Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Fall Meadow

This week's Color Challenge at SCS is called Cutting the Cherry Calypso Mustard! 

My first thought was, WHAT???

Then I read on.  The colors are Cherry Cobbler, Calypso Coral and More Mustard.

My next thought was, WHAT??????

My system of using colors is, if it doesn't hurt my eyes, I go with it!

This hurt my eyes!

But I had to give it a try.


I think these colors work after all!

Card Recipe
Stamps: Autumn Days, Itty Bitty Bits, Bring on the Cake
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard, Calypso Coral (Always Artichoke for some stems)
Paper: Naturals White, More Mustard, Cherry Cobbler
Other: Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Corner Rounder Punch

We're off to celebrate our oldest grandson's 12th birthday this evening.

He was born between Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd. He's quite a whirlwind! I can't believe that he's 12.

He loves that he's as tall as I am!

Smiling for the camera is not his favorite thing to do.

Isn't he handsome?

Better go.  We don't want to be late!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Enjoy!





Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Red Rose on Crumb Cake

Today's card is a CASE of this card by Lydia (Understandblue at SCS).  Lydia is one of the people who keeps things running smoothly at Splitcoaststampers and she's also an awesome stamper!  In fact she is this week's Featured Stamper.


I kept her layout and even used the same punch but jazzed it up with some ribbon.  I used a flower instead of the design piece and a different sentiment as well as different colors.

The colors are from the CAS challenge, also at SCS.  This week it's a color challenge; Kraft or Crumb Cake with Primary Colors.  A little white is allowed.

Last week I was playing around and wove this red ribbon through the punched lace.  I couldn't really figure out what to do with it.  I had an Ah Ha moment this morning and pulled out the Crumb Cake.

I'd been wanting to try some of these beautiful paper flowers.  In fact, I'd been thinking about having a class of just paper flowers.  I had printed out this wonderful tutorial by Joanne Leddy so I gave it a go.

I was really pleased with the results.


The sentiment was stamped with Real Red Craft Ink and clear embossed.

This is definitely not a card to mail, but it will look nice clipped to a plain white gift bag I think.

Card Recipe
Stamps:  Curly Cute
Ink:  Real Red Craft
Paper:  Real Red, Whisper White, Crumb Cake
Other:  Lace Ribbon Border, Fancy Flower, 5-Petal Flower & Boho Blossoms Punches, Water Spritzer, Real Red Satin Ribbon, Clear EP

Thanks for stopping by today.  I've really enjoyed reading all your comments and visiting your blogs.

Enjoy!

Monday, August 29, 2011

Bossy Sketch

I finally found time to join in the Friday Mashup challenge.  I always intend to join in, but sometimes the week just slips by.  So many challenges, so little time!

Here's the card I did.

Here's the challenge.
"MASHING IT UP" this week

Create a project using the provided "Sketch".

or Create a project that has a "Dry Embossing on it".

or "Mash it Up!" and create a card using the "Sketch with Dry Embossing".


Here's the sketch.
Here's a close up!

Card Recipe
Stamps:  French Foliage, Teeny, Tiny Wishes
Ink:  Old Olive
Paper:  Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Old Olive
Other:  Big Shot, Square Lattice EF, Color Spritzer Tool, Tangerine Tango SU Marker, 1 3/4" Circle Punch, Nestie

I'm so glad you came to visit today.  Thank you for the awesome comments you left over the weekend. 
Enjoy!


Saturday, August 27, 2011

Sailing Away

There's only 4 more days to order from the Summer Mini catalog.  That means that The Open Sea stamp set will be sailing into retirement.  What a great set for masculine cards!  So before we say bon voyage, here's one more clipper ship.


You may have guessed that this is a Less is More card.  Today's challenge is a

RECIPE
Take 3 Challenges

We want you to choose 3 from any of our previous 29 and combine them in your design.

