QAS Thank You's

Good morning friends.  Just a quick post this morning, but thought you might like to see the "Thank You's" I made for my daughters future family who hosted an engagement party for her this past weekend.  Most of you have seen the letters CAS (clean and simple) that stampers use when referring to cards, but I'm changing it up a bit and calling these cards QAS (quick and simple) because I'm still not able to sit for any length of time yet.  I decided to make these cards coordinate with the wedding invitations and even the shower invites, and here's what I came up with:

I started with a white card base (SU's Whisper White), added a SU's Gumball Green layer, and then stamped on another Whisper White layer the largest of the 3 flourishes in SU's "Flowering Flourishes" stamp set.  I used SU's Gumball Green ink for the flourish and black ink for the sentiment which is also a SU stamp (retired).  I adhered this layer to the Gumball Green layer and then finished by adding a few silver nailheads in the centers of the 3 flowers and was done.  All 4 cards took me about 20 minutes...QAS! :0)

I'll be back tomorrow or Saturday with another post...couldn't stand not to play in this weeks PTI's Make it Monday Challenge!  I know, I know, I'm SO addicted to stamping and paper crafting!  What can I say?!!  Better than some of the other vices out there! :0)  Ok, time to get up and start moving again, but thanks for stopping by...I LOVE it when you do! :0)

Vintage Valentine

Good morning friends.  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  We had a special day yesterday with an engagement party for our daughter Colleen and her fiance...I'll share a picture at the end of this post if you're interested.  The card I'd like to share with you today is a Valentine's Day card that makes me think "vintage".  Take a look:

I started with kraft cs which in itself lends to the vintage look, and then added a 1 1/2" strip of chevron dp (The Paper Studio) to the bottom.  I added the PTI Heart Border (die) cut out with SU's Cherry Cobbler cs just above the dp and then stamped the flourish from SU's "Priceless" stamp set in Cherry Cobbler and PTI's  "Heart to Heart #11"  (L VE) also in Cherry Cobbler.  I then added the layered heart from PTI's Limitless Hearts dies using Cherry Cobbler cs, design paper from FancyPantsDesigns, and a small heart from kraft cs.   To finish, I added a sheer ribbon (Michaels) and some gold nailheads (Gina K) and then sponged the edges with SU's Soft Seude.  I really like how this card turned out and hope you do too! :0)

My posting might be a little sporadic the next couple weeks as I'm still recovering from my back surgery last week.  I'm moving a lot better this week but still can't sit and bend at the waist for any length of time yet, so stamping is kind of hard to do.  Hopefully another week or two will make a big difference though and I'll be back on track! :0)

And here is a picture of my beautiful family from yesterdays engagement party:

And the bride & groom to be:

 
Have a wonderful Monday friends and thanks for stopping by...I love it when you do! :0)  

Papertrey January Blog Hop Challenge

Happy Friday friends!  I'm back with a card I made for the January Blog Hop over at PTI.  The challenge was to use black as your background and then watch the colors you add to it "pop".  Here's my take on it:

I apologize for the quality of the picture but hope you can still see the background I made.  On my black layer, I used Stazon Opaque white ink and used the "Script" background stamp  from SU.  After that dried, I used one of the flowers from SU's "Embrace Life" and stamped it a few times with the Stazon Opaque white ink.  Here's a closer up picture so you can see the background better:

 

Next I used PTI's "Daydreamer" stamp set to stamp the poppies in SU's Real Red ink and then fussy cut them out (don't have the dies yet...would have made this card much quicker if I did!).   I also fussy cut the stems and the grass at the bottom with SU's Old Olive cs and ink.  After adhering the grass and stems, I used pop dots to make the poppies stand out a bit more.  I made a little banner for the top of the card with a sentiment from PTI's "Blooming Button Bits" and then finished with a couple silver nailheads (Gina K).

