FOUR Challenges in ONE card! Squeeee!!!

Here's another Dare To Get Dirty challenge card! Can you believe it??? THREE posts in ONE WEEK??! SQUEEEEE!!!! I combined FOUR challenges into this one card. You can see details about DTGD over on Splitcoaststampers.com


I have a sweet Bichon Frise named Chibi, and I talk about her in a post, HERE. I found these cute stamps at vivalasvegastamps.com so I had to make a cute bichon card! My mom calls Chibi her "grand puppy" so cute!!

Stamps: Bichon and sentiment from vivalasvegastamps.com, Distressed Dots background stamp from SU; Ink: Stazon Black, Peach Parfait & Pear Pizzazz (both retired), Pretty in Pink; Paper: Watercolor paper, Newsprint DSP, Peach Parfait & Pear Pizzazz (retired); Accessories: XL Pennants Die, Decorative Label Punch, 2 3/8" Circle Punch, Scallop Edge punch, Corner Rounder punch, Aquapainter

 I've had so much fun doing these challenges! Now I'm in Dallas for Quakecon for the weekend so won't get to stamp anymore before the upload deadline on Monday...but it was fun while it lasted!!

Don't forget to RSVP for my class next Saturday! Details are over on my Stampin' Up site www.darthsunshine.stampinup.net !
Thanks for stopping by!

One Layer Flowers...

I love card challenges that are clean and simple. Too often challenges involve many layers etc and I find myself trying to outdo ANY previous card I've seen....and then it looks all too busy in the end! HA!
This Dare To Get Dirty Challenge was to make a one layer card with flowers. I embossed the roses from Fifth Avenue Floral with black embossing powder, then used my aquapainter with SU Rose Red and Melon Mambo ink to watercolor. Sentiment is from retired Warm Words. I dislike that SU retired this amazing stamp set. That rose is so gorgeous AND matches one of our current embossing folders! GAH!

Stamps: SU Fifth Avenue Flower, Warm Words; Ink: SU Rose Red and Melon Mambo reinkers; Paper: SU Glossy White; Accessories: SU Black embossing powder, Heat Tool, Aquapainter

 I love the effect of watercoloring on glossy paper...but man, is it hard to take a decent picture! My little orange light on the camera causes a little bit of orange to appear at the top of the card, and of course you can see the flash. The orange was more pronounced without a flash...so I endeded up taking several pictures before I finally settled on the one above. But I do like that the embossing came out pretty well.

Thanks for stopping by!

I love a Challenge!

I love a challenge....and this week is Splitcoaststampers' (SCS) Dare To Get Dirty (DTGD) week of Challenges!! The "Dirty Girls" of SCS are the best of the best papercrafters....so it's fun to play along as a fan club member! My friend Lydia gave us a challenge to make an all white card...sentiment optional...I opted for no sentiment:

Paper: SU Whisper White cardstock; Accessories: Big Shot, SU Butterfly Punch, SU Dots and Fancy Fans embossing folders, SU Embosslit Beautiful Wings

I'm having a stamp class on August 11th (with option to attend Monday night 8/13!) Details for the class and for upcoming STAMP CLUB (squeeeeee!!!) is on my Stampin' Up site www.darthsunshine.stampinup.net so take a look and then RSVP!
Hope to see you soon! Thanks for stopping by here!

Where's St. Andrew's Day?

St. Patrick's Day is coming up...where all things Irish will abound during this month. But I want to know where our Scottish homage holiday is? HUH?!?

I stamped this card for Splitcoaststampers VSN (Virtual Stamp Night) Challenge to use a heart or the word "love" on my card...but when I finished I thought HEY! I'm not even IRISH! If I could have it my way I'd want a Scottish Holiday...we could call it St. Andrew's Day! Or Ewan McGregor Day! Or Gerard Butler Day! Or....my personal favorite Scotsman right now JAMES McAVOY!!! Ha! (Of course my first favorite Scotsman EVAH was Sean Connery...he's the quintessential Scotsman!)
Wow. I digress. The Challenge! So I used hearts to make my shamrock. This heart is from the PS I Love You set from the Occasions Mini Catalog. The sentiment is is an a la Carte stamp from the same catalog-Happy St. Patrick's.

Stamps: PS I Love You, Happy St. Patrick's; Ink: SU Garden Green; Acces: Full Heart Punch, Decorative Label Punch, stripes Embossing Folder; Paper: Garden Green, Whisper White

VSN is fun because it forces me to make a card in 45 minutes or less. This is torture because I will play around with the same card idea for hours sometimes. I'm not always happy with my cards...but the challenges always force me out of my comfort zone. This isn't one of my favorites...but...oh well. On day I'll show you my trashcan after a craftventure...or craftastrophe. HAHA
Thanks for stopping by!

