Sketch Something Challenge

Well, it's Friday!! Yay! Another week almost over and the weekend to look forward to. And a new challenge over on STAMP SOMETHING! This week we have our first guest designer, Katharina, of Katharina's Creative Place. She's a super talented crafter who was kind enough to help us out with something new this week, a sketch challenge!

To the right is the sketch Katharina made for the challenge. It was a tough one for me, lots of layers and circles! Yikes! I rarely ever use circles, so this was challenging to say the least. But hey, that's the point of a challenge, right, pushing ourselves to try new things!

Once I had a plan, things came together. I chose to use a Simply Scrappin' Kit from Stampin' Up!. It already had die cut circles which really helped me. Plus I love the printed papers in this kit.

I started with a 5 1/2" X 5 1/2" card in Chocolate Chip. I used some Rose Red and Soft Sky cardstock along with the printed paper from the Rose Cottage SSK. I broke out my Coluzzle to make the circles and added the die cuts on top. I finished with wide Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon and some pearls from the Pretties Kit. The sentiment is from Wonderful Words.

Hop on over to STAMP SOMETHING and check out the fabulous work by our design team members and our guest designer Katharina! I hope you'll find the time to sketch something with us this week! Have a great weekend! :)

Birthday Blog Candy Card

Happy Thursday All!!

The card I have to share with you today is one I made for Jo's blog candy give away. She's offering up a bunch of goodies and all you need to do for a chance to win is make a pretty and pink birthday card.

I used one of my new Tilda stamps that Jo sent me for my birthday. She's so cute and perfect for a happy birthday with her little present in hand. I used some printed paper and paper pieced all her clothing. This works for the challenge on Cute Card Thursday which is to use patterned paper. I finished the rest of the image using my Stampin' Write markers. Tilda's wings have been covered in Stickles for some shimmer.

The base of the card is a piece of acetate with rub-ons, which are hard to see in the photo. I paper pierced the main image piece and layered it on a piece of Pretty in Pink cardstock. The sentiment is from SU!'s Short and Sweet and was punched with oval punches and attached with a rhinestone brad. I saw the acetate and rub-on idea on Katharina's blog. Her card is much nicer than mine though! :)

Thanks for looking. Hope you're all having a great week. Be sure to check back tomorrow when we post a new challenge on STAMP SOMETHING, we are going to have our first guest designer too! Happy Stamping!! :)

Simply Sweet Felt Flowers

Happy Wednesday!

It's simply sweet card day! This is a quick post to share a very quick card with you.

It's been a busy week with the holiday on Monday and my days are all messed up. This is a card I made in under 10 minutes while the kids were eating snack. I need fast this week!

The colors are Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie, and Old Olive. I paper pierced the edges and added a few felt flowers as the focal point. Stamped a sentiment and DONE!

Hope you'll find the time to simply stamp today! Happy Stamping!! :)

Swap Share

HI!

I recently participated in a swap hosted by Alex and I thought I would share the fabulous cards I got back.

This had to be one of the best swaps I've been a part of. All the cards are really really good! Lots of hard work went into each of them.

Thanks for swappin' girls and thanks for hosting Alex!

images copyright Stampin' Up!

Terrific Tuesday Inspiration Challenge

Happy Tuesday All!

Hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday weekend. The weather was fabulous here. We visited with friends and family and did some yard work. All in all, it was a nice weekend.

Now that it's Tuesday, I have a card to share with you that I made for Cindy's Terrific Tuesday Challenge. This month she chose to do an inspiration challenge. To see the inspiration piece, please click on the link to her website.

I decided to make a pocket card for this project and went with the colors from the inspiration piece. I started with Black as the base and then layered on Brocade Blue, Rose Red, So Saffron, and Vanilla. I was also inspired to use flower stamps. I used Essence of Love to create a garden. I colored directly on the stamp with my markers, then stamped the Vanilla. I added some butterflies and ribbon to finish the card.

In keeping with the flower theme, inside the pocket is a seed packet of Zinnias, a gift to create a garden. I CASEd this idea from my SBS sister Lynn, of L W Designs. Lynn's pocket card is absolutely gorgeous! I thought it was a great idea and so I had to try it. I added a tab punch and flower punch outs with a rhinestone brad to finish off the seed packet.

