How Many More Sleeps???

Well, you can sure tell Christmas is getting closer - the kids at school are just BOUNCING off the walls.  Of course it doesn't help matters much that we've had a couple of inside recesses because it's been too darned cold to send them out for even a short length of time.  Thank goodness the holidays are almost here!

In the meantime, to keep my sanity, I came home today and crafted.  To heck with supper, they can fend for themselves.  ;)  I decided to combine Julee's Mojo Monday sketch with Splitcoast's Color Challenge: Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, Basic Gray and Not Quite Navy (optional).

I dug out my Urban Garden DP because I KNEW those colors were inspired by this DP.  I decided to go with the stripe and layer with solid colors.  The main card is Baja Breeze with a layer of Kiwi Kiss behind the striped DP.  I used my Martha lace doily border punch but you can't really see the detail that well.  I used my blender pen and classic ink to color the image (from retired set Happy Harmony) and then cut it out with my new label Nestabilities.  The sentiment is from a MSE! acrylic set (Sympathy Sentiments) and I used Basic Gray to stamp it.  At the last minute I ticket-corner-punched the bottom corners and added some pearls but now I'm wishing I had left the corners alone and done 3 brads horizontally in that big, green space in the bottom left.  And I'm just now realizing that the ribbon was only supposed to go across the smaller layer...whatever. *sigh*  It's done now!  LOL

I think that's going to be it for me tonight. I thought about doing Kwerner's Color Challenge but I think I'll wait for SC's Sketch Challenge tomorrow and combine the two.  Have a good night and wherever you are - STAY WARM!!   

Sunday Sketch Trio

Welcome to another fun-filled week!!!  Since this is the last week of school before Christmas holidays, it is going to be a very busy one.  There are lots of events planned at the school and I still have some shopping to do, presents to wrap and sanity to keep!  :o)

Let's forget about the busy-ness and relax for a few minutes.  I have been feeling a bit "mojoless" over the past week, thus my lack of posts.  I decided to sit down this morning and I wasn't allowing myself to get up before I had accomplished "something."   I was up before anyone else . . . blessed silence . . . and started to check the blogs, something I hadn't really had time to do this week.  I started at Splitcoast where I found my color inspiration as well as a sketch.  The color challenge for this week was Taken With Teal, Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze and Whisper White.  UGH, was my initial reaction.  How was I going to make THOSE colors work together???

BUT, I persevered - not going to give up THAT easily!  So, without further ado, here we go:

Card #1: Sketch For You To Try

I started by stamping my very cool snowman from an Inkadinkado acrylic set with Riding Hood Red on Whisper White cardstock.  I cut him out with my Nestabilities Label and then I used the snowflake from the same set to stamp some Baja Breeze snowflakes around him.  I added a metallic brad and a half-pearl to one of the snowflakes to give it some more interest.  The rest is pretty self-explanatory: ribbon, ticket corner punch, cuttlebug, swiss dots EF, more pearls. . . 

Card #2 - Splitcoast Sketch Challenge #206

This card was a bit harder for me.  I wanted to keep Baja Breeze the focal color and I had already cut the BB for the main card.  Hmmmm... I worked on the vertical strips first - I used my Nestabilities pinking circles and plain circles to frame the sentiment and other two images.  The bottom two images are from the Snowflake Spot set (retired) and the top image is from a $1.50 stamp I bought at Michael's.  I put some red brads on the top one for berries and added some more pearls to the snowflake on the bottom.  Some white brads in the corners and some ribbon and bows along the side complete the center panel.  I started to put it all together and at the last minute, I ran the card front through the cuttlebug with my Snow Dots embossing folder and VOILA:

Card #3 - Taylor's Cupcake Challenge Sketch

My brain was feeling a bit "used" by the time I got to this sketch.  It is a beautifully elegant sketch and it gave me a chance to use my Martha border punch again!  I started with the main image which, again, is from that Inkadinkado acrylic stamp set.  I stamped it with Taken With Teal and ran it through the CB with my rectangle Nestabilities.  I layered it onto a piece of Riding Hood Red, scalloped the bottom and paper pierced a double row around the image.  Some red brads for berries, a couple photo corners and some sheer ribbon and the main image was done.  I found a scrap of Ski Slope paper to use for the bottom panel and ran a piece of Taken with Teal through the CB in the Argyle EF for the top panel.  I ticket corner punched the corners and added some silver brads before gluing it all together.

