RI DCC Challenge - Snowflakes

We are starting a new Designer's Choice Challenge over at The House That Stamps Built today and this time the challenge is to use snowflakes in your creation.  I have snowflakes on my patterned papers, there is a snowflake in my sentiment and my image is a snowman, so I think I have it covered! 

I have used 3813-M, Snowcat and Friends for my main image.  I used Copic markers to color the birds, birdhouse and cap and filled the snowman in using Viva Holo Iridescent Glitter liner.  The snow on the ground is Polar White Flower Soft.  The sentiment is 2006-H, Let It Snow and the patterned papers are from Memory Box's Yuletide collection and LilyBee Designs' Jingle collection.


I based my layout on this week's Sweet Sunday sketch (#144) and it also fits this week's Technique Lover's Challenge (TLC352) over at Splitcoast Stampers, which is 'Let's make it snow'!
Please be sure to head over to The House That Stamps Built to check out the rules for playing along and to see the great Snowflake cards the rest of the team has made!

Thanks for stopping by and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

MFT Sketch Challenge - Baby Yourself

I had a chance to play along with this week's sketch challenge over at My Favorite Things and made a birthday card using the Pure Innocence Lather, Rinse Repeat set.  The image was colored using Copic markers.  I paper pieced the bathtub and the shower cap and used Polar Ice Flower Soft for the bubbles.  The rubber ducky is popped up on a small foam square.  The mat panel was cut out using the Oval Decorative Doily die.  The patterned papers are from October Afternoon's Thrift Shop and Ducks in a Row collections.

The Birthday Girl sentiment is from the Pure Innocence My Balloon set.  Both sentiments were stamped on card stock that was cut out using the Oval Tab die, but I cut off the ends on the Birthday Girl panel using scallop edge scissors to make it fit better. I cut the three scalloped layers on the right side using the Scalloped Scallop die and staggered them.

I repeated the scalloped layers on the inside and used the Happy Birthday image from More Essential Sentiments.    I also repeated the rubber ducky from the front and colored it using Copic markers.

Thanks for stopping by!

RI SOTW - Footbridge

We have a new Stamp of the Week over at Repeat Impressions - this week's special is on Footbridge (2917-K) and it's available at half price this week only!  It's a great scenic stamp that fits in really well with many of the other Scenic stamps at Repeat Impressions. 

For my card, I have paired it up with Shade of the Elm (2908-I), Calm Water (4522-G) and Grass (3413-C).  All of the images were stamped directly on the Webster's Pages patterned paper and colored using Copic markers.  I added some Spring Flower Soft to the elm tree for its foliage (you can click on the picture to see it larger).  The Live for...(3103-F) sentiment, which seemed like a perfect match for my peaceful little scene, was stamped on a cloud die cut using Old Olive ink.  My card fits this week's Our Creative Corner challenge, which is to stamp directly on patterned paper.

Please be sure to head over to The House That Stamps Built to get the details for picking up this great Footbridge image for 50% off.  While you're there, make sure you take a look at the cards the rest of the team made using the Footbridge image!

Thanks for stopping by!

RI SOTW - Making Snow Angels

Good Monday morning to you! I hope you had a Merry Christmas! 

It's time to showcase another Repeat Impressions Stamp of the Week and this week it's this fun Making Snow Angels (3310-H) image. This is an appropriate image for this week, since we had a white Christmas here in Atlanta for the first time since 1882 and Wendy and Bill, at Repeat Impressions headquarters in Maine, are being socked with a blizzard.  Perfect snow angel weather!

I used some blue and white snowflake paper from my stash and colored the boy's clothes using Copic markers.  I added some Polar White Flower Soft to the background of the image, used a snowflake border punch for the right edge of my mat layer and added Stickles Diamond glitter glue to the centers of all of the snowflakes.  The sentiment was stamped using Versamark and Night of Navy and then embossed with clear embossing powder.

Please head over to The House that Stamps Built to find out the details for purchasing this great image for 50% off through next Sunday and to see the wonderful cards the other design team members have made using it!

This card was also made for the following challenges:

Pals Paper Arts - sketch
Stamptacular Sunday - Snow Much Fun
Flower Soft - FSC17- make a holiday card

Thanks for stopping by!

Belli Challenge #78 - Christmas with Creative Cuts & More

Welcome to another Creative Belli Challenge! We are once again being sponsored by Creative Cuts & More this week. CC&M just released two new kits - the Treasured Family Recipes 8"x8" Mini Album Kit and the Holiday Treats Apron Recipe Album Kit. As part of the celebration CC&M will be having a great sale. For the next three days, CC&M will offer 20% off the entire store. But act quickly, this sale will end on November 14th. Be sure you enter this code - recipebloghop2009 - during checkout.

