This week's Challenge from Beate

It looks like Beate's doing challenges on her blog every week now....I hope I can keep up! Here's what I came up with for this week's challenge, a fairly simple card using the Unfroggetable Stamp Set.

This sketch challenge was for a square card, so I used half a sheet of 12x12 Brocade Blue to make a 6x6 square card. I chose my colors based on some Michaels ribbon that I have with shades of blue, green, and brown. I layered some chocolate chip on the card and then added a strip of the Celery Palette 'o' Prints paper with the dotted flowers. On a piece of white cardstock I stamped the frog and then colored him in with celery and brocade blue ink using my blender pen. I framed him in blue and then added some faux stitching with my paper piercer and white gel pen. I stamped the sentiment on white and then framed it in green, positioning it over the ribbon. For a final embellishment I added a Hodgepodge hardware buckle to the ribbon.

This was a fun, yet simple card that I hope to use for either Father's day or a birthday card for one of the men in my life this summer.

Our 6-year Anniversary

Sean and I celebrated our 6th Wedding Anniversary this weekend. Due to all the work still left to be done on the house, we didn't have too much time to relax. But we did get a chance to go out to dinner alone, which was really nice. I was so WOWed by my Mom's anniversary card for us that I just had to upload it here for all to see. The picture doesn't do it justice with the flower an butterfly actually popping off the page with dimensionals and the glitter that she applied to add that extra sparkly. Thanks Mom, I love it!!!

Pearly Doodles

My friend Suzi gave me some floor wax so that I can play some more with the Painted Pearls technique so I thought I'd try using it for this week's color challenge on Splitcoast. This week the colors are Vintage Violet, Certainly Celery, and Old Olive. I was browsing Stampin' Kub's blog earlier this week and got some inspiration for this layout.
I started out with a Vintage Violet for the card base and used Vintage Violet ink and one of the stamps from "Doodle This" to create a background for the card. I decided that I've been hoarding my Palette O' Prints paper long enough, so I pulled out the flowery celery paper, trimmed it and punched one end with the spiral punch. I wrapped some white grosgrain around this piece before taping it down. For the flower embellishment, I stamped the flower from "Doodle This" onto Certainly Celery cardstock with Stazon Black ink. I colored in the petals of the flower with Misty Lavendar Pearlex using an Aqua Painter filled with Future Floor Wax. The picture doesn't show it too well, but the flower is a very shimmery purple. I used my white gel pen to add some highlights to the flower to balance out the white in the paper and the ribbon. Finally, I layered this piece with Old Olive and used my Paper Piercing Tool and template to add a decorative edge to the piece.

Beate's Challenge

Beate Johns posted a sketch challenge on her blog a few days ago and I thought it would be fun to try it. I had lots of fun playing with some patterened papers that I hadn't used in a while. So here's what I came up with.

I used So Saffron for the card base and for the card background I used a combination of Spring Showers paper (how appropriate after yesterday's whether!), creamy caramel, and a little bit of So Saffron for the scalloped edge. I just used my scissors to create the wavy line in the Spring Showers paper. I cut the same wavy line onto a strip of Saffron. Then, since I don't have any scalloped edge scissors (I don't think!), I used my corner rounder with the guide piece removed to create a scalloped edge along that wavy cut edge. I layered both pieces on top of some the creamy caramel card stock and then glued them all down after adding some blue gingham ribbon.

I used my Coluzzle clutting system to cut 2 nested circles the smaller in Very Vanilla, and the larger in Bashful Blue. On the Vanilla I used the Rock & Roll technique to stamp the large flower from Looks Like Spring (Stamped in Blue ink and then roled the edges in chocolate chip). I punched out a small flower in chocolate chip using my Spring Bouquet flower punch and attached it to the Vanilla paper with a Saffron brad. I scalloped the edge of the blue circle using my corner rounder again, attached the 2 circles and then mounted them on the card. To finish it off, I added some doodling along the yellow scalloped edge and stamped a Thank You from the Warmest Regards hostess set, both in chocolate chip ink.

Then feeling a little ambitious last night I created a similar card using Recollections paper, along with Mellow Moss, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, and Cranberry Crisp card stocks. The card was created in the same fashion, this time using the Stippled Stencils stamp set and some stitched cranberry ribbon.

I received my first RAK!

Like I mentioned in my last post, I've joined a group on Splitcoast Stampers that participate in RAK (Random Acts of Kindness). Members of this group send cards to other fellow stampers to share ideas and brighten a someone's day. I was so excited to sign up for this and even more excited when I got my first RAK in the mail yesterday.

