December FCD Cards TEASER

I have two cards done for my December FCD set, which is Season's Greetings-Ornament Set. This set is *completely* adorable - I am having a blast working with it! I haven't photographed them yet - look for them on here later today or tomorrow. My goal is to get all four cards done and uploaded before my c-section on Tuesday so I have a bit of a breather while I recover from that whole ordeal. We'll see if I can make it! I just wanted to let you know what set you'll be seeing samples from next, this is one I think EVERYONE should own!!

Snow Signs #4

Here's my last card for November, featuring the Snow Signs set from FireCracker Designs by Pamela. Again, all paper is from Stampin' Up!, we have Certainly Celery, Night of Navy, Holiday Thyme DSP (retired) and Shimmery White. *swoon*, how I love love this Shimmery White paper!! Words can not describe! Even in the photo you can see the sparkle.

Pretty straightforward recipe, this is another 5.5" x 5.5" card (am really digging those lately!). I stamped the snowman in Palette Hybrid Charcoal ink and chose silver as my accent color. The little tabbies on the side are from the Word Window punch. Self-adhesive rhinestones and metal heart accent are from my stash of "stuff". I used the anywhere hole punch to make the ribbon holes for the burgundy grosgrain. The main image is on dimensionals.

Oh, I colored the snowman's scarf with PrismaColor alcohol markers. The Green Tea marker is a perfect color match for SU's certainly celery. How cool is that?

Snow Signs #3

My third card using the Snow Signs set from FireCracker Designs. This is another standard A2 size card. Cardstock from Stampin' Up! - Soft Sky and Not Quite Navy.

For the background piece, I had to get fancy with the Cuttlebug. My goal was to make the embossed snowflakes falling all around Mr. Snowman, with the adorable sentiment "My Best Friends Are Flakes" standing out in the sign (get it?!?!).

So I first masked off the area of the snowman image I didn't want and stamped him in Palette Hybrid Noir - the best black ink ever. Then I used the Snowflakes embossing folder with the Cuttlebug until I got all the areas covered. To finish off the main piece I rubbed Versamark ink all over the top and added Iridescent Ice EP to give it shine (it's hard to see the shine in this photo though).

For the snowman, I went around the parts I wanted to be white with the Versamarker and used 2 coats of Winter White EP. Added the carrot nose, white grosgrain and snowflake brad. I used the square steps corner punch from SU (retired).

Treasure Hunt Weekend at FireCracker Designs!!

Pamela over at FireCracker Designs is SO excited that her gallery and tutorials page for her new website are up and running that she is having a TREASURE HUNT!!!! You will find the gallery is sorted by stamp sets, new art, and customer art! The free fonts and sketches are back up too!! She is still uploading images, and tutorials too, so be sure to check back often!!

Here's how the treasure hunt works:

Part 1:
Somewhere hiding in the gallery are 2 coupons!! Both are single-use coupons (means each customer can only use the coupon one time); one expires at midnite on Sunday Nov. 18th. The other coupon doesn't expire until Dec. 17th!!!!! That gives you an entire month to make up your wish list!! To use them, you have to first FIND them!!! Here's a hint.....they are both located in the Stamp Sets album!!

Part 2:
There are 3 hidden images (they are marked "Surprise!" on the image). If you place a minimum order of $10 and find the 3 surprise images, send an email to Pamela telling her which images they are and you will get a free stamp for each image you find correctly. Limit of 3 free images per customer. (Free images will be selected by Pamela.)

HINT: All the hidden images are located somewhere in the gallery!

(Yes, you can combine Part 1, with Part 2!! and no, you can not combine the coupons).

Happy Hunting!!!

Snow Signs #2

Here's my second card for November using the Snow Signs set from FCD.

All cardstock is from Stampin' Up! - Pumpkin Pie, Bashful Blue and Apricot Appeal. The ivory paper is from the LSS. I cut the circle pieces with the Coluzzle. I also used the splatter stamp from Stampin' Up!'s Itty Bitty Backgrounds.

The main snowman image is embossed with clear EP over Chocolate Chip craft ink. Then I used a bleach pen to bleach out the snowman parts. I colored the scarf and nose with Pumpkin Pie marker. Bashful Blue brad and some ribbon from the LSS. The whole main image is on dimensionals.

Enabler Alert - Cat's Pajamas

Hungry for a great deal? Fill up your shopping cart with some Cat's Pajamas goodness and get 25% off everything we've got!

Come and get it while you can, 'cause at Midnight, November 18th, this SALE will be like Turkey the day after Thanksgiving, so gone.

Snow Signs #1 (November FCD set)

I have my November design team cards done for Pamela over at FireCracker Designs! I still have to photograph the last few but here is a sneek peek for you of the first one. :-) My November set is Snow Signs - this one is so much fun with all the different sayings for the sign and I love all the different snowflakes too. They will be on my "much used" list in the future.

This is a 5.5" x 5.5" square card - just to be different. All cardstock from Stampin' Up! - I chose Garden Green, Real Red, Soft Sky and Whisper White. The main image uses Shimmery White - *swoon* for this paper, it is so sparkly and shiny and beautiful, I want to use it on every card I make!

