Wednesday's Sketch

This is my card for today's sketch challenge over on SCS. Since it was so late in the day, and I had had this idea swimming around in my head all day long, I broke my rule and checked out the gallery to make sure I wasn't going to do the same thing that anyone else had done. Do any of you worry about that too?? I know everyone has their own style, but I always think that if it came that easy to me, it HAD to have come to someone else. Thank goodness there are so many stamps to chose from and everyone has their own unique style, because NO ONE had used the stamp I had my heart set on all day, PHEWW!! I am EXHAUSTED from sitting in boring orientation for the past two days, so I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be able to think of anything else. Anyway, I stamped the flower from Bloomin' Beautiful twice on watercolor paper and colored it with my ink pads and aqua painter. I cut out parts of the second flower and glued them to the other one to add some dimension. I don't know why, but when I use this set, I always want to use this paper. And I don't know about all of you, but I have to force myself to use different stamp sets or else I would use this one all the time!! I added some brads and chocolate ribbon and it was done!! That's all for me for now! Thanks for looking and have a great day!!

stamps-Bloomin Beautiful and All Holidays

paper-Wild Wasabi, Groovy Guava, Chocolate Chip, watercolor paper and Afternoon Tea DSP

ink-Black Stazon, Wild Wasabi, and Groovy Guava

tools-aqua painter, silver brads, and chocolate ribbon

Prettie Wednesday

Hello again, and welcome to Prettie Wednesday. I really try to come up with clever titles for my posts, but have now decided to save some brain cells and call them what they are, hence the title, Prettie Wednesday(clever huh, not!!). Two weeks ago, Charmaine challenged us to make a bookmark. Since I hadn’t got to play with it yet, I decided to use the first stamp you will get when you join the Stamp of The Month club, Off to School Sophia. Isn’t she just the cutest!! If you haven’t signed up for the Stamp of The Month Club, you really should check it out. It is a great deal, a great way to collect some Pretties, PLUS, you get the stamps a month before they are released to the public!! How cool is that!!!
I stamped Sohpia on Whisper White with Black Stazon and colored her in using my SU markers. I did add some glitter to her shoes and some silver pen to her lunchbox(atleast I think I did, I definitely made the shoes glittery, geez my mind is slipping) I used some paper from the East Coast Prep DSP by SU and got my colors from there. Then I tied a bunch of different ribbons to the top. The sentiment is from the retired All Year Cheer sets, and the main image is just a tiny bit out of the box(I hand cut out just the lunchbox to give it some personality).This is already on the way to Charmaine and I hope she likes it!! This week, Jillian’schallenge for us it to “Make It New Again”, which is to take out our oldest stamp set and dust it off. The hardest part for me will be figuring out which one is the oldest( I don’t want to hurt it’s feelings you know!!). Watch out next week on Wednesday for my card for Jana’s challenge, to make a baby card using PP stamps. Should be fun!! Don’t forget to check out the other Prettie Girls blogs, and if you decide to play along(which we hope you do), leave one of us a link to your project so we can check it out!! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!
Stamps- Off to School Sophia and All Year Cheer
Paper- Whisper White, Ruby Red, Wild Wasabi and East Coast Prep DSP
Ink- Black Stazon
Tools-SU markers, Ribbon

Prettie Tuesday

So sorry for the late post today, I had my first day of New Employee Training for the USPS today. I was joking with my friend Jodi telling her that I could officially "go postal" now!!LOL!! Before you ask, no I don't get a discount, but man wouldn't that be nice!! I made this card for today's color challenge, which was to use Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow, and Very Vanilla. I stamped my image from the Paper Pretties set Simply Special in Black Stazon on Very Vanilla. I colored it in with my SU markers and went over it with an aqua painter to blend it. Then down the sides of the base I put three sage eyelets on each side and threaded some vanilla taffeta ribbon and put a piece of chocolate satin ribbon around the center. That is all for me now, I think I have over 100 emails to sort through, just from today!! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day(or night, whichever your case may be!!).

stamps- Simply Special and sentiment from the SU Fresh Cuts set

paper-Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow, Very Vanilla, and Enchante DSP

ink-Black Stazon and Chocolate Chip

tools-sage eyelets, vanilla taffeta, chocolate satin, oval nesties, SU markers and aqua painter

