A Fond Farewell to Sentimental Sundays...

Happy Sunday everyone!  Can you believe we are already at the end of May???  That means June is right around the corner and, with it, SUMMER...*I hope*  I'm finally finished work which means I can really concentrate on getting the new house ready to live in and this one packed up and *really* ready to sell.  Sadly, this has meant that I needed to give some things up while we are in this process and my Sentimental Sundays DT position had to be the unlucky victim.  I have had SOOOOO much fun working with this great group of ladies - they are an awesome bunch and all the newbies that have come aboard will feel like part of the family in no time.  :)  So, to Ann and the rest of the gals...THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.  :)

This week's Sentimental Sundays challenge is one that really made me step outside of my box..."Anything But a Card."  As many of you know, cards really are my *thing* but I do like a 3-D project every once in awhile.  One good thing about moving and packing up is *discovering* things you bought that haven't seen the light of day for...er....umm...years??  As I was going through one of my crafting supply cupboards, I found some 8x8 canvases that I had *good intentions* to use right away - *don't we all have those intentions???*  - so I pulled them out and thought about how I was going to use them for this project.  

As I was out and about in Blogland a few days ago, I came across the most HILARIOUS blog - LollyChops.  If you haven't visited her before, do it NOW.  She made me laugh out loud so much in one post that my kids thought I was losing it!  She has some FANTASTIC projects and this post from last year inspired me to create this:

My jumping-off point, so to speak, was this tutorial by Julie over at Inkredible Stamping to make felt flowers.  I bought some burgundy and green felt (and some purple for another project) at our local fabric/quilting shop and got to work.  I dug out my Nesties and Cuttlebug and got busy cutting five each of three different sized circles.  I tacked them together with a few stitches and then glued them into the flower shape on a 1-3/4" circle. I started the layout of the canvas by hot gluing and wrapping twine around two sides of the canvas.  The hardest part was trying to find some patterned paper that would coordinate with the deep green and burgundy felt...I realized that I don't have much paper in either of these colors!  A few more embellies later and I was done.  What do you think?  I have another canvas the same size and now I want to make another one with a picture of my boys and then hinge them together for a nice tabletop display.  Maybe that will get done AFTER we move... ;)


Thanks for stopping by today - I always enjoy visitors.  Thanks again to Ann for giving me the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing Design Team... I had a great time!  Enjoy your week everyone!




Supplies
 Stamps: Bloom & Grow (Verve) 
Ink: Early Espresso 
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Kiwi Kiss 
Accessories: 8x8 canvas, Flutterby die & Elegant Leaves die (Verve), canvas tag, paper piercer, Labels Seventeen Nesties, sponge dauber, twine, buttons, sheer ribbon, Scor-Tape, hot glue gun

Welcome to the weekend everyone!  What a week we've had here - rainy, gloomy, and yucky.  I know it could be worse... we haven't had our major May/June snow storm yet!  :)  I was able to spend some time crafting this afternoon and did I ever have fun!!!

I haven't played along with the Play Date Cafe's challenges for quite awhile when I saw this week's combo, I *had* to participate.  It's their famous "Color Splash" week - black, white, and this week, GREEN.  :)

I was able to use the fifth sketch for this month from the Viva la Verve gang over at Splitcoast... LOVE this one, Tosh!!!  *even if there are tilted panels...I can feel Marisa cringing.*

A few weeks ago I was searching for fun, new ways to make handmade flowers and came across this tutorial over at Make It Do that uses wired ribbon - they are amazing! *I'm sure they're not new to many of you but I hadn't ever seen them before...* I didn't have any wired ribbon so when I popped over to Walmart this morning I picked some up and got busy when I got home:

Stamps: Celebrating You (Verve)  Ink: Onyx Black Versafine  Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, assorted DSP scraps  Accessories: Green wired ribbon, paper peircer, buttons, black satin ribbon, Charming Oval die (Verve), twine, adhesive pearls

Here's a closer pic of the flower - the green is MUCH prettier in real life...

