Saturday, August 27, 2011

Christmas Poinsettias

Welcome to another Saturday and another challenge from Our Creative Corner! This week our hostess, Vicki Burdick, has a color challenge for us: Real Red, Basic Gray and Basic Black. A very classy combination that just said "Christmas" to me, so...

Here's what I came up with. This card features a stamp set that will be available in the upcoming Holiday Mini called Pines & Poinsettias. The idea for this card just popped into my head as I was assembling my stamps so I went with it. All of the stamps are from the same set, except the sentiment, which is from Delightful Dozen. I colored the small image with gray and red markers, and stamped the background swirl all over with black. The focal image I stamped twice so I could pop up the flowers. You probably can't see this but I added just little hints of our new liquid glitter called Dazzling Details. The final touch was three punched flowers with gray glimmer brads in the centers.

Ah, I feel the holiday spirit - it'll be here before we know it! I hope you'll play along with these colors and be sure to visit the OCC blog to see the rest of the team's creations. I'm sure you'll be inspired!

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Sympathy Flowers

It's time for another challenge with Our Creative Corner! These weeks just keep flying by. Our hostess for the next two weeks is the fabulous Vicki Burdick, and this week she has a sketch challenge for us.

I looked through my pile of new stamps that hadn't seen ink yet and thought the Field Flowers set would work well with the sketch. If you like elegant, realistic-looking flowers, this stamp set is for you. The flower stem is actually a little bigger than I really wanted the panel to be, so I trimmed it down and positioned the cut-out flowers in such a way that it almost looks like the out of the box technique. The colors are Always Artichoke for the stems, Peach Parfait and Tangerine Tango for the flowers, and Soft Suede and Early Espresso for the flower centers. I inked and distressed the edges on this card and also used the color spritzer for more vintage style. The sentiment comes from Petite Pairs - I love sentiments that fit inside the 1 1/4" punched circle and this one is perfect. I kept the embellishments simple with three (retired) vintage brads.

Okay, you have your challenge - now go make something! :) We always love to see what you come up with. And don't forget to take a look at the rest of the work from our wonderful DT - I'm always in awe of the talented ladies I'm lucky enough to work with at the OCC!

Saturday, August 13, 2011

A Cherry on Top

This week at Our Creative Corner our challenge from Kristin Tierney is to use fruit as a theme. Perfect for summer!

I took my inspiration from the Berry Blossoms designer paper - the colors are Calypso Coral, Wisteria Wonder, Lucky Limeade and Early Espresso. I've seen lots of people do this kind of layout with the rounded corners - I don't think I had any one card in mind but I thought it would be a cute layout with this paper. Instead of using the matching stamp set I paired it with the cherries from Button Buddies. My embellishments consist of limeade ribbon that I wrapped around and adhered with glue dots and a purple button from my stash, tied with linen thread. The sentiment label is from Lots of Tags - I cut the espresso layer behind it by hand. The sentiment from A Word for You seemed absolutely perfect for this card!

I hope you'll visit the OCC blog to see the creations by the rest of our fabulous team. Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Tax-free weekend!

We have a special weekend coming up here in Massachusetts - the sales tax holiday. When you make purchases this weekend you don't have to pay sales tax, and that includes Stampin' Up! orders! placed Sat/Sun, Aug. 13-14.

I'm going to offer a little incentive or two for orders placed via my online site on Saturday or Sunday.

(1) Order at least $25 and I will give you one of the new catalogs - which I normally give out for free with a $50 order. You'll get the catalog from me at the end of the month when I'm back from vacation.

(2) Order at least $50 and you can choose an item from a selection of my retired stamps and paper packs (local delivery only, or you can pay the shipping, which is still a great deal!).

(3) I will do a drawing from everyone who orders at least $50 - one lucky winner will get a $10 coupon toward a future order!

Don't forget about the special on designer paper - buy 3 get 1 free! Lots of great papers in our new catalog so stock up now!

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Thinking of You Trees

Another week has flown by and it's Saturday again. Whew! This summer is going by much too quickly. For today's challenge at Our Creative Corner our hostess is Kristin Tierney. We're going back to Copenhagen again (so jealous!) with some photos of gorgeous flowers - the challenge is an inspiration challenge using the photos, except we can't use any flowers.

I did struggle with this one a bit - I tried to work with the pinks and purples but I just couldn't make it work without flowers. So I went back to the photos again. The green hydrangeas reminded me of trees, and I also liked the photo of the white flowers with the pop of yellow. So taking those two elements, I came up with...
this card! I have to say, I love it. The layout is a sketch challenge from Diva Coffee Break Designs. I used the Trendy Trees set in Lucky Limeade and Early Espresso. The sentiment and border punch are non-SU (PTI and MS, respectively). The background is a tone-on-tone panel embossed with the houndstooth folder. I added the scalloped circle with some piercing, the little modern label punch tab with polka dot brad (so cute!) and a bit of Daffodil Delight ribbon for finishing touches.

Thanks so much for visiting - if you haven't already, make sure you visit the OCC blog and welcome our new DT members - this is their first challenge playing with us and I know you're going to love their creations, not to mention those of all the fabulous stampers who were on our team already. I'm so lucky to get to work with such an awesome group of ladies, and welcome to new members Tui, Holly, Anne Marie and Marjie!