RST Prize and a Tilda

Some people think I am the peggysue who won Vintage Picnic from Papertrey Ink. I am not that peggysue, that is a different person and I wish her all joy from her fabulous prize and much enjoyment utilizing the stamps! That set is on my wish list however.

  Here you see a prize that I did win recently, much to my surprise, from Rubber Stamp Tapestry. The company has a very helpful blog, here, which has tutorials for using their peg stamp sets. I entered a comment admiring a card and voila! won the stamp pads and stamp pegs you see above. I have to admit, I had mixed feelings about this win . . . I really had no thought in my mind of winning a set, I was just leaving a nice comment. I've been missing my dad more than ever with Father's Day so close around the corner . . . but the vintage stamps are lovely and I will put them to good use.  Thank you to Rubber Stamp Tapestry for your generosity and the tutorials which are helping me understand better than ever how to utilize my peg stamps. 

  And the card is just a Tilda using up some scraps I had lying on my desk. I have been organizing my paper into hanging file folders and trying to clear things up in general. I had colored her a while ago and had that exact size piece of DP as a scrap lying about, so I put them together and made a card. Thanks for looking. 

Cascading Leaves Socks

My friend Vikkijo heard I had green socks and told me about this marvelous new invention called 'soap.' I can hardly wait until my husband comes home from work so I have a chance to hit the stores and check it out. :)

  Feeling the need to prove that I don't wear my socks until they turn green, I'm posting the type of project I work on while traveling. Here to the left you see before you the best self-defense mechanism I've ever developed. I started knitting socks a few years ago after sitting and freezing at countless "Spring" softball, lacrosse, track and whatever meets. Spring in the Midwest can be warm and sunny and happy or drizzling and bone chilling cold. Knitting socks gave my hands something to do while sitting in those cold metal bleachers cheering on my children's sports teams AND when I got too cold, I could put my hands inside the partially knit sock, depending on my progress. Great incentive to knit FAST. This is a pair I started when I traveled to Colorado and finished during one of the many car trips I've had since. I only knit when I'm not driving, just so you don't worry about that. "Look at that crazy woman, shifting three lanes AND knitting too!"

 The yarn is a wonderful new discovery I found called Sea Wool. It is a 70/30 blend of merino wool and seaweed, nice and soft and springy. The pattern is called Cascading Leaves. 

  Right now I'm working with a purple of the same type of yarn and developing a pattern of my own, because the color reminds me of luscious blackberries.  

Summer Tilda post it note holder

This is what you can make while the Cubs go into extra innings during a Sunday afternoon game. The game lasted five hours today and went through 14 innings, but they won! They won! 

Ahem. Anyway, while I was going through some friends' blogs, I came across a Magnolia - licious blog hop and challenge. I haven't played with my Tildas for a while and thought it would be fun. 

I also was anxious to break into this new Doodlebug Designs paper for summer. I was at Archiver's a few weeks ago and just took one sheet of each design off the rack, I had to have the whole set! 

The challenge was to make a post it note holder and little bag to carry it. So the Tilda you see is on a post it holder and there is a very BRIGHT green post it pad inside. The 'ribbon' Tilda is sitting on is actually a stamp, I have a set, I think its Hero Arts, of ribbon style stamps and my favorite has got to be the gingham. You can make it in any color and it looks like it is real ribbon. 

My favorite way to color Tilda is with an aquapainter and SU reinkers. One day I'll get around to really learning how to use my copics, but for now Tilda and I will paint together! :)

And I guess I was itching to make some layers after the no layer card challenge for PTI so my little bag has lots of them! I also wanted an excuse to use that lacy vintage cuttlebug die and it kind of reminds of this loopy, short sort of garden fence my dad used to put around strawberries when I was young. The bag looked a little plain, so I used the Martha Stewart punch to add a bit of coordinating loopiness at the top. :) And I had a wee bitty strawberry stamp set from Stampendous that sort of matches the strawberries in the Doodlebug Designs paper. Thanks for looking. 

Whoops! I forgot to put a link, in case you want to play too, you have until June 12th. Here is the link with the details: http://magnolia-licioushighlites.blogspot.com/2009/06/magnolia-licious-dt-blog-hop-summer.html

Stamps: Hero Arts ribbon, Stampendous Strawberry Cutie, Magnolia Tilda, PTI 'Life' set (sentiment)

Cardstock: Kraft, chipboard, doodlebug Designs summer paper set, Bazill Starmist textured paper, SU pink pirouette, watercolor paper (tilda)

Inks: wide variety of SU reinkers including Pacific Point, Barely Banana, Summer Sun, Marigold Morning, Close to Cocoa, Pixie Pink, Graphite Black Brilliance archival ink

Other: SU retired ribbon (brown bag handle), spellbinder nestabilities, cuttlebug vintage die, gemstone, Martha Stewart border punch 

Papertrey Princesses Challenges 2 & 3

The idea behind a challenge is just that, to make it challenging! I found these both difficult, but that is the point. :)

The first card is a one layer creation. I hope adding the strip of twill isn't cheating, it is one layer of paper, although I wanted to paper piece the teapot so badly! 

I was smiling the entire time I was creating as I hadn't stamped in over a week, such a great reminder of the pleasure we get from our hobbies. 

I enjoyed mixing stamp sets and I pulled out my Spots & Dots for the first time, and I used the Life stamp set too. I left it out because I want to use it again after I put up this post. 

