Because

This is a card idea I've had in my head for a couple weeks.  And I think it turned out pretty much like how I thought.  I won these cork pieces a while ago, and I thought I would never use them.  As you can see, they are kind of large for card making and I didn't really have any idea what to do with them.  But as they sat on my desk I began to have this idea that they would make a really fun bulletin board.  So, that's what I did.  I stamps the "Because" and drew the border along the outside edge.  It kind of looks like something that would be hanging in a bedroom, right? I stamped the notebook image and "pinned" it to the bulletin board.  I used paper that reminded me of wallpaper and added a "border".

What do you think?  A fun idea or what?

Challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--have a heart
Inspiration Destination #71--anything goes
Penny's Challenge #263--anything goes
Mod Squad--hearts & flowers
Crafty Creations #308--hearts
Crafting by Designs--anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #219--anything goes with uplifting sentiment
Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps Wonderful Wednesday--anything goes
{Pin}spirational Challenge #158--inspiration photo (inspired by the colors and the hearts)

Unicorn Challenge #6--Lots of Love
The Paper Nest Dolls #2--anything goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper--anything goes with patterned paper
Raisin Boat #40--Works of Heart
Craftin' Desert Divas--hearts
Where The HeART is #6--Love
The Paper Girls #97--Valentine/Love
Mojo Monday #433--sketch

Sweet Stampin'--Valentine
Wags N Whiskers #170--with love
Skipping Stones Design--anything goes

Supplies:
Stamps: (I used a boatload of Verve stamps on this one) Verve "Blue Skies" notebook, "Take Note" sentiments, "Text Objects" script background, and "Joyful Blooms" flowers
Dies: MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle; Verve "Sprightly Sprigs"; Spellbinders arrow

Love

Yeay!!  It's Wednesday and that means it's time for another What If Wednesday? challenge from The House That Stamps Built.  These week we have a color challenge for you:

It's perfect for Valentine's Day which is coming up quickly!  But this color combo is so elegant it can be used for anything!!  I need a bunch of Valentine's Day cards, so went with that theme.  Here's my card:

This card was a big scrap buster for me.  All the patterned papers (the deep red is actually a patterned paper, it has a very subtle marbling look) are scraps and pieces that I have had forever!! And the sentiment panel was in my bits and pieces stash.  I trimmed off the bottom to make it something I could use a little easier.  Thanks for stopping by.  Head on over to The House blog to see what the rest of the DT did with this color combo.  And if you see a stamp you HAVE to have, I have a 10% off your entire order coupon over on the left sidebar.

Challenges:
Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps #316--3 patterned papers
Card Mania #77--Add some red
Craft-Dee BowZ--anything goes with uplifting sentiment
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper--anything goes with patterned paper
Cards Galore--use a digi or stamp
Raisin Boat #40--Works of Heart
Craftin' Desert Divas--hearts
Where the HeART is #6--Love
The Paper Girls #97--Valentine/Love
Pixie's Playground #214--anything goes with "snippets"
Sweet Stampin'--Valentine
MFP #5--anything goes
Hiding In My Craft Room #236--Freestyle
Wags N Whiskers #170--with love
Jo's Scrap Shack #123--anything goes
Brown Sugar--anything goes


Supplies:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions "1204W LOVE"
Dies: Spellbinders "Labels" and "Floral Doily Motifs" ; MFT "Four Corners"

Groovy Love

Welcome!  It's time for another challenge from The Love To Scrap Challenge Blog!  This time the challenge is to Have a Heart (you must use at least one heart on your creation).  We have three wonderful sponsors:

SLS Lines

River City Rubberworks

Lemon Shortbread

I was given this sweet image from Lemon Shortbread to work with.  She is soooo adorable!

My mom bought this paper for me at a yard sale several years ago (isn't she so sweet?!) and I instantly thought of it when I saw the paisley on her tunic.  It's double sided paper, and the yellow is the opposite side.  Yeay!  Then I don't have to worry about matching. : ).  It's tough to see in the picture, but I stamped a trio of little hearts, twice, in light pink on the tag.  A fairly simple design overall, but very cute, I think.  I wasn't able to use up any items from my bits and pieces stash, but all the paper/cardstock I have had for years and the little tag was part of a bag full that my mom got at another yard sale.  Can't wait to see what you come up with.

