Jingle Shells, Jingle Shells

Happy Monday, peeps!  I have a fun little Christmas card today, it uses the Peace on Earth Challenge photo prompt as well as the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown sketch:

      

My friend Michele made a fun little card for this challenge and that prompted me to remember that I have an older SU set called Crab & Company, and it had some beachy Christmas items in it, so I went to work! I used the background of the upper left photo as a sort of starting point:

I used a strip die, cutting several different shades of red to make the background, then stamped, colored and fussy-cut my little Santa clam:

The sentiment was stamped on a Basic White strip of cardstock, and then I added a matching sentiment from Jingle All The Way on the inside:

Cute and fun!  Thanks, Michele, for the inspiration!  

A few more birthday cards:

This sweet card is from my talented friend Teri:

And Shawn always knows how to make a card that makes me laugh!

And Fran must know that I love peach....love these colors and that big flower!

Thanks so much, ladies!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Crab & Company (ret), Jingle All the Way (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Real Red, Cherry Cobbler, Poppy Parade
Ink	Memento Black, Real Red, Crushed Curry, Crumb Cake, Bubble Bath, Smoky Slate, Pool Party
Accessories	Dimensionals, Loose Silver Sequins
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stitched Strip Dies (Pretty Pink Posh), Aquapainter

GDP220 Party Cow

Happy Monday, peeps!  My birthday card stash is about non-existent, and I need to replenish it, so when I saw the GDP challenge, I went right to work!

I CASEd Shawn's sketch, using Over the Moon and Bird Ballad papers for my card today:

After stamping and coloring my little cow with some Blends, I stamped the hat from Crab and Company (remember that set?) and popped it up on her head!!  I added some Tufted embossing on the background:

A little pop of Basic Black scallop to give some contrast (Be Mine dies), and I recycled some silver cord from a gift package to match the rhinestone on her party hat!!

And finally a sentiment from Rustic Retreat along with a couple more hats, stamped in Calypso Coral:

And this one is already out in the mail for its recipient!  Thanks for popping in!

So, my sister Gail, who lives in SC, turns 60 next week and she and her husband were in the area over the weekend for the Army Navy game on Saturday (her son attends West Point).  I thought it would be fun to have the whole family over for a "sort-of" surprise party for her!  She arrived first, but when she saw the table set, she was surprised!  Everyone pitched in with the food and we chowed down:

She and my other sister caught up on some photos from the game:

Of course, we had to have cake; my niece Kelly contributed a beautiful Boston Creme pie/birthday cake (that's my brother next to her), which is one of Gail's favorites:

AND, Kelly also created these stunning cupcakes:

She is so talented!  It was a great evening, and I'll share more photos later!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Snappy Birthday!

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  My card today started to be a birthday card for a little boy, but somehow the colors just didn't jive with an active five-year-old!  SO it will be a card for one of Cassidy's friends...or maybe for her!  I used the sketch from Mojo Monday; the Nautical theme challenge from Global Design Project and happily, it qualifies for Stamp Ink Paper's Punny or Funny challenge:

So here we go!

Remember this set?  I was going through some of my really old stamps and thought this Crab & Company set would be cute for a child's birthday!  I stamped the crab in Watermelon Wonder and watercolored it loosely with WW and Soft Sky inks.  I stamped a few of the beachy elements and watercolored them as well and added some sweet little sequins and ruched ribbon!

I mounted it on a Soft Sky card base with some By The Shore DSP strips, and added a little banner and a "6" from the Numbers die set!  And here's the inside:

  

This just makes me smile!

Another thing that makes me smile....green pepper moustaches!

Oh that child!  And a couple more birthday cards (told you I got a lot!).  This pretty one is from Bonnie:

And this gorgeous  regal-toned one is from Alison:

Thanks for stopping by today!

Color Throwdown Celebration!

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  Today is a really, really special day!  The Color Throwdown is celebrating their 250th challenge!!  The uber-talented Tammy Hershberger contacted me five years ago and asked me if I wanted to participate in a new challenge she was starting….and as nervous as I was, I said yes!  I enjoyed working with the team and had fun “throwing down” their color combinations!!!  Although I am not on the team now, I still enjoy playing occasionally.  So let’s look at the palette they’ve chosen for us today:

What a fun beachy combination!  I just snagged this cute little sand pail image from the Graphics Fairy, so I printed it out on watercolor paper, colored it in and paired it with some beach-themed images and sentiment:

I added a sand castle punched border, sparkling with “sand”:

and I filled my pail with some shells and starfish from Crab & Co:

Of course, when there’s a celebration, there’s always prizes!  Be sure to check the Color Throwdown blog for all the details, rules and regs, and to see the humongous amount of goodies that they are giving away---like $400 worth!  Personally, I’ll be offering a brand-new wood-mount set called Raining Flowers:

And finally, since today’s challenge had some flip flops, I thought I’d share this photo of Cassidy wearing a really “well-loved” pair of flip flops that Grammy keeps by the door (since Grammy prefers going barefoot most of the summer!):

Paper Players 98 – Summertime

Hi everyone!  I hope you are having a great weekend!  Sunday means Paper Players, and Jaydee has come up with a summer-themed challenge for us all today:

You can choose the colors or anything that reminds you of summer!  Last week here in Pennsylvania, it was almost 90 degrees, so it wasn’t hard to imagine summer at all…..yesterday when I did my card, it was decidedly chillier!  But as I was clearing shelves of retired stamps to make way for new ones, I came across a cute retired set and it was perfect for my summer-time card!  Isn’t that always the way when new things are on their way---you find old ones that are just as appealing!  Do you remember Crab & Company?  It was a great reminder of summers spent at the Delaware shore:

 

Although I am pretty sure I have never seen a green crayfish!!  I used the JUGS sketch 139 as well as the Just Add Ink summery inspiration challenge 120 :

I watercolored my little images with some of the inspiration colors, added some glitter and punched them out in different sized squares, then mounted them on a piece of Comfort Cafe DP:

The smaller ones were popped up with dimensionals, too.  It’s difficult to see in the photo, but the card base has been embossed with the Stripes embossing folder to replicate the beaded boards of the photo, but it’s not hard to see that cute little sandcastle punched border:

 

I can smell the salt air right now!  I stamped a sentiment from Heard from the Heart and added a linen thread embellishment, and my card is done!  I hope that you are inspired to create a summery project…how about a scrapbook page or a 3D item?  It doesn’t have to be a card!  Share it with us over at the Paper Players blog and check out what the other designers created as well!  Thanks for visiting today!

And here’s a fun little photo, just to nail home the fact that my little angelic granddaughter loves to play in the water….no matter where it happens to be:

Yes, her hand is wet……very wet!!!   Sometimes she is just too fast for grammy!