Sylvia's Stamping Corner

SWAP CARDS FOR MARCH....... IT'S SPRING!

I spent part of my day working on the computer, taking a class on line about fixing  photo's in Adobe Photo shop. Hopefully by the time the course is over, there will be an improvement in the photo's I display on my blog. We can not always take perfect pictures, but according to the teacher of this class, we cn manipulate them with the computer. I guess we'll see!

Tonight's post is dedicated to our monthly swap. The theme for our swap cards for Marchwas SPRING. We have 4 very different cards, just like spring can be very different depending on where you live. The first card is Brenda's. Brenda used her Big Shot and the flower embosslit to create the flowers and leaves of spring. She used cheery, fibrant colors, then inked the card stock and added a pearl cabochon center. Her inking made the card stock look like the velvet of petunia or pansy petals. She did a nice job with this card. I am thinking of you tonight, as I post your card.

Christina's card is second. It explodes with color, so vibrant and alive. The bold Summer Sun card stock, the Kiwi Kiss ribbon and the blue of the card, reflect how spring bursts onto the earth and color is quickly everywhere. She used her punches to create the flowers and added green rhinestones for the flower centers. This is a beautiful card, thanks Christina for sharing.

Natalie's card is third. Natalie used Barely Banana for her card base along with blue and yellow designer paper to add so much to this card. She paid a lot of attention to her layout and her focal point was her flowers, which look like Black-eyed Susan's. This card is as delicate and soft as a warm spring day. She also used Thinking of You as her theme. Great card Natalie, you used my favorite colors, and the paper oh so nice.

I posted my card already. But so you can see how different they all were, I am posting it again. We were challenged by Stampin'Up! to use orange for spring. So my card used Tangerine Tango. We have so many beautiful colors that it is sometimes hard to choose. This card said spring to me with the oranges, pinks, and a little yellow,blue and green. Hope you enjoy all the cards. Well done everyone.

I think I must have been ready for an April Fool's joke, in my title I typed Swap cards for April, as I did in the first sentence, before I realized what I had done and changed it to March. LOL!

RASPBERRY SUITE # 2

Saturday, while looking at the challenge cards, I found a new challenge. Dawn McVey has been posting her cards on Kristina's Color Inspirations for awhile. Her cards are always beautiful and her blog inspiring. She has started a challenge called Raspberry Suite. Even the name sounds delicious! You may navigate to her blog by clicking on her name listed in Sylvia's Favorites in the left column. Thanks, Dawn for a new challenge.

Dawn's colors for this week were Brown,Teal, White, and Celery/Moss. I used Brown/Chocolate Chip, Taken With Teal, Whisper White, and Certainly Celery. These are such beautiful colors that I had to pull out a set I have not used for awhile but really love to water color. I use Bloomin Beautiful, a Stampin'Up! set. I used card stock and inks in all the colors, designer paper in Certainly Celery,Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon  1/4", half Pearls from Pretties kit, Trio flower punch, Black Stazon, blender pen, glue, and glue dots. The hydrangea flower is noted for it's beautiful color changes . Hope you enjoy the card. Have a great day! 

SNOW PICTURES FROM TRINIDAD, COLORADO, MARCH 27, 2009

 

It finally quit snowing 24 plus hours after it started. I only got a few pictures because the sun came out then kept going back under the clouds. The light just wasn't right. I have so many pictures anyway. That was Friday when I took these pictures and it was so, so cold. My wooden cat from Indonesia, in the wood planter has only a face peering out.

I got out Saturday to clean off the 12 inches of snow that was not melting off the front porch deck. Unfortunately for me, the hoe I usually keep to clean off the snow was put up so I had to use the broom. It does not work so well.

The driveway was almost clear as the wind had helped blow away a lot of it. The ground is also so warm that it is melting fast. It was a good. wet snow, and we really needed it.  The trees always look so beautiful covered in snow! This was March 27, 2009.

KRISTINA WERNER COLOR INSPIRATION #47 CARD 2

I wanted to do an elegant card with these colors. But this week, my brain just won't let the images pop through. I almost have a sketch in my head, then it fades or I hit a road block. The colors have been bugging me since she put them up. Anyway, I had to do another card so here it is.

  I used the Hostess level 1 Hostess set for my be happy stamp. I used a Chip board bird, Designer Series papers in So Saffron and Tangerine Tango, the Scallop circle punch, So Saffron buttons, Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, white rick rack from two years ago, and So Saffron and Chocolate Chip card stock. I zig zagged each strip n the sewing machine, just to be different. These still are not my colors, but I do like the card! This is a fun card. By the way, the 12 inches of snow we got is melting really fast.

KRISTINA WERNER'S COLOR INSPIRATION #47

It's snowing here in southern Colorado and has been for the last 12 hours. So a good color challenge is just what I needed. The colors this week were a little more difficult. The colors were Chocolate Chip, Tangerine Tango,  So Saffron, and Whisper White. Now if I had just had a banana split stamp, it would have been so easy! Oh well. Here is my card.