I really love the background of this card and how it all turned out! :0)  Challenges really are a great way to get out of a rut and try new things, and for me I think I succeeded!  Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you all next week.  Have a wonderful weekend! :0)

Daydreamer Suprise

Good morning friends.  The card I'd like to share with you today is from PTI's "Daydreamer" stamp set.  When I bought this set, I had saw a card using the poppy flower that's in the set, and that's all I saw!  The set is FULL of different flower images, but at the time all I could see was the poppies!  I had the set out the other day to make a card using the poppies of course, when I actually started looking at the other images and realized there were some really neat flowers in this stamp set!  Here's the super quick (and easy!) card I came up with:

I had already had SU's Old Olive and Wisteria Wonder cs and ink sitting out from the card I shared with you yesterday, and when I started looking at the other flower images in the Daydreamer set, it all clicked and the card came together very quickly!  I stamped the leaf bunch three times in Old Olive on Whisper White cs, and then used the large flower image (I think it's a hydrangea?) in the center with Wisteria Wonder, and then stamped the smaller flower image on each side.  I mounted the flowers on an Old Olive layer and then adhered that to a Whisper White card base.  I finished by adding some glitter to the flowers (click on the picture to enlarge to see the glitter better) and a few silver nailheads (Gina K) on the bottom right of the card.  This would be a great card if you needed to mass produce quite a few, because of it's simplicity.  Anyway, I learned a lesson in all this and am going to try my hardest to start using ALL the stamps that come in a set! :0)

That's all for today, and I'll be back next week with a really cool card I made for the January Blog Hop over at PTI.  Have a great rest of your week and thanks for stopping by...I LOVE it when you do! :0)

Thank You Bouquet

Good morning friends.  I was woken up at 5:30 this morning by my almost 18 year old yelling "It's a snow day!  It's a snow day!  It's a snow day!"  Of course all the yelling excited the dogs who thought something great must be happening...let me just say it was not a calm and peaceful morning at our house! :0)  (and now she's back to bed and probably won't surface till noon...oh the life of a teenager!)  Ok, on to my card for today.  My good friend Sue gave me a wonderful stamp set and book for Christmas this year by Gina K called "A Year of Flowers".  It is SO cool.  The book is broken down into the 12 months of the year, and then features a different stamping technique each month using the different flower stamps.  The technique for January is masking, which I have done many times before, but usually when I'm trying to create a scene, and not with flowers.  So anyway, this was a great lesson, and I'm really thrilled with how my card came out!  Take a look:

Isn't it pretty?  The book gives you step by step directions on how to stamp the 2 lilies first, then mask them, and then stamp the tulips.  Then you need to mask the tulips also, before stamping the stems, and then the same before you stamp the leaves.  The book even gives techniques for coloring the flowers too.  Here's a closer up of the flowers:

I used my Copics to color them (Y11, Y17, & Y21 for the lilies, BV02 & BV04 for the tulips, YG03 & YG63 for the stems and leaves, 0 for blending, and C1 for outlining to give some depth).  I layered the white flower panel with SU's Wisteria Wonder and layered that on a piece of SU's Old Olive that I stamped using VersaMark with the tulip, stem, and leaf stamps.  I finished by layering it all on a white card base, and then added a sheer white ribbon (Michael's) and a little tag from PTI's "Tiny Tags" stamp set and dies.

I'm going to try and do one of the cards and technique's each month this year to make sure I use all the stamps in this set.  I have a terrible habit of buying stamp sets for one particular flower and then ignoring the others that come with the set.  Tomorrow's card will be an excellent example of this, so stay tuned.  And if you're in "my neck of the woods", stay warm and enjoy your snow day!  Thanks for stopping by! :0)  And thanks again Sue for this wonderful set...I really do LOVE it! :0)

Precious and Few

Good morning friends.  Hope you all had a great weekend.  I had another very productive day in my craft room yesterday, but did not get any pictures yet.  I also got all my daughter's wedding invitations printed yesterday and also finished the invitations for her bridal shower...SO glad to have that done! :0)  Still have the stamping on the invitations to do and the ribbon to add, but that should go fairly quickly.  But anyway, the card I want to share with you today is a birthday card I made for one of my good friends whose birthday was back in December, but we just celebrated on Saturday.  Take a look:

