Pals Paper Arts Sketch Challenge

 

Hello there! Are you ready for another Pals Paper Arts Challenge? This week we have a fun little sketch challenge fro you from our lovely Margaret Moody. 

Here are the DEEtails:

Funny thing... For someone who loves to add banners to cards, I actually had a lot of difficulty with this challenge! I decided to NOT do banners and once I pulled out my feathers, the card sort of fell into place. I I started with an image from Fine Feathers which I stamped in Calypso Coral, Crisp Cantaloupe, Crumb Cake, and finally one embossed in gold. Love! It's hard to tell from this photograph, but the Whisper White background was stamped with the Hello, Doily image in VersaMark and embossed for a delicate tone on tone look. The image was perfectly stamped imperfectly (I couldn't do it again if I tried) and it works! I stamped the sentiment from Chalk Talk on some Basic Black card stock with a little bit of chalk effect. I punched holed on the sides of my ovals and tied on some White Baker's Twine. I adhered everything to a Crisp Cantaloupe DSP background.

Here's a closer look...

Won't you stop by the Pals Paper Arts blog and check out the fabulous work from our Resident Artists? Then try your hand at Margaret's sketch... Will you be using banners? Or a fun alternative? Can't wait to see your creation! :)

DEEscounted Stamps Updated

Hello and Happy Wednesday! It is Wednesday, isn't it? My how these days just blur together! I spent a good chunk of time over the weekend going through some of my stamps and have updated my DEEscounted Stamps page just for you! Pop on over and see if there's anything that suits your fancy! I still have a stack of stamps that I still need to post and I'm hoping to do that soon...

I'm still debating on if I need to go through other craft supplies too, other than just my stamps... Hmm... Maybe that's a project for another day...

I've also whipped up a few quick crafty projects around here that I'll try to post in the near future. :)

In the mean time I'm thinking that my blog needs a bit of a makeover. You know, some freshening up... Any tips? Anyone willing to volunteer their mad skills? :)

I'll be back tomorrow with a card for the new Pals Paper Arts challenge. See you then!

A Little Coffee Treat

Happy Monday! I have a lot of rambling thoughts going through my brain... I think that's what happens when I'm on summer vacation. Around here, most days, hubby goes to work at 3 AM, which means I'm on puppy snuggle duty until he gets home. Sometimes he's extra thoughtful and comes home with a special treat from Starbucks - my favorite way to start the day!

The biggest news around here is that my principal at my elementary school was transferred to another school. Today, we're attending a luncheon in her honor. I'm pretty sure there are going to be a lot of tears! My friend, Rebecca and I have been racking our brains trying to think of the perfect gift for her. We found this awesome idea through Pinterest and thought it was perfect since she shares a love for Starbucks as well. I just worked a little computer magic to adjust a few things and make it more fitting for a principal. We also wanted it to be a little more permanent, so I made it to fit in one of those "design your own" travel mugs. I think it turned out pretty awesome, if I may say so... I kind of want one for myself!

We stuffed the bag with her favorite K-cups. And of course, I had to make a card to go with the gift... 

DEEtails:

This one stumped me for a bit, as I tried to figure out exactly what I wanted... The coffee cup was a no brainer. I used the Dotty Biscotti paper from PTI and cut out a tall trapezoid for the mug and pieced together some Very Vanilla card stock for the lid. I ran some Early Espresso card stock through my crimper to make a "cardboard" sleeve. I dug through some of my new DSP and found this adorable number print from Birthday Basics. Perfect-o! I matted it with some Gumball Green and added a strip of the new Burlap ribbon. Divine! I created the sentiment on the computer using a couple of fun fonts - Ostrich Sans Round and Janda Stylish Script. I used one of my PTI dies for the frame and added a few chevron stripes using the new Chevron Border die, then cut them down a bit so they weren't so gargantuan on my card. I felt like the arrows needed to point to something, so I added a Raspberry Ripple heart. Love!

Here's a close up of that fabulous texture!

