A simple, sweet sneak peek

Today I needed to make a birthday card for my niece, who's about to turn 5. I brought the new stamp set Something Sweet specifically for this purpose. This card started out as a sketch challenge card, but wouldn't you know, my main panel was too big so I came up with my own layout.

I first stamped the gumball machine in rich razzleberry on whisper white. If you couldn't tell already, this stamp set is meant to go with the sweet treat cups, but I decided to just use the stamps on this card. Instead I filled my gumball machine with cut-out candies in razzleberry, melon mambo, and taken with teal. I glued the candies inside the machine with two-way glue, and for the ones on the outside I popped up a couple candies on each side. The background papers are melon mambo and taken with teal DP (the latter is from the Sweet Pea collection). The oval-punched sentiment is from the same stamp set, and to finish I added a melon mambo bow.

I hope my niece loves this card, which I think is almost as sweet as she is!

Paper Pals and Previews

We're at my mom's this weekend, and of course I brought some stamps with me. Today I finally had a chance to use them. In the interest of space I didn't bring that much - I decided that a good way to limit myself would be to only bring new stamps from the upcoming Occasions Mini catalog that starts on January 5. This can be frustrating when I don't have everything at my fingertips, but it'll be a great chance for me to play with my new stuff. I also only brought SU products, so everything I make while I'm away will be SUO.

Today I wanted to play along with the SCS inspiration challenge, which was for the site Posh Tots. I picked this cute owl print for my card. I also used the Paper Pals sketch challenge - my first time playing along with these fabulous stampers.

I took a bit of liberty with the colors because I don't have any light blue with me. To make the main panel I cut a branch out of chocolate chip cardstock and then punched leaves with my 1 1/4" circle punch and old olive cardstock (first punch a circle and then put it back into the punch just a bit and punch the leaf shape). Then I stamped the small flower from With All My Heart in pumpkin pie around the branch. The owl is from Fox & Friends and is stamped in so saffron, then cut out and mounted with dimensionals over the feet, which I stamped again in chocolate chip.

For the background I layered saffron DP and two prints from the Sweet Pea DP pack - what a great collection of papers! I had trouble picking just two. The sentiment is from the Chit Chat rub-ons - I adhered each word individually so they would fit inside the circle. Then I finished the card with two Playground buttons tied with linen thread. Not bad for working with limited supplies, I guess!

Love You a Latte

This week's challenge from Our Creative Corner is to use food or drink in our projects. I had a hard time figuring out what to do - I wasn't even sure I had that many food or drink stamps! But then I saw this stamp from the SU set Pun Fun - I'd never even mounted it. Once I chose the image, the card just took off from there.

I chose my colors based on this DP, which is Honey Pie by Cosmo Cricket. I first stamped the image in Memento tuxedo black, intending to color with Copics, but in the end I paper pieced it for an exact match. I did use an E41 Copic marker to shade around the cup and highlight the steam. The cardstock is PTI white and Bazzill Capers. In hunting through my stash, I discovered that these Making Memories (Lemonade collection) buttons and flowers are a great match for this paper collection. I just filled in a couple of the colors with Primas for a little more variety. I added linen thread to the buttons before I mounted them all together. The main image was cut with Nestabilities, and for the border I used an EK Success punch. To make it all tie together I pierced the edges of the scallop circle.

Wouldn't this be a great card to tell a special friend how much you love them? Of course my friends who know me really well would have to laugh because they know I don't even drink coffee. LOL! Be sure you check out the fabulous work of the rest of the team at the OCC, and come and play along! Thanks also to Jenny for such a fun month of challenges. See you in 2010!

Dasher Through the Snow

Welcome to another fun challenge from Our Creative Corner. This week Jenny Gropp's challenge is to incorporate snow or snowflakes - easy enough this time of year! And all I have to do is look outside my window for plenty of inspiration.

This card is actually a slightly stepped-up version of the swap card I made for our demo team Christmas party last week. I was inspired to make this card after watching the newest Workshop Wow DVD - if you're a demonstrator and haven't seen these DVDs, I highly recommend them. I've gotten so many great ideas from them.

This card started with a plain whisper white panel. I masked off a 1 1/4" circle (with a post-it note) and the snow line (which I made with a torn piece of scrap paper), then sponged basic black classic ink over the whole thing. I stamped Dasher with platinum shimmer paint, applied directly to the stamp with a sponge dauber. The snowflake is from Christmas Punch - since I was using the dauber I could choose to just use a single snowflake. Tip of the day: These snowflakes are quite small and detailed, so I found that once I'd stamped Dasher and experimented a little with the snowflakes, the dauber had enough paint on it to do all of these snowflakes without reapplying any paint.

