Whoo---Ray! It's Saturday!

Ok...gotta be honest. In our household, during summer break, weekends aren't really that big of a deal. My husband's schedule has him working most weekends. During summer, whatever day he is home is like a weekend to us. But, I know for most that Saturday is a day of family fun and relaxation. So HOORAY for you! It's Saturday!

I've gotta say that I have been lovin' how much I have been able to stamp lately. And the ideas have been flowing. Hope I didn't just jinx myself. I decided to play with Kristina's color challenge this week. Super fun colors that are not my normal pick. That's what makes it fun though. I am really trying to branch out and try different things.


Speaking of branching out....I loved this image of this branch and owl from a set by My Cute Stamps. It's called Forest Friends. Check out this website HERE. They have lots of acrylics on sale right now. I decided to make this card for my nephew who is turning ONE next week. That star trim on the side gave me fits and it still looks crooked. Will have to see if I can fix it. I couldn't get any type of adhesive to stick to it. So I'm sure I can just pull it off and try again. Something that makes me really happy is tha wavy punch on the side from EK Success. I love that thing! I also stamped the owl and the leaves twice, cut them out and popped up with dimensionals over the original image. I think if I made this card again I would change my colors around. Noah will probably just stick it in his mouth so it won't matter much this time:)

BTW, my post yesterday talked about us taking our kids out to reward them for good grades. Well, the morning started out with Dr. appts. My son needed a physical for football and we just made both the kids appts. Ok, we totally stink in the "Let's reward our kids" department. Both of my kids had to have TWO SHOTS! "Oh, you did well in school, huh? Great! Let's jab you in the arm TWICE with this burning vaccination, kay?" Yeah, the day could only get better from there. Not sure how many "A's " they'll be getting next year:(

Stamps: Forest Friends, Birthday Numbers (MCS), Polka Dot background (SU)
Ink: Memento Black, Taken with Teal, Green Galore, Soft Sky, Tango Tangerine and Pumpkin Pie
Paper: Tango Tangerine, Green Galore, Taken with Teal, White
Other: cuttlebug, MM star trim, embossing folder, distress tool, EK success punch, dimensionals, horizontal slot punch

Thanks for stopping by!

Kwerener Color Inspiration

Here's the Kristina Color Inspiration this week. I got to stamp for just a bit yesterday morning and then again this morning. My first card did not make me very happy so I made another card that is completely different. I like this card better IRL, but not as much in the picture. Weird, huh? So I am putting the card I like IRL as my submission to the challenge. I will also post the other card at the bottom. Kristina has a few giveaways this week. I'm hoping the random pick likes me.


This card has very little stamping actually. I put some rhinestones on the clear embossed bird to add a little bling. Here is a close up of that:




Here is the first card that I made:



No details tonight. Long day at King's Island with lots of kids....TIRED. I'll be back to update later. Thanks for looking:)

Pacific Butterfly

I can't believe it! I have TWO posts today. I wasn't planning that. I checked Kristina's blog after posting this morning and she had the color inspiration posted. This was one of the quickest cards I have done in a while. I think it only took me about 20 minutes and that's because I had a hard time getting the little leaves to pop out once I die cut them....grrr. Pacific Point is one of my least favorite cardstocks, but I really like the ink. Yeah, figure that one out?! So here is my quickie card.I must say that the new set called GREAT FRIEND in the new SU mini is a "must have" set. Very fun and not very expensive. I added tiny Kaiser pearls that I got from Taylor's store to the middle of the iridescent ice embossed butterfly. I think I've mentioned before that Iridescent Ice is also a "must have." Email me if you'd like to order any, ok? I also wanted you to know that you will be seeing a lot of BLACK on my blog in the coming weeks. No worries, I haven't gone "Gothic" or anything. I just really like the POP that black can give to a card or even simple elegance. Remember when brown was the new black? Well, BLACK is BACK Baby!

Deets:
Stamps: Great Friend
Ink: Pacific Point, Versamark, Rose Red
Paper: Textured SU Black, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White
Other: Cuttlebug, SU Sizzlets Lots of Tags and Little Leaves, Iridescent Ice EP, Kaiser Pearls, SU Grosgrain 5/8" ribbon, Vintage brads, dimensionals, MS glue pen

Hugs!

