Happy Birthday Fella

This week over at Blogger's Challenge is make your own background.  I'm a bit slow in participating for no good reason, enjoyed some down time while my kiddos were out of town and while I had grand plans of stamping the nights away...that didn't happen.

I know this one has been used before, but I adore how it looks.  I just took some bubble wrap and inked it up to create my polka dotted bottom of the card.

Hope you will join us at Blogger's Challenge this week.

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Card details:

Stamps: A guy Thing from Clear & Simple Stamps, Quick2border from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke and Whisper White from Stampin' Up!

Inks: Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler and Always Artichoke from Stampin' Up!

Embellishments: Stampin' Up! Basic pearl jewels, bubble wrap, Spellbinders Nestabilities Circle Dies

Never Give Up

Today over at Going Grey with Scrap-Creations our theme is to use our Favorite Embellishment.  My favorite these days are pearls and rhinestones.  I can't seem to get enough of those and have a variety of colors in them.  I love that you can just get a clear color as well and color them with your copic markers to match whatever color you may need.

This is a simple layout in which I used some patterned paper from Teresa Collins and went with the butterfly theme as my focal point.

Hope you will join us with your favorite embellishment over at Going Grey with Scrap-Creations.

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Card details:

Stamps: Borderline from Verve Stamps

Cardstock: Creamsicle Cardigan from Clear & Simple Stamps, Chocolate Chip from Stampin'Up!; Patterned Paper: Teresa Collins Tell Your Story

nks: Colorbox by Stephanie Barnard in Chocolate

Embellishments: Butterfly Die from Papertrey Ink, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder from ProvoCraft, Basic Pearls and dimensionals from Stampin'Up!, Spellbinders circle die

Lighthouse Birthday

I can never have enough birthday cards in my stash and I NEVER have any masculine cards. 

I got this Lighthouse set a few months ago from Our Daily Bread Designs but hadn't inked it up but once.  I think I need to make a batch of these so that I have a few guy cards :-)

Hope your Tuesday is going well, our little gal is getting over the flu and has been a bear this week back at school.   It's affecting us all in that she's DRAMA.  Praying she bounces back soon!

Card Details:

Stamps: Lighthouse 2 and Dad from Our Daily Bread Designs

Cardstock: Marina Mist, Crumb Cake from Stampin' Up! , Gina K. Luxury White; Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye Bluebell

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics B00, W3

Embellishments: Divine Twine, Circle Dies from Spellbinders, gem from Bo Bunny Zoology jewels

BC301: Happy Birthday Scooter

Today over at Blogger's Challenge our theme is Birthdays.  I never seem to have enough birthday cards, and especially not masculine birthday cards.  I really should work up my stash one of these days.

I love how this card came together.  I did a lot of paper piecing with the scooter and then colored the rest with my copics.  This paper from My Mind's Eye is the perfect paper for creating birthday cards.

Hope to see your creation over at Blogger's Challenge today.

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Card details:

Stamps: Scootin' By from Sweet Stamp Shop

Cardstock: Real Red, Basic Black from Stampin'Up, Gina K. Luxury White; Patterned Paper: Hootenanny Collection from My Mind's Eye

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, copics C1, C4, B23, B24, R29, YG00

Embellishments: Dimensionals from Stampin'Up!, KaiserCraft Silly Season Jewels

I whipped up a quick card to share as well (not birthday related) using a few challenges.  This card came together pretty fast and I love when I can do that!

I used the current color combination at The Play Date Cafe (black, white & splash of green) along with the Paper Player's Challenge (sketch).

The sentiment stamp is a limited edition stamp I received this week from Clear & Simple Stamps, perfect for Thank you cards.

