Mojo Monday and Easter Peeps

Yay! It's Easter Break! That equals one week of guitless stampin' for mom. :) Every Monday, there is a new sketch challenge over at the Mojo Monday blog. I never seem to get around to it until the end of the week. So today's card is from last Monday's challenge Mojo80. Even though I finished it this weekend, I'm trying to spread out my posts! Hopefully I'll be able to get to this weeks sketch a little sooner, since it is a contest week. Here's the sketch:




































I found another fabulous challenge to participate in. This one is a color challenge hosted by the super talented Dawn McVey. It's called Rasberry Suite Color Challenge RSCC3. Here's this week challenge:































Here's the card I made combining these two challenges:

































I saw these cool flowers on SCS and just had to get the Sizzix Daisies #2 die from Stampin' Up! so I could make them! The bottom DSP is Raspberry Tart and the other DSP is from a Hostess Pack. The colors I used are Kraft, Very Vanilla, Cameo Coral, Real Red and Pretty in Pink. The sentiment is from Sincere Salutations.



Now on to my Easter Peeps. Our family loves Peeps. From what I'm told, it's an aquired taste, but we have it! There's nothing yummier than a nice fresh Peep, straight from the package. I personally love the bunnies over the chicks, but that's just me. I saw a cute bag over at SCS where she layered the Peeps like a rainbow. I thought it was so cute that I decided to make them for my kiddos and nieces and nephews for Easter.

Isn't it fun?! I made the simple little bunny topper using my SU! Top Note die. The ears and nose were made using Pretty In Pink ink and the Pick A Petal stamp set. The eyes were stamped with a circle from Enjoy Every Moment. The "whiskers" are the stem of the flower from Good Friend. I love the stack of rainbow Peeps!

I hope to have other Easter projects throughout the week. Check back tomorrow. I had a good stamping weekend, so I should have more posts.

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Stamping!

Diva Coffee Break 121 and Inspiration 174

Two posts in one day... it must have been a good stamping weekend!

I love the Stampin' Up! Only (SUO) challenges over at Diva Coffee Break Designs DCBD121. This week was a sketch challenge. Here's the sketch:




















Saturday is always a fun challenge day over at SplitcoastStampers. It's the day they do the Inspiration Challenge IC174, which pretty much means look at some stuff, be inspired, and create anything that you want! It's one of the easiest challenges to participate in. This is what I was inspired by on the French Bull website:





















I loved the colors in this bedding. I have the hardest time coming up with fresh color combos. Too bad there weren't more color challenges out there in blog world. Maybe I should start one... HA!! Anyhoo, my colors are Pink Passion, Summer Sun, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip, and Whisper White. Here's my card using the new Occasions Mini set Great Friend:





















I really love how this turned out! I would never have come up with this color combo of my own. The DSP is also new from the Occasions Mini called A Walk In The Park. It's hard to see, but the Pink Passion card base is embossed with the Texturz Plates. Behind the clear buttons is a 3/4" circle of DSP from Bella Rose. I'm so sad that Kiwi Kiss will be retiring in July, because that means almost all my fave DSP will be retiring too!

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Stamping!

His Holy Name '09 King

Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest! Don't you just love Palm Sunday?! What a joyous day. We had a wonderful service at church today with kids and palm branches and beautiful praise to Christ our King! Today is the perfect day to be reminded of God as our King, which is the attribute we studied this week for the His Holy Name Challenge HHN09 hosted by Patter Cross. Patter does a wonderful job of inspiring us and then sending us out to discover the scripture for ourselves. The verses I chose for this 12x12 page are from Psalm 145 verses 1-3 and 11-13. "I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom." and "They will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he had made." Is that awesome! I just loved these verses and had to use both. I tried to make this page look regal and royal. I'm not sure I accomplished that. It's a little too formal for me, but it's all good.

I used Old Olive, Chcolate Chip, River Rock, Perfect Plum cardstock and Brocade Background DSP (retired). The stamp I used is Kind Thoughts. The title (which is the part I like the least!) was cut with my Cricut using the Stone Script. The crown was cut using the paper dolls cartridge. The silk flowers are from Bazzill. The gold rope came from a yard sale.

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a blessed Easter Week!

Triple Threat Challenge! Replay!

Hi Stamping Friends!

I can't believe it's Saturday already! I always tell myself that I'm going to blog more, but I never seem to get around to it as much as I would like. I think I'm going to try and save posts on the weekends and publish them throughout the week. Maybe I'll be more consistent that way.

