NY Plaid

Hi all! Happy Friday! I am so excited for the weekend. My BFF and her family are coming visit starting Sunday, and I'll be hooking up with them for some Disneyland and beach time - two of my favorite things! Fortunately I have a stash of stamped cards just waiting to be shared here!
This card was for the recent technique lovers' challenge on Splitcoast. Joan Ervin had a fun tutorial for making your own plaid designs on solid stamps. I had fun trying different ink combinatins, then finally settled on certainly celery, bermuda bay and tempting turquoise for this row of houses image from Hero Arts. The card also fits my pal Denise's New York City hometown challenge. She asked us to use yellow, something new or crazy (I went with Joan's technique), something elegant or classy (organdy ribbon) and something vintage or old. For that, I dipped into my stash and pulled out an ancient ribbon slide from Making Memories. I couldn't figure out what sentiment to use on this card, so I left it blank!
Supplies:
Stamps: Hero Arts
Ink: certainly celery, bermuda bay, tempting turquoise
Paper: Yoyo yellow, bermuda bay, certainly celery, neenah white, Cosmo Cricket Delovely dp
Accessories: ribbon, ribbon slide

Crafting for a cause

Hi everyone! Today I'm sharing a little project I've been working on for a good cause. These little treat bags are going to be sold (at least I hope someone buys them!) at an upcoming Relay for Life event to raise money for the American Cancer Society. I'm participating in the 24-hour relay in Salem, Oregon, next month in support of my sister, Sunny.

These first two treat bags represent the cause we are supporting. Purple is the color of Relay, and the color used to show support for all cancers. The teal represents ovarian and endometrial cancer. Just over a year ago, my sister was diagnosed with this type of cancer. Let me tell you, it's really hard to match candy to these colors! I found some Godiva gems for teal and some funky M&M trios for the purple! I mixed two stamp sets, one from Crafty Secrets and one from Flourishes, for the toppers. Special thanks to my pals Lee and Karolyn for loaning them to me for this project!
Since my sister's name is Sunny, her team name for Relay is "Rays of Hope," so I wanted to incorporate some sunshine into the goodies we'll sell during the Relay. I fell in love with the Sunshine Cheer from Our Craft Lounge and thought it would be a perfect fit. These two goodie bags have plain M&Ms (on the left) and Mike&Ike candies (on the right) in case somebody doesn't like chocolate.
You can read more about the Relay and my reason for participating by clicking on the blog badge I added to the top of the blog rail on the left of this page! Relay events are held all over the country and you might find one in your area that you can attend to show support for this important cause. And stay tuned, I expect I'll be doing some more crafting for the cause over the next few weeks!
Supplies:
Stamps: Flourishes, Crafty Secrets, Our Craft Lounge
Ink: memento tuxedo black, Copic markers
Paper: Coredinations teal, lovely lilac, only orange, yoyo yellow, neenah white
Accessories: Creative Memories circle punches, scallop edge punch (SU), scallop edge punch with dots (EK Success), treat bags from Michaels

Super Show Stamping

Just a reminder, this is one in a series of posts I'm writing about my experience at the CHA Craft Super Show in Anaheim last weekend. To see all the posts, scroll down or click on the "CHA" label at the bottom of this post or in my sidebar!
So I thought this morning I'd share a little more of the stamping-related stuff I brought home from the SuperShow. I stopped at the Lizzie Anne Designs booth to make this pretty make-n-take card, then of course had to do a little shopping! I fell in love with this set, called coincidentally, "A little love!" It is so cute. I plan to make Valentines with it for my nieces and nephews, hopefully in the very near future!
I was bummed I missed the My Favorite Things/Cat's Pajamas make-n-take at the Splitcoast booth, but I was so happy I stumbled on another booth that was selling the Pure Innocence stamps from MFT. I heart these little ones so much! They didn't have any of the fairy or I would've brought her home, too. But I will be coloring this one up very soon!

