Just a Note

The other night I was quite inspired to craft and my hubby took charge of the kiddos and let me escape for a few hours down to craft.

I had ordered this little card kit from Mish Mash's little shop and went to work creating with the supplies.  I ended up making 6 cards in which I'll share 2 today and the rest over the next week or so.

For my card above I used the SFYTT for January-didn't get it posted on my blog in time to play along but still had fun using it.

For my next card I channeled my out of the box thinking and inspiration from a fellow stamper who's style I've admired for a long time and she's been so supportive in making me stretch out of the norm for me.  Monika Davis has some of the most amazing creations and I was really drawn to this card and her "clustering" of elements.  While I didn't quite capture it as well on my first try I'll definitely be attempting it again.

Again, I used the elements from Mish Mash's shop on my card and I used theVerve set Take Note to stamp the tag with some typewriter font.  Love how these cards turned out and that's not often I'm feeling that way.  For the string circle, I actually cut off the string that was on the tag, colored it with my copic which stiffened it just a little.

Thanks for stopping by to check out my creations!

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Card details #1:

Stamps: Sentiment Sampler from Paper Smooches

Paper: Basic Gray, Chickaniddy Crafts-Date Night, Creamsicle Cardigan

Ink: Basic Gray

Accessories: Washi Tape, Scalloped Square Nestabilities, Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack from SU, Instagram photo courtesy of Michelle Wooderson, brads

Card details #2:

Stamps: Take Note from Verve Stamps

Paper: Basic Gray, Chickaniddy Crafts-Date Night, Creamsicle Cardigan

Ink: Basic Gray, Apricot Appeal

Accessories: Lace Ribbon, Scalloped Square Nestabilities, Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack from SU, Instagram photo courtesy of Michelle Wooderson, brads

Happy Holidays

I adore how this card turned out.  I'm usually a "straight and narrow" stamper, I have a hard time creating cards with cock-eyed pieces but I do like a good challenge.

This is the last Sketch for You to Try.  I've loved Jen's sketches and am sad that this will be the very last one!

I'm excited that this year I completed all 12 of the sketches for this challenge.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

I'm also including this card for the current challenge over at the Paper Loft travel blog for a holiday challenge.

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Card details:

Stamps: Happy Holly-days from Our Craft Lounge and Icons Sentiments from Clear & Simple Stamps

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Confetti White, Echo Park Season's Greetings

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black

Embellishments: Washi Tape from Freckled Fawn, circle spellbinders die, rhinestones colored with copic

For my next card as I've been creating so many Christmas cards, I used the new Retro Sketches #40 on this card.  I used some more washi tape on this one :-)  I'm seriously thinking I'll be using some of the washi on Christmas gifts this year.

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Card details:

Stamps: Happy Holly-days  and Merry Wishes from Our Craft Lounge 

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Kraft Like a Rockstar Ivory, Echo Park Season's Greetings

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Cherry Cobbler

Embellishments: Washi Tape from Freckled Fawn,  rhinestones

Holiday Duo

Yesterday during my lunch hour I got inspired by Facetiming with a friend.  I wish I had that much mojo when I truly have the free time to stamp.  I'm hoping that I can keep up with it and continue with some holiday cards.

For my first card I used the current Sketch for You to Try for November.  Only one more month and my goal to do each of these sketches monthly has been accomplished.  I'm happy about that!

My other goal is try to use up some of this pattern paper I have been collecting.  I keep on wanting more and more of it but not using up enough of it.  I bought just one holiday pad this year and am hoping to get super creative with it-so I apologize now for the abundance of green and red I will be showing in the next 5-6 weeks.

I added the sentiment from the Trees4Christmas set from The {Stamps} of Life and the little poinsettia's are from Happy-Hollydays set from Our Craft Lounge.  I'm using up my Simple Stories Handmade Holiday paper pack for my Christmas cards this year.

My second card I started with the Retro Sketches #36 but I kind of strayed from the original sketch by having a larger sentiment framing and had it off kilter.  I also adhered my button to the sentiment frame instead of the banner piece.

For this card there is no stamping .  The one thing I like about Simple Stories are their pads have these die cut pages included and make for some easy cards.  