The challenge this week is to use Christmas themed embellishments (buttons, ribbon, stickers, whatever). For my project, I started with the Card Portfolio in Emerald Stardream Shimmer. Those of you who have followed my blog for a while know that I have done several card folders before and I have to say that using this card portfolio die cut was a whole lot simpler! I highly recommend it - it comes pre-cut, pre-scored and it even has slits for the ribbon tie cut for you. All you have to do is fold it up, tape the inside pockets and decorate the front!

I covered the front with three strips of Cosmo Cricket's Jolly by Golly paper, and then I added Snowflake #04 Small, cut from Tacky Tape. I stamped my snowman from Papertrey Ink's 2009 Holiday Tag Collection and cut it out using a circle die, then matted it on a scalloped circle cut from Stardreams Stationery, which perfectly matched my card folder. The matted snowman was placed on the snowflake die cut, leaving some of the Tacky Tape exposed so I could dump some Polar White Flower Soft on top (click on the photo to see it larger). The tape is really tacky, just like the name implies, so the Flower Soft sticks to it really well. You could also use glitter or flocking.

The red label is also from Creative Cuts & More and is the Antique label in Mars Stardream Shimmer paper. My sentiment was cut out using a Labels Six Nestabilities die, which fit nicely on top of the Antique label. I added a few rhinestone snowflakes from Memory Box to continue my snowflake theme.

For the inside of the card portfolio. I decorated the pockets with the same papers I used on the front, plus a couple of Stampin' UP felt snowflakes, topped with some more of the rhinestone snowflakes. I've finished two cards to go in it so far, and am planning on making a couple more so I can give it as a Christmas gift.

Be sure to visit the rest of the Creative Belli Design Team members' blogs (links are on the left sidebar) to see which Creative Cuts & More products they used. Play along with us by making a card using a Christmas themed embellishment! Link your project using Mr. Linky on today's Creative Belli Challenge Blog post. If you upload a card to Splitcoast Stampers or Paper Craft Planet, be sure to use CBC78 in the keywords section. The winner of this week's challenge will receive a TREASURED FAMILY RECIPES 8" X 8" MINI ALBUM KIT from Creative Cuts and More!

Thanks for looking! Sorry for the novel!

Today I'm going to have lunch with some very special stamping friends and then we're all going on a shopping spree to Archiver's! Come back later in the week and hopefully I'll have a photo or two to share!!

WCMD Challenges

I had high hopes for spending all day Saturday in my stamp room playing along with the World Card Making Day challenges over at Splitcoast Stampers. There was a new challenge posted every hour from 10:00am to 11:00pm. It was a bit overwhelming and I learned that I am a very SLOW card maker! Some people made a card for each challenge during the hour the challenge was posted - how do they do that?? I barely figure out the stamps, papers and layout I'm going to use in an hour...sigh... I only managed to finish two cards for the challenges, plus a third card using a new toy I received on Friday, which I'll post another day.

This first card was made for the Crafty Secrets challenge, which was to make the card pop, using the image or an embellishment. I used a couple of images from the Feely Yucky set. I paper pieced the little nurse's uniform and popped up her arm with dimensional tape. The needle in her hand has Glossy Accents on it to give it a little pop, and I used a Cuttlebug folder to emboss the row of faux stitching on the red border strip. The background paper is from Jillibean Soup's Alphabet Soup collection and I thought it was perfect with the little nurse image since it reminds me of an eye chart.

The second card is for the Magnolia-licious Challenge, which was to make a Holiday Ornament - either an ornament to hang on the tree or a card with an ornament on it. I had this paper from BasicGrey's Eskimo Kisses collection so I used the ornament paper for part of the background and created an ornament as my focal point using a stamp from GinaK Designs Got Snow set. I cut the image out using a circle Nestabilities die and added a small square of silver paper, topped with a section of a scalloped circle to make the top of my ornament.

The image was colored with Copic markers and I masked it off and airbrushed the sky. I added some Polar White Flower Soft for the snow man and the ground, then added some Stickles for his buttons, nose, eyes and mouth. The sketch is from Jen del Muro's Sketch For You To Try (SFYTT) from Saturday.

That's it for this year's WCMD challenges for me - hopefully I'll do better next time! Thanks for looking and enjoy your week - we're getting off to a dreary, rainy start here.

Thanks for your warm hospitality

Happy Monday! Hope you enjoyed your weekend!

This is a card I made for Scrap Chic Boutique using some new patterned papers I recently received. The piece with the cherries and the strip with the pies are from Webster's Pages' Sweet as Cherry Pie collection and the woodgrain background paper is called Woodland and it's from Basic Grey's new Eskimo Kisses collection.

