Christmas Tag Card

Happy Halloween everyone!  It is a beautiful, crisp, fall day for all the little trick-or-treaters.  It's a little too chilly for my liking, so I am very glad that I don't have to go outside parading from door to door!  Nope, I'm going to stay right here in my stamp room, watch the Patriots play football, and hopefully catch up on my stamping.

I was very intrigued by the Waltzingmouse sketch this week.  Check it out:

Cool, huh?  First I was going to do a Halloween card, then I realized that Halloween was almost over and that would be foolish!  So, I did Christmas instead.

I think it's a pretty cool Christmas card.  The colors are unusual and non-traditional, but still festive.  I think I know just who to send it to!

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

Color Lab Challenge 16

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

This week, our challenge was to use Basic Black, Peach Parfait, and Daffodil Delight.  When I started to put my card together, I thought "wow!"  This is a seriously awesome color combo.  The Basic Black provides a stunning contrast to the Daffodil Delight and Peach Parfait.  And the layout from Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge really makes everything look good!

I also managed to squeeze in another favor box!  It's been a while since I've made one of the Ghirardelli boxes, but it's always been a favorite.  They are so simple and you don't need to fill them with Ghirardelli chocolate.  I usually put Hershey's Kisses in mine.

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!

Color Throwdown 116 Favor Box

I seem to be on a favor box kick lately.  I always seem to want to make favor boxes around the holidays to give away.  I must be channeling my inner Santa!  I had seen this cute matchbox a while back and knew I wanted to case it.  Then the Color Throwdown challenge this week was to use Riding Hood Red, Certainly Celery and Very Vanilla and I figured the two went together. 

I changed the box from the matchbox to the Sizzix Box #2 and I went to the vault and used the Wintergreen designer paper (always one of my all-time favorite christmas papers). 

Here's a funny bit about this box:  I attached the holly leaves with dimensionals, but I got a little carried away.  The green belly band is designed to slide off of the box so that you can open it.  But I put so many dimensionals on the holly that I attached them to the red box, making it impossible to remove the belly band!  Oops!

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

Third Time's A Charm...I Think

When I saw this Sunday's Curtain Call color challenge, I immediately thought "wow."  The colors were so fresh and modern I thought I would love to create something with them.  The first thing I made, was a Reeses peanut butter cup holder from directions I discovered here.  But the end result was not something that I liked.  So then I moved on to a card that was based on this one.  Although I love what I came up with, I decided it was too similar to the original.  So back to the drawing board I went.  I didn't want to do another Halloween card, but that's what I did.  Good thing I love Halloween!!  For my layout, I turned to the Easy Sketch.

For my card, I went to the vault and used my Autumn Apparitions stamp set.  For the most part, I have always loved the Happy Halloween sentiment in this set and I'm pretty sure that's why I've kept it.

I attempted the rock-and-roll technique with the sentiment here.  I stamped first with Daffodil delight then stamped the edges with Pumpkin Pie, but I think I went a little too easy with the Pumpkin Pie.  To compensate, I sponged the edges of the cardstock with Pumpkin Pie.  In real life, it actually looks pretty cool.

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

French Foliage Thank You Card

Once again I have turned to the fabulous French Foliage stamp set to make a card.  And the color challenge over at the Friday Mashup blog was just perfect for it.  So many color challenges lately have had delicious fall-inspired colors.  I love it.  I'm an earth-tone kind of girl!  And I loved the clean and simple FTL sketch challenge this week.  Here they are together:

And here's my take on them:

On second look, I'm not sure I'm crazy about the green leaves.  I think it looks better in person.

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

Color Lab Challenge 15

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

Our colors this week were to use So Saffron, More Mustard and Poppy Parade.  Quite an unusual color combo, but I was excited to use these colors together. 

For my project, I used the Candy Wraper sizzix die and a card that will fit into  in an ordinary 3 x 3 envelope.  I think it came out quite cute!

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.

Easy Sketch 6

I think it's official.  French Foliage is my new favorite stamp set. Today I used it to make a card following the Easy Sketch challenge.

The Color Dare colors this week are peach parfait, rich razzleberry, and sahara sand.  At first I wasn't sure about these colors, then I took a look at the design team samples and I was sold!  Here's my card:

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

SSSC89 and Curtain Call 52

When I saw the color challenge this week over at the Curtain Call blog, I knew immediately that I wanted to give it a go.  Chocolate chip is, of course, a favorite of mine and and this week it's paired with bermuda bay and tangerine tango.  Who wouldn't love it?  I paired it with the Sweet Sunday sketch challenge.

