More Cards for Angel's (Angelosity) Blog Candy/Challenge

This set will be given to someone who was very nice to me. I'm not going to say who. I created the shopping list using my CombBind machine. Just as a note. . .I don't mean to diss Rubicoil. I know there's a lot of you who like the Rubicoil. I think spiral coils are great but I already have a Bind-it-All but if I had to choose between the CombBind and Rubicoil, I prefer the CombBind. Mainly because of cost and its flexibility. Because the CombBind has a solid spine, I can hot glue it over chipboard so that it can look like a real book. I also like the fact that it opens up evenly. When you open a spiral bound notebook, do you notice that the pages to the left sort of shifts down. The larger the space between the coils, the more it shifts. I know its a minor issue but I don't like how it shifts. Open a spiral notebook and you'll see what I mean.

I used Angel's (Angelosity) sketch for her ongoing blog candy. . .you have 8 days left so be sure to stop by her blog site. I created more cards with Angel's sketch on Card Inspired: Click here to check them out.

This card was created using sketch #9: Click here for the sketch

Here's the second card I made. . .I love this sketch. It was a fun sketch. The difficult part was finding fall/autumn stamps that were small enough to fit into a 1 inch circle. All the images came from 4 different stamp sets.

This card is for sketch #11: Click here for the sketch

Here's the third card that I created. . .I had a bear of a time coloring the penguin. It's a great stamp by TAC but the black part of the penguin had to be colored in. ..that was really hard to do because it's hard to get a nice even color when coloring with black.

I tried watercoloring, markers, and finally Prismacolor pencil with gamsol. The watercoloring was too light, the markers were too dark and uneven. . .the Prismacolor pencils worked best but I really had to be really careful. It took a bit of effort to get it to look even.

Anyway. . .this card was created using sketch #13: Click here for the sketch

Pearl Ex Magic Tutorial

Click Here for the Tutorial

Hey Everyone, I was going to post this tomorrow but decided to do it tonight. I'm going to be busy tomorrow and I may not have time to post this tutorial.

The pictures don't really reflect how the card looks in person. It's actually very shimmery and pretty. The colors are nicer in person but my camera can't seem to capture the true essence of the card.

Anyway, I created a tutorial for the Pearl Ex Magic technique. For those who have never used Pearl Ex. . .this is a basic tutorial for beginners. It's a great way to play with the product so be sure to check it out. You'll really love the results in person.

I really need to clean up my stamping studio. I can't deal with my clutter right now. I have so many stuff piled everywhere and it's driving me batty! Seriously!! I can't stand it. I tidy up daily but there's just not enough space to put everything I want in my room. My problem is I want everything to be accessible. If I don't see it, I don't use it. Unfortunately, my floor is becoming a maze and have on several occasion stepped on stamps and ribbons that I've set on the floor. One day I'm going to trip over something and really hurt myself.


Anyway, this is basically the same as my first card but the layout is a little different. As always, my brads are crooked again. Annoying. I don't know what's the deal with that. . .

If I have time tomorrow, I'll post a few cards I made for Angel's (Angelosity) Challenge/Blog Candy. Be sure to drop by her site. . .she has a huge prize to give away. . .

Until later, folks!!

2007 Family Christmas Card

Hey Everyone! This card design will probably be our Christmas card for this year. I'll be sending this card only to family and close friends. I'll be making a different type of card for acquaintances and such.

I have to create about 25 of this scrappy card. The design had to be fairly simple to create but still have something special about it. That something special is the enclosed "Accordion Card" with pictures of my kids.

The card is actually an envelope/pocket style card. It's easy to create this pocket card. All you need to do is open up an envelope completely so that you can trace a template of the envelope or you can use a plastic envelope template. Design the envelope as you would a card and insert a card inside. In this case, I created a scrappy accordion card.

This is the accordion card inside of the pocket. To create the front of the card. I stamped the images using the "Season of Joy" stamp set. The color combo for this card is Always Artichoke and Cranberry Crisp. I mounted the image on to glitter mulberry paper.

To close the envelope/pocket (pictures above). . .I glued a strip of cardstock together, added a ribbon and slid the envelope/pocket through the strip. Without this part, due to the bulk of the scrappy accordion card inside, the envelope/pocket can't close completely.

This is the pages inside the "accordion card". I basically layered the pictures on to the mulberry paper consistent with the front of the card. To finish up the card, I added Stickles glitter to different areas of the images to give the card a little bling-bling.

