Saturday, June 28, 2008

Blog Candy Winner!

Hi All!

Just a quick post to announce the winner of my blog candy! Thanks to all who participated, I really appreciate all the well wishes and kind comments. I also love the great ideas and color combos. I'll be trying lots of them!

The winner is, as chosen by random.org...
Here are your random numbers: 15
Timestamp: 2008-06-28 12:46:33 UTC

That's Diane who said:
Woohoo! Congrats on all your hits Denise! That's great!!My fav color combo,hmmmmm!!! Apple green and any other bright color,like bright blue,orange,pink.I love cheery colors for this time of year especially.Thanks for a chance at your awesome candy!!!Oh btw,you can come camping with us if you want,lol!

Way to go Diane, contact me with your mailing info and I'll get those goodies out to you ASAP!

Thanks again everyone! Have a fabulous weekend. Be sure to check out the challenge on STAMP SOMETHING and play along for a chance to win some fabby red, white, and blue blog candy!

Friday, June 27, 2008

Anything But a Card Somethings!

Happy Friday All!

There's a great new challenge posted on STAMP SOMETHING this morning. It's a very different challenge than what we usually do too. Our very own design team member Melissa created a fabulous "red, white, and blue anything but a card" challenge in honor of the 4th of July!

I will admit this was a tough challenge for me, I always make cards so I had to really think hard about what to make. I decided to raid my stamp closet and this is what I came up with. It's a metal bucket which has been stamped with white Staz-On ink, then ribbon was wrapped around and I hole punched with the Cropadile to thread ribbon through and then finally added a sticky cut star with glitter.

Inside there are wrapped nugget candies and star lollipops. The stars are just paper that I punched with my star punch. The large star is a piece of chipboard cover in DSP. There you have it, a cute little table centerpiece for your holiday BBQ!

Thanks for looking! Hop on over and check out the samples made by the design team and then go on and stamp something, but remember it must be red, white, and blue and no cards allowed! :) Happy Stamping!

Oh and remember too, you have until midnight ET tonight to enter into my blog candy chance, details are in a couple posts below. :)

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Terrific Tuesday Fashion Inspiration Challenge

Happy Tuesday!

It's time for the Terrific Tuesday Challenge over on Cindy's Blog. This month her challenge was to use fashion for inspiration when creating a card. At first I was stumped, but then I remembered the dress I recently got for a wedding I'm going to later this summer. It's a simple white dress with brown roses and splashes of turquoise. Here's a photo of it ----->

I kept my card quite simple. I used the same colors as the dress with the same basic design. I chose Close to Cocoa, Tempting Turquoise, and White. I did have to change the flowers, I don't own any rose stamps. I used my Embrace Life stamps from Stampin' Up! and the sentiment is from All Holidays, also Stampin' Up!. I added some glitter to the center flower for some sparkle.

I hope you'll hop on over to Cindy's Blog and check out the other samples using fashion as inspiration. Give this challenge a try too!

Oh and I have blog candy up for grabs, scroll down to see the details, you have until midnight ET, Friday June 27th! So far there are some fantastic color combo ideas, thanks to all who have shared. :)

Happy Stamping! :)

Monday, June 23, 2008

Blog Candy Time!!

Happy Monday Everyone!

Hope the weekend was enjoyable for you! I've finished all my wedding invites and finally got to relax a bit yesterday. I'm thrilled to have those projects done and crossed off my "to-do" list.

Now, as promised I have some blog candy up for grabs! My counter recently rolled over 15,000 hits, which I can't believe. THANKS to ALL of you! It's been greating getting to know so many people from all over the world.

I had been waiting for some goodies to arrive from Stampin' Up! and they finally did on Friday. So, here's what I have for you.... A hostess prints pack of designer paper, a versamarker and white EP, a "hand stamped" stamp, and a packet of non SU! eyelets.

Now for your part.... to enter into my blog candy drawing, you just need to comment on this post telling us your favorite color combinations. I'm always looking for new ideas and I'm sure there are tons out there.

