Just Add Sweet Royalty: Time for Sharing

I just got some die cuts from Memory Box - they came yesterday and Just Add Ink's challenge for this week is Just Add Die Cuts - it's meant to be!!

There are two other challenges out there this week that I had to play!  Stampin' Royalty has a great color challenge that adds purple in with fall colors - adding purple (or blue) to oranges/yellows is always fabulous. 

The Sweetest Thing has a sketch challenge that I really needed.  My Cuttlebug will not cut one small part of this die even with multiple shims - so this sketch allowed me to cut that part off!  (FYI: Memory Box dies are really intricate and gorgeous and I do have great luck with them using my Big Shot, but my Big Shot is buried in my scrapbook room under old sheets while I am paying my teenager to take down a wallpaper border.  Sounded like a great idea - just didn't know that it would take months!)

• Stamps: Hero Arts (a REALLY old stamp - it's in the first few pages of my stamp index which makes it more than a decade old!)
• Paper: Stampin' Up More Mustard, Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla CS and So Saffron dsp
• Ink: Stampin' Up More Mustard
• Accessories: Memory Box Wreath die, Nestabilities Circle die, Family Treasures leaf punch, Stampin' Up Scallop border punch, misc ribbon

Technostamper with Colors by SCS

The Splitcoast Color Challenge included fall colors with "Thanksgiving" being the dessert option.  I really have needed to to add Thanksgiving cards to our church card stash - so I selected this angel then realized this week's Technostamper Sketch Challenge would work very well!

I have seen a number of bloggers recently refer to Thanksgiving as the forgotten holiday.  One blogger is even challenging us to increase the number of Thanksgiving cards we send as it truly is a meaningful holiday - much more than just a delicious meal.  I was looking at our church card racks - I saw racks of Halloween cards, I knew that I had a many dozens of Christmas cards, but I only havea handful of Thanksgiving cards.  Something is wrong with that picture - so hopefully you will see a few more coming from me!

• Stamps: Stampendous angel, sentiment by Rubber Moon
• Paper: Stampin' Up Tangerine, Suede, Vanilla, Haiku dsp
• Ink: Memento brown, Stampin' Up Soft Suede, copics
• Accessories: Nestabilities narrow oval and scalloped oval, Stampin' Up Suede ribbon and Playground buttons, Smooch Pearlized Top Coat, Copper Stickles

Technostamper is that fun challenge that allows me to include other entrants on my blog.  You can learn so much by viewing what others have done with the same challenge.  Remember that if you want to enter you do have to go to the actual blog!

Less Is More: The Color of My Eyes

This week's challenge at Less Is More is to do a card on which the predominant color is the color of your eyes.  My eyes are blue - but a very nondescript blue.  It's always been a girlish dream of mine to have something unique.  Don't get me wrong - in my younger days, I had the ability to turn a head or two - but it was usually accompanied by the statement "you remind me of someone".  I didn't want to remind them of somebody - I wanted to be unique and unforgettable!  I thought a unique and startling eye color would be the way to go.

So...my card is predominantly blue - but unique shades of blue...

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Thanks for Caring, Clear Dollar Stamps Heartfelt Sentiments
• Paper: Papertrey Soft Stone, Coredinations Monaco
• Ink: Stampin' Up Sage Shadow, Night of Navy
• Accessories: Spellbinders Fancy Tags three, ribbon from Joann

I {heart} sketches (and JAI)

Thanks so much to Jen for posting a reminder that it is the last day of the month and time for a new sketch challenge.  I cannot believe I almost missed September because (1) I haven't missed a sketch yet this year and (2) I actually ordered stamps JUST for this challenge.

The sponsor this month is Skipping Stones Designs - a company out of South Dakota - my home state!!  I have wanted this set for some time so it was a great excuse to order.  You should have seen my happy dance when it came postmarked Rapid City, South Dakota - my home town!!

I needed some help with colors for this card.  I had actually decided I simply didn't have time to make any cards today - so whatever I made had to go quickly.  I scanned this week's challenges looking for something with Crumb Cake and Just Add Ink had it.  Unfortunately, it also included Calypso Coral which is at the top of my "problem" colors - it's so in-your-face, I have a terrible time including it.  I tried to mute it on this card by using white ink.

• Stamps: Skipping Stones Heartsong
• Paper: Stampin' Up Pool Party, Calypso, Crumb and white
• Ink: Stampin' Up Pool, Calypso, Crumb and Papertrey White
• Accessories: Cuttlebug embossing (on Crumb), Sizzix/Tim Holtz embossing (on Pool), Stampin 'Up Crumb Cake seam binding and Antique brads, Nestabilities circle and lacey circle

OLW: Show and Tell with Janelle

Susan's One Layer Wednesday challenge is to CASE a card from Janelle's Show and Tell blog .

If you haven't been to Janelle's blog - be SURE to get there.  I sat down yesterday morning with my first cup of coffee and two hours later was still reading.  Besides sharing beautiful cards, Janelle shares her journey with brain cancer.  She is doing it with courage, grace, humor and incredible faith.  She was diagnosed August 1, just before her daughter's wedding, but instead of feeling sorry for herself - she is sharing her bald spot and her "selfishness" regarding pork sliders and the claustrophic mask she has to wear for treatment.  And, each day, she includes scripture that has inspired her.

