Grateful for You

I'm grateful for you, my faithful blog readers, who are very patient with my intermittent posting! My new session of club is kicking off this week, so it was time to get my supplies out. I wanted to do a fall(ish) card and I really liked this one (the second card, specifically) by Sylvia Nelson. With that as my inspiration, here is what I came up with. I'm entering the Paper Players clean and simple challenge and Stampin' Royalty's anything goes challenge.

I used several different stamp sets on this card. (For a vintage look, everything is stamped off and sponged with Early Espresso ink, on naturals white card stock.) I stamped the large leaf from For All Things in Rich Razzleberry, and the spray of branches (same set) in Hello Honey and Early Espresso. Using an espresso marker, I colored in just a block of script on the large stamp from the set Postage Due. The last step was some splotches from Gorgeous Grunge, stamped in So Saffron. The bird and wing are punched out of areas I stamped with images from Gorgeous Grunge and Work of Art, using Blackberry Bliss and Hello Honey ink. The card base needed something else so I added some more espresso leaves around the edge, the For All Things sentiment, and sequins (In Colors and gold).

Time is running out so I may not be able to post any more club projects before tomorrow. I definitely wanted to post at least one so you know I'm still alive! ;) Hope to be back soon with more!

Million and One

Almost the first day of spring - maybe that means our snow will be melting soon! While I'm waiting for warmer weather I felt like using some nice springy colors, which led to today's card. The layout is from the Deconstructed Sketch, and this also qualifies for the Pink Elephant challenge for this week (recipe challenge to use lots of layers, ribbon, and a touch of green.

I used the Woodgrain background stamped with Chocolate Chip on Crumb Cake card stock. For a little distressing I sponged the edges and stamped a couple splatters from Gorgeous Grunge. I folded a doily and adhered it to the background, then added strips of Wisteria Wonder and Daffodil Delight. The beautiful sentiment comes from the set Million and One, and I surrounded it with flowers from the Petite Petals set and Pear Pizzazz leaves made with the bird builder punch. For final accents I used chevron ribbon for the banners and pearls for the flower centers.

I think I feel better already - nothing like a little stamping to brighten your day. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you get spring weather where you live soon!

Dare to dream...

Hey, sorry to disappear there on you. Three weeks ago I woke up with awful spasms in my back - it's something I've had before and I assume it has to do with my TMJ. It has always gone away in the past but this time it's sticking around. I've spent a lot of hours resting with a heating pad, not able to do much more than read and browse the web on my laptop. I'm slowly getting better and I'm getting physical therapy now, but it's still hard to be up and around all day. Life does go on, though, and I really had to stamp this week because... I'm hosting the challenges at Our Creative Corner for the next two weeks! It's been a very long time since I've had the honor.

My challenge is to make a card or project inspired by travel and/or transportation, using at least two different designer papers. When I chose this challenge theme, I was in the midst of planning the trip my family is taking to Germany this summer. I absolutely love to travel, and this will be my first time to see Germany and my kids' first trip overseas. We are all really excited! Anyway, here is my card, using the colors from colourQ, which I haven't played in ages and love to pieces, and a sketch challenge that's new to me, Paper Craft Crew.

The stamp set I featured is called Postage Due. I stamped the collage image in Pool Party and then sponged Wisteria Wonder over the whole panel and Always Artichoke on the edges. (All the edges are distressed and sponged.) The postage stamps in this set are super cute, and I chose the "Paris" one. My two DPs come from the patterns pack and Twitterpated. I thought "dare to dream" was a perfect sentiment for thinking about travel - this stamp comes from Loving Thoughts. The card base is Core'dinations card stock sanded on the edge. Those little punched flowers started out a little simpler, but when I took the first photo I realized they just didn't look right and redid them. Sometimes I can let those things go, but it was easy enough to change, so perfectionism won out this time!

I hope you will play along with our challenge this week - we love to see what you come up with and we love when you join us in creating something special. Have a great weekend, and a happy Easter to those who celebrate - maybe spring is coming finally?? Hope so!

Copper Patina

Well, we've had another snowy week... hard to believe it's Saturday again already. This week's Our Creative Corner challenge is another fun one from Meihsia Liu. She gave us this photo as inspiration and required at least one metal embellishment.

