You can't catch me!!!

I think gingerbread men are just super adorable, and I have a SIL who collects them. So when I saw Claire's sweet Gingerbread sets, I knew I had to own them!! The set I used is called Half Baked Gingerbread Joy (Waltzingmouse Stamps), and it's like playing paperdolls stamper style. You can dress these guys in different outfits, and even make gingerbread girls. So, so cute!! Since my SIL has four boys, I made 4 little magnets too, dressing each a different way. But I'll get to that in a bit.

It's the 20th, and that means it's time for another DD/DDA Challenge over on Splitcoaststampers. Here are the requirements set up by sweety, Kim Teasdale:

The Challenge: Create a project for any holiday of your choice - even obscure ones

Required Element: Your ornament must hang from something or have a loop of ribbon so that it can hang (ie: from a christmas tree, door, etc)

Restricted Element: None

Keyword: DCHOHO1109 (Dirty Challenge Hanging Out the Holidays with Ornaments 11 09...with a slight Christmas infusion! lol - HOHO...get it? )

I made my ornament with largest Spellbinders' Labels 6 Nestabilities die. There are 3 of them just folded in half and attached together with that darling little gingerbread guy in the center. I glued two of him back to back, so the ornament looks the same when it spins. I used the image that looks like a sheet portion to the bed for a banner at the top, and added the year by hand. Check out the ornaments Claire made with the Season of Love tags!! How CUTE!! That's where I got the idea to fold the Labels 6 shape.

I stamped this little guy with Brushed Corduroy (Ranger Distress) onto Kraft cs (Prism). His vest was stamped with Cranberry (Adirondack Dye Ink), and the rest of the pieces were stamped with Walnut Stain (Ranger Distress). I then colored in the ric-rac with my White gel Souffle pen. The button is PTI, and he's hanging with Ivory Burlap String.

Click HERE to see this months DD/DDA gallery of ornaments. We'd love it if you added some of your stamped ornaments. Remember to include the keyword: DCHOHO1109
so we can find it.

Now for the magnets:
Aren't these little guys fun?!?!? They're stamped the same as my ornament guy, but I added Glossy Accents to them. Honestly, if I had time to do them all over, I would just add a coat of Clear embossing powder to them instead. I knew better too. The glossy accents made the color run a bit. But I do like the sturdiness of them. I cut each of them out and adhered them to some balsa wood. It cuts like butter and gives the shape support. I got the thinnest you can get at Michaels. Then I just added some magnets to the back. So easy.

That's it for today.
Thank you so much for stopping by.

Stamps: Half Baked Gingerbread Joy (Waltzingmouse)
Paper: Kraft (Prism), The Paper Loft
Ink: Brushed Corduroy, Walnut Stain, Pine Needles, Aged Mahogany (Ranger Distress), Cranberry (Adirondack Dye Ink)
Accessories: Labels 6 (Spellbinders), Balsa Wood, Natural Burlap String, Magnests, Glossy Accents, White Gel Pen (Souffle), Button (PTI)

New and All-time faves

Today's card was made for the monthly Dirty Dozen Alumni Challenge over on SCS. Here are the rules we were to follow:

Challenge Focus: Create a Mother's Day or Father's Day card or gift. (This could be for your Mom or Dad or a grandparent or aunt ot uncle or even just for a good friend you might want to acknowledge with a little favortism on one of these days.)

Required Element: Personal Favorites - incoporate your current FAVE (could be stamp set, technique, color combo or embellishment) and an all-time FAVE that you seem to always fall back on (stamp set or technique or color combo or embellishment) and tell us about them.

Restricted Element: No work involved. - meaning this should be for fun and not fullfill any DT requirements or promote any companies you might owe a little favor to or anything like that. YKWIM. Take some time to just stamp for joy!

My new favorite is the Octagon Nestabilities Shapes by Spellbinders. I gravitate to that shape more often. I also love the new fiskars border punches. LOVE punches!! My all-time fave, of course, is ink distressing. No surprise there. So I incorporated that technique also.

Now we were also to make sure that our card or project was not for any DT requirement. So, I used some new Stampin' UP! images and paper. So, here it is...my DDA Favorite Project.

