Stampin' Celebration Inspiration Challenge #22

Hi Stamping Friends!!  I finally had a chance at lunch time to get a card done for the Stampin' Celebration Inspiration Challenge.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute!!  I was busy as a bee these past few weeks with some dental emergencies with my 5yo DS.  He ended up having seven, yes 7!! teeth pulled.  Three because they were infected and four because there is not enough room in his mouth for the HUGE permanent teeth that are getting ready to come in.  And that's why I have to squeeze my stamping time into my lunch hour!! (That's also why I got some chocolate on my card and had to do a little extra Photoshopping to remove it!)

But I didn't want this adorable challenge to buzz right by.  :)  Aren't all those little bumble bees too cute!  Too bad I didn't have any bee stamps.  Kinda makes it even more challenging. 

SMARTY PANTS

I'm not usually great with the CAS style.  I always make things too complicated.  But with this fabulous sketch from the Clean and Simple blog, all the hard work is done for me!  The card base is Whisper White layered with a piece of Play Date DSP.  The Chocolate Chip scallop was made using my Tasteful Trim die.  LOVE that die!!  It's a must-have.  Another item from the Holiday Mini Catalog that I used is the Decorative Label punch.  I finally have a punch big enough for my Smarty Pants phrases!!  The flower was made with the Daisies #2 die and the button is from the Neutrals button pack.  I finished it off with a piece of hemp twine.  Perfect card to finish in about 15 minutes!!  Plus this card fits the Pals Paper Arts challenge to use buttons!

I hope you can join us at the SCIC.  We are always looking for new stampers to help us celebrate!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Stamping!

ColourQ Tuesday #49

Arielle gave us lots of solid boys colors to play with this week at the ColourQ.  I really had fun with these.  We hope you can play along with us!  The super cute layout comes from my favorite online Stampin' Up! hangout, Stampin' Addicts.  They have daily challenges, and Thursdays challenge is a sketch challenge.  I like that they can be clean and simple, or you can step them up and make them more.  Sometimes I can get overwhelmed by all the layers in a sketch.  It's always refreshing to be able to choose whether or not you want to make it complicated.  That's what I love about the Stampin' Addicts sketches!

SMARTY PANTS

I love the sayings in the Smarty Pants set.  They are super creative.  This will be the perfect card for my brother's birthday.  He loves trains and he loves to do goofy stuff.  Even though he will be turning 40 on his next birthday!!  After looking for the perfect stamp for this challenge, I decided I needed some new stamps.  :-)  I love all the sets I have, I just need some new ones!

Hope you have a great day!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

Colour Q #40

Hi Stampers!  Hope you're having an awesome summer.  I sure am.  I'm much busier than I had anticipated, but it's a fun busy.  I made sure I took the time to participate in Arielle's ColourQ challenge though.  I love these flip flops.  They just scream summer to me.

SMARTY PANTS

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

One Of The Good Ones

Hi Stamping Friends!

Most of the time when I particpate in any online papercrafting challenge, I always find myself taking the challenges too literally.  I do the sketch EXACTLY like it's shown.  I use the EXACT colors they say, and even when it's an inspiration challenge, I tend to make it look EXACTLY like the inspiration photo.  I love to see when other (more creative!) stampers take a sketch or inspiration and really make it their own.  I try to break out of my mold occasionally, but it's difficult!  It must be that first-born trait of mine to do things EXACTLY right.  Artistically speaking, it can be very frustrating!  That's what happened with today's card.  I think I just got too literal with both challenges.

SMARTY PANTS

For this card I used the Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #58 from the HOPE STAMPS ETERNAL blog.  I usually use a cupcake image for this challenge, but when I saw this sketch from the SKETCH GIRL blog, the two just seemed to fit together.  So then I decided to recreate the cupcake tops on each of the four circles.  Again, too literal!

