Guest Designer Challenge

Happy Wednesday!

I want to share the card I made for the challenge Katharina has on her blog. She has started up a new stamp company, Whiff of Joy, and she's looking for guest designers. She has a really fun sketch as part of the challenge, so I had to give it a try. I'd also like to wish her luck in this new venture! Katharina is super talented and her stamps are very sweet. She is currently taking pre-orders!

This is not the card I intending to make. I started out wanting to use the new In Colors from Stampin' Up!, but then I found this image is my stash from my good friend Jo. So I thought, how about another Christmas in July card!

I colored this image using watercolor wonder crayons and an aquapainter. I added some crystal effects and glitter to make the "fuzzy" ruffles on his coat, hat, and pants. The "snow" on the tree has been done with a white gel pen. This photo shows these details.

The color combo here is Bravo Burgundy and Always Artichoke. I used the Snowflake Spot stamp set to create the snowflake background on the artichoke piece. Then used the Swiss Dots embossing folder on the Burgundy piece for some texture. The ribbons are Artichoke organdy and Burgundy grosgrain. The sentiment is from Short and Sweet and framed with a piece of Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware and brads.

Thanks for taking a look at my entry for Katharina's design call. I hope you'll drop in on her new shop, Whiff of Joy! Happy stamping!! :)

Hostess Workshop Projects

Happy Monday!

So, last week I had my first workshop in ages. My good friend and fellow stamper Quinn, hosted a workshop at her new house. It was a great girls night out full of food, chatting, and stamping! I thought I'd share the cards we made that night.

This first one is a wedding card in monochromatic colors. We used the stamp sets To Have and To Hold and Baroque Motifs. The embellishments are a pearl and ribbon and a scalloped punch that was cut to look like a flower.


This next card was for "Christmas in July." We wanted to make a card using a retiring set and this one is perfect. This is Snowflake Spot. I love this set and will be sorry to see it go.

I made a circle frame which we laid over the white piece, sponged on ink and snowflakes, then covered in Versamark and Iridescent Ice EP. The corners were punch with the ticket corner and we added a rhinestone brad. The sentiment is from Short and Sweet.




This card was made using Priceless. I love this set, but rarely take it out. My hostess requested we use it and this is what I came up with. We used some Berry Bliss DSP and ribbon for embellishments. The dark butterfly was stamped and cut out and glued on with crystal effects to make him pop up.

This last card was the easiest card we made all night. My hostess loves Tart & Tangy, so we made this quick card with that set. I do hope it makes it into next year's Spring/Summer Catalog. Most of the girls at the workshop have this set, so it was a chance to show them yet another way to use it. The only embellishment on this card is crystal effects on the scalloped lime slice. The sentiment is from Short and Sweet.

Thanks for taking a look. Have a great day, happy stamping!! :)

Look What I Received!!

Hi All, Happy Sunday!!

Hope your weekend is going well. We're having yet another terrible thunderstorm. It seems like that's all it does lately! So, it's the perfect time to catch up on some blogging business.

I wanted to share an award, which I received twice!

It's quite an honor!

The first person to give me this award was Jo, my super sweet and very talented friend! She always knows how to make my day! Thanks for this Jo, it means a lot! :)

I also received this from Pauline. Pauline is a regular visitor and player on our challenge blog STAMP SOMETHING! Thanks, Pauline! Love checking out your creations! :)

Now it's my turn to pass it on to four regular visitors of my blog and 1 new visitor from another part of the world. Hummm, let's see...Catherine, Diane, Lynn, and Samantha who are regular visitors and then Alison, who I met through STAMP SOMETHING challenges. All of these bloggers are fabulous artists, go check em' out! :)

All About Me!

Happy Friday Everyone!

Hope you've all had a good week. We've been having some crazy weather here, tons of rain and yesterday very bad thunderstorms. And even some areas of NH were hit with possible tornadoes. Thoughts and prayers are with those that lost loved ones and homes. It really was a terrible day here, I don't remember ever having weather like that!

So today, we have another fun challenge for you over on STAMP SOMETHING! This week's host is the super talented Alex and she has a scrap book challenge for us. But, not just any scrap book challenge, it has to be all about YOU! This was a very difficult challenge for me to say the least, but I'm happy that I did it. Head over there now and see the fabulous design team pages and get some inspiration to create your own all about ME page! The blog candy this week is being donated by Jen from the Cococut Scrap Shop!


Ok, so here I am! I truly hate photos of myself so really that was the toughest part of this challenge. I loved making the scrap page though!

