Color Throwdown #99

It's time for another Color Throwdown this week, and it's even more exciting 'cause we're ONE WEEK away from the PARTY celebrating Color Throwdown #100!!! You all are not going to BELIEVE the awesome prizes you're going to have a chance to win! I have been in communication with SO many fabulous companies, and have been blown away by their generosity with prizes for this big event! It's just amazing!

This week, Danielle is our hostess for CTD #99 but apparently she's having brain cramps or something 'cause she took off on a mini-vacation with her family and forgot that it was her turn to host the challenge this week! So, she gets 40 lashes when she gets back and I might make her scrub the floors with her toothbrush too, as punishment! Stop by the Throwdown blog for all the challenge details, and there you'll also find the Inlinkz widget so you can link your own creation!

For my card, I pulled out a recently acquired set of stamps from Rubbernecker, and made this birthday card. I call this guy "Dumdum" after the statue in the "Night at the Museum" movie (even though I know he's not the same kind of statue!) I colored Dumdum very simply with some Copic markers after stamping him in Rich Cocoa ink. The background that I stamped on my Cool Caribbean cardstock is an ATC background stamp from Rubbernecker called Art Nouveau. It definitely has a tropical look to it, so I thought it worked well with Dumdum. I used Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday sketch for the layout on my card.
I used the Art Nouveau background again on this inside, along with my birthday sentiment...

Again, stop on over at the Color Throwdown blog for all the challenge details! And if you need further inspiration, stop at the blogs of my Throwdown sisters...

Barbara Anders

Laura Pryor

LeAnne Pugliese

Broni Holcombe

Wanda Cullen, June Guest Designer

Thanks for stopping by, and happy stamping!

All that Scraps Wednesday Challenge - Box-in-a-Bag

Hi everyone! Since it's Wednesday, that means it is time for another challenge with the girls from All That Scraps! And this actually is my last Wednesday with this team, as I have asked to step down from the team for some personal reasons. I actually am having to step down from another team for the same reason, so I won't bore you with it today but will tell you a little about my newest undertaking on Friday with my last i {heart} copics post!

For today's ATS challenge, we're making a Box-in-a-Bag! This cute little box is something that was the brainchild of my fellow Paper Craft Planet Supernova Sister Diana Gibbs! You can check out her tutorial to see how to make this super-easy little bag, and play along with us today!

For my little bag, I chose to use this new Sun Kissed paper I got recently from Bo Bunny, and my Honey Bikini stamp. Her little suit is paper-pieced with some Bo Bunny Double Dot paper, too!

Stop by the ATS Wednesday Challenge blog for inspiration from the other girls, and for all the challenge details. Remember, every week there is a new and exciting prize being offered, and in order to be eligible to win your creation must include a stamp that is sold in the All That Scraps online store. Whether it is any of our wonderful in-house designs, or from the various other stamp companies that ATS carries, the choice is yours. Then be sure to link up your creation with Mr. Linky by next Tuesday at 10:00 p.m. EST and only one entry per person, please.

Thanksabunch for visiting me today!

On the Beach

Hello everyone, and happy Monday! (Well, it's happy for me because it's my day off!) I'm back today and finally have a new card to show you using stamps from Our Craft Lounge. I'm still Guest Designer for the summer, but have had too much "life" lately and fell behind in doing any creating with my OCL stamps. Since my daughter recently returned from a trip to Holden Beach, NC with her best friend and family, I got out my "Treasured Friend" stamp set (designed by my fabulous friend, Kisa Peters!) and made a thank you card for Kelsey to send to her "vacation family."

I used some new Bo Bunny "Sun Kissed" paper for my design, and colored my image with Copic markers. Since I just wanted this to be a thank you card, I inked up "thanks" from one of the stamps in the "Say it with Flowers" set, and stamped it at the bottom. (It would appear that both stamp sets I've used for my card are wildly popular... neither set is currently available on the OCL site, but Kate at i {heart} papers does have a "Treasured Friend" set in stock.)

Thanks for stopping by today! Happy stamping!

