Limited Supplies

You know how I love the different challenges on SCS and a whole lot of other blogs, so many I can't keep up. I have to remind myself that I don't have to do them all, it is just for fun and a place to start for inspiration. This week I decided to try the Limited Supplies challenge over at SCS. This was a first for me, but it was fun. The challenge was to create 3 cards with all the same supplies but use 3 DIFFERENT layouts, plus you had to use HPH and ribbon. I know, I know, I was supposed to post a picture of that last scrapbook layout from the Summer Days kit, but my new toys (yes, my beloved Copics )dictated how I stamped today (and that in itself was a challenge since my colors are so limited). Here is the trio! Check out My Gallery for pics of each of the individual cards. Have a great weekend!

Here's one for Crystal

Here's another quick post, we're off to T-ball, but my good friend and stamp-shopping cohort, Crystal has been bugging me (in a nice, excited way) to get a card uploaded made with my new Copic markers. Yes, I did it, I caved and actually bought some. They are everything I expected! I had to place orders with two different online stores to find the colors I wanted in stock. I got my first 12 markers yesterday. This was my first image I colored and I think it turned out pretty good if you don't look too close at Billy's hair line. LOL! My colors are limited until my other 14 markers show up here hopefully next week. So here it is Crystal, just for you! Thanks for all your enabeling!

NVR-what does it mean?

Did you figure it out? I think I talked about this term in a previous post, but for those who don't know, NVR stands for No Vendor Requirements. The other GSG swap I joined this month was a Show your Stuff, NVR swap. We could use any paper, stamps, ink, and embellishment we wanted. I love to do these every now and then because it gives me another excuse to use the non-SU stuff I'm slowly accumulating. Here is the card I did.
Hobby Lobby runs a sale on their designer paper (ds), 4 for $1, every now and then. I have SO MUCH ds paper that I really don't need any more, but sometimes when this sale is running I feel the need to get more. I've had this ds paper for over 6 months and have never touched it (see, this is why I don't need anymore, I don't use all of what I have). The paper is from My Minds Eye and I love it, so I got to use it here. The stamp set is Papertrey Ink, Out on a Limb. I even got to use some of SU's last years In Color cs, Buckaroo Blue. I paired that with soft sky and choc. chip and created this beautiful color combo! I added some brown Prima flowers, some dew drops, and even some stickles to the berries on the branch. It is so fun to show off my stuff!
Random thoughts about swap cards. Do you swap? If you do then you can probably relate, maybe not. Maybe I'm the only one who experiences these swap hurdles.
1) Don't you hate it when you think you measure your ribbon correctly, cut it all only to realize you are a bit short to even tie a decent knot?
2) Along the same lines, don't you hate it when you don't have the amount of cs you need to complete the card? Yes, I usually check this before I start the project, but I was sure I had enough textured soft sky cs. When it came down to it, I was short by 4 card fronts and had to improvise and make my own faux-textured cs (I used my canvas background stamp and ink it in versamark to create a subtle pattern on the sky piece). Can you see it on the right side of this picture?
3) Do you ever plan a project based on the number of brads you have left, in a not-as-popular of a color. As I used up the rest of my bashful blue brads on the other swap card, I am left with all of the Apricot brads from the soft subtle pack. I'm thinking I need to incorporate this color into my next project.
and last thought for now,
4) Do you ever cut cs pieces twice? I do my swap card assembly style. I cut all my cs first, then stamp, then assemble. Sometimes I get distracted in the middle of one of my steps and when I get back to it, I've been known to double cut one of my pieces. Like on the card I posted yesterday, I double cut the little 1 3/4 inch kraft squares. Now what to do with the extras? Guess I need to pair them with my apricot brads ;)
Okay, enough rambling for today, but before I do does anyone know what this card is missing? Can you believe it? Leave me a guess, and I'll tell you tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

PTI Blog Hop! and creating on the fly...