Fresh Cuts

Today’s Technique Lover’s Challengewas to combine three past challenges, one TLC, one sketch, and one color. The catch was you had to pick from the first ten challenges ever posted. I gotta tell you, and I know some of you don’t believe me, but this REALLY kicked my butt. My final card really came together fast, but the process of getting there STUNK!!! At first I picked a sketch, color, and technique that I had never done, and found the most challenging- REALLY BAD IDEA!!! Note to self: if you already don’t like it just by looking at it, don’t pick it, it just won’t work!! I finally settled on CC06, SC02, and TLC06. The color challenge was to use Rose Red and Chocolate Chip-yummy combo(if I do say so myself). The technique I picked was to do spotlighting, something I am ashamed to say that in my 6+ years of stamping I have never done before. Don’t ask, I don’t know why!! I stamped the main image stamp from the SU sneak peek set, Fresh Cuts, twice with Chocolate Chip onto Whisper White. I punched out just the flower part and colored it with my SU markers and aqua painter. The rest is pretty easy, you know, big ribbon, brads everywhere, some sponging- my normal!! Hopefully no one else had this same idea or there is gonna be a fight!! Just know, I DID not look at the gallery before I started. That is one of my rules, because I would hate to be influenced subconsciously by someone else’s design. That’s it for now, I will be back later with something else, if I recover from this one!! Have a great day!! Thanks for stopping by!!
Stamps-Fresh Cuts
Paper- Rose Red CS and DSP, Whisper White, and Chocolate Chip
Ink-Chocolate Chip
Tools-Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon, Silver Brads, circle punches, SU markers, aqua painter

MFT Monday

Since Monday is the day that Cindy Haffner posts the My Favorite Things sketch challenge, I am deeming it MFT Monday on my blog(that is, if I get to do the sketch, hehe). Today's sketch is fabulous, as they always are, and here is my card for it. I wanted to make a card to match the bag I posted last week(I feel a gift set coming on), so I used the Punny Farm set for my images. I used watercolor paper, Black Stazon, and my SU markers(no aqua painter today). I used my Nestabilities to cut out the circles and sponged the edges of everything with Ballet Blue and Old Olive. The grass stamp is from the It's a Jungle Out There. I added a bunch of Primas and silver brads where I thought they needed it. Cindy Haffner, who now has a blog-yippeee!!, always has the prettiest flowers on her cards, so she was my inspiration. Be sure to check out the gallery for this challenge, there are some fantastic cards in there!! Hope you are all having a wonderful Monday, remember to be thankful to our Veteran's today, it's not all about BBQ's(although, BBQ does sound good!!). Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!! I am off to figure out what to do for the Technique Lover's Challenge, it's a good one!!
stamps-Punny Farm and It's a Jungle Out There
paper- Cameo Coral, Close To Cocoa, Old Olive, watercolor and Linen Prints DSP
ink-Black Stazon, Ballet Blue and Old Olive
tools-silver brads, Primas, SU markers, cream grosgrain, Cuttlebug, Nestabilities

Raks and Rewards

I have received this super cute award from two of my blogging buddies Silke(sparklegirl) and Jackie(strappystamper). I LOVE their work, so to get this award from them is just THRILLING!! I am supposed to give it to people that I get creative inspiration from, but the list is huge, so I tried really hard to narrow it down to a few(or more), but just know, I check over 100blogs, and you all inspire me!! So I am giving this award to:

Jodi(kharmagirl)-she is my rock!!

Laura(scrapnextras)-her talent is limitless!!

Lee(luvlee)-who is so supportive and as addicted to bling as I am!!

Melanie(mel mel)- who's talent and generosity astounds me!!

Laura(luv'n life n vegas)-she is AMAZING!!

Carole(trucarma)-whose use of color quite frankly scares me, but she is so good at it, and hilarious!!

Susan(susiestampsalot)-hello?? Have you seen the diaper cake and pooper scooper??enough said

Becky(tggrfriend)-super sweet and super creative, can't wait to stamp with her again!!

Chat(nitestamper)-she is so awesome, and so sweet!! I envy her stamping ability!!

Dawn(treasureoiler)-way beyond talented and super sweet to boot!!

Carolina(craftycaro)-She has a heart of gold, and make some of the coolest altered items eva!!

and last but not least, the Prettie Girls, who rock my world!!

Speaking of Prettie Girls, I got this super cute card in the mail from Danielle the other day. It is from our Wednesday challenge, and I {heart} it!! Thanks so much Danielle!! Okay, I promise, no more posts today(I think this is #6 in two days, a little much, LOL!!)!! Thanks for stopping by again and have a great day!!

I Will Survive!!

