Tall and Skinny

Sometimes there are challenges that just catch my eye and I know I really want to play along just because it seems so fun.  When I saw Double Trouble's "It's a Tall Order" challenge, I knew I was going to make time to play along.

I've had several of these tall and skinny card bases for quite a while.  Someone gave them to me years ago when they were cleaning out their stash.  I've only used a couple because I never really know what to do with them.   I also had been having fun with scraps a week or so ago and made these paper pieced mugs AND I already had them stacked together like this, which is also perfect for the challenge.  I had the doily die cut in my bits and pieces stash (it was a gift from a friend) and when I went to look for some patterned paper, I found the background piece already cut to the exact size I needed!  I so love using up scraps!!

Supplies:
Stamps: Lawn Fawn "Thanks a Latte"
Punches: Fiskar "Upper Crest" border punch

Challenges:
Double Trouble #50--It's a Tall Order (Thing #1: tall and skinny; Thing #3: stack it up; Thing #2: play along with Try Stampin' On Tuesday)
Creative with Stamps #47--red

Merry Little Christmas #17--anything goes
Winter Wonderland--anything goes
Holly and Ivy #65--anything goes
Crafter's Cafe #236--use pink and/or red
Try Stampin' on Tuesday #443--sketch

C.R.A.F.T.  #545--Christmas
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge #477--anything goes Christmas with the optional twist: use some green
Use Your Stuff #392--circles
Alphabet Challenge--W is for Anything you Wish

Happy Moments

Happy Wednesday!!  It's time for another challenge from The House That Stamps.  This week we have a beautiful inspiration photo for you:

And here is the card I created:

I was inspired by the pinks and purples in the color swatches.  Mine don't match up exactly, but it was the starting point.  It's been a while since I've used my favorite blooms from the "Flower Power Separates" collection so I was happy to pull them out and play.  The purple ribbon was in my bits and pieces stash and the little strip of pink patterned paper was a scrap that was already the perfect width, I just trimmed a little bit of the length. I wanted to add some leaves, but didn't want to take away from the color scheme, so I die cut them out of vellum and colored the back side with a green marker.  It adds a very subtle touch of green.

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure you head on over to The House blog to see what the rest of the Design Team has done with this photo.  And if you "need" any of the stamps I used, check out my 10% off your entire order coupon code over in my lift sidebar.

Supplies:

Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Happy Moments", Flower Power Separates "Daisy Outline Large" and "Daisy Outline Small"
Dies: Verve "Vintage Oval" and "Sprightly Sprigs"

Challenges:
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper--anything goes with patterned paper
Love To Craft Challenge Blog #43--anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #427--anything goes with uplifting sentiment
Alphabet Challenge--W is for anything you Wish
Cardz TV #108--anything goes
Crafty Friends #129--gemstones/pearls
Pink Gem Challenge--anything goes
Lil' Patch of Crafty Friends #126--anything goes
Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #356--sketch

Masculine love

One of my last Valentine's Day cards.  This one is for my brother-in-law.  I had the embossed piece in my stash since September.  I got it at the Stamplistic booth at the Scrapbook Expo last September.  They have the most fun products, specially the gilding polishes.  The demonstrator made this to show how you can combine the pastes to create a weathered, patina look.  It started with an embossed background and when she was finished she gave it to me to take home.  It's been sitting there waiting to be used, but I wasn't sure what to do with it as I definitely didn't want to cover it up.  I decided it would be perfect for a masculine card.  I die cut the letters for "love" out of black card stock and added some copper shine and mint metallic gilding pastes to mimic the patina on the embossed piece.  I added some black grossgrain ribbon and some antiqued copper eyelets to finish everything off.

 Ooo . . . I just love the shine on this!  The depth of the embossing and the layers of color is just fabulous!

Supplies:
Dies: PaperTrey Ink lowercase alphabet; MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle

Challenges:
Cards Galore #72--anything goes
Through The Purple Haze #164--anything goes
Love To Craft Challenge Blog #43--anything goes
Crafty Calendar--use dies and punches
Power Poppy Creative Confetti--love, anything but a heart

Creative Inspiration--anything goes
Crafty Creations #406--anything goes
Moving Along with the Times #113--no image
Creative Fingers #179--anything goes
Cardz 4 Guyz #238--use brads or eyelets
Fab n' Funky #408--love, love, love
Creative Moments #184--anything goes with the optional twist: love
Cute Card Thursday #621--CAS
Incy Wincy--anything goes

Bee Mine

This is the Valentine's Day card for my oldest daughter.  I finished it just in time!  She is not a fan of pink, so I mostly used other colors and snuck in just a little bit of pink.  I pulled out a set I have not used in a long time--"Sweet & Cool".  I thought of it after I saw these fun bee and honeycomb papers.

 Now, I know it doesn't look at that exciting at first, but when you pull the little ribbon tag, this sweet little bee pops out!

 Isn't he so sweet!!??  I know she is going to love this!

The little dotted heart was in my bits and pieces stash and I used a bit of ribbon left over from the tag to give it a little flare.  I even found two heart brads in my stash and put them to good use.

Supplies:
Stamps: YNS "Sweet & Cool"
Dies: MFT "Blueprints 13" tag and "Double Slider Loop Slots" for the slider mechanism; Sweet n' Sassy Stamps small heart
Taylored Expressions "Set the Scene: Clouds" stencil

Challenges:
Hand Stamped Sentiments #332--sketch

Pattie's Creations #167--love, love, love
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper--anything goes with patterned paper
Die Cut Divas--hearts and flowers
Brown Sugar #298--anything goes
Penny Black--animals, birds, butterflies
Creative Craft Cottage #126--add a heart
Crafty Creations #406--anything goes
Crafter's Cafe #236--use pink and/or red
Penny's Challenge #464--anything goes
Fab n Funky--love, love, love
The Paper Shelter #414--with a sentiment
Crafty Gals #204--add a heart
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--2 or more patterned papers
Art Impressions Stamps #276--movers and shakers

It's a bit high

It's Saturday!!  That means it's time for another challenge from Di's Digi Designs.