Another CAS card (most of the time I like doing these best!) and also easy to do!  I started with a kraft cs base, and then layered a piece of SU's Pool Party cs.  The top layer is another piece of kraft, which I ran through PTI's Herringbone Impression Plate, and then used the larger butterfly die (that coordinates with the PTI "Heart to Heart #10 stamp set) to cut out the butterfly shape.  I lined up this layer over the Pool Party layer, and lightly traced the butterfly with a pencil, so I would know exactly where to stamp the butterfly on the Pool Party layer.  I was then able to adhere the top layer and have the larger butterfly show through.  The smaller butterfly was also die cut on Pool Party cs and then stamped with Pool Party ink and adhered with a pop dot.  The pink hearts were done on American Crafts WOW silver glitter paper, which I used a Copic marker (RV06) to color a small portion and then used a small Marvy heart punch.  (I've used re-inkers and sponge daubers and ink pads to color silver glitter paper before, but I have to say using the Copic marker worked really slick and much quicker and easier!)  My sentiment (which I stamped before running through the impression plate) is from PTI's "Blooming Button Bits" stamp set.  I finished by adding a few silver nail heads (Gina K) under the sentiment and tied a piece of "Caribbean" baker's twine (The Twinery) between the butterflies and the sentiment.

I should have taken a picture of the envelope too...it turned out really cute!  I stamped the 2 butterflies and also added the pink glitter hearts since I was hand delivering the card, instead of putting through the mail where you can't add the little extra's without fear of them falling off!

That's all for today, and I'll get some pictures taken so I can show you the really pretty card I made yesterday using a set of stamps and "go with" book from Gina K that my girlfriend Sue gave me for Christmas.  Have a wonderful Monday and stay warm if you're in "my neck of the woods"...we already hit our high of 14 and it's supposed to drop throughout the day from there!  Thanks for stopping by and especially if you leave a comment...I LOVE it when you do! :0)

Make it Monday #100 Challenge

Good morning friends.  I'm playing along with Paper Trey Ink's Make it Monday #100 challenge this week, which is "How to Package Cards with Oversized Embellishments".  Dawn McVey (My Favorite Things) shared a few ideas on how to do this, and the one that caught my eye was using your actual card as the embellishment on a plain gift bag to dress it up.  Here's my take on it:

And here's a closer up picture of the card:

A small piece of scrap dp is what inspired this card, and I love how it turned out SO much, that I thought using it to embellish a plain white gift bag for my youngest daughters Valentine's Day treat was perfect!  I started with a white card base which I embossed with SU's striped embossing folder, and then added the small scrap of dp at the bottom.  I used PTI's Limitless Layers 2 1/4" Heart dies to cut the white heart, and then mimicked the dp by using the same colors (SU's Real Red, Pixie Pink (retired), Pretty in Pink, & Gumball Green) and PTI's "Embroidered Blooms" stamp set and SU's "Well Scripted" for the sentiment.  I absolutely LOVE how this heart turned out and you will be seeing lots more from me using this stamp set!  This stamp set will make beautiful backgrounds AND main images and I just can't say enough good things about it...it's a definite must have set! :0)  I layered the stamped heart with the scalloped lacy heart (PTI Limitless Layers Heart die) in SU's Real Red and then attached it to the upper part of the card.  I finished the card off by using PTI's Heart Border die in Real Red, small red pearls, and a sheer red ribbon.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back with more stamping inspiration next week.  I would also like to leave you with some inspiration from the Sarah Young devotional I read each day ("Jesus Calling"):  "Search for all that I have prepared for you, anticipating abundant blessings and accepting difficulties as they come.  I can weave miracles into the most mundane day if you keep your focus on Me."  I just loved how it basically said, don't put limits on what God can do with your day, and rejoice in it and don't worry about tomorrow!  So rejoice and enjoy your day, and anticipate abundant blessings! :0)  

Let the Hearts Begin...

Good morning friends.  Just a quick post today as I have lots to do...Calla doesn't have school today, so I need to take advantage of having a car to use! :0)  So on to today's card...a Valentine's Day card as promised.  Take a look:

This card was a great way to use up some of those little pieces of dp and cs you have laying around.  I started by gathering up all the colors and prints that looked Valentine-ish and then used my heart shaped Spellbinders to cut out a bunch of different sized hearts.  It's a little hard to see unless you click to enlarge the picture, but the top left heart and bottom right heart were both cut out with one of the heart dies first on the kraft cs, and then I added a larger size heart from behind.  Before attaching the red dotted swiss heart, I attached a little banner (stamped with PTI's "Heart to Heart #11) behind the heart, and then to give it a little bend, I only put adhesive on the left end and pushed it up a little before securing it down. I finished with a few red pearls and ribbon, and was finished! Simple, quick, and easy! :0)