Tonight starting at 8pm EST, Papertrey Ink is hosting their monthly blog hop. The first month I found out about the event a day late. I wanted to get in on the fun. The second month I was out of town during the fun. This month, I almost missed it but while blog hopping earlier today I saw the reminder on Nichole Heady's blog. That was at 4pm. I had to get Joshua off the bus, settle the baby after his nap, and comfort Ryan who has another bought of strep throat. I created the following card on the fly. The challenge this month was to use scorelines as accents on your cards. I had yet to try this technique, but I knew if I ever got to it I wanted to try it with vellum. I scored my vellum with a grid pattern and right away it reminded me of the lines on peanuts (Nutter Butter cookies to be exact-yummy!). My mind then went to the Year Round Pun set with the punny sentiment, "Nuttin' Better than a true friend." Then I pulled out my Limitless Labels and true to it's name I found a way to use the little nut included in that set (it's not a peanut, but the acorn works). The card base is Lemon Tart and I added a scored border around the main rectangle (you can barely see it, click on the photo and you should get a better view). I used my photo corner punch to add the pointed edge along the white strip. To keep with the textured pattern feel of the card, I added some Berry Bliss twill ribbon and some saffron brads. It feels good when everything just falls in place. The crafting Gods were on my side this evening. Thanks for stopping by. I hope to chat a bit and join the fun after I get the boys to bed tonight!

Any Size Card!

I've been busy working on swap cards. Here is the card I made for my GSG swap of Any-Size-other than-A2 Card Swap. I chose to do a 4 .25 inch square, kick-stand card. I was on my Kraft cs kick when I designed this card, so that is the base. To make the kick-stand style card, I cut off 1 inch of the bottom front of the card and then when I attached the main front image I lined that up with the bottom of the back of the card (keeping it a 4.25 in. square). I used the summer picnic ds paper to set my color scheme, which also allowed me to use my new wide celery ribbon. Aren't the little stick people so cute? They're from All in the Family and stamped in Black stazon, then colored with WWC and aqua painter and paper pieced with scraps of Summer Picnic paper. The sentiment is the word set that coordinates with All in the Family, called Family phrases (it's a new-to-me set!). I added a few bashful blue brads and it was finished. If you haven't tried making different size cards (other than the standard, A2 size), I challenge you to step out of your comfort zone and try something new. I hope to share the other cards I get back from this swap. I know some of the girls are doing circle cards and I can't wait to see them. Check back tomorrow to see my NVR swap card. Don't know what NVR, is, well I'll tell you tomorrow.

Hugs,

3 Little Monkeys!

A quick post for today, after a busy weekend of doing a whole lot of nothing (anyone ever feel that way?!) I wanted to share another scrapbook page with you. Can you guess when this page was made? Yep, it is another page from my Sizzlin' Summer Scrapbook class. I only have one more layout to share with you, I swear (that one is coming later this week). I really wanted to share this one with you since it shows, once again the versatility of the kits. This page has nothing to do with summer, yet I was still able to turn it into a cute page. All the cardstock and paper used comes from the kit as well at the red striped and orange polka dot strips. I made the star by first punching out a small striped star (used on title block) and then lining up the large star punch to create the outline of the star. This is my favorite thing to do with these punches-making that large outline. I think it just looks great on anything. The square I journaled on was initially thought to be used for another photo but since I only had these two pictures I turned it into my journaling block. I stamped the title, Happy Together with my Happy Everything set, but you could hardly read the word together since I stamped it red on red, I went over it with my white gel pen and added the 3 Little Monkeys to complete the page.
They sure are my cute Little Monkeys! Hope you all had a great Holiday weekend!

Fun Polka Dots!

Two,fun cards full of festive polka dots (say that three times fast) from the Polka Dot Basic set. Dawn McVey (dawnsings) is the featured stamper this week over at SCS. I knew right away which card I wanted to CASE. Here is Dawn's Card . I love the colors she used and this card (plus a handful of other cute polka dot cards she did) pushed me over the edge to buy this set. I started by creating the polka dot paper and the chipboard star. The card on the right is the card I intended to use for this challenge, when I couldn't get the large chipboard star to fit on the card, I decided to make two. The second card is my FAVE! but the first one turned out great too. Thanks for the inspiration, Dawn. If you haven't stopped by her blog, you need to. It is just fantastic!

