Create With Connie and Mary 220

This week at Create With Connie and Mary we've got a great color challenge for you.  Take a look:

I think these are such great colors for a winter themed card and I briefly considered breaking out some snowmen, but I figure that winter will be here soon enough and there will be plenty of time for snow later!  So I turned to an old favorite, Raining Flowers, that I had not used in a while.

I made this card a few days ago, a day that I will always refer to as "backwards day."  That morning I went out to do some shopping and when I got home I realized that the shirt I was wearing was on inside out!  How embarrassing!  During the day I had wondered why the collar of the shirt was curling in a strange way and why the tag seemed to be sticking out.  Duh!

But my inside out troubles did not end there.  Much later that day I sat at my stamp table assembling this card and once all the layers were glued down (in a never-to-be-released fashion) I realized that I had put one of the layers on backwards.  You can't see it in the photo (on account of the whole backwards thing) but there is actually a Whisper White layer with the Baja Breeze circles attached that was supposed to be layered onto the card base with the circles facing down so that all that would be visible was part of the circle which would form a scalloped edge.   Unfortunately I put the layers on with the circles facing up so that what you see are...circles.  Once I realized my mistake I tried to pry the layers apart but they were stuck fast and here you have my card.

The sentiment, by the way, is from Bring on the Cake.  And after this little card-making blip I think I deserve some cake!

Be sure to head on over to Create With Connie and Mary and check out the projects from the design team. You're sure to find some inspiration there!

Freshly Made Sketches 54

We're halfway through the week folks!  Yay!  And Wednesdays around here mean an awesome new sketch from Freshly Made Sketches!  This week Jen T has got a great sketch with lots of possibilities!

As per my usual, I spent quite a bit of time wandering around my stamp room looking at this stamp set and that trying to figure out what I wanted to do with this sketch before I decided that I could do a little something with the color challenge at Fab Friday and this adorable stamp set from The Alley Way Stamps.

This card ended up being not quite what I had envisioned when I started, but it's close!  Why does that always seem to happen to me?  I mentioned in a recent post that my mother took up candlepin bowling a few years ago and has started up with her bowling league again so I suppose she'll be pleased and surprised to get this in the mail.  You may be unfamiliar with candlepin bowling, but I'm sure my fellow New Englanders know what it's all about.  You can read about it here.

I hope you have time this week to pop on by Freshly Made Sketches and join us this week.  The uber-talented design team has got some fabulous cards to show you which I know will get your creative juices flowing!

colourQ 156

It's so fun to see color challenges make the transition from summer to fall, and this week Arielle's colourQ challenge has got some wonderful colors for fall.  For this challenge, I jumped at the opportunity to ink up some stamps from French Foliage.

I did a little rocking and rolling on my leaves using all of the colors from the challenge and I added a little Designers Natural Button for some 3D interest.  I also based my layout on the sketch challenge at Unscripted Sketches, although I'll be the first to admit that it doesn't look like it.

I scored some vertical lines on my card so that it would fit the sketch, but those lines proved very difficult to show up in my photos.  I tried a bunch of things before I realized that I needed to get the card out of the direct line of my light source.  So I experimented some more and took this photo.

Voila!  Lines!  Good thing I don't have to make a living as a photographer!

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to head on over to colourQ and see what the super-amazing and oh-so-talented design team has created for your viewing pleasure.  You won't be disapppointed!

Nacho Average Challenge 12 and CASology 11

The challenge this week at CASology is white.  I have nooooo problem doing that!  Now, one of my favorite things to do when making a CAS card (especially one where the subject is "white") is to add a pop of color.  The super-fantastic color challenge at Nacho Average Challenge fit that bill perfectly!

I am seriously in love with this color challenge.  Island Indigo is such a fantastic color and I don't use it nearly as often as I should.  And look how great it looks paired with Lucky Limeade.  Love!

I think that when you use bits of color like this it draws attention to the white and makes the focal point just jump of the page.  I stamped the flower off center then used a ruler to draw a square around it with my Crumb Cake marker.  I think the funky sentiment goes perfectly with this unique, splashy flower. 