That's all for today friends, but I'll be back again tomorrow (or maybe Friday...depends on how much I get accomplished today!)  Have a wonderful Wednesday! :0)

With Sympathy

Good morning friends.  As a cardmaker, one of my least favorite cards to make is a sympathy card.  And I'm too supersticious to make any in advance as it always seems I need them when I do!  But anyways, my good friend Mary lost her mom last week and so the need for a sympathy card arose.  Take a look:

 

I kept it CAS with a Whisper White card base and then cut a leaf flourish from Cheery Lyn Dies in SU's Always Artichoke cs.  The flower is cut from SU's Wisteria Wonder cs and I used PTI's Bloom Builders #3 die.  The sentiment is from an older stamp I found at a craft fair years and years ago, and it doesn't have a name or manufacturer listed on it, but I've always loved the simplicity of it.  I added a butterfly near the bottom of the card with a Martha Stewart punch, and then added some pearls to the center of it's body and a larger pearl to the center of the flower.

That's all for today friends.  Hope you all have a terrific Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow to start sharing some Valentine cards with you.  Thanks for stopping by.

Never Too Old For...

Good morning friends.  Hope you all had a great weekend.  Not too busy here, so that meant stampin' time...yeah! :0)  Haven't had time to photograph new stuff though, so the card I'd like to share with you today is from my middle daughter's 21st birthday last year.  "Never Too Old For...Cupcakes!"  Take a look:

I know I've showed you a card with this image before (early last fall in a lavender color scheme), but she's way too cute to only use one time!  This time I colored her using Copics (E00, E02, R81, YG03, E13, & E33) and then layered her using SU's Old Olive cs and design paper scraps from my stash.  I also added a few flourishes (Sizix), some pearls, the circle sentiment from Lily of the Valley (as well as the main image), and of course LOTS of glitter!

Well that's all for today.  Hope you all have a wonderful Monday and thanks for stopping by...I love it when you do! :0)

Sleepy Head

Good morning friends.  Back with another baby card today and this little cutie is one of the "House - Mouse" stamps from Stampabilities.  Take a look:

This little sleepy head was a lot of fun to work with and also a very easy card to make.  He was stamped on SU's Whisper White cs and colored with Copics (C1 for body, E00 for shading in ears, feet, and snout, and B32 for bottle cap).  I used an oval Spellbinders die to cut him out and then layered him with a scalloped oval cut out in SU's Bashful Blue.  I used Whisper White as the card base, and then trimmed a bit off the bottom and used a MS punch to make the decorative heart scallop border.  I placed a strip of Bashful Blue cs under the punched border so that the hearts would stand out a bit more.  Then I simply added a few pearls to the bottom strip and used some ribbon and a charm (both from Michael's) to finish off the card.  This card could so easily be changed to pink to celebrate a little girl, or any color if the genders not known.  Quick, easy, and very cute! :0)

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  See you next week! :0)

Thank You Notes

Good morning friends.  I'd like to share some thank you notes I made that were totally inspired and CASE'd from Dawn McVey on her 12-28-13 post (My Favorite Things).  Other than changing my colors and the sentiment, my cards are just like Dawn's as hers were just so perfect the way they were - I couldn't think of a way to change them to make them any better.  So anyway, here's my color changed version:

With Dawn's color choices, her image definitely looked like flowers, but by changing my colors to blues, the image looked more like snowflakes to me.  I did a darker blue version and also a pastel version too...take a look:

These were very simple cards to put together and I loved working with this set because of all the simple but elegant detail.  The set is from PTI's "Lovely Layers", and I used both the stamp set and the dies to complete all four layers of the image.  I used PTI's Herringbone Impression Plate for the background and I have to tell you that I love these plates from PTI!!!  This was the first one I bought and thought it was going to be a plastic embossing folder, but it is an actual metal impression plate with one side being a vertical and the other side a horizontal image...how great to have both options on one plate...SMART thinking PTI! :0)  My card bases are SU's Whisper White, and then SU's Midnight Muse and Wisteria Wonder are layered to the card base.  I used a Whisper White layer again for the sentiment (PTI's "Flower Fusion #5 Mini Stamp set) and then ran the layer through my Cuttlebug with the Herringbone Impression Plate.  Next I put together my main image layers (I used pop dots on 2 of the layers to give a little depth) and adhered them to the card.  I also added a little diamond bling to the center of each to make it sparkle like a snowflake. (colors on the blue card are SU's Midnight Muse and Bashful Blue and Wisteria Wonder and Pool Party on the other card)

