Owl Be Your Valentine

Hello there! Today I have a little owl-themed Valentine to share:

Time is running out on my friend Pam's Just Punch It Challenge. Valentine punch art is this edition's theme. I'm still working on my Valentines and had a bit of time to play with paper today, so I dove right in. The patterned paper is from Target's One Spot. The Teeny Heart Background stamp and Rectangle Word Bubble stamp are both from DeNami Design. The branch stamp is from Schlosser Designs.

I created that cute little owl by starting with a rectangle of red cardstock and then punching part of an oval to create his tufted head and using corner rounder to shape his base. I used various sizes of heart punches to make his tummy, beak, and feet. His eyes are, of course, layered circle punches, and his wings are two halves of a small scalloped circle punch. He was so easy to make!

I simply used my computer to print the sentiment on cardstock and then used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp the word bubble around it.

Thanks for stopping by!
Emily

Don't Forget to Vote!

OK, my American friends, it's the first Tuesday in November, and you know what that means: it's Election Day! So I made this card as a little reminder:

That old-fashioned pointing hand is a stamp from Purple Onion Designs, and the sentiment is computer-generated. I layered lots of punched borders in red and blue, stamped with white stars, for a little patriotic flair.

I'm playing along with a few challenges with this card:

• A Blog Named Hero: use a punched or die cut element
• Simon Says Stamp Challenge:  no square cards

Because it's a presidential year, I know that polls are going to be busy, folks, but please, PLEASE: don't forget to get out there and vote!!

Thanks for stopping by!
Emily

PS  You all know about the little GIVEAWAY I have going on until Thursday night (11/8/12), right? If not, you can check it out HERE.

Cardstock:  (white) Papertrey Ink; (red, blue, white) The Paper Company
Rubber stamp: (Pointing Finger) Purple Onion Designs
Clear stamp: (star from Boughs) Schlosser Designs
Pigment ink: (Frost White) Clearsnap
Specialty ink: (Noir hybrid) Stewart Superior Corp.
Fibers: (red/white string) The Twinery
Tools:  (border punch, decorative label punch) Stampin’ Up!
Font:  (Latin Wide) www.fonts.com
 

Tuesday Throwdown Anniversary Celebration

I'm back again this week wearing my Guest Designer hat for the Tuesday Throwdown. This is challenge #53, so TT is celebrating one year of fun weekly challenges with a weeklong celebration! Be sure to check back on the Tuesday Throwdown blog for the anniversary blog hop's daily schedule. Each day you'll be directed to hop to Tuesday Throwdown DT members' blogs for some eye candy and the chance to win some prizes from the fabulous sponsors Kim has lined up. All the details may be found at Tuesday Throwdown.

This week's challenge is to pick any three previous Tuesday Throwdown challenges to incorporate into your card creation. Be sure to list which three you chose!

We have six--count 'em, SIX!--sponsors this week: Paper Pretties, Heart Song Designs, K 'n K Designs, Digital Delights by Louby Loo, The Stamping Boutique, and Whimsie Doodles. Each sponsor generously provided the entire design team with beautiful digi images to play with.

Today I'm featuring an adorable digi from K 'n K Designs.
The image I used, Little Sheep, was perfect for this birthday card I made for the June birthday of a sweet sheep-loving blog buddy of mine.
Hopefully she has already received her card!!

Oh, I nearly forgot to list which three previous Tuesday Throwdown Challenges I used in the making of this card!! (OK, I actually used four. Couldn't help it!) Here they are:

#8 Stitching
#27 Embellish It
#44 Sparkles & Bling
#52 Animal Image

I'll be back again on Sunday, June 19, for my post in the week-long anniversary celebration blog hop.

