Diva Coffee Break Challenge 120

I wanted to partcipate in the Diva Coffee Break Design challenge DCBD120, because I love Stampin' Up! only challenges. I also love that it's CURRENT SU! stuff. Great way to get ideas for upcoming classes.

I also wanted to play in the Featured Stamper challenge FS112 over at SCS, because I love to be inspired by other talented stampers.

But I'm afraid I may have "cheated" on both challenges. The Featured Stampers challenge is where you are supposed to CASE another stamper. You need to change at least 2 things on your card, so it is not an exact duplicate. But this time, I changed pretty much everything, but the layout. So I'm not even sure it is considered a CASE. You can see JustPaintingAround's original card here.

For the Diva color challenge, we were supposed to use these colors:

Problem is, I added black to my card. I don't know if that is allowed or not. So all in all, I tried to do two challenges but ended up doing none! :) At least I was inspired by two challenges. If it were not for that, I would never had a chance to make this card:

Isn't it cute?! I couldn't wait for Friday to come, because I knew my little Choo Choo set was going to be in the box. I don't know if I'm going to sell a ton of this set, but that's not why I bought it. I bought it because it's so stinkin' cute! I also bought the coordinating wheel, Right on Track. I kind of think it looks like a picket fence, so I may play with that idea. Maybe put the rabbit from Forest Friends behind the fence, like he snuck into Mr. McGregor's garden!

Anyway, this card is fairly simple, nothing fancy. The sentiment is from Stem Sayings. I cut it out to look like it was part of the tracks. It's popped up with Dimensionals, as are the puffs of smoke.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope to post some Easter ideas this week, so come back again!

Happy Stamping!

His Holy Name '09 Almighty

I realized I have not posted my Almighty Page for the His Holy Name Challenge HHN09. Even though I completed it over a week ago. It's probably because I was so disappointed in the photo. I love the page, but the photo is awful! The page is so much better in real life. Here it is anyway:


I really wanted a masculine looking page. I love the colors in the Urban Garden DSP, but the paper is maybe a little too "floral" to be manly. Oh well! Most of the embellishments are from K & Co. Everything else is SU! I'm loving the His Holy Name Challenge. If you want to learn more, click on the blinkie on the right and it will direct you to the hostess, Patter's blog. It such a wonderful way to combine my love for God and papercrafts!

Thanks for stopping by!
Have a fantabulous weekend!

Color Throwdown & Mojo Sketch

I know!! Two posts in one day! Why?! Well, Thursdays are my "get to stay home and do less than usual" days, so I have more time to post on Thursdays. Hence the two posts. Here's a card combining the Color Throwdown CTD35 and the Mojo Monday Sketch Mojo79.

It's the first time I've inked up Flight Of The Butterfly and while this card not super original or ultra creative, it made me happy stamping it. I used some retired DSP called Hawaiian Papaya. Still kicking myself for not ordering another pack before it retired! It's almost gone. I think I'm left with scraps now.

Love these bright, fruity colors! I almost stamped something with Tart and Tangy, but I'm going to be using this set in my next class and I need to get some samples made with it.

Thanks for stopping by again! The UPS man was here so I better get to my box of goodies. I've got another one coming tomorrow. I can't wait!

Tuesday's Technique Club

Hi Stamping Friends!

If you were not able to come to Tuesday's Technique Club, we missed you! If you are not part of the Technique Club, you should be! The next round of clubs will begin in July. Sign-ups will begin in June. The two techniques we practiced were watercoloring with re-inkers and the baby wipe technique. You can learn more about these, and other fabulous techniques in the tutorial section of Splitcoaststampers.

Here are the two projects that we made:

The first project is a scallop card using the large Sizzix Scallop Circle die. It was cut out with Rose Red cardstock. The Kiwi Kiss layer was cut using my Circle Scissors and then textured with the Tiny Dots Texturz Plate. The flower is from Petal Pizzazz. The ink we used for the baby wipe technique was Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss, and Pretty In Pink. The sentiment is a Level 1 Hostess set called Sweet Little Sentiments. It's punched out with the small oval punch. The center of the flower is covered with green micro beads.

The second project is a shameless CASE of the great JanTink. You can check out her gojus version and tutorial here on her blog: Stamps, Paper, Scissors. We used four envelopes of the Scallop Envelope SU! Sizzix die using the SAB Delicate Dots DSP. The scallop was cut from SU! watercolor paper using the #2 Scallop Circle die from SU! and Sizzix. We watercolored the egg (Wagon Full of Fun) using Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue, So Saffron and Pink Pirouette re-inkers. And you thought those little bottles of ink were just for your ink pads!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

Sketch Challenge 221 & a Woo Hoo!