What do you think? I had a lot of fun making these and now I think I'm going to spend the afternoon curled up on the couch.  It is rather chilly here today (-29*C!!!) so anything I can do to stay warm, I will!!  Have a great week everyone!  Thanks for clicking by!

Just One More. . .

I wanted to do the Bellaversary Sketch Challenge tonight - just because.  I love this little Bittybloom!

Not much to explain - I used some of the Basic Grey Cupcake paper I bought this weekend and Old Olive, Not Quite Navy and Riding Hood Red cardstock.  I pulled out my new label Nestabilities and paper-poked the RHR layer.  I layered the 1" circle, small oval, designer label and the 1-3/8" punches for the sentiment and added some adhesive pearls to the image and sentiment.  I popped them both up and TA-DAH!!!  Finished.  :o)

Now I'm really going to go and hang out with my hubby.  Night all!

Mojo Monday

Marvelous Monday, everyone!  

It is going to be a busy week around here so I was happy to have been able to get some crafting done after school today.  Now that I've finished reading the Twilight series, I don't have the "pull" to read before creating!  It was a great series, BTW.  I'm not usually a vampire kind of gal but this was so much better than I expected.  I'm not sure if I want to see the movie - I've heard it's great if you are a 13 year old girl but maybe not-so-much for a 30-something like me.  What do you think?  If you've seen the movie, please leave a comment to help me make an *informed* choice!  :o)

Anyhoo, back to the reason for this post.  I combined Julee's Mojo Monday Sketch with last week's Color Throwdown:

I kind of changed the sketch a bit and used a sentiment for my main image instead of stamping a sentiment at the bottom like the sketch illustrates.  I used a quote from a Heidi Grace collection and stamped it on Pink Pirouette.  I layered it on Wild Wasabi and Basic Black, paper piercing the Wasabi layer.  I used my newest Martha Stewart border punch to do the black scalloped piece under the quote and attached some Wild Wasabi ribbon.  The pink DP layer was looking a bit boring so I paper pierced the corners and added some black half pearls to the bottom right corner.  Julee always gives us great sketches so its easy to come up with something beautiful.  

That's it for tonight.  Tomorrow is the Splitcoast Color Challenge and Kwerner's Color Challenge - hopefully I'll have time to play.  See you then!

Merry Christmas to . . .

. . . a couple special someones.  These are for 2 of my neices for Christmas.  

The girls and I were out shopping yesterday for supplies to do a diferent special project and while we were in our LSS, I asked them to each pick a paper that would match their room.  They have recently had their room repainted in pinks and brown - one of my favorite color combinations!!  I think they did a great job choosing papers that are the *same* but very different.  I sure hope they like them!!!  Heck - I hope mom and dad think they're OK!  I guess if the colors aren't quite right they can go and get any paper they want to replace it.

I used Decor Elements: Together Circle Frame in Chocolate and their first name initial.  I kind of messed up a little on J's but hopefully she won't notice!  The frame was very tricky to get on straight without bubbling or wrinkling . . .   Oh well!

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Happy Bellaversary!!!

So, it's Em's 2nd Anniversary over at Stamping Bella and boy, does she know how to celebrate!  Not only did she release some NEW Bellas but she is throwing in some freebies if you place an order before tomorrow night!  I couldn't pass up free stuff so I placed my order like a good stampaholic should.

Anyhoo, as part of the celebration, the gals organized a "Bellaversary Bash" over at Splitcoast on Friday night.  They announced 3 challenges: a sketch challenge, an inspiration challenge and a color challenge.  I started with the color challenge ~ to use Em's signature colors of pink and light green.  I inked up Pia Puddingtop, worked my magic and voila!

I really like how this card turned out.  It took me quite awhile to get the juices flowing and even up until the end, I wasn't sure I liked it.  It was a last minute decision to use my shrink plastic and Verve's Ornamental Christmas that brought it all together.  I stamped the ornament image with Stazon, cut it out and then used my heat gun to shrink it - it always AMAZES me that it curls up and then totally flattens out.   The sparkly embossing powder is so perfect for Christmassy snow-type images. 

