Color Lab Challenge 12

It’s Thursday and time for another challenge from the Color Lab!

It’s been quite a few days since I made a Halloween card, and you know how much I love making Halloween cards!! And then the Color Lab throws these colors at me! How can a Halloween junkie refuse?

And over at Karen Giron's blog this week the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge was to take a trip in the wayback machine and recreate a sketch from the past that you loved. I chose Sketch 56. When I first saw this sketch, I was very intimidated, but the card I made with it ended up being one of my all-time favorites. So, I decided to use it once again for this card.

Thanks for stopping by today and don’t forget to pop on over to the Color Lab, check out the fabulous colors this week, and create something! We’d love to see what you do.

MTSC93 With Some Kiwi Thrown In

I had high hopes when I saw this sketch over at Mercy's blog.  Simple geometric design, square.  All things I love about a good sketch.

I grabbed my old Urban Oasis designer paper and {gasp} a few scraps of my nearly depleted stash of kiwi kiss cardstock.  I put it all together and now I'm not at all sure I like the result.

I've made cards before with this color combo and I've always thought they were hip and cool.  The colors are fresh and fun together.  But something's not right with this card and I'm not sure what it is.  Oh well, the adhesive is set and it's not coming off, so I guess I have to live with it!

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

MOJO158 Snowflakes

As I'm sure you're ALL aware, the last MOJO sketch of the month is a choice between round or square.  A lot of times I like to pick the round because, really, how often do you need a round card?  Admit it, they're pretty cool and as a bonus they invoke the "wow factor" with the recipient.

Yet despite all of the reasons to make a round card, this week I chose to make a square one! (Mostly because I was too lazy to dig out my Circle Scissors Plus or whatever I else I could dig out to cut circles)!!  So anyway I made this christmas card using some retired dsp (will I EVER use it all up???).

I think I really love it.  I smooch spritzed the snowflakes (although I doubt you can see it in the picture) so they are quite sparkly.  If you don't have any smooch spritz, I highly recommend that you get some.  I think they make the world go round!

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

Curtain Call 49 and FTL109

I had a very busy day today.  I volunteer for the Bridgewater Community Emergency Response Team and our team was activated Friday night to help out with traffic control Sundy at a local high school where President Bill Clinton was going to speak.  I spent the better part of Sunday hanging around a parking lot telling people where to park.  There was no place to sit and by the end of the day, my back was killing me.  I was very glad to get home where I could relax and I'm especially glad that I still had the energy to get into my stamp room.

Sunday is always a fun card-making card day for me.  There are so many weekend challenges to choose from and I look forward to picking out the ones that catch my eye.  Today it was the Curtain Call 49 color challenge and the FTL109 sketch challenge.

I love these colors together.  They are so dramatic.  I used similar colors on a card recently and I actually found myself practically recreating the same card before I stopped myself.  So I used different stamps and hopefully created something new.

As you can see I moved the sentiment down to better accomodate the stamp and I added some brads for a little interest, but I think I remained pretty true to the sketch.

Oh, in case you thought I was kidding about Bill Clinton, here's a picture of him leaving the event today.

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

Easy Sketch 3

Yesterday I made a birthday card that I will give to my niece who is turning 19.  Today I decided to make a little something to accompany that card using this week's Easy Sketch.

I added a button to my card, for reasons which I will reveal below!

I also have to reveal that I took this picture of my card upside down.  Because it's not really a card!

It's really a gift card holder!  I hope she likes how it MATCHES the card.  On second thought, I hope she NOTICES that it matches. 
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

TESC129 Happy Birthday

I know that the calendar says "fall," but here in Massachusetts it was like summer today.  I think it was about 80-degrees today (at least) and when I went for a walk on my lunch hour, it was absolutely spectacular!  Tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer!  I can hardly wait.  I'm not much of a winter girl, so anytime summer wants to hang around longer than usual is ok with me!  Now, on to the card...

For my card today, I turned to the Taylored Expressions sketch challenge.

