Sparkles for a Sad day!

Today Kristina posted her weekly color challenge. This is not why it is a sad day, this actually makes it a good day. Today is a sad day because it is the first day that the reality of the death of my DH's dear friend has really hit him. He is at work and I wasn't with him when he broke down. We were on the phone together and I could tell how upset he is. The next few days are going to be even harder as we attend the wake tomorrow and then the funeral on Friday. I tell you I love this hobby for many reasons. It is definitely a creative outlet for me and today I realized it can be an emotional outlet as well. As I do each week, I loved this color combo. Here is the inspiration piece that Kristina posted. The colors are so soft and serene-Close to Cocoa, Choc. Chip, Vanilla, and Soft Sky. I sat down to make this card after the conversation I had with Tim. I think my card has a quiet, soft feel to it, which was how I was feeling as I created it. I decided to add sparkles to the bird because Drew was such an amazing guy with a fun personality! Tim would think this was all goofy and sappy, what I'm writing here, but I was totally feeling the sadness as I created this card. It is not meant to be a sympathy card, just a reflection of the mood I was in.
The card base is a piece of textured Vanilla cs, then I cut a piece of Cocoa cs to 5 1/4 x 4 inches. I added a piece of Sky ds paper to the top 3/4 of the cocoa piece in the design closest to the pattern on the comforter. I layered my last piece of Choc. satin ribbon with a strip of soft sky double stitched grosgrain (yes, I took out the stitching again). The rectangles were cut using my nesties. I inked the bird in Cocoa craft ink and embossed him with Iridescent Ice EP. Added some Soft Sky berries to the bottom and sponged the edges with Cocoa ink. The sentiment says Sparkle from Warm Words and I used a piece of styled Silver HPH over the top and added two half back pearls from my Pretties Kit. I've seen this done by many but it was the first time I tried it. I think it added to the softness of the card. Okay, this was way longer of a post than I wanted it to be. Make sure you take time today to say the words, "I love you" to someone you do love!

Here Comes Billy!

Who is Billy you ask? If you've paid attention to my blog you know I don't have a son named Billy. Well, thanks once AGAIN to Lauren Meader (mytime) I discovered this cute little guy from Pink Cat Studio. Most of the time when I am shopping it takes me forever to finally hit the send button. I really think about my non-SU purchases since I can't use them to demo with. Not this time. I saw Lauren's cute boy gift set and 10 minutes later this stamp set was mine! Shipping was super fast which was a nice surprise since it was coming from Canada. I know I will get a ton of mileage out of this set. I just hope the boy's friends don't get sick of seeing him when it comes to Birthday cards.

The first card here uses the sketch from the Great Swaps Girls Challenge this week. I used the rust striped paper from the Fall Flowers paper pack across the top of the texture choc. chip cs and then to layer the main image. I added a piece of linen thread to separate the two pieces of paper and give it a more western, rugged feel. To color little Billy, I used my Water Wonder Crayons, aqua painter and watercolor paper. The sentiment and stars are stamped with choc. chip craft ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder. I layered the sentiment with the lg. oval punch and lg. star punch.

This second card uses the Billy super hero stamp that is included in the set. I colored him using my aqua painter again, but picked up the ink from the lid of my ink pads instead of the WWC. The sentiment is layered up again, but this time with my circle punches and designer label punch. I also sandwiched in a piece of the styled silver HPH. A piece of striped pumpkin grosgrain ribbon finishes it off! All products are SU except for the stamps.

GSGC02, A Strawberry Birthday

The Great Swap Girls posted their second challenge yesterday. This week it was a sketch challenge. Anyone can play, so stop by and check it out ! I did another card using a new non-SU set but I'll show you that one tomorrow since I haven't posted any SU stuff in a while. The Tart and Tangy stamp set is such a fun set to work with and can be used for any occasion. I stamped the strawberry twice, once in real red and once in wasabi. I cut them both out and then just added the cut,wasabi, stem piece to the red berry. I did add some stickles to the top of the berry and used my Janome sew mini to stitch around the printed wasabi piece of paper. I also added a stitched border around the sentiment. If you ever wanted to add stitching to your cards and have never sewed anything in your life (that was me!) get the Janome. It is a small investment but oh so easy to use. Gina K has an amazing tutorial about how to sew on your cards to help you get started. All products are SU (except the stickles and sewing machine)Stamp:Tart and Tangy, They say it's your BirthdayCS:Jersey shore ds paper,Kraft, real red, choc. chipInk:real red, wasabiAccessories:wide choc. chip grosgrain ribbon, patina stickles, janome sew mini, bold brights brads

Thanks for stopping by!

