The Color Dare # 65

Hi! Its Color Dare time again! This week we DARE you to use the following colors on your project: Kiwi Kiss, Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie and Bashful Blue. Arent these just awesome colors?!? I love this combo! This dare was alot of fun to work with, it worked perfectly with this April new release stamp set from Clear Dollar Stamps, Fabulous Fruitstand. I colored the image with my prismacolors and blended with gamsol. I cased my bff's work with this stamp and added the grass tufts just like she did.

I am very happy with how this card turned out! But, sadly, this will be my last Color Dare. My husband is returning from Iraq soon, so I just cant commit to a design team or much else, until we all get settled back into our family routine. I hope I will be able to participate in challenges around blogland and keep my blog postings updated while we make the transition back to a family of three - under the same roof, that is -- ha ha...

Anyway, I appreciate your visit! I hope you take some time, look around, like what you see, and leave a comment or two! I love comments!

Details:

Stamps: Fabulous Fruitstand (CDStamps)

Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Baja Breeze, Ruby Red dsp, whisper white

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze

Tools/Accessories: Prismacolor & Gamsol, Ruby Red brads

Pumpkin Pie brads, Sponge

Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge #110

Hello everyone! Happy Tuesday! Eh its just another quiet Tuesday here in El Paso. The quiet suits me just fine, especially when the ole mojo gets started and I can get to work in the craft room! I made this card for the sketch challenge at Taylored Expressions. I had so much fun with this sketch! I even took the time to adorn the inside! I hope you all like it as much as I do!

Details:

Stamps: Crafty Cuppie (TE)

Paper: April Key Ingredients Kit cs & Material Girl dp

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Crushed Curry

Tools/Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils & Gamsol, Labels 3 & lg circle nestabilities, mosaic squares embossing folder,

sponge, blue rick rack ribbon

Above: the sketch

Below: the inside of the card

My tribute to SCS Featured Stamper -- Gloria FS168

Happy Monday everyone! Today, when looking over my dashboard, I noticed that my blog friend Gloria was chosen as this week's Featured Stamper! YAY to Gloria! I just love her work, so I decided I would play along with the Featured Stamper challenge at Splitcoast. Basically, you choose out a card from the featured stamper's SCS gallery and case it. When I was browsing Gloria's beautiful gallery, her What's the Buzz CIC9 card caught my eye, so I cased it. A few changes I made are: 1) the colors, Gloria used green as her main color.  2) I embossed my background with d'vine swirls 3) I used felt flowers where Gloria made her flowers from die cuts and brads (too cute) 4) I used a butterfly as my bug where Gloria featured a circle bee 5) I used ribbon as my stems where Gloria geniously used a sentiment stamp.

Well, Congratulations to Gloria for being chosen Featured Stamper! Thank you for stopping by my blog today as well!

The Details:

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes (SU) - sentiment

Paper: Rose Red, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive

Ink: Chocolate Chip

Tools/Accessories: D'vine Swirls cb folder,

Sweet Pea felt flowers

corner rounder, olive ribbon, paper piercer,

sponge, unknown butterfly 

Creative Inspirations Sketch #57 and some Distressing

Happy Sunday! Yesterday happy mail arrived! I got an awesome card from my BFF, Cassie, AND this stamp set from MFT called Sheltering Tree. I do love tree stamps! I was so excited to get to work with this set! I was inspired by the sketch challenge at Creative Inspirations.

This card also qualifies for the distressing challenge at the Crafty Creations blog. I sponged the edges in chocolate chip for that aged / distressed look.

I used the March Key Ingredients kit from Taylored Expressions for all the paper on this card. I really like the organic feel of the dp with the tree.

I first stamped the circle leaves on white cardstock and then stamped the tree in chocolate chip directly on top of the baja breeze image. I then colored in the entire tree with my prismacolor pencils, blending with gamsol. It was a total experiment to actually use the prismacolors & gamsol on top of a stamped image, and I am happy to report, it worked just fine. ;p

The Details:

Stamps: Sheltering Tree (MFT)

Paper: March KI Kit (TE)

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Momento Tuxedo Black

Tools/Accessories: Lg Circle Nestabilities, Sponge, Dimentionals, Prismacolor Pencils & Gamsol, D'vine Swirls embossing folder

Clearly Inspired Challenge # 12 - Ribbon with Royalty

Aaah Friday, not only is it Friday, but CIC Friday! Every other Friday, there is a fabulous challenge hosted by the super talented ladies at Clear Dollar Stamps . (ClearlyiStamp blog)  This week's challenge is "All tied up" i.e. use RIBBON. I got this idea for my ribbon feature while I was out in the desert walking my dog. I wasnt sure if it would actually work, but I am pretty happy with it! :0) I also paired the CIC challenge with the sketch challenge at Stampin' Royalty. It had been so long since I used my top note die, I forgot how it went thru the cuttlebug! (haha)

