FTL135 and a New Friday Mashup Challenge

I feel like I'm behind on my projects.  Last night I opted to go see my nephew compete in the "Mr. Easton" contest.  It was a  tongue-in-cheek spoof of "pageants."  For his formal wear he wore a kilt, and for his "talent" he did his own spoof of a Saturday Night Live skit where he pretended to play the saxophone...badly.  It was great fun, and he ended up coming in third place!  The weather here today was too fine to spend cooped up in the house, so it wasn't until evening before I set foot in my stamp room!

The Friday Mashup challenge has moved to a new site, so I thought I'd participate in their inaugural challenge to use butterflies with dimension.

A little help from the FTL sketch challenge and I was off!

The Cottage Wall designer paper I used actually has butterflies already on it, but as luck would have it the scrap I used didn't have any showing.  But that's okay because I cut two from the Sizzix Beautiful Butterflies die.  I embossed the Old Olive one with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder and stamped the Rich Razzleberry one with the Fine Flourish stamp.  I finished them off with a tiny row of pearls.  Once I finished it, I thought it would make a perfect mother's day card, so I embossed that sentiment with white embossing powder.

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

PPA88

Springtime continues with a wonderful color challenge at the Pals Paper Arts blog.

When I first contemplated this challenge, I thought of the of the Greenhouse Gala dsp because it had both Daffodil Delight and Pear Pizzazz amongst its pages.  And of course, since the challenge also included Crumb Cake, I was completely incapable of not participating!

I ended up lightly sponging the edges of the leaves so that they would show up a little better against the desigher paper.  This is one of those card that I love: the one with no sentiment so that I can add one later to suit whatever occasion I need.

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

Color Lab 36

The more I use Poppy Parade, the more I like it, so I was happy to see it in this week's ColorLab challenge.

It's a very interesting red.  It's bright without being too over-powering and has a deep color well suited to practically all of my floral stamps.  I think it looks particularly good with the stamp set I chose here, Greenhouse Garden.

And look how great it looks with Early Expresso! 

The only thing I don't like here is the flower in the middle that seems to be floating around like an astronaut in space!  I don't know what I was thinking...Oh well.  Too late to change it now.  Even still, I do love the flowers with the Early Espresso accents in the center.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to head on over to the ColorLab.  The design team has some great inspiration for you and I hope you have a chance to play along with us.

Color Throwdown 136

The colors for the Color Throwdown challenge this week are very soft.  And the more I looked at them, the more I liked them.

And it was nice to use Soft Sky again.  I even found some old designer paper called Afternoon Tea that had a pretty pattern in Soft Sky.

I started out trying to follow the sketch challenge at Splitcoast, but almost right away I veered off course and did something different.  I happened to find a card on my desk that I had made a while back that had a scallop border I made from circles like this.  I thought it looked pretty good, so I decided to try that again.  It's fun and gives the card a sort of light an airy look.

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

SSSC111 Bridal Shower Card

I have to go to a bridal shower at the end of the month, and I actually managed to get an early start on the card!  (That almost never happens to me)!  When I first started making this card, I didn't intend it to be for this shower, but as I was going along I realized that the colors I chose are very similar to the wrapping paper I already bought for the gift, so I thought it would be nice to have a matching card.  The Sweet Sunday sketch challenge provided the very cute layout.

This is such a lovely sentiment to use for two people just starting their journey together.  I also used it on an anniversary card once, and I think it's a great sentiment for that too.  For the newlyweds, it shows them a glimpse of the future, and for the long-married, it affirms what they already know.  Sweet!

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

Paper Players 41

Today is the start of a brand new journey for me.  I was asked to be the April Guest Designer at the Paper Players challenge blog, and since I love to participate in their challenges, I jumped at the chance!  Today, is my first challenge and the theme is recycling.

A lot of things came to mind when I saw this challenge.  I could use the oodles of ribbon that I have scoffed from various places but then you, the blog reader, would not be able to tell that these ribbons have been recycled.  I could use the buttons that I have collected over the years from blouses and pants and such, but that wasn't really calling to me either.  Then I suddenly was fixated on a particular item that almost anyone would recognized as recycled and re-purposed.  A beer bottle cap!  And many thanks to my nephew, who courageously offered to drink a few beers so that I could have the bottle caps!

I don't have the heart to tell him that I only ended up using one bottle cap!  But I have the others that he gave me in my stash to use later.  I also managed to squeeze in the MOJO sketch for this card.  The other day, I tried to make a card using this sketch and ended up veering so far off the sketch course, the I didn't link it to the challenge.  This one is a better version, I think.

Thanks for stopping by today and don't forget to head on over to the Paper Players and recycle something!  We'd love to see what you do!

Stamping 411 Sketch Challenge 197 and Inkspirations 64

This week is a color challenge over at Inkspirations.  A self-described "autum-ny" color challenge!  And almost any time I see "autumn" I think of one of my all-time favorite stamp sets:  French Foliage.  If this set doesn't make it into the new catalog this year, I'll be really surprised.  I hope it does, so that anyone who didn't buy it when it was in the holiday mini, will have a chance to.  It's all kinds of awesome!

Anyway, I checked out the Stamping 411 sketch challenge and although I did finally make a card, I had a hard time with that sketch!

It looks so straight-forward, but I just couldn't get it to cooperate with what I had in mind!  I'm not sure what my issue was, but once I started I had to keep going.  My precious autumn leaves were at stake!

It seems funny to make a card like this when spring is (technically) here already, but the weather where I live is not cooperating with what the calendar says.  It actually feels quite autumn-like.  For some reason winter does not want to give up its grip on us yet (it actually snowed here yesterday)!  So, I feel somewhat vindicated making a card with wonderful leaves like this.

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

Color Throwdown 135 and Sketchbook Saturday 4

This week, the color challenge at the Color Throwdown had that "wow" factor that I find hard to resist.

These colors are bold and dramatic, and I hoped that I could make a card that would do them justice.  I chose the Sketchbook Saturday sketch to help me along.

There was several things about this sketch that I liked.  I liked the big scallop circle.  I liked the swirly bit peeking out from the bottom, right of the scallop circle.  I liked the flowers that are a little off center.  I thought this was a good sketch to go with the color challenge, so I set to work.

Right away, I remembered that the Newsprint designer paper met two of the colors for the challenge.  The pattern was bold (like the color challenge), and I thought that if I used Real Red and Daffodil Delight, it would really make a statement.  In the end, I was not entirely sure that I liked the card all that much.  I think that what I pictured in my mind did not really translate to the real thing.  It's not bad, just busy.  And I don't usually do "busy."  However, the more I stare at it, the more I like it.  I like the pop of Daffodil Delight against the Basic Black and Very Vanilla, at least!!

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