Monday, January 31, 2011

Friendship at Paper Cupcakes


This week at Paper Cupcakes challenge blog There's Magic in the Air our lovely leader Nina May has created a sentiment that she wants us to incorporate into our design. I paired mine with one of my favs "Softly Afloat" and I thought it was perfect with it. If you are paying attention...this is two weeks in a row that I've added bling to my cards, do you think my friends are rubbing off on me?
I would love for some of you to play along with us this week....I'll keep my eye out for you.
I am also going to enter this in the CAS challenge at The Outlawz . Several of you I know are playing at this site and I want to thank Olga for sending me a link.

Card details:
card stock-Gina K designs Kraft, Stampin'Up Baja Breeze
ink- SU Blue Bayou, Watercolor pencils
Accents- GKD rhinestones, Martha Stewart ribbon, Spellbinders Labels 3, photo corners
Images- PCC Softly Afloat and Friendship sentiment

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Vintage Valentine


Good evening! Hope you have all had a wonderful weekend. It was so nice here today...warm temps and sunshine.
I worked organizing my cards and doing a little cleanup in my stamp room this afternoon, I have a friend coming to shop for cards tomorrow and wanted to make it as easy for her as possible.
I created this yesterday for a couple of challenges, it has been awhile since I have gotten a card ready for a challenge this quickly. Sugar Creek Hollow is asking for a vintage valentine this week. I love their images and I think you would too, so go by and check them out...they have freebies if you like to try before you buy.
For my card this week I reduced the image "vintage" and copied it several times in a row before printing it out on Stampin' Up Riding Hood Red card stock. I trimmed it to fit my A2 card base of SU black. I also printed out the freebie H+Tag after which I cut only the heart portion out with the Spellbinders scalloped hearts and one size larger in the black card stock. Isn't the striped grosgrain SU riding hood red ribbon just yummy? and I got it in the clearance rack at SU. I tied a tag that was cut in my big shot and then stamped with the flourish from SU's elements of style set. I also used that to decorate the inside...first off stamping to give it more of an aged worn look.

I am also entering this in the challenge at Mark's Finest Papers blog where Speedy the Cat's Friends challenge #40 is to create a valentine. I don't own any of MFP's stamp yet but maybe soon. Sorry to not be using anything from them as I usually like to use the host's product.
Hope you enjoy this and I'll be back tomorrow morning with my card for Paper Cupcakes.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Sympathy and Love


Hey Guys!
I wanted to combine a card for two challenges, one called for the theme to be love and the other sympathy. As I did at first, you may think that these would be two very different looks, but then I thought about it and what better love story than the one that God has for us and the welcome with open arms he gives at our death.
I used two images from Doodle Pantry for their challenge #6 expressing love. Ginkgo leaves and a verse from her set A Loving God were combined to create my front and inside sentiment. I am also entering this in the challenge for a sympathy card at Mark's Finest Papers for the Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge #39.


I love the simplicity of this card design and really love the inside sentiment, it always gives me a peaceful feeling. Ps.116:15 which is "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints". Thanks for stopping by.


Details:
Card stock: Gina K chocolate brown, watercolor 90lb, dp Memory Box Minuet
Ink: Copics BG96,VG63
Images: DP Gingko Leaves, A Loving God
Extras: Spellbinders Labels 4, SU corner rounder

Fabulous Folds at D2D


Do you like to do different folds for a little variety in your card making, then you may just want to check out the challenge this week at Card Ideas . One of my favorites is the easel card but while looking through an old copy of PaperCrafts' Card Creations I came across a fold done by Melissa Phillips. Her measurements were a little wider than a standard A2 card so I just adjusted my measurements down so that it would fit in an A2 envelope. I bought some paper by Memory Box entitled Minuet this weekend in Mooresville, NC at Stamper's Alley which I think is just gorgeous. My image by Faith at Designed 2 Delight called Beautiful Blessing was super easy to color and I love the blues and greens.
Here is a picture of the card open so that you can see the inside. I stamped a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt on another piece of the dp for the center piece.