I think these turned out so pretty, so THANK YOU Dawn for the wonderful inspiration!  I am hand delivering these thank you's this morning to my bible study friends who gave such wonderful gifts to me this Christmas, and what better way to say "thank you" than with a card and note from the heart?!!  

Thanks for stopping by and sharing a part of your day with me.  I'll be back tomorrow with another baby card to share.  Have a wonderful and JOY filled Thursday! :0)

Make it Monday #99

Hello again!  Two posts in one day...woooohooo!!  Know that tomorrow's going to be a busy day, so figured I'd get this challenge posted today.  Paper Trey Ink's challenge for this week is "Repeats and Rainbows", where you are challenged to take one of the Rainbow Color Scheme's Nicole has listed and to make a card using those 5 colors.  I had to improvise a bit with my colors, but think I came close!  Here is the color scheme:

And here is my card:

I started with the butterfly from PTI's "Quilled Elegance" set (I see someone else entered a card using these same butterflies, but my card was already made when I saw hers, and hey, just shows that great minds think alike, right?!) and stamped them using SU's Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Old Olive, and Marina Mist on a scrap of Whisper White card stock.  I used a card base of kraft cs and stamped my sentiment using PTI's "Embroidered Blooms" with SU's Soft Seude ink.  I also stamped a few of the butterflies in SU's Crumb Cake ink to the plain area to give it a softer and not so stark look.  I finished with some bakers twine (The Twinery) and if you click on the picture to enlarge, you can also see that I added some diamond bling to the center of each butterfly.

Well time to get this card in the mail to a dear friend of mine who had hip replacement surgery yesterday and let her know I'm thinking of her! :0)  Have a wonderful rest of your day and I'll be back soon.

Sweet Baby Girl

Good morning friends. Are we all back into the swing of "normal" again?  I'd forgotten how early 5:45 is  now that my youngest is back in school again after the Christmas break!  Doesn't take long for those "sleeping in" habits to take hold, does it?!  Oh well, lots to do today, so it's good to get moving anyway! :0)  The card I'd like to share with you today is another baby card, and this one uses a stamp from one of my favorite companies - Lily of the Valley!  It's titled simply "Baby Blanket", which is much too simple a name for such a cute image!  Take a look:

    
This is such a simple image, but I've used it many times over the past few years to make into baby girl or boy cards by just changing the color of the outfit.  For this particular card, I used my Copics to color her in (Eoo & E02 for face & hands, R81 for her outfit, & C1 for outlining the blanket).  I cut her out using a Spellbinders circle die and sponged the edges with SU's Pretty In Pink ink.  I layered her onto a scalloped circle (also Spellbinders), and then used some dotted swiss pink cs (my local SSS) for the bottom half of the card and some dp for the top half (it was just a scrap, and so I don't have the manufacturer for you...I believe I found it at Hobby Lobby though).  I did add a piece of white grossgrain ribbon to divide the 2 background papers and then also added a tiny heart tag (PTI's Tiny Tags) with a pink pearl to finish it off.

Well that's all from me today friends.  Hope you have a terrific Tuesday (it's going to be 40 degrees in my "neck of the woods" today...yippeeeeee!) and I'll be back again later this week with some more inspiration!  Thanks for stopping by...I LOVE it when you do! :0)

Sweet Baby

Good morning friends.  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  Ours was pretty laid back, which was really nice for a change!  I even got to spend most of the day yesterday in my craftroom and get lots accomplished...that's always a good feeling. :0)  I've had a few orders lately for baby cards, so that's mostly what I will be showing you this week.  Here's one of them I came up with:

Is this little image too cute or what?!!  It is a SU image from 1996, but that's about all I can tell you about it.  I was given this stamp with a bunch of other ones from a friend quite a few years back who decided she didn't really like stamping after all (who DOESN'T like stamping?!!!!!).  When she gave me the box, I didn't think about the fact that all different stamps were mixed up and that I wouldn't have any idea which set they belonged to.  If any of you really need to know though, I'm sure I can research it out from older catalogs or even Splitcoast Stampers...just let me know.  Anyway, on to the card!  I started with a card base of SU's Bashful Blue, and then layered a piece of Whisper White (5 1/2" x 2 1/2") that I had embossed with the large dots (ProvoCraft ) and sponged the edges with Bashful Blue ink.  I left a little of the top edge of this layer unglued so that I could insert a white circle (cut with Spellbinders circle dies).  I stamped the image of the little guy with Momento's Tuxedo Black ink and then colored him with Copics (face & hands: E00, E02, & R81(for cheeks), & B21 for little sleeper).  I cut the image with a smaller circle die (Spellbinders) and then layered him on a Bashful Blue scalloped circle (Spellbinders).  I also added little white dots (gel pen) on the scallops of the Bashful Blue circle to make it stand out a little more.  Before attaching the image layer, I added a sheer white ribbon (Michael's) and then finished by adding the little tag from PTI's "Tiny Tags" stamp set and die (this is probably my my most "go to" stamp set...I LOVE it!!).  A quick, easy, AND cute card to give or send new parents! :0)

That's all for today friends!  Have a wonderful Monday and hope to see you back here again tomorrow.  

Make it Monday #98

Good morning friends (well it WAS morning when I started this post, but had blogger issues and loading photos...grrrrrr!).  Anyways, time to be honest here...I caved!  Just about every stamping blog you look at these days has the chalkboard technique on it and I just haven't been that thrilled with it.  And then when PTI's Make it Monday #98 Challenge came up this week, I thought, "oh great...more chalkboard art"!!  Of course I've had to look at all the entries though this week, and here's where I have to be honest....it started growing on me!  I think I originally thought it would be too time consuming, too fussy, and too messy to work worth, but last night I thought I'd give it a try!  I actually had a LOT of fun and here's what I came up with:

I kept mine very simple while I learned this technique, because there definitely is a bit of a learning curve!  Just using the embossing buddy was a learning experience for me. (I didn't have one, so I made one using a scrap of material and baking powder, but the type of fabric you use must make a difference because I had baking powder everywhere!!)  But anyway, I started with a black heart cut with PTI's Limitless Layers 2 1/4" hearts and stamped the "L VE" stamp from PTI's  "Heart to Heart #11" with Versa Mark and then tried to line up the outlined heart between the L & V...harder than it looks and went through a few hearts!  Once I embossed with the white embossing powder, things went a lot smoother and I added the little heart and leaves from PTI's "Heart to Heart #7 set, and then dabbed on the white pigment ink to give the heart the erased chalkboard look.  I added a pop of red with another heart layer (LOVE this die set!!) and then layered that to my black panel that that I stamped and embossed the flourish from SU's "Priceless" stamp set.  After dabbing more white ink to this layer and adding my outside edge markings with the white pencil, I adhered this layer to a white card base.  Kind of hard to see in the photo, but I did add a few rhinestones to the center of the flower and the flourish and then ended with a sheer red ribbon on the side.

This challenge was a good one for me to see "outside the box" and try things that I've never done before. My mom used to always tell me about trying new things and how do you know unless you try...guess I should have listened!  Anyway, hope you all have a great weekend and thanks so much for stopping by! :0)

Daydreamer

Good morning friends.  Today I'm finally back with the card I promised a couple days ago that uses the same color combination as the card I made using the Blooming with Kindness flower (SU)....orange and pink!  I seriously think this is my new favorite color combo...it is just bright and cheery!  Anyway, here's what just the change of a stamp set can do:

Another simple layered card, but don't the colors just make it pop?!  I started with a scrap of SU's Whisper White cs and stamped the poppy flower (PTI's "Daydreamer" stamp set) in SU's Only Orange (retired) 3 times.  Next I used the smaller poppy flower stamp from the set and stamped it with SU's Melon Mambo ink.  I used SU's Certainly Celery for the leaves and the grass, and a black marker to fill in the dots at the base of each flower.  You can't tell from the photo (grrrrr!!) but I spritzed this layer with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Iridescent Gold...it just gives the whole card that extra oooooohhh IRL!  I layered the flowers with a Melon Mambo piece of cs and then layered that to the Whisper White card base.  I added a few silver nailheads (Gina K) and a sheer white ribbon to the top (Michael's) to finish the card off.  Again, a very clean and simple card, but I think a very pretty one too!