The Pie in the Window stamp is from Lockhart Stamp Company and was colored with Copic markers. I added some Flower Soft (Sweet Pea and Spring) to the flowers in the window box. You can't tell from the photo, but there is also a piece of acetate behind the curtains to make it look more like a window. I thought this sentiment, from Papertrey Ink's Quilter's Sampler set was perfect with the pie in the window.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!

Belli Challenge - Add texture

This week's Creative Belli Challenge is to add texture. What kind of texture? Anything that you can "feel" on your card - Magic Mesh, flocking, Flower Soft, velvet, or even hammered metal.

For my card, I decided to use Flower Soft. Once again I inked up my Vintage Picnic set from Papertrey Ink, this time using the tulip topper. I colored the image using Copic markers and then added Sweet Pea Flower Soft to the tulip blooms.

I used my friend Silke's sketch from Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge 21 for my layout. The patterned paper is from a K & Company K-ology Hannah paper pad that I won a while back from my friend Pat Adam. I thought it matched my Sweet Pea Flower Soft perfectly. The card base is Papertrey Ink Kraft, the ribbon for the bow is from Offray and the ric rac is from My Mind's Eye. The gold beads on the card and the basket are from Michael's.

Check out what the other Belli girls have created over on the Belli blog. I hope you will play along with us in our texture challenge! To play, add a link to your creation using Mr. Linky over on the Creative Belli Challenge blog at the bottom of today's post.

Hope your week is going well so far! Thanks for stopping by!

It's a triple!

I really enjoy playing along with some of the challenges out there, but I have to admit that if I try to combine too many of them with one card, I get a bit overwhelmed. Plus, there are so many out there, it's hard to keep all the challenges straight. At any rate, I was able to combine THREE challenges in one card, so I'm feeling pretty good about it!

I started with the color challenge over at Creative Belli Blog - Apricot Appeal, Certainly Celery and Cameo Coral. Then there was the FTTC15 Timeless Tuesday challenge over at Flourishes - make a birthday card. So I sat down with my new Sweet Pea set and the three colors of paper and tried to find some patterned paper to use and I found the perfect piece - Lavish from Fancy Pants' Aged Florals line. Once I colored the image, I had all the components, but how to put it together? Then along came Taylor's Friday Cupcake Challenge, which was the perfect sketch for all my elements. Once all of that was out of the way, everything came together pretty quickly, although I had to fudge on the sketch a little with the placement of my flower to make it balance out.

The sentiment is from Flourishes Flourished Word Set and was cut out using a Spellbinder's Ribbon Tag Trio die. While I had it, the butterfly and my Sweet Pea image in their respective dies, I airbrushed them first with a pale yellow Copic marker and then with a pale yellow-red marker around the edges. I matted my floral image on a scalloped circle of Cameo Coral, then a circle of Apricot Appeal and then a Certainly Celery Labels Three layer.

For my scalloped edge layer, I decided to use my new Martha Stewart Cornice border punch. But a single layer of it seemed too boring, so I used it to cut a layer of each of the three colors of card stock and then stacked them on top of each other. It was still missing something, and then I spied my jar of Sweet Pea Flower Soft - how appropriate! So, I ran a layer of glue along the Cornice border and added some Flower Soft.

For the final touches, I pulled out my Martha Stewart frond punch and punched a couple of fronds out of Certainly Celery, and layered them under my flower and added a button with some Scrapper's Floss tied in a bow. A couple of Dew Drops in the corners of my Labels Three mat and a few of Taylor's Tiny Twinkles for the butterfly's body and you're done!

Sorry for being so long-winded - thanks for hanging in there with me! Have a great weekend!

Happy Easter Basket

I made this card to play along with this weekend's Cupcake Challenge over at Taylored Expressions. The basket of flowers, Happy Easter sentiment and chicks are from Flourishes' Signs of Spring set. I colored the images with Copic markers and added a little Sweet Pea Flower Soft to the hyacinths in the basket. I stamped the two chicks separately, cut them out and popped them up with some foam squares.

The image was cut out using my Labels Two Nestabilities and I used my Stampin' UP! Really Rust marker to add some dots around the edge of the main panel. The flower is from Stampin' UP! and was airbrushed with a Copic marker to match the mat color. I topped it with an orange button, tied with some Scrapper's Floss. All the papers are from Basic Grey's Marrakesh 6x6 paper pad.

Here's a close-up of the Flower Soft. It's pretty neat stuff and adds some nice texture and interest to flower images.

That's about it for this card. Hope you had a nice weekend and that your week is getting off to a good start!

Thanks for stopping by!