Blue Christmas

Here's another card I made for Splitcoaststampers VSN challenge...a blue Christmas card. Of course I thought of Lydia (Understandblue)! I'm sure a lot of us did!


 Stamps: Delightful Decorations; Paper: Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Whisper White; Ink: Night of Navy, Pacific Point, Baja Breeze; Accessories: Ornament punch, Dots embossing folder, white gel pen

I'm still cutting my paper for my Christmas Cards...hoping to mail them on Monday...or Tuesday (which means I'll be assembing them on the road since we're visiting family next week.) But they WILL be mailed before Christmas THIS year. Right.

XOXO,

Your Procrastinating Stamper....procrastistamper!!! :D LOL

Thanks for stopping by!

Best time of year (and busiest!!!)

 The last few weeks have been soooo busy! A few weekends ago I got to participate in a Splitcoaststampers Shoebox Swap....(you saw my card in my previous post)...and here are a couple of the different cards we made (we got to make 22 cards that day!)

Look at this amazing poinsettia! This set is from Kitchen Sink Stamps--a multi-step set. I loove KSS! I used the KSS multi-step moon for one of my Christmas Cards...which you'll see in my next post!

Here's another cute card we made :) I wish I could post all of them...but seriously...the photo editing alone would drive me crazy. I just don't have the patience for photo editing! Pffth.

I'm off from work for 2 weeks (SQUEEEE!) and at the 11th hour (literally) the night before our last Friday I decided to make goodies for my coworkers....which of course wasn't something simple....it involved die-cutting many, many favor boxes and bagging up my version of homemade candy--tiny pretzels topped with a Rolo (chocolate caramel candy that is nearly IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND!!! GAH!) baked in a low oven until soft then topped with a pecan half. NOM NOM NOM! (and super easy--a requirement for me!) I finished this monstrous project around 2 am and got up for work at 6 am. Insanity, I know.

I was able to mail a handful of my Christmas cards BEFORE Christmas this year! As in...today. Bwahaha! Still working on a bunch of them...and will share with my next post (after I edit more photos Pfffth!)

Hope you are having a peaceful Christmas Eve. I'm enjoying every minute of my vacation so far!

Are you ready to SQUEEE?!??!!!

This post really should occur on Sunday...AFTER this amazing swap (22 stampers getting together and each making the card with the supplies we bring--so I'll come home with 21 new cards I made there! SQUEE!) I'll be sure to share all the stampy goodness with you in the next couple of days!  However, it's been a MONTH since I blogged and I'm so stinkin excited about my card that I HAD to post about it now!

I got this design/idea from Gretchen Barron...an UBER talented Stampin' Up demonstrator who makes the MOST amazing stuff with paper. (Who got the Poinsettia idea from Connie Babbert, another Stampin' Up Demo in Ohio). Once I saw this idea in my Google Reader I could NOT stop thinking about it! Once I got in my studio and started making the cards I was SQUEEEEEing like crazy!!! Making these made me soooo happy!

First off--I have to show you my view from my stamping table: my super cute Bichon Frise CHIBI :D She makes me SQUEEE whenever I see her...she is so cute and fun. Except today she was a little mad at me because I made her go to the groomer.  I took this pic shortly after we got home and it wasn't until now I realize she's not "smiling" in this photo. She looks kinda mad. Bwahaha!

She props herself up on the back of the sofa that backs up against my IKEA hack desk. I love having her company when I stamp! I do have to make her stop trying to walk onto my desk though! :)

Ok...are you ready to SQUEEEE?!?!?! Here's the RED version of the card--The Poinsettia is made by stamping the leaf from FRENCH FOLIAGE with Stampin' Up Bravo Burgandy ink onto Regal Rose cardstock.  I stamped 13 leaves then cut them out (the worst part...I hate cutting stuff out! But the results are always worth it so I should just stop whining!) The card base is Always Artichoke. I know...I really thought I hated that color...but with Bravo Burgandy it's gorgeous! I then used the Gold Smooch Spritz on the poinsetta for a subtle shimmer. That stuff is AMAZING! More SQUEEEEing ensued!!

Then I thought I'd play with white and gold (with the white shimmer Smooch Spritz)....here's the result!! SQUEEEEEE x 10!!!!! OMG OMG OMG!!!!

So tomorrow I am driving up to Austin (at the Crack of Cranky!!) to have breakfast with my friends Lydia and Kim at Baguette et Chocolat (NOM NOM NOM!!!) then Kim and I are heading up to Georgetown for our Splitcoaststampers Christmas Card Swap! Lydia will be meeting us a little later and then the 3 of us are having dinner before I have to drive home to San Antonio. So. Much. Fun. Can't wait! I'll post again and share all the amazing things I made!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

XOXO
Dana