Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #5

Thanks for stopping by to check out this week's challenge! For this time around we have these cute tanks from Title Nine. I'm showing you both colors because between green and blue, I couldn't possibly choose a favorite. Feel free to take your inspiration from any or all of these colors!

I decided to pick and choose colors I saw in these tops: soft sky, blue bayou, mellow moss, and chocolate chip. It was fun to dust off these retired In Colors - I still love them.

For the background I used my B Line Designs damask, inked in blue bayou and stamped off once, then stamped on soft sky cardstock. I sponged the edges with blue bayou and just a bit of chocolate chip. The flower from Friends 24-7 was stamped in chocolate chip, then colored with mellow moss marker and blue bayou reinker and cut/embossed with Nestabilities.

I added a sentiment from Bella Blossoms, a layer of 5/8" chocolate chip grosgrain and blue bayou double-stitched ribbon, and three white pearls from the Pretties Kit. The blue bayou bow was a last-minute addition, and I think it made a huge difference - this is still a simple card but the bow makes me say, "Aww..." I worked most of the day on this challenge card - well, not THIS card but on the challenge - watch closely and you may see my rejects show up in another form! ;) It's only been two weeks so how did I get so badly out of stamping shape?

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

Angela

Chat

Chris

Julie

Keri (Keri is recovering from surgery so she may not be able to participate - please keep her in your thoughts!)

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 DDIC5. Have fun and look for the next challenge on June 18!

DDIC4 - blog candy winner!

I'm excited to report that we had our biggest (at least as far as I know) challenge participation so far for our last challenge. Let's keep it up - tell your friends! :)

Anyway, I am so sorry to be late in posting this - the winner of the SAB stamp set blog candy is Lorraine! You should have received an email from me, so if you didn't, let me know!

Thanks so much to everyone who played, and please come back next Thursday for #5 - your work is beautiful and I can't wait to see what you come up with next time!

To Teach

I wanted to share a card I made (actually I made two of them) for a custom order on Etsy. The customer wanted to use the quote "To teach is to touch lives forever" on a couple teacher thank-you cards. I decided to use yesterday's sketch challenge for these cards and I think it worked out really well.

My concept for the card began with two things. The customer requested there be some embossing on the card, so I knew I'd incorporate that with the stamped image since the quotation would be done on the computer. When thinking about what sort of image to use, I liked the idea of a tree, since they could represent longevity. So that brought me to the Thoughts and Prayers tree, which I thought would look beautiful embossed.

Not knowing the recipients I thought I'd go for something fairly clean and classic. I stamped the tree with Versamark on kraft cardstock and embossed with Ranger copper EP. The sentiment is printed to approximate chocolate chip, which is the cardstock I used for the layers, along with chocolate chip DP and an argyle print in kraft from the Manchester paper pack. To finish I added three copper brads and a bit of coppery brown organdy ribbon, then I cut and embossed the sentiment with a Nestabilities label die and mounted with dimensionals.

I hope the customer is happy with her cards, and the recipients as well! I felt a great responsibility to honor these teachers I've never met, since I have such respect for the wonderful teachers who have been part of my kids' lives so far, with many more to come!

I may be very quiet in the coming days - I have a few deadlines approaching and I'm insanely busy. But hopefully by the time the next DDIC rolls around on June 4, my life will be much calmer and I'll be back posting more often, because I really have missed doing challenges and making cards!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #4

Can you believe it's challenge week again already? I can't! I have been totally swamped since the last challenge and I'm really missing making cards, so I was happy to have a good excuse! For this week's challenge I chose these adorable Nesting Mugs and Plates from Acacia. I loved the spring colors - although here in Massachusetts it's supposed to feel more like summer today than spring!

I went for a clean and simple look with this card. I combined our challenge with a sketch challenge that is new to me - the Clean and Simple blog's Fall-to Layout challenge #41. This is a cool blog to browse if you like CAS, or you aspire to like it! ;)

For my colors I picked ruby red, certainly celery, baja breeze, and chocolate chip. I decided to use the Branching Out stamp set - there is a bird in there, but I'm not a big bird stamper so I went for the tree instead! The sentiment is from Bird on a Branch - I think it goes really well with this image. I used the scallop edge punch and pierced the scallops, then added some piercing on the celery layer and mounted it all to a chocolate chip card base with dimensionals on both layers. And that's it - there ya go!

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

Angela

Chat

Chris

Julie

Keri

I am also going to offer everyone who links to a card on my blog a chance to win a little blog candy. Up for grabs is your choice of one set from the now-unavailable stamp sets that were offered during Sale-a-Bration. I will choose the winner on Friday, May 29, so please leave your comment here by 9 a.m. Eastern on that day to be entered to win!

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 DDIC4. Have fun and look for the next challenge the first Thursday of June!

I'm published!

I came home this morning to find the newest issue of Take Ten in my mailbox - so I knew that could only mean that they published at least one of my cards! This is my first time getting published, which was one of my goals for the year. I was so excited that I could hardly wait to get into the house to rip it open and find my card. They actually published two of the ones I submitted - yay! If you want to check it out when you get yours, I'm on pp. 91 and 99. I am so beyond honored to be in the same magazine as Laurie Schmidlin, Jen del Muro, Kim Hughes, and goodness knows how many other elite stampers - what a fun surprise! Now I just need to find more time to submit more stuff, to more magazines, more often... never enough hours in the day! Thanks for sharing in my excitement. :)

Cottage Rose

Here I am doing cottage style again - for some reason today I felt like doing a sweet and feminine card. In honor of all the moms out there, perhaps?
I'm doubling up on challenges today - I am so busy that I shouldn't be playing challenges at all, but my Mother's Day gift to myself was taking time out to make a card. Yesterday's inspiration challenge on SCS was so cool that I just didn't want to miss it. My favorite pillow from Steph's chosen site was this one. This card is also for the featured stamper challenge, honoring Beth's friend Debbie (DbDoodle). Her style is so fun! I picked this card for my CASE. I kept the oval layout but I flipped it (and moved the ribbon accordingly). I used Nestabilities for cutting/embossing and cut out my flower as Debbie did. Then I added scallops and a dry embossed background, and I shrunk the size of the patterned paper for my card and left off the buttons.

