{Life is Short} and {PDCC176}

Thanks for stopping in today! I've got a quick CAS card to share with you all - this one uses a sentiment from The Alley Way Stamps' new set, Life is Short. I combined it with this week's color combo from The Play Date Cafe and used a sketch from my head...*gasp*  I KNOW!  A sketch all by myself...although I'm sure it's out there somewhere and I've used it before but I"m gonna take credit for it this time, OK?  ;)

That's it for me today - enjoy your Tuesday and I'll see you on Thursday for a new 4 Crafty Chicks' challenge!

Another "All About YOU" Card...:)

Morning everyone!  We're off to watch my niece play ringette this morning so I've got a quick, CAS card for you all to peek at using a sentiment from All About YOU...surprised? ;)

I'll be the first to admit it's not my best effort but it is what it is...the colors are from this week's Play Date Cafe:

Thanks for stopping in - have a great weekend!

{SSSC179} & {PDCC171}

Howdy, howdy crafty friends! How are you all doing this snowy Sunday? Well, it probably isn't snowy everywhere but it sure is here in Central Alberta.  One day it will melt and stay gone - these spring storms are sometimes worse than the winter ones.  I know, I know...*technically* it is still winter, not spring yet, but it has sure felt like spring the last week or so.  Here in Alberta we can get snow in May or June so nothing should really surprise me anymore.  :)

So it's time for another fantastic sketch from Karen over at the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge.  This week's sketch was designed by our own Vicki Burdick - how much do you love those little flags??

Did you know that if you follow us on Facebook, you can sometimes get the sketch early?  YEP - when (and *if*) we remember, it is posted on Saturday to give you one more day to play along with us.  How's that for awesomenosity? 

For my card, I pulled out some old Verve - a beautiful swirly frame and a {heart U} die - and combined them with this week's color combo over at the Play Date Cafe:

All of the fabulous Sweet Sunday Stampers have inspiration for you, so please stop by and say hello to:

Dana White 

Dawn Easton 

Jackie Pedro *taking the week off but please stop by and say hello*

Karen Giron 

Karen Motz 

Lori Tecler 

Lynn Put 

Sarah-Jane Kalé 

Tracy Clemente 

Vicki Burdick 

...and this week's Guest Sweet Stamper, Heather Dennis!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday - wherever you are!  See you tomorrow!

 

TAWS Sneak Peeks - Day One {KA-POW}

Hey everyone! Glad to see you back for another week of new release sneak peeks from The Alley Way Stamps! Today's sneak peek is a fun set for all the superheroes out there - takes me back to the old Batman series with Adam West... I know, I'm totally dating myself now! :)

This first set is called KA-POW! and it is SO MUCH fun...some really fun graphics and when you see them all, you'll know why I think of Batman.  :)  I decided to go with the big sentiment and some little explosion bubbles for my card:

I combined this week's RetroSketches (to use any of the sketches from the past year) and the Play Date Cafe combo:

Thanks for stopping by today - I'll be back on Thursday for the TAWS Blog Hop as well as the 4 Crafty Chicks' new challenge.  See you then!

4CCC-115 {Sketch} & PDCC156

Hello Crafty Peeps!  It's a cold, wintry day here in Central Alberta - the perfect kind of day to stay inside and craft!  Luckily for you, I have a fabulous sketch for you all to play with over at the 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge...

As always, don't feel limited to use the shapes and elements in *exactly* the way they are on the sketch - be creative and step outside the box.

For my card, I made a masculine birthday card using last week's color combo from the Play Date Cafe:

Thanks for stopping by - stay warm today wherever you are!

 

4CCC-114 {A Day To Remember} & RS35 & PDCC155

Happy First Day of November!!!  Can you believe there are only two months left in 2012 before we start writing 2013 on our cheques?  That is, unless the Mayans are right... ;)

So, this first day of November also brings us a brand new 4 Crafty Chicks' Challenge and this week Leanne is our hostess extraordinaire.  She has given us a theme of "A Day to Remember."  I think this theme is pretty wide open for interpretation so have fun and be creative.

For my card, I wanted to make a card that could be used for a variety of different occasions so decided to pull out the old Stampin' Up! standby, "Lovely as a Tree," and combine The Play Date Cafe's combo from last week with the RetroSketches sketch:

Thanks for stopping by - enjoy your weekend and don't forget about a brand new Sweet Sunday Sketch on Sunday!  See you then!

{SSSC170) & {PDCC154}

Happy Sunday everyone!  I hope you are all enjoying this wonderful fall weather - this is my absolute favorite time of the year...nothing better than the crunchy leaves underfoot and the chill in the morning air.  Our forecast for this week even has the possibility of some of the white stuff!  Not sure I'm ready for *that* but it will sure make things pretty.

It's time for another Sweet Sunday Sketch and Karen's got a fun one for you this week:

As you can see, I rotated it, made the circle a star, the banners became jingle bells and the big square isn't so big.  So, the same, but different.  ;)  Some blue and silver glitter adorn the star (with some Crystal Effects to keep the glitter from disappearing) and the jingle bells hang from some silver cord:

The color combo is from the Play Date Cafe's 3rd Anniversary celebration - flame, grape and mulberry.  My red is a bit more subdued than *flame*, and the grape isn't really *grape-y* and the mulberry is a bit more *indigo* but...:)

All of the fabulous Sweet Sunday Stampers have inspiration for you, so please stop by and say hello to:

Dana White (she's taking a break this week but I know she'd love to have you stop by!)

Dawn Easton 

Jackie Pedro 

Karen Giron 

Karen Motz 

Lori Tecler 

Lynn Put 

Sarah-Jane Kalé 

Tracy Clemente 

Vicki Burdick 

... and our amazing Guest Sweet Stamper, Mindy Backes!

