Saturday SWAPs

Good Saturday morning, All! Hope everyone is getting to spend Saturday doing exactly what they want to do. I know for me that includes helping hubby hangs some new storage rails in my craft room and getting a chance to get my fingers inky!

For today's Saturday SWAPs I am sharing a card that I made last week for an Eat Cake Graphics SWAP hostessed by Dana Vincent over at SCS. Dana had seen an ATC that I had made using ECG and PM'd me to see if I would like to join her SWAP. I did have to consider it a minute only because I had really spread myself pretty thinly between SWAPs and JBE DT Challenges but I adore the funny, whimsical, line drawn images from Eat Cake and decided to give it a try. My contribution to the SWAP is pretty straight forward and was quick to put together. All stamps are by ECG and PP is from K & Co. Wild Saffron paper pack (I love that line of paper.) The background was stamped tone on tone with Taken with Teal and the sentiment was made using a MM Tag Maker. I attached the tag with a couple of glue dots, then stitched in place with Karen Foster's Scrapers' Floss. That pretty much covers it. With my new DT commitments, I will have to really cut back on committing myself to SWAP groups. I am currently signed up for an A - Z Inchie SWAP (I'm U & V) and I will participate in the JBE ATC SWAPs but that is about it. Wishing everyone a rubber-filled weekend (or whatever else it is that you might want to do)! It's ALWAYs A Stampin' Good Time! Take care, Beth

ECG SWAP card recipe:

Stamps: Eat Cake Graphics, CHF- Geometric Flowers 2 backgrounder

Paper: Taken With Teal, Curious Iridescent Crycogen White, PP- K & Co. Wild Saffron

Ink: Memento- Tuxedo Black

Accessories: Copic markers, Nestabilties, Cuttlebug, MM Tagmaker & rims, Wild Wasabi stitched ribbon, Karen Fosters Scraper's Floss, Brads- American Craft

ATC Sneak Peak

As if I needed something else I enjoy creating... I have recently been joining SWAPs for making these cute little ATC cards. It started very innocently. I simply wanted to see what they were all about. Next thing I know, I'm joining 2 ATC SWAPs a month until I reach the pinnacle of my addiction and am acting at hostess for a SWAP sponsored by the awesome Mrs. Lindsey of Jacksonbelle Embellishments. (The details for that SWAP can be found here.) The above card is my contribution to a SWAP hostessed by Tracy Durcan of Durcan Designs blog. This is the 2nd SWAP that I have completed with Tracy as hostess and I've signed up for a third- the quality of every card that I have received has been tops and Tracy does such a fa-bu-lous job organizing and keep everyone informed.
I fell in love with these 2 little Eat Cake Graphics stamps the minute I laid eyes on them at my lss. Yes, that is 2 different stamps. I simply made a mask for the little frog when I stamped the mushrooms under his dancing feet. The images are colored with Prismacolor Pencils and Gamsol and his beady little eyes each have a small drop of Crystal Effect to enhance their beadiness. I was flipping through my new BG 6 x 6 paper pads when I found this sweet little flower print in the Sultry collection. It was this paper that has spurned a new love for Garden Green and Pink Passion. These color just remind me of warm weather- hot pink impatiens, strawberries, watermelon- you get the picture! And they are my color inspiration for this card, along with a Chocolate Chip mat cut from a scalloped rectangle Nestabilities. I used a striped hot pink May Arts ribbon as an embellishment, then added a little Pink Passion circle tag with green stitched ribbon (source unk.) for my PTI sentiment. Finally, I felt that I needed one more embelli in the right upper corner for balance. I could not settle on just "the one"- call it AR or detail oriented. Well, I decide Froggie needed a buddy to share his bliss and went to my Quickutz dies to see what I had. This little dragonfly was just the ticket. I cut it first in Certainly Celery then painted it with Lime Green Stickles. While that dried, I cut the die again this time with vellum. I cut the wings out alone then added them to the CS dragonfly. Voila, a friend and embellishment, all in one! If you feel you would like to give these a try, please check out the link I suggested above. I will share the beautiful merry-go-round style ATC holder that I got for my birthday, as soon as I get it loaded with all the fabulous ATCs I have collected! It's ALWAYs A Stampin' Good Time! Take care!

Frog ATC recipe:

Stamps: Eat Cake Graphics, Sentiment- PTI

Paper: Garden Green, Pink Passion, Certainly Celery, Vellum, Stampers Select white CS, PP- Sultry by Basic Grey

Ink: Andirondack Pitch Black

Accessories: May Arts ribbon, Slot punch, 3/4" Circle Punch, Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, Prismacolor Pencils, Quickutz, lime green Stickles, Crystal Effect, Stampin' Dimensionals

Sweet Miss Daisy meets Jacksonbelle

Whew! The holidays are leaving no time for stamping for fun which was something I desperately needed today. It just so happens that 2 ladies I greatly admire in the stamping world offered up some awesome challenges this week so I took a much needed minute to PLAY. With time being so very precious, I decided to combine the 2 challenges on to 1 card. This sketch is from Anna Wight aka Sweet Miss Daisy. Kind of went "outside the box" with this one and used an oval for the main image instead of the sketched rectangle. Next, I used Daisy D's PP from Lindsey Botkin's (aka Jacksonbelle) Product Spotlight from her Member Company Forum. The stamp is one I purchased the other day at a lss, The Rubber Stamp Lady, by Eat Cake Graphics. So often the little girl images by this company have the frizzy, fly away (no pun intended) hair that matches my DD, Rachel! Of course, I have a soft spot for those! I covered the snowflake with Baby Blue Stickles and added some silver Zig Painty doodling, some silver Encore distressing and some retired SU Silver cording to give this card the Christmas sparkle I love! Unfortunately, the photo does not do the shimmer justice! Well, off to work on Christmas projects I hope to share with you soon! It's ALWAYS a Stampin' Good Time! Take care!

Recipe for Snowflake Girl card:

Stamps: Eat Cake Graphics, sentiment PTI Holiday Treats

Paper: Real Red, Garden Green, PTI white CS, PP- Daisy D's

Ink: Palette Noir, Encore Silver

Accessories: Zig Painty Pen, Baby Blue Stickles, Coluzzle, oval punches, Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol, silver cord, Stampin' Dimensionals