WooooHooooo! Blog Candy (Look Below For Newer Posts)

At Design Team Member Tina Werner's blog for the month of May. The great news is it's a Gift Certificate. There are also several ways to get your name into the draw more than once. So if you want to get in on the chance to pick out your very own stamps as candy, hop on over to Tina's Place. I'll see you there. Just to watch of course. :-)

Also, don't forget that Impression-Obsession offers mounted, unmounted with repositionable cling, unmounted with permanent cling, unmounted, and she has clear stamps and Flower Soft too!

Thanks for stopping by 'the blog' to look and share!

 

 Shirley

 

Father's Day Is On Its Way

I had planned on doing a Shaker Card, but I couldn't come up with one that would be relatively simple for everyone to follow. I wanted something quick and easy. Mitra said she is going to surprise me with something I will love soon, so stay tuned every one. So today I chose to do a relatively simple Father's day card. This image by Leigh Hannan called Pears D2193. I also saw that it can be purchased in the Clearance section for $4.00. That's a deal if you ask me. Father's Day, June 21, will be here before we know it. I haven't quite decided what words I want to use in the lower right-hand side of the card either, but I still have a little time.

The image was stamped on white cardstock and painted with Twinkling H2O's and the seeds were highlighted with Stickles Cinnamon glitter glue. It was put through the Cuttlebug using a Spellbinders Rectangles Large Scallop die. The background behind the image was filled in with a couple of different colors by wetting the area down and then applying the watercolors so it would spread out. I stamp with Brilliance Galaxy Gold. I always heat it to speed up the drying time. It also makes it rise up a little. In addition to that, it acts a lot like a resist when I am going around it for the background you see.

The next layer behind that is Copper cardstock put through the Cuttlebug using the Spellbinders Large Deckled Rectangle die. It was then put through again to get the embossed edge. The image was mounted on it. Then copper brads were applied to the corners. Stickles Cinnamon was used for the remaining scallops on each end.

The DP paper had a holographic glitter on it. Stickles Cinnamon was applied and then an old postal credit card was pulled lightly across it as shown. When dry deckle scissors were used to trim the edges. Some of this DP was also used on the top inside of the card and the envelope. The DP was mounted on another piece of Copper cardstock.

Mounting was done next. I misplaced my slot punch. An X-Acto knife was used to cut slits on each side of the image. The ribbon was slid through the slits. The image was mounted and then the ribbon was secured to each side of the card.


The bow was made with the Bow Easy.

Supplies:
Stamps: Impression-Oblession Pears D2193
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Super Smooth cardstock, Wausau Royal Metallic Copper, Robins Nest Designer Paper Water Glitter
Inks: Brilliance Galaxy Gold, Twinkling H2O's (They are staying in business and the 40% off sale is good until June 14th. Read about it on the link I gave you.) Thanks to all of you who helped.
Accessories: Spellbinders Nestabilities Large Rectangle Scallops die and Large Deckled Rectangles, May Arts Ribbon, Bow Easy, Stickles Cinnamon Glitter Glue, Doodlebug Copper Brads.

Thanks for stopping by to look and share everyone!

 

 Shirley

 

A Different Look And A Party For LumiinArte

The ribbon caused the whole thing. The lighting and the camera really doesn't do it justice. It is so much prettier in person. This is also my card for the Impression-Obsession blog for the week. I am going to list the supplies below, but if you would like to know how I did the punched border and the layering of the flower, shown below, you just need to jump over HERE.
Supplies:
Stamps: Impression-Obsession - Fiesta Flower H2330
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Super Smooth cardstock, DCFW Designer Paper
Inks: Brilliance Galaxy Gold, Twinkling H2O's
Accessories: Spellbinders Nestabilities Scallops Large, Fiskars Give It A Swirl Border Punch, Ribbon from Michaels, Bow Easy, Art Institute Glitter Mellow Yellow, Glitter Glue, Sharpie Yellow, Mark Richards 3 and 5MM Pearls.
Here is a quick synopsis if you don't have time. The image is 7 layers. The punched border was done first on other paper to get the measurements. The corners on the DP were punched from the same Fiskars border punch. The ribbon was done with the Bow Easy and I love it.

When you get back you can read about the change of mind by LuninArte, and boy am I glad!!! Here is what the owner sent us in an email on May 23.

