The Color Curtain Has Fallen, The Color Dare Has Begun

I am delighted to share that I've been selected to be part of the next six month Color Dare Design Team!!  I had such an amazing experience during my six month term with Stacey's Curtain Call Crew that I needed something to fill the void.  Enter, The Colour Dare :)  Every Wednesday a new Color Dare will be posted on The Color Dare blog, and the Design Team will post samples for your inspiration.   This week's Color Dare is as follows:

Color Dare 75

Cherry Cobbler

Pretty in Pink

Garden Green

Very Vanilla

I paired this week's colours with Mercy's Sketch #86 and came up with the above card.  The pink was really throwing me for a loop as the other colours are stereotypical "Christmas colours".  After digging through my stamps, I came across my Sweet 'n Sassy Snow Friends stamp and found the perfect solution to my pink issue - the heart LOL!   Since I don't own any Cherry Cobbler yet, I used Real Red instead.  I glittered the brim of his hat, her ear muff and the snow, though it is quite hard to see in the picture.  I also flipped my button over so you could see more of the black, added a few pearls and it was good to go.

That being said, it took me forever to make this card.  Sheesh!!  It was like having to learn calculus with a brain that doesn't do math LOL!   Think my mojo was having too much fun up in the trees over at the Wild Play course (see prior post) and decided to stay on the Island.  I will definitely need to get back into the swing of things now that the kids are back in school (today is their first full day...happy sigh.....LOL!) so I can shake off the dust and coax my mojo out from the trees and back into my craft room.

The rest of this term's Color Dare team has lots of inspiration for you.  You can check out their creations  here:

• Glenda Wyatt at Paper, Scissors, Rocks 
• Heater Prince at Princess Scrapper Stamper
• Joan Jeffery at JJ's Creations
• Melissa Hubert at My Paper Obsession
• Nance Lempinen-Leedy at Canopy Crafts
• Riley Fitzgerald at Stampin' With Riley  (our leader)

We'd love you to join us!  Simply create a card using this week's colours and add your card to InLinkz on the The Colour Dare Blog.  If  you are uploading to a public gallery, please make sure to use the keyword CD75.   Each week, Riley will select a Featured Stamper and showcase your card on her blog, as well as noting two honorable mentions.

It feels good to be back and blogging.  Hopefully the mojo will come flowing back and I'll have something to show for my first kids-at-school so I get to play day LOL!   Have a great day!




What's In It?
Stamps:  Snow Friends (Sweet 'n Sassy)
Paper:  Real Red, Garden Green, Linen Vanilla
Ink:  Black
Accessories:  SU Border Punch, Snowflake Embossing Folder, Twinkling H20s, Aqua Pen, Ribbon, Button, Twine, Glue Dot, Glue Pen, Sparkles, Black Half Pearls, Dimensionals

Snowflakes and Snow Woman

This is my last post as one of July's Sweet 'n Sassy Guest Designers.  I have had a great time using these wonderful sets and just had to finish off with another snow woman!!  I made a very conscious effort to not use blues on this card and went heavy on the pinks instead LOL!  Pal Paper Arts is having a monochromatic challenge and that is where I got the idea.  Not sure if the silver disqualifies me from the challenge, but regardless, this was a fun card to make.

I glittered her hat and the "snow" and then added some punched snowflakes with bling in the middle around the image, despite the fact I used the snowflake embossing folder in the background.  They gave a nice little extra "umph" to the card and balanced it off nicely.  The mini bead silver cording was a clearance bin snag at Michael's last year.  It was a stinker to tie a bow with because the bow wouldn't stay tied, so I had to put a big old blob of glue in the middle to "freeze" the bow.  Thank goodness for clear drying glue LOL!

Have to do some overflow work for hubby's office over the next few weeks and with the kids' swimming lessons over (yeah, no more smelling of chlorine for a while), that means planning and doing activities to keep them busy as they won't be wiped out from swimming.  That usually means a wiped out mommy who needs down time, so if it is a bit quiet around here for a few weeks, you'll know why.  I'm hoping to post twice a week, any more is to be determined by my energy level or my addiction to the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon!!   Makes for a very hard decision at times.....to stamp.....or to read....that is the question LOL! 