I used pieces from the level 3 hostess Simply Scrappin' Kit, Just 4 You. I love the soft colors and all the die cut embellishments. For my 3 buttons, I used clear buttons with ribbon and hemp twine. The 4 brads are yellow and scattered throughout the page. I also used 4 different ribbons, wide Chocolate grosgrain, the decorative ribbon included in the kit, and a some grosgrain Celery and Bashful gingham.

The stamps used here are from Close To My Heart. The letter stamps are Stampin' Up! set Schoolbook Serif Alphabet. All other embellishments are from the kit.

Thanks for looking today! Have a fantastic weekend. Happy stamping!! :)

My Baby's Turning 5!

Happy Wednesday All!

So my little boy is turning 5 next month and starting Kindergarten! I can't believe that time is here already, it goes so fast! We are having a party for him, so I of course made some invites and I wanted to share them with you.

I got the layout from the super cute and fun card Katie Renz made for our STAMP SOMETHING challenge last week. If you click on the above name link, you can see her card! Thanks for the inspiration Katie!

I used Wild Wasabi for the card base. I got this fun dot paper at AC Moore, then used more Wild Wasabi and a piece of Pumpkin Pie cardstock for the image. The pumpkin piece was cute using rectangle scalloped Nestabilities. The image is from Pun Fun, my son picked it out himself! It has been colored with Prismacolor Pencils, by my husband! That's right, my husband did this awesome job. Don't you love the flames! The embellishments are satin ribbon and a star punched with my star punch. The sentiment is from Please Come.

Hope you're all having a great week. Be back on Friday with an all new STAMP SOMETHING challenge! Head over there now and cast your vote for your favorite "Triple Play" card and a chance for some blog candy. Happy Stamping! :)

Bright Butterfly!

Hi All!

I just received some new stamps in the mail and thought I'd share a card I made using them. The stamps are from Innovative Stamp Creations. The owner of the company, Betsy, very generously donated some sets for our blog candy give aways on STAMP SOMETHING. We'll be using this fabulous donation some time in August, so stayed tuned!

I made a 5 1/4" square card and layered on two prints of DSP, then a piece of ribbon. The main image is cut using scalloped oval Nestabilities and the Coluzzle. I fell in love with this butterfly image and the flowers almost match the flowers from this Stampin' Up! DSP, in the Tie the Knot Simply Scrappin' Kit. I colored the butterfly with markers, cut it out, and adhered it with crystal effects. The final touches are paper piercing and a button.

Thanks for looking! Have a great Tuesday! Happy Stamping! :)

Happy Birthday Lindsay!

Happy Monday All!

Hope you enjoyed the weekend and got in some relaxing!

I've got a quick post today. I want to wish my soon to be sister in law a very happy birthday! Hope it's wonderful Lindsay! :) Big hugs from all of us. We'll celebrate with you soon.

In honor of her birthday, I thought I'd share the card I sent to her. She should have received it by now, so I'm not spoiling the surprise.

I chose to use this fun Stamping Bella, Cupcakeabella. She's perfect for this occasion!

I started with a 5 1/4" square card of Chocolate Chip cardstock. I layered on a piece of Pretty in Pink cardstock with some Berry Bliss DSP over that. The main image has been colored with markers and cut out and adhered to another piece of Berry Bliss. I used my scalloped rectangle Nestabilities for the image layer. The embellishments are grosgrain ribbon, buttons, crystal effects, glitter, styled silver hodgepodge, and rhinestone brads. The sentiment is from Short and Sweet, a Stampin' Up! set.

Thanks for looking! Happy Stamping! :)

Sweetest Somethings!

Happy Friday!

Hope everyone is having a great week and looking forward to another weekend. The design team over on STAMP SOMETHING has had a super busy week trying to choose 5 more entries to vote on for our August guest designer spot. Thanks to everyone who played along, it was a tough tough TOUGH decision, you are all super talented stampers! But, we do now have 5 new projects and a new viewer poll for our visitors to add their vote. There's also a mystery blog candy chance for those of you who help us choose another finalist. Head on over and cast a vote for your favorite "Triple Play" project!

STAMP SOMETHING also has another new weekly challenge posted for you too! Our design team member Lauren, has come up with a very tasty challenge this week! It's called the "Sweetest Somethings!" Make us a project using candy. You can alter candy, stamp candy, eat candy, etc...just include candy in some way or another on your project this week. That sounds like fun, doesn't it? And yummy too! :)


Here's my project! I chose to make a card and treat bag combo. I used Skittles as my candy inspiration, love these yummy treats!

