Weekly Christmas Card Challenge – January 27th

It’s Friday again, which means time for another Weekly Christmas Card Challenge. I think I mentioned in my last post on the 20th that these challenges come from a wonderful group of ladies that I’m swapping with over at SCS. One of them started these Weekly Christmas Card challenges to help everyone get their cards done early. Great! Exactly what I need!

This week, Patti chose the theme. Her theme choice was “make a card using non-traditional Christmas colors – no red or green!”.

At first I reached for my purples…then I saw the ever growing pile of reject pieces on my desk and thought “I have to tackle this pile!”. Sitting right on top of the pile was a black and white ribbon with matching bow. So, the purple got forgotten and my black and white card got started.

At first I thought I might do JUST black and white, but somewhere in the middle of creating I decided that Stampin Up’s 2012 In-Color Pool Party might look pretty cool with this card. What do you think?

I used a stamp set that tends to be forgotten as well, even though it’s one of my favorites. The set is called Peace on Earth and I just love that start tree. I embossed it in white on the black paper.

I also used my fairly new and fairly unused tab punch. It was perfect for that “Peace” sentiment.

Isn’t it great when you get a chance to use those forgotten items in your stash? And it’s so nice when so many of them come together for a finished project!

January 2012 Viva La Verve Challenge #3

Time for sketch number 3 in Verve Stamps January 2012 Challenges! Yes, I know they play on Fridays, but I’m a little behind this week. That’s not unusual, right?

This week’s sketch was kind of fun!!

I had all sorts of ideas for the card, but in the end I came up with this great card. I love the colors in it. I also love how I managed to pull a few “forgotten” elements out of my stash and use them up…the patterned paper, the brad and flower embellishment, the paper flower (which was the last one from the package). At first, I struggled with the ribbon, but finally found a combination that worked for me.

And, isn’t that quote sweet?

The last challenge of the month will be posted tomorrow, so look for me back in a couple of days with the last challenge of the month.

Birthday Wishes!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!! Hope you’re having a fabulous week.

A couple of days ago, I promised to show you more of the cards I made at the Valentine’s Hair Massacure Crop. One of the projects I was working at the crop was a couple of card boxes. I’ve got a number of cards to do and I’m trying to get them all done by the end of January! I’ve got a lot of work to go!!

This card was supposed to be quite different. But you know the saying “measure twice, cut once”? Yeah, I didn’t do that. Nothing more frustrating than cutting your paper, lining it up to your backing layer and finding they don’t fit…”Whaaaa!!!”. I admit, there was a bit of foot stomping. So, layout plan changed and this is what the result was. I love this Balloon Riley stamp. First of all, he’s adorable (as most Riley stamps are), but the balloons are so much fun to color.

This second card turned out great too! Again, I used Balloon Riley. I also pulled out some scraps from my scrap bin for this one. Love the bright colors! I don’t know why it works so well, but I certainly let out a sigh of satisfaction when I put that bow on the card. Somehow, it just works!

I’ll be back in a few days with a Christmas Card for my Friday challenge. Can’t wait to see you again!

CASE Study #74

I was browsing through challenges tonight, looking for some inspiration for my last project of the night and happened upon this weeks CASE Study Challenge.

The inspiration card was really different and at first I thought “Nope. Move on.” But something made me sit and stare at it for awhile and then all of a sudden I had to play! Here’s the inspiration card:

I think what got me stuck on the card is my reject pile that’s been growing on my desk. In that pile are a small collection of squares that I cut up when I was going through some DSP scraps. But, they’ve been sitting there for forever and a day and the pile is starting to bother me. I’ve been trying to pull things out of the pile and use them, so when the challenge made me think of those scraps, I think that got me hooked.

At first I was going to use the same layout as the inspiration card, but I didn’t want to make it quite the same. So, I focused on the sentiment. How could I change it? And here’s my creation….

I ended up embossing a piece of black cardstock and then used my nesties to cut the oval. I backed this onto white paper, stamped the sentiment in versamark and embossed it in black. I love the way it looks. Finished it up with my red reject squares and a yellow butterfly (also hanging out in the reject pile) and, ta da! A pretty little birthday card.

You’ll probably see a version of this card later…I’ve got ideas!

Use It Tuesday #24 – All About Love

What day is it? Tuesday! What time is it? It’s USE IT TUESDAY TIME!!!!

This week, Use It Tuesday is celebrating love…our theme this week is All About Love.

Perhaps you need to make a Valentine’s card for your sweetie (young, old or furry). Or scrapbook a loving family moment. Or perhaps you just love the color purple. Whatever! We want to see it.

Now remember, Use It Tuesday celebrates our love of hoarding craft supplies. We challenge you to dig into your accumulation of paper crafting love and produce for us a fabulous project with those supplies you forgot all about or were saving for “just” the right moment. Now’s that time!

This week, I created a Valentine’s card for you. Now, usually I would plan to give this card to my fabulous husband. But one of the things I love about him is that he very nicely and lovingly supports my love of crafting by carefully inspecting and commenting on most of my projects before I share them with you (now that’s love!). As a result, he’s already seen this card and it won’t be much of a Valentine’s Day surprise. But that’s okay.

The patterned paper on this card is definitely hoarded. Both were “must have” buys and became “must sit on shelf” items. I’m also pleased to finally use those petaloo flowers, which I fell in love with almost a year ago and was waiting for the perfect project. I think they look wonderful here. Finally, the ribbon…I love that ruffled ribbon, but use it way less than I thought I would. Before I finish, I wanted to do a quick shout out to Pencil Lines whose scrapbook sketch from 2007 I used for this card, thanks to google image search.

