Well it’s been a few days since I’ve had time to get in the studio. Both of my girls are home and we’ve been running like crazy. Today we went and had a family photo taken with Santa. We haven’t done this since my girls were in grade school. That was about 15 years ago, if not longer, and my sister, myself and my two girls had a photo taken for my mother. Today it was my sister, myself, my girls and my mother. My oldest daughter wanted to do this for her grammy for Christmas and I have to tell you it was so much fun. Of course, when Santa asked my mother what she wanted for Christmas, without hesitation she said “a new red Mercedes convertible.” BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA – for any of you that know my family, my dad is probably spinning in his grave – that’s a foreign car!

I also had our Sorority Christmas Social here Tuesday night. What a great time we had! This is also the inspiration for my Sketch Challenge card this week. I started making Lemon Drop martinis at the start of the evening and needless to say, when it came time to sing the 12 Days of Christmas there were some that couldn’t remember the words! Some in one area of the circle were singing 10 Lords a Leapin’ while the other side was singing Six Geese a Layin’ and then one would just shout out Five Golden Rings whenever she pleased. I do believe fun was had by all – Good Times!

Anyhoo, late this afternoon I finally got around to stamping this weeks Splitcoast Sketch Challenge. I used some of the Happy Hour images from Rubbernecker Stamp Company and came up with this fabulous Martini card – and yes, ours the other night were shaken, not stirred.

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For the background panel, the martini shaker and sentiment, One Martini, Two Martini, Three Martini, Floor was stamped at random on a piece of olive cardstock. I used Tim Holtz Shabby Shutters Distress Ink for the shaker and Peeled Paint Distress Ink for the sentiment. I also stamped the sentiment on the white panel behind the circles but then I used Shabby Shutters and off-stamped twice before stamping on the background. The edges of both the background panels were sponged with the Shabby Shutters as well as the larger oval in the main sentiment. For the circle images, I stamped them out in Adirondack Pitch Black and then colored with Copic Markers. I was in a little hurry today – so no water coloring. I have to tell you that I got a little carried away with stamping the sentiment on the background and sometimes it looks blurry – well it is but I left it. I think of few of us were seeing like that on Tuesday night!

Stamps: 244-15 Olive, 244-18 One Martini, Two Text, 244-20 Stylized Martini Glass and 244-19 Stylized Shaker by Rubbernecker Stamp Company

Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Olive and Light Blue

Ink: Adirondack Pitch Black, Tim Holtz Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters Distress Inks

Accessories: Copic Markers, Scotch Double-Sided Tape, Mounting Tape, Ribbon, Brads, Tsukineko Oblong Sponge Dauber

I’ve included a photo of the product that I’ve used for this card. The Copic Markers are available at Eclectic Paperie, and the remaining product can be found at My Favorite Products Page at Rubbernecker Stamp Company.

Dec 20 Product

Now, if you are still with me, I’ve got some Tawdry Treats for someone today. Here’s what you need to do – leave me a comment telling me about one of your favorite gifts that you got for Christmas as a child. I’ll start! When I was about 10 years old, all I wanted was a bowling ball. Every word that came out of my mouth was about a bowling ball – of course, I was bowling in the junior leagues and hated using a house ball. We didn’t have tons of money then but wow was I surprised Christmas morning when there was a blue and green swirly bowling ball in a pretty blue and white bag under the tree!

On Saturday morning one lucky person will win this Kris Kringle, Star Garland and sentiments from Rubbernecker Stamp Company.

Dec 20 Tawdry Treats

Happy Friday! It’s been rather a long week for me. At least it feels like it anyway. For some reason I’m just not sleeping longer than a few hours each night and then I crash and burn in the afternoons. Maybe if I could keep from falling asleep at 4:00 every afternoon it might help! I generally leave the studio about 3:00 or 3:30, head to the sofa, a fresh cup of coffee in hand to settle down to watch Reba and WHAM I wake up and it’s already 5ish. My daughters tell me I need to go take a walk instead of watching reruns of Reba – I tell them I’ve been on my feet all day, I need to sit down instead. Which leads to a question? How do you guys stamp – are you sitters or are you standers? I’m a stander and a mover! I need to walk from one end of the counter to the other, turn here, turn there. The only time I actually sit is when I’m coloring. There might be a little Tawdry Treat for someone who answers the question!

The first thing I did this morning, other than dog duty, was check the Limited Supply Challenge on Splitcoast. Wow this was a toughy. Monochromatic (which wasn’t so hard) but NO EMBELLISHMENTS! For me, this is a challenge. I did a little faux stitching and made some scallops, but to me no ribbon, no brads – well someone in my family will love it, they can mail it in a regular envelope with no extra postage. Instead of using the Matt Pack for the faux stitching, I took the thread and bobbin out of my sewing machine and just ran a line of no stitching down the top of one of the panels. Then I went back and drew in the stitching lines with a white gel pen. In my eyes, real stitches would be embellishments.

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Stamps: Priceless

Ink: Soft Sky, Blue Bayou

Paper: Whisper White, Soft Sky, Blue Bayou

Accessories: Fiskars Scalloped Edged Scissors, Signo White Gel Pen, Mounting Tape, Sewing Machine

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and for all you girls at CHA (and I’m not) here’s hoping you have a fabulous time!

