WONDERFULLY WHIMSICAL / CQC #29 & 2S4Y #50...

Well, I'm on day 4 of whatever is going around... low fever, congestion... not much fun! This is all I could muster for today's colourQ...

I used Laura's cool sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You, and combined it with this week's colourQ challenge!

This card uses two of Papertrey's recent releases, Wonderfully Whimsical & A Little Argyle. I'm going to take a nap....

Bye for now!

UNSCRIPTED BEAUTIFUL BLOOMS / USSIS #51 & PDCC #25...

Yep - it's Saturday!!! You know what that means ~ time for another awesome sketch challenge over at Unscripted Sketches!!!

I know, this is a pretty dark card for me, but everyone has a special 'goth' friend that this type of card would be perfect for, right? Well, maybe I'll just send this one to Abby Sciuto...

I paired today's Unscripted sketch with the super fab colors from the Play Date Cafe... all they wanted was a 'splash' of color... that's all they're getting from me - lol!

I ASSURE YOU, at some point I WILL get tired of these dies from Papertrey... just not yet, okay? I ordered another set of their flower dies a couple nights ago... YAY! I cut this flower out of vellum, 2 of each of the 3 sizes. After I secured them with the brad, I puffed them up a little. When I reorganized last weekend, I realized I had both of the Martha matching butterfly punches... which gave me 3 sizes to play with. I added little rhinestones for their bodies. I finished it off with a scrap of ribbon & a little jewelry tag...

Hope you have an awesome Saturday & don't forget to lay along with Unscripted this week!

HAPPY NEWS...

A few weeks ago I stumbled onto someone's blog post, who mentioned a submission call over at Paper Crafts Magazine for Christmas cards! I decided to 'throw caution to the wind' and submitted a card for the first time ever... AND IT GOT ACCEPTED!

I got the email this morning & after I stopped shaking & my eyes stopped tearing up (is that normal?!?) , I called Tanja (she wasn't home - boo!), my mom, Jeff, my MIL & FIL (I gave the card to my FIL for Christmas) - and of course while they're happy for me, they REALLY don't get it - lol!

Anyways I just HAD to tell someone who would "get" it... thanks for listening!

MORE BEAUTIFUL BLOOMS / FTL #86, DCBD #172, & SR #15...

Here's a 10 minute card for a Friday morning ~ I made this before work, because I used up all my stamping time last night on my card for tomorrow's Unscripted Sketch!

And yes, here's that set of dies again ~ I just can't help myself! This card is for 3 challenges today; Clean & Simple's Fall-to Layout, Diva Coffee Break Design's color challenge & Stampin' Royalty's challenge to K*I*S*S... which I think I did.

Let me just say, I'd forgotten that the Diva's prefer only Stampin' Up! products to be used, but this card could easily be made switching out the dies used & the sentiment... I used Papertrey's Beautiful Blooms II #1 dies and the sentiment is also PTI, Signature Greetings. Buttons are PTI, Lemon & Hibiscus (I think?!?) After I cut out the flowers, I ran each one through my Big Shot with a different EF... super easy!

Have a great Friday!

Here's a sneak peek of my card for tomorrow's Unscripted Sketch Challenge, you should join us this week!

POPPIES / MTSC #69, CTD #88 & TSG #50...

Oh how I {heart} poppies... they are just so beautiful! I think have another set of poppies somewhere, I'll have to dig it out!

This card is for a 'whopping' 3 challenges; Mercy's awesome sketch, Color Throwdown's gorgous colors & the super cool challenge to use 'pleats' from There She Goes.

The stamps are from There She Goes, and all the paper is Stampin' Up!. I love this b&w houndstooth paper from SU! - I wish I had a whole ream of it - lol! I pleated the yellow paper at the bottom... it was easier to me to run it through the paper crimper first, then add a strip of glue to the edge of it before I started pleating. It looked neater than trying to do it by hand! WHen I was finished, the two ends seemed a little uneven so I trimmed it straight again with a ruler & exacto...

Bye for now!!!

FAHJA KNOWS BEST / CPS #162 & JAI #13...

Sorry about the title of this post... I was entertaining myself with thoughts of Austin Powers movies as I was typing... I think it was Goldmember...

Here's a snappy Father's Day card...I love Kiwi Kiss, it should have been among those colors coming back, but oh well... I played along with Card Positioning Systems this week - love the sketch - it kinda looked masculine to me, as did these awesome colors over at Just Add Ink! So I added some ink & Violà! {I hope my accent is facing the right way over that 'a'}

I stayed up for the Papertrey Ink Release Party last night, SO FUN!!! Shannan Teubner won the whole release package... how exciting! She deserves it!!! Anyways I was able to get all the goodies I wanted & then some. I was recently asked if I ever feel guilty about using other products besides SU!... NOPE! I think everyone should use what they like! Do you only buy one brand of clothes, or only eat at one restaurant? Of course not... If you worked for Outback, wouldn't you eat a steak somewhere else every once in a while? You get the point...