To finish my card, I added the sentiment (from the retired set Holidays & Wishes) and three silver brads, and I highlighted the top of the snow with dazzling diamonds. I used a layer of brushed silver cardstock behind the main panel for a little more shimmer. Tip of the day #2: I recommend letting the card dry at a couple stages: after sponging the black ink and after stamping with the shimmer paint. Both will be permanent once they're dry, but just a little extra drying time will keep them from rubbing off.

Thanks for stopping by today - I hope you have time to play along in the midst of your holiday preparations. This may be my last post till next weekend, so happy holidays to all of you!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #18

Here's our second holiday-inspired challenge for the month. This time around we're going to be inspired by these beautiful soaps by Mistral. (They were available at Anthropologie when I first saw them but they are sold out now - I guess everyone else loved them, too!) I just couldn't choose between the green and the red, so I'm showing you both. Feel free to use one or both colors in whatever way inspires you!

I decided to go with the green for my clean and simple Christmas card. This was one of those (rare) times when I imagined the card in my head and it turned out almost exactly as I pictured it. First I colored the image from Autumn Days with chocolate chip and garden green markers, stamped on whisper white, and cut and embossed with Nestabilities. The white background was embossed with the Perfect Details texture plate. Next I layered a strip of garden green paper from a retired hostess patterns pack. The sentiment is by Papertrey Ink. For embellishments I used Martha Stewart pearls and some of the new chocolate chip satin ribbon that will be available in the upcoming Occasions Mini. It's wonderful ribbon, and it's going to come in a lot of your favorite colors - you're going to want them all, just like I do!

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

Anne

Chris

Donna

Julie

Kerri

(Keri is sitting out our December challenges.)

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 DDIC18. Have fun and look for the next challenge in the new year - on January 7, 2010! Happy holidays to everyone from the Divine Divas!

Stepping it up

It's time for this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner. Jenny Gropp has challenged us to create using a Christmas or Hanukkah theme. No avoiding the holidays this time, LOL. I looked at my stamps and only had one set that hadn't seen any ink this season, and that was Season of Simple Grace.

This stamp set seems to encourage people to do unusual folds, which is not something I'm normally drawn to. I looked around a little at some other cards and folds and decided to do a stair step card. This is my first time doing one of these, so please be gentle! I also realized that this is a tough card to photograph, so I'm including more photos than usual to try to show you everything I did.

I started with naturals ivory cardstock and folded it following Beate's tutorial. Next I stamped the images - the three kings and holy family are in elegant eggplant, and the shepherds and star in soft suede. I used my Sakura clear glitter pen to accent parts of the images - well, except for the shepherds. I didn't imagine them being glittery! Then I cut out the star and adhered it over the baby Jesus, and layered all three images on eggplant cardstock.

To decorate the steps, I wheeled the Sassy Sparkles wheel with soft suede ink and cardstock, and again accented with glitter pen, then punched the edges with the eyelet border. I added purple organdy ribbon to the tallest step before I attached it to the card, then I staggered the three images so you can (I hope!) see all three.

Finally I added the scripture (from the same set), which I cut with Nestabilities. I also added the ribbon bow, just for a little something extra! Tell me, how did I do? I feel very unsure of myself when it comes to something that's not standard card shaped!

Make sure you go check out all the OCC team samples, and we hope you will want to play along this week. I know I'm really starting to get in the holiday mood!

All wrapped up with a bow...

Doesn't this card look like a present with that big bow on top? I guess that's appropriate since this is a special birthday card for a special friend! This card uses today's sketch challenge on SCS, which I haven't played in a very long time!

When I sat down to make a card for this particular friend, I thought of a few things - elegance with a slightly exotic flair; rich colors; and just a little sparkle. I pulled out the medallion stamp, inked it with rich razzleberry, and then did rock 'n roll in not quite navy. For a little texture I stamped onto naturals white cardstock. Then I stamped the medallion again in not quite navy and punched out the center with the 1 3/4" circle punch.

The right side of the card is a panel of razzleberry cardstock stamped with one of the flowers from Razzle Dazzle (in two generations). Over the join I layered not quite navy ribbon from the Elementary Ribbon Originals. The sentiment is from the birthday stamp in the Everything Nice set, punched out with the word window punch and layered on the modern label in razzleberry. I added three more flowers, which were stamped in/on NQN and cut out, and then for my bling I put rhinestone brads in the centers of the flowers and also in the medallion center.