I just love a card with some good geometric designs.  Well defined rectangles and circles just get my creative juices flowing.  My first idea with this sketch was to do a Christmas card, but I really wanted to use my Greenhouse Gala dp and that is anything BUT christmas-y.

I also attempted the rock-and-roll technique on the butterfly.  Now, I love rock-and-roll as much as the next gal, but I don't think I DO rock-and-roll all that well.  A little too much rock and not enough roll, I say to myself.  Practice, practice, practice.  Some day I'll get it right!
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!

PPA61 Snowflakes

Today, I decided to take a trip in the wayback machine.  I saw the awesome sketch challenge over at the Pals Paper Arts blog and decided that I wanted to do a something winterish.  At first I thought I'd do a Christmas card, but after I got going I settled on "winter."

Isn't this a fabulous sketch?  Clean, simple, but easily embellished if you want.  So where did my trip in the wayback machine take me?  All the way back to 2006 and the first In Colors!  I have a whole bunch of dp called Holiday Thyme from that era and for some reason, I was determined to use it on this card.  Of course, this also meant that I had to dig into my ages-old stash of Cranberry Crisp cardstock.

I even managed to use another 2006 In Color, Marigold Morning to cut the snowflake with my sizzix die.  Then I used my heat & stick powder to add some dazzling diamonds and make it really sparkle.  I'm pretty sure you can't see all that sparkly goodness in the photo, but trust me it's there.

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

Color Lab Challenge 11

It’s Thursday and time for another challenge from the Color Lab!


I may have mentioned a time or two that I love working with earthy colors. So I was very happy to see this week’s colors from the Color Lab. Just take a look.

I don’t know about you, but I think that early and espresso and peach parfait were made for each other! I never thought I was much of a peach person, but peach parfait has made me look at the color a whole new way!

I used the clean and simple sketch from MOJO Monday for my layout.

I found some super old designer paper to use for the big panel. I’m not positive, but I think it’s called Spring Flowers. I just love the scruffy look of it. No surprise, but it’s one of the papers I’ve been hoarding for no reason other than I couldn’t bring myself to cut into it!  Here's my card:

Thanks for stopping by today and don’t forget to pop on over to the Color Lab, check out the fabulous colors this week, and create something! We’d love to see what you do.

MTSC92

My mojo has completely disappeared.  If you find it anywhere, could you please return it to me?  Several times over the last several days, I have sat in my stamp room and tried to create something.  I started with some of my favorite sketch challenges, but each time I ended up walking away because what I was making was just horrible.  I took a break yesterday because my sister and I were putting together the save the dates for her son's wedding, but I was determined to get back in the game and create something that I actually liked.  I turned to Mercy's Tuesday sketch challenge for my inspiration.

I really liked the layout of the sketch and thought I could do something with it.  I used my Thoroughly Modern dp, which, incidentally, is one of my all-time faves.  But in the end, I'm pretty sure that this card will end up on the bottom of my pile.  You know what I'm talking about.  The pile of cards you've made where the ones you like least are always toward the bottom.....

Oh well.  Here it is in all it's "glory."  At least I made an effort to do something.  Hopefully, I'll feel back to my old self tomorrow.

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

Save the Date

My nephew is getting married next year and I've been working on some Save the Date cards for the big event.  I have finally started putting them together.  The bride loves red, so base of the card is the fabulous cherry cobbler and although I think it's difficult to see in the picture, the rose is stamped in early espresso.  The names on the card have been smudged out to protect the innocent!

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

Easy Sketch 2

It's been far too long since I've made a Halloween card and armed with the Halloween Inspiration Challenge over at the PPA blog I dug out my Halloween Hoot stamp set.  I just love the witch in this set.  Every time I look at her I'm reminded of the Wicked Witch of the West (which would explain why I always color her face with certainly celery).  Aside from the fact that the witch here seems to be in a good mood, I think they look very similar!  For my layout, I used the Easy Sketch challenge.

