Did You Cave????

I am so glad that this week is almost over...I swear if I got one sale e-mail I must have received 500!  It's not only in my inbox, it's on facebook, on every google search I do, every where I turn there is a sale!!  Not only are there sales but they keep going and going. 

You all know how cheap I am... I am a sale shopping. I hate paying full price for anything so this time of the year is a real test of my will-power NOT to buy everything I see....  Because you know it's SUCH a great price - LOL!!  What's even worse (and killing me) is that they aren't just having sales, great sales mind you, they are extending these sales well beyond Black Friday / Cyber Monday.  What's a bargain shopper to do????

Now I won't say I've been an angel - because ya know some of these sales have been too good to pass up BUT I have bought several Christmas presents as well which is a good thing ;)  LOL!!  And besides, I have been fairly good recently keeping my crafty spending down to a minimum.

SO, the question is...did you cave in to all the folks out there hawking their wares for unbelievable prices????

I did however want to mention that tomorrow starts 

Carve December 2017!  

I mentioned it a couple weeks ago but in case you missed it Carve December is a challenge to carve a new stamp every day. You can click on either link above to go to the website to find out more. I would classify myself as a beginner because while I have carved a few stamps in the past it's been YEARS since I carved anything and the ones I did carve were very crude. I have already started carving and I must say I am thrilled with the results so far. I have made 5 stamps so far and I can actually see improvements with each one!  I wanted to carve a bit ahead because I know there are several days coming up when I won't have time to carve but I have found it to be so relaxing!  It's great fun.  

I also did a bit of an experiment with various types of rubber out there to carve. I will be sharing my findings with you very soon in case you'd like to join in the fun and not make the same mistakes I've made ;)  LOL!!

So I invite you to carve with me :) 

I'm sure we'll have loads of fun!!

 

Trattoria Blog Hop

Welcome to December's Club Scrap Blog Hop 

featuring the great foodie themed kit - Trattoria!  

Before I get to my project I would like to take a moment to say Farewell and Thank You to you all as this is the final month the Club Scrap Artist Team will share it's creations with you. It means so much when you stop by to see what I have dreamed up each month.  I would like to also extend a hearty Thank You!! to Tricia and Club Scrap for everything they have allowed us to do over our past term. It's been such fun and I have enjoyed it all!

I never really thought of myself as a foodie before but when I saw the kit I knew instantly what I wanted to make (I love it when that happens!).  Our family LOVES to eat...we enjoy trying new restaurants and when we find a favorite we are very loyal.  We have several favorites that we visit as often as possible.  This album was created with those favorites in mind!

The album style is more of a junk journal type thing with all sorts of pages sizes made from a variety of materials (mostly found chipboard pieces).  Making it this way will allow me to add more favorites as we find them without having to stress over finding exactly the same page format. 

The inside page explains a bit about what the album is about...

Best Ever :)

(Oley's Pizza - Ft. Wayne, IN)

There's lots of stamping, hand written notes and several pages have typed up stories of how we found the place, where it's located along with what we love about it and/or fond memories.  I also included photos of either the restaurant it's self, signage and of course the food!

(Industrial Revolution - Valporaiso, IN)

I used hidden journaling on many of the pages - not because I didn't want anyone to read about it but because even typed our stories were too long to fit on the pages.  Hope you enjoy....

(Shady Maple Amish Smorgasbord - East Earl, PA)

(The Whistle Stop - Glendale, KY)

(Don Chava's - Fort Wayne, IN)

(4 Seasons Diner - Bryan, OH)

(Turkey Lake Tavern - Elmira, IN)

(The Beef House - Covington, IN)

(Royal Donut - Danville, IL)

(Round the Clock Diner - Valporaiso, IN)

(Coney Island - Fort Wayne, IN)

(Seyfert's Potato Chip Factory - previously Fort Wayne, IN)

(Godfather's Pizza - previously Fort Wayne, IN)

Hope this inspires you to create your own fun food memories album!

The next stop on the hop is

Tricia

and the complete list can be found here:

Club Scrap Trattoria Blog Hop

Supplies:

ClubScrap.com - Trattoria Kit, Stamps, Ribbons, Embellishments

Imagine - VersaFine, VersaMagic, Delicata

Book Rings

Chipboard, Acetate (packaging), Giant Tags (for book pages)

Christmas is in the Air

Over the long weekend I decided to take some time and make a few Christmas cards so I pulled out my peg stamps and played a bit.