The card is a base of Pumpkin Pie cardstock, layered with Real Red cardstock and Summer Picnic DSP. I then made a window using more Pumpkin and Red cardstock and a piece of acetate for the window. The window is filled with yummy Skittles! I had to use 5 layers of foam tape to make the window deep enough to hold the candy pieces, so I wrapped a piece of grosgrain ribbon around the entire piece to hide the foam tape.

The sentiment is from Pun Fun and is stamped in red and punched on layered ovals. I added some Fire circle rhinestone brads for some sparkle.

For the candy bag, I used a clear medium cello bag from Stampin' Up! and filled it with Skittles. Then I attached a tag, which has been stamped with the strawberry from Tart & Tangy, and tied with grosgrain ribbon and a piece of hemp twine. I added another Fire circle rhinestone, but popped this one out of the brad and adhered it with crystal effects. I also added crystal effects to the strawberry to make it shine!

Thanks for taking a look at my sweet candy project, I hope you stop on over to STAMP SOMETHING and check out the yummy design team creations! Be sure to vote while you're there too. Have a sweet time stamping something this week! Happy Stamping! :)

More Wedding Projects

Hi All! Happy Wednesday!

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a few days, been kind of busy here. I've been working on more wedding projects for my brother's wedding at the end of August. It's a very fun and exciting time, but lots to do.

I thought I would share my recent creations with you. The first one is the thank you cards I made for them to give to the bridal party. I designed them to be similar to the actual wedding invite. They are tri-fold black cardstock and layered with a dry embossed piece of white cardstock. The main images are from To Have and To Hold and Short and Sweet, both Stampin' Up! sets. The only embellishment is a single purple sticky rhinestone.

This next card is the invitation we are using for the wedding rehearsal dinner. My parents are throwing that party and to make things easier for my mom, I volunteered to make some simple invites.

These are postcard style, but fit into an A2 envelope. I sampled some wording from a site online and made it my own, then stamped the swirl from Baroque Motifs and mounted the invite to a piece of Amethyst cardstock.

This last photo is of the reception table numbers we made last night. I love these and I'm so happy we spent some extra time and effort to make them. I think they will add a lot and look beautiful on the tables.

My soon to be sister in law, Lindsay found this website, Jody Prouse Design, where you can find free templates to make your own wedding things or you can order supplies direct from them. We downloaded the template for these numbers, changed the fonts and colors, and printed, stamped, and cut them out. We mounted them on a piece of 11" x 12" black cardstock and tri-folded them.

Thanks for looking! Hope you're all having a great week so far. I'll definitely be back on Friday with a new STAMP SOMETHING challenge project. Be sure to head over there now and vote for our guest designer choices! Happy Stamping! :)

Triple Play

Hi All! Happy Friday!

There's a new challenge over on STAMP SOMETHING and this week we are going for "Triple Plays!" We want to see what you can do with 3 layers, 3 colors, and 3 embellishments!

Show us your best work and you may find yourself up for a chance as guest designer in August! That's right, we're looking for 5 more entries to put to a viewer vote. The winner will go up against the viewer's choice from last week's "Dazzle Us" challenge. Speaking of the dazzle us challenge, head on over and vote for your top choice now!

This is my take on the "Triple Play" challenge. I went with a Bella image, I've had this one for a while now and haven't had any reason to use her, so what better excuse than for a challenge! I'm not sure what the exact name of this bella is, but I'm calling her Glitzy-Bella!

The 3 colors I choose to use are Basic Black, Whisper White, and Cool Caribbean. This printed paper was from an old Simply Scrappin' Kit that is now retired. I love how the blue pops against the black. The image has been stamped in Staz-On ink and colored with re-inkers and an aquapainter.

My 3 embellishments are Iridescent Ice EP on the dress, rhinestone brads on the dress and the flowers, and lastly the white fabric flowers. The rhinestones on the dress have been popped out of the brad and adhered with crystal effects.

This blurry photo, sorry about that, shows more of the shimmer on her dress from the Iridescent Ice EP.

Thanks for taking a look today! Hop on over to STAMP SOMETHING and check out the fabulous design team samples. I hope you'll find some time to stamp something today too! Have a super weekend, happy stamping!! :)

2 Cards, 1 Layout!

Hi All!

Well, we're having another very hot day here and it's pretty much kept us inside. I think we're all getting a bit stir crazy, hopefully the heat and humidity will break soon. Anyway, I used some of my time to create a couple of cards.

