Two challenges, two postings!

Here is my take on Julee's Mojo Monday. I also used the SCS color challenge for the week, and posted this card on SCS. But I'm talking about it here!

I have a Sahara Sand base, then a chunk of Whisper White which I cut the bottom with some very old wavy scissors I got a the dollar store years ago. I am anxious to get that new scallop punch tho...that'd be perfect! Anyway, I added a strip of Groovy Guava card stock and stamped the ivy image in Sahara Sand ink going across it. I stamped the big image from Fresh Cuts onto Whisper White and then used my 1 3/8 inch circle punch on a spot that looked interesting. Then I used my Scallop Circle punch with more Sahara card stock for that piece. I added the White grosgrain ribbon across the top, which I think pops well, and a silver brad for some balance. I stamped a word on the bottom and I wonder if I should have maybe scattered some Sahara inked flowers around the top portion...... hmmmmmm.....

Mem'ries!

I've seen this a lot and apparently I'm playing now, since I've left some memories.... So here ya go!

Here is a fun little game... leave a comment on my blog of a memory that you and I have had together. It doesn't matter if you've known me for a short time or a long time, anything that you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It is pretty funny to read the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you are playing and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. On your mark... get set... blog those memories!

Friend. Good.

True, true! I love my friends. I love that connection and the fact that people out there "get" me. My friends are some of the most supportive people out there and they really keep me sane, and keep me strong. What would we do without our friends? Seriously...! I've got to spend a lot of time with my friends, one-on-one this year, and online, and I have truly enjoyed it. Friends are the best! This was Lauren's Saturday Sketch, only I tipped it sideways. My colors all came from the patterned paper I chose, from Cutie Pie. I used So Saffron for the base, a mat of Rose Red, a chunk of Cutie Pie, and a strip of Certainly Celery ribbon from the Fairy Tale set. The words are stamped in Rose Red and mounted onto So Saffron, and that is pierced, and then two Rose buttons make the circles! Very fast, but the friend I made it for will love it.

Ooh, dont' forget my blog candy and here's a link for more! http://bevscrafts.blogspot.com/

A Christmas card!

I just started up a gallery on Splitcoaststampers, finally. I've browsed their site and used the "resources" file for a lonnng time now, and there are so many fun challenges and inspiration things going on, I wanted to play too! LOL! So here's my other cards...!

I was so happy with how pretty this card turned out that I am posting it here also! It was a sketch challenge, from Erika Martin in the Gina K forum. I did a Christmas card for the previous sketch challenge, so between being "in the mood" for cold and snow (temporarily...because I am DONE with the hot hot days!) and the fact that this was a new-to-me stamp set, I went with this! (its also retiring, so if you love this, get it quick! Peaceful Wishes, $23.95)

So! I have a Ruby Red base, a mat of Always Artichoke and a card front of Very Vanilla. I ran Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon across the bottom third, and the greeting is stamped in Ruby Red ink, on Vanilla card stock with an Artichoke mat. The branch (is it mistletoe?) is colored with my Ruby and Artichoke markers. Soooo pretty! (plus it was simple, and therefore qualifies for two other challenges! OCC did a Christmas one and so did Sharon! Three in one!!!)

...I am hoping to get to play with more sketches and challenges today, but we'll see how it goes. It was a crazy-busy weekend and the coming week will be no different! Be sure and check out my blog candy below!

Blog Candy!

Yes, yes, I found some fun things to give away! What do you think?

Three cards: a pink flowery Thank You, a fun Boy's Birthday, and a nice, all occasion Flower card (all blank on the inside)! A handful of random chipboard pieces for you to alter and use on your own projects, an un-opened container of chunky Certainly Celery glitter and a small stamp that says "a little something".

This is a big THANK YOU to all the support and kind comments you all have left me for the first six months of my blog. Anybody in the US or Canada can enter, just leave me a comment on this post! Hunter will pick a number Wednesday evening to choose a winner! Thanks again!

A Sketch on a Page!

Yep, I used Taylor's sketch for a scrapbook page!
...and a lot of Hodgepodge Hardware pieces too! LOL! I'm going to write the year or another tid-bit of journaling info inside the rectangle frame, and I may remove the swirly clip and put words up that-a-way too... I haven't decided yet. This patterned paper comes from a Martha Stewart paper pad, I think its called Playful Blue. Anyway, it was a fun layout!

Featuring the list...

Almost this entire card is going...going...GONE! I finally got to play with Jen's Saturday Sketch, and while its not my favorite card, it turned out nice enough.

