TCP142 - Friends Forever

The TCP Tuesday challenge this week from The Cat's Pajamas is a color challenge to use red, black, yellow and kraft or white. Well, I couldn't resist using kraft and white... hope I don't get thrown out for it! :)
I used one of the newly released stamp sets, Tweet Hearts for my card and one of the new Cut-Ups dies, the Heart Trio. This is a nice die! I love that the large, scalloped heart has teeny-tiny holes that end up pierced in each scallop! Too cute! I thought this My Mind's Eye paper from last year was perfect for the challenge, and for the layout I used the January '11 Sketch for You to Try. It's a great sketch... I think this is my third time using it this month! :) My sentiment is stamped on a die-cut Sentiment Flag from my BFF Laura at Lil' Inker Designs and the button is tied off with some of my favorite Divine Twine.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Happy stamping!

Stamping Around OHIO!!!

In the Fall of 2009 I had the incredible pleasure to travel (with my best friend Bethie!) to southeast Pennsylvania and teach at the Stamping Around event held there! It was so much fun to get to take the classes offered by some of my stamping idols, and a privilege to lead a class, too! And ever since that event, I have nagged and nagged at Julie and Kim that a "Stamping Around Ohio" is needed, and they finally gave in to my pleas! Stamping Around Ohio is going to be held at Toyrifix June 17th and 18th, and I'm so excited I don't know how I'm going to wait that long! And the BEST part (well, several best parts!) is that my BFF Barbara Anders is coming from Virginia to teach a class, and Maria from Kitchen Sink Stamps is coming from California, too!!! I can't believe I'm going to get to meet them both in person! Bar and I have been online friends for years but have NEVER got to meet in person! Christina Fischer, who I got to meet a few years ago at Copic Certification is coming to teach, and Julie and Kim will be there, of course and I'll be so happy to see them again! I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait! For those that are not familiar, Toyrifix is in Smithville, Ohio in Wayne County and is pretty central to a wide area, so even if you're several hours away you should consider coming! (I drove 6+ hours to the one in PA! Actually, over 8 hours going if you take into consideration the detour we had to take because the interstate was closed!) We're an hour south of Cleveland, two hours north of Columbus, two hours west of Pittsburgh, four to five hours northwest of Indianapolis, and about three and a half hours southeast of Detroit. Believe me, it's well worth the trip! Stop by the Stamping Around website for more information! I hope you'll consider coming!!!

Color Throwdown #125

The weeks just keep flyin' by and here we are ready for another Color Throwdown challenge! Today Barbara is our hostess, and she chose these pretty, soft colors for us to work with. It's such a lovely, pastel pallette, don't you think?

The sentiment stamp I am using here is "A Special Prayer" from Verses Rubber Stamps. But first I stamped an old Hero Arts stamp on the paper using Tattered Rose distress ink. I stamped the sentiment in Forest Moss distress ink, then embossed with clear embossing powder. After cutting with the Labels 4 Nestabilities, I sponged Antique Linen ink around the edges before removing the paper from the die. The designer paper I used is Capella by Basic Grey.
I also used the Rolled Rose Die-Namics for the flower, and the Little Open Scallop Strip, both from My Favorite Things.

Stop at the Throwdown blog for all the challenge details, and then stop and see what my Throwdown sisters have to inspire you!

Barbara Anders

Danielle Kennedy

Kristin Bueter

Laura Pryor

Cathy Rulli

LeAnne Pugliese

Broni Holcombe

Lori Tecler, January Guest Designer

I hope to see YOU playing along with us! Thanks for stopping by!

Timeless Tuesday #101-Think BIG!

I have some exciting news to share with you all today! Betty Wright has been the fabulous, fearless leader of the Timeless Tuesday Challenges for Flourishes for the last two years. She's done a wonderful job with this, but has recently decided to step back from the responsibilities of being the leader. With her decision came the need for a new leader for the team, and my sweet friend Julie Koerber asked me to take the reigns! How could I say no? Flourishes stamps are some of my most favorite, and I'm just thrilled at this wonderful opportunity! I owe many thanks to Julie for having the confidence in my design work and leadership abilities to ask me to do this, and I appreciate the warm welcome the girls on the team have given me! I have a few ideas for some different things for the challenge in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Today's challenge is being hosted by Dee Jackson. I worked with Dee a few years ago when we were both on the Kitchen Sink Stamps team, and also with Stamp Simply. (In fact, many of the girls on the team are ones I have worked with in the past, so this all feels like a homecoming for me!) Dee is challenging everyone to think big, and wants us to create cards that are larger than the normal... at least 5x7 in size! I have to admit, I was a little intimidated at first but once the mojo started flowing, I found it fun to super-size my card!
I decided to use the DIY Topiary stamp set because I knew I could stamp a grouping of trees to make for a larger focal image. That's a good thing to concentrate on when you go to start on your design... pick something large. A smaller image will just be dwarfed by the card size. I paired my images with papers from Fancy Pants, and added a big bow using the wrinkle ribbon from Creative Impressions, tied off with a big ol' button. The gemstones I used at each end of my Labels 10 oval are from Prima.

