Anna's sketch

Anna Wight, aka Sweet Miss Daisy on SCS, posted a sketch on her blog, Sweet and Sassy Notes. I decided to give it a try this weekend with my new Michael's $1 Halloween stamps and this sheet of K and Co. paper I picked up to go with them. The first card is the closest to the original sketch. I just love those witches' feet! The "the witch" is a partial sentiment that I inked up with a marker.
I really wanted to use this sentiment - it made me giggle when I saw it in the bin! - so I flipped the sketch to make it a vertical card instead of a horizontal. On this one, I cut out a piece of the witch from SU's booglie eyes using my Creative Memories circle cutters and colored and mounted it.
I didn't like the circle on the side, so on the last card, I put it on the top. I like this one the best. Supplies for all the cards are: SU cardstock in orchid opulence, only orange, green galore, basic black and whisper white; SU markers in orange, orchid and green; stamps from the Michael's $1 stamps and Booglie eyes; K and Co. patterned paper; CM circle cutters, diamond Stickles on the shoe buckles for a little sparkle!

Making the most of mustard

I made this card for the SCS color challenge earlier this week. The challenge called for old olive, bashful blue, and more mustard. I like mustard in limited quantities, usually with other earth tones for fall. So I was momentarily stumped as to how I would combine the three colors. Then I remembered the goodies my friend Joni sent me - they included some Cuttlebugged backgrounds and sliders in mustard! So I used the thank you background, layered on blue and an olive card base, then added an image and sentiment from Happy Harmony on this fun, simple card. I was pleased with how it turned out. And I see the purchase of a Cuttlebug in my very near future!

A winged thing ...

I borrowed this set, Winged Things, from a friend a couple of weeks ago, and it came in handy tonight when I tackled Karen's weekly inspiration challenge on SCS. The inspiration piece was a pillow with coral, brown, stripes and butterflies, so that's what I did with my card. I started with a coral cardstock base, stamped tiny butterflies using white craft ink on about two thirds of the card. I then added three strips of chocolate chip cardstock over the top. The main image was stamped in timber brown stazon and colored with coral ink using blender pens and ink from the pad lid. I added diamond Stickles to the spots and antenna. The sentiment was finished off with a bow of chocolate grosgrain and vanilla organdy ribbons.

Festive sketch

I made this card late last night for today's sketch challenge on SCS. I've been in the mood to make Christmas cards lately for some reason! The main and tag images are from Festive Favorites - I stamped some images using black stazon a few weeks ago when I visited a friend. I colored the images using blender pens and ink from the pad lids. The ink colors are old olive, true thyme, cranberry crisp, bashful blue, and more mustard. The patterned paper is all from the retired Holiday Thyme collection. The other cardstock is true thyme, cranberry and vanilla. Accessories are cranberry stitched and blue grosgrain ribbon, tag and word window punches, hemp twine, and an eyelet. I think I have about 10 holiday cards done now; only about 50 to go! I usually make most of them the same, but it's nice to have a head start with a few from the challenges to get my stash going. Anybody else working on holiday cards yet?

For Joni

My sweet friend Joni (jstarbright on SCS) sent me a RAK last week that included a bunch of Cuttlebug-embossed backgrounds and die-cuts, the lovely card below, and a Close to My Heart stamp set. Joni is a CTMH demonstrator; you can find her Web site here. She sent me the stamp set, Free Spirit, after I admired a stamp from it in her gallery. What a sweetie! This is my first CTMH stamp set, and the card above is the first one I made with the set. It was a thank-you for Joni, who really is one of a kind! I fiddled with this card for a couple of hours over two nights before I finally settled on a design I liked. I started with the large circle stamp, then used my CM circle cutters to cut the image and a layer for it. I also used the circle cutter for the small flourish at the top. I used whisper white, pixie pink, pink passion and orchid opulence cardstock, and Colorbox pigment inks in peony, heliotrope and orchid. I covered the bird in diamond stickles and used dimensionals on the bird panel and the tiny flourish. I finished the card with a piece of ribbon from my stash. The finished card is 5.5 inches square. I just love the card she made me, too! This blue color - not quite SU caribbean and a little darker than soft sky, and the black and white look terrific together! Thanks again Joni for the awesome RAK!

