Infused!!

This is brand new Basic Grey Infuse paper purchased yesterday at CKC. (Creating Keepsakes Convention) Its so pretty!

I finally opened my white stazon ink pad for this card. I was inspired by the Dirty Dare challenge on SCS and the "you can see clearly now" class I took yesterday at CKC. Can you believe the teacher was none other than Stacy Croninger, the Editor from Paper Crafts magazine? You bet! A celeb teaching my class, Woo Hoo! It was an honor to meet her! I used the white stazon on acetate (transparency) for the Thanks. it is from the Lexicon of Love set. I incorporated the challenge from Friday's Dirty Dare (from Cwilliams) to use transparency/acetate in your design. The ribbon and layers are CTMH hollyhock.

These Dirty Dare Challenges are so much fun. I would have never come up with these past couple of posts with out them. What a great way to boost creativity! I have about 6 others just brewing in my head! too bad I have to do the laundry and pack my bags for convention! I hope I can squeeze one more in before I leave!

Kickin' it Up a Notch

I was at CKC yesterday and got this fabulous Crate paper, which was perfect for Wednesday's Dirty Dare toile challenge from Stamper Sharon. As I was creating this card I doubled the challenge and kicked it up a notch with Jami's "More is More" dirty dare from Friday! I added the ribbon, the extra black layer and the eyelets. Are you a member of SCS? its worth every penny! These challenges are a great way to get creative, think outside your normal designs and take your cards to a new level. I have set a personal goal to do at least 50% of the challenges by Mid August.

The flower is colored with the sakura glitter pen, blush blossom and grey marker. Its amazing to me how easy it is to take a card that's very lovely as is, and as Emeril would say, kick it up a notch! I added the eyelets, the ribbon and the extra black layer (which became the card base) to kick this up a notch.

The stamps are Artfully Asian & Fancy Flexible Phrases. Crate paper (Avenue) black ink. Black and Very Vanilla card stock. I sponged the Vanilla with creamy caramel to go with the Crate paper.

Do you have the right shoes?

Emeldabella does! The sentiment is from Papertreyink's Green Thumb set. It reads: "You can deal with anything if you have the right shoes." Bella is wearing khakis (colored with creamy caramel) with a shirt colored to match her paper (CTMH hollyhock). Card base and additional layers are cool Caribbean. Ink is black and CTMH hollyhock. Silver brads and that's the new wide Stampin Up grosgrain ribbon. Bella and the sentiment are popped up on dimensionals.

Nap time

Edited: the stamp is from House Mouse

I wish! My good crafty friend let me stamp this cute image at our crop in June. This card is so cute in real life. I am not sure who makes the stamp, but I colored it with prismas and gamsol. layered it with SU's close to cocoa card stock and its on a certainly celery base. Sentiment is from SU's short and sweet stamp set. Brads add the final touch.

Love You Sweetie

Last night, when the kids were going to bed, my daughter asked me to make her a "piggy" card. (She sleeps with "Piggy") I was working on the SCS Dare to be Dirty sketch challenge and ended up making a kitty card for her using the sketch. It was her lucky night, she got a card made with Chatterbox paper and a CTMH prima. Colors are a little old for a 4 year old, but she loved it anyway. This color scheme & paper also prompted a note card set. I'll be sharing them once they are complete.

Cream card stock base and layers, chatterbox double sided paper (plaid & green), Hero Arts kitty, SU short & sweet sentiment. cream grosgrain ribbon, prima and a brad. the kitty is colored with SU's water color crayons and there is some glitter on the bow. I hand drew the kitty's smile.

I love the"Is this for me?" reaction when she opened it this morning!

Wish Big!

I made this for a friend who's son is turning one next month. Its also part of the Dare to Get Dirty challenges on SCS this week for the 3rd anniversary. Are you a SCS club member? They are giving 4 challenges a day for a week! WOWZA! I was only able to get 2 done last night. I only have a little bit of time after the kids go to bed and when I expire! LOL! This challenge was for was for a pet card. Mine has a pet, but is for a little boy. (close enough, right?)

Products include: DCWV glitter stack back round paper, matching card stock, Liquid applique for the cupcake icing. "Wish Big" sentiment and cupcake are from SU's short and sweet set. "You're" is from Amazing to zany and the number is from a CTMH (The Works) alphabet set. I used the Oval punches for the tag and the slot punch to create the ribbon slider. Ribbon is from a bag of scraps and the Dog is from Penny Black.

Rockabella

I made this for all the Rockin' Girl Bloggers out there! Can you see her glitter? her hair & guitar are very sparkly! (click on the image to super size it). I used the Sakura Stardust pen for the glitter.

