Happy Birthday Jarrod!!!

My "baby" turns 14 today!!!!  How did that happen so fast???  We're lucky to have him in our lives.  I made this card for him in honor of not only his birthday, but his volunteering for the Red Cross in their Learn to Swim program.  Last year he logged over 65 hours!  This looks to be the same.  

Card details:

Stamps - Changito (Stampendous), Fillable Frames #6 (PTI)

Cardstock - Only Orange & Glorious Green (SU), dsp

Accessories - Cuttlebug folder, nesties, copics

Sketch - Day 6

Wow, this week is going fast!!  Here we are at Day 6 of these sketch challenges already. 

I never seem to be able to make masculine cards well.  It takes a lot more time and effort for me for some reason.  This sketch just seemed perfect for a man's card.

Card details:
Stamps - Ship Collage (TAC)
Cardstock - Enchanted Evening & Ocean Tides (PTI), dsp
Accessories - embossing folder, twine

Sketch - Day 5

Tooting my own horn here - but I really like how this one turned out.  I originally had amethyst dsp where the yellow is now, but changed to the back side of that paper.  Not sure how well you can see from the pic, but both dsp layers are embossed with the Swiss Dots folder.

Card details:

Stamps - Year of Flowers (Flourishes), Fillable Frames #2 (PTI)

Cardstock - Garden Green (SU), white, dsp

Accessories - corner punch, embossing folder

Sketch - Day 4

Isn't this little guy cute!  I have several sheets of images that a friend shared of Cocoa the Mouse.  Very fun to color.

Card details:

Stamps - Tea Time Cocoa (Sweet & Sassy)

Cardstock - white, Lemon Tart & Spring Rain (PTI)

Accessories - pearls, ticket corner punch, oval punches, pearls, embossing folder

Sketch - Day 3

Time for another sketch challenge!  I really like these tulips from Sweet & Sassy stamps.  Nice to color and not too big.  I went a little funky with the colors this time around too.

Card details:

Stamps - Spring Tulips (Sweet & Sassy), Circle of Friendship (SU)

Cardstock - white, dsp, Raspberry Fizz & Spring Moss (PTI)

Accessories - copics, circle punch, embossing folder

Sketch - Day 2

Alright, day two and another great sketch.  I was trying to find another layering coloring other than my usual go-to of black and chocolate.  How did I do???

Card details:

Stamps - Butterfly (Flourishes), Fillable Frames #2 (PTI)

Cardstock - Lemon Tart, Plum Pudding, Sweet Blush (all PTI)

Accessories - nesties, punch, pearls, embossing folder

Off to the tropics!

My family and I are off on a much needed vacation!  I've been busy this past week getting lots of cards ready so that you'll have some inspiration.  What I've decided to do is start working on some of the older sketch challenges at Splitcoaststampers.  I'm starting with #330 and working my way backwards, so you'll see one each day this coming week.  Enjoy!!

Card details:

Stamps - A Year in Flowers (Flourishes)

Cardstock - Summer Sunrise (PTI), Chocolate Chip (SU), white, dsp

Accessories - corner punch, brads, copics

One of those days.....

Have you ever had one of those days where you start out making a card, no clue what you want to do, and everything you pick up just fits...........me either..............until today.  I will tell you that white on white cards scare the crap out of me!  There's just something about the no color thing that pushes my CDO over the limit (it's like OCD, but in alpha order like it should be).  Paper Pretties challenged everyone to make such a card today.  I've done one and was pretty please with it.  Starting on today's card, I just had no idea what I was gonna do.  This is what I ended up with.............

Card details:

Stamps - Wreath for All Seasons (PTI)

Cardstock - white

Accessories - nesties, embossing folders

EXTRA - EXTRA

PAPER AND SUCH WILL BE HOLDING THEIR FIRST EVER STAMP PREVIEW IN JULY!!!

4 ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE SETS WILL BE RELEASED AND

A BLOG HOP WILL BE HAPPENING ON JULY 8TH.

PLEASE KEEP CHECKING BACK FOR MORE DETAILS!!

1st Day of Summer!!

Yea!  Today is the first day of Summer!  To celebrate, I hope you enjoy this cute card that I made using the Color Q challenge for today.

Card details:

Stamps - Feeling Fruity Cocoa Mouse (Sweet & Sassy)

Cardstock - (all SU) Tempting Turquoise, Poppy Parade, dsp, white

Accessories - Cuttlebug folder, copics

CASE card

Another great gallery to choose from to CASE a card this week at Splitcoaststampers!  THIS one had a LOT of clean & simple cards - love them!!!   I chose THIS card to work from and ended up with this........

Card details:

Stamps - Totally Happy ( {ippity} )

Cardstock - black, kraft, Spring Rain (PTI), Lemon Tart (PTI)

Accessories - butterfly punch

I like this gallery so much I chose another card to CASE -  and my finished project was this.....

Card details:
Stamps - So This is Love ( {ippity} ), Mixed Messages (PTI)
Cardstock - Ballet Blue (SU), white, black
Accessories - Score Pal, SU Markers, pearls

Italian pottery

That was the inspiration for a challenge at Splitcoaststampers yesterday.  Go to THIS site and look around and see what inspires you!  I chose this wonderful PITCHER and made my card similar.

Card details:

Stamps - Butterflies & Blossoms (Flourishes), Fillable Frames #4 (PTI)

Cardstock - Wild Wasabi (SU), Summer Sunset (PTI), white, black

Accessories - embossing folder, punch, ribbon, nesties, pearls

Hello there!

 It's Father's Day!  Time to relax and enjoy your dad or remember him if he's in Heaven.

This time around my card is again a combination of 3 challenges.  I started with the "recipe" at Allsorts, added the colors from Just Us Girls and rounded it out with an older sketch at Splitcoaststampers.

Card details:

Stamps - Hello There (Elzybells), Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink)

Cardstock - white, So Saffron (SU), dsp (all SU)

Accessories - ribbon, pearl, flower, copics

Clean & Simple

Another challenge over at Clean & Simple!  This time it's a great sketch.  I had fun playing with different ways to do this card.  I decided on using more of my discontinued cardstock and pairing up purple and shades of green.  My friend, Janice was over today and let me try out her Bow Easy - it wasn't at first..... until I realized that lefties have to use it backwards.   Thanks for the help, Janice!!

Card details:

Stamps - Of The Earth & Upsy Daisy (SU)

Cardstock - Mellow Moss, Garden Green, Old Olive, Vintage Violet (all SU), black, white

Accessories - embossing folder, ribbon

Ways to Use It....

Vellum - that's one thing I haven't touched in a long time.  Splitcoaststamper's Ways to Use it challenge this week was to use vellum on our project.  I can honestly say that I haven't used it much and never really did.  I was proud of my card once I was done, but after looking at the current gallery of cards - well, let's just say that I tried my best and leave it at that :)

Card details:

Stamps - Bloomin' Beautiful and Blossoms Abound (SU)

Cardstock - vellum, white, black, Almost Amethyst (SU)

Accessories - ribbon, punches, embossing folder, pearls, embossing powder, copics

Puff the Magic Dragon.....

....lives by the sea.......dum da dum da dum dum dum..........  Do you have that song stuck in your head now?  Sorry!  The challenge at Freshly Brewed was to create a card inspired by a song.  Well.....I just got this stamp today and that song popped into my head.  I also used the sketch from today's challenge at Splitcoaststampers and the color combo from Color Throwdown.  I love combining challenges!!!

Card details:

Stamps - Fergus w/Poppy (Wild Rose Studio)

Cardstock - Summer Sunrise, Tangerine Tango, white, dsp

Accessories - ribbon, copics, border punch

Upsy Daisy

I'm sloooooly getting better, I think, at this CAS technique.  After years of layering lots of stuff on my cards, it's really hard to just do plain - but I do like it much better!  At Paper Pretties this week, we were challenged to do a single layer card.  I just received this lovely ribbon from my friend, Julie's, store - Paper and Such, and knew I wanted to use it.

Card details:

Stamps - Upsy Daisy (SU), Mixed Messages (PTI)

Cardstock - Pure Poppy (PTI)

Accessories - Score Pal, ribbon

Wabbit Season

For some reason. I was drawn to two rabbit images for my cards today.  My hero is Bugs Bunny (he's a bigger smart arse than me!) - remember waiting until Saturday for cartoons???  It was the highlight of the week!

Anyway......over at Paper and Such, we were given an image to inspire our cards for their challenge.  Here are the two that I came up with.

Card details:

Stamps - I "think" it is CTMH (from my good friend Sheila *waving*), Fillable Frames #9 (Papertrey Ink)

Cardstock - Barely Banana (SU), white

Accessories - pearls, nesties, embossing folder border, ribbon, copics

Card details:

Stamps - CTMH (??)

Cardstock - white, Basic Grey, Cranberry Crisp (SU), Lemon Tart (Papertrey, Ink)

Accessories - copics, nesties, ribbon, pearls

Now it's time for you to head over to Paper and Such and participate in their challenge.  You could win a $10 gift card to the store!!

New technique!!

Over at StampTV, Gina showed us how to do a woodgrain technique.  The ladies at Just Us Girls, challenged us to try it for their Saturday challenge.  Well......I was a bit nervous, because techniques don't always work for me.  I kept an open mind, followed Gina's directions and VOILA!

Card details:

Stamps - Have a Seat (SU), Fillable Frames #4 (Papertrey, Ink)

Cardstock - Ivory, Dusty Durango (SU), Chocolate Chip (SU)

Accessories - nesties, Modern Label punch (SU), button, twine

I must say that I'm impressed with myself.  :)  Usually something like this takes more tries than I care to admit.  But this was SO easy!  Click HERE for the link to the tutorial and go try it yourself!  I even did another one.....

http://dailydare4u.blogspot.com/

Kind of a crusty old sea dog meets tacky seafood restaurant.  It's also fits the challenge from Allsorts for this past week which was to make a man's card using 2 punches/dies, 1 dsp and 3 buttons. 