Today's card is a combination of three challenges:

The first is Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration KWCI48

Next up is Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge WSC75 hosted by the very talented Mary Jo Albright

And finally, a challenge from a Stampin' Up! only Yahoo Group that I just joined called the Late Night Stampers LNS13. Challenge #13 was to use a bird on your card. I chose to use the owl from the new Occasions Mini set called Forest Friends. Here's my card:

I think it turned out pretty cute! The DSP is Parisian Breeze Specialty and the ribbon is from the Ribbon Originals called Pig Tails. The sentiment is from Sock Monkey. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. I'm off to make some rainbow Peeps.

Happy Stamping!

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!

His Holy Name '09 Righteous

On Sunday, Patter gave us this week's attribute of God for the His Holy Name Challenge HHN09 . The new attribute is Righteous. Patter puts so much thought and work into each study. I really appreciate reading what she has to say. I used BibleGateway to look up scripture verses that contained the word righteous. Many of them had to do with man being righteous, but I was concentrating on God's righteousness towards man. After all, we are only righteous through his forgiveness and mercy. And that forgiveness is so freely given because of his son dying on the cross for our sinfulness.

Again, it was difficult choosing just one verse. Every week I'm amazed at how many beautiful truths are written for us in the Bible. I just love the Psalms. There are so poetic and lovely. So many great images are used. I had three different Psalms that I really liked, but finally chose Psalm 36:5-6. I love the song (I think it's by Third Day) of this passage: "Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O Lord, you preserve both man and beast." Isn't that fabulous! God is so mighty!

I found the layout for this 12x12 scrapbook page on another sketch blog (how many are there?!) called Page Plans. Here's the sketch:

I usually don't do "one photo" layouts in scrapbooks, but this challenge is totally different. I can through caution to the wind and waste a whole 12x12 piece of paper for only "one photo". And in this case, no photo! Here's my page based on this layout:

I used my latest favorite DSP Parisian Breeze. It's the best DSP that SU! has come out with. It's thick and textured and fabulous! And I love all the patterns, stripes, polka dots, damask. There's not an ugly piece in the whole pack!

This is page is mostly SU! The only thing that isn't is the "fluer de lis" chipboard. It's from Colorbok. And the title is cut with my Cricut. Everything else is Stampin' Up! The flowers were cut with my Big Shot using the SU! Birds and Blooms Sizzlets. The pearls are from the SU! Pretties Kit. I distressed all the edges of the DSP with Chocolate Chip ink and a sponge. I printed the verses on my computer and then used the new SU! set Friends 24-7 to stamp over top the words. I used Creamy Caramel ink and stamped off once before stamping on my verse. The Chocolate Chip Wide Satin Ribbon is from SU!, but it's retired. I don't know why it's retired,because it is so fabulous! They really need to carry this in the big catty.

The colors are Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel and Whisper White.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping! (and scrapping!)

Weekend Sketch Challenge 68

Yea!! Beate's back doing her Weekend Sketch Challenge WSC68. I've always enjoyed partcipating in her challenges. I know we all need a break every once in awhile, but I'm glad hers is over! I've missed her blog postings. Here's the sketch she had:

I just drew a quick sletch with pencil (sometimes I actually print out the sketch with my printer, but I was trying to save ink!). I wish I would have gone back and looked at the sketch again, I would have overlapped my circles more. Oh well! I'm close. Here's my Stampin' Up! only card:

I haven't used Sweet Stems nearly enough, so I inked it up. Plus, I haven't been able to play with the Raspberry Tart DSP like I've wanted to either. I LOVE this paper pack! The patterns remind me of Vera Bradley. And the colors are fabulous! So bright and cheerful. Helps chase away the winter, foggy blues.

THe base is Cameo Coral with Kiwi Kiss and Whisper White. I embossed the white panel with the new SU! Texturz Plates, but it's kind of hard to see.

The scallop circles were made using the Sizzix Scallop Circle Die and my Big Shot. I pinched out me flower image using the SU! Square Scallop Punch.

I finished it off with some Kiwi Kiss Satin ribbon (LOVE this ribbon!), Rose Red grosgrain, and a SU! Fire Circle Rhinstone brad. The sentiment is from Hugs and wishes.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!

Taylor's Cupcake Challenge 55

Wow! Two posts in one day! I figure I might as well post when I can, because I never know when I'll be able to. This card is for Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge TECC55. Taylor always does a sketch challenge, which is one of my favorite type of challenges. I always need some inspiration in that area! Here's the sketch:

I thought it looked like a great sketch to use a lot of scraps of DSP on. It was fun, but kind of tedious to get the measurements exactly right. Here's the card I came up with:

I used the retired SU! Hawaiian Papaya DSP, which I LOVE. I have a love/hate relationship with SU! DSP. I LOVE all the patterns and colors, and I hate that they retire so soon! I didn't even get to show-off all of the Fall/Winter DSP, so now I'm using 2-3 different DSP's for every class. I decided to use a different pattern of the DSP for each of the panels. I love how it all coordinates. The colors are: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss and Tangerine Tango.

