Grunge Butterfly for As You See It Challenge 006

I can't believe that the As You See It Challenge Blog has already issued five weeks of challenges and now we're ready for #6!!  It's been a blast designing for the challenge and also seeing the great projects our readers are coming up with.  Amanda is doing a great job with the sketches and other types of challenges and our participation rate increases each week!  I have to tell you how impressed I am with the entries.  It's always SOOO hard to pick winners!

Here's the sketch for this week:

There doesn't look like a lot of room for interpretation with this sketch at first glance, but then I decided to get grungy and it opened up a whole world of uniqueness.  Here's my take on the sketch:

• Of course, I used Gorgeous Grunge to get all my water marks and those great tire tracks!  I'll never forget Pam Morgan at Convention this summer saying that you shouldn't use Gorgeous Grunge inked up in red, because it would look like a crime scene.  I used Smoky Slate for some of the marks, and others I inked in VersaMark and embossed with Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder.
• I used Victoria Crochet Trim for the scalloped border on the sketch.  I pleated it in parts and used my sewing machine to add it to the Very Vanilla panel.
• Did you know you can emboss almost anything?  I added silver embossing powder to the button, the scallop circle, the embossed butterflies.  I even silver embossed some linen thread to make antennae for the butterfly, but took it off because it looked too busy!

• The sentiment is from the Loving Thoughts stamp set and is stamped in StazOn here.
• I really like the subdued palette of So Saffron, Very Vanilla and Pool Party.  It's perfect for a grunge look.
• I have quite a selection of butterflies among my stamps and punches and dies, but opted for the Beautiful Wings Embosslits.  It die cuts and embosses at the same time and you get a total of five butterflies of various sizes and designs each time you run it through the Big Shot.  I added VersaMark by lightly touching the pad to the raised embossing and the edges of the largest butterfly and covered it with Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder and heat set it with my heat tool.

Won't you try some grunge design?  It's so much fun to play around with and allows you to be super creative.  You can't live without the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set though!  Leave me a comment about your work with grunge design.  Do you like it?  How have the projects turned out for you?

Stamps:  Gorgeous Grunge (w130514; c130517); Loving Thoughts (w128436; c125845)

Paper:  So Saffron (105118), Pool Party (122924) and Very Vanilla (101650) cardstock; Smoky Slate Textured 12" x 12" cardstock (132131)

Ink:  StazOn Jet Black (101406); VersaMark (102283); Classic Stampin' Pads In Smoky Slate (131179)

Accessories:  Victoria Crochet Trim (118481); Very Vintage Designer Buttons (129327); Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder (109131)

Tools:  Heat Tool (129053); Beautiful Wings Embosslit (118138); Big Shot (113439); 2 3/8" Scallop Circle Punch (118874)

Beautiful Wings Embosslits

Big Shot

Gorgeous Grunge Stamp Set

Heat Tool

VersaMark Ink

Very Vintage Designer Buttons

Victoria Crochet Trim

Sympathy in Springtime

Spring has finally made an appearance in our neck of the woods!  It has been teasing us for a long time.  The weather would warm up and we would have a few sunny days in a row.  We would sigh with pleasure and  allow ourselves to think that it was going to be warm for good, when BAM!  The temperature would fall and the dark and threatening clouds would pile up and we would get rain, or snow or hail!  But, as if they were tired of waiting, the blossoms are coming out in force on the fruit trees and the forsythia.

                                                                                                                                                               


So nice to see all the blossoms, especially when they forecast all the delicious fruit that we will be harvesting in a few months.  The cherries will be first, followed, at length, by the nectarines, and then the prune plums!






I think bereavement must be especially hard to bear in the early spring when there is so much hope surrounding us, but a good friend lost her father this week and I was given the task of making a sympathy card for her from our church congregation.

I wanted to try a one-layer card, since it was a challenge from The Paper Players this week.  The concept is a real challenge for me, as you well know, but I wanted to use the beautiful nosegay of flowers from The Best of Flowers stamp set, which is part of the "25th Anniversary Best of"... releases.  Before stamping the image in StazOn Jet Black, I embossed the front of the card with one of the Designer Frames Folders.

I then used some sponge daubers with some Regal Rose, Baja Breeze and Certainly Celery ink and added some colour to the image.  All three of these colours are being discontinued and paper and ink will only be available in these colours while supplies last.  Let me know if you want to order some.  The sentiment is from the Loving Thoughts stamp set and is simple but elegant enough for this one-layer card.  I was sorely tempted to add some ribbon, or brads or pearls, but resisted and I am hoping I hit the mark, not only for the contest, but also for my friend and her family.  