Well, I finally had a chance to partcipate in a challenge over at Splitcoast. It seems like forever since I've had a chance to "play". Today's challenge is the Sketch Challenge SC221. I love sketch challenges the best. Takes most of the pressure off. Combine a sketch challenge with a color challenge and my stamping life is a breeze! For today's card I used some images I had stamped last night with my Technique Club. I showed them the baby wipe technique. At first I was a little put off with this technique, but once I tried it, WOW! I love it! So fun and easy! I'll show you my card first:

I just LOVE how it turned out! It's so much more than I usually do. It's so heavy, I'm sure it will cost extra to mail. I rarely add this many layers, but the colorful flowers really needed all that solid color behind them.

The baby wipe technique is fairly simple. You take three colors of re-inkers. Drop them onto a baby wipe and use it as your stamp pad. If you want to find out more, check out the baby wipe tutorial in the Resource section at SCS.

The colors I used were inspired by the SU! DSP Rasberry Tart, one of my fave papers right now. The colors of ink I used are Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss, and Pretty in Pink. The stamp set I used for the flowers is Petal Pizzazz. You need a nice solid image for this technique. A lined image would not work. The sentiment comes from the Level 1 Hostess set Sweet Little Sentiments. The flowers are cut out by hand and attached with dimensionals. There's lots of layers and dimension on this card, which I love.

My Woo Hoo! for the day is I found out that I won a card challenge contest on Diva Coffe Break Designs blog. How fun is that! I've never won a card contest before. You can check out my card here. I'll be looking forward to my fun goodies arriving in the mail.

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Stamping!

Diva Coffee Break Challenge

While blog hopping, I ran across this fun site of all Stampin' Up! demos who post a challenge every Wednesday. It's called Diva Coffee Break Designs. The challenges vary, but the main idea is to use Stampin' Up! Only (SUO) supplies. The challenge this past Wednesday DCBD119 was a sketch challenge with a twist. The twist being to use Sale-A-Bration products.

Here's the sketch:








And here's my card:


















I used the sets Polka Dots and Punches, and Congrats from the Sale-A-Bration brochure. All the DSP is Delicate Dots from SAB. The only non-SAB products I used are the Celery brads, the Oval Punch, Scallop Edge Punch, and Large Heart Punch and the So Saffron, Whisper White and Certainly Celery cardstock. I also used my Sizzix Scallop die.

I really love the idea of an SUO challenge. I hope to participate more in the future.
Thanks for stopping by!
Have a happy stamping week!

Two Cards in One Day!

Wow! I actually got to make two cards in one day! Quite a feat for me, since I rarely get to stamp for fun. Seems I'm always "working" on something. Guess that's why I LOVE my work so much, since it always involves papercrafting!! But today I got to stamp just for me. I participated in three challenges: the Featured Stamper Challenge FS111 over at Splitcoast, Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge WSC73, and the Color Throwdown Challenge CTD34. The first card is for the Featured Stamper Challenge. I chose to CASE Beate's card Krafty Dots. It's kind of intimidating to CASE such an expert stamper as Beate. She's been posting her cards since 2003! I didn't even start stamping until 2006 and I didn't start posting until 2008! So here is my feeble attempt:

For my Technique club on Tuesday night, I want to show my gals different ways to use re-inkers, so I colored this white flower from the SU! Pretties kit with So Saffron ink. I love the "sunflower" look it has. The sentiment comes from Morning Soft and the background was made using En Francais and Baroque Motifs. I think I've used that set so often I've practically damaged the rubber! The colors are Kraft, Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla. Ink is Chocolate Chip and Sahara Sand.

This next card is the Weekend Sketch Challenge and the Color Throwdown Challenge:

Fun sketch and fabulous color combo of Blush Blossom, Kiwi Kiss and Not Quite Navy. I also added Chocolate Chip as a nuetral. This set is called Forest Friends and will be available April 1st from the SU! Occasions Mini Catalog. The sentiment is from the Level 1 Hostess set called Sweet Little Sentiments. I can't quite see it in the picture, but the Kiwi background is embossed with the Little Dots SU! Texturz plate and the NQN panel is embossed with the Large Dots plate. I love that SU! is selling the embossing plates now. I love the texture they add to cards. And it's such a simple technique! I love simple too.

Hope you enjoyed your weekend as much as I did.

Stamping, stamping and more stamping!

