In the Forest

I love the theme for this week's wee Memories challenge: In the Forest. When I first thought about what I wanted to make, I had these great ideas using all my cute owl and squirrel and deer stamps. But I made this card instead. No cute little forest animals... But I absolutely love it! I'm sure they have hot pink butterflies in a forest somewhere...!


Here are the DEEtails:

Melon Mambo all the way for this card! I stamped the bottom half with my Woodgrain stamp (which I LOVE!), then added a strip of Chocolate Chip card stock, a scalloped piece of Crumb Cake, and some Chocolate Brown taffeta ribbon. Then I added a square of Chocolate Chip card stock, embossed with my Swiss dots embossing plate and trimmed on the corners. I layered on a piece of Crumb Cake that I ran through my Cricut with the Songbird cartridge, and added a beautiful Melon Mambo butterfly, stamped and embossed with my Great Friend set. A chocolate Chip button from the Button Latte set, threaded with a sliver of Melon Mambo adds that extra touch.

What do you think?

Happy Daisies

I think I love Kim's challenges Off The Wall Craftiness because I love wedding decor. :) I think this one jumped out at me because I love green!

Now, I really need to get me a chandelier stamp! I think they are just beautiful! Anyway, Here are the DEEtails for my card:

This card is simple, really. I started with some Old Olive card stock and stamped the image from my Upsy Daisy set in Whisper White ink and embossed it. Then I added a bright pink bow with a bit of ruffle trim from my stash. I used my fabulous new Decorative Label punch to punch around my sentiment from the Full of Life set and added an extra layer in Melon Mambo. Then I added some layers of Whisper White and Basic Black card stock and adhered it to an Old Olive card. Voila! :)

Bright and Cheerful Birthday!

Yeah for another week of Cupcake Inspirations! This inspiration is so bright and cheerful! This week's challenge is sponsored by InStyle Stamps.


Here are the DEEtails:

I was totally in love with the idea of four blocks of color, and it wasn't the plan, but I ended up using something close to Mary Fish's Mojo Monday layout, this time turned sideways. I used Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive and Peach Parfait card stocks, stamped with my Polka Dot Background stamp and embossed. I cut them into little squares and matted each with the same color. I adhered them to a piece of Whisper White card stock, stamped on the edge with the Happy Birthday stamp from Stem Sayings. I added a Melon Mambo mat, then got out some Rich Razzleberry grosgrain ribbon, which I pleated in a wave, following my sentiment. This is the first time I tried sewing on a card and I think it turned out okay. I used green thread because I liked the contrast, but mostly because I was limited to colors I had in my sewing box and green worked best. Then I added my digital stamp from InStyle Stamps. Digital stamps are another first for me on this card. I colored in the cupcake and heart with Melon Mambo and Rich Razzleberry Stampin' Write markers, cut the image out, then adhered it to my card with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Hope you like it! Please play along!

Try your hand at stitched, pleated ribbon! You can get 8 new Grosgrain Ribbon colors when you order Option 4 of my Ribbon Share! Plus, you'll get an extra yard of ribbon free!

Nuts About You

Here is my card for this week's Mojo Monday. I usually struggle with sketch challenges, but I decided to give this one a try since it is a sketch by none other than my fabulous upline, Mary Fish!

Ready for the DEEtails?

I love the little squirrels from my Pendant Park set, so I started off by stamping them in Chocolate Chip ink on some Old Olive card stock. Then I used some VersaMark to stamp and emboss the foliage. I took a piece of red felt (I have these thin self-adhesive felt flowers in my stash) and cut out a little heart and adhered it over my squirrels. Then I chopped up my image into 4 even squares. I added a mat to each square and positioned them on a piece of Crumb Cake card stock. After tying a piece of Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon to the bottom of my card, I searched for the perfect sentiment, but couldn't find exactly what I wanted, so I wrote the words "nuts about you..." with a Stampin' Write marker. I love it! What do you think?

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Time for Cupcakes!

Are you ready for another Cupcake Inspirations challenge? This week's challenge is sponsored by Phindy's Place. These cupcakes from Sugar Bloom Cupcakes are just beautiful. I hope you'll play along!

DEEtails for my DEEsign:

I just love these colors together! I started with a Pale Plum card base and added an Early Espresso mat underneath a piece of Bella Bleu DSP. I stamped my sentiment from PTI's Signature Greetings set, then added a pleated Early Espresson Satin Ribbon. To finish off my card, I added a Pale Plum Scallop Circle flower with a creamy yellow button from my stash. Enjoy!

Tastefully Trimmed

I love the inspiration photo for this week's ColourQ Challenge. The color combination is such a neat one, but I'll admit that I struggled a bit to figure out how to make this work!