I punched out my flowers pieces with Stampin' Up punches and then used SU's build a brad to make my center. Hope you like this and here's wishing you a happy day!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Splash of Color at SCH


Sugar Creek Hollow is having a challenge called Splash of Color, where you are to create something in black and white with a splash of any color. You can do that with a ribbon, accent or in your image. I chose to add red to mine as this is my all time fav color combo. I find that I return to it over and over, even though I did think about doing something different, but just couldn't. I used their images called Vintage and Wishing you the Best ticket which I got several months ago. I stamped the bg paper with a flourish from the Stampin' Up set Elements of Style. And don't you just love that Making Memories brad, I do! Thanks for looking...please leave a comment if you have time as I love to hear from you.

Valerie's Gift Blog Hop



Hello, I am so excited for this day to have finally arrived. When my dear friends Olga and Mary Anne asked me if I would like to participate in a blog hop to honor our wonderful friend Colleen, I was so trilled and immediately said yes, and on top of that I got to play with this lovely image "Valerie's Gift" from Whimsy Stamps . If you have arrived from Selma's then you are on the right track. If you have just lucked on to this post you can start at the beginning at Mary Anne's and get the full story. But since most of you already know, I will keep it short and just say that this stamp was created to honor Colleen's dear daughter Valerie that died way to young in a car accident at 19. We love you Colleen and hope you enjoy our creations using this beautiful stamp. Now you are on to the next stop in this hop and that is the lovely Olga .




Card details:
Card stock Gina K Designs Kraft,Pink, dp K&Co Ancestry.com
Ink Prismacolor pencils and OMS
Accents Ranger stickles Diamond, Spellbinders Labels 4, Sizzix Flower Die,Dollar Tree ribbon.
Stamps Whimsy stamps Valerie's Gift and SU Friends

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

D2D Progressive Challenge Card



Hey guys!!
Just wanted to post my card for this week's progressive challenge at Designed 2 Delight . This weeks image is Bear's Big Gift...isn't it cute. Check out all the details, if you haven't already to play along and be eligible to receive one of Faith's lovely images free each week.

Hope you have had a great day...have something special for tomorrow so please check back.

Card Details:
Card stock- Stampin' Up white, positively pink, dp certainly celery prints
Ink- Copics and SU markers
Accents- Oueen&Co perals, Gina K buttons, K&Co party hat, SU punches
Image- D2D Bear's Big Gift and sentiment SU Well Scripted.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Masculine Birthday Cards

This is my second post today,but I wanted you to see some cards that I created for a friend. She buys my cards each year for all of her occasions and these are for some of her male birthdays coming up;
These first two were created using my new stamp set from Stampin' Up "Countryside".
I tried two different looks, one embossing and the other coloring the image. I love old trucks and I just had to have this one.




I found this set "The Great Outdoors" from Inkadinkado this weekend while we were away and thought it would make some great masculine cards. This is a simple design but I think it works.



This last card is for her Brother-in-law who likes to cook, I didn't have any stamps with a Chef so I used some dp that I had for a cookbook scrapbook and cut out a recipe card to mount on the front...I used some of the stickers to decorate the inside too!




Hope you like one of them....scroll on down for my card for the Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge that I also posted today.
Thanks for looking!

Ooh...I love Vintage!


And I do....just don't do it very often and never know if I am doing too much or not enough. I love this card, even if it is my creation. I stopped by Stampin' Sisters in Christ's blog on Sunday and found their challenge to be to make a vintage card this week. If you've never visited before, please go by as they have a very inspirational blog and I mean this in many ways. I started the card by using Gina K Designs Kraft card stock as my base and then layered their brown with a piece of K&Co dp from the Life's Journey pack. My latest Stampin' Up order included the set Elements of Style which I had admired for a long time. I used the floral and the flourish from that set. I pierced and sponged my dp, two of my fav techniques. I added a brad that I picked up this week by Making Memories...the crochet ribbon is from Walmart and that lovely grosgrain is my clearance buy from SU.