Mojo Monday 77

This card is for the Mojo Monday sketch challenge MOJO77. I finished this card on Thursday, but haven't had time to post until today. With my "Girl Friday" office job, Saturday swim meet and Sunday church, it's been a busy weekend! I'm really lovin' the new Petal Pizzazz set from SU!. I love solid flower stamps that you can cut out and layer. Some folks are better at line images that you can color in. Me... I'm better at just plain ole stampin'. I'm practicing my coloring skills, and feel that I'm improving, but I still don't "enjoy" it. Anyhoo! Enough about that, here's my card:

I used my absolutley favorite pattern of DSP at the moment. It comes from the Raspberry Tart pack. I wish I could buy more of just this pattern! It looks so Vera Bradley to me. I LOVE the colors in it... Kiwi Kiss, Rose Red, Cameo Coral, Pretty In Pink. I probably never would have paired these together, but I'm glad SU! did! The other DSP is from SU! Urban Garden, another fave. You can't quite see it, but I did use my SU! Texturz Plates on the Cameo Coral layer. I'm so glad SU! came out with Textured Backgrounds. I use them on all my cards now! I hope they never get rid of their background stamps though. They are just as versatile. The sentiment comes from the Level 1 Hostess set, Sweet Little Sentiments.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you got to stamp this weekend. Have a blessed week.

Featured Stamper 110

I love the Sunday Featured Stamper Challenge FS110 over at SCS. It's one of my favorite challenges. I don't always get to partcipate, but today I did. Today's stamper is Twinshappy. Here gallery is HUGE! I can't believe she has enough time to stamp that many cards and upload them to SCS! She deserves to be the Featured Stamper. I chose to CASE two cards. The first is Birthday Butterflies and the second is Chick Ultrasound. Here are my cards: The butterfly card has no stamping on it at all. But it does use all SU! products. I LOVE the Beautiful Butterfly Sizzix die!

The second card uses a new stamp set that will be available April 1st from the SU! Occasions Mini Catalog called Wagon Full Of Fun. It's super cute. I wanted to make an Easter card so this is what I came up with. The Tea Party DSP is perfect for Easter projects. So many wondeful, soft pastels. I didn't even own the Almost Amethyst ink pad until I bought this DSP. Now I wonder what took me so long! Hope you had a fabulous weekend!

Krystal

Birthday Sale-A-Bration Sneak Peek

I thought you might want a sneak peek at a few of the cards that you will be able to make at the Birthday Sale-A-Bration Stamp Camp on Saturday, March 21st from 10 am to 2 pm. I still have openings available if you are interested in attending. The cost is $20 and you will get to make 10 cards of your choice. If you want to make all 10 cards the same, great! This does include envelopes. This Stamp Camp will be held at Tulare Community Church in the Activity Center. Email me today to reserve your seat. If you bring a "new" friend (somone who has never attended one of my events before) you will receive a FREE catalog! Also, Stampin' Up! Sale-A-Bration continues. With every $50 catalog purchase, you will be able to choose FREE product from our special Sale-A-Bration brochure. Click on the link on the right to see the the fabulous stamps, Designer Series Paper and ribbon that are available.

The first card is a CASE from Julie Davison:

This card was CASEd from Deborah Southard:

And finally, this card was inspired by the Sale-A-Bration catalog:

Remember, these are not the only cards you'll get to choose from. Contact me today to save your spot. You won't want to miss this Sale-A-Bration!

Happy Stamping!!

Divine Design Bible Verse Challenge 09

Last year I sporadically participated in the Divine Design Bible Verse Challenge over at Splitcoast. This year I wanted to be more faithful in uploading each month. The challenge is pretty simple, choose a verse that you love and create a card or scrap a page using that verse and post on the 9th of each month. For more info, you can check out this thread BVC09 over at SCS. I've been making cards, but lately I've been scrapping again, so I decided to switch from card making to creating an 8x8 scrapbook for this challenge. I'll have to go back and do January and February. My idea is that I will find a verse that represents my so-called "theme" for that month. For January the theme is "new". For February it will be "love". For March I was thinking "In like a lion, out like a lamb". Which made me think of Psalm 23 which also talks about green pastures and since March is the "green" (St. Patrick's) month, I decided to roll with it! Here's my 8x8 page: I used the Inspiration Challenge from Saturday IC170. The website was called Spunky Sprout. Very fun and unique baby and children's stuff. A little pricey for my taste, but it's free to browse! I chose this piece as my inspiration:

I love the brown bunnies hiding in the grass. I also love the color combo of Celery, Saffron and Tangerine. I went to my stash of DSP scraps and had fun arranging lots of flowers. Spring is here in the Central Valley and I'm loving it!