Saturday inspiration

In the midst of my very busy day yesterday, I found a little time to stamp a card for this week's inspiration challenge on SCS. The inspiration piece had fairies, flowers an oval and a pearl, along with some shades of green and lavender. I used my Creative Memories oval cutters for the focal image. The flower stamp is from Hero Arts; I inked it with markers in sage shadow, amethyst and a little lavendar thumped over the amethyst. I inked it once, stamped it a couple of times, then inked it again and stamped a few more times. I really like how it turned out! I stamped wish from Small Script in lavendar over the top. I used another of my cuttlebug backgrounds from my friend Joni and trimmed the corners of the layers with my ticket corner punch. I finished the card with some organdy polka dot ribbon from Michael's, a couple of Primas and a pearl brad from K and Company.

Stamping when I can

Credit to Alison for the title of today's post and my apologies for the lack of updates this week. It was a very busy week at work, I had the first meeting of my new book club, and just didn't have much time to stamp or blog this week. I started one card Thursday night, but it was challenging me and I had to pick it up again last night before I finally got it done. Can't share that one yet, but I also made this one last night, and that one I can share! This is my take on Beate's weekend sketch challenge this week. My friend Joni (jstarbright on SCS) sent me some Cuttlebug backgrounds and die cuts since I am still CB-free. Maybe Santa will bring me one - especially now that I know how fun they are to create with! The aqua CB background was made with CTMH paper, which has a white core. I then sanded a bit to expose some of it. On the celery layer, I added some detailing with my white gel pen. The sentiment, from Riveting, was cut out with my CM circle cutter and mounted with a dimensional on the die-cut piece. Other details: tempting turquoise card base, shimmery white and basic black cardstock, dp from My Mind's Eye, ribbon, brads from Queen and Co. Thanks for stopping by. I hope to have something else new for you tomorrow!

Happy birthday Jason!

This card is for my nephew, Jason, who turns 11 today! He's actually my honorary nephew - his mother is my best friend of nearly 20 years. I feel so old writing that! I still remember the day Jason was born - I lived 3.5 hours away and I couldn't get away from work until the next day! I left early, drove as fast as I dared, stopped at a department store and dropped a bunch of cash on cute boy clothes, then raced to the hospital. After a couple of hours there, I had to turn around and drive home again, over a mountain pass no less. But it was totally worth it! I now live about 1,000 miles from Jason, his sister and their parents. I miss them so much sometimes, but try to visit at least three or four times a year, even if only for a few hours.
Now on to the card! Making cards for 11-year-old boys is hard! Especially when I have so few boy stamps! My inspiration for the card is Jason's favorite pastime - motocross racing - and his favorite rider, Chad Reed, who wears blue, black and white. I bought the SU wheel Making Tracks just for Jason's cards as well as for scrapbook pages of him racing. I started with a brilliant blue card base and wheeled along all the edges. I added a black mat, then the white cardstock wheeled with basic black ink. The sentiment is from Happy everything and stamped in brilliant blue, then layered on black and blue cardstock and popped up on dimensionals. I finished the card with some Making Memories eyelets, black hemp twine, and a motorcycle charm from Karen Foster. I hope he liked it!

A box and a tag

I made this cute 2-5-7-10 box, aka a Jenn box for Jenn Balcer, for today's Technique Lovers challenge on SCS. It's a quick and easy, one-sheet box. I used the Heartfelt thanks for the flowers and Small script for the sentiment. Cardstock is perfect plum, sage shadow, shimmery white and designer paper from My Mind's Eye's Tres Jolie collection. I finished the box with some silver brads from Making Memories, my ticket corner punch and some white organdy ribbon. Fast and fun!