CTMH cocoa, dutch blue and sweet leaf card stock. Rockabella stamp, hand drawn sentiment, various markers to match, jumbo brads were on clearance at Joann's 2 weeks ago. My Mind's eye designer paper.

Rockin Girl blogger

I was nominated by Istamp! Thanks...what an honor! Here are my 5:

KIM

MICHELLE

CINDY

KIM B

KAREN

Our Family

One of my best crafty friends let me borrow this set over the weekend at my monthly crop. Many thanks to you! Oh my goodness this set is super cute! (see page 77 of the catalog for my inspiration) I stamped up the family and our name at the crop in black. Can you believe no "stamp-a-ma-jig" was needed. ( I have one and I have never used it) Not even for the eyeglasses! I rushed home from the crop, dug a frame out of my stash, picked out this cute paper and colored us all to match. Well ladies, here is my final product. My son is not actually taller than me - but he soon will be. LOL. Double click the picture for mega zoom details. we even have 1 black and 1 white dog. After I made it I realized my family is pretty big- wee took up the whole 5x7 piece of white card stock! This is so fun !!

Stampin' Up's All in the family set, paper is My Mind's Eye, card stock is CTMH blue and Cocoa, SU chocolate ribbon, CTMH alphabet set to make our name. sponging for the sky and for the grass. SU ticket corner punch and some gold brads. Did I mention how much fun this was to make?

Bella's on a Road Trip

I made this card for the Bella contest, but I unfortunately I did not win. :( The theme for the contest was summer fun. Cruiseabella is driving on her summer vacation road trip!

This was K&Co Happy trails designer paper for the road map. I added CTMH liquid glass (the same as SU's crystal effects) to the entire car to make it shiny. The silver bumper on the car is the zig painty pen. The tires are shiny. They are colored with the black glaze pen from Sakura. Bella and the car are colored with various markers to match the papers, but I always use SU's blush blossom marker for the skin. To make the ribbon slider with the sentiment I used the SU designer label punch, the slot punch to make the holes for the ribbon and circle punches for the back layer and for the sentiment layer. The ribbon is SU chocolate. The card stock is SU bashful blue for the base and chocolate chip for the layers. Everyday flexible phrases was used for the sentiment.

I made a 2nd version of this card that says "driving by with a Bithday "Hi" (from SU's Loads of Love stamp set).

Notes From the Office

This notebook I made to keep notes in at work. I put my name on it, but in hindsight, I should have put "notes" on the tab instead. I may peel it off and change it...still thinking about that one. SEI paper (penelope potpouri), mod podge, bling brad from my stash, ribbon scraps, SU's Office accoutrement, the tab punch and a cheap notebook from Target. Its so bright and the pink makes working a little easier. LOL.

This Job is for the Birds

My girlfriend at work has a less than desirable job responsibility. She has to remove the dead birds that crash into the glass windows in our office building. And, much to her dismay, she had to remove 2 last week. (eeeeeewwwwww) Needless to say we have a bit of bird humor going on at the office between a few of us. I hope this card will inspire her to try and get rid of her facilities responsibilities! the sentiment reads: "Wish" and inside: "for BIRD freedom"

Products include: SU Zoofari stamp set, my minds eye patterned paper, blue bayou and river rock card stock, water brush dipped in the lid of the ink pad using matching inks. Birds and sentiment are stamped in black. Silver brads and the ticket corner punch.

Baroque Motifs Note Card Set

Thanks so much Stamps4funinCA!!!! Your card, that I cased, (which you cased for the new catalog on page 129) was the inspiration to make this note card set and to ink up my Baroque set. There are 6 note cards, 6 matching stamped envelopes and a clear box to hold them in! I already have a recipent in mind for these and I hope she likes them.



To be honest, this set is just not my style, but after seeing so many cards in the SCS galleries, I purchased it with an extra discount during the recent pre-order. Sure am glad I did :) !! This stamp set is so elegant and beautiful. It has been said several times, "it's hard not to create something beautiful with this set". And that is 100% correct!



Baroque Motifs and Fancy Flexible Phrases stamp sets. Wild wasabi green card stock for the card base. The lighter blue background and the floral paper is designer paper from K& CO. stack (Happy Trails). They matched perfectly and they were double sided. There is a touch of certainly celery card stock and celery ribbon for some accents. I do not own the wasabi ink, so I improvised with CTMH garden green. It does not match, but blends really well with all the other greens. Bling brad in the center of the motif, popped up on dimensionals. Clear box was purchased in a bulk buy on SCS, but are available from http://www.clearbags.com/. The blue ink is CTMH twilight (a perfect match for SU's blue bayou) stamped off once to get the lighter color.

