I'm Back!

... and about time. ;) January in Ontario has seemed like an excellent month to hibernate as much as possible. But look! We're flipping to the next page in the calendar, February, the longest shortest month. Sigh. :D 
Anyway... It's February, it's Saturday, and the Drunken Stampers are BACK! We're starting out the new term with an ANYTHING GOES challenge. I haven't created much lately, but I did recently need to make a sympathy card. Not typical Drunken Stamper fare, but it is Anything Goes. 

The plaid panel is the Royal Canadian Air Force tartan... appropriate for the person the card honours. I stamped the blue panel in Versamark with a music background, die cut the flowers, and inset them with a linen cardstock piece. The sentiment is computer-generated and embossed on vellum.
So -- if you tell the Drunken Stampers it's Anything Goes, who knows what we'll come up with! Check out my design team buddies' creations, then join us in the Lounge with your contribution. 
And happy February... I hope! 

Supplies: white, linen & blue cardstock, vellum, patterned paper from clipart, Local King Rubber Stamp notes background, Versamark, Zing clear embossing powder, Simon Says Stamp fresh daisies die cut, Creative Memories corner-rounder punch

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! A few days into the new year already, but I had a nice little holiday break from blogging. My fellow Drunken Stampers and I are back today, though, with a timely challenge: 

This is the final challenge in our current "person/place/thing" theme -- and that thing is New Year's Day. You can go with whatever inspires you about heading into the brand new year. 
I knew right away I wanted to make a New Year's card for my husb, so I went for a celebratory fireworks card... with Minnie Mouse. ☺

I had planned to use Mickey on my card, since he's my favourite, but this Minnie stamp looked just too celebratory not to choose. The fireworks were a different challenge, since I don't have any fireworks stamps. I went through a bunch, and found a wedding bouquet with streamers -- cutting the clear stamp in half, I stamped the streamers twice, then added the flourishes and stars. Works for me at least! Some shiny silver paper to offset the black-on-black finished the card. 
Now it's your turn! Whether you want to illustrate this year's resolution, make a festive beverage card, or simply anything that inspires you about the start of 2014, come and join us! 

Supplies: white, Stampin' Up basic black & Recollections silver cardstock, Inkadinkado Disney, Basic Grey Forever, Paper Smooches Birthday Buddies & Studio G stamps, Versamark ink, Zing clear embossing powder

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Embossing!

Eek! Less than a week to go before Christmas! Thank goodness the challenge this week at Drunken Stampers is one of the best things about stamping, as far as I'm concerned... EMBOSSING! I still love the magic of watching embossing powder transform, with a little heat, into something amazing. Of course, you're not limited to heat embossing with this challenge: if you prefer to dry emboss, that counts, too. But since I'm all about the heat embossing anyway, how could I not? 

My inspiration comes from an older card by my talented friend Heather. (And now that I look at her blog, she recently posted one with a similar theme.) I started by stamping and embossing a snowflake background stamp on watercolour paper, then used a punch to get my three squares. These were sponged and edged with distress ink. I stamped a variety of other snowflake stamps on the blue patterned paper before adding it to the card base and popping the three squares on. And of course the sentiment is embossed, too. 
Being a Drunken Stamper, I thought I should also share a trio of other embossed projects:

Aren't these fun? I'm ready to provide a host/hostess gift should anyone just happen to invite me over. :D Each image is heat-embossed in some way. The wine tag die is from Avery Elle; if you want to know any of the other details, just ask. (This would be me, succumbing to the Christmas rush and avoiding listing all the supplies separately.) 
Remember to check out the other inspiring projects from my fellow Yellow Canaries! You'll see heat embossing, dry embossing... and maybe both at the same time! Then join our party with your own embossed creation.