*******

Now, for the tag. My friend Kim tagged me with this one going around blogland right now. Thanks a lot Kim! I don't use my last name on the 'net or for any craft-related stuff, so where that is required, I subbed my middle name.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Harry Honda

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Chocolate Gingersnap

3. YOUR "FLY Guy/Girl" NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name) M-LAN.

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Red Kitty

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Lane Salem (I like this one!)

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) Lanmi

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put "The") Blue Cosmo

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Telmer Orville

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) This one's terrible - 24 Fabourge Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother's & father's middle names ) Sylvia Charles

I hate to single out anyone for a tag - so tag to all of you who haven't gotten this one! It's fun to read what everyone comes up with!

Weekend sketch block

I've tried twice now to stamp a card for Beate's weekend sketch challenge - both times ended up looking very little like the sketch, so I think I must have a block for this particular sketch. The part that I keep forgetting is the wider panel under the main image. And both cards have the sketch flipped so the panel is on the left instead of the right. The first card I made was for a friend's birthday. I started with a rose red base and layered with a piece of patterned paper from My Mind's Eye. The main image is a flower from Heartfelt Thanks inked in rose red and artichoke and stamped three times without reinking on shimmery white cardstock. The sentiment from Happy Harmony is inked in bordering blue. The image is layered on buckaroo blue and artichoke. I also used the ticket corner punch and antique brass brads from Hodgepodge Hardware. I finished the card with ribbon (Jody Morrow ribbon share via blog candy from Jimmi Mayo!) and a buckle from HH. The card is 5.5 inches square.
,When I went back to the sketch, I realized I really hadn't followed it all that closely, so I decided to try it again this afternoon. But even though I had the sketch on the computer screen five feet away, I still forgot the wide panel, and this one I flipped on accident! I meant to make it with the panel on the right, but as I got into the cardmaking and forgot! This card base is chocolate chip, the main image is an ancient piece of patterned paper from Anna Griffin layered on cranberry crisp. The band across the card is crimped chocolate chip cardstock layered on old olive. The stamped circle is from Riveting with cranberry ink layered on a chocolate chip circle. I attached a sprig of olive ribbon underneath. Thanks for the challenge, Beate! I'll try to do better next time!

Neutrality

I picked up this sheet of dp from Rusty Pickle when I was shopping for my VSN secret sister, since she said her favorite colors were neutrals, followed by earth tones. The first card uses the dp with black and saffron cardstock. The stamp is from a Marcella K acrylic set from Target (gotta love the clearance endcaps!) I inked it in black stazon. the edges of the black layer underneath the image are roughed up with my Heidi Swapp edge distresser. The sentiment is mounted on dimensionals, in part to accomodate the brown and black hemp twine wrapped underneath. This was a farewell card for my cousin who left for his first year of college at Harvard a few weeks ago. Masculine cards are hard for me, but I was pleased with how this one turned out!

The second card was actually the first one I sent to my secret sis. The dp is layered on chocolate chip and creamy caramel cardstock; the image is stamped on vanilla and layered on saffron and chocolate chip. The flowers of the image were inked in saffron, the stems in caramel, and I attempted to rock-n-roll the flowers in caramel, as well. The flower stamp is from Happy Harmony and the sentiment (stamped in chocolate chip) from Small Script. The cardstock on the image was roughed up with the edge distresser, and I finished the card with this funky brown velvet ribbon I picked up at the LSS where I got the paper. The card is 5.25 inches square.