For my first card I used the set Twinkle Twinkle - I stamped the shape of a Christmas tree with the cedar stamp using Pistashio Memento Ink; next I added the lights and wires using VersaFine Onyx ink and finished it off with the ornaments.  I also used a couple stamps not included in the kit - the little sitting mouse and Merry Christmas sentiment.  I added the light halo using a sponge dauber with matching ink.  I wish you could see it IRL because then you would also see that the lights are a bit sparklie from the touch of Sparkle irRESISTible Medium I covered them with.  

The card background was stamped using snowflakes (White VersaColor ink) and a trio of tiny flowers (in Delicata Golden Glitz).

This is my "country Christmas" card...  I used Southern Pine set around the top and bottom edges. The sentiment is from Just From Fun stamps.  It's a bit rustic looking which I thought goes perfectly with the pine cones.

Finally I did something a bit different with the Holiday Joy stamp set. I used the leaves, flowers and squiggles combined them with the poinsettia stamp from Pine & Poinsettia set to make my own "poinsettia tree".  The barrel stamp is something I had in my stash (sorry, don't recall which set it's from). 

The background for this card was stamped with candy canes, stockings and a tiny little gift which is just darling! 

This card is a bit different for me as it leaves traditional holiday colors behind and I used Love Letter which has a rose hue, Bahama Blue and Bamboo Leaves green.  Not exactly what you think of for Christmas but I think it works.

Anyway, that was my bit of stress relief over the long holiday weekend ;)

Club Scrap Artist Team Challenge - Mix It Up!

This month the Club Scrap Artist Team was asked to Mix It Up! by combining elements from 3 or more kits. Well you know because all of the kits are so beautifully made this was an easy task.  I decided to use elements from some of my favorites...

I have used bits and pieces from Lagoon (08/17), Refresh Remix and Transformations (09/15)

I have stamped, embossed, embellished and mixed it all up. I have used embellishments from these kits and a couple others...not sure where it all came from because it's in my embellishments bag.  The only other extra bit I added was the sparklie grey washi tape. It just needed a bit of bling ;)

Now my pocket letter will be winging it's way to it's new home :)
Thanks so much for checking out my creation.

The next stop on the hop is: Tina


and if you get lost along the way the complete list can be found here:

Club Scrap Artist Team Challenge



Supplies:

Club Scrap - Refresh Remix, Lagoon, Transformations
Imagine - VersaMark, Embossing Powder, Memento - Teal Zeal, VersaColor
Washi Tape
Baseball Page

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sending you blessings and good wishes

now and through out the coming year.

Stay safe and enjoy the day

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

My Blue Poinsettias

Today I have another card to share made using the Power Poppy digital stamp Poinsettia and Pomegranates. It's such a pretty image, I really like it.  It's lots of fun to color too!

I mentioned last week that I'd like to try one in blues because it's my favorite color.  As it happens Color Throwdown #469 consisted of a couple shades of blue paired with silver. Of course that's usually a nice combination for snow and winter scenes but hey, it works for flowers too right?  That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

I colored the images using Prismacolor Colored Pencils and silver for all of the foliage. The sentiments are from the 2017 Holiday kit - Scandinavian Holiday.

I was lovin' the colors so much I even colored a piece for the inside as well. I usually like to leave the inside of the card for correspondence but when this one gets sent I'll just have to write on a separate piece of paper.

I would like to submit this card to the following:

Supplies:

Power Poppy - Poinsettias & Pomegranates 

Imagine - VersaFine, On Point Glue

PrismaColor Colored Pencils

ClubScrap.com - Scandinavian Holiday Sentiment

Cardstock

Card Base

Glitter

Heartfelt Sympathy Card

Well they are not a fun part of life but they are a necessity...sympathy cards that is. Just because it's a sad time doesn't mean it can't be beautiful as well.

If you'd like to see how I made this card, please check out the post below...

Heartfelt Sympathy Cards

Supplies:

Imagine

VersaMagic – Sea Breeze, Aegean Blue, Night Sky, Ocean Depth

VersaFine – Onyx Black

VersaColor – Lime

Memento Inkpad – Ivy Cottage, Olive Grove

Other

Watercolor paper

Cardstock

Cardbase

Stamping block

Altenew – Vintage Roses 

Poppy Power - Portion Control Challenge

Hello Friends!