TE at the SuperShow

Hi again. This is yet another post about my weekend at the CHA Craft Super Show. Just a reminder, if you want to read all my CHA posts, you can click the "CHA" label in the sidebar or at the bottom of this post to see them all!
I've been a big fan of Taylor and her blog Taylored Expressions for quite awhile. I love the sketches she posts each week and try to play along when I can. I've also been following her new venture - her stamps and her online store - with great interest. So one of my first stops at the CHA Craft Super Show was to her booth so I could see her stamps in person! I got to say hello to Taylor and Jami who I had met previously at a stamp event and also met Donna Baker for the first time
Sorry for the blah pictures - I took my small (crappy) camera and the lighting was bad. Also, I was so busy shopping and doing the make-n-take I didn't really take many pics - these are the best two of the bunch! This is the make-n-take table and a display of fabulous card samples. The decor in the booth was super cute.
This was the make-n-take I made; Taylor had several different ones throughout the show. Every time I walked past her booth the line was 3-4 deep to make them! This one, which uses stamps from Taylor's new Valentine's Day release, is actually a magnetic calendar to hang on the fridge - such a cute idea. If you did the make-n-take, you also got one of these fabulous buttons! Love it!
And this was my purchase! I was on a mission to pick up the Chillax set; it's been on my wishlist for a really long time and I can't wait to get it all inked up! I also picked up these cute whales. They are new for Valentines Day and are just adorable. Taylor had several Valentines Day singles like this - owls, snakes, puppies and other animals in cute pairs. I have no idea what I'll do with the whales, but I couldn't resist them!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you and yours have a safe and wonderful holiday. I wanted to squeeze in just a few more autumn cards before I switch full gear into Christmas! I used some more of this delicious Indian Summer paper from Basic Grey - I love that stuff! I stamped the leaf image in several colors and then sponged the edges of the image panel. The sentiment is my favorite fall sentiment from Rosie's Roadshow.
Supplies:
Stamps: Darling Dots (SU), Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink: more mustard, pumpkin pie, ruby red, really rust, bravo burgundy, chocolate chip
Paper: Ruby red, really rust, whisper white, more mustard, chocolate chip, Basic Grey Indian Summer
Accessories: ribbon, Kaisercraft pearls

Going to the chapel ....

A coworker is getting married this evening - a 6 p.m. Sunday evening wedding, which is causing me much consternation. I don't know what to wear or how long I can comfortably stay at the reception and still make it to work on time tomorrow! I know I'll have to hold my self to a single glass of champagne. ;) The good thing about an evening wedding is that I have most of the day to figure out the wardrobe and get ready.
The wedding is being held at a photograph y museum, and the wedding and the couple are both what I'd call non-traditional! For their card, I decided to use the wedding invitation - seen peeking from behind the card - as my inspiration. It was also a good chance to break out the Amuse shimmer couture papers I won in a blog candy contest last month. The papers are so shimmery, they really add pizazz that I thought would work well for a wedding card. They also came in colors very similar to those used on the invitation. I kept the layout and design simple, embossing the main panel with the Manhattan flower folder, adding a sentiment from Hero Arts and finishing the card with some black satin ribbon and a sparkly rhinestone buckle I've been hoarding. I thought about adding some additional bling, but then thought better of it. I think this suits the bridge and groom.
Supplies:
Stamps: Hero Arts sentiment
Ink: Memento tuxedo black
Paper: Amuse shimmer couture
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Manhattan flower folder, ribbon, rhinestone clip

Revolving door

This card was a first for me. During last weekend's mini VSN, my friend Stacey/Little Lou's challenged us to make a swing or flip-flop card. The VSN theme is Viva Las Vegas, and there are lots of revolving doors there! I had never made one of these cards before, and the SCS tutorial wouldn't quite work for me, because my paper cutter is a rotary blade, making it hard to make the precision cuts needed for the center. So I modified the tutorial and used my Creative Memories oval cutters instead.
I added a layer of patterned paper to each side, along with some Primas and ribbons for embellishment. Overall, I was pretty happy with the finished product. I might've putzed with it some more, but those VSN time limits forced me to stop after 45 minutes!
Supplies:
Stamps: Upsy daisy
Ink: certainly celery, night of navy
Paper: vanilla, celery, Basic Grey two scoops
Accessories: CM oval cutters, Primas, silver brads, ribbon

Flower pot!

