Pals Paper Arts Sketch Challenge 12

Hi Stamping Friends!

For today's card I used the sketch from Pals Paper Arts challenge blog PPA12.

Here's my card:

I'm not super happy with how this card turned out.  I love everything on it, the DSP, the sketch, the colors, the ribbon.  I just don't like it all together!  I think it's too busy.  Your eye doesn't know where to look.  Anyhoo!  Guess you can't hit it out of the ballpark everytime.  The cupcake was made using the Big Bold Cupcake Sizzlit die, exclusive to Stampin' Up! and the sentiment is from the set Party Hearty.

I had my Mystery Hostess club pals over yesterday afternoon.  We had a fun time laughing and stamping together.  One of my favorite parts of being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator (besides getting to play with fabulous stamps!) is the wonderful friends I've made.  Tomorrow I'll show you the three projects we made, so you can be jealous and want to join my next hostess club in January!  :)

Party Hearty  #111532  $26.95

Big Bold Cupcakes Sizzlit Dies  #114509 $21.95

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Stamping!

Krystal's Weekly Favorite Blog Hop #3

Hi Stamping Friends!

It's Sunday again!  Time to check out all the fabulous blogs I hopped through this week.  Enjoy!

An adorable Pillow Box santa bucket from Ronda Wade on her blog STAMP WITH RONDA

Christmas Elves from the amazing punch artist Jackie Topa on her blog ADDICTED TO STAMPING

Big Shot candy corn made with felt from Connie Collins on her blog CONSTANTLY STAMPING

Halloween pumpkins from Pam Strobel on her blog CREATE, SHARE, INSPIRE

Build-A-Bear sleepover from Patty Bennett on her blog PATTY'S STAMPING SPOT

Sweet birthday bear from the famous (or is that infamous?)  Jan Tink on her blog STAMPS, PAPER, SCISSORS

Have a restful day!  I'll be back tomorrow with the new Deal of the Week.  I've been working on a few challenge cards, but so far, I am not happy with any of them!  But I'll post them anyway sometime next week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

Takin' A Cake Walk

Hi Stamping Friends!

Since I don't have the 3 Tier Cake XL Bigz Die, I thought I'd show you what some other very creative stampers have done with this fabulous die.

Here's the sample from the Stampin' Up! website:

Linda McClain at her blog Catered Crop has some AMAZING creations:

Mary Jo Albright on her blog Beauty Lies Within showed off these adorable "cakes":

Now don't you wan to buy this die?!  I know I do!  You can purchase this fun die on sale, now through Sunday 10-18-09 at my Stampin' Up! website.

3 Tier Cake XL Bigz Die  #116760  reg. $39.95  SALE $25.49

SHOP STAMPIN' UP! 24/7

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

A New Challenge Find!

Hi Stamping Friends!

Well I'm so excited, because I found a new challenge blog!  And heaven knows I need more challenges to partcipate in!  :)  It's a Dutch blog called Cards & Things.  Doesn't their blog header look a little familiar?  This week they offered a sketch challenge:

It's a very masculine (to me!) sketch with no scallops, flowers, or frills.  This reminded me of the Color Throwdown Challenge CTD64 which is also perfect for a guy.  

So this is the manly (is that even a word?) card I came up with:

This would be a great card for a teenage guy, or an old surfer like my hubby!  Guy cards are always a little difficult.  You can give any woman a card with a flower on it, but you can't give just any man a card with a surfer on it.  KWIM?  My brothers, for instance would rather have a card with an old car or shiny truck on it.  But I haven't come across any stamps that have cool looking Peterbilts on them! 

The Extreme Surfer is stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder.  The DSP is retired Parisian Breeze Specialty Paper.  I miss this paper!  The card base is Basic Black, with a layer of Sahara Sand.  The Twill Tape adds some texture, as does the black button which is also retired.  I roughed up the edges of the Baha Breeze circle with my Distressing Tool and then sponged the edges with ink.  The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes.  Pretty simple!  And manly!

Extreme Surfboard  #115173  $8.95

Cutter Kit  #106958  $16.95

Remember... today is the last day to order the Christmas Jingle Kit.  Contact me today!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

Yay For Me! (And a challenge card too!)

Hi Stamping Friends!

You know how much I love playing in challenges! Well, I'm so excited because one of my favorite challenge blogs Pals Paper Arts has chosen my card as one of its winning entries this week!

I love the PPA Design Team because they are all Stampin' Up! demonstrators.  And I'm all about anything SU! 

I do have a new card for you today as well.  This card was made using last weeks Color Challenge over at Stampin' Addicts SACC32.  The colors are Kraft, Soft Suede, Old Olive, and Real Red.  The sketch came from Makeesha Byl's (another SU! demo) blog: Inkspirations.  Here's the sketch:

So here's my card:

The colors just screamed CHRISTMAS, so I went with it.  It looks alot like Renee Van Straalen's card, not intentionally.  But there is only so much you can do with the same sketch and stamp set!  :)  Besides, who wouldn't want to CASE Renee?!  Her cards are gorgeous!  The one thing that would make this card better, is if I had used an Impressions Folder on the Old Olive layer under the Real Red layer.  It's a little boring.  Oh well!  Next time I'll have to be more on the ball!  The stamps I used were Dasher and Four The Holidays for the sentiment.  Dasher is stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder.

