My New Blog

I am excited to announce that I am switching my blog to a new blog service.

I hope you will follow me over to http://www.atouchfromtheheart.typepad.com/.

With this new blog service I will be able to offer blog features my old service provider could not. Some of these features will be available to you very soon!!! Wanna hint? I will offer a gift registry so this year you will get exactly what you want for the holidays!!!!

If you are one of my Feedblitz subscribers (receiving emails when my blog is updated), I am trying to work with Feedblitz to transfer your subscription. I'm not sure if they will provide this service. I have a new Feedblitz subscription on the right sidebar of my new blog. I hope you will subscribe to my new blog.

If you have my blog listed on your Google Reader page, you can easily add the subscription to the new blog and then delete the old one by clicking on "manage subscriptions" in the bottom of the left sidebar.

Finally, if you have a link to my blog on your blog (and thank you for doing that, btw), all my news postings will be to the new blog. So, if you want to keep it up to date, you will need to switch it to the new blog.

Thanks so much for sticking with me during the transition. I truly appreciate it!!!

A Hauntingly Spooky Card

I am going to put it all on the line...right now....I am a Halloween freak!!! I love decorating my house (with cute things....not icky things), dressing up with my husband on Halloween night to greet the trick-or-treaters with strobe lights, fog machines and spooky music. Needless to say, we are the hit of the neighborhood with the trick-or-treaters. LOL!!!

So, when my new Ghostly Greetings designer series paper arrived, I whipped out my new Haunting jumbo wheel and started playing. Oh, what fun!!!

I burnished my background on Shimmery White cardstock. What! You never heard of burnishing? You're just going to need to sign up for my newsletter to see how to burnish. This technique is spotlighted in this week's newsletter!!!

The focal image is my new Haunting wheel using Elegant Eggplant ink. The sentiment comes from the coordinating stamp set: House of Haunts. I love how the sentiment fits perfectly in the KeyTag punch. Woo hoo!!

Card Ingredients:

stamp sets: House of Haunts (111574)

Haunting jumbo wheel (112480)

paper: Elegant Eggplant

Kiwi Kiss

Shimmery White

Ghostly Greetings designer series paper

ink: Elegant Eggplant Classic Stampin' Pad

Summer Sun Classic Stampin' Pad

Pumpkin Pie Classic Stampin' Pad

accessories: Key Tag punch (107272)

Photo Corner punch (109042)

sponges

dimensionals

sponge daubers

If you have fallen in love with this card and would like to order the ingredients to make it yourself, you may access my Online Ordering website by clicking the 24/7 Online Ordering icon on the top of my right sidebar or by clicking HERE.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me.....I'm here to help!!!

Online Ordering Now Available!!

I am SO excited to announce that Stampin' Up! now offers Online Ordering.

Here's how to do it

• go to my demonstrator website: http://www.pattichesky.stampinup.net/


• click on the Shop Now button (under my information on the top right of my website)


• the first time you place an order, you will need to set up an account with your own user name and password

The new online catalog is AMAZING. I am especially fond of the new search feature. For example, do you love the brand new Kiwi Kiss color? Try this: do a search on Kiwi Kiss. You will be shown everything that comes in Kiwi Kiss.....even designer series paper with Kiwi Kiss as part of its pattern. Cool, huh?

Now, I don't really want Online Ordering to replace my special relationship with all of my stamping friends. I still would love for you to place your orders via phone call or email. But, Online Ordering is perfect for those times when I am not around......you're stamping while burning the midnight oil and I am sleeping in bed.....you're at a friends house stamping and you have to have something she is using.....you're on vacation....I'm on vacation, etc......

I encourage you to visit my website to today to check out all the wonderful things Online Ordering has to offer.

As always, you may call or email me with any questions you may have!!

You Like Me...You Really Like Me

My good friend, Robin Merriman, awarded me the "I Love Your Blog" award last week. I can't believe I forgot to post it. Well, actually maybe I can. You see, it was the first week of school and DH was away on a business trip. So, a normally hectic week became even more hectic when I had to play both Mom and Dad. Thank goodness, Dennis is home this week.....so things can get back to normal!!!

As part of this award I am supposed to nominate seven people whose blog I admire. I read lots of blogs (thank goodness for Google Reader), but there are several that I look forward to every day.

The list of blogs that I love to visit are at the bottom of my blog (just hit the End key on your keyboard to get to the bottom). I hope you find them all as inspirational as I have.

It was a busy weekend.....we went to Apple Day in Excelsior, MN and then dinner with our good friends on Saturday night.....yesterday was a DS's double-header baseball game in Bloomington (they lost both games.....boo hoo).

Today looks like oodles of laundry, vacuuming and stamping!!!!

Until tomorrow (or later if my mojo is in action).....Happy Stamping everyone!!!

This Challenge was Grrreat!!!

As Robin would say to Batman: "Holy Color Combo, Batman"!! This one was tricky!!! Lisa, how dare you make me think this hard the first week back to school. My body is so not used to getting up this early again!!!

Here's this week's Blogger's Challenge: use Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, Riding Hood Red and Tangerine Tango in one card that doesn't look like my scrap pile threw up. The challenge was easy until that Pacific Point got thrown in there. Hmmmm...what to do, what to do?

I know.....hide as much of the Pacific Point as possible. LOL!!!

