Welcome Baby!

Created this card a few months ago for a neighbor who had a little boy.  Wanted a card that wasn't too traditional in colors and love this color combination.

I created my own "washi" tape for the little aqua strip.

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Card details:

Stamps: Banners2Cut, Sweet4Babies and Onesie4Baby from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Whisper White from Stampin' Up, Fancy Pants Memories Captured Patterned Paper

Inks: Chocolate Chip, Pool Party from Stampin' Up

Embellishments: Basic Grey Candy Buttons, Circle dies from Spellbinders, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D Foam Squares

Call me

If you can believe it this is a card I created without ANY stamping!

This was a card I had created for a pub call using a sketch that didn't get picked up but I absolutely love it!  Not sure why, I guess I struggle with using some of the elements in a paper pad and this one came together pretty easily for me.

Taking a little blogging break and not stressing about posting every day.  Lots of changes going on around here which I'll share later when I can...good changes I hope.

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by to say "hi".

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Card details:

Cardstock: Melon Berry from Paper Trey Ink

Patterned Paper: Fancy Pants Trendsetter

Embellishments: Basic Grey Candy Buttons

UR A QT & a few others

Love how this card came together!  I'm already thinking of Valentine's Day isn't that sad???  Actually this next year we'll have some big birthday's to celebrate so it'll be a fun year.

I love the new label set, Labels4Cutting from The {Stamps} of Life and it coordinates well with the Labels Fancy #4 Sizzix die set.

I used the The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge for this card and lots of hearts.

Do you have some Valentine's Day ideas in mind for kids, hubby, significant other, friends?  I'm hoping to do a few things this next year...we'll see.

Card details:

Stamps: Labels4Cutting and Love2Hug from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Whisper White, Real Red, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose and Basic Grey Basics White

Inks: Color Box by Stephanie Barnard- Strawberry and Regal Rose from SU

Embellishments: Kaiser Craft Silly Season Jewels, Fancy Labels #4 for Stephanie Barnard from Sizzix
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Here's one with more of a fall feel to it.  I created the strip using the Type4Background set and layered the sentiment on several of the Fancy Labels #4 dies.

Card details:

Stamps: Type4Background and Labels4Cutting from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Creamsicle Cardigan, Basic Black ad Crumb Cake

Inks: Color Box by Stephanie Barnard-Licorice and Creamsicle Cardigan

Embellishments: Seam Binding, Labels Fancy #4 for Stephanie Barnard from Sizzix

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Here's one last quick card using the label set.  I created the background with the Dots2Love set.

Card details:
Stamps: Dots2Love and Labels4Cutting from The {Stamps} of Life
Cardstock: Dark Chocolate from Paper Trey Ink, Certainly Celery from Stampin'Up! and Kraft Like a Rockstar Ivory from Clear & Simple Stamps
Inks: Color Box for Stephanie Barnard- Chocolate, Certainly Celery from Stampin'Up! Embellishments: Dimensionals from Stampin'Up! ,KaiserCraft Silly Season Jewels

Celebrate-HB2U

A few days ago my friend, Nicki sent me some goodies and inside I found some of these cuties for me to color.

This is from the Clear & Simple Stamps new release and her name is Rag Doll Willa.  Isn't she just adorable??  I had a blast coloring her and putting this card together.

I pulled out some of my older Basic Grey papers to max this doll.  I love how this card turned out and will be a great card to give to a little girl.

Thanks Nicki for letting me play :-)

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Card details:

Stamps: Rag Doll Willa from Clear & Simple Stamps

Cardstock: Purpilicious, Pear Pizzaz, A Blanc Check, Kraft Like a Rockstar, Basic Grey Kioshi

Inks: Perfect Little Black Dress

Embellishments: scallop border punch, Lilac twine from The Twinery, corner punch

Stampotique Sponsoring CPS

Today begins a new month and Stampotique is sponsoring another month long challenge over at Card Positioning Systems.  They provided us with a sketch to work with and I love sketches so I couldn't wait to play with this one!

I had these flowers laying around from my drier sheet floral craze-except I made these flowers out of coffee filters with some Smooch Spritz.  I love how shiny they are!

I pulled out Verbena which I thought would work just perfectly with my flowers.  Unfortunately my sentiment was just a little bit larger than I needed, but I think I still followed the challenge pretty closely.