Little Miracle Bear

I got to play just a bit today and make a card for Kristina's Color Challenge. Seems that I'm having a hard time getting things to fall into place today for most of my card attempts. However, I love this little guy. I only wish I had someone specific in mind to send this little bear. Loved these colors though.



Hope you are all having a great Monday. We are heading out this evening for acting class and a bit of shopping. Just an FYI....if you want to get some stamping done on Spring Break, let your child have a friend spend the night. The next day they are so tired all they want to do is lay on the couch and watch TV. Everyone wins! Tee hee;)

Basic Recipe: Stamps: Bundle of Love, Clear Impressions Oh baby set Ink: Basic Black, Craft Choc Chip Paper: Kiwi Kiss, DCVW text brown, Whisper white, Baja Breeze, Paper Studio DP Other: Grosgrain (Walmart), Buttons (The Paper Studio), Choc Embroidery Floss, Circle scalloped nesties, CM circle cutter, Prismacolor Pencils, blending stump, baby oil, dimensionals

Tango on the Brain

I love the word "tango" and playing off that word. Seems like all around me people are using this great color or looking for ways to use it. Orange is energizing. Love the smell of it and what about those cutie pies...you know the little clementine oranges. Yum! I combined my card today with 2 challenges this week. I am short on stamping time this week. I also needed to make my MIL a card. She recently was in the hospital. Nothing too serious compared to all she been through over the last 2 years. But, I wanted her to know we are thinking of her. So for Kristina's Color Inspiration and Jen Del Muro SFYTT I created the following card. I had a hard time getting a good picture today. Oh yeah, if you participate in Jen's sketch you could win a free Whiff of Joy stamp.


I used the Designer paper from SU called Hawaii Papaya. I also used a few clear page pebbles that I placed on Choc Chip cardstock and then cut out. My image was stamped in Barely Banana ink and then I highlighted areas with So Saffron marker and a blender pen dipped in Tango Tangerine ink. I also used a scrap of the SAB DP from my last card. The edges are machine stitched. My flower at the top is from The Paper Studio, but it has a small white flower from SU's Pretties kit that I colored with Tim Holtz Distress Ink. I don't remember who make the orange brad. Every thing else is pretty straight forward. Basic recipe below.

Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Ink: So Saffron, Barely Banana, Choc Chip craft, Tango Tangerine
Paper: Hawaii papaya, SAB DP, White, So Saffron, Choc Chip
Other: Scalloped Edge Punch, brads, page pebbles, large oval punch, Pretties Kit, Flowers, sewing machine, paper piercer.

I probably won't be posting this weekend. We have family visiting. YEAH!!! So I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

BACK IN BLACK

Wow! I really have had no time this week. I am in "hot demand":) So my post today will be brief. I really still would love to share some stories but I can't swing it today. Here is my project using Kristina's color inspiration. Black is just a great "color". I'm so glad we are getting back to using it more in the crafting world.



I wanted to tell you that I DID iron my sheet. It just goes to show why they will never employ me at the dry cleaners for pressing pants:) You should be focusing on the card anyways.

I used Whisper white as my base. I then used some really cool DP from My Mind's Eye, I think. I used a Martha Stewart border punch along the edge and tied this with gray taffetta ribbon. I used a hat pin from the Pretties Kit. I still haven't quite got the hang of these. My image is from Abundant Blessings (Verve) and was stamped using Brilliance Black and then quickly embossed with Iridescent Ice. I had to go over some areas with my versamarker and and the iridescent ice. Handy thing to have, that versamarker. The "vase" is made by punching out a black oval using the largest SU oval punch. I then lopped off the top and bottom. This was then "smooshed " onto my versamark pad and embossed with Ultra Thick EP several times. I put it in my freezer for about 5 minutes and then bent it. This is called cracked glass. I love this technique. Here is a close up of the details.

A few other details that I did were paper piercing and I cut out some of the flowers and applied them to the main image with small slivers of dimensionals. I also used the retired SAB set called SO VERY for the blessed sentiment and used the other 2 SU oval punches.

I ended up smearing a bit of black when I was all done. BLEK! My daughter assured me that it was still beautiful. She's so supportive of my "work". Love her!