Card details:

Stamps: Limited Edition stamp from Clear & Simple Stamps

Cardstock: Whisper White, Glamazon Green, Basic Black, SEI Black Orchid

Inks: Perfect Little Black Dress

Embellishments: Bo Bunny Zoology Jewels, Spellbinders Circle Dies

SDC82: Die Cuts and Punches

Astrid is our hostess this week over at Stampotique Designer's Challenge and she has challenged us with die cuts and punches.  Here is what she says about the challenge:

Hello everyone! I challenge you to use punches and die cuts in your creation. It doesn't matter how much or what shape you use. This is a fun one :-) cause you can use any (Stampotique) stamp you have. Now I hope you have enough punches and die cuts you can choose from ;-)

For my card, I used the 3 girls stamp and stamped it in the same color as the card stock to create my background.   The die cut is from Spellbinders Fancy Tags 2 Labels and adorned with pearls from Want2Scrap.

Have fun with it!  Hope you will play along.

Don't forget there are two $30 gift certificates for stamps up for grabs, check out all the details over at Stampotique Designer's Challenge.

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Card details:

Stamps: 3 Girls 8982 and We cannot part with our friends...8955 from Stampotique Originals

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Trendsetter Blue and Chocolate Chip

Inks: Dish All the Dirt Brown

Embellishments: Want2Scrap Nestabling and Fancy Tags 2 Labels from Spellbinders

I Miss You

This is a card I made last year (he he) and never got a chance to post it.  I kept a lot of white space on this card, I think it was using a sketch from somewhere (sorry I can't remember).

Looking back at it, I think I would change my sentiment to black so it would really pop and my stitching I would do navy blue.  Overall though, I liked the design, a little different for me.

If you haven't joined us over at Going Grey with Scrap-Creations yet, you have another week.  This year we have gone to bi-monthly challenges.  Our challenge is easy this week, use something new.

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Card details:

Stamps: Scootin' By from Sweet Stamp Shop

Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler and Whisper White from Stampin' Up!; Patterned Paper: Authentique Genuine Collection

Inks: Night of Navy

Embellishments: Butterfly die from Paper Trey Ink, Circle from Spellbinders, Janome sewing machine, Pennant Trim die from Verve Stamps

Click Collection

Last night I got on a roll creating some cards using my new sets from Mama Elephant and For the Record 2 papers from Echo Park.  Bear with me as this will be a heavy post full of cards.  Come back tomorrow as I'll share with you how I packaged up this set.

The first one uses a new sketch challenge- CAS(E) this sketch!  The sketch was very clean and simple-loved how quick this card came together although for the life of me I can't find my 1" circle die and my punch is kaput.

Don't you love that little washi tape stamp under the sentiment??

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For this card I stamped two of the balloons on patterned paper and fussy cut them and the polka dot one is a stamp from the Good Times set.  Loving this new Lawn Fawn trimmings twine I got, nice and thick and ties easily as well.

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Getting in right in the knick of time with the current Retro Sketches challenge.  My cameras ended up being a little off kilter on this one, not so much centered...but I'm ok with that (this time anyway).  This was a fun sketch to do.

My card uses a different set this time from Mama Elephant called We Click. I think I was sold on this set from the sentiment alone.

Ardyth's challenge over at Hope You can Cling to today is to be inspired by one (or more) of the vital signs (heart beat/pulse, temperature, blood pressure or breathing).  My card uses blue for cold (temperature) and hearts in the cameras (for heart beat/pulse)

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The sentiment in this set really cracks me up!  I wanted to keep with the same theme as my other cards so I cut the scallop part  out of the paper itself and think it turned out perfectly.  The Hope You Can Cling to Challenge for yesterday was from Lynn to use a decorative edge on your card.

The sketch is from Skipping Stones Designs and I put to use some of this gorgeous May Arts Crochet White ribbon.

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This was probably the most difficult sketch for me to work with.  It's the current Fall-to-Layout and the while the design was so cool, I had the hardest time figuring out how to make it work.  I think I accomplished it.  I cut two strips of my yellow and cut them at the same angle, then flipped one so they were the opposite of one another on the card.  The little patterned strip was a left over piece of patterned paper. Another sentiment that just cracks me up.  This is the perfect set for teenagers.

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Hope you enjoyed my card parade today, was fun to create some cards using the same papers, size, and stamps.

