Imagine That Digistamp - March Mid-Inspiration

Good morning my dear stamping friends! I'm here today to share some inspiration for Imagine That Digistamp's "First Thursday" Challenge. That's right, the challenge is now monthly, on the ITD blog, complete with prizes!! The challenges start the first Thursday of each month and end on the last Tuesday before the new challenge begins. The theme is always Anything Goes. Click here for all the details. 

On the first and third Thursdays of each month, there will be a new inspiration post on the Creative Playground blog featuring the Design Team's projects. This is great to get your fix of ITDBK DT project postings! 

Today I've created a fun card using the Well Wishes digi set. The set contains black and white and color images, plus sentiments. I actually used the precolored version today, along with some scraps of paper from the At the Beach collection that I had in my bin (the salmon colored panels underneath).

Die from Gina Marie (Chain Rectangles) and circle dies from Kat Scrappiness. Background paper is from PaperTrey. Sentiment from Verve.

That's it for me today! Be sure to check out the Creative Playground for more ITDBK inspiration.

Penny's Challenge #397 - Anything Goes!

Hello stampers! I hope everyone's week is going well! The new challenge at Penny's is underway! Always a so fabulous to have our amazing sponsors help us out with showcasing images! You have until Tuesday night to link up with us on the Penny's Challenge blog.

Today my card features this lovely floral image from Bugaboo Stamps. I love these self-contained square images, they are so easy to work with and lend themselves to so many layouts.

New cross stitched hexagon and square oval from Gina Marie Designs!! I'm really enjoying these. Colored with Copics. Sentiment from Verve.

That's it for this post! Don't forget to swing over to the Penny's Challenge blog to link up your projects for your chance to win! My DT sisters have created some beautiful inspiration, so leave them some love too!

Oddball Art Stamps - January Release Inspiration!

Good morning stampers! Wow, that weekend went by fast. Monday already, and I'm so excited to finally be ready to share some inspiration using the new January 2017 release images from Oddball Art Stamps!

I've made two cards for you today; this release is SUCH a good one. I had SO many ideas floating around it was tough to narrow things down at first! I have more projects planned for future challenge cards, so stay tuned ;)

Here is my first project, featuring the fantastic Sugar Puff, Image #360. This image is so much fun, versatile and MAGICAL. I was instantly in love! 

I have colored the image with Copics, and cut out with some old Spellbinders that seemed to fit the bill for the look I wanted. Added cloud background with Soft Sky ink and template. Swirl die is from MFT. Embossed clouds on the back panel, stamped the X's and O's on the wooden heart piece and lots of sequins, because who doesn't love those? Viola! The Sugar Puff panel is popped up with some foam tape.

My second card features Hudson, Image #363. What a sweetheart! I have boys, so you know I've gotta snap up those cute boy images whenever I can!

Again, this image is printed out and colored with Copics. I kept him pretty simple with a lovely inspirational sentiment and some fun embellies. He deserves to be the center of attention with that FACE! :)

That's it for me today! Hope everyone has a great day; stamp happy!

 

Kitty Bee Designs: Bonus Spotlight!

Hello everyone, I hope you're having a great week! I have a super special BONUS Kitty Bee spotlight card for you today from the FANTASTIC Kitty Bee Designs. I am SO in love with all of these little sweeties. If you are new to Kitty Bee, you HAVE to check them out. Seriously. They are adorable and awesome to color; the shapes and designs lend themselves to all kinds of color and sketch combos!

Check out Ms. Butterfly bear. Isn't she awesome!?! I was really, REALLY not feeling this awful cold, snowy weather we've been having, so I needed something fresh and fun to put me in a happy mood. She's printed out and colored with Copics. The sentiment is from Verve. I got sparkly and messy with my sprays, making the sentiment portion, but I think the effect is worth it. I kept a simple embossed white background to set off the pretty purples of the bear and the paper, and let her happy attitude shine through!

