Friday, October 19, 2012

October Control Freaks Blog Tour - focus on Inspiration for projects "For the Men in our Lives"



Welcome to our Control Freak Stampers October Blog Tour.  Our tour officially begins Friday morning, but who wants to wait????  So glad you could join us. Our tour features some of your favorite Control Freak Stampers sharing projects made with Stampin' Up! products.  You may have just come from my fellow freaker, Jason Casper's blog,  I bet you enjoyed his projects and inspiration.  :) 
Our theme for this month is: "For the Men in Our Lives.  Sooooo, here we go...
We are hoping to inspire you with our Masculine Inspiration projects.  I don't know about you but I have to really work at getting projects done with a masculine feel.  I'm using the words INSPIRE & INSPIRATION so they will, maybe INSPIRE me to do great things.  

This first card was one I taught at our October Stamp Camp South.  I prepared 15 cards ahead of time and we had about 50 ladies at the event,  It was one busy evening, but fun.  We crinkled the leaves after cutting them out and sponging them so they would look just like real leaves.  Then we molded them into real leaf shapes.


Stamps:  French Foliage, Best Dad Ever
CS:  Always Artichoke, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla
Ink:  Always Artichoke, Cajun Craze , More Mustard
Misc:  Big Shot, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Twine, SU Dimensionals

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This next card came about at 2:00 AM the night before last.  Thank goodness I didn't go to bed instead of designing it.  I'm always more creative after midnight.  This was my first time using the new Framelits - Window Frames Dies and I LOVE them!!!!  I decided to use my Serene Silhouettes stamp set and used the birds stamp since I hadn't tackled it yet.  I love bird stamps anyway so was happy to finally use it.  The new Core'dinations Card Stock is wonderful!!!  Don't miss out on it.  I'm ordering more so I'll have plenty of it after the Holiday Mini is finished.


Stamps:  Serene Silhouettes, Itty Bitty Banners
CS:  Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze, Early Espresso Core'dinations, Whisper White
Ink:  Basic Black, Not Quite Navy
Misc:  Big Shot, Woodgrain Embossing Folder, Framelits - Window Frame Dies, Framelits - Bitty Banners Dies, Sanding Block, SU Dimensionals

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It was time to break out two new stamp sets so the next two cards use the Horse Frontier Set and one uses the Papaya Collage set.  The first one is more masculine and the second has a slight feminine flair. We have many friends and family with horses so this was fun to do.  I didn't take the time to make the trees look like fall but they look fine being green...just pretend it is the middle of summer.  :)  These cards came together quickly



Stamps:  Horse Frontier, Lovely As a Tree, Papaya Collage
CS:  Garden Green, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, More Mustard
Ink:  Basic Black, Garden Green, Crumb Cake, More Mustard
Misc:  Sponge Dauber, SU Dimensionals

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Now for my 3D project.  It started out with the intent of being masculine but somewhere along the way, well, it got prettied up a bit!  I'm sure that the man who gets this gift card holder will be just fine with it...since it will have a gift card in it.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  :)



Stamps:  Bootiful Occasions
CS:  Gumball Green, Midnight Muse, Very Vanilla
Glimmer Paper:  Champagne [on pg 18 in Holiday Mini catalog] [A must have!]
DSP:  Snow Festival [on pg 10 in Holiday Mini catalog]
Ink:  Midnight Muse
Punches:  Large & Small Star, Large Tag & Small Tag
Misc:  Midnight Muse 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon, Window Sheet, Linen Thread, Glue Dots

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Hope you like my projects.  Leave me a  message.  I love hearing from you.  Now it is off to the next stop on our tour, Dannie Graves blog.  Wait until you see her great projects.  :)    Thanks for stopping by...


Happy Stamping!   Judy  :)

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Last of the Birthday Jewelry Pieces

This month we celebrated two birthdays at our Rubber Ducky Club.  First up is Michele Templeman.  Her birthday theme was Halloween.  Michele loves bling like I do so I wanted to really Bling it up.


I found a big pink jewel at a big box store so used that for the main focus.  The back of the pink jewel is attached to a Tim Holtz Ornate Plate.  I found a couple of pink round jewels to attach to the sides of the piece.  Luckily they were the same color of pink.  I Love Pink!  Anyway, I took some Stampin' Up! Rhinestone Jewels and colored them with alcohol ink to make them a lime green.  I found some lime green embroidery thread and tied a bow on top.  I used a couple of Halloween Scrapbooking stickers to attach a witches hat on the top and a coldren on the bottom.  I finished up the back of the piece with a piece of the Champagne Shimmer Paper that is new in the Holiday Mini catalog.  I glittered the ghost and then added Crystal Effects to it.  Love how it turned out.  It definitely makes a statement.  :)

Next up is Jane Price.  Her birthday theme was Moose.  I bought a couple of Moose charms to help get me started.  I spent a couple of days awhile back looking for a specific die I own but couldn't find.  In my search for the die, I came across a Moose punch I forgot I had....so put that aside to use on Jane's piece.


First I brayered a piece of Glossy White card stock with a multi color background that worked well for a sky backdrop and punched it out with a scallop oval punch.  The Moose was punched out of Gold Mirricard.  The trees in the background were made using the Serene Silhouettes stamp set.  I took a sponge dauber and only inked the two lower clumps of leaves and trunk.  It was the perfect size to make this scene. I then put black embossing powder on and heated it...so now the background is done.  I found a little old grass punch that I had to stand on to get it to punch each time.  No wonder I hadn't used it in years!!!  I cut out the white clouds from more glossy white card stock.  SU Dimensionals made the moose stand out and I buried his hoofs in the grass.  Nestabilities dies were used to cut the two outside ovals in black and Pumpkin Pie.  Whaa laa a Moose Jewelry Piece.

I got my last Pearls & Lace Jewelry piece for my August birthday...last night from Michele Templeman.  Now...to find time to finish my Shadowbox.  I can't wait until it is finished.  I"ll share the results when it's done.
Michele likes little stamps and tags so there is a lot on this small piece.  I saved a place in my shadowbox for it...and it turns out that it has the subtle pink that goes with the others already received.  What more could I ask???!!!???!!!   :)   It's been a fun year but I think we are all ready to go onto something else.  Each new year brings another challenge.  

Happy Stamping!   Judy  :)


Saturday, October 6, 2012

Rubber Ducky Card Projects for October

Jane Price was our ring leader this month.  She prepared for us to make these two nice fall cards.  The first one is a cute Halloween card.  She didn't remember who the stamps were made by...but they sure are cute.  The second card is a Fall card.  We stamped and sponged 15 pumpkins and folded them in half and glued  them together.  I only attached 5 pumpkins together so I could mail this card.  I had to press it hard to be able to scan it.  It should have a full 3D pumpkin fanned out on the front of the card.



We got our first snow a couple of days ago here in Littleton.  It was just an inch but it was a nice surprise.  The cooler weather is wonderful.  It won't be long before the Trick or Treaters come and show off their costumes in exchange for candy. 

Happy Stamping!   Judy  :)