Summer Days Kit-the two cards from my Class

As promised here are the two cards the girls did at my class last week. They were quick and easy! The flower card used the Happy Everything stamp set and some paper piercing for the stem. I layered some of the pattern paper and used some of the sticky die cuts and it was done. The second card is a 4 1/4 square card using the green flower pattern paper from the kit. I thought it would be fun to do a little water coloring so using the Pun Fun set and water color crayons, this card came together fast. It was finished off with some bashful blue striped grosgrain ribbon.

Thank-you cards have been flying out of my house lately with the end of the school year approaching. The Stamp Something Blog offered up a challenge this week to create a thank-you card or gift. I thought this card fit the bill since it will be going to Joshua's teacher in the next week. Thanks for stopping by.

A Cameo Coral challenge...

The challenge this week on the Great Swaps Girls blog was to use these colors-kraft (okay, I love working with kraft), Celery (one of my favorite SU greens, so this is good too), and then Cameo Coral. Let's just say this is NOT one of my faves. I find it very hard to work with, just really bright for me. As I sat and thought about this one, I realized that one of the packs of paper from last catty, Linen Prints, has some beautiful paper with this color. I decided to go with this and the kraft and use the celery very sparingly. I really like how this turned out. After adding the jumbo pewter eyelet, I decided to carry the pewter through the bottom on the card with brads from my HPH kit. This card measures 6x3, it is a fun size to work with. Try it!
The stamps I used on this card are Friendly Flowers (the big Cameo flowers), Always (the little celery flowers), and One of a Kind (the sentiment). The celery strip is, once again, my new-to-me wide Celery grosgrain ribbon. Thanks for a great challenge, Monique. Check back tomorrow for close ups on the two cards we did at my Scrappin' Kit Class.

Hugs,

A page with pictures from my Class

As promised, here is a close up of one of the pages we did at the Summer Days Scrapbook class I held last week. I added pictures to the page and
will add the journaling before I put the page in my album. I find it funny that I rarely put pictures of myself in the family album. I almost passed on this picture too, especially because I am making such a funny face, but I decided to add it since it helps show just how silly I get when trying to make the baby smile. These were two pictures from Nicholas's first visit to the pool, his first time actually getting in the pool I should say since he spent many days in his stroller while the older boys swam. I was getting him ready to swim and Tim took these shots. I love that close up of him. This is one of my favorite layouts to scrap with. It is a 12x12 background layered with an 8 1/2 x11 piece of paper, then coordinating strips along the bottom. The title goes in one corner and embellishments where needed to balance the page. Next time I use this layout, I'll reference this page and you can see how the two pages compare.
I'm back in the groove, so keep checking back!

Hugs,

One card is better than none!

I can't believe it has been over a week since I have actually stamped-yikes! I can usually squeeze something in, even if it is just a few minutes, but the garage sale, socccer games, end of the year stuff, has just taken over! It is all good, but I also need my stamping fix, too. LOL! I had big plans for today, and wanted to get at least three cards done. Thanks to an early release day of school and a phone call, I only got to this one. It is the GSG Featured Stamper challenge #3-Lori Tecler. I tell you, I am surrounded by wonderfully, talented girls! I chose to case this card of hers. Since I just got some wide celery grosgrain ribbon, I knew I wanted to use it. That is how I came up with my color combo-Kraft, Celery, and wasabi. My Happy Everything set was still on my desk from my scrapbook class, so I used that. I also added the little cupcake from my Holiday Blitz set. I felt the card needed a pop of color, so it was Fruit Punch stickles to the rescue! Thanks for stopping by. I have swap cards to make, so I'll be sharing those in the next few days.

No stamping for me, here's a Scrapbook page for you!