Thanks for looking, hope you'll check out Cindy's challenge and be inspired to create! Happy Stamping!! :)

Oh and by the way...
My fellow design team member Melissa is offering up some fabulous blog candy and when I say fabulous, I mean fabulous! Check it out! :)

Faux Something Challenge

Well, it's finally Friday and you know what that means, YUP, a new challenge on STAMP SOMETHING! This week we'd like you to show us your best "Faux Something," see if you can fake us out!

I made a card using some retired Stampin' Up! stamps. I started with a 5 1/2" square card of Always Artichoke and sponged the edges. I layered on Very Vanilla, which has been stamped with French Script BG and some images from In Full Bloom. I used the Faux Linen technique on this piece. I added a piece of Mellow Moss with the Faux Tile/Grid technique. The last layer is Elegant Eggplant which has been dry embossed with a Faux Leather embossing plate. See the photo below for more detail.

The main flower image, from In Full Bloom, is stamped on watercolor paper with Timber Brown Staz-On ink. Then colored in with watercolor wonder crayons and an aquapainter. I used my Scalloped Rectangle Nestabilities for the frame around the image. The little bumble bee is also from In Full Bloom and has crystal effects on the wings. The final embellishments are faux stitching around the edges, a Hodgepodge Hardware frame with brads, organdy ribbon, grosgrain ribbon, and a hodgepodge piece. The sentiment is from Wonderful Favorites.

Thanks for looking, I hope you'll check out all the faux creations by the other design team members. Now it's your turn, go and stamp something!

Happy Stamping! Enjoy the holiday weekend. :)

Cute Card Giraffe

Happy Thursday!!

It's rubber-dultery day and Cute Card Thursday! For the challenge on Cute Card Thursday, you need to make a card based on a sketch by Katharina. And for rubber-dultery day, I chose to use my Gina K, Just So Hippy stamps.

The color combo is Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery with White. I used my scalloped oval Nestabilites and Coluzzle to make the centerpiece image. I embossed the white piece with the Swiss Dots CB folder. The printed paper is from a hostess pack from Stampin' Up!. The embellishments are grosgrain ribbon and rhinestone brads.

Thanks for looking! Hope you'll join me tomorrow for another challenge on STAMP SOMETHING! Happy Stamping!! :)

Simply Sweet Flowers

Happy Wednesday!

This week is flying by! Hope it's been a good one for you so far. Sorry I haven't had anything new to post lately, just been busy.

Today's simply sweet project uses some flower confetti and I was able to whip up this card in under 15 minutes. My soon to be sister in law found bags of flower confetti at Target for 98 cents! Good find, I'd say! I think this is a perfect use for it too.

The color combo is Black, Ivory, and River Rock. I used the sentiment from Wonderful Words, drew in the flower stems with a Mellow Moss marker. Then to finish off this card I tied on a piece of ivory organdy ribbon. I do hope Stampin' Up! brings this ribbon back, I love it!

Thanks for looking, hope you find some time to simply stamp something today! Happy Stamping!! :)

Another Award!

Another award to share with you! I received this from my good friend and fellow STAMP SOMETHING design team member Jo! It's a beautiful award and I'm honored to receive it. It's always an honor to receive blog awards, especially when they are for inspiring others. It's nice to know that my work does inspire. I love stamping and being able to share my creativity with all of you.

I'd like to give this award to Beate. I'm sure she receives awards all the time, but I just have to pass this on to her. Her blog is one of my favorites! I love her creations and her tutorials. I always get lots on inspiration and motivation from her work. Thanks for sharing all your awesome talent with us, Beate!

Happy Mail!

Happy Monday!

Hope everyone had a good weekend. The weather was beautiful here. We got lots of yard work done. Not all that fun, but it looks nice!

I wanted to share a few birthday cards I received from some of my super talented stamping friends. Last week was a fun mail week!

This first card is from Cindy, one of my SBS sisters. Thanks so much for thinking of me Cindy! I love the card. The ribbon is a neat idea as a layer and the flower "pop" against it!

This next card is from Erin. We've been friends since college and now we're stamping buddies.

This card is so fun! I love the bright cheery papers and that sassy Bella. Now if only I were that sassy! Thanks for thinking of me Erin!

Now, this card is from my oldest and dearest friend Janna. We've been friends for what seems like our whole lives! I'd be lost without her! I wish that she had a blog so you could all see her fabulous work, but she doesn't. I keep telling her to get one though!