Details:

Stamps: Plumes & Blooms and Bee-lieve (CDStamps)

Paper: Whisper White, Real Red

Ink: Real Red, Summer Sun, Always Artichoke, Momento Tuxedo Black

Tools/Accessories: Whisper White Organza Ribbon,

Red Satin Ribbon &

Green polka dotted Ribbon (TE April KI Kit),

Summer Sun Brad

Top Note Die, Word Window

Sweet Sketch Wednesday #46

Hello! Oh, how I LOVE Sweet Sketch Wednesdays! Every week they have an excellent sketch to challenge us with, and this week is no exception. I really do adore the layouts the talented ladies at SSW come up with every week!
My inspiration came from two places, first, figuring out a stamp that would work in the oval shape,which turned out to be Crafty Cuppie,  and second, from this sweet floral paper from the Basic Grey Green @ Heart collection.

Details:

Stamps: Crafty Cuppie & Crafty Expressions (TE)

Paper: Melon Mambo textured cs, Basic Grey Green @ Heart

Whisper White

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Old Olive, Melon Mambo

Coloring Medium: SU Markers: Old Olive, Crushed Curry

Melon Mambo, Soft Suede, Dusty Durango

Tombow: N75 Stone Slab

Prismacolor pencils: Pink & Cardinal Red

Tools/Accessories: lg Oval & lg Circle Nestabilities,
word window

Button Bouquet button, Sweet Pea Felt Flowers

MS loop edge punch

Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge #109

Hey Everyone! This is my second post of the morning. I was a busy bee in the craft room yesterday! I was just so excited to get to work with my April Key Ingredients kit! I made this card for the Taylored Expressions Sketch #109, and I ended up casing several elements from my BFF Cassie's submission for the same challenge.  I fell in love with how she used the dress form adding the dp to it and the sewing machine. Also, I love how she highlights a word in the sentiment, this time I used my bee pollen tombow marker to highlight 'sew'.  Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! Come back tomorrow to check out my example for this week's Color Dare.

Details:

Stamps: Crafty Cuppie (TE)

Paper: Whisper White, April Key Ingredients Kit (TE),

Cosmo Cricket Material Girl dp

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black

Coloring Medium: Prismacolor Pencils & Gamsol

Tools/Accessories: Lg Circle Nestabilities, scallop edge

& corner punch (SU), Material Girl buttons,

Material Girl chipboard, "faux ribbon" - Material Girl dp

A card for my Sister-in-Law

Hello! This is the first of two posts I have to share with you today. This card I made for my sister-in-law who, like all of us, can use some encouragement from time to time. She lives in Houston and works all over Texas, but is a California girl at heart. I received my Taylored Expressions April key ingredients kit and this new adorable stamp set - cuppie beach bum - just the other day and I could not wait to dive into it. I did have the dry embossing challenge in mind from little red wagon, but I missed the deadline. I cut the tropical flowers out of a piece of the material girl dp and bent up the petals a bit to give them a bit of a 3-d effect. I cased my BFF, Cassie's card in paper piecing the surfer cuppie's "board shorts". She has done some awesome things with this stamp set and kit.
Thanks for stopping by!

Details:

Stamps: Cuppie Beach Bum (TE)

Paper: Cosmo Cricket Material Girl, CS from April KI Kit

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black

Coloring Medium: Prismacolor pencils & Gamsol

Tools/Accessories: D'vine Swirls embossing folder, lg Oval & lg Scallop Oval Nestabilities, wavy blue ribbon from April KI Kit.

Stamp Something and OCC Sketch #11

Hello blogland friends! The first part of today was icky and rainy here in the desert southwest, perfect for crafting! Also, I am waiting for Lowe's to deliver my new samsung front loading HE washer... so as I wait, I craft and blog.
Today, I chose the OCC Sketch challenge #11 and the Stamp Something challenge, which this week is to layer. The bigger challenge would to NOT layer, right? haha.. well these two challenges went perfectly together, so here they are.
I was inspired by this Cosmo Cricket paper my BFF, Cassie, shared with me. I just love the outdoorsey colors, they remind me of living back in the northwestern corner of Washington State where my husband and I would go hiking and camping quite a bit.
Thanks for stopping by! I really appreciate your visit!

Details:

Stamps: Shoe-Fly (CDStamps)

Paper: Cosmo Cricket Origins, unknown yellow cs,

watercolor paper

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Chocolate Chip

Coloring Medium: SU Watercolor Crayons -

 old olive, garden green, more mustard, summer sun,

creamy carmel, ruby red, very vanilla, whisper white

Tools/Accessories: Word Window, Corner Rounder,

 Chocolate Chip ribbon, Aqua pen,

unknown yellow brads

Sweet Sketch Wednesday #45 plus a BONUS!

