Poppy Seed Wishes

I'm happy to be almost 100% healthy again - it seemed like a great time to do some stamping. I really felt like getting my Copics out and playing a couple challenges: The Paper Players tic-tac-toe challenge (I chose birthday/pearls/banners) and the Sweet Sunday Sketch. I hadn't gotten a chance to play with these stamps from Wplus9 which were perfect for this card.

 

I colored the poppies with Copics R14, R17 and E07. The color was a good match for the retired Poppy Parade ink, so I used that to stamp the banner and sentiment. I fussy-cut the poppies and popped them up on the frame. The background paper is from my stash, and the black is from the Neutrals pattern pack in the current catalog. I used a Martha Stewart border punch for the black strip at the bottom, then added the pearls for the final touch.

I seem to have stayed up way past my bedtime - oops! But I think it was worth it - stamping is my happy place and it's good to be back! Have a great week, everyone!

I meant what I said...

I really was going to make cards over the past week. I swear I was. But the germs that settled in on Saturday had other ideas. I've been coughing and feverish and generally feeling awful ever since. A couple times I tried to get going on an idea and I just had to put it aside and go back to bed. Finally I felt well enough tonight to actually try to finish a card. Here's what I came up with:

 

This is for three challenges: Color Throwdown (Pacific Point, So Saffron, Marina Mist, Lucky Limeade)

Stampin' Royalty (Trendy Triangles)

The Pink Elephant (Dots and Stripes)

The triangles immediately made me think of Pennant Parade - I've been thinking I need more birthday cards. The stamps I used to accent the pennants are from several different sets: A Fitting Occasion, Pretty Petites (retired Sale-a-Bration), Itty Bitty Bits (retired) as well as Pennant Parade. I used retired So Saffron and Pacific Point papers, along with the dot print in the current pattern pack in Marina Mist. The sentiment is by Taylored Expressions. I attached all the pennants to Pacific Point ribbon with dimensionals.

These fun colors and all the patterns are cheering me up - I hope you enjoy the card. I'm going to keep trying to stick to my challenge-playing goals so stay tuned and come back soon! Have a great weekend!

You are everything to me...

Hello, stampers! I want to start with some good news: yesterday I found out that I was chosen as a winner in Shelli Gardner's blog challenge. (This is my winning card.) I was so honored to be chosen, and I want to take the opportunity to wish Shelli continued good recovery from her recent horseback-riding accident, and to say welcome to anyone who might be new to my blog. I'm so happy to have you here, whether you are a new subscriber, a longtime fan, or just stopping by!

Today's card is for my husband - our 13th wedding anniversary is on Monday. Hey, the last-minute queen actually got something done three days early! The layout for the card came from Create with Connie and Mary, and I also made this card for the SUO Challenges blog (use your favorite technique: I chose fussy cutting) and CAS-ual Fridays (use fall colors and at least one leaf). I think Todd will like this fall-themed card - I was inspired by the row of maple trees we have in our back yard. If we are lucky to have a beautiful fall season, the leaves turn the most gorgeous colors of red, orange and yellow. While we wait for all the leaves to turn, we can imagine what they might look like in a couple weeks, and that's what was in my mind as I made this card.

I started out with a retired paper panel in Cajun Craze and stamped the Magnificent Maple single stamp (second generation) with Early Espresso and sponged the edges. For the main leaf I used the same stamp, inked with daubers in Crushed Curry, Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler and Early Espresso. Behind it I put a cherry leaf from the Autumn Accents die, embossed with the woodgrain folder and sponged. The espresso banner was embossed with the square lattice folder, then I added the sentiment from Petite Pairs and the Cajun Craze button tied with linen thread. I fiddled with the sketch a little - sometimes you just need to give an element a little tilt!

I am still catching up with life but I'm hopeful this is finally the start of more frequent posts from me. At least, I'm going to try - so many of my favorite challenges have been passing me by for too long! Thanks again for visiting and have a wonderful day!

September Paper Crafters Sampler

It's that time again - the new Paper Crafters Sampler is now available! I think you will guess what the theme is this month...

 

You want a sneak peek of my project, right? Here you go...

 

 

Please take a look at the sampler and consider joining us this month!



Hello, lovely hexagons!

Have you missed me? I am just back home from a really wonderful family adventure. My husband and I were fortunate to be able to take our kids to Germany for the month of August (well, mostly Germany - we also spent three days in Prague). My cousin got married there on the 17th so we just decided to make a big event out of it! We had a fantastic time and I'm sure you'll be seeing the photos in some MDS projects coming up.

I'm looking forward to getting back to my stamps, but in the meantime I do have a card to share that I couldn't post before I left home. I thought I'd better hurry up and share it because the stampin' world is already moving on to fall and the holidays, and this card is neither of those things! My wonderful upline Nola Burkhard organized a swap for her team this summer. I had a lot of fun with this card and I can't wait to see what else my stampin' colleagues have come up with. Here's my card:

I was inspired by this card (the first one) and another non-SU card I saw on Pinterest that featured a group of hexagons. I used a lot of new products, but I wanted to mainly feature the Six Sided Sampler and Hello, Lovely stamp sets, neither of which I'd broken out yet. The colors are Strawberry Slush, Pool Party, Baked Brown Sugar, Early Espresso and white.

Banners are so hot and trendy right now, aren't they? They are fun to use, so I'm not quite sick of them yet. I used the mosaic DP pack, espresso dots from the Neutrals pack, Pool Party Core'dinations card stock (embossed with the honeycomb folder) and a debossed strip of brown sugar card stock, which I decorated with faux stitching to try to make it look like marker. For an accent I used the Simply Pressed clay tinted with Strawberry Slush reinker. These are really fun to play with, and if you haven't tried them yet, my big tip for you is this: after you put the clay in the molds, put the molds in the freezer. I think I was shooting for about 30 minutes, but I forgot one batch and left them in longer with no ill effect. The flowers always come out better than the buttons, so I recommend leaving the buttons in the freezer even longer. I still have trouble getting the buttons to come out perfect, but I won't give up!

Okay, I hope you will see me back posting regularly soon. Jet lag or not, the kids go back to school on Wednesday. The summer just flew by for us - I hope everyone out there enjoyed theirs and is ready to welcome fall!