A Totally Stampalicious Monday!

Hello again!

It's been a LONG time since you've seen a Totally Stampalicious card from me on a Monday - MUCH too long and I apologize for that.  Joycelyn and Becky have released some pretty amazing Bugaboo Christmas sets so I thought I'd give you a peek of one of my faves: Christmas JJ.  This week's Totally Stampalicious challenge is to use a red bow somewhere on your card.

I have been admiring this week's Color Throwdown combination ever since Wednesday and it works perfectly for a Christmas card:

And Taylor's Sketch has a lovely, big bow so it was a match made in card-heaven:

Recipe - Stamps: Christmas JJ (Totally Stampalicious)  Paper: Riding Hood Red, Certainly Celery, Very Vanilla, SU! DSP  Ink: Riding Hood Red  Accessories: Riding Hood Red striped ribbon, Nesties, paper piercer, Copics, border punch (MS), button, twine, Modern Label punch, adhesive pearls, dimensionals

Thanks for stopping by - check back in a few hours for a new Picture Perfect Creations Color Combination!  See you then!

My Sentimental Sunday DT Debut!

WOW - what a fabulous group of ladies Ann put together for her "renovated" Sentimental Sundays design team and I am lucky enough to be included amongst them all.  :)  There are some names familiar to me and some new ones so it will be fun getting to know everyone.

This week's challenge is to create a Birthday Card...with a sentiment, of course.  I wanted to use one of Ann's Raindrop Echo Designs Digital Collection but couldn't really find any sentiments that screamed "BIRTHDAY!" to me.  I used the Diva Coffee Break Designs Color Challenge and the clean&simple stamping sketch layout from last week:

Recipe - Stamp: Small Script (SU!)  Paper: Poppy Parade, Whisper White, Baja Breeze, So Saffron, SU! DSP  Ink: Poppy Parade  Accessories: Buttons, twine, square punches, paper piercer, Elegant Bouquet embossing folder

Thanks for stopping by today - who's got fun plans for Halloween tonight?  We're not really big into Halloween so nothing going on here.  I hope you all enjoy spooking with your little ghosts and goblins - see you tomorrow for a new PPC challenge!

A Friday Quickie...

Happy Friday, everyone!

I've got a quick post for you today before I head out to be the personal taxi service for my eldest DS this weekend.  He's playing in a volleyball tournament tonight and tomorrow about 45 minutes from home and my youngest DS also has a tournament tomorrow so my wonderful husband is going to have to be the taxi for him.  It's going to be a busy one...

So, here we go: I've got the Play Date Cafe's color challenge (black and white with a splash of burgundy) and Laura's sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You:

Recipe - Stamps: Christmas Greetings (SU!), Noel Clearly Stamps (Bo Bunny)  Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Bravo Burgundy, Basics White paper pad (Basic Grey)  Ink: Bravo Burgundy  Accessories:  Top Note die, Basic Black satin ribbon, buttons, paper piercer, Optic Dot border punch (MS), adhesive pearls, Swiss Dots embossing folder

OK - that's my time.  Sorry for the short post...Enjoy your weekend!  See you Sunday!

Punches and Dies at the 4 Crafty Chicks!

Welcome back, everyone!  We've got a super-easy challenge for you this week at the 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge ~~ it's so easy because I'm sure there aren't many of us that don't own a punch or a die cut of some kind and that's what this week's challenge from Lori is all about: punches and/or dies.

I wasn't sure which direction my card was going to go when I first sat down but once I had Arielle's Colour Q combination to work from, the wheels in my head started turning:

I found Mercy's Tuesday Sketch #97 and got down to business:

Recipe - Stamp: Well Scripted (SU!)  Paper: Garden Green, Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Certainly Celery, SU! DSP  Ink: Garden Green  Accessories: Paper piercer, Certainly Celery ribbon, button, twine, Bird Punch (SU!), Leafy Tree embossing folder (Crafts Too), Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Beaded Ovals and Ovals Nesties, Square Lattice embossing folder, dimensionals

AND... because it's the last challenge of the month, we're giving away a PRIZE to one lucky participant.  If Random.org picks you, this little goodie package will be making it's way to live at your house:

So, what are you waiting for?  Get busy creating!  And if you need a bit more inspiration, be sure to check out the other Crafty Chicks blogs - they've done some amazing things with punches and dies this week.  Have fun!