Supplies: (card) white cardstock, Canson 140 lb watercolour paper, Echo Park Winter Wishes patterned paper, Local King Rubber Stamp, Hero Arts, Inkadinkado & Stampin' Up stamps, Versamark, Memento Paris Dusk & stormy sky & faded jeans distress inks, Wow white embossing powder, EK Success 1 1/4" square punch, pop-dot tape

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Drunken Stampers, Ho Ho Ho

Here we are, the first Saturday in December! And the holiday deadlines just keep getting closer and closer. So why not ignore the pressure, grab a festive beverage and see what the Drunken Stampers are up to this week? 

This week the Yellow Canary team has a person challenge, and that person is the jolly old elf himself, SANTA! The alternate challenge is anything related to December holidays. 
I have yet to find the perfect Santa stamp -- but that doesn't mean I can't do Santa! First up, a tag:

Tim Holtz has little to worry about from me, but I still really like how this simple tag looks, vintage and fun. While I was in the vintage mode, I made a card, too!

This card combines a Kaiser Craft die cut -- and look, it's actually the same shape of oval as my Nesties die!! -- with a sentiment from the same Cavallini set I used for the tag -- the font seemed just right for the Victorian scene. You can't see them in the photo, but I scored the left end of the sentiment strip for a bit of texture. 
Check out the Drunken Stampers blog to see just how diverse Santa can be! The Yellow Canaries have been very creative as always! 

Supplies (tag) Stampin' Up kraft & very vanilla cardstock, Cavallini Vintage Christmas stamps, Stampin' Up bravo burgundy & Colorbox evergreen inks, Paper Smooches cinnamon twine, Offray green ribbon; (card) Stampin' Up naturals ivory & old olive cardstock, Stampin' Up patterned paper, Cavallini Vintage Christmas stamp, Stampin' Up old olive ink, clear embossing powder, Kaiser Craft Turtle Dove die cut, Creative Memories corner-rounding punch, pop-dot tape

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The Drunken Stampers Go to the Diner

Hooray, it's the weekend! Saturday means it's time for a new Drunken Stampers challenge, and this week the Yellow Canary team are hanging out at the local diner.

Luckily, there's an alternate challenge of anything food or food-related, since I came up blank on a diner-related card. (But not my teammates! Wait till you see some of their cards!) Possibly to compensate, I have two samples to show you today. My first project is very food-related:

Paper Crafts Magazine was nice enough to offer this free digital image at exactly the right time! I just happened to have a few homemade chocolate chip cookies that I could use as a stand-in for the Christmas baking that hasn't started yet. 
Next, I went back to first principles... food production:

There are exceptions, I know, but a lot of the food we eat has to be grown first, so that's where I went for my second project. Interestingly, a couple of birthdays ago, a friend gave me this seed packet stamp set, while another friend gave me Papertrey Ink's Garden Variety set. And I've combined the two of them here. 
Make sure you check out today's Drunken Stampers post for some mouth-watering inspiration! 

Supplies: (tag) white, manila & Stampin' Up real red cardstock, Paper Crafts magazine digital image, Spellbinders circle & Papertrey Ink tag sale #4 dies, $ store ribbon; (card) Canson 140 lb watercolour paper, Stampin' Up old olive cardstock & patterned paper, TPC Studio victory garden & Papertrey Ink garden variety stamps, Memories black & black soot distress inks, distress markers, Papertrey Ink garden variety & Spellbinders circle dies, pop-dot tape


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The Drunken Stampers Use Chipboard

Please come back after 8am for a surprise blog post! 

The start of a new weekend, and the start of a new challenge at Drunken Stampers!

Chipboard! Or grungeboard, if that's more your thing. Neither of them are particularly my thing, but it doesn't mean I don't have some tucked away in my stash. ☺ In fact, a few years ago I purchased a Stampin' Up Christmas kit that included several sheets of precut chipboard. I pulled a chipboard star from the collection and got to work. 