Christmas Pooch

I purchased this set (parlez vous francais) because I have 2 standard poodles. I have a really hard time working with it, probably because the poodle is so hard to color. Great for my white poodle-- not so good for my black one. This is my 2nd Christmas card design for my mom who is also a poodle owner. Both of her's are black. I like it (don't love it) and may change up some of the papers and use it for myself. the inside says"from our house to yours". The poodle is colored with a black prisma color pencil and gamsol. The oval under her is hand drawn with a cranberry pencil, colored and blended with gamsol

Products for this card include: White card stock base, cranberry and always artichoke layers, Christmas plaid designer paper from a stack, snowflakes cuttlebug embossing folder, SU tab punch, circle punches, jumbo brad from Joann's, matching cranberry ribbon. The sentiment is from the CTMH Festive Thoughts set.

Another Sympathy

Here is another sympathy card I made for my collection. Stamp set is Happy Harmony (from Sellabration) and Warmest Regards (a hostess set). This card combines eggplant with certainly celery in both ink and cardstock. I also used the giga oval scallop punch and the mega oval punch for layering. The flowers were stamped full strength for the 1st time, then I stamped 2 more times with out re-inking the stamps to create the dark to light effect. The cuttlebug a2 textile texture folder was used for the dry embossed layer.

With Sympathy

Over the past week, I made a few sympathy cards to re-stock my stash. You can always use these and sure enough I needed one this week. A team member of mine has just lost her father.

Old olive is the base, then layered with barely banana and certainly celery. The white layer is cuttlebugged with the A2 embossing folder Stylized Flowers. I then colored the raised stems and flowers with SU's soft subtle watercolor crayons. Sentiment is from PaperTreyink.com stamped in old olive to match the base. Accessories include gold brads, pink organdy ribbon and the square giga scallop punch.

I have been tagged and Rak'd!

I have been tagged twice and blogger RAK'd! (random act of kindness)


Look at this beautiful card sent to me by Nancy E. Go visit her blog at : http://nancyscreativemess.com/ and check out her cards! They are so fun! and there are so many to browse! I also picked up the link to *blogging with out obligation*. See the new link on the left side of my blog under blog archive. Its perfect and so true! Thanks Nancy and it was so nice to meet you through a RAK.

As part of the Tag game, I have to disclose 7 random things about me ...then tag some more bloggers! (I was tagged a while back, just consider me slow getting around to it)

1. I work full time for a publishing company
2. I hate cold weather and I would move to Florida in a heartbeat!
3. my car is white
4. and one of my dogs is white too!
5. we are getting an in-ground swimming pool
6. my favorite color is pink
7. my favorite store is Ann Taylor LOFT

I am off to tag a few bloggers! Becca, Susanna, Teresa, Jill, Andrea, Amy, and Michelle

For those that are tagged, you need to blog 7 facts about yourselves, post theses rules and list 7 people you are tagging. Let them know that they are tagged by leaving them a comment.

Coffee Anyone?

Many thanks to my friend Kim for letting me stamp up a bunch of these coffee girls to make cards with. The main stamp is from My Favorite Things (www.mftstamps.com). The sentiment is from Michael's (just off the shelf) and the background coffee beans are from SU's Like it a Latte. Card stock is rose red and so saffron. Ink is basic black and rose red. Scallops are made with the corner rounder, the designer paper is from the SU palette of prints and the finishing touch are the silver brads.

Peaceful Wishes

This Holiday card is a sample for my Mom. I will make her some Christmas cards in exchange for a stamp set of my choice. Lucky me! This design uses Peaceful Wishes. Its one of the sets that I used for Holiday cards from last year, but it looks completely different. I plan to have at least 5 designs for her to pick from and none will look like any of the cards she used last year.

Stamp sets: Peaceful Wishes, Perfect Presentation and Canvas back round. Giga Scallop punch and Mega Circle Punch. The *JOY* from Perfect Presentation is clear embossed on a scrap , cut out and adhered. Pine Cones are embossed with gold embossing powder and tied with Cranberry Crisp ribbon. Card stock is whisper white, Always Artichoke and Cranberry Crisp. (I am going to miss that color!) Ink is Always Artichoke and versamark for the embossing. There is a touch of black marker for some highlights and some gold brads.

Baroque Motifs Challenge Card

Wow, I just love this card.... I love everything about it. This has to be one of my new favorite creations. In fact, I can not believe I even made this one! Doesn't it look all professional-- like someone from a design team made it? I think so. I had a little help from the SCS Limited Supply Challenge which was to CASE (copy and selectively edit) a card from the new Stampin' Up catalog. This card was a case from the card on the bottom left of page 88.