Here's the sketch graphic:

Challenges:

Inspiration Destination - #62: AG (unlimited)
Just Keep on Crafting - December: AG (unlimited)

Crafting From The Heart - #88: AG (3 of 3)

Craft Your Passion - #290: AG (3 of 3) 
613 Avenue - #152: AG/no twist (3 of 3)
Come and Get It - AG with Sentiment (3 of 3)
TTCRD - Dec 1 - 7: AG (2 of 2)
Tuesday Throwdown - #272: Cute and Cuddly (3 of 3)
Viva la Verve - November (unlimited)
Creative Ladybirds - #10: AG (3 of 3)
Suzy Bee - #108: Die Cut (3 of 3)
Cuttlebug Manina - Embossing (3 of 3)
Word Art Wednesday - #212: AG (1 of 5)
Crafty Gals Corner - #48: AG (1 of 3)
Left of Center - #106: Nothing Square (2 of 3)
Artistic Inspirations - #146: AG (unlimited)
Digistamps4Joy - #119: AG (no twist) (2 of 3)
Penny's Papercrafty - #256: AG (1 of 3)
Lacy Sunshine - Color Your World 11/29-12/2: AG (1 of 3)
Art by MiRan - #46: AG (1 of 3)  
Jo's Scrap Shack - #116: AG (2 of 3)
Fussy and Fancy - #153: Words (1 of 3) 
Di's Digi Designs - Cute and Cuddly (3 of 3)
Papertake Weekly - AG on 12/1 (1 of 3)
Star Stampz - Lots of Layers (2 of 3)
Crafter's Cafe - #138: Dies or Punches (1 of 3)
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper - December: AG (unlimited)
Crafts Galore Encore - December: AG/Merry Christmas (1 of 3)

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a fabulous day and stamp happy!

Aud Sentiments #140: Anything Goes + Sentiment

Wow, Thursday already! My "stay"cation and relaxation time is really flying by! Thursday means challenges, and I will have TWO for you today. This is the first, the mid-inspiration post from Aud Sentiments.

Aud Sentiments is a bi-weekly challenge with a theme. The one special thing to note is you MUST use a sentiment on your card to enter our challenge. It can be on the inside even, just show us the sentiment! I have been guilty of just using images on cards myself so I love this idea. :) This week's challenge is sponsored by Great Impressions Stamps. As always, fantastic and generous prizes are up for grabs!

Here is my project, featuring Blue Skies from Verve Stamps. The many dies I used on this project are from Verve and My Favorite Things. Patterned paper is from Basic Grey, cardstock from Stampin' Up.

I played along with a sketch and a color challenge for this project today, here are the swatches for them (Viva la Verve September #1, ColourQ #308):

  

That's it for me! My DT sisters have created some beautiful inspiration, so leave them some love too! I'll be back soon with my post from the new challenge at Creative Knockouts!

Challenges:

Viva la Verve - September
ColourQ - #308 
Crafts Galore Encore - September (1 of 3)
CCC Digi Creations - #33: AG (1 of 3)
Crafting With Friends - #6: AG (2 of 3)
613 Avenue Create - #141: AG (not playing twist) (1 of 3)
Inspiration Destination - #51: AG (unlimited)
Crafting From The Heart - #77: AG (1 of 3)
Craft Your Passion - #279: AG (1 of 3)
Simon Says Stamp - Wednesday: Die Crazy (1 of 5)
Crafting For All Seasons - #110: Layer It Up (1 of 3)
Creative Moments - #77: AG (1 of 3)

Crafty Friends - #14: B is For... (2 of 3) [Blue, Button, Basic Grey papers]
Let's Craft and Create - #105: Dies (1 of 3) 
Love to Scrap - #61: 2+ Patterned Papers (1 of 3) [Back layer, flags in the corner and banner are all patterned paper]
Crafty Sentiments - AG (1 of 3) 
Fashionable Stamping - #103: Words (1 of 3) 
Crafty Gal's Corner - #37: AG (1 of 2)
Artistic Inspirations - #140: AG (unlimited)

Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to link up your lovelies over at Aud Sentiments for your chance to win! Remember, you MUST include a sentiment to enter our challenge! We love seeing all of your creations on the linkup :)

365 Cards - Day 333: At This Moment

Hello in blog land!!  It's Friday, Friday!  That means I get to share a new card with you from 365 Cards!  Today's challenge -- "At This Moment".  At THIS VERY MOMENT, what are you doing?  What are you thinking?  What comes to your mind?  Translate YOUR moment into a card!


I am going to share my moment-inspired card, but I also want to share HOW I came to it.  It's a really great story, I promise!