Now I know that gesso and glimmer mist don't actually play nicely together. Huh. So thought two was glitter. And I had some new sticky embossing powder to play with. (Thanks, Em!) Now that worked really well. At the end of the cardmaking process, there truly wasn't glitter everywhere! Just a few places. Not even glitter on the cat! I count that as a success. Once I had my chipboard piece ready, I just had to decide what to do with it. I decided it would make a fun focal element in a freestyle collage card. A stamped tag, a couple of cardstock elements, washi tape and sparkly gold stars managed to keep my collage still relatively clean and simple. 
Check out all the fun ways my fellow designated designers have used chipboard this week, then come and join our crafting cocktail party! 

Supplies: Stampin' Up naturals ivory and old olive cardstock, pale gold pearl paper, Unity winter delivery tag, Stampin' Up old olive ink, clear embossing powder, Stampin' Up chipboard star, Ranger sticky embossing powder, Martha Stewart crystal coarse glitter, KaiserCraft Turtle Dove collectables die cuts, May Arts jute twine, Recollections washi tape, star punch

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To Goth or Not to Goth

In another life, I could be a Goth. I could be a Goth papercrafter! Steampunk, lots of distressing, cool Goth images... but I'm not. However, there's this week's Drunken Stampers challenge to deal with: 

So since I'm in this life, not my parallel Goth existence, I decided to go Goth...ic in my style. I've been meaning to play around with trying inset diecuts, and decided to use the technique here. I've also had this card pinned for two years, so thought maybe I should try being inspired by it. 

I completely planned to use the vellum overlay, as in the inspiration card, but when it came to it, I liked it better without. The layout is very similar to the original though. I really like the look of the text tree inset in the black cardstock. 

Of course, when you do an inset diecut, you end up with the other halves of the diecuts...

This time I liked the way the vellum looked. I changed the layout of the card a bit, and used an Echo Park sticker sentiment. The papers and stamps are Echo Park as well. 
As you can see, you don't need to feel too restricted by our challenge this week! I do feel badly I didn't even manage to get a person into either card... unless that bat is really...? :D So come and link up your Goth or Halloween creations this week! As for me, I'm also going to link these up to the Halloween Simon Says Stamp and the Halloween/orange &black Shopping Our Stash challenges. 

Supplies: (text tree) white & black cardstock, vellum, Echo Park Apothecary Emporium patterned papers, Unity/Echo Park Fright Night stamp, Versafine onyx black ink, clear embossing powder, Quickutz house and tree die, Martha Stewart bat punch, Stampin' Up scallop border punch, Paper Smooches twine, pop-dot tape; (trick or treat) black & white cardstock, Echo Park Apothecary Emporium patterned papers & sticker, Unity/Echo Park Fright Night stamp, Colorbox mango tango ink, clear embossing powder, QuicKutz house and tree & Spellbinders reverse wonky rectangle dies, pop-dot tape

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Carnival Time!

It's the weekend! What better time to consider going to a carnival? And that's exactly what we're doing at Drunken Stampers this week. 

We're focusing on a place this week, and that place is a carnival, or anything you might find at a carnival. I ended up making two cards. I wanted to go with the capital "C" carnival... Mardi Gras! 

So I've never been to Mardi Gras, or to New Orleans for that matter. (And doesn't Mardi Gras sound so much more festive than Fat Tuesday? How could you have a celebration around that?) Luckily, the Web can tell you anything about Mardi Gras you might want to know. I used the traditional Mardi Gras colours of gold (power), green (faith) and purple (justice). I found a clipart mask on the internet and printed it onto the back of gold cardstock to cut out. Completely influenced by Emily, I layered purple pearls onto green sequins. I thought the misted panel looked appropriately Carnival-y. :D It's tricky to see in my photograph, but I also embossed a fleur-de-lis tipped border along the bottom of the misted panel.
I also wanted to make a small "c", fun-fair type of carnival card. 

When I initially saw the Carnival theme, this elephant stamp was my first thought. He is so winsome! He's paper-pieced and watercoloured. If you go to a carnival, you're going to need tickets, so here they are in the patterned paper and for the sentiment. (Thanks for the idea, Chris!) I also used an embossing folder to add polka dots to the ticket paper. My design is based on this older Mojo Monday sketch. Loosely. ;) 

Both my cards qualify for this week's challenges at Shopping our Stash (#122: Embossing x2) and Simon Says Stamp (Use a Rubber or Clear Stamp). 

