Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Snow Much Fun


Hello everyone! I hope you all had a nice weekend. Mine was good. I actually had a little time to relax on Sunday and just be lazy and watch football. So that was nice. Today's card is for 2 challenges; the color challenge on splitcoast and the KA-POW creative challenge on Carrie Gaskin's blog. The colors for the challenge on splitcoast was Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso and Pool Party. I LOVE these colors together. My first thought was to do a Christmas card with them. Then the KA-POW challenge was a sketch challenge.

I thought this sketch was kind of cool. Although I did mess up a little and not add something where the 3 buttons are. I should have moved my pearls to the bottom. Oh well, I still think the card is cute. The Pool Party background was embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder. On the Cherry Cobbler piece I stamped the small doily from Delicate Dolies. The snowman was stamped on Crumb Cake cardstock and colored in with White craft ink. I cut him out and adhered him to the one of the frames from the Designer Frames embossing folder. I added some Cherry Cobbler seam binding with a little tag and a little jingle bell (they are so cute!) And lastly, I added some of the new mica flakes around the snowman. These are pretty cool too. However, when I got them I was shocked at how big the container was that they were in. I will have these flakes for a long time! What a great deal! I hope you enjoyed today's christmas card. I am so glad that I have such a head start on my cards for the year. One less thing to stress about once December comes. I hope these challenges get you inspired to start on your holiday cards as well! Have a great day!

Stamps: Snow Much Fun, Delicate Doilies
Paper: Pool Party, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Black, Pool Party, Early Espresso
Accessories: Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Designer Frames embossing folder, Cherry Cobbler seam binding, pearls, mini jingle bells, mica flakes

Friday, September 23, 2011

Falling Leaves


Happy Friday! I had intentions of posting earlier this week but I don't know what happened. I think between the busy week at work last week and a super busy weekend (wedding on Saturday and Jets game on Sunday), I was just pooped! This weekend should be a little more relaxing and hopefully we will get those kitchen cabinets finished! What I thought would be a fairly quick project has turned into a month long project! We are just too tired to work on it during the week and then the weekends get busy. Hopefully it will be done soon.
Today's card was inspired by this card. I really liked the idea of the leaves cut out to make a wreath. I don't have this stamp set so I decided to do it with the Falling Leaves set. Somewhere else I saw someone using the colors Pool Party, Peach Parfait and Wild Wasabi together and I really liked it. So I used those colors and then added Melon Mambo. I really like these colors together. They feel a bit summery but that's ok. It's fun to use different color schemes for the holidays/seasons. This card was a little tedious cutting out the leaves but it went fairly quick. I used the snowburst embossing folder for the Crumb Cake background. As you can see, this can be used for more than just holiday cards. On the bottom part, I stamped one of the images from the Delicate Doilies set (LOVE that set!). And finally I added some Crumb Cake ribbon and the sentiment. Hope you enjoy!!

Stamps: Falling Leaves, Delicate Doilies
Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Wild Wasabi
Ink: Pool Party, Peach Parfait, Wild Wasabi, Melon Mambo, Early Espresso
Accessories: Snowburt Embossing Folder, Crumb Cake taffeta ribbon

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Wicked Cool


Hello!!! I hope everyone is having a good week. I am so ready for it to be over. It's been quite busy at work the past few days so I'm ready for the work week to be over. But in the meantime I have a fun Halloween card for you. I don't normally send any Halloween cards because I don't usually have that many Halloween stamps. I think I have 1 maybe 2 sets so I decided to get the Wicked Cool set just to have another Halloween set on hand. So now that I've done a couple of cards, I will be sending out Halloween cards this year. I had a lot of fun making this card. And I used a couple of cool new things, like that fabulous glitter paper and the fun embossed frames. To start, I stamped some of the spider webs from the set in black on the Rich Razzleberry sheet. Then I embossed the Midnight Musings wheel in clear embossing powder. I'm not sure if you can see in the photo but it has a really nice shine to it. I added another close up photo below to try to show the shine. I added a strip of the glitter paper on top of a strip of Pumpkin Pie. Then I just stamped a couple of the elements from the Wicked Cool set, cut them out and layered them on the embossed decorative frame. The word Spooky was punched with the Decorative Label punch using this technique seen here. Isn't that a fun way to use your Decorative label punch! I know, I'll be doing that more often. I hope you enjoyed today's card. Have a great afternoon.



Stamps: Wicked Cool, Midnight Musings wheel
Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Basic Gray, Pumpkin Pie, Lucky Limeade, Glimmer Paper
Ink: Black, Versamark, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Rich Razzleberry marker, Lucky Limeade marker, black satin ribbon, scallop trim border punch, decorative label punch, designer frames embossing folder

Friday, September 9, 2011

Halloween Bat?