I thought A Rose Is a Rose was the perfect stamp set for this inspiration piece. I stamped the rose in pretty in pink and regal rose, and the leaves in certainly celery and garden green. I used baja breeze embossed with the little dot texture plate for the background, and in the center added a strip of regal rose paper from the hostess Patterns Pack II. The white scallops at the edges of the striped paper were made with a long rectangle Nesties die that I just trimmed to fit. The flower is up on dimensionals. For my bow I used the celery poly-twill ribbon from SAB.

I tried and tried to make a sentiment fit on the card front, but nothing I tried looked right. So I did something that I think is a blog first for me - I decorated the inside. It's pretty minimal but I like it. The sentiment (in baja breeze) comes from Three Little Words, and the rosebud is from the same set and was stamped in the same colors.

Thanks for visiting today - I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend!

My wonderful mother

I've been sitting on this card ever since my last club meeting, since I'd decided to send it to my own mom and didn't want her to see it too soon! I had a lot of fun with this card - I didn't necessarily intend to add all of this stuff to it but once I started, I just kept going, and I was really pleased with the result. The layout and ribbon treatment were inspired by this card by Laurie Schmidlin - isn't it gorgeous?

The whole card started because I wanted to do a different coloring technique with my club. I chose the marker technique demonstrated by Julie Buhler in this video tutorial. The basics are to stamp with Stazon on watercolor paper, color with your lighter marker color, then color over where you want to shade the image with a darker marker and blend with an Aqua Painter. I used this technique on the dogwood stamp from Soft Summer in the mini catalog, using pink pirouette reinker and regal rose, close to cocoa, old olive and always artichoke markers. I didn't blend the cocoa marker with another color, just colored on the image and then softened it with the Aqua Painter.

Now for all the extras. I used my fingernail to distress all the edges and added cocoa ink with a paper towel. The cocoa and pink pirouette DP come from Candy Lane - it's not just for Valentine's Day! I created my own sentiment and printed it on pink pirouette cardstock, then I punched it out and pierced the cocoa scalloped circle. I added a little more piercing on two of the corners. I added a strip of regal rose grosgrain ribbon. Then I got out my Pretties Kit and dyed one of the flowers with the pink pirouette reinker. Tip of the day: It took a long time, and a lot of ink from the reinker, until I thought the flowers looked pink at all. I think I let them sit in the water for at least 24 hours! This was my first time trying this technique - maybe it was just because this is such a pale color.

For final touches I used a hatpin and a couple more of the Pretties, and then I added one of the Latte buttons with a bit of hemp twine in the center. As I was making this card I remembered how much I love making shabby chic cards - it's really a style that speaks to me. I hope my mom loves this card as much as I loved making it, and as much as I love her. Thanks for everything, Mom!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #3

Welcome to the third installment of our inspiration challenge! I think we have a fun challenge for you this week. Take a look at these great outdoor pillows from Pottery Barn and I dare you not to think of summer!

This challenge inspired me to get out a color I rarely use - summer sun. I wanted to use lots of green so I combined it with both kiwi kiss and old olive. I cut three strips of kiwi dot paper (trying to evoke the stripes on the pillows since I'm apparently out of striped kiwi paper! horrors!) and layered them onto a summer sun panel, then onto an olive card base. (I used a lot of textured cardstock on this card.) For the main panel I cut kiwi and olive leaves with the Little Leaves die - this die is so cute. I'm going to use it all the time! Then I added summer sun flowers from Petal Pizzazz. Every time I get this set out I swear I'm going to use a different flower, but I never do. This one is just too fabulous. After I cut out the yellow flowers, I stamped them again in olive and punched out the centers to mount with dimensionals.

To finish I added a sentiment from Best Yet, punched out with the large oval and scallop oval punches. The button treatment was inspired by something I've been seeing on blogs and in magazines lately - such as on this card by Jen del Muro. I did a different version of this idea: I took the white satin ribbon from the mini catalog and looped the ends under, then tied linen thread through the button holes and around the ribbon to keep the ends secure. The hardest part was keeping the ribbon from slipping out while I tied my knot - it took a couple tries but I managed to get it right!

I think I need to get out my summer sun more often - I feel happier just looking at this card. Be sure to also check out the cards made by the Divine Divas for this challenge!

Angela

Chat

Chris

Julie

Keri

This just in: Chris is offering a great prize with this challenge. Visit her blog to read how you can get up to four chances to win your choice of two packs of SU designer paper, valued at $9.95 each! Thanks, Chris - that's an awesome prize!

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 DDIC3. Have fun and look for the next challenge in two weeks!

Sarah at 3

Yesterday was my "baby" girl's birthday. Now that she is 3 I guess I have to actually admit that she isn't a baby anymore. When did that happen??

Sarah actually got three birthday parties. We celebrated with two different sets of grandparents while we were in Indianapolis. We don't usually get to celebrate with my nephew and nieces so that was fun, even though we kept it pretty low-key.

Here she is blowing out her candles - she did a good job that day!

We had a small party here at home today. Uncle Greg and Aunt Karen came from Stoneham to help us celebrate. I made Sarah a butterfly cake, and I think she liked how it looked. I know she liked how it tasted because she kept saying, "YUM!"
She had the funniest look on her face while we were singing "Happy Birthday" to her. I wish I knew what she was thinking!

We gave Sarah some Fancy Nancy books and a game, and she wanted to read one of the books right away. Ben crawled up with us to listen as well - and that is just one of my favorite times with the kids, when they both curl up with me to read a book. I really love those moments.