This flower pot card was the Technique Lovers' challenge on Splitcoast a few days ago. I saw so many cute little flower pots in the gallery that I just had to try one myself. I thought this would be a perfect card to send my sister who is having surgery tomorrow. You can find out more about how to make this card HERE! The card is kind of like a pocket card; the flowers are attached to an insert that slides out. I used primas from my stash, some more of the daisy stickers for centers, and ribbon from my stash for the leaves.
Supplies:
Stamps: Sincere salutations
Ink: chocolate chip
Paper: kraft, whisper white, pixie pink
Accessories: EK Success punch, ribbon, butterfly, Primas, stickers

RESQ Challenge #4: Diamonds

My stamping and blogging time has been pretty limited lately, and my mojo seems to be, too! I've had a stressful few weeks, and I think I've discovered that I need to try to keep stamping even when I'm stressed. It really is good therapy! I finally had a chance to sit down to stamp today, and this is the first card I came up with! This card is for Pat/casep's fun challenge on the RES-Q challenge blog. You can find all the details, and play along, HERE! Working from this month's theme, Daisies and diamonds, Pat gave us a menu of choices using characteristics of diamonds. I chose to use circles on my card, purple, orchid, green and white for my color combination, and ribbon as my embellishment.
Supplies:
Stamps: Darling dots (SU)
Ink: orchid opulence, gable green, lovely lilac
Paper: whisper white, gable green, lovely lilac, orchid opulence, Euphoria DP from Basic Grey
Accessories: Cuttlebug, ribbon, Creative Memories circle punches, dimensionals

Twisted Thursday

My friend Karolyn is a design team member for Shirley's 2 Girls stamps, and she hosting a weekly challenge for them called twisted Thursday. Thanks to Karolyn's enabling, I won some Shirley's 2 Girls stamps in one of their previous contests, so I used one of them for the first time tonight on her challenge. The challenge is a sketch with a twist of some kind; this week's twist was to use use hardware. You can find all the details on Karolyn's blog HERE.
I colored the stamp image with my Copic markers - these are great stamps for coloring! The color combination has been in my head ever since I saw the scrapping kit in the new SU catalog that uses these colors. For my hardware, I chose the jumbo SU eyelets, which I just got with my last order. I also added some dots of stickles on the dots in the image, but they are kind of hard to see.
Supplies:
Stamps: Shirley's 2 Girls
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, copics
Paper: Making Memories boho chic dp, neenah classic crest white, pale plum, perfect plum, kiwi kiss
Accessories: jumbo eyelets, ribbon, cuttlebug, EK success border punch, stickles

Butterfly inspiration

My former VSN hostess friends and I are plugging along on some fun challenges this month, and over the weekend, it was my turn to issue a challenge. I chose the cover of the latest Martha Stewart Weddings magazine for an inspiration piece. There's a beautiful cake covered with a rainbow of butterflies on the front. You can see a picture of the cake below; the magazine cover is actually prettier because the colors are so much more vibrant. Still, you get the idea.

