colourQ challenge #134

Love this color combination for this week's ColourQ Challenge # 134! Never would have thought to put these colors together. I used Papertrey Ink's Scarlet Jewel, Aqua Mist, Canyon Clay, and Raspberry Fizz with my new Framed Out #2 set and my old favorite standby Mehndi Medallion.

Thanks for taking a peek!

PTI Make It Monday # 63

To be honest, I don't like glitter. Two of my three little girls LOVE the stuff...on their clothing, in their artwork, everywhere if they had anything to do with it. But Heather Nichol's Make It Monday video encouraged me to try glitter die cuts because she made it look SO easy and neat. Well, my work space definitely did NOT look like Heather's afterward but it wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be. Great idea to use the Xyron because it holds all the glitter on the die cut shape with minimal falloff.

So here's my card that I made inspired by one of Erin Lincoln's creations she featured during release of the Super Stars set. I had to go with blue stars since blue was one of the only colors of glitter I had.

I used the often neglected Blueberry Sky cardstock paired with Aqua Mist. I think I'm gonna have to use the Super Stars set more often.

Have a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

Papertrey April Blog Hop

Its that time of the month again! Papertrey's Inspiration Challenge for this month is this beautiful photo and I was inspired to make three cards since my card to-do list for April and May is so long!



For my first card, I was inspired by the colors in the inspiration photo so I made this card using Raspberry Fizz and Spring Rain with an older set - All About You & All About You Additions set. Finally used a bit of the Raspberry Fizz patterned paper too.



For my second card, I used these colors to make a card for my niece's upcoming birthday. I had just intended on using my newly acquired Just The Ticket border die but also wanted to incorporate something 'princessy' for her so I used the castle from the Little Princess set.



For my third card, I was drawn to the stack of patterns and colors in the photo which I tried to recreate here using the wine bottle tag die and foam dots.



See you around the Blog Hop! Thanks for stopping by!

CPS 262

Another Teacher Appreciation card...this time using the sketch from Card Positioning Systems

I used patterned paper from Crate Paper and Bazzill Swiss dotted paper and embossed the small sentiment on the bottom with American Crafts Zing powder in Leaf.

Thanks for stopping by!

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge # 49

I've got TONS of Teacher Appreciation cards to make for the upcoming celebration week in May. Here's my take using the great sketch for this week's CAS-ual Fridays Challenge:

Used some bit of patterned paper from Creative Imaginations and embossed the sentiment from the All About You PTI set.

Thanks for taking a look!

MIM #62 - Step It Up Layering

Betsy Veldman's Make It Monday video for Papertrey Ink was so inspiring this week. It was wonderful to see a fabulous creative at work. Her challenge was to create two cards - a single layer card and another that is 'stepped up'. In her video she used the Rosie Posie and Turning a New Leaf sets which were two sets that I have rarely used so I decided to make a set of cards using these same stamps & design but with different colors - Raspberry Fizz, Hawaiian Shores, and Scarlet Jewel. Why mess with a good thing?

My one layer card:



For my second layered card, I used bling instead of buttons and changed the sentiment to Happy Birthday since I needed a birthday card this weekend. I used half a Jillibean Soup Journaling Sprout as my grounding element.



Now that I've made my version of Betsy's card, I'm going to try to make another Step It Up set using different stamps.
Thanks for taking a look!

MIM #61 Take Two

Here's the original flower I made for this week's Make It Monday #61 challenge. It uses the Tree Tops die. It turned out a little bigger than I thought so I had to go through different card bases/designs until I finally found one that I think worked with such a big flower (my girls like it looks more like a snowflake than a flower!). Fell back upon my trusty Thing Big Sentiments to match it and some Fancy Pants patterned paper. Embossed the sentiment to make it stand out.

Thanks for looking!

PTI Make It Monday #61

What I love about Make It Monday Challenges is that it pushes me to do things outside my comfort zone. What I hate about it is that it isn't always easy for me, like last week's challenge with generational stamping. I usually start something as soon as I watch the video on Monday and sometimes it takes all week before I make something I like. This week wasn't a walk in the park either but it was a lot of fun.

Challenge #61 this week was to make a flower out of a non-flower die. I didn't want to use leaves but one of my very different dies. Here's the card I made using the recently released 'Tie' die. It was my second attempt at a flower.



Thanks for taking a peek!

Retro Sketches #6

With Teacher Appreciation Week coming soon, I thought I'd get a head start on some cards for the girls' teachers. Maybe for once I won't be scrambling at the last minute. Here's the card I made using the Retro Sketches Challenge #6:



My inspiration sketch:



Thanks for stopping by!

PTI Make It Monday #60

When I first saw Ashley Cannon-Newell's Make It Monday video, Generational Stamping. I was inspired because it looked relatively easy and gave beautiful results. All during that week though I attemped a card 4 times, each time frustrated that my card wasn't coming out the way I had expected because my 'second' impressions were pretty light, almost invisible. OK, obviously my fault because I picked pretty light colors like Summer Sunrise and Aqua Mist. So then I tried darker colors like blueberry sky and smokey shadow and got very light impressions too because I had pressed down so hard on my first impression that there was no ink left. I blame this on my choice of stamps - Mehndi Medallion - which doesn't not yield a complete impression for me unless I press down on it really firmly. I also tried Ashley's technique of reinking and stamping off and that worked a bit better. I also consulted the lovely stamping friends on the PTI forum and learned to give the stamp a puff of breath before stamping the second impression. Voila! Those two tricks yielded a better card that you see here. Not perfect but much better than the foiled attempts. Lessons learned - keep trying and that the forum is a wealth of information! I love this technique and will keep practicing it so be prepared to see this again on other cards. Thanks PTI and Ashley for continuing to inspire me.

