The Featured Stamper Challenge #900 Celebration!

If you haven't seen me around in blog land much recently it's because I've been keeping a "dirty" little secret:  I was asked to become a part of of the "Dirty Dozen" on Splitcoaststampers:  aka, I'm officially now one of the "dirty girls".   And before you start to worry about me, ha ha, "dirty" is just a fun play on words;  we are called the "Dirty Dozen" because our hands are constantly covered in ink from stamping!  Fun pun, heh?  

Now I realize because I'm a lifestyle blogger and not exclusively a card maker blogger, most of my readers don't have a clue about what I'm talking about.  So for those readers let's just say it's like receiving an Oscar for card making.  I honestly never in a million years would have thought of being asked to be a part of this incredible team of crafters.  I'm still pinching myself that's it real.

So what are the requirements of a Dirty Girl you might ask?  Well the main requirement is that I have to make six cards a month for six months which follow a specific theme that changes monthly.  I'm not allowed to post those cards to my blog till after my six month period is over.  The cards are reserved only for the Splitcoaststampers Fan Club members to view.  However, the one I am showing today I can post here because the current Dirty Girl design team was asked to make a make a card for the 900th Featured Stamper Challenge and that gallery is open to the public.

So what is the Featured Stamper challenge you might be wondering?  Well, every week on Splitcoaststampers a stamper's gallery from the community is featured and everyone is asked to pick one of the featured stampers cards and "case" it.  The first challenge post was 2/11/07  and since then has inspired over 9000 cards, 900 weeks later.  To "case" a card, you just create your own card from the inspiration card you picked of the featured stamper's, and change two or more things.  

So, here is MY card:

And here is the card I cased.  You can find the original card with all the details HERE.  

The original card is by Barbara Tarayao.  Isn't it beautiful?  I love how she did the "hello" sentiment.  I chose Barbara's card because I had just purchased a stamp/die set similar to this and wanted to play with it, but I also needed a wedding card so I was trying to catch two birds with one stone.

The major changes I made were the colors, stamp/die set, and theme.  But I also changed little detail's like I sewed around the edge of the card using my sewing machine since I didn't have a "stitched" die.  I also used a white embossing folder for the background and added glitter glue to all the flower centers.  I popped the heart up on dimensionals.

 Being on the Dirty Dozen Design Team is a huge time commitment and is especially rough for me as now is the time of year I need to spend so much time outdoors in my garden.  But I've been planning ahead and working feverishly on rainy/cold days to get my cards done, so that when the weather is nice, I can be outside.  However, I did have to cut back on other things, like blogging, to find the time to do this, so if you haven't seen a lot of posts by me lately, that is the reason why.  But soon, I'll be back to a regular blogging schedule and I will have a lot of cards to share with you from my time as part of the "Dirty Dozen".

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

A Beautiful Woodland Wedding and A Handmade Wedding Card

We had the wonderful pleasure of attending our oldest and dearest friend's daughter's wedding last June.  They live in the greater Milwaukee area, but decided to have their wedding not too far from our home because they loved the woodland setting for their wedding ceremony.  It was a great advantage for us because we didn't even need to get a hotel.

The beautiful bride and her handsome husband were married at Burlap and Bells in Black River Falls, Wisconsin.  Burlap and Bells offers three outdoor wedding spaces:  Vine Chapel,  Cliff Top, and Tree Grove.  You can read and see pictures of each space on the Burlap and Bells website.  The wedding we attended was held at Tree Grove so this post will talk all about that wedding space.

Having a wedding in Tree Grove was so enchanting.  There is a long, grassy, tree lined path from the road to the actual ceremony.

Tiki torches line the path to ward off mosquitoes and perhaps light the way for wedding held at night.

Tall pines filter the sun.   Benches fill in amongst the tall pines.  A rustic arch is in the center front.

They did have a sound system, so everyone was heard.  I know in a lot of outdoor weddings, there is no sound system and it can be difficult to hear what people are saying.  The bride's aunt played the music for the wedding.

The bride looked like a princess in her beautiful gown.  I really loved the bridesmaids dresses too.  The color and style was so elegant and flattering on all of them.

This handsome young man is the bride's brother.

And this beautiful and elegant lady, is one our dearest friends, the bride's mom.

We are also related to these two cuties.  We call them "cousins" though, technically I'm not sure if that's what they are.  Perhaps someone who knows more about ancestry can tell me.  They are my husband's grandmother's sister's great great grandchildren.  It hurts my brain just trying to figure it out.

We had a lot of fun taking a short wagon ride from the parking lot to the wedding ceremony area.  I wore a gorgeous maxi dress from Stitch Fix.  It was such a hot, humid day, so the dress was perfect!

This is my husband and the bride's father.  They met in high school and have been best friend's ever since. It's so wonderful to reach this age and see our children all grown up, getting married, and having babies of their own.

And here I am with the beautiful mother-of-the-bride.  I didn't meet her in high school, but I met her when my husband and I got engaged and we've been friends ever since.

The reception was held at a covered pavilion.  It is lit entirely by bistro lights and is filled with a mixture of rustic tables and mismatched chairs.

I loved the bride and grooms over sized chairs.  The table was graced with long, green garland and there was a green hoop behind the chairs.  A "Mr & Mrs" sign sat on the the floor in front of the couple with a white floral arrangement in front of it.

White candles placed on log rings completed the wedding table look.

The pavilion is open to the outside.  Each opening has long white curtains and sliding barn doors on each end.

The rustic tables and chairs were decorated with a long, white lace runner and topped with greenery, baby's breath, candles, a log ring and a cute sentimental wooden sign.

The dessert table held a welcome sign and two log tiered trays filled with a cupcake assortment.

Beautiful white flowers graced the base of the cupcake tiers.

There was a small cake just for the Bride and Groom to enjoy.  It had simple white frosting with fresh flowers placed on it.

A oval sign placed near the dessert table.

A very touching and sentimental Remembrance Table was placed in the corner of the reception area.   It held photographs of all the loved ones of the Bride and Groom who had passed on and could not be there to celebrate the day.

I thought the sign placed on the table was so sweet.

This gold hoop was placed in front of the DJ area.

Here is the outside of the covered pavilion.  The dance area looks out over an open field and is lit by bistro lights.

The Bride & Groom having their first dance.

And here I am, giddy with excitement because I'm about to enjoy my SECOND cupcake.  My husband doesn't really care for cupcakes, so I got his too!

I did make them a handmade card but it ended up being a disaster because it was so thick it wouldn't fit in their card box.  I've never had this happen at a wedding before, and it was so embarrassing!  They chose a card box that only had a sliver sized opening, so when I tried to put the card in, it just got completely crushed, and it still wouldn't go in.  I finally just had to hand to the father of the bride and he put it in his coat pocket.  

I thought because it wasn't going through the mail, I could go all out on the embellishments, but I guess I was wrong.  Anyhow, here's the card.  I'm sure you can tell by looking at it why it wouldn't fit in their card  box.  I hope it wasn't too badly damaged by the time the Bride and Groom received it.

To make the card, I used ornate wedding paper for both the background and the heart.  I cut the heart out with Spellbinder's Nestabilities, then popped it up on dimensionals.  Lots of paper and ribbon flowers were added, plus a crochet butterfly and some pearl ribbon....all stuff from my stash.  I just kept playing with the arrangement till I got the look I wanted.

The sentiment was stamped and gold embossed then cut out with a MFT die.  There is also a border of metallic gold paper before it's adhered to a card base.  It's one of those cards that is much prettier in real life and very hard to photograph.  All the white tends to wash it out.

I hope you enjoyed looking at this beautiful wedding today!  

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!