Color Throwdown #461

Ohhh, I’m running late this week with my post for the Color Throwdown!  It’s been a hectic week because I’ve had to work at a different office than my own all week, and just breaking my usual routine throws me into a tizzy.  It took until this evening for me to even realize I hadn’t done my post.  My apologies to the CTD ladies for forgetting my obligations!

Here are the colors for this week…

And here’s my card…

These colors just screamed Halloween to me, but I don’t have many Halloween-ish images.  However, this cute image from Whipper Snapper Designs is one I have always kept as I love the whimsy of it so much!  I colored that lil’ pumpkin, ghost and scaredy cat witch Copic markers, framed them up with a purple gingham frame, and added some bright yellow sequins for embellishment.  A green sentiment flag completed the design.

Please be sure to stop by the CTD blog for all the challenge details, and visit the CTD team members for more inspiration…

Amy Rohl
Amy Rysavy
Barbara Anders
Broni Holcombe
Jodi Collins
Lisa Henke
Lori Tecler
Lynn Put
Vickie Zimmer
Wanda Cullen

Thanks for stopping by today!

Curtain Call–Flamingo Reminder

Hey friends, just a reminder you have until Thursday, August 25th at 8:00 Central time to join us for the current Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge!  The current challenge is inspired by this photo.  Remember, it’s all about being inspired by the photo.  If you don’t have anything flamingo-themed, that’s OK.  Be inspired by the colors, and actual items (the phone cases, the blouse, the swim ring)… let your imagination lead you!

Since I used my only flamingo-themed item on my card last week, I chose today to be inspired by the swim floaty, and went with this much-loved stamp from Whipper Snapper Designs for my card…

This Poolside Chicken stamp has always been a favorite of mine from Whipper Snapper Designs (And how cool is it that a card I made using it is the one they use to sell the stamp on their website?  I LOVE it!)  I chose to give my chicken a bright pink bikini to match the flamingo floaty in the inspiration photo, then added waves, a blue sky and sunshine coloring with my Copic markers.  I’d seriously LOVE to be in that same scenario right now!  My one chance so far this summer to go swimming was ruined by rain last Sunday, but we need the rain so bad here in Ohio so it’s all good.  No one needs to see me in my swimsuit, anyway!

Be sure to stop by the Curtain Call blog for all the challenge details and JOIN US!!! 

CrAzY for the Olympics

Hi friends… it’s me, chasing-my-tail Tammy once again!  I’m late again this week with my card for the current Crazy 4 Challenges, but I’m on vacation (stay-cation) this week from work so hopefully I’m going to manage to get ahead a little bit!

Jessie Rone is our new August hostess and this week, since the Olympics just started in Rio she’s asking us to be inspired by the Olympic logo colors, or make a sports-themed card.  Well, I turned to the only sports-themed stamp I seem to have and created this card, along with a version of the Olympic colors…

I’ve had this Sports Balls stamp from Whipper Snapper Designs for years, and this very well could be my first time using it!  It pairs perfectly with the sentiment stamp from Art Impressions.  (I have a single wood-mount of that sentiment, but it’s also available in this stamp set.)  I colored with Copics, die-cut with a Pierced Rectangle STAX Die-Namics, mounted to a piece of black card stock for a little pop, and added the striped piece of designer paper (came out of my scrap pile, so sorry but not sure who it’s from.)

Be sure to stop by the C4C blog for all the challenge details today, and be inspired by the rest of the CrAzY girls…

Anja de Regt
Barbara Anders
Caz Counsell
Frances Byrne
Jessie Rone
Joanne Grzelak
Karen Aicken
Maryann Einem
Raquel Mason
Rebecca Ednie
Alexis Crossland-Smith, Guest Designer
Danielle Vincent, Guest Designer

Hope you’ve had a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Boo to You!

With yesterday being October 1st, I had to get started again with the fabulous 30 Day Coloring Challenge sponsored by Kathy Racoosin at The Daily Marker blog!  Even though I’m sure I’ll probably struggle to keep up, I love the fun of this challenge! 

