Stamp Something Black Friday Challenge

In honor of Black Friday, the Stamp Something blog challenged readers to use black somewhere in a card. I used the branches from my retired "All Season Wreath" to make a Christmas wreath, then hand-cut flowers from the Holiday Treasures designer paper and scattered them around the wreath. A bow of Riding Hood Red, with silver "sleigh bells" made from Holiday Treasures DP (punched out the snowflakes) and silver brads, adds a whimsical touch. My sentiment is a Season of Cheer rub-on (note: still on sale until Sunday!).

Thanks for looking!

Modern Bamboo Concoction

Julie's Color Concoction recently was perfectly matched with this week's Inspiration Challenge on SCS. The JCC25 colors were riding hood red, always artichoke, chocolate chip, and very vanilla.

I used the bamboo stamp from the beautiful "Embrace Life" set, stamped in Always Artichoke and then used my blender pen to add a bit more color to it. I sponged a bit of Very Vanilla craft ink along my panel of Riding Hood Red card stock before adding the ribbon over it. My stipple brush worked great to use Chocolate Chip for a bit of dimension all over the background panel. My sentiment is from the "Best Yet" Level 1 Hostess Set (p. 18 of the Fall/Winter 2008 Idea Book & catalog)

And this is the artwork ("Modern Bamboo") that I took my inspiration from:

Triple Challenge Card, not bad for a Monday...

This is a triple challenge card focusing on three major requirements:

1) a leaf image as a focal point with pink for breast cancer awareness (Limited Supplies Challenge "Leaf if to Me, Baby" on SCS)

2) Sketch Challenge on SCS

3) Color Challenge to include Pink Pirouette & Kiwi Kiss from the new In Colors, plus Chocolate Chip

I still love my first hostess set from this seasons catalog, Organic Grace, with this beautifully detailed fern frond (which I'm counting as a leaf, LOL). My sentiment is from the "Hidden Garden" rub-ons, as are the little brown dots, and I accented the card with Felt Fusion flowers, a vintage brad and some scraps of ribbon from Michael's. The Designer Paper is Urban Garden. I ran my base card through my Cuttlebug to emboss more flowers in the background. Thanks for looking, and Happy Stamping!

SFYTT Eastern Blooms Card

Makeesha Byl has a pretty color (or "colour" as they say in Australia!) combo of Elegant Eggplant, Soft Sky, Pretty in Pink and Whisper White which happened to mesh well with the SCS Inspiration Challenge this week which I based on this room. I used Jen Del Muro's Sketch For You to Try, and faux stitching in Elegant Eggplant around the edges meets the requirements for the OCC stitching challenge. For extra "oomph", I added the purple Fine Cosmo Glitter (that stuff gets *everywhere*!!) to the centers of my three medium-sized blooms, and placed a Filligree brad with a Pretty in Pink brad in the center of my large bloom.

Here's the sketch if you want to try your hand at it:

Beate's Weekend Sketch

Beate's Weekend Sketch was a little challenging with its overlaying pattern. I used the Color Throwdown colors, which worked perfectly with the Inspiration Challenge of using these plates as a jumping off point. My leaves are from the Artfully Asian set (one of my faves) and my sentiment is from Warm Words. I ran my Baja Blue panel through my Cuttlebug to get the detailed embossing. Felt flowers add a sweet touch, with the new Filligree Designer Brads in the center.

Life is Beautiful!

Julie's Color Concoction is super dreamy this week -- Old Olive, Perfect Plum, and So Saffron -- so I combined it with the sketch that Tamara provided on her blog here. I think this is one of the neatest sketches I've seen in awhile -- really opens the floodgates of creativity. Just a short post today, lots to do. Hope you enjoy it!!

A Turkey of a Card...

This is an, ummm, interesting card. Not sure what I can use it for but I'm sure I'll figure something out... it started based on the Inspiration Challenge on SCS of "Catherine's Animals", wacky photos of livestock in front of dramatic backdrops. I chose this turkey as my inspiration.
It lent itself well, then, to the Color Challenge on SCS of using Riding Hood Red (new In Color), Going Gray, and Green Galore. You may be wondering where the green is -- I just dabbed a little in his feathers, as I didn't really have any great ideas for using it elsewhere, LOL. The layout is this week's Sketch Challenge.
So, here's my mongrel card and 3 more challenges under my belt.

Happy Halloween Card

I used Featured Stamper Denise's cute "Right Shoes" card as my jumping off point for this fun Halloween card. Kept her layout, but changed the designer paper (last year's Creepy Crawly) and stamps (Autumn Harvest) to make a whimsical Halloween card.

My punches made short work of the Photo Corner and the Word Window "Happy Halloween" sentiment from the All Holidays stamp set. I just snipped out the pumpkins, leaves, and gourd after stamping them on different shades of card stock (Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard, and Really Rust) and popped them up with my SU! dimensionals to add some oomph. It's hard to tell in this photo but I added Crystal Effects to my jack o' lantern's face to give it more dimension. Thanks for looking!