I used the Great Friends Stampin'Up! set. Card stock used was Whisper White, Tangerine Tango, and Chocolate Chip. I used a piece of Tangerine Tango DSP, and Inks, Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip, and So Saffron. I used the Eyelet Border Punch along with ribbons, 5/8" So Saffron grosgrain, 5/8" Tangerine Tango striped Grosgrain, and Chocolate Chip taffeta. I dyed hemp twine for the butterflies bodies and antennae and added a white basic jumbo grommet as well as orange duo beads to complete the embellishment of the card.  Inspite of the fall colors I think it says Spring! Have a great weekend. Check back tomorrow for pictures of the snow!

EASTER CANDY BAR HOLDER WITH SHAKER WINDOW

The slider candy bar holder was so popular at Christmas that I decided to do one for Easter. I used the duck from the Wagon Full of Fun stamp set. This set will become available for purchase, April 1, in the Spring Summer Mini catalog. I made this candy bar holder using card stock and designer paper. I also decided that it would be fun to create a window. I filled this window with three decorated eggs and pink and blue chunky glitter. My beautiful duck seems to say Happy Easter. This would be great in the Easter basket. I will make a boy version tomorrow. I may be snowed in, as we are expecting up to 18 inches of snow! If so there will be plenty of time to stamp!

A CHALLENGE TO USE ORANGE FOR SPRING!

The color orange has traditionally been used as a fall color, especially for Halloween and Thanksgiving. It happens to be my grandson's favorite color as it was his father's when he was little. A challenge was thrown out to demonstrators to use orange for spring cards and projects by the Stampin'Up! home office. I am not submitting my card, but I thought, why not try to make a card with orange for spring.

 The card I made today uses Tangerine Tango, one of our in colors and Regal Rose as my primary colors. I used my favorite retired stamp for spring, Serene Spring. I wish this stamp set had gone into the catalog. It can be used in different ways even though it is primarily a water color stamp set. Everything about this stamp says spring, in this card. This card will be one of my all time favorites. Hope you enjoy!

FIRST DAYS OF SPRING!

Today, my time was spent entirely on getting the Ebay sales packaged and taken to the post office. Getting out was wonderful as the evidence of spring is everywhere. My daffodils are blooming, the prettiest yellow and white blossoms. My Lilac tree is budding and even the roses are putting for new growth. When doing my card tonight, I wanted to convey what spring is all about.

I used Chocolate Chip, Pale Plum, and Whisper White card stock, Soft Sky designer paper, and Chocolate Chip Ink, for the main body of my card. I used a beautiful bird, a flourish stamp, and a spray of flowers to tell my story of spring. I think I will use letters spelling out spring horizontally starting under the bow to finish this card.As is, the card is nice, but it lacks something. Sometimes it takes me awhile to figure out what it needs.

TWO MORE PHOTO FRAMES USING THE BIG SHOT

Today has been what I call a weird weather day. The sun was shining one minute and the next it was cloudy, spitting rain. This went on most of the day. I think that is probably why my ideas just were'nt as sharp as usual.

I finished up my two photo frame mats for a little girls scrap book pages. They were gorgeous, until I started working on my card and my card base fell against the two mats. The embellishments on each mat were covered in Crystal Effects and the card smudged part of it. So I added another layer, which proved to be just fine, until towards the end of my card making a piece of card stock slid into the flower pot one of the mats. I repeated the process again, but I will have to re-do the pot as part of the paper was damaged. I was too tired to be working on them.

My card did not turn out quite like I wanted it either. So I will re-think itand probably do it over. I had a busy day, spending the afternoon on Ebay, with some of my auctions finishing today, the rest tomorrow. I  hopefully will do a better job at the craft table in the morning.

MY BIG SHOT IS USED FOR YET ANOTHER PROJECT

In the last week, I have had more brainstorms using my Big Shot. The Spring- Summer mini catalog arrived in the mail for my customers. So I decided to do a project using one of the new stamps sets, Wagon Full Of Fun. When I saw this set I thought, how cute to make chipboard frames for scrapbook pages.

I cut out 4 frames out of chipboard and 4 out of designer paper, two for a girl and two for a boy. I finished the set of boy frames, one using the wagon and the other using the duck stamps. If you have a cute frame like these to put on your scrap pages, how great are they going to look! Both the wagon and duck were stamped with Stazon, water colored, then hand cut and glue onto the frame.

If my grandson was younger I would put them on pages for him. Tomorrow I will finish the two that would be perfect for my granddaughter. I promise I will get another card done as well, since all of you are not into stamping for young children. This set however, is one of the cutest sets. The merchandise in the mini will be available for purchase on April 1, with a special promotion as well. Look for more things to do with your Big Shot as well.