Hope you have a great Friday. I will hopefully have more time to post tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

KRISTINA'S COLOR CHALLENGE

I love when I have a specific person in mind for the card I'm making. I also love when it comes together even better than I imagined. This card is for our friends in Michigan whose little girl was in the hospital. I requested prayers for them a few weeks ago in this post. I am happy to report that they are now home and Brianna is on the mend. Thank you to all who said prayers. Please continue to pray for them over the next month or so. Brianna has a lot of healing to do.

I combined Kristina's Color Inspiration and last Friday's Viva la Verve Challenge to come up with this card.
The base of my card has 3 layers: Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette and Pink DP from Bella Rose. I then took a strip of Chocolate DP that is retired and stitched in onto the center. The sentiment was stamped in Choc Chip Craft ink and clear embossed. It is from Verve's Beautiful You. I cut it out with my oval nestabilities and then sponged pink pirouette while it was still in the die cut. It is layered with a Chocolate DP from Bella Rose that was cut with the oval scalloped nesties. The pink satin ribbon is from Walmart and in threaded through the ovals. That whole "hanging sign thing" is a facade. After tying the ribbon through the holes it ended up being too short. So I cut it and adhered the ribbon on the back to secure the knots. I then cut another section to make the upside down "V". I tied a bow by itself and added the SU button using zots. The flowers on the right are from Target dollar spot and I used some Mocha pearls by Kaiser for the centers. Those also adorn the swirls on the left that are cut from Close to Cocoa using my cuttlebug and SU's Scribbles sizzlet.

Don't forget to check out the Viva La Verve thread tomorrow for a new challenge. When you play each week you have a chance at the end of the month to win some free Verve stamps. They have a new release coming up with some REALLY cute sets. Can't wait to see them all together!

After 16 HOURS!!!!

I'm back! 16 Hours is how long it took me to clean my craft space. Is that not INSANE!!! I mean really. How did I let it get so bad. I had to do a bit of remodeling as well. We got an old counter/cabinet that my husband's work was throwing away. I will show pictures later. But first I am hoping I have made the deadline for Kristina's color inspiration. This is also for Jen's SFYTT. Go check it out. She has blog candy!

I was glad to create a bit. This card is for my husband when he gets his new job:) My sister always says you have to "put things out there". How out there do you think it is to congratulate him when he doesn't even have the job yet? Is that too much? Well, I am hoping this really happens for him/us. So here is my masculine creation. I really struggled today. I think I am going to just do some creating this week without "guidelines" It's been awhile since I just went with it.



I will be back later with details. My computer just erased everything I wrote about this and I am out of time. Need to get my kids to school and then off to work.

Almost No Stamping Thank You

I made a set of 3 1/2" square thank you cards for some of the mom's that helped with parties this year. They have almost NO stamping. I got to play with some new Sizzix dies and my cuttlebug. Here is a link to how to use many different dies in a cuttlebug. A tip that I have used it to add paper shims one at a time if I seem to be having trouble with cutting. ALWAYS start with the thinness "sandwich" of materials when running things through the cuttlebug so as not to break it.

I haven't participated in a Kwerner color inspiration for a few weeks. I was happy to do that today. I needed a color combo. Here are the tiny cards I came up with. I think they are sooo cute!


My card base is a folded 3 1/2 X 7" piece of Whisper White that is completely covered by a 3 1/2 X 3 1/2" piece of More Mustard. I love that color and I love MUSTARD. Give me mustard with a side of hot dog please:) My daughter HATES mustard. When she was little she used to say in her squeaky voice, "I not like MONstard". So cute. Moving on....I used some DP from an old level one hostess package from SU. This was stitched onto the more mustard . I used several die cuts to created the flower, leaf and tag. They are as follows: Flower Daisies #2, Little Leaves, Lots of Tags. You can find them in the die cutting section on SU's website here. I used a clearanced paper that resembles ruby red for the flowers. The center is a scrap of More Mustard that was punched with my 1/2" circle punch and then run through the cuttlebug with an embossing folder ( Bubbles, I believe). This is all adhered together with 2 way glue and mounted on the card with dimensionals. The leaf was cut out of Kiwi Kiss cardstock as well as the tag. I then also cut out the tags again in white and layered them They are tied with the Riding Hood Red Taffetta ribbon and mounted with dimensionals. The sentiment is from an old Salebration set called Noteworthy and is stamped in Basic Black. While these cards were a bit more time consuming than I originally thought, they came together pretty quickly.