There is a carnival of inspiration over at the blog from my fellow Drunken Stampers! Check it out, then come play with us!

Supplies: (party) white & Recollections gold cardstock, Echo Park For the Record 2 patterned paper, Unity Mix-Up of Cuteness stamp, Colorbox violet ink, Zing! clear embossing powder, Art Anthology Colorations timeless colour spray, Cuttlebug border embossing folder, May Arts ribbon, Darice sequins, Queen & Co. lavender half-pearls, feathers, pop-dot tape; (fun) white cardstock, My Mind's eye Miss Caroline Dilly Dally patterned paper, Unity It's a Party & Mix-Up of Cuteness stamps, Memnto Luxe gray flannel & Stampin' Up riding hood red inks, Zing! clear embossing powder, watercolour pencils, Cuttlebug seeing dots embossing folder, Simple stories Sn@p sticker, silver Stickles

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World Card Making Day!

Yes, there really is a World Card Making Day. And it's today! What a great excuse to celebrate, and maybe even make a card or two. Indulging this little hobby of mine has made me friends around the world, given me the privilege of being part of two fun papercrafting design teams, let me participate in lots of creativity-stretching challenges and given me the opportunity to learn some beautiful art techniques. Oh! And make cards, of course. 

On this day, I thought it might be appropriate to join in with one of my design teams, using one of my favourite brands of stamps. 

It's not officially my week to post on the Drunken Stampers challenge blog, but luckily the Tropical Hooters team doesn't mind if a Yellow Canary decides to play along. ;) The challenge this week is a PERSON: Neil Armstrong. Of course, you also have the option of making a space- or astronaut-themed card. Naturally, some of the design team rose to the challenge and created cards dedicated to that pioneer astronaut. I went with a slightly more generic space card: 

How cute is this little Paper Smooches space alien in his UFO? Not surprisingly, I'm not the only Drunken Stamper using this fun stamp set today. As a Star Trek fan, I would of course like the sentiment to read "boldly go", but I realized that, out of context on a card, that could actually sound a little rude. :P
Since part of my card-making journey has been entering challenges, I'm going to enter this card in two: the current Paper Smooches SPARKS Anything Goes challenge, and Simon Says Stamp's We're Going Dotty challenge. 
Happy World Card Making Day! And happy weekend, of course. 

Supplies: white cardstock, Echo Park Dots & Stripes Metropolitan patterned paper, Paper Smooches Space Cadet stamps, Memento tuxedo black ink, Bic Mark-Its, Sharpies, Uchida Deco-Liner silver marker, Recollections silver half-pearls, ancient silver sequins from my stash, Multicrafts googly eye, pop-dot tape

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Die Cuts and Drunken Stampers

Happy Saturday! This week at Drunken Stampers we're challenging you to pull out some die cuts and use them on your project:

Even if you don't have a die-cutting machine of some type, you likely have some die cut elements in your stash. With October practically upon us, I decided to make a Halloween card:

Check out that spooky inked background! It's actually a little darker in real life, but I always find dark cards tricky to photograph. The haunted house and tree were both die-cut with my Cuttlebug. Punches are kind of related to die-cutting machines, don't you think? Just smaller and restricted to one shape. ☺ So maybe half-points (not that we're keeping score) for the treed horizon layer and the little bat. The BOO! is stamped and embossed to finish the card. After I took the photo, I realized that one little piece of pop-dot tape under the tree was peeking out a bit, so swiped it with a brown Sharpie for camouflage. 
I'm going to add this card to Simon Says Stamp's current Anything Goes and Moxie Fab World's Color Media challenges.  
Use one, use a lot... put your die cuts to work and join our cocktail party! 

Supplies: black, yellow & textured brown Bazzill cardstock, Canson 140 lb watercolour paper, Basic Grey plumeria patterned paper, Unity stamp, Memento elderberry, Paris dusk & London fog & Versafine onyx black inks, QuicKutz house & tree dies, EK Success & Martha Stewart punches, pop-dot tape

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Fangirl Revealed

My Tropical Hooter teammates at Drunken Stampers are letting me crash their cocktail party this weekend! This week, the challenge is a place: London. Or you could choose to use the colours of the Union Jack -- red, white and blue. 

I decided this was the perfect opportunity to reveal my love of... Doctor Who. Not the original series so much as the recent reboot. Luckily, there are even people I know who might appreciate a Doctor Who card. 

You really can get anything in rubber stamps. Such a perfect rendition of the Tardis! (Don't know what I'm talking about? Really, that's probably a good thing.) And while I realize the Doctor is not really from London, so many of his adventures take place there it seems only fitting. This is probably the most decorated card interior I've ever done:

My second card is not so very different, except that I decided to make my own inked background. I've been having a lot of fun doing this recently, and you'll see more examples soon. This one's not perfect (that line near the bottom is rather annoying), but I decided I could live with it. 

I was going for the "city on fire" look with this background -- how'd I do? I don't have an acrylic block big enough to do a panel this size, so instead I smushed some inks on my stamp positioner square. Then I misted both it and the watercolour paper with water and put them together. A skyline, a popped-up Tardis to the rescue, and done. 
Do you hear London calling? Join the Drunken Stampers this week! 

Supplies: white cardstock, Echo Park Dots & Stripes Metropolitan patterned paper (1st card), black cardstock & Canson 140 lb watercolour paper (2nd card), Viva Las VegaStamps & Hero Arts International Skyline stamps, Versafine onyx black, Memento nautical blue & Versamark inks (for background: Memento nautical blue, rose bud & tangelo inks), clear embossing powder, dimensionals
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At the Bar

(Grr, computer issues! Apologies for the late post...)

Happy Saturday! This week the challenge at Drunken Stampers is a person... and what better person for us to pick than a bartender! If you don't have a stash of bartender stamps or images to choose from, you can also be inspired by drinks (an awesome way to be inspired) or a bar itself. Seemed only right that I make two projects for such a fitting theme:

I have always stamped this Keep Calm... stamp in a bright colour (usually red) and embossed it, so I wanted to try something a little different. I quite like the effect I got using various small ink pads and applying them directly to the stamp. I used the same colours to randomly stamp the side panel. 
I decided to also make a quick and simple tag for a bottle of wine I was taking to a friend's place:

A perfect sentiment from a Unity grab bag paired with a clocks background. Because, really, there IS always time for a glass of wine. ;) Not to mention an entire week to link up your bartender-drinks-bar creation with us! 


Supplies: (card) white, green & Stampin' Up almost amethyst textured cardstock, Market Street Stamps Keep Calm & Amber Ink Hope, Popcorn and Wine stamps, Memento rhubarb stalk, tangelo, dandelion, pear tart, Paris dusk & lulu lavender inks, pop-dot tape; (tag) Stampin' Up kraft cardstock, Hero Arts Time to Stamp & Unity sentiment stamps, Versamark & Stampin' Up real red inks, Papertrey Ink wine bottle tag die 

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The Drunken Stampers go Camping

Happy Labour Day weekend! It's Saturday, I'm hoping we've already dealt with any weekend rain, and the Drunken Stampers have a new challenge for you: 

A campsite! Maybe that's where you're spending your weekend. Or if your crafting supplies don't quite stretch to campsite appropriate material, you can create anything related to woods: use a woodgrain print or wooden elements. 
I went for a classic: canoeing into a campsite at sunset:

I ♥ these images from Stampscapes! (The canoeists are a tiny separate stamp.) It is far too easy to let the large image carry the entire load of making the card, so I decided to add a little extra something with a double mat and some patterned papers. The image panel is stamped, embossed and coloured on watercolour paper. 
You really should check out the other creations of the Yellow Canaries for this week's challenge! You might be able to guess who likes camping... and who doesn't. :P (Although I suppose you'd never tell from my card that I'm not a big camping fan.) Why not come and join us around the campfire with your camping project? 
P.S. I almost forgot that I was going to add this card to a couple of other challenges! Simon Says Stamp is having one of their Anything Goes weeks; and Shopping Our Stash wants a card For the Boys. 