For the second card, we were supposed to challenge ourselves to pull out a stamp set that was collecting dust. That would be my holiday tag set from 2008. I never have used it, although I like it very much, I just never feel inspired by it. I mixed four colors for it including hibiscus, Spring Moss, Aqua and Spring Rain, oh, White craft too for the polka dots. Thanks for looking.

Scripture Verse Ocean's 11 challenge

Grace from our Ocean's 11 blogger group put out a challenge a while ago to use a favorite scripture verse or quotation on a card. I thought about this one for a long time . . . choosing a favorite scripture verse is like asking me which of my children I love best. All of them all the time and for different reasons! 

So I thought back on the reasons why I started this blog and why I stamp. I stamp because I like to create pretty things, I like to make people happy by giving those things away. I also do it because to me any form of creative expression is a way of giving back to the Creator.  Sure, everyone likes comments, everyone likes praise for their work but if at my core I am doing all these things for myself, then I'm doing it for the wrong reasons. I also am striving constantly to improve on what I create, because to me that too, brings praise to our Creator when we hone the skills He so generously gave us to begin with. 

I started my blog because it seemed like a way to have fun, a way to get to know people and a way to share my creations. But I blog also as a way to share what is most important in my life, my faith, my love for God. 

So this isn't a card, but something to hang in my kitchen. I think I'll get it framed, or put it on a stand, maybe make a few other key verses in the same size and rotate them. How often am I grumbling inside when I have to do the dishes, or another load of laundry, or pick up a gallon of milk at 11 o'clock at night! Everything we do, everything I do, if it is one of my responsibilities -- done for the glory of God is a worthy task and should be done cheerfully. This verse just seemed to encompass so many things that have been on my mind lately and could serve as a good reminder of WHY I do what I do.  Thanks for the challenge Grace and thanks for looking. 

Stamps: self generated verse, Harrington font 24 pt type, Autumn Leaves 'On the Edge,' Crafty Secrets 'Cherish' (flourish)

Paper: Vanilla, white, tangerine, green, yellow, Berry Sorbet, polished stone using Yoyo Yellow, Marigold, Rose, Pink Pirouette, Tangerine, alcohol, gold craft

Other: cuttlebug vintage folder, pearls, Summer Sunrise ribbon (PTI), gold organdy (PTI), gold EP, PTI New Leaf button, Spellbinders nestabilities oval 

Answers to a couple questions

I don't know how else to do this, so I'll do a post that hopefully answers some questions that I didn't get to in original posts. I don't know if you do this under comments or what, so this is the way I will choose to do so. 

The headache sachet mixture . . . I had an herbalist warn me that herbs were the original medicine of settlers and Native Americans, including other cultures as well, before pharmaceutical companies starting mixing up their own brews, so anything you try herbally with your body you should do with caution. 

That being said, in the headache sachet mixture I mixed one part lavender with a half portion of lemon verbena and pinches of crushed whole cloves until the mixture had just a bit of a clove scent in addition to the other two. As far as the cloves, I would search around until you find them for a good price at the grocery store. As an example, there is a chain that is a half mile from my house, we often walk there if we just need to buy a few things, but they only offer one brand of whole cloves and a tiny jar is $7.99. I go to a different chain store when I take my mom shopping, it is much further away but they sell the same size tiny jar for $1.99. No kidding. So when you buy cloves, shop around. 

The lemon verbena and lavender I found online at www.localharvest.org, an organization dedicated to (I think) helping sell the produce of small operation farmers. I bought the lavender two years ago, intending to make sachets and finally got around to doing so just this last month. That's how poky I am. :) When I bought the lemon verbena it came in larger sized leaves, so I crumpled it with my hands before mixing it with the lavender. 

As far as the fabric, any scraps will do, but be sure to measure it before you stamp it. Iron it after you stamp it to set the ink. Not that you'll be washing a sachet, but it helps anyhow. And I used Palette inks on the fabric, by far the best of the types of inks I tried for fabric stamping. 

Glitter Fishies . . . I used Martha Stewart glitter, but I've used Art Institute and other fine glitters and they work just as well. But one of the important things to have is the Art Institute Dries Clear glue and the applicator tip. I don't know if a LSS sells it, mine doesn't, so I had to order it online. Other glues will dry opaque, not clear, and you need a type that will dry clear so you can see the glitter. 

Hope this helps. 

PTI May Blog Hop

Tonight is the Papertrey Ink blog hop and this month's challenge was to use yellow. Seems pretty simple, but I fussed and fussed way too long over creating one card. Eventually I decided on the polished stone technique to give the teapot some shine and color variation. IRL it looks a bit like a real china teapot. I used four different colors of ink, including pink pirouette, rose, yoyo yellow and marigold and the colors when they dried are a close match for PTI berry sorbet and lemon tart, but they look a mix of rose petals to me. The yellow paper in the corner elements and the panel behind the teapot were made using homemade glimmer mist, so the paper has a bit of a shimmer to it. Again, I used yoyo yellow in the glimmer mist mixture, along with pearl colored pearl ex and when it dried, it looks a lot like lemon tart. I coped layout elements from a project Betsy V posted in the April blog hop, also copied her little tea holder for some gifts I gave to friends in Colorado earlier this month. Thanks for looking. 

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Tea for Two

Ink: Black Stazon, Gold craft, four reinkers for polished stone: pink pirouette, rose, yoyo yellow and marigold morning

Cardstock: vanilla, berry sorbet, white sprayed with homemade glimmer mist, random DP

Other: yellow GG ribbon, rubbing alcohol, cotton balls, gold EP, pearl ex, vintage corner die cut, PTI button, fiskars decorative scissors, threading water edge punch