SC226 - Bright Birthday

Hello everyone, hope your having a good day! The card that I have for today is for the sketch challenge over at SCS, I knew I wanted to make a birthday card and I wanted it to be fun so I used the stamp set Wild About You and some bright colored retired designer paper. I told myself (yes I talk to myself on a regular basis, scary) that I need to use up all of my left over retired designer papers before ordering more so I'm being a good girl and doing just that. The elephant was stamped twice with one of his ears cut out and pop dotted, then the whole image was cut and embossed using my circle Nesties.

Supplies: Wild About You, Eat Cake (retired), East Coast Prep DSP (retired), Nestie, Ribbon, Piercer w/mat, Pop dots. Colors: Real Red, More Mustard, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White.

CC216 - On My Mind

This card is for today's color challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers and to be honest I'm not so sure I really like this card or not, looking at it the colors make me think of green olives with red pimentos, lol. But like I've said before I guess participating in the different challenges forces you to try different colors and layouts which is a good thing.
For this card I took the Upsy Daisy stamp and used my SU markers and colored a single flower red with Old Olive stems and punched it out with a circle punch, then matted it with a larger black circle and pop dotted the piece on top of the main image stamped in black for the spot lighting technique.

Supplies: Upsy Daisy, Circle punches, Ribbon, Brads, Pop dots, Markers. Colors: Basic Black, Old Olive, Real Red, Whisper White.


Thank you for taking the time to visit!

Mojo Monday - Yellow Butterfly

Today's card is for the Mojo Monday sketch and uses a monochromatic yellow color scheme. I've really enjoyed creating cards using the Mojo sketches over the past few months and I like the fact that its a sketch challenge that isn't over within a few days because it gives me time to participate. For this card I used the stamp set Great Friend and stamped the butterfly from the set twice once in So Saffron and again in Barley Banana, then cut both butterflies out and layered them together on top of the stamped label image. The lower small panel on the card was embossed using a Cuttlebug embossing folder that I thought resembled the leaf pattered in the Walk in the Park designer paper.

Supplies: Great Friend, Walk in the Park DSP, Nestabilities, Circle punches, Scallop circle punch, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Ribbon, Pearls, Pop dots. Colors: So Saffron, Barely Banana, Basic Grey, Whisper White.

I'm BACK!!!!

Hello there my fabulous friends and thank you to those who stuck around we'll I was sick this last week! I'm feeling a better, I still have a little left over congestion and I'm a tad tired but I'm on my way to my old self. The family is healthy other than DH who is still run down and coughing, I feel sorry for him because being sick comes at a bad time considering this is his busy season (DH does landscape design) and he's been working so much. Anyhoo...it felt good to jump back into stamping after taking the week off. I wanted to make a few cards I could send to friends and decided to go with the same stamps but use them with different colors, papers and layouts. This first card was created using Jen's Sketch for You to Try Challenge from this last Saturday.

This second card uses an old sketch from Taylor which I liked because of the clean lines and squares. All three bird images were cut and embossed using my square Nestabilites and the "My fabulous friends" was cut out using the word window punch.
This final card was created using the Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge Sketch which was simple and very fun. I tried to keep each of these cards clean, simple and fun and I liked the idea of showing how you could use the same stamps in different ways and get a different look from each one.

Supplies: Cheep Talk, Really Retro, Good Morning Sunshine DSP, Nestabilities, Striped ribbon, Word Window punch, Scallop Edge punch, Piercer w/mat, Pop dots. Colors: Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, Pink Passion, Whisper White.

PS I'll be offering some fun blog candy this week so be sure to check back!

Have a great day!

SFYTT - Happy Birthday

Well I haven't been blogging most of this week because as of last Sunday my youngest son was sick and seemed to be getting better until Friday when I took him into the doctors and found out he had an ear infection and a sinus infection which could explain why he wasn't getting better and wasn't sleeping at night. Now that he's on antibiotics I'm hoping that within the next few days he starts to feel better but in the mean time guess who else is sick, yep you got it. It feels like the story of my life over these past few months with all of us passing sicknesses back and forth to one another. When someone in our house gets sick I go through the house and Lysol everything, door knobs, phones, light switches, I change bed sheets, clean bathrooms, open windows to air the house out and still someone else gets sick. Most of us take vitamins and I'm a stickler about washing hands, I guess it just must be our winter/spring to be sick. I can't wait till summer!


In the mean time I'm starting to prep for my Stamp Camp this coming week and the card up top maybe one that we make. I used Jen's Sketch for You to Try Challenge to create this card and wanted to use this cupcake stamp set with different colors then I've used in the past.

