Vintage Vogue Spring Flowers

Hi there and Happy *wonderful* Wednesday to you! The weather has been gorgeous here in Texas, this week. I know some of you out there aren't experiencing such nice weather, unfortunately. :( I actually got a bit of a sunburn yesterday, while out for a walk with my neighbor and our dogs. Emmitt and Ozzy are just smitten with her two Schnauzers, it's so cute. 

As soon as I saw this beautiful color combo announced at the Color Throwdown this morning, I knew exactly what I wanted to make. I LOVE this mix of colors and will definitely be using them again!    

My theme for the card was inspired by this week's challenge at The Paper Players, "Spring has Sprung". I have great news to share, too. I gave a little hint on Sunday, but I wanted to officially announce that Lesley and the fabulous gals over at The Paper Players have invited me to be on their design team for the quarter. I will be designing with them through the end of June 2011 and couldn't be more excited. Thanks, ladies!! Please stop by the site and check out the fun challenges. I hope you will play along! :)

All of the supplies used are listed below, but here are a few details:

• I busted out my Paper Snips to cut out all of these flowers from my (very neglected) Vintage Vogue set. I'm not usually fond of cutting out small images but I had a lot of coffee this morning, so I was pretty amped up. These are fairly easy to cut though, and they add so much dimension to the card this way, popped up on Stampin' Dimensionals.
• The large flowers were inked up first in Soft Sky, then around the edges in Baja Breeze, then just barely around the outer edge in Crumb Cake, using the Rock n' Roll Technique.
• I'm in a phase right now where I seem to be sponging ink around everything lately, haha! EVERY single part of this card (except the pearls and the ribbon) were sponged with Crumb Cake ink. 
• The sentiment, stamped in Crumb Cake ink, is from the Friends 24/7 set. I then took my Blender Pen and shaded the letters with Baja Breeze ink for some more color.

Here is a close up of the pleated ribbon:

Finally, the decorated inside of the card (yup, I sponged that, too):

That's all for today! Thanks for stopping by and having a look. Before you go please leave a comment and say hello. Come back and visit again soon. (PS: I am getting some blog candy ready to share in the next couple of days!) I do hope you are enjoying your week so far. Have a very HAPPY day today!  :)

Stampin' Up! Supply List: 

Stamps: Vintage Vogue and Friends 24/7

Ink: Crumb Cake and Baja Breeze Classic ink

Papers: Sunny Garden DSP, Baja Breeze, Daffodil Delight, Soft Sky (ret.), Crumb Cake and Whisper White card stock

Accessories: Basic Pearls, Paper Crimper, Scallop Border punch, Boho Blossoms XL punch, Paper Piercer, sponges, Blender Pen, Stampin' Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots, Sticky Strip (for ribbon), Daffodil Delight 3/8" Taffeta ribbon and Paper Snips

Non-SU Accessories: 2 large pearls in the center of the big flowers

Create a *Sparkly* Cupcake

Howdy and Happy Friday to you! What a great week this has been, incredibly busy but great! I have been SO motivated to create ever since attending a demo meeting this week with a few of the fabulous gals from Hand Stamped Sentiments. I learned so many fun tips and techniques, it was AWESOME! Thanks again ladies! :) 

Today, I wanted to use my motivation to try some online challenges. First, I saw the color combo below from The Color Throwdown this week. The polka-dotted butterfly completely caught my eye. I am NOT the biggest fan of Tangerine Tango, but all the other colors in the mix are favorites. Then I read "Dunkin' Donuts" on the Color Throwdown blog and that was what stuck in my head...hence the cupcake. Ha, I actually JUST remembered that I have a donut stamp, too. (*WHY??*)

Then, I was inspired by this week's sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketch Challenges. I am LOVIN' that row of bling on the bottom of the sketch. Well, I guess it doesn't HAVE to be bling...but that's how my mind interprets it! I love bling! :)

Finally, Pals Paper Arts challenged participants to "use scallops in your own design this week.  Keep it clean and simple and let those scallops flow across your card!". There are even teeny, tiny scallops on the cupcake punch. That punch just makes me happy! 