Here are the DEEtails:

I knew right away that I wanted to incorporate ric rac in my card, and luckily, my Holiday mini pre-order just arrived with the new Tasteful Trim die. I was so excited to start using it right away! I popped out a piece of giant Wild Wasabi ric rac and was instantly in love, so I decided to work my card around it. First I took a piece of Daffodil Delight card stock and stamped the branch from my Always set using Riding Hood Red ink (Cherry Cobbler ink looked too dark when stamped on the Daffodil Delight card stock). I really wanted my stamps to look more like clusters of flowers, so I used the berry stamp from my Berry Christmas set and stamped it randomly over each branch. I like how this turned out. Then I pulled a piece of DSP from my Urban Garden set. I added the "thanks" portion of a sentiment from my A Word for You stamp set, again in Riding Hood Red ink. Finally, I added some flowers, created from the Floral Fusion Sizzlits die embellished with some Daffodil Delight buttons "threaded" with a strip of Baja Breeze card stock. I added a Cherry Cobbler mat to pull it all together and adhered it to my Daffodil Delight card.

Hope you like it!

Bridal Bouquet

My card today is for the current Colour Create Challenge. The inspiration photo is just gorgeous. I would love a photo like this in my wedding album!

Here are the DEEtails:

I loved the idea of a bridal bouquet, so I pulled out my Itty Bitty Punches again. I started off by creating a base for my bouquet, using my Scallop Circle punch. I punched 3 scallop circles in Old Olive and overlapped them to make a sort of bouquet shape. I crumpled the shape a bit to help add more dimension as I adhered my flowers on. Then I punched my Itty Bitty flowers - 50 blooms - with Naturals White card stock. I crumpled each flower and adhered them to my base with glue dots. After my flowers were adhered to the base, I trimmed the excess off the edges. I made my stems by cutting 1/4" strips of Old Olive card stock. I folded each in half, lengthwise, then wrapped them with Early Espresso Taffeta ribbon. Because my stems have a right side (the folded edge) and a wrong side (the raw edge), I had to be careful about the placement of my stems as I wrapped them. To help with the process, I adhered my stems in place to a rectangular piece of card stock which gets hidden under my ribbon. Then I adhered my stems and bloom to a Sahara Sand card base and Baja Breeze mat.

Love ribbon? Check out my ribbon share and grow your collection! You'll get a free yard of ribbon for each share you participate in!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a great weekend!

Happy Birthday Shelley!

Yesterday was my mom's boss's birthday and of course she created something fabulous for her. I actually got to help her on this one and I am so pleased with how it turned out! Shelley is a "Junk Artist," so my mom wanted to create something that reflected her artistic and eclectic taste, while showing off her love for birds. After thinking through a variety of options, we decided to create a bag using leftover fabric scraps.

I rummaged through my mom's stash, then cut and laid out all the pieces. She pinned everything and sewed it all together. Here's the back of the bag:

We teased, each other saying that I was a fancy designer and my mom was a minimum wage laborer. Then, when I decided to make a matching card, I "hired" my little brother to "work" too. He helped to punch and apply adhesive to all the Itty Bitty flowers. He is quite the scammer though, trying to convince me that he had cut his finger (he didn't) and needed worker's comp as well as overtime while he helped me clean up the mess afterwards. Aren't little brothers fun?

The DEEtails are very simple:

I started with a Poppy Parade card and added an Early Espresso mat to a Very Vanilla background. Then, with the help of my brother, I punched and adhered a bunch of Itty Bitty Shapes flowers in So Saffron, Blushing Bride, Marina Mist, Pear Pizzaz, Poppy Parade, Pumpkin Pie, and Early Espresso to match the colors of the bag. I added a ruffle of Striped Grosgrain ribbon (also used on the bag) and an Early Espresso bird with a Poppy Parade wing. Then I stamped the sentiment from my Upsy Daisy set and added a Poppy Parade mat.

Happy Birthday Shelley! I hope you enjoyed your day!