We survived day 1 of the garage sale. I was expecting a bigger turnout, but I'm sure the weather had something to do with it. It was cool and rainy, so I'm sure it kept people away. We did unload some stuff, especially the bigger baby items which were taking up soooo much space. If we do at least the same tomorrow then this whole process will have been worth it.
Needless to say, there has been no stamping for me all week. I did get to finally add the buttons to this page today, but that is about all the creative juice I could muster. I've had this page almost completed for two weeks now, but I just got my neutral pack of buttons in an order last week. I cased this page/layout from May Stampin' Success magazine so it was a super quick one for me. The changes I made were subtle, and unless you really study the picture in the magazine you could never tell. The base is 12x12 textured choc. chip cs, layered with a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 bravo burgundy, then topped off with strips of sky and Kraft cs. The olive strip is a piece of Old Olive twill ribbon attached with two pewter brads. I tied two pieces of double stitched sky ribbon (the stitching is pulled out). I added the photo corner punches to the corners, and the buttons to the center to help add interest. The title is done with chipboard (now on sale this month!). Have a good one!

Hugs.

Paper Piecing the Little Birdies

This is going to be a quick post, since I still have a ton to do to get ready for our garage sale. Last night I got to go out with some girlfriends to celebrate one of their Birthday's. It was so nice to get out and just catch up. Everyone is so busy all the time, we are finding it harder and harder to get together. There were four of us that went out and I made this card for the three of us (notice how there are three little birdies) to sign and give to Kim. I really like this set and just can't help myself to paper piece those birdies. I used the Berry Bliss paper on all the birds and changed the sentiment to say "a little birdie told US" instead of "ME". I thought it was a cute touch, subtle yet appropriate. Oh, and just a little tip I learned while making this card when you are paper piecing, you don't need to mask the images before stamping. The paper you use will give you the same effect masking does. So save yourself an extra step and don't' worry about masking when paper piece like I did with the three little birdies.

Have a great day!

Priceless and A Story

So after yesterday's challenge and all my talk about what a great set, Priceless is, I figured I'd better show you another card with the set. Plus it was on my desk still, as was the shimmery white cs, and soft sky cs. This sketch is from the Card Postioning Systems blog. I am probably the last person around that had never been to the website, but after I caught word they were giving away a Scor-Pal , well, I knew I had to check it out. Boy, oh, boy what I've been missing. I know I'll check back for inspiration and ideas. Fun Stuff! Thanks, Crystal for the heads up. Check it out if you want to see how you can enter for a chance to win a Scor-Pal.

This card measures a 4.25 square, and I'm sure there is some official name for the style of the card, but I don't know what it is off the top of my head. The flap on the right is being held closed with the black scalloped circle. You can see how it opens and closes in the next photo.

So now you are probably wondering what the story is with this post. It has to do with the color combo I chose. It's a cute story, I promise,and if you live in a house full of boys (like I do), you'll probably appreciate my excitement a little bit more.

On Sunday, my DS (who is only 6) wanted to use my new Martha Stewart butterfly punch with "my special paper" as he put it. My first reaction was to say, "No way!" but being that it was Mother's Day and I did not want to stifle any creativity he was feeling I told him he could use the punch and any cs from my scraps (they are all in box in zip lock baggies under my desk). He chose these three colors (celery, black and sky) and I thought they looked fabulous together. I told him I would use these colors on a card I made this week. So here it is! Thanks for stopping by! Tomorrow I have another SUO (Stampin' up! only) card to share and then I'm not sure how much stamping I'll get done. We are having our first garage sale this weekend (it's a Big Neighborhood wide one) and I've got lots of prep work to do for that.

Hugs!

What supplies could you not live without?

That was the question asked in this week's GSG challenge.
Here are the rules:
stamps- use only 1 set
colors ink/paper- pick the 2 you couldn't live without and any number of neutrals, no limit on dp (sorry but I wouldn't travel without my entire dp stash!)
tool- only 1 TYPE of tool
embellishment- only 1


