Hallween Fun!

This card came from Beate John's weekend sketch challenge.

To be perfectly honest, I dont own many halloween stamps and I always seem to struggle on what to do with my little circle stamps.

This adorable little spider fits this sketch so well! For the white background, I pulled out my spritzer tool and spritzed some color on the white background so it wasn't so "white". I also added some white to the spider's eyes with a uniball pen. This is a terrific sketch! If you're so inclined, check out Beate's blog and see what the other talented artists have posted. Happy Monday!

Dazzling Diamonds Everywhere!

I just completed 30 of these babies! Let me just tell you.. I have dazzling diamonds in my hair on my face, & I wrecked a pair of pants!! LOL

All I could think was the girl from the movie the breakfast club, when i shook my hair out and all that came out was dazzling diamonds!! Tee Hee Heee..

Anyway, i stayed up all night to finish my swaps, so I can get going on this weeks classes. World Card making day is This Saturday and I'm SO very excited about all the work I've been doing for the RMH charities. I have friends making cards for the house that they will drop off. I have received walmart giftcards, 19 BOXES of toothpaste and toothbrushes, a whole bag of trial sized shampoo, and many haven't even given thier goodies yet! I'm amazed at how people will come together for an awesome cause.

Did i mention Hanniford Supermarkets is donating all the snacks for the day and if we need it, Romano's Pizzaria on bridge street in Dracut has donated their restauraunt. So amazing! Hopefully we will have a boat load of cards to help the children's families while they are staying at the RMH in Brookline, as well as other everyday things that they need. Thanks in advance for your help.

Getting back to this card, i embossed the sentiment and main image with craft ink and clear embossing powder. I used the holiday treasure DSP and lots of ribbon and glitter. It is MUCH more sparkly in real life. The DH said "the glitter is distracting, you should use less".. Is there such a thing as too much glitter?? I say NO WAY hubby! Love you...

Owl Hostess Page

I'm sorry I haven't posted all week. My daughter hasn’t been feeling well and that puts a wrench in plans sometimes... First things first. That is the beauty of being a SU! demo, if you need to take a break and focus on family, you can!

Anyway, Last night I had the MOST FABULOUS workshop! My friend Michelle is the "hostess with the mostest" and is such an awesome cook, she should get an award at my hostess appreciation event.

I asked her yesterday to send me some photos. We made the owl bag topper (listed below on my blog) and then I showed how to build a page from a 6x6 up to a 12 x 12. I left out the middle step. I like a 5x7 picture on mine instead.

For the base, I used a glue stick to attach a grey piece of cardstock to a bashful blue one. on that level I used several of the images from the Owl Together Now stamp set, to make a background, just stamped in a wallpaper type fashion in versamark ink.

I made my little bag topper, and cut a second piece of white cardstock with my sizzix for the base and made that into a little hidden journal area. In the top corner, I put two owls on the branch and water colored the scene, because she has two children and I was thinking too much again. I attached some retired pumpkin ribbon with a stapler and attached that piece with dimensionals.

Bloggers Challenge ~ Watercolor

This is my last post till Monday.. We're heading camping for the weekend and i'm looking forward to a much needed rest.

This card was a remake from a crystal effects class I had here last night. It uses about 6 colors of classic ink pads and a waterbrush.

I started with the lightest colors and washed the color on, then slowly added each of the colors until i had a good balance of color. I still want to put crystal effects on those pumpkins.. Is that an addiction?

Guess Whoo Loves You

Okay, over the top mom is at it again. I saw an Owl online on Sharon Field's blog and just HAD to make one for my daughter going to school.

I sent it with apples instead of candy.

Alexis told me that it makes her feel special to get a pretty snack going to school. Guess I lost my mind a bit. I made a handle on the top and attached it to the bag with dimensionals so it can be reused. I've already gotten comments from the teachers aids that they love my "pretty snacks" LOL I don't care about all that, as long as my little angel feels special.

Something Different for me.

I've had a few requests from Stampin Up demonstrators, to make fliers for them. I've also had countless emails asking what program I create my inspiration sheets and fliers in.. (I use Illustrator, photoshop, and In Design by the way).

So I thought... Gee, I am a designer by day. When my friend Cynthia from Texas asked me to make her flier for Ronald McDonald house charities I thought, Why not?? Thus, an idea is born.

If you as a demonstrator are interested in having a flier made for your event, send me an email! I'm pretty good at it (if I do say so myself) Here is the flier I designed for Cynthia. The photo she sent me, had her couch in the background, so i popped the background out and enhanced the photo a bit. http://www.e-selene.com/cynthia1.pdf

Mr. Twigster

The man in the big brown truck visited yesterday and i finally got to play with some of the new sets coming out in the winter mini catalog. (your copies should be arriving soon, and if you don't receive one, please email or call me).

