Monday, August 31, 2009

Whiff of Midnight (?!)

Today's card is a combination of challenges, hence the silly blog post title. :-) It combines the Whiff of Joy challenge #45 ("bling") and sketch #16 from Priscilla Styles' Midnight Madness sketch challenge blog.

It's hard to see, but there's a small rhinestone in the flower behind the girl's ear, as well as the pearl accents. I could not find any paper that coordinated with my main dp, so I used some small swirl stamps and some Versamagic ink and created the two small pieces of "dp" behind the main image.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Thank you Irina!

I recently won some blog candy from Irina of Everything Paper Crafts. (Psst! Irina is giving away some more candy here.) The package arrived one Friday after a long and hectic day at work and was very , very much appreciated! One of the goodies was a stamp from Irina's new store, La-La Land Crafts. It's from the Rosie collection, Rosie with Teddy Bear. Isn't she sweet? The layout for this card came from last week's sketch on Amy R's Prairie Paper & Ink blog.


On a more somber note, this weekend marked the passing of our longest serving senator, Ted Kennedy. While he certainly was not a perfect person, he did a lot of good for a lot of people as well. Part of the Kennedy creed is to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate. So, dear readers, I ask that you join me in doing something for someone less fortunate this week. If you're a Kennedy supporter, do it in his memory. If you're not, do it in support of all the people in this world who devote their lives to making a difference. For me, I am sending some old swap cards to a fellow demonstrator to send to her son & his fellow soldiers to send home. I am also sending this card to a little girl named Haven, whom I found through the Make a Child Smile site. I hope my card brings a smile to her face! :)

Free Downloads

If you haven't visited The Angel Company site lately, you are missing out on some great free downloads! Visit the download page here.

Look for some Christmas cards featuring stamps from The Angel Company beginning this week. Christmas is only 116 days away! ;-) (Yeah, it seems far away now. Check back with me in another month or two and see how close it seems! lol)

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Magnolia-licious Tricks-n-Treats Blog Hop

The Magnolia-licious Highlites blog is having a "Tricks-n-Treats" blog hop and invited blog readers to submit an entry. The requirements were (of course) to use a Magnolia stamp, use a Fall or Halloween theme and include a matching treat box with your card. I combined this challenge with the current sketch on the Magnolia-icious site.
Here's a close up of the card:

The image is "Standing Fall Tilda". I used two large orange Prima flowers in place of the circles on the original sketch. I don't think I would've used such bright, large flowers on too many of my cards, but they seemed to work really well on this card. The pumpkins are leftovers from an old "Done with One" from Creative Memories. I loved those little die cut sets and was bummed when they discontinued them!

Here's my matching candy holder. (No candy in there yet - sorry!) I used this tutorial from the Scor-Pal site. I can attest to the fact that this is an easy little project to make. I almost always screw this sort of thing up, but my treat holder actually came out right on the first try. Wow!


I think I'm going to make a bunch of these to give as little holiday gifts, using a Christmas/winter theme, of course. It was really fun to make!

A Slightly Different Take

OK, this is what happens when you rush and do NOT pay attention to what you're doing... This was my original card for the Sweet Sketch Wednesday sketch #12:


Cute card... wrong colors! Oops! When there is a COLOR challenge, it helps to use the correct colors, doesn't it? {blush}

I still wanted to share this card with you. A) because, if you look at yesterday's "official" sketch #12 card - you can compare how different the same sketch can look if you use different colors. And B) because I just *love* Arthur from DigiStamp Boutique and I used my absolute FAVORITE Basic Grey paper (the swirly hearts) on the card. (In fact, I love this paper so much, I bought 4 more sheets when I was at an Archiver's on our Chicago trip!)

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Sweet Sketch #12

This week's Sweet Sketch Wednesday challenge has an additional twist - a color challenge!

Here's my take on this double challenge!


I'm the first to admit these colors were a little outside my norm. However, I knew that somewhere in my Basic Grey Urban Prairie paper stack, I would find papers with the right colors! :) The yellow paper has a butterfly print, so this butterfly image from The Angel Company (TAC) seemed like the perfect fit. The "Thank You" stamp is also from TAC. The main image is colored in with Prismacolor watercolor pencils and a Dove blender pen. The buttons are from a Paper Studio bag of buttons and the Lime Scrapper's Floss is from TAC.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Happy Birthday, Tilda!