Nicole from Making it Lovely recently posted about What Your Coffee Says About You and I had to share. What is says about me is so true... You know, my brother recently wrote a term paper that included my love for ice cream :) and how I need to cut back - WHAT?! Thank goodness it was mostly fictional.

source

So what about you? What does YOUR coffee say about you? :)

Pals Paper Arts Color Challenge

Hello dearies! Today is a pretty exciting day as we reveal team 2 of the Pals Paper Arts. This means PPA will be hosting a challenge every week now! Here's this week's challenge:

Here are the DEEtails for my card:
I started with a Midnight Muse base and added a strip of This and That DSP. I'm loving this little pattern here as a background. I wrapped some Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine around the card and added tied a few knots to add some texture. Then I made a little notepad paper using the A to Z stamp and the retired Spiral Border punch. I crumbled up the paper a bit and added some staining with my Crumb Cake stamp pad and a little bit of gold Smooch paint. Then I added a heart punched out of Cherry Cobbler with a bit of new Chevron ribbon tucked underneath. Finally, I added my sentiment from the Four You set stamped in VersaMark ink and embossed. Hope you like it!

Pals Paper Arts Color Challenge

Hello lovelies! Happy Independence Day! And Happy July! :)

July kicks off some fun and exciting things over at Pals Paper Arts! We have a brand new team and brand new color combos and sketches to begin weekly challenges! Wahoo! Ready for the first challenge of the month? We have a lovely, patriotic color combination today!

Here are the DEEtails:

Creating this card was pretty challenging for me. I had a really difficult time with this color combination - you know my aversion to red... and then, there was this very bright blue to work with... I'm sure you can see why I chose to use quite a bit of Crumb Cake on my card. But I was excited to play with some of my new goodies, so although it was a challenge, it was quite a bit of fun. For the base, I used the Positively Chevron stamp - I kind of like how imperfectly it was stamped. I offset the bright blue with some Crumb Cake card stock which I ran through a polka dot embossing folder and matted with more Crumb Cake. I'm loving this new Regarding Dahlias stamp! I stamped it in VersaMark on Crumb Cake card stock and embossed it with some Whisper White powder. I added a bit of color using my Blender Pen. I was actually a little nervous as I colored in the petals, but the dark and light bits just seemed to work. Some dimensionals help to make it really pop. I layered a bit of Summer Smooches DSP underneath, which I punched with the Scallop Punch and added a piece of Natural Trim ribbon for some texture. Finally, the sentiment from Four You was layered on top. 

Whew! That's a lot! But it is definitely a huge difference from what I started with...

My card was so blah... I sat with it for a while and finally realized what it needed - texture, depth, and color. So I added them. I added texture with an embossed background, ribbon, and heat embossed image. I added depth by expanding my dahlia image to the edges of the card, layering my ribbon, and adding dimensionals. And finally, I added color by inking my flower and enlarging it, as well as expanding the white space on my sentiment. I'm loving the updated card. Want another peek at it?

Now, won't you join the Pals this week with our color challenge? Check out the lovely projects that our Resident Artists have come up with! I'm sure you will be inspired! Then link up your creation to the Pals Paper Arts blog. 

Brand New Ribbon Shares!

Happy July Friends! Yikes, can you believe July is here already?!? Wow! Time sure does fly!

I've finally had a chance to update my ribbon shares and am excited to share them with you... You are going to absolutely LOVE the new ribbons if you haven't had a chance to play with them yet!

NEW COLOR RIBBON SHARE! $9

3/4" Chevron Ribbon Share $31

3/8" Ruffle Stretch Trim Share $12

3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon Share $12

3/8" Taffeta Ribbon Share $10

1/8" Taffeta Ribbon Share $17

1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon $12

1/4" Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon Share $14

Baker's Twine Share $4

Trim Share $15

I Love Ribbon Package $120

Take a peek at my Ribbon Share page to pick your favorite ribbons!

In the meantime, I'm working on cleaning out my craft goodies, so I'm hoping to update my DEEscounted Stamps page, which is temporarily down while I work! Check back soon! :)