Thanks so much for stopping by.
Have a wonderful week!
Happy Stamping!
Tosh

Supplies:

Stamps - Boho Backgrounds
Paper - Parisian Breeze Specialty (Stampin' UP!), Suede Brown Dark, Neenah Natural White (Prismatics)
Ink - Chocolate Chip, Buckaroo Blue
Accessories - Octagon and Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Rhinestones (Kaisercraft), Kraft Taffeta Ribbon (Stampin' UP!), Border Punch (Fiskars), Butterfly Punch (Martha Stewart), Horizontal Slot Punch (Stampin' UP!), Piercing Tool, Mat Pack (Stampin' UP!), Dimensional Tape

Non-traditional Love

The 20th of each month, the Dirty Dozen Alumni host a challenge. Here are the guidelines for this month.

Challenge Focus: A Valentine's Day/Love-y Dove-y card!!

Required Element: Texture!! Anything you can *feel* (ie: Fun Flock, Crystal Effects, Embossing/Debossing, velvet ribbon...and I am sure there are a million more things that I cannot think about!!)

Restricted Element: No RED!! Pink is ok...but no red...let's see what other colors we can use for Valentine's Day!

Well, I thought this "For the Love of Birds" (Our Craft Lounge) image would be perfect for this non-traditional "lovey-dovey" card.

The image is colored with copics, and the birds are popped up for dimension. My texture you ask? Well, the cs is textured, the card is very dimensional, and the filigree brads are textured. Hope this qualifies.


Supplies:
Stamps - For the love of Birds (OCL)
Paper - Wild Asparagus (MME), Tawny Light and Medium, White, Baby Blue Light (Prismatics), Neenah Solar White
Ink - Tuxedo Black (Memento), Brushed Corduroy (Ranger Distress)
Accessories - Nestabilities, Copics, Ribbon, Filigree Brads (SU), Pearls (Kaisercraft), Corner Tag Punch (SU), Flower Punch (Carlcraft), dimensional tape

Thanksgiving Spotlight

Today, the Dirty Dozen Alumni on SCS were challenged to make a Fall themed project with a heart on it.

Here are the requirements:
Challenge Focus: Create a thankful card or gift, Thanksgiving table place card or treat holder, or Thanksgiving home decor item.

Required Element: At least one heart on your project.

Restricted Element: Nothing

Keyword: DCTH1108 (for SCS uploading)

I realize this is an odd looking card. There is a reason for the *uncolored* portion of this image. I decided to spotlight the fruit and vegetables in the center of this Cornucopia (Northwoods) in order to represent all of my blessings.

There are so many out there who have very little food, no shelter, estranged family members, poor health...the list could go on and on. Thus the spotlight. I thought the heart was a great idea that Sharon required. Mine is full of thankfulness, yet hurts for those who are suffering right now. I added the flower in the top corner to represent hope. To me flowers represent life and remind me that we are to bloom where we are planted. Sorry for all the symbolism, but that's how this card came about.

The heart and flower are a cuttlebug diecut.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you are having a blessed week!!

Supplies : Stamps - Donna's Cornucopia, Happy Thanksgiving (Northwoods), Sanded bg (Stampin' Up) Paper - Sunflowers Dark, Suede Brown Dark, Black (Prismatics), Neenah Natural White Ink - Tuxedo Black (Memento), Walnut Stain (Ranger) Accessories - Copics, Nestabilities, piercing tool, brads, cuttlebug, dimensional tape

Patriotic Challenge

It's the 20th today, and that means it's time to make a card for the Dirty Dozen Alumni Challenge. Here are the rules we had to follow.

Challenge Focus: "Inside & Out"......stamp and decorate both the inside of your card AND the outside of the envelope. (any card size is ok) Please upload two photos.
Required Element: Patriotic element - interpret this any way you like (ex. color scheme, sentiment, image, whatever)
Restricted Element: No ribbon
Optional - Send your card to the troops so that they can in turn mail it home to family or friends (all themes and occasions welcome). If you choose to do so, Beate has agreed to accept them and send them to her husband. Please include the envelope with the card and mail them to Beate. Thanks!

Now, to the construction of the card:
I realize others have made star shapes before me, and I also know that my good friend Carolyn King (Cammie on SCS) has made many cards with the centers being the actual card, but I couldn't find one to link too. So those of you who have ventured into the card shape world before me...thank you so much for the inspiration. It really helped me this week.