So, I hope you'll stop over at the Flourishes blog to play along with us today! Everyone can play, and anyone can win. Each week, Flourishes awards one random participant a $10 gift code to use in the Flourishes store! Just link your creation using the McLinky widget on the blog to be entered. Using Flourishes stamps on your card isn't required, but if you have them by all means, use them! Be sure to post an actual direct link to your Timeless Tuesday creation, not just a general blog link... we want to be sure we can find your creation! And if you upload to SCS, please use keyword FTTC101!

Now let's see what the Timeless Tuesday team members did in a BIG way today...

Dee Jackson

Silke Ledlow

Makiko Jones

Cindy Haffner

Betty Wright

So, sorry for the longer post today but I had to share my excitement with all of you! Thank you for stopping by! I hope to see your creations for Timeless Tuesday #101!

TCP141 - Get Well Soon

The TCP Tuesday challenge for this past week from The Cat's Pajamas is to use ribbon in a new and different way, but NO BOWS! Ack! That's a toughie for me.... I love my ribbon! So I decided to try running a gathering stitch along one edge of a grosgrain ribbon, then pulling up one of the threads to make a flower! And I must say, I'm pleased with how it turned out! I accented the flower with a button and some Divine Twine (yes, tied in a bow but that's not ribbon, right?) and cut out my "Get Well Soon" sentiment with my Sentiment Flag die from Laura at Lil' Inker Designs. My scalloped border along the left side was created with the Icing CutUps die from The Cat's Pajamas, and the designer papers are My Mind's Eye. This sweet bear comes from the "A Cuppa" stamp set, and the card is going to my co-manager/friend Brenda who unfortunately has to have wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow! I do NOT envy her one bit! I have a good book to take to her later in the day, and some Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino ice cream for when she feels like eating again!

Thanks for visiting me today! Have a great week!

Thanks a Latte

I enjoy a good sketch challenge so much, so I was really glad to hear that the new Wednesday Stamp Club challenges with My Favorite Things were all going to be sketches for the coming year! Despite my best intentions, I never got around to playing with the first one last week, but I definitely made time this week! These ala' modes stamps from MFT are such a favorite of mine, so it was a no-brainer to use this image on my card.

The designer papers I used on this are some old Girl Friday from Cosmo Cricket, along with Stampin' Up! cardstocks. The sketch especially begged for the use of my Sentiment Flag die from Lil' Inker Designs, too. The only sentiment in this ala' mode set that would fit on the flag was the "Miss You a Latte" but I didn't want to make a card that said that. So I used the word "Thanks" from the Thanks a Bunch stamp set, and then used my stamp-a-ma-jig to add "a Latte" below. I LOVE how that turned out! :) I've been looking at some of the blogs from some stamping idols lately and trying to make note of new ideas that I either don't try or forget to try. One thing I noticed from Leigh O'Brien was that she's never afraid to cover up part of her image with a sentiment, as on this cute card. So I decided to be brave and cover up the legs here with my sentiment flag and button. What do you think? I'd love to know!

Thanks SO much for stopping by! I appreciate the new followers that have been showing up lately and new subscribers! I smile from ear-to-ear everytime I see a new face! :) Thanks for making my day!

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!

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #100

The Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge is celebrating challenge #100 this week with a special blog hop! The challenge this week is to just use your favorite things! I figured that would be an extreme pleasure, so I created this card for the challenge. If you'd like more details, please visit the 100th Challenge Blog Hop post!
My favorites on this card include the Apple of My Eye stamp set, (well, I love ALL Flourishes stamp sets, but those nice big apples in this set make it one of my most-favorites!) some zig-zag and straight stitching done on the machine with my favorite Jody-thread, papers from October Afternoon, Nestabilities and Die-Namics for die-cutting, a little bit of dry embossing (not showing up very well in the red strip near the bottom), and Divine Twine tied through a button embellishment. AND it includes one of my new favorite things ever... this vintage Bingo card! I think these things are just so cool! I found some for sale on Etsy and my BFF Barbara Anders and I split the cost of them so we'd each have some. I can't wait to see what she does with them! A few other favorites here are the Impression Obsession Cover-a-Card background stamp I used at the very bottom (see that old-fashioned hand-written music on the green cardstock?), sponging done with Ranger distress inks, and the square shape.... I LOVE making square cards!