So yesterday morning before work I started coloring this image, and then finished it last night so here it is for today…

This Halloween Buddies image is from Whipper Snapper Designs, and for the simple card layout I used the current sketch from The Paper Players blog.  I colored with Copics on X-Press It blending card stock.  And with this Halloween image, my card is also for the current challenge #78 at the MarkerPOP blog.

Happy Friday!  Thanks for stopping by today!

Color Throwdown #316

Hello friends!  It's time once again for the Color Throwdown, and Monika is our hostess this week!  You could do a lot with these colors... make a Fall card, Halloween, masculine... anything goes!  Check it out...

Well, I cheated a little.  My image was already colored, AND I had already paired it up with the blue card stock in the background because I thought it matched the blue in the quilt quite well.  And when I sat down to make my card for this week, well... I just wasn't feeling very inspired.  So I just decided to use what was already started.  So here's my card...

I needed a birthday card for a friend this week, and this was just perfect.  I colored this Pumpkins & Patchwork image from Whipper Snapper Designs with my Copic markers, and stamped a Hero Arts sentiment at the bottom.  On the blue card stock background I added a gingham pattern with a background stamp.

Be sure to stop over at the CTD blog for all the challenge details.  And be sure to visit my Throwdown sisters for more inspiration...

Barbara Anders
Broni Holcombe
Joan Ervin
Jodi Collins
Lori Tecler
Monika Davis
Vickie Zimmer
Wanda Cullen
Tara Godfrey, October Guest Designer   
Sue Rose, Guest Star Stamper


Thanks so much for stopping by today!





Pulling for You!

Linda has a fun new challenge going on over at the Catered Crop blog, and I hope you'll join in!  Here are the details...

Whether you like to travel on a bicycle, motorcycle, car, plane, train, boat, or camper . . . across the world or in your back yard, this challenge is wide open to anything related to travel. Show us where you’ve been or where you hope to go. However you want to travel, where ever you wander, add us as your escort.

• Include a link to us at Catered Crop or add our button, which you can grab on our sidebar or at our {button gallery}.
• Link up and link often, but be sure you link up by 8:00 PM EST on Saturday, March 15.
• Keep the party hopping by visiting the other players and leaving comments.
• Check back with us on March 16 to see if you’ve won an opportunity to be a guest designer!

So... even though I am trying to get back to stamping on a regular basis, I still ran out of time this week to get a card done for the challenge.  But I did find a card from my Splitcoaststampers Dirty Dozen days that's never been blogged, and while I know it's a stretch, I think it's travel-related, right?  :)

 

 

In this case, the kitty is the one doing the traveling!  I just adore this cute image from Whipper Snapper, and just love the bright Jillibean Soup papers are so cheerful, don't you think?

 

So, be sure to head on over to Linda's Catered Crop blog and check out the challenge!

 

Have a fantastic weekend!

COLOR THROWDOWN #250!!!

OH. MY. WORD!  Can you tell I’m excited?  How awesome is it that today we are celebrating FIVE YEARS OF THE COLOR THROWDOWN!!  I can’t believe it’s been that long already.. seems like just yesterday!  I hope you’re going to join us for the challenge today (being hosted by Lori!) for the chance to win some fabulous prizes!  Be sure to head over to the CTD blog for all details.  Also exciting today is the fact that we have a bunch of our former Color Throwdown designers, as well as former Guest Designers joining us to help celebrate!  You’ll find links to them all over on the blog!

Here’s my card for the festivities…

These colors just screamed Summer to me, and this Whipper Snapper chicken image fits the bill!  She’s one of my faves!  I colored her up with Copics (gave her a nice tan, too!) and embellished with some Die-Namics die cuts, ribbon and enamel dots.  And this card was already delivered earlier in the week to my sweet mail lady who takes such good care of me!  She always recognizes packages with stamps in them, and will text me to let me know so I had to make sure to wish her a happy birthday!

Please visit my Throwdown sisters for more inspiration today, and don’t forget all the alumni designers too, that are linked on the CTD blog today!

