MTSC80 SOOOOOO Saffron

When I first saw the latest sketch challenge from Mercy, I thought "scallops and circles, I can do those."  Then I started to put the card together and I realized that it was so much more than scallops and cirles.  I had made another clean and simple (CAS) card.  How could it not be with all that "white" space?  (For "white" you should read so saffron colored paper from the sweet pea designer paper pack).  Then suddenly the circle became a layered flower (with an adorable corduroy button in the center).  And best of all, I resisted filling in all that "white" space with SOMETHING!  At one point I entertained the idea of adding a third color, but I resisted and the end result is what you see here.  Since there are no stamps on the front, I can use this card for just about anything - a bonus when you need something quickly.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

MOJO145 Birthday

I had nearly forgot how much I loved this Parisian Breeze specialty paper.  I admit I've been hoarding it, but I decided to break it out for this lovely birthday card.  After this, it goes back into hiding until I find another suitable project!  However, after using it I remembered how much I love the colors and the weight of it.  It's so unique!  I probably should use it more, but I don't feel the slightest bit guilty about putting it aside for a bit!

For this 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 card (just about the cutest card size ever!), I followed the MOJO145 sketch.  It's the last sketch of the month where we get to choose between a round or square card.  And since this is the cutest size ever(!) I chose the square.  I've got a few birthdays coming up, so I'm sure I'll have no trouble giving it away.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

Oh My Stars!

I think the ladies over at the Pals Paper Arts challenge blog have it right when they say that Margaret Moody makes fabulous sketches.  As soon as I saw this one, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  I paired it with the Curtain Call Color Challenge and came up with this fabulous card (if I may say so myself).  I'm going to send this to my Dad, who is a Marine Corp veteran, because he really enjoys all things patriotic.  

I hope everyone has a chance to enjoy July 4th celebrations this year.  It's one of my favorite holidays because there are parades, fireworks, and cookouts with family or friends.  This year my sister is pairing a July 4th cookout with her son's college graduation party.  I can hardly wait!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

MTSC79 Happy Birthday

When I first saw the new MTSC sketch I thought it was right up my alley.  I love simple layers and I've got lots of brads so I thought "let's go."  So after I put it all together I was surprised to see that I had made a clean and simple (CAS) card.  My "white space" is actually rose red, but you get the point, I'm sure.  Usually I have difficulty with CAS cards.  Before I photographed this one, I tried to fill up some of that "white space" with a twisted ribbon flower.  I didn't like that so I tried some ribbon on the corners.  I didn't like that so I tried some ribbon across the front (but that wouldn't fit with the sketch challenge).  Ultimately I decided to leave it as is.  The colors are spectacular and I, for one, am very sad to see Bermuda Bay go.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

SSSC74 Happy Birthday

This is quite a different direction for me in terms of color.  Although I love bright colors, like the Melon Mambo that I used here, I don't usually use colors so diverse on the same card.  I'm not 100% sure that I like this particular card, but I feel like I was adventurous anyway.

I started out making this card all about the rich razzleberry and melon mambo.  Then I decided that it wasn't exciting enough.  This morning as I was getting ready for work, I stopped by my desk and took a look at my work in progress.  I didn't really like what I saw.  It was too boring.  Then all of a sudden, I thought that some crushed curry would liven things up.  I couldn't wait until I got home from work tonight to try it out.

This is the finished product.  I had a hard time settling on the green on the bottom.  I waffled for a time between old olive and wild wasabi.  I settled ultimately on old olive (thanks in part to the Way Cool SU Color Combo Machine that you can find in my sidebar).  And I can't forget to say "thanks" to Karen and her Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge for providing the layout. 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

MOJO144 Birthday Bag

I decided to go in a different direction with my take on the MOJO sketch this week.