I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with this one, so I started looking at sketches and decided to use the latest from Freshly Made Sketches. (Hope I didn't tinker with it too much!) Here is my card:

I wanted to try some sponging to see if I could achieve that cool patina look. I knew I had (non-SU) copper embossing powder lying around, and the Fresh Vintage stamp set from last year's SAB jumped out at me. Over the embossed images (on vanilla card stock) I sponged Tempting Turquoise and a tiny bit of Bermuda Bay, then I used Cajun Craze on the edges of the squares (and likewise on all the rest of the panels). I also used the distressing tool to rough up all the edges. I liked the idea of the bright blue accent (the rhinestones on the top of the candle holder) so I brought that into my card with rhinestones colored with a Sharpie and Pacific Point card stock. The background is Cajun Craze embossed with the vintage wallpaper folder, then Pool Party (which is basically the color my sponging ended up being) and Pacific Point on a vanilla card base. For the metal I pulled out my ancient box of Hodgepodge Hardware - I have a whole bunch of it left, LOL. The frame looked kind of bare stuck on by itself so I added some Pool Party ribbon behind it. The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes. I'm not sure what I think of this one - I liked it better without the sentiment, I think. Maybe I will have to revisit this idea sometime...

I hope you will play along with our challenge this week - it made me think outside the box, which is good! The rest of the team have gorgeous creations for you to see, so don't miss those also. Have a great weekend and cross your fingers that spring is coming soon!

A flower and a crown

Hello with another Saturday post - time for Our Creative Corner's weekly challenge! This week our challenge is hosted by Meihsia Liu. She has a pretty vintage-and-shabby inspiration challenge, and we are supposed to use fabric flowers and a crown. The photo:

And here is my card, using a layout from the Pals Paper Arts sketch challenge:

For this one I chose soft colors: Baja Breeze, Pear Pizazz, Crumb Cake, Blushing Bride, and white. I used a strip of Tea for Two fabric to make a rolled flower - the leaves are from the bird punch and embossed with the houndstooth folder. The lace panel was made by sponging pink ink over the lace tape from the spring mini, then gently peeling the tape off to reveal the white cardstock underneath. For the background I used white cardstock embossed with dots and retired pear DP. The sentiment is from Perfectly Penned, and the buttons are retired from SAB last year. As for the crown... well, I struggled with that. This little image from Tiny Tags was the only crown I had, so I stamped it and embossed with pewter EP, cut it out, and added it to my sentiment.

This card makes me think of spring, which I hope is coming soon! I'm so sick of the snow. Come join in our challenge and don't forget to visit the OCC blog to see the rest of the team's shabby chic goodness! Have a great weekend!

Birthday primroses

Good morning! I'm back with a vintage-style card for this week's challenge with Our Creative Corner - which my club members are also making this weekend. The OCC challenge is a sketch challenge this weekend - we hope you'll play along!

This was one of those cards that went through a lot of false starts. I had a few different techniques I was trying and nothing really worked out like I planned. But I like the end result. The card started with the Natural Composition specialty paper, which I sponged all over with Raspberry Ripple ink, and Soft Suede around the edges. For the border trims I used the scallop edgelit die and the decorative label punch layered three times. (All the paper was sponged with Soft Suede on the edges.) The outer panels are Crumb Cake polka dot paper and River Rock cardstock embossed with the fancy finial folder. I had a really tough time putting the focal image together. I had already dyed the vanilla flower trim with Primrose Petals reinker, accented with Raspberry Ripple from a marker on the edges. I thought I was going to use a stamped or watercolored flower image but nothing was quite right. The oval was stamped with the flourish from Everything Eleanor in Crumb Cake, then I put the three roses on top of the die-cut leaves. Finally I added the sentiment from Curly Cute - I put the right end into the decorative label punch and adhered the crochet trim and bow.

I'm off - it's a busy weekend around here! I hope everyone will come and play along with our sketch challenge. We always love to see what you come up with for our challenges. And be sure you go check out the rest of the design team's creations - they are always worth a look!

Happy birthday, Dad!

Today is my dad's 70th birthday - happy birthday to my dad! He's always been there for me for the past (almost) 42 years so I'm honored to celebrate his special day.

The timing for this card matched up perfectly with the latest sketch challenge from Seize the Birthday, which was a masculine card this week. I wanted to something a little techniquey (is that a word?) so I chose stamps that would work for reverse masking. This is my first time inking up the Papaya Collage set, which is great for a vintage look.