Barbara Anders
Broni Holcombe
Joan Ervin
Lori Tecler
Lynn Put
Wanda Cullen
Stacey Schafer, July Guest Designer

PLEASE join us for the celebration!  I can’t wait to see what you create!

Happy stamping!

One of My Favorite Peeps

I needed some cards to send to a few friends, so I pulled out a paper pad from My Mind’s Eye that hasn’t been shown a lot of love and made these two cards…

I used the sketch #111 from My Favorite Things for this week for the first card, using my new Pure Innocence “One of My Favorite Peeps” stamp set.  I paper-pieced the dress with some of the designer paper, and used a few Die-Namics in the design including the Simply Scallops Medium border and a flag from the Accent It – Flags and Tags.
For the second card…

I pulled out this good ol’ Pooside Chicken stamp from Whipper Snapper and added a sentiment from Hero Arts.  Hopefully this warm up my friend since we’re in the midst of our usual cold Ohio winter!  There’s a few MFT Die-Namics on this card too, including the Small Scallop Border and a Fishtail Flags STAX for the sentiment.
Stay tuned for the Color Throwdown tomorrow!  My card will make you wanna’ shout Yeehaw!  :)

Color Throwdown #216

Hey everyone, it’s Wednesday again so that means it’s time for another Color Throwdown challenge!  We’re up to challenge #216 and Kerri is our hostess this week.  She picked these great contrasting colors for us to use… I had my doubts at first (I’m SO not a fan of blues…) but I ended up loving my card.  So don’t be intimidated and give this one a try!

I misplaced my Copic color chart a few days ago, and in the process of hunting for it I came across this Whipper Snapper image that I think I must have colored last year and never used.  With those vibrant orange pumpkins, I thought it’d be perfect for my card for today, paired up with a few October Afternoon papers.  I also found a past Mojo Monday sketch (#261) laying on my desk and was inspired by it for the layout.

Be sure to visit my Throwdown sisters for more inspiration this week…

Barbara Anders
Broni Holcombe
Denise Marzec
Joan Ervin
Kerri Michaud
Lori Tecler
Lynn Put
Wanda Cullen
Dawn Easton, October Guest Designer
Happy stamping, and thanks for stopping by today!

Whipper Snapper New Release!

Hello everyone! How was your weekend? Mine was GREAT! Why? Because I spent my weekend in Virginia with my BFF Barbara Anders, AND on Saturday she and met Wanda Cullen and Teresa Kline for lunch at Olive Garden and a shopping trip to Hobby Lobby! It was FABULOUS! We had so much fun, and sat and talked in the restaurant for close to 3 hours! I hope to be able to do that again sometime soon! (But maybe I can talk them into coming to Ohio instead... that 7 hour drive to Virginia is a BEAR! LOL)

Anyhoo, I have some fun news to share with you today! The fabulously talented Anna Wight has 3 new stamp sets being released today at Whipper Snapper Designs, and I'm SO happy to get to share a few cards with you today showcasing these new stamps! Anna's illustrations are always adorable and I hope you'll love them, too!

This first card is from the Farmer John stamp set, which includes Farmer John (of course!) and a great variety of farm animals and scenery to pair him with! Here I used the corn stalks, pumpkins and sign along with one of several great sentiments in the set to create this little scene.

And Anna has also designed a beautiful silhouette stamp set called A Lifetime of Happiness. This set contains the pretty flower shown here, as well as a few butterflies and some really lovely sentiments. It's a great all-purpose stamp set that you can use for many occasions. I chose to create this clean and simple card with this set using some Ranger distress inks, seam binding for a bow and some silver flat-back pearls.

And one more new set, Farmgirl Betty is also available! I'll have some cards using that set to also show you very soon!

For more designs using Anna's new sets, be sure to visit these other fabulous stampers who are showcasing the new stamps today...

Shellie Daniel

Danielle Kennedy

Sue Berker

Lesa Rapp

Anna Wight

Enjoy, and thanks so much for stopping by today!

Color Throwdown #158

Broni is our hostess for the Color Throwdown this week, and she's got a challenging color combo for you! I initially could not decide what I was going to do with these colors, but once I got started with an image and some papers it all came together and I LOVE these colors!