I've been dying to use my Leaves #2 Sizzix die ever since I saw it used in the October edition of Stampin' Success ( a really great magazine you get when you are a Stampin' Up! demo).  They were cut and embossed and really looked fabulous.  So I figured this color combo would be just the thing to do something similar.

First I cut out the leaves with the Sizzix die, then I put them in my Elegant Lines embossing folder to give them a bit of dimension and texture.  I thought the white panel looked a little plain, so I drew some lines (with my ruler, of course) in chocolate chip and bermuda bay at the bottom left.  The colors are quite dramatic and I think this might make a nice masculine card.  My father's birthday is coming up next month, so he might be the recipient of this card!

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

MOJO160 Christmas

I just made it!  For the MOJO sketch challenge I mean!

I think I have officially made the transisiton to Christmas cards.  So here is my MOJO160 Christmas card. 

I can't seem to get enough of this Bells & Boughs stamp set.  I plan to reach for it again and again this holiday season.

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

Christmas Snowflakes

When I was a kid, snowflakes and Christmas always went together.  I'm not sure that there was snow on the ground every Christmas, but it sure seemed like it!  So for my card today I decided to combine the two.  I saw the FTL sketch this week and thought it would be perfect for snowflakes.

For my card, I went in to the vault and dug out my Ski Slop designer paper, which I've always thought made the cutest winter and Christmas cards.

And I just love these layered snowflakes with the sweet button!

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

Bells and Boughs Christmas

Ever since I saw this card I knew I wanted to CASE it.  I really like vintage Christmas (I haunt vintage Christmas flea markets whenever I can), so I was drawn to many elements of this card:  the sponged cardstock which gave it a sepia tone, that fabulous glass glitter (that I know from experience tarnishes and will then look very old), to that old retro-looking font on the sentiment.

For my card, I kept the focal point the same.  The stamped images surrounded by the glass glitter mirror Ilina's card.  But I changed the layout and designer paper.  This is the first time I've used the seam binding ribbon.  The past several weeks, I have read on many blogs how wonderful this ribbon was and I couldn't agree more.  The texture of it is somehow delicate without being flimsy.  It ties like a dream and the colors are to die for!

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

Color Lab Challenge 14

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

Once again, I am in love with the colors from the Color Lab challenge this week.  I’ve been dying to use my French Foliage stamp set and of course, these fabby colors were perfect for it.  Originally, I had no intention of buying this stamp set, then my friend Sylvia convinced me that it was absolutely necessary because you can make so many MASCULINE cards with it.  I immediately saw the wisdom of this (since I am masculine-card challenged) and added it to my must-have list.  I’m so glad I did.

For my layout, I used the Sweet Sunday sketch challenge.  I like how the layout of this card leaves quite a bit of space on the bottom of the early espresso panel to add a sentiment later depending on what you might need.  I love when that happens!

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.

Witchiepoo Halloween

I went into the vault today to make this Halloween card.  I used my Best Fiends stamp set from many moons ago to make this card.  I have to admit that Best Fiends is one of my ALL TIME favorite Halloween stamp sets and I'm not sure I'll ever be able to part with it.  I don't care if it is retired, I love it and I'll keep using it!

This week's Colour Q challenge of course called out for a Halloween card, so I paired it with Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge to make my card.

Aren't those colors great?  And of course, every time I see my little witchiepoo friend from this stamp set I want to color her face green.  I love the look on her face too.  Like she's been caught doing something she shouldn't be doing!

Now, some of you may pick up on or wonder about my reference to witchiepoo.  When I was a kid there was a Saturday morning show called H.R. Pufnstuf filled with all sorts of strange characters.  One of those was a witch called Witchiepoo.  Although she didn't have a green face, she did have these crazy striped socks, which I think is why this stamp reminds me of her.  Another piece of trivia:  in the 80's, the actress who played Witchiepoo appeared on General Hospital as O'Reilly.  I don't remember exactly who she was, but I think she was an associate of Robert Scorpio.  Wow!  I can't believe I remember all of this!

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

Easy Sketch 5

I'm so glad that I was able to make a card today.  I've had a very busy weekend and I wasn't sure I was going to have time to spend in my stamp room.  Sunday morning, I got up very early and drove to Long Island with my sister.  We went to visit my niece (her daughter) who bartends at Dockers Waterside restaurant in Quogue.  This was the last weekend Docker's was open for the season and there was a big closing down bash that we didn't want to miss.  We had a great time, and managed to catch an earlier ferry than we originally planned so I made it back home early this afternoon had some time to spend making cards.  And, I didn't want to miss the Easy Sketch this week!