Stamps: Treasured Friend, Say it with Flowers (Our Craft Lounge)Cardstock: blue (Bazzill), Pumpkin Pie (Stampin' Up!), white (Neenah), designer paper (Bo Bunny)

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko), markers (Copic)Accessories: Nestabilities (Spellbinders), jumbo scallop die, ric-rac die, cork (My Favorite Things), dew drops (Robin's Nest).

Sunday Strawberries

Hey everyone, stop on over at the Flourishes blog today for my last Sunday in the Limelight with these sweet strawberries!

Happy stamping!

Three Cheers!

I had the opportunity this week to create some custom-designed cards for a customer through my Etsy shop! Gail saw this card that I made for my first Flourishes Limelight design, and really liked the image of the marching kids. She asked me to make a few changes to the original design to give these a more primitive-look and I'm so pleased with how they turned out I just had to share them with you!

For this first card, I actually tore a page from an old book we have of holiday poems and stories. (DON'T tell my husband I am ripping up this book! LOL) This page had a poem about the Fourth of July, and I loved the image on the page too, so I thought it'd be perfect as a background on this card. I did a great deal of distressing on this both with my Tonic distress tool, and some Ranger tea dye distress ink, along with the crazy stitches around the perimeter. The ribbon is tea-dyed too, for a more aged appearance.

And this card... just a simpler version of the first with the same distressed, primitive appearance!
I was so thrilled to have this opportunity to create some custom cards for Gail! I hope she likes them!

Thanks for stopping by, and happy stamping!

Color Throwdown #98

If it's Wednesday, that means it's time for another Color Throwdown! This week Barbara is our host and she was inspired by the new paper from Basic Grey called Capella in choosing these beautiful, elegant colors! Stop by the Color Throwdown blog for all the details! (And just a note... again, that's the COLOR Throwdown blog! Not to be confused with any other Throwdown challenge blogs out there! This one is the original... anything else just means that someone couldn't come up with a better name for their challenge!)

For my card, I CASE'd myself and took my inspiration from a card I made a day earlier for a class at the store. I substituted the Throwdown colors, and made a few minor changes but liked the card I made for class so well I decided it'd be worthy here, too! The background on my square is made with a Cover-a-Card background stamp called "Scratches" from Impression Obsession, and the silhouette flowers I used are from IO, too. My sentiment is from Verses Rubber Stamps.
My Throwdown sisters have created some beauties today with these colors, so be sure and stop at their blogs for some eye candy!

Barbara Anders

Danielle Kennedy

Laura Pryor

LeAnne Pugliese

Broni Holcombe

Wanda Cullen, June Guest Designer

Thanks for stopping in!

Stamps: background, flowers (Impression Obsession), sentiment (Verses Rubber Stamps)Cardstock: Mellow Moss, Chocolate Chip, Blush Blossom, Very Vanilla (Stampin' Up!), designer paper (Basic Grey)

Inks: Blush Blossom, Mellow Moss (Stampin' Up!), Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko)Accessories: Nestabilities (Spellbinders), butterfly punch (Martha Stewart), brads (craft supply).

ATS Wednesday - Color Challenge

I get a double-whammy today with color challenges, since it's already Color Throwdown day, and we're doing a color challenge this week for the All that Scraps Wednesday challenge! For the ATS Challenge we're using pink, celery green and caribbean blue so I pulled out this pretty paper from My Mind's Eye because it screamed "use me!"

I inked up Honey August for this card, because she's just so cute in her little shorts and halter top! I added a tiny bit of glitter to the flower in her hair and on her shirt, and sponged Cool Caribbean ink around the edges of the die cut before removing it from the die. There's some stitching around my designer paper panel, but it's hard to see unless you click for a close-up. For the layout I used Mercy's Tuesday Sketch challenge #79.

Stop by the ATS Wednesday Challenge blog for inspiration from the other girls, and for all the challenge details. Remember, every week there is a new and exciting prize being offered, and in order to be eligible to win your creation must include a stamp that is sold in the All That Scraps online store. Whether it is any of our wonderful in-house designs, or from the various other stamp companies that ATS carries, the choice is yours. Then be sure to link up your creation with Mr. Linky by next Tuesday at 10:00 p.m. EST and only one entry per person, please.