I used a new Whipper Snapper image for my card, Pumpkins and Patchwork and a mix of My Mind's Eye "All Spice" and Cosmo Cricket "Nutmeg" papers. (Hmmm... pumpkin, allspice and nutmeg... sounds like a delicious PIE!)

Stop over at the Color Throwdown blog for all the challenge details! And be sure to check out who our fantabulous Guest Designer is for September, Julee Tillman! :) Visit Julee and my Throwdown sisters blogs for more inspiration...

Barbara Anders

Broni Holcombe

Carole Burrage

Danielle Kennedy

Kristin Eberline

Laura Pryor

Julee Tillman, September Guest Designer

Thanks for be-bopping by today! Happy Wednesday!

CrAzY for Flower Soft - C4C70

We have another fun challenge for you this week with the Crazy Girls, and it's super easy! Just create a thank you card! We all have a need for those now that the holidays are past, right? So play along, and link your card on the C4C blog so we can see what you create!

Our challenge today is being sponsored by Flower Soft, too! They have some bright new colors for Spring, as you can see here!

For my card, I went with clean and simple for my design so that the Flower Soft would be the center of attention. And yes, I know you already saw this Whipper Snapper image earlier in the week but it was still laying on my table and said to me "I'd be perfect for this challenge!" so that's what I went with! :)

See what my Crazy Sisters have created today too, for more inspiration!

Angela Wood

Barbara Anders

Cindy Haffner

Frances Byrne

Jessie Rone

Joanne Grzelak

Jocelyn Pelkey

Lynda Benden

Maria Bell

Silke Kittman

Silke Ledlow

Vicki Garrett

Happy stamping, and have a fantabulous weekend!

Color Throwdown #124 for Katie

We're ready for another Color Throwdown this week, and this week we've got something extra special for you! Did you stop by my blog last week and see the Flourishes card I posted to send to Katie Renz? Katie is a wife and mother of 3 from Washington state who was diagnosed just before Christmas with stage IV gastric cancer. You can follow this thread on Splitcoaststampers for more information, and I also highly recommend you start to follow Katie's blog. You'll be so inspired by her courage! And right now we believe that Katie needs her stamping sisters to rally around her with love and support! So for today's Color Throwdown, we're encouraging everyone to create cards to send to Katie! And to encourage you further we're offering some prizes! Each member of the Throwdown team has a little something to give, and Kate from i {heart} papers is generously offering a prize, too. Enter your creation using a direct link on the McLinky widget on the Throwdown blog by 11:59 p.m. Sunday to be in the running, and we'll draw random winners that will be announced on the Throwdown blog on Tuesday. Cards can be sent to...

Katie Renz

PO Box 5913
Bellingham, WA 98227-5913

So Broni is our hostess today, and as you can see from the color swatch above, our colors today are Early Espresso (dark brown), Soft Sky (light aqua blue), and Melon Mambo (bright hot pink). If you don't have these exact Stampin' Up! colors, just use whatever you have that is most similar.

For my card, I am using a neglected Whipper Snapper image (and I'm using it this week so I can also play along with Jessie Rone's "Forgotten Stamp Friday" challenge!) called Floral Promise. I paired my image with some October Afternoon papers and a layout that was completely inspired by Amy Sheffer. I have been drooling lately over the creations on her blog, and LOVE the zig-zag stitching she adds to her creations, so I CASE'd this card for my card today.

So, if you play along with us this week you'll be eligible to win one of the prizes we have available. Each member of the Throwdown team has something a little different, as does Kate from i {heart} papers. You can check out every blog if you want to see what's available. Winners will be drawn randomly and there will be only one prize per person. I will be giving away several yards of 11 different colors of Divine Twine, and an 8x8 pad of Modern Homemake paper from October Afternoon!

Thank you so much for stopping by today, and for helping us show support for Katie! Happy stamping!

My 2010 Favorites

I enjoyed posting my twelve favorite cards from 2009 so much, that I thought I'd do it again this year with my 2010 cards! So here goes, starting with January and this fun card with an image from Whipper Snapper Designs. I believe this one was for a Color Throwdown challenge.