Secret sister

Now that VSN is over, I can share the cards and projects I made for my secret VSN sister, Trina (aka Beena on SCS). Trina said her favorite colors were neutrals and earth tones, so I used the earth tones as my pallette. I really enjoy working on projects "for" someone; it allows me to customize them, and also push myself to work outside my color/style comfort zone. Early on after I found out who my secret sis was, I stopped at LSS to do a little shopping and picked up this sheet of patterned paper from the Well Worn collection by Paper Loft. That single sheet was used for all these projects, plust the two cards below. I also used the stamps from Heartfelt Thanks on all of this collection. The trio in the first picture is an altered notebook, a post-it holder and a luggage tag. The notebook was from the $1 spot at Michaels (though I actually got it on sale half off!) I used mod podge to adhere the front and back covers, then added grosgrain ribbons down the side. The image was stamped in really rust and artichoke, and I added a prima and brad before layering it on artichoke and buckaroo blue, if memory serves! I also added the friend stamp from Noteworthy. The post-it holder contains two monogram post-it pads, also from the Michaels $1 spot. I got the idea from Emily Giovanni (Emilymomto3boys - her blog is linked at right). I used the same colors, ribbon and stamps, with the addition of a sentiment from another retired SU set, I think it's called Just for fun. The luggage tag has lots of sponging - not sure why, but I got in a sponging frenzy on that one. I added chocolate chip and bordering blue ink to that image in addition to the rust and artichoke. The alphabet stamps are Marcella K from Target. I finished it with more primas, brads and ribbons.
The card above was sent with the reveal package. Same colors, ribbons, brads and paper, with addition of a buckle from hodgepodge hardware. I was really pleased with this layout.
The last card was actually the first thing I made using the paper, and was one of three cards I sent to Trina before the reveal package. The ribbon is May Arts, I believe, and the brads are large misc. brads from my stash. I punched the image out with my Marvy square scallop punch. I really liked finally have a scallop punch, but I ended up returning this one because it wasn't a clever lever and really did not punch well at all. Now I scallop-less again :( ! Anyway, this was my first-ever, and only so far, tent-topper card. The concept was developed by Michelle Wooderson; I think I need more practice, because these proportions seem a little off to me. Nonetheless, I was really pleased overall with how these projects came out. I don't think I have much if any scraps of that sheet of dp left; too bad, I really liked it!

Getting gifty

Here are a couple more projects from VSN last weekend. The first challenge, hosted by kthama (Karen) was to make a stamped candle. This was my first-ever stamped candle and it was fun and easier than I expected to make. I just used a mini pillar candle from the $1 spot at Michaels. The image is from Artfully Asian - love that set! I stamped the image on tissue paper using basic brown ink. I then painted the back side of the tissue with two shades of Ranger perfect pearls for some color and shimmer. I attached the images to the candle following the tutorial on SCS. Fun and easy! The next challenge was brought to us by Heather or alcesalces on SCS. It was to make a gift card or money holder using an envelope. I used the flower from All Natural and the sentiment is from Happy Everything. I stamped everything in black stazon then sponged over the top with only orange, pixie pink and real red. I added eyelets, Primas and Queen and Co. brads to complete the gift card holder. Another fun and easy project!

Fall leaves and flowers

Here's another group of VSN cards for you! The first card was for Angie's (Renski on SCS) challenge to make a waterfall card. I'd never done this technique before, and it was easier than I thought! I used cranberry crisp, chocolate chip, celery, caribbean, pumpkin pie and whisper white cardstock and cranberry, chocolate chip, pumpkin pie and celery ink. The leaves are from Fantastic Foliage and the paper is from My Mind's Eye. I finished the card off with a few eyelets and a sprig of cranberry stitched ribbon.
The second challenge was to "Fall into the Dirt Pile." The hostess, Jimmi (jpmayo on SCS, her blog Stampin and Shopping is linked in my blogroll) asked us to crumple distress and DTP our cards to make them "dirty." I chose chocolate chip, creamy caramel and vanilla cardstock for their dirty tones, and added a piece of Au Chocolat designer paper. I used my Heidi Swapp edge distresser, did some direct-t0-paper inking, and also crumpled up the caramel. I finished the card with some primas and rhinestone brads - because you never know when you might find something sparkly in the dirt!
I made the final card for the RAK bonus challenge. I received a request via private message to RAK someone, so this card is for that. I used Beate's weekend sketch for the layout. The card features some more of the My Mind's Eye paper, along with celery, black, white and turquoise. The flower is stamped in caribbean, with a little turquoise on the edges and celery on the stem, and outlined in Stazon black. The ribbon is May Arts. The sentiment was punched with the word window punch; I slid one end in at a time to make it longer. I finished it with a Prima and rhinestone brad. That's all for tonight - more tomorrow!