I am also going to send this in to the challenge to use ribbon on your card at Create with Bubbe . I found her through a good friend Olga, check her out at craftieodamae .
Look for a post later on, I had a commission to do some masculine birthday cards and I'll show you what I came up with.
Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Sent with Love Challenge at PCC



Happy Monday,everyone!! I hope that everyone has had a wonderful week-end. Rick and I were able to go away for a couple of days for a much needed break and it was FABULOUS! Can you tell that I had a great time. I will tell you more about it later but now to the challenge this week at Paper Cupcakes . I am sure you saw the Tic-Tac-Toe board above....here are the particulars.
Pick three elements in a row like a tic-tac-toe from the chart above. (Example: Stitching, button, some kind of heart; or button, ribbon or flower; or tag, flower, ric-rac; etc.) You can use as much of those same elements as you like as long as you use all three of them at least once. You may also add other elements, but again as along as the tic-tac-toe elements are on your card at least once.
Now to my card: I selected the line straight through the middle.

I used a punch from Clear Dollar Stamps and the smaller one is by Sizzix. I used a border embossing folder from Cuttlebug to highlight my edge and then added pearls and a rhinestone for my bling. The ribbon is some that I picked up on clearance and not sure of the maker. I colored the lovely new image by Nina with my prismas and oms. I hope you are in the mood for a friendly game of tic-tac-toe and will join the team at Paper Cupcakes this week. Be sure and stop by to see what they have done with image, and best of all I forgot to tell you that it is a FREEBIE this week. So please go pick up your image and get started on your creation.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Love Ya Cupcake


Strawberry and Chocolate Cupcake for you! This is the image "Love Ya Cupcake" that I received for playing in Faith's progressive challenge last week and you can check out this challenge and all the details at Delightful Inspiration . My dp is by Making Memories, Cosmopolitan Collection and the card stock from my stash, so I am not sure of colors or maker. I colored the cupcake with prismas and oms. I traced the cupcake bottom,cut and then traced and cut it out on a piece of the pink that I layered with. After running it through the Big Shot in my Swiss Dots folder from Cuttlebug, I sponged the edges with Versafine Vintage Sepia. My sentiment is from the Friends set by Gina K Designs.
Hope you like this and will stop by and visit with Faith....I think you will love her images. Have a great day and talk to ya soon!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Sketch at Paper Cupcakes



How about something fun and a little different....we haven't used a sketch challenge for a while at the Paper Cupcakes challenge blog and this week Nina May has created one for us to play with. You may flip the sketch if you would like but just make sure the sketch is still visible in your project.

I used the PCC image "Bubbly Good Time" which I colored with Prismacolor Pencils and OMS. I love this dp from K&Co which I layered on Stampin' Up chocolate chip card stock. The sentiment is from SU's set Elements of Style. I hope you like my card and I would love to see what you create with this fab sketch. Please come play along with the DT at Paper Cupcakes this week.

Have a great start to your week and I hope to see you again soon!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Deedee's Pink and Red Challenge



I had printed out the digi "Cup of Joy" a while back and had never made anything using it, so when I saw the challenge for Crafting with Deedee's Digis this week I decided to play along. She asked us to use the colors pink and red, I used a piece of Stampin' Up Riding Hood Red and added a piece of dp from the K&Co book entitled "Yuletide". This is suppose to be Christmas paper but I love it with this image. I colored the image with SU markers and added Studio G Glitter glue to the flower centers. My buttons are from my stash by Gina K Designs. I think this makes a wonderful valentine for a special friend.

