Tuesday, April 26, 2011

SSD TUESDAY SKETCH # 74

Good morning everyone!  Hope your week is off to a great start!  We had a wonderful weekend in sunny Las Vegas which was a great change of pace from the snow in the Black Hills.
Since today is Tuesday it brings another sketch challenge over at Skipping Stones Design Blog.  This is saddly our last sketch from Laurie Schmidlin.  Here is her sketch.
I made my card  for this challenge last week before our trip, and was not thinking that Easter woud be over when this post would go up....soooo....my card is an Easter card.  Silly me!

However, this same idea could be used for a "Hoppy Birthday" card using the other bunny in the set.  I have used this set many times because I like the bunny so much!  I made this card for my sweetie for Easter so kept the colors a bit less girly, but still wanted it Easter like.  The colors of the DP are Pear Pizzaz and Peach Parfait by Stampin up.  I used a Nestabilities egg shaped die and used the out of the box technique so parts of the bunny were outside the egg. 
Hope you like.  I will keep it short and to the point this week so you can check out what everyone else has created.....have a wonderful week!    Tammie

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

SKIPPING STONES TUESDAY SKETCH 73

Its Tuesday sketch day over at Skipping Stones Design Blog.  We once again have a fabulous sketch for you to play along with from our guest sketch artist this month Laurie Schmidlin.  This is her fantastic challenge this week.
We Stamp Tramps were told we could use any stamp set we wanted, so I chose our new release this month "Uplifting".  The sketch reminded me of rolling hills and blue skies somehow.....this is how I interpreted the sketch this week.

Let me show you "Uplifting" again, and you will be able to see that with this set you can create a whole scene...clouds, hills, sun, and fun things to put in that sky, and on those hills and grass.

The other nice thing about this set is the number of versatile sayings you get.  Anyhow, you can get this set at the SSD Store.  While on the blog take the time to link your own card using the sketch of the week....you may be the lucky winner of a stamp set this time.
Hope you all have a super week.          Tammie

Thursday, April 14, 2011

THURSDAY TIPS AND TRICKS...THE "ICING ON THE CAKE"

Good morning everyone!  Today is my turn over at the Skipping Stones Blog, to do the weekly Thursday tip, trick, or tutorial.  My tutorial today is a technique I learned from my friend Laurie...(thanks Laurie)...how to make puff paint at home in any color you want for just pennies.  We are calling it "frosting" for todays post.  Soooo.....lets get busy and frost a cupcake, shall we?  Here are the basic supplies to start with.....
Equal amounts of salt and flour....be sure you use salt NOT sugar.....stamps, ink, water, heat tool and cardstock.

Begin by mixing the salt and flour together, and then slowly add water and stirring until you get a thick glue like consistency....add color of choice if desired....I wanted pink frosting.  I used food coloring. 
Reinkers work great too.

Then I got out the SSD Cupcake Cutie set and stamped the solid image frosting for the cupcake in Stampin-Ups Blushing Bride, on white cardstock.

Pick up a small amount of the colored frosting and starting from the center, push it out to the edges of the stamped image...I just used the stir stick to do this.  Do not make it too thick..it will be hard to dry as you will see in the next step.

This is how thick I layered it on.  Now we begin to dry the the frosting with the heat tool.  Start from the backside of the cardstock first and when you can see it starting to dry a bit and puff up, finish drying it drm the fron...do not get too close or you will burn your frosting....We're cookin now, huh?  Isn't your frosting fluffy!

All my pics of the dried image blurred, so this is a bad picture of the puffed up frosting getting ready to get decorated.  I applied a two way glue pen lightly over the frosting and sprinkled glitter on it..looks like colored sugar on frosting!.....soooo yummy looking!  You could also add any other number of fun things instead like confetti or courser glitter etc to make your frosting look delectable!  Here is what mine looked like when done....

I cut this image out and mounted it to the cupcake base I had previously stamped and cut out with a nestabilities die......This is my finished card.

It is really hard to see how cool this ooks IRL from the picture....but it is all puffed up and actually looks like frosting on a cake.  You can use this recipe for anywhere you could use puff paint....white for snow, snow men, bunnies....etc....you get the idea right?
Hope you enjoyed the tip....It really is not hard to do at all.  I used a Tablespoon each of the flour and salt and about 4 tsp of water to make mine and had alot of frosting.  You may want to scale it down, or have several stamped images ready to paint at once.  One idea I had would be to stamp a few other images where you would use white puff paint and paint them first, then add color to the rest of the paint and do a few cupcakes and cakes etc.
Have a wonderful day!      Tammie

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

SSD SKETCH # 72 AND BLOG HOP

Welcome to my blog today, and  the Skipping Stones Design Blog Hop to celebrate the release of Uplifting! If you've just happened upon my blog today, make sure to start from the beginning at  Skipping Stones Design Blog. You should have arrived here from Jennifer's blog.   Let me show you  Heather's newest set...."Uplifting"

Balloons are so very popular right now, and this set gives you lots of ways to use that theme!