Thanks for dropping by!
Emily

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Little Sheep digital stamp from K 'n K Designs; frame from Autumn Blessings by Schlosser Designs
Paper: SU pacific point CS, SU whisper white CS, SU Ice Cream Parlor DSP
Ink: SU pacific point
Accessories: Prismacolor pencils, SU word window punch, ribbon from Target Dollar Spot, adhesive embellishments from SU Ice Cream Parlor collection, foam tape, rhinestones

StampinB Spring Scene Challenge

Welcome to another rainy day on Bliss Road! The highlight of our rainy yesterday was more after-school puddle jumping. It keeps the cabin fever at bay! The kids are having a blast with their umbrellas and boots. I've gotta admit: it is pretty satisfying to walk across the mother of all puddles in a good pair of rubber boots and coming out the other side with feet still toasty and dry :). I imagine there will be no shortage of puddles this afternoon, too. Look out soggy world, here we come!!

Our Stampin' B's Challenge this week is to make a spring scene. And while my kids and I have been "making some {spring} scenes" of our own this week out there in our wellies (in full view of all the high school spring sports teams practicing--in the rain--on the HS practice fields we walk beside on our route home), it hasn't been the kind of spring scene I could easily capture in a card. So, I instead went with a "spring as the season of love" scene. Some cute paisley DP with spring colors immediately came to mind, and pretty soon, with the help of my Stampin' Up Two-Step Owl Punch, I had this card:
There's a whole lot of punchin' goin' on in this one!! But it was definitely a hoot to make. :)

Well, thanks for stopping by to check out today's little slice of bliss! If you'd like to try your hand at this week's Stampin' B's Challenge, post your project on your blog or SCS gallery, and link it up to the Inlinkz tool on the Stampin' B's blog. We'd love to see what you create!! :)

See you soon!
Emily

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Schlosser Designs Boughs
Solid Paper: snow storm CS; baja breeze, regal rose, close to cocoa, chocolate chip cardstock from Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper: Tiffany DP collection from We R Memory Keepers
Ink: Palette burnt umber, SU baja breeze
Accessories: SU two-step owl punch, SU small heart punch, dollar bin small blossom punch, Provocraft small leaf punch, SU word window punch, SU modern label punch, sponge dauber, sewing machine, Studio G Sparkle Writer
Techniques: machine stitching, punch art, sponging

Gray skies are gonna clear up . . .

. . . put on a happy face!!!

That's what this card says! I just can't help but smile when I see those little handmade orange camellias on my branch. :)

I made this card today to honor a good Splitcoast friend, Pam (aka pam124 on SCS). She was named Queen for the Day in Splitcoast's QFTD game. I usually shy away from challenges (such as SCS's Featured Stamper challenge and QFTD) that require CASE-ing another stamper's creations. I'm just too intimidated!! But the planets were in alignment today, and a CASE just fell into place. Here is the card from Pam's gallery that I CASEd:
I changed the image, color, and orientation, but kept all the basic elements of the sketch, the stitching, the eyelets in the corners, the ribbon down the middle, and a circular element in the corner. My circular sentiment ("gray skies are gonna clear up") was computer generated. The felt clouds are die cuts I received in a RAK from another SCS member.

I am having such fun making my own little paper roses and camellias from my collection of basic 5-petal basic flowers from the Prima Got Flowers? line. I followed this fabulous tutorial to make mine. So easy!

So here are the other challenges I'm playing in with this card:

• Play Date Cafe Challenge: PDCC65
• Cute Card Thursday: Recipe of 1, 2, 3 in any combo. I used 1 huge circle brad, 2 felt clouds, and 3 handmade orange camellias
• 4 Crafty Chicks: another Recipe challenge: Ribbon, Brads, Patterned Paper
• Simon Says Stamp: Bingo! Include any three items that are in a straight line on the challenge Bingo card: I chose the diagonal: Brads, Flowers, Ribbon
• Papertake Weekly: ribbons and/or pearls (I went with ribbons this time)
• City Crafter Challenge for week #40: Handmade Flowers
• Gray is the New Black Challenge in the Moxie Fab World: to use gray in an innovative way. I once read on the blog of a stamper/landscape artist that we stampers usually get it all wrong when we stamp trees--we use brown to stamp the trunks and branches of trees and bushes when, if you look closely in nature, they really are gray. So, I guess my innovation with gray is using it to represent the branches of my camellia bush accurately!! But I also had fun using gray to tone down my vivid oranges and olives, using gray for my felt clouds, giving my layers subtle frames with gray stitching, and even using the word "gray" in my sentiment. It was all such fun!