I do love this fun sentiment.  It comes from the Smarty Pants set.  I haven't given my mom her Mother's Day card yet.  I think I'll give her this one instead.  It's the perfect sentiment for her.  She is one of the "good ones"!  I think it's funny, now that SU! has announced the colors that are retiring, it seems that I keep using those colors!  I haven't used Green Galore in forever, and I think I've used it three times in the last two weeks.  Go figure!  The card base is Pixie Pink, layered with Green Galore and Sweet Pea DSP.  I hope they have something similar to the Sweet Pea pack in the next big catty.  That pack was so popular, that it sold out before the mini catalog ended!  The other two colors I used on this card are Only Orange and So Saffron.  The Sizzlets I used are: Little Leaves, Floral Fusion, Birds & Blooms, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, and the Paisley Texturz Plate.  That another thing I'm looking forward to seeing int he next catalog, what new Big Shot stuff they will have. I {LOVE} my Big Shot!  It is my most used stamping tool.

Make sure you stop back by tomorrow and see my creations for the STAMPIN' INSPIRATION challenge.  I hope you'll play with us this week!  Just to see what an out of this world challenge it's going to be, here's a little sneak peek...

SMARTY PANTS   #115070   $18.95

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

Be Yourself and a Birthday

Hi Stamping Friends!

Well today's double challenge card did not turn out the way I had envisioned it, but I still love the message it conveys.  The sketch today is from Karen Giron's blog: the sweetest thing SSC43.  The color challenge comes from the Cards & Things blog (they're the ones with the super cute blog header!).

Here's the card that I created with these two inspirations:

I hope you can see the message I was trying to convey.  I love this sentiment from the Smarty Pants set.  I love to send these kinds of cards to high school students at church.  It helps to remind them to be the person God created them to be, not what everyone else expects them to be. 

This card just kinda left me blah after I created it.  The orange butterflies look too flat.  There's just too many of them clustered together.  Maybe if they were a little more separated I would like it better.  It must be the claustraphobic in me.  Give me some space!!

The card base is Bashful Blue with a layer of retired Hostess Pattern Pack DSP.  The butterflies are stamped in Pumpkin Pie, except for individual gal.  She's stamped in Real Red and her polka dots are stamped with Real Red Craft, then heated up with some Heat and Stick Powder to help adhere all that glittery goodness.  The sentiment is punched out with the Modern Label Punch.

Today is my MIL's birthday.  And since I doubt she reads my blog, I thought I'd post her gift and her card.  She has always told people that she is 40, but she had to up her age a little when her son turned 42 this year!  :)

The perfume box was my inspiration.  I liked the box so much, I didn't even wrap it!  Just tied it with my favorite Stampin' Up! Olive Striped Grosgrain ribbon and added some daisies cut out with my Big Shot.  The card sketch is from the Clean and Simple blog FTL67.  I hope she likes it!

Smarty Pants  #115070  $18.95

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

Stampin' Addicts Post Challenge

Hi Stamping Friends!

I've told you about my new online hangout called Stampin' Addicts.  They are fun stamping community that has lots of fabulous Stampin Up! ideas.  Today one of the moderators, challenged everyone to upload as many cards as possible, because they wanted to beat their own record of the most uploads in one day.  Stampin' Addicts just opened shop in February of this year, so they are a fairly new site.

Well you know how much I LOVE challenges!  So I used today's Stampin' Addicts Sketch Challenge SASC29 and combined it with the color challenge over at the Diva Coffee Break blog DCBD146. 

The colors are Bermuda Bay, Soft Suede, Real Red and Very Vanilla.  Not a combo I would have chosen on my own, but that's what I love about challenges... they get you out of your box!  I used the Circle Circus and Smarty Pants stamp sets.  The Soft Suede panel is embossed using the SU! Texturz plates for the Big Shot.  The button is from the SU! Playground pack. 

Of course I need to post another Christmas Jingle card.  I'm almost to the end of my 20 cards.  I think I only have 4 more left after this one. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping