Coaster Frames

I was making some squash books (see here for directions) the other day and looking at the coasters I was using and decided they would be great for little picture frames so here's what I came up with.

I cut a piece of 4x4 patterned paper and rounded the corners with my corner rounder. Next I cut a transparency into a 3 1/4 inch square and sewed it onto the patterned paper with my Janome Sew Mini. After attaching the paper to the front I also covered the back with matching paper and a large piece of magnet. To finish the frames I added a variety of stamped images, ribbons, and flowers.



All of the stamps used are from Inque Boutique. The "dance" is cut out with my cuttlebug and covered in stickles so it sparkles. Wallet sized photos fit perfectly in these frames.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you like the frame idea. Let me know if you try them.

Be Something

Just playing with some different color combinations of Distress inks to create background paper. For this one I stamped the script background with black archival ink on white cardstock and then I stamped the swirl from the SU Baroque Motifs set ink versamark and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. Finally I laid brushed corduroy, antique linen and faded jeans distress inks on my craft sheet and ran the background piece through the inks.

The quote from the Quotopia set by Inque Boutique. I stamped it with brown chalk ink and added some antique linen distress ink around the edge of the panel. The flowers are also stamped in chalk ink then cut out and mounted with dimensionals.

Here's a side view of the flowers.

Also, if you're interested you can stop by the Artistic Outpost blog today and see my cards. What an honor to have Lisa Somerville ask if she could share my cards on the company blog. Thanks Lisa!

As always, thanks for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day!

More Scor-pal Patterned Paper

Here are a couple more cards using the scor-pal to create my own patterned paper. See original post here for details.

For the patterned paper on both cards I used the Fontwerks Signature Flowers set again. The first card uses antique linen and worn lipstick Distress Inks. The sentiment is from Inque Boutique's Quotopia set. It is stamped in brushed corduroy Distress Ink on vanilla cardstock and the edges are sponged with antique linen. The card base is Kraft and the flower is from Prima.

The second card uses only worn lipstick Distress Ink. The quote stamp is also from the Inque Boutique Quotopia set.

ATC Swap and a Card

I made this ATC for a swap I participated in. The participants were supplied with the turquoise paper, the orange print paper, the ribbon and the crystals. I went with a white base and then a layer of the turquoise. Next I added a layer of SU marigold morning and covered the bottom half with the provided orange print. The image is from Inque Boutique. I stamped it in Palette hybrid black and colored with Copics. I used my rectangle nestabilities on it and the scalloped mat. These layers are mounted with pop dots for some dimension. To finish it, I added the ribbon and the prima flower with the crystal center. I used white primas and colored them to match using my copics. I made an extra ATC to turn into a card. Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful week!

Chocolate Cupcakes

Today I have a simple birthday card to share. I stamped the cupcake from Inque Boutique in Chestnut Roan chalk ink and then added the cherry to the top of each cupcake in Rouge chalk ink. I ended up using liquid pearls to cover the cherries and some of the sprinkles on the cupcakes. For the scalloped brown border I used my Stampin Up slit punch. I used my nestabilities to make the Happy Birthday tag and mounted it with dimensionals. The patterned paper is from My Minds Eye and the brown base is from my LSS.

Thanks for stopping!

More Inque

Ok, I was playing again last night with my Inque Boutique stamps and made a few more cards. This first one uses the A Boy's World set. I stamped the rocket on some watercolor paper and colored it with my watercolor crayons then cut it out. The layout was inspired by this week's sketch challenge on Splitcoast but I ended up changing it some to work with my images. The papers are from the Marcella K remix papers. Just a simple boy card.

For the next card I pulled out my BasicGrey Perhaps papers and the Always Tat stamps. I did some zig zag stitching on the panels and sponged the edges with Ranger Distress ink (weathered wood). Then I stamped the ALWAYS in Maroon Colorbox chalk ink. For the heart I stamped it once with the weathered wood and then again with the maroon so it has a softer look. I cut the heart out and mounted it with dimensionals and then added a little pastel raspberry liquid pearls to it. To finish the card I added the May Arts ribbon. I think this would make a great anniversary card. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Thanks for stopping!