That's all for today, but don't worry, I'll be back!  I got new stamps for Christmas and I'm already in the process of creating new and fun cards to share! :0)  Have a wonderful Thursday, and thanks for stopping by and sharing a part of your day with me! :0)  

A New Challenge - CCMC232

Good morning friends.  I told you yesterday I'd be back with another card using yesterdays colors, but decided to try another challenge instead.  Being a new blogger, these challenges are good for me to get me out of my comfort zone and try new things.  So anyway, I made a card to enter the Create with Mary and Connie challenge (CCMC232).  The challenges usually consist of 3 Stampin Up colors that you must use in your card, and this time was Pool Party, Whisper White, and Silver Glimmer paper.

This really was a challenge for me as I only had a maybe 6 x 6 piece of the silver glimmer paper left, and there was a lot of it missing in the middle as I had cut out the "Snow Flurry Bigz" die with it.  What to do?  Well, here's what I came up with...

I started with a Whisper White card base (cut the long way) and used the piece of Silver Glimmer paper as a stencil and sponged my background using the middle sized snowflake with the Pool Party ink. I had left my background white the first time and didn't like it...too plain!  Next I added the Top Note Bigz die cut with Pool Party cs and then embossed it using the Northern Flurry  embossing folder.  I sponged around the edges and the snowflakes with my Pool Party ink to give a bit more depth to this layer.  My original plan was to use the Decorative Label Punch with the Silver Glimmer paper to layer my sentiment on, but I could not find an area of the Glimmer paper that was big enough to cut out the whole piece, so I had to improvise and cut out 2 halves.  I was going to tape them together on the backside, but then got to thinking, "why not stamp my sentiment between the 2 pieces?"  I tried it and actually like how it came out! :0)  (The sentiment is from SU's "With All My Heart" stamp set)  I really wanted to add a ribbon to the left side of the card to balance it out, but the only SU white ribbon I have is really REALLY retired (I think I got this really wide sheer way back in the early 2000's).  I used it anyway, as I really think it adds just that extra bit to finish off the card.  Anyway, I had a lot of fun making this card and being challenged with my small piece of Silver Glimmer paper...it was good to get the brain thinking again! :0)

Hope you all have a great Wednesday, and I'll be back tomorrow with the card I told you about yesterday.  Thanks for stopping by...I LOVE it when you do!

Happy New Year

Good morning friends and Happy New Year!  Did you make it up to midnight to bring in the new year?  I kinda sorta kinda did...fell asleep in the recliner around 10:30 and then my husband woke me up at midnight to wish me a happy new year.  That counts, right?! :0) 

Remember when I talked about getting the most mileage out of a stamp, by using different colors (or layouts, or even sentiments)?  Well today's card shows what just changing the color a little bit can do to make a card seem totally different.  Take a look:

Same flower as yesterday, but used 2 different colors!  I inked up the flower (SU's "Blooming with Kindness") with SU's Only Orange and then added just a bit of SU's Melon Mambo ink around the edges and center before stamping it on Whisper White cs.  I layered it with a piece of Melon Mambo cs and attached it to a Whisper White card base, added a few silver nailheads (Gina K) and was finished.  Definitely a CAS card! :0)

How many of you fell in love with the paper ornament on the cover of SU's Holiday catalog this year (well technically last year...20102)?  I loved it, but just couldn't afford it.  BUT...couldn't I kind of copy it?  Here's my version:

A friend had the dies, so I just picked out a couple of design papers, did a LOT of folding, added some tulle, some hot glue, and voila!  My version! :0)  Doesn't have the depth or layers that Stampin Up's had, but I was still pleased with how it came out and proudly hung it on our tree this year! :0)

Tomorrow I'll be back with a card that uses the same two colors as todays card, but using a different stamp set.  Until then, happy stamping and enjoy the beginning of a brand new year where anything is possible! :0)  Thanks for stopping by!