Belinda Garden - Crafty Pad Guest DT

From The Funkie Junkie

Isn't Belinda Garden adorable? A couple of weeks back I was fortunate enough to be the winner of the Crafty Pad's challenge. The prize was the opportunity to be a Guest Designer for two challenges. And I was given the stamps to use for both of the challenges - can't ask for more than that, right? Here is the second of two Guest DT cards I was lucky enough to have published on the Crafty Pad's blog.

When I first saw this stamp and thought gardening, my mind flashed to greens. But it is not really a green time of year so I went looking for papers and a color scheme that was more timely. In leafing through my enormous stash of designer paper, I found the retired Stampin' Up Ginger Blossoms DSP. I love the colors and patterns of this designer paper pack and though it would work well for the time of year when we are just easing into autumn.

I rotated the sketch 45 degrees and instead of the scalloped divide, I used the MS picket fence border punch - just what you would find in a garden, right? And to reinforce the garden theme, I dry embossed flowers along the base of the fence using the Cuttlebug With Love strip embossing folder. I found the color scheme just a bit too faded for this time of year, so I added black accents to give it a little pizzaz. To the stamped image, I added some Crystal Effects for a little gloss and Star Dust Stickles. The flower was made by punching four small hearts and four large hearts with my old Creative Memories Heart Maker. Since this DSP is double sided, I punched two of each size heart on each size of the paper. I sponged the edges of each punched heart with Ruby Red ink. Then I crumpled each heart into a small ball and then flattened them out again. Using just a small blot of Beacon Adhesives Fabri-Tec glue at the point of each heart, I layered the largest four in a circular pattern and then on top of those four, I layered the smaller four, again in a circular pattern. I topped it off with the largest black pearl in the KaiserCraft pack. With the rotated sketch, it called for a sentiment in the upper left corner. I found the perfect sentiment on a brass medallion in my stash. It's made by Petals a Plenty which I picked up at Michael's a few months ago on sale. It's fastened down with a fastening and brad from SU's brass Hardware Hodegepodge. I threaded a piece of black hemp between the two and tied it in a knot.

So please let me know what you think of this cute little Belinda. Hope you like her as much as I do!!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Belinda Garden by Crafty Pad
Paper: All Stampin' Up! Ruby red, Ginger Blossoms DSP, Whisper White and Basic Black
Ink: Sponged clouds with Bashful Blue and foreground with Cream Caramel. All other coloring is done with Copic markers.
Accessories: Cuttlebug and With Love embossing folder and Circle/Scallop Nestabilities, Martha Stewart Picket Fence Border Punch, Creative Memories Heart Makers - large and small, KaiserCraft black half pearls, SU Brasss Hodgepodge Hardware, brass medallion by Petals a Plenty, black hemp and sewing machine.




Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

Fall Wildflowers - Creative Imaginations Challenge Guest DT Card

From The Funkie Junkie

Here's my submission as guest designer for this fortnight's Creative Imaginations Challenge blog. The challenge is sewing on a card. Would you believe I once said I would NEVER sew on a card? If you have strolled through my blog, you know that I can't make a card without sewing. It's addictive. Once you start, you can't go back - LOL! Your work will just feel naked without stitching on it!!

This card was quite time consuming with all the embossing and distressing, but I love the way it came out so to me it was worth the extra effort. I started with a 10x5" piece of Always Artichoke and scored it at the 5.5" point to create a 5x5 " card which is the standard size for me. Each of the next layers was distressed with an SU distressing tool and sponged with Creamy Caramel and then a little Close to Cocoa ink. The next panel us is Pumpkin Pie on which I have clear embossed the SU background stamp Script. The green print layer is from the retired SU Brocade Backgrounds DSP. The next layer, a smaller square panel is Barely Banana stamped with a stamp from the SU Garden Silhouettes set. I used my SU markers and inked the leaves in Close to Cocoa and the flowers in Pumpkin. I stamped off once before stamping on the card stock. I also embossed the sentiment from the On Gossamer Wings set. Next up, matted on another Pumpkin Pie/clear embossed panel is the flower from the On Gossamer Wings set. The flower is popped up with craft foam and mounted on a piece of Creamy Caramel card stock that has been stamped and clear heat embossed, distressed and heavily sponged with Creamy Carmel, Chocolate Chip and a little Pumpkin Pie ink throw if for color. I stamped the flower and heat embossed it on a piece of 140# cold pressed watercolor paper and water colored it using my SU reinkers and an aqua painter. Both the flower and the butterfly are from the On Gossamer Wings set and are paper toled. I also painted a light coat of a sparkly mixture I make using a very small amount of Simple Solutions #2 Medium Acrylic Medium mixed with LuminArte Metallic Mica Luster Pearl powder. In between some of these layers, you can see that I have added machine stitching, a little fancier than my normal stitching around the borders. The corners of the main Pumpkin Pie layer were also punched with a Fiskars corner punch.