I also dug out last year's halloween designer paper cast-a-spell.  I just love all the scary bats and skulls in it!  I've got quite a bit left over, so I may use it to make some cute halloween treats later.

Isn't she adorable???  I rather think she's doing some sort of halloween jig!

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

Color Lab Challenge 10

It’s Thursday and time for another challenge from the Color Lab!

I love making cards with earthy colors. So a card with chocolate chip and crumb cake is right up my alley. And this week we got to pop it up with some splashes of daffodil delight and poppy parade.

As I was surfing through blog-land recently, I came across this card with a gorgeous flower. I hadn’t used my smooch spray nearly enough so I decided to use it making a similar flower. I set to work using the FTL107 sketch challenge as my base, the oh-so delish color lab colors as my palette and here’s what I came up with.

At first I smooched the flower with the log cabin spritz, but it was way too dark. Then I tried it with the gold glow. Ooh! It adds just the right amount of shimmer. I think I’m in love! I put one of the fabulous antique brads in the center and voila! I didn’t use a sentiment, but there’s plenty of room at the bottom to add one later for whatever occasion arises. It’s always good to have cards on hand that are easily adaptable when you need something specific on short notice.

Thanks for stopping by today and don’t forget to pop on over to the Color Lab and create something! We’d love to see what you do.

Challenge Combo Thank You

What a glorious day it was today in Massachusetts.  I went for a walk on my lunch-hour and it was absolutely spectacular.  The sun was shining, the temperature was just right.  Glorious!  The way I see it, the only drawback to autumn in New England is that winter is not far away.  Ugh!  I have no use for cold temperatures and snow.  Hopefully Mother Nature will spare us this year.  Anyway on to my card for today.

I recently found a new color challenge called the Colour Q.  The colors this week were pretty neat, so I thought I'd mix it with Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge.

Aren't those colors just wonderful?  So earthy.  And I love all things brown, so I embraced this challenge.  Here's my card:

And I got to drag out my Janome Sew Mini so that I could so could sew a crooked line down the peach parfait cardstock.  I love that little sewing machine!  So glad I bought it.

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

Sweet Sunday 85 Happy Birthday

One of the things I look forward to on Sunday is the Sweet Sunday sketch challenge.  Karen's sketches are always so wonderful, and I participate when I can.  The sketch this week was filled with lots of nice squares (I love simple geometric patterns) and I knew just what stamp set I wanted to use for it.

As a special bonus, this week Karen is asking us to make a birthday card and then donate it to Operation Write Home so that servicemen and women might have a special hand-made card to send to a loved one.  I couldn't resist.  So I made this card:

I'll be sending this off to Operation Write Home right away.  I'm truly humbled to be able to help those courageous people serving in the armed forces.  All I did was make a card.  They make tremendous sacrifices every day.  I hope you'll consider making a card as well.

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

Just Believe in an Easy Sketch

I discovered a new sketch challenge today!  I LOVE doing sketch challenges and this one is extra special because its creator is my upline Donna!  I couldn't wait to give it a go!  And as I love to do, I combined it with another challenge.  This time it's the Curtain Call 47 color challenge.  Here are the challenges.

I love the clean and simple lines of the sketch and the challenge with just four colors was just perfect for it, I think.  Here's my take on both.

Today was a good day.  I went to Brimfield this morning for the thrice-annual antique show, I got home in time to (mostly) see the Patriots win against the Bengals and I had time to spend in my stamp room before the True Blood season finale tonight!  Life is good!

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

Some More Black Magic

If you've read my blog lately (and a big heartfelt thank you if you have!) I've been experimenting with various incarnations of the "black magic" technique.  Some of the things I've made I've liked, and some I have wondered what in the world I was thinking of!  But I can safely say that this card I like!

First off, I have to give credit to Michelle for providing the basis for this card.  As soon as I saw her card on SCS, I was in love and I knew I had to CASE it!  The combination of basic black and river rock cardstock is to die for!