So make sure to join us over CPS with your interpretation of the sketch for a chance to win a $30 gift certificate for stamps at Stampotique.

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Card details:

Stamps: Verbena 9040 and Happy Birthday 7088 from Stampotique Originals

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Gina K. Luxury White, Basic Grey

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Dish All the Dirt Brown

Embellishments: coffee filters, rhinestone brad from SU, circle nestabilities, Sun Kissed Smooch Spritz from Clear Snap

BC251: In Bloom

Today I'm sharing a very simple card using a bloom, which is our current Blogger's Challenge.  I love flowers and use them quite frequently on my cards.  They are one stamp I can't seem to get enough of!

I used a new set from The {Stamps} of Life called umbrella4you.  My flower is a prima flower which I have a ton of and need to start using them up.

I decorated the inside of the card, which I don't do a lot of, but love how it looks.

Want to join us for blogger's challenge this week, you can link up at any of the blogs participating in the blog hop or over at Lisa's blog here.

Here is another card I created using the same set and creating my own background strip for it.  This uses the FTL174 sketch, I love their clean & simple sketches! 

Love the color combination on this card!  If you haven't seen the Design Seeds blog, it's a great source for color inspiration.

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Card details #1:

Stamps: umbrella4you from The{Stamps}of Life

Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Basic Grey-Hello Luscious

Inks: Perfect Little Black Dress

Embellishments: scallop border punch, prima flower, basic grey button, black twine

Card details #2:

Stamps: umbrella4you from The{Stamps}of Life

Cardstock: Purpilicious, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla

Inks: Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Purple Crushed Velvet

Embellishments: Spiral notebook punch, circle spellbinders

Sending You Smiles

Quick and simple card this morning.  I've had this stashed for awhile as it was for a pub call that didn't get picked up.  

Love this little dog image and paired with this Basic Grey paper, it's perfect!

Told you it was quick today :-)  Have a good Thursday!

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Card details:

Stamps: Icons Extra and Oh Boy! from Clear & Simple Stamps
Cardstock: Golden Tiara, A Blanc Check, Brown Leather Satchel, all from Clear & Simple Stamps, Max & Whiskers from Basic Grey
Ink: Brown Leather Satchel, Dish all the Dirt Brown all from Clear & Simple Stamps, Copics E31, E35, E37, W1
Embellishments: Zva crystals, spiral notebook punch from Stampin' Up!

Celebrate Fall Blooms

Brrr!!!  Is it as cold where you are as it has been here?  I'm normally a hot natured person, but lately I'm FREEZING with the cooler weather.  I'm a shorts/t-shirt person even during the fall, but I've been in pants, long sleeve & sweatshirts this week.

I'm up early, on my day off, getting my post up and hoping to stamp for a few hours before I go take a little nap.  Unfortunately, I'm stranded at home without a car as my reliable ol' car decided it needed a vacation for a few days.

Today over at Blogger's Challenge, Lisa has challenged us with Fall Blooms.  When Fall blooms around here, that means the leaves are changing colors and littering my lawn for clean-up.  I was amazed that last weekend we did some major lawn work and last night when I was out there, all the acorns from the trees are ALL over the place.  The squirrels are definitely happy with the lazy work they will have to do!

For this card, I pulled out one of my Clear & Simple Stamps sets, Icons I, which has this cute leaf stamp in it.  I daubed some of my Distress Stains on my mat, spritzed it with some water and laid my card stock on top of it.  Then I stamped the image in a grid pattern using the Card Positioning Systems sketch this week.

Hope you will join us this week at Blogger's Challenge by linking your Fall Blooms creation here.

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Card details:

Stamps: Icons I and Feathers from Clear &  Simple Stamps

Cardstock: Brown Leather Satchel, Ruby Red, Old Olive, Basic Grey Indian Summer

Inks: Peeled Paint, Antique Linen, Fired Brick Distress Stains, Dish all the Dirt Brown

"Fall"ing with Colors

Yeah for stamping time!  In between football and a baseball tournament I was able to get some stamping in here and there.  Had fun doing some challenges and just stamping in general.

This first card was a very easy card for me.  I had the background already inked up sitting in my pile to use.  I had just swiped some Wild Honey & Antique Linen distress stains across my watercolor paper several times go give a multi-colored effect.  I stamped my image from the Bluebird set directly on the background.  Loved how this turned out!

This card is for the CR84FN challenge to use orange, yellow and brown.  Hard to identify the yellow but is on my background and I layered my focal image on some summer sun cardstock.

Card details:

Stamps: Blue Bird from Artistic Outpost

Cardstock: Watercolor paper, Chocolate Chip from SU!, Orange Zest from PTI, Golden Tiara from Clear & Simple Stamps
Inks: Wild Honey & Antique Linen from Tim Holtz Distress Stains, Stephanie Barnard ColorBox Chocolate

Embellishments: Lattice Rectangles from Spellbinders nestabilities, Natural Twine String, button from PTI

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Since I had been working with these colors I also chose to do The Play Date Cafe's 100th Challenge- congrats ladies!   I combined this with Mish's Sketch from 9/13/11 and used the Color Bleed Grid Technique from The Classroom.  Granted mine definitely is not as pretty as Julia's- I have some more playing to do with this technique using a variety of colors.

I used the Feathers set from Clear & Simple Stamps as a more masculine card with these colors.  I swear that is NOT a fingerprint in one of my grids, should have stamped one of the leaves over that.  

Card details:

Stamps: Feathers from Clear & Simple Stamps

Cardstock: Dish All the Dirt Brown, Kraft Like a Rockstar Cream from CSS, Pumpkin Pie from SU!, Mellow patterned paper from Basic Grey

Inks: Dish All the Dirt Brown, Always Artichoke, Copic markers YR14, Y15, G99, Copic Blending Solution

Embellishments: Natural Twine String,Designer Mix Button from CSS

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Hope everyone had a good weekend and your Monday is starting off just right!

branches4flower Release

Hope you don't mind another post of multiple creations?  I love this new set from The {Stamps}of Life called Branches4Flowers . There are a variety of branches & flowers to this set, but I love the different fonts used for the sentiments the most.  I always love having sentiments on hand to mix with different images.

This first card was one of the favorites I made, it was just clean & simple and my bow actually turned out how I always set out to tie them :-)  I used the FTL123 sketch and the CR84FN34 color challenge for this card, but didn't get them posted in time.

Card details:

Stamps: branches4flowers by The{Stamps}of Life

Cardstock: Paint the Town Pink, Princess Pink, Kraft Like a Rockstar and So Saffron

Inks: Dish All the Dirt Brown and Paint the Town Pink

Embellishments: Paint the Town Pink ribbon and pearls

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I'm very excited as this card was featured over on Stephanie's blog video for the monthly release. If you haven't ever seen one of Stephanie's videos, she's a hoot and shares a lot of ideas for the new sets here.

I used the branches in this set to create grass for the dragonfly to fly around in.  I paper pieced the wings and scribbled a border on.

Card details:

Stamps: branches4flowers and creations2fill by The{Stamps}of Life

Cardstock: Coral Necklace, A Clean Slate, Basic Grey Kioshi

Inks: Sage Shadow, Little Black Dress

Embellishments: black marker

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I'm not sure I'll be able to give this one away...not sure why but I love how it turned out.  I adore these colors together and these little ring of flowers are darling.

Card details:

Stamps: branches4flowers by The{Stamps}of Life

Cardstock: Dare to be a Diva Red, Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla, October Afternoon Fly a Kite

Inks: Dare to be a Diva Red, Certainly Celery, Not Quite Navy, Golden Tiara

Embellishments: brads from SU!, Spellbinders Nestabilities labels eighteen, Amuse creative candy twinkle stickers

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And last but not least, this was actually the first card I made with this set.  I thought it would look pretty cool as stems for flowers.  Instead of using the flowers in the set, I wanted something that would be larger and really stand out so I decided to roll some flowers instead.  I added some Viva Pearl Pens in the middle of the flowers.

Card details:

Stamps: branches4flowers by The{Stamps}of Life

Cardstock: Creamsicle Cardigan, Baja Breeze, Brown Leather Satchel, Very Vanilla, Echo Park Life is Good (small strip at bottom of card)

Inks: Baja Breeze, Brown Leather Satchel, Certainly Celery

Embellishments: Viva Pearl Pen, Rolled Die from My Favorite Things

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Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my cards using the branches4flowers set which are available to club members now and will be available to all tomorrow.