For the star shape, I just photocopied my Cuttlebug star diecut and magnified it a gazillion times. *grin* I then cut it out and traced it onto Kraft CS and framed it with chocolate chip. The center circle opens to the left. To make that I just folded chocolate chip cs in half and put a nestabilities circle slightly off the fold and ran it through my cuttlebug. I then put Basicgrey magnetic snaps on the inside under the cs pieces so it stays closed. I love those little magnets. They're quite flat and VERY strong. The image: Biker Bee (Stampendous), is colored with copics and is stamped over with SU's Sanded bg stamp in Creamy Caramel to further distress it. The background stamp is the Broad Stripe Backgrounder from Cornish Heritage Farms. The punched star is also cuttlebug star diecuts. I sewed (very sloppily) around the edges, and wrapped some twine around a couple of the star points. (I was told twine was okay to use instead of ribbon...no buzzers here...*grin*)



Now for this challenge, we also had to decorate an envelope and the inside of the card. This is something I rarely do because it takes me hours, sometimes a whole day, to construct a card. So the thought of doing the inside and an envelope too makes me cringe. But, alas, to follow the rules, I did. The stamps I used were: Starstruck and Sanded (Stampin' Up)

Supplies:
Stamps - Biker Bee (Stampendous), Starstruck, Sanded (Stampin' Up), Broad Stripe Backgrounder (CHF)
Paper - Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Cranberry Crisp (Stampin' Up), White (Papertrey)
Ink - Black Soot, Vintage Photo, Walnut (Ranger Distress Ink)
Accessories - Cuttlebug Star diecuts (Provocraft), Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), twine, sewing machine, sponge, copics, scotch mounting tape, basicgrey magnetic snaps

DDA Journal with Bookmark

The 20th of each month, Jami from SCS gives the Dirty Dozen Alumni a challenge. This month it was as follows:

Challenge Focus: See the Inspiration Photo below. The photo is from BH&G 100 Decorating Ideas Under $100 magazine.
Required Element: Make an Inspiration Journal for yourself or as a gift. It can be any size from tiny to huge.
Restricted Element: No markers (SU, Copic, or any other brand), no watercolor crayons.

Inspirational Photo is HERE

I liked the blue/white/tan combo with the hint of orange/red flowers. I decided to make my journal a prayer journal and used this gorgeous Bible Still Life image by Inkadinkado. I colored it with prisma watercolor pencils and the SU blending pen. I also added some sparkle with my Sakura stardust glitter gelly roll pen.

My scallops were cut with my fiskars rotary cutter.

I made a magnetic bookmark to go with the journal. I figured I could use it in my devotional book. I kept both projects fairly flat so they're easy to keep with me. For the bookmark, I just folded the piece in half and cut with my fiskars rotary scalloped blade cutter. The image Aged and Elegant is by Inque Boutique, and the sentiment heartfelt is a MFT sentiment from Grateful Greetings. I put Basicgrey magnetic snaps, that I got from Eclectic Paperie, on the inside of my bookmark and covered them with a piece of cardstock.
Here's the template I used. I have no idea who designed this template. It was the very first journal I made as a stamper over 12 years ago and was taught to me by my SU demo Laurie Franz. The paper inside is just a 5"x8" pad I got at staples.














I'm including a photo of the back to show how it's attached to the paper pad, and the inside to see how the folder works. You can cover the back of the pad with a 5"x8" piece of cardstock if you like. I left it off to show how you can use just one piece of cardstock to make the journal cover...then enhance it as you like. Here's a photo of the inside pocket too. I've never done a tutorial before, but hopefully you can figure this out by my photos. If you have any questions, email me at www.stamps4fun@hotmail.com.

Supplies:
Stamps: Bible Still Life (Inkadinkado), Remembering and bookmark image: Aged and Elegant (Inque Boutique), heartfelt (MFT)
Paper: Metallic Papers by Marcella K (K&Company), SU Riverrock, Papertrey White
Ink: Versafine Black onyx, Ranger Antique Linen and Weathered Wood distress ink
Accessories: Prisma watercolor pencils, SU blending pen, dew drops (cowboy), oval nestabilities by spellbinders, piercing tool, piercing template, 5x7 paper pad, scor-pal, basicgrey magnetic snaps