New Pals Paper Arts Featured Artist

This is an exciting week for me. Today I'm here as the Featured Artist for the newly made over Pals Paper Arts! I've always been a huge fan on PPA. In fact, my first blog post was for a PPA challenge. These new updates are incredible - sassy, classy, sophisticated and FUN! Here's the challenge:

Inspiration challenges are always my favorite, but wow - this is totally not my usual style and I really had to think outside the box to create this card. Here are the DEETails:

I started off by pulling colors from this photo. My eye was immediately drawn to the poppy-colored hand bag on the left and the silky black fabric. I stamped the large flower from my Bella Blossoms set in Poppy Parade ink on Riding Hood Red card stock. It took me several tries to find a color combination that looked right and I like how this one turned out. I took some Pearl Jewels and added them to the center of the flower. I also stamped a leaf from the same image inked in Always Artichoke on Old Olive card stock. Then I inked the sentiment from my Priceless stamp set in Whisper White craft ink and stamped the bottom corner of my Basic Black background. I added some Sticky Strip to my card and adhered three strips of ribbon with a few ruffles - Riding Hood Red from the Ribbon Originals Dress Up set, Daffodil Delight Satin ribbon, and Rose Red 1/4" Grosgrain ribbon. I adhered my rose and leaf with Stampin' Dimensionals, then added my Rose Red and Crushed Curry mats onto my Riding Hood Red card.

What do you think? I hope you'll play along!

Thank You Cupcake Inspirations!

I'm so excited to share this news with you! I have been selected to be part of the Cupcake Inspirations Design Team. I am thrilled to be part of this group of talented ladies. Today is my first day designing with them. I hope you'll join me and play along!


Here is the inspiration photo. Too cute! This challenge is sponsored by Whimsy Stamps. The cupcakes are from Nice Icing.


Here are the DEEtails:

When I saw this fabulous cupcake tree, my eyes were immediately drawn to the little owl cupcake in the center. I decided to replicate him using my 2 step Owl punch using Concord Crush, Bermuda Bay, Pumpkin Pie, and Melon Mambo card stocks. I cut out an Old Olive Tree and Chocolate Chip Trunk. For my card base, I used Bermuda Bay and stamped the sentiment from Spring Solitude randomly with VersaMark ink. I used VeraMark again to stamp the Woodgrain pattern on Daffodil Delight card stock and embossed it and added an Old Olive scalloped border. I adhered my tree and owl with Stampin' Dimensionals. Then I added some flowers using my Itty Bitty Shapes punch and scattered them along the ground.

Thanks for peeking in! And be sure to join in at Cupcake Inspirations!

Reflections

Sorry I haven't been around this week. We finally made it back home after visiting family for a few weeks. We've been busy getting settled back into our normal routine and I finally had a chance to make a card last night.

The card is for The Shabby Tea Room Challenge theme, 'Reflections'. Isn't this mantle beautiful?


Here are the DEEtails:

I started by stamping a swirl from my Priceless stamp set in Basic Gray on Very Vanilla card stock. I love this stamp and actually used it on our wedding invitations! I used it as a sort of 'branch' to 'hang' my birdcages from my Aviary set in Going Gray ink. Then I embellished the birdcages and swirls with 1/8" Taffeta ribbon in very Vanilla, Rhinestone and Pearl Jewels, plus a few gray pearls I had in my stash. I stamped the sentiment from my Wings of Friendship set and added a taffeta ribbon and Scallop Edge trim. Then I added some Going Gray and Basic Gray mats.

Hope you like it!

Celebrate!

I made this card for this week's Off The Wall Craftiness Challenge. I deviated slightly from the challenge colors because I was inspired by the bouquet photo in the center right. Since the bouquet added a bit of extra color, I added it to my card as well.

Here are the DEEtails:

I started with the birthday stamp from my Everything Nice set. I really love how fun this stamp is! I used various Stampin' Write markers to ink each line - Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Rich Razzleberry, and Regal Rose. I added a Blushing Bride and So Saffron mat to make it really pop out. I adhered some Striped Grosgrain ribbon to my card (I am loving all the new colors that it comes in now) and tied a bit of Daffodil Delight Taffeta Ribbon to it. Then I adhered my matted image with Stampin' Dimensionals. I punched a bunch of flowers from my Itty Bitty Shapes punches in Blushing Bride, Pretty in Pink, and So Saffron, and added a splash of Rich Razzleberry and Poppy Parade. I crumpled each flower up and adhered it to my card.

Hope you like it!

Happy Thoughts

Here's a card that I created for Stacey's Stamping Stage. The crochet covered stones, made to look like little sea urchins are amazingly beautiful and so creative! Margaret Oomen, made these neat little creatures and has some really pretty prints of them, like the one in the inspiration photo, at her Etsy shop.

Here are the DEEtails for my card:

I started out stamping some flowers from my Apple Blossoms set in Marina Mist and Crumb Cake. I cannot tell you how much I love the fact that Kraft is now a REAL color and has matching ink! :) I cut the flowers out and set them on the side while I created layers for my card. I punched the bottom on my Crumb Cake layer with the Eyelet Border punch and added a Whisper White and Night of Navy mat on top. I added a bit of Night of Navy Taffeta ribbon, then stamped the sentiment from Apple Blossoms on a scrap of Crumb Cake. I adhered it to my card and added my flowers with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by!