Combined with the blog hop today, it's also Skipping Stones Sketch Tuesday which means we're showcasing another great creation from our Guest Sketch Artist this month, Laurie Schidlin! We'd love for you to play along with the sketch and link your card at the Skipping Stones Design  Blog.   A free stamp set is up for grabs to a lucky winner that joins our sketch challenge!  This is her sketch for this week.....

She does such fun stuff!!  This is the card I did using Stampin-up In Color Concord Crush and Peach Parfait.



I know you have more blogs to get to, so  will keep my post to this today...have fun!!  Don't forget to stop at the Skipping Stones Store, if you want to purchase this set.  To continue on the hop, go to Gladys, and see what fun she has created!




Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful week!  Please take the time to let me know you stopped by today by leaving a comment...I love to visit your blogs too!       God Bless!     Tammie




Friday, April 8, 2011

FEATURE FRIDAY

TGIF!  TGIF!  Happy Friday to all my blogger buddies...hope your weekend is going to be a great one!  Mine has started off great beause my second eldest son came home for the day and I had not seen him since last September....that is a long time for me to not see one of my 3 boys....he is just passing through today to travel on tomorrow to a new job he just accepted.  So....we had a wonderful time of good food and visiting......wish he could be here longer, but good news is that he was living in Atlanta and now will be in North Dakota which is alot closer to the Black Hills of South Dakota, which makes his mother happy. 

Today is my turn for a new weekly post for Skipping Stones Design called "FEATURE FRIDAY"....we Stamp Tramps LOVE all the cool, clever and funny sets Heather has created.....some of the older sets may have been a bit forgotten as she has introduced some of her new fabby sets, so......every  Friday we will be highlighting an older set that we want you to be aware is still very fun, wonderful and available.

I have to be honest.....I wish I had had more time this week to do a super fabulous project with the set I chose..but sometimes life throws you a few curve balls that snatch your creative time away from you and that happened to me this week....however.......
I do have a simple card to share from the first SSD set that I purchased....It made me laugh, as so many of the SSD sets do, and I was hooked on Heathers stamps.  The set I bought was "You know your get old when"....this is the set....

I have to tell you...I have used this set ALOT!......don't know how to make a card for a guy?....this set makes it easy.....just make the card funny!  The card I am sharing today is a girly sort of card, but I have changed the colors, etc and used it for my guy friends too....it is a great great versatile set.   This is the card I did.
I saw a sketch for a long card, and thought it would be a fun change from the normal A2 size I normally do....so I designed this card using several of the sayings from the set, cause they were all so fun I could not choose just one....hope it gives you an idea how versatile this set can be!

If you want to check this set out, or any other of Heathers fabulous creations just go to Skipping Stones Design Blog, and go shopping at the Store!! 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend full of fun and spring type weather....that is what I am hoping for.....

Til next time......God Bless.....Tammie

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

SSD 71 TUESDAY SKETCH CHALLENGE

HAPPY APRIL!!   Hopefully Spring is soon in coming...as I do this post we again are getting snow in the Black Hills..I am SOOOO ready for it to be over and warm weather to begin.  Today is also the weekly Tuesday sketch over at Skipping Stones Design Blog.  Since it is a new month we have a new sketch design artist....Laurie Schmidlin!  She has supplied we Stamp Tramps with some amazing sketches!!  This is her fabby sketch for this week:

Pretty fun right?  I sure enjoyed it.  I decided to use Chick Chat for my set of SSD stamps this week.  I love these cute little chicks....Here is my card...

This is the Chick Chat Set....

I used Stampin-ups new In Color Peach Parfait, and Concord Grape for my colors.  As is my usual, I kept it Clean and Simple......hope you enjoy!
Please head on over to Skipping Stones to see what the rest of the Stamp Tramps have done with Laurie's wonderful sketch.
Thanks for stopping by my blog today!!  Hope to see your creation from this sketch uploaded to the SSD blog....I would love to see YOU be the winner of free stamps! 
Have a super wonderful week...hopefully it brings you April sunshine and smiles!!  God Bless....Tammie