As promised, I am back with some cards I have made for the Great Swaps Girls challenges. I love the challenges that we post every Monday, but what I really love is that anyone can play. Yep, that means you, so feel free to stop in on Monday’s and Wednesdays and see what we have cooked up. The Monday challenge can be anything from a color challenge to an inspiration challenge. Two weeks ago, Maren(mmbc) posted a Survivor Style challenge, which is basically like a limited supplies challenge. The challenge was to use things you can’t live without, but you could only use 2 colors, 1 stamp set, 1 tool, 1 embellishment, and as many neutrals as you want. You could also use DP too. Now that I am typing this out, I realize I may have broke the rules(used my paper piercer and SU markers- whoops!!), so lets pretend I drew those dots on with my marker-okay? OKAY!! So, I stamped two of the flowers from Bloomin Beautiful on Whisper White with Black Stazon. I colored them in with my SU markers and then cut out certain parts of the flowers and paper pieced them onto the original. It is hard to tell from the picture, but it really does add some dimension. The sentiment is stamped in Black Stazon. I added my dots to the corners with my MARKER(wink) and tied a white satin ribbon around the middle where I had attached a piece of Lovely Lilac DSP. Well, I warned you this challenge was tough, but I love this card, so I hope they forgive me!!
Stamps-Bloomin Beautiful
Ink- Black Stazon
Paper-Lovely Lilac, Always Artichoke, Whisper White and Lovely Lilac DSP
Tools-SU markers, white satin ribbon
This next card was made for the Featured Swapper challengeon the Great Swaps Girls blog. It is posted on Wednesdays, and features a member or our group. The idea is to go to their gallery, pick a card and CASE it changing just a couple of things. This weeks FS was Lisa Henke, and she has a fabulous blog and gallery.I chose this card of hers to CASE. I changed the colors, image, added sentiment tabs, added the cord, changed the embellishments on the side to buttons, and changed the DP. What’s that you say, that’s more than a couple things, you are right(work with me here people)!! I always start out with good intentions not to change to much, but this is where I end up!! Oh well, it’s super cute if you ask me!! The main image was colored with SU markers and my aqua painter. The rest is pretty easy to figure out( I hope). Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you are having a super fabulous Memorial Day weekend, but be sure to not lose sight of what it is really for. Have you thanked a soldier today? I have!!
Stamps-Pun Fun
Paper-More Mustard, Ruby Red, Garden Green, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White and East Coast Prep DSP
Ink- Black Stazon
Tools- SU markers, aqua painter, glitter pen, silver cord, word window punch, silver brads, buttons

Found a Peanut

This weeks featured stamper over on SCS is Denise(Peanutbee), and she has an AWESOME gallery and blog!! She is also super sweet and always leaves me the sweetest comments. I had a super hard time picking a card for the challenge, so I had my pal Jodi(kharmagirl) pick a card for me to do. Does she know me or what!! She picked this card here, and as you can see, I changed a few things. I changed the colors, ribbon, added piercing to the sentiment but didn’t go all the way around the image, and the sentiment. The main image is actually one that I received from Jodi in a ridiculously huge package of stamped images. I believe it is from Inky Antics along with the sentiment. The flower is from the Paper Pretties set Rainy Day Friends. I colored all the images with my SU markers and used an aqua painter to lift some of the color.
Stamps- Rainy Day Friend and Inky Antics
Paper-Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Celery DSP and Prints Pack
Ink-Black Stazon
Tools-SU markers, aqua painter, white taffeta, silver brads
My second share for today was made for the third challenge at the Paper Pretties release party Thursday night. The challenge was to make a box. I chose to make a 2,5, 7, 10 box using this tutorial from SCS. I started with a Tempting Turquoise base and stamped the dots from the Sassy Circles set by PP. The main image is Flutter By by Paper Pretties and I paper pieced her dress with some paper from Imagine That. The rest of Sophia was colored in with my SU markers. The sentiment was made using several circle punches and the Riveting set from SU. I added some button brads to make it cuter!! The top flap was punched with my Martha Stewart edge punch and I added some white taffeta to hold the box close. I can totally see this as the favors at a little girls birthday party, so cute!!
Well, that is it for now. I have one more card to share, but I will post it later, just incase I decide to finally tackle the GSG survivor challenge, it’s a hard one!! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are all having a happy and safe weekend!!
Stamps-Flutter By, Sassy Circles by Paper Pretties and Riveting by SU
Paper-Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White and DP by Imagine That
Ink- Black Stazon and Tempting Turquoise
Tools-circle punches, scallop edge punch, white taffeta, SU markers, glitter pen.