Many, many thanks for stopping by today! I appreciate the visits and comments so much!

Bellarific Friday (put on your shades!)

It's been awhile, but since the Bellarific Friday challenge for this week is a sketch challenge, I decided to play along since they're my favorite kinda' challenge. Now, I warned you in my title... put on your sunglasses! This baby is bright!

The Lollipops are just so cute, I couldn't resist using Ella for my card today, along with some Basic Grey "Sugar Rush" paper. She's colored with Copic markers, of course and embellished with some Nestabilities, my beloved Divine Twine, and some machine stitching. OMGosh, and I just have to say I have never been so happy with the way my stitching turned out as I am with this card! I've never managed more perfect zig-zags! :) The finishing touch is my sentiment cut out with my Sentiment Flag die from Laura at Lil' Inker Designs! LOVE that little die! It never leaves my side!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Happy Friday!

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!

TCP Tuesday.... just a little late!

Yes, it's Tuesday again which means it's time for another TCP Tuesday challenge from The Cat's Pajamas! Trouble is, I'm still stuck on last Tuesday's challenge! I just seemed to go back and forth on what I wanted to do with this challenge, which was to be inspired by this CUTE hat! I finally decided to just go with the black, and the bright colors for my card, as you can see below...

This Ship Happens stamp set just cracks me up so much, so I had to use it for this card. I used a bunch of bright October Afternoon papers on my card, including using some to paper-piece the tea cup. There is some machine stitching in there, several colors of Divine Twine, and a scalloped border made with the Icing Cut-Ups die from TCP. And the layout is based on the Sketch for You to Try for January '11.

Hope your week is off to a great start! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Baby Mojo

My daughter Kelsey and I made supper this past weekend for a couple from our church with a new baby girl, and of course I had to make up a quick card to deliver to them along with their supper. I pulled out an old Taylored Expressions stamp set to stamp this baby onsie on some Bo Bunny paper, and for the sentiment. The layout is based on the Mojo Monday Sketch #172 from this past week. I used my beloved Sentiment Flag die from Lil' Inker Designs for the "congrats" sentiment. The scalloped border is the Little Open Scallop Strip Die-Namics from My Favorite Things.

That's all for now... short and sweet! Hope you had a great weekend!

CrAzY for Color - C4C69

It's Saturday and time for another Crazy Challenge! Maria is our January hostess, and for this week she's chosen this interesting picture to use as a color inspiration challenge. Check out all the challenge details at the C4C blog so you can play along with us! We'd love to see what you create, especially because I think there are just so many options you can go with here!

I chose to focus on the beautiful shades of pink that show up in this photo, and created this Valentine card using my Clearly Sentimental about Love stamp set from My Favorite Things. The sentiment was stamped in Rose Red pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. Then I used a Ranger Foam Blending tool to sponge Spun Sugar ink over the sentiment. I cut out a large heart with my Nestabilities, and the smaller hearts are from the Hearts a'Plenty Die-Namics from MFT. I added a button tied off with my beloved Divine Twine, and a strip of pink lace. The designer paper here is Bo Bunny.
Here's a close-up of the hearts.... I spritzed each one with some Perfect Pearls for shimmer.
See what the other Crazies have come up with today for further 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

I appreciate your visit today greatly! Have a wonderful weekend!

Flowers From a Friend

Happy Friday everyone! Did you survive another week? I'm glad you stopped by today as I've got a card to show you for the Timeless Tuesday challenge from this past week at Flourishes! My BFF Bar is the hostess this week, and she's asking everyone to chase away the Winter blahs by adding flowers to their creations! I thought this would be a great opportunity to use my new favorite stamp set from Flourishes, the Mix-n-Mugs! (Although, this set won't be my new favorite for long... not when I get my hands on the new releases that are coming out for Valentine's Day!)

I found this stamp set to be just a little intimidating the first time I used it because I couldn't figure out how to stamp the mug and put something inside it without either the back edge of the mug showing where it shouldn't be, or the bottom of the items inside the mug showing like it was a mysterious "invisible" mug! LOL But I did figure out how to do it, and found that Julie did a Mix-n-Mask tutorial on the Flourishes blog that is very similar to my method, too. So check it out and be un-intimidated! :)

As I was browsing through new forum posts on Splitcoaststampers this past week, I noticed this thread that mentions a fellow stamper who is very, very sick. I do not know Katie at all, but am now following her blog and being inspired by her bravery through this ordeal. She needs all the love, support and prayers that her stamping sisters can provide, so I'm sending this card to her. If you'd like to send her something too, let me know and I can get her address for you!

