Color Throwdown #351

The Color Throwdown team has another challenge for you this week, and Monika is our hostess!  The inspiration photo she chose actually had some sparkly animation to it, which we couldn’t make work in the color swatch this week, but if you look closely you can see.  So for this week, our colors are hot pink, purple and black with sparkle!

I saw this beautiful card about two weeks ago, and just fell in love with that Penny Black All Over Pattern background, so I just had to get it ordered from Simon Says Stamp. 

After stamping the All Over Pattern on watercolor card stock with Versamark, I embossed with white detail embossing powder.  Then I did some ink smooshing with Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves distress ink, and spritzed the whole thing with some Perfect Pearls for shimmer.  I added a strip of vellum, and a die-cut Thanks die from Simon Says Stamp, cut from silver glitter card stock.  A few silver sequins, and done!

Be sure to stop over at the Color Throwdown blog for all the challenge details, and visit my Throwdown sisters for more inspiration…

Barbara Anders
Broni Holcombe – on vacation this week!
Joan Ervin
Jodi Collins
Lori Tecler
Monika Davis
Vickie Zimmer
Wanda Cullen
Valentyna Komisarenko, July Guest Designer
Lisa Henke, Guest Star Stamper

As always, thank you so much for stopping by and for your comments!

Happy New Year-2011 Favorites

I have always found it fun the last few years to take a look back at my blogging year and pick my favorite cards from each month, so here goes.  I hope you'll enjoy this as much as I always do!

In January, this card for Color Throwdown #125 using a beautiful stamp from Verses Rubber Stamps was at the top of my favorites list for the whole year, too.

Do you ever make cards that you're so pleased with that you can't help but keep going back to them and looking?  This February Timeless Tuesday birthday card using the Friendly Reminders set from Flourishes was like that for me!

As I recall, I had quite a few favorites in March and had to do some serious narrowing down of the competition.  In the end, this Penny Black duck still just stole my heart, from another Color Throwdown challenge.

This special birthday card back in April, combined with another Timeless Tuesday challenge was a no-brainer as far as my favorite for that month.  I used the Lenten Rose stamp set from Flourishes on this card, along with my recently-acquired High Tea Party Doily Die-Namics die from My Favorite Things of which I am still madly in love with 8 months later!  :)

The beach scene created on this card for May had me dreaming of warm temps and sunny shores, for sure.  This vacation-themed card for the Crazy 4 Challenges team was high-ranking for May, using the Beach Life stamp set from Flourishes.

Another Timeless Tuesday card took top honors for June using the Butterflies & Blossoms stamp set from Flourishes.

July's favorite card led me to this creation for a Bellarific Friday Sketch challenge, using some distress inks for the background and a few Stamping Bella stamps.

In August, I pulled out some Kitchen Sink Stamps that Maria was kind enough to gift me with when she visited Ohio back in June to create some fabulous hot pink cowgirl boots on this card!  I'd love to have a pair of boots like these!

Several times in 2011 I was honored to join the fabulously talented girls on the Stamp Simply Store team in some challenges, and this card from a suede ribbon challenge back in September was hands-down a fave!

In October, another card created for a Color Throwdown challenge was the front-runner featuring one of my most favorite characters in stamping... Mavis!

November's favorite card was this Timeless Tuesday creation for Flourishes using the Vintage Postcard stamp set, and the Dryer Sheet Technique.  I find it hard now to contemplate trying this technique on another card, because it just seems so perfectly suited for this stamp set!  LOL

And finally in December, one of my most-recent favorite cards was this one using the newly released Pears set from Flourishes.  This stamp set can have you dreaming of warmer weather and fresh fruit, for sure!

On top of these cards, a LOT of my favorites for 2011 were also created for the Dirty Dozen galleries at Splitcoaststampers... a team I'm incredibly proud to have joined this past year!  I can't show you some of those cards here on my blog as yet, but if you're a Fan Club member at SCS you can hop over to my gallery by clicking here to see them!

AND if you're not a Fan Club member, you really should be especially if you're someone like me who has gotten years of encouragement and inspiration from visiting SCS.  Yes, it's a free site to use but I have always been a Fan Club member as a way to give back to a community who has given me so much.  Please consider a half or full year membership if you feel the same way to show your appreciation!

I wish you many of God's blessings in 2012, and happy stamping!  Thanks for stopping by!

Color Throwdown #132

It's time for Color Throwdown #132 and this week Broni is our hostess with this cool color palette! We hope you'll be inspired to play along! Remember, if you don't have these exact colors, whatever you have that is similar is just fine!