Bright and dimensional!

I'm trying to find ways to group my VSN projects, and these three all fit together as dimensional and bright! The first challenge, hosted by Beena, was to make a Halloween-themed 2-4-6-8 box. These are so fun and easy to make. I used my Booglie Eyes set, stamped with black stazon and colored with bold brights markers. Dracula is mounted on an only orange scallop punch. The box itself is only orange with a strip of retired Dots and Dashes patterned paper and some orange stitched ribbon from Michaels. I made a handle out of green galore and attached with silver eyelets. I filled it with Reese's peanut butter cups - yummy!
The next challenge was to make a touchy-feely card with lots of texture to it. The challenge was hosted by Melinda, aka Wonkaismycat. Her blog, Endless Embellishments, is linked in my blogroll. We met through VSN last year. She's a hoot! For her challenge, I decided I wanted to make a Melinda card - ie. bright colors! The funky fibers were my starting point. My various textures are: fibers, dry-embossed bubbles using crop-a-dile, torn edges, Stickles, crystal effects on the fish, googlie eyes, and dimensionals. I used a tempting turquoise card base, along with cool caribbean, taken with teal and whisper white cardstock. The image is from Toucan of My Love. I colored it with bold bright markers in only orange and pixie pink. I tore the edges to make the water.
Okay, I went a little "out there" with this one. The challenge, by Cary, or Miss Minx on SCS, was to use the cartoon "It's a great pumpkin, Charlie Brown," as inspiration for our cards. When I first read the challenge I decided it would be cool to use squares representing the signature shirts of the characters. So, on the top row, you have Sally and Peppermint Patty, and on the bottom row, you have Linus and Charlie Brown. But then I didn't know what to do with the squares. So I decided I needed a classic CB expression, and came up with Good Grief! I think on the inside I'll write, "It's been awhile since we gotten together. Coffee soon?" Or something like that. Cardstock is real red, basic black, yoyo yellow, pixie pink and an unknown striped paper. The alphabet charms are from Provocraft; ribbon is from my stash. I also did a little doodling on the blank spaces on the card.
Thanks for looking! I'll be back with more cards later today!

Make Like a Tree

I had such a fun time coming up with my "Jump into Fall" VSN challenge. It's posted now, so I can share it. Here is what I posted:

"You've probably all heard the childhood expression 'make like a tree and leave.' That's just what leaves do in fall - they leave their trees. We're going to use that expression for inspiration for this challenge. Your mission is to make a card that expresses leaving, departure or separation. Think bon voyage, miss you...even sympathy cards could work for this challenge. Any and all interpretations of leaving will be accepted!"

These are the cards I made for my samples. The first one used an old olive card based layered with black and some ancient postage-patterned paper I found in my stash. The image and sentiment came from a transparency sheet I picked up on clearance at a LSS. The image is mounted on cardstock with brads and the sentiment is mounted on a slide mount. I finished it with a bit of olive grosgrain.
For the second card, I used a preprinted sentiment from DCWV, which is layered over some rose red prints dp and attached with rose red brads. I added a bit of black cardstock to one side and layered the whole thing on a rose red card base. The hearts along one side are from the Sage Advice stamp set. I finished it with some striped and organdy ribbons from my stash. Okay, off for more VSN fun! There's still time to play if you'd like to join us!

Two-a-days!

