Saturday, April 30, 2011

Birthday Pennants

Happy Saturday! It's time for another challenge with Our Creative Corner - I hated to miss last week but we were traveling. This week our hostess is Jen Rzasa, who is challenging us to use embroidery floss. I used to cross-stitch so I have lots of this lying around - I often thread my buttons with it but I wanted to come up with something else. Todd suggested I should make a dentist card - my response was something along the lines of, "That's the wrong kind of floss, honey" - but for some reason after he said that, the image of a banner of pennants came into my head, so that's what I went with! I'm also submitting this for the CAS button challenge at Pals Paper Arts.

My colors came straight out of the Color Coach: Peach Parfait, Baja Breeze and Riding Hood Red. For a darker accent I added Chocolate Chip. After I stamped and cut out the pennants (from Party This Way) I added the stars (from Itty Bitty Bits) to the centers. The length of embroidery floss was glued to the back of the pennants, then I added the bows afterward. (Who knew it was so darn hard to tie bows out of embroidery floss?) The sentiment comes from the hostess set Something to Celebrate (in the occasions mini), and I added two bitty buttons backed with Baja Breeze card stock.

Be sure you check out what the rest of the OCC team has come up with for the challenge, and then get out your floss and play along with us! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

For All You Do, Mom...

First off, for my own mom, this isn't the card you'll be getting for Mother's Day! LOL! But we will be making this one at my club this weekend. I took inspiration from a couple different projects that appeared in the most recent issue of Stampin' Success, the magazine that all demonstrators receive once a month (one of my favorite demo perks!). The layout uses this week's Mojo Monday sketch (with a couple little tweaks). I'm also submitting this for the Mother's Day challenges at Hand Stamped Sentiments and SUO Challenges.

I embossed the flower from Petal Pizazz with a combination of the new Melon Mambo embossing powder (from the summer mini! so cool!) and iridescent ice EP. It makes the color of the embossing just a bit lighter with a very subtle sparkle - it's gorgeous IRL. We also have Wild Wasabi (and Tangerine Tango) EP so I used that for the leaves (with no sparkle on those). I added a rhinestone in the center and put a few others under the sentiment, which comes from the set called For All You Do and I thought was lovely for a Mother's Day card. (I just stamped Happy Mother's Day on the inside.) Layers of Melon Mambo, Wild Wasabi and So Saffron DP (with Early Espresso card stock) finished the layout and I just used a tiny bit of (Daffodil Delight) 1/8" taffeta ribbon as my final embellishment.

Thanks for stopping by today - I really appreciate all of you who read and/or leave me comments - it makes my day!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Thank heaven for stamping

At times like this, when I'm under a lot of stress, sometimes I find that having a reason to plunge myself into creating is the best possible thing. I have club this weekend, after having returned from a lovely vacation visiting my in-laws in Mississippi, so even though it's a bit of a panic, I have had a great time creating our projects.

When I was at the Hartford regional, one of the Workshop Wow demos was on making fabric yoyos. Once I saw that they're very easy to do, I decided I'd do them at club sometime, and this is the month! The original demonstration used this same flower stem from the Sweetheart set, and it turned out so cute I had to use it on my card. I took my layout from the SCS sketch challenge. I cut my yoyo using our largest circle die, but you can use any circle die you like. The Candy Cane fabric I used for my yoyo was in the holiday mini but it's still available! Yay, because it's adorable and not overly Christmasy. My punched circles come from the birthday set Party Hearty (using the fabric colors of Wild Wasabi, Real Red and Baja Breeze). I kept it simple with a Blushing Bride card base, a dot-embossed bottom panel in Baja Breeze, a strip of 5/8" red grosgrain ribbon, and a sentiment from a set that appears to be retired - oops... oh well, my button is retired also but I just had to use it! Shh, don't tell!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Easter Wishes

This week our hostess at Our Creative Corner, Vicki Burdick, is challenging us to make a 3-D project for Easter. I'm sharing a cute little nest basket that we made at my club. I found the idea here and CASEd a lot of Brenda's elements, but I changed the stamped pieces just a bit.
The basket comes from the largest scallop circle die, made with Soft Suede card stock and run through the Big Shot with the square lattice folder. I stamped my bird with the flourish from Elements of Style, using Regal Rose card stock and white EP. The sign uses Crumb Cake and Baja Breeze with the modern label punch and a tag from the Matchbox die. I added a flower (made with the Boho Blossoms punch) with leaves from the bird punch and a glimmer brad.

We hope you'll come play along with our challenge as you get ready for Easter - we always love to see your creations!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

A bouquet for you...

It's been a long time since I did a challenge just for fun - and I can tell! I had the card finished this morning, then I had to pick my son up from school and run some errands so I didn't have time to do my blog post. When I got back home I took the card all apart and redid the layers - I'm much happier with the result now. The colors are from the Color Throwdown and the layout from the SCS sketch challenge.

