Color Throwdown #148

Time for another Color Throwdown this week.... otherwise known as "Barbara is Trying to Kill Me!" Ugh.... anyone who knows me knows I do NOT like blue, and Pacific Point specifically is one of my least favorites! Seriously.... she's trying to kill me, I just know it! :) (OK, I'm just joking but I have to give her a hard time about it!) Luckily I just got Jillibean Soup's "Watermelon Gazpacho" paper pad from i {heart} papers yesterday, and the polka dot paper in the pad had all three colors in it, so I took it and ran! Here's my card, using the new "Make a Splash" stamp set from There She Goes, and the sketch #224 from Card Positioning Systems. And with my use of three different dies on my card (the Nestabilities circle and tag, and the "Catch a Wave" Die-Namics) my card is a sample for this week's There She Goes challenge! Check out the challenge on the TSG blog and play along with us... you could win some moolah to spend in the TSG store!
See what the other girls came up with using these colors, and then join us!

Barbara Anders

Broni Holcombe

Danielle Kennedy

Kristin Eberline
Laura Pryor

LeAnne Pugliese (playing along this week!)

Betty Wright, June Guest Designer

Thanks a bunch for stopping by!

Stamp Simply Prima Blog Hop

About two weeks ago, I got an email from one of my most favorite people, Sharon Johnson! As many of you know, Sharon has a fabulous online store, the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store, where you can get tons of beautiful paper crafting supplies (not JUST ribbon!) Sharon said she was planning on doing a Prima blog hop today with her design team and asked if I'd like to join them! NO WAY could I turn down that offer! The Stamp Simply design team members all ROCK, and I'm thrilled to be joining them today to share some beautiful Prima goodness with you!

The Prima Blog Hop starts at Sharon's blog, so you'll definitely want to head over to her blog and start at the beginning! Leave a comment on all the designers blogs because somewhere along the way a winner will be chosen to win the FABULOUS Prima prize package shown below! (Don't drool on your monitors!) If you came here to my blog from dazzling Deb Saaranen's blog, then you're on the right track! From here, after leaving me some love :) you'll want to hop on over to beautiful Barb Schram's blog!

For my card, I am using the "Melody" line from Prima which on my card includes the papers and the "Sugar Blooms" flower. Also used are some of the gorgeous May Arts ribbons that Sharon stocks... 1/2" wrinkle ribbon in pink and brown (threaded through the 7/8" crocheted lace). I used my Bow Easy tool for the double-looped pink bow. The sentiment stamp I used is the Ecclesiastes 3:11 Plain Jane stamp from Verve (available in the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store). I stamped it on some pink paper from the Melody paper pad, and cut out a frame with burgundy paper from the pad using the Labels 14 Nestabilities. I also mixed a little Perfect Pearls with water and used it to spritz the frame for some extra shimmer.... if my photography were better, you'd be able to see it! :(

So, just a reminder if you didn't come here from Deb Saaranen's blog, you'll want to go to Sharon's blog and start at the beginning! And if you're hopping along, your next stop is Barb Schram's blog!

THANKS SO MUCH to Sharon for asking me to join in today, and a big thank you to the Stamp Simply girls for making me feel so welcome!

Good luck!

Timeless Tuesday #124

Hello friends! It's time for another Timeless Tuesday challenge with Flourishes, and this week I'm the hostess with a sketch challenge for you!

You can certainly see my fondness for square cards with this sketch, right? :) I love 'em! For my card, I used the beautiful Butterflies and Blossoms stamp set from Flourishes. I stamped the image on some Kraft cardstock, and again on Flourishes Classic White cardstock. Then I cut out a few of the flowers and the butterfly and mounted them on pop-dots for added dimensions. The paper I used here is the new "Country Drive" from Echo Park. My image is colored with Copic markers (some of my colors are from the Dogwood and New Leavescollections) and the image is cut out with a Nestabilities circle, framed with a scalloped circle. My flower centers, and the butterfly are accented with some touches of glitter, too.

(click the photo for a close-up)

See what my Flourishes team sisters have created with this sketch today, too...

Betty Wright

Cindy Haffner

Heather Jensen

Makiko Jones

Silke Ledlow

Pat Adam, June Guest Designer

Stop by the Flourishes blog for all the challenge details, and play along with us! YOU could be the winner of $10 to spend in the Flourishes online store and/or stand a chance of being our next Guest Designer!

Happy stamping!

