Cheep, cheep!

I got a few minutes to make a card for today's SCS inspiration challenge. This week's challenge is the Chasing Fireflies card, which I've always thought had great stuff. I chose this cute fabric birdhouse - I just loved the colors and the flowers.

I used the set Cheep Talk for my stamping. The branch is old olive, the bird real red and basic black, and the little flowers regal rose. I paired it with this pretty red floral paper from October Afternoon's Cherry Hill line and some regal rose dotted DP, and to mirror the roof of the birdhouse I repeatedly stamped the "because" stamp from Define Your Life. I thought that went well with the "hello there!" sentiment. I used black layers, an olive card base (5.5" square) and a scrap of ribbon and some vanilla brads for embellishments. I love how this turned out!

Is it that time of year already?

I wouldn't have believed it - but hey, anytime of year is a good time to make Christmas cards! Today's SCS Ways to Use It challenge was to make a Christmas card. I decided that one challenge wasn't enough for me today, so my card also works for two other challenges: the Mojo Monday contest week sketch and the Color Throwdown: real red, tempting turquoise, and kiwi kiss. This is not necessarily a color combo I would have thought of for Christmas, but I had so much fun making my card!

Since this was a Mojo Monday sketch, I decided to use some Verve stamps. This is the Ornamental Christmas set, which I hadn't broken out until today - it's awesome! I cut a whisper white rectangle with a Nesties die, stamped the pine branch on the right side of my whisper white rectangle with the kiwi ink, and added the sentiment (embossed with Ranger rich red EP) in the lower left corner. I realized as I was working that the circle placement in the sketch would be the perfect place for my ornament. It's embossed with the same red EP and the hanger with Ranger gold EP. I added a little Offray gold trim to "tie" it to the branches. I used a larger turquoise scalloped rectangle for the bottom layer, pierced the scallops, and adhered the ornament with dimensionals.

The rest of the card was fairly simple. I embossed the pine branch with gold EP on metallic gold cardstock and used that for the thin strip in the sketch. The red dot paper is from a retired hostess pack, and the kiwi DP is from the patterns pack. The red ribbon is just a scrap I had lying around - no idea what it is or where it came from! That upper left corner of the white rectangle looked too plain, so I tied a bow with the red ribbon and added a gold vintage button with more of the gold trim tied through it.

I spent longer on this card than on any in recent memory... I think it's going to be saved for someone very special on my Christmas card list!

Making good on my promise

Big sigh - just when I was getting ready to sit down and do some challenge cards, my Internet access went out. I still wanted to stamp, so what did I do? I challenged myself! My challenge was to use the new In Colors and the new stamps I preordered but hadn't used yet. I think I did it - although one card isn't done yet. It was really fun, and a good challenge for me to work without anyone else's ideas spurring me on.

Here is the card I made first. I go back and forth on what I think of this one, so tell me what you think. I decided to use the new colors crushed curry, dusty durango and soft suede with the stamp set Autumn Days. I don't yet have any DP in the new colors (shocking, right?) so I searched through my stash and found these papers from SEI's Mimosa collection that look pretty good. I layered onto soft suede cardstock and used a plain white card base to keep it clean. The only embellishing touches I added were a mini library clip tied with hemp twine and a bit of piercing. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes - this is going to be a go-to set for me, I can tell.

Next card uses an old retired image - help, I'm blanking on the name of this hostess set and don't have it handy! I love this stamp, though, and I doubt I will ever part with it. I colored the flower with melon mambo and soft suede markers - oh how I love having IC markers - and stamped on vanilla cardstock that I dirtied up with soft suede. I used the eyelet border punch on the melon layer for a little interest. The background has the damask stamp from Friends 24-7 stamped down the side, using the Stamp-a-ma-Jig for placement. I added more sponging, another little sentiment (which set it's from, I'm not sure... it's not Teeny Tiny Wishes), and a bit of soft suede ribbon. The dots on the IC ribbons are so fun!

Last one for today - here's a color combo that mixes rich razzleberry (my favorite of the new ICs so far) with pale plum and so saffron. I have to say I think this combination is gorgeous. I stamped the flower from Cheep Talk three times on white and on razzleberry cardstock (with old olive stems) and punched out the razzleberry centers. I used a panel of saffron dot paper, razzleberry ribbon, a Teeny Tiny Wishes sentiment with oval punches, and a white button tied with hemp twine. Sweet and simple!

OK, now I can finally say that I've inked the new ICs and all of my new stamps. I feel much better! Thanks for stopping by!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #7

And now for something completely different! I don't know what it was about this artwork from shopSCAD that spoke to me for this week's challenge - I am a cat lover, but I think I also went for the soft colors and the use of the (presumably) vintage items. Plus, it's different than anything I've ever chosen for a challenge, so I hope you have fun with it!

