Snow Day

As some of you may, or may not know, we are enjoying about 8 inches of snow that all fell yesterday afternoon.  With the weather the way it was, I enjoyed a day inside making cards.  Of coarse, I had to make my run to the store for some Diet Dr. Pepper before it got too bad out.;b  This is something I stamped a bit ago.  I was looking at these flourishes and thought - that looks like a butterfly!  So I decided to try it out.  The rhinestones are the body (in case you didn't guess).  I found this bit of gray/silver ribbon in my stash that was just the right size.  With a stamp this beautiful, you have to have a beautiful sentiment - I went with one from the Carte Postale stamp set.  A few purple pearls to finish it off and - VOILA!

 

As I was making this card I realized why I loved the look of these colors so much - they were my wedding colors.  It's been nearly 11 years but... My wedding colors were a dark royal (or in this case, Elegant Eggplant) purple and silver.  I still love it!!!

For this next card I used a stamp I just bought.  When I saw this sweet mother and child I thought how perfect that would be for a new mom for Mother's Day.  Although I don't have any sentiments for Mother's Day that really flow nicely with this image.  So I went with a 'Sweet Baby' instead. 

I embossed the background in white using the Filigree (retired SU!) background stamp on a scrap of dark pearly purple paper (say that 3 times fast!).  If you look closely, the mother's collar is an eyelet lace - that gave me the idea to punch the holes in my scallop border (Elegant Eggplant).  Add ribbon, a bow and a button and you can't go wrong!

Here you can see a little better detail.  I added purple pearls around the sentiment and there you go!
Both cards are 5x7.

cQc #17 & MM 123

 

Here's a little 2 for 1 action - I decided to combine the challenges and make this card.

Sorry the picture isn't straight.  I really love the look of these colors together!  In one of my midnight stamping fun sessions, I stamped my SU! Medallion stamp in white on my Taken With Teal cardstock, with no real plans for a specific card, I tucked it away in my desk for later.  When I got this color challenge, I thought it'd be the perfect chance to use this pre-stamped piece.

I heat embossed in clear a small strip of the Bella Toile background stamp.  Since I had precut my paper strip, I was able to choose what part of the stamp I wanted to show up on my paper strip.  I really like this section, with all the swirls.

 

I used a sentiment from the SU! retired set, Carte Postale.  I thought the swirls of the font coordinated well with the swirls of the background stamp.  To accent the sentiment, I added a strip of tiny pearls.  

Black Inspiration

Over the weekend I was watching one of my favorite movies - Penelope.  If you haven't seen this movie, it's a great chick flick fairy tale kinda movie.  At the end of the movie, the credits began to roll and I noticed the background.  It was black on black in a beautiful floral/vine pattern.  I was inspired!!  I immediately thought of my Bella Toile background stamp and rushed to my work area to get the idea on paper.  I used clear powder to heat emboss the background stamp on black cardstock. 

Next I opted for an accent color of pink (I originally thought of red, but then I liked the pop of Melon Mambo with the black).  I'm planning on making a set of these to give as a gift.  I LOVE monogrammed stuff!  Hope my friend does too.

Pink, Pink and More Pink

So, growing up, I never really considered myself an 'I Heart Pink' kinda girl.  But as I've gotten older, I've really come to love the color.  I have a pink trench coat, a pink phone, and a few pink tops.  True, my favorite color is still purple (it really has to be the right shade to look good on me), but since stores seem to rarely carry purple things, I turn to the next best 'girly' kinda color - Pink.

Here's another creation using some Valentine's day pink paper.  I used some new glitter I found recently for the little 'wings' (I guess that's what you'd call them).  I stamped the chicks in Melon Mambo, So Saffron, and Chocolate Chip, and the sentiment in Melon Mambo.  The label I cut using my Cricut.  Did I mention that I loved my Cricut? :)

MM 122

Ok, so I know this is a whole lota pink - but I like it!  Hope you enjoy too.

The pink pearls are part of a package I found at the craft store.  They come all connected, which makes it easy to keep them in a straight line.

Pretty in Purple

Anyone who knows me knows I love purple.  It's always been my favorite color.  Even if I don't own a ton of stuff in it.  This was also an experiment with my new background stamps.  You can see, I still need some practice, but it turned out ok.  I sliced a slit along the fold so I could thread the ribbon around.  I had to tie the bow a couple of times because my first attempt ended up upside down.:)  I used Perfect Plum ink.

Feeling Spring

I suppose it's that constant looking forward to the next holiday kinda thing, but I'm already looking forward to spring time.  At least in my papercrafts.  I cut the butterfly and the label from my Cricut.  I added dots of Stickles in between the scallops on the egde.

 

Here's my other recent creation.  I've seen lots of stamping with white on darker cardstock, so I decided to try that on Rich Razzelberry.  I also inked the edges to give it a little softer look.  The scalloped overlay in front is actually silver mattalic - although it looks kinda white in the picture. Again, I cut the Rich Razzelberry with my Cricut ( I love my Cricut!).

cQc#15

It took me nearly all week to really buckle down and do this color challenge.  Initially, I didn't think I'd be able to do it - I have little to no gray, and no Pumpkin Pie marker or ink pad.  But last night, as I spent hours playing around with all my stamps and Cricut (I do all my best stuff at 12am :b) I came across some patterned gray paper, and immediately the challenge came to mind.  So...... Here's my go at it:

The gray I used for the first layer is actually a silver/gray scrap I found in my file of Basic Gray.  I loved it so much, I had to allow room enough to see the pretty stuff.  The butterfly is from a set of stickers I bought last year.  I thought the green was perfect for the challenge.  I used an orange marker (non SU!) I found rummaging through my things.