Friday, yay!  I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend - I hope you are too!

ly 

Create With Connie and Mary 219

Is it Thursday already?  Well of course it is, which means it's also time for another great challenge from Create With Connie and Mary!  This week is a sketch (a square one, my fave) and you are going to love it!  I don't know how Connie and Mary do it, but week after week, they create these awesome challenges!  Take a look at what's on tap for this week:

I felt like it had been ages since I used some Soft Suede so I started with that as my card base then picked a color that I thought went well with it.  I used some Baja Breeze card stock cut with the Labels Framelit then layered it with some DSP from Twitterpated.  Then I went to check out my stamps to figure out which ones had been neglected lately!

After much contemplation, I used the flowers from Stippled Blossoms which were perfect for two-step stamping  using Baja Breeze and Soft Suede.  I added some leaves stamped in Wild Wasabi which seemed to be the same tone as the other colors.  

The horizontal layer is a strip of Baja Breeze layered with some Baja Breeze Seam Binding Ribbon, a little Linen Thread and an Antique Brad.  I added the sentiment from Just Believe at the last minute because I thought the card was missing something.  I'm glad I did because I think it makes that big label a little more interesting!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to pop on over to Create With Connie and Mary to check out the inspiration from the design team!

Freshly Made Sketches 53

Wednesday is, of course, the start of a new challenge at Freshly Made Sketches.  Last week was our anniversary challenge and I was completely blown away by all the entries in the gallery and all the nice things people had to say about Freshly Made Sketches. It certainly seems like the concept of a fresh and clean card is something everyone can wrap their head around!  Now onward to another year of amazing challenges and an amazing gallery!

This week, Tui has engineered another challenge that had me thinking sideways, upside down, right side up and everywhere in between!  Take a look at this:

This is another example of a card that looked way better in my head than in the execution of it.  And I think the ladies at FMS might give me an "F" on it, because I totally messed up all the vertical stripes.  It may be hard to believe but I actually spent a lot of time thinking about how I wanted this card to go.  It was at work that I got the bright idea to use the Silver Glimmer paper and to make a poinsettia from one of the leaves in French Foliage. Somewhere along the way, I thought that if I made vertical strips of the glimmer paper placed just so, it would give the illusion of vertical strips of paper between them.  Not so, it turns out.  But it was too late to start over so I went with it.

I tried to jazz up the poinsettia with some smooch spritz but it didn't come out quite as shimmery as I wanted.  A quick look in the catty just now has revealed why:  I think I used Vanilla Shimmer instead of Silver Foil.  It does have a nice shimmer in real life, but I think the silver would have been a better choice.

And in their usual crafty way, the Freshly Made Sketches design team has interpreted this sketch in a variety of cool and interesting ways so be sure to pop on by for some inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by and here's to another great year of sketches!!

colourQ 155

A funny thing happened on my way to making my card for this week's colourQ challenge.  Actually a few things happened, and despite my last sentence, none of them were funny!  

I started making my card utilizing a particular sketch (which shall remain nameless) but about three-quarters of the way through I decided that I really didn't like the sketch all that much and despite all the work I had put into the card I abandoned it to try something else.  I poked around in my sketch library for some inspiration and utilizing some ideas I found there I made this little number.

But my troubles did not stop there.  I wanted to wrap the white baker's twine around the Rich Razzleberry ribbon but completely forgot about that before I adhered that particular layer to the card base.  I started to carefully remove that layer and was doing pretty well before disaster struck and I ripped the card base.  So then I got the bright idea to create another Whisper White layer to cover up the rip and paper pierced the edges so that it would seem somewhat interesting.

So now all I had to do was adhere that layer to the card base - but wait!  The card base was upside down so I turned it 180 degrees and stuck my layers to it.  Only, I didn't realize that the layers were also upside down.  So I ended up with an upside-down card anyway!  Sheesh!

Anyway, if you stuck with me through this little novella - thank you!  And now I'll tell you what stamps I used to make this card. The flowers are from a couple of Verve sets called Dream Big and Sunny Days.  The leaves are also from Dream Big.  I did a little rock-and-roll on the flowers so that they would be colored in both Pale Plum and Rich Razzleberry.  

