Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Color Throwdown #370

Hi there, and happy day-before-Thanksgiving!  It's time for another Color Throwdown challenge, and today Vickie has some fun colors for you!


Now, you'll see on the Color Throwdown blog that the team members all thought "snowman" but I was more original than that, as you can see here!  (Bahahahahaha!)

 
 
I saw the orange and immediately thought of my Reverse Confetti Fresh 'n Fruity stamp set!  Maybe I'm just wishing to be in the tropics instead of preparing to deal with snow?  I completely forgot to take a picture of the inside of my card, but on the inside I stamped the "it's your birthday" sentiment, and added another orange.  Behind the oranges I added a vellum tag cut with the Tag Me Confetti Cuts die.  And my Grid Background comes from Simon Says Stamp.
 
 
Please be sure to visit the CTD blog today for more inspiration, and visit my Throwdown sisters for more inspiration….  Barbara Anders
Broni Holcombe
Joan Ervin
Jodi Collins
Lori Tecler
Vickie Zimmer
Wanda Cullen
Karolyn Loncon, November Guest Designer
Mona Pendleton, Guest Star Stamper


Wishing you all a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving holiday!  "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever!"  1 Chronicles 16:34

Monday, November 23, 2015

Oh, Ship!

I realized this weekend that my Aunt Rose has a birthday today.  And since I didn't have a card ready to send her, I knew any card I ended up sending would be late (since she lives three hours away from me!) So I made this quick card on Sunday night to send her, and hope she'll get the joke and love it!

Aunt Rose

I've had this Naughty Nautical stamp set from Simon Says Stamp for what seems like forever, and finally got around to using it!  I kept it simple and used the sketch from the current Share Joy Challenge #12 for this week.  AND (I'm SO happy!) I finally got my Silhouette working properly again, so I was able to cut out that little set of banner flags across the top! 

AND, I'm so happy that it's a 3-day week, and that Thanksgiving is on the way!  I hope you have a blessed day!

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Color Throwdown #369

Color Throwdown #369 cropped

It’s time for another Color Throwdown challenge, and I’m your hostess this week!  I’ve got a nice warm and cozy Fall color palette for everyone today.  What will you create with this rusty orange, rich burgundy and pear-like green?

swatch 369

For my card, I pulled out my sweet Wreath Confetti Cuts die from Reverse Confetti to make this birthday card for my wonderful friend, Beth…

Color Throwdown #369

I started by stamping the background with my Wide Stripes background stamp from Simon Says Stamp, and die cut the wreath from kraft card stock.  (Remember, neutrals are OK!)  Then I added a Fall Florals  bouquet to the side, and stamped a birthday sentiment from the Totally Happy stamp set (both from My Favorite Things.)

Please be sure to visit the CTD blog today for more inspiration, and visit my Throwdown sisters for more inspiration….

Barbara Anders
Broni Holcombe
Joan Ervin
Jodi Collins
Lori Tecler
Vickie Zimmer
Wanda Cullen
Karolyn Loncon, November Guest Designer
Annie Rosenstiel, Guest Star Stamper

Your visits and comments bless my day… thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Seriously…

I’ve always had intentions of participating in the Montly Meet-Up challenge from Lil’ Inker Designs...

Monthly Meetup Challenge November Inspiration Graphic

I’m getting in under the wire for the challenge this month with this card that I made over the weekend…

Seriously...

The challenge this month is to use stars in your design, and unfortunately my Lil’ Inker collection isn’t that big so I don’t have any star dies or stamps.  So I used a star stencil and a watercolor wash of Spun Sugar and PIcked Raspberry distress inks to make my background.  Then used my favorite Seriously Word Die from Lil’ Inker and added a sentiment from the Seriously Awesome companion stamp set.  I added a thin layer of Glossy Accents to the die-cut for a little extra texture…

IMG_4137

It’s kind of marginal as far as qualifying for the challenge, but it was fun to make anyway, and will come in handy next time I need a thank you card!  :)

I also utilized CAS(E) This Sketch #149 for my layout on this card, and even though the challenge is over I used the Runway Inspired challenge #95 as inspiration for the starry background and the colors.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Color Throwdown #368

Color Throwdown #368 cropped

Hello friends!  It’s Wednesday and that means it’s time for another Color Throwdown challenge.  This week, Lori is our hostess and with this combination of colors she picked, you can go in quite a few directions with your creation…

swatch 368

I chose to create a Christmas card with these colors, utilizing some fun products from Reverse Confetti

Color Throwdown #368

I die-cut the word merry from pink card stock using the Winter Words Confetti Cuts, then applied some Glossy Accents for dimension and shine.  I completed the sentiment by stamping “Christmas” from the Winter Word Coordinates stamps on a strip of dark gray card stock, embossing with detail white embossing powder.  The Christmas tree was die-cut using the Branch Out Confetti Cuts.  My layout was inspired by the Freshly Made Sketches #211 from last week.

Please be sure to visit the CTD blog today for more inspiration, and visit my Throwdown sisters for more inspiration….