Speaking of Salebration...you still have time to take part in this great Stampin Up "sale". Spend $50 and receive a free stamp set, ribbon or paper from the Salebration brochure. You can email me directly if you would like to place an order. Check the side of my blog for my email.

Thanks for stopping by today!

HELLO!

I apologize for being MIA this week. I was sick earlier in the week and then got picked for jury duty. I ALWAYS get picked. In reality though, jury duty is kind of fun. So don't balk if you get called for it. It's a very interesting process. I actually felt really good when I was done. We ruled in favor of the Plaintiff and I ended up running into him on the street afterwards. He gave me a big hug:) Basically, he will be getting the medical treatment he should have been getting for the last 2 years. That makes me feel really good. Now getting back to stamping. I haven't been able to stamp much at all this week. I did want to try and participate in Kristina's Color Inspiration. I feel like I can't stop for even a week. I have like this record going! I can't break it! So here is the Inspiration:

Here is my take:Very quickly I will give the recipe. We have a ball game to get to this morning. I used Basic Black and tied a ribbon from HL around it. The bow is adhered with ZOTS. A strip of So Saffron is backed with a scalloped strip in White. The green dotted DP is from Making Memories. This is stamped with a Michaels dollor stamp in Versafine Black and the hearts are colored with a red pigment ink marker. I wish I had black embossed it to make it pop a bit more. The hearts are from Verve's set A Hundred Hearts. It is stamped with versamark onto Real Red and then Clear embossed. I cut them out and then decided to add a dimensional to the right top portion of the heart only. This is all then mounted onto a card base of white.

That's all for me today. Sorry it is so quick. I am working on a SIMPLE SUNDAY card. It's not going well:( I will try to post tomorrow. Enjoy your day. It is beautiful here. Tiny snowflakes are floating through the air and the sun is shining. SOOO pretty!

EDITED TO NOTE: I TOTALLY MISSED THE DEADLINE THIS WEEK. BUMMER!

Kwerener Color Inspiration

Just a quick post today. The kids are home from school. Yep, we got SNOW:) Not very much though. However, it is too cold to go out and play. Only about 5 degrees here. That's ok. It looks so pretty and the sun is shining. I'm a happy girl. I also get to stamp a bit today. I'm trying to get the kids to get crafty with me, but they are having too much fun playing. Guess what they played? SCHOOL! Ha! How funny is that? They pray for a snow day and then end up playing school????
I couldn't sleep this morning so I got up and worked on my card for Kristina's color inspiration.
This is a pretty simple card. I embossed only part of the white card base with my cuttlebug. I then tied this orange ribbon from Hobby Lobby where the embossing ended. Next I punched out 1/2"circles from pumpkin, pretty in pink and ruby red and adhered them along the bottom. They are stamped with versamark using the star from SU's Small Sayings. Next I punched out 2 more circles (1 1/4 and 1 3/8") and embossed them as well. The center circle (1 3/4") was stamped with Say it with Scallops in Ruby Red. I then layered a circle ring made by first punching the pumpkin cardstock with the 1 3/8" circle punch and then positioning the 1 3/4" circle around the hole created in the cardstock. I duplicated the same stitched look on the ribbon by using my white gel pen. This is adhered with dimensionals. That's it! Pretty simple. I working on a few things to post over the next few days. Let's cross our fingers that it goes as I plan:) Have a good one!

Final Verve challenges COMPLETE

I'm so happy that I made the deadline for these challenges! You can find all the details here in case you missed them. This card also uses the colors for Kristina's Color Inspiration so I'm taking advantage of killing two birds in one stone again.

This card starts simply with a Choc. chip base and is layered with Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive. The pumpkin is punched with the scalloped edge punch and tiny self adhesive pearls are attached. The Old Olive is cuttlebugged and tied with a chocolate ribbon from HL. I then colored my stamp from Inspired by Nature with markers. I misted by watercolor paper and then stamped the image. I also took my aquapainter overtop to blend the colors better. I cut this out with my nesties and sponged the edges with Baja Breeze. This is layered on a scalloped oval of Vellum cardstock. I used dimensionals to adhere this to the card.



I really love the fun colors of this next card.