Card Recipe:
Stamps: All SU - Script, On Gossamer Wings, Garden Silhouettes
Paper: SU Brocade Backgrounds DSP, Always Artichoke, Pumpkin Pie, Barely Banana, Creamy Caramel, 140# cold pressed watercolor paper
Ink: Creamy Caramel, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip, Versamark, Barely Banana
Accessories: Clear embossing powder, brads, reinkers, aqua painter, Fiskars corner punch, sewing machine, SU distressing tool

Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

Bon Voyage

From The Funkie Junkie

Purely for the love of crafting, I have created what I think of as a wonderful retro study of a South Seas vacation. Sit back, close your eyes, let your body relax. Breathe deep. Can you smell that tang of salt in the air, maybe laced with a little pineapple smell? I deeply enjoyed making this card. The farthest south I have ever been is to the Caribbean, but this card carried me off on a little vacation. I could just feel the balmy sea air. I could envision packing my trunks...they had a little musty smell when I opened them the first time...then I pictured myself flying off in a propeller airplane, not a jet...sending a postcard back home, wishing someone special was there to enjoy it with me.

Okay, back to reality, but don't you just love these wonderful beach images from Flourishes and the travel icons from

Stampin' Up? Working with vintage and retro just satisfies some sort of creative yearning I have inside me. So I don't know if anyone will actually like this card, but I sure had a wonderful time making it!!

I am entering this card into two challenges:

Stamp Something - a card that recalls your summer vacation

Cute Card Thursday - At the Beach!

The base cardstock layers are Baja Blue (one of last year's SU In-Colors) and Creamy Caramel. On the Creamy Caramel, in Close to Cocoa ink, I stamped a montage of every travel stamp I owned. Then I stamped a selection of travel stamps over the montage with black ink and Versamark. Then I clear embossed them. I created a scene with the Flourishes Beach Life set and turned it into a vintage postcard by deckle cutting the edges and then sponging them with Creamy Caramel, my favorite distressing ink. Of course, I "damaged" it by folding over a corner and then ripping off a piece. Then I gave the damaged corner some extra sponging with Creamy Caramel. I stamped the three travel stamps on the left, cut them out and popped them up on craft foam. The "Beach Cottage" sign is a Melissa Francis sticker, sponged with Creamy Caramel, of course.

For the interior panels, I did the montage and embossed overlay thing and then added the sentiment from the Flourishes stamp - a beautiful, uplifting quote from Victor Hugo. For the blank panel to write a special message, I created another vintage post card style. So, there is a super lot going on with this card. Please let me know what you think about it. I am curious to see if it appeals to anyone besides me - LOL!

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Flourishes Beach Life, SU Travel Post, World Tour, Balmy Breezes, Aged to Perfection, Crafty Secrets Clear Art Stamps
Paper: Creamy Caramel, Baja Breezes, Very Vanilla, Neenah Solar White Ink: Versamark, Stewart Superior India Ink, Memento Tuxedo Black, Summer Sun, Really Rust, Copic Markers for coloring

Accessories: Clear EP, Silver EP, swing machine

Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week

OCC Challenge - Christmas in August

Christmas in August???? I am SO not ready to start making Christmas cards. I haven't even gotten to Halloween yet! I just made my first autumn card yesterday.

But the vintage style fall card I finished on Saturday did put me in that vintage/shabby chic mood so that's the approach I took to making a card for the OCC Challenge.

I am also entering this card in two other challenges with a Christmas card theme this week:

Dutch Dare Challenge Blog
Creative Card Crew


I really had fun with this one. I started with SU kraft card stock, running a piece through my crimper and slathering it with Tim Holtz crackle paint then added a piece of white cardstock embossed in a snowflake pattern and lightly sponged with my favorite distressing ink - SU's Creamy Caramel. An old sheet of Christmas music was printed out from an image on The Graphics Fairy's website, torn and sponged with Creamy Caramel and Tim Holtz Vintage Photo inks. All of this was mounted on a layer of kraft on which I had embossed snowflakes with white EP and then sponged with Vintage Photo. Add a bit of gingham ribbon, a glittered chipboard snowflake, a tan Prima flower and a bit of hemp and this card was good to go. Well, almost anyway. I did finish off the inside. I made a tag with a cute rub-on sentiment from SU. Would you believe, that's my first rub-on? I have several sheets in my stash, but have never actually pulled one out and used it - LOL!! I added another distressed piece of music for good vintagy measure. The only stamping was the snowflakes from The Snowflake Spot by SU. The santa image is a vintage digital from LunaGirl.

Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week

Penny Pamper - Crafty Pad Guest DT

Several weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to be selected as a guest designer for The Crafty Pad challenge blog. It was a bonus that I was given this very cute Penny Pamper stamp to use for my entry. Here is my entry for the current challenge which is to use one embossed paper, two ribbons and three buttons or brads (I substituted the dew drops instead of brads). I thought the dew drops looked like the bubbles on the stamped image and went well with the theme. Yes, I know there are more than three, but I couldn't get enough bubbles! Maybe that means I am yearning for a relaxing bubble bath - LOL!!

The paper, ribbon and brad are from Stampin' Up. The Crafty Pad image was colored with Copic markers. I made the bubbles a little 3-D and shinny by glossing them with Crystal Effects. The bubbly embossing was done with the Cuttlebug Tiny Bubbles embossing folder and, although it doesn't show up in the picture, the flowers have all been brushed with Star Dust Stickles.

Hop on over to The Crafty Pad and see the other DT's gorgeous creations using the darling stamp!

OCCC Inspiration Challenge/DT Call

I made this card for the inspiration challenge (last week's challenge) over on Our Creative Corner both for the challenge and to apply for a design team spot. The challenge was "In rural communities, it is almost time for harvest". Autumn is my very favorite time of the year so it wasn't difficult for me to jump right in and come up with a fall inspiration.


While blog surfing, I found several other challenges that this card fits so I am also entering it into:
Stamping for the Weekend - days gone by (vintage)
Stampin' B's - use two die cuts
Daring Cardmakers - use lace

The main image is from Artistic Outpost's Bluebird set. I have used it before, but never as the focal point for a card so I was happy to have such a great showcase for it. I created two tags using the Mega Rectangles Nestabilities. The bottom tag says "harvest blessings".

I normally would have used brown as the accent color, but I purchased this beautiful black crocheted lace from Flourishes recently and it was calling out to me for this card. So the accents are done in black and I love the way it looks. The bottom panel is stamped and clear heat embossed with the SU Filagree stamp. The DSP is from My Mind's Eye. I only had one sheet so I have been hoarding it - saving it for a really terrific fall card. The panel the bow is attached to was cut with the Mega Rectangles and the corners were embossed with the Cuttlebug Fancy Corners embossing folder and brayered with Memento Tuxedo black ink. I very carefully masked off all areas of the card except just want I needed to roll ink over. I carried that technique throughout the whole card. The card stock is scissor distressed along the edges. The edges of the layers and elements have been sponged with both Creamy Caramel and Ranger Vintage Photo ink. The word "harvest" was computer generated with the Metallic Avacodo font - love that font!! It's messy, like an old time typewriter. The chipboard B is a Cuttlebug alphabet - Olivia, which I actually get quite a bit of use out of. The inside of the card carries the same papers and theme. The sentiment is from SU's Happy Harmony set, one of my favorites.



Card Recipe
Stamps: Bluebird by Artistic Outpost, Filagree, Happy Harmony and Wonderful Words by SU and the filagree on the bottom tag is by My Minds Eye
Paper: SU Very Vanilla and Basic Black, MME 29th Street Market collection
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark
Accessories: Clear EP, Cuttlebug Fancy Corners Embossing Folder, Spellbinders Mega Rectangles and Circles. Ribbon from Jo-Ann's, Black crocheted lace from Flourishes, Tim Holtz trinket pin, bird charm is from Petals a Plenty, sewing machine, mini clip from SU



Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

My Bad

Oh, am I bad!! I was supposed to submit a tag for this fortnight's challenge on the Creative Inspirations Challenge Blog for a guest DT spot. How embarrassing - I submitted a card for the wrong challenge!!! I skipped down on the challenge list and made this card. I won't tell you what the challenge is because I don't want to spoil it for the next round, but obviously I won't be submitting this one again.

So I hastily made a tag and submitted it to the folks over at the Creative Inspirations Challenge blog so they could replace my rouge card if they wish. I am really enjoying making tags. They are quick to make so you get instant gratification, plus you can do so much with them. And of course, a lot of tags you see are distressed style that really appeals to me. So it wasn't an imposition to make the quick tag that you see above.