I love the color combo and the layout she used for this card. The "H" is very fun too! She told me she got the supplies from a card kit in a magazine, but I'm sure that she didn't use the sample they had for inspiration. Janna loves coming up with everything all on her own. Love that about her stamping style! Thanks for the beautiful card Janna!

This last card and super fab gift is from Jo. Jo and I found each other through blogging and even though we've never actually met one another, I still feel like we are great friends. I love our email chats and sharing our artwork.

Thank you so much Jo for this beautiful card and the start of my Magnolia collection. Aren't they cute!

I love the simple colors, the red and white really go nicely together. I never think to make cards with just two colors, I think I need to try that! The embossing is beautiful and adds nice texture. And that image, well, it's just the sweetest! Thank you for the birthday wishes Jo, I'm going to have fun with those stamps! :)

Thank You Challenge

Happy Friday!

It's STAMP SOMETHING challenge day! This week we are launching our second challenge, the theme is Thank You. We figured what better way to say thank you for all the support these past couple weeks than to have a thank you challenge.

We were thrilled by the outcome of our first challenge. It was great to see how many people participated in the fun. The creations we saw were terrific! We so appreciate you all sharing your art with us! Thank you!

I made these 3x3 note cards and a matching box to hold them all as my sample project. It was fun making cards and a 3D item. I rarely do that! I love the Afternoon Tea DSP and my Essence of Love stamps, they work great together.

For the box, I used a piece of cardstock 4 1/4" X 8 1/2" and scored it at 1" 4 1/4" and 5 1/4" the long way and then at 1" on the short side. Then just cut the short score lines, fold and tape together. I used a piece of DSP to cover the box and to hide the taped seam. For the final touches, I added a piece of wide chocolate grosgrain ribbon and some styled silver Hodgepodge Hardware and a sentiment. The sentiment is from the set Short and Sweet.

The cards are each 3x3 cardstock decorated with more DSP and some punches and scrap paper. The cardstock colors are Soft Sky and Groovy Guava. I stamped the butterfly from Essence of Love and the thank you sentiment from Short and Sweet on each card to keep them all similar.

If you'd like to join in the fun of our challenge this week and be entered for a chance at some blog candy, just make a Thank You themed project and post a comment on the challenge blog post on STAMP SOMETHING with a link to your work. We will draw a blog candy winner on Thursday evening at 7pm ET.

Thanks for looking! Hop on over to STAMP SOMETHING and check out the fabulous projects made by our design team! Hope you'll give our Thank You challenge a go! Have a great weekend. Happy Stamping!! :)

Rubber-dultery Thursday Bella

Happy Thursday!

I can't believe another week is almost over! Time sure is flying by. Hope it's been a good one for you.

So, this is the card I made for Rubber-dultery Thursdays. I also had it in mind for the blog candy that's up for grabs on my SBS sister, Kathy's blog, Kathat Stamps. Go check it out, she's offering a pack of Prismacolor Pencils and all you have to do is make a card using some sort of coloring medium! Too easy!

I used a piece of textured Real Red cardstock for the card base. Then added a piece of bright dots paper from a scrap kit I had, not sure who makes it though. I stamped the image in black Staz-On ink and then colored my Pregobella with watercolor pencils and an aquapainter. For the final touches, I added paper piercing along the bottom edge, a ribbon to tie the card closed, and some felt flowers and brads.

Thanks for looking! Be sure to check in tomorrow when we post the challenge for this week on STAMP SOMETHING. Happy stamping!! :)

Look-y What I Got...

I have a little something something to share today! My fabulously talented and super sweet friend Alex, of California Stampin', gave me this award! It was a true honor to receive it, especially coming from her! It's wonderful to know that someone thinks my blog has a purpose! I really love sharing my creativity and even more than that, I love all the wonderful friends I made though blogging! So thank you Alex! I'll display it with pride and have a fun passing it on! :)

Now for some fun...passing it on! This is going to be challenging too. There are so many great blogs and people out there that inspire and motivate me to stamp.

First, would have to be our new fantastic group of girls who make up the Design Team on Stamp Something! (You can find the links to their blogs there). All of you are wonderful individuals with crazy talent! You all give me purpose to stamp! :) It's been fun working with all of you and I look forward to many more challenges together!

Second, my friends Samantha and Tina, of Fun with Paper. Both of these girls are so generous with their comments and they always brighten my day. They just recently started a new business offering scrapping and stamping classes. They one day hope to open their very own store. Good luck girls, you deserve the best! :)

Next would have to be Desiree, of Stamp with Desiree. We recently stumbled onto one each others blogs. Boy, am I glad we did! Desiree is super creative and always has new stuff to share. I love stopping in on her and to see all the fun stuff she's posted.

