Amazing Sketches

Want some inspiration to work with today? Or do you need some inspiration to get stamping today? Julee (verve girl) always has AMAZING sketches to work with. Tonight will be the release party for Verve Stamps and she has issues a challenge. See the details here. To, keep it short, if you do all five sketches and upload to the I'm a Sketch Diva thread you could be one of the lucky winners to receive all the sets being released tonight (there will be 2 lucky winners!). I only own 1 Verve set and I really love the elegant style of the stamps, so I was motivated by this challenge to try and win some FREE stamps. Who doesn't like free stamps! Here are the first three sketches I got done yesterday. I've seen all five sketches and this first one is my FAVE!

I had the fourth one completed, but the more I look at it I DO NOT like it. I have time today so I'm going to re-work it and I'll share it with you tomorrow along with the final, 5th sketch. Even if you can't get to the sketches today for the contest, you should check them out. They really are fun ones! Have a wonderful Saturday! Hugs,

Single Layer Snowflakes

It's Friday and you know what that means? It's a Stamp Something Day! This week's challenge is to create a one layer card. Really, only 1 layer? Remember it's a challenge, it is suppposed to stretch your creativity. It's not as bad as you may think. I actually really enjoy taking a break from my norm and creating these quick and easy beauties. It gives me a chance to play minimally with dry embossing and embellishments. I usually use white cardstock for my base and then I can add color with my ink. I took full advantage of the super fun (and LARGE) Felt Flurries Stampin' Up! carries and ribbon. I also added some paper piercing to add extra detail. The stamp sets I use today are Snow Burst and Warm Words. I love the Clean and Simple look this card has. Take the challenge, Stamp Something and have fun with a Single Layer card this week. They are great for mass production during the Holiday card making season. Don't forget to see what the other DT members came up with. They are fabulous creations. Hugs,

The Limelight, Six Chicks' Christmas Spectacular!

Welcome to the monthly project for Limelight Papercrafts. Every month the Six Chicks will share with you a special team project. This month was to create an ornament with a coordinating card or box. I can't wait to see what the other Chicks came up with. Here is mine, and I just love how it turned out. I can't wait to make more of these for gifts for the grandparents this year. I also can't wait to hang this on my tree next month. It was a beautiful day yesterday, so I was able to stage some photos with the pine trees in my back yard. I did do two ornaments, because I couldn't resist trying the paper strip ornaments with the Wassail paper. The prints in the whole pack are gorgeous and make any project beautiful. So this little round ornament is just an extra for today's post. They are super simple to make with just 12, 1 inch strips of designer paper and some ribbon. Now on to the "real" project. I used my Big Shot and the Top Note die to create this adorable ornament. The cool thing about this ornament is that it is double-sided! I first ran a piece of chipboard through the Big Shot to give my ornament some stability. I next cut a photo into the Top Note shape and attached it to one side of the chipboard piece. If you turn the ornament over, will see that I decorated it with designer paper and stamps! I chose two pieces of dp from the Wassail pack and ran those through the Big Shot, at the same time, thus saving a little bit of time. I pieced those together and mounted them onto the other side of the chipboard Top Note piece. I use mono-multi (almost on everything I do these days, it is my FAVE adhesive) to attach both the photo and dp to the chipboard. I stamped the Angel onto the Bazzil Bling diamond cs. This was the first time I'd used this cs and it is very cool. There is texture and shimmer on the cs, it is a marriage of two things I adore! The Angel is from Unity stamps. At the moment it is currently not in the Limelight store, but there are LOTS of other Unity stamps to choose from. (Mandy said, there are new Unity stamps arriving today, so I wouldn't be surprised if this one shows up!) I colored the Angel in with a blender pen and re-inkers and then I cut her out. Before I attached her to the ornament, I lined the back of her paper wings with Tulle! How cool is that?! Again, another embellishment I had never used. When I saw it in the Limelight store I was curious about it, so I got some to try. You should too, if only for something different, but once you do use it you'll like it! I needed a way to hang the ornament on a tree, so I used my crop-a-dial to punch a hole at the top and added two Basic Grey Wassail buttons for another bit of embellishment. I threaded some ribbon through it and tied a knot. I think it will make a great keepsake any close friend or family member would love! Okay, so I bet you thought I was done (I know it is a long post today, but I had lots of photos to share with this project!). Look, I even created a little coordinating pocket card so I had a way to send out the ornament! It is the size of a standard card, so It could fit in a standad A2 envelope, but it would be a tight squeeze. If you wanted to mail it off, you'd probably be better off putting it in a padded envie for safe delivery! On the outside I used the same Angel image on the same Bazzil bling cs. I did stamp the Unity, Hullaballoo image (I love this stamp for making fun, jazzy backgrounds.) I felt it was a bit festive so I used it here with some Christmas Red stickles! The ribbon used here is a nice sturdy, Sage twill ribbon. I just love how twill ties-can't go wrong with twill! Okay, and one more picture to share so you can see how the ornament fits inside. Then I am done, I promise. LOL! Thanks for sticking with me today! Don't forget to see what the other DT members put together for the Limelight Six Chicks' Christmas Spectacular!