Don't Worry

the funk is over, at least I think it is. I no longer feel like it should be Sunday, and I am stamping, so it must be okay, right? Right!! Anyway, this is my card for the Great Swaps Girls challenge that was posted this past week by Monique. I am still trying to figure out what to do for the challenge posted two weeks ago(Survivor Style), but this came pretty easy. Cameo Coral has been making appearances on my cards a lot lately, which is good thing since I am still using the same package I bought two years ago!!LOL!! Monique challenged us to make a card using Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery and Kraft. I started with a Kraft base(4x8 folded) and layered it with the other colors. My images are from the SU set Embrace Life and are stamped on Whisper White with Black Stazon. I then colored them with my SU markers. I initially intended to do two large eyelets with ribbon going through it, but couldn't get any of my ribbon to look right, so I added another big eyelet and some rhinestone brads to make it sparkle(see the saying). I am almost caught up now, I even got to get on SCS today and post some comments, but I hate to see how far behind in my Google reader!!YIKES!!!
stamps-Embrace Life and Warm Words
paper-Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery, Whisper White and Kraft
ink- Black Stazon
tools-SU markers, large eyelets, rhinestone brads, white taffeta
Here is the card I made for the second challenge posted at the Paper Pretties release party. It was to use Dark Brown, Light Blue and Celery. I chose to use this cute puppy from the Rainy Day Friend set. I used my markers to color him in and cut him out using my Cuttlebug and Nestibilites. This card is 4x4 with a Chocolate Chip base then layered with Bashful Blue and Certainly celery. I pierced around the edges and added three different ribbons. That's all for me for now!! Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you are all having a safe and happy weekend!!

stamps-Rainy Day Friend

paper- Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Whisper White

ink-Black Stazon

tools-Cuttlebug, nestabilities, SU markers, ribbon, paper piercer and template

Am I Alone

I swear to you, yesterday was the longest day of my life!! Am I alone on this one?? I swear it drug on forever and now I feel like today should be Sunday. Oh well, what can you do!! To the shock of many that know me, I think I was only on the computer for maybe an hour yesterday and went to bed by 9:30!! Of course, that meant that at 5:30 I was WIDE awake and still groggy, makes it kind of hard to stamp! Unfortunately, or fortunately(depends on how you look at it), today is my Dad’s birthday and I HAD to stamp, because with everything else that I have been doing, I forgot to make him a card. Yes I know, I am a bad daughter. I did call though, and we have a lunch date tomorrow, so I really don’t need it till tomorrow(can you tell I am trying to make myself feel better). Since I was in no mood to stamp, I decided to make it easy on myself and use both the inspiration challenge and Beate’s weekend sketch challenge. The inspiration piecewas some gorgeous advertisement pictures for an interior design company. I was inspired to use some new paper I had picked up at Michaels yesterday by K and Company(they have all their paper packs 25%off,yayyy). Since I needed it to be masculine, I picked one that was sorta manly(hey I tried) and matched it with Not Quite Navy, Wild Wasabi, and So Saffron. The top is Very Vanilla and was run through my Cuttlebug with the Paisley folder. I added three pewter brads to the top corner because it was looking kind of bare. My dad is a no nonsense kind of guy, so I probably pushed it with the ribbon, but hey, it’s a sickness!! The sentiment is from Circle of Friendship and I used various sized SU punched to create the layers. The scalloped layer is actually two scalloped circles glued together and then punched. The build a brad was made using the reverse side to my paper. Isn’t it yummy!! I really liked the other side, but it was just a tiny bit too fru fru for Dad.
Stamps- Circle of Friendship
Paper-Wild Wasabi, Not Quite Navy, So Saffron, Very Vanilla, and K&Co. DP
Ink- Wild Wasabi
Tools-Cuttlebug, cream wide grosgrain, wasabi stitched ribbon, pewter brads and build a brads, circle punches, paisley folder
This second card is one that I made for the first challenge at the Paper Prettiesrelease party. The challenge was to use buttons, something I don’t tend to use to often. The main image is one of the newly realeased sets Look Out World and features Cooper, Sophia’s little brother(atleast I think he is, if not, he should be). I stamped him on watercolor paper with Black Stazon and colored him in with my SU markers. I blended it with my aqua painter. The colors on this card are Ballet Blue, So Saffron, and Whisper White. I cut out the main image with my Cuttlebug and Nestabilities. That’s it for me now! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!
Stamps-Look Out World
Paper-Ballet Blue, So Saffron CS and DSP, Whisper White and watercolor paper
Ink-Black Stazon
Tools-Blue wide grosgrain, SU buttons, SU markers, Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, aqua painter, spiral clip, white taffeta, striped ribbon