I felt like making something other than a card, so I decided to make a gift "bag" instead.   I used my fancy favor sizzix die to make the bag and embellished it with some blue bayou dp (I always loved that color *sniff*), taffeta ribbon and brads.  I had it in my head that I should use the birthday stamp from the Four Square set, but I wish I hadn't.  It's really a little too small for this sketch and I had trouble finding something small enough to be the little shaped piece on the right side of one of the squares.  I finally settled on one of the smaller labels four nesties.  All in all I think it came out pretty cute and I'm sure that whoever I give it to will be so impressed with my stamping talents!  That's one of the fabulous things about stamping, I think.  You really don't need any special talent to create something that's beautiful.  And no matter how hard you try to tell non-stampers that they can do it too, they still think you are full of baloney!  If I can convince one non-stamper (are you listening Bea?) that they can do it, I will consider my work here done!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

A Razzleberry Thank You

Earlier this year, I made a new year's resolution to try and use my designer paper more often.  I think I've made some headway, but I still have an awful lot left.  One of these days, I'm just going to take it all and have a big card-making fest so that I can use it all up!  On the other hand, some of it is just so darn cute, that I can hardly bring myself to cut it!  What a dilemma.

So in this vein, I determined to use the Cottage Wall paper I had in my stash.  I absolutely love old olive, so it was no trouble at all!  For this card, I used the new Waltzingmouse sketch challenge and in the same spirit of using things already in my stash, I used some old olive ribbon from several years ago and a button that I forgot I had!  (I think I need to clean organize my stamp room).

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

FTL95 Celebration

I'm not entirely sure that this qualifies for the Color Throwdown challenge this week.  The colors are supposed to be certainly celery, not quite navy, ande cameo coral.  I did manage to get those colors in this card, but I also added whisper white and baja breeze.  I'm pretty sure that whisper white is ok because it is a neutral, but I think I disqualified myself by using the baja breeze.  I'm going to blame my rogue behavior on my thumb.

Yesterday morning, I developed a terrible pain in my thumb.  It began on the pad and reminded me a lot of how your finger feels when you've jabbed it with a needle.  By nighttime, my thumb was swollen, red and hurt like the dickens.  I have no idea what is wrong with it, but I do know that I can barely touch anything with it.  Which is why the only stamp on this card is a little smudgy:  I can't really grip the stamp with my fingers!  I'm going to go to the doctor on Monday so that I can get back to normal.  Opposable thumbs really are a useful evolutionary trick (especially if you are a stamper)!  Anyway, I did (I believe correctly) use the clean and simple FTL95 layout.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

SSSC73 Father's Day

I had a moment of panic yesterday morning as I was enjoying a cup of coffee and reading the Sunday paper.  I thought I had my dates mixed up and that it was Father's Day.  A quick check on the calendar and I was relieved to see that I had another week.  This is good because I hadn't made a card yet for my Dad.  I usually need quite a bit of time to think when I'm making a masculine card.  I know I'm not alone when I say that it's so much easier to make a "girly" card than a "boy" one.  So I grabbed the latest Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge and went to work.  I took a little poetic license with the sentiment shape, but I think it still qualifies.  I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.  Some nice blues, understated dp:  I hope he likes it.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

TESC117 Birthday

Once upon a time, I made a very similar card with this designer paper and color scheme.  I liked it well enough, but some of my friends recently let me know they really liked it.  So I decided to use the same flower and color scheme for this card.  I used the Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge for my layout (a first for me, I think).  There's something very dramatic about a black and white color scheme.  I almost added a pop of color (bright pink or yellow) but decided that I liked it just the way it is.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today! 

Stamping 411 Sketch Challenge 155

I forgot that I had these sweet pea felt flowers.  They're awfully cute and I'm sorry that I haven't used them more.  I've got some vague ideas for using them up involving gift bags and gift tags. Anyway, I think they look adorable on this card with the complementary sweet pea designer paper.  The weather this weekend was pretty lousy so after doing some house work, I decided that I could afford to spend some quality time in my stamp room.  I turned to the Stamping 411 sketch for my layout and I let the colors of the sweet pea dp be my guide.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

More July 4th Greetings

I may be crazy, but I think there is a card thief in my house. 

The other day I was perusing my Splitcoast gallery because I needed to make some cards fast and I figured it would be easier to copy something I've already made rather than start from scratch.  What I found was a couple of cards that I made within the last couple of weeks and decided to just use those instead of making new ones.  Except, I can't find the cards anywhere!  I know I don't have the neatest stamp room (who does?), but they've got to be somewhere!  Eventually I gave up looking.  I don't know where they've gone but hopefully they'll turn up some time.

