I Think I Hit Jackpot!!

Oh-My-Goodness!  I made another easel card ~ have I mentioned how much I LOVE this card technique???  I said earlier that I wasn't "feeling" the Color Dare colors but I think that was temporary because I knocked this card out speedy-quick.   I used the same sketch from Splitcoast so this card is going to be very similar the one I posted earlier today.  This week's challenge over at The Pink Elephant was a theme challenge - birthday - so this card does triple duty.

 

 

Here ya go - three different views so you can see a bit of the detail better:

 

 

 

 

Recipe - Stamps: Upsy Daisy, Teeny Tiny Wishes  Ink: Melon Mambo  Paper: Garden Green, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Barely Banana  Accessories: Nestabilities (Ovals, Labels Four), Martha Stewart border punch, Herringbone EF, Swiss Dots EF, oval punches, paper piercer, Barely Banana grosgrain ribbon, unknown pink ribbon, buttons, twine

If you haven't made one of these easel cards, PLEASE take some time to try one.  The tutorial is VERY simple to follow ~ run, don't walk, over to Splitcoast Stampers and check it out.  I had so much fun making these two cards today - I hope you enjoyed seeing them as much as I enjoyed making them.  See you tomorrow!

Colour Q #15, a Splitcoast Sketch and a Tutorial...

Happy Wednesday everyone!

I have been so busy the last few days I haven't had time to sit and create - thankfully I was able to do just that this morning when I went to visit my friend Leanne.  Leanne *normally* lives about 3 hours away from us but she is at Lori's being "mom and dad" while Lori and her DH are enjoying some much-needed vacation time.  I went to the gym first thing this morning and then popped over for a visit.

We browsed the blogs to see what trouble we could get ourselves into and I introduced her to Arielle's Colour Q Challenge.  Arielle ALWAYS comes up with some amazing colour combos and this week was no exception:

I LOVE this purse!  I wish I had the big medallion stamp because I could *so* see a fabulous card coming outta that.  LOL  Leanne and I hopped over to Splitcoast and found this week's Sketch Challenge and a fabulous tutorial about how to make an Easel Card and decided to combine all three ideas into one card. 

She did hers and I did mine - I don't have any pics of Leanne's card...sorry.  It is awesome, though, just FYI!  I L-O-V-E how this card turned out and am going to do MANY more of these easel cards - so easy and beautiful!  We had so much fun raiding Lori's craft room - she's got so much more *stuff* than either one of us!  LOL

Recipe - Stamps: Trendy Trees (SU!)  Ink: Basic Grey, Pumpkin Pie  Paper: Barely Banana, Going Grey, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Sweet Pea DP  Accessories: Nestabilities (Ovals and Scalloped Ovals), paper piercer, Scallop Trim border punch, Swiss Dots EF, Herringbone EF, Grey Taffeta ribbon, button, silver cord, Modern Label punch, Word Window punch, brads, Birds and Blooms Sizzlit, Sweetest Stem Embosslit

I think I may try the Color Dare tonight but I'm not sure...the colors are not "speaking" to me.  But, what do I know?  Remember last week's catastrophe with this card?  Well, apparently *someone* over at the Color Dare liked it enough to pick it as one of the Top Three - I'm wondering if she needs glasses or something???  *giggle*  Thanks again, ladies - that's two weeks in a row, do you think I can make it three?  Maybe I can grab that elusive "Top Spot"...

'Til later...  Thanks for stopping in!

Color Throwdown - Thursday Sketch Trio

Happy Thursday everyone!

What a great week it has been. We only had school 3 days due to "Professional Development" days for the teachers so I'm spending today and tomorrow getting crafty!

I haven't been over to the Color Throwdown challenge lately so I was curious to see what this week's color combination was:

My initial reaction was, "Ummmmm . . .what?"  I would NOT have ever in a bazillion years thought to put Brocade Blue with red and black but I was up for the challenge.  

