ACE 11 - September

This year I joined a sub-group of Oriental Stamp Art, a Yahoo group dedicated to learning about and creating Oriental style items, especially cards. A theme and colors were chosen for each month by the list mom, and we sent out three cards in "Round Robin" style. September is the last month for the group. Here's my creation: the theme was leaves/fall and the color burgundy. This is a gate-fold card (I've been playing with that layout for the last few weeks) - the left and right panels open in the middle. The leaf brad holds the central image/sentiment in place until the card is opened. It was fun to make, especially as fall is my favorite season.

August Shoebox

August Shoebox Card

A small group of friends has been getting together for an evening of fun - making cards, chatting, and having fabulous dessert! This month we made only three cards (Ashley had to take her dog to the vet, and my stamp scrubber leaked onto the card base!) But we did have fun, celebrated Bonnie's BD with a luscious lemon pie (thanks, Chrissy!) and also shared some challenges (more on this in a later post.) So, here's our new cards - lots of ideas for you stampers.

JANE'S PRETTY IN PINK BD CARD

Jane (who is brand new to stamping!) helped us create this lovely BD card using reversible cardstock, a border punch, and a couple of dollar stamps. The dragonfly has jewels on the body and shimmery highlights on the wings. This will probably be Kada's card for BD #3 (but don't tell her!)

Bonnie's Distress Ink Trees and Beaded Embellishment

Bonnie always comes up with some lovely ideas and combined a tutorial using Distress Inks from GinaK's Stamp TV videos and an idea for a simple but gorgeous embellishment - beads and a long pin. Be sure to check out Stamp TV - lots of wonderful ideas - great videos!!!

Chrissy's Masculine Card

I just love this card - monochromatic cards are so striking. We distressed the white paper used for the stamped images with Distress Inks, then stamped in black. Thank goodness Chrissy cut all the pieces for us!!! I have two BIL's who have BD's coming up - both would like this card. Now I have to decide who gets it!

Next month we will make Ashley's card and mine which didn't get made this month. A special thanks to Chrissy who was hostess and made the delightful lemon pie.

Diamond Top Fold Card

Last year I purchased a ScorPal and later joined a group which shares ideas and templates for creating all kinds of cards, small boxes, etc., using this handy tool. The challenge this week was to create a diamond top card. I was excited to try this out AND I needed to make some cards for an on-going swap through OSA, an Oriental interest group. This month the colors are purple, blue, gray (and I added some pink to the mix); and the theme is mountains. I used Spellbinders square to cut out the image. Here's the finished project:

This is one site where you can find directions, or you could Google "diamond top fold card":

http://www.card-making-magic.com/diamondtopcards.html

First Swap of 2010!

After my "trials and tribulations" with the new computer, I'm back to blogging and swapping. One of my groups has a color challenge every month, and January's really was a challenge: Use the colors navy, black and dark green. Luckily cream/white are also allowed!!! I created the background using Distress Inks: Pine Needle, Soot, and Denim. I had a lovely piece of handmade paper from my friend Bonnie which really made a difference.

More OSA Challenges

I am still keeping up with the OSA (Oriental Stamp Art) theme and design challenges. These are the ones for the the month of March:

Year of the Rat

Dolls

Kanji or Text

Pagoda



For lots of eye candy, go to www.orientalstampart.com and look through the albums.

Cards, Cards, Cards!

I still make lots of cards, especially for birthdays and also for swaps. My mom's birthday is in February, and I made a folded card for her thanks to my friend Bonnie who has been creating fabulous folded cards. She came over one day and we used her ScorePal and lots of paper to create folded cards. This is the one I sent to Mom - we all need a touch of spring as this has been a long, snowy winter in Wisconsin!

Card Closed

Card Opened

Be sure to check Bonnie's blog to see more fabulous folded cards and other stunning creations:

http://craftiblog.wordpress.com/

All Gray!

Our small SEWis group is doing color challenges this year - gray is absolutely the hardest color to work with.


Pink and Orange

This was a lot more fun to make!


Hearts

Love my Cuttlebug!!

I've Got the "Blues!"

I belong to a small group of (mostly) stampers from SE Wisconsin which has been swapping cards with specific themes. Two recent themes were Blue/gray and Winter. Guess I was in a blue mood as both cards used light blue and gray colors! Could it be the gray, cold Wisconsin winter???

Winter

I used Cuttle Bug combination die cut and embossing folder to create the snowflake and the snowflake folder for the background. After embossing the background piece, I sanded some of the black to reveal the blue underneath. Silver embroidery thread and a silver brad finished this off.

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Blue and Gray

Still in a blue mood, I used one of my favorite stamps, a quote from Dickens and a silk flower for the central image. Silver peel-off border and a small vellum butterfly were the final touches. One of my favorite quotes is "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" Spring can't come too soon!!