TGIF! Yay it's Friday. What a wet dreary week this has been! I thought I heard someone say the sun was out but since I have no windows nearby at work I have no idea if that's the truth or not. I hope so. I haven't seen the sun in so long! Today, I have a fun halloween card for you. I'm not really sure if he's a bat or an owl. I tried to make him look like a bat from the owl punch, but I was having some problems figuring out how to do his wings. I did see a good idea for it but that was after I already finished the card. So we'll say that he's a bat. Whatever he is, I think he's kind of cute. :) The layout is the same that I used on one of the Creative Crew cards. One thing I would change is how I glued the vellum piece down. You can see the glue marks more on this card than on the other one. (so don't pay attention to them ;) ) The Basic Gray background was stamped with a couple of doily stamps in Black. Then I ran the Spooky Skyline wheel over that in versamark. I sponged the edges in Black after that. The pearls on the Modern Label punch were colored with a black sharpie. Have a great weekend!!

Stamps: Delicate Doilies, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Spooky Skyline wheel
Paper: Black, Basic Gray, Concord Crush, Pumpkin Pie (textured), Shimmer White, Vellum
Ink: Black
Accessories: Owl Punch, 2 3/8 Scallop Circle Punch, Modern Label Punch, Top Note Die, Lattice Embossing folder, pearls, orange ribbon (not SU!)

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Sketch Challenge


Hi! I am on a roll with blog posts lately. I actually have another card ready for a post tomorrow. I hope I'm getting my creative juices back. Even though I've been working on other projects lately, the creative juices haven't been flowing as easily. Anyway, today's card was for the sketch challenge yesterday. I decided to use some of the Spice Cake fabric again for the background. I'm not sure how I feel about this card. It's ok I guess, not one of my favorites. It's pretty straightforward so there isn't a whole lot to explain.
Maybe it's all this dreary weather we've been having here on the East Coast that has put my creativity in a funk. The rain is just never ending. I left to go to work this morning and the end of our street was completely flooded. We have lived here for 2 years and I have never seen it get like that. Then my 25 minute commute to work was an hour! Yikes! I think because all of the back roads that people take were flooded as well so that made the main highway full of traffic. Lets hope the commute home is much better!
Have a nice day!

Stamps: Fabulous Florets, You're a Gem
Paper: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Vanilla
Ink: Wisteria Wonder, Lucky Limeade, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Spice Cake fabric, Wisteria Wonder ribbon, Jewelry tag punch, linen thread

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Front Door Wreath



(Edited to add close up photos at the end).

Hello! Here is my final project for the Creative Crew challenges for September. This challenge was to create a home decor item using the Domestic Goddess Suite collection in the catalog. I love this DSP and the colors used in this collection, so I was excited about this project. This idea was not the first idea that I had. My original idea was to make some kind of artwork for our laundry room because the colors match perfectly. But once I started designing things on My Digital Studio it did NOT look good at all. So back to the drawing board. Since I just bought the Big Shot and Fun Flowers die for my birthday in August (Happy Birthday to me!!), I decided I wanted to do something with them and then the idea of the wreath was born. The Pool Party flowers are cut with the Fun Flowers die. I also cut another set of flowers using the Domestic Goddess DSP and layered them with the Pool Party flowers. (You can see this better in the close up photos below). The center of the flowers are the new In Color brads. The Basic Gray flowers are scallop circles that are folded into quarters and then attached to another scallop circle. The centers are also the In Color brads. The other flowers are scallop circles that are cut with the Domestic Goddess DSP. I cut the circle in a spiral and then rolled them to make the flowers. For the leaves, I cut one of the flowers from the Fun Flowers die and used the petal as a leaf and some of the other leaves are just free handed. The finishing touch is one of the large buttons (they are quite big!) from the Holiday Mini with some white taffeta ribbon. I had a lot of fun making this wreath and it came out pretty much how I wanted it to. I will definitely be doing this again in different colors for different seasons or holidays. I hope this inspires you to take part in the Creative Crew challenge and make your own home decor item!






Paper: Domestic Goddess DSP, Pool Party, Basic Gray, Lucky Limeade
Accessories: Spice cake buttons, White taffeta ribbon, fun flowers die, scallop circle die, in color brads, wreath

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Creative Crew - DSP/Color Focus Card

Hello! I hope everyone had a nice weekend. I wanted to post my other creative crew projects over the weekend but I didn't get a chance. I was too busy doing this:

We have decided to paint our ugly wood cabinets white. It already looks so much brighter in the kitchen. We would obviously love to just totally redo the whole kitchen but that is not in the budget. So for now this will do. I will post a picture once we get the doors back on and everything cleaned up.