Lastly, but by no means least, would have to be all of the people who have taken the time to play along in our weekly challenge. Our new challenge blog, Stamp Something, has become a success because of all of you. It's been fascinating to see all the positive response we have received and all the creative project ideas that you've all shared with us. Thank you for making our new blog a blog with purpose! Please take some time to check out all the great ideas that each participant has to share.

Simply Sweet 3x3 Notes

Happy Wednesday Stampers!

It's simply sweet project time! I made these 3 little note cards in under 15 minutes. I was just saying to Erin last night that I have a bunch of these 3x3 note cards and nothing to do with them. Well, then I thought, how about using them for a simply sweet card idea!

These particular note cards were part of a Stampin' Up! promotion a while back, but you can order a pack of 3x3 Love Notes from the catalog. These cards are perfect for a quick project. They are already cut and pre-scored. Can't get much sweeter than that!

I used the stamp set Tart & Tangy along with the circle punches and scallop punch. I added some scrap pieces of ribbon as an embellishment. These cards are the perfect size for using scrap supplies. I also added some gel pen dots on one card and the other two have clear bubble stickers on the fruit. The sentiments are from Short and Sweet.

Thanks for taking a look, hope you have a few minutes to simply stamp something today! Happy Stamping!! :)

Summer Days Simply Scrappin'

Happy Tuesday!

Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend and all the moms out there had a happy Mother's Day.

Today, I want to share some scrap pages I've been working on for a scrapbook gift.

I've used the Summer Days Simply Scrappin' Kit from Stampin' Up!. These kits make it so easy and believe me, I need easy. I'm not a scrapper! :)

If you've ever considered taking up scrapbooking, but thought it was too hard or too time consuming, a Simply Scrappin' Kit is for you! I was able to put together 10 pages in under an hour.

All the papers and accent pieces coordinate perfectly and each kit includes textured cardstock. You just need a few simple supplies and you're ready to go.

This Simply Scrappin' Kit is filled with bright and cheerful colors, really fun colors! There's also 6 sheets of flowers and other coordinating die cuts.

I chose to use this kit because the photos that will fill the pages are going to be from a tropical vacation.

Thanks for looking, hope you'll try to scrap something! Happy Scrapping!! :)

"First Somethings" Challenge

Happy Friday!!

Well, here it is, my first challenge card for our new challenge blog. STAMP SOMETHING officially launched this morning! Woo Hoo! :)

This week the theme of the challenge is "First Somethings." You can make a card having to do with a first, such as a new baby or a new house or a first birthday. Or you could do something that is a first for you, such as a technique, altering an item, trying a layout and color combination, anything that's a new for you.

I chose to make a baby card. I love baby cards and I don't often have a reason for making them. I used the color combo of Groovy Guava, Barely Banana, Blush Blossom, and White. I added a piece of Designer Prints Paper and a piece of Swiss Dots embossed white cardstock for some added detail. The ribbon is from my Sherbet Originals stash and is held on with 2 Build-a-Brads. The stamps are from By Ones & Twos from Stampin' Up!'s Occasions Mini. I used my Nestabilities Scalloped Rectangles on the image layer and some paper piercing around the image. I finished with the ticket corner punch on the outside two layers and stamped the sentiment on Guava and punched it with the word window punch.

I hope you'll hop on over to STAMP SOMETHING and participate in the challenge and blog candy offer! The blog candy winner will be drawn at 7pm ET next Thursday! Thanks for looking. Have a great weekend. Happy Stamping!! :)

Simply Sweet Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!!

We are starting up the new STAMP SOMETHING challenge blog on Friday! So, I will no longer be having a weekly Wednesday blog challenge on my own blog. I want to focus my challenge time on the Friday challenges. I hope you'll join me in those challenges each week.

I have something new for you and my blog! Wednesdays are going to be Simply Sweet Days! I'll show you how to make quick and simple cards. Cards you can make in under 15 minutes. That's right, you heard me, quick and simple!!

Life is busy most days and sometimes stamping just doesn't fit into the schedule. Hopefully these simple and clean designed cards will help you find the inspiration and motivation to stamp simply! I'll try to share at least 2 different cards each week, both with very little prep time and quick assembly. How does that sound! Will you join me for Simply Sweet Days?