Supplies: Crazy for Cupcakes, Think Happy Thoughts, Good Morning Sunshine DSP, Oval Nesties, Circle punches, Scallop edge punch, Ribbon, Button, Crystal Effects, Aqua brush, Pop dots. Colors: Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White.

SFYTT- So Glad We're Friends

These two cards are for Jen's Sketch for You to Try Challenge, each of these cards uses the same sketch and colors but different stamps. For the card above I turned the sketch and used some retired Stampin' Up designer paper along with the stamp sets Trendy Trees and Best Yet. I can't believe I still have some of this paper left, it just goes to show you what a paper hoarder I am, lol.

For this card I used the sketch up right the way Jen has it shown on her blog and used the stamp set Pocket Silhouette along with the Best Yet. Instead of using designer paper as my back ground I embossed the Old Olive card stock piece using my Cuttlebug folder for some texture. It seems very strange not to use ribbon or brads on either of these cards but it just seem to work out that way.

Supplies: Trendy Trees, Pocket Silhouette, Best Yet, Hawaii Papaya DSP, Square punches, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Stamp-a-majig. Colors: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Really Rust, Certainly Celery, Ruby Red, Whisper White.

Thanks for your visit!

Mojo Monday - Thanks so Much

Hello everyone! I hope all of you had a wonderful Easter and enjoyed spending time with family, I had intended on posting another card or project before Easter but didn't have the chance. Today I feel like I'm finally getting caught up on some things and wanted to play along with the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge. Our Easter was very nice we had mass early in the morning and then family over for a big brunch where all of us ate way too much. Later that day our youngest started coughing and came down with a high fever and was up several times during the night, but other than that our Easter was great. Today Connor is feeling much better but I'm still keeping him in and resting as much as possible. You would think by now this child would have caught every germ or bug that there is with how many colds and the flu he had this last winter. I guess keeping him clean, well fed and safe and giving him a good multi vitamin every day isn't enough. What's a mother to do.

Supplies: Cheep Talk, Trendy Trees, Good Morning Sunshine DSP, Nestabilities, Ribbon, Brads, Word Window punch, Scallop edge punch, Button, Pop dots. Colors: Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun, Whisper White.

Easter Matchboxes

Happy Good Friday everyone! Since were having Easter brunch at our house this year I thought I would whip up a little goody to put at everyone's place setting. Normally I would have made something using pastel colors but this year my napkins and table setting have bright Easter colors. I found these spring collection M&M's which matched perfectly and decided to go with my Sizzix Matchbox die and an old retired SU stamp set Festive Four.

These are only a few that I made but you can see that I stamped Happy Easter on the sides of each box and used the Polka Dot back ground on the tops of them. Each basket was colored using my Copic markers and was mounted on to a scallop embossed mat that was cut out with my Nestabilities.

Supplies: Sizzix Matchbox die, Festive Four, Polka Dot BG, Eggstra Special (Happy Easter saying) MFT, Nestabilities, Copics, Ribbon, Pop dots. Colors: Green Galore, Yoyo Yellow, Pink Passion, Whisper White.

Exciting News!

I've had a secret that I can finally share with you today, my friend Danni from her blog Danni's Dreams asked if I would like to be a guest designer for her Flutter By Wednesday Challenge today! Well of course I said YES! Danni is such a sweet heart and a talented lady and the two of us have known one another through blogging for quite some time. So it's my honor to share my butterfly cards as the guest designer for the Flutter By Wednesday Challenge!

Even though I knew I wanted to create a card using butterflies I needed a layout so the card that you see up top was created using the Mojo Monday Sketch. The bottom card was created with the help of a swap that I received, Michelle created her swap using the directions she got here and I thought that her card was so unique with the way it was folded I couldn't wait to give it a try!

Once I had my Diamond card folded together I didn't really know which way to photograph it, standing up or laying down but either way I think the pop up design of this card is pretty cool. When the card is folded closed and flat it measures 4"x4".

Supplies: Flight of the Butterfly, Thank You Kindly, Darling Dots (Hostess), Maine Blueberry DSP, Nestabilities, Circle punches, Ribbon, Brads, Pop dots. Colors: Not Quite Navy, Old Olive, Bashful Blue, Whisper White.

What are you waiting for, grab your butterfly stamps and come join in on the challenge!

Cased Spring Top Note Purses

Today's project is a case (which means I tried to copy the idea from someone else), while I was away a few weekends ago at the SCS Michigan Mingle get together I saw someones swap (it didn't have a name on it or I would give credit) and I loved it. It was the cutest little Stampin' Up Sizzix Top Note purse, I took some pictures of it knowing that I wanted to try and make one for myself.
If anyone knows who originally came up with this idea please let me know so that I can link them from this post.