Becky

Brandi

Katie

Ryann

Mandy

JenMarie

Jessica

Have a great Thursday! Hugs,

Lovely Sparkly Trees

I'm late today, I know. I am a first thing in the morning blogger, but this morning I had nothing ready to show you. I was able to whip out a card for the sketch challenge on SCS. I found it easy to work with. Check it out, if you haven't. I had a friend ask me about this card I did a few weeks back using the Growing with Unity tree. She wanted to see this technique done with SU images. I knew right away it would look awesome with the trees from Lovely as a Tree (I think this is the longest running stamp set in the catalog right now). It is an oldie but a goodie and a must have to anyone's stamp collection. I used the 1 inch circle punch and a post-it note to create the mask for the moon. I pulled the colors from the Holiday Treasure dsp pack and even got to use some of my favorite wide olive grosgrain ribbon. Click on the photo for a close up and check out my sparkly trees. I wanted to create an icy/snowy look to them and so I added some Stardust Stickles to them. LOVE this product and guess what? Head on over to Limelight and get yourself a bottle for only $1 this week! What a deal! Just wait until tomorrow, I've got some fun cute stuff to show you and almost all of the products I used you can get at the Limelight Paper Crafts store. So don't forget to check back. Hugs,

Same card, Two versions

I figured out the third card we'll be doing at my Holiday SAS on the 16th. As I said yesterday, I fell in love with the floral prints included in the Holiday Treasures pack of dsp. So while playing around with this paper on Saturday I also came up with this CAS (clean and simple) card. My class is shaping up nicely with 7 ladies coming and two card kits being put together. If you wanted to come but can't, I am more than willing to stamp the images and package the supplies all together for assembly at home. The cost is the same, $20, so just let me know. Yesterday was the RSVP by date, but I still have room for at least 3 more. I will take registrationn up until Friday of this week. Thanks to those who already registered. Okay, now on the the cards. As you can see, they have the same basic layout. I just changed up the pattern paper, the ribbon and the center of the flower. The stamp set I used is Season of Joy. I love the richness of the choc. chip with the regal rose and rose red. The scalloped edge is the perfect touch of elegance. One more thing for today.

Don't forget to

VOTE!!

I'm off to the polls. Here's to not waiting in long lines. I'm anticipating a two hour wait, so anything less will just be joyful! Happy Election day, 2008!

Hugs,

Just for Fun!

Yes, that's right, I spent a little time on Saturday stamping just for fun. Beate's blog is one I love to check daily. I enjoy all her challenges even though I don't get to play nearly as much as I would like to. When I saw her Friday sketch challenge, I knew exactly what I wanted to do-use the new Holiday Treasures dsp. I also replenished my stock of Regal Rose wide grosgrain ribbon (one of my FAVES! and I've been out of it for months). There is a pattern in this paper pack (two actually) that I wasn't so sure about, well once I saw it IRL, I fell in love with it! it has regal rose in it, so I could use my ribbon. I combined three stamp sets and a bunch of punches to pull this card together. I used the Season of Joy, Best Yet, and polka dot background on this. For the sentiment I layered up the designer label punch, 1 inch circle punch, and large oval punch. I also used the scallop edge punch and ticket corner punch too. To finish it off, I added the pearls from the Pretties Kit, I think it was the perfect touch! I guess I was in the mood for a pretty card. I like the sketch so much, that I had time to put together another card using it. This one is totally different and has an autumn feel to it, thanks to the Autumn Vine dsp. I had fun with the scallops and even did a little faux stitching (I really need to re-thread my machine so I can put it to use again). That circle print dsp is my favorite pattern from the pack. The only stamping on this card is the sentiment from the hostess set, Best Yet. Hope you enjoyed the weekend. We had fabulous weather, low 70's and sunny and it was the first two days of NOVEMBER! Hugs,

Two for my Class

I've had a few people ask me what cards I will be doing at my Holiday Stamp-a-Stack this year. I'm still working out some details, but here are two that my girls will be doing. I like to keep the stamping fairly simple, but I do like to pretty them up with embellishments. This year we will be making 12 cards (4 each of 3 designs) and each each card has to have a different set and color combo (I don't usually have duplicates on my ink pads or stamp sets). This first card is CASED from my super talented, dear friend , Kristen Moore. This is the card I cased of hers. As you can see I changed up the colors (a little) and used a different stamp set, but it is basically the same idea. I just love the little tag idea. Thanks for the inspiration, girl! Check out a close up of the tag. I love that this set, A Cardinal Christmas has two sentiments included in it. I've told you before, this is the set that I will be using on my own personal cards this year. I need to get started on those. I love this next card, partly because I finally have a snowflake set. Yep, up until now I did not own a set of snowflakes. There have been plenty of cute ones I've wanted, but I just never bought them. This card uses the set that was in last years Holiday mini catalog and thankfully it made it to the big catty this fall. It is called Snow Burst. The inspiration for this card came from the scrapbook page on pg. 34 of the catty. I love that sample and wanted to make it work on a card. I think it comes pretty close. I love to point this out so you can see how I often transform ideas from scrapbook pages into cards (I also do the reverse of this process a lot, too-create scrapbook pages from cards I see). I'm super excited to finally have those adorable felt snowflakes in my hot little hands. I couldn't resist using one on this card. I think my girls will love them! That's all for today. I hope to have my third card designed later today. I'll share that maybe on Monday. Have a great weekend and Happy November!!!! Hugs,