Just A Few Challenges...

all wrapped up in one!! My nephew is being SUPER good today, so I finally got a chance to participate in today's Ways To Use It challenge as well as the SCS sketch challenge. I promised myself yesterday that I would do no more stamping until I got all my Dirty Dozen projects done, and I am FINALLY finished...nothing like waiting until the last minute!! But seriously, WAIT until you see this gallery, it is AMAZING...I am such a tease!!

So, I am officially in love with this snowman from the Anna Wight set, Snowmen For Peace. I love that all the accessories are separate, so it is way easy to paper piece, along with the fact that it is just CUTE!! I stamped my snowman, sign, and sentiment with Black Stazon on watercolor paper. I then colored it in with my SU markers and added liquid applique to the snow. The hat and scarf were stamped separately on some De'ja Views Christmas paper(love this stuff), and glued on separately. I added a photo corner to the top and some coordinating ribbon from De'ja Views on spiral clips. The colors on this card are Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze and Certainly Celery. I ran the white layer through my Cuttlebug with the snowflakes folder and added a ton of silver brads. The squares of Dp and their layers were made with my SU square and scalloped square punches. Isn't it CUTE!! Well, that is it for me now...thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

Prettie Wednesday- One Layer Card

If you are here for my peek at the new Melanie Muenchinger set, look at THIS card first and then check out this post, or just scroll down to the next one, THANKS!!

So, two weeks ago the fabulous and wonderful Julie challenged the Pretties to make a one layer card with scoring on it...HUH???? To quote a friend who shall remain nameless "asking me to make a one layer card is like asking me to breath only once an hour". Obviously, and this will come as no surprise to you, but I really don't DO one layer cards-my normal minimum is around 6, so this challenge, well it was painful. I have yet to indulge in a special scoring tool, so I have a hard time doing anything but straight lines, and after I got done with my card, I realized then that I had BURIED the lines under my ribbon...smart. So, they are there, you just don't see them. My base is PTI white cardstock, which up until now was the strongest white(did you hear the news at Gina K. WAHHOOO). I stamped my Angel Wings image on it and then colored her in with my SU markers and a glitter pen. I put the glitter all over her wings and the trim on her dress. I added 3 dew drops from Robin's Nest, and added some white organdy ribbon and silver cord. This card was SO hard to get a picture of too. It is dark and rainy here today, and I just couldn't get it to photograph well...that's what I get for waiting til the last minute!! Well, that is it for me for now...be sure to check out what all my other Pretties have created for you today...I am sure they are all AMAZING!!

Julie Masse
Charmaine Ikach
Jillian Winters
Danielle Lounds
Jodi Collins
Jackie Rakoski
Jackie Pedro
Jessica Diedrich

This week it is my turn to challenge the Pretties, so here goes girls!! Make a card using pearls as an embellishment!! If you would like to play along, and we would LOVE it if you do, just leave a link here so that I can share your work with my fellow team mates!!

Don't forget to check out the HUGE sale still going on at Paper Pretties, and while you are there, click on the Paper Clip link to see what's up with Paper Pretties on our new blogaroo!!

Have a Cookie!!