Today I wanted to share a card I made in response to Poppy Power's Portion Control Challenge.  They challenge you to use just parts of an image instead of the whole thing.  I decided to give it a shot. I used their stamp Poinsettia and Pomegranate digital stamp set.  I resized and arranged several copies of the image on an 8.5 x 11" sheet of cardstock and cut it up so I could make 4 cards from one print.

And here's my first attempt!  I decided to go with a bit of a non-traditional color scheme and used Lavender, Dahlia Purple, Pink and Mauve as my main color palette. The poinsettias and pomegranates were colored using PrismaColor colored pencils, the snowflakes were stamped using VersaMagic ink (chalk ink) and the sentiment was stamped with VersaFine Onyx Black ink.  It doesn't show up but I added dots of On Point Glue and sprinkled with extra fine clear glitter.  It gives the card a lovely shimmer IRL.

So there you have it...my attempt at Portion Control!  I'm hoping to color one up using blues and maybe even a traditional red for Christmas...just have to wait and see.

I hope you're inspired to give it a shot too :)

Supplies:

PoppyPower - Poinsettias and Pomegranates Digi Stamp Set

Imagine - VersaMagic, VersaFine, On Point Glue

PrismaColor - Colored Pencils

ClubScrap.com - Scandinavian Holiday - snowflake stamps, sentiment

Cardstock, glitter

Still Time To Play

There is still lots of time to play in the 

November Just For Fun Rubber Stamps Challenge.... 

Travel/Family/Thanksgiving

All you have to do is stamp a card, scrapbook page or other project that fits into one of the themes and post it on your blog then link it with the challenge. 

Here are my creations to help inspire....

Hope you decide to join in on the fun!!

There is only one entry so far so your chances are pretty good to win the 

JFF Rubber Stamps Gift Certificate!

Quick Torn Border Cards

Like the old saying, don't cry over spilled milk - don't cry over torn paper because there are so many FUN ways to use it!!  The November Club Scrap Technique Challenge is Torn Paper!

There are so many fun techniques that you can use torn paper with (you'll see several techniques on the Club Scrap blog in the above link). I wanted to do something a bit different so I gave it some thought and decided upon border pattern papers. 

Sometimes I have a difficult time using up those papers with pre-printed borders along one edge or the other because they are so big and I don't want to "waste" it - LOL!!  Ya know if you cut it up for cards you're going to end up with a small bit left over - what am I going to do with it? I can't throw it away, I don't really scrap 12x12 much but again, it's just too pretty to toss the excess so subsequently I have loads of papers with the borders still intact.  

Well it occurred to me that if I tore the border strip from the paper and cut it into 3 - 4" pieces I would have a great border for not one but 3 cards!

I started off by tearing and cutting up the border strip. I then used VersaMark ink to stamp the background of each card panel. Affixed the border, stamped a sentiment and embellished!

The background stamping didn't show up very well on the lighter cream colored cardstock so I stenciled on the little chef using Dark Brown Shimmer Delicata ink.

I'm really pleased with how they turned out and I didn't realize until I was done with them how quickly it went! That sparked a fun idea on making lots of cards in a short amount of time. I love it when things like that happen!  SO if you have a bit of time, give it a try and see just how quickly you can make lots of cards using torn borders!

Supplies:

ClubScrap.com - Trattoria Papers, Stamps, Stencils

Imagine - Delicata - Dark Brown Shimmer; VersaMark; VersaFine; Sponge Dauber

Faux Gems

And I thought I'd mention that I am now on Instagram...I've never done it before and I'm just startin' out but if you'd like to follow you can find me here:  @inkstainedroni  Hope to see you there :)

CarveDecember 2017

Have you ever heard of CarveDecember?  I hadn't either until Marcie from Imagine brought it to my attention.   The idea is to carve a stamp each day in December - at the end of the month you'd end up with 31 brand new one of a kind stamps!  

Luckily carving each day isn't mandatory to participate...you just carve when you can.  Apparently most carvers post their creations on Instagram with #carvedecember.  

Several years ago a friend gave me a carving knife and some Speedball carving medium (looks like a giant eraser) and I did carve a few stamps of my own at the time. I thought it would be fun to give it another go.  I ordered a few different types of carving medium and an all in one carving tool which has 4-5 different blades.  They arrived today and I did give it a trial scrape across one of the blocks. I'm excited now!