These are exciting times at Stampin' Up right now.  We will have the Retired Items list available on Wednesday, April 24 and make sure you come back and check my blog that day for links to the list.  Many stamp sets and accessories are being retired to make way for the new sets and accessories in our 2013/14 Idea Book and Catalogue, which I happened to get a sneak peek at on Saturday, because of earning the chance in our recent Book-a-thon.  You have some sweet surprises in store for you!  If you ordered from me in the past year, you will be getting a copy in the mail around the middle of May.  If you didn't order from me and you would still like to get a copy, let me know.

Stamps:  Best of  Flowers (133342)**; Loving Thoughts (w125843; c125845)
Paper:  Whisper White (100730) card stock
Ink:  StazOn Jet Black (101406); Classic Stampin' Pads in Regal Rose (126947)*, Baja Breeze (126960)* and Certainly Celery (126958)*
Tools:  Designer Frames Embossing Folders (123130); Sponge Daubers (102892)
*Retired colour, only available while supplies last
**The Best of.... stamp series are only available in clear mount

Craft Room Reorganizing and Leadership Swaps

Whew!  I had so many stampin' plans this weekend, but I really only accomplished one of them and that was cleaning up and organizing my overcrowded and messy craft room!  I vastly underestimated how long it would take.  I got my DH to do some renovating of my shelves - basic IKEA wood shelving units with ridiculously large spaces between the shelves.  He added some shelves to make the space more usable.  So my clear mount stamps are all organized and accessible in alphabetical order.  Now I just have to get him to do the same renos on my wood mount shelves.  I also was able to get my growing punch collection out of the plastic drawers in a rolling cabinet and onto a shelf where I can see them and they don't tip the whole cabinet over if I open the drawer too far.  After this, my long-suffering hubby has promised to make me some ribbon holders out of PVC drain pipe cut in half.  Once that is done, my crafting space should be much less frustrating.  Of course, I'd like to have the resources and time to install custom cabinets and work spaces, but that will remain a future goal for the time being!  Here's some photos:

My clear mount stamps, newly organized.  

My DSP and specialty papers organized alphabetically.

My punches newly liberated from their drawer!

The "Before" picture of my wood mount stamps, waiting for some shelf renos!

I will definitely post the "After" photo when it is done!  I'm actually looking forward to stamping tomorrow in my more organized room!  

I wanted to share another swap card I made for Leadership 2013 in Orlando.  This was by far the most time intensive of the 4 swaps I made.  But it was well worth the time and trouble as I received some amazing cards back.  Thanks to Barbara Welch for organizing the Wow Vintage Swap.  Here was my entry in Group 4: 

I used muted colours such as River Rock and Baja Breeze along with some DSP from the Sycamore Street collection, which you can earn free for every $60 of product you purchase during Sale-A-Bration!  This particular Summer Starfruit pattern is perfect for a vintage themed card!  The sentiment is from another Sale-A-Bration product - Vintage Verses - one of my favourite products of Sale-A-Bration!  The dress form image is from Established Elegance, a stamp set from the big catalogue.  

 To complete the vintage theme, I added some Paper Daisies, some of which I dyed using reinker and water,  some sponged and crumpled ribbon, water stains courtesy of French Foliage stamp set, and some curls on the Happiest Birthday flag (stamped with Loving Thoughts).

I stitched on the eyelet edging created with Finishing Touches Edgelits, and added the requisite pearls and it was finished!  Then I had to make 16 more!  I don't mind saying that I had some panicky moments wondering if I would get it done in time, but thanks to my wonderful downline, Doreen, who came over to help and stayed long past her bedtime, we got the task completed.

Stamps:  Vintage Verses (w129633; c129636); Established Elegance (w122530; c122532); French Foliage (w120845; c121166); Loving Thoughts (w125843; c125845)

Paper:  River Rock (108640), Baja Breeze (111352) and Very Vanilla (101650) card stock; Sycamore Street DSP (127540)

Ink:  Classic Stampin' Pads in Crumb Cake (126975), Soft Suede (126978) and StazOn Jet Black (101406)

Accessories:  Pearl Basic Jewels (119247); Baja Breeze 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon (122331); Paper Daisies (119243)

Tools:  Finishing Touches Edgelits (127010); Stampin' Distress Tool (127562); Labels Collection Framelits (125598)

Baja Breeze 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon

Stampin' Distress Tool

Established Elegance Stamp Set