For some reason, I signed up for THREE demo only swaps. Two are around 30 card fronts each (what was I thinking??) I'm still on a crystal effects kick so I thought the twigster's presents, hat boots, and lights needed to be shiny.

This is the first one, which I think I'm going to swap with my team too.. Hopefully the gals who are swapping are too busy to sneak a peek. I also added the bling with crystal effects. With the exception of needing a watercolor class myself, do you think this is okay for a swap?

Mary Davidson wins the blog candy!

I know this is a little late, but I did the random number generator and it chose #5. Mary Davidson ~ if you're reading my blog, please send me an email with your address so I can send you some blog candy!

Selene~
e.selene@verizon.net

Always a beautiful sketch ~~ Sketch Challenge ~ WSC57

Beate Johns had this terrific sketch posted to her blog on Friday. I ran across it today and thought that I would give it a whirl!

I started with embossing on the light pink layer with clear embossing powder. I thought it didnt show up that good, so I did some sponging with chocolate chip classic ink, then some craft when I wasnt' getting the effect I wanted. Still not there, but what can you do! :)

I love that the top note bigZ sizzix die, is the same shape as our new punch, which fit the always sentiment pretty well. It was missing something still, so I punched out a flower and used a build a brad to add some dimension. I embossed the 1/2" circle/flower then stuck that on the build a brad with a glue dot. Then, I pulled an orange bling brad out of it's casing and applied that with crystal effects.

I embossed the bird with chocolate craft ink and clear embossing powder, the same goes for the branch and letter "A" and word always. In order to omit the circle that goes around the "a" on the original stamp, i just used a blender pen to pick up the craft ink and paint it onto my stamp like a marker, instead of getting messy with craft ink.

I used regular markers to color the bird. What a terrific sketch!

I can post that I think this will be my anniversary card to my hubby in November. It's pretty safe, I don't think he reads the ol' blog.. (wink wink).

Have a great weekend!

It's hip to be square ~ Bloggers Challenge DSP

I have been totally stuck on the squares pattern dsp that's offered in multi-colors by Stampin' Up! I also had terrible creative block today. Don't know what's up with that! So today's task was to amaze you with what we can do with Designer Series Paper (DSP Here is my submission.

To be honest I'm not sure I like it.. I like all the pieces... (LOVE the glitter window and all the glitter all over my flowers on the focal point... Maybe that's it.. it's got two focal points. Hmmmm... Well I had fun playing anyway! It's much more glittery in real life

Did you know how a 2-way glue pen works? When you apply it, it's blue. If you stick something to it while it's blue, the 2-way pen adhesive is permanent. If you wait till it dries clear, it turns temporary! Isn't that cool? Funny what happens when you read the directions (finally) I never do.. At least until I break something because I tried to do it visually.

Double Fun Scrapbooking!

Last night was my scrapbook club, and tonight I'm teaching a scrapbook class to a different group of ladies, so I used the same layout twice.

When I teach scrapbooking, I do it in the reverse of what scrappers normally do. They come and make two pages, and plop the photos in later. I give them all the supplies, and sometimes do more than one layout with the same pieces, so they can see multiple ways of doing their projects and have some choices to make them personal.

With that being said, I designed these two pages, two or three days before I went peach picking with my daughter. I picked my favorite photos from the day and printed 3 standard sized photos. So the big mat is for a 5x7, the medium is for a 4x6 and the one with the 6x6 page is 3.5 x 5". I used these pages to show a "build-a-page" or how to make a 6x6, layer it on a 8 1/2 x 11, then layer that on your 12 x 12 page. This is a great way to build pages when you're used to smaller books and worried that the pages are too big to design. Notice also, that there are only 3 pictures for two pages. It took me a while to learn that I didn't need to put every photograph from a particular event on the pages, to remember the day.

I took a photo of the tree line which would have been awesome on top of the orange piece on the second page, but I decided to use that as a journaling block, because that's really what I should be doing... Documenting what we were thinking, how we were feeling and what happened on a normal day after school, when we went to go pick peaches. How the peaches just exploded when we took a bite, and we both had to change when we got home. It's the little things that make life sweet, and documenting little details like this will make the album much more sweet, someday when I finally hand the albums over to my daughter.

I had fun with some of the techniques for these pages. First, the "FALL" chipboard letters were done in a minute! I took the LARGE book basics, chipboard and covered it with DSP, using the tombo multipurpose adhesive (in the green tube) that SU! sells. Then, I cut the chipboard into 2 1/4" squares. I got 16 letters out of one piece of chipboard and dsp! I think that's pretty cool! Also, when my class were done cutting out their letters, they could keep the reverse, and use those on another page if they wished.