So, when my friend Melanie told me that she was sending me a birthday present...I of course responded with a ....you REALLY don't have to do that. Well, Melanie being who she is, sent it anyway...and now I take it all back!! When I opened up the package, there it was, Melanie's new stamp set, Have a Cookie!! Now, I know I don't get to use her images as often as I would like...life has gotten crazy, but I STILL LOVE everything that she does!! Then, when she contacted me and asked if I would like to post along with the Gina K. team, I of course said YESSSSS!!!! So, here I am, posting with the SUPER talented Gina K. team giving all YOU people out there in blog land a look at not, but 5 images from her soon to be released set!! Melanie has done it again and absolutely PACKED as much stamping goodness onto one sheet of rubber-53 images in all...that's a TON!! I chose to go with a Christmas theme, since it is that time of year and I need to get a MOVE ON!! I stamped the gingerbread, tree, and star images on watercolor paper and colored them in with my SU markers. I then punched them out with my 1 1/4 square punch and layered them with a piece of Creamy Carmel punched out with my scalloped square punch from SU. As soon as I saw these three images, I automatically thought of a recent sketch challenge on SCS, so that is where the layout came from. I stamped my sentiment and framed it with some Stylized Silver Hardware from SU. The big silver brads were a gift from my friend Jackie. I also added some silver spiral clips with white taffeta, red and artichoke grosgrain on them. The satin ribbon around the middle is from a share I did with Jody, and the silver cord is one of the final pieces I have left of the original silver cord from SU. My DP is by Basic Grey and I paired it with Creamy Carmel, Ruby Red, and Always Artichoke. Well, that is it for me now...thanks for stopping by and have a great day!! Be sure to check out all the other designers giving peeks of this SUPER cute set today!!
Carolyn King
Donna Baker
Emily Giovanni
Erika Martin
Jessica Fick
Joanne Basile
Kurtis Amundson
Melanie Muenchinger
Gina K (http://blog.ginakdesigns.com/)
Courtney http://www.createdbycourtney.blogspot.com/

Yikes!!!

So, I am NOT loving this weeks color challenge, but you know me, gotta make it work right!!! However, with that being said.....I really like my card, or is it the sinus medicine??? Isn't this image so CUTE!! It is one of the new Nativity stamps from Paper Pretties!! I love the cute little images in these 4 sets and how they all work together so well!! To start, I stamped my image on watercolor paper and colored him in using re-inkers, SU markers, and an aqua painter. I cut him and his layers out with my Cuttlebug and Oval Nestabilities. The colors for my card, and the color challenge today, are Pacific Point, Certainly Celery and Basic Gray. I stamped my sentiment on Whisper White and layered it with the same colors. I wanted this card to really showcase this super cute image and GORGEOUS sentiment, so I didn't add a whole lot. I did my normal piercing, added some large pewter brads and spiral clips(Spare Parts), and some Basic Grey taffeta ribbon. Cute, huh!!

By the way, have you heard all the Paper Pretties news??? Paper Pretties has a new blog! It is called- The Paper Clip! You can now subscribe to get all the updates, news and happenings here at Paper Pretties. When you get there you'll see the first of our monthly news letter written by our Fabulous and Super Talented Jodi Collins!!! Jodi did a BANG UP job on her first newsletter, so go check it out and leave her some love!!

Thanks for stopping by again!!! I will have some surprises for you coming up soon, so stay tuned!!

Sorry...

for not posting yesterday. We are having company come in, and I had to do a little cleaning. By the time I got some of it done, I was BEAT...not to mention injured. I was doing something in the kitchen, don't even remember what now, and I bent my thumbnail back so far that it ripped the skin underneath the nail....talk about HURTING...OWIIIIEEEEE!!! This morning it is THROBBING..so we will see what happens!! Anyway, this is my card for Who's That Girl Monday in the My Favorite Things forum. This weeks challenge was to use the Window Shopping set...but if you don't have her, please, feel free to play along with any other Who's That Girl set!! Also, the challenge this week is to show some love to your embellishment stash. If you upload your creation by midnight Wednesday November 12, you will be entered into a random drawing to win a $5 gift certificate to My Favorite Things Store, whoohoo!!!

