Halloween is coming!

I LOVE Halloween! Even more so than Christmas and my birthday! I made the mistake one year of NOT purchasing the Halloween set from the SU mini catty and I regretted it for the whole year. Then when the new catty came out I was devastated that my beloved Halloween set hadn't made the cut. I was fortunate to find it later on the BST forum on SCS, but I vowed that I would NEVER again let a stamp set "get away". So when I saw Best Fiends I KNEW it would be mine!

This card was for the Sketch challenge this week on SCS. SC91 Sarah (speale) had used the Linograph background on her card "I was a Witch" SO of course I had to try it! The only problem was that I didn't OWN Linograph! Sarah told me when it retired that I would want it, but did I listen to her? No of course not. LOL Well she was right! So Again, I got lucky and found it on the BST forum on SCS.

So I tried my WCC again. I'm still not sold on them, but for some reason I can't part with them either. It's not that I don't like how the card turned out, I just don't feel I have the same control as I do with either the Watercolor pencils or the Prismacolor pencils. Anyway, Vlad is done in WCC and the black background was made using homemade Black Diamond EP. I just took some UltraFine glitter and mixed it with my black EP. It works great, and I don't have to spend $4 on another EP :). The layers are stamped with Canvas in black using the finger walking technique. Basically instead of rubbing the whole piece with your hand or your brayer, you just touch it with your fingertips and "walk" them around the piece. It gives it a really grungy look. I also discovered that stitched ribbon melts when it gets too hot! I had dyed the ribbon with Sahara and was heat setting it, when it started to shrink up. SO I used that to my advantage. I tied the ribbon on and then heat it up again. It shrunk and crinkled and now looks all old and worn :)



Ok so have you ever had an idea that just wouldn't go away? That was this card. I'm not sure it turned out exactly how I had imagined, but I LOVE it anyway.

I found this patterned paper at my lss last week and I just knew it would be great on Halloween cards! It's made by Junkitz. I love that the paper is the cardstock quality, rather than the normal thin flimsy paper you usually get with PP.

This is about as simple as it gets, but I love the results. I stamped the spider from Best Fiends on Very Vanilla, and then the rest is PP :) The green rickrack was a freebie from the lss! Woo Hoo! Gotta love when that happens. It was the last bit on the roll (just about 1/2 a yard) and they just gave it to me! The Word Window punched pieces are thanks to Sarah :) She's such a great friend! And the Sentiment is from Purple Onion Designs. I love their font and sentiment stamps! (Oh and they are on sale right now too :) Can't beat 50% off!)

New and Improved Color Combo Site!

It's finally up and running! My NEW and Improved Color Combo site!

The functionality is all the same, we've just made it easier to use and to see what colors you are choosing. The new "In Colors" have been added as well as some combos to start you off!

I haven't gotten all the old combos transferred to the new database yet, and I probably won't add all of them. There are too many fluke combos in the old database. I will add all the 3 and 4 color combos, just not the 5 color combos.

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OK so for the changes:

The biggest change is the addition of the In Colors and the removal of the colors that retired 2 years ago.

You now can only choose a color once. This way we won't get duplicate entries in the combos.

You may only save 3 colors or more. If you want to add a 2 color combo, add white to it :)

The colors are computer generated to make it faster for the database to run. Therefore, they might not be exact to the SU colors, but I have tried really hard to get them as close as possible.

We changed servers so that we could use a real database. But the new domain is not free like the old one was, so there is a donation button. It is totally optional, and I will NEVER charge for this site, but it does cost me money to have it up now, so ...

The new URL is

http://www.scraptitude.com/colorcombo/

We will have it automatically redirect you from the old site after we've added all the combos! But please update your bookmarks!

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If I think of something else, I will add it, but for now those are the biggest changes!

I'm really glad everyone loves the idea of this site and DH and I would LOVE to hear your feedback on the new version.

HUGE thanks go out to Sarah for helping me enter the combos from the old site!