Recipe - Stamps: Pia Puddingtop, Verve's Ornamental Christmas  Ink: Black StazOn, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi, Basic Grey, Close to Cocoa  Accessories: Nestabilities, blender pen, adhesive rhinestones, Versamarker, Iridescent Ice EP, shrink plastic, siver cord, ribbon, dimensionals

I hope to be able to get the Sketch Challenge done today too but you know how it goes. . .  I *did* get some more frames done but I haven't taken pictures yet so you'll have to wait to see those.

Thanks for stopping by!  Only 18 more sleeps 'til Christmas!!!

How Much Do I LOVE Decor Elements????

I have been waiting not-so-patiently for my most recent Decor Elements order to come in and it is finally here! I have decided to make most of my Christmas gifts this year so some very lucky people (at least I think they are lucky!) will be getting one of these under the Christmas Tree:



I bought some Ribba frames from Ikea - these ones are almost 20" square - and used the small, black "Serve the Lord" Decor Elements. I used a neutral plaid DP but the recipient can change the background paper to whatever fits their decor. I think these are almost the EASIEST thing I have done - and they are so elegant.

ETA: The verse is applied to the outside of the glass frame front - it creates wonderful shadows and depth.

I'm going to do some more this weekend so check back if you want to see what I came up with! Later!

A Quickie. . .

I'm going to make this a quick post - I'm right in the middle of reading the "Twilight" series and am thoroughly addicted! I read the first two books in 2 days and I just got "Eclipse" from the library this morning. I've been DYING all day to get home to start reading it. But I wanted to make a card first and since I didn't want to think too hard, I used Julee's Mojo Monday sketch again and combined it with Kwerner's Color Inspiration Challenge:


Recipe: Paper - Watercolor paper, Taken With Teal, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Certainly Celery. Ink - Same as papers. Accessories - CB Embossing folders, Martha Stewart border punch, Nestabilities, blender pen, retired SU! ribbon, white gel pen, brad from Styled Silver HPH.

I'm not so thrilled with the result - I was feeling a bit distracted. I think I did a better job of "embracing the white" with this one, though. I still had to do "something" with the white layer so I ran it through my Cuttlebug - it was just too stark otherwise. The colors were fun to put together and definitely NOT in my box. And I didn't use any DP in this one either! Crazy!

'kay - I'm off for a couple of days. Big potluck tomorrow night and then Friday will be spent at a HUGE craft show in Edmonton. Enjoy your week and and let your crafting juices flow!

Monday Mojoliciousness on a Tuesday!

Hey there, everyone!

What a great week this is turning out to be - it looks (and feels) like it's going to snow, I'm heading up to Edmonton on Friday to go to the HUGE craft show at the Butterdome and we are having our stamp club potluck/Christmas party on Thursday night! AND I've been able to do some crafting. . .can it get much better?

I saw Julee's Mojo Monday Sketch yesterday but didn't have time to play. When I got home this afternoon I sat down and put my thinking cap on. The Color Challenge over at Splitcoast was Very Vanilla, Basic Black and Sahara Sand. I just ordered Sahara Sand paper and ink so I was happy for a chance to peel the plastic off the packages.



I love these colors together! Julee wanted us to "embrace the white" - I tried, really I did, Julee - but this was the best I could do:



I used my Philippians 4:13 Plain Jane stamp from Verve for the main image and a SU! rub-on for the image inside the square HPH. I ticket corner punched the main image and added silver brads to give it a bit *more*. I used my Swiss Dots embossing folder on the Sahara Sand layer as well as the Vanilla layer. After I had done the Vanilla layer, I thought it was missing something so I got my sponge dauber out and ran a bit of Sahara Sand ink over the surface of the dots. You might have to click on the image to see the detail a bit better. I used my new Martha scallop border punch (love it!), some black rick-rack and dimensionals to pop up the main image. I really love how this turned out and I know just who it's going to. . .

That's all for today, folks. I have to go to a parent meeting tonight to discuss plans for the Spring 2010 Europe trip. . . I think I am more excited than the kids! LOL See you tomorrow!