Busy, Busy Day

Today was my Free-For-All event. That's where people come over with their own projects in tow, and we spend all day creating. I offer up my scraps (organized by color, of course), my punches, my inks, etc. And I feed everyone with a kitchen full of munchies...healthy munchies today, except for the vat of Chex Mix, but it had cranberries in it, so it was not so bad.

Well, today should have been called a Freeze-For-All, because it was really cold out, for Maryland, at least. And there were gusting winds, too, so I think people opted to stay home and be toasty. But two brave souls did come over, and we played! Since they both brought everything they needed, I did not need to do too much running around, and *I* got to play, too! Whoo-hoo!

First up is a card I made with the stamp you have already seen (twice) from my GinaK set. Today I paired her with a sentiment I got last month but had not used yet.

Recipe: Stamps - GinaK, River City Rubber Works; Paper - Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Regal Rose, Misc white; Ink - Black, Old Olive, Going Gray, Regal Rose, Basic Gray, Blush Blossom; Other - SU Jumbo Eyelet, Misc ribbon, black marker, sponge dauber, blender pen.

This whole card started with the green ribbon - it has both celery and olive in it, so I wanted to use those two greens together somehow and tie it together (!) with the ribbon. I think it is funny that the ribbon kinda became too much with the lady in the car, so I ended up with just a little bit of it in the eyelet.

I cut the white card stock crooked - WAY crooked, but we collectively decided it looked neat that way, so I went with it. I kept layering with the crooked shape and I think it actually works for her! (Works for me, too!)

My favorite part of the card is her sunglasses. Rule #1 in stamping: There are no mistakes, only opportunities for embellishment. I went a bit wild with the Blush Blossom and ran over into her glasses, so she got to wear shades, and I LIKE them!

Next up is a card made with a stamp I got from a friend of mine who is also doing a stamp-room purge.

Recipe: Stamps - Grapes by Rubber Stampede; Paper - Water Color paper, Garden Green, Elegant Eggplant, Natural White; Ink - Elegant Eggplant; Other - Watercolor Wonder Crayons, watercolor brush, sponge dauber, Eggplan marker.

I am not the best water-colorer, so I dove right in to this challenge! I took the colors from the sticker on the front of the stamp and just played with the purples until I got the blending I wanted. I think it came out just fine!

I hand-wrote the sentiment because I could not get any tiny alphabet stamp set to line up with the correct spacing. Then when I went to erase the lines I'd used to get the words straight I schmeared the purple ink with the art eraser (!) so I took that queue to add the sponging to make it look like I meant to do that (Rule #2 in stamping: Learn how to say, "I meant to do that ...")

This next card is made with a stamp I got from another friend doing the stamp purge.

Recipe: Stamps - Lady by All Night Media, sentiment by River City Rubber Works, paw print by Technique Tuesday; Paper - Regal Rose, Going Gray, Basic Black Whisper White; Ink - Going Gray, Regal Rose, Pumpkin Pie, Creamy Caramel, Basic Black; Other - blender pen.

The lady just spoke to me, so I had to have her! I paired her with a sentiment I got a few months ago which seemed perfect! (Or is that purr-fect...:-)

Now THIS one was a challenge for me. Wide ribbon is always a tough one, but I was determined to make this work. The ribbon was from this month's shipment from my Really Reasonable Ribbon club - this month's theme is "violet" - LOTS of purple....

Recipe: Stamps - Noteworthy; Paper - Old Olive, misc textured white; Ink - Elegant Eggplant; Other - wide purple ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon, white rub-ons by SU, markers.

The ribbon looked awesome just laying on the white card stock, but it needed more - doesn't it always?! One of ladies suggested green, so I grabbed some Olive and it really set off the dark purple. Then I thunk and thunk and retrieved the Noteworthy stamp set from the back of one of my drawers. I loved this set when it was available (SAB, I think, a few years ago) and I am glad I held on to it! I used the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to line up the flowers top and bottom, then stamped the sentiment in the middle. I colored the flowers with markers.

It still needed something, partly because the ribbon went on a bit unevenly, largely due to yours truly, but it is very wide, ya know ... I had originally thought about making a buckle with the ribbon, but all my Cuttlebug dies are very tiny in comparison to this Momma, so I decided to make it look like a buckle...kindof. I added a narrow strip of Old Olive card stock, then topped that off with a piece of the long strip of rub-ons from one of the new SU rub-ons. Done!

This next card was totally inspired by the ribbon. I made a trip to Recollections yesterday since it was in the same state as the LSS where I was retrieving some stamps I'd ordered. What a sad trip - I still cannot believe Recollections is closing. They were understandably pretty picked over, and people were buying the store fixtures while I was buying ribbon. I know, I know, I swore off ribbon because I joined that ribbon club, but it was 50-75% off!!!!!!!!! So anyway, right next to the register was a box of pre-cut yards of ribbon at 5-fer-something, and one of them was this red one with the So Saffron sentiment on it, so I had to get it. That's what inspired this card.

Recipe: Stamps - Heartfelt Thanks, Flannel Plaid bg; Paper - So Saffron, Basic Gray, Ruby Red, Naturals White; Ink - So Saffron, Basic Black; Other - Ruby Red and Garden Green markers, misc ribbon.

The ribbon actually matches the red paper in real life; I am just a bad photographer. This is a really fun ribbon because it has the sentiment right on it! I looked at this one for a while before I decided to add the flannel background. It's neat how much difference just a background stamp can make.

This last card was inspired by a piece of paper given to me by one of the ladies. She has had it in her stash for over a year so she was anxious to see what I could do with it. I thought about it all day and finally got to using it. I grabbed a spool of really pretty pink ribbon from my stash and it looked amazing with the paterned paper. Then I realized several of the SU stamps matched the flower in the paper, so I got them out and ended up using the Best Blossoms flower.

Recipe: Stamps - Best Blossoms; Paper - Pretty In Pink, Basic Black, misc pink paper; Ink - Versamark; Other - Mike's ribbon, Vintage brads, Dimensionals.

The more I looked at the ribbon the more I fell in love with it. It has a little sheen to it, just like the paper. I cannot believe I have had it so long and never even opened it yet!

The flowers are stamped with Versamark on Pretty In Pink card stock, then heat embossed with clear embossing powder and cut out. I popped them up on Dimensionals, and the middle one is double-popped (two Dimensionals).

The ribbon was actually added at the last minute. We were debating if it needed a sentiment or not, and if not, then the bottom half of the card seemed unfinished. Duuuuh - add the ribbon! And I am glad I did!

This is a close-up of the paper and ribbon - they are just sooo pretty!

So that was my day. One of the ladies finished her swap cards and the other one finished last year's Super Bowl scrapbook pages, just in time for this year's game. :-) A good time was had by all! And I have food left to last me all week!