Last night, I saw an awesome tutorial from Stampin! with Jaydee on using the Circle Scissor Plus tool, which was perfect because I didn't have circle punches in sizes that I needed for this card. My Circle Scissor and I have had a love/hate relationship since I bought it. For the past few months, it has actually been locked in the closet, as punishment, for frustrating me too many times to count. Jaydee really demonstrated some awesome tips to use that tool with flawless results! Hooray!! CLICK HERE for her video. Thanks again, Jaydee, for saving my Circle Scissor from an uncertain fate! ;)

Here is the decorated inside, using more scallops, a sassy sentiment and a little "mini-cupcake" punch (non-SU!) . All of the other products (and some details) I used to make the card are listed below, too.

Thanks for visiting today! Please leave me a comment to say "Hi!" before you go, if you would. Be sure to come back and visit again. I'm hoping to have some photos up soon of my craft room, as soon as I put the finishing touches on a few things. Have a very HAPPY rest of your day today! :)

SU! Supply List: 
Stamps: Create a Cupcake (Occasions Mini)
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Tangerine Tango Classic ink, Chocolate Chip Classic AND Craft ink (for embossed front sentiment)
Papers: Love DSP, Tangerine Tango, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White card stock
Accessories: Circle Scissor Punch (for front circles), Scallop Border punch, 2 3/8" Scalloped Circle punch, 1" Circle punch, 1 1/4" Circle punch, 1 3/8" Circle punch, Build a Cupcake punch (Occasions Mini), Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Paper Crimper, Stampin' Dimensionals and Basic Pearls
Non-SU! Accessories: pink gingham ribbon and mini-cupcake punch

Punched Paper Roses

Hello and Happy Thursday! Happy Veteran's Day, too! What a great day to recognize all of those amazing people who have served and continue to serve, to keep our country and our freedom safe, including my sweet husband. This week has been busier then usual with our little "house-guest" who joined us Sunday. (see previous post) He's still here and there is a little update at the end of this post. 

On to my card. When I saw this week's challenge at The Color Throwdown, I instantly knew I wanted to play along. This one is going into the "favorites" file, thanks CTD team! :)

I also was inspired by this cute sketch at the "Just Us Girls" Challenge blog and decided this card was screamin' for a big 3-D blossom! 

I have seen these paper roses on many blogs, so I'm not sure who to give credit to for actually "inventing" them. Here is the link to the great tutorial I used to make mine from Lady and the Stamp. All you need is a Scalloped Circle Punch, some paper, a paper piercer and an eyelet. So simple! For my flower, I used 6 circles, 4 from Cherry Cobbler card stock and 2 from Crumb Cake (aka: Kraft) card stock. After I had it all scrunched and assembled, I used more Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz then one person probably should. Then decided that it just wasn't enough and added some Champagne glitter to the petals and into the center of the flower. 


I really wanted this card to have a TON of different textures and I really like the end result. All of the supplies I used are listed at the end of the post. 

 Once again, I used up some of the left-over scraps to decorate the inside:

Yes, this is another featured card in my "Cards Too Big for an Envelope" series. However, I FINALLY figured out a way to showcase these "chunky greetings" for gift-giving. I simply purchased a bunch of inexpensive, basic brown gift bags. I then added the card to the front and *POOF*,  fabulous, hand-made, gift packaging! I attached the card to the bag with 4 clear photo squares on each corner of the card. This way it could be easily removed by the recipient to read and enjoy. Thanks to this idea, I also realized that I have a "tissue paper shortage" in my house, right now...eeek! That's why the top of the bag is so naked. Glad I figured that out before starting to wrap those holiday gifts!  Back to the store I go...

Here is a quick update on "Schnauzer-Gate". It is Day 4 and we aren't any closer to finding this little guy's family. I have given my phone number to more people then I can count. He is posted on numerous rescue sites. We aren't giving up yet! Although after talking to a lot of people, we are starting to think he may have been "dropped-off" in the neighborhood because his owners didn't want him anymore. :( For now though, he is still pretty comfortable. Especially after discovering the dog toy basket. 