I don't know why, but "duck" came to mind with these colors... maybe the two shades of blue made me think of water and the yellow a duck's bill? Whatever the case, I decided to pull out this adorable (and neglected!) cute duck stamp from Penny Black for my card. This poor guy hasn't seen ink in awhile, so using him for my card also works for the weekly challenge of my MINION Jessie with her Forgotten Stamp Friday challenge!
As you can see, the Labels 1 Nestabilities die cut is mounted on foam squares then I mounted the duck on some foam tape, and went further by mounting the bill, feet and one hand/wing on some more foam tape for some great dimension!

Stop and see what my Throwdown sisters have created for the challenge today... I know you're going to love their creations!

And thank YOU for stopping by today! I appreciate your visits and comments!

Stamps: Duckling (Penny Black), sentiment (Tag Lines by Flourishes)

Cardstock: Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake, Soft Sky designer paper (Stampin' Up!), Classic White Copic cardstock (Flourishes), yellow designer paper (A Walk in the Park by Echo Park)

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko), markers (Copic)

Accessories: Labels 1 Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Little Open Scallop Strip Die-Namics (My Favorite Things), SU! ribbon, Divine Twine, button, white brads (craft supply).

Copic Classes!

Craziness in my life this past week prevented me from getting a card done for today's Crazy Challenge (hmmm... irony?) but check out the sketch challenge for this week at the C4C blog and play along if you have time!

One reason I've been busy is that I was getting ready to teach some Copic classes! I am headed to Erie, Pennsylvania later today with my hubby and Kelsey (Kaylie has to stay home because of work) and tomorrow I'm teaching three Copic classes at Monkey Business Scrapbook Lounge! If you're one of the many registered for the classes, I will look forward to meeting you tomorrow! :) These are the cards we'll be making in the process of learning about how fabulous Copic markers are!

If you're so inclined, prayers for a safe trip home on Sunday night would be greatly appreciated as Old Man Winter has come early to our neck of the woods and is unleashing another furious blast of snow and cold on us tomorrow!

Thanks for stopping by, and for your prayers!

Hip to Be Square and CrAzY!

Happy Saturday everyone! It's time for another Crazy Challenge today, and with a new month we have a new hostess.... Cindy Haffner! Cindy's challenge for us today is to make a square card! Easy-peasy.... I love to make square cards. They're great for when you need just a little extra room for your design. Of course, they also cost more to mail and since this one ended up being a whopping 5 1/2" it would probably be best to hand-deliver! (Actually, this one will go on display at the store! LOL)

On Wednesday while I was at work I colored up this sweet new image from Penny Black called Caroling Trio. I did a little white-on-white design with this by mounting my die-cut image onto a snowflake embossed background. If you click on the picture for a close-up you might be able to see the shimmer I added to the background by spritzing it with some Perfect Pearls. Those sweet little mice were colored with Copic markers.

Stop at the Crazy 4 Challenges blog for all the details, and visit the team member's blogs for lots of inspiration!

Cindy Haffner

Frances Byrne

Vicki Garrett (who we welcome back!)

Angela Wood

Barbara Anders

Joanne Grzelak

Jocelyn Pelkey

Maria Bell

Lynda Benden

Silke Ledlow

Jessie Rone

Silke Kittman

Thanks for visiting! Hope you're having a great weekend!

Color Throwdown #87 - Reach for the Stars!

(You'll find my All that Scraps Wednesday challenge post here!)

The days just fly by and here we are, April 7th already and it's time for another Color Throwdown! This week Danielle is our hostess, and she's chosen some pretty Spring shades for you to try! So I hope you'll make time to play along with us! Complete details for the challenge can be found by visiting the Throwdown blog, as well as the Inklinz tool so you can link up your own creation!

I recently got this new image from Penny Black, and couldn't wait to ink it up and color this little sweetheart with her little bunny helpers! My little ballerina is colored with Copics and the background is airbrushed. I added some Diamond Dust glitter to her tutu and my flower embellishment, and some ultrafine glitter to the stars.

Here's the sentiment and decorations inside...

With a new month, we have a new guest designer for the Color Throwdown and I could not be more thrilled to have her with us! Stop over at Teresa Kline's blog and welcome her to our team for April and check out her adorable creation! Then see what my Throwdown sisters have created, too...

Danielle Kennedy

LeAnne Pugliese

Broni Holcome

Barbara Anders

Kristin Bueter (off this week)

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Reach for the Stars, sentiment (Penny Black)Cardstock: Mellow Moss (Stampin' Up!), gray (Core'dinations), white (Neenah), designer paper (Bo Bunny)

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko), markers (Copic)

Accessories: Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Diamond Dust glitter, ultrafine glitter, ribbon, flower (craft supplies).

