There wasn't anything pressing that I had to do today, so I went ahead and did more of the challenges for Splitcoast Stamper's "Virtual Stamp Night". Several of them were done yesterday, but I wanted to do as many as I could. As long as the cards were uploaded by 10:00 EST, you were good to go! I didn't do all of them (there were 20 total), but I managed quite a few of them! I also went back and edited yesterday's post, adding info and giving a little more detail about each card, so if you'd like to scroll back down and check it out, the info is there!
For today's efforts, I'll start off with the "Princess Bride" one that I rolled over from Friday night:
Stamps: Close To My Heart Amore Alphabet; Ink: Close To My Heart Barn Red; Paper: K & Co and DCWV; Accessories: Cuttlebug with corner flourish die, Stampin'Up! photo corner punch, Martha Stewart border punch, key charm, heart concho, ribbon, jute twine, sewing machine
I was inspired by this quote from the movie:
Westley: Give us the gate key.
Yellin: I have no gate key.
Inigo Montoya: Fezzik, tear his arms off.
Yellin: Oh, you mean *this* gate key.
The reference to a key and the "Old World" setting of the movie were my starting points, and I wanted to incorporate some distressing (a la Bibbi ) and jute. The heart concho was originally bright brass, so I colored it with brown and gold markers (Bic) and some black distressing ink (Close to My Heart) to age it. I heat-set the inks with my heat gun, just to be safe.
The first challenge was at noon yesterday, and I was sort of a spaz/dork about it. I was reading how it was for kids, and to drag your children (or the neighbors') in to play, and thinking that I didn't have any handy, but that it also said "for kids of any age", and that applied, so I went ahead and did it, only to realize later that there was a second "adult" option at the same time that I completely overlooked - DOH! Anyway, the challenge was based on the song "These Are a Few of My Favorite Things" from the movie "The Sound of Music", and I incorporated "whiskers on kittens" and copper (as in "bright copper kettles"), and the colors cream and blue, which were on the list:
Stamps: Inkadinkado $1 clear stamps; Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Stampin'Up! Ballet Blue; Paper: Manila tag, Basic Grey Cupcake and Sugared dsp, Stmapin'Up! Ballet Blue; Accessories: Stampin'Up! round tab punch, unknown fiber and ribbon, photo turn
It's a matchbook-style card, held shut with a photo turn. The cat's eyes look really scary in the pic, but not so much in real life... The "Happy Birthday" was all one stamp - and in a straight line - but, since they're clear stamps, I could maneuver them. I stuck the "birthday" part of the stamp on the acrylic block while holding it over the tab punch to see where to align it to end up where I wanted it, then inked it up and stamped it. After I cleaned the ink off, I stuck the "happy" part onto the block (straight) and inked it up and stamped it above the "birthday". It worked! When I punched the tab it came out exactly as I'd envisioned...
Another of the challenges was "Long-Lost Love" - to use a stamp we "had to have" when we bought it, but haven't used in eons. I dug out one that I've had since at least 1989, but probably haven't used since then. (No, truly - I never do throw out stamps. I did give a few to Sherry for her grandkids, but I still have the VAST majority of them!) I have grandkids now, so maybe they'll like it:
Stamp: Hero Arts;Ink: Versafine Onyx Black; Paper: Stampin'Up! Ballet Blue and Pixie Pink, Close to My Heart White Daisy; Accessories: EK Success scallop square punch, Fiskars hand-held tiny flower and 1/8" hole punches, detail clear and detail white embossing powders, Sakura Souffle pens, Bic MarkIt and Prismacolor markers, gingham ribbon
Hmm...another kitten...I'm not usually a cat person...what's up with that?! Anyway, I didn't have any patterned paper that I liked with this, so I made my own by stamping and embossing little flowers on some cardstock the same color as the mat behind the main image, then adding centers with Souffle pens. I also Souffle-d the center of the punched flowers in the white mat. The kitty and flowers were colored with Bic and Prismacolor markers, and the border lines above the scallops were made using my Scor-Pal. I guess that's about it for that card...
I think I've mentioned before that I'm not really into techniques, but there was another technique challenge that i really enjoyed. The challenge was called "Melt My Heart", and the technique was to make a melted crayon background:
Stamps: Close to My Heart Cherish; Ink: Versamark, Stampin'Up! Lavendar Lace, Perfect Plum, Old Olive; Paper: Stampin'Up! Elegant Eggplant, DCWV textured gold, Georgia Pacific white; Accessories, gold ribbon
It ends up looking sort of marbleized, and is super easy to do! I thought the cracked glass technique and this gorgeous rose from Close to My Heart would pair well with it, and I wanted to do a color other than pink or red for the rose. I have to say that I'm very happy with it!
A challenge that I really struggled with - again! - was to make a clear card (remember this disappointing effort for the Dare to Get Dirty challenges last summer?) I gave it a go, though, and here's the result:
I used some rub-ons that Sherry gave me on the front, then cut some Urban Prairie papers to echo the rub-on shapes. The green is glued to the back side of the front, while the butterflies and the little circles at the right side of the flourish are glued to the front side of the back (clear as mud? If this was a four-page book, the green is on page two and the others are on page three...) I punched lholes down the side of both pages with my Crop-a-dile to tie my little ribbons through. I just canNOT figure out how people make these without getting glue and dust and scratches all over them - I'm DEFINITELY challenged, here! Don't you think I'm brave for trying again? Ha! Anyway...
Here's a fun one: "Tickle Your Fancy" challenged us to incorporate feathers into a design. Here's what I did:
Paper: Close to My Heart Watermelon and White Daisy, DCWV dp; Accessories: Martha Stewart border punch, ScorPal, feathers, ribbon
I didn't have any stamps even remotely close to what I needed here, so I did the computer-generated dealie-o (CAC Pinafore font). Great colors for feathers and ribbon, eh? On to the next one:
Stamps: Stampin'Up! A Tree For All Seasons; Ink: Versamark; Papers: Stampin'Up! Night of Navy, Very Vanilla, Kraft; Accessories: Martha Stewart border punch, brads, Zig chalk writer, navy embossing powder
The challenge here was to make a card that a man would give to a woman (any woman - mother, wife, niece, neighbor - didn't matter), and the restrictions were: colors were kraft, navy and vanilla; images had to be from nature and not "cutesy"; use three brads (no more, no less); no ribbons, bling, etc. Took a little thinking and more help from computer-generated sentiments (Lucida Handwriting font) to pull this one off, but I ended up liking it.
The last one that I did was also the fastest! The challenge was called "Celebrity Crush", and we were supposed to make a card inspired by whichever celebrity we were all hot and bothered about. I don't really go there - they're just people with higher-profile jobs, ya know? - but I decided to play along because even though "crush" is overstating the case, I think Jon Bon Jovi is aging beautifully and remains eye candy, so I made a card inspired by one of his songs: "While My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms" (Come to think of it - I don't know if that's the name of the song or just a line from it, but whatever...):
Stamp: Inkadinkado Rock Star; Ink: Versamark; Paper: Paperbilities black, unknown red; Accessories: Martha Stewart border punch, silver tinsel and stardust embossing powders
All I did here was emboss the guitar with silver tinsel embossing powder onto black cardstock, punch some red with my Martha Stewart "goo" border punch and emboss it with Stardust embossing powder, and layer them both onto a black base - done!
I hope at least one or two of these projects has been inspiring to you - I sure had fun and streteched a bit making them! I'm going to sign off now and go to bed!