The title of this post is in honor of a dear (female) friend who recently took a job in the very male world of college football and whose life has been overwhelmed by two-a-days and the like! It also seems appropriate because I think two posts a day, with two cards each, is the only way I'm going to get through sharing all this VSN stuff here in a reasonable amount of time. At this rate, I might be done by next weekend! Plus I want to try a couple of weekend blog sketches if I can, so I guess I best get busy! The first card today is for the VSN challenge by Jen Del Muro (genie1314 on SCS). You can see some of Jen's work on her blog, I{heart}to stamp. She is one of my stamping idols! Anyway, her challenge was Falling in Love with Baby - to make a baby card! I used this image from Everyday Celebrations, stamped in the darkest blue stazon (can't remember the color name) on shimmery white paper and watercolored with bashful blue ink. The other paper is bashful blue for base and some layers, and patterned paper from an 8x8 stack that I think is from Me and My Big Ideas. I distressed all my edges with a Heidi Swapp distressing edge and added some white and blue organdy ribbon to finish it off. The sentiment is from Noteworthy.
The second card was for Kim's challenge (nutsymuhl on SCS). You can see more of Kim's work on her blog here. Kim's challenge also was about falling in love (since the theme is Jump into Fall) but this time with stamps! I think we've all done that, haven't we? Anyway, Kim's challenge was to use your favorite stamps to make a card for a person you love. This card is for my mom and uses Heartfelt Thanks, which is a set I turn to regularly, because it makes such pretty cards. The card base is 4.25 square out of rose red CS, with the edges inked in rose red for extra dimension. The image is mounted on rose red and artichoke. The flowers are stamped on watercolor paper - I misted them between stamping. The colors are rose red and artichoke. I also sponged the edges of the image with rose red and artichoke inks. I finished it with ribbon from Michaels' $1 spot and popped the images up on dimensionals.
Thanks for looking. And if you want to try these or any of the VSN challenges, please do! The more the merrier for the party in the VSN forum! You can find details here.

Tailgating VSN

VSN weekend has finally arrived! Details of all the fun can be found here in the VSN Forum - please join us, even if it's for just one or two challenges. As a hostess, I got a sneak peek at the challenges and a chance to do my projects early. I'm just posting a couple here tonight - I think there are 18 or so in all, so I'll have to spread them out a bit. The rules of VSN are fairly simple: follow the challenge instructions, spend no more than 45 minutes on your card, and upload by the deadline (3 p.m. ET on Sunday) to be considered for selection a special gallery of the hostesses' favorites. Since the theme is "Jump into Fall" a lot of my cards are fall-themed. I won't have too many Thanksgiving cards to make come November. The first card was for Katherine's (beadfreak22) challenge to make a card in shape and colors of your favorite candy. You don't have to know me that well to know I LOVE Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, so they were my inspiration. The card is a rectangle, like their packaging, and the focal image is a layered circle, like the cup. Card details are: stamps - Artfully Asian, flannel plaid bg, and sentiment from Hero Arts; paper - pumpkin pie, chocolate chip, summer sun and glossy white; ink - basic brown, pumpkin pie, more mustard, yoyo yellow; accessories - ribbon from Making Memories, CM circle cutters; technique - crayon resist.
My second card tonight was also a Katherine challenge - she hosted a bonus challenge to start the night off. The challenge was to make a RAK to fill a RAK request in the RAK or Need a Lift forums on SCS. I chose a RAK request from one of my fellow VSN hostesses, Angie (RENSKI) who asked for cards for friends of hers. The husband of the couple was recently diagnosed with cancer. I also used this week's sketch for the card. Details: Stamps - Nature's Wonder, $1 acrylic sentiment from Michael's; paper - cool Caribbean, cranberry crisp, chocolate chip, tempting turquoise, shimmery white, DP is from My Mind's Eye stack from Costco; ink - celery, Caribbean, cranberry; accessories - celery grosgrain from SU, ticket corner punch.
Now I'm off to comment on all the great VSN entries. My challenge will go up tomorrow at 6 p.m. ET, 3 p.m. PT if you'd like to join me!