A nice, clean and simple sketch.  I LOVE those!  I decided to break out my Christmas Collage stamp set since I've seen so many great cards with it.  I actually originally intended to use the glass glitter that's in the Holiday Mini around the edge of this round stamped image, but then I totally forgot!

Before I knew it, I was cutting around the stamped image.  It wasn't until I went to adhere it to the card that I realized that this was not what I intended.  Oh well, better luck next time!  (I was very excited to see the glass glitter in the mini, so I will definitely use it in the future)!

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

Unusual Christmas Colors

I don't know about you, but sometimes I like to make a card that is totally "out of the box."  This weeks Pals Paper Arts color challenge really had me scratching my head.  Not because the challenge was weird or anything, but because in my mind, I had made the transition to autumn and christmas and these colors just didn't fit with cards made with those themes in mind.

But still, I like the colors a lot.  Then on Saturday I checked out the latest Waltzingmouse sketch challenge, which clearly invoked images of Christmas.  I started thinking about how I could combine the two.

Many years ago I visited Arizona.  On my trip there, I met up with an old friend of my husband's and for some reason we started talking about Christmas trees.  She, of course, decorated a Christmas tree as is the tradition in this country, but I couldn't help thinking that this was decidedly strange because she lived in a desert that had no such thing as pine trees.  While my Christmas tree was made of pine and was decorated with complementary colors hers should (by rights) be a native desert plant with the fabulous, intense colors of the desert.  So, in honor of those that live in places where pine trees don't exist, and the colors of the Christmas season don't necessarily conform to tradition, may I present my non-conformist Christmas card.

When I made this card, I had in mind those Saguaro cactus and Prickly Pear cactus that sport those fabulous colorful flowers in spring. 

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

It's a Friday Mashup Halloween

This week the challenge over at Friday Mashup was to use a spider web.  This was no trouble for me since I love all things Halloween and I have a lot of super scary spiders and webs in my stamping arsenal.

I used FTL111 sketch for my layout and some of my retired halloween dp from last year called cast-a-spell for the background on this card.  I always thought this dp was super fabulous.  How could you not love those scary purple skulls??  I've got a little bit left, so maybe I'll get to use it again before Halloween 2010 is over!

By the way, in real life I HATE spiders.  I forever find myself walking into their disgusting webs.  Not to mention that I hate their long, scary legs, their sometimes-furry legs, their bulbous bodies.  And what's up with the eight legs anyway?  We humans have proven that you only need two so what are the other six doing?  I'll tell you what the are doing.  Freaking me out, that's what...

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to make some scary Halloween cards today!

Watercolor Trio Birthday Wishes

I've decided to give card-making a try again.  After recently losing my mojo, I was feeling very discouraged.  But I was determined to create something today that I actually liked.  Plus I really wanted to make a card with this week's Color Throwdown colors.  I paired the colors with the FTL110 layout.

Aren't these colors just fabulous?  The perfect plum and early espresso are just perfect together!  I made a card yesterday with these colors, but decided it was lousy.  I like this one much better.

One thing I noticed about this Watercolor Trio stamp set today.  I always thought the littlest stamp was a small butterfly, but it occured to me as I was making this card that it's probably a small flower.  Oops.  For this card, it is intended to be a butterfly.  You know, it's wings are spread as it's coming in for a landing.  Work with me here!

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

Color Lab Challenge 13

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

Here’s what I have to say about this color combo: absolutely decadent. My first thought when I saw it was Konditer Meister. Any time I’ve had a Konditer Meister cake, it has been deep dark, chocolate with raspberry filling. Just sinful and delish!

Alas, I did not make a chocolate cake for my card. But I did get to show off some of the fabulous Cherry Cobbler that I love so much. One of my favorite stamp sets in the new catalog is the one I used here: Just Believe. I find myself reaching for it often. Here I used the cute circle stamp for the first time and embossed it with clear embossing powder to make it nice and shiny.

For my layout, I turned to my ever-present binder filled with sketch challenges from various sketch challenge blogs. I chose Sketch 78 from Clean & Simple.
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.