Taylored Expressions Blast from the Past Blog Hop

Hey, everyone! Here I am hopping along with a bunch of other amazing stampers for the Taylored Expressions "Blast from the Past" Blog Hop today! This is just a fun blog hop to go back and give some love to those stamp sets that are sometimes buried and forgotten in our stampin' rooms! All the designers you see on the hop today are using stamps from Taylored Expressions that were released prior to March 2010. We had the option today of using this inspiration piece below for the colors on our creations, and since I really liked this color combo I decided to use it on my card.
I chose to use my Branching Out stamp set for my card today, and paired it with this paper from My Mind's Eye that I thought was a good option with this color combo. I did some straight stitching on the machine around the square panel, and zig-zagged down the red floral strip, too.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Branching Out (Taylored Expressions)Cardstock: red (WorldWin), Old Olive, So Saffron, Baja Breeze (Stampin' Up!), white/cream (Neenah), designer paper (My Mind's Eye)

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko), markers (Copic)Accessories: Nestabilities (Spellbinders), ribbon (Creative Impressions), border punch (SU!).

Flourishes Limelight, week #3

Stop over at the Flourishes blog later today and check out my Limelight post for the third week of June! I played with the new Ferns & Fiddles stamp set and some beautiful silk May Arts ribbon to create a sympathy card for a dear friend.

i {heart} copics - Fabulous Friday #18

TGIF, my friends! I'm having a REALLY fabulous Friday (see the reason why down below!) so it's a good thing that it's time for another Fabulous Friday challenge with the girls from the i {heart} copics team! This week Jana gave us an inspiration challenge, and if you visit the IHC group over at Paper Craft Planet, you can get a glimpse of the photo and play along! We'd love to see what you come up with from the piece!

You'll see some golden/orange tones in the piece, some brown (which I thought very closely mimicked Soft Suede) and some butterflies, and some swirls so I took all of those elements and incorporated them into my card for today!

I was lucky enough to spend some great stamping time last Sunday evening with my awesome friends Beth and Cindy, and Beth happened to have this adorable Tilda stamp available so I stamped her off several times and brought her home with me. I colored her dress using my Copic markers to match the orange and golden tones in the inspiration piece, and thought the swirls out around her were a good match, too. The papers I used is some old My Mind's Eye that I also thought was a good color match, as well as the Soft Suede cardstock base and punched border. (And that punch was a gift from another awesome friend I got to spend time with this week! Thanks, 'Nita!) The crepe ribbon I used is a new addition in the i {heart} papers store and it is SO luxurious! You have to get your hands on some of this stuff! I only had white in the width that I wanted to use, so I sponged Old Paper distress ink on the ribbon to darken it up.

I've never been very good at capturing "bling" in my photographs but hopefully you can see it today! I added some ultrafine glitter to the swirls surrounding Tilda, the spritzed the whole card liberally with some Pssst! Shimmer Spray from Tsukineko. I just LOVE that stuff, and it adds instant glitz and glam to everything! (click on the picture for a larger image!) On her crown I used a silver Spica glitter pen.
Finally, I added some more paper and a punched butterfly inside with this sentiment from Stamping Bella.
OK, are you ready for the big reason why I'm having SUCH a FABULOUS Friday? Remember a few months ago when I decided to step down from the Stamp Simply team (read that post here)? I needed to lighten my load just a little bit so I'd have more time in my day for exercise, and was trying to eat healthier and lose some weight. I started Weight Watchers back on April 2nd, and have been using several forms of exercise (walking, stationary bike, water aerobics) ever since and today I'm very happy to report that I'm officially down 25 pounds! I still have a LOT more to go, but this is a great start so far and I love how good I'm feeling!

I appreciate each and every visit you make to my blog, and your wonderful comments! I hope you'll share in my excitement today, too! Happy stamping!