I've seen a great layout used on a few blogs recently, one that I believe is from SCS. So, I had to give it a try.

This first card uses Crab and Company from Stampin' Up!. I ran some cardstock through my Cuttlebug using the Swirl embossing folder. It reminds me of waves, perfect for a beachy card. The colors are Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, and Sahara Sand. The image was stamped on watercolor paper and colored with markers and an aquapainter. The brads are sea shells, not sure where they are from though.

This next card uses the same layout, but the color combo is from a color challenge on SCS. The colors are Groovy Guava, Barely Banana, and Close to Cocoa, a great combo for a baby card! This card uses the Swiss Dots embossing folder and some flower brads from Target. The images are from the set Bundled in Love from Stampin' Up!. The images are colored with a blender pen and ink.

Thanks for looking. Hope you're having a great Wednesday! Happy Stamping! :)

Summer Sweetness

Hi All!

It's another hot, hot, hot day here so we've been swimming and hiding out in the A/C! Hope you're all staying cool!

This is a quick card I made in honor of this perfect summer day. I'm not a huge fan of eating watermelon, but I do like this stamp!

Have a great Tuesday! Happy Stamping! :)

Images Close To My Heart, Supplies Stampin' Up!

Wild Chocolate!

Happy Monday!

I was feeling like chocolate today, but of course we didn't have any in the house, so I had to settle for chocolate paper! Not as tasty, but still yummy!

I made this card using more of my Close To My Heart stamps. Seeing as I have to wait until August for new Stampin' Up! stuff, I went and splurged on some other new things instead. I used Emily's sketch from a previous STAMP SOMETHING challenge, love this layout.

The papers are Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, and Creamy Caramel. I stamped the bear in Staz-On ink on watercolor paper and watercolored him with markers. I added a piece of wide Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon and made a tag for the sentiment.

Thanks for looking! Hope your week is off to a good start. Happy Stamping! :)

All images are Close To My Heart. All other supplies are Stampin' Up!

An Award!

Hi All!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! The weather has been beautiful here so we spent a lot of time outside. We had a family cookout on the 4th to celebrate the holiday and then relaxed as a family for the past two days!

I wanted to share this award, which I received from my terrifically talented friend Jo! Thanks so much Jo, it means a lot coming from you. :) Please hop on over to Jo's blog and see all of her fantastic creations. She's also a member of the STAMP SOMETHING design team, we are very lucky to have her!

The rule for this award is to pass it on to seven people with brilliant blogs. Wow, that's a hard one...here goes...these are just a few of the ladies who inspire me to create!

Andrea, Cassie, Janna, Laura, Lauren, Lynn W, and Vicki

I hope you stop by and check these blogs out! Have a great Sunday night! Happy Stamping!! :)

Dazzling Somethings!

Happy Friday and 4th of July!

Hope you all have a marvelous holiday and a great weekend!

Today, over at STAMP SOMETHING, our challenge is all that "dazzles, sparkles, shimmers, and shines!" Make us a project that brings on the bling!

My card is pretty simple! I haven't had a lot of time this week for stamping because we are on vacation.

I just got some new stamps from Close To My Heart. I know, big time cheating on Stampin' Up!, but these were so cute that I had to have them! I started with Sahara Sand, layered on Soft Sky, and then used Mellow Moss and Ivory cardstock for the image. My bling is two strips of sticky tape with glitter and crystal effects with glitter on the flowers. The sentiment is from the same new stamp set and it's been framed with a styled silver piece of hodgepodge. (all products except stamps are Stampin' Up!)

Thanks for taking a look! Enjoy the weekend, hope you all have great BBQs and get to see lots of fireworks.

Hop on over to STAMP SOMETHING and check out the dazzling design team samples, then dazzle us with your creations! Happy Stamping! :)

June Stamp Club Projects

Hi All!

Sorry that I've been MIA all week, we are having family vacation time. We've been in and out, taking day trips and having fun together.

So, this is just a quick post to say hello and share the projects we made at stamp club last week.

We did four cards, mostly using up the In Colors before they retire with the current catalog in August.

The crab card was inspired by Cindy's fabulous sketch challenge card, the acetate card uses rub-ons and the Pick a Petal set, then we made a Fresh Cuts card using the new stamps and note cards, and the last card was a simple Pun Fun card using some Wild Wasabi paper. I'm sure going to miss those In Colors, but the new ones look fantastic too! :)

I'll be back on Friday with a new project for the STAMP SOMETHING challenge! Hope you're all having a great week! Happy Stamping! :)