French Riley

This is SplitcoastStampers (SCS) sketch challenge for this week. I am telling you - this being creative on my own is going to be hard!!! I think I spent about 5 hours getting this figured out! I need to get a little faster at this, don't you think??? (Truth be told, I was doing laundry and surfing the web during that time too). But I have to get up and move around during MY creative process, just to get the juices flowing again!

I also followed SCS's Color challenge for the week, which was Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, and Real Red (CC169). That was very hard for me as these are not colors I would normally use. I like this having to think out of my little "box"! Just don't expect these posts more than once a week until I can gain some speed!!! You can go to the links I posted to see what others have done with these challenges. And please try them on your own! I think these are really helpful (for SOME of us more than others!!). I envy those truly creative people - I will never be one of those who can look at a blank canvas and come up with beautiful art! So the sketches and color challenges are very good for me!

Here is my card:



I wanted to make a card for my French tennis partner and coworker. His birthday is in June. But we are both facing layoffs this coming week, so we may not still be together when that day arrives, and our tennis days may be over. He and I have been partners for about 10 years now. We know each other so well on the court that we don't even have to talk. He calls me "Gazelle" and I call him "Frenchy". We laugh so hard together sometimes during tennis that we have tears in our eyes! I have learned most of the French curse words over the years, thanks to him! He is honestly one of my best friends, and I will miss him dearly if one or both of us are laid off. My tennis group is meeting for a "goodbye" lunch on Monday and I want to give this to him then.



I know this isn't a Stampin' Up! stamp, but they don't have a tennis-playing moose, or I would have used that!!! This is Riley. He is the creation of Hanna Stamps. She has lots of Riley's - check them out!!

I stamped him using black ink and colored in with markers. Then I used my Marvy punches to punch him out and I also punched out a scallop circle in Real Red to frame him. I used Blue Bayou ink for the Canvas background on Blue Bayou cardstock. The Mon Amie stamp comes from Stampin Up's Carte Postale set. I stamped this using Blue Bayou ink and then used the Word Window punch to create my greeting. The silver star brads are from the Silver HodgePodge Hardware set found in the Occasions Mini catalog (good until the end of June - LOVE this hardware set!!). (I put those stars on there because he is a star - just don't tell him I said that!!!). I think that's about it for my card for the week - hope you liked it!

Recipe:
Stamps ~ Riley tennis player (Hanna Stamps), Carte Postale (SU!), Canvas Bkgd (SU!)
Ink ~ Basic Black, Blue Bayou, Markers
Paper ~ Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Real Red, Whisper White
Accessories ~ Marvy punches, Word Window Punch, Silver Hodgepodge Hardware

One last thing to note - Stampin' Up! has announced that they are launching a "new line" of products to the demos later this month. I have no idea what it could be. There is a lot of speculation on the demo side of SCS, but I will not bore you with "what if"s". I will let you know as soon as I hear anything! How exciting!!

Stampin' Up! Fresh Cut Special

I wrote about this in the newsletter, but couldn't include the link at that time. So I wanted to show you more about this special for June.

Whether you're a customer or a hostess, June's sneak peek into the Fall-Winter 2008 Idea Book & Catalog has something fresh and new just for you!

Customers:When you purchase the brand new, die-cut Fresh Cuts stamp set ($21.95), add on the coordinating Fresh-Cut Notes* for only $5! (You can also just purchase the Fresh-Cut Notes for $8.95).

Hostesses:Host a $400 workshop during the month of June, and receive the Fresh Cuts stamp set and coordinating Fresh-Cut Notes FREE--over a $30 value--in addition to your regular hostess benefits!

Contact me if you would like to place an order!

My very first blog post!

Welcome to my blog! I am so excited to finally post something here. I wanted to start this blog to keep in closer contact with you all. I am hoping that when Stampin' Up! adds specials mid-month, I can post them here so you don't have to wait until the next newsletter to know about them. But I also wanted to start a blog for 2 other reasons as well. First is so that I can share projects with you that you might want to try. Second is so that I can try to become a little more creative on my own. As you all know, most of the cards we do in classes are copied ideas from the SplitcoastStampers gallery. I am trying to challenge myself to step out and be more creative on my own. Not an easy feat for me! So, this will definitely be a learning curve on my part. Please be patient with me! But hopefully I will get better at this and will have more and more to share with you as time goes on.

So, for now I am going to try and do some of the challenges found on SplitcoastStampers website and a few other places. I encourage you all to try them as well. They do several challenges each week, but for now I am going to focus on the sketches and maybe the color challenges at the same time. I will post the sketches I am trying to copy here so you can give it a try as well. I would love to see what you come up with!

Now, for my first post, I am trying to do the SC177 sketch challenge, which can be found here. I have posted the sketch below. I also am using a color challenge, CC168, which can be found here - the colors are Very Vanilla, Sage Shadow, and Chocolate Chip. For those who are interested, the new color challenges come out on Tuesdays and the new sketch challenges come out on Wednesdays. I probably will just do my own random thing, but I will always post a sketch for you to copy.

One last thing - I obviously have a learning curve with posting in this blog too - I wanted the sketch to be on top and my card below, but it didn't work out that way today. I will have to read a little more on this. Oh, and all the supplies will be Stampin' Up! unless I tell you otherwise (I may throw in some other stamps from time to time just for fun)!

For my card, I used Chocolate Chip card stock as my card base and layered it with Sage Shadow card stock. I stamped the bird from the Always stamp set onto Very Vanilla card stock with Chocolate Chip ink and colored him in with markers. I layered this onto Sage Shadow and then Chocolate Chip card stock and then added gold brads. This was layered over the base with some Afternoon Tea Designer Series Paper (found in the Occasions Mini catalog) and some wide grosgrain Chocolate Chip ribbon. Then I stamped the Thank You sentiment from the All Holidays collection with Chocolate Chip ink. As you can see, I turned the sketch on its side because it worked better with my bird this way. I hope you like it!!!

Recipe:
Stamps ~ Always, All Holidays
Ink ~ Chocolate Chip, various markers
Paper ~ Sage Shadow, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Afternoon Tea DP
Accessories ~ Gold brads, Wide GG ribbon