The Dreaded One Layer Card. . . ACK!

Welcome back, everyone!

I have said it before and I'm going to say it again ~ I LOVE LAYERS!  Lotsandlotsandlots of yummy layers and lotsandlotsandlots of embellishments on my cards.  So, this week's challenge over at Totally Stampalicious to make a one layer card with minimal embellishments was like a stake through my crafty heart.  Luckily I had a wonderful Picture Perfect Creations Color Combo from Megan to help me through the moments of self-doubt:

When I think of CAS or one layer cards, I immediately click over to the clean&simple stamping challenge blog for one of their fabulous sketches so that's the first place I clicked over to when I was getting started - I found this:

Hmmmm... not an easy sketch to use with the Totally Stampalicious stamps I have.  I finally decided that Cafe Scarlette would definitely work if I could figure out how to get her into those little circles. . .  After much thought and experimenting, I decided to make a template/mask that I could stamp through to get the specific {parts} of Scarlette into the circles.  So I cut out a scrap piece of cardstock, figured out where the circles should go, used my 1-3/8" circle punch to punch them out and ended up with something like this:

I placed it over my card base and started by tracing some doodles around the outside/inside edge of each circle.  I stamped Scarlette's shoes, purse and Scarlette enjoying a {sippie} in the circles and then stamped the sentiment below.  I added some buttons and ribbon and called it done.  To me, it still looks unfinished ~ I really wanted to add {something} else but decided not to at risk of ruining it all.  That's the nice thing about a multi-layer card...you have lots of chances to correct your screw-ups!

Stamps: Cafe Scarlette (Totally Stampalicious)  Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black  Paper: Whisper White  Accessories: Copics, fine-tipped black marker, purple satin ribbon, buttons

If you 'd like to see more of these colors, hop over to see what the rest of the PPC Creators did:

Lori Turner

Nicole Anderson

Sandy Tran

Trish Radacs

Jackie Weeks

Tamie Camp

Debbie Marcinkiewicz

Paula McClane

All of us at the PPC Color Challenge are so excited to be celebrating our 25th week of challenges at PPC, that we just had to give away some super-de-duper Blog Candy!  How about... an assortment of Stampin' Up! NEW In Colors Cardstock!!  Includes: 4 each of 5 NEW In Colors (8-1/2 x 11): Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz, Peach Parfait, Poppy Parade and Concord Grape.  These NEW In Colors are abosolutely fabulous! The cardstock will definitely come in handy, as they will be included in our upcoming challenges! :)

HOW TO WIN:

• Become a follower over at PPC, if you're not already one.
• Leave a comment at the bottom of this week's PPC color challenge post.
• And if you would be so kind and crafty, please participate in our PPC-CC 25 Color Combo Challenge this week!

That's it...sooo simple and easy! Contest ends next Monday, August 16th at 10am.  Good Luck!

And if you decide to play along with us over at Totally Stampalicious, don't forget to stop back and link us up so we can come and see what you did. 

Enjoy your week!  

Chocolate and Coffee - A Match Made in Heaven for TSTR

Hello everyone!

Are you ready for another inspiring week in The Shabby Tea Room?  This week's theme is "Reflections" and we are to use the colors and/or theme from this photo:

Our sponsor this week in the Tea Room is Isabella's Sketchbook and this week's winner will receive a gift certificate to go shopping for some fabulous, new digi images!  I used the awesome "Chocolate and Coffee" stamp for my card this week.

I've been so incredibly busy the last little while that my crafting time has been close to non-existent.  I needed a quick and easy sketch to get me going and I found this one over at the CCEE Stampers Challenge Blog that fit the bill:

I went with the colors in the photo - Basic Black, Very Vanilla, and Basic Grey - rotated the sketch 90* and voila!

Stamp: Chocolate and Coffee (digi stamp from Isabella's Sketchbook)  Paper: Very Vanilla, Basic Black, SU! DSP,  Accessories: Basic Grey satin ribbon, 1/2" Scor-tape, paper piercer, Nesatbilities (Curved Rectangles), Textile embossing folder, Copics, Copic Spica atyou glitter pens, dimensionals

Make sure you stop by and see what the rest of the Shabby Girls created for this week's challenge...

Debbie Marcinkiewicz - {TSTR Creator} - Simple Treasures

Audrey Pettit - Audrey Pettit's Weblog

Cathy Clark - Papier Girl

Lisa Golzbein - Oh So Cute By Lisa

Nicole Segnere - My Craft Room Creations

See you in a bit with the new PPC challenge and the Totally Stampalicous challenge!

