Flaky Friends

I love the sentiment to this stamp set. I hope there's just a little flakiness in all of us. It makes life so much more enjoyable. When my family gets together, there's always a lot of laughter.

The subject for this Monday's challenge among a small group of stamping friends was to make a suspension card with a winter or Christmas theme. I was able to include another challenge on SCS...using a plaid.

Recipe: stamps- Flaky Friends (SU); paper- real red, white, patterned paper (DCWV); ink- black archival, SU markers (real red, bashful blue, certainly celery, summer sun); accessories- ribbon (Offray), tiny blue button, chalks (sky), liquid applique, dental floss, circle punches (1 1/4, 1 3/8)

The Last Rose of Summer

(Isn't there a song by that title?) I adore fall...colorful leaves, pumpkins, gourds, mums, sunflowers, candy corn, cool crisp air....ahhhh....can't you hear the strains of "the falling leaves, float by my window" in the background?....!!! I've decided the perfect seasonal year would be 5 months of autumn, 1 month of snowy winter, 5 months of spring, and 1 month of swimming hot summer. My only regret is losing my tomatoes and flowers. This is probably my last bouquet of roses for the year. There's sure to be a frost soon. And eventually...hopefully...snow. Woo-hoo!! But that's another post.

Birds and Stars and Buttons and Brads, Oh My!

Yes, those are all the things I had to put on this card. This Monday's featured stamper name was jstarbright, and this was a combination of things she likes and things relating to her name. The owl image was stamped in silver pigment ink on black paper and embossed with stardust transparent ep. I drew the tiny stars with silver gel pen and put a teeny dot of crystal Stickles in the center of each. The stripe in the black paper is silver, as is the background edging. For the buttons I put the prongs of silver brads through the buttonholes, then coated the top of each brad with the Stickles. So the card has sparkle and shine that the photo fails to show.

Recipe: Stamps- Inkadinkado (Winter Birds), MFT (Essential Sentiments); Paper- Basic Grey (Ambrosia), DCWV (striped, mellalic silver), black; Ink- silver pigment; Accessories- silver ep, stardust transparent ep, silver brads, black buttons, silver gel pen.

Do-It-Yourself Designer Paper

The challenge issued for Monday, October 6 was to create your own patterned paper and use a fall theme. The floral paper was created using the flower from SU's Carte Postale, colored with rust and artichoke markers. The stripe was done with those two colors, plus mellow moss. I just did it freehand using a straightedge, no measuring. I finisheded each stripe grouping with a fine line of chocolate chip. All three panels were topped off with linen stamped in river rock. It's nice to know if you need patterned paper and do not have the right colors, you can just make your own.

Recipe: stamps- Carte Postale, Linen, and Simple Sayings II (all SU); Paper- always artichoke, chocolate chip, off-white; Ink- chocolate chip, river rock; Accessories- Cuttlebug, SU markers, brads, Prima flowers.