This RAK is from Lynn Mercurio from St. Louis, Missouri. She used a lot of supplies that I don't typically use so it was so fun to see her funny card. I must say I thought of my friend Sara when I got this card because her husband is so into cars(which makes it really easy for her to justify all her stamping/scrapping hobby expenses!). Lynn has a beautiful blog called Stamperosity. Check it out for some fantastic ideas. Thanks so much, Lynn, making me smile when I opened my mailbox last night!

My First Challenge!

Last night I decided that I wanted to make some cards to send out as RAKs (Random Acts of Kindness) to some fellow Splitcoast Stampers. I also have wanted to attempt some of the challenges that Splitcoast presents every week. So....I took a look at this week's Sketch Challenge( SC122) and Color Challenge(CC113) and tackled them all at once! The color challenge was to use Cool Carribean, Marigold Morning, and Taken with Teal together. The sketch challenge was a fairly simple and symmetric sketche with a single focal point in the center of the card.

Since this was my first color challenge, I didn't know how much I was "allowed" to stray from those colors. Were those the only colors I could use? Leave it to me to make it extra challenging on myself. I tried really hard to just use those colors, but it just needed something else....so I decided to add some orange to the mix with some extra highlighting on the flower and some orange ribbon.



So here's what I came up with. My Doodle This stamp set is still very new, so I still have lots more playing to do. I stamped the flower in Taken with Teal on some Whisper White. I watercolored using my blender pen and the Cool Carribean, Taken with Teal, Marigold Morning, and Only Orange ink pads. I framed the flower with Cool Carribean. I stamped the Teal cardstock with another Doodle This stamp using Teal ink. I rubbed the card base (Marigold) across my Marigold ink pad a bunch of times (direct-to-paper), and then stamped "happiness" from Warm Words in Teal ink. Before assembling everything, I added some orange and apricot grosgrain ribbon to the flower piece and then glued it all together.


I must say that my first challenge was a little difficult, but a lot of fun! I'm sure the more I do, the easier it will get. I encourage everyone to try the Splitcoast challenges. It really helps to have someone else give you an idea for a project, because sometimes when you've got tons of supplies to choose from, it's hard to know where to start!

Altered Frames

A Big Thank You to my friend MaryMargaret Corcoran for this fantastic idea! I saw some of these frames that she made and just had to make some myself.

I made this sample in preparation for my Father's Day Frame Class coming up later this month. I decorated an unfinished wood frame with some double sided patterened paper (Four Seasons from Stampin' Up!) using Modge Podge. I then added some blue grosgrain ribbon and a piece of Hodge Podge Hardware. I sanded all the edges with my sanding block and finally stamped the "best DAD" on some remaining patterned paper using Typeset Alphabet Upper and Rough Edges Alphabet. This was then framed with Bravo Burgundy and then decorated with brass brads and adhered with Sticky Strip.

My American Idol

For some reason I've been really celebrating Mia lately in my scrapbooking. Mia just loves to sing! We play this "Wheels on the Bus" kids song CD every time she's in the car with me. Last year she started pretending that she was singing into a microphone using my turkey baster. I must say, this baster gets more use as a microphone than it does basting turkeys!!!

I used Brocade blue for the background cardstock and stamped it with starts from All Through the Year using Brocade ink. I framed the photos in Real Red, Not Quite Navy and White. I used my Best Friends Upper Alphabet along with that same star and the heart note from Mini Mates to make the "Super Star" title. I wrote my journaling on a circle this time, framed it in red and tacked it on with a blue brad. I added some Gingham ribbon in Red and Blue for a little splash of excitement and did a little bit of doodling around the large photo frame to add some detail.

Love these photos, she can be so sweet!

Mia's Clothing Obsession

I've been wanting to create this layout for some time now. I've been collecting pictures of the crazy things that Mia dresses herself with and now I have enough to make a layout. Mia just loves clothes and she won't hesitate to try on anything pretty or interesting regardless of whether it fits her or what the weather is like outside. So I spent some time yesterday pulling together a sampling of her interesting choices.

Both of these pages used Cool Carribean as the background paper. I used pieces of the Petals & Paisleys backgroundpaper throughout along with Pink Passion, Certainly Celery and Tempting Turquoise cardstock to frame the photos and the Whisper White journaling boxes. I used Polka Dots & Paisley along with Polka Dots & Petals for the stamped images on the title box, accent box, and bottom and left edges of the background paper. The inks I used were Cool Carribean, Pink Passion, Tempting Turquoise and Certainly Celery. For embellishment I added some carribean colored ric-rac left over from the Winter Mini Catalog ribbon collection. I also added lots of gingham ribbon in blue, moss, and pink (all were from Stampin' Up! except the dark pink from Michaels. As a final touch, I added some faux stitching along the edge of the long strips of patterned paper, using my paper piercer and a white gel pen.

I had so much fun making this 2-page spread, I hope you enjoy it!