This week's cards are both 4" square cards. Each only one layer of cardstock. This limits the amount of cutting necessary to complete the card. Also, both use minimal embellishments.

The first card uses a Simply Scrapping Kit. These kits are a great way to make a fun card with little or no stamping. The border piece and orange flower are die cuts from the kit. I stamped the sentiment from Happy Everything, added a piece of chipboard and a rhinestone brad.

This second card uses Tart and Tangy. I stamped the strawberry on white cardstock and punched it out with the 1 3/8" square punch. It's layered on a piece of wide grosgrain red ribbon. The ribbon is held on with 4 silver brads. I paper pierced the bottom edge and added a sentiment from Pun Fun.

That's it, done! Both cards in under 15 minutes! Thanks for looking! Happy Stamping!! :)

Hanging Art

Happy Tuesday!

This is the one of the projects we made last night during our monthly stamp club meeting. It's a hanging chipboard coaster frame. Sorry about the photos, we don't like to put pictures of our kids on the web. Hope you still get the idea for how this frame looks when completed.

To make the frame you will need 3 chipboard coasters or more if you want to make your frame longer. You'll also need some printed paper, I used Summer Picnic DSP from Stampin' Up!. For the final touches, you'll need a cropadile to punch the ribbon holes, ribbon to tie the coasters together, and other decorative embellishments.

Cover your coasters with the printed paper. I used Mono adhesive, but you could use glue, to adhere the paper. Then punch the holes for hanging and threading the coasters together. Add ribbon to attach them. Finish by adding photos and embellishments. Hang it up!

Too easy...hope you'll give this scrapping idea a try. Happy Stamping!!

Be sure to check out our new challenge blog, launching with the first challenge on Friday!! Check out the site now for a chance at some blog candy!!

Exciting News!!

Exciting News!! Read all about it!!

Erin and I are starting up a new weekly challenge blog.

The "STAMP SOMETHING" Challenge Blog will be a place to find fun and creative stamping challenges. Each week, our design team will post sample projects, which we hope will motivate and inspire you to stamp something!



Our site is scheduled to officially launch on Friday, May 9th with our very first challenge, however it will be up today with a chance at some blog candy! There is no need for a membership! All our welcome! Go ahead, check it out!


Our design team members include:

Alexandra Hobson

Cindy Beach

Jo King

Erin Bailey

Emily Weems

Lauren Groppi

Denise Lynn

If you would like to be considered for a guest design spot on our challenge blog, please email us. Tell us a little about yourself and include a link to your blog/gallery or attach a few photos of your work. We'll be looking for guest designers each month, so contact us! :)

Stayed tuned in the coming days for more information! Hope to see you on "STAMP SOMETHING" very soon!

Happy Sunday!!

I can't believe another weekend is almost over. Hope it was good for everyone.

This is a card I made for a swap, hosted by Alex of California Stampin'. Check out her blog, she's a super talented stamper and scrapper, plus she's too sweet!

The card is pretty simple, but I tried to use lots of different colors and embellishments. I always seem to go with the brighter colors when I use this stamp set. I just love that froggie!

The papers are wasabi, bashful blue, pumpkin, white, and summer days prints. I used my corner rounder to make the scalloped edge on the blue paper. Then I added wide grosgrain red ribbon to cover the seam between the printed paper and the blue. The embellishments are a felt flower and silver brad, some crystal effects to make a shiny frog, and a paper pierced edge. The sentiment is from All Holidays.

Thanks for looking, enjoy what's left of the weekend. Come back tomorrow when I'll be announcing some big news!! Happy Stamping!! :)

Weekend Sketch Challenge

Happy Friday!

Here's one last post for this week. It's my card for Beate's weekend sketch challenge. This was a fun layout to work with, I've been into making long cards lately.

I used the color combo of Black, Pomegranate, and Soft Sky. This was a combo from a past SCS color challenge. These colors really pop against one another. I used Embrace Life and Celebrate Everything for the stamp images. I haven't used either of these sets in a while. I also broke out my new swiss dots embossing folder, too fun!

Thanks for looking. Hope you have a great weekend. Happy Stamping!! :)

Carousel Note Rubber-dultery!

Happy Thursday,

Just a quick post of a card I made today with my new carousel notes. I also used a Gina K designs stamp for my rubber-dultery Thursdays! This is the hippo from Just So Hippy.

Hope you're all having a good week. Happy Stamping!! :)