Next dilemma, I don't know what I'm going to carve...it actually has me stumped. The thought of coming up with so many ideas for stamps...my mind is frozen and I don't know what to make.  I may need help with suggestions so if you can think of something fun - imagine or sentiment to carve please feel free to share it.

Are you going to join in the fun?  You don't have to use the pink stuff.  You can carve all sorts of things - erasers, you can carve the back of a produce/meat tray (these make great faux wood cut stamps); Fun Foam, etc. I may try to use a few different mediums to create different effects.  

Rocks in the Mail

You know I'm a big crazy when it comes to all sorts of art.  Well recently a friend offered to send me some rocks when she saw a comment I left on another art blog about not having smooth rocks around here. 

They arrived!!  Aren't they just soooo cool?  I love them and can't wait to figure out what to do with them.  I know I want to paint a couple of them but I have to do some surfin' to see if there is anything else I "need" to do - LOL!!  I know it's odd to get excited about rocks but hey, one year I got some in my stocking and was thrilled.  Rocks are fun.

It was so cute, I have these sitting on my desk and Cole saw them and he thought they were turtles...Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to be exact - LOL!!

I also wanted to share my recent estate sale find...  this is a tiny 6" vintage cutter! I LOVE it. I've been looking for one of these for years but they've always been too expensive. I'm not paying more for this cutter than I do the one I use every day!  BUT I found one a couple weeks ago when dh and I went to southern Indiana to a tractor show. It was marked $15.00 but as luck would have it it was an extra 25% off because it was the last day of the sale - SCORE!!  The best part is whomever had it before took very good care of it because that knife on the cutting arm is VERY sharp. Works like a charm as you can see.

Hope you've all had a great week!

Crafts with Kids

This week Imagine is celebrating Crafts with Kids. I have missed crafting with my boys but this inspired me to get crafty with Cole - our 2 year old grandson!  We took a day and played with ink...not only were my fingers inky but his were as well.  We had such fun and we created this....

I'm sure he won't remember making this but it's something I'll never forget.

Best of all I have this photo of his little inky fingers.

So precious!

Here is the link to this post....

Do Something Fun! 

Create a Fingerprint Memory Tree

and be sure to check the Imagine blog all week for more fun crafts with kids!

Cactus...Desert or Terrarium???

Ha...it's a trick question - it's both!  These are a couple of the new stamp sets at Rubber Stamp Tapestry, a.k.a. Peg Stamps - Desert Cactus & Cactus Terrarium. Since these stamps coordinate so nicely I used stamps from both sets to make each card.

My first card I wanted to make a "desert" so I stamped and masked and stamped some more. I then colored everything using some sponge daubers and a variety of inks...Memento, VersaMagic, and Delicata to really bring it all to life.   You might notice a couple extra twigs, sprigs and flowers here and there. Those are also peg stamps from my collection.

And this card is my "terrarium" card.  Again a mix of stamping and masking with a few flowers, grasses and twigs mixed in.  It was then die-cut and popped off the card with double stick foam tape.

My final cactus card for the day was actually stamped on a left-over diecut I had laying on my table.  I was actually looking at different colors of green, stamped one then it looked kind of cool so I kept going. I wasn't sure if that bright green would work but it turned out o.k. I even had some gemstones to match!  The addition of the flowers and other bits really brought it all together don't you think?

So you see you don't really have to choose

you can have both -

Desert and Terrarium!

Supplies:

Rubber Stamp Tapestry - Peg Stamps - Desert Cactus, Cactus Terrarium

Imagine - Memento Dye Inks, Kaliedacolor - greens, VersaMagic, Delicata, Sponge Daubers

ClubScrap.com - Cardstock, ribbon

MFT - Dies

Gemstones

Tuesday Morning Sketches #427

I love working on challenges - they get my creative juices flowing and this one was lots of fun!

This is one of my favorite quotes from Julia Child!

Made using this sketch as inspiration...

Supplies:

ClubScrap.com - Cardstock, Trattoria Images

Imagine - Delicata - Dark Brown Shimmer; VersaMagic - Gingerbread, Red Magic

Freshly Made Sketches #311

Decided to play along with some challenges today, just playing for the sake of getting inky fingers.  This is the first...

It's my take on Freshly Made Sketch #311

Supplies:

ClubScrap.com - Cardstock; Trattoria images & sentiment

Imagine - Delicata Dark Brown Shimmer; VersaMagic - Gingerbread