Well, if you know me at all, my embellishments know EXACTLY how much I love them, LOL, so this was no big deal for me. I did, however, end up with a 7 layer card, which is strange for me, but still, lots of embellishments!! I stamped my image on watercolor paper with Brown Stazon(as well as my sentiment), and colored it in with my aqua painter and re inkers. The dress was paper pieced with some DP from Bo Bunny Press. The background squares are from the same company, part of the Shabby Princess line(picked it up at the Paper Prettie's store where there is still an awesome sale going on!!). I added some silver brads, spiral clips, Baja Breeze and Kraft ribbon for my embellishments. The sketch is this past weeks My Favorite Things sketch, so I got to kill two birds with one stone!! Well, that is it for me now, thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

Featured Stamper Sunday

So, I told you I would find a card in the Featured Stampers gallery so I could use this card I had already made.. SCORE!!! LOL!! Anyway, this is one of the samples I had made for the My Favorite Things release, and for once, I had MORE samples done then I had time to show...how about THAT!! I LOVE these new cupcake images from It's a Cupcake Kind of Day, don't you? Right now, My Favorite Things is still having their Guest Designer Contest...here are the details from our fearless leader Kim!!

Wanna Join the MFT DT??

Then play along in our monthly Guest Designer challenge! Here are the deets:
Do you want the opportunity to be My Favorite Guest Designer for December?
All you have to do is complete the challenge below and include “MFGD12” in the keywords and link your card back to this thread. You have until 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time Sunday night ( 11/9/08 ) to complete this challenge. The winner will be selected from the entries and posted on Monday.
CHALLENGE: WatercoloringWatercoloring is such a pretty way to color an image. Plus you don’t need to just use watercolor paint/pencils – you can use re-inkers, pearlescent watercolors, Peerless watercolors and more choices I’m not thinking of right now. Use a watercoloring technique on your project for this challenge.
We’re looking for original and unique projects, something that makes us say “Wow – that’s so cool!!” Please make sure the project you submit is a new one and not something already in your gallery.
As a My Favorite Guest Designer, the winner will receive ALL of the new releases for December before anyone else AND will be able to post early with the design team. We will also choose 2 “Ambassadors” who will receive the any pre-released mini set, plus $10.00 in MFT “cash”, PLUS they are invited to host a challenge during the next MFT Release Party!
Don’t forget to put MFGD12 in the keyword section and make sure your project is uploaded before 10:00 pm Eastern time on Sunday.
If you have any MFT stamps, please use them on your design if you can. If you don’t have any (yet!), feel free to play along. The judging will not be based on stamps used, rather on your execution of the challenge!
If you don’t have a gallery on Splitcoast, create one in our Forum HERE!

Anywho, here is the card I chose from this ut, so there you go!! My paper is from the Basic Grey Cupcake line. I sweeks SUPAH TALENTED featured stampers gallery. Okay, so it is KIND of a stretch...but I usually only keep the layotamped the Cupcake three times, once on each of the DP's and once on Whisper White. I paper pieced the cupcake and layered it on Whisper White.

I then added some silver brads and spiral clips with ribbon. The colors on this are Barely Banana, Ruby Red, and Ballet Blue. I added silver brads to the corners of all the panels too. To emphasize the sentiment, I pierced a line underneath it...Super cute HUH!! Now you see why I HAD to be able to use it, LOL!! Yes, I know I could have just posted it, but what fun would that be. I promise to try to ACTUALLY be inspired by her gallery, tomorrow...to late to stamp now!! Thanks for looking and have a great day!!