Finally here is a funny story for you. Yesterday evening Sarah came into my office and found a pair of sandals that are just about too small for her. I need to sell them on eBay or something. The girl does love shoes, and she put them on and came over to show me, saying "Ta-da!" And then she said to me, "They fit me!" I looked and could see that she just barely has room in the toes, so I said that they almost fit - "but you don't need any more shoes." Her answer: "So? They fit me!" I didn't really have an answer for that! She must be 3 going on 13. Should be a fun time!

Divine Diva Special: Meet the Team!

We have an extra Thursday this month, so unfortunately it's not yet time for our next challenge. But I have something a little special for you today. I've asked the Divine Divas to answer a few questions about themselves so we can get to know them a little better! These are the questions I came up with:

(1) Where is your hometown?
(2) Where do you live now (if different)?
(3) How long have you been stamping?
(4) What is your favorite stamping/cardmaking style?
(5) What do you find most challenging or difficult when you're making a card?

Then for fun I gave the Divas the option of suggesting a question for us to answer:

(6) What is your all-time favorite color? (from Chat)
(7) What is your favorite technique? (from Chris)
(8) What is your favorite embellishment? What do all of your cards have to have? (from Keri)
(9) What do you usually start with when designing a card? The colors, the image, or something else? (from Julie)

Ready? Here we go!

Angela

1) Where is your hometown? Brampton, ON

2) Where do you live now (if different)? Brampton, ON

3) How long have you been stamping? It's getting close to four years since I was introduced to stamping.

4) What is your favorite stamping/cardmaking style? Clean and Simple

5) What do you find most challenging or difficult when you're making a card? Colouring images. I just can't get the hang of shading.

6) What is your all-time favourite colour? Stampin' Up!'s Chocolate Chip

7) What is your favorite technique? I'm not much into techniques but I guess I'd have to say embossing.

8) What is your favorite embellishment? What do all of your cards have to have? It's a tie between dimensionals and ribbon. It's unusual for me to make a card without one or the other.

9) What do you usually start with when designing a card? The colors, the image, or something else? It depends, but I'd have to say the image most often. I like to do challenges, though, so I can have different starting points based on them.

Chat

I consider Glendale, Arizona as my hometown since I have lived here for so long, although I was born in Manila, Philippines. I have been stamping for the last 13 years and became a Stampin' Up! demonstrator shortly after. It has been the most fun and rewarding job ever.

My style in stamping: I love the clean and simple look but every now and then I go for some detailed elements that combine colors, technique and my signature style.
What is challenging for me: more than anything is following directions. I am so visual that sometimes I can't seem to follow directions and measurements. But once I see a card or a project, I can pretty much copy it and alter it.

My all-time favorite color is Chocolate Chip.

Chris

1. and 2. I was born in Newton, New Jersey, and lived there with my parents, older sister and younger brother on a dairy farm until I was 13 years old. At 13 we moved to upstate New York. I attended college in Grand Rapids, MI for my BA in Elem. and special education. When I returned home to New York I met my hubby who lived downstate New York. After 6 months of a long distance relationship, I moved downstate as well where we married (11 years ago). I currently live in downstate New York in Bloomingburg, 60-70 miles from the city.

3. I began stamping when I was introduced to stamping by my sister who is a Stampin' Up! Demo 6 years ago. I have been addicted ever since. It is a hobby and a way of escape or relaxing for me.

4. I have been told that I have a certain style about my cards and you can always tell that I made a particular card because of that style. What that style is I am not sure. I like to make shabby chic, elegant and cutesy cards with a lot of detail.

5. What I find most difficult when stamping is making clean and simple cards. I love the details and embellishments so clean and simple is difficult for me.

6. My favorite colors are Baja Breeze, teal, and pink.

7. My favorite tool is the cuttlebug because I love using my embossing folders to create textures and my nesties for die cutting. It adds so much detail to a card.

8. My favorite embellishment is bling, lace, and ribbon. I love extra glitz!

9. I usually start with an image and cardstock or designer paper when I begin my card. I guess I look at my image and think of what colors would go and then go from there.

Julie

1) Where is your hometown? I was born in San Antonio, TX but I grew up in Corpus Christi, TX

2) Where do you live now (if different)? northeast of Atlanta, GA

3) How long have you been stamping? seriously about 10 years, but casually a lot longer. I guess I was first exposed to a form of stamping way back in High School art classes. We carved linoleum blocks for our images. For years after that, I carved erasers, made lino blocks, even used felt glued onto wood for stamps.

4) What is your favorite stamping/cardmaking style? I love it all, but I'm partial to lots of layers and lots of details. I love to make backgrounds.

5) What do you find most challenging or difficult when you're making a card? The most difficult kind of card for me is a CAS (clean and simple). I love them, but they are hard for me.

6) What is your all-time favorite color? That's easy, GREEN (any shade). I love color, especially jewel tones and brights. I have a little trouble w/ pastels.

7) What is your favorite technique? Watercoloring, particularly watercoloring w/ markers

8) What is your favorite embellishment? What do all of your cards have to have? I'm terrible about remembering to use embellishments. But my cards almost always have to have the edges finished. I like to edge my layers w/ a marker to finish them off.

9) What do you usually start with when designing a card? The colors, the image, or something else? For me, it's usually the image first, then the color. But I love doing the sketch and inspiration challenges.

Keri

1) Where is your hometown? Cleveland, Ohio

2) Where do you live now (if different)? Fort Gordon, Georgia

3) How long have you been stamping? For about 6 years

4) What is your favorite stamping/cardmaking style? Not sure but I like the look of fresh, clean lines and images

5) What do you find most challenging or difficult when you're making a card? Starting with the color or stamp set. I never know what to do and have a hard time deciding.

6) What is your all-time favorite color? It is a toss up for me between purple, pink and green. I love them all together :)

My favorite embellishment would have to be ribbon or primas.. It is much a tie between the 2 and all of my cards seem to have to have layers.. Lots and lots of layers...

