Merry Monday 2

My friend Lesley has recently started a new challenge aimed at getting us to make one Christmas card a week.  Every Monday, she provides us with a Merry Monday sketch for inspiration and our task as participants is to make a Christmas card.

I wanted to participate in this challenge for a couple of reasons.  First, I really believe that if I make one Christmas card per week it will really take the pressure off.  I always seem to be scrambling around in December because I haven't got enough cards made, so starting now will give me plenty of time to make what I need.  Second, I STILL have tons of Christmas designer paper left (despite my self-imposed challenge to use as much of it as I could this past holiday season), so participating in the challenge will force encourage me to use more of it!

So without further ado, I present my first Christmas card of 2012.  I used some of my Wintergreen dsp, the tree stamp from Perfect Presentation and a sentiment from Contempo Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by!

Freshly Made Sketches 17

It's Wednesday and this week at Freshly Made Sketches we've got another great sketch challenge for you designed by Rita.

I had a hankering to make a card with some bright and cheery colors this week for the challenge.  I'm not one for winter and all the cold and sometimes dreary weather that goes with it, so I thought it would be nice to make a card that celebrates spring.

I used some Melon Mambo cardstock to highlight the white of this card.  Then I thought it would be nice to add a little Old Olive, so I used both colors for the vertical ribbon layers as well as the layer that I used for the flowers and leaves.  Those flowers and leaves are from Fabulous Florets which hadn't seen any ink in a while.  It's hard to tell in the picture, but the leaves are embossed with clear embossing powder which not only makes them look nice, but makes them sturdier when they are fussy-cut.

The FMS design team has cooked us some really awesome cards to give you some inspiration for this sketch so be sure and hop on over to their blogs to check them out.  Then head on back to Freshly Made Sketches and use the linky tool to show us your creation!

Lesley Croghan

Linda Callahan

Cindy Hall

Tui Nathan

Jennifer Timko

Rita Wright

Nina Forsythe

Jen Sannes 

PP77, CCMC184, SSC237 {Whew}

It's not very often that I combine three challenges to make one card, but I managed to do it for this card!

The Paper Players challenge is "All You Need is Love" so I made a Valentine's Day card with the Love You Much stamp set.  I combined it with the color challenge at Create With Connie and Mary and the sketch challenge at Stamping 411.

It's fun to sometimes use non-traditional colors for holidays, so that's why I thought I'd make a Valentine's Day card with Blushing Bride, Pool Party and Soft Suede.  But by the time I put this together I wasn't at all sure that I liked the result.  I thought about coloring in the "love" sentiment with Blushing Bride but I was afraid that the Soft Suede outline would run.  I ended up by lightly sponging the embossed Pool Party vertical pennant.  I'm not sure that it jazzed this up all that much, but it looks a little better to my eye.

I also remembered that I mentioned last week that I wanted to share some photos of an ink pad storage system that I received for Christmas, and then I completely forgot to upload the photos!  So here it is:

This holds 96 ink pads plus markers and ink refills!  Oh my!  Here's a close up.

It came unfinished, so I stained it then gave it a couple of coats of polyurethane.  I love it.  It's big, but it is exactly what I needed to keep everything organized.  Santa is so awesome!

Thanks for stopping by for a visit today!

ColourQ 118 and Deconstructed Sketch 33

There are certain Stampin' Up! colors that I really love and even though they are retired I still have the ink and some cardstock left.  Lucky for me I have some Cameo Coral and Cool Caribbean so I didn't have to make a substitution for this week's ColourQ challenge.

The Cherry Cobbler looks really dark in this photo, but in real life it looks great with the Cameo Coral.  I added a little stitching to the edges of the Cool Caribbean cardstock because it looked really plain all by itself.  I inked up some of my new Christmas goodies for this card and used the latest Deconstructed sketch for my layout. The flower and leaves are from PTI and the sentiment is from Verve.

The weather  has been very strange this weekend.  Here we are into January and yesterday the temperatures were in the sixties!  More like spring than winter!  I don't like snow or cold weather all that much so I'm not complaining!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

PPA126 Color Challenge

The new year has brought a return of the challenges that I can't seem to live without!  Today I've made a card for the Pals Paper Arts color challenge.

I embossed the vertical Not Quite Navy layer with the Elegant Lines embossing folder.  Then I added a couple of layers of Baja Breeze.  I sponged the layers before adding a scrap from the Walk in the Park dsp to the top layer.

The flower was cut from the Sizzix Tattered Florals die and then stamped with Stitched background stamp. I sponged the edges then crinkled them up before I attached them with an Antique brad.

The layout for my card comes from a February Viva La Verve challenge.  As I've mentioned before I've got a binder where I've printed out several compendiums of sketch challenges.  I turn to it whenever I need a little inspiration, which is how I came up with the layout for this card.

I thought about stitching the vertical layer (as in the sketch), but decided to dry emboss it instead.   I only wish that I had run the cardstock through the embossing folder twice so that the top of this layer wasn't so plain.  (Why do I always think of these things too late)!

Thanks for stopping by today!

MOJO 222

I actually started making a card for the MOJO sketch challenge on Monday.  But I hit a snag and had to put it aside for a few days.

I had consulted the ColourQ Compendium and decided to follow #78 for this card, which was Pink Pirouette, Certainly Celery, Kraft, Early Espresso and White.  I stamped the flowers and leaves onto Whisper White before I realized that Whisper White looked terrible with the designer paper that I used from Woodland Walk.  But I had already spent time fussy-cutting them out and was in no mood to re-stamp them onto Very Vanilla and cut them out again.  So I put it all aside and went back to it last night.

In addition to using Very Vanilla instead of Whisper White, I ended up switching out Early Espresso for Chocolate Chip since I wanted to use this wide grosgrain ribbon and corduroy button.  So I guess in the end, I didn't really follow the color challenge at all!  But I'm still really happy with how this turned out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Freshly Made Sketches 16

After a little holiday break, Freshly Made Sketches is back with a brand new sketch designed by Tui Nathan.  And we also welcome two new guest designers for January, Nina Forsythe and Jen Sannes.

This is one of those sketches that is timeless and completely adaptable to whatever you can imagine.  And judging by the cards made by the design team, (and I've seen them all) the possibilities are endless!

For my card, I used a base of Basic Gray, then added a layer of Kiwi Kiss cardstock and some Urban Garden designer paper.  I used my much-neglected basic gray corduroy buttons as the focal point and added a sentiment from Much Appreciated.  The ribbon across the center is some Basic Gray satin ribbon.

I hope that you have a chance to participate in our challenge this week.  For some inspiration make sure you visit the fabulous Freshly Made Sketches design team.

Lesley Croghan

Linda Callahan

Cindy Hall

Tui Nathan

Jennifer Timko

Rita Wright

Nina Forsythe

Jen Sannes 

SSSC149

New year's day found me volunteering for the "First Day Hike" at Borderland State Park and not so much motivated for stamping.  But in the afternoon, I was a little bored so I figured the best cure for that was crafting.  So into my stamp room I went and emerged with this.

The layout is courtesy of the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge and the colors are sort of a take on a past ColourQ challenge.  If you click here, you will see the ColourQ compendium that is a great resource if you're looking for a little color inspiration.  I used #32 for this card, only I substituted Calypso Coral for the Groovy Guava.

I used some Crumbcake dsp from Welcome Neighborhood and some Calypso Coral dsp from Berry Blossoms.  The flower and leaves are both Verve stamps.

I've had today off from work so I took the opportunity to de-Christmas the house.  The tree is away and the candles are gone from the windows.  I always feel a little sad when I put all my festive Christmas decorations away.  The house always seems a little boring afterwards.  Here's a little pic of the angel on top of my tree.

Have a great day everyone and thanks for stopping by!

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