 

Another late night creation.  I've had this pearly orange embossing powder for a while, but I rarely use orange.  I decided to pair it with it's color opposite - blue.  Bliss blue is the card base, and Bordering Blue the sentiment and paper strip.  I love these rhinestone brads for a bit o' bling.

Last, but certainly not least, is my last creation for this afternoon.  This is an old SU! hostess set I got on Ebay.  I love the classic look of it.  I had a stack of monochromatic textured cardstock I paired with the images.  I knew the layout I wanted, but knew I needed a little something more.  I stamped the background in Bella Toile with Versamark.  After stamping I thought I wanted to make the pattern a little more obvisous, so I pulled out my clear embossing powder.  Even though it had been a few minutes since I'd stamped, the powder stuck! Yipee!  I also embossed the sentiment in white. 

I added some Waterfall Stickles to each corner.  Classic.

Sympathy Card

My 3rd grader came home last week with a note from the school saying one of the 3rd grade teachers (not his teacher) has unexpected lost her husband on New Year's Eve.  She's a young teacher - probably in her late 20's - and was only married a year.  So sad.  I have been meaning to make a sympathy card for her, and here is my attempt. 

I was inspired by Dawn McVey's card that was featured on the Papercrafts Magazine this month.  I had actually found this color combination earlier this year, but had yet to make a card highlighting it.  It's Ruby Red stamped on Cameo Coral cardstock.  I love it!  I was never a big fan of the Kraft cardstock - but recently have seen such beautiful things done with it, it's going to be on my next SU! order.

MM and Fabric Brads

Here's my attempt at this weeks Mojo Monday sketch.  I'm not so sure about that flower stamp.  The more I look at it the more I think I should have put something a little more frilly - if that makes sense. Ok, so being the papercrafter I am, I couldn't go to bed tonight without correcting my card.  Here's the updated version.  I added a little bling - cuz I LOVE bling!  Why I didn't think to coordinate the accent in the first place, I don't know.

While out yesterday I found these beautiful fabric covered brads.  So, even though my New Year's resolution was not to buy any papercraftinng products this month (which I've sadly broken already) - I needed to try these out.

Aren't they just gorgeous!  They had three different colors - turquoise, rose red, and olive.  Each brad different.  Can't wait to try out the others!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge

I loved these colors together, but initially had no idea what I was going to do with them.  This morning, since I wasn't quite satisfied with my Mojo Monday attempt from yesterday (we papercrafters are quite the perfectionists, aren't we?), I thought I'd use that sketch as inspiration for today as well.

As you can see, I did change the sketch around a little.  Turned it on it's side and used vintage labels instead of circles.

I used Stickles on the inside of the stamp.  I used the 'rock and roll' method to get the two colors.  I really like the aqua and yellow together.  I used Barely Banana and Cool Carribean for this.  I used Close to Cocoa for the saying, and Chocolate chip for the brown scalloped edge.

MM and Project Life

This week's Mojo Monday challenge I thought I'd do something cool and wintery.  I wanted to branch away from my urge to create Valentine's Day cards.  I have had this paper for a while and I'm so glad I had a chance to use it.  I love the different shades of blue. 

I used 3 snowflake brads instead of the 5 on the sketch.  I actually forgot about the other sketch element until after I had finished, so I just left it out. 

My wonderful news today is my Project Life kit showed up.  I was expecting to open the door to a solicitor, but there it was.  Ah, the shouts of joy and gladness when I saw my box and pulled it inside. For those who don't know, this is a new kit from scrapbook guru Becky Higgins (Creating Keepsakes).  Last year she did a kit called Project 365.  It was wildly popular.  The idea was to take a picture a day for an entire year.  Also to write a little blurb about each picture and each day. Project Life gives you a little more freedom in that you don't have to keep up on a picture a day.  You can customize it to your needs.  See Becky's blog for more info. Becky's Blog Here

Here's a shot of everything inside.  I've already started taking pictures for it!  Yipee!

I love the idea of recording the little things, not just the big events.

Here's my picture for today.  This is what I'm listening to in my kitchen lately.  Tell me if you're doing Project Life too.

New Year's Fun

This New Year's Day I spent some time playing with my stamps and inks.  I also discovered a couple of blogs with great creativity jump starters: Mojo Monday - which posts a sketch every Monday.  And ColourQ - which posts a color combination to try for the week.  I'm looking forward to future challenges.

Here's my take on week 119 for Mojo Monday

Although it's a little hard to make out, I love the look of Pretty in Pink ink on Very Vanilla cardstock.
I also had fun playing with some Valentine's Day ideas.

I stamped this with Mauve Mist and Purely Pomegranate (both retired).  I lined the edge of the larger circle with a 2-way glue pen and added Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

My final project today was a nice monochromatic card.  I used Melon Mambo Designer Series Paper and Pretty in Pink, Rose Romance (retired) and Melon Mambo inks.  I used my new clear mounted SU! set 'With All My Heart'.  I love the coordinating details around each of the sentiments.