Hello!! I am always so happy for Fridays, I say this every week, I know, but its true every week! My favorite challenges post on Fridays and I get to "sleep in" tomorrow! I always seem to wake up at the same time whether I am sleeping in or not .. lol ..
Anyway, this week my BFF Cassie, and I decided to add a twist to a couple challenges we are playing this weekend. We thought it would be fun to both submit a card using the same sketch, same theme, same dp and the same stamp set. We live 1500 miles apart, so it will be very interesting to see how different or similar our cards may turn out.

Our sketch is from my new favorite sketch blog, Sweet Sketch Wednesday. Our theme is from the Raise the Bar blog, where this week the challenge is to "Raise the Movie Bar" or use a favorite movie, any era, genre as the theme. When I first saw the raise the bar challenge, this stamp set came to mind, it is from My Favorite Things' collection Who's that Girl - Chick Flick. So my card does not have a specific movie theme, it definately has 'watching movies' as a theme! And the final part of the extra challenge between Cassie and I is to use Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety dp.  

Details:

Stamps: MFT Chick Flick

Paper: Clearly Coordinating Cherry go Round (CDStamps), whisper white, Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety dp

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black

Coloring Medium: Prismacolor peach, Tombow Markers: 245 Sweet Pea, 985 Bee Pollen, 856 Cherry Go Round, N75 Stone Slab - colors are from clearly coordinating collection

Tools/Accessories: Circle Nestabilities, Dew Drops, Ticket corner punch

Technique: Paper Piecing

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! I hope to see you again soon!

The Color Dare #63

Hello Color Dare Fans! Well, we are back from our Color Dare spring break! And we are ready to challenge you with some fantastic colors! This week the dare is to use: Lovely Lilac, Pale Plum and Tempting Turquoise on your projeect this week. I cant wait to see what you come up with!
This card also qualifies for the following challenges: Raise the Bar #13: "Lets Spring for it" Our Creative Corner: "Bows" and Tuesday Morning Sketch #41: "Recipe - Soft Hues, Flowers, Ribbon"

Details:

Stamps: Upsy Daisy (SU)

Paper: Cottage Wall dsp (su), Tempting Turquoise, Lovely Lilac

Ink: Lovely lilac, Tempting Turquoise, Pale Plum

Tools/Accessories: Blossom Two Nestabilities,

Whisper White Organza Ribbon, Corner Rounder, sponge

Little Red Wagon sketch 23 with digi Gummy Worms

Hello my e-friends! It feels like forever since I have posted! I had a frustrating weekend which did a number on my mojo, but I think I've got it back! A few days ago I printed this super cute and fun digi image by the very talented Laurie Wilson. It is available for FREE at the Doodle Pantry. Yep! FREE! I am new to digi images, so I have been playing around with them just to see what turns up. This image, I printed and practiced with my new tombow markers to color it in. I was trying to do some kind of shadowing with the blue and it kinda got out of control... lol. finally, today I was inspired to put this image into a sketch, this one is from The Little Red Wagon blog. Super cute, right? What's so fun about these digi images is not only could I print one "card size", I printed one 8x10 as well, it made a great coloring page for my son!

Details:

Stamps: Gummy Worms digi image - doodle pantry

Paper: Clearly Coordinating-(CDStamps) Summer Fun

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black

Coloring Medium: Tombow markers: Bubble Gum (755)

Tangelo Smoothy (925), Turquoise Gem (515),

Stone Slab (N75),  SU: Soft Suede

Tools/Accessories: Labels 4 Nestabilities, Spiral Edge Punch

Basic Grey Taffeta Ribbon, Pretty in Pink square buttons

Clearly Inspired Challenge # 11 -- Color Challenge -- This one made TOP 5!

YAY! It's Friday and not only is it Friday, but it is the best kind of Friday, CIC Friday!  Yup, it is time once again for the Clearly Inspired Challenge at ClearlyiStamp.  This time,it's a color challenge. And not any ordinary color challenge at that. This week the color challenge features colors from the brand new paper, ribbon and marker line from Clear Dollar Stamps called Clearly Coordinating. Their first collection is called "Summer Fun" and it totally lives up to its name! So bright and cheery! Ok, so back to this week's color choices!
Bee Pollen, Lime Juice and Cherry Go Round.
I had alot of fun working with these colors! I colored the images first, assembled them and then worked on my layout. I was lucky to find this lone sheet of dp from the material girl collection that matched so perfectly. Not only the colors, but the flower's shape as well.