Which brings me to this card.  I love this stamp set.  It makes such fun cards.  I made this one the other day, took the picture, but forgot to post it.  So this morning I go looking for it and surprise, surprise it's no where to be found!  I am 100% positive that I have not sent anyone a July 4th card in the last couple of days, so the only explanation is that there's a ghost in my house that has an unreasonable fascination with hand-stamped cards, the mice down cellar have finally taken over and are slowly confiscating all my possessions, or someone is stealing my cards!  It couldn't possibly be that these cards are buried under something in my stamp room and that if I just spent a few minutes tidying up, I'd find them.  No way!

The All New Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge

I have long had a fascination with Waltzingmouse Stamps.  I'm not sure exactly what it is about them that speaks to me, but speak to me they do.  I own a couple of these stamp sets and one of them I used in this card.  I'd like to own more, but the stamps come from the UK and with exchange rates what they are, they are quite expensive here in the states.  Perhaps, Santa will gift me with some this holiday season!

As I was blog surfing this weekend I came across a brand new sketch challenge blog.  And you'll never guess what!  It's the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge Blog!  All the stars have aligned in my opinion!  I love sketch challenge blogs and now I have another one (that I'm sure will be fabulous) that will give me inspiration.  Thank you Claire and your fabulous design team!

The Pals Paper Arts Challenge Blog provided the color inspiration for this card. These colors in this challenge are so fabulous!  And the more I use it, the more I like Crushed Curry.  Too bad it didn't make it to the new catalog!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

MOJO142

Don't you just love MOJO Monday?  I do!  I know it's Wednesday, but I did make this card on Monday for the MOJO142 sketch challenge, I just didn't have a chance to post it until now!  I've been very busy lately making cards and invitations for family and I've been trying to use up my designer paper.  I still have some Thoroughly Modern left over and I decided to use it for this card.  I'm really going to miss this paper.  The colors are so awesome together.  At least I can console myself that soft suede has made the transition to the new catalog.  I've got a bunch of summer birthdays coming up, so I thought I'd start making cards ahead of time, starting with this one!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

FTL92 Birthday

I'm a big fan of clean and simple (CAS) cards, although I don't always make them.  Whenever I see someone's work who primarily does CAS I'm always struck by how beautiful in their simplicity the creations are.  So I've been looking recently at the clean and simple challenge blog sort of biding my time until I felt ready to make a card that fit the bill.  Today I decided to give it a go and try the FTL92 sketch challenge.  The whole idea is simple enough, but can be quite difficult.  I have this desire to cover up the white space until I remind myself that the white space is the point of a CAS card!  I'm learning!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

MTSC76 Happy Birthday

It's been a long time since I've made a card for Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge.  I love her sketches, so it's good to be back!  Now, I will also confess that I have long had a fascination with cards that were stitched.  Not the fake stitching that you do with a gel pen but real, honest-to-pete stitching with thread and a sewing machine.  Although I wouldn't presume to call myself a seamstress, I do know how to sew.  I make all my own curtains (and other home decor things) and I've been known to sew a skirt or two.  But I resisted stitching my cards because I was reluctant to drag out my regular sewing machine just to spend five minutes sewing cardstock!

So I began to investigate alternatives and what I kept reading about was the Janome Sew Mini.  So a couple of weeks ago I took the plunge and bought it.  It's so cute I can hardly stop looking at it!  And its super-simple to operate.  This is actually the second card I've stitched, but I forgot to take a picture of the other one before I gave it away.  I've still got some practicing to do before I'm completely comfortable sewing paper, but it's so much fun.  I especially like the zig-zag stitch (and it even matches the zig-zag pattern of the dp here)!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

Fourth of July Greetings

I don't make a lot of round cards, but they're kind of fun.  The last MOJO sketch of the month is usually to make either a round card or a tradtional square/rectangle one.  So for this one I decided to go out of my comfort zone and try something different.  And since I went to the Memorial Day parade in my home town on Monday, I was in a patriotic mood.  I made this July 4th card using somewhat non-traditional colors.  I stayed with the red, white, and blue theme but used baja breeze and riding hood red for an updated look.  I'm so glad these are being added to the standard line of SU! colors.  I always loved them!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

That's A Lot of Brads

I love doing the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge.  And I love combining challenges (in this case the Curtain Call Act 32 color challenge).  What I don't love is this card.  I do like the brads all around the scallop oval, but the rest of the card not so much.  Some times that happens.  Although, I will say that it's growing on me the more that I look at it.  I did get to try the Presto Patterns paper (which is the coolest thing).  Anyway, that's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!