And not to be left out, here is mine:

I grew up in Elkhart, Indiana. I've lived in a lot of places since then but now I call Littleton, Massachusetts, home. Believe it or not, I've not yet reached the two-year mark since I first picked up a stamp. I was hooked the first time I tried it, and I became an SU demo in September 2007. I love every minute of it!

My favorite style of stamping I would classify as elegant, shabby chic, vintage... or all of those at once! But I also like to mix it up and do cute and whimsical sometimes too. The biggest challenge for me has to be layouts. That's why you find me doing lots of sketch challenges - they take that problem out of the picture and allow me to create more freely. But sometimes I go out on my own and do OK. I'm learning. ;)

My all-time favorite color... that is a toughie. I really adore a lot of colors but right now I think I'd have to say Baja Breeze is my favorite. My favorite technique lately is coloring - I'm really having fun with my Copics. I love embellishments of all kinds but ribbon has to be my favorite, and I hardly ever make a card without dimensionals.

I have a lot of different ways I start a card - often it's from a challenge so that gives me a starting point. I probably start with layout, image, or colors, in that order. I rarely sit down without some kind of plan or idea, and if I do, I'll usually chase down a challenge to get me going!

I hope you've had fun getting to know all of the Divine Divas a little better. Come back in a week for our next challenge on May 7!

Late-night stamping

I've been really busy the past few days - no time to play challenges, unfortunately. But I did squeeze in one quick card, so I'm up past my bedtime to post it before I crash for the night. I made this card for the weekly Copic challenge. These were the colors chosen, and since I don't have R59, I went with the darkest reds I have. For the layout I used one of Lauren Meader's sketches from this post - I know I won't win any awards for creativity with the sketch, LOL. But I've been trying to get this card done for three days and I just didn't have the energy to think outside the box!


This cute flower from Eight Great Greetings (in the spring mini catalog) was stamped on PTI white with Memento tuxedo black and then colored with the Copics. I used lots of Nestabilities, retired patterned paper (pumpkin pie and Holiday Happenings) and Bazzill pomegranate cardstock. (I'm really frustrated with my camera tonight - it's making my colors look funky. IRL this red is very rich - not as pink as it looks in the photo. I didn't use to have this problem - any tips for me?)

The sentiment from Great Friend was stamped right on the pumpkin pie paper with chocolate chip ink, then I added the two chocolate chip 5/16" brads. I'm finding that my Copic cards tend to be simpler - maybe because I invest all the time up front and then don't want anything to take away from the coloring? I dunno. Tell me if this happens to you!

This will probably be my last post for a week. On Wednesday I'm taking the kids to see the Indiana family. Ben is very, very, VERY excited to be flying on an airplane. I won't be able to upload photos so I'm planning to bring some Copics and other things to color and assemble while I'm gone. Hopefully that means I have fun stuff to post when I get back!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #2

Welcome to the second installment of the Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge! We all enjoyed bringing you our creations last time and hope that you feel inspired to come and join us this week. Plus, just to make things a little more interesting, Angela has offered up a prize for this week: a $15 stamp set from There She Goes!

This week our challenge features this Napa Valley print. I'm not really a wine drinker, but I was lucky enough to visit when Ben was just five months old. If you want to see some photos from that trip, you can click here. Talk about a blast from the past! Wow, it's hard to believe Ben was ever that little.

Anyway... on to my card! I decided to go vintage with the set Le Jardin Botanique. I loved that it had a tree, leaves, and berries - could be grapes, who knows? I also used a tag from the Tailor Made scrap kit. These colors had such a rich, masculine feel that I decided to make a Father's Day card.


The card base is 5 1/4" square and cut from sahara sand. I covered the left edge with two generations of stamped leaves in chocolate chip, then I dabbed a crumpled paper towel into the ink and "stamped" a pattern all over the card base. I finished off with lots of sponging. (Note: when I say "sponging" I usually use a paper towel. It's my favorite tool for the job. I just rub the paper towel over the very edge of the paper until I get the coverage I want.)

Next I stamped the tree (also two generations) on artichoke cardstock. I layered the panel onto chocolate chip cardstock with more sponged edges. I stamped the sentiment (Memory Box) directly onto the tag, then layered it on cardstock and added the jumbo pewter eyelet. I knotted a bit of hemp twine through the eyelet and mounted the tag with dimensionals. The final touches were the artichoke leaves and chocolate chip berries/grapes, which were stamped on sahara sand and cut out. Those were mounted with dimensionals also, and here I used a double layer since the tag was already up on dimensionals.

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

Angela

***Leave a link to your card on Angela's blog to be entered into the random drawing for the challenge prize!***

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 DDIC2. Have fun and look for the next challenge the first Thursday of May! (Yes, that's a very long way away. Maybe I will see if I can cook up a little something special for April 30...)

Cute Cupcake

I am multitasking today - I'm combining the sketch challenge with a card for my upcoming club meeting. The idea I had been thinking of for this card worked really well with the sketch. I also don't usually post club cards before the club meeting, which is on Friday - so if you club members are reading you're getting a rare sneak peek!

I based this card around the Big Bold Cupcake die set, which I cut out with Sweet Slumber papers and so saffron cardstock. I added a little Dazzling Diamonds glitter to the candle flames. With the sketch it seemed perfect to use the Top Note die for the large panel, then I added a baja breeze tag (from the Lots of Tags dies) stamped with the Birthday Wish stamp in ruby red. Using the Stamp-a-ma-Jig allows exact positioning of the stamp, which fits perfectly in the tag's oval. To finish I used another panel from Sweet Slumber with baja breeze ribbon (not exactly where the sketch had it - sorry!) and a saffron card base stamped with the canvas background in saffron.

That's it for now - don't forget to come back tomorrow for Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #2!