All the DSP is SU! Some is retired. The little bunny stamp is from a new SU release that will be available April 1st in the Occasions Mini. The large white grommets will also be available in the mini catalog. I used lots of Big Shot dies as well. The "sun" is actually from the Baskets and Blooms die. It's supposed to be the bottom of the basket. I think it makes a fabulous sun! I also used the Cherry Blossom embosslit and the Birds and Blooms Sizzlets. The ribbon is from the Valet collection.

Have a great week!

Happy Stamping!

Cupcake Challenge 58

I had time to play in a challenge this weekend and I chose to to Taylor's Sketch challenge TECC58. Here's the sketch:

I finally have a cupcake stamp to use!! It's called Darling Dots and it's a Level 1 Hostess set in the Spring/Summer Stampin' Up! catalog. I didn't think I needed it until I noticed that another Level 1 Hostess set called Sweet Little Sentiments matches it. Too cute! Here's my card:

I used the Jewelry Color Inspiration #26 JCI26 from Stacey's blog. The colors are Pink Passion, Orchid Opulence, Pink Pirouette, and Elegant Eggplant. I just noticed that I'm late with this challenge. She posts her challenges on Sunday, so I guess I'll have to try the other colors this week sometime! I used my markers to color my cupcake image and then stamp. It's hard to tell, but the cherries have a little shine to them with Crystal Effects. The (retired) buttons were Vanilla and I colored them with my markers. The cute little Scallop Oval Punch will be available on April 1st in the Occasions Mini Catalog.

Thanks for looking!

Have a great week!

Krystal

His Holy Name '09 Creator

I completed another 12x12 scrapbook page for Patter's His Holy Name Challenge HHN09. The study this time was God our Creator. Oh wow! Did I enjoy this study. What a wonderful time of year to consider our Creator. Springtime is in full bloom here in the Central Valley. The orchards are blooming in bright magenta, pink and white. Absolutely gorgeous! When I think of God the Creator, I also think of God the Artist. For that truly is what He is, a master artist who has created amazing beauty! He gave us so many gorgeous colors, textures, and shapes.

I've admired other scrapbook pages that have this sort of "scene" on them and I was super excited when Patter posted the attribute of God the Creator. I just knew what I wanted my page to look like! It took me quite a bit of thought and time to pull it all together, since it is so outside the box for me! I used a TON of DSP scraps. ALL of them are from Stampin' Up!. It was a lot of fun "playing" with paper. I kept finding more and more green patterns. It was also great to get so much use out of my Big Shot. Love that machine! And I just got my SU! Beautiful Butterflies die yesterday, so I just had to use it!

The verse is Isaiah 40:28 "Do you know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, The Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom." What an awesome God we serve!

Here's a close-up of the tree:

After creating this page, I have a sense of how much God must have enjoyed creating this world. Beacuse I had an absolutley wonderful time making this page! I can also understand how "God saw that it was good", 'cause for me, this is pretty good! :)

Thanks for looking!

Happy Stamping!

In Bloom Stamp Camp Sneak Peek!

Thought I'd share a couple of cards that we will be doing for my next class on March 10th called In Bloom. All cards have a floral theme. I'm really excited because we will be doing some fun techniques too!


Here's the first card:


It uses the set Bloomin' Beautiful and isn't it! :) The colors are Bordering Blue, Pretty In Pink, and So Saffron. The Designer Series Paper is Bella Birds. The technique we will be using for this card is watercoloring with Aqua Painters and Water Color Crayons. Very fun and easy!




Here's the second card:

This set is from the Sale-A-Bration brochure. It's called Botanical Blooms. When I first saw it, I didn't even think I wanted it. What was I thinking?! This set is fabulous. I've seen some beautiful cards done with it. The technique on this card is called Two-Step Stamping. Super easy! I love the fun, spring colors of this card, they are Kiwi Kiss, Orchid Opulence and So Saffron. The Delicate Dots DSP is from the SAB brochure. Remember, to get this set you only need to purchase $50 from the Stampin' Up! Spring/Summer catalog and this set is yours FREE! Free is always good.



Here's the last card that I'm going to share:


Isn't it darling?! This set is called Sweet Stems and it has some great accessories that coordinate with it. One them being this Designer Series Paper, Tea Party. Another cheerful color combo of Pretty In Pink, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, and Almost Amethyst. The technique we'll be using on this card is pastels. About time I got those things out again! I forgot how easy they are to use. The little pink flower at the bottom is a Stampin' Up! exclusive Embosslit, Cherry Blossom. It cuts out and embosses the flower all at the same time. Too cool!



Well, that's all I'm going to show you. If you want to see they rest, you'll just have to RSVP for my class. Remember, you must let me know you are coming by TOMORROW!!. Hope to see you there!

Happy Stamping!