Card details:
Stamps - (anyone know?)  So Sorry, I can't find who made this one!
Cardstock - Ivory, Buckaroo Blue (SU)
Accessories - nesties, buttons

Inspiration Challenge Time

Over at Splitcoaststampers, they host a challenge on Saturday that is full of inspiration.  This week, they chose this site Dali Decals and I chose THIS for my inspiration.  I also used the sketch from Clean & Simple for this week.  I'll have to admit, this isn't what I had envisioned when I first started.  My "plan" was to recreate the picture, but found that I didn't have a stamp that came close, nor did I have an embossing folder that did either.  So..........I compromised..........how did I do?

Card details:

Stamps - Artfully Asian (SU)

Cardstock - white, Chocolate Chip (SU)

Accessories - Primas, pearls, embossing folder (SU), scallop punch (SU), Modern Label punch (SU)

Summer time!

The end of another school year is finally here!  Lots of hugs and a few tears were shed yesterday as my co-workers and I said goodbye to our kiddos (there was a very loud cheer as the last bus pulled out)!  Time to bring on Summer and all that goes with it.

Once again, I've combined several challenges into one.  First up was the Color Throwdown, then Paper Pretties issued a "summertime" theme and, finally, there is the sketch challenge atSplitcoaststampers.  Recently, a friend made a card without coloring in the image.  I loved it so much, I decided to give it a try.  How did I do??

Card details:

Stamps - Willow (Whiff Of Joy, Summer '10 kit)

Cardstock - Baja Breeze (SU), Pear Pizzaz (SU), dsp

Accessories - brads, nesties, ribbon

Fruit-y

At Paper Pretties this week, they challenged us to make a summer themed card.  For more inspiration, I went to Splitcoaststampers Ways to Use it challenge for this week - paper piercing.  

Nothing says summer more than fresh fruit and picnics.  In this card, I combined the two with some fruit stamps and ribbon that actually has that same plastic-y feel of a picnic tablecloth!

Card details:

Stamps - Tart & Tangy (SU), Sentiment (Whiff of Joy)

Cardstock - Sahara Sand (SU)

Accessories - ribbon, Score-Pal, paper piercing set

Dog-gone cute!

The Sweetest Thing hosted an awesome sketch challenge this week - what a great challenge!  It really got the mojo flowing and I'm quite pleased with the results.  This was my first full attempt at using my Copic colorless blender so it might not be as perfect as I'd like, but not bad for a first try......

Card details:

Stamps - Delightful Dogs #1 (Inky Antics)

Cardstock - Ruby Red (SU), More Mustard (SU), Chocolate Chip (SU), Basic Grey

Accessories - punches, nesties, copics

Fabulous Floral

I just love how this simple card turned out!  I used the sketch challenge from Just Us Girls for this week.  Check out all the other great cards submitted for their challenge!

Card details:

Stamps - Fifth Avenue Floral (SU)

Cardstock - Sweet Blush (Papertrey Ink)

Accessories - Square Lattice embossing folder

Featured Stamper Day

It's Featured Stamper day over at Splitcoaststampers.  This week's FS is Taylor Usry and her gallery can be seen HERE - truly works of art!  I chose THIS card of her to CASE and here's my result:

Stay tuned during the week for more challenge cards!  *kind comments are always welcome*  :D

Card details:

Stamps - Fergus w/Tulips (Wild Rose), Tag Lines (Gina K)

Cardstock - white, Sweet Blush (Papertrey Ink), {ippity}, Basic Grey

Accessories - ribbon, medium oval punch, nesties, copics

Not as easy as you would think.....

While searching thru all the challenge blogs earlier today, I came across Allsorts for today - to create an all white card (except the main image).  Ok, not too bad, right?  WRONG!  That was a tough challenge!  I combined this with the Clean & Simple sketch for this week.  Here's what I came up with - what do you think???

Ok, so I cheated just a little by sponging some of the Sepia ink on the textured layer.  :)

Card details -

Cardstock: white

Stamps: Totally Happy ( {ippity} ), Fillable Frames 2 (Papertrey, Ink)

Accessories: sepia ink, distressed stripes embossing folder, border punch, pearls

Tropical Breezes.....

I can't wait for vacation!  Tropical breezes, sun, surf, and LOTS of time to just relax!  My good friend, Leigh Ann, sent me this image and my mind immediately went to my upcoming vacation.  I can just hear the pool bar calling my name :D

For this card, I used the sketch challenge over at Paper Pretties.

Card details:

Stamps - Plant Hope (SU)

Cardstock - Soft Sand (Gina K), Marigold Morning (SU), Garden Green (SU), Basic Grey

Accessories - Primas and pearls

It's a Guy Thing

Nothing says Summer like a surfer dude, and for those of us that work in education, we are SO ready for Summer!!  Isn't he just the cutest surfer ever?  Over at Freshly Brewed, they challenged us to make a "Manly" card for the month of June.   I combined that with the Color Throwdown challenge for this week (Melon Mambo, Certainly Celery and Pumpkin Pie).  That combo says Summer to me!

Card details:

Stamps - Big Kahuna (Whipper Snapper)

Cardstock - Certainly Celery (SU), white, Basic Grey

Accessories - nesties, rhinestones, copics