I hate being late

I really wanted to play the SCS inspiration challenge yesterday - but the day got away from me and I just didn't get it done. Today I managed to make time - I kept the card pretty simple, though, since my to-do list is longer than I even want to contemplate.

My inspiration piece was this wall art. I loved the rich colors and bold flowers, even though I ended up only using red. The flower and leaves come from the hostess set Dream a Little. I stamped the flower with Memento tuxedo black and colored with Copics (R27 and R29) - I was attempting to match riding hood red and I think it worked quite well. The leaves were stamped in old olive and the cut-out flower was mounted on top with dimensionals.

The damask background is by B Line Designs - I stamped it with Versamark on kraft cardstock and embossed with clear EP. The black cardstock is the linen textured cardstock from the Taste of Textiles specialty paper pack - it's really nice. Then I used a 5.5" square kraft card base and added three copper brads on the damask layer. The sentiment (stamped in riding hood red) is from Sincere Salutations, oval punched and mounted on a black scalloped oval (love this punch!!). I added a bit more hardware and a little riding hood red ribbon.

I may not be able to post as much as I'd like for the next couple weeks - there is a lot going on. I hope I will find time to do a couple challenges, but regardless, please visit this coming Thursday for the next installment of the Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge!

Wishing for spring

I'm really enjoying playing some challenges this week. It's been so busy and I've missed out on so many! Today's sketch challenge was right up my alley - my favorite kind of layout. I did tinker with it some, though - I didn't realize exactly how much until I sat down to upload my card!

I felt like making a springy card today. I wanted to use the Great Friend set from the mini catalog, which I love but really haven't played with much yet. I started out by inking the butterfly with baja breeze and then adding basic gray with the rock 'n' roll technique. I cut out the butterfly and mounted with dimensionals over the frame image, which was stamped in cameo coral (stamped off once) and also cut out. I used a square of basic gray cardstock to set the frame and butterfly off.

For the larger rectangle I stamped the leaf image once in basic gray, and then covered most of the stem with a post-it note, inked the stamp again, removed the post-it, and added leaves where I wanted with the Stamp-a-ma-Jig. I know you can do this with a marker, but I find if I'm stamping with both the ink pad and the marker, the color variation stands out too much. I kept adding leaves until the branch looked nice and full. The flowers were cut out from the DP from A Walk in the Park, which is also used for the tall background panel. (Too bad they didn't give us this flower in a stamp - I would have loved that.) To finish this panel I added piercing, the sentiment in baja breeze, and a layer of cameo coral cardstock. I sponged the edges of the large panels with basic gray. Then I assembled all of this onto a top-folded baja breeze card, with the white satin ribbon from the mini catalog as an embellishment.

Doesn't this make you want spring to just get here already? At least in Massachusetts, we are still waiting!

Sweet Little Baby Bear

I love these stamps from Cute & Cuddly - they were the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the color challenge today: bashful blue, so saffron, and close to cocoa. The most complicated thing about this card was the coloring, which gave me another chance to play with my Copics. I only used three colors: Y21, B21 and B23. The images were stamped in Memento rich brown on PTI white. I don't think I would normally color a punched-out sentiment but I love how it looks - definitely worth the time!

This was a pretty simple card to put together. I cut out the bear and mounted on dimensionals over a square of saffron paper from a retired scrap kit. The cocoa paper is from Candy Lane, and the blue stripe is from the Rock-a-Bye Boy scrap kit (still current). I added textured cardstock scallops that were cut out with Nestabilities, a bashful blue taffeta ribbon and bow, and paper piercing around the edge. I used textured whisper white for the card base since I'd used it for all the other layers. Easy and cute - now I just need someone to have a baby boy so I can use it!

Me and my girl

Today was our Easter egg hunt at church. I guess they do it on Palm Sunday because on Easter they have two services and think everyone will be too busy then. It's a fun tradition, and for once we had pretty nice weather. Easter in New England is usually pretty cold!

Ben wouldn't really stand still for pictures. We tried to get a family shot but the kids didn't cooperate. So I had Todd take some of Sarah and me and I love how they turned out. I hear so often how Sarah looks just like me - I actually think she looks a lot like Todd, but we do seem to have the same haircut, LOL. I can see the resemblance in this photo for sure! (You can click the photos to see them bigger.)

I love Sarah's expression in this shot.

And one with a silly toddler face, just for fun!

I had to do a little adjusting to this photo to make it look OK since Sarah was in a shadow. But I just thought she looked so sweet in it. She's our little angel - at least some of the time! :)

Doubling up

I got a visit from the Copic fairy today! Tonight I've been having fun playing. I found a couple Copic challenges and decided that it would be fun to try one of them out. It's the Copic Colour Challenge, and these are the colors they picked. It's a fun combo!

Here's my card. The layout is Taylor's cupcake challenge - so I had to go with the cupcake from Wagon Full of Fun. The colors were great for this image, I thought. Once I colored the cupcake (stamped on PTI white with Memento rich brown) I paired it up with some retired tempting turquoise DP and a sheet from a Marcella (K&Co.) paper pack I've had lying around. And lots of chocolate chip layers and Nestabilities!

These are the Copics I used. The yellows are only for the flame, which is hard to see since I covered it with a Sakura clear glitter pen. I also added a little glitter to the icing. You can see that better in the next close-up shot.

The sentiment is by A Muse. To embellish my card I added some vintage buttons I inherited from my mother-in-law. The turquoise one is tied with the same dot ribbon I used for the bow. I used DMC floss on the little brown button, and for the white button - it was a funky one with one big hole in the middle, so I stuck one of the chocolate chip 5/16" brads in the center.

This was really, really fun - a great way to spend my evening!

Welcome to the Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge!

I'm so excited to announce the new incarnation of my blog inspiration challenge. I've made some changes based on the feedback I received, and I hope you like what you will be seeing and will come play along!