We’d love to see your project now! The Design Team is waiting in the wings with their usual comment love. All you have to do is link your project to the Use It Tuesday blog before February 3, 2012 using the InLinkz tool on the Use It Tuesday site. No blog? We’d love for you to play along anyway by uploading your project to an online gallery using the keyword USE024. Then, leave us a direct link so we can find your creation.

Please remember to mention in your blog post (or gallery link) that you are playing with Use It Tuesday and tell us what hoarded item from your stash you used to express your love this week.

And the benefits to participating? We will randomly select one project we love and ask that participant to be a feature Guest Designer on a future Use It Tuesday challenge!

Off you go, Users!

Valentine’s Hair Massacure Crop

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Yesterday I attended a 10-hour crop to raise funds for the Valentine’s Hair Massacure. If you’ve never heard of this, basically people dye their hair pink, cut it, shave it, etc and raises money for the local children’s cancer hospital here. Anyway, a Creative Memories consultant I know has two young daughters who are participating this year. One has dyed her hair pink and the other is cutting off 14 inches (very short!). Besides being a great cause, I decided I could use a scrappy day of happiness, so I signed up.

I’m quite happy with the amount of work I got done! In my plan to have more frequent activity on my blog, I’m not posting all the cards today…stay tuned over the next while and check out what I created.

But I will show you a Valentine’s card I did today, since it fits the them well.

This card is for a Secret Sister package I have going out in the mail shortly. I love the colors in this card! I used SU’s Concord Crush and Blushing Bride. The stamp is from Penny Black and was a Christmas gift from my fabulous husband. Isn’t she a cutie?

Thanks for stopping by!

A Christmas Card

Yes, I know it’s not December. But last year I made it a point to work on my Christmas cards throughout the year, rather than being rushed to get them done at the end of the year.

By the time December 1st rolled around, I had about 60 cards ready to go and had them addressed and mailed the first week of December. Whoo hoo!! It felt sooo good.

So, I’m determined to continue the trend this year.

I’m participating in some Christmas Card Challenges on SplitCoast Stampers set up by members of a group I’ve been swapping and chatting with. Among the group, we each get a turn to host a weekly Christmas card challenge. The challenges are set up for Fridays and most of the member seem to be working ahead and posting their projects right away. I’m choosing to wait and post my projects as the designated week comes up. That way, I have some posts scheduled ready to go during the weeks I may be busy.

The first challenge was to make a Christmas Card using a tree, branch, leaf or bush image. I had a couple ideas rolling through my head, but in the end I made this card with Stampin Up’s “Lovely as a Tree” stamp set.

I always seem to reach for red and green when I’m doing Christmas cards, so it was nice to work with a couple of different colors – dark blue and sand. I also love the contrasting brightness of the white sentiment and pearls on the card. The glitter’s pretty fun too!

January 2012 Viva La Verve Challenge (Week 2)

In my last post I mentioned that I was doing the Verve sketch challenges over at the SCS forums. Today I have for your the card I made with the Week 2 sketch.

Here is the sketch to play with. It’s similar to last week’s, but I enjoyed working with it just as much as I liked last week’s sketch!

And, here are the two cards I made with the sketch. As you can see, they’re similar, but I used slightly different papers and colors in each card. Using the River Rock colored paper was different (it’s not one I reach for often). I like the way it turned out.

And the second card…

Yes, it’s a Christmas card! Are you tired of Christmas yet? Well, I have a few I need to get done for a card project, as well as a few to do to stock up on my own pile for next December. So, you’ll have to put up with at least a few.

I have to say, the Christmas/Baby themes are a nice change from the predominantly birthday themes I had last year!

And…again, my pictures leave something to be desired….sigh…today’s excuse is this lovely belly (in addition to the light level). It’s getting harder to get down low and take a good shot. I did my best and then come down to the computer only to find that it’s turned funny, not square, blurry, etc. But, taking another one seems like a lot of work so for now, I’ll leave it.

Once again,

January 2012 Viva La Verve Challenge!

It’s January, which means the Viva La Verve challenges are back. I found these sketch challenges in the SCS forums back in November and played along for the first time. I had so much fun that I was disappointed to find out they took a break for December! But, it’s January and they’re back!!

Verve Stamps releases a new sketch every Friday. Each month, you complete all the sketches for the month (usually four, but sometimes five) and if you do, you’re entered for a prize.

January 6th was the first sketch. I had planned to do it last week, but ended up working on something instead, so I sat down to play both the January 6th and January 13th sketch today.

And, here is the baby card I made with the sketch:

Unfortunately, I waited until a bit too late in the day to take my picture, so the card looks a bit more purple-y than it actually is.

I did finish the second Verve sketch today too, but I’m leaving it to post in a few days. Come back on Tuesday and check it out!

Monday, Fun Day…But It’s Wednesday.

Happy mid-week, everyone.

Actually, it’s not that happy. This week has been so busy that it feels like Thursday night already. But it’s not. I still have two more days of work to go. Boo.

But, tonight I did decided to craft a bit. It certainly took a lot longer than I thought to make one card. I had this fabulous idea in my head and kept coloring things wrong, gluing things down before I was ready. Ack, it was a bit of a nightmare.

My ultimate goal was a card for The Greeting Farm’s Monday Fun Day challenge over at the SCS forums. The challenge was a recipe challenge, where you were to include: a The Greeting Farm stamp, polka dots, the color pink and two ribbons.

I came up with this fun birthday card using my Cheeky Shooter stamp (which I don’t think has been inked since I purchased it almost a year ago…whoops). I tried to go for both a girly and tough look on this card. Hopefully I succeeded.

Thanks for stopping by, friends. I’ll be back later this week (hopefully) with some more treasures for you.