From the Desk of Leslie Ohnstad: Thank you for your generosity, kind words of encouragement and prayers. The very unexpected out cry of orders in the past months "globally" has been extremely overwhelming and personally for me a truly humbling experience. The tiny staff of LuminArte Inc. was fully prepared to close at the end of February. Here it is almost the end of May and we are still working hard to fulfill all your requests. I have made the decision that we will not be closing our doors. Your testimonials have touched the hearts of those in our business that, in turn, has made it possible for us to continue to serve you. Thank you so much for caring enough to keep LuminArte's buzz going - positive and alive! Restructuring may take a little while, but it'll be well worth the wait. Soon we'll be featuring a vibrant new website showcasing new products and project ideas.You'll be hearing from us with updates on our fresh and exciting changes. Dreaming In Color, Leslie Blackburn Ohnstad, President/Inventor

• During the first three weeks of our transition, we will continue offering a 40% off of retail pricing.
• Midnight June 14th 2009 our prices will return.
• Discount is taken, at the time your card is charged.
• Due to overwhelming demand, shipping may take up to 4-6 weeks from date charged.
• Current orders pending are being produced and shipped as fast as we can get to them.

Hope you can take part in their wonderful prices. I sure have. Thanks for stopping by 'the blog' to look and share.

 

 Shirley

 

A Litttle Leftover

From my computer glitch. I lost my feeds. So if you think I am not following you by feed anymore, you are wrong. You just need to be a little patient with me. LOLOL

Also I want to take this opportunity to also say thank you to Elena at Ocean of Imagination for the following award. She lives in Russia and I love visiting her blog. You should have a look and see! Thank you so much Elena and thank you also for all of your visits to my blog too!



I want to share this with all of my fellow bloggers and hope you will take this opportunity to share it with people who visit your blogs too! I should have something new soon!

Thanks for stopping by 'the blog' to look and share!

 Shirley

Lots Of Good News

Two fantastic pieces of news. The first is Impression-Obsession has a new Design Team Member. Some of you may already know her. Her name is Jenny Gropp! Here's the link to her blog at One Krafty Kat. Welcome Jenny! Looking forward to getting to know you and enjoying your art, Jenny.

The second is about all of my computer woes. I had nothing wrong, other than I couldn't play CNN Videos. I could do YouTube and everything else. I spent 5 hours online and telephone with an HP technician. He changed everything about my computer but didn't solve the problem. He told me it probably was a corrupted file in my registry. Well we all know that's been that way since birth. Ha! I uninstalled Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Media Player, Windows Media Player by versions and reinstalled, but it didn't help. I spent hours searching on Google for others who had the same problem and tried their solutions. I even sent an email to the CNN Technical Department and no answer.

This morning I Googled and found the CNN Technical support group and guy saying:

I noticed just a few days ago that I couldn't watch the videos from CNN. I
upgraded my player to WMP 11 but it made no difference. I can watch the CNN live
video, but not the canned CNN video. When I first noticed the problem there was
an exclamation point inside a small triangle and an “error on page” message
showing in the bottom left corner of my screen.I use Microsoft XP 2000, SP3.Any
suggestions. (I never got this error, just no video).

Tons of advice later and things I had already tried and Antonio says: Thanks to Dave I got the solution to my problem:

Try going to Tools, Internet Options, Security, Custom, User data persistence and change it to Disable and restart IE7.
DaveCNN.com Technical Support

The sun came out, the clouds parted, the angels were singing, my computer plays the videos on CNN and thanks for stopping by 'the blog' to look and share!!!

 

 Shirley

 

It's A Summer Challenge

For the Impression-Obsession Design Team. As you can see, my card is for those who like the ocean, or the lake, or anywhere there's water! The stamp is Night Pier by Leigh Hannan. I love the water and the sand.

I used Brilliance Galaxy Gold and Twinkling H2O watercolors. The new Moonlight Smooch by ClearSnap was used to highlight some waves. Bet you anything this is Mica Magic Pearl in a different bottle. I used the new Fiskars Effervescence Border Punch for the trim. If you would like to see more detail and how to do the new Fiskars Punch corners, check out the I/O blog, HERE, where I have a video and explain where to mark your punches for the corners.

Don't forget to check out the Design Team member's blogs too for some wonderful cards and don't forget Tina Werner still has Blog Candy to give away!

• Daniela Dobson
• Laura Fulcher
• Julie Koerber
• Dina Kowal
• Kelli Richardson
• Jeanne Streiff
• Tina Werner
  

Thanks for stopping by 'the blog' to look and share.

 

 Shirley

 

Thankful For Sweet Violets!