I will leave this blog candy chance open until midnight ET on Friday, June 27th. I will use random.org to select the winner and will announce who that winner is first thing Saturday morning, June 28th. Good luck to everyone. This drawing is open to all of my visitors! :)

Friday, June 20, 2008

Sketch Something!

Hi All, Happy Friday!!

That means it's time for another STAMP SOMETHING challenge and this week it's a sketch. The wonderfully talented Emily Weems, of our design team, has created this fun sketch for everyone to try. There's also some great blog candy up for grabs. Hop on over and check out the new challenge! :) Big thanks to Emily for hosting this week too!




For my card I choose to make something fun! I've been doing a lot of fancy wedding stuff lately and so I wanted a break from all of that!

I started out with a 5 1/2" square Night of Navy card, then layered on White and Bashful Blue cardstock. The white layer is paper pierced on all four corners. The bashful piece has been rolled with my Sweet Stars wheel. I then layered on a piece of wide Saffron ribbon from the Sherbet Originals collection and a piece of grosgrain Bashful ribbon. The main image is from Pun Fun. I stamped it in Staz-On ink, then used my Watercolor Wonder Crayons and an aquapainter to color the image. I added some silver EP to the little circles for some metal on my rocket, then used Iridescent Ice EP on the streams of stars. The corners on the white have also been paper pierced to mimic the corners on the other white cardstock. The final touch was to add a So Saffron star and Stickles! (All products are Stampin' Up! except the Stickles)

It was a blast doing this sketch challenge! I hope you'll join us this week and sketch something! Have a great weekend! Happy Stamping! :)

Thursday, June 19, 2008

First Featured Stamper!

Happy Thursday!

Well, the week is quickly moving along and I'm still plugging away at those wedding invites. I hope to have them all done by the weekend. Phew! That will be a relief! Sorry I haven't had anything new to post lately, I promise I will soon.

Today I want to share a new addition on my blog, it's my Featured Stamper Showcase. I want to be able to share some of the work my friends, customers, and family do with their stamps. Many of them do not have their own blogs and so this is a great way for others to see what they can do!

My first featured stamper is my dearest friend Janna, we've been friends for more than half our lives. Now we share a love for card making and stamping too. I'm excited to showcase one of her cards and say that she finally started her own blog too!
Janna has a great artistic eye for creating wonderful cards! I love her background on this card with the subtle detail embellishments. Everything just ties together perfectly, the stitching, the colors. I love it! Hop on over to her blog and check out more of her work! Thanks for being my first "featured stamper, Janna!"

Happy Stamping!! I'll be back tomorrow with a new challenge project from STAMP SOMETHING! :)

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

1 Down, 1 To Go!

Happy Tuesday!

I wanted to share the wedding invitations I made for my brother's wedding. I finished them on Saturday with the help of my soon to be sister in law. It was fun working together, but it was a very long day and we are both happy to have them finished! Thanks for all you did Lindsay! :)

I'm still working on the invites for my aunt's wedding, but I should have those finished in the next couple of days. Then I will be taking a break and only stamping for fun!

So, for these invites, I used my Cuttlebug Flowers embossing folder and the stamp sets Baroque Motifs and To Have and To Hold. We went with Black, White, and Lavender for the colors as these are the wedding colors as well.


The base of the invitation is one full sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" cardstock, scored and folded with other layers of cardstock over the black. It's a trifold design with a ribbon tie closure.

The inside wording was printed on vellum and attached to a stamped piece of white cardstock with eyelets. We added little sticky rhinestones to the eyelets to cover the holes. The rhinestones are actually what some people use to add bling to their cellphones. They worked perfectly!

We made a total of 120 invites! It was a lot of work, but well worth the effort. My brother and his fiancee are very happy with them.

Thanks for looking...off to get working on the other invites! Have a great day. Happy Stamping!






Monday, June 16, 2008

Exciting News!!

Happy Monday!!

So, I have some exciting news to share! I've been accepted as a card designer for Layers of Color. I can't tell you how excited I am! This has been a huge dream of mine and I can't wait to get started and share my work with you!