OK, first, the schedule: Instead of being weekly, the challenge will now happen on the first and third Thursdays of each month. But feel free to play along at any time. We all know there are lots of challenges out there and hopefully this will keep anyone (including me!) from being overwhelmed.

Next: I've decided to add a design team who will make samples for the challenges and post them on their blogs. This group of fabulous stamping ladies will be known as the Divine Divas. They are:

Angela of An Ink and a Smile

Chat of Me, My Stamps and I

Chris of Twinkles Glow with Stamps

Julie of The Write Stuff

Keri of Got Stamps?

I know you will be impressed with their work and want to come and join us!


To kick off our new round of challenges, I chose this Bohemian bedding from Land of Nod. I just loved the colors and patterns.

On my card I used the colors tangerine tango, kiwi kiss, pink pirouette, and chocolate chip. I first made the background with this B Line Designs damask background stamp with chocolate chip ink on pink cardstock. The main flower image is by A Muse. I stamped it twice with chocolate chip so that it would cascade down, and then I put the sentiment oval (Paper Salon/Nestabilities) in the middle. The flowers and leaves were colored with a blender pen and kiwi and tangerine reinkers. To tie the oval in with the flowers I punched a flower with the McGill Perfect Petals Baby Blooms punch, then added a Martha Stewart half pearl. I made the last-minute addition of some extra stamped and colored leaves to the oval (the whole pink panel was already assembled - thank goodness it worked!) and then I put the tangerine flower on top. I finished off with kiwi and chocolate chip cardstock panels and a top-folded tangerine card base.

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

Angela

Chat

Chris

Julie

Keri

OK - so you want to play along, right? 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 DDIC1. Have fun and look for the next challenge in two weeks!

You'll want to stop by tomorrow...

We have big news coming! The inspiration challenge will be returning with some exciting changes. Please be sure to visit my blog again tomorrow for all the details!

I've been bitten by the Copic bug

I resisted these markers for a very long time... but I realized that I really love coloring stamped images, and I am also rarely satisfied with the result when I color large areas with traditional markers. So I decided to take a Copic class at my local stamp shop, and now I'm hooked.

Today's sketch challenge seemed like a good chance to do some practicing. I don't have a whole lot of colors right now, so I chose an image that would work in the large panel with the markers I do have. I didn't really choose wisely when I bought them - that was before the class, and I really wish I'd waited to purchase until that day. But anyway - I thought I could work with these yellows and greens and this pear image from the Artful Stamper.

I stamped the pear once on Papertrey Ink white cardstock using Memento tuxedo black ink. Then I masked it off and stamped it a second time, and then colored the images very slowly and carefully! These are the Copic colors I used. The background is panels of Delicate Dots and chocolate chip DSP. I added a strip of saffron ribbon to cover the join. The sentiment is from Savvy Stamps and was stamped with chocolate chip. I distressed and sponged all edges and added paper piercing and a bit of copper Hodgepodge Hardware.

What do you think? I wouldn't say it's my favorite card I ever made but I decided to just jump in with my markers, practice a bit, and post something before I chickened out!

March club cards

We had fun at club last Friday night - sorry that it's taken me until now to post the cards! Why is it that just when I think I'm getting caught up, I suddenly realize I'm even further behind?

Anyway... here are the cards. This one uses the bunny from Eight Great Greetings in the mini catalog, stamped in basic gray then colored with pretty in pink, so saffron and bashful blue markers. For the scalloped oval I layered two pink scalloped circles, then used the saffron ribbon to hide the overlap. The background is retired bashful blue paper (Maine Blueberry) and a pink panel embossed with the little dot texture plate.

For this card I used a lot of supplies from the mini catalog. The Upsy Daisy image was done with the embossing resist technique. I used the brayer to apply basic gray ink over the clear embossing on whisper white cardstock. I added cameo coral and gray cardstock and the following from the mini catalog: paper from A Walk in the Park, one of the stamps from Ovals All layered with the new scalloped oval punch (love it!), a strip of the white satin ribbon, and two basic gray corduroy buttons. I just think the accessories in this catalog are fabulous, if you couldn't tell!

Don't forget that the mini catalog goes live tomorrow - no foolin'!

For a very special friend

A dear friend of mine will soon be going to Taiwan to pick up her new adopted daughter. This little baby has been long awaited and prayed and hoped for by so many. We can't believe that so soon she will be here with her new family! My friend asked if I would make a box and card for her birthmother gift. This sweet baby's name in Chinese means Iris, so that will be her American name as well. The box and card I made are a tribute to this beautiful little girl.

I made the box first. It's a slightly modified 2-5-7-10 box; I made the front and back 3.5" inches wide instead of 3" (and thus the sides are 1.5" instead of 2"). I made the box out of SU's gold cardstock, then I stamped the Baroque Motifs swirl in Versamark and embossed with Ranger gold EP. The ribbon is (I think?) A Muse. The iris stamp is by Hanko Designs. I colored the stamp with old olive marker and a purple Tombow marker, then stamped on very vanilla and colored in the flower with a lighter Tombow purple. I cut out and embossed with Nestabilities, using a larger scalloped oval so I could paper pierce the scallops. The purple is Bazzill cardstock. Finally I added some Martha Stewart half pearls to the scalloped edge of the box flap.

The card was made with all the same materials, using the layout (flipped) for the Weekend Sketch Challenge. I put the panels onto a textured vanilla card that measures 5x7. Here is a close-up of the iris.

I really hope that my friend loves this - it was made with a heart full of love for this baby that none of us has even met yet!

Doing a little housecleaning...

I decided to take some time today and spiff up my blog a bit. I've started adding labels - how did I not realize that this was so incredibly easy? At least it's easy if you add them as you post... going back over 300+ posts and adding the labels is not *quite* as easy.

I've also added a blog roll - check out these ladies' gorgeous creations!

And stay tuned for news on the inspiration challenge. I'm hoping it'll start back up soon. Things may be changing a bit but I won't tell you now - you'll just have to check back for details!

