Pink birthday!

Here is my second card from the other night! I needed a birthday card for a friend and thought I'd feature more retiring products! And it comes from Jen's Saturday Sketch to Try. (My scrapbook class this Wednesday comes from the same sketch!) I have a Pixie Pink card base, the side squares are punched from the Wild Wasabi Prints paper (hostess level 1) and I have three little black buttons on the squares too. The main image is the flower from Time Well Spent (hostess level 3). I stamped it all with Basic Black ink, then colored with the ink pad (Wasabi, Pink and Yoyo Yellow) and blender pens. I matted the White paper onto Basic Black card stock and wrapped it with (retiring!) Wild Wasabi double stitched ribbon. Then I stamped half of this greeting stamp from Its Your Birthday in Pink Passion ink. Went pretty quickly too!

Monday Mojo #44

Here is my take on Julee's Monday Mojo sketch. I didn't even bother last week, but this one I was looking forward to getting to try. I'm not convinced that the flower pattern 'goes' with the argyle but they're all Rose Red so that makes it ok...I'm sure of it! LOL!

So yes, base of Rose Red card stock, a card front of Whisper White, with corners from the Rose Red Prints Paper. The flower print comes from Cutie Pie, which has been around for a while so it COULD retire, folks! I topped it with a White rectangle matted onto Rose Red, and then did the same with the circle piece. The heart comes from (the retiring) Time Well Spent and is stamped in Rose ink then colored with the Rose and So Saffron markers. The greeting comes from Sweet Thing, and I am going to miss using that!!! Then I just added three Rose buttons and that was that!

Inspiration Everywhere!

First, Beate found inspiration in a cake! This is a gorgeous cake! I wanted to do something with the tiny flowers, but I don't really have any that worked... So I turned to my newest set, Fresh Cuts and thought I could make the big stamp work for the flowery vines, with different colors. Um....it worked....but not how I envisioned...! This one is my third attempt to color it, and I liked how soft this try ended up, so here we go! I actually used Always Artichoke ink (and Rose Red and So Saffron) but the Artichoke looked a lot closer to Mellow Moss, so that's what its mounted on. The card is Soft Sky, and I tied a little Very Vanilla grosgrain ribbon on the side, and stamped the words in Mellow Moss.

This one is a lot brighter! I found this in a round-about-way on Carole's blog for their TCP Tuesday challenge. I decided it would stretch my creativity! LOL! And for this card I used lots of retiring products to entice you as well! The card is Yoyo Yellow, which I really don't use very often, I think just for birthday cards! I used a piece of the soon to be retired Hostess Prints Pack in Wild Wasabi, then the top is just Whisper White. I used the soon retiring Time Well Spent set with Yoyo Yellow and Wild Wasabi inks. I tied the fast-retiring Wasabi double-stitched ribbon around the top and then tried my hand at a totally new bow idea (for me, anyway!). I used a tiny bit of very old yellow ribbon to tie the center. Oh, and I got the words from the retiring Its Your Birthday set. Don't forget to place your order soon if you want these things! Have a Happy Wednesday!

Stamp Challenges

I DID get to stamp! Hooray! So here are some challenge cards! This first one comes from Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #19, found here. I don't have any cupcake stamps, but I have had this scallop punch thing done for a while. It fit the sketch so I used that! I have a Pretty in Pink card base, a card front cut from the Berry Bliss paper, a strip of Pretty in Pink card stock across the middle. On that I tied some Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon, stamped the words from Fresh Cuts, and added the circle, which is a Close to Cocoa scallop punch, with the little dots punched out of the 'petals', then topped width a chipboard circle which I covered in the Sprinkles Chunky Glitter from the Occasions mini. I also added four Pink Brads to the corners of the card. Its simple but I like it. This second card comes from Jen's Saturday Sketch, and I'm showing my card on a Monday, which seems to be the norm for me... what is it about weekends?! LOL! For this one, I started with the bottom half of the card! I stamped the flower stamp from Boho Backgrounds in Summer Sun ink, on Very Vanilla card stock. Then what...? I mounted it onto Cameo Coral card stock, and added the wide Old Olive grosgrain ribbon. Then I stamped the butterfly from Time Well Spent in Basic Black and colored her with my Pastels and Blender Pens. I stamped the words from my Simply Sent kit in Summer Sun and sponged the edges of that piece with Coral ink. It looks a little weirdly done but oh well. I mounted that onto Old Olive card stock and added the Summer Sun arch piece, which looks a little bit like a setting sun!