Just a little info...Layers of Color is a new online stamp boutique where stampers can find unique stamp products and fresh creative ideas using these products. All the stamps available at Layers of Color are hand drawn by the artist, Laura Kirste Campbell. Hop on over and check out the line of products Layers of Color has available now and stay tuned for more to come!

Some of you might already be familiar with Layers of Color, STAMP SOMETHING recently hosted a challenge featuring one of the new stamp sets, Under the Sea. I've also shared a couple cards I made using these same stamps!

I'd like to take a moment to thank Laura again for this opportunity. I'm really looking forward to working for Layers of Color and being a part of the design team. You can check out the other design team members by clicking the links below!

Laura Kirste Campbell
Jessica Matthews
Karen Owen
Heather Wombacher

Have a great Monday! I'm nearing the end of the wedding invitations, I'll post them soon! Happy Stamping!! :) Oh, and I promise to have some blog candy up for grabs this week, I'm still waiting for a box of goodies to arrive from Stampin' Up!.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Monochromatic Somethings

Happy Friday!!

You know what that means...another new challenge over on STAMP SOMETHING! Woo Hoo! We've been having a blast with these challenges and meeting all of the fabulous participants and seeing their creations! We hope you'll join us again this week.

So, the challenge this week is "Monochromatic Somethings," we want you to make a project using only one color and one neutral. You may use different shades and hues of that one color, but that's it.

Here is my challenge card. I've had weddings on the brain all week while working on the invites, so I went with a wedding card of course! My colors are black and white. My card is 5 1/2" square. I used my Brocade wheel and my To Have and To Hold stamps to create this card. The embellishments are Swirls embossing folder, Styled Silver Hodgepodge, Rhinestone Brads, and Taffeta Ribbon. Sorry for the brief description, got to get back to working on the invites. If you have any questions, contact me and I'll be happy to fill you in! :)

I hope you'll hop on over to STAMP SOMETHING and check out the fantastic design team samples and maybe even play along with us too! Have a great weekend! Happy Stamping!! :)

Thursday, June 12, 2008

A Little Break!

Hi All!

So, I took a tiny break from wedding invites today and made this card for the blog candy challenge over on Alex's blog. This sketch was a lot of fun and Alex is giving away some awesome candy. Head on over and check it out!

I used Purely Pomegranate, Groovy Guava, and White to complete this card. I love these colors together, they're fun! The main images are from Gina K Designs, but everything else is Stampin' Up!

Thanks for looking! I'll be back tomorrow with an all new challenge from STAMP SOMETHING! Hope you'll join us! Happy Stamping!! :)

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Sweet and Simple Designer Prints

Well, it's Wednesday...I'm still making wedding invites, but I did take a few minutes today to make a sweet and simple card. Literally, just a few minutes!

This card is a half sheet of cardstock, some designer printed paper, ribbon, and a few pearls. No stamping! That's it, quick and simple.

Hope you're having a great week! Stay tuned for blog candy later this week, my counter recently rolled over 15000 hits! Wow! It's time to celebrate!

Happy stamping!! :)

Monday, June 9, 2008

Simply Wild!

Happy Monday!

I wanted to say hello and share a quick card. I'm up to my eyeballs in wedding invites this week, so not sure how much other stamping and blogging I'll get to do. Hope you're all off to a good start this week.It's like 95 degrees here! Way hot!

This card was made using the Layers of Color Under the Sea stamp set. I used my Cuttlebug bubbles embossing folder on the Brocade Blue piece. Mounted that on Night of Navy. Then punched a Certainly Celery square of cardstock and layered that on the bubbles piece. I used sticky tape and microbeads to create the frame around the Celery piece. The puffer fish is stamped in Navy, colored with Brocade, and glittered with Iridescent Ice EP. Ain't he cute! I'm having lots of fun with this new stamp set!

Thanks for looking! Have a great week! Hope to be back soon, but we shall see! Happy stamping!! :)

Friday, June 6, 2008

In the Wild Challenge

Happy Friday! Yay!!

It's time for another challenge on STAMP SOMETHING! This week the theme is "In the Wild!" Make us a project using nature or wildlife stamps, use natural materials, or anything that you can think of that has to do with wildlife.

