Saturday, July 28, 2012

Serene Summer Silhouettes

Whew, it was another busy week. It's probably going to stay that way for the next little while, but I'll keep trying to post! Today it's time for my second challenge at Our Creative Corner. For this week I chose this photo of round fabric buttons for inspiration and came up with what I think is a fun challenge.

For my card I kept it pretty clean and simple this week.


I created the background and center strip with images from Summer Silhouettes, and the main image is from Serene Silhouettes. Give me a set with "silhouettes" in the name and I'm all over it, LOL! My colors are Poppy Parade, Lucky Limeade, Blushing Bride, white, and black. The sentiment is from Bring on the Cake, and the only non-SU product used was the 2" scalloped circle punch.

I'm outta here for today, but before I go of course I have to remind you to visit the OCC blog to see the rest of the samples from the team. There's a ton of stamping eye candy for you this week! Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend!

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Eleanor's Blossoms

Good morning! I missed my stamps this week - there was just a lot of other stuff going on. But I'm here today as hostess of the challenge at Our Creative Corner for the next two weeks. I'm calling this week's challenge What Not to Stamp - it's a card makeover challenge! You can read the full description on the OCC blog, but to summarize it here, pick an old card (one you have a photo of), then CASE it with a makeover. It took a bit of courage for me to dive back into five-year-old card photos - wow, some of my first efforts were so.... awful! In the end I picked this 2007 card to do over. This was one of the first cards I published on my blog.


You can read more about this card here. The things I liked about this card were the background technique (I made it with a swim diaper, LOL!) and the colors with accents of gold. I also chose to use swirls, flowers, and a bird on my remake. I took my layout from the Pals Paper Arts sketch challenge, and I'm also entering this card in the Stampin' Royalty Anything Goes challenge. Here's my new card:


I used two stamp sets for my images: Everything Eleanor and Betsy's Blossoms. I started by making the Baja Breeze background panel by stamping the swirl all over with Early Espresso ink. I used the new gold pen (coming in the holiday catalog on August 1) to add accents around the swirls. For the center panel I started with naturals ivory card stock and sponged on some Baja Breeze ink with saran wrap and a paper towel. Over that I sprayed gold shimmer mist and sponged Early Espresso on the edges. Here's a close-up photo that shows some of the details a little more.


The Baja Breeze shaped element stamp is from the Eleanor set, with the bird and leaf from the Betsy set. To make those crisp and clean leaves look a little more vintage and distressed, I inked the stamp and then kissed it with a clean paper towel. I brought in gold accents with two (retired) brads. Finishing touches were a sentiment from Lacy & Lovely, a strip of crochet trim, and an accent flower. It's die cut with the new flower Framelits (the smallest one) cut out from a stamped flower in Primrose Petals. In the center I put one of those super-cute new In Color dahlia adornments.

Wasn't this fun? I hope you're inspired to find one of your old cards and make it over with us this week. Don't forget to check out the amazing transformations from the rest of the OCC team - they are fabulous!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Island Night Rose

Good morning! It's time for another challenge with Our Creative Corner. Our hostess again this week is Sharon Wheet, and this week the challenge is to use navy and pink plus another color of your choice. I picked Island Indigo to go with Night of Navy (of course) and Regal Rose. I think these colors look pretty fabulous together!


The featured stamp image is from Embellished Events - a fun new stamp set in the catalog. I colored it with markers, punched with the 2 1/2" circle punch, and placed that on top of a scallop square die cut that I embossed with polka dots. I added some rhinestones in the corners and a sentiment from Create a Cupcake, punched with the decorative label punch. For the background I used some retired rose DP, two strips of indigo ribbon, and indigo card stock embossed with the stripe folder.

Make sure you stop by the OCC blog for this challenge - especially because we are welcoming our wonderful new DT members today! You'll love seeing their creations each week and playing along with all of us!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Tea for two challenges

What to do when I'm caught up with my work? Catch up on my crafting, of course! I've looked longingly at the Embellish magazine challenges for a long time now but I've never managed to actually play along with one. Today was the day to change that. The current challenge is a fun one and it got me using some products I haven't played with much, or at all.

The colors I took from this are Pool Party, Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral and Soft Suede. I have to say I find the coral hard to work with - so I used it as an accent. The perfect stamp set was of course Tea Shoppe, and I paired it with the Itty Bitty Banners set for the sentiment. The layout is this week's Mojo Monday sketch.


The images, colors and theme for the challenge seemed to lend themselves to a vintage style. Everything is sponged with Soft Suede. I used Blushing Bride DP (retired of course), Pool Party card stock embossed with the vintage wallpaper folder, and a stamped background made with the Canvas and Teahouse BG stamps (appropriate, no?). I love the little bouquet of cutout violets accented with the button - I even sponged ink onto the Pool Party baker's twine to age it. Soft Suede taffeta ribbon over a border punch (punch by MS) accents the background.

That's it for this card - I have more crafting to do! Thanks for visiting!

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Invitation in a Box

Happy Saturday! This week at Our Creative Corner our hostess, Sharon Wheet, is challenging us to make something for a summer party. I thought a bit and considered making some kind of favor in a container - then I saw my stash of altoid tins and decided to try making an invitation in a box. I kept it pretty simple but I think there are fun possibilities with this idea - what do you think?


This is the front - I covered the top and sides with two of the prints from the Patio Party designer papers and then wrapped the edge of the lid with white grosgrain ribbon. I used the colors in the papers for the stamping (Baja Breeze, Summer Starfruit, Raspberry Ripple, Midnight Muse) and the stamp sets Mouthwatering and Inviting.


When you open the box the party details pop out. Sticking with the theme, I made my party an ice cream social. I lined the insides with more designer paper - the surfaces of the box leave lots of space for decoration if you want to add more. You could even add confetti or other fun stuff inside the box.


Here's a side view - to make the invitation pop out I made one of those springy paper things you make in elementary school - you know, take two strips of paper, attach them at right angles at one corner, and fold them over each other, back and forth... I'm probably not explaining that well, but you know what I mean, right?

OK, I think that's it! Now I want to have an ice cream social - or at least some ice cream! I hope you'll imagine your own summer party and make a project for this week's challenge. And you won't want to miss what the rest of the team has created - it's always worth a visit to the OCC blog to check them all out!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Freshly Made Style

I was still feeling kind of blah about my OCC card from last week, and I thought the best way to get out of that stamping funk was to play some challenges for fun. The three I chose to combine are Stampin' Royalty's color challenge, the layout from Freshly Made Sketches, and the challenge at SUO Challenges to use a bird.

I looked through my stamps and considered the bird options - in the end I chose a set I haven't pulled out in quite a while, Elements of Style. Um, yeah, I fudged the layout somewhat and probably veered past CAS with this one, but oh well! Things happen that way sometimes...


I hadn't done any out-of-the-box cutting in a long time so I gave it a try with this image. I gave the flowers just some shading with the daffodil marker. The Baja Breeze strip was an experiment in texture: textured card stock, a strip of the ribbon border punch, and an overlay of seam binding. I really like the effect. I used the Fancy Fan embossing folder for the large layer of Very Vanilla, and then added pearls and a sentiment from Happiest Birthday Wishes (retired hostess set) to finish it off.

Sigh, fun time is over and I have to go get some (paying) work done. Boo hoo! I'll see you back here on Saturday morning with the latest fun challenge from the OCC team!