For my card, I chose this beautiful Inkadinkado butterfly image and inked it in a Tsukineko Harmony spectrum pad. I paired the image with some recycled organdy ribbon, a fun charm I picked up a while back at a funky craft shop, and an Inkadinkado sentiment for a simple yet elegant card!
Supplies:
Stamps: inkadinkado
Ink: Brilliance black, Harmony Tsukineko
Paper: Neenah classic crest white, basic black, pixie pink
Accessories: charm, ribbon, cuttlebug

Four-leaf clover

I got a little crafting time in last night, so I whipped out this card, which fits two challenges. Some of my Splitcoast friends - all of us are former VSN hostesses - are doing some challenges together, just for fun. And my friend Stacey challenged us to make a card using hearts to make a four-leaf clover. I love this idea and have done it a few times before! Well, when thinking about this card, I remembered the sketch this week at Taylored Expressions, and thought combining the two would be perfect. Taylor is having a big one-year anniversary celebration (with prizes!) on her blog to celebrate a year of TE/Stamp a Sweet Impression. You can see the sketch and other details about the celebration on her blog HERE.
Anyway, working with the TE sketch, I punched out several hearts using scraps of my celery prints DP and my Creative Memories heart punches. Then I used the small hearts to make a clover for the last square, popped up the last square and added a stem, which I hand-cut. I made the oval sentiment using my Creative Memories oval cutting system, since I don't have any oval punches or nesties. Can you believe that? I didn't want to add the bulk of a ribbon, so I just added a strip of prints dp underneath the sentiment.
Supplies:
Stamps: Sincere salutations
Ink: certainly celery
Paper: celery, celery prints dp, neenah classic crest white
Accessories: CM heart punches, CM oval cutter, eyelet, dimensionals

Modern baby

I needed a baby girl card, and I've been inspired by the modern baby fashions and decor lately, so I tried to channel that when I was making this card. I stamped the lamb from SU's Everyday Celebrations (retired) set on pink pirhouette cardstock using Memento rich cocoa, then added white flocking for some softness. The polka dot patterned paper is from American Crafts, and it has been in my stash for ages! It felt great to finally cut into it. I added the chocolate satin ribbon for a bit of luxury. I'm really happy with the final results on this one!
Supplies:
Stamps: Everyday celebrations, Riveting
Ink: memento rich cocoa
Paper: pink pirhouette, chocolate chip, American Crafts DP
Accessories: flock, Creative Memories circle cutters, corner rounder, satin ribbon

Thinking of you

I needed to make some quick and even more difficult for me, somewhat masculine, sympathy cards recently. I love the color combination of Stampin Up's Urban Garden DSP and thought it would work well with this simple leaf image from Unity's Gratitude=Joy set. The sentiment is one of my all-time favorites from A-muse.
The layouts of the two cards were essentially inspired by the size and shape of the scraps I had of the patterned paper. I hate to waste any of it, since I do love it so much! I'm kind of wishing I had made a few more of these while I had the supplies out, so I had some ready to go in the future!
Supplies:
Stamps: Gratitude = Joy from Unity, sentiment from Amuse
Ink: Kiwi kiss, basic gray
Paper: neenah classic crest white, basic gray, night of navy, Urban Garden DSP
Accessories: brads

I {heart} George!

I have just a couple more VSN challenge cards to share with you; I guess it's a good thing I still have some, since I haven't really done any crafting since then. I came down with a miserable cold a couple of days ago, so I've been doing a lot of laying on the couch doing nothing. I hope it goes away soon, though. I have too much I want to do, at the craft table and otherwise!
Now on to the card. This is for Kelly/Schirmcat's Celebrity Crush challenge. She asked us to use a celebrity crush as inspiration for our card. There was no question for me - I {heart} George Clooney. My crush began when he was on the show "Sisters," but it really took off during the ER years. My card was inspired by George's salt and pepper hair (gray and black) and his hospital scrubs (soft sky). I also wanted a clean and classy style, just like George, so I kept the embellishments simple, just some satin ribbon from American Crafts, some Kaisercraft gray pearls, and some Cuttlebug embossing.
Supplies:
Stamps: Unity
Ink: Memento tuxedo black
Paper: soft sky, basic black, basic gray
Accessories: corner rounder, ribbon, pearls, cuttlebug

Inchie trio

It's time for VSN day five! This is my card for my friend Denise/Resqbarbie's VSN challenge. She asked us to use at least three inchies on our card. I had some darling Karen Lockhart images that my friend Karolyn/garkarlon stamped for me, so I put them to use on this card. I punched them out with a decorative square punch from Creative Memories. Some embossing, a touch of bling and a satin ribbon finished off this card.
Supplies:
Stamps: Karen Lockhart dragonfly; inkadinkado sentiment
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics
Paper: cameo coral, cool caribbean, orchid opulence, neenah classic crest white, basic black
Accesories: CM punches, satin ribbon, cuttlebug, kaisercraft rhinestones

Obsessed with red!