Lauren's Saturday Sketch

Lauren's sketch on My Time, My Creations, My Stampendence gave me a chance to play some more during the US Open rain delay yesterday (sigh, still wish Andy Roddick was in it...). I used the colors of Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, and Regal Rose from the Color Throwdown #9 challenge, and finally inked up my new Upsy Daisy stamp with Regal Rose to get a tone-on-tone image. The little thanks sentiment is just one word from my "Absolutely Fabulous" stamp set, inked up with my Black marker. Once again, markers allow me so much latitude in choosing exactly which words I want to stamp, and I love the font of this set. My Felt Fusion flower is in Baja Blue, and I used my Boho Flowers punch to punch out the Regal Rose center flower. My ribbon was white grosgrain until I once again turned to my SU! markers to color it Regal Rose and double wrap it around my panel. So what do you think? Does it work??

Monochromatic Challenge Card

The recent color challenge on SCS had me leafing through lots of pink cardstock scraps to come up with this pretty little monochromatic card -- how many shades of pink can you count??

I love the new "Organic Grace" hostess stamp set that this flower is from, love the lines and curves of the petals. My Felt Fusion flower added a little pop with its rhinestone brad from the Pretties Kit, and of course I had to add some Diamond glitter to my flower to match the "sparkle" from my favorite "Warm Words" set that I always turn to for just the right sentiment. My Cuttlebug added the delicate Swiss Dot embossing.

Football for DH Means Stamping for ME!

Yup, ya gotta love having two boys who l-o-v-e to watch VA Tech play football with Daddy. Means more crafty time for moi... which is why I was able to do this SCS Inspiration Challenge this afternoon. I based my card on this beautifully-painted hotel room at Hotel Fox in Denmark.

And Lauren Meader just posted a fabulous sketch on her blog, which I simply turned sideways. Thanks for looking and, as always, I welcome your comments! :-)


RECIPE
Stamps: ALL NEW Organic Grace (Level 1 Hostess); Priceless; Merci
Paper: Tempting Turquoise Prints; Shimmery White; Baja Blue (NEW In Color)
Tools: Corner Rounder; Cuttlebug Textile Embossing Folder; Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch
Embellishments: Tempting Turquoise Ribbon

Weekend Sketch Card

This card is based on last weekend's sketch on Beate's blog, which I just now got to. The base of the card is SU!'s new In Color Tangerine Tango, stamped with Versamark and the small bloom from "One of a Kind" stamp set. The sentiment is stamped in Not Quite Navy to match the paper bloom I cut out from the new Urban Garden Designer Paper. A glossy white half-pearl from my Pretties Kit, attached with a Glue Dot, makes the perfect center. Strips from the delicately patterned Haiku DP flank both sides of my card.

Here's the sketch if you want to give it a try:

Beate's Inspiration Challenge

This card is for a colleague who is leaving for a long recruitment trip to Asia. I was thrilled to receive my beautiful "Eastern Influences" stamp set in the mail yesterday and decided to break it in for Beate's challenge. Everything went great right up until I went to glaze my flower with what I *thought* was a clear glazing pen. Turns out it was white. Shoulda gone with Crystal Effects. All the beautiful delicate lines are lost beneath the stupid glaze. But it's still pretty. I used the colors from the Our Creative Corner Color Challenge: Old Olive, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, and Chocolate Chip. I stamped my flower on Watercolor Paper and used my blender pens and watercolor brush to shade it in. My background DP is from the retired "Ginger Blossom" dp (love that stuff!!)

Here are all the goodies that the nice UPS man just delivered to me in a downpour yesterday. Anyone who wants to come check them out, I'll be having an Open House on Sunday, September 14th. Drop in anytime between 3 and 5. More details to come! :-)

Back with A Triple Challenge Card

Finally, a morning to stamp! It seems to always be something else these days, but today I was determined to complete a challenge. This one is Color Challenge 179 from SCS, using the Saturday Sketch For You To Try from iheart2stamp.com. I purposely chose the flower image to meet the challenge of Stamp Something blog, which was to do a summery card of any type. I used my markers to color my stems and petals on the stamp individually, then just breathed on them a bit before stamping. I'm so pleased with how my medallion flower turned out -- I just kept adding layers to give it punch and dimension.

Here's the sketch if you want to give it a try:

RECIPE
Stamps: Close As a Memory, Warm Words
Paper: Bali Breeze DP, Elegant Eggplant CS, Old Olive Prints, Confetti White
Ink: All SU! markers -- Taken w/ Teal, Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive
Tools: The Tearing Edge, Color Spritzer, Boho Blossoms Punch, Scallop circle Punch, 5-Petal Punch, CM Circle cutting system, Cuttlebug w/ Swiss Dots embossing folder
Embellishments: Flower Fusion felt flower, Pretties Kit rhinestone brad

Christmas in July

The OCC Sketch Challenge by Jennifer Meyer and the OCC Dry Embossing Challenge were combined for this card, as I so often do when I'm behind on my card making activities. I used my "Punch Pals" stamp set for the snowman, hand colored with markers and then glittered up with Dazzling Diamonds and my 2-Way Glue Pen. Some SU! dimensionals help him stand out a bit more. I layered some Wintergreen Designer Paper, adding Signo White Pen to the dots on the smallest rectangle, distressing the edges and running them along the side of my Always Artichoke ink pad.