I guess I should be thankful my computer is still alive and breathing. I can't tell you how many times I have loaded and unloaded certain programs. I honestly think stamping and painting helped me maintain my sanity. Enough already~!

The stamp for this card is Sweet Violets from Flourishes. In case you haven't seen this set I am going to post it here because I think it was designed to cover the desires of any stamper.

I couldn't believe it when I received it. I was in love with the largest stamp, but take a look at what else is there. A lot of smaller images that can be used for inside, the envelope, or even a background. Also, I really like the brackets to use around the words, if you choose to use them.......and the words are all so perfect to cover just about any occasion. I think they may be out of the set just now, but I know they will be getting more. So on to my card:

The image was stamped with Brilliance Galaxy Gold and then painted with Twinkling H2O's. I cut it out using an X-Acto knife. Stickles Yellow glitter glue was also used for the center of the flowers. I wasn't really happy with the way this turned out and will do this again soon I hope with better results. I'm going to blame it on my computer problems. Ha!

The die cut background is a piece of Neenah Classic Laid (It has a rough finish to it) Solar White cardstock put through the Cuttlebug using the largest Spellbinders Labels Four die. I embossed it and then used the die and an X-Acto knife to quickly cut around the outer edges. It made it a little bigger and if you look close you can see the double ridge from the embossing and not cutting it like a normal die.

The background is another Flourish stamp called Vintage Wallpaper. I stamped it with Clearsnap Mica Magic Purple (*Don't get rid of your Mica Magic refills. See below) on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Super Smooth cardstock. The corners were done with the SU Ticket Corner Punch. That was mounted on Neenah Classic Laid Super White cardstock.

The ribbon is from Michaels and I wanted to give it a Vintage look, so after tying the bow I heated it with my heat gun. I did the same to the ribbon I mounted beneath the die cut.

Supplies:
Stamps: Flourishes Sweet Violets and Vintage Wallpaper
Cardstock: Neenah Classic Crest and Classic Laid Solar White
Inks: Brilliance Galaxy Gold and Twinkling H2O's (Still 40% off all of their products)
Accessories: Spellbinders, Ribbon from Michaels, Rangers Stickles Yellow, Mark Richards 3 and 5mm Pearls

*A word about Mica Magic pads and reinkers. The pads dried out really fast and I think that is why ClearSnap quit selling them. The colors are fantastic though and I think there are two new products now using the reinker under different names and maybe a little different. ClearSnap is now selling, what looks like the refill ink, but in a nail polish looking bottle and called Smooch Pearlized Accent Ink. I have the Moonlight and the Gold Lame, but haven't had the chance to use them yet. Check them out. Also Judikins is now selling a product named Mica Gloss, which also look a lot like the Micas, and look at the video below to see what they are doing with them:

So that's all for now! Tomorrow I will be calling my computer buffs at HP to ask them to put my computer back the way it was when they fixed it last week. LOLOL and me too! If anyone with Windows XP had problems with the most recent update of Flash Player, tell me how you fixed it if you can. :-O Yikes! They still don't have the wrinkles out of the newest Internet Explorer and I went back to the other. Thanks for stopping by 'the blog' to look and share.

 

 Shirley

 

IT'S A SURPRISE BIRTHDAY BLOG HOP

It's Mitra Friant's birthday today! She is the owner of Impression-Obsession, as a lot of you already know. She does almost everything for her company, including traveling for all of the stamp shows, conventions and more. We are having a Surprise Blog Hop to help her celebrate her birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MITRA!

HAVE A GREAT YEAR

I posted my card here because there is another surprise for Mitra on her Impression-Obsession blog. I almost didn't make the deadline. I spent 5 hours online with a nice gentleman from Microsoft, who was in India. When we were done I had a corrupt file somewhere and things were so disorganized I couldn't find my Paint Shop Pro. So I hope you enjoy my 'Scan'. Please stop by the Impression-Obsession Blog and the Design Team Member's blogs to see what they created for Mitra and to help celebrate her day.

• Impression-Obsession Blog
• Daniela Dobson
• Laura Fulcher
• Julie Koerber
• Dina Kowal
• Deborah March
• Kelli Richardson
• Jeanne Streiff
• Tina Werner

Stamp: Garden Cake F2291
Inks: Brilliance Galaxy Gold, Twinkling H2O's
Paper: Neenah Solar White Super Smooth and Classic Laid Solar White; Stampin' Up Pink
Accessories: Cuttlebug Textile Texture Embossing Folder, May Art Ribbon, Tonic Pinwheels Punch, Flattened Gold Bead Caps, Mark Richards 2 and 3mm Pearls

Thanks for stopping by the 'the blog' to look and share everybody! Check out the I/O blog and have some cake with the rest of us!