For the clear buttons... I had a friend here and I was showing her how crystal effects work on buttons. ((Doesn't the square punch layer nicely on that square scallop? ))I showed her my 6x6 that I was planning to build into larger pages. I said "what do you think about a square button with all those squares? And that's how i came up with the element at the top of the word "fall". Then behind that, i used snail to apply a strip of the riding hood taffeta (which is simply gorgeous)...

For the second page, I knew I wanted something round instead of square, so I played with the sizzix and some leftover paper, and figured out that the large scallop makes an ADORABLE tree! AND TOTALLY UNPLANNED, when i put the photo of Alexis picking an apple (yes, we picked both). The tree is on the same side that the "tree" in my page is.. ISN'T THAT ADORABLE?? Anyway, we had a lot of fun making these pages and I thank you for looking and hope that you like them.

Happy Stamping

Selene~

What IS a sketch Challenge??

A very good friend and customer came by yesterday and asked me what IS a sketch challenge... Guess I'm not doing my job!!

Basically, you take the layout only, change it any way you like and make a card based on that layout. So ~ the layout here has 5 layers and one embellishment.

The "base" layer of the card, is a standard card base which is 8 1/2 x 5 1/2"

Second Layer is 4 1/4" x 2"

Third is 1 x 3 3/4 (this is your patterned paper layer) and layers 4 and 5 are entirely based on what you are stamping.

To layer the paper, you'll want to add a 1/4 inch on two sides. So if your image is sitting on a 2x3" white, then the layer below it should be 2 1/4" x 3 1/4".

Two days left to try this skech out for a prize!

Still unsure of how to cut your paper? Join us for Open stamp night, at my place on October 11th. Bring what you already have, and I'll help you figure out any details on how to use it!

Raffle For Charity ~ Ronald McDonald House Charity Fundraiser October 4th

Can I just tell you that I think, I work for the best company in the world???

Ronald McDonald Houses all across the US take in families, while their children are being cared for at local area hospitals. I think of my little girl and not knowing what I would do if she needed care. I'd probably want to be there for her 24/7, but wouldnt it be awesome to have a local place to put your head down??

I sent a request to Stampin' Up! for a raffle for my event for charity and LOOK AT WHAT THEY SENT ME!..

Okay, minus the jar with candy... but all those stamping supplies are LIKE CANDY! Let me know if you are interested in participating in my RMH charity event. There are 4 ways to help.

1. Come make them some cards with my supplies and envelopes
2. Send me a package of cards and i'll include them in the donation
3. Send me or bring by items on the Ronald McDonald, Boston, wish list (check out the link at the top, right hand side of my blog to get the list) and/or
4. Purchase the ronald mcdonald set AND the coordinating punch, and I will give my income back to the charity~

This is an AWESOME opportunity to do something nice for people who do that every day!

Let me know if you would like to participate at e.selene@verizon.net or you can call my cell at 978-423-9994. Thanks so much for visiting.

Tami White's Event ~ Presentation on things to do with crystal effects

This weekend, I presented at Tami White's demo only event.

Glenda Travelstead did an awesome presentation about things we can do as demonstrators to help our businesses. I found myself writing like a mad woman so I would remember everything she said. It was that great!

So, This is the best photo I got of me.. Many have asked how it went. Everyone says I did good...

I got nervous and felt like I was tripping over my own words. I was shaking and couldnt paint my crystal effects image.. So silly... I did manage to get out about 70% of what I had planned to talk about. So, that's good, right?? LOL

I also did a really awesome document, which features many ways to use crystal effects. You can download my document here! Happy Monday! http://www.e-selene.com/ce.pdf

Little Gifts for my Daughter

These were little gifts that I put in my daughters backpack for her first day of preschool. I used the sizzix machine, crystal effects, and sticky strip. Do you think that every kid has a dorky mom like me?

First day of school

Little Miss Alexis started preschool today. I'm a really proud mommy and I went a little overboard making her a treat cup for her snack.

There was a bunch of people here for a Christmas stamp a stack last night and while I had some down time I played.

I won't be able to post a lot of info about the projects. I have an event to demo at tomorrow, so these posts will serve as my post for tomorrow. The cup and letters were made with the sizzix, and I used crystal effects to make the 4 U, and to put the letters on the cup. I will post more on Sunday! TTFN!

Fantastic Friday ~ Bloggers Challenge

Over the past week I joined the bloggers challenge group. You can scroll down and click the link on the right hand side of my blog to view the AWESOME artists that are a part of the group.

Today was the first day of preschool for my daughter, so i couldnt get my post up earlier.

This week's challenge was to make a project using pacific blue, tangerine tango and riding hood red. I used my sketch from yesterday's sketch challenge to come with a quick card. I used 4 inkpads and a blenderpen to quickly watercolor the image. Bashful blue, pacific blue, tangerine tango and Riding hood red.