Card details:

Stamps: We Click and Good Times from Mama Elephant

Cardstock: Georgia Pacific White, textured blue (unknown), So Saffron, Enchanted Evening

Inks: Night of Navy, Bashful Blue

Embellishments: May Arts White Crochet Ribbon, Crown Circles and Circles spellbinders dies, Lawn Fawn trimmings twine, dimensionals

Going Grey with Scrap-Creations: Pick 3

Today over at Going Grey with Scrap-Creations we are doing a "pick 3" this week.  Pick any 3 things from the board below for your card.

For my card I used Pearls, a Die Cut and Seam Binding/Ribbon (hope that passes).  

I pulled out a favorite set of mine from Verve Stamps called Great Friend.  I just adore the flowers in this set and love coloring them and layering them.

I also used the Deconstructed Sketch which I took a little liberty with by eliminating the scallop and just using the seam binding and I turned the sketch on it's side.

Hope you will join us over at Going Grey with Scrap-Creations.  Can't wait to see what you have been creating this week.

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Card details:

Stamps: Great Friend from Verve Stamps

Cardstock: Kraft Like a Rock Star, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, My Mind's Eye Fine & Dandy-True Blue

Inks: Certainly Celery, Memento Tuxedo Black

Embellishments: Pearls from SU!, Spellbinder die, Tie Dyed Seam Binding

Happy 13th Birthday

Today is some more new releases over at The {Stamps} of Life.  This release there are a few sets I like, but I knew that the numbers2stamp and the crayonletters2stamp would be wonderful to work with in my Project Life albums (which I'm behind on).

My soon to be teenage son was invited to a co-ed birthday party this past weekend and so I thought this set would work perfectly to make the girl a 13th birthday card.  

For my banner, I stamped my cardstock with the dictionary4me before cutting out my pennants.  I decided to create my own background for the large strip so I stamped my cardstock with the animals4print set.

I used the current Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #166 for this card, I think it worked perfectly for a teenage girl.  This is also for the current challenge over at There She Goes for their 4th anniversary to use banners.

Card details:

Stamps: Greetings4Birthday, Animals4Print, Dictionary4me and Numbers2Stamp from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Mauved by the Paprazzi, Basic Black, My Mind's Eye Blush

Inks: Color Box by Stephanie Barnard-Licorice, Mauved by the Paprazzi 

Embellishments: Sizzie Plain Pennant Banners, Circle Spellbinders, Janome Sewing

Blogger's Challenge: Back to School

Are you ready for your kiddos to return to school or are they already back?  Our kids returned last week and we are trying to get back onto a regular schedule.

Our theme at Blogger's Challenge is "Back to School" and I pulled out one of the only "teacher" related stamp sets I have from Clear & Simple Stamps which is no longer available.  I love the sentiments in this set and it has come in handy throughout the school year and for teacher's gifts.

I used the current Retro Sketch for my card, I haven't played the last few weeks and always enjoy playing along with the team over there.

Over my apples I used the glitter pen to make them pop just a little.

Join us over at Blogger's Challenge with your "Back to School" creation.

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Card details:

Stamps: Teacher from Clear & Simple Stamps

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Green with Envy, My Mind's Eye School Daze

Inks: Dish all the Dirt Brown

Embellishments: Sakura Stardust pen, ribbon from Starlit Studio, circle spellbinders

Gobble, Gobble

Can't believe we are in the last quarter of the year already and school starts today for us.  While the kids are thrilled to be going back, not sure how long that will last.

I'm super excited with the new release set from The {Stamps} of Life, turkeys, flowers, raccoons, and dots.

Here are a few cards I created with the Turkey2Stamp set-using some sketches as well.

Card #1: Uses Retro Sketches #23

Stamps: Turkey2stamp from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Authentique Carefree, Chocolate Chip, Confetti Cream

Inks: Dish All the Dirt Brown, copic markers

Embellishments: Square and Scalloped Square spellbinder dies, twine

Card #2: 

Stamps: Turkey2stamp and Butterfly2Build from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Kraft Like a Rockstar, Pumpkin Pie, Gina K. Luxury White

Inks: Dish All the Dirt Brown, Pumpkin Pie

Embellishments: dimensionals

Card #3: Uses CPS #277 sponsored by The {Stamps} of Life through August

Stamps: Turkey2stamp and Dots2Love from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Kraft Like a Rockstar, Garden Green, Gina K. Luxury White

Inks: Dish All the Dirt Brown, Garden Green

Embellishments: dimensionals, Chevron dies

GGSC124: Anything Goes

This is going to be a pretty quick post as I just got back into town and have lots of catching up to do.  Hoping to get back on schedule this week and more regular posting.