OK, that's it for today. We're having a snow day here today - the first of the season! Thanks so much for visiting!

Porcelain "Turtle Doves"

It's time for another challenge from Our Creative Corner, and we have a new hostess for December: Jenny Gropp. We have great challenges lined up for you this month, starting with today's, which is to make a card or project inspired by anything in the "Twelve Days of Christmas" carol.

Here I am with spring colors again... what can I say? I'm in denial that winter hasn't truly started yet and spring is a long way off! I wasn't coming up with the perfect stamp, so I decided that two turtle doves might be my best bet. I know these aren't doves... but at least there are two of them! The stamp is by Cornish Heritage Farms and it's called Gum Tree Swallows, so I guess that's what they must be. LOL.

I knew I wanted to do my birds in chocolate chip, but beyond that I was kind of stuck. So I did the same thing as last week - started browsing through the stacks of DP that are out in my studio right now. This time I used Basic Grey's Porcelain collection. The "lace" was cut from one piece of DP, the brown dotted strip is another pattern of paper that I ran through the crimper, and the green floral is my third pattern. Then I stamped the birds on the nontextured side of pink Bazzill cardstock (all cardstock here is by Bazzill) and cut with Nestabilities. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and was stamped on the green floral paper and then punched with the word window and modern label punches.

For embellishments I used three pale green rhinestones from K&Co. (It's hard to see in the photo but they match the green paper really well.) I also wanted some ribbon but didn't really have anything that was the right color, so I took some white satin Offray ribbon and colored it with a Copic marker. It worked beautifully - just be aware that the marker made the ribbon quite stiff, but that actually worked fine for me because I was able to get a nice, crisp bow out of it.

That's it from me - stop by the OCC to check out everyone's lovely creations. And if you're like me, you'll be singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" all weekend. Enjoy!

Divine Diva Inspiration Challenge #17

Welcome to the first challenge in December! We have a couple Christmasy challenges for you this month - but don't feel you have to make a Christmas card. You can be inspired in any way you want! This week's challenge is this fun collection of mugs from Garnet Hill.

I had no idea what I was embarking on when I started this card - it started out as a possible workshop card but then it just took on a life of its own! Unfortunately I think it looks way cuter IRL, but I guess you'll have to take my word for it! ;) I knew the colors I wanted to use: bashful blue, ruby red, soft suede, and whisper white. I had the idea to stamp the sentiment from Best Wishes & More in this curvy pattern - it was really easy to do and didn't even require the Stamp-a-ma-Jig. Then I thought it would be fun to cut it out following the words. Rather than try to cut the ruby red DP (from The Write Stuff) I cut the words out along the bottom, adhered them to the DP, and cut again across the top. I trimmed it down and attached it to the bashflue blue base.

Next I thought a tree would look nice on the left side, so I stamped the tree from Season of Friendship in soft suede. I forgot to consider, however, that the raised cardstock on the text would make it not stamp evenly. I tried to think of ways to fix it and finally came up with the perfect solution: to stamp it on soft suede cardstock and cut it out. I made the snowflakes with whisper white craft ink embossed with iridescent ice. Then I added the ruby red bird with a tiny bit of a dimensional.

Here is where it started to get crazy. I hadn't had another idea of what to do with the rest of the card and it was just way too bare to leave it that way. So my idea: a punch art snowman! I did a little searching through blogs and didn't see a snowman design that was small enough for my card, so I came up with my own.

Here's a close-up of my little snow guy. The punches are: 3/4", 1", 1 1/4" circles for the body; jumbo snowflake punch for the arms (trimmed down, of course); modern label punch for the hat; small star punch for the carrot nose; and word window, small oval and large oval punches for the scarf. Some of these probably didn't need to be punched, LOL, but apart from drawing on the eyes and buttons, I can say I did the whole thing with punches! Once he was all put together, I gave him some glitter on the snow and hat, and as long as I had the glitter out anyway, I added more to the snow and the tree branches. And the final touch was a soft suede bird to fill in what still looked a little empty. Whew... after all that, I'm glad I love the card!

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

Anne

Chris

Donna

Julie

Kerri

(Keri is sitting out our December challenges.)

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 DDIC17. Have fun and look for the next challenge on December 17!