Dasher  #116816  $8.95

Four The Holidays  #116921  $13.95

Don't forget about the Deals Of The Week special going on at my Stampin' Up! website.  Here's what on sale, in case you forgot:

Perfect Setting Bigz XL Die  #115961  reg. $42.95  SALE PRICE $25.99

3 Tier Cake Bigz XL Die  #116760  reg. $39.95  SALE PRICE $25.49

Flower Burst Embosslit  #114515  reg. 11.95  SALE PRICE $5.99

SHOP STAMPIN' UP! 24/7

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

Techniques and Sketches and Colors... Oh My!

Hi Stamping Friends!

Well today I have a triple challenge card!  I love when I can play as many challenges as possible at one time.  My main inspiration this morning was to try out the Technique Challenge Tech29 over at Stampin' Addicts.  It was the Faux Silk technique that I have been avoiding, because it sounded too difficult to mess with.  When I read how easy it was, I wanted to try it out.  So I searched my favorite "challenge blogs" and came up with a color combo from Color Throwdown CTD63 and a sketch from Gretchen Barron at Inspiration in Action IA105.  Here's the challenges:

And here's my card:

Isn't it beautiful?!  I just love how this turned out!  Who knew that stamping on boring white tissue paper could turn out so gorgeous!  I used an Old Olive cardstock base, layered with Kraft and Razzleberry Lemonade DSP.  The blooms are stamped on white tissue paper and adhered to Very Vanilla and then layered on Soft Suede.  The image was stamped using Crushed Curry and Old Olive markers.  The only part I dislike is where I got a little over anxious with the sponging on the edges and added too much Soft Suede in parts.  But other than that, I'm so happy with this technique!  I can't wait to have my club girls try it out. 

Eastern Blooms  #111626  $21.95

Thanks for stopping by!

Remember to check out the Deals Of The Week at my Stampin' Up! website.  Click SHOP NOW and start saving!

Happy Stamping!

Deals and Double Challenges!

Hi Stamping Friends!

Stampin' Up! has just announced the DEAL OF THE WEEK!

Flower Burst Embosslit Die  #114515  reg. $11.95   SALE PRICE $5.99

Perfect Setting Bigz XL Die  #115961  reg. $42.95  SALE PRICE $25.99

3 Tier Cake Pop-Up Die  #116760  reg. $39.95  SALE PRICE $25.49

I'd show you some beautiful samples using these awesome products, but I don't have them... YET!  I will be ordering all three of these items, to increase the size of my Stampin' Up! Sizzix collection.  But I can show you a card I did make with other fabulous Stampin' Up! products.  Yes, it's another double challenge card.  I used the Color Challenge over at Stampin' Addicts SACC33.  And I used this sketch from Stamping 411 SSC120.

I finally got the Thoughts and Prayers set and wanted to use it.  But in order for it to work, I had to flip the sketch. 

I'm so glad I finally got this set.  I love how this card turned out.  The colors are Ruby Red, Old Olive and Apricot Appeal.  I embossed the Apricot Appeal layer with Finial Press Impressions Folder #115963.  The corners of the Whisper White layer are punched using the Ticket Corner Punch #107214. 

I'm trying to make a habit of mailing cards every Monday.  I figure if I mail 2 or 3 each week, it gives me a reason to keep stamping!  There are lots of people that could use a little smile in their mailbox.

Thoughts and Prayers  #113252  $25.95

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

Krystal's Weekly Favorites Blog Hop #2

Hi Stamping Friends!

It's Sunday and I thought I'd share some of my fave blog picks for this week.  There were so many gorgeous Stampin' Up! creations to choose from.  I really should spend more time stamping and less time blog hopping!

The first creation is this AMAZING set of boxes by Andrea Beale of MUKIBUG

Next is a an adorable punch art scarecrow by Karen Philipp of STAMPIN' WITH Z-GRANDMA

Here's a great way to use the Flower Folds die from Ilina Crouse of MY CREATIONS

These little bees are sooo creative from Connie Collins of CONSTANTLY STAMPING

And finally, the perfect card for a beautiful Sunday by Aly Schilling of STAMPINING WITH ALY!

Thanks for stopping by today!

I hope you have a very restful Sunday.

Happpy Stamping!

Pals Paper Arts Color Challenge

Hi Stamping Friends!

I just couldn't let the week go by with out partcipating in the Pals Paper Arts Challenge PPA11.  This weeks challenge is a color challenge:

Aren't these fun colors!  Alot of the other participants went with a Holloween theme, but I just kept thinking Spring!  So here's the card I came up with:

On Thursday I got all the 1-1/4" Striped Grosgrain ribbons and just had to use one.  Isn't it gorgeous?!  I just LOVE this ribbon!  I hope to use it on my Christmas cards.  I used the Inspired By Nature set for the grass that is stamped in Old Olive.  The butterflies and flowers are from Flight Of The Butterfly.  It's easy to make your butterfly look 3-D when you punch it out with the Butterfly Punch  #116629  $15.95 and then pop it up with Dimensionals.  The Butterfly Punch coordinates perfectly with the Flight Of The Butterfly stamp set.  The sentiment is from Oval Alls and I used the Polka Dot background stamp to add a little something to the card base.

Flight Of The Butterfly  #111564  $31.95

Oval All  #113790  $16.95

If you haven't contacted me about the Christmas Jingle Stamp Camp yet, you better soon!  The deadline for registration is October 15th.  Check out THIS POST for more details.  And browse my blog to see all 20 cards that we will be creating.

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Happy Stamping!