Finally...

I inked up one of the stamp sets we received at Convention today.  :)   Yay!  I figured I should try to use them all before my new stuff gets here.  

I jokingly told a friend the other night that combining a sketch challenge and a color challenge created 95% of the card for you.   This card made me eat those words a bit.  I used the colors from the colourQ challenge and paired them with the weekly sketch challenge on Splitcoast. I took me a bit to figure out where to use each color and what elements to add in, but I finally managed to get something that I liked.   What do you think?   I am not the best at coloring, so I'm trying to work on it a bit.  Just like I don't like things touching, I also don't like my coloring to go outside of the lines.   That makes watercoloring difficult, but I'm trying...  

Stamps:  Easy Events
Ink:  Lucky Limeade, Basic Gray, Tempting Turquoise, Bashful Blue, Staz On
Paper:  Lucky Limeade, Basic Gray, Tempting Turquoise, Bashful Blue, watercolor paper
Accessories:  Basic Pearls, Bright brads
Tools:  Big Shot, various embossing folders, scallop circle punch, circle punch, scallop trim border punch, aquapainter

Taking a break today...

I know my blogging has been a bit sporadic lately, but thanks for hanging in there with me.  This time of year is really hard on us.   Our son's 3rd birthday is today, but he's not here to celebrate.   He was born with a genetic disorder called Spinal Muscular Atrophy and passed away before he turned 6 months old.   As August is SMA Awareness Month, I wanted to take a minute to pass along some information on my blog.

This is SMA:

• SMA KILLS more infants and young children than any other inherited disease.

• There is NO treatment. There is NO cure.

• SMA is degenerative, eventually hindering the ability to walk, stand, sit, eat, breathe and even swallow. The mind is no different from that of a healthy baby, but the body eventually fails.

• Typical babies with SMA Type 1 have a life expectancy of between one and two years and require around-the-clock medical assistance and monitoring.

• 1 in every 40 people or nearly 10 million Americans UNKNOWINGLY carry the gene responsible for SMA — few have any known family history of SMA.

• SMA is a pan-ethnic disease and does not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, or gender.

• While SMA is currently incurable, untreatable, and drastically underfunded –> There is HOPE.

• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) selected SMA as the disease CLOSEST TO TREATMENT of more than 600 neurological disorders.

• SMA is considered a MODEL DISEASE with direct impact on research into many other diseases, potentially benefiting millions of people.

If you made it this far, thank you.  

Happy Birthday, Eli.   I miss you.   I miss you every single day of my life and I always will.

Pay Attention to Deadlines

Ugh!   I spent so much time trying to figure out a way to use the colourQ colors together yesterday and totally didn't realize that I was going to miss the window to actually submit my card for the challenge.  Oh well.  I still used Calypso Coral and for that I feel accomplished.   I do get to submit it for my favorite challenge, The Paper Players!    This awesome sketch was done by Nance, who is a such a sweetheart!  We seem to share a love of woodgrain and pinwheels, so I enjoy chatting with her on email.    But back to the card...what do you think?   Did I manage to get the right proportions of the colors?   You probably can't see it very well in the picture, but the Pool Party layer is stamped in Delicate Doilies and embossed in Iridescent Ice.  It is so shiny and pretty in person.   I also used some homemade shimmer mist on the image panel as well.

Now I'll share a little secret with you...  I love Delicate Doilies, but I don't like for them to touch each other.   I have seen lots of pretty cards where people overlap them and they look great, but I can't do it.  It stresses me out.  I even tried it on this card and had to start over.   For the record, I don't like my food to touch either.  :)

Stamps:  Delicate Doilies
Ink:  Calypso Coral, Early Espresso, Pool Party, Island Indigo, Versamark
Paper:  Calypso Coral, Early Espresso, Pool Party, Island Indigo, Whisper White
Accessories:  Iridescent Ice embossing powder, Early Espresso 3/8 taffeta ribbon, Basic Rhinestones, Shimmer Mist
Tools:  Heat tool, Jewelry Tag punch

Wish Pig

Isn't he cute?    This is one of my favorite color combinations and two challenge blogs asked us to use them together this week!   How cool is that?!    Our Creative Corner and The Friday Mashup! are both awesome, so go check them out and play along with these super fun colors.   If you like poking holes in your paper, try the Pals Paper Arts challenge to do some paper piercing on your card.  It's fun!  

Stamps:  Wish Big, Button Buddies
Ink:  Real Red, Tempting Turquoise
Paper  Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, Brights Designer Paper stack
Accessories:  Basic Rhinestones, Real Red taffeta ribbon
Tools:  paper piercing tool

Not a Card!

Look at what came in the mail today!    I purchased this fabric ages ago and cut it with the scallop square die.   I sent it and all the other supplies off to Kentucky to my mom because I am clueless with the sewing machine!   She worked with my sweet cousin Gloria to get it all put together.   My cousin Kelly even took the leftover material and made me a flower!    Isn't it cute?    I want one in either the Flirtatious or Timeless Portrait fabric now.  :o)

I did a ton of stamping today, but you'll have to wait until Monday to see it as it was all for my Creative Crew challenges.   August is my last month as a designer, so it was a bit sad to finish up everything today.   I love being on a design team, so I guess I should watch for some calls or something.   It is so fun and you get to know the other designers so well.  It's like having a little family.  

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!  
~Rita

Workshop Cards

Wisteria Wonder and Concord Crush together are so fabulous!!!   Here I paired them with the Strength & Hope stamp set and the faux mother-of-pearl technique.   I love how it turned out and I hope my wonderful ladies do as well.   :)

Stamps:  Strength & Hope
Ink:  Concord Crush, Wisteria Wonder
Paper:  Concord Crush, Wisteria Wonder, Glossy White
Accessories:  Basic Pearls, Frost White Shimmer Paint
Tools:  Big Shot, Framed Tulips embossing folder, sponge, plastic wrap

This has been my favorite stamp set from the Summer Mini catalog and I wanted to show it off tomorrow.   I love how well it pairs with Word Play!   I kept it simple and didn't add any accessories.  Our post office is getting really strict on cards with bumps, so this would be a great card to mail with just a regular ol' postage stamp.  

Stamps:  The Open Sea, Word Play
Ink:  Cherry Cobbler, Not Quite Navy, Early Espresso
Paper:  Early Espresso, Naturals White, Nautical Expedition DSP

Paper Players Pinwheels

I took a few liberties with the sketch over at The Paper Players this week.   When I looked at it, pinwheels immediately came to my mind so I went with it.   It was supposed to be a clean-and-simple card, so I tried to leave it that way.  


Stamps: Word Play, Delicate Doilies
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo
Paper: Melon Mambo, Brights DSP Stack
Accessories: Bright Brads, Shimmer Mist (this never seems to show up, but it is sparkly in real life!)
Tools: Big Shot, Square Lattice embossing folder

Lost In Translation

Still working with Raining Flowers, but I think I'm moving to a different set tomorrow. :o) This is one of those cards that started out totally different and I'm still not sure that I like how it turned out. I'm really loving the torn frames with the bit of newsprint peeking out (Thanks, Teneale!).

Stamps: Raining Flowers
Ink: Basic Gray, Cherry Cobbler, Baja Breeze
Paper: Basic Gray, Cherry Cobbler, Baja Breeze, Confetti White, First Edition DSP
Accessories: Basic Pearls, Baja Breeze Seam Binding
Tools: Big Shot, Framed Tulips embossing folder, Elegant Lines embossing folder, paper snips