An Inspirational SFYTT

I have a tiny confession to make...last night when I saw the Inspiration Challenge come up, I SWEAR to you, I went through every single item of clothing on the site trying to make a card that I already had made work....how LAME-O is that!! By the time I got done looking, I had spent an hour trying to find the perfect picture(this is what I ended up using) and ended up never finding anything that would work(for my other card, of course). This card I finally ended up making today...only took about 45mins...FIGURES(and also works for the Limited Supplies challenge, YEEEEEHAAAWWW)(okay, now I actually read the directions and my brads and buttons are NO NO's, so never mind, LOL)!!! With all that said...I am SO HAPPY with the end results of this card. I used a retired set from SU, Polka Dot Posies. I stamped my flowers with Pacific Point ink on Bashful Blue card stock. I then cut out around the flowers and added a Kiwi Kiss button in the center. I did thread some white taffeta through the button holes.....so cute!! I used Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon for the flower stems. For the base, I used Pacific Point, Bashful Blue, Kiwi Kiss and Whisper White. The DP is from the Kiwi Kiss patterns pack. I ran the white panel through my Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder. My white brads are from Pink Hedgehog Paper Crafts, and for the corners, I put a Pacific Point punched circle underneath them to make them pop. The sentiment from the SU hostess level one set "Best Yet", which was stamped with Pacific Point, was punched out with my SU circle punch along with it's layers. Of course, no card of mine would be complete without a spiral clip with various ribbons on it(all from SU). As you can tell from the title, this card was made using Jen's Sketch For You to Try too!! Well, that is it for me for now...I really need to get some stamping done today(and tomorrow for that matter), so WISH ME LUCK!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend(and maybe, just maybe, the FS will have a card I can use my card as a CASE for....yep, that's how I roll)!!

Some More MFT

Here is another card that I made for the recent My Favorite Things release. I didn't get a chance to post all the samples that I had made, so I figured I would go ahead and show one of them to you. This card was made using the new Annie Lapoint image, Geranium. I stamped it with Black Stazon on Whisper White twice. I colored both images in with my SU markers and then I cut out just the leaves on one of them and popped them up. The pot on the flowers is covered with Crystal Effects to make it shiny. I layered it with Riding Hood Red and Chocolate Chip. I sponged the edges with Chocolate Chip ink and then added two spiral clips, one with RHR taffeta and one with Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon from SU. Both of the DP's are from the Bella Rose DSP pack. I added a bunch of piercing, silver brads, and more of the ribbons including the wide stitched Chocolate ribbon from SU. I am watching my nephew at my sister's house, so I wanted to post this ahead of time!! Thanks for looking and have a great day!!

Punched Penguin

So, no one punched the penguin, and the penguin isn't made out of punches...but I did use the ticket corner punch on the corners, so it is a punched penguin( I know, my logic astounds even me, LOL)!! Why the fuss...well, today's Ways to Use it Challenge was to make a card using a corner punch, get it now? GOOD, I knew you would!! So, I have been DYING to get my Penguin Antics set from Whipper Snapper back out to play with, and I decided now that both the Paper Pretties and MFT releases are done, I would play today, no matter what!! I stamped the house image(wouldn't that make an awesome no layer card image), Penguin and swirl with my Black Stazon pad. The line separating the pond from the yard was hand drawn by me...which officially captures every bit of drawing ability I have in a nutshell, sad really. I colored the image with my SU markers, covered the pond with Crystal Effects, the roof and snow with glitter and the added snow to the trees with my White Inkessentials gel pen. I layered it with Rose Red and Bashful blue. The DP is from the retired Holiday Harmony DSP pack(that is the name right?). My PTI white layer was run through the Cuttlebug with my swirls folder. All my ribbon is from SU except the brown, which is from American Crafts. My nephew is here, and sorta cranky, so I am gonna go. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

An E-Girl Sketch

So, today my DH comes home from work and tells me that his aunt Amy's boss "knows" me from being in the Dirty Dozen and wants to meet me(or go to a party with me sometime)...how cool is that!! As soon as I heard that I immediately thought of this sentiment from the soon(within the next 2hrs) released Who's That E-Girl? set by MFT, I'm Famous Online!! Too funny!! Anyway...if you are here now, you should totally be at the member forum on SCS participating in the release cocktail party!! I used the new E-girl image, which I paper pieced and colored in with my SU markers. I layered it with Rose Red and Chocolate Chip. I used Chocolate Chip Patterns paper and Rose Red DSP. The ribbon is all from SU too. For the floor, I colored it with my Creamy Caramel marker and drew the wood panels with my black SU marker. I used today's SCS sketch challenge too!! That is it for now...off to the party!!