Thanks for dropping in today and keeping me company (((hugs))).   Your comments make my day :D




What's In It?
Stamps:  Sweet 'n Sassy
Paper:  Rose Red, DP
Accessories:  Snowflakes Embossing Folder, Circle and Scalloped Circle Nesties, Martha Stewart Snowflake Punch, Marvy Snowflake Punch, Bling, Glue Pen, Sparkles, 5/8" Sheer Silver Ribbon, Silver Beaded Thread, Pink Button, Glue Dots, Twinkling H2Os, Dimensionals

I Love You Not Only For....

Today is another Sweet 'n Sassy Saturday.  I just had to use their Love Sentiments I digi set again because of this sentiment:  "I love you, not only for who you are, but for who I am when I am with you".  My hubby loves me for exactly who I am, warts and all, and makes me want to become all I was meant to be.  He supports me in my endeavours (though he does roll his eyes on occasion when I come down asking for some advice about what looks better on a card LOL!) and has molded and shaped me in ways I never thought possible.  I now push my dresser drawers in all the way if they didn't quite make it on the first try, I clean my house before we leave on any weekend trips or vacations so we come home to a clean house and I have even been known to watch a cooking show with him on a Saturday afternoon (he loves to watch them and get ideas for meals).  He has total trust and confidence in me, knows when to push me and when to let me be, and is my biggest cheerleader.  So, this card was made in honour of his influence in my life :)

I used a modified version of this CPS sketch.  Since the sentiment had a fine script this wonderful, understated DP was perfect as it wouldn't overpower the sentiment.   Then the trouble began LOL!  The top "bumps" of the heart gave me major grief as they were very empty and needed something but not too much.  It took me about 30 minutes to finally settle on the grosgrain with a button.  I'm blaming it on the chlorine fumes that are emanating from my body after a week of swimming laps in the pool...okay, so that's stretching it a bit....more like I'm tired and couldn't make a decision for the life of me LOL!  I'm happy with the final outcome and look forward to giving this to a friend.

Have a fabulous day and I'll be back tomorrow with my Curtain Call card.






What's In It?
Stamps:  Sweet 'n Sassy Love Sentiments I
Paper:  Mellow Moss, Real Red, Heart DP
Accessories:  Heart and Scalloped Heart Nesties, 1/4" Mellow Moss Grosgrain Ribbon, Button, Twine, Glue Dot, 5/8" Sheer Red Ribbon, Dimensionals

Sweet 'n Sassy Snow Girl

Sorry about the dark picture....this bright sunshine is messing with  my photography...but I'll take a dark picture over rain outside any day LOL!


I wanted to use this sketch a few weeks ago when Mercy first posted it, but life won the battle...again...hate when that happens!  No worries though, because as it turned out, it was the perfect sketch for my cute little Sweet 'n Sassy snow girl!   I just love this image.  It's another one from the Snow Friends set that I love because the images just make me smile :)

After loading the picture to the post, I realized the colour combination is basically the same as one of my other snowman cards.....sorry!   I obviously tend to gravitate towards this colour combo when I make a snow themed card!  I added a touch of silver to this one and kept the splash of pink.  Some Swiss Dots for my snowy background, some pink ribbon, a snowflake, and some buttons for accents to finish off a definitely girly, Christmas card LOL!

Well, I survived yet another VBS week!  I am always exhausted at the end of it, but wouldn't trade it for anything as it is just too much fun.  Lots of good memories, songs to remember and sing along to in the car when we play the VBS CD and a full year to recover until the next one :)   A few of you have asked for a picture of my sari so here you are.  I wasn't really wanting to post this picture because I am totally exhausted after a week of VBS and look the part LOL!  Puffy eyes, big bags under them, looking as big as a house from this angle (note to self:  make sure son has a good angle for the picture next time LOL) when in fact it is really lovely on.  So...just for you, I have swallowed my pride so you can see what we looked like in our saris.  Just make sure you take about 50 pounds off my hip/thigh area in the picture of me, okay!  The yards or material and tons of gathers in the skirt are not doing me any favors in this picture - I look like I did when I was pregnant!