I used the aquapainters and coordinating ink colors for the watercoloring on the main image. The Soft Sky pieces went through the Cuttlebug with the snowflakes embossing folder, then I rubbed Versamark all over the top of them and dumped on my favorite embossing item - Iridescent Ice embossing powder. That gave all the raised spots I hit with the Versamark ink a nice shine. Plain silver brads, lots of ticket corners (I think I use that punch on 3 out of every 4 cards!), and the pig-nose punch (SU's double-circle punch) to do the ribbon at the top. Ribbon is "light blue" from RABOM.

Enabler Alert - Eureka Stamps

Eureka Stamps is having a buy on-get one free sale on their full sheets of unmounted stamps during November. It's a great deal and their stamps are very nice. I bought about 6 sheets awhile back and am quite happy with them - nice red rubber stamps, deeply etched & fun designs. Have fun!

Enabler Alert - Ma Vinci's

This is only through the end of the day today, November 14th at Ma Vinci's Reliquary! Robin is offering 50% off rubber and glassines and 30% off stencils and cushion! What a deal!

Enabler Alert - Time To Stamp

Got this info from one of the lists I am on and thought I would share -

http://www.timetostamp.com

30% off all full sheets through this Friday (11/16).

Snow Lady Wreath #4

Ok, the last card for the Snow Lady Wreath set for my October FCD DT cards (yes, I know it's November 13th today, LOL). The snowflakes in the background are from the Snow Sign set. This one is my personal favorite, I think it's the colors.

All cardstock from Stampin' Up! of course, that's my biggest purchase from them these days. Bashful Blue, Bravo Burgundy and Whisper White. SU ticket corner and scallop circle punches, and the other circles are from EK Success. The ribbon and snowflake brad are from the LSS. I colored his hat and scarf with a gel pen and used ink/blender pen for the watercoloring.

Tip/opinion of the day on watercoloring - I don't like that method nearly as well as aquapainters - not sure what I was thinking when I passed them over! I find I have a lot more control using the aquapainter and am much less likely to make the paper pill up or have dark spots in the image over using blender pens. It takes a bit of time to master the aqua painter, but I think overall it's a better product to do the actual watercoloring using ink and also watercolor crayons. Don't get me wrong, blender pens have lots of good uses, but for straight watercoloring, go with the aquapainter. :-)

Snow Lady Wreath #3

Here's card #3 from the Snow Lady Wreath set. This card also used the Flannel Plaid background from Stampin' Up!

All cardstock is SU - Celery, Red, Hunter and Chocolate Chip. Also white of course, and some designer paper from The Angel Company on the corner punches. I popped those corners up with dimensionals for extra depth. 3/8" red grosgrain from Ribbons and Bows Oh My - overall I've been quite pleased with their service although I always have to do shares when ordering from them since the spools are 100 yards each. I colored the main image with glaze gel pens - these are my new favorite coloring tool!

October FCD Card #2

Here's another card with the Snow Lady Wreath set from FCD. I wanted some non-traditional Christmas colors here, they are all from Stampin' Up! - Almost Amethyst, River Rock (another 2007/2008 in color), and of course Black and White.

The snowflakes on the main image are from the Snow Sign set from FCD. I colored the hat and scarf with Prismacolor Pencils and put Crystal Effects over the top to make it shiny. The little shiny bling stickers are "Dot Sparklers" from Stampendous - I LOVE these!

Cuttlebugged the background with the Textile folder after stamping with Aida Cloth background. Black satin ribbon, black brads from LSS, amethyst 1/4" circle punchies put together with mini glue dots. Main image attached with dimensionals.

October's (oops!!) FCD Design Team Cards

They're here and they're done!!! I'll be posting them all tonight - woo hoo! I think I've mentioned, but the the Snow Lady Wreath set from FireCracker Designs by Pamela. This was my October Design Team set, but since I got stuck on bedrest with DS #2 for awhile there, I was quite behind schedule. Caught up now and here's the first card!

Cardstock is all Stampin' Up!, I used Ruby Red, Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi (both are 2007/2008 "in colors"), and of course white. Cuttlebugged the Sky background piece with the Divine Swirl embossing folder and rubbed white ink over the raised parts. Brads are silver and green, silver from SU and the green from some LSS somewhere. Lots of ticket corners, I did the coloring with blender pens and ink and some other random embellies thrown in there too.

Can You Believe It?

Still no baby! After 4 weeks on bedrest with lots of contractions and other fun the whole time, I figured this guy was going to be born the day I got up and started walking around again. Alas, no such luck and we are still waiting to meet this little boy. I can't believe it! He's starting to get big too (at least to me!), so we are ready for him any time he'd like to join the world. Just wanted to give a quick update!

On a more upbeat (read: stampin'!!) note, I had some great "ME" time yesterday and made FOUR cards with the adorable Snow Lady Wreath stamp set from Firecracker Designs by Pamela. I just love snowmen stamps anyway, and the little boy snowman in this set is the perfect size! The cards are done but not photographed yet - I am hoping to post them tomorrow so stay tuned!