Basic Grey Fall

I've mentioned more than a few times how much I love Basic Grey designer paper, and I never tire of using it. The distressed solids provide such a rich and interesting background for the silhouette stamps. These are a couple of cards I've had finished for two months and just haven't gotten around to photographing. I've used my favorite leaf stamp. With no hardware, these are flat and easily mailed.

Recipe: stamps- Branching Out (SU), leaf from Botanicals (SU); paper- Basic Grey designer paper, black, rich razzleberry (SU) leaf on tire swing card, rust (leaf on other card); ink- black archival.

Mini Lunchbox

Tosh sent us CCEE'ers a mini lunchbox to decorate for the October 26 challenge. And by mini, I mean 3 1/2" by 2 1/2". I sprayed the box with Rustoleum hammered pewter paint and covered the sides and front with pink designer paper. The snowflake is stamped and embossed in white, then areas are colored with diamond Stickles.

Recipe: stamps- Rubber Stampede; paper- Wild Rose (Frances Meyer); Ink- white pigment (Color Box); accessories- diamond Stickles, white ep, pearl trims, pink satin/sheer ribbon (Offray).

You won't be seeing any more CCEE challenge cards for a couple months. We're taking November and December off. With those two months being so busy, we decided we deserved a break. I'm sure we'll all be stamping, just no challenges.

Sparklegirl

The CCEE challenge for October 19th was the 'featured stamper' and our challenge hostess, Tosh, chose 'Sparklegirl', aka Silke. Tosh really took the word "challenge" to heart and loaded it for us this time. The card was to be square, feature a girl, have sparkle, and true to Silke's style, have lots of white space. Also, (if that weren't enough) because of Silke's name, we were to feature the faux silk technique. For those of you not familiar with this technique, it actually quite easy. You stamp on tissue paper, crumple it, cover a piece of cardstock with glue, and apply the 'uncrumpled' sheet of tissue paper. It has so much texture and gives a really nice effect. My touch of sparkle is dots of black Stickles added to the dog collar. Every dog needs a black diamond dog collar! I checked out Silke's blog to get hints of her interests and found that the family dog is a boxer, thus my choice of stamps. Also, I dressed the girl for fall by giving her long sleeves and boots.

Recipe: stamps- Le Jardin Botanique (SU), My Favorite Things; paper- white, white tissue paper, Basic Grey; ink- black archival, SU markers; accessories- black Stickles, Prismacolor pencils, Turpenoid.

Dam # 5

One of my favorite things to do is to go for a drive, find a road I've never taken before, and discover where it goes. Sometimes it's just a nice drive and sometimes you discover little treasures...a beautiful scene, something historical, a new bird (for my bird watching list), a neat little flea market, etc. We so often overlook that which is right under our noses.


Last week, Gary and I took the long way home from a simple trip to Lowe's, traveling down a road we hadn't traveled in a long time. We live close to the C&O Canal, and we stopped at Dam #5. The day was cool and gray, but it was still a beautiful sight.



An old lockhouse.

A Birthday Challenge

This may look familiar. I used the exact same background for another card recently. Monday the 19th, our CCEE hostess issued a double challenge. Half of it was to make a card for Cindy's birthday. Cindy collects teapots and loves polkadots, so we were to incorporate this in our projects. I have no teapot stamps. But I did happen to have one image that I had stamped ages ago, using a friend's stamp. It was black on natural. Out of all the designer paper I have, the only paper that coordinated was the paper Cindy sent us for an earlier challenge. I had made an extra base card when I did that project, as I often do when I happen to do something I really like, and I love these papers. So please forgive my uncreativity, but this is the result.

Recipe: stamps- teapot (source unknown), sentiment (computer generated); paper- black, ivory, dp (source unknown); ink- black archival; accessories- paper flower (Creative Memories), button.

"Chair"man of the Board

Okay, I have a thing about chairs. I love them! It is very difficult for me to pass up a sturdy chair at a flea market, no matter how bad it looks...especially if it's in the $5 to $20 range. I kind of try to sneak them into the house now, because my husband is to the point that he gives me that "look", and I get "what in the world are you going to do with another chair?


I bought this for $5 to use for a desk chair. And of course, I forgot to take a 'before' photo. So I laid the old seat fabric over the finished one to get this picture. The seat was very uncomfortable due to a few broken support wires in the front, and was covered with a scratchy, faded fabric (not quite as orangey as the picture looks).

Using an upholstery fabric remnant I bought for a whopping $1, and replacing the broken wires, this is the result. Professional upholsterers shouldn't look too close, but I'm pleased with my $6 chair.

Shape Up Tall

Last week our CCEE shape challenge was square, this Monday's is to make a tall card. I turned it on it's side which I guess makes it a wide card, but I think it will pass. The four panels are cut from Basic Grey distressed designer papers, using a narrow strip on the inside part of the card behind the punched border to make it stand out. The stamp is one I've had for ages, but still love. I stamped it on four different printed papers, embossing it in black. Then I used close to cocoa and old olive SU markers to color the center and the leaves and stem, after which I cut them out. The brown base card is stamped with the "sanded" background stamp from Stampin'Up. The finished card fits a standard business envelope.
You may have noticed that I often do not put a sentiment on my cards. It's usually because I don't want to limit it's use to a particular occasion. I can always add a sentiment later, when I actually need a card.

Recipe: stamps- sanded (SU), sunflowers (Anita's); paper- brown linen (DCWV), Basic Grey dp, various dp; ink- white pigment (Color Box), versamark; accessories- black ep, ribbon (Offray), SU markers, eyelet border punch (SU).