Well, first things first! I have decided that I like the name “Tawdry Treats.” I can’t help myself – I sit here thinking about it and Tawdry Treats is the first thing that pops into my head. So Florence, if you will email me with your address, the RIW card is yours. The rest of you stay tuned, in a few days (actually once I get out of this house for something other than tennis or grad stuff), there will be some Tawdry Treats!

For today’s Splitcoast challenge, Ways to Use It. I have literally worked all day on this one little bitty card – well not all day. My new light tent and lights came so I had to sit it up first! And, Mr. Brown came last night with a mega workshop order that had to be sorted (can you guess who had the most stuff). Anyhoo, the object of today’s challenge is to use little stamps and I was just determined to use Baby Basics from paper salon. Why do you ask? Because there was a baby in stalkerville yesterday. My coaster supplier, StampinSilvia had a little girl!!!

So I stamped the elephant in pink with little red hearts, added a few accents (which I’m not sure about but I wanted to play up the red hearts) and raised it on mounting tape on a large scalloped punch. Doodles a few white dots too! It’s a Girl was stamped on Whisper White (which came in the workshop order), and then the little cloud from the set was stamped in versamark and embossed with Dazzling Diamond Dust. Don’t know what else to say about the card, except for a small simple card, it has driven me nuts!

It’s a Girl

Stamps: Baby Basics by Paper Salon Tailored Tins

Ink: Pretty in Pink, Real Red, Versamark

Paper: Whisper White, Pretty in Pink

Accessories: Ribbon, Signo White Gel Pen, Mounting Tape, Dazzling Diamonds

Today I bid a farewell to my most loved and most used stamp sets – Roses in Winter and Petal Prints. My RIW are the most gnarly and nasty looking stamps you have ever seen. The wood is completely discolored, the rubber is coming off of some of the small stamps – glued back together with tender loving care. The Rubber Lovers, my stamp club, actually made fun of me last week about the condition of these stamps. They have been well loved and well used. I’m going to put these sets away now – and hope to find something to take their place. You’ll see them again – eventually! I know that I will use them again – sometimes certain colors just cry out for RIW. Petal Prints doesn’t look nearly as bad as RIW, but they were inspiration for a series of cards that I did some time ago. One day I’ll upload them all hear for you to see. It is also a favorite set that I like to combine with RIW.

Last week when The Rubber Lovers met, they wanted to learn the technique of stamping on wet watercolor paper. It is one of my favorite techniques, so I was quite eager to show them. There are so many ways to maneuver the colors around, make them bright or dull, let them run together or have them stay put.

The first thing you need to do, is to completely saturate your watercolor paper with water. I use a mister bottle and just spray until the water literally runs off. I let it set up for a few minutes, allowing the water to soak into the paper and then I start stamping. You really need a solid image stamp for this (RIW being one I’ve used for many projects). If your paper gets dry, give it a light mist and continue stamping. For an all over blending effect, once you are done stamping, you could re-mist the paper and watch the colors run. IF you want to tone down the colors, after you have misted your final stamping, you can take a piece of paper towel and lightly dab to remove some color. This is what I have done on today’s card. But, I couldn’t stop there. I also combined the cracked glass technique to give an overall aged look.

Now for today’s card. I actually started this card for today’s Color Challenge on SCS. When I saw the colors of Rose Red and Apricot Appeal my brain clicked into overdrive and all I could see were roses. I knew that this was probably going to be one of my last cards with this set, so I really wouldn’t to try and experiment with a number of techniques with it. Plus, I’m out of Whisper White cardstock!

I misted my watercolor paper, inked the Roses in Apricot Appeal and rock and rolled them in Rose Red. The fern like stamp from Petal Prints was stamped in Tempting Turquoise, the leave in Green Galore and the small flower in the different colors. I misted the image again to let the colors blend a little and dabbed a paper towel in certain areas where I wanted to remove some color. While the paper was still a little damp, I stamped French Script in Ranger Walnut Distress Ink (after stamping off 4 times before). I sponged the edges of the image in the distress ink and then once the image was completely dry, I stamped the sentiment in the distress ink. I liked what I had, but wanted to add just one more touch. I inked up the image with Versamark and embossed 3 coats of UTEE. Once the image had been placed in the freezer and cracked, instead of just sponging across with the distress ink, I took my stamp pad and pressed and pulled across the image. I was amazed (doesn’t take much sometimes) to see how well the ink went down into the cracks. I then figured out where I wanted the ribbon and brads, and mounted the image on Rose Red cardstock. To tone down the layer, I sponged just a smidgen of distress ink on the edges. The layers are then mounted on a Rose Red card.

Fond Farewell

Stamps: Roses in Winter, Petal Prints, French Script

Ink: Rose Red, Apricot Appeal, Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise, Ranger Walnut Distress Ink

Paper: Watercolor, Rose Red

Accessories: UTEE, Misting Bottle, Wedge Sponge, Brads, Ribbon

AND, I just decided this! I have been wanting to offer up some blog candy, but the term blog candy is not that appealing to me. I’ve been wrestling with a new term for weeks now and really haven’t hit upon anything that I like. Bear in mind, that I have been trying to incorporate it with *BAD*. How can Bad Sherry offer up blog candy that is not *Bad*? So here’s my offer: anyone leaving a comment on this post with an alternative choice for blog candy (for this blog only), will have an opportunity to win this card! It must go along with the theme of the blog – bad, wild, etc., you get the idea. I will pick my favorite alternative and that lucky person will receive this card!

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