Stampin' Celebration Inspiration Challenge #6

Hi Stamping Friends!

It's time for another Stampin' Celebration Inspiration Challenge!!  And this week we are celebrating babies.  Girl babies in fact.  There is a cute story behind this inspiration.  Candace, who helps me plan challenges for the Stampin' Celebration blog was due to have a baby girl this week.  Ends up, three weeks ago she gave birth to a baby BOY!!  Little Adam was quite the surprise.  But both mom and baby are doing fine.  And since this inspiration challenge was planned way back in April, we just left well enough alone.  Here's what I created:

 

PETAL PIZZAZZ

For this card I used the sketch challenge over at the Mojo Monday blog.  The first Monday of the month is their contest challenge and they have a TON of entries.  I've never had the priviledge of winning any Mojo Monday challenge.  It is on my things to accomplish someday.  But I'll tell, the competion is fierce over there!  They always have such amazing entries.  This card uses the stamp set Petal Pizzazz and some retired rub-ons.  The colors are Kiwi Kiss, Pretty In Pink, Cameo Coral and the retired Raspberry Tart DSP, which was one of my all-time favorite DSPs.  I just adore this color combo.  I also made a little baby shower party favor.  What's a celebration without a treat!!

NURSERY NECESSITIES

This little treat holder was made using the Two Tags die.  The sentiment comes from the Nursery Necessities stamp set.  This set is going to retire, I'm sad to say.  I really like the images in this set, because they are not your typical "baby" images.  If you don't have this set yet, order it before June 30th!!  The fun flower was made using six Scallop Circles punched from Cameo Coral cardstock, also set to retire.  I wet the scallops (just under my kitchen sink faucet!) and then scrunched them all up, layered them on top of each other and fastened them together with a brad.  Then I fluffed them up.  Super easy and oh so fun!!

I hope you can play along with us this week at the Stampin' Celebration Inspiration Challenge.  Be sure to check out the other fabulous creations by our super talented design team:

ROCHELLE

ALLISON

KARI

Also, make sure you stop back tomorrow when I will be participating in the Stampin' Addicts Retiring SU! Mega Blog Hop.  Stampin' Addicts blog hops are the best!  I promise you won't be disappointed.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

Beach Baby

Hi Stamping Friends!

I create lots of custom made invitations and announcements for customers.  It's what started my love affair with stamping.  I started off as a scrapper.  And I'm still am a scrapper at heart (although I haven't scrapped since last April and that was for someone else!)!  But I love when someone calls me for invites and I can pick their brain about party ideas... what's the theme, what colors are you using, is it casual, elegant or somewhere in between.  So when a friend for church emailed me this picture and said she needed some baby shower invitations, I was super excited!  Check out this adorable tabletop decoration:

Isn't it darling?  What a fun theme for a baby shower!  It comes from this fabulous entertaining site called Hostess With The Mostess.  And let me tell you, if I could afford it, I'd have a party every weekend!  This site just made me drool.  Well I love nothing more than an Inspiration Challenge, so I set to work to come up with the perfect invite.

Here it is:

I just loved the blue and orange combo in the pic, so I dug out some retired DSP called Jersey Shore.  I stamped the sailboat image from Nursery Necessities onto a piece of paper.  Then I used my copy machine and enlarged it.  I cut it apart and traced it onto the white backing that comes with the SU! DSP ( I NEVER throw that stuff out!).  Then I traced it onto the Jersey Shore DSP (25 times!) and cut it out and glued it (using a SU! gluestick) to some Bashful Blue cardstock.  The Bashful Blue is layered onto Brilliant Blue.  The Rope Twine adds an authentic nautical look.  It's no longer available through any catalog, but you can purchase it online through your demos Clearance Rack.  I LOVE the Clearance Rack!  So many great bargains!!

I remembered I had some cute white buckets tucked away, that would make adorable party favors, so I tied some Pumpkin Pie Striped Grosgrain to the handle and made this:

How fun is that?!  It would look perfect filled with some blue and orange M & M's or even some colorful gummy fish!  I love parties with a theme that you can have fun with.  My friend also wants me to make a banner with the baby's name on it, so I'm going to work on that tonight and hopefully post a pic to this post tomorrow afternoon.

So now I've been thinking... I wonder if I should start an Inspiration Challenge around this whole party theme?  I know there are TONS of challenges out there, but they are sooooo fun to participate in!  There are color challenges, sketch challenges, cupcake challenges, embellishment challenges, etc.  Do we really need another challenge?  I'm not sure, but I'm tempted.   Of course that would proably add extra stress to my life and that's the LAST thing I need.  :)

NURSERY NECESSITIES   #113506   $31.95

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

It's Diva Time!