My amazing little first grader has had a bit of a struggle staying challenged this year in school.  It's been very tough for him as he is SO intellectually curious, he all but demands knowledge.  We've all had our ups and downs with this over the last few months, trying to find a way to balance his need for higher education with his need to be seven, plus the various extra-curriculars, work and home.  Earlier this week he had a visit day at a different school.  He was incredibly nervous!!  (Well, who wouldn't be right?).  We talked it through for days beforehand; he went but he was worried.  I came back at the end of the day and my brave little man had 13 new best friends.  Could not have asked for a better day!  The big bonus?  Today we found out that he has been accepted.  :)  Could not be more proud and excited for him.  Absolutely COULD NOT.  So here's my card, obviously, in honor of my extremely proud mommy moment (I'm sorry the picture is not very good. I think the camera is due for a little checkup):

Alright!!!  Day 333 you guys!!  My how the time goes by.  :)  Happy stamping, don't forget to link up on the 365 Cards Blog so we can all see YOUR inspirational moment!  

Let Them Eat Cake!

TGIF! How is everyone today?

I wanted to share a card I made a couple of weeks ago for one of the February Viva la Verve challenges. This one called for a monochromatic creation using this sketch layout. I went with blue, and my colors are Not Quite Navy and Baja Breeze. The stamps are a mish-mash, the main image and horizontal background piece are images from Impression Obsession, the vertical background piece is {Little Paper Shop}, and the sentiment is from Stampendous. I made the grid background with my Scor-Pal.

Not much to it, although somehow it did manage to take me forever to make! Hope you have a great weekend FILLED with stamping! Be sure to stop back tomorrow for the Unity Stamp Co. World-Record Blog Hop! I am participating!

Club Anya Meets VLVJan04!

Happy Thursday! I promised I'd be back and here I am! I have my final Viva la Verve card for January - this is VLVJan04 {with a twist of flowers}.

As soon as I saw it I knew it was a perfect sketch to feature the fabulous Anya from The Greeting Farm. This is Teacher Anya. She's so sweet!! Check out Jessica's blog post for a big announcement -- CLUB ANYA is about to launch!!! There's going to be a blog hop on Sunday so check back {Jess has all the deets for ya!}.

My flower twist is in this yummy Basic Grey patterned paper - sooo pretty! I pulled the whole color scheme from it before I started coloring. I'm such a fan of Anya, these images are really fun to color and play around with. The sentiment is from Little Paper Shop's Chirp set.

I will be back with more Anya on Sunday, and some other fun things in between too of course! Happy stamping!

PPS & Belli Wednesday

Wednesday time again! Today's card is a three-fer...sort of. I was aiming for combining the PPS Design Team challenge {use flowers} with the Belli Challenge for the week {use reinkers} and the Viva la Verve #3 sketch with a twist {click here}.

After kicking DH off the computer to shrink down my little cuppy cakes to fit the sketch and reprinting, I went to work on this card. Most of the coloring of the cupcakes was done with Aquapainters and reinkers. Belli Challenge #51 - check! The Viva la Verve sketch with a twist of pink {a little more than a "twist"} - check! Notice anything *missing*? After all that {took me awhile to get it just right}, I forgot flowers!! And really, the card doesn't NEED flowers. A little late to be noticing that oversight, huh? *sigh* Well, anyway, it does use these super cute cupcakes from Whimsey Studios, available at Pink Papery Studios. So sorry, no flowers for you today, but visit the other PPS ladies for some floral inspiration.

Here is the Verve sketch, for comparison:

Please visit the other Belli Challenge girls as well, and leave everyone some love! All the links are on my left sidebar.

Viva la Verve - Week 2 Sketch

Loving the Viva la Verve challenges for January! My card today is actually for the Week 2 sketch & twist - I made it last weekend but didn't get a chance to post it until today. The "twist" this week was to use bling. That part...not exactly challenging for me, LOL! Here's my card:

I used the Lily the Fairy digital image from Pink Cat Studio - is she not the CUTEST?? Melissa posted that she will be making a whole set of Lily as a fairy! Can't WAIT to see those images, let me tell ya! And I have all boys, LOL.

I printed Lily out and colored her with Copics. I made the flower into a bling, ticket corner'd the corners and added rhinestones. The colors are Pretty in Pink and (retired) Rose Romance. Designer paper is from Lily Kate from Basic Grey. Ribbon is May Arts and I painted the small flower with Pixie Dust Shimmerz Blings before I attached it with a rhinestone brad. Both panels are on dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by today! It is frigid here, even my DH is home on a "cold day" from work. Waiting for the weekend warm up!! Hope you have a good one as well.

Viva La Verve - Week 1 Sketch

You all know how I love my sketch challenges! This one is from Verve. You can read all about it here in the SCS forum, but basically it was to use the sketch and also some kind of hardware on your card. There will be a new "sketch with a twist" every Friday in January. Fun!