To add a little bling, I used crystal effects on the hat and buttons. Then i took a push pin and picked up some crystal effects, and placed it above the "i" in Christmas. I added one piece of red glitter to the word to tie it together. I had fun with this one! Thanks for the challenge! I'm looking forward to the rest of the groups.

My First Sketch Challenge! SK0904

I came up with this design about a week ago, and I've been playing with it ever since. I always have a challenging time when designing cards that feature a small sized image as the focal point.

So ~ if you want to play, design a card using this sketch, take a photo and email it to me (or upload to Split coast using SK0904 as the key words so we can find your card.

From all the entries, I will choose a winner (by way of random drawing) and send out some blog candy to that winner! You will have until Friday the 12th to complete your work.
Here is the original card that I designed and posted up on my blog. I hope you play along. I'll be announcing what the prize is sometime over the weekend or Monday.

I hope you have fun with it!

Selene~

More about Robin!

Did I mention that Robin was the NUMBER ONE rising star demonstrator in the United States in 2007? This year, Robin placed 82nd out of 49,000 demonsrators and I think those are AMAZING accomplishments. With all that being said.... Let's get back to her projects!

The photo for the "party hearty" card, doesn't do the card justice. There is dazzling diamonds on that balloon. I love how simple but AWESOME that her designs are!

The snowflake card contained her private note to me. I love how simple this is! Repeat after me... It does NOT need to take two hours to make a card! It took me a few years to realize that!

I think my favorite of all the cards is the friend card. I love the kiwi kiss and tangerine tango colors together, and I really love the doublesided kiwi kiss taffeta ribbon. It's double sided, so on one side it's vanilla and on the other, kiwi kiss!

Featured Artist ~ Robin Merriman

I had a HUGE surprise in my mail box yesterday! I had been talking with my friend Robin Merriman on the phone and telling her that I would LOVE to come down and attend some of her regular stamp camps some day.

In fact, I told her that when my husband and I decide to go cross country in the camper, she'll be close to first on the list. My hubby and I would like to travel the US in our camper and visit all my awesome friends along the way.

Anyway, being the thoughtful, wonderful person she is, I received a package that brings stamp camp to me!

I received 6 cards in a terrific package! This is the first one.

The background of this card is the new Bella Toile background stamp. She used the new scallop punch to make the cute border and pink piroette grosgrain ribbon. She used the curly label punch. (mine is shipping today). As I was looking at the cards side by side I realized that the new curly Label Punch is the same shape as the BIGZ label die from sizzix. Take a look at this next card.

Robin used the BIGZ die from sizzix to cut out to of those curly frame shapes. She cut the white down at the perforation and sponged some chocolate chip.

I just love getting cards in the mail and studying them! So, She used versamark to ink up the flower stamp from upsy daisy to make the background. Then stamped it again on the vanilla cardstock.

hmmm Robin, what stamp is that you used for the green on the bottom of the second card?? :)

You are one talented lady! I will post some of the other goodies robin sent me today or tomorrow sometime.

Have a great Wednesday!

I heart your blog Award!

My good friend and talented lady, Robin Merriman nominated me for the I heart your blog award! This is the FIRST blog award I've received, so I'm really excited!

Can I get a whoop whoop?? Now I think I have a little homework to do:

This award comes with an assignment. I have to do the following:
1. The winner can put the logo on their blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from (see the link above)
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Put links of those blogs on yours
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.
Here are my selections in no particular order:

http://www.mycraftyworld.blogspot.com/ Tiffany Bauer
http://melalleee.blogspot.com/ Melanie Edwards
http://michellesrubberroom.blogspot.com/ Michelle Wedemeyer
http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/ Kristina Werner
http://cambriaturnbow.blogspot.com/ Cambria Turnbow
http://beate.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/ Beate Johns
http://danniesdesigns.typepad.com/ Dannie Graves

Stamp A Stack Preview

I'm really excited about the stamp a stack this week at my place on Thursday night and Sunday afternoon. This is one of the projects. Rudolf is sporting a crystal effects nose. I'm just loving it!

I'm not sure if you can see just how BIG that nose is from the photo! But he's got a huge shiner!

The Big Shot Has Officially Arrived!

I just HAD to have the big shot, and I've already used it on several projects on my blog. However, it's official! Today, the big shot is available to everyone for purchase!

Would you like to purchase the big shot? Ask me about my big shot club!!!

Fresh Cut - Brilliant Blue

Thanks for looking!

This is a super quick card made with brilliant blue and whisper white.

I used the 5 petal punch to punch the piece in the middle, and cut the fresh cut note apart. So then I just sandwiched the back part of the card, then the blue punch, then the stamped fresh note front and stuck them together.

I used a white rubon for the sentiment and a half bead with a glue dot from the pretties kit to finish it off.

Less is more sometimes.

Super fast, super easy, super cute!