discovered stamp line from Ireland! The purple label is embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dot.  The white background is embossed with the Cuttlebug Heritage folder.  The cornice punch at the top is EK Success Flourish Scroll Edge and the Buterflies are punched with a Martha Stewart edge punch.

Have fun blog hopping along enjoying the beautiful sights at the other blogs.

Wide Eyed Fireworks Back to School Challenge

WIDE EYED FIREWORKS

Back to School Challenge

When I was a little girl, school always started the day after Labor Day.  The community that I lived in had a small lake in the center of town with a Gazebo and a little beach and grassy hill with a sidewalk all the way around it.  You could walk around the whole lake in about a half hour if you walked slow.  There were beautiful cherry trees all around the lake.  The lake was very deep, in fact they said that they had never found the bottom of it.  The night before the Labor Day holiday the city would put on a grand fireworks display.  My mother would dress us up in our pajamas, pack a picnic quilt and off we would go to sit on the grassy hill.  We would anxiously wait for darkness to arrive and the first ear piercing star of color would slowly rise to the highest heavens and then burst into a shower of colors.  We watched with wide-eyed excitement as the fireworks burst agains the night sky for the next 45 minutes.  The colors were spectacular. At the end they would show a ground display of fireworks on the other side of the lake.  It looked like civil war cannons were shooting at each other.
I can remember walking to the car afterwords and being sooo tired I just couldn't walk another step and my dad would pick me up in his strong arms and carry me the rest of the way.  The next day, school would start.  I was always ready for school to start, we had played all the board games and worn ourselves out playing kickball in the scorching sun.  The fall weather felt cool and good, I loved the colors of the leaves, seeing old friends and challenges for my brain that had grown lazy over the summer.

Todays card depicts those fond memories.   The stamps are Stampscapes, Rubber Stamp Tapestries, Stampabilities, Cloud 9 Fiskars clear stamps. Color is from Pan Pastels, ink is Memento.  I had a great time remembering those good old days. 

This blog was created for the Back to School Bloggers Challenge.  If you would like to post a link
Back to School Challenge Blog Hop  Follow the link.
Thanks for stopping by!

Custom Cardstock Give Away

Hello,
CustomCardstock.com is hosting a gift certificate give away for their fantastic cardstock.  Their Curious Metallic Cryogen white is my favorite to use for Copic Marker and other cards.  I must admit that I am "squirrelly" with it saving it for my "special" cards as it is such top quality card stock.  Cryogen has a beautiful shimmery glaze that pops right through the inks.

Lat year I had the opportunity to stop by their warehouse on my way to Chicago.  I had a great time picking out beatiful cardstock to try different techniques on.  Their Curious Metallic and Stardream collections make exquisite cards.

Here is the announcement of the gift certificate give away.  There isn't much time left...sorry, I just found it myself.

CutCardStock BLOG GIVEAWAY

CutCardStock.com will be giving away 3 Gift Certificates to our On-Line Store on Monday, August 8, 2011 Leave a comment or two to be entered and you could win one of the following prizes:

1st place: $30 Gift Certificate

2nd Place: $25 Gift Certificate

3rd Place: $20 Gift Certificate

Stampin Chix Having Fun!

Saturday the Stampin Chix met at our local library. This is a group of very talented ladies who have been meeting to paper craft together for many years. We had a very productive day, Mary worked on a punch book, Marianne, Pam and Nina scrapbooked, and I played with my new Pan Pastels.  My goal was just to learn about the pastels.  I wasn't concerned with any fininshed cards, just exploring what I could do with the Pan Pastels.  They are very vibrant chalks and I had a lot of fun. I tried them on different card stocks and with different applicators.  I tried the Sofft knives and covers and shaped sponges.  I liked those the best.  Here is their website.  http://www.sofftart.com/products.html

Follow the River and You Will Find the Sea

Today I have two similar cards.  Both of these cards are stamped with the same stamp (Gray Wolf Graphics, I think) and chalked with Pan Pastels with very different results.  Can you guess what the difference is?  I won't keep you in suspense, the first card is chalked on glossy card stock.  That was an amazing journey.  First I took some yellow and circled in the sun, that went well.  I like to start with yellow on my grass, so next I chalked up the yellow tall grass the little boy is sitting in.  Then I went to blend in the green over top, but the green just brushed right over the top and kept going right off the card.  I must have gotten some yellow across the bottom, although it was so light that I couldn't see it as it would not accept any chalk at all and looked perfectly white.  So, I just grabbed by Memento Dew Drop Dye and inked in some grass.  At that point I set it aside and planned to put it in the circular file.  The glossy cardstock does not have much "tooth" meaning it is a slick surface and not much sticks to it.  It seemed that if you put one layer of chalk on there, that was it, it was saturated and would not allow any blending of any more color.  I moved on to some plain card stock and created the scene with the puffy clouds.  Then I picked up the glossy card and decided to experiment some more.  I tore a paper towel's edge to create the cloud shapes and chalked across the edges creating the layered cloud look.  No problems with the blue going down on the cardstock, so I kept going and finished the card.  This was an interesting experiment with the Pan Pastels, in the end I actually liked the glossy card better.