Another crazy week

I'm sorry that once again I've gone through most of the week without posting. I would love it if my schedule would just calm down a little... I am wrapping up an editing project over the weekend and I hope all that is on the horizon is more time to stamp!

Today I managed to squeeze in a challenge card. The limited supply challenge was to make a card with Soft Subtles colors and a spring flower. I decided to use blush blossom and sage shadow, and the Live Your Dream flower that I still love so much. But I did cheat a little - isn't everything better with chocolate? Chocolate chip, that is. It just needed something dark to ground the soft colors.

I started out by inking the flowers with the blush blossom pad and then wiping the ink off the stems with a baby wipe. I tried using the blush marker but it was just too pale. The chocolate chip covers the centers so you don't have to worry about that, and by the time you are ready to ink the stems they are dry. I used the side of the chocolate chip marker's brush tip to edge the flower petals. Then I stamped on very vanilla and cut and embossed with long rectangle Nestabilities. I decided to use textured cardstock on this card and layered the flowers on chocolate chip. (All the edges are sponged with chocolate chip on this card.)

The background is made up of a panel from the Cosmo Cricket Everafter collection - (have you seen these? Truly to die for. And they match SU colors quite well - this paper looks nice with sage shadow.) and a blush blossom cardstock panel embossed with the pretty pattern Cuttlebug folder. I covered the join with chocolate chip taffeta ribbon and then layered it onto chocolate chip cardstock and a top-folded vanilla card base. For another embellishment I had to use the vanilla half pearls from the Pretties Kit. I've been hoarding them a little but they seemed perfect here. The sentiment is from the new mini catalog set Ovals All, which works so well with the new scallop oval punch. To be able to layer the large oval punch makes me blissfully happy!

I hope I'll be back soon with another card to show you. Hope you have a great weekend!

Soft Morning Glory

Hey, two days in a row I've played a challenge. Let's see how long this lasts... Today's featured stamper is Stacy (aka Twinshappy), and let me tell you - I didn't even begin to look at all 15 pages of her gallery! Clearly she deserves to be featured, and her work is amazing. I chose this card for my CASE. I kept the layout basically the same, but I made a different scored panel (although I really like what Stacy did and will have to try it sometime), changed the image and colors, used brads in the corners, and added an extra layer as the card base.

I've had this Morning Soft image for a while but this was the first I'd used it. (Can I just say that I don't really miss trimming and mounting stamps - at all!) I stamped the flowers in always artichoke and colored with mellow moss, almost amethyst and lovely lilac markers (with just a touch of only orange in the centers). On the flowers I colored over all the shading with the lilac and then colored over with the amethyst and used a blender pen to soften the lines. I am much less experienced with coloring with markers - how did I do?

I cut the whole thing out and mounted with dimensionals over my scored background (made with a Scor-Pal). I used the ticket corner punch and vintage brads to accent the corners of the scored panel and the artichoke layer underneath, then mounted that with pop-up glue dots onto a panel of moss DP from the retired Winter Retreat scrap kit. On that layer I wrapped a piece of retired artichoke ribbon from Theater Originals around, and then used more dimensionals to mount that on a white top-folded card. The sentiment is the single stamp Glad Friends, stamped in artichoke on amethyst cardstock and punched with the designer label punch, then layered over a 1 3/8" artichoke circle. I added a flower from the Pretties Kit with another brad because it just seemed to need something else, but I'm not sure about it. Any suggestions?

Thanks for stopping by today. I've enjoyed my stamping time this weekend and I'm crossing my fingers that the week ahead will hold more of the same. But after last week, I'm not making any promises!

Where did this week go?

Remember Monday, when I said I was planning (or hoping) to post some stuff this week? I can't even believe it's the weekend and I didn't play a single challenge. I was working on a lot of Etsy stuff that's been partially finished for a long time, so that's where I've been.

You know how much I love the SCS inspiration challenge, so I definitely had to play. This was the photo that inspired me - the Global Market collection at Fitz and Floyd. I loved the colors and the style of the flowers. Although the colors really reminded me of some of last year's In Colors, I used the current set instead - baja breeze, riding hood red, and kiwi kiss, along with so saffron.

I first created my own patterned paper with one of the stamps from True Friend, using whisper white cardstock, riding hood red ink and my Stamp-a-ma-Jig. For the focal panel I used the large flower image from the same set. I stamped it in red, kiwi and saffron, then cut out the saffron flower and punched the red center with the 1/4" punch. I used baja breeze for layers on both. For embellishment I added a kiwi eyelet punch border, baja breeze ribbon, and riding hood red buttons tied with linen thread. The sentiment, stamped directly on the saffron card base, comes from Three Little Words. There, a sweet little card that really isn't as hard as it looks!

February (well, March part 1) club cards

I'm playing catch-up a bit today. I thought you might like to see the cards we made at my club meeting yesterday. We missed our one gal who was out sick but we still had a good time! We'll be meeting again in just a couple weeks because yesterday's session was actually the February meeting, which we had to reschedule from when I was sick myself. (Is it spring yet?)

This card uses the technique with watercolor crayons colored directly on the stamp and spritzed with water. We used the SAB set Botanical Blooms with elegant eggplant, always artichoke and mellow moss. I put a layer embossed with one of the texturz plates behind it, with taffeta moss ribbon, flowers from the Pretties Kit daubed with eggplant ink and accented with half pearls, and the Elegant Thank You stamp punched with the scallop square.

Here is the card we made to play with more SAB goodies. I got the idea for this card from a layout I saw in the most recent issue of Stampin' Success. The heart from Polka Dot Punches was stamped in certainly celery and bashful blue, then punched and accented with filigree brads. A strip from the Delicate Dots paper and a generation-stamped celery panel are the background, and then I wrapped a bit of knotted celery poly-twill ribbon around the blue paper. I used the congratulations sentiment from Congrats in chocolate chip and then added a corresponding layer over the white card base. I imagined that this could be a wedding or anniversary card.