I chose Week 7-Masculine card, Week 12 Off Centre,  and Week 18 Monochrome
I threw in Week 22 Shades of Blue and Week 29 Things that Move

Did you notice that the sails are full?
Maybe you can see it better here.  I stamped the ship twice and cut out the sails from one.   Then I cut dimensionals itty bitty and popped the sails up.  The SCS Free 4 All challenge yesterday was to do a stacked card .

Stack a paper shape to make something. A flower, a bug... use your imagination.

I'm not sure if the sails qualify for this, but I'll enter it and hope for the best.

Card Recipe
Stamps:  The Open Sea, Happiest Birthday Wishes (New Hostess set)
Ink:  Night of Navy
Paper:  Naturals White, Night of Navy
Other: Big Shot, Square Lattice EF, Nesties

Today I had my first Stamp and Share in my new studio.  I invited two of my neighbors and I think they had a good time.  They made some beautiful cards!  It's always fun and inspiring to stamp with others!  It was a Hurricane Party of sorts although we didn't get much of a blow here.  We were blessed.  East of us there is a lot of damage with trees down, power outages and flooding.  Let's pray for those who suffered damage and also those still in the path of this powerful storm. 

I'm so glad you stopped by today.  Wish you could have come to stamp with us.

Enjoy!

 



Friday, August 26, 2011

Paper Playin Queen

I'm coming in just under the wire with this one. I had baby Jack all day and he didn't cooperate with card making at all! He's still young. Hopefully I can train him to let Nana play!


The Paper Players Challenge this week is a sketch challenge. This is a great sketch for my favorite CAS style of card.


And the Queen for the Day at SCS is Linda aka Holstein. Linda has been so gracious to comment on my cards at SCS. I love her gallery and did a combination of two cards. You can see them here and here. What a pleasure to honor her!

I embossed the top of a piece of Whisper White cut 5 1/2" x 4" with the Elegant Lines Embossing Folder. Then I flipped it over and scored lines 1/4" apart on the bottom. Did you know that Stampin' Up! will be selling a scoring tool? It will be available to the public on September 1st.

The butterflies are stamped with StazOn and painted with a blender pen dipped into ink pads.

Card Recipe
Stamps: Kindness Matters, Three Little Words
Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Pool Party, Island Indigo
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White
Other: Big Shot, Elegant Lines EF, Simply Scored, Black Satin Ribbon, Corner Rounder Punch, Basic Pearls

Thanks so much for coming to visit today. I really love hearing from you.

Enjoy!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Enjoying Primary Colors

This week's Color Challenge at SCS is to use Real Red, Daffodil Delight and Night of Navy.  Dessert is to use a back to school theme.  I guess I could say flowers for the new teacher, but I think that's stretching it a bit.

The layout is from the Sketch Challenge, also on SCS, this week.


The beautiful Love and Care set was still sitting on my desk and I couldn't resist using it again.  And again, I used my favorite Square Lattice Embossing Folder.


Card Recipe
Stamps:  Love and Care, You're a Gem
Ink:  Night of Navy, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive SU Markers
Paper: Whisper White, Real Red
Other:  Big Shot, Square Lattice EF, Real Red Satin Ribbon

This morning I took Jack to check on things in Luke's room.  Imagine our surprise when we saw a little frog (or maybe a toad?) in there.  Pop wanted to play with it and I was sure it would go into hiding somewhere.  After a great deal of squealing (on my part) they finally caught it and took it outside.  Earthquake, frog, a hurricane bearing down on us.  Makes me wonder if the plagues are upon us.  Definitely a time for prayer!

Thanks for stopping by.  Stay safe.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Evolution

FACT:  When you don't get to stamp for a while, your mojo goes into hiding!

Nothing is coming easy these days, but perseverance will pay off.  I hope!

This card didn't come easy, but I hope you agree that it was worth the trouble.

When I checked out the Featured Stamper Challenge on SCS on Sunday, I loved this card.

Then when I check out the ColorQ challenge this week....

An idea was born.


Just too busy
Let's try again. 


Naw. Something's missing.
I'm feeling like Goldilocks here.