Thanks for stopping by and do take some time to check out the latest colourQ challenge and the inspiration from the design team.  I can promise you, that you won't regret it! 

Just Add Ink 135 and retro sketches 29

A beautiful day has dawned here and I'm anxious to get outside.  Winter is coming and these days are not long for this world so I like to enjoy them while I can.  But I wanted to get this card posted before I start my adventures.  I made it using the pretty colors at Just Add Ink and the latest retro sketch.

The stamped images are from The Alley Way Stamps.  I just love this splashy flower.  And to make the butterfly a little more interesting I dabbed a few drops of Dazzling Details down the center.  Easy Peasy.  For once I managed to put a card together very quickly!  I hardly obsessed about any details at all!

Well, I'm off.  Thanks for stopping by!

Color Throwdown 209 and Friday Mashup 76

The autumn colors this week at Color Throwdown were too pretty to resist and then I saw the challenge at Friday Mashup was to do the Starburst Technique and decided to combine the two into my card today.  It's funny how I sometimes forget to do cool techniques on my cards so I love it when I stumble on a long-forgotten one and can give it a try.  Thanks to my friend Rita for reminding me of it!

  

I've got quite a bit of DSP going on here with snippets from Jolly Holiday, Merry Moments, Ski Slope, Orchard Harvest, and Patio Party making up my starburst.  I covered up the seam in the middle of the card by layering some Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon and some Old Olive ribbon from the Elementary Ribbon pack.  The PTI layered sunflower was stamped in Summer Starfruit (as close as I could get to Summer Sun) then was sponged with some Chocolate Chip to soften the edges.  I added a small Designer Naturals Button with a little baker's twine in the center.

Well, I'm off to run my Saturday errands then to do the dreaded housework.  Ugh!  Thanks for stopping by!

Create With Connie and Mary 218

I seem to be on a bit of a Halloween card-making kick lately.  This fine by me because I love the Halloween images that I have been collecting from Stampin' Up! for the last several years.  Today I've got a card for the color challenge at Create With Connie and Mary that practically begged me to use a Halloween stamp!

For this one I used one of the stamps from the brand new Toxic Treats.  I stamped the image in Versamark and heat embossed it with black embossing powder.  Then I sponged on some Lucky Limeade, Tangerine Tango and Rich Razzleberry, which came out way better than I thought it would!  

Don't forget to head on over to Create With Connie and Mary to check out  the amazing inspiration for the design team.

It's A Freshly Made Sketches Anniversary!

I can hardly believe that we're at Sketch #52 at Freshly Made Sketches.  It seems like yesterday that Lesley was putting together her ideas for the challenge and assembling a top-notch design team.  Some days I still can't quite believe that she asked me to be a part of this challenge.  Every week I have the pleasure and the honor of working with such a talented bunch of ladies who, week after week, give me so much inspiration.  And I hope that when we all get together to stamp in this virtual world we live in, that we inspire you, our faithful challenge companions, just a wee bit too!

Now on to our fabulous sketch this week.  Except there is no sketch this week.  At least not in the traditional sense.  For our anniversary we are challenging you to choose any one of our past sketches (which you will find here) and make a card to help us celebrate this milestone.  I chose Sketch #32, which was designed by Linda Callahan.

Now, if you are a new visitor (a hearty welcome if you are) and you poke around a bit, you will find that I am a bit of a fan of using non-traditional colors for otherwise traditional holiday cards.  For this Halloween card I used the colors at The Paper Players.  I knew right away when I saw that color challenge that I wanted to participate, but it wasn't until I started to make my card for this challenge that I realized these colors would be perfect for a Halloween card using my favorite skull.  And I think I out-did myself in the non-traditional sense because my Baja Breeze DSP is from Urban Oasis and is actually printed with one of the big roses from Fifth Avenue Floral.  If you don't look too closely, I think they sort of resemble squiggly lines.  Scary squiggly lines, that is.

I sure hope you can join us this week to celebrate our anniversary.  Our design team has knocked it out of the park this week, so be sure to stop on by Freshly Made Sketches and check out their cards!  We've even got Linda Callahan and Rita Wright back this week!  Woo hoo!