The center panel frame was stamped in Early Espresso, then I masked off the frame to stamp in the center. First I sponged some Crumb Cake ink over the opening, then I stamped the leaf (three generations) with Old Olive. The fussy cutting on the frame took a bit of time but was totally worth it over the background of retired DP and argyle-embossed olive card stock. The tickets use the new punch and stamp set That's the Ticket, with the sentiments coming from Up, Up & Away and Family Reunion. (See the little "70" written in for the ticket number?) Everything was sponged with espresso ink on the edges to give it even more vintage style. Finally I added a piece of Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon and an espresso button (linen thread looped through the buttonholes twice) to finish off this special card.

So that's it about the card - the only thing that would make this day better is if I were with my dad to help celebrate. Happy birthday - I will raise a glass in your honor today, Dad! Love you!

Eleanor's Blossoms

Good morning! I missed my stamps this week - there was just a lot of other stuff going on. But I'm here today as hostess of the challenge at Our Creative Corner for the next two weeks. I'm calling this week's challenge What Not to Stamp - it's a card makeover challenge! You can read the full description on the OCC blog, but to summarize it here, pick an old card (one you have a photo of), then CASE it with a makeover. It took a bit of courage for me to dive back into five-year-old card photos - wow, some of my first efforts were so.... awful! In the end I picked this 2007 card to do over. This was one of the first cards I published on my blog.

You can read more about this card here. The things I liked about this card were the background technique (I made it with a swim diaper, LOL!) and the colors with accents of gold. I also chose to use swirls, flowers, and a bird on my remake. I took my layout from the Pals Paper Arts sketch challenge, and I'm also entering this card in the Stampin' Royalty Anything Goes challenge. Here's my new card:

I used two stamp sets for my images: Everything Eleanor and Betsy's Blossoms. I started by making the Baja Breeze background panel by stamping the swirl all over with Early Espresso ink. I used the new gold pen (coming in the holiday catalog on August 1) to add accents around the swirls. For the center panel I started with naturals ivory card stock and sponged on some Baja Breeze ink with saran wrap and a paper towel. Over that I sprayed gold shimmer mist and sponged Early Espresso on the edges. Here's a close-up photo that shows some of the details a little more.

The Baja Breeze shaped element stamp is from the Eleanor set, with the bird and leaf from the Betsy set. To make those crisp and clean leaves look a little more vintage and distressed, I inked the stamp and then kissed it with a clean paper towel. I brought in gold accents with two (retired) brads. Finishing touches were a sentiment from Lacy & Lovely, a strip of crochet trim, and an accent flower. It's die cut with the new flower Framelits (the smallest one) cut out from a stamped flower in Primrose Petals. In the center I put one of those super-cute new In Color dahlia adornments.

Wasn't this fun? I hope you're inspired to find one of your old cards and make it over with us this week. Don't forget to check out the amazing transformations from the rest of the OCC team - they are fabulous!

Tea for two challenges

What to do when I'm caught up with my work? Catch up on my crafting, of course! I've looked longingly at the Embellish magazine challenges for a long time now but I've never managed to actually play along with one. Today was the day to change that. The current challenge is a fun one and it got me using some products I haven't played with much, or at all.

The colors I took from this are Pool Party, Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral and Soft Suede. I have to say I find the coral hard to work with - so I used it as an accent. The perfect stamp set was of course Tea Shoppe, and I paired it with the Itty Bitty Banners set for the sentiment. The layout is this week's Mojo Monday sketch.

The images, colors and theme for the challenge seemed to lend themselves to a vintage style. Everything is sponged with Soft Suede. I used Blushing Bride DP (retired of course), Pool Party card stock embossed with the vintage wallpaper folder, and a stamped background made with the Canvas and Teahouse BG stamps (appropriate, no?). I love the little bouquet of cutout violets accented with the button - I even sponged ink onto the Pool Party baker's twine to age it. Soft Suede taffeta ribbon over a border punch (punch by MS) accents the background.

That's it for this card - I have more crafting to do! Thanks for visiting!

Sympathy Flowers

It's time for another challenge with Our Creative Corner! These weeks just keep flying by. Our hostess for the next two weeks is the fabulous Vicki Burdick, and this week she has a sketch challenge for us.

I looked through my pile of new stamps that hadn't seen ink yet and thought the Field Flowers set would work well with the sketch. If you like elegant, realistic-looking flowers, this stamp set is for you. The flower stem is actually a little bigger than I really wanted the panel to be, so I trimmed it down and positioned the cut-out flowers in such a way that it almost looks like the out of the box technique. The colors are Always Artichoke for the stems, Peach Parfait and Tangerine Tango for the flowers, and Soft Suede and Early Espresso for the flower centers. I inked and distressed the edges on this card and also used the color spritzer for more vintage style. The sentiment comes from Petite Pairs - I love sentiments that fit inside the 1 1/4" punched circle and this one is perfect. I kept the embellishments simple with three (retired) vintage brads.