This paper is from My Mind's Eye. I'm becoming a big fan of their paper. It is scalloped with my corner rounder as is the Rose Red layer underneath. Here is my TIP on scalloping these so that they turn out the exact same. Cut both papers the exact same size and temporarily adhere them together. Then punch along the bottom. Separate them and trim the top layer along each side and the top to nest inside your bottom layer. Clear as mud?: ) The ric rac you see is from the Target dollar spot. It came together with that velvety ribbon at the top. The other ribbon is a sheer pink that SU used to carry. I stamped the cupcake from Party Hearty twice...once in taken with teal ( stamping off first) and once in regal rose. I cut each section out separately and layered them onto the Whisper White. I added dazzling diamonds to the "stump" of the cupcake and beads to the top. They are added with bead glue and are retired from SU. The sentiment was inked with Taken with Teal and Green Galore markers. I can't remember the name of the set. I'll get back on that.

Well, I think I'm done posting for the week now. I plan on spending the weekend with my family. My son really wants to get that MarioKart for the Wii. He has had me check online twice now and can't stop talking about it. He has Christmas money that is apparently burning a hole in his pocket. So we may be doing that all weekend. I actually want it too:D. We played this not to long ago at Chuck E Cheese. The arcade game has a feature where once you pick which character you want to be it takes your actual picture and then puts your face inside the frame of that character. Then as you race each other it shows this picture of the person chasing you . The visual of seeing my husband with a big red nose and handlebar mustache (Mario) made the trip to crazy Chuck E Cheese TOTALLY worth it. I WISH that the Wii game had that feature. I'm giggling just thinking back to it.
Hope you all have a blessed weekend. It's cold here. Thanks for peeking into my little crafting corner.

Another Post Today

It's been a fun, busy week of stamping for me. I'm so lucky! I really want to get these challenges done so I qualify for the BIG WIN for Verve. So, I'm combining Kristina's color inspiration with a sketch challenge by Julee for the Verve Challenge. I had to laugh when I saw this picture because right now my kid's school is selling SMENCILS and they are "all the rage". What's a "smencil" ? Well, it's a pencil that smells obviously. They do smell really good too. So, it seems I being haunted by pencils today. My daughter bought all ten and they have been sniffing them since they got home:) My card, however, has nothing to do with pencils. Oh, just had the idea to make another card that is a scratch and sniff! Going to work on that....later.
My card came together really quick today. It's ok but not as great as my next one hopefully(wink).I used a new hostess set from the upcoming SU catalog. The image is stamped in Choc Chip Craft ink and clear embossed. I then punched it out with the star punch, layered it (dimensionals) onto a piece of pumpkin pie and trimmed with scissors. This is adhered to a layered piece of Textured White and Baja Breeze. Those brads are SU star brads. They are REALLY heavy. This is all mounted onto the card with dimensionals. The base of the card is White and layered respectfully: Choc Chip and Baja Breeze that both went through my cuttlebug. A strip of Old Olive and some pumpkin twill from Joann's. I then stamped from the Party Hearty set the same saying in Choc chip craft onto Pumpkin and punched out with the Horizontal Slot punch.

I apologize for the "shabby" post. I am in a hurry. Basketball practice is calling. I may have more posts tonight or early tomorrow. The deadline is by noon tomorrow and I'm doing my best...and having fun in the process.

My Last Post of 2008

I'm back in the swing of things a bit. I decided to start off my "week" ( yes I know it's Wednesday) with a Kwerner Color Inspiration. I'm having a hard time getting the Mojo going. I think Christmas did me in this year. So today is just a quick post. I have several things to share but will probably not post too much more this week. I am trying to just enjoy my family and get caught up on some things. My craft room looks like a paper bomb went off. But I promise to do better next week. So here is what I have to share today. Several things really.

First off is my color inspiration card.