NMBS-NVR Swap

All these letters, what do they mean? NMBS is another swap group I am a part of, it stands for No More Bad Swaps. Normally we do all SU stuff, but with this swap those that participated wanted to show off some of the other non-SU products we have. NVR stands for No Vendor Requirements.
It's a dark and gloomy morning here but I wanted to get this card uploaded since I don't know when I'll be back on the computer today. This card uses the PTI set, Pond Life and the Lemon Tart Perfect Match Cs and ribbon. When I started this card I knew I wanted to use this turtle image and the rectangle die cut with my scalloped nestabilities. I pulled some colors to see what would look good with the Lemon Tart and soft sky and celery just spoke to me. Seriously they did. They said, "use us, make a baby card." Don't these colors just scream BABY! I ran the soft sky scalloped rectangle through the swiss dots embossing folder and used a few different words from two other PTI sets (I tried a bunch to see which would fit in the lg. star punch) to create the sentiment. The only SU products I used were the sky and celery cs and ink, and both star punches. Oh, and I used Crystal Effects on the shell of the turtle. I am please with how it turned out. Now I just need to get them out in the mail. Nothing like squeezing it all in at the last minute!

I got an award!

Thanks, Becky (beccabatgirl)! I am so honoured! I just got back into town and came home to 221 emails. After getting through those and taking some time to blog hop, I saw that Becky had nominated me for this award, The arte y pico.


Here are the details: The award was originally designed by Eseya at arte y pico . You pick five blogs that you think earned this award based on their creativity, design, interesting material, and contribution to the blogging community. List the names on your blog and link to their blogs. Leave a comment on one of their posts to let them know of the award! Each winner has to show the award and put the name of the person who gave them the award with a link to their blog. Also show the link to arte y pico.


Here are the girls I'm passing on the award to:
Crystal
Kristin
Erin
Monique
Cyndi

Enjoy the day! I hope to get some stamping done today, since I need to finish some swaps and the GreatSwapGirls just posted the weekly challenge! So check back for some new stuff!

One more before I Go!

So I worked on one more challenge today and I love how it turned out. The Great Swap Girls Blog posted our first featured stamper challenge. Check it out here. Jackie Pedro (SCS name is Strappystamper) is the first chosen one! She has an amazing gallery and I decided on this card to case. Isn't it just the cutest?! Here is my version. I kept the layout the same since it was what I was so drawn to. I changed the colors, added some ribbon, and ds paper.
This is a 4 1/4 square card with textured White cs as the base. I watercolored the images with re-inkers and my aqua painter. Oh and the little cute orange star is from Holiday Blitz.
Congrats, Jackie and thanks for the wonderful inspiration and reason to not pack today.Stamps:Pun Fun,They say it's your Birthday,Holiday BlitzCS: textured white,navy,brocade blue, pumpkin, and bashful blue,pumpkin ds paperInk:pallet noir, pumpkinAccessories:aqua painter,circle and square punches, pumpkin striped grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals, ticket corner punch, white gel pen

Hugs,

Racing the Clock!

What I should be doing is packing for our trip, but I really wanted to get in some last minute stamping-so that is what I did. Kristna Werner posted her color inspiration challenge and I just loved it (it had pumpkin in it!). The colors to work with were Sahara Sand, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, and a touch of Wasabi. I pulled out my Bali breeze paper and my Baroque Motif stamp set and got to work. This came together quickly for me since I was working against the clock. The medallion piece is embossed with clear embossing powder and the wasabi ribbon is the double stitched ribbon with the stitching pulled out. I love when I find more than one way to use a product. Stamps: Baroque Motifs, CS:textured sahara sand, pumpkin, saffron, Bali breeze, Ink: versamark, pumpkinAccessories:build a brad, wasabi double stitched ribbon, dimensionals