Thanks for stopping by!

Thinking of You

Thought I'd escape the madness of three little girls OD'ing on the Easter Bunny's treats to post this card I made for two great online challenges. I was so excited to see the Color Throwdown challenge #186 because I had that exact paper pad in my stash. And Clean & Simple's sketch is so beautifully simple to put together.



Supplies:Cardstock:Memory Box,Patterned Paper:My Minds Eye Stella & Rose Mabel Pad,Flower:Basic Grey,Ink:Momento Rich Cocoa,Sentiment:PTI Up,Up&Away,Scallop Punch:Stampin Up,Die:PTI Double Ended Banner

Back to the kids before all of the white chocolate M&Ms are all gone. Hope you had a great holiday!

Jeweled Color Trends Challenge

I am giving wine as gifts to two friends this week and thought that they could use a little decorating. Using the gorgeous colors from the Jeweled Color Trends Challenge on the Embellish Blog as inspiration, I made these two wine bottle tags.



Supplies:Cardstock:Papertrey Ink Soft Stone,Ink:Papertrey Ink Hawaiian Shores,Blueberry Sky, Smokey Shadow, Aqua Mist, Stamps:Papertrey Mehndi Medallion,Rhinestones:Kaisercraft

Thanks for taking a look!

Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger

This week's Tuesday Trigger is full of inspiration - the crisp look of the white and blue and the gorgeous texture of the white on white. So when I opened my mail today and saw that I had gotten this Penny Black Background stampas one of my prizes for Jennifer McGuire's Cards That Care drive last December, I just knew I had to use it for this card. I embossed the background on the blue to mimic the clean look I got from the Trigger and added a few pretty embellishments.



Supplies:Cardstock:Memory Box,Die:Spellbinders Labels One,Butterfly:Jenni Bowlin,Ribbon:Michaels,Background Stamp:Penny Black,Sentiment:Papertrey Ink Mega Mixed Messages,Ink:Versamark,Momento Black,Embossing Powder:Zing American Crafts White

I really love how the embossed background turned out. This stamp is definitely going to get lots of use!

Thanks for taking a look! Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

CASE Challenge #85

Though the style in Laurie's pretty inspiration card differs much from my own, I was drawn to the colors and mix of patterns. Here's the card I made with the CASE Study Challenge #85:



Supplies:Cardstock:Papertrey Ink Hawaiian Shores,White, Patterned Papers:Studio Calico Memoir,Stamps: Papertrey Ink Movers & Shakers Sentiments,Dies:Papertrey Ink Mat Stack 3 and Double Ended Banner Dies,Ink:Momento Rich Cocoa

colourQ Challenge#131

This week's colourQ challenge brings the bright springy colors together, perfect for Easter and the birthdays this month. I used these colors as a springboard for a card for my mom's birthday.



Supplies all Papertrey Ink: Cardstock:Rustic White,Stamps:Mehndi Medallion and Mega Mehndi Medallion,Sentiment:Beautiful Butterflies,Die:Fillable Frames #10,Ink:Melon Berry, Simply Chartreuse,Summer Sunrise,Harvest Gold

Thanks for taking a peek and have a wonderful Easter!

Vanilla Bean Scones

When I saw the Pioneer Woman's recent Food Network episode featuring her Mini Vanilla Bean Glazed Scones, I couldn't wait to try it out since these same scones are my favorite baked treat at Starbucks. The recipe was fairly easy and with the girls help I was able to bake and glaze in no time. Delish with a cup of coffee. This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Play Date Cafe #126

It feels like its been a while since I had some time to make anything crafty. Between kids activities and Spring Break, I've been so busy. But that doesn't mean that I haven't been THINKING about cards and ongoing scrapbook projects.

Here's a card I made for Play Date Cafe Challenge #126 which uses the colors of Avocado, Blue Mist, and Grey Wool. The grey I used is a bit darker than I had wanted but I still love the overall graphic clean look of the card which I made for my sister in law's upcoming birthday. First time I made my own background paper too.



All Supplies from Papertrey Ink:Cardstock:Simply Chartreuse, Inks:Simply Chartreuse, Aqua Mist, Smokey Shadow, Stamps:Rosie Posie, Sentiment:Everyday Button Bits, Die:Double Ended Banner

Thanks for stopping by!

Just For Fun

I rarely make cards that are not inspired by an online challenge. I usually need color or design inspiration to get me going with the little craft time that I get. But my recent Papertrey Ink delivery brought a new set that I was so excited to start playing with - Super Stars. It seemed perfect for my niece's baptism card since I don't have any stamps with a religious theme.

All supplies are Papertrey Ink:Cardstock:Raspberry Fizz,Stamps:Super Stars, Ink:Summer Sunrise, Squa Mist, Raspberry Fizz, and Pure Poppy, Ribbon:Raspberry Fizz Twill