Control Freaks ask "What's Up, Dude?"

As you can probably tell from the post title, this month's theme on the Tour de Freaks is anything masculine. There are seven of us on the tour, with Kelly's blog being the first stop. I'm next, and you can just click the links to take the whole tour!

I don't know about you, but I always struggle a bit with masculine cards. When I think "guy" cards, I always think of trees (and texture - lots and lots of texture), and we have THREE wonderful tree-related stamp sets that coordinate together beautifully (one is coming next month in the Holiday catalog), so I made three cards using them!

Up first is good old Lovely As A Tree. It's been a real workhorse for the past fifteen years for Stampin' Up! The texture is from a new Dynamic embossing folder called.... wait for it.... Corrugated! Coming soon to a Holiday catalog near you!

STAMPS: Lovely As A Tree, Itty Bitty Greetings  CARDSTOCK: Whisper White, Soft Suede, Basic Black, Crumb Cake  INK: Soft Suede, Jet Black StazOn  ACCESSORIES: Braided Linen Trim, Corrugated and Subtle Dynamic TIEF

Up next is the awesome Rooted In Nature, which came out with the new annual catalog in June. The texture is from the Seaside embossing folder.

STAMPS: Rooted In Nature, Itty Bitty Greetings  CARDSTOCK: Whisper White, Soft Suede, Basic Black  INK: Soft Suede, Jet Black StazOn  ACCESSORIES: 5/8" Burlap Ribbon, Seaside TIEF, Subtle Dynamic TIEF

And last, but certainly not least, is my new favorite stamp set, Winter Woods. The texture is from the Woodland embossing folder, and I cheated a little with a retired wooden button from my extensive, curated hoard collection of embellishments.

STAMPS: Winter Woods, Itty Bitty Greetings  CARDSTOCK: Whisper White, Soft Suede, Basic Black, Wood Textures DSP  INK: Soft Suede, Jet Black StazOn  ACCESSORIES: Woodland TIEF, Subtle Dynamic TIEF

That's all I have to share today, so pop on over to Debbie's blog to see what she has for you!

Long Live Lovely as a Tree!

This morning's Easter sunrise was absolutely glorious, and it inspired me to make this card. Our trees aren't fully leafed out yet, so it looked something like this.

As I am sure some of you have noticed by now, Lovely as a Tree is being carried over again! I think that makes something like twelve years it's been around. It is certainly the one of longest-lived Stampin' Up! stamp sets that I know of, along with Teeny Tiny Wishes. And rightfully so! My own sets of those two are old enough that they were before the clear mount option was available, so mine are wood mount. Of course, they are available in either configuration now.

I hope you are having a wonderful Sunday! We worked in the garden until the rain started, then scurried onto the porch. Well, scurried may be a bit of an exaggeration; it was more like a fast shuffle, haha.

Product List

Lovely As A Tree Clear-Mount Stamp Set

Window Shopping Clear-Mount Stamp Set

Very Vanilla 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

Early Espresso 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad

Flirty Flamingo Classic Stampin' Pad

Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad

Stamping Sponges

FOUR Challenges!

If I didn't know for certain that my BFF loved me, I'd swear she was trying to drive me crazy! It was her turn to choose the challenges, and she thought it would be great fun for us to make a card that fit these four challenge criteria:

1. Forest theme (CASology)
2. Winter birthday (Simon Says Wednesday Challenge)
3. Using Stickles (Shopping Our Stash)
4. And use this sketch from CAS(E) This Sketch:

I have to be honest with you, this one WAS a challenge! I first thought of using cute little forest critters, and had even stamped, colored, and fussy-cut them. But I just couldn't get them to work with the sketch. (They are now residing in my Box o' Useful Bits, to be used another day.)

Sooo, anyway, this was the final result, after spending way too much time overthinking it. I think I have a brain cramp.

Product List

Lovely As A Tree Wood-Mount Stamp Set

Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad

Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad

Versamark Pad

Heat Tool

White Stampin' Emboss Powder

Big Shot

Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies

Dazzling Details
RETIRED

Stampin' Dimensionals

Stamping Sponges

Frosted Sequins
RETIRED 

A Challenge for the New Year!

My BFF and I had a virtual play date this weekend and each chose which challenges we would do. It was kind of difficult because most of the challenge blogs were on hiatus due to the holiday! Barb went first and picked the Global Design Project #GDP067, the theme being "trees", and My Favorite Things' sketch challenge #313. So this is what I came up with. I felt all monochromatic-y for some reason. Maybe it was the gray weather? I can't complain because here we had some rain and a very few snow flurries. Barb had over 2-1/2 feet of snow at last check and it was still coming down heavily! This is the sketch she chose:

Update on the blog schedule and photo tutorials:

If I do more photo tutorials, and possibly videos, I'm not going to be able to produce a blog post every single day. I thought about it a lot, and it would just be too stressful and take the fun out of creating. SO..... I am going to keep the same 5-days per week schedule as I've been doing the past few months. I've ordered a remote shutter release for my phone/camera, and already have the stand set up and a new craft mat in place. I think the remote should arrive Thursday, and I'll start playing with it and see how it works. Hopefully by next week I'll start producing more step-by-step tutorials! This is what is in place so far. Enjoy its pristine cleanliness.....I'll have it in a fine mess in no time!

Product List

Lovely As A Tree Clear-Mount Stamp Set

All Things Thanks Clear-Mount Stamp Set

Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock

Neutrals Designer Series Paper Stack

Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad

Versamark Pad

Heat Tool

White Stampin' Emboss Powder

Big Shot

Woodland Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

Stampin' Dimensionals

Father's Day Christmas?!

Did that title get your attention, lol?  The Christmas part came from using the Christmas Deer stamp. I'm getting smarter in my old age (haha), and have started looking at stamps with an eye toward "Can I use this in more than one way?"  Upon first glance, the Christmas Deer stamp would be "No", but then I thought if I just inked up the deer and left off the ornate antlers, I could use it for a masculine card, too!  Turned out pretty well, I think.

Doing marker-to-stamp works better on smaller areas, but I think the slight lines from the marker makes it look like the deer is standing in a slanting snowfall.  Anyway, I'm sure dad liked it. :-)

Stamps: Christmas Deer, Lovely as a Tree, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Basic Black, Well Worn DSP (retired)
Ink: Early Espresso Stampin' Pad and Stampin' Write Marker
Accessories: Big Shot, Chevron Folder, Bitty Banners Framelits, Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack, Paper Piercing Tool, Stampin Sponges