I used Baroque Motifs and some circle and scallop punches for the round layers. The designer paper and ribbon is all from a K& Co. coordinating line called Happy Trails. The colors are very vibrant and bright. Card stock is so saffron and ink is the new "in color" blue bayou. The tab is made from a scrap of certainly celery card stock punched with the designer label punch folded in half and secured with a silver brad. The sentiment (CTMH) is punched with the SU ticket corner punch and is layered with certainly celery card stock. Plus a bit of paper piercing to add a little something extra and Voila! a really cool card.

Convention swap card

I made this for the Stampin' Up convention to swap. As mentioned in a previous post, I am trying to use my Big Pieces set more. I purchased them last December and I have barely used them, (sigh...) This card has real red for the base with old olive as the 1st green layer. The old olive layer is randomly stamped with Little Pieces and the sentiment is "Be Merry" from Warm Words. Ink colors are brocade blue, old olive an real red. Tag is from the new Level 2 hostess set Perfect Presentation. That little snowman is stamped with brocade blue craft ink and them embossed with iridescent ice embossing powder to give him just a little sparkle. (the sparkle is not that noticeable in the photo) Small and large tag punches create the perfect layers. White grosgrain ribbon and a staple for some simple embellishments. It is very bright and holiday cheerful in real life!

Big Pieces, Again

This card uses SU Big Pieces, the spiral punch and Sincere Salutations. Very easy to put together with just a little random stamping and some complimentary color selections. Colors are So Saffron for the Base, Chocolate chip, bashful blue and whisper white. The ink was Chocolate chip and So saffron. and a simple white ribbon tied on a small punched hole ads just the right touch. This card is so simple and can use almost any sentiment. It is great for scraps too!

Its Christmas in July

My 3 crafty girlfriends and I accepted a Christmas card challenge in January. We each make 10-15 cards per month. Then we trade each other 1 card each. You should see my bin of Christmas cards, they are fabulous and creative and each of us have our own style. This is pretty much our last month and we are done with cards. Now we are going to make gift card holders and tags so we can enjoy the holidays with no crafting stress!

I made this card for our March challenge. This is my favorite SU set of all time- Like it a Latte. I love to use liquid applique for the foam on the cup. This Karen Foster paper was in my stash for 2 years. I matched it up with rose red and embossed a few elements! The cup is rose red craft ink and iridescent ice embossing powder, cut out and popped up on a dimensional. Sentiment and steam are embossed in white embossing powder. Merry Christmas is popped on a dimensional is from fancy flexible phrases.

Of all the cards I have made so far, this is one of my favorites. Its so hard to capture the details and the sparkle in the picture. Click Here to see the card that inspired me.

Featured Stamper Oops!

This card was supposed to be for the featured stamper challenge #21 on SCS from Sunday. I made a small mistake and cased a card from the wrong gallery. Oops! I went to Markie's Mom's gallery to link up to the original card so you could see the difference, but it was no where to be found. I apparently was browsing more than one gallery that night and ended up in Scrapperaddict's gallery instead. Oops! Oh well the card came out fabulous and got me using this set. Click Here for the original card I copied and selectively edited (CASED) from Scrapperaddict. I changed the colors, the ribbon and the back round stamp. I hope you like it.

Office Accoutrement; Sincere Salutations; Little pieces; Celery, chocolate chip and whisper white card stock; Celery and chocolate chip ink; polka dot ribbon (from Costco); jumbo brad (Joanns); ticket corner punch; bouquet flower punch (for the center of the flower); sponging; zig painty pen for the silver dots in the flower center.

Beate's Challenge card

I was browsing Beate's Blog this weekend and came across her Weekend Sketch Challenge #8. I love her Baroque Motif sample card and was up for trying the challenge. The result: I am very, very happy with my card! (it looks a lot like her card though) And the best part...there is a prize! I can link this card to the comment section of the challenge and I have a chance to win some retired SU triangle eyelets. I have never used triangle eyelets. If you want to try, better hurry the challenge is only available until Wednesday morning!

This card uses Blue Bayou for the base, stamped with SU's "Little Pieces". I also added Certainly celery designer paper from the Palette of prints layered with matching celery card stock. I used the giga scallop punch for the top and the sentiment towards the bottom is from CTMH's April stamp of the month "For Every Occasion". The lighter blue paper is from a stack purchased last year at Joann's and the ribbon is from Michael's. Main image is from SU's "Big Pieces" stamped in old olive and embellished with a silver brad.