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!