I have a Purely Pomegranate base, a big chunk of Berry Bliss paper (still my current fav!) and Chocolate Taffeta ribbon going around the sides, attached with Hodgepodge Hardware brads. For the main square I stamped the group of flowers from Just Like You in Pretty in Pink ink, the words are Close to Cocoa ink, and the whole thing is mounted on Cocoa card stock. The "star" image I actually used the medallion from Boho Backgrounds and the Scallop Punch, and put a brad in the center of that too.

Just Like You is the current Ronald McDonald House set. That means $2 of the sales of this set go to the Ronald McDonald House Charities.

See the post a couple below for the list of what is retiring, and what is already gone!

A happy skunk

Today is Wednesday. I have not stamped since Friday. Lately, its really been one of those times where it seems the only cleaning happening around here is me cleaning up a disaster from one of my kids. Does that happen in your house too? So right now, I am escaping the position of Damage Control Officer and stamping something!

I used Julee's Mojo Monday sketch to get me started. This isn't exactly her sketch, but it is close. And then I have kwerner's Color Challenge for the other half of the card! LOL! Oh, and I used Jamie's cute paper- 'thread' idea on the button. CASE'ing all over the place tonight! I used this cute skunk from Pun Fun and I haven't pulled that set out in a while. Its a pretty simple card, but it was a good return to stamping. ...and finally, a Hunter-ism: He wouldn't sit still for quiet time and finally said "But Mom, I'm just so hungry!" My answer was something like "You know, I really don't think you are, I think you're just the king of excuses right now." "MOM! I am the king of trains! Not 'scuses!'

Purple & Green!

Wow... I am surrendering to the need to cut things out! Who'd have ever seen that one coming??

This basically comes from Lauren's Saturday sketch, but it's also a little bit from Sharon's Stamp Simply challenge for Purple Flowers! When I checked the sketch, I had a pinky kind of card in my head but when I went to select a shade, I picked Elegant Eggplant instead. I LOVE this color and I don't use it very much... I added Pale Plum and Certainly Celery as my accent colors on this card, and then chose Very Vanilla instead of Whisper White. I wanted to use a roundish image cut out for that top corner and I've never used this particular flower before (I don't think, anyway!). So it's popped up, on a whole bunch of dimensional edges, so it won't get squashed down! I also have some Celery brads and Celery ribbon, and this butterfly's wings are cut out and popped up on dimensionals as well! Here's a different view for detail:

My boy!

He is growing up! He's had a birthday this week, and I think that's always a little crazy when your oldest gets older... (altho...are we ever going to out-grow Thomas-themed birthdays? LOL!) This is his first store-bought birthday cake(s), and I think he was a little excited!

So here are his cute birthday invitations. The balloons come from the same sneak peek set as that cupcake I last used. I drew the strings from the balloons and even came up with the corny poem. He was so funny finding the rhymes when we were delivering the invites! Anyway, I used a piece of Tempting Turquoise for the base. The balloons were stamped and cut out of various shades of Bold Brights colors and the invitation part was typed up and printed off and glued to the back! Simple enough...!

Here is his birthday card and you can see more of the new stamp set! Yes, its called Sock Monkey! It comes with all the stamps I used on this card, plus five others! I think its so cute! And since I haven't whined enough about cutting lately, I thought I'd try my hand at paper-piecing!!! Yes folks, I'm nuts! I used the brand new Pacific Point card stock for the card base here, as well as for the balloon and pieces of the hat. The monkey was pieced using Creamy Caramel card stock, stamped with the Canvas stamp in Close to Cocoa ink! Then I colored the rest of him using the Bordering Blue watercolor crayon and Blender Pens. I pieced the cupcake with More Mustard for the liner and Chocolate Chip for the frosting. I added glitter with my 2-Way glue pen to the top of the hat and the flame of the candle. The balloons have Silver Cord strings and are tied together, they're also popped up on Dimensionals and I have a little 'shine' with the White Gel Pen.

I think this is the most work I've ever put into a card, and its for a little boy! Goodness!

Now a story about him growing up...! Monday morning, Sienna was asleep in our bed and Hunter came to wake all three of us up. He told us he'd made something and we all needed to come see. How many times does he make a new train track design or lego village? So it took us a few minutes, but we went down to see. I even took the camera to save myself a trip back up. And THIS is what we saw!!! He made each of us BREAKFAST! No, he's never been "allowed" to pour cereal or milk, (not because I don't let him, but because I just do it...) but he did it! He'd chosen what he thought was each of our favorites and it was ready to go! He even put sugar on the corn flakes and wheaties! We were very impressed (even tho it meant eating very soggy cereal)! He was soooo proud of himself he had that beaming grin on til well after we were done eating. Guess he's growing up!