I always love a black and white card with a bit of color - so striking.  As you can see, I made my card a square to accommodate the size of the flower.  :)

Thanks for stopping by today - I'm off to watch the hockey game to see who will be joining the Canucks in the Stanley Cup finals!  See you later!

Color Crazy at the 4 Crafty Chicks!

Welcome everyone!  I am so excited about this week's 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge because, as many of you know, a COLOR challenge is my favorite-est kind of challenge.  Lori is our hostess with the mostest and take a lookie-loo at what she came up with for us all to play with:

Don't those colors scream "FUN!!!"???  When I first saw the colors I didn't think it would be a difficult combo to put together but when I finally sat down to make my card.... well, let's just say it *wasn't* easy.  First I had too much Melon Mambo, then too much Pear Pizzazz then not enough white space... ACK!  I finally finished with something that I don't think is *horrible* - my mojo must have needed a brief vacation that day.  ;)  I used the wonderful Mojo Monday sketch from Debbie but made mine a square to accommodate the size of the flower I used:

Stamps: Every Season Plain Jane (Verve)  Ink: Tangerine Tango  Paper: Melon Mambo, Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White  Accessories: Scallop border punch, adhesive pearls, paper piercer, Swiss Dots EF, baker's twine (TCP), Paper Rosette die (Tim Holtz), button, corner rounder, Sweetest Stem embosslit (SU!)

I hope you are enjoying your week - it has been raining and gloomy for  most of the week here so hopefully the sun will come out again soon.  If you have time to play along with Lori's fun color combo this week, make sure you link it up for us.  Have fun!!!

You May Have to Dig Through Your Stash...

...to play along with us this week at the 4 Crafty Chicks.  Tamie is our hostess-with-the-mostest and she is challenging us to use brads somewhere on our card.  I will admit that I don't use them very often so this *was* a bit of a challenge for me.

I had such a great time playing along with the CR84FN Color Challenge last week that I wanted to do it again and this week's colors are AWESOME!  So, so pretty together:

I've also used the Week Three Viva la Verve sketch for May - you can find all the details over in the Splitcoast forum.  Amy did a fantastic job with this week's sketch:

As usual, I couldn't *just* follow the sketch - I added my brads down at the bottom and felt like the card *needed* some ribbon and a bow so I added that up by the sentiment:

Stamps: Hope Blooms (Verve)  Ink: Poppy Parade, Crushed Curry  Paper: Various DSP, Whisper White, Poppy Parade  Accessories: Lemon Divine Twine (TCP), Nesties, sponge dauber, button, Daffodil Delight satin ribbon, Sending Love brads (SU! retired)

I hope you'll stop by the rest of the Chicks' blogs to see what they have created with their brads - their links are to the left.  Have fun with this challenge - enjoy your week!

Make Your Own Flower at Sentimental Sundays

Hello everyone!  I hope this finds you all enjoying your weekend and taking some time to relax a bit...maybe make a card or two?  If you find yourself in need of a fun challenge, why not join us over at Sentimental Sundays for this week's challenge - "Handmade Flowers."  You can use any technique to make your own flower but just don't forget to include a sentiment on your card!

For my card, I went to my old, familiar standbys....Verve.  Ahhhh...I just love it.  :)  I used Julee's Mojo Monday sketch and combined it with this month's Get Your Diva On challenge over in the Verve forum at Splitcoast.  This month's challenge is to use fabric on your card so I dug out some of the SU! fabric I bought before Christmas and got to work.

Stamps: Faithful Phrases, Galatians 6:9 (Verve)  Ink: Cherry Cobbler  Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, Blushing Bride DSP  Accessories: Cherry Cobbler seam binding, Floral Circles Cut Above Die (Verve), twine, buttons, sponge dauber, Labels Seventeen Nestabilities, paper piercer, Sweetest Stem Embosslit

Here's a bit of a close up of the fabric flower:

I hope you will join us this week - there are so many ways to make your own flowers and I, for one, can't wait to pick up some new techniques from all you talented crafters out there!  Enjoy your week!