The first card I did is for Julee's Mojo Monday sketch:

Julee seems to come up with one amazing sketch after another, week after week. . . I think her sketches are my favorites to do.  I started out by picking my stamp image for this card.  I am VERY short on birthday cards so I chose SU!'s "Crazy For Cupcakes" set and stamped the tray of cupcakes on Whisper White.  I colored the image with my Copics and cut it out with my Labels One Nesties.  I layered it on the Brocade Blue also cut out with my Nesties, paper pierced the left side and added some pearls.  The right-hand side of the background is some Basic Black I ran through my CB in the Swiss Dots folder and the left side is some printed vellum I found in my stash.  Some gingham ribbon, a sentiment from the "Best Yet" set and I was done:

Card number two was inspired by Our Creative Corner's weekly sketch:

I admit I was puzzled for quite some time with this one.  I don't have many stamps that are circle-oriented so I had to dig through ALL of my sets.  I found the heart image in the "Doodle That" set from SU! and the sentiment is from the "Best Yet" set - again.  The ribbon is from a box of ribbons I got at Costco a LONG time ago - at the time I thought they'd get SO much use but, unfortunately, this is the first time I've ever used this particular roll!  I Cuttlebugged the Brocade Blue background, added a filigree brad to the heart image, used my Nesties to cut the circle shapes and voila:

Today's final card for this week's Splitcoast Stampers' Sketch #213:

This one came together pretty quickly.  I stamped the "Upsy Daisy" image with my Onyx Black Versafine ink and then clear embossed it.  I sponged some Bashful Blue over top and then cut it out with my Nesties.  I layered it on Real Red and Whisper White and went to work on the background.  I used some more of the printed vellum on a Basic Black layer, ticket corner punched the corners and added some pearls.  The vertical panel is a piece of black I edged both side of with my Martha Stewart border punch and added a strip of blue down the middle.  The horizontal panel is some more of the gingham ribbon on top of Basic Black.  A couple of bows were added just because I thought they needed to be there!  LOL  Some flowers in the bottom right complete the card:

So - that's it!  I'm hoping to spend tomorrow with my peep, Lori.  We haven't crafted together for awhile and Josh had been asking for WEEKS to go over to their house so tomorrow just might be the day!  

Gotta run and get supper started - enjoy the rest of your Thursday!

Viva la Verve Week #3

Happy T.G.I.F. everyone!

I hope your week went well and you are ready for the weekend - big plans???  Not here.  just going to take it easy and hang out.  The weather is supposedto be beautiful so maybe we'll do some outside activities - we'll see.

It's time for another great Viva la Verve challenge over at Splitcoast.  This week's sketch was fun and the {twist} was to use pink somewhere on your card.

Ever since Laura announced that she was going to be trying to use up items in her stash, I have been trying to do the same.  I have so much freaking paper that I thought was a "must have" at the time but by the time I got it home, I had NO earthly idea what I would possibly use it for.   Now, I will concede that I probably don't have as much as some of you out there, but for me. . . it's my weakness.   Anyhoo, I found the Valentine paper from two years ago and decided to use it on this card.  I love Taken With Teal beside the Pretty in Pink and Regal Rose in this DP - it just makes me smile.
Recipe: Stamps: Black Tie Birdies (Verve)  Paper: Loves Me DP (Stampin' Up retired), Taken With Teal, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose  Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Regal Rose, Taken With Teal  Accessories: Top Note Die, Nestabilities (Labels one, large rectangle, square), paper piercer, buttons, paper flowers, brayer, Swirly embossing folder, Cuttlebug, teal wire, Martha Stewart Lace Doily border punch, adhesive rhinestones, sheer ribbon, sponge dauber

After reading the recipe for this card, some of you may be wondering what I used a brayer for?  When I went to find some paper flowers, I did not have any that were teal enough for this card.  So I picked ones that were a light aqua, put them face down on my Taken With Teal Classic ink pad and ran my brayer over the flowers until they were just right!   

I hope to do Taylor's Sketch at some point in time today so check back later to see what I came up with!