CombBind Binding Machine

I recently bought a CombBind and I love it. I already have a Bind-it-All that utilizes wire coils which I think is great for larger projects such as journals, scrapbooking, address books and other projects that requires stronger binding especially when using chipboards.

I wanted to create smaller or thinner lightweight projects such as To-Do-List, memo pads, shopping list and other cool projects that don't require strong wire binding and the CombBind fits my needs in this area.

The other option was to purchase a Rubicoil that utilizes wire coil but unlike the Bind-it-All or CombBind, Rubicoil uses a spiral coil. I don't like the look of the spiral binding. Furthermore, when using spiral binding, the project don't open up evenly which I don't like. The CombBind coil or binding spine is "plastic" so it works well with light weight projects and the projects open up nicely.



Here are other reasons why I bought the CombBind: First of all, not only "I" can use it for crafting, but my kids can use it for their book reports and my husband can bind professional looking reports and presentations.

There were other benefits. . . you can purchase the CombBind at your neighborhood office supply store and buy your binding coils at your local store rather than ordering them online. The cost of the CombBind is $70 versus the cost of the RubiCoil which I believe is about $150. Forget that!

Because the CombBind is a "professional" binding machine that have been around forever, unlike crafting tools and machines, the trend don't constantly change. Businesses use the machine to bind office reports and pamphlets so it'll pretty much continue to remain constant in its design. There's no real worry that the machine will be obsolete next season. Crafting tools and machines tend to come and go with the season. What's popular today no longer will be tomorrow.

Another benefit of the machine is that you can easily refill your pages without having to create a completely new cover. You can also add more pages. The machine allows you to open up the binder easily and add the pages.

Anyway. . .the project I created with the CombBind is a combined Shopping List and To-Do-List. The cover is a medium weight chipboard that I covered with a designer paper. I tied ribbons to the spine and decorated the cover by using Stampin Up "True Friend" stamp set.

I created a matching card using the same design. This set will be going out to my RAK recipient. I don't think she visits my blog site so I'm okay with posting it.

Here is the sketch for the card. I'll type in the card details tomorrow. It's late. . .I need to go to bed. Goodnight folks. . .

Life is Getting In the Way. . .

Hey Everybody! I've been busy with life. . .and will be busy this weekend. My kids are officers of the Key Club and I've been appointed their official chauffer. What does that mean. . .well, no crafting or blogging this weekend. Hopefully, I'll have time this evening to post something.

In the meantime. . .remember the Cranberries? What ever happened to the band. . .I haven't heard anything new from them for such a long time. I love this song by them. . .check it out:

Elegant Christmas

I made this card for Angel's (Angelosity) Challenge/Blog Candy. I really had fun making this card. I'm beginning to love making simple elegant cards. I tend to gravitate towards busy cards but lately, I've been switching back and forth from busy to simple

This card is for today's sketch #19: Click Here for the sketch. Angel will be giving a big prize on the day of her birthday which is day 31 (I think). Okay. . .I sort of messed up on the sketch because the square (primary image) suppose to be smaller. I realized that I had over matted the card and it just was too big to match the sketch exactly. I didn't want to start over so I decided to keep it. The card matches the sketch if you don't take into account the layering.

I heat embossed the images with SU gold embossing powder. In person, the images are very glittery. I love it. Simple but flashy at the same time. Yay!

I decided to change the orientation of my primary image because as I stated earlier, I made the primary image too big by layering it the way I did. It would have fit perfectly if I didn't mat it.

Anyway. . .it's the same card as the first one. . .just the orientation is different. Which one do you like better?

Card Details:

Stamps: SU Etruscan

Paper: SU Handsome Hunter, Real Red, Close to Cocoa, Beige (unknown)

Accessories: SU Gold Embossing Powder, Organdy Ribbon, JoAnn Brad

Tracy's October Happiness Give Away

In celebration of her birthday earlier this month, Tracy at "Tracy's Happy Place" has a challenge for October. The challenge is to create a card with either these two themes: Hawaii or Disneyland. There's a cool prize to be given away so be sure to stop by and participate in her challenge. You still have time to play. . .

Well, because I'm from Hawaii. . .I just had to play along! I made this card using a Stampin Up stamp set. Unfortunately, I don't have the name of the set. It's an old set but a great one.

Card Details:

Stamp: I don't know the name of the SU set

Paper: SU Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, DCWV Value Pack

Ink: SU Markers, Ballet Blue

Accessories: Crystal Effects, Colorbok ribbon,

Another Card for Angel's (Angelosity) Challenge/Blog Candy

Hey Everyone! I made another card for Angel's (Angelosity) Challenge/Blog Candy. Whoohoo. . .I'm on the roll. I need a bit of catching up so I've been working diligently to catch up.