I hope you enjoy these SUO cards, and thanks for stopping by!

And the ribbon goes to...

Patty C! Please email me your snail mail address and I'll send you some yummy ribbon from my stash. (Click on "view my complete profile" and you'll get an email link.) I haven't picked out your goodies yet so tell me your favorite colors or your wish list and I'll see what I can do. :)

I appreciate those who came and left comments for me. It was gratifying to know that there are readers out there who enjoyed the challenges. I'm starting to miss doing them so I'm contemplating bringing them back on a biweekly basis. I'm not sure when it would start back up, but definitely not this week. I hope you'll stay tuned and check back in!

Give some feedback and get a chance to win!

***NOTE extended deadline!***

I'm posting a follow-up to my decision to suspend my challenges. One person unsubscribed after I last posted, which made me sad since I would have liked to hear her thoughts before she did so. One reader suggested doing a monthly or biweekly challenge. I certainly can do that and would love to hear your thoughts about that idea. But I would also really like to know - what would get you readers out there to play along with the challenge? ;) Am I just a victim of challenge overload? I know there are so many challenges going - it's hard to play them all. What would make you want to do my ICs? Any and all feedback welcome - I'd love to hear your thoughts. And just to make it a little more fun, I'll send a goodie bag of some assorted ribbon to one person who leaves feedback for me. I'll pick the winner on Sunday, March 8, at 10 p.m. Eastern.

Pixie Blooms

It was a busy day here, with my stamp club meeting and church, but I had to squeeze in a challenge card for the featured stamper challenge. Today's stamper was Judy (aka StampingQueenJAR) who is such a great artist and person. Congrats, Judy! I picked this card because I liked the layout and I thought watercoloring would be fun today. I kept the layout (with fewer layers) and used some similar embellishments, but I changed the image and colors and used patterned paper instead of a stamped background. I also added some piercing.

I never got to play last week's color challenge (chocolate chip, pixie pink and kiwi kiss), and once I decided to use this flower image from Bloomin' Beautiful, that seemed like a great color combination for this card. For my watercoloring I used watercolor crayons and a kiwi reinker with my Aqua Painter. This pretty kiwi paper is from the Sweet Nothings Simply Scrappin' kit (can I just say, this kit is gorgeous). I pulled out my kiwi kiss satin ribbon and my retired copper Hodgepodge Hardware - I am almost out of these oval frames, which are my favorite. (Sniff.) The sentiment is from Sincere Salutations. It all went onto a very vanilla card base.

I think that's about it for this one - pretty simple! I am really hoping that I will be able to post more regularly in the coming weeks. I'm itching to make all kinds of stuff. And don't forget that I will choose someone to receive a ribbon goody bag tonight at 10 pm Eastern - please leave me a comment on my ICs to enter. The post is at the top of my blog home page. Thanks!

What a week!

I am so happy to have something to post today! I worked like a maniac and got my freelance project out the door on time, and I finished a custom order that needed to go out yesterday. So I decided I would give myself this morning off to stamp. (And it's also my birthday... so that's my present to myself, LOL.)

My mom asked me to make a card for her aunt and uncle's 65th wedding anniversary. Wow, 65 years - isn't that inspiring? I also played the SCS limited supply challenge to make a card in 30 minutes or less and Sharon's Stamp Simply challenge to use heat embossing.

I was inspired to use night of navy based on the only information I could find about the traditional gift for the 65th anniversary - the star sapphire is apparently the gemstone for this anniversary. My mom wanted the numbers on the card so I took some chipboard numbers from Timeless Type, covered them with navy craft ink, and embossed with clear EP. This is so quick and easy, and the chipboard looks so great embossed.

I also embossed the flower image from Thoughts and Prayers, but this time I used Ranger cobalt Antiquities EP. The stamped and embossed image was just not intense enough in color for me otherwise. The cobalt is not quite the same color, but it doesn't seem to matter - it just fills out the color of the ink. For cutting out I used a large Nestabilities oval.

For the background I used a panel of navy cardstock dry embossed with the swirl SU texture plate. I chose to use soft sky as an accent color for the large panel and the scallop border on the Nestabilities oval. Then I added a sentiment from Hugs & Wishes, attached the oval with dimensionals and added the soft sky ribbon and bow, and glued the numbers onto the oval.

OK, my morning is flying by - I'm off to see if I can finish anything else before school pickup this morning. Have a wonderful day and weekend - I'm so glad you visited today!

Hooray for Kelly H!

Kelly is today's chosen featured stamper and does she ever deserve it! She has a huge and amazing gallery. It took a while just to choose which card to CASE! In the end I picked this one - it just spoke to me. I kept the layout but made it a square card, used chocolate chip but with baja breeze, and made my own background instead of using a background stamp. I also left off the brads because, in all honesty, I forgot! But I don't think there was room for them anyway.

For my main panel I used the gorgeous flower image from Friends 24-7. It was stamped in chocolate chip on whisper white, then I accented the flowers and leaves with just a little bit of baja breeze ink and a blender pen. For layers I used baja breeze cardstock and the chocolate chip damask print paper from Parisian Breeze. I sponged the edges of everything with chocolate chip. The background is made with the damask stamp from the same set, with chocolate chip ink stamped off once. I added sponging over the whole panel, with extra on the edges, and some polka dot ribbon from the Valet pack.

The sentiment is from Thoughts and Prayers - I just colored the "Thinking of You" part with a marker. What do you think of my punch layering? This is a bit funky for me! I used the curvy label punch to make the layers. First I punched one label and placed it vertically behind the oval, then I punched another label and with it oriented the "correct" way I cut it in half, then adhered each half to the two ends of the oval.

This shabby chic style is one of my most favorites - I hope you like it, too! Have a wonderful day!