Vintage Violet

There's been lots of talk about this new "In Color" from SU. Some people love it and have been using it with everything from Almost Amethyst to Black and Very Vanilla. Personally I like the color. Now it's not my favorite of the new In Colors, but I do think it's ok from the little I've played with it. I'll have to play with it more to really form an opinion about the color.

What do you think? Do you love Vintage Violet? or hate it?












I think this is one of my favorite combos using Vintage Violet.

Vintage Violet, Sage Shadow, Certainly Celery, and Bordering Blue

It's so soft and gentle. Some other combos that I really like are:
Vintage Violet, Marigold Morning, Bashful Blue, and Always Artichoke
Vintage Violet, Almost Amethyst, Very Vanilla
Vintage Violet, Cranberry Crisp, So Saffron and Always Artichoke

I think the trick to this color is that it needs a brighter color to balance out the muted hue. The brighter color seems to enhance Vintage Violet.

Going Batty

For the Limited Supply Challenge on SCS this week, we were supposed to make a card using Halloween images, but use a non Halloween sentiment. I just love my Karen Foster Snap Stamps for things like this! I used both the 1/4 inch and the 1/16 inch sizes.

SO to toot my own horn... Rob actually gave me a HUGE compliment on this card. Usually he barely looks at the card, flips it open to see inside (even though I've told him a thousand times they're blank inside) and hands it back saying "that's nice". So when he looked at this card and said "Wow, I think that's the cutest card you've made in a while". I was shocked! LOL That's a HUGE compliment from him.

It's coming back...

My mojo that is :) Lately I've been buying more than I've been stamping, but in the past 2 days I've made 4 new cards! I'm so happy to be stamping again!


I'll start with the 1st card I made with the SU Heart Association set; A Light Heart. My MIL bought this set for me. I made this to give to her when we get together this weekend.

It’s really pretty basic, but I've found that's the best way to get your mojo back, start simple! I used the CHF (Cornish Heritage Farms) Paisley stamp in Really Rust on the Pumpkin Pie layer and then over stamped it with SU's Linen also in Really Rust. I think it gives a similar look to the new SU Paisley. The Hearts are Really Rust, Old Olive and Pumpkin Pie. The layout has been used on SCS a lot.










Next card is made with images I received from the IRAK group on SCS (I'll talk about that group later ;) ) Of course ever since I got the first set of Linograph images from the IRAK group, am kicking myself for not buying it before it retired. Now I really like it! LOL oh BST forum here I come!

So I colored the Penny Black chicken with markers and also with the aquapainter. I just love all the different colors of gingham ribbon you can get now! Last year I was looking for Orange gingham around this time of year, and it was almost impossible to find, so when I did find it (after Halloween of course) I bought 3 spools ;)








This one I'm not "in love with" but it's ok. I guess I'm not sure I like the whimsical image with the elegant paper and stamps. The image is colored with Prismacolor pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits. I used Linen and French Script on the second layer and Linen on the card base. I do like the rivets I used. When I went to put that layer on top, the rivets were too thick even with using pop dots, so I took the backs off and they fit much better. I just hope they don't fall out of the holes. LOL I doubt it though. Lots of distressing on this one as well; I think it really fits the fall theme.







Last but not least, my favorite card of day. I LOVE the Wild About You set! It's next on my list to purchase (after the Best Fiends and the Halloween stuff in the mini!)I was lucky to get some images from the IRAK group :) So I've been having fun playing with them until I can buy the set for myself!

The card is HEAVILY inspired by a card by Bobbynbrit on SCS. She used a different Basic Grey paper and the Layout is a bit different, but her card was the jumping off point for this one :)

I LOVE the Dotted background stamp! It was the very first thing I bought out of the new catty. It just works so well with the giraffe stamp. The dots on the background mimic the dots on the giraffe and then are echoed again with the 3D dot stickers in the bottom left corner. Ok those stickers were a GREAT find! I found them in the $1 section at JoAnns. They look like brads, but are stickers so the don't show on the inside of your card like brads do. I just wish they made them in more colors!