Supplies: blue, navy & Stampin' Up Naturals white cardstock, Kaisercraft Check In & Crate Paper Acorn Avenue patterned papers, Stampscapes Lakeside Cove & Paddlers stamps, Versafine onyx black ink, clear embossing powder, Grumbacher watercolours, pop-dot tape

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Tying One On?

It's Saturday, and that means it's time for a new Drunken Stampers challenge! When you see the theme of this week's challenge, I'm sure you'll understand why I couldn't quite resist my blog post title...

Keeping with the person, place or thing theme, our "thing" this week is twine! Or if you prefer, string or hemp. I'd imagine jute would sneak in under the challenge guidelines, as well. I went with classic baker's twine:

When I saw this cute Up and Away set by Mama Elephant (animals? balloons?), I knew it would enjoy living at my house. But I have a small confession... I'm not entirely sure what this animal is! Some kind of cuter-than-real-life badger, perhaps? He's the one I wanted to use, so I decided I didn't really care. I stamped him again on a sticky note and cut him out to use as a mask to stamp the balloons. I coloured everything with Twinkling H2Os so there's a subtle shimmer, especially to the balloons. And of course he's floating through the sky! It was one of those rare occasions when a paper and a twine matched perfectly. I also liked how the polka-dot paper echoed the round balloons. 
So break out your twine or twine-like materials, and come join us! 

Supplies: white cardstock, My Mind's Eye Lime Twist Fly a Kite patterned papers, Mama Elephant Up and Away stamps, Versafine onyx black ink, Zing clear embossing powder, Twinkling H2Os, Twinery Caribbean twine, Creative Memories corner-rounding punch, pop-dot tape

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My First Drunken Stampers Designated Designer Post!

Good morning, Saturday! It's finally time for my first post as a Designated Designer on the Yellow Canary team for Drunken Stampers. I'm so excited! This term, the Drunken Stampers challenges will feature a person, place or thing. Here is this week's challenge:

I really hope I'm not immediately drummed out of the Drunken Stampers' lounge: I made this card while drinking TEA, plus... there's no stamping! 

Instead of a particular athlete, I chose to focus on tennis as the sport for my card. All the papers are from the Graphic 45 pad "A Proper Gentleman" -- I like that there's quite a proper gentlewoman on the one image. (She might be me! Or maybe not...) I dry-embossed the background panel with what could be an art-nouveau tennis net... well, perhaps if you're a little tipsy. ;) At least I got a teeny bit inky distressing the ends of the torn paper strips. 
Be sure to see how the rest of the Yellow Canary team interpreted this week's challenge! You have till next Friday, August 9th, to link up your own sports-related project. Happy weekend! 

Supplies: Stampin' Up very vanilla cardstock, Graphic 45 A Proper Gentleman patterned paper, Old Paper distress stain, Spellbinders Pebbles Impressabilities, pop-dot tape

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News!

That's me! While normally I try to avoid ever having to be a designated driver ;) I am thrilled to be joining the other Designated Designers over at the Drunken Stampers Challenge Blog. You can see all the newest designers here. I am on Team Yellow Canary, along with my stamping buddy Jessi, who encouraged me to try out. (Thanks, Jessi!) A Yellow Canary is not a cocktail I've ever tried, but it sounds quite delightful, particularly if I accidentally leave out the Galliano. :P 
I wanted to have a card to go along with my announcement, but this has been one of those weeks of much to do and little time to craft. So a reprise of a card that to me fits with my new design team's philosophy...

Original details here

My official duties start Saturday, when I'll be back with a project for my first challenge as a designated designer! 

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