So, the day I saw this challenge (last Saturday), I had been to the LSS here in town to burn up the last of my store credit. One of the things that I bought was this Basic Grey butterfly paper from the Urban Prairie line. I LOVED it! Yes, I noticed it was a bit of a "brights" color scheme, but I figured I could work with it. hmmm.....

To be honest, I am not sure this card is actually blog-worthy. I am so mentally challenged when it comes to working with bright colors. But since I plan to do all the Verve challenges for this month, I thought I should go ahead and post it. Just...don't judge my blog on this card alone, ok? LOL! Ok here goes...

The "hardware" portion is in the form of the colored brads along the right side. The colors are Rose Red, Tempting Turquoise, and Kiwi Kiss, along with that Basic Grey patterned paper. I colored the Cuttlebugged/dry embossed parts of the turquoise paper with a clear Spica glitter pen. The image is BRAND NEW from Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps. I am really loving all my latest images, I will have more projects with them soon. Some great Valentine's Day stuff, some new backgrounds, Easter...you'll be in love too! I colored the bird with a Glaze pen and doodled around the scallop.

Hope you all enjoy your Thursday! It's been a busy week here, to me it feels like it should be next Tuesday already, LOL!

Strawberry Daiquiri Rockstar

I've been waiting on posting this card because it's another one that I actually SENT to someone! Wow, twice in one month I mailed the cards I made. heehee. I actually made this one specifically to send so maybe that doesn't count into the *gasp* factor.

Since I sent it about 10 days ago I figure it has reached its destination by now. This one flew all the way to Florida to Beate at Fresh & Fun as a thank you for the AMAZING fresh & fun freebies {blog candy} that I won from her a couple of weeks back. She is so generous - I got a brand new Make a Wish set from Gina K and lots of yummy May Arts ribbon. *swoon*

The main image on this card is from the Happy Hour set from Firecracker Designs by Pamela. I think we all know how much I love that set! The sentiment is from the Starlight Starbright set from Verve Visual - this one has GREAT sentiments, I've been reaching for it quite a bit lately.

This is a small card - 4x4, and the colors are Regal Rose, Wild Wasabi and Rose Red (the DP). The DP came from a Stampin' Up! 6x6 pack, it's either the retired Palette O Prints or the current Level 1 Hostess set, I can't remember which one. The Hodegpodge frame is from SU as well - antique brass. I stamped the hurricane glass in Palette Noir on Shimmery White and punched it with the Marvy Mega circle punch (my circle Nestabilities are STILL on backorder!!!!). I colored the glass, highlight and "table" with Prismacolor markers. I "colored" the inside of the glass with my Quickie glue pen and dumped on Strawberry transparent art glitter. I punched the Wasabi prints paper with the Giga Scallop circle and layered them.

To make the umbrella I stamped it onto a scrap of the Rose Red DP and cut it out, cutting off the handle part. Then I cut a sliver off of a toothpick with my Xacto knife and slid it into the umbrella in the right spot. I also cut a slot in the glass itself and stuck it in. It has a bit of dimensional behind it, as does the Giga circle.

I did the wave cut with a special blade on my Cutterpede - first cut your paper to size then cut again to make the wavy edge.

That's it. I thought it was kind of a fun card and I love these colors together! I'll be using this combo again.

Cards and Boxes and Treats - Oh My!

Have I mentioned how much work preschool seems to be these days for the Mommys? DS #1 started a couple of weeks ago at preschool and he is loving it. That makes everything worthwhile for me of course.

They are having their Valentine's Day party tomorrow (which reminds me - I have to go make some Jello Jigglers) and they are exchanging Valentines. So I spent Sunday making these cute little boxes and Valentine cards for the kids & teachers. He's got 6 boys, 6 girls and 2 teachers in his class, so I was busy!

I made each person a little Valentine card, very simple, just 3-3/4" square white with a Marvy Mega scallop circle and a stamped Extra Jumbo circle that I stamped on. Attached with dimensionals and added ribbon. Most of these stamps on the cards and the boxes are from Verve Visual, although I did use a heart from the retired Stampin' Up! set Happy Hearts, and the "XOXO" is from the retired Stampin' Up! set So Many Sayings. The boxes are four inches square and the covers are slightly larger to accomodate sliding over the top. Inside the box is a little treat and their Valentine. My DS drew hearts inside each card for his little friends.

I made up this box design to fit my needs, and I'll be doing a tutorial on the boxes and posting a template sometime later this week.