This card was created using Angel's Sketch #7: Click Here for the sketch. I love this sketch.

Update on the fires. . .thank you for everyone for your well wishes. . .I really appreciate your concern. So far, so good. The fire hasn't crossed over to our end of the mountain but fires can be unpredictable so we are keeping an eye on the fire closely.

There won't be school for my kids tomorrow. . .I guess as a precaution and the school's gym is being used for a Red Cross shelter for evacuees from Fallbrook. Fallbrook is about 15 miles south of where I live and the fires burned down several hundred homes there. Luckily, the fire has been contained towards the south west of San Diego so we're okay right now. Check out the pictures on my previous post to see how bad the smoke was this morning. It's actually gotten worse. It's terrible. I'll keep y'all updated on my situation here.

Card Details:

Stamps: Autumn Leaves, Fiskar Sentiments

Paper: SU Pretty in Pink, Close To Cocoa, DCWV Scrapbook Paper

Ink: Pixie Pink, Close to Cocoa

Accessories: JoAnn Brads

It's Looking Ominous

Hey Everyone! Here is the sky this morning. The cloud is the smoke and that's the sun in the background. In person, the sun was red. It looks so ominous. The fire has now moved North of San Diego. We're keeping an eye on this fire.

Fortunately, the Santa Ana winds have died down. It'll help immensely.

This picture was taken through my front upstairs window. The fire is now across us but at the other side of the mountain. Hopefully, the fire will remain on the other side of the mountain and not cross over. If it crosses over. . .well, we're in trouble.


It's crazy. So many lives are effected. They closed I-5. . .the main artery from LA to San Diego. They closed I-15 (another main artery to San Diego) the other day but I believe it's open now. Can you imagine. . .there's no main road leading to San Diego. San Diego is a huge city. . .over 3 million people.

Here's two cards I made last night. This first card was colored with Prismacolor Pencils with Gamsol and the card below was colored with Markers.

Card Details:

Stamp Set: SU Happy Harvest, CTMH (sentiment)

Paper: SU Really Rust, Pumpkin Pie, DCWV Fall Stack, DCWV Fall Stack

Ink: Prismacolor Pencils with Gamsol

Accessories: SU Crafter's Tool Kit (piercing tool), CB Leaves Die, SU Ticket Corner Punch, Making Memories Eyelets

Just another Thanksgiving card using the same image. I colored the image using only Prismacolor Markers. I did not use any pencil to color the image. Do you see the difference between coloring with Prismacolor Markers versus Prismacolor Pencils with Gamsol?

More Cards for Angel's (Angelosity) Challenge/Blog Candy

Here are two cards I made for Angel's (Angelosity) Challenge/Blog Candy. This card was created for sketch #4: Click here for the sketch.

I embossed the background paper with the CB embossing folder. The pumpkin image was colored using Prismacolor Markers. Nothing much else to the card other than following the sketch.

I just wanted to thank y'all for your well wishes. The San Diego fire is still going on but so far Temecula is safe. Fallbrook, about 10 to 15 minutes away, was evacuted. Unfortunately, I read that 500 homes were destroyed. The number sounds a bit high. . .I'm not positive about the number. Fallbrook is a hillside community about 15 miles from where I live. It's really sad. Fallbrook is such a nice town. It's a little scary because Fallbrook is so close to Temecula. I could see the smoke from my house. Currently, Temecula is not threatened.


Here's the other card I made for Angel's Challenge/Blog Candy. Whooo. . ."bright lights, bright lights". . .LOL. Do you remember when the gremlin in the movie "the Gremlins" said "bright lights, bright lights"? Yeah. . .the card is rather bright but hey, you have to admit it's a cool color for Thanksgiving. Well, I think so. . .

This card was created for Sketch #3: Click here for the sketch. I colored the scarecrow using Prismacolor Pencils with Gamsol for his shirt and the rest I used SU Markers with an Aquapainter.

Card Details:

Stamps: SU Happy Harvest (I think), Close to My Heart (sentiment)

Paper: Pixie Pink (I think), DCWV Textured cardstock, DCWV Scrapbook Paper

Ink: Prismacolor Pencils with Gamsol, SU Markers with Aquapainter,Versamark

Accessories: SU Crafters Tool Kit (paper piercing), JoAnn brads, Colorbok ribbon

San Diego Fires

I colored the image directly with the markers then blended the colors using an aquapainter similar to watercoloring. It actually came out okay. It blended quite well.