This card that I created in February was special because it was for the Featured Stamper challenge on Splitcoaststampers that I got to host, and got to feature my BFF Barbara Anders! It was so much fun to surprise her with that challenge that day, and now she's a Dirty Girl! You've come a long way, baby! The stamps used on this card are from Rubbernecker.
In March I had the privilege of doing some guest design work back in the kitchen with Kitchen Sink Stamps! This beautiful lilac stamp was one I couldn't wait to get my hands on, and I enjoyed created with it tremendously!
In April I had the high honor of being asked to be a Guest Designer for Whipper Snapper Designs, and this was one of the cards I created using some of Anna Wight's new stamps. I was so tickled with how this turned out, with a Patridge Family theme!
A new company I found some great stamps from this past year was Stampavie, and I just adore this image of the little girl picking cherries. I picked up this stamp back in March when I visited my dear friend Joan Fricker in Indiana and taught some Copic classes at her store!
I also had the privilege of being in the Limelight at Flourishes back in June, and this stamp set was one I picked to use during that time. I created this card as a special order for an Etsy customer, and love how it turned out with the page from an old book.
In July I participated in a special birthday blog hop for my sweet friend LeAnne Pugliese, so I made this card for the hop and then sent it to her! (I hope I sent it to her anyway! I'm good at making cards.... bad at sending 'em!) The silhouette flowers used here are from Rubbernecker.
I can't remember that it was for anything specific back in August, but I sure did love how it turned out! The flowers here are from Impression Obsession, and the sentiment is Stampin' Up!
In September I took my Stamp of the Month program at the store in a new direction and started using stamps from Impression Obsession each month. This was one of the cards I made for that month, featured Versafine Inks and the beautiful Gary Robertson images from IO.
This Halloween card with a Stamping Bella image was for a favorite little buddy of mine at church!
In November I got my hands on the new Modern Homemaker paper pad from October Afternoon (thanks Bar!) and quickly set to work creating with it, using this sweet bear stamp from The Cat's Pajamas.
And this card, made just a few short weeks ago was my favorite for December, and my favorite for the whole year, I think! I grabbed this Echo Park paper at Monkey Business Scrapbook Lounge in Erie, PA on December 12th while I was there teaching some Copic classes, and couldn't resist pairing it up with this sweet Pure Innocence image from My Favorite Things!
Thanks for taking a sentimental journey with me back to 2010, and thanks for stopping by! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Color Throwdown #111 (otherwise known as "What was Broni thinking?")

Today's Color Throwdown challenge is just that.... a CHALLENGE! I've been ribbing Broni for a week, trying to figure out WHAT she was thinking when she chose these colors! Whoo boy, I dreaded this color combo! Just ask LeAnne.... she knows I do not do blue! I even teased that I was going to make a Melon Mambo/River Rock card, and use an image of a little girl with Pacific Point blue eyes! So basically you've caught on, right.... I didn't like this challenge!

But ya' know what, that's why we do challenges! To get outside the comfort zone and try new things and in the long run, I think it's pretty awesome! I hope you'll be brave and get outside your little stamping comfort box and give it a try!

I decided to use a Whipper Snapper image I've had for awhile that hadn't seen ink, so Tic, Tac & Toe here are the stars of my card! And see that awesome birthday Sentiment Flag? That's the new stamp set and matching die from my sweet friend Laura and her store, Lil' Inker Designs! You'll LOVE this cute little stamp set, and matching steel die! Get your hands on it soon! I love that I'll never have to pull out my square punch and try to evenly snip off the end of a sentiment flag ever again!

The layout for my card was inspired by Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch #86, but I ended up straying a little bit from the smaller details of the sketch.
Stop by the Throwdown blog for all the challenge details, then stop by my Throwdown sisters blogs for more inspiration!

Broni Holcombe

Barbara Anders

Danielle Kennedy

Kristin Bueter

Laura Pryor

LeAnne Pugliese

Silke Ledlow, September Guestie

Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate it!