Stamps: Tilda Ballerina (Magnolia), sentiment (Stamping Bella)

Cardstock: Soft Suede, Tangerine Tango (Stampin' Up!), white (Neenah), designer papers (My Mind's Eye)

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko), Soft Suede (SU!), markers (Copic)

Accessories: Nestabilities Large Petite Oval (Spellbinders), Pssst! Shimmer Spray (Tsukineko), crepe ribbon (Creative Impressions), butterfly punch (Martha Stewart), border punch (SU!), pearls (KaiserCraft).

Color Throwdown #97

Time for another Color Throwdown, and this week Broni is our hostess! She just got back from a wonderful week at the beach, and these colors remind her of being there. We hope you'll make time to play along! It'll be good practice before the big Color Throwdown #100 Celebration coming up on July 7th! Participants are going to have the chance to win some fabulous prizes, so get your mojo going now so you'll be ready!

My card is a little boyish, so instead of Cameo Coral (which I'm out of!) I used some old Groovy Guava cardstock. And I couldn't resist yet another cute Pure Innocence image from My Favorite Things! (I think I have almost all of them in stock at the store and how I manage not to buy each one is beyond me!) The layout for my card is from Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge #73, but to accomodate my image I used an oval instead of a circle.

My Throwdown sisters have some great inspiration for you today, so stop and check them out!

Broni Holcombe

Barbara Anders

Danielle Kennedy

Laura Pryor

LeAnne Pugliese

Wanda Cullen, June Guest Designer

Happy stamping, and thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Boy and Dog Tree Swing (Pure Innocence/My Favorite Things), gingham background stamp (Impression Obsession)

Cardstock: Not Quite Navy, Groovy Guava, Old Olive, Certainly Celery, designer paper (Stampin' Up!), white (Neenah)Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko), markers (Copic)Accessories: Nestabilities (Spellbinders), twill ribbon, button (craft supply).

Featured Stamper, LeAnne!

I had the privilege of getting to host the Featured Stamper challenge at Splitcoast Stampers this past weekend, and chose to honor my wonderful, sweet friend LeAnne Pugliese as the Featured Stamper!

I chose to CASE this card from LeAnne's gallery, and here you can see my version!

If you have some extra time, why not play along this week! LeAnne's gallery is a feast for the eyes... you won't be disappointed!

Happy stamping!

Stamps: sentiment (Cornish Heritage Farms)Cardtock: red (WorldWin), Cool Caribbean, vellum (Stampin' Up!), designer paper (October Afternoon)Inks: Walnut Stain, Tea Dye distress inks (Ranger), Cool Caribbean (SU!)

Accessories: scalloped circle punch (SU!), gingham (May Arts).

Flourishes Limelight, week #2

I am back in the Limelight again this week for Flourishes! Stop over at the Flourishes blog to check out my Cherry Blossoms today! I'd love to see you there!

Happy stamping!

P.S. No weddings on my schedule for this summer, so this card will be up in the Etsy shop if anyone is interested! :)

Our Craft Lounge-Friday Sketch Challenge

There's a great sketch challenge going on every Friday over on the Our Craft Lounge blog, so for my card again this week I decided to play along! (Actually, I meant to play along even with last week's challenge, but time got away from me this week!) Since I have been needing a sympathy card to send to a friend, I thought this would be a good time to pull out my In His Name stamp set. I kept my design fairly simple, not wanting to get too carried away with embellishments and stuff since this is a sympathy card.

Why not play along? One winner is selected from everyone who plays each month and wins a free stamp set from Our Craft Lounge! This month it could be YOU, so give it a try!

Thanks for stopping by, and for your always wonderful comments!

Stamps: In His Name (Our Craft Lounge)

Cardstock: Turquoise Mist, Ruby Red (Bazzill), Confetti Cream (Stampin' Up!), designer paper (Fancy Pants)

Inks: Rose Red (SU!)

Accessories: Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Apron Lace border punch (Fiskars), Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder (ProvoCraft), flower (Petaloo), button (Basic Grey).