Act #42 & Unscripted Sketches

How fun are the new In Colors from Stampin' Up???  Well, I can only {hope} that they are as lovely as they look because, sadly, I {still} don't have any of them...*sniff*... yet.  :)  I FINALLY placed an order with my enabler, Lori, the other day and my new stuff should be here within the next couple of weeks!

So, in order to play with Stacey's Curtain Call Color Challenge this week, I had to be {creative}.  I dug through my stash of non-SU! cardstock (mostly Bazzill stuff that was on sale at my LSS) and found something that I {think} is close to the Peach Parfait and then used some Basic Grey paper that looks like it could be Pear Pizazz.  I had a few scraps of Early Espresso that Lori had given me awhile back for another project so I made good use of what I had left.

I used the newest sketch from Unscripted Sketches:

And got this:

Stamp: Meditations (Verve)  Paper: Early Espresso, Basic Grey DP, Very Vanilla, Bazzill CS  Ink: Chocolate Chip  Accessories: Paper piercer, satin flower, buttons, gingham ribbon, twine

The rest of the Curtain Call Crew has samples to show you today, too, so make sure you stop by to see:

Amy White at Devlinwhite Designs
Andrea Roose at Andrea's Scrap- und Stampel Blog
Iwona Palamountain (Chupa) at Random Acts of Creativity
Julie Smith at Paper and Such
Lea Lawson at Lea's Cupcakes & Sunshine
Marisa Ritzen at Rosemary Reflections
Shelley Germann at Stampin' Garden
Sue Kohler at My Inner Reflection 


and our fabulous Guest Designer for August...Teresa Kline at Enjoy the VA Sunshine.

...then play along with us and post your Curtain Call Color Challenge: Act 41 creation using Mr. Linky back over at Stacey's Stamping Stage.

Have fun!

I'm in {love} With The Cat's Pajamas!!

I think this is the first post I've made in a few weeks that isn't one of my {obligations} and . . . oh my word!! Did I EVER have fun with this card!

A couple of weeks ago, Alma and the gang at The Cat's Pajamas released eight FABULOUS new stamp sets and to celebrate, they had a pajama party over in their forum at Splitcoast Stampers and I was lucky enough to hang out with the gals for a couple of hours AND win goodies!!!  Thanks to Google, I was the first person to answer the question, "What is a group of cats and a group of penguins called?"  (Didja' know that a group of cats is a clowder and a group pf penguins is a waddle or rookery?)  As a result, I won all three of their AMAZING, new Cut-Ups Die Cuts!  I also ordered four of the new stamp sets and got them in my hot little hands just the other day.  I have been DYING to find some time to play with them... and today I {made} the time. 

I haven't played with Arielle and her Royal Court at the Colour Q Challenge for a LONG time and when I saw this week's colors, I knew they'd work PERFECTLY with the stamp I wanted to use:

AND - Julee's Mojo Monday sketch was just the thing I needed to get me going - I think the stars must have been in alignment today because the colors and the sketch worked BEAUTIFULLY together:

I used my new "A Whale of a Time" and my Wave die to create this fun card:

Stamps: A Whale of a time (TCP)  Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Bashful Blue, various SU! DSP  Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black  Accessories: Paper piercer, corner rounder, Nesties, stitched grosgrain ribbon, buttons, twine, Square Lattice embossing folder, Copics, twine

Don't you just love it? I kind of took some liberties with the panel with the wavy bottom.  Instead of making the yellow panel wavy, I made the layer underneath reach up into the yellow layer with my waves ~ I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Here are the challenges this card "fits":

• ColourQ - colors
• Mojo Monday - sketch
• TCPTues121 - use their new Cut-Ups dies for your creation
• TCP Customer Blog Hop

I hope you will pop over to The Cat's Pajamas website and peek at their stamps - they are even having a SALE right now - who doesn't love a sale???  The bunny ones are my favorites - his ears are SO adorable!!!

Have fun and thanks for stopping by!

Another Totally Stampalicious - Picture Perfect Creations Color Challenge Two-'fer

Welcome, welcome, welcome!   I'm back with another groovy color combo from Megan over at Picture Perfect Creations Color Challenge - don't you love the bright colors?  As many of you know, Pacific Point is NOT one of my faves, but I continue to {try} to love it...

This week over at Totally Stampalicious is a very SPECIAL one - not only do we have a great challenge for you but we are this week's sponsor over at Jen's Sketch For You To Try!!!  In honor of such a fabulous match, I decided to use Jen's sketch for the TS challenge, "Inside and Out!  Decorate the inside of you card as well as the outside."