Bellarific Friday

I know I say this a lot, but TGIF! It's my mantra for today, that's for sure! Fridays are wonderful partially due to Bellarific Friday, of course! :) Today's challenge is a sketch from Jeaniebella, shown above. I turned the sketch on it's side to accommodate my image...

Here's Amplee'tude with her double-scoop ice cream cone! She's keeping cool for Summer in her pretty sundress, and enjoying a treat! She's colored with Copics on Bella's Bestest White cardstock, and I used a little glitter on the ice cream as sprinkles. The suh-weet sentiment is also from Stamping Bella, and my papers are My Mind's Eye "Life of the Party."

Stop on over at Blogabella and check out the creations today from the Babes and the Sistahood! Next week's challenge is.... nothing! Da' Bella will be on vacation, so there won't be another Bellarific Friday challenge until July 8th and the challenge is to use ribbon on your creation! (Won't be hard for me!) So you've got plenty of time to play along for the next challenge, and in the meantime stop over at Forumabella and check out the Forum challenge! You have until July 14th to play along with our "Citrus Cool!" challenge and have the chance to win $25 in Bella Bucks! HOW can you pass that up??

Happy stamping, and thanks for stopping by!

There She Goes Blog Hop Challenge-Day 3

It's our third and final day of sneak peeks for the new release from There She Goes! You'll LOVE this new stamp set because one of the best things about the Summer is being able to go for a refreshing swim. Whether you prefer a lake, ocean or pool this stamp set illustrated by Torico "Make a Splash" will have you saying "mermaids, sea horses and fish, OH MY!"
Make a Splash is a 4x8 set that includes a total of 21 stamps and will sell for $18.

For my card, I used my Echo Park "Splash" collection papers again and borrowed inspiration from the SCS sketch challenge for this week, turning the sketch on it's side. I paper pieced the mermaid's lower half and added some glitter for sparkle.

Would you like a chance to win the Make a Splash stamp set? Here's what you need to do... go to each of the Trendsetter's Blogs and leave a comment on their Make a Splash Blog Hop Challenge post. After you have finished checking out all the eye candy and have left some love, head over to the TSG blog and add your name to the Mr. Linky at the bottom of the Blog Hop Challenge post. A winner will be chosen randomly to receive their very own set, and will be announced during the Release Party on Saturday, June 25th.

If you arrived on my blog from Melyssa's blog, then you're right on track and should continue on to our Guest Trendie, Theresa! If not, hop on back to the beginning at Angela's blog!

Good luck, and thanks for stopping by today!

Color Throwdown #147

It's Color Throwdown time again, and this week Kristin is our hostess with this really pretty color combo! If you want to get a jump start on Christmas cards, this would be a good combo to use. Or create something pretty for Summer!

I pulled out my well-loved Occasional Labels and Sentimental Occasions stamp sets from My Time Made Easy, cut a frame and oval on the Cricut with my Occasional Labels cut file and went to work on this birthday card! On the Blush background, I stamped the Cover-a-Card Music script (maybe it's the music to Happy Birthday?), and added some scallops at the bottom with some black cardstock and a pretty mix of black and white pattern and text. The pretty seam binding bow comes from my BFF Barbara Anders, and I finished it off with a button, linen string and a stick pin. The head of the pin was colored with an E43 Copic marker for an "antiqued" look.

Hop on over to the Color Throwdown blog for all the challenge details, and see what my Throwdown sisters have created today to inspire you...

Barbara Anders

Broni Holcombe

Carol Burrage

Danielle Kennedy

Kristin Eberline

Laura Pryor

Betty Wright, June Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by!

There She Goes New Release Blog Hop-Day 2

It's day two of new release sneak peeks from There She Goes! Today we have two new sets to share with you...

These gorgeous tropical flowers were illustrated by Torico and will quickly becoming a favorite in your Summer stamping collection. Use them to create beautiful, custom designer paper, color in the line-art images to use as a focal point, or pair them with a TSG sentiment stamp set for an all-occasion card (as I've done here.)

For my card, I have used the sketch #223 for this week from Card Positioning Systems and some Splash collection paper from Echo Park. I colored my Hibiscus with Copic markers after looking up what colors they should be in Google images. I always look up any flowers that I'm not familiar with to see what their natural colors should be, so I used this photo as my coloring inspiration. The sentiment on my card is from the Sentimental Thank You stamp set from TSG.