I'm trying to get my challenge mojo back, so I decided to join in Stamp Something's birthday challenge. You can always use more birthday cards, right? In fact, I think I'll save this for my friend Pam's birthday next May. Since we were kids, Pam's favorite color has always been purple. I think she'll like this card! :)


The DP is from a stack I bought from Cindy at StampingScrapping.com. The card base is made from SU! River Rock cardstock, which I won in a blog candy package from Irina of LaLaLandCrafts. [Check out her new stamps -they're pretty cute! :)] The image is an adorable Tilda from Magnolia that I got in a great image swap over on SplitCoastStampers. The flower is from Making Memories and the leaf is an Emagination punch. (They have the BEST punches. They never, ever stick and always punch cleanly!) Tilda is a colored in with Copic markers.

Friday, August 21, 2009

TGIF!

More summer fun - this one just perfect to celebrate Friday! :)


I just love the "An 'Udder Birthday" set. As you can see, it can be used for lots of occasions besides birthdays. I used one of my favorite TAC paper stacks - A Little Whimsy - along with a button & flowers from the Lemonade Embellishment Jar and some pink Scrapper's Floss. (It's fun how the floss holds a curl like that! I just wound it around an unbent paper clip.)

Wow, two posts in a row! :-) Now that I'm getting caught up on projects for the Sweet Sketch Wednesday design team and things are settling down a bit more at home, I hope to post more regularly. Enjoy!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

One Last Lick...

It's hard to believe that summer is almost over. Yes, I know that according to the calendar, we still have time left - even using the artificial cutoff of Labor Day. But, we go back to school here on Monday and I start work tomorrow, so for the girls & me, summer is truly over.

So, I wanted to make a few summer themed cards to celebrate the joys of summer. This adorable cow is part of an adorable stamp set from The Angel Company. The papers are all from TAC as well (Catelynn), except for the scrap of brown cardstock that I used to mount the cow image.

Party on, dudes! Enjoy what's left of summer. :)

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Sweet Sketch #11

Another Wednesday, another great sketch!

Hop on over to the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog to see the rest of the design team's cards based on this week's sketch! But first, here's my card:

I used the adorable Olive from DigiStamp Boutique for my image. I just love her! The tag is cut with a Nestabilities die and the sentiment is from a great little PWP set of sentiments from The Angel Company.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

The Cat's Pajamas!

A few weeks ago, The Cats Pajamas released 3 awesome new sets of stamps - one "get well" and two summer themed sets. (You can see them here.) Aren't they the coolest? They were having a blog hop giveaway to celebrate the new release. I checked it out, thinking I could never be so lucky as to win the stamps, but enjoying all the adorable projects in the hop anyway. Guess what? I was the lucky winner!

Things have been crazy busy here and I haven't had time to keep up with all the challenges I love to participate in. I decided that today was the day I would check out some of my favorite challenges and so, of course, the Cats Pajamas weekly TCP Tuesday challenge was the first one I checked out. Lucky me - it was a sketch (my favorite) hosted by the awesome Carole Burrage of Mother's Little Helper. I "met" Carole when I was participating in MFT's "Survivor" on SplitCoastStampers. She comes up with some really great sketches for the TCP Tuesday challenges. And I love the Stones' song reference in her blog title!

Anyway, enough blathering! Here's my take on Carole's sketch:


I, of course, had to use one of my new TCP stamp sets. :) The ribbon embellishment was something I learned in MFT's What's Up Wednesday forum on SCS. (They had an article with tips on using ribbon on your cards.) This card is way outside my comfort zone since I chose to use primary colors. I was originally going to use a red patterned paper (same pattern as the yellow) but it was too much red, so I chose to add yellow and blue to the card. The yellow paper is from an old (discontinued, I think) DCWV paper stack that TAC used to carry. The flowers are Primas and the buttons are from a bag of Paper Studio buttons that I bought at Hobby Lobby. And, of course, I used some of my favorite Scrappers' Floss to tie the ribbon embellishment.

Tomorrow I plan on working on more cards to celebrate what's left of summer! (Not much, as we go back to school in about a week! Eek!)

Thank You, Cheri Dahling!