Challenges:
Sweet Stampin'--Valentine
MFP #5--anything goes
Hiding In My Craft Room #236--Freestyle
Wags n Whiskers #170--with love
Skipping Stones Designs--anything goes
Jo's Scrap Shack #123--anything goes
Crafty Catz #309--kids
Cute Card Thursday #410--Ladies only
C.R.A.F.T. #348--Love/Valentine's Day/Anniversary
Simon Says Wednesday--anything goes
Inspiration Destination #70--anything goes
Crafty Gals #56--anything goes
Creative Craft Cottage #56--anything goes
Crafty Cardmakers #136--punches and/or dies
Raisin Boat #40--Happy Heart
Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2--sketch


Supplies:
Stamps: Lemon Shortbread "60's Love And Peace"; Verve "Text Objects" sentiment and "To the Moon" little hearts
Dies: Spellbinders "Classic Ovals, large" and "Scalloped Ovals, large"; MFT "Blueprints 13" stitched rectangle

Christmas Cupcake

Wow!  It's February already (as I was preparing this post I started to write about it being mid-January!  Where has January gone?) and so it's time for another challenge from Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra.  As always, it is an Anything Goes (Christmas-related, of course), month-long challenge.  Our sponsor is the fabulous Bugaboo Stamps and the winner will receive 7 images of their choice!  Here is my card for your inspiration:

I hope you will play along with us this month.  I know I definitely need to make all those Christmas cards early this year after my shortage this past Christmas!  I still managed to use an item from my Bits and Pieces stash: the banner.

Challenges:
Jo's Scrap Challenge #123--anything goes
Fussy & Fancy #156--monochrome
As You Like It--Favorite: One Layer or Multi Layer (while I admire a well done one-layer card, I can rarely pull it off.  It's definitely multi-layers for me!)
DRS Designs #211--sparkle and shine (glitter on my frosting and shine with the enamel dots)
Little Miss Muffet #130--anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--anything goes
Inspiration Destination #70--anything goes
Addicted to Stamps #178--Holiday
Fab n Funky #289--Christmas
YNS #31--sketch


Supplies:
Stamps: Bugaboo Stamps "Christmas Cupcakes--Candy" digi: Verve "Ornamental Christmas"
Dies: Spellbinders "Classic Circles, large" and "Standard Scalloped Circles, large"; MFT "Blueprints 13" banner
Paper: American Crafts
YNS Gumdrops

Cutest Tags Ever!

I've been playing around with different ways to use up some old scraps of Christmas paper that I have had for a long time.  The scraps are mostly too small to really create cards with, but too big to throw away.  Know what I'm talkin' about here?  You know you do!  So, I thought I would create some tags with extra fun patterned paper backgrounds.  Here is a photo of the whole set:

 Here's what the backgrounds look like without the added cuteness.  I started with the tags that have the pattern on the left:  Sort of a herringbone look.  I cut the strips into 1/2 inch strips and pieced them together; trying to work with coordinating color families.  Once I had used up most of the longer strips, I still couldn't bear to throw away the "almost" too short strips.  So I started creating the tags with the pattern on the right.  And these are actually pretty fun.  It was like putting a puzzle together, trying to match up the diagonal ends and matching up colors.  I prefer the "v" shaped pattern, but the other has it's charms too.  Which do you like; I'd love to know.

 I'm going to start with the snowmen tags, 'cause they're my favorite.  Aren't those little snowman, so cute!!??  I stamped them a second time onto more patterned scraps and used it to piece their little scarves and hats.  LOVE it!

 Here's some more paper piecing on these cute little presents, using some more of those scraps.

 These reindeer tags are my second favorite.  I mean, really, those little guys are super cute.

 Then there are these sweet little angles.  I added some glitter pen to the halos and wands, but it doesn't show in the photo.

 And last, but not least, these cute little Christmas trees.

I popped up all the images with two layers of cardboard to help them stand out from the backgrounds and stamped the sentiment on a little banner die cut.  My plan is to use them on kraft paper wrapped packages.  I think they will look sooooo adorable!

Challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday--anything goes
Inspiration Destination #70--anything goes
Crafty Gals #56--anything goes
Creative Craft Cottage #46--anything goes
Tuesday Throwdown #218--anything goes
One Stitch At A Time #254--bingo (I chose the Lots of Blue, Make Your Own Background and Metal {the eyelet)--lots of blue on the snowman tags
Sweet Stampin--vintage or shabby chic (the present tags are very vintage to me)
Sparkles Christmas Challenge #60--vintage Christmas tags (the present tags are very vintage to me)
Hiding In My Craft Room #235--any holiday
Creative Fingers #101--anything goes
Hana & Friends #240--die cuts
Aud Sentiments #147--anything goes
ART Impressions #176--paper piecing
ABC Christmas--B is for baubles (the tree tags have baubles on them)
Crafty Creations #307--paper piecing
Card Mania--#76--winter fun
Cuttlebug Mania--Baby it's Cold Outside (use a snowman)
If You Give a Crafter a Cookie #36--inspiration photo (inspired by the blue and the snowmen for my snowman tags)

Pixie's Snippets Playground #213--anything goes with at least one "snippet" (my entire post is about snippets, even the images were stamped on little off cuts of white card stock.  AND when I was about halfway through cutting the tag shapes, I realized I could cut them out of old, ugly (or at least unloved by me) pieces of patterned paper; I just adhered the strips to the patterned side and it left the white side for the writing on.  Perfect!!)

Supplies:
Stamps: YNS "Holiday Snow Globe"
Dies: MFT "Blueprints 13" tag and banner
Papers:  ALL scraps!!  Yeay!!

Purple Tulips

Hi, and welcome to another What If Challenge from The House That Stamps Built.  This week Wendy has given us a great sketch to work with:

I love sketches; it means I don't have to think about coming up with my own.  : )  As soon as I started with this one, I knew what image and color scheme I wanted to go with, but other than that it came out way different than I had planned.  But definitely in a good way.  I'm totally in love with how it turned out.

I have some gorgeous deep purple (almost black) tulips in my garden in the spring, and that's why I wanted to color these beauties up in purple.  And yellow is the perfect complement to purple.  I used up a piece of cream sheer ribbon from my bits and pieces stash (which makes me happy) and I even used some patterned paper that I've had (literally) forever!  I did some masking on the sentiment to get it to fit on my "banner".
Thanks for stopping by!  Head on over to The House blog to see what the rest of the DT has done with this sketch.

Supplies:
Stamps: Repeat Impressions "912W Tulip Bouquet" and "1113D Birthday"
Dies: Spellbinders "Classic Ovals, large", "Radiant Rectangles" and banner; MFT corner bracket.

Challenges:
Creative Fingers #101--anything goes
Winter Wonderland--something new (the tulip image is brand new, just received it last week)
Aud Sentiments #147--anything goes with a sentiment
Word Art Wednesday #218--anything goes with uplifting sentiment
{Pin}spirational Challenge #157--inspiration photo (I was inspired by that yellow background)

Cards Galore--anything goes
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper--anything goes with patterned paper
Craft-Dee BowZ--anything goes with handmade bow
Crafty Calender--something new (brand new tulip image)
Scrapper's Delights #51--anything goes
Vintage Stamping Challenge #40--anything goes with your new stash (tulip image)
Crafty Cardmakers #156--punches and/or dies
Our Daily Bread Designs--something new and something old
Tuesday Throwdown #278--anything goes
Fantastic Tuesday #121--use some flowers

The Lord has come

So, here's another card that is sort of a result of trying to clean up my work desk.  I have one more of these gorgeous A Day For Daisies images left printed out ready to be used.  I really love this image; it's so sweet, speaks to the true meaning of Christmas and is really easy to color--I used a total of 5 markers.  I used a bunch of fun scraps on this one: the "tag" and bit of twine were in my bits and pieces stash and the burlap ribbon was recycled from a favor I received at a women's retreat this fall.  I had to trim the pearls off from the section that is underneath the circle layer so that everything would lay nicely.  I used some of those left over pearls to decorate the centers of my flowers.  (I feel like a recycling queen!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Challenges:
Hanna & Friends #240--die cuts
Aud Sentiments #147--anything goes
Crafty Ribbons #142--Fabulous flowers
C.R.A.F.T. #347--Christmas
Southern Girls--anything goes
Penny's Challenge #261--cats and/or children
Addicted To Stamps #177--make your mark (ink pads, markers)
Fab n Funky #288--buttons and/or bows (little twine bow on the tag)
Word Art Wednesday #218--anything goes with uplifting sentiment
Creative Inspirations #343--anything goes with option of a sketch


Supplies:
Stamps: A Day For Daisies "A Sign I Give"; Verve "Silent Night"
Dies: Spellbinders "Classic Circles, large" and "Layered Poinsettias"; Verve "Charming Ovals"