And another set by Melyssa... this adorable car is great to make a fun, everyday card for family and friends. The larger card in this mini set was sized so that it could also be used with Leah (from the Freeze the Moment stamp set released last month.)

I chose a clean and simple design for my card with the car, using paper from the Wander collection from Basic Grey. I paper pieced the car with some of the paper (and later thought it looked like it had been through a hail storm!) The rest of the image was colored with Copic markers.

Would you like a chance to win either of these stamp sets? Here's what you need to do... go to each of the Trendsetter's Blogs and leave a comment on their Blog Hop Challenge posts for today. After you have finished checking out all the eye candy and have left some love, head over to the TSG blog and add your name to the Mr. Linky at the bottom of the Blog Hop Challenge post. A winner will be chosen randomly to receive their very own sets, and will be announced during the Release Party on Saturday, June 25th.

If you arrived on my blog from Melyssa's blog, then you're right on track and should continue on to our Guest Trendie, Theresa! If not, hop on back to the beginning at Angela's blog!

Good luck, and thanks for stopping by!

There She Goes New Release Blog Hop-Day1

Last month, Di was enchanting us with her adorable prince and princess stamp set, and this month she is bringing us magical fairies. These fun and whimsical images were sized so that they can work together with the Once Upon a Time stamp set for you to create even more scenes! The Fairy Best is a 4x8 set that includes a total of 13 stamps and will sell for $18.

I chose to use these darling bunnies from the set for my card today, and the Mojo Monday sketch for the layout. The paper I used here is the Jillibean Soup "Spotted Owl" paper.
Would you like a chance to win The Fairy Best stamp set? Here's what you need to do... go to each of the Trendsetter's Blogs and leave a comment on their The Fairy Best Blog Hop Challenge post. After you have finished checking out all the eye candy and have left some love, head over to the TSG blog and add your name to the Mr. Linky at the bottom of the Blog Hop Challenge post. A winner will be chosen randomly to receive their very own set, and will be announced during the Release Party on Saturday, June 25th.

If you arrived on my blog from Melyssa's blog, then you're right on track and should continue on to our Guest Trendie, Theresa! If not, hop on back to the beginning at Angela's blog!

Thanks for stopping by!

Timeless Tuesday #123

Welcome to another Timeless Tuesday challenge! We're up to #123 this week, and Betty is our challenge hostess. She wants us to "bag" it up this week... use brown grocery bag paper in your creation... whether you choose to make a mini brown bag album, or use the brown paper in some way as a background, or embellishment... anything goes!
I used a brown paper lunch bag to punch out 10 scalloped circles, then scrunched them all up to make a poofy flower for my card. Then I used a piece from a brown kraft gift bag to make a scalloped border beneath my sentiment panel. The sentiment I used is from the Hello Hyacinth stamp set, and is cut out with a Labels 14 Nestabilities die. I accented the upper right corner with some Chocolate KaiserCraft pearls.

See what my Flourishes team sisters have created in the bag today, too...

Betty Wright

Cindy Haffner

Heather Jensen

Makiko Jones

Silke Ledlow

Pat Adam, June Guest Designer

Thanks for visiting today!

Spinning Like CrAzY! - C4C92

Well, I've missed a few weeks from being so busy with graduation, but I'm back today for our CrAzY challenge again! This week, the challenge is being sponsored by my sweet friend Laura and Lil' Inker Designs, and the challenge is to use twine in your creation! Be sure to stop at the C4C blog for all the details, including a prize for one lucky participant!

I used the Pinwheel die and matching Sentiment set for my card today, pairing them with some Echo Park "For the Record" paper. The layout for my card was inspired by the Sketchbook Saturday challenge #15 from Iwona.

Stop and see what the other Crazies have done today with the incredibly innovative dies and cute, matching stamps from Lil' Inker!

Barbara Anders

Cindy Haffner

Frances Byrne

Jessie Rone

Joanne Grzelak

Jocelyn Pelkey

Lynda Benden

Maria Bell

Silke Kittman

Silke Ledlow

Vicki Garrett

Thanks for stopping by! Happy weekend!