Stampin' Up! Supply List: 

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes, With All My Heart  (flower on inside)

Ink: Cherry Cobbler and Crumb Cake(to distrsss flower stem) classic inks

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake and Soft Suede card stock

Accessories: Scalloped Circle punch (paper rose), 1 3/8" x 5/8" Oval punch, 1 3/4" x 7/8" Oval punch, 3/4" Circle punch (inside) 1" Circle punch, Swirls and Scribbles Sizzlits Die (flower stem), Finial Press embossing folder, Square Lattice embossing folder, Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz (flower and Soft Suede background), Fine Galaxy Stampin' Glitter in Champagne, Soft Suede polka dot ribbon (retired) and pearls

Non SU! Accessories: border punch

Texas Christmas

Hello and Happy Saturday! Hope you are enjoying your weekend so far. If you have visited my blog before, your eyes are NOT deceiving you...I really made a red and green Christmas card today (not my favorite, as you may know). I kind of like how it turned out, though...I think I do anyway. Hmmm... ;) 

I used this week's fun color combo from The Color Throwdown as my inspiration.Try as I might, I absolutely could NOT make anything other then a holiday card with this mix. 

Then I used the following sketch from Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge to put it all together: 

I decided to ink up a retired set I bought a while back (Yippee Kiyay Holiday) because I thought this little cactus image would make a rockin' Texas Christmas card. In my search for a set to use today, I realized that I completely forgot I had it. Yes, I really need to go through my stamp room in a major way...


After coloring in the image, I decided to fancy it up a bit with some bling on the star, Crystal Effects on the ornaments and red glitter on the gifts. I also embossed the Certainly Celery layer with the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder. I have officially decided that I don't know if I would be able to continue making cards if something ever happened to that folder. It is my "go-to" folder for a lot of projects. Then I simply added some ribbon and a few red half pearls to mimic the ornaments on the tree. Yee Haw and there you have a red and green (Eeek!) Texas Christmas card. 

It has been a while since I have shared a pet photo with everyone. Today my little fur-ball Benjamin, got himself into his usual mischief and I caught him red-handed...or maybe that should read "ribbon-handed". He likes to sneak around and help himself to anything laying on my desk lately, then parade it around the house for all to see. He is such a little monster!! 

Thanks for stopping by! 
Happy stampin', 

Upsy Daisy Throwdown

Yesterday, I spent some time catching up and creating with my stampin' pal, Dawn. Her mom is in town visiting and made a fabulous lunch for all of us, as well. Mmmmm! As an added bonus, I got some quality "cuddle time" with Dawn's 2 1/2 month old baby boy, which always makes me smile. :) We decided to try our hands at a couple of challenges today, since we always gain a ton of inspiration from them. I went with my usual "dynamic duo" consisting of a color challenge and a sketch challenge...it seems to work for me so why mess with a good thing, right?

When I saw this color combo over at The Color Throwdown blog, I was super excited to "throw it down". I love, love, LOVE Melon Mambo and Pacific Point is such an awesome, vibrant blue...but then there was River Rock, ugh! Try as I may, I just am perplexed by this color, perhaps I need to attempt to use it more frequently...it's just NOT my favorite. I think I have used 1/2 of a sheet of River Rock cardstock in over 2 years...

I recently heard about the Hand Stamped Sentiments Challenges from one of their DT member's (and fellow SU! demo), Genny, and decided to give it a go this week. Thanks, Genny and team for a fun sketch challenge! I was fun to participate with y'all for the first time . :) 

The floral image in the Upsy Daisy set is such a fun, bold silhouette on it's own. But I really wanted it to stand-out a little more on this card. So, I added some Dazzling Diamonds mixture (see below) to the image for sparkle. Thanks to Dawn for reminding me of this great technique, as I hadn't used it in a while. I'm adding instructions, in case someone out there hasn't tried it before. 

To achieve this look: 

-First, I wiped an Embossing Buddy over my Whisper White cardstock to catch any stray embossing powder.  

-Second, I used a Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to stamp my image in Melon Mambo on the white cardstock.
-Next, I cleaned my stamp, then re-inked it in Versa-Mark.
-Then, I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to perfectly place my (Versa-Mark'ed) stamp over the existing (Melon Mambo) image on the cardstock. I chose to stamp it, just a wee bit off from the original image, for a little "shadow".
-After stamping, I sprinkled some Dazzling Diamonds embossing powder and Heat & Stick powder (50/50 mixture blended together...thanks Dawn for letting me use yours) over the image and heat embossed it. 
-Voila! Sparkly stamped SUCCESS! :)


I also decided to tie the hemp twine on through some eyelets, since just knotting it around the cardstock alone, was causing it to tear. Oops! Hope you like how it all came together. I'd love to hear what you think! :) 

 

Stampin' Up! Supply List:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Melon Mambo and Pacific Point classic ink, Versa-Mark
Paper: Melon Mambo, Pacific Point, River Rock and Whisper White cardstock, Good Morning Sunshine DSP (retired) and Razzleberry Lemonade DSP (retired)
Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds embossing powder, Heat and Stick powder (blended together with Dazzling Diamonds), hemp twine, 1 3/8" x 5/8"Oval punch, 1 3/4" x 7/8" Oval punch, Crop-A-Dile
Non SU! Accessories: pink bling, (Dawn's) blue eyelets and blue ribbon 

Have a great day!
Until next time,

Awash with Pearls

It's Monday and what better way to start the week then with a little creative mojo? I decided to combine two challenges with this card, once again. Two challenge combos are my limit, any more then that and I just end up confusing myself (which lately, isn't that hard to do)! Haha!  


How fabulous is THIS color mix from The Color Throwdown blog?? In my opinion, you just can't go wrong when any shade of PINK is involved!

I paired these great colors with this sketch from Mojo Monday...too bad I started working on this one on Sunday evening and missed out on getting it entered to BOTH challenges on time. Oh well, if only there were more hours in the day sometimes. :(

For this card, I decided to use my Awash With Flowers set, simply because I have never used it before. I have seen some pretty amazing cards people have made with this set, but for some reason, I have just never really been inspired to use it. As I started playing around with it, I thought it would liven it up a little to add a couple (ok, a few more then a couple) pearls as accents. Not going to lie though, it STILL isn't destined to be one of my favorite sets...but I will keep trying.

I did a little soft shading on the leaves, with a gray marker. Then I added the shimmery pink ribbon, that I randomly came across in a basket on my desk. I love when that happens, when you don't have to search for supplies! 

The sketch was a great opportunity to use up some of the scraps of paper and cardstock I have accumulated over time, too. The layer of Rich Razzleberry DSP already had some Smooch Spritz on it from another project but after getting it all put together, I liked the shimmer so much, I just "Smooched" the whole background! 

I went with the "Happy Retirement" sentiment, why? Because I needed a retirement card? Nope...I just REALLY liked the font on the sentiment with this card! I can always swap it out later! Or hey, maybe someone I know will be lucky enough to retire, then *poof* I will just whip this card out to send off! Yup, I'm being proactive...that's it! 

Stampin' Up Supply List: 

Stamps: With Flowers, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Pink Pirouette, Basic Gray classic ink

Paper: Rich Razzelberry, Pink Pirouette and Basic Gray cardstock, Razzleberry Lemonade DSP (retired), Bella Rose DSP (retired), Basic Gray DSP (retired, hostess paper pad)

Accessories: Square Lattice embossing folder, Scalloped border punch, Word Window punch, Modern Label punch, Smooch Spritz in Vanilla Shimmer and PEARLS!
Non SU! Accessories: pink ribbon and pearl brad

Have a great day and a great start to your week, 

Up, Up & Away...

Happy Sunday! Guess who ISN'T watching football today? :) Instead, I was inspired to spend a little time creating. My card was inspired by the colors at The Color Throwdown blog along with the sketch over at the Mojo Monday blog.

This color combo rocks! It is so cheerful and happy, I knew immediately that I wanted to use this fun stamp set with it. It reminds me of growing up in upstate NY and going to the Jamesville Balloon Fest. I have always wanted to ride in a hot air balloon, but my fear of heights keeps me enjoying them from the ground. When I started playing with the sketch, all I could think of was bright, sunny skies, so that's how the hot air balloon ended up flying over the little tree tops underneath it. I used the cool shadow Copic to shade in the entire sky. I am NOT an expert with Copics...although I am trying to learn how to use them for that amazing shading that I see other stampers achieve. Ahhh, maybe one day...

I couldn't decide on the sentiment, but I needed a congratulations card and "Your time to shine" seemed to fit so well. Then I kept thinking..."time to shine"..."time to shine"...and what magically appeared on the card? Crystal Effects! (Well, BLING appeared as well, but with me, that is pretty much a given! Ha Ha!) I really like the glassy look the Crystal Effects gives to any project. Just make sure it is dry before you shove your entire hand in it, like I seemed to forget today. The little clouds were just sitting off to the side of my desk drying, when I reached quickly for my paper piercer...Splat! Yay, for cutting the clouds out a total of 4 stinkin' times! Grrr...


Another hazard when using Crystal Effects is when your "uber-fluffy" kitty decides he wants to sit on your desk and "supervise" your project. Thanks, Benny Max!  

Hmmm, I was just informed by my husband that the Cowboys game is on at the same time as the season finale of two of my favorite shows. I just reminded him why we have a dvr...for his game, of course! Nice try, though! I'm thrilled it's football season again, can't you tell? :)


Have a great day!

The Coffee Throwdown

Another week and another creative day with my fabulous friend, Dawn. We have been having a lot of fun lately with using online challenges, (with our own little flair thrown in) to jump start our creativity. It's great to see what two stampin' souls can create from the same challenge.


This week our challenge had THREE parts to it! Why? Well, I think Dawn secretly enjoys watching me pull my hair out with my indecisiveness! :)


Here is the challenge break-down:

PART ONE- We used this fantastic color combo from the creative gals over at 

The Color Throwdown blog

PART TWO: Then we decided on this fun sketch from the Splitcoast Stampers Wednesday Sketch Challenge

PART THREE:  Because "someone" wanted to play with my new coffee-themed stamp sets (ok, we really BOTH did), we went with a crazy COFFEE theme! 

I will admit, I REALLY struggled with this challenge (maybe because there were, *cough, cough* so many parts to it...I'm KIDDING!) There was something about that Pretty in Pink color that had us both duped on this one. That is really odd for me, because if you know me, you know how much I like...ok, LOVE, pink! I just struggled to make these colors work for a coffee-themed card. 

So what you see is my end result...after a lot of hair pulling and copious amounts of Diet Dr. Pepper. I over-compensated for my indecisiveness with a lot of BLING and lots of tiny details. I embossed the coffee cup images on DSP and cut them out. Then I colored in the tops of the mugs and added Crystal Effects, so it looked like a "real cuppa joe". I thought adding the glitter to the "steam" would be cool, but in hindsight I should have maybe just embossed it...oh well. 

Until the next one...

**I do want to give props to Dawn and her cutting prowess, for cutting out the inside of the tiny cup handles for me...because I was whining about it like a small child. Thanks, dude! 

Supply List:

Stamps: Non-SU! coffee set...BUT the "steam" on the coffee is from the Morning Cup set

Ink: Basic Black craft ink

Paper: Pear Pizzazz, Rose Red, So Saffron, Whisper White cardstock, In Colors Hostess 6x6 paper pack, Delicate Dots DSP (retired, Sell-a-Bration)

Accessories: Pretty in Pink ribbon, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Small oval punch, Scalloped oval punch, embossing powder, Crystal Effects, corner rounder punch, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Non-SU! button, sequin, bling

Have a great day,