Apothecary Elements

Welcome to my second week of hosting the challenges at Our Creative Corner! This week I have a sketch for you. I came up with this sketch a long time ago based on the label of a box of bakery muffins from Walmart. See, you never know where you might find inspiration!

I combined my card with two other challenges: SU Only (use your favorite product from the Occasions mini) and the Color Throwdown (Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Rose Red).

I actually have several Occasions mini favorite products on this card: the stamp sets Apothecary Art and Creative Elements; the Framelits dies; and the large pearls. I stamped all over the Crumb Cake DP with the swirly stamp from Creative Elements and also used the label image from that stamp set. For the Pool Party DP die-cut label, I inked just the outline of the journaling stamp with a marker, then using the Stamp-a-ma-jig, I added the flowers on the top and bottom of the label. The circles on the sketch became my medallions, which I made with the triple doily punch, the bitty flower punch, and the aforementioned pearls. FYI, the size of the background scalloped square is 5 3/16".

I've had fun hosting these two challenges, and I hope you have fun playing along with this sketch! Have a wonderful weekend!

Birthday Beauty

Wow, another Saturday - that means another challenge at Our Creative Corner! I get the privilege of being the hostess for the next two weeks, and this week I have my favorite: an inspiration challenge. I found this gorgeous baby shower table at the Hostess with the Mostess blog. The challenge is to find at least two elements in the photo to inspire your project, and as a bonus you can give it a baby theme if you wish.

This card is doing double duty as a stamp club project, so I elected not to make it a baby card. The background technique is called faux tile, which I was inspired to teach my club after seeing this card. I didn't end up CASEing Lynn's gorgeous card but instead went a different direction so I could showcase some new products from the Occasions mini.

This is a 5 1/4" square card. The main image comes from the fabulous stamp set Apothecary Art and the new Framelits labels. I took my colors from the inspiration photo: Pool Party, Calypso Coral, Pear Pizazz, and Early Espresso. I thought the flowers in the image echoed the floral elements on the shower table. For accents I chose coral ribbon (which is also on the table in the photo) and a larger label of pear DP. To give the green just a little definition against the blue background, I edged the DP with espresso marker. The tile background is a 5" square of Pool Party card stock, scored into 1 1/4" squares, stamped with the SAB set Fresh Vintage, and sponged across the score lines for definition. Finally I incorporated the rhinestones that appear in the background of the photo as center accents for the flowers.

OK, that's it from me - I hope you enjoy this challenge and come play along with us! Be sure you check out what the rest of the team has created as well, and have a wonderful weekend!

Birdhouse Birthday

My new stamp club is starting up this weekend, which means I get to stamp more than once this week! LOL! I always like to have my stampers play with new stuff, and this card fits the bill. It's a CASE of this card by Mary Fish, which I just loved and thought could easily work for any occasion. I'm also entering this card in the paper piercing challenge at the Friday Mashup.

The colors I chose are Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip. The main image is from the hostess set Up in the Air, which is in the Occasions mini. Also in the Occasions mini is the pleated ribbon - this stuff is gorgeous - as well as the Edgelit die which created the scallop border. I used the Christmas stamp from Perfect Punches but covered the sentiment with one from Up, Up & Away. The embossed polka dots and paper piercing finish off this fun card. 

I'll be back tomorrow with my OCC card for this week! Thanks for stopping by!

Baby Birthday Cake

It's the weekend again - time for another challenge at Our Creative Corner! Our hostess again this week is Vicki Burdick, and this time around she wants us to use paper piecing. So here is my card - the papers are supposedly baby themed but I thought they would be really cute for a birthday. The challenge requirements also state: NO ribbon and ONE embellishment. I interpreted that to be one TYPE of embellishment, so I hope I didn't break the rules...

This card uses some non-SU product (stamp by Savvy Stamps, DP by Simple Stories - Baby Cakes, border die by PTI). The 2 1/2" circle punch and pennant die provide my cut-out shapes, and I added some sparkle with my glitter pen. The embellishment(s): retired pink buttons tied with linen thread. The sentiment is from Bring on the Cake, and to pretty up the end of my banner I stuck it into the decorative label punch to get a funky edge.

Be sure you check out all the creations by our team members for this week's challenge, and while you're at the OCC blog, submit your favorite recent creation for our design team call! We are looking for some new talent to join us and it could be you!

Happy new year!

Oh my gosh - such a long time since I've blogged and stamped. I'm happy to say that I'm back from my break with the fabulous team at Our Creative Corner. When it came time to make my card for this week's challenge, I felt quite out of prractice. Vicki Burdick has challenged us to make a shape card, and after a little hunting online I decided to make this matryoshka (Russian doll) card. The template is printable - plus there are lots more to choose from so you can play along with us! Since this is a birthday card I'm also entering it in the Friday Mashup birthday challenge.

I decided to feature the gorgeous stamp set that's part of the Sale-a-Bration offerings called Fresh Vintage and the matching DP, Everyday Enchantment. I love these two products so, so much. The colors I used all come from the DP: Pool Party, Poppy Parade, Very Vanilla and Soft Suede. Mostly I got my shapes from the template, but I did use some Big Shot/punched circles (cupcake punch, owl punch, circles #2 die). The border at the bottom uses one of the edge dies that's available in the Occasions mini. I stamped the flower then used leaves cut from the DP and placed the whole thing onto the embossed oval frame with a sentiment from Easy Events. (The flower in her hair is also cut from the DP - this card required a lot of cutting and glueing!)

I had fun with this - it's a great challenge to try something you've never done before. I know someone with a large collection of these dolls so I should save this one for her birthday! Please join in the fun with us and try out the challenge - I don't think you'll regret it. And be sure you see the rest of the wonderful shape creations from the design team!