This card was from last week’s Technique Freaks class. The technique on this card is called Color Wash and is very easy! You could go crazy combining color combinations with this technique and it is addictive! Just mix a couple drops of a reinker of your choice with a tsp of water. Using your Aquapainter, brush the color onto your card stock and intensify by adding more color until you get the hue to your liking. In this sample I made a color wash with Apricot Appeal and Pink Passion reinkers. I love those colors together! This technique is wonderful when wanting to create beautiful sunset art–especially with our wonderful Silhouettes line of stamps! ENJOY!

Isn’t this the most stinkin’ cute pair of britches you’ve ever seen! Kinda timely with that Traveling Pants movie coming out, too! I actually loved this card from my punch class so much I made it for convention swaps, too. (or at least my most wonderful assistant Dena helped me do it! I’m sure she was cursing me a blue streak with all the stitching she had to do with the tag punch pockets! Thanks Dena—you’re the best!) A lot of people asked me about the wheel — It’s the Perfect Fit wheel (how appropriate, aye?  All I did was sketch me out a pants template that would fit the standard sized 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 inch card and traced it, wheeled it, added the white accents with the Signo White Gel pen and then make the tag pockets. It truly is a quick and easy card!

Yes, this was another Tag Punch card. Pretty cool, aye? I can’t post the instructions for you because I want to teach this class again. Sorry folks. 

Here’s a couple cards I did in July for my Tag punch class:

I know that this set is retired now, but it wasn’t when I did the class in July! :o) This uses the old Ronald McDonald fundraiser set. But, hey…you’re gonna really dig the new one! It has a coordinating punch — a scallop square!  Anyway, I’ve always wanted to do a card that uses the tag punch as a fence. Not my best work, but cute nevertheless!

Can you tell I was trying to use up some Designer Paper with this card? :o) ha ha ha! Yes, this was the 2nd card from the tag punch class. Not sure I like all the busy patterns, but again, the idea is cute! I’ll post the other two cards from the class tomorrow! Stay tuned! Gotta give you more ideas to make up for my long absence!

Okay–here’s the weird thing that happened. I posted a whole long story of why I’ve been incognito for so long and it went through just fine…as those of you who are subscribers know. However, at around the same time I also began attempting to update my sidebars on my blog and something weird happened—all the sidebars disappeared. When I called Amy, my wonderful blogmaster, she tried to fix it and said, "Uh Oh—you really hurt yourself!" So, the techie support people she deals with had to step in and take me back to the back up from the night before. Hence, the missing post! So, if any of you linked to me on that post–it will click to Nowhere’s ville! Sorry about that! Don’t know what I did…..

Now I’m scared to go update myself again. But, here’s hoping it works this time! :o) Thanks for all your loyalty and patience when it comes to the long silence and my ineptitude! Some creative posts are comin’…I promise! Hugs!

You really can’t tell from this scan, but the rose image actually has a cool texture to it from the technique called Faux Linen. I’m actually giggling to myself right now as I look at my scan! Somehow I managed to put the rose layer on upside down. Those new rosebuds shouldn’t be looking down!  What a goober! This card is also a buckle card that has a Word Window punch opening with a "belt" looping through. Perhaps, if I get a chance next week, I can photograph the card so you can see how it opens!

This faux leather technique is an oldie but a goodie! It is not one I do that often as it can get kinda time consuming. But, it’s kinda fun to bring it out now and again when you wanna impress someone! 

This card was actually kinda CASED from last year’s Art From the Heart CD that we could purchase at or after convention last year. I just changed one of the layers to a faux leather layer and rotated the Hodge Podge hardware around to accomodate the wide grosgrain ribbon.

Here’s the first of three cards being offered in my Technique Freaks class this coming Monday. This card uses the technique Black Magic. Warning!!! This technique can become quite addictive once you see how easy it is!

The real key to making this image pop on the black card stock is SU!’s Signo White Gel pen! A steal at $3.95! If you haven’t purchased one of these pens yet, hop on it! It is, unequivocally, the best white gel pen on the market! And, you can only purchase it from your favorite SU! demonstrator…ME!

My first 48 convention swaps are done! WAHOO!! Thanks to a little help from my friend Sheila Weber! Here’s a quick way to knock out a lot of cards at once:

Take a whole sheet of card stock and stamp your background design all over it. In this case, Sheila stamped 8 sheets of Confetti Cream with the various shells on Confetti Cream with Creamy Caramel, Sahara Sand and Close to Cocoa inks.

While she was doing that I cut 48 front panels in Confetti Cream and Chocolate chip as well as the back Chocolate Chip base.

I then stamped 48 Star Fish shells and water colored them just about around the time Sheila finished up her stampin’. Next was to adhere the starfish image to the chocolate chip layer. Next, was cutting the background sheets into 4 x 5 1/4 inch layers and then it was adding the ribbon. All the rest was just a speedy gluing and wala! 48 cards done! NEXT!

(above is a photo of a wall and mirror in my home office)

I swear on the bible that this was the easiest home decor project EVER!! This "Life Is Good" Decor Element was up on my wall in FIVE MINUTES!! I guess I should pre-qualify that I am not a read-your-instructions-and-measure-twice kind of girl! So, I literally, peeled, stuck to the wall (didn’t even bother to get a ladder or stool to stand on) with an adjustment to correct the slant and rubbed it on and peeled it off! I’m sure it helped that this was a nice big and bold image–but NOTE–this is the small size in our brochure! And for all you doubting Thomases out there, I have EGG-PEEL finish on my walls and it went on wonderfully!

This Create Definition was the medium size and again I just slapped it on. This one, however, needed to be handled a little more gingerly because of the smaller, thin letters. But with a little patience and a little more rubbing, it, too, went on without a snag! This is such a cinch!

How rewarding it was to take only 5-10 minutes and you’ve created a wall element that breathes new life into your decor. Just think of the unlimited possibilities and impact one of this Decor Elements can make quickly and easily on any surface in any room of your home!

I know now that I’ve seen how easy these are to work with, I had to order more. And they can’t get here fast enough!\

For more information, check out the brochure here. Or, view a brief video here.

Gosh this card is so stinkin’ cute!! I just wanna slip a quarter in there and get me a gumball! Hey, that just gave me another idea! Why not use our slit punch and give the card receiver even more fun with some quarters slid into some punched out slits?? AHA…more stampin’ for another day! Sigh…never enough time to stamp all the cool ideas in my head! :o)

This was the final project for my Designer Label punch class I had last Monday. It was also the favorite…even though mine is still the wrist watch. What’s yours? Why not post here and let me know!

As you can see from the picture below, I included some Hubba Bubba bubble gum. Now who wouldn’t want this as a token of fun and thoughtfulness?

Here’s the card ingredients:

Stamps: Curvy Verses, Celebrate You, Dotted background stamp (retiring!!!)

Card stock/paper: Glorious Green, Real Red, Summer Sun, Ballet Blue, Only Orange, Brushed Silver, Basic Black and Whisper White

Ink: White Craft pad, Ballet Blue and Real Red Classic pad

Accessories: Designer Label punch, 1" Circle punch, 1/2" Circle punch, 1/4" Circle punch, Slot punch, 5/8" Brocade Blue grosgrain ribbon