Only a Dreamer...

Lately I have been dreaming a lot.  Dreaming about my future, my family, weird dreams, scary dreams and fun dreams.  What little girl doesn't have dreams?  I still have dreams even at my age and I hope that I will always have them.

This cute Dreamer image was so much fun to work with.  I decided to emboss the image with silver embossing powder and color my image with my light purple copics.  I was itching to use some new spellbinders I got a few weeks ago and adorned the crown circle with the sentiment and some metal sticker embellishments.

Card details:

Stamps: Only a Dream J882 from Stamp N Plus Scrap N

Cardstock: You're such a Gray-cious Host, Purpilicious, A Blanc Check and Basic Grey Wisteria

Inks: You're Such a Gray-cious Host, Versamark, copic markers

Embellishments: Metal stickers from Mark Richards, Spellbinders Nestabilities Crown Circles

Happy 80th Birthday!

My cousin asked me last month if I could make a special card for her to take to a family reunion/80th birthday party.  I was happy to help out and the only thing she asked was the colors remain fairly neutral and asked if I could include their name somewhere to make it special.

I knew it would have to be a larger card to get both their names on it, so I went with a 5.75 x 5.75 card to fit in a 6 x 6 envelope.  This might not even be the exact measurements as I didn't get those before I mailed them out.

I used the gate-fold card with scor-pal instructions here.  Love how this card turned out and told my cousin I wasn't sure I was going to put it in the mail :-)  The outside she chose this sentiment from Verve Stamps Blessings set.

For the inside, I went with my much neglected Stamp Rite and customized it to include their names.

Hope they enjoyed the card, I sure enjoyed making it!

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Card details:

Stamps: Blessings from Verve Stamps and customized sentiment Just Rite stamps

Cardstock: Vanilla, Ocean Tides, Dish All the Dirt Brown, Basic Grey Nook & Pantry

Inks: Dish All the Dirt Brown

Embellishments: Die-Namics Open Scallop punch, Spellbinders Circle and Scalloped Circle nestabilities, A Blanc Check Twine colored with copic

Printer Tray Frames

I had been admiring the 7 gypsies printer tray frames that were demo's over at Ellen Hutson's blog awhile back (created by Debbie Olson), so decided that these would make some great gifts this year.  I ordered two online and had them sitting in my office for about a month before I decided to tackle this project.

This first frame I'm showing you was for my Mom (and Dad) and it was the 2nd frame I did, which came out much better than the first...so that's what I had to go back and alter my first one LOL!  The pictures were the worst part for me as my photo printer wasn't cooperating with me and the photos I would alter in photoshop wouldn't print out the way I wanted them to.

In the end, I was happy with how they both turned out and my Mom & sister-in-law (and brother) loved them!  So I was thrilled!

I used a lot of the same pictures for both, it was just easier that way.  I couldn't photo the frame well enough to show off how nice they look, but hopefully you get the idea.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!  We have been enjoying time with family, I'm off the next 2 days and am going to stamp a little today and catch a movie with my Mom and Sister-in-Law.  Tonight we'll hang out again, we played cards late last night and everyone was really bitter since I beat them so bad :-)

Happy Monday!

Frame details:

Basic Grey papers (Wisteria and Indian Summer)

Stamps: Text Objects from Verve Stamps

Accessories: Crystal Lacquer, charms, prima mini flowers, PTI buttons, Clear & Simple Stamps ribbon, SU rub-ons

Anything Goes with Going Grey

Have you heard of Kenny K???  I've seen his images a few times but never really took the time to check the site out until they offered to sponsor us at Going Grey this week...I know now I should have stayed FAR away from that site!!!  They are wicked cute and a blast to color!

I chose to play with the Troublemaker digi, but I love their new "naughty & nice" line-Gothik Angelz.  His design team really knows how to create, so I can't wait to see what the Going Grey team does with the images they chose.  Our theme this week was ANYTHING GOES, as long as you use your Basic Grey papers.