I very rarely decorate the inside of my cards but I've decided I should do it more often because it really {does} add that little bit of "oomph!"   For this one, I chose to do an easel card to incorporate the inside decoration:

Stamps: Birthday Kids (Totally Stampalicious)  Paper: Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Whisper White, Pacific Point, SU! DSP  Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black  Accessories: Nestabilities, Houndstooth embossing folder, buttons, twine, scallop edge punch, Copics, Copic Spica atyou glitter pens

If you 'd like to see more of these colors, hop over to see what the rest of the PPC Creators did:

Lori Turner

Nicole Anderson

Sandy Tran

Trish Radacs

Jackie Weeks

Tamie Camp

Debbie Marcinkiewicz

Paula McClane

And if you decide to play along with us over at Totally Stampalicious, don't forget to stop back and link us up so we can come and see what you did.

Enjoy your Monday, everyone!  It's AUGUST!!!! 

The Shabby Tea Room - Week #21!

I can hardly believe that we are already up to week #21 in The Shabby Tea Room!  It has gone by so quickly and I can hardly believe my six months as a Shabby Girl are almost finished.  This week's challenge is brought to us by our fearless leader, Debbie, who found this {lovely}, shabby birdhouse photo.  She would like us to use the picture as the inspiration for a card or project created with soft blue, cream and brown for the color scheme:

This week's sponsor in the Tea Room is JetPens and I had so much fun using the Copic Spica atyou Micro Glass Glitter pens on my project.  I used the clear pen as well as Buttermilk and Garnet (which looks like chocolate on my card!)  This week's winner will receive a $25 gift certificate to go shopping on the JetPens website - so much fun!

I have been *attempting* to make some CAS cards lately and this week's sketch over at the Sweet Stampin' Challenge is fairly simple so I thought I'd use it for this week's card.  I also had VERY little time to put this one together - we've been so busy around the yard and trying to repurpose an old shed into a chicken coop that my crafting time has been EXTREMELY limited.

Stamps: {I Heart} Little Paper Shop  Ink: Chocolate Chip  Paper: Kraft, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, SU! DSP  Accessories: Paper piercer, Copic atyou glitter pens, Copic markers, Chocolate Chip satin ribbon, button, hemp twine, dimensionals

Here's a little detail shot of my {blinged up} birdhouse:

Make sure you stop by and see what the rest of the Shabby Girls created for this week's challenge...

Debbie Marcinkiewicz - {TSTR Creator} - Simple Treasures

Audrey Pettit - Audrey Pettit's Weblog

Cathy Clark - Papier Girl

Lisa Golzbein - Oh So Cute By Lisa

Nicole Segnere - My Craft Room Creations

Have fun with this one - see you next week!

Welcome back for another installment of Stacey's Curtain Call Color Challenge - this week's colors are super calm and soothing:

I could have gone "boy" but instead decided to go with sympathy.  I still don't have any Marina Mist so I dug out some old Blue Bayou as a substitute.  I think it is a bit dark but it's all I had...

I am always in awe of those crafty ladies out there who can do CAS soooooo well - you know who you are...  :) - so I thought I'd give it a shot this week.  I've noticed that many of *them* use the sketches over at clean&simple stamping so that's where I went first and found this beauty:

I KNOW I didn't do it as CAS as some might but old habits die heard, YK? 

Recipe - Stamps: Forever in Our Hearts (Verve)  Ink: Blue Bayou  Paper: Whisper White, Night of Navy, Blue Bayou, SU! DSP, Kraft  Accessories: Manhattan Flower embossing folder, Blue Bayou stitched ribbon, button, twine, Parisian border punch, paper piercer

The Curtain Call Crew has samples to show you today, too, so make sure you stop by to see:

Amy White at Devlinwhite Designs
Andrea Roose at Andrea's Scrap- und Stampel Blog
Iwona Palamountain (Chupa) at Random Acts of Creativity
Julie Smith at Paper and Such
Lea Lawson at Lea's Cupcakes & Sunshine
Marisa Ritzen at Rosemary Reflections
Shelley Germann at Stampin' Garden
Sue Kohler at My Inner Reflection 



and our fabulous Guest Designer for August...Teresa Kline at Enjoy the VA Sunshine.

...then play along with us and post your Curtain Call Color Challenge: Act 41 creation using Mr. Linky back over at Stacey's Stamping Stage.


Have fun!