The biggest challenge for me was finding a set to use. I honestly, do not have 1 go-to stamp set. I do use just about everything I have (not at the same time, of course.) As I stood in my closet looking at my stamps, Priceless jumped out at me. It was the first set out of the 2007 Fall/ Winter Collection that I just HAD to HAVE! I think it is a wonderful, all occasion set. If I could take one set with me to a deserted island this would be it, although I'd be so sad to leave the others behind. It has a flower, a butterfly, a heart, swirls to make backgrounds, and two sentiments. I really could make a lot of different cards with this one set. I told you in a previous post that I don't know what I'm going to do come August when this year's In Colors retire, well Soft Sky is going to be the one I miss the most. Even though it is retiring it would be the one color I'd take with me, along with Old Olive and then choc. chip (I'm using it as a neutral here. It is a neutral, right?! It is to me! I adore this color!) for fun I chose to use shimmering white for another neutral. A girl has got to have sparkles! And since ribbon is my embellishment of choice, I would have to leave the glitter, Iridescent ice embossing powder, and stickles all behind :( The tool I can not live without would be my punches, my circle punches to be exact. I layered a bunch of my punches on this card so you could see, just how much I love them. This was a fun challenge (oh, yeah, and the sketch is from Beate's weekend sketch challenge. It was a great one, aren't they always?!). So try it out, see if you can stamp Survivor Style!

Another Featured Stamper Challenge

Yesterday on SCS the featured stamper challenge was posted. I actually got to it during nap time, but waited until today to show you all. Plus, this card is for my Neice's 7th Birthday (which we celebrated yesterday, as well). Happy Birthday Peyton! The Featured Stamper this week is, Jennifer (lovetostamp6). If you love cupcakes, you'll especially love her gallery. There are lots of cards made with some fun cupcake stamps! I am sorry to say, I don't really own any cupcake sets :( There are plenty out there that I want, but I am hoping SU comes out with something fantastic in the way of cupcakes. So for now, I'll just keep using my little cupcake from the Holiday Blitz set. Here is the card I chose to CASE from Lovetostamp6.
If you have never done a Featured Stamper Challenge, they are lots of fun. The rules are listed on the first page of the thread each week. In a nutshell, you pick a card you like and change 2,3, or how-ever-many things you want. List them in your post, and link back to the card you Cased. I love drawing inspiration from others. This card uses all SU projects. The colors I used are So Saffron, Brocade Blue, Pomegranate, and Whisper White. The pattern paper is from the Cutie Pie ds paper pack. See you again soon! Hugs!

GSGFS02-Casing Denise

Last week, the Great Swaps Girls posted another featured stamper challenge. This week we got to honour, Denise Hinton. If you haven't checked out her Blog, go do it, and if you are looking for a cool Blog Banner, she can do it! I chose to CASE this card from Denise. I used the same ds paper, but picked different designs from the pack. I really don't know what I am going to do when this year's In Colors retire. I am so in love with them. Anyway, this card uses the Fall Flowers ds paper, Saraha Sand, Old Olive, and Soft Sky cs. The sentiment is from Holiday Blitz and I can't believe I actually pulled out my Sm. and Lg. tag punches. See those butterflies, though?! That was my splurge for myself yesterday at Micheal's (there was a special coupon in last weeks' paper for 50% off one Martha Stewart Item)! I've seen this punch used a lot lately, so I treated myself to it! thanks for stopping by!

Happy Mother's Day!

I wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to all you mom's out there! It is the toughest job I have, yet it is the most rewarding. I found a cool new blog called Stamp Something . They will be posting challenges for whoever wants to stamp. The first challenge they posted is sticking to the theme of "Firsts". I made this card for my BFF who is celebrating her first Mother's Day! Once again, I had fun with my PaperTrey Ink ribbon and paper. The sentiment is from SU, the retired set All Year Cheer III (I believe). I stamped it in white craft and then embossed with Winter White embossing powder. Have a great weekend!

Sizzlin' Summer Scrapbook Class

Here are the projects the girls are making tomorrow night at my Sizzlin' Summer Scrapbook class! If you did not sign up for this class, this is what you are missing out on! Don't worry though, you can still order the supplies to create these projects. For $35, you'll get the Summer Days Simply Scrappin' Kit, step by step instuctions on how to assemble the pages and cards, plus photos so you can see how it all goes together. Contact me if you are interested!