Welcome to My Stamp Room

I have officially lost my MOJO this week.  I'm not sure what's wrong with me, but every time I sit in my stamp room I create something awful.  Hopefully, I'll snap out of it soon.

Today I was talking to my friend Sylvia about how we organize our stamp rooms.  She was going to go to Ikea to buy another Bygel Rail (which is something we both use to hold our punches).  I think I need another one too and that brought us to a discussion of how my stamp room was set up.  She's never seen it, so I promised her that I would take some pictures and post them so that she can see.

The story of my stamp room begins here.  One year later this is what I have:

This is my punch station.  I've actually got more, but they are the new-style SU punches so I'm not sure how I'm going to store them.  The big ones definitely fit here (see the bird punch) but I'm not sure how I'll deal with the smaller ones.

This is a lateral file that I got from Ikea.  It holds all my 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock in hanging files.  On the top is my paper cutter and my Scor-Pal and Score Board.  (You can't see the Score Board because it's under the Scor-Pal).  Notice the cardboard mailing tube on the right.  I have this habit of saving things like these because I think I can use them in some future creative project.  Usually I don't and after about a year, I decide it's ok to throw them away.  I think I've got about 28 days before I can safely throw this one out.

This is the Expedit bookcase (also from Ikea).  This one holds my stamp sets, which are somewhat organized by theme.  On top is a place for my Big Shot and my light box.   

This is another Expedit bookcase where I've got LOTS of supplies.  I've got my stamp pads on top, and the cubbies are filled with 12 x 12 paper, embellishments, adhesives, Sizzix dies, and whatever else I can think to put in there.  I sit in front of it so it's easy to just turn in my chair and grab what I want.

This is my totally awesome table.  It's an old drafting table and it's a really good size to spread all my stuff out while I'm working.  Usually it is completely covered in stuff with a fairly small area where I work.  I also have a TV tray next to where I sit where I keep my laptop.  Very useful to have it handy as I troll blogland for ideas and inspiration.  Thanks to Sylvia's suggestion that I photograph my stamp room, I cleaned the table off.  I'm really going to try to keep it clean.  HA!

 And finally, these are my ribbon organizers.  They also are right next to my table so that I can quickly grab something while I'm working.

Thanks for joining me on this little tour of my stamping world as I try to figure out where my MOJO went.  And a special thanks to Sylvia who inspired me to clean up my room!

World Card Making Day Challenge I

I have discovered my new favorite color combo:  Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke and Crumb Cake.  I made a card the other day using the Friday Mashup color challenge and quickly discovered that I LOVE this combo.  So I couldn't wait to try it again.

As you probably know Saturday was World Card Making Day.  Although I didn't actually make this card on Saturday I did make it to join the WCMD challenges at the Verve blog (which are going on all week).  Nothing like a good sketch challenge to get the old juices flowing.

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

Curtain Call 50 Thanksgiving Treats

I've had this idea in my head for quite some time to make some nice Thanksgiving favors.  I always host Thanksgiving dinner at my house and I've always felt like I should have some kind of favor to give my guests.

Today, the Curtain Call color challenge made me sit down and work on something.

Nice fall colors, wouldn't you say?  And it's rather appropriate, since today was very fall-like here.  All of a sudden, the muggy weather has disappeared and today seems to have brought a hint of the cooler temperatures to come.

I love these leaves that I used here.  I stamped them all with Versamark then embossed them with clear embossing powder.  In real life they're quite shiny!  Now, I just have to figure out what kind of treat I'm going to fill the bags with.

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

Easy Sketch with a Friday Mash Up Throw In!

Well, here it is October 1st and I have barely even begun to think about my Christmas cards for this year.  This is SOOOO not like me.  Usually by now, I have obsessed a thousand times about what I'm going to make and have created many different samples on my quest to discover the perfect card.  I always end up settling on five or six different cards and I really enjoy the process.

So today when I saw the Easy Sketch and the Friday Mashup color challenge, I figured time's a-wasting and I'd better get going.

So, I went into the vault and used some really old, retired dp called Wintergreen.  I used this same dp a short while ago, because I've always loved it so much.  It's perfect for holiday cards.  I've got quite a bit left, so I imagine I'll be digging it out again.

This is a really nice, CAS card helped along by a really nice CAS sketch.  Cherry Cobbler and Always Artichoke look fabulous together.  A while ago, I read on Julee Tilmin's blog that Cherry Cobbler is the red she's been searching for her whole life and I couldn't agree more.  It's really fabulous and if you don't have it, you really ought to get it!

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