Hi Stamping Friends!

My double challenge card for today comes from two of my favorite challenge places.  The sketch challenge comes from the Diva Coffe Break Designs blog DCBD155.  I love that it is an SU! design team and challenge.  Don't get me wrong, there are lots of fabulous stamps out ther, I just happen to LOVE Stampin' Up!  :)  And I love to see what the design team has to offer.  They are a tlented group of stampers.  The color challenge comes from my favorite SU! online hangout, STAMPIN' ADDICTS.  They have a different challenge for each day of the week.  Come play along with us!  The Friday challenge is the color challenge.  This was last week's challenge, so I can't wait to see what the colors are today!  Here's the sketch:

The colors were Really Rust, Taken With Teal, Chocolate Chip, and More Mustard.  I needed to make a card for a family who just had a baby boy, and thought these were great boy colors.  Here's what I came up with:

The card base is Chocolate Chip.  The Designer Series Paper is retired.  It is from last years Holiday Mini Catalog.  It was called Autumn Vine.  I just couldn't resist using it, since it went so well with the color challenge!  The stamp set is Nursery Necessities.  The Taken With Teal layers are embossed with the Perfect Details Texturz Plate.  The sentiment is punched out with the Word Window punch and layered on to a piece of More Mustard that is punched with the Modern Label Punch.

While your shopping for all those holiday deals this weekend, don't forget to shop at the HUGE SALE going on at my Stampin' Up! WEBSITE, now through Monday.  You can save between 30%-50% on some of your favorite products!

Nursery Necessities  #113506  $31.95

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

Mojo Colour

Hi Stamping Friends!

Woo!  Hoo!  It's the weekend!  Tomorrow I have my Christmas Jingle class that I am really looking forward to.  I haven't had a class in ages.  Once a month I have my club gals come over, who are just a hoot and I love to laugh with them.  But I cut back on my monthly classes.  It felt good to take a break for awhile, but now I'm anxious to get started again.  And after previewing the Occasions Mini Catalog and the Sale-A-Bration Catalog, I'm going to need to sell lots and lots of stamps in order to afford all the Stampin' Up! goodness I want!

My card for today is a combination of the Mojo Monday sketch (which I haven't played in forever!) MOJO112.  And the color challenge is from the ColourQ CQ6.  Here are the inspiration pieces:

I really had a hard time with these colors.  Until I finally grabbed a piece of each one of the colors of cardstock and laid them all next to each other.  Once I had the sketch picked out, it all just sorta fell into place.  I like when that happens!  Here's my card:

I didn't have a scallop that was the right size to fit under my circle, so I started looking for something else.  On my desk I had a leftover Big Shot daisy die-cut.  I laid it under the image and BAM!  Perfect!  I cut it out of Brocade Blue and we were set.  The card base is Brocade Blue layered with Really Rust and Bordering Blue, which is embossed with the Perfect Details Impressions Folder.  The DSP and grosgrain ribbon are retired.  Of course before I bring this card to one of my bakery shops, I probably will cover up the rock-a-bye baby sentiment with a happy birthday sentiment, because birthday sells!

Nursery Necessities  #113506  $31.95

Daisies Bigz Die  #114520  $19.95

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a great weekend!

Happy Stamping!

Cards for Missions

Hi Stamping Friends!

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I had the priviledge of attending the 15th anniversary celebration of Students International.  It's a Christian mission organization that has mission sites in Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Figi, and Costa Rica.  Our church has been partnering with them for a number of years.  Our high school and college students have the opportunity to go on a two week mission trip during the summer.  My husband has been to the Dominican Republic site and had an amazing time. 

So fast forward to the dinner/fundraiser that we attended.  I was enjoying the food, listening to students give testimonies to the awesome experience they had with SI.  Then the director's wife steps up to the mic and starts talking about how they had their first Women's Only trip to the Dominican Republic last year what an incredible experience it was and they are so excited to plan a second one for this coming February. Well... I want to go!  So I'm in the process of planning card bundles to sell to help raise funds for my trip.  Each bundle will have 5 cards and will cost $15.  I'm planning on sending out an order form to all my family and friends. 

Here's the first pack that I've designed.  This is the Birthday Boy set: 

I have the Birthday Girl set designed as well.  Hopefully I'll have time to post those tomorrow.  I hope to have a teen set, plus a set for women and one for men.  I was also thinking of doing an All-Occasion set, as well as a "Blue-Plate Special".  I'm sure my plans are bigger than my energy, but God will provide!

Of course the day would not be complete without a Christmas Jingle card.  We are getting to the end of our Christmas card parade.  

I have a couple challenges I want to partcipate in, so I should go get stamping!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!