Warning: Naked Card...

you might want to close your eyes!

Today's Limited Supply Challenge on SCS was called Wide Open Spaces (yes I am singing that too Dixie Chicks Fans). We were challenged to leave the wide open space on the card free of embellishment and ink. With my track record you KNOW that was a challenge for me.

I received a super package in the mail today and I am NOT talking about hubby's $$$ universal remote. I am talking about my Ali Edwards' Kit of the Month (May 2007)! It is beautiful and I can hardly wait to use it especially with Mother's Day approaching. The theme behind it is to celebrate the beauty of the women in your life. I truly feel blessed to have a wonderful family and group of friends in my life and look forward to scrapbooking those who surround me with love and support each and every day.

Ok...back to the card (wow I sidetrack easily)...this truly is a 5 minute card. I grabbed some paper scraps, pierced my Chocolate Chip cardstock and then distressed it. Next I adhered it to my Magnolia DP (My Mind's Eye) and placed it on the base of my card. Then, I used the "Today" stamp from Ali's kit and inked it in Chocolate Chip Craft Ink and mounted it on Tempting Turquoise cardstock. As a final touch I added some pretty Primas and a coordinating brad from Bo Bunny. Voila...my naked card.

Note: Since I have had people ask me about ink recently, I wanted to say that I have swayed back and forth between classic ink and craft ink but am back on a craft kick. I just like the punchy colour you get when you use it. On the flip side I just wish it dried a little faster.
This card is 5 1/2 x 5 1/2.



Today is a New Day Card Recipe

Paper: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Tempting Turquoise, Magnolia DP (My Mind's Eye)
Ink:Chocolate Chip Craft
Stamp Set(s): Ali Edwards Kit of the Month Stamp (May 2007)
Accessories:Primas, Brad (Bo Bunny), Paper Piercing Tool, Cutter Kit

Alli vs Questions Round 3

1. How do you come up with your color combos? (see post below)

2. On your petal pink card recipe, how did you recreate that Fancy Pants packaging along the spine of the card?

Oh! I am so glad you asked that question. I will have a tutorial for one of the projects featured on scor-pal this weekend which features that spine! Stay tuned.

3. What kind of adhesives do you use on your papercrafts? Seems I'm always on the lookout for the "perfect thing".

I am also still on the lookout for a good adhesive. I have card pops all the time!!! You know those little pieces of paper that flip up when you are trying to take a photo of your card *wink* Does someone want to send me the next best thing? Just joking! In all seriousness, I use Scotch Double Sided Adhesive Tape 665/1 6.3mm x 33m. It’s ok…but I bet there are better products out there. I am always willing to try something new. I do know however there was a GREAT thread about adhesive on Craft Critique in March.

4. I often wonder where do you get your inspiration? (refer to yesterdays post)

5. Where do you get all that cute ribbon?

I buy ribbon from SU!, M's, e-bay stores, Jody Morrow (ribbon share) and most recently Taylor VanBruggen (ribbon share).

6. My questions would be what is your favorite technique and can you do a
tutorial on it on your blog?

Hmmmm, my favourite technique…I really like highlighted embossing. I will be working on a project using that technique in the next month or so, so I will definitely take photos of it while I am working on it (so YES I will do a tutorial for it).

7. A question that I would have for you is, what is your typical day like and how does stamping fit in?

Wow, great question. My typical day starts at about 7:30 with my 3 and 4 year old tugging at the bed cover! I normally get up and fix them something to eat, grab my coffee and SURF. One of my fav things to do for the first hour (sometimes two heh) is to read my e-mails, respond to them, chat on MSN and browse through my fav blogs and sites. I am pretty good at multi tasking. Remember, I also teach online so sometimes that is not all stamp time. I have many parents and students to respond to as well. Then I try and find time throughout the day to sneak down to my room for a little 15 minute sanity breaks. Usually those breaks involve cleaning up the mess from the night before *lol*. I am a little bit of a night hawk and tend to leave my creativity to about 8-10PM, sometimes later and then post my new cards in the gallery and update my blog. The truth of the matter is I dedicate EACH day to stamping and I find the time no matter what. That is a true challenge but honestly my day would be incomplete without some stamping.

8. My question for you is this, of all Stampin' Up! sets from the past, which one
would you bring out of retirement if you could and why?

This is a tough question. There are so many. I have to stay patriotic and say O Canada! I became a demo the year after this stamp set retired and I have been trying to get my hands on it ever since *sigh* There is one image in that set that has a special place in my heart (the mountie). I am a mountie wife!

9. I love your site and was wondering how long and how hard it was to get your blog up and running? Once you have everything done, is it easy to create your posts? I so want to try to get a blog going but just don't know where to start.

Having literally NO experience with this type of program it took a little learning but I was up and running the very first day. Truth be told, before having a blog I think I only ever visited 3 regularly *lol* so I didn’t even really know what I wanted. In retrospect, I would like to have done some blog surfing first and then started. It would have helped me ground my ideas and vision for my blog. It has been a true learning process and I am so glad I did it. I have grown in leaps and bounds and I truly love blogging because it keeps me accountable for creativity.

So to continue answering your questions, once you have done the prelim work and know the sites you want to link to, have taken your pictures, determined your background colours and fonts and created your banner (and watermark!!! Don’t forget that..Beth and Cindy are AWESOME) then you are on your way. Uploading daily is a piece of cake. It can however be time consuming if you are writing a lot. Keep it simple and remember to have fun. I totally think you should go for it!!! Hey, I’ll even be the first to link you *smile*

10. What advice can you give to a new stamper/scrapbooker (like myself) to
stay inspired and creative?

Find time to stamp every day! Even 15 minutes can make a huge difference. Set goals for yourself. It can be as simple as creating 2 cards/2 layouts in a week. Just keep your goals achievable and you will succeed. I think far to often we set goals out of reach and get discouraged when we aren’t meeting them. If you set them up in increments you will achieve them a lot quicker. Part of the reason I became a card maker rather than an avid scrapbooker was because it was so much easier to complete a card in a day than a page *LOL*. Yes that is right. A card in a day. It used to take me FOREVER to create a card. Now I can create a card in as little as 5 minutes to 1 hour (depending on the steps). Another tip, create a “creativity” journal. this will help you gather your thoughts and find that creativity especially on days when the mojo hibernated. I will be sharing a few pages from mine this coming week so stay tuned.

That's it for the questions today. If you made it this far CONGRATS and THANKS! Also, just wanted to let you know that I WILL be around but may not be posting at my regular time. DH and I are taking off for a few days. This will be our first trip away from the kids since they were born. I called our destination and it seems the ONLY internet connection is at a local cafe and I am not sure how far that is from where we are staying. Trust me when I say this...it will be HARD to be without the Internet (and the kids of course) and I will try my best to post on Saturday. Just keep a lookout for me. I will be back.

Because I love to stamp and you do too!
Alli

P.S. Not sure why my font went wonky *lol* I am soooooo technically challenged..