Okay, you have your challenge - now go make something! :) We always love to see what you come up with. And don't forget to take a look at the rest of the work from our wonderful DT - I'm always in awe of the talented ladies I'm lucky enough to work with at the OCC!

Cherries for Friendship

It's been a while since I had time - or made the time - to create something just for fun. I sent a finished freelance project off yesterday, so I felt like I could take a little break from my crazy life and do a couple challenges. This card is for the colourQ challenge (Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla), the Viva la Verve sketch challenge, and the Pals Paper Arts challenge, which is called What's Your Signature Style? I tend toward clean(er) and simpl(er), sometimes vintage, sometimes cute and sweet... I was tickled that my fellow OCC DT member Wendy Janson commented on my recent baby card being a "Lori card." I guess I do have a typical style and I hope today's card shows it!

This card features a sneak peek stamp set from the new catalog - Cherish Friendship. The images are really sweet and great for coloring - I chose to do some watercoloring for this card. It's always a treat for me to sit down and color - in fact I'm spending all day tomorrow coloring at the Copic certification class in Boston! But I digress... I did my watercoloring with reinkers and a tiny paintbrush. The sentiment is from the same stamp set. At the bottom of the center panel I added two strips of cherry seam binding with crochet trim on top. The eyelet border punch gave me the right look for the bottom trim, and as long as we're doing signature style, I had to put a couple buttons on there. The background DP is retired Soft Suede, and I sponged all the edges with espresso ink to up the vintage factor.

This was fun - I hope it's not several weeks until I get to craft something for fun again! Thanks for visiting and I'll be back tomorrow for the weekly OCC challenge!

A Cup of Thanks

Welcome back to another Saturday challenge from Our Creative Corner. This week Sharon Wheet has challenged us to create something based on an "afternoon tea party" theme. I tend to stay away from food and drink stamps - well, unless they relate to cake or ice cream. LOL. So this adorable stamp by Lockhart was the only "teacup" image I had - hope that counts!

I wanted to use some of the Springtime Vintage paper for this challenge, so based on that I stamped my image with Not Quite Navy and colored it with Baja Breeze and River Rock markers. It was punched with the 2 1/2" circle, mounted on a square of River Rock, then on a NQN scalloped square. Just for fun I added pearls in the corners, and all the edges are sponged. For the DP I used a larger square - both the scalloped squares were made with SU Big Shot dies. I added a bow of crochet trim and retired River Rock ribbon, topped with a NQN button (also retired) tied with linen thread. The base is a 5 1/2" square card with an A2-size panel of River Rock, which I ran through the square lattice folder, layered on top. I used the Tasteful Trim die to cut another scalloped border but then covered most of it up, LOL. The sentiment is by Impression Obsession.

Please join us for tea - I hope you'll visit the OCC blog to check out all the team members' creations and then play along with us!

Am I blue?

No, not really, but this card sure is! I had fun with this one, especially since I've been sick all week. Again... Anyway, the challenge at Our Creative Corner this week is to use fabric on our cards or projects. I confess, I'm not big into using fabric - before I had kids, I dabbled in quilting a little, and I really do LOVE fabric - but it's not something I've really incorporated into my cards. So I was glad to have a good reason to try it out.


My idea was to create a ruffle trim with some of the SU Springtime Vintage fabric. I have to say - the fabric is wonderful and I wish I knew enough about sewing to make something with the rest of it! To make my ruffle I applied a length of Sticky Strip to a panel of Very Vanilla card stock and just laid the fabric across the panel, gathering it into a ruffle as I went. No sewing required! I put a panel of Not Quite Navy card stock on top, trimmed out with the scallop ribbon border punch. My flower is from Friends 24-7 - I know I used this a couple weeks ago, and it was still out on my stamping table and just called to me for this card... It's stamped in NQN and colored with Baja Breeze marker. I cut and embossed with my Nestabilities and then added piercing in the scallops to match the punched trim. Some distressing and sponging, along with crochet trim and a Tiny Tag punched sentiment (tied on with embroidery floss) finished off this sweet little vintage card.