Did y'all hear about the San Diego fires? Well, my husband left for the airport this morning at 5:30. His flight to Minneapolis was at 8:45 which he missed because they had closed one of the main highways in San Diego and he had to drive around on to another highway. Unfortunately traffic was so bad he decided to turn around rather than attempt to fly standby for a later flight. I heard on the news that 250,000 people were evacuated and over a hundred houses were burned down. Sad. I live at the outskirt of San Diego about 30 minutes away from the fires so we're safe right now but it appears the fire is spreading.

Card Details:

Stamp: CTMH

Paper: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, DCWV Fall Stack

Ink: SU Markers

Accessories: Swirl Clip, Organdy Ribbon, JoAnn Brads

The eyelets are crooked. I hate when that happens. Oh, well.

I colored the image using Prismacolor Markers and applied a little bit of glitter to Mr. Snowman. I applied Crystal Effects to the sentiments to give them a scrapbook embellishment appearance. Nothing much else to this card.

Card Details:

Stamps: SU A Merry Season

Paper: Not sure of cardstock. DCWV Holiday Collection.

Ink: Prismacolor Markers

Accessories: Clear Glitter, Colorbok Ribbon, Making Memories Eyelets

Race For The Cure

Hey Everyone! It was Race for the Cure (Breast Cancer Fund Raiser) this weekend and my kids volunteered on both Saturday and Sunday clocking in at 11 volunteer hours! Whoohoo! This is the third year that my kids volunteered for the Race For The Cure. I was going to participate this year but procrastinated and it was too late when I decided to sign up. The kids said they had fun helping out.

I like this year's T-shirt design. They came in 3 colors. White for the runners, mint for volunteers, and pink for survivors. Here is my daughter showing the front of the "volunteer" t-shirt. I didn't like last year's design but I did like the colors which was black, pink and white. The 2005 t-shirt was a shocking purple. . .yuck.

This is the back of the t-shirt. I like the statement . . .very powerful.

Just a card I made last night. I misplaced the stamp. . .can you believe it? It's somewhere in my room but I don't know where I put it. It's crazy. I go through this all the time. . .one minute I have something in my hand, the next thing I know it, I don't know where I put it.

Anyway, I colored the image using Twinkling H2O and the rest is basically layering. Twinkling H2O is watercolor mixed with mica pigment (similar to Pearl Ex) so the colors are shimmery. You can't really see it in the picture. I love Twinkling H2O especially for elegant designs but they're not something I feel you would use on cutesy images because of the artsy appearance of the shimmery colors. Anybody ever used Twinkling H2O? What do you think of them?

I intertwined the gold metallic cord around the grosgrain ribbon. The ribbon did not come the way shown in the picture. Try it out. . .it's an easy way to vamp up a plain ribbon.

Allison's Stampin When I Can Challenge

Hey Everyone! I made this card for Allison's "Stampin When I Can" Challenge/Blog Candy. The challenge is to create a b & w Christmas card. I worked on the card the other day but only now posting it because I was busy yesterday and didn't have the time to take the pictures of the cards. I love the simplicity of my card so I made more of them in different colors.

For the first card at the top. . .I stamped the image from the SU "True Friend" stamp set 4 times using Versamark ink, heat embossed the images with black embossing powder, cut out the images and layered each image on top of one another using foam tape to give the flower a 3D effect.

I then matted the image on 3 layers of black and white cardstock. I punched the corner with the SU Ticket Corner Punch and added the brads. I did the same thing with the sentiment and added clear Stickles to give the card a little bit of glittery look to it. The embossed background is a embossed card stock by DCWV.

Believe it or not, although the card looks very simple, it took a lot of steps to make this simple card. First the heat embossing, second, the cutting of the image, and third, outlining the edge of the mats with Gold Leaf Pen which took time to dry so I had to stop with each layer and wait before I could mount them together.

Leaf pens are FABULOUS for outling edges of cards because the end results are spectacular. It gives your edge the appearance of foil lining. The pens are a little pricey but well worth it if you want to make a professional foil lining appearance to your card.

Here is a silver one. The same process was used to create this card but with this one, I used a Silver Leaf Pen. Leaf pens come in three colors that I know of. . .gold, silver, and copper.