Anyways, this set is called Father Knows Best from Papertrey. Hard to tell, but I used that retired SU! set, Perfect Plaids again, as well as my argyle EF. I can't help it... just wait til I have that PTI Argyle stamp set in my hands - someone will have to come over & smack me so I don't use it on EVERY card - lol!

Thanks for stopping by!

STEW POT PALS / CAC #9, C4C #32 & SS 4.9.10...

Okay, this is my last card for today... and I think it's my favorite!

I've been playing along with Becky Oehlers' Compose A Card the last few weeks... it SO FUN! If you have the time, I highly recommend it. This card also fulfilled the 'stitching' requirement for Stamp Something and the 123 [1 ribbon, 2 buttons or brads and the use of 3 different punches] for Crazy 4 Challenges. That is if you count the eyelet as a brad or button & the whole I punched for the eyelet as one of the three punches...

I used Garden Variety paper from Cosmo Cricket to go with this retired Stampin' Up! image (circa 2005) from Stew Pot Pals... another set I've never inked up! I even had to trim this one! This little carrot goes so well with this paper, I couldn't resist! I used my Small Tag & 1 1/4" punches, as well as the punch on my Crop-o-dile. I distressed the edges a little with Sahara Sand ink, and the sliver of red matting showing is Riding Hood Red, which is coming back to the SU! color families this summer - YAY!!! I colored the image with Copics & finished it off with some faux stitching!

Have a great day & thanks for coming by!

BEAUTIFUL BLOOMS II #1 {AGAIN} / ACT #25...

WhOa - hope I'm not putting anyone's eyes out with these bright colors!!!

I must admit, I FREAKED when I saw Stacey's colors for ACT #25 this week, the Bold Brights family is one I hardley ever touch! But you know what? They're SO PRETTY together - very happy & summer~y! The challenge over at Stamp Something was stitiching, so this card fit right into their challenge as well!

I used Papertrey Ink's Beauitful Blooms die again for this one - I'm in L-O-V-E with it, so be prepared to see it again (and again & again)... Since I didn't have any DSP that matched these colors I made my own! Several years ago I bought Stampin' Up!'s retired set, Perfect Plaids, because I just HAD to have it... this is the first time I've inked it up! I'm shocked I even found it! (I have over 400 SU! sets...) I think I'm gonna keep it out though, it was SO FUN to use! The sentiment is from SU! as well, although I think it retired with the Occasions Mini... maybe we'll see it in the new catty? I puched it out with the Jewelry Tag punch... The ribbon is from somewhere, as well as the buttons. Once I thought I'd finished, I realized it need something, so I added the faux stitching!


See ya real soon!

VIOLETS / CD #63, 2S4Y #50 Bonus Sketch & TPE #62...

You ever make a card (or 3) and just when you begin to take pictures you realize your camera battery is dead because you forgot to turn it off the last time you took pics of your cards? Which means now you can't shoot them, edit them & post them to your blog. So even though you've stayed up til 1 AM to get a jump on things, you still fail... Maybe I need another camera battery...

Well this is certainly one of those days, at least the dancing lights of my migraine have faded away... The Color Dare took last week off for SpRiNg BrEaK... but WE'RE BACK TODAY with some fantastic colors!! If you've never played, or it's been a while - YOU SHOULD JOIN US THIS WEEK! I paired this with the bonus sketch over at 2 Sketches 4 You... I still plan to tackle Kazan's sketch, I just have to work up my nerve - lol! So working with the bonus is like sticking my toe in the water... This also fulfilled the recipe challenge at the Pink Elephant - which was 1 Image, 2 Dies and 3 of your Favorite Embellishment! (I used 6 of my fave embelli, hope that's okay)

This card uses the Papertrey sets, Violets. I just love violets! Also I'd been seeing people 'shade' their cardstock images with darker tones, so I decided to try that... pretty cool! Everything seemed to be too smooth on this card, so I added some 'rough' faux stitching to shake things up. As a matter of fact, I was in quite a faux stitching mood last night, (as well as square card mood) so the next two I post today will continue on with that theme [of sorts].

Bye for now & thank you so much for stopping by!

APTEE 'tude / CQC #28 & TESC #108...

After feeding Maisie & Alex, cleaning the kitchen, showering & getting ready for work I had a little extra time to stamp this morning, so using the scraps from my last card I made another with the colourQ colors (sorta kinda). Oh, my dining room is clean, btw~ and I even cleaned up after myself this morning, Jeff almost passed out when he got in from work... I'll be posting a new picture of my stamping area this evening, but if you haven't seen the BEFORE pic, you should - lol!

I used Taylor's super cool sketch (may use it again this week, too) for this card. I really love the Mondrian~ish background... so fun to construct! It looked great with these Cosmo Cricket papers and the colourQ colors... YAY!!! I used a new stamp, APTEE'tude... Tanja placed a StampingBella.com order so I had her throw a few in for me... [I have your money, Tanja] Aren't new stamps SO MUCH FUN! So for a 20 minute card, I can't complain, although now I realize I forgot to add some shadowing to her, bummer - I've been forgetting that a lot lately & I think it adds so much! Plus I think it needs some brads or buttons... may have to go back & add those!

Bye for now...