Copic 101 Class

I had a Copic 101 class at the store on Tuesday evening with three fabulous ladies there to learn how to color beautifully with Copic markers! We had so much fun laughing and coloring together! After giving them a quick tutorial with each image, I turned them loose with the markers and they all did a fabulous job for being novices! Everyone got to make simple cards with their colored images when they were done because I do not like to have any class where customers don't walk away with a finished project! If you don't have something to take home and say "look what I made, Honey!" then what's the point, right?

The first card used Gracie Lollipop from Stamping Bella and my favorite Cosmo Cricket paper.

And I just can't get enough of this sweet Wheelbarrow of Love from Whipper Snapper Designs, so we had to make a Valentine card with it!
And finally this froggie card, which I'm sure looks familiar since I CASE'd my own design on this one for my Color Throwdown card yesterday! This frog is from Penny Black.
I'll be having another Copic 101 class sometime in the Spring, and am planning a Copic 102 class in March sometime, for those that are more advanced! If you're in Northeast Ohio and want to keep updated on my classes, check out the Stampers' Toy Store blog!

And speaking of Copic classes, I will be traveling to North Liberty, Indiana in March to teach some Copic classes at Joan's Garden! The exact date hasn't been determined yet, but I'll keep you posted! I know Joan has a group of ladies anxious for some Copic classes, but I think she has room in her classroom for a few more people, so if you're in northern Indiana, you might want to keep it in mind! I'd love to have you there! (AND I can't wait to see Joan again and stay in her beautiful home!)

Happy stamping, and happy Thursday!

Color Throwdown #76

Welcome to another Color Throwdown! This week it's my turn to host the challenge, and I picked these colors hoping they would force Mother Nature to send Spring NOW!

No, seriously my desk was a mess of scraps and everything one day and these colors were just kinda' laying there in front of me and I thought "how pretty!" So Color Throwdown #76 was born! I hope you'll play along! Stop by the Throwdown blog for complete details!

My card is really clean and simple for today, as I've had a busy week already (and it's only Tuesday!) I actually colored this frog for a Copic 101 class that I had at the store last night, and copied the card design that my customers used too, just changing the colors to suit the challenge. My class was really great, too! (HI KIM!)

See what my Throwdown sisters have created for this challenge, too! They came up with some real beauties this week!

Broni Holcombe

Cathy Indelicato

Barbara Anders

LeAnne Pugliese

Kristin Bueter

Danielle Kennedy (running late today... I'm starting to think she needs 40 lashes!)

Deb Horst, January Guest Designer

I hope your week is going great! Thank you so much for visiting my blog today!

Stamps: frog (Penny Black), sentiment (Stampendous)
Cardstock: So Saffron, Old Olive (Stampin' Up!), white (Neenah)
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko), markers (Copic)

Accessories: border punch (Martha Stewart), ribbon (SU!).

2009 Favorites

Happy New Year everyone! I hope whatever you did to celebrate, you stayed safe and had a great time! We spent the evening with friends, bowling and playing games and now I'm ready for some stamping, some pork and sauerkraut, and some football! GO BUCKEYES!!!

In years past, I have enjoyed seeing some of my favorite bloggers post their favorite cards from the past year and I thought it'd be fun to do the same today! I never imagined though that it would be so tough to choose only one from each month! But here goes....I hope you enjoy! (Click on the months to be taken to the blog post that corresponds to each card!)

For January, I chose this card that I created for a card buffet at the store.

In February I was lucky enough to purchase some stamps from Our Craft Lounge for the first time, and this card ended up being my favorite from that month.
Tulips have always been a favorite flower for me, so my favorite for March was a no-brainer... this card using Kitchen Sink Stamps!
In April, I created this card for a Stamp Simply challenge and have always been very pleased with my Copic coloring on it. This was when I finally started feeling like I was getting the hang of using my Copics!
I was introduced to stamps from Magnolia this past year, so this card from May was a fave!
This card was for a Color Throwdown in June, and I initially didn't like the color combination, but ended up loving it when this card came together so sweetly!
This sweet Hedgie from July stole my heart!
In August, one of the Color Throwdown challenges was sponsored by Rubbernecker. It was another color combo that I initially didn't like, but loved once my card was completed!
I was also introduced to Whipper Snapper Designs stamps in 2009 and they're definitely some of my favorite stamps. This card was created in September for a store display.
I had so much fun making Halloween cards this year, and it was hard to pick my favorite but this witch enjoying her spa treatment was my final decision for October.
This card with another Whipper Snapper image jumped right to the head of the pack for November favorites!
And this card using a beautiful snowflake from DRS Designs in non-traditional colors was just one of my many favorite Christmas cards from December.
So there you have it! My 2009 faves! 2010.... let's bring it on! I'm ready for another fun year of stamping and designing!

Stay tuned! I'll have my card for the first Stamp Simply challenge of 2010 ready to show you in a little while!