And the winner is......

Random.org picked #16 - Melissa!

Melissa said...
My favorite stamp set is Garden Silhouettes and it doesn't matter what color combo I use - I love them all! Here's one of my favorites:

http://princessmsk.blogspot.com/2007/08/fs29.html

Thanks for the chance to win!

September 24, 2007 10:56 AM


Congratulations Melissa! (Your card is great by the way.) Send me your snail address, and I'll get your goodies to you right away! I'd love to see what you create with them too.

Be sure to check out Melissa's blog if you get a chance. She has some great cards and projects! Thanks to everyone who left a comment. I enjoyed reading them all and appreciate everyone visiting my blog!

Fall Blooms

Still a few days to leave a comment for the Halloween Blog Candy. Go to Sunday's post if you're interested!

For this week's sketch challenge, I decided to use Big Blooms again. I haven't used it for month's, and now I've created three cards with it in the last few days. It really is a fun set!

This card has a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4" card base of Really Rust. On the base, I added a layer of Apple Cider DSP.

The focal image is a square of Very Vanilla that was wheeled with the Rough Texture Jumbo Wheel in Really Rust. Warm Wishes was added in Chocolate Chip. All of the flowers were stamped on Very Vanilla, cut out, and adhered separately. The larger flowers have a gem from Target's $1 spot. This piece was then layered on Chocolate Chip and a strip of River Rock. Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon was added to the River Rock strip.

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Blooms, Hugs & Wishes
Cardstock: Really Rust, Apple Cider DSP, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, River Rock
Ink: Really Rust, Chocolate Chip, River Rock
Other: Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon, Target Gems

Featured Stamper & Big Blooms

Don't forget to check out Sunday's post for a chance to win some BLOG CANDY!

Sunday's featured stamper on splitcoaststampers was Kristina Werner aka starofmay. Her gallery and blog have some amazing cards and projects. I've admired her clean style for quite awhile and have several of her cards saved as favorites.

I had a hard time deciding which card I would CASE, so I finally settled on two. The first one I chose because it allowed me to use some items I've been neglecting - Au Chocolat DSP and Big Blooms. I loved both of them in the Spring Mini and was so sad they didn't make it to the Fall/Winter Collection.

Here is Kristina's original card and my version. The card is pretty self-explanatory, so I won't go into a detailed description.

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Blooms, It's Your Birthday
Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla, Au Chocolat DSP
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink
Other: Pink Grosgrain, Target Gem

On my second card, I made a few more changes from Kristina's original. I don't have the Fall Flowers DSP, so I used Apple Cider and then coordinated my other colors from there. I also used a different sentiment, a different type of ribbon, and added a couple of flowers from Big Blooms.

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Blooms, It's Your Birthday
Cardstock: River Rock, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Apple Cider DSP
Ink: Really Rust, Chocolate Chip
Other: Twill, Target Gem
Technique: Paper Piercing

Another Halloween Card

Be sure to check out Sunday's post for a chance to win some Halloween BLOG CANDY!

This card was made with the same spider stamp from Sunday's post and a candy corn stamp that I also got at Michael's on Saturday. I used the sketch challenge from last week as my layout and created a 4 1/4" square card with Pumpkin Pie as the card base. I then layered a 4" square of Basic Black that I embossed with my Cuttlebug Dots & Spots embossing folder (one of my favorites!). I stamped the candy corn stamp on my strip twice using a stamp-a-ma-jig to line everything up. This piece is layered on a strip of So Saffron.

For the focal piece, I stamped the spider and web separately so I could place the web in the 2 corners. I added the Happy Halloween sentiment from Fancy Flexible Phrases, sponged the edges in Pumpkin Pie, adhered it to Pumpkin Pie cardstock, and added my striped Michael's ribbon.

Finally, I added a couple of orange gems that came from Target's $1 dollar spot (maybe from last fall - I've had them around for quite awhile!).

Recipe:
Stamps: Fancy Flexible Phrases, Michael's spider and candy corn
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, So Saffron, Whisper White
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, So Saffron
Other: Michael's striped ribbon, Target gems

No Tricks - Just TREATS!

Time for BLOG CANDY!

Hobby Lobby is the only craft store that's very close to where I live. Of the chain stores, I really prefer Michael's, but the closest one is about an hour away. Needless to say, I don't get there very often. Well - I needed to do some shopping yesterday so I took a little road trip, and of course, added a stop at Michael's to the agenda. While I was there, I found the cutest Halloween stamps. (Everyone else may have seen them already, but they were new to me!) I picked up a couple for myself, and while I was at it threw a few extra in my basket. I haven't done this blogging thing very long, but I figured it might just be time for some blog candy. And with Halloween just around the corner, who doesn't have candy on their mind (ok - maybe everyone doesn't have as big of a sweet tooth as I do!).