The image I used is from a new set in the summer mini called On the Grow. I colored it with Copics, which took quite a while this morning - and I'm disappointed that the flowers look much brighter in the photo than IRL. My colors are Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise and Pear Pizazz, and I spent a long time experimenting with my markers to get colors that match and I'm a bit peeved that it doesn't look like it in the photo! LOL! I added a strip of scallop ribbon border punch to the left of the image, over layers of turquoise card stock (embossed with the square lattice folder), daffodil DP (Greenhouse Gala) and pear card stock. The sentiment comes from Herb Expressions and to finish off I used a retired turquoise button tied with the new baker's twine - also in the summer mini. This fabulous stuff is such a hot trend and SU will have it in three colors!

OK, well, now that I've spent way too many hours on this card, I'm off to do some other things... thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Strawberry Sunday

Here's another card we are doing at my card buffet this weekend. I saw this strawberry idea by Linda Fisher and thought it was too adorable!

The Real Red strawberry is the Heart of Hearts embosslit; the Garden Green leaves are from the five petal punch. I trimmed off part of one of my leftover green flower punches to make the stem. The white flowers are from the Boho Blossoms punch with a Daffodil Delight brad in the center, and the vines are made with the bird punch. I kept the rest of the card simple: just a white panel embossed with polka dots, a little red bow, and a sentiment from Because I Care stamped inside one of the Four Frames images.

I think this turned out really sweet - and now I can't wait for some really good fresh strawberries!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

A Cup of Thanks

Welcome back to another Saturday challenge from Our Creative Corner. This week Sharon Wheet has challenged us to create something based on an "afternoon tea party" theme. I tend to stay away from food and drink stamps - well, unless they relate to cake or ice cream. LOL. So this adorable stamp by Lockhart was the only "teacup" image I had - hope that counts!

I wanted to use some of the Springtime Vintage paper for this challenge, so based on that I stamped my image with Not Quite Navy and colored it with Baja Breeze and River Rock markers. It was punched with the 2 1/2" circle, mounted on a square of River Rock, then on a NQN scalloped square. Just for fun I added pearls in the corners, and all the edges are sponged. For the DP I used a larger square - both the scalloped squares were made with SU Big Shot dies. I added a bow of crochet trim and retired River Rock ribbon, topped with a NQN button (also retired) tied with linen thread. The base is a 5 1/2" square card with an A2-size panel of River Rock, which I ran through the square lattice folder, layered on top. I used the Tasteful Trim die to cut another scalloped border but then covered most of it up, LOL. The sentiment is by Impression Obsession.

Please join us for tea - I hope you'll visit the OCC blog to check out all the team members' creations and then play along with us!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Welcome to the World!

I am finally starting to put together the ten (gulp) cards I need for my card buffet on (another gulp) Sunday. When I'm pressed for time I turn to my long list of ideas I've seen on other blogs and get busy CASEing. Here's my first card, which was inspired by Lisa Young's adorable card seen here.

I wanted something quick for the cart - and I wanted to save my decorative label punch for another card. (At my card buffets I try not to use supplies on more than one card.) So I used one of the cupcake Sizzlit dies. Now that I'm looking at it, the scale is probably a tad off compared to the Fox & Friends lion. LOL. But I'm going with it! I attached a thin strip of Pear Pizazz card stock for decoration and made the wheels with 1/2" and bitty circle punches and silver brads. The linen thread behind the cart attaches to the sentiment banner with a ring - I just used the 1/2" circle punch around one of the bitty circles I'd already punched from Bashful Blue - and a tab made from half a word window punch. The sentiment is from A Word for You. I figured that was enough for my stampers to do so I just finished off with a strip of pear DP, a little paper piercing, and a Chocolate Chip card base.

OK, it's time for bed so I can get up in the morning and keep going on the rest! I probably won't get around to posting all of the cards, but I'll try to show you my favorites. Thanks for visiting!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Remember when...

I had time to stamp more than once a week, and I didn't feel like I had to rush when I pulled out my supplies? Oh, how I miss those days. I have a card buffet coming up on the 10th so I'm pretty sure I'll be stamping a lot in the coming week - but I hope I get to go back to doing challenges for fun after that! So stay tuned... In the meantime this is my card for this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner. Our hostess for the next two weeks is Sharon Wheet and for this week we're to make something girly, with the following recipe: a handmade paper flower, ribbon and bling.


I started out with the flower, which I made with the 2 3/8" scallop punch and Blushing Bride designer paper. ETA: The instructions I followed for the flower can be found here - I just used DP instead of vellum and didn't do any sponging. I needed a large brad for the center, which led me to the retired corduroy brads - and somebody stop me, I went with the brown and pink combo with Chocolate Chip. The only stamp is the sentiment from Word Play- it seemed like a pretty and girly choice. The scallop trim punches dressed up my vanilla sentiment panel, and for bling I added rhinestones I colored with a Sharpie. For the background I kept it simple - Chocolate Chip designer paper, Blushing Bride embossed card stock (using the vintage wallpaper folder), and Chocolate Chip satin ribbon.

I know the rest of the team has fabulously pretty creations to share this week so be sure you go check them out, and then play along with us - it'll be fun!