As it turned out, I had a hard time with my own challenge this week. Don't you hate when that happens? Well, here is my card, which I really like, even if it doesn't look much like the inspiration piece. I elected not to use a cat image - I chose the flowers instead. I used old olive, not quite navy, and bashful blue for my colors. The flower stamp is by Magenta - it's an unmounted rubber stamp I picked up a while ago, and it's gorgeous. I stamped with Memento tuxedo black on PTI white cardstock and colored it with Copics. To reflect the circles in the inspiration piece, I used Nestabilities and my SU punches for the image and sentiment (from True Friend). The background uses a bashful blue panel stamped with the little flower from Razzle Dazzle and a panel of paper from the Little Yellow Bicycle Zinnia collection. For embellishment I used a vintage-looking white crochet trim from JoAnn's and an actual vintage button (thanks, Mom!) tied with organdy polka-dot ribbon.

Be sure to check out the cards made by all the Divine Divas for this challenge!

Angela

Chat

Chris

Julie

Keri

Hope you are inspired to come and play along. Just leave a comment here with a link to your card. We can't wait to see what you create! The keyword for uploading on SCS will be DDIC7. Have fun and look for the next challenge in two weeks!

A fond farewell

I know we are all going to miss the 2008-2009 In Colors - I thought I'd post one last card featuring some of them, and then I really will try to move on to the new ones!

I made this card for this week's Mojo Monday challenge. Julee has a great sketch this week - wow, #93! I based my color scheme around the gorgeous floral paper from October Afternoon, which works really well with baja breeze, pacific point, and kiwi kiss. My stamps are from the new Level 3 hostess set Kind & Caring Thoughts. I inked the flower with baja breeze, wiped off the stem, then colored the stem with an old olive marker (I know, I cheated). I used some textured cardstock in baja breeze and pacific point for the layers and card base, and very vanilla for the stamping. The background paper is from the kiwi kiss patterns, and my embellishments are from JoAnn's: crocheted trim in ivory and three buttons that match pacific point really well. How's that for a little vintage sweetness?

Flower Power

I'm back - sorry to disappear on you. We were having some technical difficulties with the new camera but I think we have it straightened out now.

My card today is for a challenge that is new to me - the Color Throwdown. These awesome stampers choose really great color combinations for their challenges, and I finally got to play along. This week's challenge is to use baja breeze, pink pirouette, and kraft - as a farewell to the retiring colors. (Sniff...) I resisted the urge to add chocolate chip in there - I wanted to keep it soft. I did find that a challenge, but I like what I ended up with.

I chose the Petal Pizzazz set and stamped all of the flowers in the set in the pink and baja breeze. I added buttons to three of the flowers and put them onto a kraft panel, with some of them on dimensionals. The sentiment (by Impression Obsession) was stamped with baja breeze on kraft, then circle punched and layered onto a baja breeze circle. The scallop circle was taken from the largest image in the Gallery set, and then scallop punched. To the bottom I added a pink strip that was punched with an EK Success border punch. One of my club members turned me on to them and I decided to try this one out - I think it's really sweet. I added some pink pirouette ribbon in the lower corner, mounted with dimensionals on a baja breeze card base, and called it done.

Thanks for visiting today - I know I still need to get on with making stuff from my new catalog goodies - so stop by again soon and hopefully I will have those for you!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #6

Wow, here we are at week 6! I hope you'll come and play - I think we have a fabulous challenge for you today. I found this photograph at Dandelion Ranch and just loved the colors and dramatic style of it. I combined my card with SCS sketch challenge #232 - a very cool layout.

I kept the background white to imitate the inspiration piece. My other colors are riding hood red, basic black, and kiwi kiss. I got my preview order from the new catalog and decided that Razzle Dazzle was the perfect set for this challenge.

For the center panel I first stamped the image in kiwi then in red, cutting out parts of the image to lay on top of the kiwi. I had to have green leaves, of course! I'm really excited that the new In Colors come in markers - if only they would go back and make them for the past ICs too... Anyway, I also colored over some of the kiwi with black marker. I should have just colored over the ink on the stamp, but by the time I thought of that it was already too late! (I don't know why my kiwi looks so washed out in the photo - it's a new camera and that's what I got!)

The small squares also use a stamp from Razzle Dazzle, and I layered all the squares with Nestabilities. I added a strip of DP from the Bella Rose pack, some kiwi ribbon, and a sentiment that comes from the new level 3 hostess set Kind & Caring Thoughts. I really love how it turned out - I think this is going to be a favorite set of mine from the new catalog.

Be sure to check out the cards made by all the Divine Divas for this challenge!

Angela

Chat

Chris

Julie

Keri

Hope you are inspired to come and play along. Just leave a comment here with a link to your card. We can't wait to see what you create! The keyword for uploading on SCS will be DDIC6. Have fun and look for the next challenge on July 2!