The Popular Block Card

Hi Stampers,

Have you had a chance to check out the block card tutorials on YouTube? They look difficult and pack a big WOW factor, but they are quite easy to make. I think I'll be creating lots of these.

There are several tutorials to choose from. One I particularly like is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkK9r2taoms. This is from Dawn 5377. She is a regular on YouTube and an SU demo. I actually first saw a tutorial by Papercrafter45 on YouTube and many of her samples can be found on Pinterest here http://www.pinterest.com/papercrafter...
earlier this year. It's got so many possibilities.
I hope you will give this card a try.

Blessings,
Erica

Perfect Blend

Good afternoon Stampers,

It was National Coffee Day yesterday. Several of the larger coffee house chains had specials going on. I just stayed in my house and sipped on my very own freeze-dried Douwe Egbert's coffee from Amazon. With the addition of Dunkin' Donuts vanilla creamer and a bit of raw sugar...I like it sweet and light, I settled in to make a card to celebrate my love of coffee.

If you need some inspiration of your own, there was a one day blog hop going on here  Cuts, Crops & Creativity and since I love coffee and have quite a few coffee related stamps, I thought I'd create a card. Of course, I was late to the party. It was only for one day, but judging from all the entries, there's a lot of stamping friends just like me.

I chose a sunflower hue card stock from Recollections Spice Market for my base and added a creme border using a Whimsy Stamps border die. The images were all from an older Fiskars clear stamp set called Latte Love. I stamped in Versafine Vintage Sepia and embossed with Zing brown embossing powder. I colored the circles and heart with my pencils. The long labels are from a pack by The Paper Studio called Ninth Street and die cut with MFT's dies. I added 3 small sequins after the pic was taken and they definitely were needed. Try to envision my strategic placement please. :D

It was a quick card so that I could hurry and jump on my treadmill for a quick 4,000 steps. I may get in another 2,000, but 10,000. How do people manage this???

Blessings, Erica

Simply Create Too DT Challenge no. 70

Hi Stampers,

I have a new card up for the design team I'm a member of. It's a double embossed card. That's where you place and glue down a die cut of your choice and then emboss the entire piece as one. This one uses CB dies on Recollection's creme cs and a Tim Holtz' Tattered Leaves die cut from a scrap of green from my stash. I colored in the dots with a Stampin' Up dazzle gold marker.

As usual, I've been creating, but not taking photos and posting. October is going to be different....you heard it here.

Now go join in on the mid-post week at Simply Create Too and post your Autumn/Fall cards.

Blessings,
Erica

Devil Smackdown Card

Hi Stampers,

I love attending Rubber Stamping/Scrapbooking conventions. We have two that come to AZ each year. I can only afford one though. I stock up on un-mounted stamps and these two were irresistible.
They are from Rubbernecker. I don't see them in the big box stores, but their prices are great.

I just love this image and sentiment. They weren't sold together, but they sure go together in my opinion. The sink and her curlers are pink, but I think I used too dark a copic for the coloring. Can you ever have enough of these markers?

I sent this to a dear friend and she absolutely loved it.

Blessings,
Erica

I've Been in a Hole

It's bedtime for me, but I had to post this card since I plan on playing along with the Less Is More challenge tomorrow before I do a few house-keeping chores and bake a cake and a pie...will post pics if all turns out well.

I made this card for my daughter in CA. She's such a strong woman that I forget she may need encouragement once in a while. I usually say the right words to her on an as needed basis, but seldom do I send a card other than birthday and Christmas. I also give her my cards to use for others. On her last visit, Danielle advised me that she needs the written word sometimes. It's something to hold on to she said. I know the feeling. So I did a 3D card with lots of YouTube help. It took three different videos and two tries, but I finally got it and I must say, I love how it turned out and I'll be making more. They're actually easy, once I wrapped my non-mathmatical brain around it.

I love the sentiments from Stampendous and the die cut images and the colors. Everything just fit. YIPPIE!

Now here's my letdown. I knew it was bulky and that I'd better take it to the post office to make sure I had enough postage. The customer service representative did her thing and asked me a zillion questions, you know, did I want insurance, date of delivery confirmation, priority, was there anything hazardous, etc., and did I want stamps and on and on. Then WHAM! That'll be $2.32. I gulped. Are you kidding, I said. Nope was the reply. I expected no more than $1.25. Well, I guess I've been in a hole somewhere. I forked the $$ over and walked out  From now on, I'm taking a picture of the card and emailing it to her or posting on FB with a notation...here's a lovely card for you and it's sitting on my craft desk waiting for you to pick it up.

Enjoy the weekend.

Blessings,
Erica

Simply Create Too Design Team challenge no. 68...Mono/Madness

Hi Friends,
That's monochromatic madness to you, but I quite grew exhausted typing the entire word when thanking bloggers for entering this latest Simply Create Too challenge. So, I like blues and here is my card.

Kindly ignore the junk in the back...must just get some white poster board from Walmart soon!

A bit of work went into this, but I was inspired when I had a bit of a windfall at Tuesday Morning and found Spellbinder dies deeply discounted. I had to control myself, as there were sets available, that I'd never get because of the expense and my limited artistic capacity to use them. But the bird cage? Well, I'd been wanting either this one from Tim Holtz. I am thinking I do prefer this one. TH has a larger one and my cards are most often A2 size. This card is filled with die use...the Anna Griffin embossed and colored flowers, the sentiment, the tiny flowers, and the cage. I died the ribbon and used a Cuttlebug embossing folder for the card base. rounding the corners. Several brands of card stock were used...Bazzil, SU, and DCWV.

Won't you head on over to Simply Create Too and play for the second week of our challenge?
We'd love to see your creations.

Blessings,
Erica

LIM Challenge no. 184...sort of

Good intentions is what I had Saturday morning, but how the days get away from me. And along with the days went the directions and I ended up not quite getting it right since it was supposed to be a one layer card.

I created these three cards before the weekend was done, and then procrastinated, then the weather was cloudy and I get better pics outside, so that dashed that. And so finally, today here are my cards.
BUT... Take Note, in the end, neither qualified.

To be brief, cause people have lots of cards to get to. I put to use the Tim Holtz "Tattered Leaves" die was used fork these. Various embossing folders from Cuttlebug, Darice, and Stampin' Up were used. Cardstock is either white or creme from Recollections. A special cut, a little trim and various washi tapes and a sentiment on the last one complete my trio. I'm partial to the last one, but I do like how they all turned out. Into my stash they go for autumn mailings.

Blessings,
Erica