Not to change the subject but are you a multi-tasker? I'm terrible at multi-tasking but I do it all the time. I blog, email, blurf, comment, stamp, watch TV, prepare packages, create my sketches, etc. all at the same time. I'll hop to one task to another and back and forth. I'll even hop to doing chores like throwing clothes into the laundry or vacuum then hop back to stamping. Unfortunately, everything are always half way done. Ha!

What really throws me off is when my kids or husband ask me to get dressed because we need to go somewhere or one of my kids call from school asking me to drop off something or some sort of request while I'm in the middle of my task hopping. That really drives me NUTS!! For all you SAHM you know what I'm talking about. . .this is life but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I've worked all my adult life even while in high school until two years ago and I felt more fulfillment while being a SAHM than I've ever had from working.

Are you that way too? Are you a task hopper? Just curious.

Anyway, here is the simple sketch to the card.

Christmas Cards - SU Big on Christmas

Just two simple Christmas cards I made. I colored the image using Prismacolor Markers then applied Stickles glitter. Nothing much else to the card.

I've been sorta busy for the past day or so. . .I haven't had time to really sit down and make something. I made these cards the other night. Hopefully, I'll have time tomorrow to sit down and craft. It's been one of those days!

Card Details:

Stamp: SU Big on Christmas, Riveting

Ink: Prismacolor Markers, SU Bordering Blue

Paper: SU Pretty in Pink, Bordering Blue (I think), Real Red, Provocraft Holiday Collection

Accessories: Red Metallic Cord, 1 1/4 and 1 3/8 circle punch, Stickles Glitter, Grosgrain Ribbon

Another simple card. . .I colored the image with Prismacolor Markers, applied Versamark all over and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. You can't really tell in the picture but the image has a "plastic" shiny look to it. I created the scallop edge using the SU slit punch. Nothing much else to the card.

Card Details:

Stamp Set: SU Big on Christmas

Paper: Real Red, Glorious Green, Provocraft Holiday Collection

Ink: Prismacolor Markers

Accessories: Red metallic cord, SU Slit punch, Sakura Souffle Opaque pen

Thanksgiving Card - Thoroughly Thankful

Hey Everyone! Here's a card I made yesterday. I just realized that my sentiment is crooked. I will need to fix that.

I'm going to start working on Fall/Thanksgiving Cards and I think I'm done with Halloween. I don't have too many Thanksgiving stamp sets but I'll dig through my pile and see what I have.

Anyway. . .I colored the image using Prismacolor Pencils with Gamsol and colored the background with SU Watercolor Crayons. I wanted to "brighten" it up a little more so I applied Versamark all over the image and applied clear embossing powder and heat embossed it. This helped bring out the colors. Try it out and you'll see the difference.

Card Details:

Stamp Set: Throrougly Thankful

Ink: Prismacolor Pencils with Gamsol, Prismacolor Markers, SU Watercolor Crayons, Versamark

Paper: SU Really Rust, More Mustard, DCWV Fall Stack, DCWV Textured Fall Cardstock

Accessories: SU Word Window Punch, Grosgrain Ribbon, JoAnn Brads, Clear Embossing Powder

Altered Soup Cans - Halloween

Yo! Everyone~how y'all doing? Here are two soup cans I altered today and I decorated a few lollipops to place inside the soup cans. I didn't want to do too much work on the lollipops because once the wrappers are removed, well. . .my hard work will end up in the trash so I decided not to heavily decorate them. I just wanted to make them presentable. I wished I used a "brighter" Halloween colors for the soup cans but I just pulled out any designer paper. I didn't really want to think too hard about it. I just wanted to make them.

Sometimes we get too caught up in the design that we never create anything. If I spend too much time picking out the "just right" designer paper, it'll take away from my time creating something so. . .I try not to spend too much time thinking about it.

Anyway. . .the papers are from DCWV Fall stack (last years Fall stack). The ribbon is from "Halloween Ribbon" I bought at Michaels. The stamps are from the SU "Batty for You" stamp set and the punches are 1 1/4" circle and SU Scallop punches. I attached the flower design directly on to the lollipop wrapper. Simple stuff!

Until later, folks!

The Rest of the "Batty For You" Halloween Cards

Here's the rest of the cards I made using the "Batty For You" stamp set. Scroll down to the previous post for the rest of the cards. Like the other 3 cards I made, these 2 cards are quickie cards made within 15 minutes.The cards were basically punching, cutting, and layering!

I'll be posting one more set of "Halloween" cards and I think that'll be it for the season. Halloween cards are not as popular as Christmas cards to give out so I need to start concentrating more on the Christmas cards and other types of cards.

Goodnight folks!