I used a new SU! set called Petal Pizzazz. Very fun to work with! The Tangerine flower was punched out using the SU! Circle Scallop punch. I embellished it with some SU! Chocolate stitched grosgrain, new SU! corduroy buttons (awesome!) and new SU! white brads (awesomex2!). I'm just lovin' all the new embellishments that SU! came out with in this catty! I want them all!

The "for you" sentiment is from the SU! set One of a Kind. I don't get that set out often enough. I really should use it in a class again.

The scallop is from the Sizzix scallop die. I'm really lovin' my Big Shot. Best craft investment I've made in a long time. If you don't have a die cutting system, you should look into to getting one. They are worth every penny!

Have a great weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day! (again!)

Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration 41

I love playing in Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration Challenge KWCI41. By day, Kristina is a graphic artist for Stampin' Up!. Once in awhile she has some blog posts about "work". It's so cool to get an inside look of working in the SU! corporate offices. I also love her sense of design. Very clean and fresh. Here's the color inspiration piece Kristina gave us:

These are great colors for my family. As long as my dad has been a truck driver (which has practically been my whole life!) his truck, his brothers trucks and now my brothers trucks have always been "red, black & silver". So we consider this color combo our "company colors"! Here's the card I made for this challenge:





















I made this final (hopefully!) valentine for my 3 yo DS to give to his cousins. The card is SU! only. I used the new Texturz Plates to emboss the black panel. I really like the large polka dots! The hearts are from the Love You Much stamp set, stamped with black ink and punch out with the coordinating punch. The sentiment is from A Happy Heart and punched out with the Word Window punch. I embellished with a couple of silver brads, Gray taffetta ribbon and black gingham ribbon. Super cute and easy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

February BVC09

Well, I finally had time today to upload something to my blog! I've been crafting, but I just don't seem to find enough time to stamp something, take a picture, edit the picture and then post it. I don't know how these gals do it everyday! Today's card is a combination of four different challenges. I know some folks who don't like the mixing of challenges, but I just don't have the time to do them all separately, so I usually combine a few. This is the first time I've combined four challenges. I've done three before, but never four. It started off, because I knew I wanted to do the Divine Design Bible Verse Challenge BVC09 over at SCS. When I looked at the Ways To Use It Challenge WT205, which was to use fabric, I thought sure, I could do that. I also knew I was going to use Wednesday's Sketch Challenge SC215, and Tuesday's Color Challenge CC205. So here there are in ONE 4x4 card!

I love these colors together: Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss and Perfect Plum. Really great Valentine colors. The fabric that I used is the pink fake fur. I used my Big Shot to cut out the flower shape. I've decided that I need to start purchasing more fabric and using it with my Big Shot. It cuts through it so easily! I used my SU! Bigz XL die Baskets and Blooms for this flower. I wanted to add a heart somewhere, because of the words in the verse, so I chose to use a piece of chipboard. I love the glittery look, but I wished I would have thought to use Heat and Stick powder. The Fine Cosmo glitter is falling off all over the place. I just smooshed the chipboard piece into my White Craft ink and sprinkled it with glitter. It's not sticking too well. The Bible verse stamp is from Verve. It's part of their Plain Jane collection. This verse has been a favorite of mine since jr. high school. It really helped me through some tough years of high school and college. I really took this promise to heart. I knew that if I just kept my eyes and heart focused on God, He would take care of the rest. And He still does! What I love about these stamps is the way they incorporate different fonts to highlight certain words. I just love that! What I'm not crazy about is that they are acrylic. I love the see-though capabilities, but I still don't think you get a clear, crisp image like you do with rubber. Sorry! I'm not a fan yet! Everything but the verse and the fake fur is SU!

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Stmaping!

His Holy Name '09 Protector

This 12x12 scrapbook page is for Patter Cross's year-long challenge His Holy Name. This week we were asked to study the attribute of God as Protector. I had a wonderful time yesterday afternoon looking up verses on BibleGateway. I looked at verses with protection, tower, and refuge. I kept coming back to the same verse... Psalm 5:11-12 "But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. For surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield." What a wonderful image of God spreading His protection over us. But the part that intrigues me about this verse is the part that says "let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them sing for joy." Usually, when we are in a situation where we are seeking God's protection, it's because of a bad time in our life... maybe the loss of a job, or difficulty meeting our financial obligations. But this verse calls us to "sing for joy". I love that! We are to seek God's protection with a glad heart. Helps to but it all in perspective doesn't it. Bad things WILL happen, but when we lean on God to protect us, we can find joy in the sorrow. Have a blessed week!