Wow! My friend and fellow stamper/scrapper, Cheri, nominated me for this honor. To quote Wayne & Garth - "I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!" :-)


Since I get to pass on the love, here are a few of my favorite blogs:

Barb Foster's Foster Design House
Stacy's Paper Crafts
DigiStamp Boutique Blog
Amy Rysavy's Prairie Paper and Ink
Jan's Stamp, Paper, Scissors blog

Thanks again, Cheri! :)

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Sweet Sketch Wednesday #10!

Yay! It's time for another sketch on the Sweet Sketch Wedneday challenge blog.

Isn't he just the coolest little owl? He's from The Angel Company's "Hip to Be Square" set. All papers (Amberly Grace dp; Kraft, Brown and Ivory TAC cardstock, DCWV Robin Egg Blue cardstock) and ink (Palette Burnt Umber) are also from TAC. I colored him in using Prismacolor watercolor pencils and a Dove Blender Pen.

Be sure to try out this week's sketch soon!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Finally!

Whew! Sorry if I've been MIA lately. We've been very busy here getting ready to go back to school. I have been making some cards for the Sweet Sketch Wednesday design team, but I can't post those until that week's sketch is posted. So, I promise more cards are coming soon! :) In the mean time, here are two projects that I worked on today:


I bought the plain wood photo blocks from Oriental Trading. In both cases, the papers were chosen to coordinate with other desk accessories. These are a fun, quick and inexpensive project. They are a great way to use up your paper scraps, too!

Friday, August 7, 2009

Wishing you oceans of love...

Isn't this just the cutest stamp? It's one of the new hostess sets from The Angel Company. Right now, if you host a party with at least $100 in sales, you can earn DOUBLE hostess benefits! Interested in finding out more? Just email me.

Paper: Lilly Anna printed and solid cardstock. Embellishments: Lilly Anna ribbon and flower & button from Lemonade Embellishment Jar. Quickutz swirl die. Lime Scrapper's Floss.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Just Hanging Out....

I've made a lot of cards lately with pastels or bright colors, so I thought I'd try one with some Autumn colors. This cute little guy is from the new Angel Company stamp set called "Hanging Out"


I used some Bazzill Monochromatic orange cardstock, TAC's Brown and Assorted Naturals cardstocks and TAC's designer collection paper in Tuscan Spice. The flower & button are from the Lemonade Embellishment Jar and the button is tied with a piece of yellow Scrapper's Floss. (I just love that stuff. No needle to thread!)

Sweet Sketch Wednesday

Check out the latest sketch (#9) on Sweet Sketch Wednesday:

It's a fun sketch because you can do a lot with that wide center panel. I used two layers of cardstock plus ribbon, but you could also use a really wide ribbon with a narrow ribbon on top, just for example. Here's my card:

Have a very Sweet Wednesday!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Birthday Wishes - Really!

OK, I'll admit it - this is an unusual image for a birthday card! However, it's for my friend Karyn who is a nurse. I think she'll like it. We've been friends since we were NINE - can you believe it? (And, no, I won't say how many birthdays ago that was. Just know that it is a lot!! lol)


I got this cute little Tiddlyinks image from a Stamping Bella image swap. Isn't she the sweetest?

Monday, August 3, 2009

A Sweet Little Bunny

Have you made a card for this week's Sweet Sketch Wednesday? If not, hop to it! You can still play along with the current sketch, which I posted yesterday. If you can't play this week, be sure to check out the new sketch which will debut Wednesday morning. Here's my card for this week's sketch:


I used some of my favorite products on the card - my favorite stamp from the "Some Bunny" set; "Mimi" printed cardstock, Burnt Umber Palette ink; Kraft, Ivory and Brown cardstocks; Red-Violet Bazzill Monochromatic cardstock; Prismacolor watercolor pencils blended with a Dove blender pen; flower & button from the "Lemonade Embellishment Jar"; pink Scrappers' Floss; and, dark brown ribbon. Except for the ribbon, all products are from The Angel Company (TAC). (The ribbon is from either Michaels or Hobby Lobby - I'm not sure which.)

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Sweet Sketch Wednesday

Sorry I haven't been posting these past few days. We took a long weekend trip to Chicago and I just got back last night. (Actually, about 3:30 AM this morning!) I have lots of news to share and, soon, some new cards. First, this big news...

I have been asked to join the design team of the Sweet Sketch Wednesday challenge blog. If you read my blog often, you know I love sketch challenges so I was very honored to be invited to join this great group of ladies.

Have you checked out this week's sketch yet? Here it is:


Hope you come and play with us at Sweet Sketch Wednesday!