Hibiscus from Inque Boutique

Today I have some lovely hibiscus cards to share since I'm getting tired of winter and wanted to color some nice cheery flowers for a change. I pulled out my Always Tat set from Inque Boutique and stamped the hibiscus a couple of times on watercolor paper and colored them in using my SU watercolor wonder crayons and an aqua painter. For the first card I matted the flower on SU only orange cardstock and then I ran some scraps of yellow through my cuttlebug with my nestabilities to create a scalloped border. Then I added a scrap of My Mind's Eye paper to the wild wasabi card base. For the finishing touch I added the faux brad. It's really a thumb tack with the back removed.


For the second card I went with a white base and added a layer of Red with an orange mat. Before attaching them to the card I sewed around the edges a couple of times and tied a ribbon around the side. Next I added the happy birthday rub on from Making memories then I matted the flower with more red and orange cardstock. Lastly I added the scalloped frame over the flower using dimensionals. I made the frame by using my scalloped round nestabilities and then running it through the machine again using just the plain circle nestabilities die. I like the way it draws your eye to the flower on the card. I think I'll try working more frames into my cards.

As always, thanks for stopping.

Trying to watch the game

Ok, I'm trying to type and watch the Packer game so this will have to be brief.



I made this card for my brother. He used to tie flies for fly fishing so these stamps from Inque Boutique are perfect for him. They are from the Gone Fishin' set. I used my Nestabilities to cut all of the circles first and then stamped the flies on the watercolor paper layer using Palette hybrid black. The next layer is Stampin' Up wild wasabi and the scalloped layer is chocolate from Paper Source. For the layer under the circles I stamped a larger fly in soft sky from SU onto soft sky paper and then layered that with chocolate also. The base of the card is wild wasabi with a mat of soft sky and BasicGrey periphery.

As always, thanks for stopping. I have to get back to the game.

Stay Warm

It's a cold day here in Minnesota. Currently it is -15 degrees F with a wind chill factor of -33. We are under a WIND CHILL ADVISORY until noon on Sunday. For those of you not familiar, here is the warning we are given . . .

A WIND CHILL ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 12 PM CST SUNDAY.
BITTERLY COLD ARCTIC AIR COMBINED WITH WEST-NORTHWEST WINDS OF 5
TO 15 MPH...WILL CONTINUE TO PRODUCE WIND CHILL VALUES OF 25 TO
40 BELOW ZERO ACROSS THE NORTHLAND TODAY THROUGH SUNDAY MORNING.
WIND CHILL VALUES THIS LOW CAN BE LIFE THREATENING...CAUSING
FROSTBITE TO OCCUR IN 5 TO 10 MINUTES AND POSSIBLY LEADING TO
HYPOTHERMIA.
IF YOU MUST TRAVEL ACROSS THE AREA THIS WEEKEND...BE SURE TO LET
SOMEONE KNOW OF YOUR TRAVEL PLANS...AND CARRY A CELL PHONE AND
WINTER SURVIVAL KIT IN CASE YOU BECOME STRANDED. WHEN WORKING
OUTDOORS...DRESS IN LAYERS AND BE SURE TO TAKE FREQUENT BREAKS IN
A WARM SHELTER. REMEMBER THAT PETS ARE SUSCEPTIBLE TO COLD WIND
CHILLS AS WELL.

It's days like these when you want to curl up on the sofa with a blanket and a bowl of popcorn and watch movies.

*Edited to add: The advisory quote is not viewing properly with Mozilla Firefox but it does with Internet Explorer.*

Now, on to my card. . . I made this card using more of my Inque Boutique stamps. The card base is rhubarb from Paper Source and the strip across the bottom is SU sahara sand. I stamped the arrow a couple of times on white scraps using Colorbox chalk rouge and warm red and then punched out circles from them and mounted them on the strip of sand. Birthday is stamped in warm red and rouge is sponged around the edge. I layered that on a piece of chocolate from Paper Source that I cut out using my Nestabilities. I just cut it down to make it the right height. I also used them to make the circles. The scalloped circle is sahara sand. For the white circle I stamped the journal lines with rouge and the Happy with chestnut roan. This piece is mounted with pop dots. The arrows are stamped with chestnut roan and rouge and mounted with pop dots also.

Be safe and stay warm today! Thanks for stopping.