You can't tell but my red layer underneath it all does have a rounded bottom, which I covered with my oversized sentiment piece.  I love how it turned out though and will be making many more card using these pieces.  I wrapped the top with Lawn Fawn hemp cord. I love this is a heavier hemp cord!  I used up an old button from Papertrey Ink and adhered a big pearl from Want2Scrap on it.

My husband loved them, and that made me happy as I am trying to build up a little stock of them for him to take to work to sell.

Enjoy your Thursday!

Take Flight

Today I'm super excited!  While you are reading this I'm at work, but I will be heading to visit our Blogger's Challenge "Mom" this afternoon at the York, PA Heirloom Stamp Show.  Looking forward to visiting with Lisa and meeting lots of new friends at the show and visiting with some older ones as well.

This week our theme is "Take Flight" and I had the perfect card already made for this challenge.  I created over 20 cards for the last Paper Crafts call, but sadly not one of them were picked up.  I'm keeping positive in the face that I have lots of wonderful cards already created that I have to share on my blog in the next few months.

Since I already had created this card, I thought I would add another one to the mix using a different theme, but the same color scheme.

Card details:

Stamps: Love in the Air by Our Craft Lounge

Cardstock: Summer Sunrise, Night of Navy, Gina K. Luxury White, Authentique-Genuine

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Night of Navy, copics

Embellishments: SU Rhinestones colored with B93 copic, dimensionals

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Again, I combined a few challenges on the card above and the sketch definitely had me stumped with the two little "wing" pieces.  Following my goal of being timely in participating in the Sketch For You to Try for the year.

I started off with a favorite stamp of mine, the Sweet Pea set from There She Goes and decided to go against my natural instinct of grabbing my black or brown ink and used my True Blue Fan from Clear & Simple Stamps instead.  I didn't add a variety of color to the flowers, just wanted to go with the yellow.

I punched some small holes on either side of the flowers and tied my twine through there.  I saw on someone's blog (and now I can't remember whose it was...my apologies) using a pearl on top of the button and loved it.  I colored my pearl with my copic marker.

If you have stuck with me through all this, thank you!  Hope you enjoyed the artwork and that you will join us for Blogger's Challenge this week.

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Card details:

Stamps: Sweet Pea from There She Goes

Cardstock: Night of Navy, Golden Tiara, Authentique-Geniune

Inks: True Blue Fan, copics

Embellishments: SU Pearls colored with copic, Lemondrop twine from The Twinery, Enchanted Evening buttons, round tab punch, stapler

Stampotique New Release Blog Hop: FINAL RELEASE

Hopefully you have been hopping along over at Stampotique Designer's Challenge for our new release blog hop.  If not, you still have time to hop through the 5 days. We hope you have been enjoying a sneak peek at all the new stamps being released.  I know the design team has been having a lot of fun getting inky with the new stamps.

Today is our last day of the hop and the images you have been seeing the last few days are now available over on the Stampotique website.

For our last little surprise, all of those who have hopped with us this week and today will be eligible for our random drawing of a winner to get some new release goodies.  We will choose our winner next week before our next challenge.

For my card I used the new image from Kira called Grumpy Koala 4017.  Love coloring these little monsters, they are so much fun!  I combined my card with the Sketch for you to Try for September as well.

Almost our whole team is hopping and sharing some creations so we hope that you will join us.  The whole list is here and you'll want to start at Sam's blog:

Sam Read

Nellie van Leeuwen

Gez Butterworth

Polly Bennett

France Papillon

Maria Sabina Raita

Roc Nicholas

Kim Howard <------you are here

Jennifer Cochran

Jo Capper-Sandon

Claire Boelema

Kaz Boughton

Kate Crane

Sarinda Jones

Carol Fox

Magda Polakow

Astrid Stulemeijer

Libby Hickson

Jane Wetzel

Valerie Wilson

Vicki Garrett

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Have fun hopping!

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Card details:

Stamps: Grumpy Koala 4017 from Stampotique Originals

Cardstock: Basic Gray, Gina K. Luxury White, My Mind's Eye Life of the Party

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, copic markers

Embellishments: Pennant Trim Die from Verve Stamps

GGSC: Back to School

Back to school is a popular theme up until Labor Day weekend and today we are celebrating that over at Going Grey with Scrap-Creations.