Double Challenge Card

Edited: I took off the circles and like this one SOOO much better! Yes, yes, I like to combine sketches and challenges. This is just not my favorite card...I think I have too much on there, but its alright. Anyway, I used kwerner's color challenge and Taylor's Cupcake sketch. What do you think?

Since it required a retiring color, I thought I'd use what is likely a no-longer-available stamp set, By Ones & By Twos from the Occasions Mini that recently ended. (those only sometimes make it into the next catalog...so we'll just have to see!) I do really like how I did the main square panel, I think my problem is the circles. Maybe I should have left them plain...or maybe I should have not stamped the two sides and left at least one of them plain. Maybe I'll just try this whole thing another time! LOL!

Its ok, its still a good card for a baby boy. Anybody having one? LOL!!!

My Rock'n Card!

So, while browsing Julie's blog I saw she had started up a new challenge blog: Y.OU K.NOW Y.OU R.OCK and I was very interested in the challenge! LOL! Its actually a really neat idea, to take the inspiration from what you're listening to. I told you I'm in soundtrack mode (see my last tag!) and at that moment I had my "instrumental" playlist going. It was the last song from Pirates III and moving into Princess Bride. Since my card from the previous post used the same stamp set and colors I would choose for Princess Bride, I went with Pirates. Which is actually pretty hard to work with! So! you can first see the cover art for the CD... ...and here is my card!

The base is Bordering Blue card stock, a mat of Basic black and a front of Going Gray! I used the swirls from Priceless, with Bordering Blue ink for the smoky look, then I wrapped Copper Cord around the top half of the card. The heart was stamped in Versamark ink onto Black card stock and then dusted with Copper pearl ex powder. The word was done the same way. Sooo its a wedding card! That's the only thing I've come up with for metallics: weddings. Just don't ask me today, who its for! I dunno!

Lauren's Sketch

I love it when something turns out nice, and perfect for the person you planned it for! The coloring could be better, and I wish I'd planned for space to add a layer beneath the white images, but this is still a keeper! I used Lauren's Saturday (on Friday) sketch for the design. I have a card base from the fabulous new Baja Breeze card stock! It really is an awesome water color! Then I have a layer of So Saffron for a soft, sunny shade, then Creamy Caramel for the sand color. I used this girl from Summer By The Sea, stamped in Chocolate Chip ink, and colored her with my pastels. Another tool I haven't used much in a long time! My little squares are also stamped in Chocolate Chip ink, the greeting is edged in So Saffron ink and the bottom piece comes from the flowers she's standing in. Then I wrapped a little White grosgrain ribbon around the bottom and tied the center with some Linen Thread. Yup, I'm happy with it!

I won this...

...fabulous paper-bag-scrapbook as blog candy from Jamie's blog HERE in March! Early in June I went swimming with my kids and the pictures are perfect for this book! So since I just got it all put together, I wanted to share! I'll do the journaling later when I can borrow a Brilliant Blue marker. In the meantime, if you love this book, you'll want to order the Jersey Shore designer paper! I'm sure it will retire in the next few weeks since it includes Wild Wasabi!

Best Buds!

In just a few short weeks, my son's best friend for the last two years (is that right?! Wow!) is moving across the country. Clearly, this is traumatic for him. (he gets upset when kids he doesn't play with much move away, so this is just about devastating!) It's actually upsetting to all of us! For me, its the greatest thing to have a friend live so close who has kids the same age as mine and 'gets' me-from husbands jobs to headaches to high school, yes, really (...that's a lot of "h"'s!). Our girls are good friends too and I'm doing a page for my daughter, but I am very happy with how this page turned out for my son. I'll do the journaling in a day or two, but didn't want it photographed. ;) I do have other pictures of the kids playing together, but I really liked this day, with just the two of them digging out this Grand {something} Canyon "where only boys can dig". tsk tsk tsk, stinkin' big brothers! LOL! (a close up for the details) So for the page, I used a Creamy Caramel base. I matted the photos with Very Vanilla card stock and the journaling rectangles and title strip are also Vanilla. I stamped the title in Always Artichoke ink, matted the whole thing on Always Artichoke card stock and added some little touches. I used the thinnest Twill Tape and have three loops on the side, stapled to the strip, and then added three Artichoke square buttons. Then another one for balance. On the journaling pieces, I stamped two images from the very-long-retired Little Trucks set in Basic Black ink, then colored them with my Watercolor Wonder Crayons and Blender Pens. I sponged Creamy Caramel ink around the edges of those pieces, then added more buttons. I just LOVE how it turned out. We're gonna miss you guys! * sniff *

Cupcakes!