I also experimented today with adding a border to my image in Photoshop.  The good news is that I did it!  The bad news is that I'm not sure how I did it!  I followed some directions that I found when I asked "Mr Google" but I didn't think it worked so I tried a couple of different things.  I couldn't see the border when I was looking at the image in Photoshop, but clearly it's there!  So, I'm not sure which thing I tried was the one that worked.  Back to the drawing board, I guess!

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

Color Lab Challenge 9

It’s Thursday and time for another challenge from the Color Lab where I was inspired to make an unusual Halloween card!  But first here's the challenge:

I was so happy to see the colors this week. I have always loved Chocolate Chip, I love the earthiness of More Mustard and I was never so happy when Stampin’ Up! brought back Baja Breeze! What a luscious combination together!

At first I wasn’t sure how I wanted my card to shape up, and then I happened upon Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge and I spied my From the Crypt stamp set.  The adorable skull (how can a skull be adorable, I ask myself?) was practically calling to me. A match made in heaven!  So, I took up the challenges and decided to make a Halloween card with this fabulous combo.

I have to say that I seem to get a bit of a kick out of making Halloween cards out of unusual colors. Last year I made this card, where I demonstrate that pink can be spooky too! I may make it a tradition!

Thanks for stopping by today and don’t forget to pop on over to the Color Lab and create something! We’d love to see what you do.

RAK from Sylvia

I received this lovely card from my friend Sylvia.

She recently celebrated her @#& birthday and sent me this card to thank me for a little somethin' somethin' I gave her to mark the occasion.  I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture, but that gorgeous fern is stamped on some shimmery cardstock that is delish!  Thanks Sylvia, and here's to another @#& years!

A Little Purple Magic

As I was experimenting with the black magic technique, I tried what I affectionately call the purple magic techique.  The technique actually works with any dark colored background, but I think it looks best against black.  I experimented with Concord Crush as you see here.  I also tried Chocolate Chip.  But I've got to say the results were somewhat disappointing in both cases.  I almost wasn't going to post this card, but I love this color combo so much I decided to.  And even though I'm disappointed with the "black" magic, I think the card is very pretty.  And this designer paper, Lap of Luxury, is to DIE for!  Like the name says, it is very luxurious!

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

MOJO155 {Is It Christmas Already?}

When I was a kid, I remember my grandmother saying she was "all balled up" when she was confused about something.  I had never heard the expression and I thought it must have been some Canadian thing.  She was from New Brunswick and was fond of telling me that she was from "down east."  Now, I am from Massachusetts and since I diligently studied geography in school, I knew for a fact that New Brunswick was in no way down (which I took to  mean south) of Massachusetts.  I couldn't convince her otherwise, so I left her to her fantasy.  I had forgotten about the saying until I was an adult and had some work experience in the customer service field.  Once in a while I had an older customer who would call about some issue and tell me that he/she was "all balled up."  I began to see that this was a very useful expression.

I tell you this little anecdote from my past, because I am completely balled up when it comes to the newest MOJO sketch.

Everywhere I have been looking in blogland I was seeing Christmas cards.  So I decided that I was going to do my first 2010 Christmas card and I was going to use one of my favorite stamps:  Dasher.  So, I'm plugging away cutting, and stamping, and embossing and tying the ribbon etc. etc.  I've pretty much got the whole thing together when I look at the sketch again to make sure I haven't forgotten anything when I realize:  I'm all balled up!

The ribbon is supposed to be IN FRONT OF the circle and the bow is supposed to be on the RIGHT.  Oops!  This is not the first time I've messed up a sketch and I'm sure it won't be the last.  In any event I love the embossed reindeer.  The embossing is almost perfect, no stray pieces of embossing powder anywhere!  Hopefully the MOJO-ers will forgive me and my poetic license with the sketch!

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

Curtain Call 46 and Friday Mash Up

I found a new challenge blog.  It's called Friday Mashup.  This week they're doing a sketch.