Mojo Monday #40 (on Tuesday)

I am just going to accept that I will be a day (or two, or three!) off for a while now! But at least I got some stamping done! Soon I'll have to post some highlights from our busy day yesterday!

Confession: I do not LOVE this card. I think its ok, I do like the elements, just not so much together. O well! It follows Julee's sketch and that's what it was supposed to do.

So! the details... I have a Regal Rose card base. I never use that color, but now that I have the marker and the ink spot, I should! Its a nice shade of pink! Then a layer of So Saffron card stock. On that I layered the four squares of Certainly Celery Prints paper. (Yes Julee, that was a pain!) I used both dotty patterns to keep it a little more clean... or at least that was the intention. LOL! I stamped the big flower from Time Well Spent in Basic Black ink on Whisper White card stock and colored it with the Rose and Saffron markers. I punched out the little spokes that make up the petals for the big Saffron circle piece to show thru. I cut that big circle with the Making Memories circle cutter I showed in an earlier post. I also added a Celery brad to the center of the flower. The smaller circle was punched with the 1 1/4 inch circle punch. the flower was stamped in Basic Black ink on So Saffron card stock, and then I highlighted it with my Versamarker. I added another Celery brad there, and ran the edges of the circle across my Regal Rose ink spot. For the stripey elements near the bottom, I have the Celery ribbon from the Fairy Tale Ribbon Originals set working as the scallop piece. I have a strip of Whisper White card stock layered with a strip of Regal Rose card stock! Then I stamped the greeting in Regal Rose ink. That was a lot of details...! Or maybe just a lot of rambling. I better go make dinner now, enjoy your evening!

*Edited to add: If you are not on my email list, be sure and check my list on the side with Stampin' Up!'s specials and my events.

A Sketch Challenge!

Here is my take on Jen's Saturday Sketch. (I did it Saturday but thought I'd spread my posts around!) This one was a lot of fun for me and I used some more designer paper! hooray! (that means room for more you know...!)

I used a Certainly Celery card stock base, then Cutie Pie paper for the bottom strip and top corner. The circles are flowers from the Pick A Petal set, and I stamped them in So Saffron ink. I stuck Rose Red buttons in the center and touched the edges of the circles in the Rose Red ink. The greeting comes from Time Well Spent and I stamped that in Celery and colored the flowers with my So Saffron marker. I also mounted the greeting onto Rose Red card stock. So there you have it! Have a fabulous Memorial Day!

Weekend Sketch #37

Hmm... Well I tried Beate's sketch for today. Its been one of those days, so I really NEEDED to stamp. This is not quite working out tho and I'll go ahead and blame my mood. haha! This first card I liked up until the point it was all put together. I tried to add an accessory but I couldn't find anything that worked. I was working with the plan of the Saffron full flowers as a background and that phrase as the focal point. I'm not sure where I went wrong, but I still don't think it really works. Anyway, I used the set Time Well Spent, with So Saffron, Whisper White, Ruby Red and Always Artichoke cardstocks, and Saffron, Ruby and Artichoke inks and colored with blender pens. Lets move on to Try #2...

Last year between April-October I had nine baby cards to give. I know of at least three coming relatively soon, so why not make a baby card? I think its at least unique! I just hope whoever I give it to likes the colors! (its not as harsh in real life...sorry about the photo!)

Since I picked the phrase first (from For A Friend) I wanted to go with a pinkish color for the flowers. I really like this Hand Prints wheel done in Chocolate Chip. It really looks like a mischievous child got into chocolate! (Soon I'll have to post my scrapbook page I made using the wheel for exactly that scenario!) So anyway, I used Groovy Guava and Chocolate Chip with a touch of Whisper White. The Close to Cocoa button might be a stretch but I think a button is a soft touch to a baby card.

Well anyway, that's my effort for the weekend. Tomorrow will be better!