Woohoo! I got another cupcake stamp! One you've never even seen, unless you're a fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrator! This cupcake comes from a set that will be in the new catalog on August 11th! Plus its perfect for Taylor's Cupcake Challenge!

Wish you could see stamps first too? You could always sign up to be a demo!

So back to the card... First I chose the ribbon so I have a Regal Rose base to match it! The card front is Close to Cocoa card stock and I stamped the cupcake image with Chocolate Chip ink randomly all over, and added 4 silver brads to the corners. The front rectangle is Whisper White matted with more Regal Rose card stock, and the birthday sentiment is stamped in Regal Rose. The ribbon comes from the Fairy Tale Ribbon Originals set, then the circle image is the cupcake (stamped in basic black and colored with markers) layered on to the Scallop punched Cocoa card stock and I used my tiny hole punch to add the dots around it.

...I think my explanation was more complicated than the card!

A Mojo Saturday!

It took a while, but I got to participate! I even used the Meet the Diva's color challenge! That kind of made it easy- colors and sketch were already done, (all from Julee's blog!) and I only have a couple tall stamps to choose from so here's what I did:

So Saffron base, and mat for the main image, Chocolate Chip card front, Pumpkin Pie wavy part, Old Olive ribbon and they all show up in the stamped image too!

Can you see what I did with the flower? A very forgotten technique- actually watercoloring with my Watercolor Wonder Crayons! Duh! Sheesh! I was sitting there wishing I could do the Rock & Roll technique backwards, having the darker shade on the inside of the petals when it hit me- I used to use the crayons this way! So I had to find my watercolor paper, colored on the stamp itself, spritzed the paper with water and voila! Cute cute. And easy!

I also used my Hodgepodge Hardware on this card. If "this finish" is going away, I may as well use it up. Then maybe I'll need more! LOL!

Challenges!

Two posts in one day! That's because kwerner's color challenge #15 is due in 25 minutes! Since I'm participating on time, I should post it on time, right? She challenged us to use Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Really Rust, Certainly Celery and Whisper White. I got them all in there!

I also used the OCC sketch from Saturday for the layout! So, I have my Close to Cocoa card stock base, and I stamped the Canvas background on it with Chocolate Chip ink. Next is the layer of Really Rust card stock and I stamped the flowers from Pretty Amazing in Rust ink on that. Then a super thin layer of Certainly Celery card stock beneath the white, which is stamped with the vines and Celery ink. I cut out the two Rust butterflies (...because I didn't get enough cutting in last night?) and tied on some Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon! And I'm posting just in time!

Complicated Cutting...

...is NOT my thing! Wow! I've really been inspired by other people's scrapping and I always think I should do "more". I got these pictures printed a while ago and hadn't had a fun idea for scrapping them til the other night. I wanted to do kind of an antique-y color scheme to show the differences between the old kind of trains we saw at the museum this day, and the brand new commuter rail train that hadn't even been used yet! But there is the issue of using what you actually own...and sometimes that makes for a challenge!

So here's what I came up with. And cutting out those letters was something I regretted almost as soon as I started! LOL! I think it looks cool but that is NOT fun. Yikes...! Anyway, back to the pages! I have 12x12 bases of Almost Amethyst card stock. The titles are stamped in the Taffy alphabet with Creamy Caramel ink and the photos are matted on Caramel card stock. I have the retired Circus Train set stamped along the bottom of the first page. The train is colored with my Watercolor Wonder crayons and blender pens, and then the paper is all crumpled up, then I swiped Caramel ink across it to make it look old and/or dirty. I added Caramel buttons tied with Linen Thread, and even used some of my Pewter Hodgepodge Hardware! (this is on sale this month, don't forget!) And I have two more pages done! Wooohooo!

Scrapping with Red, White & Blue!

I got it done! I got to scrapbook MY stuff, I got to hold a scrapbooking class AND I got to scrap an event less than a month after it happened! WOW! (its been a while, can ya tell?)

So here is my layout for my class last night, that was inspired by Jen's Saturday Sketch! Oddly, there is NO stamping involved! I used my 2 Way glue pen to write the number 4 on the chipboard star, and then put Dazzling Diamonds glitter on it to make it sparkly. A girl at my class outlined her start with the glue and glitter and her's looks a lot cuter! Love the sparkle!

If you have any questions about what I used, just let me know! (If you wanted to come and couldn't, you can buy the supplies for these pages for $5.) More scrapping to come...!