Details

Stamps: Bless my Bloomers (CDStamps)

Paper: Cherry Go Round, Whisper White, Material Girl dp

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black

Coloring Medium: Tombow clearly coordinating markers:

Bee Pollen, Lime Juice, Cherry Go Round, Stone Slab

Tools/Accessories: Corner Rounder, Dimentionals

Lg Circle & Labels 4 Nestabilities,

Word Window, Modern Label Punch, Lime Juice ribbon

Sweet Sketch Wednesday #44

Hello! This is my second post of the evening... and secretly, my favorite one of the day! I love this stamp from MFT.. and I love how it all turned out! I hope you all like it as much as I do!

I made this card for Sweet Sketch Wednesday, which is quickly becoming my favorite sketch challenge blog.  One of the great things about the Who's that Girl stamps is that they are perfect for paper piecing, which is what I did here.

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you like what you see!

Details:

Stamps: Who's that Girl - On the Pier (MFT)

Paper: Ruby Red, Material Girl dp, Kraft, Whisper White

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black

Coloring Medium: Prismacolors & Gamsol

Accessories: Mosaic Square Embossing Folder, CB, Blue Basic Grey Brads

Technique: Paper Piecing

PaperTake Weekly sketch #38 and Color Throwdown #87

Good Evening! I have become very fond of the "Who's that Girl" line of stamps from MFT. I somehow identify with her, and kind of want to be her. Is it possible to be envious of a stamped image?  Nah .. lol..

Anyway ........

I made this card for the sketch challenge at PaperTake Weekly and for the color challenge at Color Throwdown. I pictured the sketch turning out better than it did, but I dont hate it, so I am posting it anyway. The colors for Color Throwdown are: Pink, Olive and Grey. One of my favorite color combos!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Check back tomorrow for my submission in the latest CIC challenge!

Details:

Stamps: Who's that E-Girl (MFT)

Paper: Sweet Pea Dsp, Basic Grey, Whisper White, Pretty in Pink

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Basic Grey

Coloring Medium: Basic Grey Watercolor Wonder Crayon, Prismacolor Pencils

Accessories: Corner Rounder, Old olive Brads, Old Olive & Pretty in Pink Ribbon

Taylored Expressions Sketch Challenge #107

Hey everyone! This is my second post of the day, I was lucky enough to enjoy some quiet time in the craft room today! I made this card for the Taylored Expressions sketch challenge. I chose this adorable image from the Cuppie Love Scenes stamp set because, well, I just love these cuppies in their hot air balloon! So cheerful and happy!

Thanks for stopping by! Here are the details:

Stamps: Cuppie Love Scene

Paper: March Key Ingredients Kit

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black

Coloring: Prismacolor pencils & Gamsol

Tools/Accessories: Corner Rounder, Circle Punch,

Lg Oval Nestabilities, Dimentionals

My first attempt at a Digi image and Tombow markers!

Oh myLanta! All I can do is shake my head at this one, but still, I post it. This super cute digi image is being offered for FREE at ClearlyiStamp! I had never tried a digi image before, I am really an ink and rubber gal, but I do love Clear Dollar Stamps, and **FREE** so, I downloaded the image, printed it and got to work. I wanted to use my new Tombow watercolor markers, so with no color scheme in mind, I got to work coloring. I did use every color in Clear Dollar's Summer Fun tombow markers collection, plus soft suede for the basket. This card does qualify for this week's The Pink Elephant challenge, which is a Theme : Nature.
Thanks for stopping by! Since my Clear Dollar happy just arrived yesterday, I am sure I will have more to share with you in the coming days!

Dream Big .. A Four in One!

Hello Everyone! Happy Saturday and Happy April! I am so happy April has finally arrived for so many reasons, one of which, my husband will be home from Iraq in about 4 weeks!
Anyway, I dont really strive to see how many challenges I can put into one project, if I do combine challenges, it is usually at about 2. Today, however, it just worked out that this card qualifies for 4  challenges! WOW!
The first one is Our Creative Corner - where they challenge us to "Break out the Buttons". The second challenge is Raise the Bar - where the challenge is "April Showers- weather based themes". Third, is the sketch challenge at Sweet Sketch Wednesday, and finally, The Pink Elephant's color challenge to use pastel colors.  Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! I really appreciate your visit!

 Details:

Stamps: Loving Ladybugs (CDStamps)

Paper: Brocade Blue, Brocade Blue dsp, Sunflower medium,

Vibrant Pink, Choice Snow White

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black

Tools/Accessories: Lg Oval & Scalloped Oval Nestabilities,

Summer Sun corduroy buttons, Vibrant Pink Satin Ribbon

Swiss dots embossing folder, Prismacolor pencils