Now for my next card. The challenge for this was to use the Timeless Portrait DSP. Since I didn't have that DSP, I used some of the colors from it. I love how this card came out. I plan to use it for a wedding that we are attending next weekend. For the background I used an image from the Friends Never Fade set and stamped it in black. Its hard to tell in the photo but I also stamped the Friendly Words wheel in versamark over the stamped images. It's a subtle little touch. I hope you like today's card and I hope you get a chance to take part in these challenges at Splitcoaststampers. Tomorrow I will share my final project which is my favorite!

Stamps: Friends Never Fade, Fabulous Florets, Friendly Words Wheel, Petite Pairs
Inks: Black, Lucky Limeade, Versamark
Paper: Island Indigo, Cherry Cobbler, Black, Sahara Sand, Vellum
Accessories: Black satin ribbon, top note die, lattice embossing folder

Friday, September 2, 2011

MDS Page


Happy Friday! I am so glad that the week is over. For some reason it felt like a long week and I just wasn't in the mood to be at work. But that's nothing new, I don't really ever feel like being at work, lol! I am looking forward to relaxing and not doing too much of anything this weekend. On to today's project. For this challenge, we were to make a vintage/steampunk scrapbook page based on this sketch. Now I've never done anything "steampunk" before. I actually never even heard of that word. So this was a bit of a challenge for me. I think this ended up more on the vintage side than steampunk but I think it came out ok. I decided to use My Digital Studio for this because I was able to use all of the elements that I wanted to. It was quicker than ordering some new stamps and papers. Plus I waited until the last minute to do this project since I had no idea where I was going with it, lol! I decided to scrapbook 2 pictures from our Costa Rica trip. We have a TON of pictures from that trip but I picked the 2 that I think captured the main point of the trip...us and the volcano. :) I may try to continue adding more pages and maybe actually get a whole book of our trip. Supplies are listed below. I will try to pop back in over the weekend with my other 2 projects. Have a great holiday weekend!

Stamps: World Tour, Extreme Elements, Letter It
Inks: Early Espresso
Paper: Botanical Gazette
Accessories: Modern label punch, Lots of Tags shape 1, stitching

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Wow it's September!

Holy Cow! Where has August gone?!! Actually where has the summer gone. I can't believe it is September and the summer is gone. :( I love the summer! Although I am excited for fall and for football to start but I am definitely going to miss the pool and beach days. I feel like I didn't get enough of them this year even though I did make it to the shore several times. Which is why I haven't posted in FOREVER! I had a couple of trips during August. Then I was working on my swaps for the ControlFreaks group, which I will post here soon. Then I was working on projects for the Creative Crew on Splitcoast!!! I was picked to be on the Creative Crew Design Team for September through December! Woo hoo!! So that is what has been going on behind the scenes and why I haven't posted. So today, I will post 1 of the 4 projects I did. I will post the rest this week. In honor of today being the start of the Holiday Mini, I will post the card I did using some new mini products.



I think my favorite stuff out of the new catalog is the Spice Cake collection. I absolutely LOVE the paper, fabric and buttons. Maybe its because I am in love with anything that has the color Pool party in it. :) Anyway on to the card. The challenge for this card was to use any holiday or seasonal set and use this sketch. I made a couple of tweeks to the sketch but for the most part kept it the same. So are you loving the new fabric??!! I don't think I've ever used fabric on a card before (maybe once?) but I think this is a fun little touch instead of using DSP. That huge button is also from the mini. I really liked the colors of the buttons so I ordered them. But once I got them I wasn't sure what to do with them because they are large but I think it worked perfectly for this card. I also used them in another project I did for the Creative Crew. (Stay tuned for that this week). The rest of the card was pretty straight foward. I've listed the rest of the supplies below. So I would love to see what you guys do with this challenge. Head on over to Splitcoast Stampers, check out the Septemeber challenges for the Creative Crew and upload your projects. Put a link here too, I would love to check out what you've done.

And don't forget to check out the Holiday Mini. (The link is in my sidebar). There are lots of fabulous things!!!

Stamps: Falling Leaves
Inks: Pool Party, More Mustard, Soft Suede
Paper: Soft Suede, Crumb Cake
Accessories: Spice cake buttons, Pool Party ruffle ribbon, Spice Cake fabric, brads, modern label punch