I really love these kits! There are many different styles to choose from and you can make lots and lots of different pages, cards, or other projects with the the contents. I think they are great not only for seasoned scrappers, but the perfect start for Beginners. There are even ideas on the front cover of the kit that you can CASE. For this class my girls will be making 2 one-page 12x12 layouts, 1 two-page 12x12 layout, and two super cute cards. Wanna see why else I love these kits? Look at all the materials I have left over after this class. I swear it is like a never-ending suppply of paper and die cuts! I really tried to use only the contents of the kit for this class, and aside from one small piece of watercolor paper, I did just that. I love how this all came together and I'm sure my girls will love it too! I will be posting close-up pictures of the projects throughout the next week so you can get a better looksie!

Polka Dots and Birthdays!

I've been working on some Birthday cards (BRAKS) for some of my swap gal pals and just had to share these two cards with you. I told you the other day, I finally caved and bought the Paper Trey Ink stamp set, Polka Dot Basics. I don't know why I waited so long. This set is so fun to use and makes wonderful background. I'm lovin' the dots! Enjoy the day!

GSG Challenge #3- Drawing from Inspiration

It is Monday, Tuesday really, but I didn't get a chance to upload yesterday. I did have time to stamp, though, so I got the Great Swaps Girls Inspiration Challenge complete. Remember, anyone can play. If you upload to SCS use keyword, GAGC03. Kristin posted this week's challenge. She found a cute, fun bedroom from Pottery Barn Kids for us to draw inspiration from. I pulled out a few retired SU stuff to complete the card-Lots of Thoughts (SAB set from this year) The Twinkle wheel and Petals and Paisley paper. See this is why I rarely get rid of my retired stuff. You just never know when you'll need/want to use it. I love the stars on this card. If you don't have the Large and small star punches yet-get them! They are so fun to use and Stars are HOT right now! Stamps: Lots of Thoughts,twinkle wheel Ink: celery and tempting turquoise, CS:white, celery, Petals and Paisley ds paper Access: Lg. and Sm. star punches, celery grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals

Set a Goal, Reach a Goal!

Setting goals is easy for me. I am always setting them for one thing or another, but I never seem to actually write them down. So often times these goals get put off and I don't actually achieve them. It is all innocent I tell ya, I don't mean to forget about them. For the month of April, I actually wrote down my crafting goals (thanks to Kristin and Erin). Once you write them down you are more accountable for them, at least that is how I feel about it. I set a goal to make 10 scrapbook pages this month and I DID IT! I was lucky and had a crop I attended where I finished 8 pages and then on the last day of the month I cranked out two more! This page was created with the sketch from this site, Valeries's sketches. This is an easy sketch to work with since it was created to be used with your 4x6 pictures. If you didn't want to crop your pictures down, you didn't have to.

I just adore the Fall Flowers paper pack. The colors in it are so pretty together. The base of my page is textured Saraha Sand cs. I used the slit punch to make the scallops on the strip of Olive flowers and actually sewed the two strips together. I should have used a darker thread (because you can't really see the white real well) but honestly I was being lazy and didn't want to take the time to re-thread the machine. The letters were cut using one of my Sizzix alphabet sets (Neoveau) with my Cuttlebug and the pumpkins were stamped with Brown Stazon onto the Rust flower paper with the Autumn Harvest set (I think that is the name of that set, it was in the fall mini last year). This page really came together quickly and I love the results. It feels great to reach this Goal. 10 pages down, another 10 to knock out this month. If I can do it again this month, I think I'll need to up it.

It's been in my head.

I check Beate's Blog daily and I have loved all the Be Inspired challenges she has posted but I just never seem to get a card made for them. This card has been in my head all week and I finally got to put it to paper today. I caved and finally ordered the Polka Dots basics stamp set from PTI. This was the inspiration piece she posted, It is a kate Spade card.

The sketch is from this week's sketch Challenge over at SCS. I cheated though, and made my card a standard A2 size.

I pulled out some of my retired, Au Chocolate paper and used the polka dots in similar colors (soft sky, and PTI Berry Sorbet and Summer Sunrise) to make little bubbles. I also used a retired hostess set from SU (Along the Same Lines) and this years SAB set, Many Thoughts. I accented some of the bubbles with Crystal Effects. I love this stuff and up until recently hardly ever used it. Try it if you have it, if you don't have it, get it!

Thanks for stoppin by!