 

 Shirley

 

Nautilus Shell At The Beach

I love a lot of Stamp Zia stamps because they remind me of Art Deco. I have both the 3" and 5.5" stamps of the above image. It is called Shellscape Sphere. She offers her stamps in:

• Unmounted



• Mounted with vinyl or



• Mounted to Acrylic block

The image was stamped with Galaxy Gold, what else is new, and painted with Twinks. The shell was done with Jones Tones Foil. The technique is shown in my tutorial at the Impression-Obsession blog HERE. After using Jones Tones Foil, I always go over it with a thin layer of Glossy Accents. Mica Gold Flakes from USArt Quest were added to simulate sand.

The sphere around the image is a cut and embossed circle from Spellbinders Large Circle Dies. The punched holes are from an EK Success Small Shapes punch. Mark Richards 5mm pearls were mounted in between. 3D Pop Up Dots were used under the image and also under the punched circle die cut.

The background bottom layer is Neenah Classic Laid Solar White. The next layer is Bazzill Bling Sparkle. I used Classic Laid Solar White left overs after the die cut was removed. They are from the Cuttlebug Floral Borders Die set. They looked like waves to me.

The ribbon is from May Arts and I tied it Martha Stewart Style.

Stamps: Stamp Zia Shellscape Sphere
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Super Smooth and Laid cardstock, Bazzill Bling Sparkle cardstock
Ink: Brilliance Galaxy Gold, Twinkling H2O's
Accessories: *Jones Tones Pearl Swirl Foil and Foil Glue, USArt Quest Gold Mica Flakes, Jones Tones Pearl Swirl Foil and Foil Glue, Glossy Accents, EK Success Small Shaper Punch, Mark Richards 5mm Pearls, May Arts Ribbon, 3D Pop Up Dots.

*Jones Tones Pearl Swirl Foil is transparent and takes on the color underneath. It give a Mother of Pearl look here, but can also take on a Gold Fish look like HERE. Their Swirl, however is not transparent and can pass for a Faux Dichroic look, like HERE, or it can also be used for Faux Abalone Shell, also called Paua shell by New Zealanders.

I thank you all for stopping by 'the blog' to look and share today. Hope your Mother's Day is all you have wished it to be!

 

 Shirley

 

A Challenge And A Metal Embossed Corners Tutorial

The Design Team is having a challenge using Robin Egg Blue, Butter Yellow, and Spring Green in a card. I'm beginning to think I might need a new camera. I am having a really hard time getting true colors from it. The green is brighter and so is the Yellow IRL. Also the sponged area around the edge of the circle really is yellow.

The image is Pansy Vase by Alesa Baker. It was stamped with Brilliance Galaxy Gold on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White Super Smooth cardstock and painted with Twinkling H2O's. The rim and the base of the vase was gold leafed. The image was put through the Cuttlebug using the largest Spellbinder Large Circle die. It was also embossed and I used the die as a stencil to sponge the edges with Stamping Up Barely Banana. Glossy Accents was applied to the vase.

The circle outside the white one is Neenah Classic Laid Silverstone. It has a rough tooth texture to it. The leaves punch is by EK Success.

The background is Classic Laid Solar White mounted on Silverstone. The image was mounted on the Classic laid Solar White using 3D Pop Ups. The corners were done as described on the Impression-Obsession site HERE. They were mounted using tape on the back of them. The 5mm pearls are Mark Richards and the ribbon is from Hobby Lobby.

SUPPLIES:

- Stamp: F6010, Pansy Vase
- Paper: Neenah Classic
Crest Solar White Super Smooth and Neenah Classic Laid Solar White and Silverstone; Vellum
- Ink: Brilliance Galaxy Gold, Twinkling H2O's, and Stampin' Up Barely Banana
- Accessories: Gold Foil, Mark Richards 5mm Pearls, Hobby Lobby ribbon, EK Success Leaves Punch, Glossy Accents, Cuttlebug Formal Squares
Thanks for stopping by the blog to look and share and don't forget to check out the Design Team member's blogs too:

• Daniela Dobson
• Laura Fulcher
• Dina Kowal
• Deborah March
• Jeanne Streiff
• Tina Werner

 

 Shirley