Catching up on a few challenges this week by using the Sketch for you to Try for August.  And, believe it or not, I didn't do ANY stamping on this card.  I decided to put my new paper to use and embellished my card with one of the images on the paper instead.  I cut it out, popped it up and added a few little jewels for the door handles.

The current challenge over on SCS for Try a New Technique is NO STAMPING, and this card fits perfectly this week.

I love how it turned out!

Join us for Going Grey with Scrap-Creations and show us your Back to School creations.

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Card details:

Stamps: -NONE

Cardstock: My Mind's Eye School Daze, Kraft Like a Rockstar, Certainly Celery, Night of Navy

Inks: none

Embellishments: Amuse creative candy (door handles)

BC273: Splash of Color

Finally it's Friday, I was afraid this day would never arrive.  Although the weather is not looking good and I'd love to crawl back into bed, I'm glad it's finally Friday.

Last night I finally sat down and created my card for blogger's challenge to use black, white and a splash of color.  I hadn't stamped all week and was determined to at least get one card done.

Now, I'm not going to kid you-this card took me FOREVER.  I had gotten these Memory Box Woodrow Rosette dies and could not figure out to how to create the flower.  Our fearless leader, Lisa, led me in the right direction and I was finally able to figure it out.

The sketch I used was July's sketch for you to try which worked beautifully I thought with what I had in mind.  I originally had left my rose strip of paper blank but decided to go back and add the sentiment from Standup4sentiments from The {Stamps} of Life.

Hope you will join us over at Blogger's Challenge this week, love this challenge and see the splash of color that everyone uses!

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Card details:

Stamps: Standup4sentiments from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Perfect Little Black Dress, Regal Rose, Whisper White, Teresa Collins Carolina Breeze

Inks: Color Box by Stephanie Barnard-Licorice

Embellishments: Prima rose, Memory Box Woodrow Rosette, Spellbinder Circle Dies

Sweet Friend

Yesterday was a bit rainy and dreary so I snuck down into the studio while the two little ones were occupied with a movie and created a quick card.

I had been thinking about this set all weekend long-I made a trip to my local stamp store and found this adorable set from There She Goes and had to have it.  I proudly refrained from buying ALL the cute ones I saw and picked out 2 sets I knew I would use a lot and of course threw 2 new pads of design paper in my bag too :-)

I combined a few of my favorite challenges with this card.  CAS-ual Friday challenge this week is to use Polka Dots (on my patterned paper), the new Sketch for You to Try was posted this weekend so I wanted to get that in under my belt while it was fresh in my mind.  The last challenge is a color challenge which I haven't played with in awhile, the CR84FN challenge to use grey, yellow and neutral.  It also is good for the Circles challenge over at There She Goes.

Hope you love my card as much as I do-I'm going to have a hard time putting this one in the mail tomorrow.

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Card details:

Stamps: Sweet Pea from There She Goes

Cardstock: Perfect Little Black Dress, Golden Tiara, Teresa Collins Carolina Breeze, Gina K. white

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, copics

Embellishments: Circle punches, SU pearls (colored with copic), dimensionals

You're an Amazing Mother

Today over at Going Grey with Scrap-Creations our theme is Mother's Day.  I've made a few of these cards already and need to get the mailed off, but when I saw the sketch for Sketch for You to Try for May, I knew EXACTLY what set I wanted to use.

I just ordered for the first time from Gina K. Designs with the new release as I had to have the set from Tami Mayberry called Vintage Notes.  I thought her little note stamp would go perfectly in my Project Life album (which I'm behind on).  Besides that, Gina had a free paper pack deal going on so I couldn't resist and I chose to get the Red Carpet designer paper pack.

I did add in another set with this to get it to say exactly what I had in mind, so I used Verve Stamps set Happy Days and just inked up the portions I wanted to use.  I hand wrote the "an" on my little note sheet.  My picture is not great, but the patterned paper has a nice little shine to it and I've added some Sparkly fluff to the tips of the flowers.

This weeks Paper Player's Challenge is a Mother's Day theme as well so I'm playing along with them on the theme but the inspiration photo over there looks yummy as well.