Thanks for stopping by today - enjoy your week and I hope you will play along with this versatile sketch. :)

Thursday Morning With the Play Date Cafe and Viva la Verve

Welcome back everyone!  Even though I *should* be cleaning house and doing some Christmas baking to throw in the freezer, I *had* to sit down and make a card this morning.  It has been a LONG time since I have had time to play along with the Play Date Cafe and this week's color combo is GORGEOUS so that gave me a good place to start:

I decided to use Cajun Craze, Island Indigo and Basic Gray for my colors and, lucky for me, I found an older Basic Grey paper pad, Pyrus, that worked PERFECTLY with these colors!  I used the Week Two Viva la Verve sketch by Teresa Kline (lovely, BTW) and, surprisingly, followed it VERY literally...nothing out-of-the-box for me this morning.  The sentiment is one that I love and constantly remind myself of... Life. Is. Good.  :)

Stamps: Hope Blooms (Verve)  Ink: Basic Gray, Cajun Craze, Island Indigo marker  Paper: Pyrus DSP (BG), Island Indigo, Basic Gray, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla  Accessories: Sewing machine, Nesties, Tipsy Hearts die (Sizzix), Basic Gray satin ribbon, button, Divine Swirls EF, sponge dauber, twine

Thanks for taking time to stop by - the weather here is beautiful today...the quintessential fall day.  Enjoy your day wherever you are!

Welcome to the weekend everyone!  What a week we've had here - rainy, gloomy, and yucky.  I know it could be worse... we haven't had our major May/June snow storm yet!  :)  I was able to spend some time crafting this afternoon and did I ever have fun!!!

I haven't played along with the Play Date Cafe's challenges for quite awhile when I saw this week's combo, I *had* to participate.  It's their famous "Color Splash" week - black, white, and this week, GREEN.  :)

I was able to use the fifth sketch for this month from the Viva la Verve gang over at Splitcoast... LOVE this one, Tosh!!!  *even if there are tilted panels...I can feel Marisa cringing.*

A few weeks ago I was searching for fun, new ways to make handmade flowers and came across this tutorial over at Make It Do that uses wired ribbon - they are amazing! *I'm sure they're not new to many of you but I hadn't ever seen them before...* I didn't have any wired ribbon so when I popped over to Walmart this morning I picked some up and got busy when I got home:

Stamps: Celebrating You (Verve)  Ink: Onyx Black Versafine  Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, assorted DSP scraps  Accessories: Green wired ribbon, paper peircer, buttons, black satin ribbon, Charming Oval die (Verve), twine, adhesive pearls

Here's a closer pic of the flower - the green is MUCH prettier in real life...

I always love a black and white card with a bit of color - so striking.  As you can see, I made my card a square to accommodate the size of the flower.  :)

Thanks for stopping by today - I'm off to watch the hockey game to see who will be joining the Canucks in the Stanley Cup finals!  See you later!

More Verve-y Goodness Combined With the Play Date Cafe Equals...

Pure loveliness!!  Hi everyone - I've got a quick mid-week card for you all.  This is one of the cards I made last week as Verve's Guest Diva for their newest release - and let me tell you... this release is AWESOME!  If you haven't had a chance to check everything out, you'd better get over there!  The new dies are amazing... and the stamps are designed to coordinate with them.  Can it get better than that??  How about a deal if you buy ALL of the new stamps???  Gotta love it!  :)

I wanted to make a more masculine card since most of my other ones are distinctly feminine and found this great color combo over at the Play Date Cafe:

I found this sketch a few weeks ago over at clean & simple stamping and it worked perfectly for what I had in mind:

My card uses the new Proverbs 16:9 Plain Jane as well as one of the sentiments from Happy Phrases.  I also used the Charming Banner and the new Elegant Leaves die.  The elegant leaves die coordinates perfectly with the leaves stamp in the Bloom & Grow set...

Stamps: Bloom & Grow, Proverbs 16:9, Happy Phrases (Verve)  Ink: Wild Wasabi, Crumb Cake, Rich Cocoa Memento  Paper: Wild Wasabi, Whisper White, Crumb Cake  Accessories: Elegant Leaves Die (Verve), Charming Banner Die (Verve), Labels Seventeen Nestabilities (Spellbinders), sponge dauber, sewing machine, buttons, twine, eyelets

Thanks for stopping by - see you tomorrow for a new 4 Crafty Chicks challenge!

The Play Date Cafe & Mojo Monday

Happy Monday, everyone!  What have you got planned for the week ahead?  Hopefully the weather around here will start to warm up soon because I am plain tired of this cold and snow...SPRING - where are you???

When I got home from work today, I immediately sat down to make a card for this week's Play Date Cafe color challenge because it is one of my favorites - the color splash - and this week we get to choose which color we want to use for our 'splash'... I decided to go with yellow since I'm SOOOO ready to see the sun!

As always, Julee has given us another AMAZING sketch over at Mojo Monday - I still wonder how she does it week after week with sketches, challenges, designing new releases and she still has time for a "life?"  It boggles the mind... :)

Here you go - sorry for the picture quality...it is SOOOO hard to take pictures of mostly white cards.  Anyone have any tips or tricks to make that easier???

Stamps: 1 Peter 5:7 (Verve)  Ink: Versafine Onyx Black  Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Basic Grey Basics White paper pad  Accessories: Clear embossing powder, chipboard swirls, Basic Black satin ribbon, Daffodil Delight satin ribbon, paper piercer, Nesties, Scallop Edge border punch, Square Lattice embossing folder, adhesive pearls

Thanks for stopping by today - I am off to pick the boys up from school and then we are heading to town to have supper with DH's family.  His brother is in town from Vancouver for a few days and we haven't seen him for over a year so that should be fun for everyone.  :)  Enjoy your Monday!