Card recipe:
Stamps: Rubbernecker
Paper: Don't remember the DSP, card stock from SU - Taken With Teal and River Rock, watercolor paper
Inks: Versamark (images stamped and clear embossed), Stewart Superior India Ink, Reinkers to watercolor images: Going Gray, Yoyo Yellow, Only Orange, Really Rust, flesh tone watercolor crayon, Creamy Caramel, Old Olive, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Csrystal Effects, ClearDew Drops, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots and Tiny Bubbles embossing folders, Creative Memories cutting system for the starfish shape, SU corner punch and brass brads, sewing machine, Crystal Stickles

Tag Recipe:
Stamps: SU Artifacts, Flourishes Seaside Life, Inkadinkadoo, Family Traditions by Scrappy Cat, Hero Arts
Ink: Chocolate Ship, Taken with Teal Close to Cocoa, Ranger Alcohol Inks: Stream, Butterscotch and Ginger, Taken with Teal, Tattered Angel Simply Khaki Glimmer Mist, Versamark
Accessories: Gold Dimensional Paint, Crystal Effects, Clear EP, Fiskars corner punch, sewing machine, Organdy ribbon from Jo-Ann's crinkled with heat gun

Sweet Strawberry Girl

After my last card missed the challenges by a mile, I set out to create a card that would hit several. I believe this one will hit:

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday - use hardware (red diamond brads between the flowers)

Three Clovers Designs -Tootie Fruitie

Cute Card Thursday - fruit

Cuttlebug Spot - use your favorite CB embossing folder and spot 3 of their blinkies on other blogs

Dutch Dare - use lace

Daring Cardmakers - Bejeweled bliss

This is the first time these stamps (Whiff of Joy and Flourishes) have seen ink. I have quite a few Whiff of Joy and Sarah Kay stamps that I still have not used (so many stamps, so little time - sigh). The new Flourishes Strawberries set is fabulous and I have been planning on using it so these fruit challenges were very timely. But oh, what to use for DSP? I wanted a crisp white for the dotted swiss but any rich red DPS I owned had a cream color rather than white in the pattern. So off I went again in search of the perfect DSP via a digital download. I found just what I was craving at Raspberry Road Designs. Their Flour Sack paper pack really appeals to me and it had a couple of papers with strawberry patterns. And so this card was born.

The coloring was done with Copic markers and I had a shock when my colorless blender pen ran out of ink. I have only had these pens since May. Luckily I had purchased a refill canister and a bottle of the colorless blender fluid. It was a pretty quick and easy task to refill it with the assistance of this four-part tutorial. I was fortunate that I had the refill on hand and I think next time I order supplies, I should start ordering a couple of refill colors each time I order - especially the colors I am using the most like skin tones, hair colors, basket colors, etc. I would hate to have a marker run dry in the middle of a project!!

~Card Recipe~

Stamps: Flourishes Strawberries, Whiff of Joy Willow With Basket

Paper: SU Real Red and Whisper White, Neenah Solar White for coloring with Copics, Raspberry Road Flour Sack DSP

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Copics

Accessories: Martha Stewart border punch, Cuttlebug and Swiss Dots embossing folder, Nestabilities Labels Four, Stickles, lace from Jo--Ann's, sewing machine, Prima Say it With Crystals

Beach Hideaway

I've been having fun entering challenges lately. Usually I check to see what kind of challenges are going on at the moment and then make a card that will hit a few of them. But I was seized by the need to create this card and just went for it without trying to match it up with any challenge. I spent about an hour this afternoon surfing the challenge blogs, but nothing seemed to match up. So here's my card, all lonesome with no challenge to play in.

Oh well, I really did enjoy making this. I love the soft beachy feel to it. Sort of like weathered driftwood or cushions on a wicker chair that are faded by the coastal elements of sun and salt.

I started the card with digital download paper by Debbie Knorr at Scrapbook-Bytes. I actually went blog surfing looking for some digital paper that gave me the feel I was looking for for this card. This Casual Villa paper pack really hit the nail on the head! It was exactly what I was looking for. I am pretty new to all the digital paper and elements, but I plunged in and printed my own paper on my home printer. I did go out and buy some heavier weight paper to print on to give my card a more substantial feel to it.

I stamped the images with Chocolate Chip in. I deliberately did not color them in to continue the faded feel of the card. All the edges were scissor distressed and sponged with Creamy Caramel ink. The Coconut Hill element is a Melissa Francis sticker that I popped up on craft foam after distressing it by sponging it heavily with Creamy Caramel ink and scratching it up a bit using a Tim Holtz distressing tool. I added a strip cut with a MS edge punch and a few Prima flowers, buttons, ribbon and hemp. The beautiful inspiration saying on the inside of the card is a stamp from Rubbernecker. All other stamps are from the Flourishes Beach Life set. I really gave Spellbinders a workout with this card, using the following Nestabilities: Scalloped Circles, Scalloped Long Rectangles and Scalloped Squares.

I am really in love with this Flourishes stamp set. I made my last card with it, have just finished this card using it and have one more in the works using it. After making three cards in a row, I will probably put it into retirement for quite a while - LOL!!

Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.