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Card details:

Stamps: Vintage Notes from Gina K. and Happy Days from Verve Stamps

Cardstock: Spring Rain, Neenah White, Kraft and Red Carpet Designer Paper from Gina K.

Inks: Dish All the Dirt Brown, Dare to be a Diva Red, copic markers

Embellishments: stapler, dimensionals, Rockstar Red sparkly fluff

This Mum's for You!

Just a super quick post this morning to share a card I created this weekend for the current CAS-ual Friday challenge to use flowers or trees and The Play Date Cafe Challenge to use the colors dusk, magenta and seedling.

For my card I used Jen Del Muro's Go To Sketch as I thought it would be perfect to showcase the Mums from the Mum2stamp set from The {Stamps} of Life.

I used a new embossing folder I received, which I love how deep it embosses on my cardstock- the Butterflies & Flowers Textured Impressions Embossing Folders from Sizzix-loving these and need to try some fun techinques with them soon (hard to see in the picture, but if you enlarge it should be better).  The fabulous thing about these two folders is they have coordinating stamp sets to go with them.

I apologize that my white is a little off balance-one of the things I need to work on with my photography, but wanted to get my post up before the kids started going wild for the day.  I've enjoyed a good hour down here editing some pictures and they have been great.  Now to get them going for the day as we'll be enduring another afternoon of baseball (and dirt for the 2 younger ones).

Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and thanks for stopping by!

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Card details:

Stamps: Mum2stamp set from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Rich Razzleberry, So Saffron, Whisper White, Going Gray, Teresa Collins Carolina Breeze

Inks: Such a Gray-cious Host from Clear & Simple Stamps

Embellishments: Butterflies & Flowers Textured Impressions Embossing Folders from Sizzix, jewel 

Stampotique sponsoring Southern Girls Challenge

Stampotique is sponsoring the Southern Girls Challenge today.  Our theme is "girls" and I've got plenty of those cuties to go around.  I've got lots of girl stamps from Stampotique!

I picked this little cutie, Laura to use on my card.  I don't think you can get any girlier than a little ballerina girl.  

For this card I managed to squeeze in the Sketch for You to Try to keep on track with completing this sketch each month.  I embossed the back of my light pink paper with a new embossing folder from Sizzix, the butterflies and flowers set.

Want to join us over at Southern Girls Challenge and your chance to win a $30 gift certificate for stamps at Stampotique, then link in over at the Southern Girls Challenge.

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Card details:

Stamps: Laura 9226 from Stampotique Originals

Cardstock: Basic Black, Melon Mambo, Teresa Collins Caroline Breeze, Neenah White

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, copics

Embellishments: mini rhinestones, Butterflies & Flowers Textured Embossing Folder, Corner punch

Fly away Butterfly

I am back to reality today-well, actually I'm off today but back at home after sending off all my friends last night.  We had a great time this weekend, a little drama with the tornado warnings, but other than that, a LOT of laughs.

One GREAT thing I find about this annual get togethers with friends is how I feel rejuvenated mojo wise.  I got a few cards created while I was there, and I love being able to go ask my friends for suggestions...even if they don't like the new techniques I try :-)

I borrowed this set I think from Sheryl and pulled up the new Sketch for You to Try-my goal is to do them ALL this year so what better way then doing them as soon as they are posted.  I didn't have my Copics so I borrowed Chera's watercolor crayons and used those.  Chera also suggested that I use a coffee filter for my butterfly as I wasn't happy with the first 3 I tried (different colors).  See, how would this card have turned out if I had not had friends there???  Buttons were borrowed from Heather and Lisa gave me input on the design.  I borrowed the ribbon from Mary Jo and the designer paper...well that was my new purchase from Archiver's.

The colors came from the current CR84FN challenge to use yellow, grey and kraft.

Hope you enjoy your Monday!

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Card details:

Stamps: Summer Solistice from Stampin' Up!

Cardstock: Georgia Pacific White, Basic Grey, Crumb Cake, Teresa Collins Carolina Breeze patterned paper

Inks: Ranger Archival, blender pen

Embellishments: Basic Grey ribbon, buttons, twine, coffee filter, watercolor crayons

GGSC100: Valentine's Day

Today over at Going Grey with Scrap-Creations our theme is Valentine's Day.  I have to say I'm BAD about making my kids Valentine's Day, but I do make my hubby a card every year and while this one is quite pink...I'm giving it to him anyway!