Taking TCP Tuesday Into the Weekend!

Hello everyone!  How did your week turn out?  We had a great week - it was busy but that made it go by so much faster.  :)  Would you believe that I started this card on Tuesday but didn't have time (or the inspiration) to finish it until today?  Yep, it's true.  :)

When I first saw this week's TCP Tuesday challenge (my favorite kind of challenge - a color challenge) I thought it screamed "BOY" but as I went through my stamps, I just wasn't *feeling* it.  I tried a couple of ideas before arriving at this one - don't you hate it when that happens?  In fact, it wasn't until today, after a trip to my LSS, that I figured out what to do.  My inspiration?  These AWESOME canvas flag tags from Maya Road I picked up... I should have bought more because I can see me using these a LOT!

I saw Jen's Sketch For You To Try the day it came out and realized it was perfect for this card ... AFTER I started using a different sketch!  Thanks for a great sketch, Jen!  I made my card a square instead of the rectangle...

Stamps: Catch My Drift (TCP)  Ink: Basic Gray  Paper: Basic Gray, Whisper White, SU! DSP, unknown DSP, Bashful Blue  Accessories: Canvas flags (Maya Road), Oyster twine (TCP), Home Tweet Home die (TCP), circle Nesties, paper piercer, dimensionals

I am also going to submit this one for Verve's Get Your Diva On challenge - it's to use fabric somewhere on your card and I *think* the canvas tag qualifies???  :)  Thanks for stopping by - enjoy your weekend!

Think Spring at The 4 Crafty Chicks!

*DARN - Blogger lost this post for me and now I have to redo it - ack!* 

This week's challenge over at the 4 Crafty Chicks is hosted by yours truly and we want to see your Spring-Inspired cards... whatever that means to you.  :)

I decided to use one of my new Verve stamps with a spring-y sentiment and combined the CR84FN Color Challenge with the Week Two Viva la Verve sketch:

I hope you will play along with us at the 4 Crafty Chicks - we love to come and peek at your blogs.  :)  Enjoy your week!

Sentimental Sundays on Monday...

UGH!  Sorry everyone!  AGAIN, I forgot to come back and finish my post and with Mother's Day yesterday, I wasn't on the computer at all...

OK - so this week at Sentimental Sundays the theme is "Anything Goes" as long as you have a sentiment on your card.  This should be week full of great submissions!

For my card, I combined the Week One sketch over at Viva la Verve and the most recent Color Cue combo:

Thanks for stopping by - the weather is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous here all week so you can bet I'll be out enjoying it!  See y'all later!

It's A Recipe Challenge at the 4 Crafty Chicks

Welcome back everyone!  It's been another busy week here in my little corner of the world - I've had sick kids and I've been feeling under-the-weather a little too so I've not had much time to craft for fun.  This week's challenge over at the 4 Crafty Chicks is brought to us by Leanne and she has given us a Recipe Challenge this week: 1 button, 2 ribbons and 3 designer papers.  I really enjoyed this challenge and got to use one of my new paper pads - love me My Mind's Eye

When I saw Julee's sketch over at Mojo Monday this week I knew it would be PERFECT for this recipe...

Here we go...don't you LOVE this paper???

Stamps: Happy Phrases, Bloom & Grow (Verve)  Ink: Early Espresso, Peach Parfait, Sage Shadow  Paper: Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Peach Parfait, Sage Shadow, Mabel DSP (MME)  Accessories: A Cut Above Dies (Verve) - Floral Circles, Elegant Leaves, Charming Oval - twine, button, adhesive pearls, sponge dauber, Apron & Big Scallop border dies (TCP), eyelets

I kind of cheated a bit on the ribbon part of the recipe - I used two different colors of twine so I *think* that counts...right?  :)  My one button is on the flower and my three designer papers are the floral print, the polka dots and the notebook paper.  I hope you will play along with Leanne's recipe challenge this week - we have so much fun peeking at your creations.

Thanks for stopping by today - enjoy the rest of your week!