Hope you are all having a wonderful week-end. I am!! Stamping,eating and watching the playoffs. What a restful, calm time for me for a change.
Remember to stop back tomorrow morning for my Paper Cupcakes post.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

The Lord is my Refuge



How true that statement, I love all the beautiful digital verses available at The Doodle Pantry . I am participating in the challenge with Laurie here which is only the first of two that she has each month. Just for participating you receive one free digital set from her. So what are you waiting on...go check it out.
Laurie is the one that designed my watermark for me and I used that same image "Cornflower" combined with a verse from the set "The Lord's Stronghold". I needed a card to send to a friend that is going through a rough time and I love the way this came together.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Saturday....I am going to stay in and play in my stamp room and then watch the playoffs this afternoon. Good day ahead!

Card Details:
cardstock- Stampin' Up baja breeze and dp
Ink- SU markers, Prismacolor pencils and OMS
Extras- Pearls-Gina K Designs, Bee-K&Co, Glitter-Martha Stewart

Friday, January 14, 2011

Colors of Love


Flourishes is having a challenge that ends at 5pm ET today where you could win the complete release for January and I am just getting in under the wire.
The colors of love....pink, red and white are what we are asked to use. I stamped an image from a set called Chairs for You, I created my dp to paper piece by stamping another Flourish image from their set Birds in Vine. I like the way this turned out,
if you are quick you could enter too. They have some beautiful stamp sets released this month.

Card details:
Card stock- Stampin' Up Riding Hood Red, White, Mulberry paper and Bazzil pink textured.
Ink- SU markers
Accessories- GinaK pearls, SU EF Vintage Wallpaper, Spellbinders dies Peony and Rectangle

Thursday, January 13, 2011

My Delightful Inspiration Card


I mentioned yesterday when I loaded my card for Card Ideas that I would be posting one for the challenge at Faith Skrdla's site Delightful Inspirations which is a progressive challenge each month and here it is.
I adore this image and even though I guess we are all thinking Valentine's Day, I can see this being used with soft blues and pinks for baby projects or just an I love you card. My card today is just generic as I was leaving it where I could send it anyone....even somebody that just needed a thinking of you reminder.
Hope you like and will check out all of the other beautiful cards made with Faith's lovely image. If you would like to make something and post it today, she will send you next weeks image free! And free is always a good thing.


Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Card details:
Base- card stock Gina K Designs smokey slate, Stampin' Up ivory and riding hood red dp K&Co black and ivory
Ink- SU markers
Accessories- Rubons Heidi Grace, Spellbinders Labels 4 and circles, Cuttlebug Devine Swirl

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Something Old and Something New

And no, I am not getting married again. Just playing along with the challenge at Card Ideas this week. They have asked us to use something we have had on hand for a while and then to use something new, in my case I am using the Stampin' Up corduroy buttons and the heart rhinestones that I just bought. My old is the image "Love a Latte" that I bought a good while back and have never used even though I think it is one beautiful stamp set and to make it even better it has Valentine sentiments included.



My card stock and design paper are from Stampin' Up. I love how this turned out and love the flower I punched from some of the black card stock and some scraps of K&Co dp and then used my new button for the center. I should have saved this for Rick for Valentine's Day but couldn't help but show him my finished card....after all it's been a while since he's seen my work. lol I bet he would still like to get it, don't you? Stop by and play along at Card Ideas if you have time and you still have time to get in on the freebie at Faith's blog Delightful Inspiration which is a progressive challenge....if you play this week with the freebie, you will get a free digi sent to you and then every week after this month that you continue to play. I will try and post that card later.
Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

So Thankful!


Even though the design team didn't participate with sample cards for the challenge on Monday, I still wanted to create something and play along with all of you. This is from Paper Cupcakes and Nina's challenge for us this week...
"So, today I bring you a 2 part challenge. The first part of this challenge is to make a thank you card of any kind and the second part of this challenge is to actually mail it out to someone within the next two weeks or shortly after you make it. Of course I won't be able to know if you mailed it or not, but you will. So let's brighten someones day with a word of thanks and start this year off by being thankful."