As a special treat we also have a guest designer this week, Laura Kirste Campbell of Layers of Color. Laura donated a fabulous stamp set for our blog candy too!

This is the card I made for the challenge this week. I used one of the stamp sets available on Layers of Color called Under the Sea. These are awesome clear acrylic stamps which are super easy to use.

I used Groovy Guava cardstock for the base of my card. I used the Swirls embossing folder and my Cuttlebug on the White cardstock layer. I think the swirls are reminiscent of waves.

For the image layer, I used a piece of Groovy Guava cardstock cut out with Scalloped Rectangle Nestabilities and dotted with a white gel pen, then added a layer of Blush Blossom cardstock over that. The images are on White cardstock and stamped with guava and blush ink. I added white embossing powder to the mimic pearls on the guava coral. The seahorse image is stamp with guava ink and colored in with a blush marker. I then used a Versamarker and iridescent ice embossing powder to make him shimmer.

The final touches are Sherbet Originals ribbon, a hat pin and beads, and a hodgepodge hardware oval frame with brads. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up!'s Short and Sweet set.

Thanks for looking, hope you'll hop on over to STAMP SOMETHING and stamp something wild with us today! Have a great weekend, happy stamping!! :)

Thursday, June 5, 2008

For a Friend

Happy Thursday!

Just a quick post today to wish my good friend Jo a very happy birthday! I made this card in honor of her special day!

Jo likes pink and always uses flowers on her work. So this is for you Jo, Happy Birthday! Hope it's a wonderful day!

Happy Stamping!! :)

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Simply Sweet Chipboard

Happy Wednesday!

It's a rainy day here, perfect for stamping! I have a quick and easy card to share with you this morning for Simply Sweet Wednesdays! I hope to have more time to stamp today, so I might have more to share later.

This card is a simple half sheet of cardstock. I layered on a dry embossed accent piece of cardstock, but the main focus is the chipboard flower. I love chipboard, but don't often use it. The embellishments are taffeta ribbon and a rhinestone brad. The sentiment is from Wonderful Words.

Thanks for looking, have a great day! Happy stamping!! :)

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Tuesday 2 for One

Happy Tuesday!!

I was browsing the forums on Splitcoast this morning and came across 2 challenges that inspired me to get out my stamp stuff and get to work. I haven't done a lot of stamping lately, been working on wedding invitations and playing outside with the kids in the warm weather, so I needed a little push!

The challenges I used were the color combo challenge from 2 weeks ago and then last week's featured stamper challenge. The color combo was Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, and Certainly Celery and the featured stamper was MMBC or Maren! Maren was one of my SBS sisters and I LOVE her work, you can visit her blog here. Her creations are absolutely fabulous!



For this card, I started with Soft Sky cardstock as the card base, folded in half the long way to make a vertical card. Then I layered on pieces of Wintergreen DSP and Blue Bayou DSP. I paper pierced the edges and added a piece of ribbon.

The image is from Pun Fun and colored with blender pens. I used my Scor-Pal to create a frame around the image, then layered it on a piece of Certainly Celery cardstock. I used my Scalloped Rectangle Nestabilities on a piece of Blue Bayou cardstock for the final mat on the image layer.

Thanks for looking! Happy Stamping!! :)

Sunday, June 1, 2008

New Online Stamp Boutique

Happy Sunday All!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend. It's been a good one here in New Hampshire, too bad it's almost over!

I wanted to make a quick post tonight about a fabulous new online stamp store that had it's grand opening today! It's called Layers of Color. It's a family run online business specializing in unique art stamps.

All of the designs are hand drawn by the artist, Laura Kirste Campbell. Laura was generous enough to donate a set of her stamps for the next challenge, on June 6th, at STAMP SOMETHING!

I hope you'll hop on over to her site and check out the fabulous stamp collection she has to offer. Right now she has a special, buy 3 get 1 FREE!

I hope you'll also join us for our challenge on the 6th, when you could win one of her exclusive stamp sets! Happy Stamping!! :)

An online boutique where stampers can find unique stamp products and be inspired by fresh out-of-the-box ideas.