Thanks for stopping by! Happy weekend!

Stamps: Mix-n-Mugs (Flourishes)

Cardstock: Classic Ivory for Copics (Flourishes); October Afternoon; Stampin' Up!

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Onyx Black (Tsukineko); Antique Linen distress ink (Ranger); Copic markers

Accessories: Little Open Scallop Strip Die-Namics (My Favorite Things), Nestabilities Labels 10 and Petite Oval (Spellbinders), crocheted lace (May Arts).

Color Throwdown #123

Hi everyone! Happy Wednesday, and welcome back to Color Throwdown challenges for 2011! We had a nice little break for Christmas, and are now ready to get back to some awesome color combos!

I am your hostess today, and my color combo was inspired by this sweater vest I bought recently at my favorite store, CJ Banks! Zoom in for a closer view when you click on the link... the buttons on the front are SO fun!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I'll be doing some design work over the next 6 months for Verses Rubber Stamps, so I decided to use one of my favorite stamps from Verses for my card today. I just love this Winnie-the-Pooh quote.... I wish I could adopt it to fit my own life! LOL I stamped the sentiment using Broken China distress ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. The designer paper I used here is some really old Bo Bunny I knew would go well with the Cameo Coral, and I paired it with some dual-colored satin ribbon and a Bar Flower (a crocheted flower sent to me by my BFF, Barbara Anders!) It matches the Baja Breeze perfectly!

Stop over at the Throwdown blog for all the challenge details, and there you can also find the McLinky widget to link your own creation. Then, help us welcome our January Guestie Lori Tecler by stopping over at her blog to see her creation! And finally, don't forget to visit my Throwdown sisters for more inspiration!

Barbara Anders

LeAnne Pugliese

Kristin Bueter

Laura Pryor

Danielle Kennedy

Broni Holcombe

Cathy Rulli

Thank you for visiting me today! Happy stamping!

What's Cooking?

The musical theme of the Fan Club gallery at Splitcoaststampers this month inspired me to create these two cards for the More-is-More challenge. If you're not familiar, More-is-More is a challenge where you make a card with a simplified version, and then make another one that is kicked up a notch! I used the January 2011 Sketch for You to Try as the layout for both of my cards. I used the What's Cooking ala' modes stamp from My Favorite Things, and used Seaside designer paper from October Afternoon, and a cooking-themed twill ribbon from Creative Impressions.

For the "lesser" version here, I kept the layers to a minimum, and didn't get too carried away with the Copic coloring. Nice and simple, but still pretty cute!

Then, for the "more" version I added a layer with the red card base, paper-pieced the apron, stepped it up with the coloring, added machine stitching, a die-cut border using the Little Open Scallop Strip Die-Namics, and added a button to the sentiment circle.
Here they are together, for comparison!
Hope you like them! Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Monday!

Crazy4Challenges C4C68

Hey everyone, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope your new year's celebration has been fun and SAFE! If you have some time for stamping today, why not join us as we start up the Crazy 4 Challenges again? The challenge this week is to create something that celebrates! Whether you have something you created to celebrate the new year, a birthday, a retirement, a new baby, or just celebrate life! Check out the C4C blog for all the details, and the Mr. Linky widget so you can play along!

For my celebration today, I created a Hanging Treat Box for a bottle of champagne to take to a New Year's party! This is also for the January Guest Designer contest with My Favorite Things to use banners in your design. I followed Christina's tutorial on Splitcoaststampers to create this treat box, then designed a front panel for it using the Flapper Doodles "Cheers to a New Year" stamp set and made a banner using the Banner Day Die-Namics. (must be currently sold out, but I do have some of them at Toyrifix!) Inside the treat box are some party blowers to celebrate when the clock strikes midnight!

The Flappers are quiet gussied up for their celebration in their sparkly dresses! The silver one was simply colored with a silver Spica glitter pen, and the gold one was covered in Art Insitute gold glitter. (You can click on the photo for a close-up!)
Check out what my Crazy Sisters have created for today's challenge if you need more inspiration...

Frances Byrne

Cindy Haffner

Vicki Garrett

Barbara Anders

Lynda Benden

Silke Kittman

Maria Bell

Joanne Grzelak

Silke Ledlow

Jessie Rone

I thank you bunches for stopping by today! Again, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!