Summertime Bellarific Friday

It's Bellarific Friday once again, and this week the Babes are creating Summer Time cards! Now I could have easily pulled out Mavis in her Kini, or Mavis Builds a Sandcastle for today's challenge, but we all know how much I love that little kitty and she's just getting overworked lately! So I gave her a break! (*telepathic note to Christy Croll.... draw more Mavis images!*) So for today, I decided to create a beautiful window box full of Summer flowers for the challenge!
This is one of the brand new Mo Manning in rubber images from Stamping Bella called the Rustic Window Box. I colored the image on Bella's Bestest White cardstock using Copic markers, and although it's not noticeable in the photo the windows are coated with some Glossy Accents. It actually didn't apply in a very even layer but after it dried I was kinda' pleased with it because it gave the "glass" an aged look. Remember how old window glass would take on a blurred, wavy look sometimes? (*insert mental picture here of the windows in my Grandpa's old barn*) I paired the image with some "For the Record" paper from Echo Park and finished it off with some May Arts crochet ribbon and a button/tag combo.

So did you play along with us this week? Remember that every week Emily gives away some major Bella Bucks to one lucky person who plays along, and to one lucky person who leaves a comment on the Blogabella post, so get your rear in gear and join us next week! The challenge for June 24th is a sketch from Jeaniebella here on the left!

AND don't forget about the new Bella Forum challenge going on now through July 14th! The challenge this month is Citrus Cool! Check it out here! You could win $25 in Bella Bucks!

Happy Friday, and happy stamping!

Color Throwdown #146 and a Bella Forum Challenge

It's time for another Color Throwdown, and this week I'm up to bat with challenge #146! I chose these bright colors for today's challenge because in addition to the Throwdown, it's also time for a new Bella Forum challenge and our theme for the coming month is Summer Citrus! Remember, there's $20 in Bella Bucks up for grabs to one lucky person who participates in the Bella Forum challenge in the coming month, so what are ya' waiting for? Check out all the details in the challenge forum!

My card is awfully bright, so put on some shades if you need to! I used the Springtini stamp to make a tropical Summer drink on my card, along with some My Mind's Eye paper, and a hand-written sentiment. My card layout is a square version of the Sketch for You to Try for June... don't forget that Stamping Bella is the sponsor of that challenge this month too, so play along there as well for the chance to win some prizes!

Check out what my Throwdown sisters have created for the challenge this week, as well...

Barbara Anders

Broni Holcombe

Carole Burrage

Danielle Kennedy

Laura Pryor

Betty Wright, June Guest Designer

Thanksabunch for stopping by!

Timeless Tuesday #122

Hey everyone, I'm back! What a great weekend we had with family and friends at Kaylie's graduation party! I was glad to be able to take a stamping break and get ready for the party but I sure did miss my stamps! Now I'm back today with our Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge #122 being hosted this week by Makiko. Her challenge is to use circles and squares in your creation. Doesn't matter how many, but you must have at least one circle and at least one square somewhere in your creation! Stop by the Flourishes blog for all the challenge details, and to link up your own creation.

For my card, I used the new Garden Fresh stamp set that was just released. My square comes into play around my image where I used a Nestabilities Square to cut out the peas, and my circles can be found in the October Afternoon paper I used on the left side, as well as a few brads and my circle sentiment tag. There's also a grid pattern in the OA paper on the right, so you can find more squares there, as well. I also added some Olive Plaid May Arts ribbon to embellish my card. The layout for my card was inspired by the Card Positioning Systems sketch #222 for this week.
I hope you'll visit my Flourishes blog team sisters to see their circle-and-square cards today, too...

Betty Wright

Cindy Haffner

Heather Jensen

Makiko Jones

Silke Ledlow

Pat Adam, June Guest Designer

Thanks for stopping by today! Happy stamping!

Bellarific Friday

Hello friends! Have you missed me this week? I seriously miss my stamping time, that's for sure but as Saturday and my daughter's graduation party approaches, I'm getting SO excited to see so many fabulous friends and family! We have the party planned for a pavilion at the park, but the forecast is saying 60% chance of rain. :( We might have to resort to the back-up plan of the church fellowship hall. It'll all be good, though!

I hope you decided to play along with us this week for Bellarific Friday! Our challenge this week is paper piecing, so I took my new Sadie image from Mo Manning and paper pieced her apron, and the pocket. The colors I used on my card are the Throwdown colors for this week of Baja Breeze, Pear Pizzazz and So Saffron.

Here's a close-up of my paper piecing and coloring. Sadie is colored with Copic markers on Bella's Bestest White cardstock. The designer papers I used are Stampin' Up!

Stop over at Blogabella to check out the paper pieced delights from the Babes, and the Sistahood! And next week, why not play along? Next week's challenge is to create something with a Summertime theme! My wheels are already turnin' with ideas... how about you?

Happy weekend, and happy stamping!