SPCC 101

Today, I have the distinct pleasure of being the Guest Designer at the Scrapmaster's Paradise Color Combo.  And this week we've got a fabulous color combo for you to work with!  I hope you have time to join us!

One of my co-workers recently had a baby boy, so this color combo fit perfectly with my plans to send her a card to congratulate her.  A little help from the Sketchbook Saturday challenge, and I was off!

It's hard to see in the photo, but above the floating baby head, is a sentiment that says "welcome baby."  Perfect!

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

Sweet Sunday 113 and SPCC 96

On Sunday, I left for a short trip to Long Island to visit my niece.  To save time on the drive down there, I take the ferry from New London, Connecticut to Orient Point, New York.  It's a nice way to break up the driving and saves a lot of time.  It's only and hour and twenty minute ferry ride, you're never out of sight of land and usually it's a very pleasant trip.  However, on Saturday we had a bit of unsettled weather and the after effects on the sea were something else.  There were white caps on the waves, the sound of the waves hitting the ferry were loud enough to have me spontaneously saying words I shouldn't be saying in public, and I generally felt like I was being tossed around the ocean like the crew of the SS Minnow!  (Remember Gilligan's Island anyone)?

Despite that, the visit with my niece was very nice and the ferry ride home was thankfully uneventful.  But when I got home I decided to venture into my stamp room and try to get back in the groove of things.  I felt a little out of sorts at first, but I finally settled on making a card for the Sweet Sunday sketch challenge and the Scrapmaster's Paradise color challenge.

I really tried to use a different stamp set than my brand new (not yet released) Fabulous Florets stamp set.  I really did.  I even stamped one of the flowers from the Fifth Avenue set before I decided that it just didn't look right and I not-so-reluctantly decided to use the Fabulous Florets instead.

I'm not keeping count, but I'm pretty sure that just about every card I've made lately has been made with this stamp set.  I had a feeling that I would like it, but even I'm a little surprised at how much I like it!  I think it's become the spring-time version of my favorite fall stamp set, French Foliage!

I thought I was running just a tiny bit low on the basic pearls that I normally use on my butterfly cutouts, so on this butterfly I used some Liquid Pearls.  I really like Liquid Pearls and I have them in bunches of colors, but the downside is that they take a long time to dry.  I had to make sure that I took this photo of this card fairly quickly because I didn't want the round pearls to run.  Then I have to set the card aside, lay it flat and just keep it that way until it dries.  It's a little inconvenient, but it's an inexpensive way to add pearl accents to your cards.

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

SPCC92 Cheers!

Today, I have the distinct pleasure of being the guest designer at the Scrapmaster's Paradise Color Combo challenge blog!  A few weeks back they decided they liked a card that I made and asked me to be a guest designer this week.  Well, being completely unable to say no to a challenge, I jumped at the chance!

When I saw the colors for this challenge, I immediately thought of the Greenhouse Gala designer paper.  One of the sheets has those gorgeous flowers in daffodil delight and pumpkin pie.  I put them to use in a favorite layout that I have used many times before.

This is the first time I've used this adorable Cheers to You stamp set.  I had been eyeing it in the catalog for quite some time and finally decided to buy it.  I was imagining a nice cold pina colada when I was putting this card together.  I think that summery drink was the perfect inspiration for these nice summery colors.

So, thanks for stopping by today and I hope you check out the SPCC color challenge this week.

MOJO179 and SPCC88 Make Me Smile

I've really been reaching outside my comfort zone lately with color challenges.  Today I decided to give the Scrapmaster's Paradise Color Combos challenge a try.

I love Sahara Sand and Rose Red.  But Daffodil Delight?  Not so much.  I'm just not a yellow person, especially a bright one like that, but I wanted to see what I could come up with.  I thought the MOJO 179 sketch would be a good layout.

Originally I planned to use the Medallion stamp for the focal point of my card, but as I got going the card had other plans.  It's funny how that happens sometimes.  I've often heard authors speak about their books in the same way.  Somehow the {imaginary} characters in the novel are driving the storyline rather than the author!  As strange as that sounds, I find the same thing happens to me when I sit down to make a card.  I start out with one thing in mind, and end up doing something completely different because the card told me so!

Despite the unusual color combo, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.  It's quite cheery and it's got a bit of bling!  I also discovered that the flower outline stamp from the Cottage Garden stamp set is a perfect match for the small flower in the Island Floral Bigz die.  I discovered that quite by accident as I was rooting around my desk for something to make the flower element a little more interesting.  At first, I just sponged the edges of the Island Floral small flower with Rose Red but thought it looked a little boring.  I happened to have my stamp-a-ma-jig nearby which had the Cottage Garden flower image stamped on it and decided to see if they matched up.  They did, so I stamped away, added a rhinestone brad, and was done!

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

I Think I Made A Baby Card

On second thought maybe not.

I don’t know many babies (not any more at least), so I don't have a lot of experience making bay cards, but when I saw this color challenge from Scrapmaster’s Paradise I thought it would go awfully well with a boy card. Then I realized that I hadn’t really inked up my Fox & Friends stamp set all that much and with the help of this week’s Fall-To Layout sketch challenge this card was born. I guess it would be ok to welcome a boy baby into the world, but I’m not entirely sure.

But anyway, thanks for stopping by and I hope you have time to stamp today!