The challenge this time is: Use a Digital Image
And here is my card for your inspiration:

Here is one of my very last Valentine's Day cards.  I used this adorable image, which isn't really a Valentine's Day image, but I thought it was really sweet!  I used one of my favorite techniques for using up scraps to create the pieced together background.  All you need is a bunch of 1/2 inch strips.  It's a great way to used up those favorite patterned papers that you just can't throw away.  I used my mini MISTI to stamp my sentiment several times to get it nice and dark.  I framed/matted the image with some torn mulberry paper and finished the whole card off with a little bit of ribbon that was in my bits and pieces stash.

I hope you will get a chance to play along with us; I can't wait to see what you create.  And make sure you hop over to the Di's Digital Designs blog to see what the rest of the team has made for this challenge.

Supplies: 

Stamps: Di's Digi Stamps "It's a Bit High" digi; Verve "Text Objects" sentiment

Dies: MFT "Stitched Heart STAX" (I didn't actually use it to cut, I traced around it and then cut the shape out with scissors so it would be a little bit larger) and "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle

Challenges:
Unicorn Challenge #51--anything goes
Cutie Pie Challenge #144--cute and cuddly animals
Pattie's Creations #167--love, love, love
Through the Purple Haze Challenge #164--anything goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper--anything goes with patterned paper
Die Cut Divas--hearts and flowers (flowers in my patterned papers)
Sheep Ski Designs--hearts and/or flowers
Brown Sugar Challenge #298--anything goes
Creative Craft Cottage #126--add a heart
2 Crafty Critter Crazies--anything goes
Dare 2B Artzy--love is in the air
Kat Scrappiness--hearts
Tuesday Throwdown #450--make your own background
If You Give a Crafter a Cookie #135--inspiration photo (I was inspired by the colors and the cute animals)

Your Next Stamp #132--make your own background
Sweet Stampers #41--hearts and/or flowers
Try Stampin' on Tuesday #444--sketch and optional twist: use up your scraps

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--use more than 2 patterned papers
Creative Moments #184--anything goes with the optional twist: love

Cute-a-saur

Earlier this week, I showed the cards I made for my nephews.  This card is for their older sister.  I used the same dinosaur set I used for one of the boys, but I added a lot of pink the make it more girly!

 I used all of the dinosaur images in the set and one of the cute sentiments behind a little lift up flap.

I finished it off with some die cut hearts and some Nuvo drops in 2 shades of pink.

Supplies:

Stamps: Sugar Pea Designs "Prehistoric Friends"

Dies: Lawn Fawn "Peek-a-boo background" die; Sweet n Sassy Stamps small heart

Challenges:

ART Impressions #276--movers and shakers (lift up flap)

Cute Card Thursday #621--CAS

Little Red Wagon #536--wild one

Crafty Gals Corner Challenge #204--add a heart

The Paper Shelter #414--with a sentiment

Crafter's Cafe #235--anything goes

Creatalicious #180--anything goes with the optional twist: hearts

Creative Inspirations--anything goes

Love To Craft Challenge Blog #43--anything goes
Sugar Pea Designs Mix It Up #64--sketch or inspiration photo (I was inspired by the colors and the hearts)

Pastel love

Happy Wednesday!!  It's time for another challenge from The House That Stamps Built.  This week we have a fun Tic Tac Toe board for you:


  Here is what I created for your inspiration:

After sketch challenges, I think tic-tac-toe challenges are one of my favorites.  There are always a bunch of fun options to use.  I used the bottom row: stencil, vellum, hearts and I also used gems/pearls, pink and dimension.  My card started with a sketch and then I found a scrap of patterned paper (the floral piece) and that gave me my color combo (plus the fact that I knew I needed to use some pink).  I used a striped stencil and my Spectrum Noir markers in pink and turquoise on the left-hand side of the card.  The turquoise ended up being too bright and really drew your eye away from the focal point of the card, so I covered it with a piece of vellum which softens it, but still lets the color show.  On the right hand panel, I stamped the heart from "Love Stencil" repeatedly and then stamped the Postcard stamp over top.  I lightly inked the edges with gray.  Then I took a piece of vellum and embossed it with an embossing folder so it would stand out from the stamped background.  I finished it all off with a die cut heart, a love sentiment (popped up on some foam tape) and some pearls,

Thanks for stopping by!  Make sure you head on over to The House blog to see what the rest of the Design Team has done with this photo.  And if you "need" any of the stamps I used, check out my 10% off your entire order coupon code over in my lift sidebar.

Supplies:

Stamps: Repeat Impressions "Love Stencil", "Postcard"

Dies: Sweet n Sassy stamps small heart
Darice embossing folder

Challenges:
Crafty Friends #128--love/romance
Incy Wincy--love, love, love
Make My Monday #115--I heart you
Unicorn Challenge #51--anything goes
Die Cut Divas--hearts and flowers (there are flowers in the strip of patterned paper)
Dies R Us #138--XOXO (hearts, Valentine's, love)
Sheep Ski Designs #35--hearts and/or flowers
Stinkin' Inkers--make an impression
Creatalicious #180--hearts
Creative Craft Cottage #126--add a heart
Dare 2B Artzy--love is in the air
Artsy Stamper #9--hearts and flowers (flowers on my patterned paper)
Tuesday Throwdown #450--make your own background
Try Stampin' on Tuesday #443--stitching and/or sketch (I used the sketch)

YNS #132--create your own background