Once I figured out a starting point, this card came together pretty easily. I knew I wanted to make a boy card. So I debated between my Just Baseball set and Under the Stars. As you can see, Under the Stars won that battle. Of course it did, would you want to fight this big 'ol bear?

Did you know that Under the Stars in on sale for 15% off? Yup...Uh huh...until September 30th. If you've fallen in love with him as much as I have, you can email me to place your order (as long as you live in the US.....I can't take orders from my international buddies...sorry!!).

Did you also notice that I used my Big Shot for the scalloped circle the big 'ol bear is resting on? That machine is totally WICKED. I love it!!! No more pulling out my corner rounder punch, pulling off the guard, punching around my circle and oh no...the scallops don't match up. Now, I need to hide the mess up with something. NO MORE MESS UPS!!! This Scallop Circle #2 die makes working with scallop circles so easy!!!!

Here are some other details about the card

• dragged my Tangerine Tango ink pad down the strip of Tangerine Tango cardstock to tone down the brightness of the orange
• stamped the star (also from Under the Stars) in Riding Hood Red and then did a little direct-to-paper technique to make it more distressed-looking.....helps it blend with the Tangerine Tango piece.
• watercolored the bear.....not really as careful as usual because I wanted a real distressed look to this card
• used a combo of my Designer Label punch and small oval punch to make a cool embellishment for my sentiment. Do you like the Riding Hood Red striped ribbon tails? This ribbon is sweet!! I'm still offering my ribbon share if you want to try it out for yourself....check it out HERE.

You can check out all the other wonderful creations my bloggin' sisters have made this week. Just click on the Blogger's Challenge icon on the right sidebar of my blog. If you have the time, leave them some comments. They love to hear from you as much as I do!!!

Well, it's off to work!!!! Laundry, dishes and toilets (ewwwww) await!!!

Until tomorrow....Happy Stamping everyone!!!

Tutorial Time: Moonlighting

Today I am going to teach you about a fun technique called Moonlighting. It's perfect for this time of year as we all start playing with our Halloween stamp sets again.


For this tutorial I am using my newly introduced House of Haunts stamp set. This tree image is absolutely perfect to showcase the Moonlighting technique.


I stamped my image with Versamark, sprinkled with Black embossing powder and heated til shiny.


Punch a circle from any scrap of cardstock using your 1" Circle punch. Use Dotto or a piece of tape that doesn't have a lot of tack and place where you want to make your moon.



Pounce your sponge in some More Mustard ink and swirl color to the top 2/3 of your image.














Pounce the same sponge in some Pumpkin Pie ink and swirl on the top 1/3 of the image.


Using a clean sponge, pounce in some Old Olive ink and swirl on the bottom 1/3 of the image.


Carefully remove the circle punch and your moon is revealed!!!!


That's all there is to it........you now know how to Moonlight!!!!


If you make a card using the technique, please send me an email or leave me a comment with a link to your card. I would love to see it!!!

My Shot with the Big Shot

I am going to make a confession......I {heart} gadgets. So, when Stampin' Up! announced its partnership with Sizzix, I think I nearly pee'd my pants. Okay, I exaggerate, but I was REALLY jumping up and down!!!


I've owned Sizzix products for years. They lived a secret life in a drawer only to be used on my personal stash of cards. Now, I say "NO MORE". I can now share my excitement about the Big Shot die cutting machine with everyone!!!!! Yeah!!!


Starting today, you are able to purchase the Big Shot from me...your favorite Stampin' Up! demonstrator (wink wink). Why purchase from Stampin' Up!?


- we offer exclusive dies only available from Stampin' Up!
- earn exclusive hostess stamp sets and catalog merchandise for FREE when you have a qualifying order of $150 or more
- you have me as your Creative Coach to help you use your machine and show you beautiful projects ideas.....try getting that kind of service from a craft store!!!! LOL!!!



Enough chit chat!!! You can always email me if you have questions about the Big Shot or if you would like to place an order!!!


Let's talk about today's projects!!!!


The little Halloween party favor is from my favorite Big Shot die. It's called Basket and Blooms, and it is a Stampin' Up! exclusive die.


Now, you will have to forgive me for using retired Halloween DSP, but my order of the new DSP won't be here until tomorrow. I'm forgiven, right? It's too cute not to be forgiven!!!! LOL!!!


I assembled the bag, adhered on the bands (which are part of the die) and stamped the owl/tree image from my awesome new House of Haunts stamp set. I punched out the owl with my 1" circle punch and adhered onto two circles (1 1/4" of Kiwi Kiss and 1 3/8" of Pumpkin Pie). I filled the basket with some straggly spider-webby looking ribbon, and my spookly little party favor is done!!!!


The card is pretty easy to figure out. I will mention two techniques I used on this card. See how the owl looks like it's sitting in front of the moon. I used a technique called Moonlighting to achieve this look. I will do a tutorial on this tomorrow to show you exactly how it's done!!! It's so easy!!! The second technique is direct to paper on the Kiwi Kiss blocks. All I did was drag my Kiwi Kiss pad down each of the Kiwi Kiss cardstock pieces.


recipe
stamp sets: House of Haunts
paper: Elegant Eggplant, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Kiwi Kiss, retired Halloween DSP
ink: Versamark, Basic Black
accessories: Photo Corner punch, Scallop Edge punch, Black Embossing Powder, heat tool, sponges, 1" circle punch


Until tomorrow....Happy Stamping everyone!!!!