We'd love to have you play along with us this week - go dig out some fabric and get your creative juices flowing! And be sure you visit the OCC blog to see what the rest of the team created this week. I promise you'll be glad you did!

Stress and distress

Wow - the hits just keep on coming. It's been another stressful week around here. But being able to stamp and create always makes me feel better! I got to take my stress out on my card for this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner, hosted by Sarah Gough. Sarah has a fun sketch challenge combined with distressing - so get ready to get down and dirty!


For my card I pulled out the Springtime Vintage DP from the mini catalog. I didn't end up using much of the paper - just the background for my circle - but I picked the colors from the paper: Always Artichoke, River Rock, Rose Red and Very Vanilla. The image is from the (sadly retired) A Rose Is a Rose set, as is the sentiment. I used Rose Red DP and River Rock card stock embossed with the square lattice folder for the background, with a layer of vanilla grosgrain and crochet trim for a simple embellishment. Before I put it all together I distressed and sponged all the layers like crazy - great for a shabby chic style.

Be sure you take a look at what else the team has created, and then share your creations with us - we always love to see what you come up with!

Vintage Bird

Well, I didn't really manage to follow my stamping resolution this week... better luck next week! For today I have my card for the Our Creative Corner challenge. We're being hosted this month by the fabulous Wendy Janson, and this week she has a fun chickadee inspiration challenge for us. We hope you'll play along with us!

For my card I picked the colors Riding Hood Red, So Saffron, Very Vanilla and Basic Black. I took my layout from the Friday Mashup sketch challenge and went with a vintage style with the Love Letter designer paper and Bliss stamp set, which will be available during Sale-a-Bration. I sponged the edges with black ink and created my bird with the extra-large bird punch, and since the sketch challenge called for using bling, I pulled out black rhinestones (retired from the holiday mini) and gave my bird a sparkly eye and added a flourish under my flowers.

Be sure you go check out all the samples from the OCC team - and then show us your own creation! Have a wonderful weekend!

The closing of the year

This will be my last post for 2010... hard to believe the year is almost over, isn't it? Todd and I have both been sick this week, and I'm not over what I have yet, but I did want to share this easel card that I made earlier this week for my club. One of my club members specifically requested doing an easel card and I was happy to comply!

I wanted to do something pretty and vintagey - is that a word? I got the color combination from the Color Coach: Blushing Bride, Early Espresso and Pear Pizazz. To make the image panel I used two stamp sets, Style Beautiful and Elements of Style. I layered lots of scrolls using generation stamping, then stamped the medallion on top and added a punched flower and some pearls. I sponged all the edges with Blushing Bride ink. For the bottom I made a row of the little accent with the Stamp-a-ma-Jig, then added a sentiment from Heard from the Heart and a scallop trim border. A few more pearls serve as the "stop" for the easel and that was it! I thought it turned out pretty, and my club members were impressed that it fits inside a regular envelope.

I want to wish everyone happy (and healthy) holidays - I'll see you in the new year!

Vintage Thanks

It's the last Saturday in October - and my fifth (and final) October challenge for Our Creative Corner. This time around I picked something near and dear to my heart - vintage. I love using vintage items on my cards - whether they are actually old or just vintage style. It's such a fun look with lots of possibilities!

I combined my card with the limited supply challenge - "what's the weather?" Our weather forecast didn't give me a whole lot to go on - fall-like temperatures, a little sun, some clouds, some wind, possibly some sprinkles... kind of all mixed up. So I made a fall-themed card with some windblown leaves and a couple mixed-up prints of designer paper. The LSC also came with a 2/2/2 requirement: use three sets of two of something. So on my card I have two vintage items (buttons and trim), two patterned papers, and two circles.

The leaf image from Wandering Words first popped into my head when I read the weather forecast. Since we are supposed to see the sun, I wanted to use yellow and chose the crushed curry paper from The Write Stuff specialty paper. The other print in ruby red is from the same collection, and I made soft suede my brown since that color is in those papers as well. Once I chose my papers, I inked the stamp with markers and stamped on very vanilla, then used soft suede to dirty up the edges. Behind the stamped panel I used the two Nestabilities circles cut from the DP, also sponged with soft suede. To add my crochet trim to the bottom, I adhered it to a thin strip of cardstock, then glued that right onto the card base. The finishing touch was my vintage button tied with linen thread.

I've had a great time hosting the OCC challenges this month. Please visit the OCC blog to see everyone else's creations, and come back for more fun challenges in November!