Today at Going Grey with Scrap-Creations our theme is "Anything Goes".  I had made this darling card a week or two ago when I had some free time and didn't have any thing in particular I was stamping for, was just having some fun.

The card is a 3.5 x 5" size on Kraft.  I stamped the balloons a few times on my little circle by stamping off my dark brown and then paper pieced the middle balloon.  I haven't been using nearly enough of my seam binding so put it to use on this card.

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you over at Going Grey with Scrap-Creations.  Kristen is also looking for 2-3 more designers to join us in the challenges so if you are interested, check out the details here.

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Card details:

Stamps: Old Fashioned Afternoon from Sweet Stamp Shop

Cardstock: Indie Chic "Citron", Kraft Like a Rockstar, Chocolate Chip, Georgia Pacific White

Inks: Dish All the Dirt Brown from Clear & Simple Stamps

Embellishments: Dyed Seam Binding, Circle and Scalloped Circle die from Spellbinders

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

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

GGSC99: Black & Red & Pink

When I first saw the new releases from Clear & Simple Stamps, I was hooked.  These cute little critters from the Taglines: Critters set are adorable and the sentiments are so funny.  I knew they would make great Valentine's for the kids.

Today is our Going Grey with Scrap-Creations challenge to use Black & Red.  I added a bit of grey into the mix, but it is a form of black so it counts :-)  I totally missed the pink part unless you count the little racoons nose.

Going to keep this short and sweet as I forgot to post this on time...so late today.

We'd love to have you join us over at Going Grey with Scrap-Creations this week!

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Card details:

Stamps: Taglines: Critters from Clear & Simple Stamps

Cardstock: Real Red, Basic Black, Going Gray, Basic Gray from SU!

Inks: Perfect Little Black Dress, copic

Embellishments: A Blanc Check ribbon from Clear & Simple Stamps, square and scalloped square, circle nestabilities

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

Got Candy?

Are you on candy/sugar overload from the forthcoming Christmas holiday yet?  I know with what I've been baking/making/buying, I'm "testing" everything so I'm sure to gain a few pounds.

The candy2share set from The {Stamps} of Life is perfect to accompany some holiday candy, but I can really see this set coming in handy for Valentine's gifts!

My card above, I loved the color combination of the oranges & pinks, reminds me of some yummy sorbets.  I created my own background paper with the quick2border set.

I love these Sizzix framelits as I never tend to make shaped cards, but decided with these, it would be perfect and such a different shaped card.

For my final card I love the pink/black/white combo, it never gets old.  

Thanks for stopping by today!

Card details:

Card # 1 Got Candy?

Stamps: candy2share and quick2border from The{Stamps}of Life

Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Creamsicle Cardigan, Mauved by the Paparrazzi, Neenah Paper

Inks: Color Box by Stephanie Barnard-Licorice, copic markers

Embellishments: Fancy Labels Framelits from Sizzix, dimensionals

Card #2 You're so Sweet

Stamps: candy2share from The{Stamps}of Life

Cardstock: Confetti Cream, Green with Envy

Inks: Color Box by Stephanie Barnard-Licorice, Strawberry, Spearmint and Banana, copic markers

Embellishments: mini rhinestones, dimensionals, Rounded Tags Framelits from Sizzix

Card #3 Candy Makes Everything Better!

Stamps: candy2share and animals4print from The{Stamps}of Life

Cardstock: Neenah White, Paint the Town Pink, Perfect Little Black Dress, My Mind's Eye Blush

Inks: Color Box by Stephanie Barnard-Bubblegum and Licorice

Embellishments: Spellbinders nestabilities circle and square dies, dimensionals