Color Dare #82 & Sweet Sunday #90

Happy Wednesday everyone!  You know what that means... a brand new Color Dare from Riley.  This week's colors could be used for any kind of card - I decided to go with a Christmas theme.  I just bought a new stamp last week that I've been itching to use and these colors were PERFECT for it.  I found Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch and knew it was the right size to fit my image:

Recipe - Stamps: SD016N (The Stamp Barn, Sunshine Designs), Teeny Tiny Wishes (SU!)  Paper: Night of Navy, Old Olive, SU! DSP, Whisper White  Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Night of Navy  Accessories: Copics, paper piercer, Daffodil Delight satin ribbon, button, twine, adhesive gems, Modern Label punch, eyelets

I hope you'll take some time to play along with these colors this week - we'd love to see what you come up with.  If you need more inspiration, be sure to check out the rest of the design team's blogs - I'm sure they have created some amazing projects this week!  See you tomorrow for a brand new 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge!

PPC #36 & Friday Sketchers

Welcome back for another Picture Perfect Creations Color Combo!  This week, Megan has given us a combination that has a distinctly "Halloween-y" feel to it:

I don't have a lot of Halloween stamps so I tried to go in a completely different direction - with a Christmas card!  HA!  I popped over to Friday Sketchers to find this fab sketch:

Recipe - Stamps: So Many Scallops  Ink: Concord Crush  Paper: Concord Crush, Kraft, Whisper White, Tangerine Tango, Old Olive, SU! DSP  Accessories: Concord Crush Poly Twill ribbon, Scallop Punch, Circle Punch, button, twine, Northern Flurry embossing folder, Kassie's Brocade embossing folder, adhesive rhinestones, paper piercer

Thanks for stopping by - take a few minutes to stop and see what the rest of the PPC DT did with these colors.  See you later!

Colour Q - Take Two!

Here we are again... :)  I had so much fun making this little project ~ no card from me this time.  *gasp*  I was inspired to step out of my box thanks to this week's Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge: "The challenge is to create your favorite way to package a gift. With the holidays ahead we'd like to see your ideas for putting together the perfect gift."

Well, I have to admit, I don't really *have* a favorite way to package a gift... usually a gift bag and some tissue paper and I call it done.  (I'm normally a "last minute" kind of gal...)  But I have made these Acetate Boxes before and loved how they turned out.  I have had these test tubes sitting in my cupboard FOREVER and haven't really known what to do with them but was inspired by Taylor's 12 Days of  a Handcrafted Christmas to pull them out and *do* something...

Earlier today I used Arielle's Breast Cancer-inspired Colour Q combination - so now it's time to use the Halloween'ish combination:

I dug out my test tubes and measured them to figure out how big I needed to make the box.  I was originally going to make a 2" x 2" box but thought that you see them better if I made a 4-1/4" x 1" box instead.  Once I got the bottom part done and the acetate was in place, I decided not to do the box top but instead do a folded topper.  Sorry for the crappy pictures...it is very difficult to get a good picture with shiny acetate and plastic test tubes...

Recipe - Stamps: CC Designs Baby Trick or Treat Pumpkin Stamp, Tiny Tags  Ink: Poppy Parade  Paper: River Rock, Very Vanilla, Basic Black  Accessories: Martha Stewart border punch, Poppy Parade Poly Twill ribbon, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, Test tubes (Martha Stewart), twine, Copics, bat brads, jelly beans

Pretty cute, eh?  I love how it turned out - in person it looks so much better than in these pictures...

OK, time for bed.  Tomorrow will be a busy day - to the gym in the AM for my daily dose of torture then off to the city for some groceries and other stuff.  Hopefully I'll have some time this weekend to craft.  See you later!