This card is really very simple. I had some Christina Cole 3D stickers by Provo Craft that I used for the flowers. They have their own dimensional on the back so they pop up a bit. This is just adhered to a piece of Whisper White that I stamped using a dollar spot clear stamp. All this is mounted on an Old Olive layer and tied with some twill ribbon that I got at Joann's. This is adhered to a folded Pink Pirouette 4"x 10 1/2" piece of cardstock. The pink is stamped with the Just Jeans background stamp in the same color ink. I did not have pretty in pink so that's the reason for the substitution. I then doodled along the edges using a Rose Red marker. A layer of Rose Red completes the card. This particular card is for my sister who just got a new job. I'm so happy for her. She doesn't usually read my blog very consistently so I hope she doesn't see this before it gets to her:)

Here is my WIGW card. While I made this over a week ago it still applies as a Work It Girl because I banged out 20 of these babies in about 2 hours. The picture really isn't that great. Still trying to figure out the best place/time to get my pics. This is a relatively easy card to mass produce. It could also be changed quite easily to something other than a Christmas card. I used Mellow Moss as the base and stamped with one of my favs....Weathered BG in Mellow Moss ink. I then inked up my tree (Lovely as a Tree...may it never retire) with Mellow Moss and went in with a Choc Chip marker to highlight the trunk area. I then dabbed on Stickles to several branches. It's hard to see in the picture. This is layered on Choc Chip. I stamped Christmas Blessings from Star Studded Season in Mellow Moss and punched out with my Large Oval Punch. Sponged the edges with Choc chip ink and popped up with dimensionals. So easy.
That's all for me today. Hope you all have a safe New Year's Eve. We are staying home. My husband works part of the day and so we are just going to hang out and play games/watch movies. Oh and we may "rock out" to our new Guitar Hero World Tour that Santa brought. I love the drums....they are sooo hard though. So hope you all have a "rockin" New Year:)

Kwerner and WIGW

Yes, I am aware that it is Thursday, not Wednesday, but I believe in wishful thinking. I truly am so far behind on everything household and Christmas related. I spent approximately 6 hours yesterday working on a computer related Christmas project. No wonder the world is so inactive. It takes FOREVER to do something on the computer. So that is why I did not post my project yesterday. Still, I took the time to make a card for Kristina Challenge this am. I am obsessed I tell you. I really like the subdued colors. Makes me feel a bit calm in this hectic time of the year. I may have to stick a few lavender sprigs up my nose to keep that feeling as I head into town though. EEEWWW! Sorry for that visual. Here is my card:
And because I have no time I will come back later to post all details.
UPDATED: Here are the details of my card: Close to Cocoa base was put through my cuttlebug to emboss. The polka dotted paper is a scrap I had leftover from another project. It is by My Mind's Eye. It is layered on top of So Saffron. I used my circle nestabilities for the Baja breeze scallop and then my Creative Memories Circle cutter to layer on the Very Vanilla. This is stamped with Baja Breeze ink using a sentiment from Best Yet. I stamped the bird from the stamp set Always using Close to Cocoa Craft Ink onto Vanilla and clear embossed. I then colored in the flowers with my blender pen and baja and saffron ink. This was cut out and mounted onto the scalloped circle with dimensionals. The two flowers are from the Pretties kit. I wet them with water and then colored with So Saffron ink. The centers are these fuzzy brads from The Paper Studio. They are perfect for all these flower centers. I just love them! I wrapped a section of SU ribbon around the entire thing...cutting a slit on the left side to slide it through and just tied in a knot.

Also, here is my WIGW creation. Believe it or not I had it done on Monday. Then Tuesday had a water issue and it got wet. So if it appears wrinkly that is why. It's funny because after I made it I thought, " I'm never going to give this one away." Just because I liked it so much and knew I could not duplicate it. Well, now I'll never be able to give it away because it's somewhat ruined. That's what happens when you get selfish I guess. I'll be back for details on this as well.

Updated too: The base is Whisper White. I used a strip of Pink Pirouette and stamped using the background stamp Polka Dot with the same ink. I then used the Swiss Dots Embossing Folder in the cuttlebug with the Soft Sky. The scalloped circle is with my nestabilities in Sage Shadow. The images are all cloth-like stickers from EK Success. I got them on clearanced. I then used my Crop a dile to punch out all those coordinating circles and glued on every last one. Then I accidentally spilled water all over it. Don't you hate when that happens?! Ok...off and running. There truly is a God though because basketball practice got cancelled tonight (leaping with joy) THANK YOU! THANK YOU THANK YOU, GOD! You really should always be grateful...even for the little things:) Teacher Gifts...here I come.
Thanks for stopping by my little, crazy corner of the world today!