The base layer of Sage Shadow cs is stamped in Always Artichoke with two different snowflake designs also available in the Punch Pals stamp set. I used my Photo Corner punch to create the accents, again using the darker pattern of Wintergreen DP and some Shimmery White that I ran through my Cuttlebug with Swiss Dots dry embossing to mimic snow -- I thought it added a nice touch.

Thanks for looking and happy stamping!

Embracing My Inner Girl!

I love how sweet and girly this card turned out, perfect for an upcoming wedding. I made it recently for a challenge that just asked for a pretty, feminine card. I had this beautiful satin ribbon that my mother-in-law gave me, I think it was actually left over from my SIL's wedding years ago. So that was the starting point. My base is Blush Blossom and I simply smoothed some SU! Rub-Ons along the bottom. My flower image is from "Embrace Life", stamped with Black Staz-On ink and colored with my blender pen & Blush Blossom Wonder Watercolor Crayon. The corners are nicked out with my Tag Punch, the edges are sponged with Groovy Guava, and the tiny white half-pearls from my Pretties Kit fit charmingly in each corner. Groovy Guava cardstock forms the base of the panel.

Thanks for looking and hope you have a great day!

Quadruple Challenge Card

Just a quick post today, got the weekend (and Wimbledon) calling my name!! This card is a Quadruple Challenge card. "What?!" you say. "Four challenges in one card???" Yup. Here's the breakdown:

1) SCS Color Challenge = Wild Wasabi, Taken with Teal, and Whisper White (I used Bali Breeze DP for my teal panel and butterfly)

2) SCS Featured Stamper Challenge = using Diane's creation here as a jumping off point for my card

3) SCS Way to Use It Challenge = use a bird in the card (I colored mine with chalk for a softer look)

4) The challenge on Our Creative Corner = use one brad and one button. The teal button was from my stash, the brad is from SU!s Vintage Brads collection.

So what do you think? Thanks for looking!!

Mojo Monday Sketch

The "Way to Use It" Challenge on SCS was to use a photo in our creative project. I had this cute picture of a family friend, concentrating so hard on completing the obstacle course at my son's 6th birthday party. I used Julee's Mojo Monday sketch, combined with Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration (Rose Red, Old Olive, Going Gray, So Saffron, and Whisper White) to create this card. The sentiment was stamped in Staz-On Black ink onto Vellum as a photo overlay.

RECIPE
Stamps: Happy Harmony (retired)
Paper: Going Gray, So Saffron, Old Olive, and Whisper White cardstock; Rose Red Prints designer paper
Ink: Black Staz-On
Embellishments: Old Olive ribbon, Flower Fusion felt flowers, Silver Hodgepodge Hardware brads (Mini Catalog), SU! dimensionals


Here's the Mojo Monday sketch if you want to take a crack at it:

Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge

This card developed from Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge, taking cues from Maren who was the Featured Stamper this past week on SCS. I used her "Embrace Blush" card to pull the Embrace Life stamp, paper and color scheme, then mixed the elements up to fit Beate's sketch. In honor of National Garden Day, which was this past Friday, I chose an image that I believe is one of the prettiest flowers out there, all open and ready for you to add your own touches. I used my Blender Pen to color the flower in with Blush Blossom and Groovy Guava around the outer edges, then added in a half-pearl from the Pretties Kit in the center with a Glue Dot. It just so happens that the Stamp Something blog featured a similar "In the Wilds" challenge. I don't have any real wild animal stamps, but they said flowers count, LOL. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. :-)

Inspiration Challenge Card

These are pictures of somebody's fabulous master bedroom, courtesy of Domino Magazine. They served as the Inspiration Challenge this week on Splitcoast Stampers. So after I finished drooling over the bedroom, LOL, I got to work.

In retrospect I think Soft Sky may have been a truer color match, but I got Bashful Blue set in my mind and went with that. The sketch at iheart2stamp featured a prominent half-oval, which reminded me of a bed headboard. I used my Creative Memories cutting system to cut my oval out of Whisper White cs, then stamped my Stem Silhouette stamp in Certainly Celery to decorate my "headboard" like the picture. I ran the rim of the oval across my inkpad several times to give it some definition. For my bottom panel, I ran a strip of Whisper White through my Cuttlebug and then sponged the embossed vines & birds with Bashful Blue to simulate the bedroom wall panels. A strip of Pretty in Pink embossed with my Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots pattern goes across the center, nestled cheek to cheek with my Certainly Celery grosgrain ribbon, tucked through a ribbon slide from my silver Hodgepodge Hardware set in the Mini "Occasions" catalog. The silver is repeated in my brads in the bottom right corner.

And what's that huge bloom in the center? Why, it's the flower on the chair back, of course. I created it with my Serene Sunflower (retired) large and small stamps, stamped several times in Purely Pomegranate, Cameo Coral and Only Orange. The center is stamped with the bloom from "Bloomin' Beautiful" (mini catalog) to add some different petals. Whew! There's definitely a lot going on in this card. Maybe too much? Thanks for looking. Here's the sketch if you want to give it a try. :-)