  

colourQ 154

Hello everyone!  It's Tuesday so that means there's a new challenge up at colourQ.  This week Arielle has found a really interesting (and if I'm being perfectly honest here) a really challenging color combo.  Here you go:

When I went into the craft cave to make this card, I spent a lot of time wondering around somewhat aimlessly trying to choose papers and embellishments (not to mention stamps) before I decided I didn't need any stamps after all.  I chose some Summer Starfruit DSP from Patio Party, added a little ribbon, then layered my butterfly with Bravo Burgundy cardstock, some Cameo Coral DSP from Ginger Blossom, and a So Saffron Beautiful Wings Embosslit.  I put a small So Saffron button tied with some Baker's Twine in the center.  I think it's pretty - and look Ma!  No stamps!

I hope you have time to join us this week at colourQ!  The design team has got some great cards to inspire you so hop on over and check them out!

Three Challenges in One

I had a busy weekend and I wasn't sure how much time I would be able to spend in my stamp room, so I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to make a card for the polka dot challenge at Just Add Ink, the color challenge at Stampin' Royalty and the sketch challenge at retro sketches.

There's nothing quite like trying to combine three challenges into one card that gets my creative juices flowing!  I tried to channel my inner LeAnne who makes the best crinkly bows I've seen.  Mine is definitely crinkly, but I think it needs some work!

Well, I'm off to get ready for work.  Thanks for stopping by!

Dynamic Duos 19 and Less Is More 84

I think it's been a while since I participated in the one layer challenge at Less Is More.  But that challenge practically begged me to use the colors from Dynamic Duos and to ink up French Foliage, an old favorite that I've been neglecting.

I did a little masking with these stamps.  I stamped the leaf in Cajun Craze first, then created a mask to cover the leaf over before I stamped the script in Always Artichoke.  It can be pretty difficult to not get the "halo effect" around the masked image but I pressed really hard and it came out perfectly!  

At first I left the card with just those two images but I wasn't entirely happy with the result.  I decided it needed a sentiment and I spent a half hour rooting around my stamp room looking for something simple to complement the simple layout of the card.  I settled on one from Thank You Kindly.

This morning I was up early to catch breakfast with my mother and father and their Saturday morning breakfast crew.  Then I was off to Brimfield (Massachusetts) to check out the antique show going on there.  It'a a huge antique show that takes place three times a year and I used to go faithfully in May and September of each year.  But as my house grew full of stuff that used to belong to other people and I ran out of room to add new stuff, I stopped going.  I missed the adventure of "antiquing" so I decided to head on up there today.  I bought a couple of small things and despite the rainy weather had a great time tromping around the different fields.  I only saw a fraction of what was there before the threat of torrential downpours sent me home again.  I think I've caught the antique bug again and am now anxiously awaiting the next show in May!

Thanks for stopping by!

A New Challenge - Fab Friday

I found out the other day about a new challenge in town called Fab Friday and I could hardly sit still waiting until I had some free time to participate in their first sketch challenge.  They've got a first class design team and I'm looking forward to participating in their future challenges.  For this one I unintentionally deviated a teensy-tiny bit.  (I hope they're the forgiving sort)!

I really wanted to use this witch stamp from Best Fiends and it wasn't until I cut it out that I realized it was going to interfere with the banner layer on the sketch.  But I did a little thinking and thought that if I put my banner behind the image that would be a pretty good compromise.

I absolutely love the images in this stamp set.  It's pretty ancient by Stampin' Up! standards (it was featured in the Holiday Mini in 2006), but is without a doubt one of my all-time favorite Halloween stamp sets and one that I'll never part with.  It's got a frankenstein and a dracula image too so maybe I'll get a chance to ink those up as well this Halloween season!  The DSP, called Halloween Night, is one I used recently on another Halloween card and is from the same 2006 Mini.

I couldn't decide whether I wanted to add a button, or a spider, or a piece of candy corn (yum!) to my card to take the place of the button on the sketch and then I remembered the Ribbon Slides in the new Holiday Mini.  I threaded some Basic Black grosgrain ribbon through it and I think it adds a nice touch.

Thanks for stopping by today!