I found many, many cards that I want to CASE - but I want to do them exactly as they are which have multiple layers.  The challenge is to do a One Layer card - so I settled on this card (which I also want to do exactly as is with the ribbon tags) - but for today I was inspired by the black and white with the brilliant splashes of color.  Plus this card had the additional advantage of getting one more set out of my over-flowing box-of-stamps-that-will-not-be-put-away-until-they-are-used!

I use my Nestabilities dies as a stencil to draw frames.  It was amazing for me when the lightbulb came on and I realized I had a fantastic source of squares and rectangles!!


Now...I want to include some technical blog chatter.  (Just skip to the bottom if you only want the card recipe!)

A number of blog readers are saying they suddenly can't comment on some blogs. I've had the problem, so let me share a few things that I found.  I haven't completely solved the problem at my end, so if anybody knows more than I do - maybe we can conquer blogger by working together!!

In August, I started getting the warning "Your current account does not have access to view this page" while I was simply trying to comment.  These are blogs that I have commented on in the past - so I couldn't figure out what was happening.

I found this entry in the Blogger Help forum.  It seems a lot of people started having this problem in August!
Of course, these computer advice articles are always written in a language that I haven't mastered - but I figured out two things:

1) The blogs that can't be commented on have an Embedded Comment Form (vs. a Pop-Up).  I double-checked the blogs that I was having problems with and none of them were pop-up.  At this point, I did change my blog to a Pop-Up comment window so others didn't have a problem with mine.  (In Blogger, go to Settings, Comments and you can select the type of comment form.)

2) When someone cannot comment, their computer is having a problem with "authentication and cookie-filtering".  I am definitely already out of my comfort zone - but I do know this is my problem because I also have problems with two on-line stores and I get a "cookie usage" problem.  It's just too coincidental that two things have "cookie" in their problem description!  (See if you can put things in the cart at All That Scraps and Crop Stop - if you get cookie usage problems - we are in the same boat!)

I did try the remedies selected in the article but it didn't solve things for me.  And I have tried the remedies that come up with those online stores (in Internet Explorer, select Tools, Internet Options, Security and change your security level).  But...my security level is set at medium, which is the lowest mine will go.

Personally, I didn't research any further.  I do most of my blog commenting on my iPad which doesn't have the problem.  And I can always order from those stores on my iPad so I have an easy work around.

If anybody has dealt with this - or is inspired by my description to research further - let me know what you find out. 

Hope this helps someone!

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Printed Petals, Papertrey Signature Greetings
• Paper: white
• Ink: Stampin' Up markers in Pure Poppy, Daffodil, Limeade, Pacific and Orchid
• Accessories: gems colored with copics, square nestabilities

Cards for First Communion

My pastor asked me a few weeks ago to do 24 cards for our kids who are taking their first communion this weekend and, of course, I waited until the last minute.

I find this type of card so difficult to do - a serious occasion...for kids (5th grade)...for boys AND girls.  I want a few special touches on the card, but yet I have to make a lot of them so they need to be quite straightforward.

I have definitely felt better about my first communion/confirmation cards in the past.  I like this card, but I think it fails in the "appealing to kids" category.  But...as my husband pointed out...the kids will see it for about 10 seconds, then their parents will decide what to do with it!

• Stamps: Club Scrap Sacraments, cross is Clear Dollar Designs
• Paper: Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry, black and white
• Ink: Black
• Accessories: Cuttlebug border embossing, Stampin' Up Razzleberry ribbon

OLW Sentiment-a-mania with a Sketch

This week's One Layer Wednesday challenge is to create a card where the sentiment is the focus or shares the focus equally with the image.  Less Is More has a sketch for us this week.

I came home from Archivers yesterday with a Christmas sentiment stamp that I needed like a hole in the head, but it was so unique and stylish - a set designed by Ali Edwards at Technique Tuesday.

I knew that I wanted to use that first sentiment with a star in the upper corner, but my CAS card has taken me hours!  First I tried glitter paper and a Christmas star punch - broke the punch, and the star looked lost by itself. 

Then I tried a few dozen ways to add a blue square - punching, sponging, glimmer misting, etc. - when I finally hit on this technique to ink an acrylic block - I was thrilled!

But then came the simple little star.  The glitter paper was too gold - it needed to be whiter, so clearly I would just add glitter.  Have you really looked at different "white" glitters?  Some have a pink cast, some blue, some are too white with no glitz, some show dark flakes.  Yuck!  I cannot tell you how many glittered stars I have on my desk - not to mention the glitter on my PJs, carpet and even eyebrows!  The final star - which is NOT my Christmas star punch as that broke at the beginning of this saga - is a combo of Crystal Effects (or Glossy Accents) covering the star with some no-brand glitter all over it. 

I wanted the sentiment to be slightly sparkle - a "moonlit" sparkle - so after I stamped it, I just sprinkled it with the same glitter - no embossing powder or heat-and-stick - and enough flakes stuck to give me the effect.  You know how glitter sticks to everything - I don't know how long it will stay, but so far it has resisted me trying to blow it off.

So...now that you are thoroughly tired of me whining - here's the card.  I really like it - but it definitely wasn't worth the hours I put it on it - particularly given that it should have been a 5 minute card!!

• Stamps: Technique Tuesday Good Cheer
• Paper: white
• Ink: Ranger Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky and Faded Jeans
• Accessories: Emaginations Star punch, glitter, Stampin' Up Crystal Effects