I used the Taglines: Critters set from Clear & Simple Stamps.  For the sentiment I masked the one with Taglines: Critters and A Guy Thing.  The papers I used are from a package that my daughter's doll came in last week.  I loved the packaging so I kept some of it to use.  It's glossy so I got a little reflection off of it.

The sketch is the February sketch from Sketch for you to Try.  It was perfect for the little kitties and it's my goal this year to complete the sketches ON TIME.  So, I'm off to a decent start.

Want to join us for Going Grey with Scrap-Creations?  Create a Valentine's themed creation and share it with us over at the Going Grey with Scrap-Creations blog.

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Card details:

Stamps: A Guy Thing and Taglines: Critters from Clear & Simple Stamps

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Rich Razzleberry

Inks: Perfect Little Black Dress, copic markers

Embellishments: Spellbinders circle dies

Happy Birthday! and Project Life

Today is blogger's challenge and while I have been absent the last few weeks, it's not for lacking of wanting to participating.  My mojo disappeared over the holidays and I've been trying to force it to return...it wasn't working, so I took a little break.  I finally feel like this week it's creeping back ever so slowly.

Our theme today at blogger's challenge is "Texturize It".  I won't lie, this card took me awhile to complete, but was so happy with the end results.  Do you ever start making a card, get side tracked doing something else, and then the card takes FOREVER to complete?  That's me almost all the time.  I'm easily sidetracked when I'm stamping.

For this card I texturized the edges of my cardstock using my Donna Salazar's Distrezz-it-All, which I've had for ages and barely use....now I'm wondering why I never use it...oh yeah, it's hidden under my desk where I forget about it (mental note: put OUT on desk, not UNDER it).  I sewed one of the strips of my cardstock and also used the polka dots embossing folder from Quickcutz.

My goal this year is to complete all the SFYTT sketches in 2012.  Last year I missed a month or two and gave up after that, but this year I would like to keep up with Jen's sketches.  I've been a fan of them for a LONG time!   I just had to give a HUGE laugh as I hadn't looked at Jen's post of her card closely until I just went to link and noticed we used the same designer paper.  

The balloon was paper pieced with a piece of some of my new favorite paper- Authentique Gathering. I originally bought this paper to work with my Project Life kit (see below) and love it so much, it's heavier and two-sided and I adore the blues/orange/brown combo.  Think I may need to invest in another pad of the paper.

So with Project Life mentioned above, I'm starting my 2nd year of doing this and am so happy about that.  There's a little break in my kids' lives where I stopped scrapbooking and I really wanted to get back into it, but it was always intimidating.  I've been trying the digital as well but have a LOT to learn in that regard.  I thought I would share bits and pieces of my Project Life album on here.  I'm keeping up pretty well so far in 2012, and while I got behind in 2011 I made it a goal to finish up by the first week in 2012, and I was able to do so.

I chose to work with the Clementine kit this year and while this shows the "A" style pages, I'm hoping to incorporate various pages this year.  I keep with the rounded corners on most of my stuff for it all to flow and also picked out 2 6 x 6 paper pads that would work with the colors of the album so I could cut filler spots and embellish as I wanted.  I do not usually go with the picture/day way of doing things, and more or less just photo/document when I feel like it.

The pages above document a few weeks ago, I had been traveling in PA when I saw this car off the road (bottom photo, top left), got an e-mail from Syd's teacher that she cut her hair during cut and paste centers, and our trip to Chattanooga for Syd's 2nd cheer leading competition.

Thank you if you have stuck with me through all my mumbo jumbo this post, I've been wanting to share more of my scrapbooking/Project Life so will probably do that occasionally.

Want to join us at Blogger's Challenge, link in on any of the blog hop blogs or at Lisa's blog here.

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Card details:

Stamps: Love in the Air by Our Craft Lounge

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Authentique Gathering

Inks: Dish All the Dirt Brown, copic markers

Embellishments: Memory Box Jewel Stickers-Halloween, dimensionals, Janome sewing, Quickcutz Polka Dot embossing Folder, Circle die from Spellbinders