Well, we weathered our snow day with no troubles today. Now we are preparing for the deep freeze (overnight lows below zero for a couple of days) and another potentially major snowstorm midweek. Yikes!!

Thanks for stopping by to check out my blissfully clearing skies!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Schlosser Designs Boughs
Paper: MFP snowstorm CS, SU old olive CS, SU basic gray DSP
Ink: Palette charcoal, SU old olive
Accessories: MFT Cloud Dienamics (RAK from a fellow SCSer), 1.5" circle punch, SU boho blossoms punch, Crop-A-Dile, orange eyelets, sewing machine, sponge, orange grosgrain ribbon, swirled satin ribbon, foam tape, basic Prima flowers, SU silver circle brad
Techniques: machine stitching, sponging, handmade flowers

Stampin' B's Banner Challenge

Happy Thursday, everyone!! It's time for another challenge from the Stampin' B's DT, and this week I am honored to be the challenge hostess. My challenge is to include a banner of some kind on your card or paper project. I went with a pennant banner for my card.
I just love these trendy accents, and I've had such fun over the past several months playing with pennant banners on my cards. (HERE are a few for you to take a peek at.) They can add such a whimsical touch to a project, and they are perfect for spelling out greetings, messages, or personalizations. Or you can use them to add old-fashioned flair. And just add one to a birthday card for an instant party! My friend Benzi even says that my pennant banners remind her of the State Fair--try that on for old-fashioned, good-clean-fun whimsy!

Need some banner inspiration? Here are some Etsy stores I can recommend for getting your juices flowing: Blue Moon Studios, Funkyshique, and onepunch. Isn't this red and aqua pennant banner from Blue Moon Studios stunning?
OK, so back to our regularly scheduled card! I needed a birthday card for my brother-in-law who loves baseball. And don't baseball and pennants just go together like PB and J? So, here's the skinny on my pennant banner. Back in November I won a trio of clear stamp sets from Schlosser Designs, including this adorable set called Hey Cupcake: I know, you're thinking I've just completely changed the subject, but I'm bringing all of this up to show you the little ice cream cone stamp that came with Hey Cupcake. See it? That's what I used to stamp the pennants for the banner on my baseball card!
It is the perfect shape. Then I just cut them out by hand and adhered them to some hemp twine. I spelled out "HAPPY" with a mini alphabet stamp set from the Target Dollar Spot and punched out each letter with a 1/2" circle punch. It was such fun to make!

Challenges:

• Card Positioning Systems: CPS201
• Stamp Something: Just stamp something (anything goes)
• One Stop Craft Challenge: Card for a Male
• Glenda's Random Amusing Challenge #100: use RED!
• Paper Sundaes Challenge #52 - Use your favorite challenge from the last year! I chose to play along with #42 "For the Boys," a card for a boy or man
• Simon Says Stamp: Bingo! Include any three items that are in a straight line on the challenge Bingo card: I chose the diagonal: punches, embossing, and ribbon (I chose hemp as my "ribbon" for this masculine card).
• Delightful Challenges: Celebration Creations
  

Thanks so much for stopping by to check out my little slice of bliss for today!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Schlosser Designs Hey Cupcake, The Angel Company (sports images in main image), Dollar Spot alpha stamps, unknown baseball image in border
Paper: snowstorm CS, The Paper Company red and white CS, Miss Elizabeth DP
Ink: Palette l'amore red, Palette burnt umber (stamped off once), Palette starry night, Versamark
Accessories: SU 0.5" and 0.75" circle punches, dimensionals, hemp twine, white EP, heat tool
Techniques: embossing