Off to get all my stuff priced for a LSS Garage Sale I'm taking part in tomorrow. I'll be back tomorrow with my sample for next week's Curtain Call colour challenge.  Thanks for popping in and have a fabulous day :D





What's In It?
Stamps:  (Sweet 'n Sassy) Snow Friends
Paper:  Night of Navy, Brocade Blue, Silver
Ink: Staz-On
Accessories: SU Scalloped Border Punch, Scalloped Circle and Circle Nesties, Swiss Dots Embossing Folder, Martha Stewart Snowflake Punch, Twinkling H2Os, Buttons, Glue Dots, Silver Twine, 5/8" Pink Satin Ribbon, Dimensionals

Christimas In July

I am totally exhausted today!!  Our family went to the Cultas Lake water slides yesterday - it's an annual summer tradition.  We spent six hours there in order to get our money's worth so we are one tired bunch today.  The best part is you have fun and get a workout because some of the slides start six or more floors up!!  Do that a few dozen times or so and you begin to feel it LOL!  It is always a fabulous day and with temps here in the 30C range (90F) I can think of no better place to cool off!  In all honesty, I think I'm the one who has the most fun there LOL!  I've always loved playing in water and am a big kid at heart so it's a match made in heaven :)

Today I've gone from 30C temperatures and a water park to a winter wonderland LOL!  I fell in love with this cute Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Snow Friends couple the moment I saw them!  You can't help but smile when you see them :)  Actually the whole set is fabulous and I can't wait to use some of the other images.

I used an OCC sketch from a few weeks back for my layout and was thrilled to be able to pair it with my new Seeing Spots embossing folder.  I have visited several of my regular haunts only to find it sold out, but this week was my lucky week - yeah!!  That means I now have a small dot and a large dot embossing folder to play with so I'm purring like a kitty!  In this case, since it's a Christmas themed card, the large dots reminded me of snowballs, so I decided to use it instead of snowflakes.

The snowmen are coloured with Twinkling H2O's since I don't own any Copics. I added glitter to make snow and also added glitter to her earmuff and his hat band and pompom.  As you can see, I  messed up on the hat colouring - ugh!  I accidentally coloured the band blue instead of leaving it white so I tried to hide it by putting glitter over top, but it didn't work as you can still see the blue underneath.  I'm blaming the cat LOL!  I added this adorable sentiment, some pink ribbon and two blue snowflakes as per the sketch design and called it a card.

Thanks for visiting today and I'll see you tomorrow with my sample card for the next Curtain Call Colour Challenge!





What's In It?
Stamps:  Snow Friends (Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps)
Paper:  Night of Navy, Bordering Blue, Grey
Ink:  Black
Accessories:  Seeing Spots Embossing Folder, Large Scalloped Border Punch, Marvy Snowflake Punch, 5/8" Pink Satin Ribbon, Circle and Scalloped Circle Nesties, Twinkling H2O's, Glue Pen, Glitter, Dimensionals

Some Fun News!!

 
I have some fun news to share with everyone!  I have been asked to be one of the July Guest Design Divas over on the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Blog!!   This is my first exposure to digi stamps and I must say I love how you can easily adjust their size and rotate them to fit your stamping needs.  

I fell in love (no pun intended LOL!) with their Love Sentiments 1 set and wanted to use it on my first card.   It has many amazing sentiments in fabulous fonts that you can use for Valentine's Day, weddings, anniversaries and even encouragement.  Plus, with having gone to a wedding last weekend and having celebrated our anniversary on July 1st, love was still in the air :)  

Last week's Stamping 411 sketch was a perfect fit for this set!  I loved the heart in the square panel, and though I did end up modifying it a bit, the fundamentals of the sketch are still there.  I paired it with this week's Play Date Cafe's Colour Challenge because the colours were a perfect match!  I ran the heart embossing folder though my Cuttlebug twice as I used it horizontally, used my heart Nesties and a Marvy flower punch, and finished the card off with a touch of ribbon, half pearls, and a button.

Thanks for popping in.  Back tomorrow with my sample of this week's Curtain Call Colour Challenge. 





What's In It?
Stamps:  Love Sentiments 1 (Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps)
Paper:  Real Red, White
Accessories:  Hearts Embossing Folder, Scalloped and Plain Heart Nesties, Marvy Flower Punch, 5/8" Pink Satin Ribbon, Half Pearls, Button, Glue Dot, Dimensionals