Much better!

Just in time to send to a dear friend for her birthday.

This stamp set is a Hostess Gift in the Summer Mini catalog.  You can earn this with a $150.00 order until August 31, 2011.  Then it's unavailable.  I think this set is a keeper!

Card Recipe
Stamps: Love and Care, Happiest Birthday Wishes (card 1)
Ink:  Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Island Indigo (ink and markers)
Paper:  Whisper White, Old Olive
Other: Big Shot, Square Lattice EF, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Whisper White Taffeta Ribbon, Rhinestones

Thanks so much for stopping by today and thank you for the lovely comments you made on yesterday's post.

Enjoy!



Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Hot Things that Move

Hello friends.  It's been quite a while since I had time to blog.  We're back from vacation in beautiful Vermont where we got to spend the week with family, celebrate my Dad's 90th birthday (a little late) and make progress on preparing his house for sale.  The weather was a welcome relief from the heat.

Speaking of heat.  The CAS challenge at SCS this week is HOT, HOT, HOT. 

And my very favorite challenge, Less is More,  is a 'Theme' : 
Things that Move

This could be interpreted in a variety of ways...an actual moving component on your card, so a pop up, a shaker, a spinner, a charm, a tag... we could go on...

On the other hand your card could have an image of something capable of movement, so the scope for that is almost infinitesimal!

 
Thus, hot-air balloons flying in the sky.

I'll send this to my Dad to let him know how much I enjoyed spending time with him and how much I miss him.


Card Recipe
Stamps:  Up, Up and Away
Ink:  Lucky Limeade, Poppy Parade, Peach Parfait, Basic Black, Bashful Blue
Paper:  Not Quite Navy, Whisper White
Other:  Stampin' Sponge, Sticky Notes, Scallop Circle Punch (for a mask for the clouds)

Thanks for stopping by and not giving up on me in my absence from Blogland.  I've really missed visiting your blogs and sharing my creations with you.

Enjoy!


Friday, August 5, 2011

More Creative Elements

I am struggling to find time to stamp.  It seems like everything is done in spurts and starts!  It took 2 days to create this simple card and another 2 to get it ready to post! 


The layout is from a lovely sketch by Nance at Paper Players.

The colors are from the SCS color challenge this week to use White, Gray & Turquoise.


I had trouble deciding whether to do the butterfly on gray or turquoise so I tried both.  As you can see, the gray won out this time.  White embossing on the turquoise is really pretty though.

Oops! I just realized that I was supposed to use Going Gray instead of Basic Gray.

Card Recipe
Stamps:  Creative Elements
Ink:  Whisper White, Basic Gray
Paper:  Whisper White, Basic Gray, Tempting Turquoise
Other:  White EP, Scallop Trim Corner & Worde Window punches, Basic Gray Satin Ribbon, Basic Rhinestones

Thanks so much for taking the time to visit.  I hope that I can get back to daily blogging but it doesn't seem to be happening.  Thanks for sticking with me.

Enjoy!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Scrappin' Again

My friend Sue from Sharing What I Love did Scrappin' Sundays for 2 months.  She made cards using only scraps except for the card base.  She really got me fired up to use more of my scraps but then I got so busy that I couldn't find time to post them.  Here's one of them.


I used a piece of Rose Red, punched and scored it then added a layer of retired SU DSP.  I punched 2 butterflies from another scrap of DSP, adhered one to the design and just adhered the middle of the second one so the wings could take flight.

I added a few basic rhinestones to dress the lady up, stamped a sentiment and was done.


Card Recipe
Stamps:  So Happy for You
Ink:  Rose Red
Paper:  Very Vanilla, Rose Red, DSP
Other:  Scallop Trim Border & Butterfly Punches, Stylus, Basic Rhinestones

It's been a busy and fruitful day even if I didn't get a card made.  Maybe tomorrow I'll get some card time.

I'm so glad you stopped in to visit and your comments are really appreciated.

Enjoy!