Anyway, the main blog candy is these 3 adorable Halloween stamps and a roll of black/orange reversible ribbon (the orange matches SU!'s Pumpkin Pie fairly closely). I had fun making my Halloween card when I got home this afternoon, so I decided to also throw in a few little items to maybe help the winner complete theirs. In addition to the stamps and ribbon, I am also including a few pieces of Pumpkin Pie, Perfect Plum and Basic Black cardstock. One piece of each is dry embossed with my Cuttlebug Dots & Spots embossing folder, and the other is plain. I also cut out some tags with a few of my Cuttlebug die cuts and have some bling from Target's $1 spot. And finally, I'm including my sample card for you. (My sample card is fairly straight forward, so I won't go into a lot of detail on how I created it. I have included a recipe below.)

For a chance to win the blog candy, please reply to this post. Since Trick or Treating usually involves doing something to get your treat, I'd like to hear what your current favorite stamp set is and maybe your favorite color combination to use with it. If you have a card you've made using that combination, please feel free to share a link too! I can sometimes get in a rut using the same sets and colors over and over again, so I'm hoping to get some new ideas. And, just to make it fair, I'll answer my question also. The set I seem to be reaching for the most lately is True Friend. I absolutely love this set and have mainly been using it with Really Rust, River Rock and Old Olive. I think my favorite card with it, though, was this card that I created for a color challenge a few weeks ago. I didn't think I was going to like Groovy Guava and Always Artichoke together, but I love how the card turned out.

I'll draw a random number for the winner next Saturday, 9/29.

Recipe:
Stamps: Michael's Witch and Spider, Fancy Flexible Phrases, Rough Texture Jumbo Wheel
Cardstock: Perfect Plum, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Perfect Plum
Other: Cuttlebug Dots & Spots Embossing Folder, Cuttlebug Tag Die Cut, Black/Orange Striped Ribbon

Big Bold Birthday Sketch

I needed some birthday cards, so I decided to do one for Beate's weekend sketch challenge. I realized after I finished the card, though, that my two panels are flipped. I made the one on the right higher than the one on the left, so it's opposite of the original sketch. I think it's fairly close, so hopefully it still qualifies.

My card base is a standard 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 from Rose Red cardstock. The striped panel at the bottom is from the Cutie Pie DSP. I've had such a hard time using that paper for some reason, so I was glad that I was able to finally add it to a card and like the end result! The Cutie Pie DSP is matted on Basic Black. The right panel is from the Rose Red Prints DSP. I loved the 6x6 sample pack that I got during Stampin' Up!'s promotion, so I had to have a full package of that paper. I love it and would love to have even more colors of it! It is also matted on Basic Black. I then added Basic Black grosgrain to this piece.

For the focal image, I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp the Happy Birthday stamp around the square. I then added the cupcake bottom in So Saffron, cut out, folded accordian-style (like a true cupcake holder), and adhered with glue dots. The cupcake top was stamped in 2nd generation Rose Red, and then I added the polka dots in Rose Red, cut it out, and adhered it with dimensionals. The candle is stamped in Certainly Celery. I used the out-of-the-box cutting technique to cut around the candle flame.

Finally, I used my Rose Red marker to selectively ink words from the Make a Wish stamp, so I could stack the words on top of each other. It was punched with the 1" circle punch and matted on a 1 1/4" circle of Certainly Celery. The bling in the lower-right corner are gems from Target's $1 spot. I've had them for quite awhile and always forget to use them.

Recipe:
Stamps: Big Bold Birthday
Cardstock: Rose Red, Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Cutie Pie DSP, Rose Red Prints DSP
Ink: Basic Black, So Saffron, Rose Red, Certainly Celery
Other: Basic Black Grosgrain, Gems

Priceless 2,5,7,10 Box

As I've mentioned before, there is a different challenge on splitcoaststampers just about every day. I tend to do the color and sketch challenges, but I check out the others from time to time as well. The Technique Lover's Challenge this week was to create a 2,5,7,10 box. If you're not familiar with them, they are adorable little boxes/bags that are perfect to hold a small gift, treat, or party favor.

I made one of these boxes for a workshop last week, so it fit perfectly with the challenge. I won't go into detail of how I created the box since there is a great tutorial available, but I will share the stamps, ink, etc. that I used.

I started with an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of Whisper White cardstock and stamped the large swirl from Priceless in Purely Pomegranate ink. I added a few of the small flowers to fill in any gaps. For the focal image on the front, I stamped the butterfly from Priceless also in Purely Pomegranate. I then inked the butterfly again, this time in Groovy Guava and rock-and-rolled it in Purely Pomegranate. I stamped it on a scrap of Whisper White, cut out the body, and adhered just the middle to give it some dimension. I also added the smaller swirl from Priceless in 2nd generation Purely Pomegranate for the butterfly trail and the Wish defintion from Define Your Life in Basic Black. Finally, I added the For You from Happy Everything as a tag on the side and matted it all on Purely Pomegranate.

Once I assembled the box, I scalloped the lid with my corner rounder, sponged the edges, and added Purely Pomegranate double-stitched ribbon.

These are such cute boxes/bags. The girls at the workshop loved them.

Recipe:
Stamps: Priceless, Define Your Life, Happy Everything
Cardstock: Whisper White, Purely Pomegranate
Ink: Purely Pomegranate, Groovy Guava, Basic Black
Other: Purely Pomegranate Double-Stitched Ribbon