These purses that you see here were so easy and fun to make, you really should give one a try!

What you need is three cut Top Note pieces either out of card stock or designer paper (I used two Pink Pirouette pieces of card stock and one Delicate Dots DSP). The piece that you want as the top of your purse needs to be scored length wise and needs to have two holes punched into the back half for the strap of the purse.

You will also need ribbon, a small paper bag cut down ( I used a 3 1/2" x 3" white bag), Velcro, Tacky Tape and something decorative for the closer.

The first step is to take your paper bag and apply some Tacky Tape and adhesive and then tape it to the center of one of your Top Note pieces. Then apply tape to the other side of the bag and line up the other Top Note piece, this is the base of your purse.

The next step is to take the Top Note piece that has been scored with the holes and tie on your ribbon, then you need to apply Tacky Tape as shown in this picture (down low and covering the ends of the ribbon).

Then remove the backing of your Tacky Tape and tape this piece to the back piece of your purse base lining up the curves of the die and covering the ribbon. Add your decorative closer and Velcro and your done.

These purses would be a great project for mother's day, mother daughter stamp camp or just as a nice thank you.

Supplies: Polka Dot Punches, Delicate Dots DSP, SU Prints Pack, Trendy Trees (thank you saying), Word Window punch, Circle punches, Scallop circle punch, 5 petal flower punch, Ribbon, Paper bag, Tacky Tape, Brads. Colors: Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Almost Amethyst, Whisper White.
Thanks for stopping by!

PS Be sure to stop over at the Follow Your Heart blog for a chance to win some awesome Elisabeth Bell Blog Candy and to hear about the exciting exclusive new stamp line that she's creating for Susana's Custom Art & Card Design!!!

Bubble Fun Birthday!

Tomorrow is a birthday party for my two nieces and I wanted to make both of them a birthday card. Well Emily the youngest who is my God daughter and a tad bit of a tom boy doesn't do pink and girlie so I found these cute Stampendous monkey stamps at my local Archivers and knew I had to make her card with them!

This card was sooooo much fun to make!!! I started out trying to make a card for Beate's weekend sketch challenge but I'm missing a large circle in the upper right corner for the layout so oh well. The monkeys were colored with my Copics and then cut and embossed with my Nesties as well as the saying. I stamped the main image twice so that I could cut out some extra bubbles and pop dot them as if they were floating off the card. The fun part was adding the Crystal Effects to all of the bubbles to make them look wet!

The inside of the card, the envelope and the container of bubbles all have the sassy little monkey who is sticking his tongue out on them.

These are fun stamps that I know I'll use again because there perfect for either boy or girl, children or adult and there's a lot you can do with them.

Supplies: Changito Bubbles, Bubble Over, Changito Loco - Stampendous, Copics, Crystal Effects, Ribbon, Nesties, Buttons, Piercer w/mat, KI Memories designer paper, Pop dots. Colors: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Only Orange, Whisper White and Blue textured card stock.

Hope you were able to have some FUN today!

A Captured Moment

Happy Saturday everyone! I don't often post with pictures about my family but today I wanted to share a cute moment with you.
Over the past few days I've been busy with kids, my two older children (14 & 11) have had half days of school with conferences, baseball practice, dance class and more. In between I've snuck in some creating but just haven't had time to post until today.
Today my youngest had his very first swim class and loved it and afterwards we took all the kids to our local garden center where there were baby ducks, rabbits an egg hunt and a bunch of Easter fun. Connor (2) was so sweet with this duckling who kept peeping and crying for his mother. At first he was afraid of the duckling but once it started crying he started talking to it and saying "it's OK, don't cry", it was so sweet.

SC222 - You're on my Mind

Today's card is for the sketch challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers which is a good sketch but I had a hard time tilting this image since I'm such a squared off everything lined up kind of person. I pulled out an old favorite stamp set of mine Unfrogettable which has been retired for quite some time but I still love using it cause its such a fun set. I ended up making this card into a spinner card so that the dragonfly would spin above the heads of the frogs when the card is tilted. I used my aqua brush to watercolor the images and then added Crystal Effects to all of their eyes to make them look wet.

Supplies: Unfrogettable, Upsy Daisy, Tiny Bubbles Cuttlebug embossing folder, Aqua brush, Crystal Effects, Ribbon, Piercer w/mat, Circle punches, Pop dots, Pennies. Colors: Real Red, Kiwi Kiss, More Mustard, Bashful Blue, Whisper White.