Barbara Anders
Broni Holcombe
Joan Ervin
Jodi Collins
Lori Tecler
Vickie Zimmer
Wanda Cullen
Karolyn Loncon, November Guest Designer
Andrea Whisman, Guest Star Stamper

We hope you’ll join us this week for the Color Throwdown!  Thanks for stopping by today!

Monday, November 9, 2015

A Latte Birthday Wishes

Happy Monday!  Well, OK... maybe it's not THAT happy?  I'm bummed that the weekend is over because I spent the last three days in a hotel conference room with some of the best stamping friends ever, and all we did all weekend was stamp, eat, stamp, talk and STAMP!  It was awesome... can't wait to do it again in the Spring!  I managed to crank out 8 cards, which is less than what I had hoped for but still pretty good.  One of the cards I made included this one, using the current Sweet Sunday Sketch #294 for the layout... 

A Latte Birthday Wishes 

I used the LLD Stay Cool stamp set, and LLD Cool Cup Die-Namics from My Favorite Things for this card.  The cup was die-cut from watercolor paper, and I used an ink blending tool to add Ground Espresso, Vintage Photo, and Antique Linen distress inks to look like the cool coffee drink.  I used an aquabrush to smooth out the colors a little, then when I was satisfied I used a watered-down mixture of Glossy Accents to give the cup a shiny look.  This photo below shows a little bit of that gloss, as well as the acetate dome-lid on the cup… 

A Latte close-up
Hopefully she won't see this before next Saturday as I made this card for my Starbucks loving niece, who has a birthday coming up!  And because it’s for my niece, this fits perfectly into the “Create Something with the Letter N” challenge at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.

I hope you had a great weekend, and that your week is off to a good start!  Thanks for stopping by today!

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Coffee is ALWAYS a Good Idea!

Hello friends!  I have a little project to share with you today… I made this for my daughter as part of the Share Handmade Kindness challenge for this week…

Coffee Cat

My daughter is a coffee lover, and an animal lover… and she’s particularly partial to her black cat, Finnick.  So I picked up this adorable Newton Loves Coffee stamp set from Newton’s Nook when I was at the Simon Says Create event a few weeks ago, knowing it’d be perfect to make things for Kelsey.  And the other day I remembered these denim mini canvases that my BFF Barbara Anders sent me for my birthday last Spring, and an idea was hatched!  So I made this for Kelsey to put on her kitchen counter (she’s away at school right now, training to be a Vet Tech!) next to her Keurig!  I got to give it to her last night when she made a quick trip home with some friends to retrieve a much-needed item, and she loved it!  Without me even saying anything, she said “I can put this on the counter by my Keurig!”  That’s my girl!

I hope you have a fantastic day!  Thanks for visiting me today!

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Color Throwdown #367

Color Throwdown #367 cropped

The fabulous Jodi Collins is our Color Throwdown hostess today, and she’s got a lovely palette of colors for you to play with…

swatch 367

As far as I’m concerned, coral is always a beautiful color to play with so I really enjoyed this combination of colors.  I used my Clearly Besotted Fairytale Ending stamp set to create this sympathy card…

Color Throwdown #367

I used the matching die to cut out the floral spray from watercolor card stock, then used my MISTI to stamp the image in Versamark and embossed with detail white embossing powder.  Then I colored with my ZIG Clean Color Real Brush markers.  The watercolor background was created with Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint distress inks. For the “gold” in our color palette, I went with a muted gold and used Liquid Platinum embossing powder on my sentiment.

Please be sure to visit the CTD blog today for more inspiration, and visit my Throwdown sisters for more inspiration.  And help us welcome our new Guest Designer for November, Karolyn Loncon!

Barbara Anders
Broni Holcombe
Joan Ervin
Jodi Collins
Lori Tecler
Vickie Zimmer
Wanda Cullen
Karolyn Loncon, November Guest Designer

Your visit to my blog today is a blessing, and I appreciate it!

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

You Make Me Smile

CASE'ing Lindsay cropped

Hello friends!  I just wanted to pop in quickly today with this card I made.  I really wanted to join in the CASE’ing Genius One Year Anniversary challenge being sponsored by Kelly Latevola.  I hope to make a few more cards, but for my first one I decided to CASE my genius friend Lindsay Amrhein

CASE'ing Lindsay

I just loved Lindsay’s card HERE (well, I love pretty much everything Lindsay makes!) and it’s what got me started with ink smooshing, which is what I did for the background on this card.  I used the same Smile Circle die from Simon Says Stamp that Lindsay used on her card… picked it up last week when I was in Columbus at the Simon Says event, and am glad I did!  There were some darling sample cards on display using that die!  I embellished with a shiny silver bundle of thread behind the circle (check out the picture up at the top for a better view) and embellished with some Sparkling Clear Sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

And this makes another card I can enter in the Share Handmade Kindness challenge for this week for friends and family.  I plan to send this card to my awesome cousin Pam, who so sweetly sent me something in the mail last week!

My card definitely isn’t as fabulous as Lindsay’s but I hope you like it!  Thanks for stopping by today!