Hope you will join us and make sure you check out the Design Team to see what they created:

• Crystal Irwin
• Jackie Randolph
• Kristen Catalano
• Lorie Ames
• Mary Castonquay
• Peggy Regan

Card details:

Stamps: Troublemaker digi from Kenny K, Sweet Heart from Clear & Simple Stamps

Cardstock: Night of Navy, Whisper White, Basic Grey June Bug

Inks: Copic markers

Accessories: True Blue Fan button, cream twine colored red

Going Grey with ScrapCreations- Use Basic Grey Paper with Think Spring Theme

Have you seen the new challenge over at Scrap-creations?  Every week Kristen challenges her blog readers and her design team with a theme to use with our favorite Basic Grey papers.

This week our challenge was Think Spring- flowers, etc.  Of course flowers are the first thing I think of when I think of Spring.  I don't have a lot of flower beds at my house, I don't have a green thumb.  I do enjoy receiving flowers though!!!  

Stampotique has some very original looking stamps and I was immediately drawn to these stamps because they are so different and there is such a variety of artists that you are sure to find stamps you love.

This card actually uses some paper I received at CHA from the Basic Grey make'n'take.  I chose to take mine apart. It is the Lily Child from the Kioshi paper collection.

ETA:  I never seemed to finish this post last night, so will just leave it where it is, bonk myself over the head and remember next time to re-read my post before hitting publish :-)

Card details:

Stamps:  Simplicity is the ultimate satisfaction and Branch from Stampotique originals

Cardstock: Lily Child from the Kioshi paper collection, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White

Inks: Elegant Eggplant, Pale Plum

Accessories: Purpilicious ribbon from Clear & Simple Stamps, prima flowers, rhinestone brads

Sweet Seashells: Sneak Peek of Traveller

I'm ultra excited about the releases taking place tomorrow at Clear & Simple Stamps. I have to say this is one of my favorite batches of stamps being released! This was one of the first cards I made with the Traveller set, love the little seashells. I think I used them a lot on my projects for this set, what can I say...me likey! (taken from Allison)

I had just gotten this paper and thought that it would make for a cute little card using not so typical seashell colors.

Hope you have enjoyed the sneak peeks and can't wait to see what you create with your new Clear & Simple Stamps!

Primary Stamp Set	Traveller
Paper / Cardstock	Papertrey Ink White
Designer Paper	Wisteria Basic Grey
Embellishments	Ribbon unknown, Oval Nestabilities
Inks	Memento Tuxedo Black
Markers / Colored Pencils / Chalks	Copic V01, V09, B00, BG000

Mermaid Anya & Bloggers Challenge 70

Yeah! My new Pink Poison stamps arrived yesterday and I got to work on stamping! I had to make a little gift holder for a party Tristan is going to today and also it's Friday (okay, 1 day late) for Blogger's Challenge. This was for a pre-order so they will not be available until Nov. 1rst but you can see some sneaks at Marie's blog.

I came across this template from Andrea Walford and thought it would make a perfect little jewelry holder which is what I needed. This was so easy to make although the cover with acetate was a little more difficult as it was hard for me to see the score lines, but overall, I ended up making 2 quick ones (one I will share later). I also added a little bellyband with some ribbon to it. The box was made using some of my new Granola Basic Grey paper. We also got her a little coin purse which I wanted to put the jewelry in in the box but it was to big

I used a simple layout for the birthday card with Mermaid Anya. I colored her using my refills & Aquapainter as well as my colored pencils. I accented her hair with some silver stickles. I also added some primas with silver brads and rhinestone. I layered my Basic Grey Granola paper (which I thought this sheet looked like shells) on Regal Rose and Vintage Violet.

Sorry for the horrible lighting in the pictures, it's been dreary and rainy here but is supposed to be a lot nicer today (hope so, we are headed to football in a few minutes).

Beate's WSC#30

Stamp Set: Changito Pair by Stampendous, Sentiment by Studio G
Cardstock: Basic Grey Phresh & Funky, Old Olive, Brilliant Blue, Pretty in Pink, Watercolor Paper
Inks: Versafine Ink Pad, Sahara Sand, Pretty in Pink, Brilliant Blue, Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Circle punch, scallop punch

I participated in Beate's weekend sketch challenge and had fun doing this. Very simple card with no additional accesories other than punches. I wanted to add more but wasn't sure where to add it on to.

ETA: DUH, this was last weeks challenge. I can't share this weeks yet as it's also my blogger's challenge card. Thanks Beate for pointing it out for me!