Woohoo, we're half way through my seven days of VSN challenges. Today's card was inspired by my obsession for red purses. Shastess asked us to make a card around an obsession. There's no question I have a red purse obsession. I can't remember the last time I bought a purse that wasn't red. I have at least three in my closet and I'm using one right now. And then there are several that I've flat worn out. I love red because it's classy, stands out in a crowd, and works for any season. I colored these purses with my Copic markers and added some black Kaisercraft rhinestones for some bling. The background paper is my one new purchase recenlty - it's also Kaisercraft and I picked it up at my local scrap store.
Supplies:
Stamps: Retro boutique by Rupa Shevde for Gina K Designs
Ink: Memento tuxedo black, Copics
Paper: real red, basic black, neenah classic crest white, Kaisercraft dp
Accessories: ribbon, corner rounder, Kaisercraft rhinestones

Quite a lovely tree

Today is day three of my VSN challenges from last weekend! I think I have seven days' worth in all, so we're not quite half way there. Love was the theme for this round, and Christy S.'s challenge centered around her favorite move, "The Princess Bride." She asked us to take inspiration from a quote in the movie. Coincidentally, I had just watched this movie the weekend before. For my card, I was inspired by this line from Westley when he and Buttercup entered the fire swamp:"Well, I'm not saying I'd like to build a summer home here, but the trees are actually quite lovely."
I used my Unity tree stamp to come up with a tree worthy of the fire swamp. The color combo was inspired by these buttons from my stash, which I threaded with hemp twine and then attached with glue dots.
Supplies:
Stamps: Unity, SU All Holidays
Ink: Always artichoke
Paper: always artichoke, basic gray, sage shadow, neenah classic crest white
Accessories: hodgepodge hardware, ribbon, twine, cuttlebug, ticket corner punch, buttons

Gently falling for VSN

Welcome to day two of my VSN challenge cards! This is my card for Kandi's VSN challenge, Bittersweet Love. The idea was to use stamps that you bought but ended up not liking, or images you struggle with, or otherwise found challenging. Gently Falling was one of those stamp sets for me. I loved the concept of the set when it first came out, and had to have it during that year's Saleabration event. But I struggled with making cards with it and have used it maybe 3-4 times in all. But I can't part with the set, either, because I still like the concept of the set! This card definitely shows my growth as a stamper. Now that I have a stampamajig, a brayer, better skills and better embellishments, the results are much better!
Supplies:
Stamps: Gently falling
Ink: purple spectrum pad (retired Serenade from Tsukineko), Memento tuxedo black
Paper: Orchid opulence, basic black, neenah classic crest white
Accessories: cuttlebug, dew drops, ribbon, stickles

February DD sketch

I loved the sketch used for this month's Dirty Dozen sketch challenge on SCS, so I had to play along. I am still on my Washington Apple DSP kick, so I used some of that for this card, pairing it with Upsy Daisy. I stamped the Upsy Daisy once, then shifted my stamp slightly and stamped again without reinking for a shadow effect. I finished the card with a Heidi Swapp ghost flower - I just love those! - and a small heart charm.
I feel like my mojo is finally starting to return; hopefully I can keep it going with some more stamping this weekend. It's VSN weekend at SCS, and I hope to play along on some of the challenges.
Supplies:
Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Ink: bashful blue, real red
Paper: real red, whisper white, Washington Apple
Accessories: Nestabilities, Creative memories circle cutter, ghost flower, charm, ribbon, scallop edge punch