My Color Combo Site

So you've heard about the SCS member whose DH made this wonderful tool for stampers. We'll that SCS'er is ME :) I asked my DH who is a computer programmer by trade, to make a site where I could try out color combos before I cut into my expensive CS. So he did! Isn't he the greatest!

It's really pretty easy to use, but I have been asked about a zillion times how it works, so I hope I am able to sum it up here.

My Color Combo Site

You need to know at least one color you want to work with, say Bashful Blue. Then you chose Bashful Blue from the drop down box.

Then you have 2 options, you can either hit search to get all the combos that have Bashful Blue in them OR you can chose another color. Let's chose another color for this example.



Then you’d hit search and it will find all the combos in the database that have BOTH your chosen colors in them. You can choose up to 4 colors and it will spit out the combos (if there are any) that contain your colors.



The surprise me button will randomly generate a 5 color combo. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s terrible. It’s just there for fun. Sometimes I’ll just be totally stuck as to what colors I’d like to use, so I try the surprise me button and I’ll get a great idea, just from 3 of the colors it shows me. Have fun with it, you never know what combo it’ll give you next!




There is nothing scientific about the combos. While some of them certainly follow the color theory, most do not. I collected these combos from around the web, from cards I saw, from other people but mostly they are entered by other users of the site.

The *’s don’t mean anything either ;) They are just the new colors from last year and I never got around to changing the samples.

There is no rhyme or reason to the order of the colors, use them for whatever your heart desires. If you want to use the 3rd color for your base, then do it! If you’d rather use the 1st one, then do that! This is just a tool to help you see what colors will look good together or which ones really don’t! LOL It isn’t meant to hold your hand and tell you exactly how to make your card. That’s where a little of your own creativity comes into play.

We are working on a new version which will include the new “In Colors” for 2006-2007 as well as separate the database into 3 color combos, 4 color combos and 5 color combos. There will also be an extra step when you are trying to save a combo. You’ll get the option to back out and not save the combo; it’ll be an “Are you sure?” type thing. . We’ve had a lot of combos saved, which really shouldn’t be in the database (not that the combo was “bad”, but they’ve had duplicate entries and such).

Color names © Stampin' Up!

Trying this again!

So I am trying this again! I have tried to start a BLOG before and failed miserably, hopefully this time I can keep with it! I am a SAHM to a wonderful 3 year old girl, Kendalyn and wife to Rob.

Rob and I met online in 1996 and got to know each other for 6 months before ever meeting each other face to face. We met the first time over Easter weekend in 1997 and then only 2 other times before I left PA and moved to IL so we could start our life together.

We were married September 18, 1999 (only 5 days until our 7 year anniversary!) and we've been going strong ever since. Here we are just a few days ago when my parents were here. Kendalyn is such a ham! But aren't all 3 year olds?

So back to stamping, I've been stamping for over 10 years. I worked at AC Moore in PA and was in charge of the rubber stamp department. It was my job to choose and order the stamps the store would carry. I really enjoyed working there and they even sent me to a couple of stamping workshops. I learned a ton of techniques that I had never heard of before, but that was WAY back in the early 90's. Once I move to IL, I kinda lost intrest in stamping until I got a job working at Michael's. My interest was rekindled, but I was still using the Michael's stamps and papers.

It wasn't until just a few years ago that I discovered Stampin' Up! I went to an open party at the library here in town and bought a stamp set and some blender pens. I was terrified to cut those stamps out to mount them! I think they sat in the box for a week before I got up the nerve to cut into that rubber. LOL looking back it's pretty funny, I mean it IS just rubber, but I didn't want to screw it up! Anyway, I think I used that stamp set a total of 5 times. (I just recently sold it LOL) I didn't care for the demo from the party, but I did book a catalog party thru her and had a wonderful party of my own. I was able to get all the Classic ink spots with the hostess bennies! This was all over 4 years ago, and now I have a new demo, who is fantastic! I'm getting the demo bug BAD and hopefully I will be able to sign up before the end of this year!

So that's a little background about me and my family. I'm going to try to post about some of my trials and errors in my stamping. Maybe someone else can learn from my mistakes as well as my successes.