Saturday, July 30, 2011

It's your day... up, up and away!

Wow, Saturday again already? This week the team at Our Creative Corner is saying good-bye to the lovely Sarah Gough - I know she is going to be missed. She is finishing her term on the DT with a final week of hosting, and she has a color challenge for us: red and aqua, with adding pink as an option. I chose not to use the pink, which made it an unusual card for me - I couldn't tell you the last time I used only two colors (not counting the neutral).

Here's my card - once again featuring several new products. I used the Big Top designer paper since it included the two required colors (Real Red and Tempting Turquoise). I thought the Up, Up & Away stamp set would be fun with these colors. I used our largest circle punch and layered it onto one of the doily shapes on the new pennant die - the circle covers up the holes, which I actually like here. I embossed some turquoise card stock with polka dots and added a scalloped border piece. I used linen thread with knots of grosgrain ribbon for the balloon's "tail" - to attach to the card I just put mini glue dots behind the ribbons. Finally I added the sentiment, which is from the hostess set Happiest Birthday Wishes. I stamped it onto the banner that's on the petal cone die (with one end trimmed down so it would fit).

I hope you'll try out our color challenge - these are fun colors that I promise will put a smile on your face! Be sure you stop by the OCC blog to see the rest of the creations from our team, and don't forget to wish Sarah well - thanks, Sarah, for all your wonderful contributions to our team!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Framed Flowers

So much for posting more than once a week - at least for this week! I've picked up some extra work so I might not be able to fulfill my goal... but considering the economy, as long as I'm working freelance I have to take it when it comes. Anyway, I'm back with my card for this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner. Our hostess for the next two weeks is Sarah Gough, and this week it's a "B" challenge: black, bling, buttons and a bow.

I had a lot of fun with this card (if not a lot of time to make it). I pulled out a bunch of new stuff for this one, and I am in love with all of it. I featured one of the new In Colors, Island Indigo - this color is just gorgeous. The black background is embossed with the new stripes embossing folder. I used another new Big Shot product, one of the little embossing frames, to set off my image. These cute flowers are from the Easy Events stamp set. I colored them in a sketchy style with indigo and olive markers, then popped up the image and added black rhinestones (from last year's holiday mini) in the centers. The background paper is from the Playdate pack (retired), and for my bow I used the Island Indigo ruffled ribbon on top of black satin ribbon. Finally I threaded three white buttons with a tiny bit of indigo card stock and called it done!

I hope you'll play along with this week's challenge - I know you'll enjoy it as much as I did. Don't forget to stop by the OCC blog to see the gorgeous creations from the rest of the team, and have a fantastic weekend!

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Summer Window Box

This week at Our Creative Corner our hostess, Kristin Tierney, is offering up an inspiration challenge with photos from her recent trip to Denmark. (Can I just say... jealous!!) I loved the pink and red flowers in the lower right picture and also took the idea of a window and made a flower box. I'm entering this card in the Pals Paper Arts summer challenge as well, because all the beautiful blooms are one of my favorite things about summer!

The flower images come from a new stamp set called Raining Flowers. Do you think it's possible to have too many flower stamps? I don't! ;) These are two-step images and I used combos of Pretty in Pink/Regal Rose, Poppy Parade/Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive/Always Artichoke. The flower centers are poppy glimmer brads and pink buttons threaded with embroidery floss. To create the window I just punched openings with a 1 1/4" square punch, and for the box I used a panel of Early Espresso card stock scored on the edges so it would stand up from the card. Both the window and box were stamped with the wood grain background and sponged on the edges, which I hope you can see if you click on the photo! I decided to leave a lot of white space to really let the flowers shine on this card. The final touch was this fun sentiment from one of my favorite new sentiment sets, Friendly Phrases.

Now I'm wishing I were getting on a plane to Copenhagen, or just about anywhere else, this weekend, but instead I'll be staying home - and if you're home like me, I hope you'll get out your stamps and play along with us! Don't forget to visit the OCC blog to see what the rest of the team created and share your work with us!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Loving my new goodies

Do you know what one of the hardest things in the world is? Getting that first order from the new catalog and not having any time to play with all the fabulous new stuff! I finally had time to play a challenge (actually two) and I'm giving myself a challenge (again) to post more often. I'm still really busy so I'm not going to promise something crazy like posting every day, LOL. But I'm going to make an effort toward posting more than once a week!

My card today is for the SCS sketch challenge, which I actually did find difficult, and the Color Throwdown. I swapped in the new Island Indigo for Taken with Teal, since I try to use current colors on my blog, and Pear Pizazz for Certainly Celery, just 'cause I like it better. :D The other colors are Rose Red and Pretty in Pink, plus I used white for a neutral. It's such a fresh and cheery color combo. The image is from the new stamp set called Button Buddies - cute stamps and an excuse to use buttons, what's not to love? I put PIP brads in the center of the buttons - just cut or twist off the prongs and glue in place. OK, I shouldn't say "just" because it was trickier than I expected, and really quite messy, but I like the result. I used another awesome new product, the Houndstooth embossing folder. LOVE! And the sentiment is also new, from the super-cute set called Perfect Pairs. I can see I'll be using this set all the time.

It was fun stamping - just for fun - today and I hope I'll be doing it again soon. I'm so glad you stopped by - have a great day!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Pretty in White

We have a great challenge at Our Creative Corner today - to focus on white! Now I'm not promising this is going to be easy - it's called a challenge, after all - but I encourage you to try it! I didn't really know what I was going to do for my card, but I was watching TV with my husband and the image of this card just popped into my head - I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

I first cut out a bunch of flowers with the Flower Fusion die and white textured card stock. I added a pearl to the center of each one and adhered them to my background, which was embossed with one of the texture plates (if you click on the photo to enlarge it you'll see it better - it's subtle, which is what I wanted). I left the bottom of the panel plain to stamp my sentiment, which is from PTI and stamped in Memento London Fog. Finally I added some Melissa Frances white crochet trim - and voila! Done! I think it would be lovely for a bridal shower.

OK, you've heard your challenge - will you take it on and join us? We hope so! Don't forget to stop by the OCC blog and see what the rest of the team has created. Thanks so much for visiting and have a wonderful weekend!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Celebrate the Season

It's time for another challenge with Our Creative Corner - I'm glad you stopped by on what is a holiday weekend for those of us in the U.S. With that in mind our hostess, Sarah Gough (who happens to live in New Zealand), asked us to create something seasonal - either for the Fourth of July or Christmas. I don't tend to make patriotic stuff too much, but I saw this star box that Lisa Young made and wanted to try it myself. (You can get a link to Diana Crick's original directions through Lisa's blog.)


I decided to make mine more of a centerpiece, so after putting a bud vase into the box I filled it with skinny dowel rods I'd topped with decorated chipboard shapes. To hide the dowels I put duplicate shapes on the front and back and taped the dowel in between. For decorations I used a bunch of glass glitter, designer paper, cardstock, and iridescent ice embossing to mix up the colors of Whisper White, Real Red and Pacific Point. On the box itself I used the retired set July Fourth - you can barely see, but on the bottom there are sparkly embossed fireworks. The white embossed stars on the blue DP are from the Itty Bitty Bits stamp set.

That's about it for this project - I hope you'll visit the OCC blog to see what everyone else has come up with, and then play along with us! Have a happy Fourth of July and/or a great weekend!