Bella Flora

I'm still playing with my stamps from Inque Boutique. There's just nothing quite like free stamps. There's more about my stamps on this post. Anyway, For this card I stamped the flowers from the Bella Flora set in SU cool caribbean and then stamped the quote from Quotopia in Palette hybrid black on white. I sponged around the edges with black and mounted on a thin mat of black and again on cool caribbean. I left the bottom panel long to I could add a ribbon. Then I made my card base from SU soft sky and cut a black mat. I sewed around the black mat a couple of times before adhering it to the card. Just a simple little card. As always, thanks for stopping.

Gone Fishin'

I had to make a card using my new Gone Fishin' set from Inque Boutique. I love this set. I stamped the fishing rod with Colorbox chalk chestnut roan on very vanilla then covered the piece with Tim Holtz peeled paint distress ink. Then I distressed the edges with my Heidi Swapp edge distresser and mounted it on the reverse side (solid brown) of the patterned paper (Tres Jolie Oui Oui "Brothers" Circles). Next I stamped the creel and fish on vanilla paper with the same ink and colored them with my prismacolor pencils and gamsol then I cut them out and set them aside. I used vanilla for the base of the card and layered on the designer paper from Tres Jolie. Before adding the center piece with the fishing rod I attached a brad to each top corner. Once the main panels were all adhered I added the fish, then mounted the creel on pop dots.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Sorry for the lack of posts lately. It seems that the new year is getting off to a busy start.

Quotopia and Grey

I pulled out my Quotopia set from Inque Boutique to make a card. In case you can't read the quote it says - You just have to do your own thing no matter what anyone says. It's your life.


I stamped the quote in colorbox chalk maroon on basic grey blush paper. I matted that on two more layers of papers from the blush collection. I used my nestabilities to cut out the scalloped rectangle for the largest layer. The card base is rhubarb from Paper Source with more basic grey perhaps paper layered on it. I added the ribbon and then the hardware with a rub on from K-ology.

Birthday Anyone?

Instead of making more Christmas cards I decided to pull out some of my new Inque Boutique stamps and make a birthday card. I started with a base of Stampin Up cool caribbean cardstock and stamped the dotted circle stamp randomly using SU cool caribbean ink. The designer papers are all scraps of BasicGrey Blush papers. The cupcake image is stamped in cranberry crisp ink from SU on a Making Memories pink cardstock. I sponged all of the edges of the cupcake panel with cranberry crisp ink. For the journal lines under the sentiment I used cranberry crisp ink that I stamped off once. Another Yummy Birthday is also stamped in the same ink. The only embellishment is a small pewter brad. The card measures 5x5.

Metallic paper challenge

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I spent the morning running errands and the rest of the day cleaning and trying to get my Christmas decorations up. It was a good day to be inside because it was snowing. In the last 24 hours we received 12 inches of snow with a possibility of 2 more inches by morning.



I found some time to stamp today and worked on last week's "Ways to Use it challenge" on Splitcoast which was to use metallic papers. I have the Die Cuts With a View Luxury stack of pearlized papers that I thought would be perfect for this challenge. For my stamped image I went with the wonderful bird in the Majestic Flight set from Inque Boutique. I stamped him in versamark and embossed him with copper on the same paper I used for the background.

The base is ivory shimmer with a layer of DCWV paper on it. I found the wonderful wire looking ribbon in my craft room when cleaning yesterday and added that under the strip of amber cool metallics paper from The Paper Company. The ribbon is auburn from Offray. Thanks for stopping!

New Stamps and a Sketch Challenge

. . . sounds like a good reason to stamp! Although any reason to stamp is a good reason. So, here is my card for the weekly sketch challenge on SCS's. The stamps are from the Chai Latte set by Inque Boutique. I plan to add words to the labels on the cups once I decide who to send this to. Maybe I'll put "many" on one and "thanks" on the other.

I stamped the words across the top and the cups using Brown Timber staz-on and then stamped the swirls using Stampin Up Close to Cocoa. The cups were colored with my copics. The front two cups were stamped on a scrap, cut out and mounted with pop dots. All of the white panel edges were sponged with Close to Cocoa and then I pierced the bottom edge of the large panel and added brads across the top. The white panels are mounted on SU Chocolate Chip and then layered onto SU Old Olive.

I'm really enjoying this whole blogging thing. I see from my counter that a few people have found it so it's nice to think I'm not talking to myself. Feel free to leave me a comment or two so I know who you are. And as always, thanks for stopping.