The happiest of happy mail

My new friend Jamie (check out her blog Stamp This!) was my secret sister for this round of VSN (it starts tomorrow on SCS - please join us!) Along with several awesome cards, she sent me this wonderful package of goodies! It was so fun to open. Especially when I picked up the box and it made a funny jingling noise that I could not figure out for the life of me. So of course I ripped the box open, barely glanced at the BEAUTIFUL card she sent, and started laughing out loud when I realized she sent me cat toys for Eliot! That was so cute and so sweet! She also made a darling canister filled with my favorite candy and included ribbons, Primas and brads as well. Thank you so much Jamie! I can't wait to play with these goodies this weekend!

Cameo artichokes

For the first time in ages, I had a chance to do the SCS weekly color challenge last night. This week's combo was always artichoke and groovy guava. Since I don't own the guava yet, I substituted cameo coral per Emily's suggestion. I pulled out this Chatterbox DP as a starting point and worked from there. The dp is layered on artichoke, with both layers punched with the ticket corner punch, then layered with dimensionals on a cameo coral card base. I used a swirl clip from the hodgepodge hardware for the ribbon, which is from the Michael's $1 spot. The main image circles were cut out using my CM cutting system - love that thing! I ink the image from Heartfelt Thanks and misted it with water before each generation of stamping on the shimmery white paper. I then added the sentiment from Noteworthy and attached antique brass brads. The image is also mounted on dimensionals. It was a fun, fairly simple card but I like how it turned out.

I'm getting excited for the big VSN weekend. It stars Friday night. I can't wait to share some of the fun things I made for the challenges. Happy hump day tomorrow!

Weekend sketch

I love three-day weekends! I've gotten a lot done around the house - even mopping, which I hate! - and still had time to do some fun stamping. I made this card for Beate's weekend sketch challenge on her blog, Fresh and Fun. The colors were inspired by the Tres Jolie striped paper from My Mind's Eye. I love this collection! I put a layer of crimped pale plum cardstock behind the stripes, cut out the layered circles with my Creative Memories circle cutters, inked the iris stamp in pale plum and sage shadow, and added a touch of perfect plum on the edges, then generation stamped it. I attached the buttons, added the velvet ricrac, stamped the sentiment, then finally added a layer of diamond Stickles over the flowers. This card is headed to a blogging friend!
Additional Info:
Stamps: Iris - penny black; sentiment - A muse
Paper: pale plum, perfect plum, sage shadow, very vanilla, close to cocoa, Tres Jolie from MME
Ink: pale plum, perfect plum, sage shadow, basic brown
Accessories: buttons -Tres Jolie French Kisses; ricrac -Making Memories; diamond Stickles, crimper , CM circle cutters
Techniques: generation stamping

CASE-ing Heather

I've been stamping a lot lately, but little of it has made it on my blog since it's all for the big VSN weekend coming up next weekend. Today I finished all my "assignments" for VSN and had some time to stamp for fun. So I checked out the Featured Stamper challenge on SCS only to find that one of my favorite bloggers, Heather of {wittytitlehere}, aka Inglishrae on SCS, is the Featured Stamper today. I love Heather's style - she's a very clean and elegant stamper. I chose this card of hers to CASE (copy and selectively edit), changing the stamp set and color scheme. It was a ton of fun and I love the end result. Thanks Heather for inspiring me!
Details: Stamps are Sage Advice and Delight in Life from SU. Cardstock is pretty in pink, cool caribbean, pixie pink and shimmery white. Ink is cool caribbean, pixie pink and pretty in pink. Accessory is grosgrain striped ribbon from Jimmi's blog candy. Main image and small circle are popped up on dimensionals; circles were cut out with my Creative Memories cutting system.