I'm a sucker for a good sketch challenge, so I knew right away I wanted to tackle it.  And being Sunday, I turned to Stacey's Stamping Stage for the latest color challenge. 

I'm not sure if I was influenced by the poppies in the picture or what, but when I saw these colors I wanted to make a floral card.  Add to that, ever since I saw the For All You Do stamp set I've been seeing the big flower stamped in poppy parade.  So, I finally got a chance to put the two together for this card.

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

WMSC13 Halloween Card

I don't know why, but I was feeling very nostalgic today for some very, very old designer paper from Stampin' Up!  I got it in my head that I wanted to use this paper, so I scoured blogland until I found a sketch challenge that I wanted to do with my cherished paper.  I settled on the Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge.

I'm not sure why, but as soon as I saw the sketch I thought of a halloween card.  I've been dying for an excuse to use my From the Crypt stamp set and originally that is what I set out to do.  But the sketch had other ideas and evenutally persuaded me to use the Batty For You stamp set instead.

I embossed the stamped image to make it really show up and it looks fabulous in real life.  I was a little worried that the writing was too small and would come out all smudgy but I'm happy to report that it looks pretty good.  I can clearly read that is says "scaredy-cat."  This is my second halloween card this 2010 season, and I suspect it won't be my last.  I can't help myself!

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

Is It a Card? Or...

My nephew is turning 16 this weekend.  Mind you, this is my youngest nephew which means that not only is he turning into a young man but I am turning into an old aunt!  He asked for some CDs for this birthday and even though I had no idea what I was buying, I gamely bought him one.  I had already decided that I was giving him this card, so I needed a something to give him the CD in.  Behold this "card."

The layout came from the Taylored Expressions sketch challenge this week (although I changed it to square instead of rectangular).  But this is not actually a card.  There is a flap that you can't see that folds over the front which turns this card into a very slim box that can hold a CD!

The CD was encased in a very thick cardboard (instead of the usual plastic case) so I was able to make this box very slim (only 1/4-inch thick).  I used dimensionals on the bottom half of the panel with the buttons which left some space for me to tuck the flap in and hold the box closed.  I think it's adorable.  I hope he does too (although he's a boy and could probably care less about these things.  However, I'm sure his mother will save it for another use)!

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

Color Lab Challenge 8

It’s Thursday and time for another challenge from the Color Lab and I’ve got some fabulous colors to show you this week.

I’ve got to say that I absolutely love Concord Crush and Blushing Bride. Especially together. I admit when I first saw that Blushing Bride was being added to the Stampin’ Up! line, my immediate reaction was “oh no, not another pink!” But I have to say that this pink is very different from Pretty in Pink and Pink Pirouette. It almost has this gray-ish cast to it that makes it very unique. And when you pair it with Concord Crush –ooh la la!  Here's my take on the challenge.

I used the adorable Sweet Sunday sketch challenge for my layout and chose to make my card 4 ¼ inch square (one of my favorite sizes!).

Thanks for stopping by today and don’t forget to pop on over to the Color Lab and create something! We’d love to see what you do.

A Little Black Magic and MTSC89

The other day, I tried the chalkboard technique.  Today I've tried the black magic technique.  I've actually been experimenting with this one for a while, except it could more properly be called the purple magic technique because I've been trying it on Concord Crush (with mixed results).  I used the same stamp set as the chalkboard card so I could compare apples to apples.

For this card, I used the sketch challenge over at Mercy's blog and first impressions are that this technique makes a much more dramatic effect than the chalkboard one.  Especially if you outline part of the image with a white gel pen, as I've done here.  And you don't have to worry about pastel dust coming off on your fingers or that annoying shadow effect you get from the pastel dust you can't seem to get rid of.  I tried experimenting with the retired SU! metallic art pencils on some scraps and I would have to say WOW! about those.  The metallic look really makes a difference.  I love all things shiny so maybe I'm biased, but it's a shame that they've been discontinued.  I guess people don't like to color like I do!

I think I'll keep on experimenting with this one and see what I come up with.  But thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!