Please stop by the blog if you haven't already and read the full post. We should all be counting our blessings and be thankful for the people in our lives. I am guilty of not doing that and taking for granted the loved ones in my life.
So if like me you have been a little slack in thanking those you appreciate....why not make a card and send it to someone special and tell them so.
My card uses Stampin' Up Riding Hood Red and Black card stock...I used my new embossing folder also by SU called Vintage Wallpaper to emboss the front of the card. After using a Martha Stewart border punch I layered a piece of the black card stock behind to highlight the edge. This image is by Paper Cupcakes and called Orchid Teacup with Bird, I colored with SU markers and an aquabrush. I die cut the image with a Spellbinders Labels 4 and mounted this with dimensional dots on a black piece cut with the Spellbinders Oval dies. Even with the coloring, this came together fairly quickly.

I want to tell all of you that stop by to visit that I am thankful for you and your kindness to me. I couldn't make it without you as my friends. So if you don't already know it....I appreciate each and every one of you!!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Flowers for Flourishes


I am entering the Timeless Tuesday challenge at Flourishes this week. Betty has asked us to use flowers on our creation and I decided to use the Flourishes Lilac set. I love lilacs and the way they smell...still have spring fever I'm afraid, it may be a long winter. I thought about coloring this image but decided that I liked the way it looked after I stamped it with the Versafine Vintage Sepia. I bought a pack of Autumn Leaves design paper recently and this is one of the papers in that package.


My card stock is Gina K Designs....I embossed the brown with the Stylized Flowers folder. My button is also GKD and after tying it off on the ribbon with Stampin' Up twine, I placed a trinket also by SU through the twine. I think I will love using these. My inside is another part of the dp with a piece cut with Labels 4 and stamped with two different sets that I just got from Stampin' Up (Word for You and Silhouette Sentiments). It feels good to be back stamping and I hope to stop by and visit with you later on.
Stop by and check out this challenge site if you are not familiar with it...they have some beautiful cards.

A Magical Monday in 2011


Good Monday Morning!!
I certainly hope it is warmer where you are than here in southwest Virginia....temps are in the single digits and they are calling for a little snow. Where is Spring? I am already having spring fever and the year has barely started.
We are back to challenges at Paper Cupcakes this week....however the card that I am posting is one that I did back in the summer and never put on the blog. Nina has had some challenges herself in the last couple of weeks and she was a little behind with our team work. She is posting the challenge and a sample card at Paper Cupcakes challenge blog today...I will try and post a card for that later this week after I see what it is and it will be like playing along with you. I hope you can get back in the groove and play along with us this week as I have missed seeing your creations.
This card showcases one of my favorite images by Nina called Flower Tea Cup, I can see it used for so many different occasions. I hope you like it also and will leave me comment.

Be sure and check back this week....I organized and cleaned my stamp room yesterday and hope to get back to work tomorrow.
Take care of yourselves and enjoy the day!

Monday, January 3, 2011

Happy New Year

Here's to a wonderful 2011 for all of my cyber friends! I am sure that most of you think that I must be at least 6 feet under by now....since you haven't heard or seen anything from me in so long! I am so sorry to be MIA for this long but I have just been so under the weather that I couldn't even think about creating much less doing it. I am hoping to be back in my stamping room soon and posting something on here. The challenges will start back for Paper Cupcakes next Monday and I am looking forward to creating something special for that. I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and enjoyed your time with family and friends. Rick and I certainly did. Our friend that I wrote about earlier this year going through cancer treatments in Houston got to come home to Virginia for a 10 week break. Her cancer is showing no activity at this time. We are so glad to have her home and with us and appreciate all the thoughts and prayers that went her way.
Thanks to everyone that checked in with me, you all mean so much to me and I love and appreciate everyone of you that takes the time to stop by my blog.